Reuters Investigates
Insight and investigations from our expert reporters
The end of an era for British tabloids?
No sooner had our special report today on British tabloids hit the wire than Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp shocked everybody by announcing it would close down the 168-year-old News of the World.
Steven Barnett, professor of communications at London’s Westminster University, spoke for a lot of people when he said of the news: ”Astonishing. I’m completely gobsmacked. Talk about a nuclear option.”
The big question now is what happens to Rebekah Brooks, a close confidant of Rupert Murdoch and a friend of Prime Minister David Cameron. Her editorship of the News of the World a decade ago is at the heart of some of the gravest accusations about phone-hacking at the paper.
Our story by Mark Hosenball and Kate Holton asks what makes British tabloids tick — and what makes them different from newspapers in other countries.
Read the (updated) story “Murdoch row – why UK tabloids bin-dive and blag” in PDF format here.
A peek inside our layer
We stepped into the new new Media Universe for our report on Augmented Reality, creating our own app which will alert anyone using it (iPhone or Android-phones only so far) when they are near one of the new movers and shakers of the business. It wasn’t so hard — you can see how we did it here.
But for anyone who just wants an overview, here’s the contents of the layer we made and published through Hoppala (on a Firefox browser) and AR browser firm Layar. It’s our take on the movers and shakers in the AR industry, mainly linking to Twitter feeds, and Tarmo Virki is happy to learn of any updates. These entries are unadorned:
Company: Int13 What it does: mobile gaming firm ARDefender game for iPhone, bada Weblink: http://twitter.com/#!/Int13
Parrot creator of AR.Drone plastic and foam-made helicopter controlled by iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/usa/ar-games
Forrester research firm sees AR as disruptive technology http://twitter.com/#!/Forrester%20Research
Total Immersion founded 1999, an AR pioneer makes AR apps for many industries strategic alliance with Adobe http://twitter.com/#!/totalimmersion
Hoppala AR technology provider makes easy-to-use Layar tools
Congratulations to Murray Waas
Murray Waas is picking up the prestigious Barlett & Steele award today in Phoenix for his special report on health insurers dropping patients after they were diagnosed with breast cancer.
The Reynolds Center is holding a panel discussion with Murray and silver medal winner John Fauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which will be streamed live here.
Murray’s four-month investigation, supported by additional reporting from Lewis Krauskopf, revealed that a giant health insurer had targeted policyholders recently diagnosed with breast cancer for aggressive investigations and canceled some policies. An exhaustive study of records, hearings and federal data, as well as dozens of interviews with experts, officials and patients led to the story, which was edited by Jim Impoco and Doina Chiacu.
We published the story in April and the reaction was swift. The Obama administration and Congressional Democrats urged insurers to end the policy known as rescission immediately — five months before the new healthcare law would require it to do so.
Within days, Wellpoint announced it would stop dropping coverage for all customers after they get sick. The very next day, UnitedHealth Group followed suit, as would most of the health insurance industry in the following days.
Congratulations to Murray.
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Author Profile
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smartermind, the problem is leadership at Rupert Murdoch’s media agencies. To simply fire the culpable people sends precisely the wrong message as those usually fired are fall guys. No CEO is ever dumb enough to admit wrong doing. That is a financial liability. By the way did you see the bonuses Rupert handed out to himself and his sons?
In the 1960s when I was growing up there was a “Rule of Sevens” the in the news business. A corporation or individual could not own more than seven TV stations, seven printed publications and sven radio stations. Of the almost 30,000 such media companies today, approximately 22,000 are owned by either GE, Westinghouse, Viacom, The Tribune, Fox News and Clear Channel. Their ownership is not always direct but through subsidiaries (conglomerates). The erosion of these rules by the FCC has been directed by every President since Carter.
Westinghouse, GE and Viacom are all military contractors for the U.S.. The Trib, Fox and Clear Channel are all heavy contributors to the RNC. I believe all six of these corporations to have excessive influence over our political process. They also have influence over what is reported as news and what is not. This is why the rest of the world refers to U.S. news agencies as corporate media. I think their assesment is correct. Every thing is about their bottom line. You know, fiduciary responsibility to the stock holders and all.