Alex Gamela - Digital Media & Journalism » portugal

Portuguese deputy doesn’t like the questions and takes reporter’s recorders

Alex Gamela — Thu, 06 May 2010 09:30:03 +0000

click on image to see the video

Ricardo Rodrigues, a Portuguese parliament deputy, was being interviewed by two journalists from Sábado magazine, and after being questioned about its connection (or lack of) to a pedophilia case in Azores and a financial scam – his name was involved in rumours, but was never charged – he decided enough was enough and got up and left the room, taking the journalist’s audio recorders on its way out. Fortunately he forgot about the camera.

The journalists filed a complaint for theft and menace to freedom of press, while the deputy asked for a court order, based on the argument that he was under “unbearable psychological violence” caused by the “harassment and false assumptions” on the part of the journalists. In a press conference he admitted that his actions were “rash”.

Rodrigues is a deputy for the majority party (Portuguese Socialist Party) and was an attorney, being also one of the party’s voices in Justice issues. This is just another in a string of incidents involving the majority party and the press. The Prime Minister has been accused of meddling in the management of a private station, a matter that is currently under investigation by a hearing commission.

Portuguese public television report

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Call for papers

Alex Gamela — Tue, 04 May 2010 11:37:08 +0000

The ObCiber – Observatório do Ciberjornalismo (Observatory of Cyberjournalism) invites submissions for its II International Congress on Cyberjournalism – December 09-10, 2010 – in the University of Porto, Portugal, under the general themes of “Business models to journalism on the Internet” and “Social networks and cyberjournalism”.

Paper proposal – either in Portuguese, Spanish or English – should be sent to obciber@gmail.com. The 500 words abstract should include the topic and its relevance, the hypothesis or main argument, conceptual and methodological framework, expected results and up to 5 keywords. There are to be no biographical notes or references within the abstract which must be accompanied by a separate cover letter, for blind review purposes, only with the author(s) name(s), institutional affiliation(s) and postal and e-mail address(es).

Logistics
Deadlines

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is July 15, 2010.
You will be informed whether or not your abstract is accepted by September 15, 2010.
The deadline for full papers is October 31, 2010. The most outstanding papers delivered at the Congress will be considered for publication in the journal Prisma.com – http://prisma.cetac.up.pt/

Early registration deadline:

Registration Fees:
• Early Registration (September 30): General 30€; Papers authors 25€; students 10€; UPorto students 5€
• Late Registration (November 30): General 40€; Papers authors 35€; students 20€; UPorto students 5€

A organização do II Congresso Internacional de Ciberjornalismo,marcado para 09 e 10 de Dezembro de 2010 na Universidade do Porto, convida os investigadores interessados a remeter, até 15 de Julho, propostas de comunicações a apresentar no Congresso.

As comunicações deverão versar sobre Ciberjornalismo, com especial preferência pelos tópicos deste II Congresso:
- Modelos de negócio para o jornalismo na Internet
- Redes sociais e ciberjornalismo

As propostas devem ser enviadas para obciber@gmail.com, em Português, Espanhol ou Inglês. Cada proposta deve contemplar uma descrição de 400 a 500 palavras, que inclua, designadamente, o tópico e relevância do mesmo, hipótese ou argumento, moldura conceptual e metodológica, resultados previstos e até 5 palavras-chave. Cada proposta deve ser acompanhada de uma folha de rosto separada, para blind-review, apenas com nome(s), filiação institucional e endereços postal e electrónico do(s) autor(es).

As propostas serão avaliadas pelos membros da Comissão Científica do Congresso, devendo o resultado ser comunicado a todos os autores até 15 de Setembro.

Os autores das propostas aprovadas comprometem-se a enviar as comunicações completas até 31 de Outubro. As melhores comunicações serão publicadas na revista Prisma.com – http://prisma.cetac.up.pt/.

As taxas de inscrição são iguais às praticadas no I Congresso – http://cobciber.wordpress.com/inscricao/.

O Congresso é organizado pelo Observatório do Ciberjornalismo (ObCiber) e pelo Centro para as Ciências da Comunicação (C2COM) da Universidade do Porto.

O programa do Congresso, em preparação, incluirá intervenções, já confirmadas, dos Profs. Marcos Palacios (Universidade Federal da Bahía), Elvira García de Torres (Universidad Cardenal Herrera), João Canavilhas (Universidade da Beira Interior) e Helder Bastos (Universidade do Porto).

