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#VOJ10 – Twitter is just another outlet, says BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

June 11th, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted by Laura Oliver in Events, Politics, Social media and blogging

One careless tweet could sink the fleet.

Advice from BBC journalist Laura Kuenssberg, who warned of the power of a single tweet to bring down politicians and political correspondents alike. Kuenssberg, who did her fair share of tweeting during the general election last month, is specific about what she tweets:

I still use it broadly for the same things [pre and post-election] and I’m quite strict about why I would tweet. I use it for simple breaking news and information (…) it’s the fastest way of getting it out there even with 24-hour television.

I also use it for the kind of colour you see as a journalist – not gossip, not rumour. These are often the things that get retweeted the most; things that as a journalist you see with your own eyes but might not get to broadcast.

As a lobby journalist you’ve got a ticket to a very small world. You are witness to a very closed world. Its part of my job to reach out to people and give them moments of colour that they otherwise wouldn’t see.

Having trialled using twitter during the party political conferences in 2009, Kuenssberg’s following on the social network grew from around 5,000 pre-election to 23,000 post-election. But it hasn’t changed how she works, she says – just added to it:

Twitter has just become another outlet. It’s highly compatible with my job because I’m normally out and about. It has given journalists more material – not a massive amount, because so far we haven’t had massive breaking stories from citizen journalists.

Social media as a “paper trail” – tracking down the backgrounds of PPCs and following what they’ve said pre-election on Twitter – was particularly useful however, said Kuennsberg.

Although it’s still a small group of people using Twitter, it has shown me that there’s a big interest in what we do. There’s a huge appetite for politics and I think we’re reaching some people who weren’t consuming political news in any way before.

Tags: #voj10, BBC, election coverage, ge2010, laura kuenssberg, Twitter

#VOJ10: How to report polls – from IPSOS MORI founder

June 11th, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted by Laura Oliver in Events, Politics

Speaking at today’s Value of Journalism conference (#VOJ10), Sir Robert Worcester, founder of polling organisation IPSOS MORI shared some valuable tips for journalists reporting on political polls:

Watch the share, not the lead
Watch the fieldwork dates
Watch what’s happening: “Watch how the media expresses scepticism of the polls and how they act as if they are gospel.”

And finally: when a politican tells you that they don’t pay any attention to the polls – they’re lying.

Follow the Value of Journalism conference live via our liveblog.

Tags: #voj10, ipsos mori, polls, robert worcester

#VOJ10: What is ‘networked’ journalism – and what’s its value?

June 11th, 2010 | 4 Comments | Posted by Judith Townend in Comment, Events, Multimedia, Online Journalism

I’m in session 2 of the second track of the BBC CoJo / POLIS Value of Journalism conference. This one is chaired by Charlie Beckett with his colleague Dr Damian Tambini, Times web development editor (business) Joanna Geary, and Mark Oliver of Oliver and Ohlbaum.

Oliver has done research into news consumption. Audience behaviour doesn’t necessarily reflect news silos of old, he says. For example, if they paid for all the sites they consume in one month, it would start adding up. On public value he says: if you don’t have professional intermediation of content it could undermine public value. He’s written a paper for Polis on public service broadcasting, but I can’t find it – I’ll link to it when I can.

Now Damian Tambini: there seems to be a crisis in good journalism. But, some – like Charlie Beckett – are saying it’s an opportunity for a golden age. So, there seems to a crisis but also an opportunity. Crucial to that, is understanding that journalism is not simply an individual activity or a commodity on the market. It’s also a set of institutions, rules and rights. The lobby system for example, has won a “privileged access” in society.

We see that journalism serves a social purpose. Journalism is not just a set of individual practices, Tambini says. It’s an “institutionalised profession”. “This idea of journalism as a profession recognised in law is familiar”. In part this debate is about how new forms of journalism can access funding and other privileges journalists have.

