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How the media leaders of today are inspiring the media leaders of tomorrow

Thomson Foundation Future Leaders

From left, Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Lusine Petrosyan, Amitabh Revi, Mona Chami, Ghassan Abu-Hussein, Abdul Alshamery, Deepika Bhardwaj, Manqoba Mchunu, Nolawi Engdayehu and Misha Hussein in the ITV newsroom

Meet the Thomson Foundation Future Leaders.

As the Future Leaders course enters its third week, four of the course participants reflect on their experiences so far … after coming face to face with some of the most influential people and organisations in the media world.

This talented group of nine journalists arrived at the Thomson Foundation HQ in Cardiff  from across three continents. They represent diverse media operations spanning broadcast and print operations in their home countries. But what unites them all is a passion for media and a desire to reach as high as they can.

Their experiences so far have ranged from a visit to Google UK to the House of Lords, where they met former trade union chief and Thomson Foundation trustee Baroness Dean. They also talked in depth about leadership styles with Royal Shakespeare Company executive director Vikki Heywood, the TV executive behind Big Brother, Peter Bazalgette,  ITV editor-in-chief David Mannion and former Manchester Evening News editor Paul Horrocks.

Other media leaders who will be working with the group over the final two weeks of the course include former BBC director Greg Dyke. The course is led by broadcasting consultant and trainer Lyn Hartman, and Clive Jones, visiting Professor at the University of Cardiff School of Journalism and Chairman of GMTV.

Here’s what some of the Thomson Foundation Future Leaders have to say about the course so far …

Misha HussainMISHA HUSSAIN: The course also allowed me to closely analyse my own leadership qualities. Having been the frontman in companies I have worked for over the last 10 years, this course was taking the challenge of leadership to the next level. That is to say, can I be the front man of the front men? READ FULL STORY »

Mona FarahMONA FARAH: Listening to my colleagues speak about their work challenges makes me realise that my own situation is not unique.
In a broader context, I have come to see that many of us share the same concerns over human rights. READ FULL STORY »

Sikonathi MantshantshSIKONATHI MANTSHANTSHA: “When you become leaders, don’t forget where you came from,” said Baroness Brenda Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde. Simple as it is, that’s quite a humbling leadership lesson. Especially so when it comes from a person of Baroness Dean’s stature. READ FULL STORY »

Manqoba MchunuMANQOBA MCHUNU: Perhaps the most valued lesson thus far was from the Royal Shakespeare’s Executive Director Vikki Heywood, who believes in a collaborative leadership. She says it’s about bringing everyone on board and working together to achieve a common goal. READ FULL STORY »

25 free online tools for media professionals on the move

Free online tools

By DAN MASON

If you’re a media professional on the road or use different computers for your home and work life, there are obvious advantages to having a ‘virtual office’ online, complete with multimedia tools and storage space.

Nice, too, if everything in your office was free. That’s not such a tall order. Just for starters, here are 25 of my favourite, free, online tools. There are lots more – so feel free to pitch in with your suggestions.

A good few work  just as well on a mobile (we’ll take a specific look at mobile media tools another time). So for now, take a laptop, internet connection … and let’s go.

Read the rest of this entry »

Global media consultancy that get results

Six reasons why media professionals should use LinkedIn (and here’s how)

LinkedIn

By DAN MASON

A new member joins LinkedIn’s fast-growing professional network every second.

Impressive. But even though more than half its 70 million users are reported to be outside the US, the profile of LinkedIn among media professionals in countries like Africa, the Middle East and eastern Europe remains relatively low.

Language has a lot to do with it – LinkedIn is currently only available in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese. So has culture and country-specific attitudes to online networks.

But it seems the picture is changing. The country with the fastest-growing LinkedIn membership is now India, with over three million users, and the network boasts members across 200 countries.

Read the rest of this entry »

Workshop hears how Chinese officials respond to online ‘netizens’

Thomson Foundation consultant Martin Huckerby with interpreter Kevin Liu

Thomson Foundation consultant Martin Huckerby listens, with interpreter Kevin Liu, as a Chongqing information officer makes a point

A programme to encourage Chinese government information officials to increase dialogue with the public through the media obviously faces challenges.

Nevertheless, the latest chapter in the Hearing the Public Voice project, in South-West China in June, found progress was being made in new ways.

Read the rest of this entry »

George Georgiou Q&A: Taking pictures with the power to expose a nation’s soul (Part 2)

Fault Lines: Turkey East West. Photographs by George Georgiou

Click image to enlarge

« READ GEORGE GEORGIOU Q&A PART 1

Many images capture fleeting moments in the life of your subjects. Yet the outstanding composition of your shots suggests detailed planning. How do you strike this balance?

GG: The approach I took evolved over time – I had been living in Turkey for nearly three years before I really started this project.

I was determined to focus on contemporary Turkey and not reduce the work to looking at exotic stereotypes of the country – a trap many photographers fall into when photographing Turkey.

Once I had identified the concept, I had to find the right visual language; the correct distance and emotion.

Fault Lines: Turkey East West. Photographs by George Georgiou
Fault Lines: Turkey East West. Photographs by George Georgiou
Fault Lines: Turkey East West. Photographs by George Georgiou
Fault Lines: Turkey East West. Photographs by George Georgiou
Click images to enlarge
All photographs copyright George Georgiou 2010

Most of the work was shot over the autumn or early spring. This gave me a great light, very grey skies and a flat light, allowing the colours of the buildings to stand out and the project to hold together.

I have been shooting on the street for years, so capturing fleeting moments while keeping a strong compositional frame now comes fairly easy to me.

What do you want people to feel when they visit the exhibition or read the book?

GG: I was showing the work to some Nigerian photographers and asked them how they saw the new modern landscapes that are springing up all over Turkey.  They wished Lagos would follow suit.

Someone from England might see them in a more negative light through their experience of high-rise council estates.

For sure, I would expect a different understanding from a Turkish audience; a greater understanding of the subtleties in the images.

I’m comfortable with all these perceptions. I’m trying to create a context that guides but doesn’t have a closure.

Hopefully, the viewer will want to find out more about Turkey.

There are over 100 images in the book. Are there any that, for you, sum up the story you are trying to convey?

GG: I have been moving away from the idea of the single image for some time now.

In a work like this, a single image tells you very little about the questions and issues I’m dealing with. That’s not to say I don’t have favourites or images that don’t have a lot of meaning for me.

The viewer will also identify with certain images that have nothing to do with my intention. This is, for me, the strength of photography. We create our own fictions.

The age of film cameras and darkrooms has given way to the age of digital cameras and Photoshop. Has anything been lost in the transition?

GG: Personally, I hated the hours in the darkroom, struggling to get a good print.

Digital photography has opened up photography to a lot more people. I also like the editing process and development of ideas that digital affords you.

At the end of the day it’s a technological development. It just depends what you do with it.

What advice would you give to a teenager determined to pursue a career as a photographer?

GG: The competition is fierce out there and it’s on an international level now. So you need to be obsessed and passionate and understand that it’s a long road that needs infinite patience.

Visit George Georgiou’s blog: www.georgegeorgiou.net

UPDATE: Since this interview, George has been awarded a British Journal of Photography award, run by BJP in partnership with Nikon, which will support his ‘In the Shadow of the Bear’ project, focusing on the continuing influence of Russia on its former territories in Georgia and the Ukraine. More details on the British Journal of Photography website.

George Georgiou was speaking to Dan Mason

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