Media

A lifelong progressive-left activist is beta-testing a new online news service for metropolitan Boston. He says it will invite news contributions from anyone, may try an innovative co-operative ownership model, and will cover politics, conferences, demonstrations and the arts, among other things.

Three political reporters discussed the perils of predicting presidential primaries, the humor of filing stories in a men's locker room and the difficulties campaigns face in managing the message in the Internet era featuring the likes of "Obama Girl" during a panel at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst on March 26. LAUNCH GOOGLE VIDEO

Bill Densmore, director of the Media Giraffe Project at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, proposes that there are four ways of “serving news-hungry consumers” — navigator, valet, referee, teacher/coach. READ MORE: http://www.cyberjournalist.net/four-ways-to-engage-our-readers/ What do you think? Comment below.

Ideas for using video, blogs, camera phones and other multimedia to enhance traditional newsroom activities are the subject of a 90-minute video available for download or streaming online viewing. The video is an edited version of a seminar conducted by the New England News Forum in January. For details, and to launch the video, point your browser to: http://www.archive.org/details/NEPABOSTON2008. You can also view a portion of the 90-minute seminar -- Steve Garfield's presentation on mobile video blogging. Here's an alternate link to the Garfield 15 minutes.

Increased collaboration among citzens and newsrooms requires that citizens be given precise tasks with an obvious purpose, and strong guidance, especially about how to merger observation with opinion, according to the editor of a successful New Hampshire project. New Hampshire Public Radio is reporting on its year-long "Primary Place Online" project.

When he spoke at the Kennedy School of Government’s Institute of Politics earlier today, New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt describes his job as part Ombudsman, reader representative, Torquemada, Inquisitor and small claims court. Hoyt spoke to a crowd of about 30 people huddled in a conference room in the school’s Littauer House as part of the Shorenstein Center’s series of brown bag lunches with distinguished guests..

Public officials, journalists, researchers and a top industry executive will assess the impact and reporting on casino gambling on New England -- the experience in Connecticut and the promise in Massachusetts -- during an evening symposium March 11, 2008, at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, conn. The event is open to the public and is free with a donation suggested. "The Big Gamble: The Costs, Benefits and Coverage of Casinos," is being co-presented by the New England News Forum at the University of Massachusetts and the School of Communications at Quinnipiac. The event will run from 7 p.m.