Vincent and I had a bit of a laugh today when I opened up the International version of OhMyNews and clicked through to the Citizen Reporter Resources feature. To our amazement the NML is featured in the article, although we didn’t know anything about it and weren’t contacted by the author. What follows is even more amusing:
Meanwhile, the New Media Lab (NML) at Rhodes University, Grahamstown in South Africa, is also working on a resource website for journalists and bloggers.
The NML has been credited with several media projects using free and open source software platforms in partnership with civil society organisations and mainstream media, which can be accessed at nml.ru.ac.za
While this statement is partly true (we have been involved in projects using FOSS) none of us have any knowledge of setting up a “resource website for journalists and bloggers”, and this coming from the same place as the infamous Citizen Journalism is Dead post! c’on!
Proof why thorough fact-checking is neccessary in all types of journalism, citizen or not!!!
1 Mike Oct 15th, 2006 at 8:23 amAre they not referring to Jo’s Toolkit?
2 Colin Daniels Oct 20th, 2006 at 5:54 pmPossibly, but nowhere on the site does it say that Jo’s toolkit is associated with the NML nor do they make mention of it in the article. Technically it’s a student initiative which the author would’ve known if he had actually contacted one of us!!!