Media Insider: International Day to #EndImpunity, Sensor Journalism and This Week’s Media Moves

Welcome to Media Insider, PR Newswire’s round up of journalism, blogging and freelancing stories from the week.

“Two journalists and two children take shelter from stone throwing militia” in Downtown Cairo. #EndImpunity Photo by alisdare1 used under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Christiane Amanpour: Editors Must Make More Noise about Impunity (World Editors Forum Blog)

November 2nd marked the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, promoted by The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The number of journalists imprisoned, censored and murdered in the line of duty has reached an all-time high this past decade. The list includes Washington Post Reporter Jason Rezaian, who was recently convicted for charges in Iran. These acts against reporters and the free press makes November 2nd a day of international significance. CNN’s Chief International Correspondent and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Christiane Amanpour calls on her fellow journalists to “buck that trend” of being politicized against their will. In this interview she concludes: “The concept of a free press and journalists who have the right to do their job and to be protected has to be enshrined in some kind of international law.”

Remix: How to Start Teaching Sensor Journalism (PBS MediaShift)

Sensor journalism is a form of storytelling “that requires a sensor to gather and report data,” and it involves a plethora of skill sets and technologies that journalists should pick up. For the mainly environmental-focused stories featured in this piece, sensor technologies can be used to “collect data about a specific aspect of the environment,” such as information on air quality or the contents of water in an area. Here, Amy Schmitz Weiss, an associate professor of journalism, shares her expertise on this type of reporting and offers tips on how to take on a “sensor journalism project.”

Grown from Patch: A Crop of New Hyper-Local News Sites Has Sprung Up From AOL’s Failed Platform (NiemanLab)

Here is an inspiring article on how several journalists – after being let go from “AOL’s failed local news platform” Patch.com – took their experiences in local news reporting and created their own (successful) hyper-local news sites. “People missed that daily, truly hyper-local news” a Michigan reporter relates. And so, in turn, Joni Hubred-Golden founded the Farmington Voice. This piece also provides some good advice and knowledge on hyper-local reporting and the growing opportunities within the field.

5 Tools to Help Journalists Build Great Stories (Journalism.co.uk)

This piece points out how in the current media environment “news stories are now competing for attention…” But, this new digital world does not have to be a reporter’s enemy. In fact, there are several online tools that could very much help a story’s progression. This piece presents 5 useful tools for any storyteller, including a tool that may help “build an idea visually” and others that allow journalists to create images and maps to accompany a story and seize reader attention.

Media News and Moves for the Week of November 2 (PR Newswire’s Media Moves)

Media moves keeps you up to date with who went where in the world of media. This week, changes take place at the National Journal, several join The Guardian’s U.S. Bureau and a few reporters sign on at The Washington Post

Stephanie de Ruiter is an audience researcher with PR Newswire keeping up with media moves throughout the nation with a focus on blogs and online publications.