organization:press association

  • The Publisher’s Patron: How Google’s News Initiative Is Re-Defining Journalism |European Journalism Observatory - EJO
    https://en.ejo.ch/digital-news/the-publishers-patron

    We found that a large part of Google’s money goes to the media establishment.

    Our data helps to shine a light on what ‘innovation’ means in the world of Google. Four in ten projects funded by the DNI deal with automation and data journalism. For example, Google money helped a joint project between the Press Association, a UK news agency, and the media start-up Urbs Media with 706,000 euro to start a project on automation in local news.

    The funding Google gives to media institutions and publishers bring it such soft power. It also helps Google to safeguard its long-term interests. Increasingly, the company is shifting from being a mere search engine to becoming a central node for the production and distribution of news. Its role will soon be indispensable for the news industry.

    #DNI #google #presse #soft_power #critique

  • What happens when capitalism decides humans are useless? | Dazed
    http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/36673/1/lawrence-lek-playstation-dystopian-world-human-employment-future

    Have you ever wondered whether a robot might be doing your job in 20 years? When I read that Google had funded the Press Association to develop a robot reporter project, I certainly did. But could artificial intelligence (AI) ever do the job of an artist? “Absolutely,” says Lawrence Lek, winner of the Converse x Dazed Emerging Art Award (2015), who imagines near-future scenarios in his video-game installations. “There’s this romanticised notion that we associate with creativity, but from my point of view, what is creativity apart from following the rules and then trying to break them? Breaking rules is a rule in itself.”

    Lek’s imagined what it would be like to work for a technology start-up in 2037 for his recent installation, Play Station, which showed earlier this month at Art Night. Visitors to the exhibition at the White Chapel Building watched mock-corporate recruitment trailers for a futuristic start-up named Farsight. Jingly lift music accompanied the promise of “fun employment forever”, as new recruits were introduced to their alternative workspace, Play Station ™. You can watch one of the trailers below.
    Inspired by the ad agencies and government services running from the newly renovated White Chapel Building, Lek’s Play Station anticipates the next phase of recruitment in the corporate world. Described as “a video game ‘job simulator’ where all labour is disguised as leisure”, participants or “players” in Lek’s exhibition were given VR headsets and taken through video tutorials before carrying out tasks in order to gain bonuses including e-holidays and entertainment credits. Work essentially becomes a game as a sunny voice-over poses the question, “Who needs a work/life balance when it’s all so much fun?”

  • WikiLeaks: Met police embarrassed as Assange arrest plan revealed
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/9498115/WikiLeaks-Met-police-embarrassed-as-Assange-arrest-plan-revealed.html

    “The uniformed Met officer was pictured holding a clipboard detailing possible ways the WikiLeaks founder could try to escape from the building he has been holed up in for the past two months.
    His target, who is trying to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over alleged rape and sexual assault, is currently safe on diplomatic territory. He has been given political asylum by the Latin American country, on the grounds that he faces persecution in the USA over his whistle-blowing website, but faces arrest the second he steps outside because he has breached his bail conditions.
    The policeman’s handwritten tactical brief, captured by a Press Association photographer as he stood outside the Knightsbridge embassy on Friday afternoon, discloses the “summary of current position re Assange”.”

  • British MP Jo Cox shot and killed — FT.com
    https://next.ft.com/content/53ac09fe-33c3-11e6-ad39-3fee5ffe5b5b

    Hithem Ben Abdallah, 56, was in the café next door to the library shortly after 1pm when he heard screaming and went outside. He told the Press Association: “There was a guy who was being very brave and another guy with a white baseball cap who he was trying to control, and the man in the baseball cap suddenly pulled a gun from his bag.”

    After a brief scuffle, he said the man stepped back and the MP became involved.

    He added: “He was fighting with her and wrestling with her and then the gun went off twice and then she fell between two cars and I came and saw her bleeding on the floor.”

    15 minutes, the shop owner said emergency services arrived and tended to her with a drip.

    The Manchester Evening News reported that the attacker had shouted “Britain first” before the attack, according to a witness. The man then walked away slowly. Britain First said it was looking into the reports.

    Ms Cox grew up in the area, before becoming the first person in her family to graduate from university.

    Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the country would be “in shock at the horrific murder” of MP Jo Cox, who was a “much loved colleague”.

    Boris Johnson, the former London mayor and leader of the Leave campaign, said: “Just heard the absolutely horrific news about the attack on Jo Cox MP. My thoughts are with Jo and her family.”

