I am a freelance journalist and researcher based in the UK and formerly a reporter for the media news site, Journalism.co.uk. I'm currently completing an MA project at City University London. In October 2010 I will begin studying for a PhD at City's new centre of law, justice and journalism, focusing on legal restraints on the media. I am community events co-ordinator for the new data mining site Scraperwiki and we’re currently setting up 'Hacks and Hacker Hack Days' in different parts of the UK. I also contribute to Global Voices Online and am involved with the citizen-led campaign to End Child Detention Now.

CONTACT DETAILS: jt.townend [at] gmail.com / @jtownend on Twitter.

WORK INTERESTS INCLUDE: the ethics and development of media à la 21st Century / web 2.0 / 3.0; international journalism, especially in the developing world; human rights; media law; media freedom and ethics; citizen journalism projects; documentaries; media industry reporting; social & online media techniques; social sciences, particularly social anthropology; feature and interview writing.

BACKGROUND: An undergrad degree in social anthropology; the City University postgraduate newspaper journalism course; lots of newspaper work experience placements (various regionals / the Independent and Independent on Sunday), research for Al Jazeera English, a summer at The Australian newspaper, freelancing, and a stint at a magazine in Leeds as deputy editor, before moving to Brighton to work for the site Journalism.co.uk from 2008-10, where I reported developments in the media industry and helped develop two very successful sell-out news:rewired events. I left at the end of June 2010 to pursue freelance work and academic research.