In regards to ‘saving journalism’ Tambini explores a few ideas – and whether/how ‘new media insurgents’ can access those privileges of old. “We need to think more innovatively about how to support [journalism],” he says. “We need to think about creating new kinds of privileges and support…” He refers to his paper with some suggestions for how to do this (again, I’ll try to update with a link when I find it).

Joanna Geary says she is a ‘networked journalist’. She asks: why is she trusted? And why does she trust sources of information? She has formed a relatively good idea of how to trust people, as a result of observation. She talks about why she started in journalism. She went into it because she wanted to be “useful”. She felt strange to give her opinion on something she didn’t feel that qualified to talk about. So blogging, where the answer is not definitive, suited her. But when she was wrong, her audience didn’t leave her. She realised that that was how she would like to consume journalism herself. She thinks that by being at the Times, which is about to introduce a paywall around its content, she has the opportunity to create a “space” online where journalists can contribute as they haven’t before. Geary says it will create “a much closer relationship” between the Times and its readers.

Now we’re onto questions… some highlights…

Oliver talks about “self-correcting” and says he’s worried about viral marketing, in which people are under-estimating the way companies have worked out to use the web to sell products.

Will Perrin, in the audience, suggests Ben Goldacre as an example of ‘networked’ journalism and community. He says Goldacre has shown how you can use the web effectively to show up articles as “bunk”.

Kevin Anderson (who is a pioneer in social journalism) says that even for people have all the multimedia skills there aren’t enough jobs. Geary meanwhile says she’s seeing a skills gap between technology and journalism.

Tags: #voj10, bbc college of journalis, Polis

#VOJ10: The realities of multimedia journalism

June 11th, 2010 | 2 Comments | Posted by Judith Townend in Comment, Events

I’m in track 2 of the POLIS/BBC College of Journalism Value of Journalism conference and we’re discussing innovation in journalism, the importance of content and the practicalities of being a multimedia journalist.

It features multimedia journalist and notonthewires co-founder Alex Wood (chair), freelance multimedia journalist Adam Westbrook, CNN journalist and notonthewires co-founder Dominique van Heerden, freelance and former BBC video journalist Angela Saini, and multimedia lecturer and VSC Creative director (and also notonthewires co-founder) Marcus Gilroy-Ware.

Once they introduced themselves, we’re onto the practicalities of the jobs.

Saini, who said she got fed up of the daily pressure of being a VJ, says she’s come full circle and is now spending time on separate radio or print projects – which are of better quality. She also notes that we haven’t yet got an editorial layer of people who have actually been VJs on the ground, who understand the realities of the job. The most successful multimedia journalists are the ones who know their subject inside out, she says. It’s key to be niche. As for the freedom now she’s not a fulltime VJ: “I do much meatier stories… than I did before…”

Someone asks whether there can be too much focus on technology. “What does it enable us to do?” says Gilroy-Ware, answering with a question. There’s too much emphasis on products, he says. Saini adds that she doesn’t see herself as an innovator per se (she’s only just got on Facebook and doesn’t use Twitter) but she’s in the multimedia field. The younger generation don’t feel a pressure to do tech; they do it because they enjoy it.

Adam Westbrook, who has written an e-book on making money online, says he sees enormous potential in self-publishing. But Saini points out the obvious: that her money is still made from the big organisations.

Some very interesting experiences and contributions from the audience: are we misleading students by encouraging them to get in…? Do traditional news orgs understand how multimedia can/should be used…

And someone asks just what is notonthewires; business model etc…

Giroy-Ware says it’s about multimedia journalism being taken seriously: “really embracing the bottom-up cultural change that needs to happen in the news industry.” Van Heerden says it’s about pairing up with big partners. Gilroy-Ware talks about Steve Jobs’ ‘Beatles’ business model and says they’re also looking to the ‘band’ element as a possible commercial opportunity.

