Here is what I’ve been reading today

• PLEASE STAND BY: There’s nothing worse than a reformed smoker – except Twitter evangelists – Another angle on the whole twitter thing from Iain Hepburn. “with the amount of almost over-enthusiastic shilling of the service going on, it’s tempting to rename it Bleater.”
• Headlines and Deadlines: The Year of the Blog (Part I) – A first round of reflections on a year of blogging from Alison Gow. One of the most thoughtful and interesting journo bloggers around.
• PLEASE STAND BY: Video: Reporters using Flip cameras in the field – Sarah Hartley proves a treasure trove of links today with this nice profile of The Sunday Mail’s Charles Lavery who “went out to Forward Operating Base Inkerman in Afghanistan for the paper recently” and took a Flip HD with him.
• Al Jazeera Labs – Thanks to Sarah Hartley for highlighting this in her links. A neat site.
• Dutch news – Radio Netherlands Worldwide – English – “Telegraaf Media Groep which publishes the populist newspaper De Telegraaf is planning to set up its own public broadcasting association.”
• Micro Persuasion: Five Digital Trends to Watch for 2009 – More Steve Ruble stuff. This time a whitepaper highlighting “five digital trends to watch for 2009″ some solid mentions of video. via shooting by numbers
• Death of newspapers | Salon – “Reporting must be kept alive. With all its limitations and faults, it is a light that illuminates the world outside ourselves. And in an increasingly virtual and solipsistic age, that light is needed more than ever.” Yeah, that sounds good. Unfortunatly you have to read through three pages of derivative twaddle like “If newspapers die, so does reporting. That’s because the majority of reporting originates at newspapers. Online journalism is essentially parasitic. Like most TV news, it derives or follows up on stories that first appeared in print. “
• Google’s UK chief Matt Brittin could prove a saviour – Telegraph – “Google is doing an “awful lot” to help traditional media work out how to survive in the “new multi-channel online world”. So much, in fact, that advertising magazine New Media Age named Mr Brittin, who joined Google last January after three years at Trinity Mirror, as the person who made the “greatest individual contribution to new media” in 2008. “
• 31 Power Tools For Twitter Lovers To Make Lives Easier – More twitter goodness via Paul Bradshaw on, of course, Twitter.
• The Newspaper Reporter of the Future is Here Today – PR man Steve Rubel highlights the way that US journo Peter Abraham works “What Abraham is doing represents not only the future of journalism but also what PR professionals themselves need to do to build connections in the years ahead.”
• Online journalism lesson 2: blogging | Online Journalism Blog – More slideshare goodness from Paul Bradshaw. This time on blogging
• Journalism jobs and news from Holdthefrontpage.co.uk – I’m surprised by this or maybe students have got their head around what the industry can’t (and one or two of the comments on this piece make reinforce that idea) that newspapers/TV/Radio and journalism are not the same thing
• Communication is Key: Journalism Business Idea – the Newsroom Cafe – What do you think of Dave’s “Newsroom Cafe.”
• Washington Post’s ‘Web Ninjas’ Build Map-Timeline Combo | PBS – A nice behind the scenes look at the Washington Post’s TimeSpace project. I like the project but hat the term ‘Web ninja’
• At Last, Google Funds a Bailout for Reporters – Time Armstrong ” the handsome and high-ranking Google executive who runs the company’s advertising operations” is funding local journalism start-up, Patch, through his personal investment fund. Is this really google putting some its “billions behind the project of saving journalism”?
• Patch.com – A community news start up that has Google big wig Tim Armstrongs – as mentioned in the Valleywag story above.
• The BBC’s “Points Of View” online culture clash – Part 2 – currybetdotnet – 17 February, 2009 – Martin does part 2 of his look at the “the current furore surrounding the BBC’s Points Of View messageboard” His experience is really interesting and his conclusion has food for thought for for anyone involved in forums. “The only real reason for having a Points Of View messageboard is if programme makers and executives engage with the views expressed there. If it isn’t going to be able to achieve that, then it isn’t great value for the rest of us who are paying the Licence Fee to subsidise a chat forum for the 50 or so regular users there.”
• Seventeen regions into nine: How the updated ITV local news services will operate – “From yesterday, Penzance residents found themselves in the same ITV regional news area as Bristol. By the end of the month, Carlisle residents will be getting their local bulletin broadcast from Newcastle. Welcome to ITV’s regional news service, 2009 style.” Carving new battle lines in to the media playing field