Ernest Wilson, the dean of the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism, put it like this: “What if, after receiving the home and garden section in the morning, the reader could walk right into the section and visit a garden?”

This bucolic vision reflects one potential scenario for what we at the Annenberg school are calling “immersive journalism,” a new genre that utilises gaming platforms and virtual environments to convey news, documentary and non-fiction stories.

As a senior research fellow, I am prototyping immersive journalism stories, hoping to discover and create best practices for a burgeoning field that can capture audiences increasingly accustomed to experiencing digital worlds. In fact, I believe the profession of journalism would be remiss if it did not begin establishing best practices for using gaming platforms to tell news stories.

The fundamental idea of immersive journalism is to allow the audience to actually enter a virtually recreated scenario representing the news story. The pieces can be built in online virtual worlds such as Second Life or produced using a head-tracked head-mounted display system (HMD). An HMD is a lightweight helmet that has screens covering the eyes and tracks head movement to ensure digital imagery on the screens stays in perspective to create a sensation of having a virtual body in a virtual location.

Immersive journalism can also be constructed in a Cave, which uses full body-tracking technologies in a small room so that individuals can move their bodies around the space.

Video and audio feeds captured from the physical world are used to reinforce the concept that participants are experiencing a nonfiction story. For example, video is triggered at a key point in the virtual landscape to remind a participant that the computer-generated environment is grounded in a real news story. Scripted events that create a first person interaction with the reportage can also help create a feeling of “being there.”

Whether visiting the space as oneself or as a subject of the news story, immersive journalism aims to afford the participant unprecedented access to the sights and sounds, and possibly, the feelings and emotions that accompany the news.

In collaboration with digital media designer Peggy Weil, I have built several prototypes, some of which reflect my interest in covering human rights issues. Gone Gitmo, a virtual Guantanamo Bay prison built in Second Life, allows participants to explore a place that is inaccessible to the average American citizen and press. (In fact, the New York Times recently wrote a lengthy story describing reporters’ lack of access to the prison.) Gone Gitmo includes an experience on what it might be like to be detained, hooded and then imprisoned in Camp X-Ray. It also examines the ramifications of losing habeas corpus rights.

A scene from Cap & Trade, an immersive journalism report on the carbon market

Another Second Life prototype, Cap & Trade, is a news report on the carbon market that sends people on a journey to follow the money in order to try to better understand the complexities and human consequences of trading carbon credits. Cap & Trade was built in partnership with the Centre for Investigative Reporting and Frontline World and is particularly reliant on the excellent reporting by Mark Schapiro that appears on Frontline and in Mother Jones and Harpers Magazine.

A third prototype is based on the interrogation logs of Detainee 063, Mohammed Al Qahtani, who was declared tortured by the Bush administration. Built at the Event Lab in Barcelona with Mel Slater and his team, we use an HMD to put participants into the virtual body of a detainee who is held in what is referred to as a “stress position.”

An immersive journalism participant prepares to enter the world of a Guantanamo Bay detainee

When participants look around, they see a virtual mirror with a digital figure in that mirror who looks like a detainee and moves in unison with the participant. Participants also wear a breathing strap that programs the avatar to breathe at the same time as they do, further enhancing the sense of virtual body ownership. Throughout, the sounds of the Al Qahtani interrogation play as if coming from the next room.

While research data was not collected on this particular prototype, every participant anecdotally reported that their body was hunched over in a stress position, when in fact they were sitting upright.

Immersive journalism is distinct from news games in that a participant in an immersive journalism story isn’t playing a game but is placed in an experience where participation does not necessarily allow the participant the agency of choice. Immersive journalism also parallels a news narrative playing out in the physical world, much like a piece in a newspaper or segment on television, and while one might experience the story from different starting points, the story itself should not shift.

When the record industry refused to consider experience, i.e. how their audience was going to interact with music, they essentially gave Apple the right of way to build iTunes. The result was an extremely successful and robust environment that offers an entertaining, multilayered way to access music while also supporting Apple’s iPod music device. No doubt immersive journalism is nascent, but we hope to learn from the mistakes of the music industry which, unfortunately, legacy media seems well on its way to repeating. With iTunes as our model, we are concentrating on experience.

