January 2017 Newsletter
Happy New Year and welcome to IBT’s January newsletter with an update on our work and relevant news from the media industry. (Download/Print this Newsletter)
Briefing with Today
Our next briefing will be with John Shields, the Assistant Editor of Radio 4’s Today programme. John is responsible for planning and will talk us through how best to pitch ideas to him and his colleagues and the sort of ideas and studio guests they are looking for. Today is of course the most popular news programme in the UK, reaching a weekly audience of more than 7 million. This event will be held at the IBT offices at 10am on Tuesday January 24th. You can register now via the IBT website. If you have already registered then there’s no need to do anything – you will receive full details of the event a few days in advance.
Tabloid attack on aid
The attack on foreign aid continues across many of the tabloids with the Daily Mail playing a leading role with its ‘charity begins at home’ campaign. The recent spate of attack pieces began with the New Year Honours list and the knighting of DFID Permanent Secretary, Mark Lowcock (Daily Mail and Express). It continued with an attack on cash transfers, focusing mainly on the DFID programme in Pakistan (Daily Mail, Sun and Express). The most recent attack was on DFID for funding super fast broadband in Monserrat whilst many in the UK don’t have this. There has been a strong fightback from NGOs with CEOs Mark Goldring (Oxfam) and Kevin Watkins (Save) writing think pieces, and on cash transfers many NGOs (including Mercy Corps, ActionAid, HelpAge International, Tearfund and International Rescue Committee) all highlighting areas where cash transfers work effectively and reliably. Bond is playing a leading role in coordinating the NGO response and will be holding a meeting for anyone working in campaigns, comms and media who wishes to collaborate on making the case for aid. The meeting will be held from 2-4pm on Thursday January 19th. To find out more contact Alice Delamare, Campaigns manager at Bond adelamare@bond.org.uk
Digital media and coverage of climate change
Last month, the Reuters Institute published new research highlighting the way in which new media has been covering climate change. The report, Something Old, Something New: Digital media and the coverage of climate change, focused on Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and Vice, and found that all three have made coverage of climate change a priority and have successfully changed the tone, style and format of coverage to attract audiences who are interested in the climate change story.
New research website on humanitarian journalism
A group of academics has set up a website to further understanding of how the news media report on humanitarian crises and what shapes coverage. The Humanitarian Journalism project is working in partnership with a number of organisations, including IBT. The lead academics for the project are Martin Scott (UEA) who has authored several IBT reports, Mel Bunce (City) and Kate Wright (now at Edinburgh).
http://humanitarian-journalism.net/
One World Media Awards
Entries are now open for this year’s One World Media Awards which celebrate the best media coverage of developing countries and aim to reflect the social, political and cultural life of people around the world. The closing date for entries is Thursday February 2nd. This annual event will be hosted by Jon Snow and held at BAFTA on Tuesday June 6th. There are 15 different categories of award. The Refugee Reporting Award is sponsored by the British Red Cross and Transparency International sponsors the Corruption Reporting Award. The Special Award goes to an independent media organization based in a developing country that has made an outstanding contribution in holding to account those in power.
http://www.oneworldmedia.org.uk/2017-Awards-Enter
Briefings for CEOs
As part of our work we organise events specially targeted at CEOs to keep them well informed on the latest media trends and technology. Last month we held a training session on virtual reality filmmaking. Later this year we will be organizing our annual dinner and networking event – the guest speaker last year was Jamie Angus, the Editor of the Today programme. Do let us know if you have any suggestions for future sessions for CEOs.
Updating mailing list
Since we are keen that this newsletter goes to everyone who might be interested, please help us to keep up to date and let us know names of colleagues who should be on our mailing list. The newsletter and IBT events may be of interest to those involved in comms, media, digital and campaigns. The newsletter goes exclusively to staff working for IBT member organisations.
Best wishes
Mark