    Ms Cox, who was married with two children, also worked as an adviser to Sarah Brown, the wife of former prime minister Gordon Brown. She was one of 36 MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn for the party leadership in mid-2015, but later voted for Liz Kendall. In recent weeks she had campaigned for the Remain camp.

    Her husband, Brendan, was one of a number of Remain campaigners involved in a light-hearted clash with their Leave counterparts on the river Thames on Wednesday.

    About Jo | Jo Cox MP
    http://www.jocox.org.uk/about-jo

    Jo Cox – The Labour Party
    http://www.labour.org.uk/people/detail/jo-cox

    Jo grew up in Batley and Spen, attended Heckmondwike Grammar School and became the first in her family to graduate from university finishing her degree at Cambridge University in 1995.

    Jo’s career has involved working all over the world for charities fighting to tackle poverty, suffering and discrimination. She has worked with Oxfam, Save the Children and the NSPCC both here in the UK and in some of the world’s poorest and most war-torn regions.

    Jo Cox is national chair of Labour Women’s Network and a senior advisor to the anti-slavery charity, the Freedom Fund.

    A dedicated campaigner nationally and locally, Jo focuses heavily on fighting for our public services, particularly against the decision to downgrade Dewsbury and District Hospital. She is also involved with efforts to strengthen our manufacturing base in Yorkshire and in campaigns and initiatives to tackle poverty and the cost of living crisis, such as Batley Food Bank.

    Jo is married to Brendan and they have two young children. She enjoys climbing mountains, boats and running.

    Jo Cox MP - UK Parliament
    http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/jo-cox/4375

    403 - Error: 403
    http://www.daviesandpartners.com/our-people/jo-cox

    Jo Cox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Cox

    With Regret, I Feel I Have No Other Option But to Abstain on Syria
    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jo-cox/syria-vote_b_8698242.html

    02/12/2015 15:49
    Jo Cox, Labour MP for Batley & Spen

    The Syria debate has been unhelpfully framed by two extremes.

    The ’something must be done’ brigade who understandably are desperate to respond to the fascism of Isis and the threat to the UK, but who are often less reflective on the type of action that might be needed, the danger of unintended consequences or the specific conflict dynamics in Syria. There’s a danger of them falling into the trap of the man with a hammer who thinks everything is a nail. We need a nuanced approach not a one tactic fits all plan.

    On the other hand there are the ’nothing can be done’ sect who see military action as an anathema in all circumstances, who view the role of Britain with suspicion and who trace back most if not all injustices in the world to UK imperialism. This depressing lack of sophistication airbrushes from history the role we played in cases such as Kosovo or Sierra Leone - where civilian protection was key - and fixates on Iraq as the sole frame. This group deny they are against action per se (we want a ’new diplomatic push’ goes the cry), they assert they are just against military action. Yet almost all of them have remained remarkably silent about Syria while hundreds of thousands have been killed, only now raising their voices to state what they are against rather than what they are for. It is best personified by the ’Stop the War’ coalition, a coalition who don’t seem to know or care that there is already a war in Syria and has been for many years. If they were really the ’Stop the War’ coalition they would have been actively campaigning for resolute international action to protect civilians and end the war in Syria for many years.

    Both extremes are completely unhelpful to the debate.

    Jeremy Corbyn, these election results mean it’s time to show us that you are a leader
    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jeremy-corbyn-election-results-mean-7920830

    Jo Cox: Brexit is no answer to real concerns on immigration - Yorkshire Post
    http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/jo-cox-brexit-is-no-answer-to-real-concerns-on-immigration-1-795682

    Kirklees MP Jo Cox apologises after aide claims she “knifed” Corbyn - Huddersfield Examiner
    http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/kirklees-mp-jo-cox-apologises-11305865

    #Royaume_Uni #Labour #Brexit #assassinat

  • UK cops face disciplinary action over Facebook posts - Computer Business Review
    http://media.cbronline.com/news/uk-cops-face-disciplinary-action-over-facebook-posts-020112

    More than 150 police officers faced disciplinary action during 2008-2010 over their behaviour on the social networking site

    More than 150 police officers faced disciplinary action in England and Wales during the period 2008-2010 over their behaviour on the social networking site Facebook, according to details released by Press Association.

    Policemen have used Facebook to harass former partners and ex-colleagues, to make comments on their counterparts wives and some even suggested having beaten up members of the public during protests, figures collected from 41 of the 43 forces show.

    An officer in Hampshire was dismissed without notice in 2009 for posting a racist comment on Facebook, while another officer was dismissed in early part of 2011 for referring to a colleague as a “grass” and a “liar” on Facebook and harassing a policewoman.