Stories, equality and filter bubbles: Here is your weekly journalism news update

Every Friday, Journalism.co.uk brings you a round-up of our week’s top stories, giving you all the information you need to know, wherever you are. 

Here's the latest journalism news from this week:

How to make the most of Stories, whatever social platform you are publishing on

A new INMA report predicts the Stories format to be new media's next social opportunity. The concept allows users to enhance their videos and images with drawings, gifs, text, stickers, filters, emojis, and icons. Even the least tech-savvy journalists can get really creative, whether it is a 10-second Snapchat video or an hour-long IGTV feature.

So, if we will really see the death of the newsfeed in the near future, how can your news organisation make the most of Stories, a format that is evolving all the time? And which platform(s) should you choose to focus on?

The Second Source starts up its mentoring scheme for women in journalism with 100 mentor-mentee pairs

Screenshot from The Second Source

UK women’s network The Second Source, originally set up to tackle sexual harassment in the media industry, started up its mentoring scheme this month.

The programme is aimed at women, those who identify as women, and non-binary people, and has so far paired up 100 mentors with mentees.

New app News With Friends encourages users to share stories from outside their filter bubble

Since April, Facebook has aimed to reduce the amount of news content in its users’ feeds, which will undoubtedly impact news organisations that have a heavy presence on the platform, such as the BBC News, which has over 47 million page likes, or CNN, with an audience of 30 million likes.

Although its too early to asses the impact of these changes, it certainly creates a gap in the news-sharing market that may benefit new, smaller players.

Matt McAlister, CEO of media research company Kaleida, is behind the launch of News With Friends, an app that does exactly what it says on the tin: allowing the public to follow the news and share it with those they know.

Men are much more likely than women to be quoted as expert sources: How does Journalism.co.uk compare?

Image from Pixabay.com

A study commissioned by the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London looked at the gender balance of expert sources quoted in stories published online by leading UK media outlets over a week in April, and found that 77 per cent of the people quoted as experts were men.

So how does Journalism.co.uk compare? We have dedicated plenty of words to covering diversity in media and sharing platforms and tips that might help other news organisations along the way to becoming more representative. But what picture does our site tell?

In 110 stories that fit the criteria, women were quoted 81 times (53 per cent) and men were quoted 72 times (47 per cent).

Announcing the agenda for the next newsrewired conference

Over the past couple of weeks, the Journalism.co.uk team has been working on the programme for the event, and we’re pleased to announce our first session ideas we are currently developing.

A limited number of early-bird tickets are available for the event, costing £140+VAT each. The discount expires on 6 August or once the places sell out, after which tickets will cost £190+VAT. Book your tickets here.

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