Search Engine Optimisation

The basics of SEO

Understand how the search engines work

Googlebot is Google's web crawling bot. Crawling is the process by which Googlebot discovers new and updated pages to be added to the Google Index (Googlebot - reads HTML, begins with list of URLS, follows links, user agent)

The crawler will go to a website, follow the link and go to another website.

Links became the most important factor for SEO, if one website links to another it's saying that it thinks it is useful, but these days people cottoned on to this idea, and began spamming links.

If you're running your own website it's important to keep an eye on who is linking to your website: Google master tool will give you a long list of places that link to your site, sometimes it may be negative SEO.

Once it finds the server, it gets logged in the Google Index - this is the filing cabinet essentially.

Tags - need to be kept concise and simple.

Three types of SEO
Technical  - letting the search engine come to the site and move around
On page - make it clear what it is about, the content you are writing
Off page - what Google knows about you and whether it is trust worthy, good authors, social media etc.

Why should I care about all this?
Google shows people things they like, the results are tailored to the user, localised and biased towards fresh content. This is useful because it makes sure they like you, connects directly with them (authorship & social) writes for you audience and stays up to date.

Search Engines - most popular are Google 80% and Bing 20%

Responsive - This is where you can still view the entire screen when altering the size of the screen, it will be beneficial to make it responsive across multiple devices, e.g mobile phones, tablets etc. The theme which the site uses will need to be responsive, otherwise it requires lines of code.

Technical

XML Sitemap - a long list of pages on your website which can be used to submit to a search engine so that they can discover pages on your site they may not other have seen. 

Robots.txt - Use to guide crawlers / robots around parts of you website. Can be used to stop robots accessing unnecessary parts of your website.

HTTP Status Code
200 OK - page works
404 Not Found - Page not found (broken link)
301 Moved Permanently - URL has permanently moved to another location
302 Found - URL moved temporarily to an alternative

Schema Marker

On page

It needs to be accessible and have good user experience, e.g responsive. 

Target Keywords - keyword research, and understanding what people are searching for and using these keywords on the page increases the chances of getting into the Google Index filing cabinet. 

Include Keyword in page title.

Elements of optimised page

• Website is easy to use
• Content is created to be shared and social sharing is a feature of the page
• The page targets one clear 'theme'
• Content can be viewed on various devices
• Context added by including authorship information / Schema.org markup etc
• Page provides genuinely unique and valuable content

Google plus authorship, it lets you post pages and history of articles you have published. 

Off page

Once you have a site that is well optimised, you need to build links to the site, so that Google can begin to rank you form trust to fake. 

Link Building - Links from trustworthy related websites, factors include Number of links, Quality of links, and Anchor Text. (Negative factors include being paid for links, and spam).

Trust - Verify who is behind a website and where it is based, local factors include how old the site/domain is? Has the site been flagged for spam?

Social - Social media can become primary source of traffic to your website, factors include reputation, shares and authors. 

Reporting Elections

The Election period is a highlight for journalists, we are relied upon by voters to educate them on the upcoming elections and party campaigns. As journalists, it is an expected role to cover elections, it has the biggest impact to the people as governmental changes are imposed.

For broadcasters, they must be completely impartial when covering elections, giving all the major parties equal coverage, whereas Newspapers are allowed to be partial depending on whether they left or right wing.

To maintain impartiality, we have to keep an accurate log of party coverage, in keeping with the distribution across major and minor parties. Ofcom have ruled that UKIP is to be treated as a major party in the context of the European Elections, to ensure that they receive equal coverage as the other main three parties: Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat.

As broadcast journalists we have to keep a reporting stance, ensuring that we check the facts and challenge statements that we hear. The Representation of The People Act 1983 makes it a criminal offence to make or publish a false statements about election candidates. This refers back to the Phil Woolas case, who was thrown out of Parliament and the Labour Party after breaking electoral law. He made up damaging allegations about his main general election opponent, implicating false statements. We should constantly think in disbelief to ensure everything is accurate and precise, we are the messengers, therefore we have to double check that we are not spreading the wrong information.

