Two successes with the ADM-HEA

In January and February this year, Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Sunderland, Alex Lockwood, and project convenor for Green Media Environments, won one bid and was awarded another pot of funding from the ADM-HEA for a network and teaching project:

1. Sparking Sustainability
With colleagues from the PRAXIS-Community Media hub at the University of Sunderland, Alex Lockwood [...]

Natmags 2nd greenest company in UK

Well done to the National Magazine Company and Mediacom for both coming in the top 10 greenest companies in the UK. The Sunday Times’ Best Green Companies conducts both a company survey and a staff survey (see its methodology), and combines the two scores — for sustainability and office cultural approaches to the environment — [...]

How to fund quality local journalism

The following is the final instalment of a 6-part series of responses to the government inquiry into the future of local and regional media published on the OnlineJournalismBlog. We will be submitting the whole - along with blog comments - to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. This last post, by Lecturer in Journalism Alex Lockwood, looks at:

“How to fund quality local journalism”

The bottom has fallen out of the traditional publishing business model–and with it goes the hefty dividends expected by shareholders (e.g. £48.4m in 2008 for the Trinity Mirror Group). The future of local quality journalism can only remain with the current crop of regional newspaper publishers if they radically change their expectations, and innovate.

Engaging across blogging divides

Last week, an anthropology PhD student in New Zealand wrote a summary and response to a paper I gave at the Association for Journalism Education annual conference, in September this year. I though her commentary was a thoughtful piece with a fair set of conclusions: that bloggers self-select their networks based on beliefs. And that my beliefs were as rigid as any “climate sceptic”.

Embedding environment in higher education

Last September I contributed to a survey for a forthcoming book, Embedding Sustainability across the Higher Education Curriculum, being put together by a researcher from Brighton University. It looks like a great project and a thoroughly needed piece of research.

Why local and digital is better for the environment

Local (digital) media and environmental journalism. For me, the crossover of local/digital journalism and environmental sustainability could be a fantastic growth opportunity for regional media, as well as local citizen journalism groups and networks, with the result being increased environmental awareness and activity.