Polis

Reporting Terror in a Networked World

A new report by Charlie Beckett looks at the problems facing journalism around terrorism: the increasing speed of the news cycle; new technologies and the limits on resources; the challenge of verification, definition, proportionality; and dealing with spin and propaganda.

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Telling
the Human Story- A Polis Film

Directed by LSE student Joelle Eid, this short film tells the story of journalists in Lebanon and their experiences of covering the refugee crisis. Featuring Guardian correspondent Kareem Shaheen,

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Polis Conference: Journalism & Crisis

You can watch videos of the main sessions from this conference which took place on 21st April 2016 at LSE.

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LISTEN TO PODCASTS

Reporting Terror in a Networked World

A new report by Charlie Beckett looks at the problems facing journalism around terrorism: the increasing speed of the news cycle; new technologies and the limits on resources; the challenge of verification, definition, proportionality; and dealing with spin and propaganda.

Download Report

High Aims, Low Blows: Hostie Campaigning in the Corporate Sector

This report by LSE student and journalist Laya Maheshwari looks at examples of hostile campaigning in the corporate sector and applies behavioural science theories to analyse these.

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Robot News: Responses to Data Driven news production

This report is the outcome of a workshop held on 24/2/16 at LSE with participants from a range of organisations including Financial Times, The Times, Reuters Institute, BBC, Storyful, The Guardian, Global Editors Network, CUNY and Paris Est University.  Hosted by Dr Alison Powell, Assistant Professor and Programme Director of the MSc in Media and Communication (Data & Society) and Prof Charlie Beckett.

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'Childrens' News: How can it survive the digital era?'

This report by Norwegian journalist Kristin Granbo looks at how the way we report news for children is changing.

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Back to the Futuure: Email Newsletters as a Digital Channel for Journalism

This report by Swedish journalist Charlotte Fagerlund looks at how the humble email newsletter is making a comeback.  As the digital ecology evolves it sometimes pays to go back to basics and adapt relatively old ideas for new times.

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The Death of Source Protection?: Protecting journalists’ sources in a post-Snowden age

This report by Carl Fridh Kleberg was a result of the Polis/ Journalistfonden Fellowship at LSE. It lays out some of the threats to journalists’ data and sources and presents a range of practical tools to overcome them.

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More Information

Mobile Opportunities: Exploring positive mobile media opportunities for European children

This report by Jane Vincent looks at the transformation in the digital lives of children and the potentially positive online experiences that mobile devices present them. What can the mobile internet offer children and young people?

The report draws on research projects EU Kids Online led by LSE Professor Sonia Livingstone and Net Children Go Mobile. 

As it Happens: How live news blogs work and their future

Our new report is on the uses of live blogging and its impact on journalism.  As a novel format, live blogging has created new opportunities and challenges for reporters and it is considered one of the successes of digital journalism.

Journalistfonden Research Fellow Karin O’Mahony discusses the different ways live blogs have been used so far, and how they have affected news writing, drawing on interviews with journalists and experts, as well as case studies from the Guardian and Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

In the report, O’Mahony addresses the following questions: Does live blogging give us more diverse, well-sourced, deeper, more participatory, interactive, accurate, accessible journalism?

Does the format offer any promising prospects for the future or is it merely a passing trend – and what are the challenges for journalists and media companies who work with them?

The report is available to download here.

Egyptian Media Under Transition: In the name of the regime... In the name of the people?

A new Polis research report by Fatima El Issawi shows that Egyptian mainstream media is struggling to adapt to life after the revolution. Based on extensive interviews with journalists, it charts the battle for control of the news media. It outlines the editorial and ethical challenges facing journalists and the growth of new trends such as the highly influential talk TV shows that are both popularising and distorting political debate.

The report gives a detailed account of the historical and legislative background to the crisis in Egyptian newspapers and TV journalism today.

Read the report in full here

Kenya's tech community will not save journalism - Networked News Lab Briefing Note

New digital communication technologies, in the  hands of creative and enterprising individuals, will help to make news media more plural and democratic. Or so the optimists would have us believe. But why is this not happening in Kenya, which is home to so many initiatives using the power of information and communication technologies to promote development? This briefing describes three reasons that the ICT4D community has so little influence on journalism in Kenya - and three ways that this can change.

Click here for the full report.

By Nicholas Benequista, PhD Student at the Department of Media and Communications