Top 100 journalists in the UK according to online authority

Now this is interesting. Peer Index has rated the top 100 UK journalists in terms of their reach on social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Linked-In. Top of the pile, surprisingly, is Hilary Alexander, the New Zealand-born fashion “director” of The Daily Telegraph. But before we get too snooty about a fashion journalist having more clout online than any of her peers, it is also reassuring to learn that Ben Goldacre, the scourge of bad science journalism, is number two on the list; Guardian editor Alan “big brain” Rusbridger is number seven and Tim Hartford, the FT’s undercover economist is at 10. It suggests that the public sphere and quality journalism are doing very nicely online, in the UK at least

As you might expect with such a list, it is the tech journalists that are making the running online: The Guardian’s Jemima Kiss (#3); TechCrunch editor Mike Butcher (#4); The Guardian’s technology editor, Charles “Charlie Charles” Arthur (#5); The Beeb’s Rory Cellan-Jones (#6); online journalism blogger and highest placed hackademic Paul Bradshaw (#8) and great uncle Jack Schofield (#9).

The highest rated sports reporter is Henry Winter (#10) and the top-rated, behind-the-paywall, Murdoch subaltern is Caitlin Moran of The Times. The tabloids don’t get a look in.

Incidentally, my Peer Index ( a modest 29) is here, but enough to place me 132nd on the list (four behind the Observer’s political editor no less) You could always help me IMPROVE it by retweeting, linking to, befriending me or doing any other nice thing to me online.

(via journalism.co.uk)

Oliver Burkeman wrote an excellent review of SXSW for the Guardian yesterday. It included the following factette, which is as intriguing as it is disturbing. Can it really be true?

Not long ago, according to the new-media guru Clay Shirky, the Sudanese government set up a Facebook page calling for a protest against the Sudanese government, naming a specific time and place – then simply arrested those who showed up

Do we really need Dopplr?

After spending a lot of time inside Facebook this year, the last thing I need is another social networking site. Nevertheless, in the spirit of journalistic endeavour I signed up to Dopplr this afternoon. In principle it is a social networking site for “business” travellers, but in reality it seems to be one suitable to anyone who travels frequently. What it does is allow you to tell your circle of friends and contacts where in the world you are, with a bit of trip planning and crowdsourcing thrown in to make it interesting.

Like Facebook the interface is clear and austere. Finding contacts that are already on the site was simple. Importing them from Gmail and Flickr equally easy. I would have liked to have linked it in with Facebook, but you can’t have everything.  Although its all put together well, you can’t help but think there’s little new here. WAYN.com has been doing much the same thing for backpackers for several years, while many trip planners have launched but none have yet to succeed. Will Dopplr be any different? I dunno. If it can integrate itself with more travel sites and provide more content for those who take the tie to register, it might. Otherwise peole will just stick to the social networks they have already invested hundreds, if not thousands, of hours, and waste time share their travel plans inside them.