You can see videos about the prototypes mentioned in this piece and learn more about this burgeoning avenue of journalism at www.ImmersiveJournalism.com.

Nonny de la Peña is a Senior Research Fellow in Immersive Journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism. A graduate of Harvard University with twenty years of news experience she is a former correspondent for Newsweek Magazine and has written for the New York Times and Los Angeles Times Magazine. She is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker.

This post is reproduced with thanks to Memeburn, the site for web-savvy insight and analysis.

Journalism must play a vital role in helping Africa overcome it’s three great challenges: peace, democracy and development, according to International Federation of Journalists Secretary General Aidan White.

His call for stronger ethics in journalism, delivered to a media audience in Ghana, could apply equally to journalists in many parts of the world. This report, by Edmund Smith-Asante, first appeared on the website of Ghana Business News.

The Secretary General of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Aidan White, has stated that journalism is not about freedom of expression, but rather about constrained expression.

He said a good journalist must note that journalism is actually a distinct form of expression, reminding journalists that they are not in the business of freedom of expression.

“Journalism is not about freedom of expression; journalism is about restrained, constrained expression. Because journalists must tell the truth, be independent and make themselves accountable,” Mr. White encapsulated.

He made his statements at the 15th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Awards in Accra. The theme for the awards ceremony, which saw 31 journalists being awarded with 33 awards and five personalities receiving honorary awards, was Unethical Journalism and Corruption in The Media: A Danger to Democracy.

Mr White said that “freedom of expression is the capacity of anyone who owns a computer, who owns a telephone, who owns any form through which they can disseminate their opinion when they want and how they want.”

But journalism must go further, he explained, to make it distinct from bloggers and from others who are used as an excuse to attack the fabric of journalism. Mr White said he viewed citizen journalism as a nice cliché, but that in the real world we need informed, committed journalists, professionally guided by standards and not the desire to promote their own ego.

And while he stressed the importance on honouring good journalism, he warned: “There are ethical challenges facing us in the media and that ethical challenge is felt very strongly here in Africa.”

Mr White added that it is important to create the professional and social conditions to enhance good journalism, in order for it to fulfil it’s duty to the nation. In his view, journalism and an independent media had a vital role to play in helping Africa overcome the three great challenges of peace, democracy and development.

'If your media is corrupt, your democracy is fatally flawed,' Aidan White told the Ghana Journalists Association award winners. (Mr White is pictured at a recent UK conference. Flickr photo by Jens Astrup / playthegame.org)

“In the struggle for peace, we need tolerance, and  journalism must lead the struggle  for tolerance,” he said. “In the struggle for democracy, we need pluralism. Journalism must ensure that all voices – majority and minority -  are heard if democracy is to function.”

The IFJ leader continued: “In the struggle for development, media and journalism must scrutinise the exercise of power and expose corruption wherever it exists, because corruption is corrosive, not just to development, but to democracy itself.”

And he called on the African media to promote transparency by employing high ethical standards: “If your media is corrupt, your democracy is fatally flawed,” he said.

Mr White also lamented the levels of poverty in journalism, with too many journalists being exploited and badly paid. It is vital that journalists are given decent pay, he said – a statement that drew applause across the State Banquet Hall.

“If you do not have journalists who are respected for what they do, and who are rewarded for the good work they do, then you will never have the democracy that you need to serve the democracy that you wish to keep,” said Mr White.

He then spoke of the importance of a new campaign, led by the GJA, IFJ and African Federation of Journalists (AFJ), to raise the standards of ethical journalism.

He strongly supported the campaign’s aims to build a new respect in society for good journalism; journalism that served the public good. Part of the campaign, he said, is about building new partnerships with civil society, government and for all those who are genuinely interested in creating societies that are free, confident and strong.

Paying tribute to the 31 journalists who had been nominated for awards, he said the award ceremony was significant, not only for journalists in Ghana, but also for journalists in Africa, since it was celebrating the journalism that both Ghana and Africa needs.

All 31 award journalists received certificates, plaques and a laptop computer, while the honorary awardees received certificates.