Meanwhile a ‘Is Content King?’ poll is running behind the panel, up on the screen, powered by UltraKnowledge. Participants can “#ukn5yes” for YES or “#ukn5no” for … NO. The yeses are leading… (I personally find this one a bit tricky to answer, and don’t know what it really means, but that’s probably for another blog post)

Gilory-Ware says ‘make the journalism you want to make’ – chances are others will like it too. It’s a nice positive note to end on, but I have a feeling not everyone would agree with that.

Tags: #voj10, Adam Westbrook, angela saini, Dominique van Heerden, Marcus Gilroy-Ware

Nieman Journalism Lab: Are news organisations thinking about linking?

June 11th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Editors' pick

“Links can add a lot of value to stories, but the journalism profession as a whole has been surprisingly slow to take them seriously. That’s my conclusion from several months of talking to organizations and reporters about their linking practices, and from counting the number and type of links from hundreds of stories,” writes Jonathan Stray.

Stray looks at the linking policies and strategies of BBC News, Reuters, Dow Jones, the Washington Post, the New York Times and Associated Press. There’s more to come from this research, but some initial conclusions suggest there’s a way to go when it comes to linking out:

Reading between the lines, it seems that most newsrooms have yet to make a strong commitment to linking. This would explain the mushiness of some of the answers I received, where news organizations “encourage” their reporters or offer “guidance” on linking.

Full post at this link…

Tags: Associated Press, BBC News, Dow Jones, Linking, links, reuters, the New York Times, The Washington Post

Mashable: Vocus to buy Facebook start-up Help A Reporter Out

June 11th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Editors' pick

Vocus, a media monitoring and press release distribution service with a vast database of journalists at its disposal, is set to acquire Help A Reporter Out (HARO), a system connecting journalists and PRs that originated as a Facebook group.

Full story at this link…

Tags: HARO, help a reporter out, Peter Shankman, Vocus

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – police guidelines for treatment of photographers

June 11th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted by Judith Townend in Top tips for journalists

Photography rights: the Metropolitan Police recently issued guidelines that lay out how police should treat camera owners and users. For more explanation read this FreelanceUK article.
Tipster: Judith Townend.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

Tags: Metropolitan Police, Photography, police

#VOJ10: Follow the Value of Journalism conference

June 11th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Events

The BBC College of Journalism and media thinktank Polis are hosting a one-day conference today to discuss the value of networked journalism, free newspapers, political and government reporting and ‘grassroots’ journalism. Keynote speakers include Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow and BBC Global News director Peter Horrocks, interviewed by Journalism.co.uk at this link.

Journalism.co.uk is hosting the session on ‘grassroots journalism’ and we will be discussing what new ‘hyperlocal’ start-ups are up to, how sustainable these ventures and opportunities this trend could in turn create for ‘big’ media groups in the local space. In keeping with the title of the conference we’re hoping to move the discussion away from what is hyperlocal or definitions of ‘citizen journalism’ and talk about the value of ‘grassroots journalism’ to the public and the media in the UK as a whole.

For our updates you can follow @journalism_live on Twitter – there’s also a hashtag of #VOJ10 and tweets from the conference in the liveblog below:

<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=0d5ec4cb51″ mce_href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=0d5ec4cb51″ >#VOJ10 – Value of Journalism Conference</a>

Tags: #voj10, Events, Journalism.co.uk, value of journalism conference, VOJ

E&P: AP videojournalist in the thick of it in the Gulf of Mexico

June 10th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted by Joel Gunter in Editors' pick

Rich Matthews, a videojournalist with Associated Press, decided to report from the Gulf of Mexico’s oil-slicked waters. Not content with looking overboard, he went diving, intending first to go 60 feet but having to cut this back to 20 feet due to the lack of visibility.

I jump off the boat into the thickest, reddest patch of oil I’ve ever seen (…) I open my eyes and realise my mask is already smeared. I can’t see anything and we’re just five seconds into the dive.

Full story at this link…

Tags: AP, Associated Press, BP, guld of mexico, oil spill, oil spill coverage, video-journalist