There are dangers with reporting on elections, in particular it is important to be careful with opinion polls. Forming a poll helps to create a sense of how people are voting, however it is extremely crucial to notify viewers that it is in no way scientific. With polls we have to understand that they are subject to error, and it is important to take into consideration how big the sample is, the time it was taken and the age range or social economic position of those involved in the poll. These factors are important as we do not want to give a false view of where the parties are standing.

An Exit poll is a survey taken when people are leaving the polling station to find out which party they voted for. It is a criminal offence to publish before a poll has closed any statement about how people have voted or any forecast of the election results. Rules follow that an exit poll can only be published after the polls have officially closed. It is legal to publish at any time opinion poll informationon voting intentions which was gathered before voting began because this information is not based on how peope sya they have actually voted. When we covered the Eastleigh By-Election last year, we carried out an exit poll at various different stations, which we broadcasted live after the 10pm cut off. As you can see from the video below, we warn the viewers that the poll is not conclusive and it is well within the margin of error. 




News organisations can cover election periods in multiple ways, for example following campaign trails, providing that there is a balance of party coverage. There are other ways such as a question time style by bringing in guests to discuss party policies or covering profiles of certain candidates or areas.

On polling day you will see minimal reporting of policies from the campaigners and journalists, the main aim of the day is to urge people to vote.

Press Regulation

As a journalist working in either broadcast or print, there are important regulatory regimes that we must follow. The code relating to print is currently the subject of scrutiny following the Leveson Inquiry, however in broadcast the relevant codes are BBC and Ofcom.

Press Complaints Commission (PCC)

This is the regulator for magazine, newspapers and written publications. Prior to the phone hacking scandal, the PCC was already widely regarded as no more than 'a toothless tiger', it was a body that could be easily discarded by editors and journalists, without imposing any threat to ones career.

Currently, the newspaper regulation is in limbo, following the phone hacking scandal. The press want their own regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) but the government want a royal charter and a statute regulation. For print journalists, this was deemed to be too much state intervention, and invading the freedom of the press.

The PCC does still exist but it is soon to be replaced. The damaging issue to the PCC is that they did not address the corruption of phone hacking, this ethical scandal was continuing while the PCC was in operation, therefore they failed to hold the editor and journalists involved to account.

The fact that the PCC is a self regulatory body is problematic, it results back to the argument of who guards the guardians?

Ofcom

This is the licensing authority that applies to TV and radio broadcasts. It is independent of the Government and broadcasters cannot transmit without a licence from Ofcom. this regulator has statutory powers to impose sanctions "when a broadcaster deliberately, seriously, or repeatedly breaches the code...".

The body can stop the repetition of a programme, make the broadcast issue a correction or statement, impose a financial penalty of up to 5% of qualifying revenue or revoke a licence that is not applicable to the BBC, S4C or channel 4). There is an absolute requirement for "due accuracy and due impartiality"

The Ofcom code has 10 sections outlineing rules for broadcasters to follow.

Section One - Protecting children and those under 18
Section Two - Avoiding harm and offence
Section Three - Covering Crime
Section Four - Covering Religion
Section Five - Due Impartiality and due accuracy and undue prominence of views and opinions
Section Six - Covering elections and referendums
Section Seven - Fairness
Section Eight - Protecting Privacy
Section Nine - Commercial references in television programming
Section Ten - Commercial Communications in Radio programming

BBC Editorial Guideline

This is for BBC staff and license payers, the BBC guidelines are designed to be a working tool for programme makers and journalists, and to act as a benchmark of good practise when considering complaints.

The BBC Editirial Guidelines sets out standards for its journalism, including uncover investigations. The BBC College of Journalism  is also accessible to all, helping to train it's journalists in laws and ethics.

The BBC is he biggest broadcasting organisation in the world, it has an editorial complaints unit so that complainants unhappy with its decisions can appeal to the Trust, if it is alleged that material broadcast was unfair or offensive then complainants can directly contact Ofcom as they also regulate the BBC.

National Union of Journalists

This is a useful guide to good conduct, but without the possibility of serious sanction, this body will do little to help reassure the public of their scepticism towards journalists conduct.

Why do codes matter?