The recipient of this year’s GJA/P.V. Ansah Journalist of the Year Award, sponsored by Unilever was Samuel Agyeman of Metro TV.

Amitabh Revi is a senior correspondent and anchor with NDTV in New Delhi, India.

During the 2010 Thomson Foundation Future Leaders course, participants were set the unusual task of predicting the future of the news industry – as a rap song. Here Amitabh describes how he and fellow journalist Misha Hussein rose to the challenge …

To get us thinking about the future of the news industry from a different perspective, we were introduced to Jon Webster, CEO of Music Managers Forum. He illustrated the revolution taking place in the music industry and the decline of the big record labels by telling the story behind MC Lars’ video Download the Song.

So when Future Leaders course leader Lyn Hartman set us the task of presenting our thoughts on the future of news as a rap song, Misha and I decided to follow MC Lars’s lead. He had, after all, borrowed a sample from Iggy Pop’s The Passenger on the track.

Jon checked with his legal team and told us that it was OK if we rapped to his music, since we were just ‘adapting’ Lars. So, we embarked on our new career in the rap world. You can buy the CD in any Wales music store. (Just kidding!)

Here’s a video of the MC Lars’ original (and a link to his Download this Song lyrics), followed by the words in our version …

… It’s called Download the News.

Download the News

It’s 2010, what’s on the consumer’s news list?
Get the latest from the net or pay cable for the gist
There already is a paradigm shift
The news revolution cannot be dismissed
£140 for the BBC,
or get on the web and get it for free

News Online or is News On the Line
Lalalalalalala
News Online or is News On the Line
Lalalalalalala

If you can google it why pay for it all?
Is the news industry going to fall?
Or will it hit Rupert Murdoch’s pay-wall

Hey Mr Newspaper Man
Is the joke on you
Running your headlines
Like it was 2002
Hey Mr Newspaper man,
Can your system compete?
Or is downloading going to be complete?

News Online or is News On the Line ?
Lalalalalalala
News Online or is News On the Line?
Lalalalalalala

Broadcasters where is all your content?
All the old rules will be bent
All visuals will be on an Avid cloud
Don’t cover your heads in a shroud
The future’s here and thumping real loud

News Online or is News On the Line ?
Lalalalalalala
News Online or is News On the Line?
Lalalalalalala

Multi-skills are here to stay
Old school journalists will have pay
TV news. What do viewers demand?
Will it mean content on command?

Hey Mr. Newspaper Man
Is the joke on you
Running your headlines
Like it was 2002
Hey Mr. Newspaper man,
Can your system compete?
Or is downloading going to be complete?

News Online or is News On the Line ?
Lalalalalalala
News Online or is News On the Line ?
Lalalalalalala

Coming up the weather in 5
But get it – now – online and live
How will news be sent?
However, whatever, it has to have compelling content

News Online or is News On the Line?
Lalalalalalala
(Repeat and fade out)

• The mention of an ‘Avid cloud’ is a reference to our invaluable discussion with John Curzon, newsroom specialist with Avid. He outlined some possible future scenarios for the news industry, in particular TV news, including the potential for reporters to edit stories in low definition while in the field, using minimal equipment, with the high-definition footage stored in the ‘cloud’.

This is the future. And we have to move with it. To paraphrase a song from the Irish band U2. All journalists will have to keep Running to Stand Still.

Rap partners: Amitabh Revi and Misha Hussein

Deepika Bhardwaj in London for a Future Leaders' visit to the House of Lords

DEEPIKA BHARDWAJ, a production manager with Jain Studios in New Delhi, India, reflects on her participation in the Thomson Foundation’s Future Leaders course, 2010

I was really excited by the prospect of becoming part of the Thomson Foundation fraternity and felt lucky to have been selected for the Future Leaders course.

At first, I was curious about meeting people from different parts of the world and had high expectations for the course itself. Ahead lay a month of leadership lessons, a chance to work on my own strengths and weaknesses and, hopefully, make friends for life.

Now it is over, I have taken back a lot more than I could ever have imagined.

