The 2010 FIFA World Cup threw up some formidable obstacles for editor Andrew Trench and his team at East London daily, the Daily Dispatch (owned by Avusa Media).
Port Elizabeth, whose stadium played host to a number of world cup games, rests on the edge of the newspaper’s circulation footprint, and is also the home of rival The Herald (also published by Avusa). Residents of East London felt a keen sense of disappointment after having had to witness Buffalo City Municipality’s flopped attempts to try and lure a world cup team to use the city as a base says, says Trench.
Category archives: Media
World cup: The Mercury takes on Babel
In Durban, The Mercury’s editor Angela Quintal grabbed the 2010 FIFA World Cup as an opportunity for some creative thinking and innovation at her paper. Quintal decided to use the event to show the market (and her readers) that “as a newspaper The Mercury was not the conservative business read of old and could lead the way in terms of a fresh and different approach.”
World cup: newspaper editors innovate amid circulation decline
The 2010 FIFA World Cup has been the biggest South African news story so far this year. The tournament dominated media coverage over several months, both in the build-up to and during the actual event. Newspapers sat between a rock and a hard place during the world cup, as television ruled with its live broadcasts and online was first with live commentary, opinion and blow-by blow recounts.
When tweeting an opinion is a fireable offence, media loses
The debate sparked by CNN’s firing of Nasr can be found all over the web with some big-name journalists venturing an opinion. Lucky for them, they don’t work for CNN. Many journalism schools still don’t encourage students to form or express opinions. It’s because journalists need to be objective, not takes sides, thus offering the complete story to readers so they can form their own opinion rather than have yours crammed down their throat.
TV’s world cup, but real growth for online too
TV owned the 2010 FIFA World Cup. There, I said it. While the Internet increasingly owns breaking news and the various South African news portals came up with numerous strategies for making their world cup content as engaging as possible, it could not even attempt to mimic the vibe of families, friends, even communities, gathering together in the real world in front of TV screens to follow the main matches.
Re-designing news challenges journos, publishers
All The News That’s Fit to Print, to quote the most famous newspaper motto of all time, has of course become less about reams and reams of words stuffed onto cheap paper and more about words and images strategically placed to tell a story in a way that is accessible to readers. Visual journalists like Charles Apple play an increasingly important role as the news industry attempts to increase engagement, with consumers used to sound bites and quick synopses of news as it happens. Their work and strategic importance is already apparent locally in the recent redesigns of South African newspapers Rapport and City Press.
Twitter breaks news, but will it break journalism?
Twitter’s value to breaking news quickly and efficiently is beyond doubt, but the accuracy of the news being reported is far from perfect.
This weekend, Twitter was abuzz with the news that South Africa’s former national police commissioner, Jackie Selebi, was found guilty of both charges he was facing. But the initial buzz on Twitter was wrong, or at least not 100% accurate.
At first it was reported on Twitter that he was found guilty on charges of corruption and obstruction of justice. What happened initially was that journalists reporting from the courthouse got the first tweet wrong, which meant all the retweets got it wrong as well. Later, updates indicated he was found guilty of corruption but not obstruction of justice.
Enjin magazine ISSUE 49
Enjin magazine ISSUE 49. Check it out.
Twitter breaks news, but will it break journalism?
Twitter’s value to breaking news quickly and efficiently is beyond doubt, but the accuracy of the news being reported is far from perfect.
Journalists’ Association backs Zapiro in Muhammad cartoon controversy
The Professional Journalists’ Association supports the court ruling, made late last night, that has allowed the Mail & Guardian to publish a cartoon, drawn by Jonathan Shapiro/Zapiro, depicting Mohammed in today’s edition.