#Context emerging as 2014 theme: "...newsrooms are going to reframe our understanding of “responsive design.” We’re going to see content move beyond simply responding to screen size and instead respond to reader context, adapting to behavior." - Nieman Journalism Lab

Today's online news environment is ideal for spreading bullshit. As someone like HuffPo's Washington bureau chief puts it: “If you throw something up without fact-checking it, and you’re the first one to put it up, and you get millions and millions of views, and later it’s proved false, you still got those views. That’s a problem. The incentive…

Data-driven storytelling, sharable journalism in a British skunkworks. What's not to like? From NiemanLab: "Data-driven storytelling and web-native, sharable journalism are two of the biggest trends in media at the moment. If you locked the two together in a room, Ampp3d might walk out the door ... As a news site, Ampp3d keeps its output fairly …

" The euro|topics press review shows you which topics are moving Europeans and reflects the great variety of opinions, ideas and emotions on those issues. Whether the topic is politics, the economy, society or culture, euro|topics takes a daily look at the European press and cites the most important voices. Because the question that interests us i…

Consider this your starting point to tap into Google’s suite of digital tools that can enhance newsgathering and exposure across television, radio, print and online. Whether it’s refining your advanced search capabilities, improving audience engagement through Google+, or learning how to visualize data using Google Maps, this website is intended …

“There is a huge audience of readers out there craving this kind of storytelling ... With phones and tablets, they now always have a reading device available on them to dig into something.”

“We now know that there’s sleight of hand, and special effects, behind what we read in the newspaper.”... You didn’t know before?? What’s the % of newspaper stories with PR behind them in some way? 40%? 50%? More?

"News in general doesn’t matter most of the time, and most people would be far better off if they spent their time consuming less news and more ideas that have more lasting import"

A great article on preventing the data tail wagging the editorial dog. " It turns out that what loyal audiences care about is what good editorial teams care about too: great articles that capture time and attention."

"That's about 100,000 business opportunities we provide publishers every minute." - good article on how slow the newsindustry was. Interesting thoughts too on balancing algorithmic approach with human concerns. Google News at 10 - The Atlantic http://t.co/Fupf11B6

"The NewsCred announcement coincides with a shifting perspective on automated news. While some feared that the arrival of robot story writers and editors would phase out journalists, the human touch now appears to be back in fashion..." - Human touch back in fashion for news #curation? http://t.co/uQqLSTw5 via @NiemanLab cc @bloggingportal

Have you read a great investigative story lately? Anyone can pitch a story, video, graphic or other news link by Tweeting us with #MuckReads

Apparently tomorrow - apart from being Australia Day - is BloggingPortal's 3rd birthday. What does it's state tell us about the EU Online Public Space? How many more friends can I lose anyway?

A recent edition of The Infinite Monkey Cage, BBC Radio4's brilliant chat show combining science and comedy, got me thinking again about the parallels between science communications and EU communications.

At last, an opportunity to blog about gardening and EU comms in the same post.

On November 8, MEPs will discuss '10 concrete political proposals' for creating the European public sphere via digital media, developed by IHECS (Institut des Hautes Etudes des Communications Sociales) and their partners via Socialeuropeanjournalism.com.

Next week will see yet another physical meeting in Brussels dedicated to exploring the European public space, an irony which appears permanently lost to the organisers of the neverending stream of conferences, seminars and workshops which can be only attended by Brussels Bubble Insiders, and have neither webstreaming nor any online community (Euro…

I lead the team that created Blogactiv.eu, the first blogging platform focused on EU policies