Apartment number 239 at Century Wharf in Cardiff was my amazingly-comfortable abode for the month and I quickly realised that the Thomson Foundation had left no stone unturned to make this the best experience of our lives.

Our journey brought us into personal contact with some of the most respected media leaders in the UK. From them we learned how to prepare ourselves to lead and avoid the pitfalls they faced. Lyn Hartman and Clive Jones from the Thomson Foundation led the course throughout and helped us get the most from our experiences.

Lyn’s helpful advice was that I should learn from everyone we met. “Imagine you are plugging a USB into their brains,” she said. A famous quote by Woodrow Wilson says: “I not only use all the brains I have but all I can borrow.” Well, we had the chance to borrow the best brains in the world … for the the rest of our lives!

Menna Richards, Director of BBC Wales, was the first leader we met. She inspired me. Menna taught me not to put limits on your ambitions. She seemed always to be striving to do more. And I feel that’s the way to go about in life. Keep going. Never stop.

Meeting David Mannion, Editor-in-Chief of ITN, was a great experience. He discussed in a very candid manner his responsibilities and the tough decisions he has faced. A major lesson I learnt from David is the fact that you grow the most when you surround yourself with people more talented than you.

He advised us not to feel daunted, but to learn from these people. I now realise that working with more talented people actually makes you raise the bar for yourself. David also stressed the importance of moving forward: “Don’t dwell too much on bad decisions you make in life. Move on. Remember you have other people to lead and decisions to make. Don’t beat yourself over those decisions. Just move on.”

From influential people, to a globally-influential organisation: Google. Their office may look more like a party space than offices, but what the media really needs to learn from Google is the art of employing the best people. Their rigorous selection procedures ensure they hire only the best.

Another great thing about the course was the way our intensive learning was interspersed by breaks to relax with friends. Our picnic trip to Monmouth was like that. Just loved the countryside!

After the visit to ITN, Press Association and Google we returned to Wales to meet one of the most creative media personalities of British television, Peter Bazelgette. He provided us with a lot of insights into the success stories of people who changed the face of television, such as John De Mol, Paul Smith and Charlie Parsons, creating formats like Big Brother, Who wants to be a Millionaire and Survivor.

He told us that all these people had brilliant ideas initially, but no one to back them. Peter explained “If you believe in your ideas and constantly work on it, you will definitely get the results. You have to be persistent and wait for the right time. And you should never, ever give up.”

Another leader I loved meeting was Vikki Keywood, Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

What inspired me most about her was that, after reaching a high position, she decided to go right back to basics in management and start from scratch. Now she is transforming the Royal Shakespeare company. Vikki is a perfect example of a leader who follows their heart and doesn’t let anything get in the way – even if it means starting all over again! One important tip I remember from Vikki is that if you want people to follow you, you have to lead by example.

Last but not the least came Greg Dyke, former Director General of the BBC, who brought lessons not just in leadership but humanity. I will remember forever him saying: “As a leader, you have to be good to everyone in your organization. People from the bottom to the top. It’s not about the speech you delivered or the suit you wore, its all about the way you make people feel.”

Apart from the speakers, the team activities were a great experience too. The tasks we were set opened our minds to the importance of teamwork. From a personal perspective, time management was one of the things I really wanted to work on. While peer pressure helped me improve, Mona (another course participant) gave me an insight I won’t forget.

She said we should think of ourselves as an image. Whatever we do has an impact on that image. If we do good things, we love to look at our image in the mirror, and when we do things we do not like, we don’t like our own image. So the lesson: Identify the things that make you feel satisfied and prioritise them. If you stick to this, time manages itself.

Between all the lessons, workshops and visits, I loved shopping in Cardiff and meeting some amazing people. I am really going to miss the whole Thomson family I became a part of.

The Future Leaders course was an unforgettable experience for me. As the title says, it lasted just one month … but the lessons will last a lifetime.

• Thanks Tim, Lyn, Tracey, Miranda, Clive for all your support and thanks to Siko, Noli, Ghassan, Mona, Misha, ManQ, Abdul, Amitabh and Lucy for being such great friends and such great time together.