Codes are required in order to keep us in line, making poor ethical judgements can cost a journalist their reputation, audience trust and ultimately your job.

With the codes of best practise in place, we an think about
How far we can go to get the story?
Will our behaviour damage or enhance our reputation?
What practises are legitimate? 
Do circumstances make a difference?
What is acceptable language and violence? 

Reputation matters because we want to be able to develop and nurture a relationship based on trust with our audience, we are representing the news brand that we work for, therefore if we lose the trust with our audience there is nothing to stop them flicking channels.

Codes of practise tend to concentrate on areas such as:
1. Ethical behaviour expected from journalists
2. Fair treatment and respect for privacy
3. Requirement for accuracy and impartiality
4. Protecting children and young people

They offer an avenue of redress to members of the public who wish to complain about their treatment at the hands of the press, alternatively to the time and expense of going to law.

Confidentiality and Privacy

Think before you print

People who believe their privacy is about to be infringed can use the law of breach of confidence to prevent intrusions. A duty of confidence arises from the circumstances in which confidential information comes to the knowledge of a person. A right to privacy in respect of information would arise from the nature of the information itself, based on the principle that certain kind of information is private and for that reason alone should not be disclosed.  

 

Take for instance the scenario when a patient tells a doctor some confidential information, the doctor owes a duty of confidence to the patient. To enforce the law of confidentiality, a court does not require there to be a direct relationship between the person who wishes to protect the information and the person who want to disclose it. The legal criterion is whether a reasonable person would understand form the nature and circumstances of a disclosure of information that they were receiving it in confidence. 

 

A journalist who receives leaked information usually has a duty not to reveal it to others. In the past newspapers have leaked information, on the duty that it is significantly in the public’s interest; however this is still breaking the law. Take for example the whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Last year he leaked National Security Agency documents to journalists. He revealed documents that detailed global surveillance causing huge controversy over whether he is a hero or a traitor, sparking widespread debates over government secrecy and mass surveillance. 

 

An obligation of confidence can arise in three ways:

1. Contractual relationship – employees may have signed agreements not to disclose an employer’s secrets

2. Personal relationships – protection of publication of kiss and tell stories originating from less formal relationships

3. Unethical behaviour – Journalists that obtain confidential information by unethical means such as trespass, listening devices or long range cameras are in breach of confidentiality. If there is no obligation of confidence then this would fall within the scope of privacy law. 

 

If a person or an organisation discovers that confidential information is going to be published in the media without their consent they can apply for a temporary injunction from the High Court to stop it. The other options that the claimant could pursue include suing the publisher for damages, seek a court order for the confidential material to be ‘delivered up’ so that all copies can be destroyed, or ask a judge to order the publisher to reveal the source of the information so that legal action can be pursued against the source for disclosing confidential information. 

 

Disobeying an injunction can result in an action for contempt of court. However, a media organisation that is being sued for an alleged breach of confidence can raise two defences. Firstly the information did not have ‘the necessary quality of confidence’ because of its nature, or because it was already in the public domain. Secondly that it was in the public interest, for example exposing wrongdoing or negligence. 

 

The journalist faces the dilemma when they hear of some newsworthy misconduct from a source who received the information confidentially. The journalist should approach the person alleged to have misbehaved to get their side of the story and check the facts. This is known as giving the criticised person the fair opportunity to respond to the allegations, and the ‘right to reply’.

 

The law of privacy developed from the action for breach of confidence, but it now a separate cause of action. The Human Rights Act 1998 came into force in 2000, which introduced a specific law of privacy, which we lacked up until the year 2000.  

 

The right to privacy is guaranteed by Article 8 of The Convention on Human Rights, which states: 

• Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life
• There shall be no interference by a public authority except in the interest of national security, public safety, the economic well-being of the country, prevention of crime, protection of health or moral or protection of the rights and freedoms of others.   

 A claimant seeking an injunction to stop the media from publishing information about their private life will need to demonstrate that they have a ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’. In regard to sexual relationships, the courts have upheld that adulterous or casual sexual affairs are matters in which one or both of the people involved have a reasonable expectation of privacy. 