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Switch Conference – 15th and 16th of May, 2010 at University of Coimbra, Portugal

Alex Gamela — Mon, 03 May 2010 14:32:54 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s in Portugal and it’s worth spreading: the second Switch Conference is just in a couple of days and there are still some tickets available . If you don’t know what it is, here’s what it’s all about:

SWITCH is a 2-day conference to be held in the University of Coimbra, Portugal , on the 15th and 16th of May, 2010. We do want, however, to make SWITCH way more than a conference. We want to make it an authentic 2-day discovering experience. Attendees will get in touch with scientists, entrepreneurs, thinkers, do-er and everyone in between to share their knowledge, their experience and their ideias aiming to create awareness on scientific and technological matters, preparing us to a better defined future and a helthier society. We want and promote earth-shaking ideas, impossible breakthroughts and incredible life stories.

The conference will take place on a weekend to let those who are unable to leave work for the whole week to attend the conference sharing their experience and vision.

SWITCH will have a main room where presentations will fully run from day 1 to day 2, a second room where the startup competition and deep discussions will take place and, finally, outside areas when all sort of fun activities will take place and where partners and sponsors stands will be located.

SWITCH main theme will be “Web & Development” but our bet is on diversity. Diversity of cultures, ideas, discussions, persons and, of course, themes. You can find the full list of topics for this year’s conference here.

In the 2nd Room will take place the startup competition hosted by Webreakstuff. We want to act as a plattaform for networking, but also as as a way for you to meet with investors and to make your business project known by the crowd. The startup competition will sort out the best startups around and promote them with investors and media.

Grab your tickets while you can.

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i de irremediável

Alex Gamela — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:48:16 +0000

…e não estou a falar do só do i. A troca de correspondência entre Martim Avillez Figueiredo e o Grupo Lena mostra a realidade da imprensa em Portugal: é só papel. Nem uma referência ao site, a investimento no digital, em multimédia. O i é um jornal e o site é (segundo ouvi dizer) o castigo para alguns jornalistas. Pelo que vi no programa da RTPN “Hora de Fecho”, o Grupo Lena vai aplicar algumas das resoluções que eu defendi assim que vi a primeira edição do i.

Eu pessoalmente não gosto da atitude editorial do i, que trazia por vezes mais curiosidades do que notícias (pelo menos era o que via no Facebook), mas respeito qualquer edição que tenha gente capaz e que consiga criar uma marca respeitada pelos seus pares internacionais. Todos os prémios que o i recebeu são merecidos, e não gosto de ver tanto potencial desperdiçado, numa redacção cheia de jovens jornalistas que vestiram a camisola de um projecto que sempre pareceu a muitos estar condenado desde o início.

E, repito, nem uma palavra sobre o investimento no online. Ter uma capa bonita nas bancas não chega, mas infelizmente é essa a maior preocupação da imprensa nacional.

Mais posts sobre o i em breve.

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PorData: Portugal’s Database | A Base de dados de Portugal

Alex Gamela — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:03:34 +0000

Have Data Will Mashup

Pordata.pt is a new website supported by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation and “aims to make statistical data available in three main phases: for Portugal (1st phase), for Portugal and the countries of the EU 27 (2nd phase) and the Portuguese regions and municipalities (3rd phase). The vector common to all the information presented is time. Published in chronological series, the information is related to a long period, which begins, wherever possible, in 1960 and continues to the present day.”

All these statistics available gave me the mashup frenzy. My questions is: now that they’re available, will someone do anything good with them?

Pordata é o novo site apoiado pela Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos e “prevê disponibilizar os dados estatísticos em três fases principais: para Portugal (1.ª fase), para Portugal e países da UE 27 (2.ª fase) e para as regiões e municípios portugueses (3.ª fase). O vector comum a toda a informação apresentada é o tempo. Publicada sob a forma de séries cronológicas, a informação incide sobre um longo período, que se inicia, sempre que possível, em 1960 e se prolonga até à actualidade.”

Todas estas estatísticas deram-me desejos de fazer coisas com elas. A minha pergunta é: agora que estão disponíveis, irá alguém fazer alguma coisa de jeito?

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Poll: Does the card make the Journalist? | Sondagem: A Carteira faz o jornalista?

Alex Gamela — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:19:34 +0000

J card in Portugal | Um cartão profissional (do P.Jerónimo)

The card shown above belongs to a friend of mine, and it is the solid evidence that he is a journalist. But, does he need it? The card is given by a commitee, that works more like a club than like a professional association: there are standards to comply and we need sponsors to have one of these, to be working as a journalist and getting paid for the last year, and if we stop working we have to ask for it again.