Participants of the Thomson Foundation Future Leaders course, from left, Abdul Alshamery, Amitabh Revi, Manqoba Mchunu, Mona Chami, Ghassan Abu-Hussein, Misha Hussein, Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Nolawi Engdayehu, Deepika Bhardwaj and Lusine Petrosyan

These ten talented journalists from across the world have every reason to smile …

They’ve just completed the prestigious, month-long Thomson Foundation Future Leaders course and are pictured at a special presentation evening hosted by the Foundation’s chairman and former journalist, Lord Fowler of Sutton Coldfield.

During the course, participants discussed management and leadership styles with some of the media’s most influential figures, including former BBC director Greg Dyke, ITV editor-in-chief David Mannion, Royal Shakespeare Company executive director Vikki Heywood, and the TV executive behind Big Brother, Peter Bazalgette.

They also visited Google’s London HQ and the House of Lords, where they met former trade union chief and Thomson Foundation trustee Baroness Dean.

The course was 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. Under their expert guidance, the Future Leaders explored and developed their own leadership styles, forging friendships that will continue as the journalists reach for the top in their own countries and media sectors.

The participants, pictured below receiving their award certificates from Lord Fowler, are: Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Lusine Petrosyan, Amitabh Revi, Mona Chami, Ghassan Abu-Hussein, Abdul Alshamery, Deepika Bhardwaj, Manqoba Mchunu, Nolawi Engdayehu and Misha Hussein.

Click images to enlarge …

Following a 12-year stint with the BBC World Service, Clare is currently undertaking a research project at the University of Queensland in Australia, focusing on safety for journalists.

This was the theme of her speech to the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development Conference in Macau. Clare was representing the Thomson Foundation at the conference and makes the point that, for a journalist preparing an interview, assessing risk should be as important as thinking about where and what to film.

Here’s a transcript of her speech:

You can probably think of one young journalist you know who has ambitions to be a foreign correspondent or even a war reporter in some new and exciting place. Please tell them … they can just as easily be killed, injured, threatened, suffer trauma or be thrown in jail at home.

There are a number of countries where journalists, who do their essential job of shining lights into dark places, are silenced with the weapons of legal action, threats and violence. The growing tally of murdered journalists kept by the the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), shows the high level of impunity with which the media is silenced. It directly threatens strong and accountable journalism by stopping coverage or invoking self-censorship.

Impunity is a threat not just to journalists but all that we stand for – a free press, holding those with power to account, the public’s right to information, giving a voice to the voiceless. Whatever your personal reason for standing up for journalism, it’s threatened when people shoot the messenger.

We may be the converted, believing that journalists perform a vital role in a healthy society. We may believe that a free and independent media and the right to information are at the heart of transparent and accountable governance. But the figures show us that journalists are not safe and there’s a culture of impunity in many countries which leaves attacks on us unpunished.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that for all the talk about the Fourth Estate, journalism has relatively low status. Unfortunately it is partly because of the behaviour or journalists themselves.

Some of the problems I see as a trainer are based in lack of training … the journalists are committed and courageous and want to do strong work, but are not well grounded in attribution, research and cross-checking, objectivity and the particular ethics of our profession.

Clare Arthurs at the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development Conference

This is no defence for attacking journalists. But where journalists are not trained and supported in pursuing journalism which is professional and ethical, their own behaviour can put their safety in further jeopardy.

Let me quote from last year’s report from the Centre for International Media Assistance. It’s called: Under Attack: Practising Journalism in a Dangerous World. And it said: “Biased, inaccurate and incendiary reporting not only do a disservice to readers, they can also be a primary cause of reactive attacks on reporters”.

It’s why there is a link between strong, accountable, professional practice in journalism, and safety.

For example, undercover reporting. Very exciting. The journalist feels important,  courageous. The undercover team has a sense of excitement. The audience is titillated by scenes of  wrongdoing. It makes for great ratings. But it’s dangerous.

Preparation for the assignment to ensure the safety of the crew should be rigorous. But even before the reporter or cameraperson starts filling out a risk assessment for the job, they should have obtained the permission of a senior editor to go undercover.

