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    • Jon Snow inspires Kingston University students with uplifting speech

    May 5, 2011

    Guest post by Alistair Charlton.

    “This is the golden age of journalism”. Strong words from the unmistakably confident and inspiring Jon Snow as he gave a talk to journalism students at Kingston University on Wednesday.

    The Channel 4 News presenter was full of hope and optimism for the future of journalism, despite clear messages from some quarters that the industry is in decline.

    “This is the golden age of journalism. You’re on the right course, at the right time, for the right future”. These words alone must have filled the room with confidence; maybe the future of journalism is brighter than we think.

    Mr Snow, who has presented Channel 4 News since 1989, is a big fan of Twitter and he uses the service to find stories and interviews: “I am an enormous fan of Twitter because it’s the most brilliant journalistic tool.”

    The presenter told students how he used Twitter to keep in touch with interviewees when reporting in Haiti, and how the readers and viewers now have a voice; they can talk back to the journalists on what was previously a one-way street.

    Being able to share content online and pass links around also excites Mr Snow. “It’s a remarkable thing that we can lead people to other people’s journalism”. He gave an example of finding a story on the Wall Street Journal website, then being able to share it via Twitter on his iPad to over 60,000 followers in just a few seconds.

    In a thought-provoking analogy, Mr Snow likened the current state of journalism to the story of Man on Wire, where a Frenchman attempts to walk on a tight rope between the two towers of the World Trade Centre. Mr Snow likened one tower to Google and Yahoo, and the other tower to journalism. As soon as we, the journalists, work out how to cross over to the other tower – and thus make money – then the industry will be in a very promising position. Utilizing the enormous reach that companies like Google have is key to monetizing online journalism.

    With regard to curation, Mr Snow explained that “curation is like scrambled egg. It doesn’t have the intimacy of a story witnessed by you”. He went on to explain that he doesn’t like to use footage shot by other journalists that he didn’t see firsthand.

    The line between journalist and citizen journalist is often blurred and twisted beyond recognition, and the latter can often be difficult to define coherently. Mr Snow said: “the citizen is a tremendous witness and ringer of alarm bells but, unlike the journalist, the citizen doesn’t have the skills to make the information more consumable.”

    Clearly, the Channel 4 presenter feels that being a journalist is still a professional occupation and cannot be performed by amateurs and their smartphones.

    After a lengthy Q&A session, Mr Snow concluded on a positive note, saying, “this is an incredibly exciting time to be doing journalism.”

    Those who were perhaps concerned about starting a career or degree in journalism need not worry; if we can all share Jon’s optimism for the future, then this industry is certainly in safe hands.

    Alistair is a soon-to-graduate journalism student who has worked as layout editor at The River and is now looking to forge a career in tech journalism. You can find him on twitter @alistair1990

    Twitter ‘beat’ mainstream media in reporting Bin Laden’s death? I’m getting deja vu.

    May 2, 2011

    Two years ago I wrote about the frenzy created every time twitter ‘beats’ mainstream media to a big story.

    Today every word of what I wrote there is still, in my opinion, as true as ever. The Guardian’s tech crew have written a story crediting Keith Urbahn’s breaking of the news via the social networking site.

    He did, it’s true. The big difference – and the reason that news networks weren’t talking about it already despite rumours circulating – is that he could happily add “Don’t know if it’s true, but let’s pray it is” without being ridiculed by everyone in his profession for saying something like that without having concrete facts.

    I said back in 2009 that I just hoped it doesn’t push mainstream media into a frenzy of trying to get news out so quickly, they forget to check the basics.

    Unfortunately, it may have.

    Several news organisations appear to have been caught out by this dodgy photoshop job from years ago, purporting to be the battered and dead face of Osama Bin Laden.

    Lovely.

    5 books on interviewing that you can take a sneaky peek at

    April 29, 2011

    There’s a plethora of books that’ll teach you how to interview someone. In an effort to help you pick, I’ve scoured Google Books for the five most interesting looking bits of reading material that you can take a look at first, so you can decide whether it’s written in a way you’ll be able to get on with.

    Interviewing for Radio – Jim Beaman

    Written by the man who lead my university degree course, Interviewing for radio tackles the history of interviews, the process of doing one and even the reasons people agree (or, decline) to talk to you.

    If you want to make an impression and make a career of interviewing, get a reputation for being a good listener, with the authority to ask questions on behalf of your audience as well as yourself.

    Journalism in the digital age – John Herbert

    An overall look at the skills needed by the modern journalist, John Herbert goes into detail on how to get the best out of interviewees in different situations – over the phone, in the field, live and pre-recorded.

    When doing telephone interviews, develop familiarity as appropriate and smile through the phone; seem interested and appear to be listening. Interviewees can’t see your interest, so they must hear your interest.

    Interviewing for Journalists – Sally Adams, Wynford Hicks

    Written with print journalists in mind, even the preview for the book contains some really good advice for anyone looking to gather information from interviews. Particularly in dealing with people reluctant to respond.

