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Monday, February 08, 2010

Google splashes out USD 5m on Super Bowl advert

Google's aversion to advertising its search engine on TV ended with a bang on Sunday night as the company paid an estimated USD 5m to run a commercial during the Super Bowl. The minute-long spot marks the biggest venture into mainstream advertising for a company that has become notorious growing almost exclusively through word of mouth and online exposure. Google's "Parisian Love" commercial, which featured a variety of plugs for the company's search engine played out as a virtual love story, was aired during the game's third quarter and lasted a full minute. As one of the world's most-viewed TV events, the Super Bowl is a opportunity for advertisers to reach huge audiences in one swoop - and a notorious cash cow for the NFL. With companies charged around USD 2.5m for a 30 second spot last year's game, which lasted just over three and a half hours, made USD 213m from advertising alone. But experts said the decision to spend millions on a highly-visible ad betrays how Google is feeling the heat from competitors - in particular Microsoft's Bing search engine. Running an advert of this magnitude marks a significant turnaround for Google, which has regularly turned its nose up at offline advertising. While is not the first time that Google has ventured into mainstream ads – in recent months the company has promoted its web browser, Chrome and run an international campaign to publicise its web-based software - it has done little or no external marketing of its search engine for most of its life. (The Guardian)

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EJC Press releases

EJC joins press freedom consortium

Five Dutch nonprofit organisations have joined together to strengthen press freedom around the world. The partnership, called Press Freedom 2.0, includes World Press Photo, European Journalism Centre, European Partnership for Democracy, People on a Mission and Free Voice.

The EJC joined the Press Freedom 2.0 consortium to help build local professional journalism capacity, raise ethical standards and improve media literacy in developing countries.

Each Dutch development organisation involved has worldwide networks, which can now be linked. The resulting collaborative climate will be the best possible environment for the sustainable strengthening of independent media on a local level.

Press Freedom 2.0 also wishes to amplify the voices of minorities, women and children in local news spaces.

In recent months, the alliance has been working intensely with dozens of local partners in the global south on a 34m euro grant request to work in that area.

Posted on December 9, 2009 by EJC
Filed under development.

EU4Journalists now in Croatian and Turkish

The EJC is pleased to announce that the main content of the EU4Journalists website is now available in Croatian and Turkish.

Our goal is to help journalists cover the EU, whether they are based in Brussels, candidate countries or elsewhere. We provide essential information about how the EU works, as well as contact details of EU press officers.

Our dossiers give a solid background on EU policy areas and links throughout the site help users find the latest developments. We try to use as little jargon as possible, making the site especially useful for reporters covering unfamiliar subjects in a hurry.

EU4Journalists will always be a work in progress. New elements, including changes made under the Lisbon Treaty, are added and old ones removed on a regular basis. Please check the weekly video podcast on the homepage for the latest EU agenda.

Posted on December 4, 2009 by EJC
Filed under projects, website.

Covering the Crisis: Every angle covered

Estonian Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi, financial futurist Bernard Lietaer and former Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen lead the programme for Covering the Crisis, the EJC Interface conference on the role of the media in the financial crisis.

This event also features a cartoon exhibit on the financial crisis by Kevin ‘Kal’ Kallaugher, the editorial cartoonist for The Economist magazine. The two-day event takes place on 9 and 10 November in Brussels. Click here for more.

Posted on November 2, 2009 by EJC
Filed under events.

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Clay Shirky podcast

Clay Shirky speaks at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy in September, 2009


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In Haiti, social networking ecosystem links victims, reporters and aid agencies

Even as an earthquake shook the Caribbean nation of Haiti and leveled its capital, bridges were being built.

Social networks enabled by the Internet connected on-the-ground reporting efforts and authentic voices of the Haitian people with an active local and international audience, enabling people around the world to contribute to rescue, relief and recovery efforts in a horizontal fashion.

This ecosystem proves that the use of social networking tools, added to the traditional toolbox utalised by reporters, can facilitate a bridge between news media audiences and people impacted by tragic circumstances like earthquake, war or tsunami.

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Featured Resource:
Bloggingportal.eu

They may appear just another group of anonymous geeks banging away behind laptops in your local café. But online — and in Brussels — the bloggers who write about the European Union are starting to be noticed.

“There is some kind of European blogosphere evolving, at least for some issues,” prominent EU blogger Julien Frisch wrote in one of his first posts of 2010.

“And that if (influential) national blogs take up European questions, they can become more important than one might initially expect.”

The remark came at the end of a post describing information flow within the community of bloggers concerned with the daily politics of the European Union.

One of the best places to delve into this community is Bloggingportal.eu, which promotes the most interesting posts of the day from among more than 500 EU blogs. A team of 25 volunteer editors at Bloggingportal.eu reads hundreds of posts every day. They link to the most interesting of the bunch on their front page.

“We want to reach people that do not necessarily read blogs and we want to show that there is a quality debate going on when it comes to the EU and European debates,” said Andreas Müllerleile, one of the site’s founders. He also blogs on EU issues at Kosmopolitio.

“The long-term goal is to offer a selection of the best blog posts in as many EU languages as possible.”

Read full review


Charlie Brooker: How to report the news



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