The ethical considerations in undercover reporting are most serious because it is one of the first duties of a reporter to identify themselves. A decision not to do this should be approved at the highest editorial level. The reporting team must be able to show there is a good reason for going undercover, that there is a real public benefit and that other measures to collect the information have been exhausted.

There should be thorough research and analysis before undercover reporting is used. Then the team can start looking at the possible threats to their physical safety and the safety of others. Safe journalism is firmly based in ethical journalism.

Attention is rightly given to the attacks on journalists and the dangers for war reporters. But more attention should be paid to the dangers of being a journalist every day, at home.  The fact is that journalism is a dangerous business.
Here are some very common risk situations which many journalists will face almost daily:

• Interviewing grieving families.. which is sometimes called death knocks
• Attending court to film or interview people involved in legal proceedings
• Being an eye-witness to disasters and accidents
• Interviewing victims of trauma

Some assignments are inherently risky:

• Climate change – we can expect to cover more natural disasters
• Money and power – a dangerous combination eg illegal logging
• Uncovering secrets which people want kept hidden
• Interviewing people with mental health problems/substance abuse
• Attending rallies and protests which can become violent

Then of course there are stories of loss and tragedy where journalists are at risk of emotional damage and post traumatic stress disorder.

At the podium: Clare Arthurs puts the spotlight on safety

Journalists with high professional standards are less likely to find themselves in danger in these situations. There is research available through the likes of the Dart Center for trauma and journalism which shows how being sensitive to the impact of trauma can change the dynamics of an interview.

It is only logical that a journalist who is knowledgeable and respectful to people, culture, and religion is less likely to aggravate a situation or escalate a problem.

Recently I saw yet another film where a journalist spoke to a survivor of the S21 Khmer Rouge prison, Tuol Sleng, in Phnom Penh. He was set on the floor and asked to talk about how he was shackled and tortured. Can you imagine what it might be like to have not only survived the Khmer Rouge but then be asked by an unsupportive stranger prodding you to relive the experience? But is there also a danger to the journalist in those common situations?

The point is that risk assessment should be a much a part of the preparation for an interview as thinking about where and what to film.

A journalist who is trained for public disorder and  sent to a rally or protest will be safer and do a better job. Safety training will teach them what to watch for, where to stand, how to exit.  They are more likely to understand what is really going on, where trouble is likely to erupt, what the likely targets are, and how the situation could escalate. The safety-trained journalist becomes a much better eye- witness. Good journalism is firmly rooted in safe journalism.

Why does safe equal good? A good journalist:

• Prepares for situations meaning they are more likely to get access
• Confronts difficulty, meaning that they might be able to travel to an area which would otherwise be ruled out as too hard
• Is  more aware of what’s going on and so the reporting is more comprehensive

Because they are looking after their safety and that of others, good journalists are more likely to demonstrate respect and understanding and avoid aggravating the situation. They are more likely to survive a hostile situation, get the story, and come back

Why should media organisations spend money training their workforce and safety? Most already accept the need and obligation to conduct regular fire training and building evacuation procedures. But in the field,  journalists, like police, medical crews and firefighters have a different role when something goes wrong. While everybody else is running away from danger, journalists move towards it. They are running to risk.

Journalists -  and I include in that staff and freelance journalists, camera crews and local staff -  should be given insurance, training, equipment and support. That support should extend to their families in cases of injury or death.

Clare Arthurs answers a question during a conference panel session

If the moral high ground or professional journalism practice doesn’t persuade managers of their obligations, there is this warning from the private security firm AKE which provides hazardous environment training to the media and non-government organisations.

“Neglecting to provide risk assessments and mitigation systems, such
as security briefings, training and equipment, will increasingly result in
exposure to legal claims from NGO personnel suffering injuries, or
from relatives for death.”

What kind of courses should we be doing? Most major international media organisations require staff going to hostile environments to do a residential course in safety and first aid.

Increasingly media companies are signing up to formal safety codes such as through the International News Safety Institute or the recent Australian News Safety Code. Journalism trade unions and membership organisations like the International Federation of Journalists and the Frontline Club in London are highlighting the safety of journalists and their colleagues – fixers, interpreters, and drivers.