 

When it comes to children, the media have to be careful, especially celebrities children who are in the public eye. The privacy law protects children from intrusive media attention.

  

Information concerning health is usually treated as being the highest confidentiality as information health about a person health is private.  

 

Journalists who use electronic equipment to spy on other people must be aware that not only are they breaching privacy law they are also committed a crime. A prime example of this in the media currently is the Leveson Inquiry where the former editor of the NoTW Rebekha Brooks is being trialled for hacking people’s private voice messages.

 

 

The Editors' Code of Practise, overseen by the Press Compaints Commission, has clauses which require newspapers, magazines and free-standing editorial websites to protect peoples privacy.

Privilege: Providing Journalists with Protection

Privilege provides us with protection to report on daily routine activities such as going to public meetings, council hearings, tribunals or court. The public interest demands that there should be complete freedom of speech without any risk of proceedings for defamation. As journalists, we are able to broadcast material which may be defamatory or untrue providing we abide by certain conditions.

There are two types of privilege: Absolute and Qualified. When journalists are covering the courts or tribunals they enjoy Absolute Privilege, providing the report is fair, accurate and contemporaneous - as soon as practicable. For instance, a court report should be published in the first issue of a newspaper following the hearing, and for broadcast it should be aired the same day or early the next day.

Privilege does not cover defamatory matters that are shouted out in court from the public gallery. If they are not defamatory it can in libel law be reported safely.

Inquests are also covered by absolute privilege, covered by the Contempt of Court Act. Inquests provide print journalists with strong stories for news in brief. The types of verdicts heard are those of natural causes, accidental death, unlawful killing or an open verdict. I attended an inquest hearing in Southampton last year, which was a good source for online stories, to view the reports click here.

Qualified privilege covers the same protection as absolute, but our reports must also be without malice (meaning without spite) and of public concern (in the public interest).

The term 'qualified' refers to the principle, that the publication is protected in certain circumstances. QP only acts as a defence if the report is fast, accurate, and contemporaneous, in public interest and without malice. We have to be careful to report on things heard outside of the proceedings of the event.

Qualified privilege applies to debates held in public, court proceedings held in public, public meetings and press conferences, council meetings, statements issued for the public by government departments, councils, police etc. and other material that is published by an authority of a government of legislature anywhere in the world.

Copyright

Imagine if we lived in a world whereby everything we created could instantly be copied, a photograph, a piece of art, a design, a graphic, or music, lyrics and sounds. Raw talent wouldn't be noticed, and there would be nothing you could call your own, no stamp of approval before it was shared, and any form of innovation would be virtually non-existent, with people passing off your work as their own.

Luckily there is a law to prevent this, and that is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which protects our material and intellectual property. Without the copyright law we would not be able to produce any creative content, which is particularly important in Journalism as ‘exclusives interviews’ and articles wouldn't be possible without this form of protection.

There are particular rules for journalists as to what they can ‘lift’ from other peoples articles, although we cannot word for word copy someone else’s work we can copy quotes providing we attribute the publication of where it was originally sourced from. Journalists have to respect copyright laws, and identify the risks that we would face using someone else’s work.

The exemption when it comes to using broadcast material is if it is used for the purpose of reporting on a current news event. For example the death of a famous figure, such as an actor - you would expect to see an obituary including films that they were involved in. This is possible because it is reporting on a current event under fair dealing; however we have to consider the time limits in which it can remain public. The News Access Rights agreement means that you can only show it for a certain amount of time.

Fair dealing means that content has been used for the purpose of 'reporting current events', however in keeping with the guidelines means it must be in the public interest, of fair usage and attributed to the owner. By fair usage, it means only taking a short clip from the full video as a preview. This is why the fail dealing exemption does not apply for still photographs because you are using the entire creative work, therefore you would have to look for images under creative commons without copyright.

Everything of original work is protected such as books, films, music and photographs, however the Act does not protect undeveloped ideas, slogans or catch phrases. When it comes to needing access to content that is not your own, recognise the copy right issues early on and contact the rights holder. Once you have copyright cleared then you are safe to use it, just don’t think about lifting material without referencing it.

If in doubt, always call the lawyer.

