Category Archives: journalism

Working with old friends in Ghana

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Seeing old friends is always nice. Combining that with some interesting voluntary work is even nicer in the first year of my retirement. This is what I did in Ghana a few weeks ago.  I went on holiday for two weeks visiting friends and I offered my expertise free of charge to our partner there: the WASH Resource Centre Network Ghana http://www.washghana.net, I asked them how they could use me.  In the end it turned out that an interactiv workshop sharing my 40 – year experience in journalism and WASH communication with the Ghana WASH Journalists Network was very welcome. Continue reading →

RTreporter maps issues on social media

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Do you want want to monitor what are hot issues on social media? RTreporter is a handy data tool doing that. It was developed by a Dutch fund for promoting journalism in The Netherlands. The Dutch Nu.nl site already makes use of this tool.

The tool signals trends on Twitter. Different packages can be ordered that send notifications on high volume use of one ore more keywords.

My new website

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I retired from IRC in early 2012 at 65, after 40 years of working in journalism, advocacy and communication. In the next few years I want to share my experience in the WASH sector from the last 30 years with the younger generation.
IRC has contracted me to still do 25 days work per year for them. In all I want to do work 50 days per year for which I have created H2O Communications and a website for it.
I hope I can do also some practical work for partners in the developing world. Skill training on storytelling in all formats with a purpose that can be linked with distant mentoring from my home.

Fabulous music clips from my career

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I had a fabulous farewell retirement party on 18 January 2012 by IRC in The Hague . A party centre turned into an Amsterdam Jazz cafe, with a DJ with jazz on vinyl, a couple of nice speeches, and an All that Jazz publication from colleagues with their music choices for me. I had my mother (turning 88) and sister (turning 70) dancing! My daughter Mirjam and brother in law where also there.

I have listened all afternoon to Cor’s “Dick de Jong Tribute Eclectic Top Twenty” that was in the publication. He also emailed me his selection from Youtube with fantastic films. He is the one and only able to link all this music clips with his highlights from my career, even with links to my sabbatical leave blog from 2004 and 2005.

The playlist has great variety from all over the world, with some classic performances and events. I you are interested you can access it from You Tube.

Enjoy, comments are welcome!

Dutch radio programme misses news on Sellaband site

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I just listened to the Dutch radio programme Tros Radio online on Saturday afternoon 27 February with Internet guru Fransico  van Jole. They always have interesting news about internet. To my great surprise they had an item on the bankruptcy of the Sellaband investment site for music fans without knowing that German investors had taken over the site. I read this news in my newspaper de Volkskrant on p 22 of 25 February. Last night I checked the site and it was operating again, so I invested another 350 dollars in various bands.

I find it really shocking that an official radio programme about  internet could have missed this news. Or is checking facts not part of internet journalism anymore?

Communication, crisis and chances

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December is the month of introspection, a least in the Netherlands. My Dutch Communicatie magazine of this month is no different. “This is a crisis issue”, writes editor Rocco Mooy. The illustration of the economic crisis they use shows boxes “recession: people spend money they don’t have … on things they don’t need”. Continue reading →

‘Moluccan princess and her merry men enchant’

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Jazz-loving Jakartans were treated to a truly magical evening at Erasmus Huis, Kuningan, on Thursday as Boi Akih filled the amphitheatre with vibrant melodies and rhytms. This is how Sara Veal started her story in the entertainment section of the Jakarta Post on 5 September.

Sara also quoted me and mentioned my blog. Unfortunately they used the wrong URL, so my comment with the right URL is now online. We are still trying to have copies of the paper version that must have had a few pictures.

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Monica during one of the sound
checks

Readers asked: help fund this story!

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“Climate activist in SF in self-immolation PR action stunt to raise awareness about global warming: Do not try this at home! If you want to see this story researched, written, and published, click donate to help fund it!” That is tip 164 from a reader on Spot.us , a non-profit project that is pioneering “community-funded reporting” in California. My Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant had a feature about it today on its media page with the heading “Help, journalism is disappearing.” As I wrote in my earlier blog, I am worried about  the future of my newspaper. 

Continue reading →