This year United Nations UNESCO nominated the Right to Information as the theme.for the annual World Press Freedom Campaign. Respect for others, pursuit of truth, accountability, ethical behaviour, the public right to know … we hold these truths to be self-evident. Surely those who hold the pen and not the sword should be entitled to get up in the morning and go to work safe in the knowledge that they will be going to bed that night in one piece.

It is also important that we start giving more time and attention to the public image of journalism and the media. We need more than lip service to the idea of building relationships with community and audience. We have to constantly demonstrate understanding, respect and accountability.

We vehemently insist on independence and self-regulation. We must also demonstrate high standards of transparency, and allow the public to see that we celebrate good journalism, and refuse to accept poor quality.

We need to be prominent about our industry-run awards, our independent tribunals and ethics committees, and our policies and procedures for handling  complaints and corrections.

Finally, we need more voices to join the profession, the UN and other bodies which protest violence and impunity.

We need to find and lobby leaders in all sectors who are willing to act against those who seek silence by threatening and killing journalists.

Statistics highlighted in Clare’s speech:

18 journalists killed in 2010
819 journalists killed since 1992
524 journalists murdered with impunity since 1992
454 journalists in exile worldwide
Source: Committee to Protect Journalists

• Clare’s speech was made during the 9th AIBD General Conference, hosted by TDM in Macao, China, July 2010.

Sikonathi Mantshantsh was inspired by the words of Baroness Dean during a visit to the House of Lords

By SIKONATHI 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.

Coming from Africa as I do, I have witnessed the plundering of resources for the benefit of the few. Too many ‘liberators’ have become oppressors; too many public servants have turned their back on their constituents. Those constituents may be sick patients queuing for service at a hospital or the electorate waiting for the benefits of ‘independence’ and ‘freedom’.

The need for journalists to start asking the real questions and keep authority in check is brought about by people forgetting where they came from.

The need for media intervention to raise the plight of sick people deprived is too often, in my view, because officials have forgotten where they came from. The need for journalists to start asking the real questions and challenge authority is greater than ever … because people forget where they came from.

It is only fitting, therefore, that aspiring leaders like myself and my colleagues at the Thomson Foundation had to be reminded early in their leadership quest by somebody like the Baroness to remember ‘where they came from’.

That the message was delivered in such a historic House as that of Lords makes it even more important and an essential leadership lesson for me.

« Back to introduction
» Misha Hussain
» Mona Farah
» Manqoba Mchunu

Mona Chami, left, finds great value in listening to the experiences of media chiefs and course colleagues

By MONA FARAH

The first two weeks in Cardiff! Ooohhhh … how would I describe them?

Meeting so many leaders is the best thing that can happen to a journalist. People like ITV editor David Mannion and former Manchester Evening News editor Paul Horrocks make decisions while working under tremendous pressure. To learn how they made those decisions was a real education.

David also made me realise that you can be both a dynamic leader and human. The way he spoke of the seriousness of his responsibilities while talking about his job with a smile and joke enabled me to relate to him as an equal.

On a serious note, his comments about the death of his staffers in Basra made me think deeply about the role of the leader, as I was myself in Basra at the time. As David explained, they are the times when you must focus on what you can still change and control; look to the future and do you best. “I had to remember I still had people in Basra to lead and a job to do,” added David.

The way he spoke of the seriousness of his responsibilities while talking about his job with a smile and joke enabled me to relate to him as an equal.

That kind of advice, coming from somebody with such responsibilities, is priceless.

David is, of course, not the only person who has taught me new things about leadership. 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.

So now in we go into the last two weeks of the course. I can only hope these will be at least as intense as the first two weeks.

After all … you only get one opportunity to train as a Future Leader with the Thomson Foundation!

« Back to introduction
» Misha Hussain
» Sikonathi Mantshantsha
» Manqoba Mchunu

Manqoba Mchunu, pictured centre, found the collaborative leadership style of RSC executive director Vikki Heywood especially inspiring

By MANQOBA MCHUNU

Are leaders born? Am I a leader? Do I have the courage to lead? And do I possess the the right qualities and skills?

These are questions many of us ask ourselves. We know we want to make it to the top. But are we good enough?