    We now shift up a gear to techniques to use on those who give less than you want, don’t give or are evasive or reluctant to answer. These ploys come in no order of efficacy – success depends on skillful use in the right hands with responsive interviewees.

    The Radio Handbook – Carole Fleming

    A book looking at all aspects of creating content for radio, The Radio Handbook contains a short section on interviews that contains some succint, valuable advice.

    The strength of a radio interview is that it demonstrates how questions are answered – whether there’s hesitation or aggression – which conveys as much as the actual words being spoken.

    Market yourself through the media – Bill Penn

    This isn’t a book to tell you how to interview someone. It’s telling your interviewees how to get the most from, or even control your interviews. What better way to make sure you’re ready for savvy interviewees than knowing what they’ve been taught?

    Confirm in more detail what the story is all about (…) If they are vague and you don’t know anything about the story yourself, it’s fair to insist on more detail and perhaps the source of the story.

    Weekly Link Digest – 28th April 2011

    April 28, 2011

    Some of the more readworthy journalism articles from the last week:

    Brave New Reuters? Apparently not Another cautionary tale of harsh punishments for things mistakenly said on the wrong part of the internet. Careful.

    Twitter advanced research techniques 3: tracking #hashtags and archiving tweets Want to know how to do some research on twitter? This series will explain how.

    Marr abandons injunction: ‘I did not come into journalism to go around gagging journalists’ The Andrew Marr story in summary. Including details on where it was published AAAGES AGO.

    Video: Reporting local government BBC Home Editor Mark Easton and a chap from the London School of Economics chat reporting issues including the difference between ‘spending cuts’ and ‘efficiency savings’

    Kent journliast condemns ‘cannabalistic’ BBC A reponse to last week’s report on where BBC local radio and TV gets it’s news. One that claims reporters are being called by BBC Journos to share contact details for stories.

    BBC local news chief hits back at ‘cannabalistic’ claim …and a response to the response.

    Will internet streaming kill off FM radio?

    April 26, 2011

    It’s the question that strikes fear into the heart of dyed-in-the-wool radio journalists who know nothing else. What will the plethora of options that web-based radio gives us mean for the local, and national FM choices the public have at the moment?

    The answer to that may not be so bleak, according to this study carried out by research firm knowDigital, based on interviews with around 30 people known to be heavy users of streaming radio. They set out to tackle three perceptions, one of which was the idea that once people are easily able to stream internet radio to their car, terrestrial radio will be dead.

    Here’s their conclusion:

    We have heard other critics suggest that once in-car streaming radio is embraced by the mainstream, over-the-air or terrestrial radio will be severely threatened; that in-car streaming will sound the death-knell for terrestrial radio. Looking back at our September 2010 national study, we are again reminded that about 90% of all streamers still use terrestrial radio on a daily basis. It also should be emphasized that the streamers we interviewed in this study generally turn on AM/FM radio first when they get in their cars.

    They continue to enjoy over-the-air radio out of habit, ease of use, and because of unique content including news, traffic, weather, sports and morning shows. Terrestrial broadcasters should continue to focus on these services as they brace for the future wave of in-car streaming.

    So all might not be so bad after all. With mobile networks in the UK capping data as low as they can without losing customers, the idea of constantly streaming your audio over ’4G’ isn’t something that’s going to be affordable any time soon. In the meantime, we should be getting to grips with the added opportunities the web offers, so we have the skills to lead the rest when the streaming car radio really takes off.

    Weekly Link Digest – 20th April 2011

    April 20, 2011

    Interesting journalism related bits from the last week:

    Rosenstiel: five myths about the future of journalism A stinging retort to the new media hopefuls.

    Journalism is a matter of heart It’s nice to read what leads journalists to become journalists, and what drives them. Here’s Erin Rossiter musing along those lines.

    YouTube video of the day: The power of citizen journalism The Express Tribune shares an interesting lecture on the power of citizen journalism

    Journalistic Adventurism That Serves No Purpose A letter to the Hartford Courant points out the outstanding silliness of taking a trip to Fukushima to ‘see what it smells like’

    Journalism ethics at their finest “When I told my parents that I wanted to be a journalist when I grew up, they didn’t exactly give me a thumbs-up” – read on for a review of the importance of ethics.

    2011 Pulitzer winners in journalism and arts What does it take to win the most prestigous journalism awards on the planet? Some bloody hard work – here’s this year’s examples

    Where does your local BBC get its news? A must-read, although rather defensively toned post about some research into the origin of BBC news stories. The overriding point being that talking to people (even the same people) about the same story doesn’t equate to ‘stealing’ news.

    Windows Phone 7 apps for journalists

    April 19, 2011

    Let’s face it. Not everyone wants an iPhone. It’s the most tooled-up for journalists right now in terms of apps, but it’s possible to get by with a Windows Phone 7 handset.