Freedom of Information Act

Journalists thrive off of information, with the desire to gain access to sources that can provide us with new information; aiding our goal of sharing a new story to shine a light on an area that may not have been exposed in the media.

The Freedom of Information Act allows you to do exactly this, any individual not just journalists are entitled to request information from a public body, subject to certain exemptions. Whereas all the laws previously discussed regarding contempt of court, defamation and libel are the reverse of this. Instead of them allowing us to access and share all the information, it draws up limits on what is legally sound to publish.

The Government wants to be seen to be legitimate, promoting transparency and accountability, offering 'the people' the chance to further their understanding of public issues and bring to light information that may affect public health and public safety; both of which are of public interest.

There are over 100,000 requests made a year, costing around £34m, with only 12% of the requests coming from Journalists. Anyone can make a request, and it doesn't have to apply to just paper files, it can include information on video, tape or electronically too.

It's easy to make a request, either through the website 'WhatDoTheyKnow?' or simply by emailing the public authority. You can email about almost anything without having to provide them with a reason as to why you want to know - and its free. This accessibility is a privilege to journalists, who can plan in advance story ideas that will give them an exclusive inside scoop to stories relating to the news agenda.
By law the public body must reply to you within 20 working days, this is around four weeks. It is important particularly if you are working on a news story to plan ahead. It's worth thinking of upcoming occasions and public holidays to help time a story for example relating to 'valentines day'.
If the authority is debating whether or not your request is within the public interest they can take 40 days to consider it, so bare this in mind when planning ahead.

As mentioned earlier, you can ask almost anything you like, but there are two exemptions where you cannot obtain information.
Absolute - this is where information is absolutely exempt from being disclosed, for instance security services or court records, they have no duty to confirm to you any information that is withheld relating to the courts or the defence of the country.
Qualified - this is where it becomes partially exempt, for instance ministerial communication and commercial confidentiality, such as if it makes a qualified body look bad, but if the information is deemed to be within 'Public Interest' then it should be disclosed.

If information is covered by Qualified exemption you should still be given it if it is on the balance of the 'public interest' and passes the public interest test. 

Public interest is where something is in the interest of the public for instance health and safety not merely interesting to the public. For example:
How many NHS nurses have criminal convictions? - This is public interest
How many NHS nurses are divorced? - This is merely of interest

Qualified exemption outweighs the public interest in cases that jeopardise the national security, cause prejudice to defence, economic interest of UK and law enforcement, expose information intended for future publication or relate to communications with the royal family.

If a request is refused you can by law ask for an internal review, raise it with an information commissioner, information tribunal or if it goes further you can take them to the High Court.

There are also laws in place to protect our information, including:
The Data Protection Act works to protect information away from public domain with respect to personal data. All the information that is held about us is confidential* and stops others obtaining the information. The only people entitled to gain access to information about yourself, is you, especially if you feel they hold the wrong information.
The Official Secrets Act  protects sensitive material and documents held relating to the defence of this country, for example the Ministry of Defence.
*Confidentially - There is a current story relating to the NHS and patients regarding the set up a a new giant database to aid medical research and monitor performance. Due to the confidentiality of patient data, records are being anonymised, but patients feel this new data-sharing scheme should be delayed.

FOI was a new labour policy introduced by Tony Blair in 2005. At the time of the introduction Blair deemed it to be a great idea, considering that journalists could gain access to the Conservatives dodgy dealings during power. However, after a period of time passed with Labour in power, the roles soon reversed and he regretted introducing the act: "You idiot. You naive, foolish, irresponsible nincompoop." These were the words of Blair himself, after the realisation hit that it was rarely used by 'the people' instead it was used mainly by journalists trying to uncover new material. Additionally he felt it was dangerous, because the government needed to discuss issues "with a reasonable level of confidentiality".

In the future, under the coalition Government a review of the FOIA may be considered to essentially limit people from making too many requests where they become too 'burdensome', particularly Journalists. They could lower the limits on costs, leading to many more requests being refused, further to this, altering other factors such as time take to release information or not in to the cost calculations.
As you can imagine, press organisations and freedom of speech campaigners have been very critical of the plans.