Over the past two weeks, I have had the privilege, together with nine other members of the Thomson Foundation Future Leaders course, to meet some of the most prominent leaders in the UK media industry. And the answers seem less elusive than before.

A common theme from these encounters is that leadership means having a goal and finding ways to reach it. True, there will be obstacles along the way. Tough decisions to be made. But as ITV’s editor in chief told us, the job may not be easy, but it has to be done. There will be regrets, he said, and leaders constantly question whether they have made the right choices. But that’s the way a leader learns and matures.

Former newspaper editor, Paul Horrocks, stressed that a leader should take bold risks, but know when to admit a plan isn’t working and pull out. Paul admits he learned lessons the hard way, taking editorial decisions that occasionally landed his newspaper in legal battles.

Former Endemol creative director Peter Bazalegette taught us that no idea is small, and that sometimes the smallest idea can turn into a multi-billion pound profit

Perhaps the most valued lesson thus far was from the Royal Shakespeare’s Executive Director Vikki Heywood, who has transformed the theatre into a profitable success. Heywood believes in a collaborative leadership, which she artistically refers to as an ensemble. She says it’s about bringing everyone on board and working together to achieve a common goal;  about changing attitudes and behaviour, and leading by example. It’s also about valuing input from all staff members and picking the right person for the right job.

During the course, I asked Director of BBC Wales Menna Richards: “How do I know when I’m ready to lead?” Her answer: “You don’t, nobody tells you when you are ready but yourself.”

So is leadership a born gift?  Well, during our visit to the Palace of Westminster we met Baroness Brenda Dean, who said she never planned to become a leader, but was nominated for it.

Barnoness Dean readily admits she never stopped learning as leader of a trade union in the UK. At the heart of her success lay a determination not to fail coupled with a passion for what she did.

Former Endemol creative director Peter Bazalegette taught us that no idea is small, and that sometimes the smallest idea can turn into a multi-billion pound profit. The moral of his story: keep developing and refining your ideas and one day you will reap the rewards.

As course leader Lyn Hartman noted: A leader brings solutions, not problems.

So it’s up to all of us to nurture our skills and reach our potential as Future Leaders.

« Back to introduction
» Misha Hussain
» Mona Farah
» Sikonathi Mantshantsha

Misha Hussain, at the rear of this group shot with Baroness Dean, a trustee of the Thomson Foundation, at the House of Lords

By MISHA HUSSAIN

‘To be the best, you need to know the best, and the TF future leaders programme is designed to put you in the know.’ So ran the slogan for the Thomson Foundation’s Future Leaders course.

It was a tall order, and a lot of room for disappointment … so how do I feel after two weeks on the course?

Meeting people from different parts of the world was also had a great impact on me. In the words of Peter Bazalgette, one of the course facilitators, creative networks need to “have many flowers, be talent friendly and multi-cultural”.

Well, having journalists from over seven different nations and three different continents has definitely been an eye-opening experience.

The course brings together broadcast and print journalists, and I realise there is a lot we can learn from each other if the future is going to be a together on an altogether different platform – online journalism.

From a journalistic perspective it was interesting to meet Paul Horrocks, former editor of the Manchester Evening News. I found his workshop on dealing with editorial crisis very interesting. By using real life examples of difficult editorial decisions that he had to make, Paul gave us the opportunity to consider how we would have reacted under time pressure.

During the first two weeks of the course I’ve had the opportunity to speak with and learn from journalists and leaders across the British media – and it has inspired me.

I realise there is a lot we can learn from each other if the future is going to be a together on an altogether different platform – online journalism.

It seems that certain skills are common to many of the leaders, like being able to communicate and gather the best people around you.

Interestingly enough, it was David Mannion, the ITV editor in chief, who said you must never be afraid to put the best people around you, even if they are better than you.

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?

However, it isn’t all about networking and making contacts. I’m hoping that I walk away from this course with not only a set of very influential colleagues in the media world, but also a group of trusted friends who I can rely on for guidance and advice in the future.

« Back to introduction
» Mona Farah
» Sikonathi Mantshantsh
» Manqoba Mchunu