    While I couldn’t find an audio editing app (those took a while to come to iOS as well), there are recorders, social networking tools and other bits and bobs that can allow you to keep up with the iJoneses. Here’s the pick of WP7′s marketplace so far:

    Audio Editing

    Pocket Recorder Pro (paid): This one’ll allow you to record, trim either end of your recording, and share it in a number of ways. It also allows you to combine recordings, which brings you as close as you’ll get to an actual audio editor on WP7 at the moment.

    Photo editing

    Thumba Photo Editor (paid): Want to send back a shot for the website, but need to make sure it’s just right first? This has plenty of options for tweaking your pics.

    Mobile Publishing

    WordPress (free): Official wordpress app, works like the iOS one. Great for hyperlocal bloggers to get their content up on the move.

    Audioboo (paid): 3rd party app for the social soundbite site. Well worth a look if you’re into it.

    Twitter (free): Official app, keep up with all your followers and share content as you gather it.

    Facebook (free): Official, allowing you access to your more friendly contacts.

    Keeping up with the world

    AP Mobile (free): All the latest content from the newswire to your phone.

    Any more worthwhile apps around for journalists on WP7? Let me know in the comments.

    Weekly Link Digest – 13th April 2011

    April 13, 2011

    The readworthy stuff from the last week:

    Phone hacking: Hugh Grant taped former NoW journalist Bizarre. Unexpected. Hilarious?

    Rival newspapers offer collective ad sales Things must be bad. National newspapers are apparently teaming up to generate more ad sales.

    “I’d shut all the journalism colleges down” An interesting response to Kelvin McKenzie’s views – adding to the debate on whether journalism degrees are really ‘worth it’.

    Stumbling across a splash This should really be called ‘a good reason to get a dog’. The bloke wasn’t going to smell the story himself.

    Immersion journalist Ted Conover to be honored An IMMERSION JOURNALIST!? What on earth is that? Find out here.

    BBC news chief: flying big names to stories can be wasteful Stating the obvious, BBC style.

    Cisco killing Flip line of camcorders, axing 550 employees in restructuring effort Flip is dead. Ah well, there’s still Kodak, Zoom and many many smartphone manufacturers’ efforts to work with.

    Breaking into journalism: ‘Hold out for the good days, because there will be good days’ You’re allowed to agree with most of what’s said in this post. It’s honest. It’s also mostly true. Just agree with it quietly.

    BBC FOI Review: Notes from the Director General’s speech

    April 11, 2011

    A nice little FOI request here, which asks for:

    “a written transcript of the speech made by the BBC Director General Mr Mark Thompson at the
    Institute for Government’s seminar ‘Future of News and Current Affairs: BBC, Fox or Third Way?’ held on
    Thursday 16th December 2011(sic), in which Mr Thompson stated that the BBC had been weak in its
    coverage of Immigration and Europe in recent years”

    That, apparently, doesn’t exist. You can, however, check out Mark Thompson’s full speech in a podcast from the Institute for Government.

    What did exist was a copy of Mr Thompson’s notes, which is close enough. They tackle the thorny issue of impartiality, what it means for the future of journalism and whether ‘opinionated news channels’ can co-exist with impartial broadcast journalism.

    It’s an interesting read, to say the least. Check it out here.

    Weekly Link Digest – 6th April 2011

    April 6, 2011

    Worth reading this week…

    Transparency in Stand-Ups Bob Kaplitz on ‘opening up the fact gathering process’ in video pieces.

    How To Start Your Own Local News Site: Tips From a Berkeleyside Co-Founder Thinking of launching that local news website for your community? Take some advice from this interview with Tracey Taylor, who’s already made a go of it in America.

    Twitter for journalists: beyond gathering and distributing content Interesting BBC COJO piece on collating tweets, twitter lists and editorialising the content on 3rd party sites.

    Google not to blame for journalism’s woes Peter Barron talks sense about the relationship between Google and news content

    Opening the Newsroom to All | Five Questions with Katherine Shurlds of the Lemke Journalism Project Learn all about the Lemke project, a scheme to train a new generation of diversity-aware journalists

    The Charlie Sheen Twitter intern hoax – how it could be avoided Want to know how to work out whether those emails you’re being shown are genuine? Online Journalism Blog shows you how.

    8 Rules of Audio Such simple advice, yet it’s so ruddy important to follow it.

    How to Shoot Sequences for Spot News Multimedia journalist Galen Culver offers his insights into shooting sequences for breaking news

    Life after radio If you don’t love it, leave it’ – Gerry Phelan on giving up broadcasting

    How One Radio Reporter Ditched His Equipment for an iPhone 4 Neal Augenstein on reporting with ONLY an iPhone.

    BBC must not hand over material from demo, says NUJ The NUJ are asking the BBC to make sure police ‘follow proper procedures’ if they want their unbroadcast footage