Reality check: many journalists are working on their own and freelancing, or temporarily at news companies because the “industry” is going down the drain. I have a degree in journalism, what if i start my own news website? Will i be recognized by the commitee as a journalist? And why would i need that?

The question is: is this system any good? Yes,no,why?

The owner of this card pointed to this new website that wishes to tackle this issue.

O cartão acima é de um amigo meu, e é a prova concreta de que ele é jornalista. Mas, será que ele precisa? A carteira é atribuída por uma comissão, que funciona mais como um clube do que como uma associação profissional: há requisitos a cumprir, e precisamos de patrocinadores (padrinhos…), estar a trabalhar e ser pago há um ano, e se interrompermos a actividade, repetir a candidatura.

A realidade: muitos jornalistas estão a trabalhar por conta própria e como freelancers, ou temporariamente em empresas porque a “indústria” está ir pela pia abaixo.Tenho um curso de jornalismo, e se começar um meu próprio site de informação? Serei reconhecido pela comissão como jornalista? E porque preciso de o ser?

A questão é: será este sistema útil? Sim, não, porquê?

O dono deste cartão apontou para este site que pretende discutir este assunto.

Leave your answers and comments | Deixem as vossas respostas e comentários

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E-lections

Alex Gamela — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:33:56 +0000

This text is the English version of my Media DJ column for Rascunho

The election season is always demanding for media, both during the campaign and the election day: confronting statements from the political actors, institutional reactions, a life on the road following candidates, reporting the small moments that make the routine of the political organizations during vote hunting season, and afterwards, presenting the results as fast as possible. And the internet is the best medium to do this.

2009 will be remembered as the year where Portuguese elections found their way into the internet. Looking to mimic the “Obama effect”, almost all parties invested – better or worse- in an online presence that engaged citizens (i.e. potential electors). We just have to look at Twitter and see how many local board members created accounts, or how many candidates to mayor invested in websites and social networks. Nonetheless, those efforts seem most of the times to be ineffective, not that useful for the common citizen.

But for the media, the internet has been a powerful tool. Besides aggregating content from different sources, the open nature of thw web invites to discussion and personal opinion. It is possible to create (unscientifical) polls about voting trends, or diffrent hot political topics; or even evaluate the quality of life in the city where you live in; or participate in real time as outside commentators of political debates. If the media manage to create spaces that use the spontaneous participation of citizens, they will also keep them as regular users of their contents.

Besides, the easy production of real time content allows a bigger proximity of the citizen with the political and civical processes of the election period. There is interest on his behalf, and his participation must be enabled.

One of the projects that got my attentioin during this long electoral journey in Potugal was Portuguese public television’s Mobile Journalist. The idea was to have journalists sending videos, reports, pictures live from the campaign actions spread out through the country. Why wait for the night tv news if we can see the statements, actions and reactions of the politicians in their quest for the vote, as they happen? Besides, although being Portugal a small country, news orgs can’t always send reporters to every campaign spot. The information can be gathered from user generated content, and local correspondents equiped with the appropriate gear.

Still, mojo reporters must be well oriented, and methods should be well defined so the content they bring is more valuable and just not “more content”. Radio reporters are the ones more fit to deal with the contingencies of this type of operation, but it is also needed that help them develop the video side. Anyway, i must congratulate RTP for investing in this idea, and for being the only company investing in this concept.

Another quite effective project was Público’s Eleições2009, that besides gathering opinions from the blogosphere and having room for the usual campaign news, also included tweets from the political forces, related news from other (international) media, in a well developed mashup, where its conceptual format benefits from the characteristics of the subject. In plain English, information and opinion in real time suit political coverage. And in this specific case it seems to have worked.

Another thing that fits perfectly with online news projects is numbers: poll results, votes, abstention percentages, comparisons with previous elections, all of this scattered through different regions, and provided in real time. The two best electoral results i found in the elections night were exactly the RTP‘s and Público, in my opinion.

The most important is that media know how to ride the news flow. Elections, because of the high amount of more or less predictable content, allows to develop experiences and train journalists to digital media, so they can know what to do in breaking and off-the-agenda events.

As always, i want to know your opinion: do you know any other interesting political coverage website? And how would you like to participate with news websites during political campaigns?

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