Author: kullin

First Swedish daily to launch blog

Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet is reportedly launching a blog, which would be the first of its kind in Sweden. Stockholm Spectator has revealed that PJ Anders Linder, the paper’s chief political editor, will launch a blog shortly.

Here’s the link to the blog dummy which includes RSS feeds, but no comment function.

SvD has proven before that they are tuned in to the blogosphere, by quoting PR agency JKL’s blog. More surprising is that PJ Anders Linder actually links to JKL blog (one of three links) under the headline “Blogs that PJ like”. Can a PR agency get a better recognition from a journalist than that?

On a related matter, SvD now offers 12 different RSS feeds.

(Hat tip to Norton Tierra)

Updated: The dummy has now been taken down.

Gold medalist fined for ambush marketing

More from the Olympic brand police. Olympic gold medalist Gary Hall Jr. has been fined $5,000 by the swimming federation for not wearing the team uniform to the starting blocks before his 50 meter freestyle race in Athens. The team uniform is a Speedo sponsored robe, but Hall wore his own, sponsored by boxing gear manufacturer Everlast.

Sponsors must be able to protect themselves against ambush marketing, even if fining a gold medalist rarely will win your brand any sympathy. In the case of Hall, this doesn’t just seem to be about rebellion, but also about revenge. Apparently he lost a lucrative sponsor deal with Speedo after testing positive for marijuana a few years after the 1996 Olympics.

George Bush goes astroturfing

Astroturfing – faking grassroots movements – is not a new phenomenon. PR flacks and spin doctors have been using it for years. But with increasing transparency from blogs and media watchdogs, these campaigns can now be more easily discovered than before. This week Daily Kos revealed an astroturf initiative from the George W Bush campaign, which has found its way into at least 60 newspapers.

(Link via Poynter Online.)

Two ways to deal with plagiarism in media

On the other side of the pond, journalists who plagiarise get sacked. In Sweden, not so much. Reports the Media Drop:

Over the weekend, the Seattle Times announced the resignation of an associate editor and columnist after claims of multiple plagiarism allegations came to light. The Times’ executive editor, Michael Fancher, informed the newspaper’s readers with a front page item on Sunday about the departure of longtime columnist Stephen Dunphy.

Although the Dagens Nyheter plagiarism story has suddenly started to take off here in Sweden, little has actually happened. Michael Moynihan published an editorial in Expressen on Friday (not available online). The story was also covered in Dagens Media, Journalisten, Mymarkup, Dagens PS, Världen Idag and again on Stockholm Spectator.

But Jan Wifstrand, chief editor at Dagens Nyheter, said that “it is not relevant to apologize to readers six months after the mistake was made”.

Michael Fancher, Seattle Times executive editor, had a different opinion. A story by Dunphy that was published in 1997, contained seven paragraphs originally published in the Journal of Commerce in 1996. Another instance happened in April 2000 when Dunphy borrowed paragraphs from the book “About This Life” by Barry Lopez.

“We felt we needed to set the record straight about the 1997 Asia airport story. Last Sunday we published a correction crediting the Journal of Commerce for the seven paragraphs.”

There’s no period of limitation for saying “we made a mistake”.

What did the Seattle Times do to assure its readers that they take plagiarism incidents seriously?

> They published a correction, and then an open letter from the executive director.

> They made their own investigation and examined 25 stories written since 2000.

> A reporter made a further investigation on his own.

> They forced the plagiarist to resign.

> They engaged an independent outsider to to counsel staff and to work with “the Committee on Ethics and Standards in developing new procedures, policies and training about issues of attribution. The committee will develop new checks and balances to provide independent safeguards against plagiarism”.

> They are continuing to examine signs of plagiarism and promised to inform the readers of the results.

IOC bans blogging

While most organizations are adapting to a world where transparency is the cathword, the IOC is moving in the opposite direction. With an attitude worthy a dictatorship, the IOC tries to control every communicative aspect of the Olympic games in Athens.

First we learned that spectators are banned from the arenas if they bring in products of the wrong brand. Then we all laughed at the moronic linking policy of Athens 2004.

Now USA Today reports that Olympic athletes are largely barred from posting online diaries such as blogs.

“The IOC’s rationale for the restrictions is that athletes and their coaches should not serve as journalists — and that the interests of broadcast rightsholders and accredited media come first.”

“The Olympic guidelines threaten to yank credentials from athletes who are in violation as well as to impose other sanctions or take legal action for any monetary damages.”

The US army tried a control/command approach in Iraq but failed miserably. Why would the IOC succeed in controlling the debate, and for what reason? Today, media consumers are also producers and anyone equipped with a digital camera or an internet connection can scoop big media. Trying to stop people from expressing what they see is a violation of freedom of speech.

In the end, it is we as consumers who pay for this spectacle by bying products from the sponsors, by watching the ads that finance media, by visiting the arenas and so on. We should demand a diversity of voices and not accept propaganda style reporting.

(Link via Micro Persuasion)