BBC: Whitney Houston funeral coverage ‘reflected the significant interest’ in her death

The BBC has issued a statement in response to complaints about the length of its live coverage of Whitney Houston’s funeral service.

The broadcaster reports that it received 118 complaints about its live coverage of the 3 and a half-hour service, which appeared on the BBC News channel.

Live coverage of the service began at 17:00 GMT and continued until just before 20:30 GMT, with the BBC continuing to report on the story afterwards.

In a statement, published by the BBC, the broadcaster said the coverage “reflected the significant interest in her sudden death as well as acknowledging the impact she had as a global recording artist”.

It acknowledged that “some people felt there was too much coverage” but said BBC One’s teatime bulletin, radio bulletins and other services had still given viewers “the best access to the day’s other news stories”.

Similar posts:

• 21,000 complaints made to PCC over Jan Moir article; highest number in Commission’s history
• BBC strikes video content deal with Russia’s GZT.ru
• Live coverage dominates media’s inauguration plans
• Telegraph: BBC ‘flooded’ with complaints about Choosing to Die documentary
• #news2011: Editors need to ‘enable journalists to step back and go beyond the wires’

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – five tips for TV interviews

Ragan’s PR Daily has five tips for TV journalists from former NBC News producer Christina Mozaffari.

One of these is advice for interview questions. She says:

Repeat the question back.

If yours is a sound bites interview – meaning the interview is not live and the reporter will use only a part of what you say in his or her story – repeat the question back in your answer. This gives the reporter a complete sound bite on tape and ensures that the answers you give are usable.

For example, if a reporter asks a question like, “Why did you decide to go with Plan A instead of Plan B?” you would say, “We decided to go with Plan A because…”

Doing so increases the chances of getting your complete, concise message into the story. But one huge caveat: Do not repeat negative language. If the reporter asks you a loaded question or a question that insinuates your organisation has done something wrong, you do not want yourself repeating that idea back to him or her on tape.

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

Similar posts:

• #BBCQT: BBC Analysis – ‘Who’s afraid of the BNP?’
• Fox News transcript: Bernard Goldberg accuses NYTimes journalist of ‘metrosexual’ question
• Criticism from blogosphere for journalist’s interview with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – writing web headlines
• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk: transcribing audio interviews

#followjourn – @JohnDomokos/video journalist

Who? John Domokos

Where? John is a video producer at the Guardian

Twitter? @JohnDomokos

John is a video producer and founder member of the video team at the Guardian. He discussed online video journalism at news:rewired – media in motion. A live blog of the session can be found here.

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips, we are recommending journalists to follow online too. Recommended journalists can be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to Rachel at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

Similar posts:

• #followjourn – @sookio Sue Keogh/editor
• #followjourn – @ruudelmendorp Ruud Elmendorp/freelance video journalist
• #followjourn: @johnplunkett149 – John Plunkett/Journalist
• #followjourn – @mexicoreporter Deborah Bonello/video journalist
• #followjourn: @ed_walker86 – Ed Walker/journalist

The Register: Salford ‘teething problems’ lead to BBC errors

BBC insiders have spoken out about “endemic problems” with technology at the new MediaCity facilities in Salford, which have led to a series of errors including one unfortunate captioning mistake that saw a child being labelled as a recovering alcoholic.

“Once a mistake has been entered into the computer, the director in the TV gallery can do nothing to stop it. The software won’t allow it,” a source told The Register.

Other problems include failing clocks and non-responsive robotic cameras. The problems have so far affected BBC North West programmes, but BBC Breakfast is also moving into the studio complex shortly.

The BBC response is: “It wasn’t a technical error but rather just a simple case of people getting used to the new systems. With the introduction of any new systems, teething problems are to be expected.”

Similar posts:

• TheBusinessDesk expands with iPhone app for regional business news
• Paul Bradshaw, Twitter and the art of predicting the interview
• Camp VJ London – Day 1: An intro to visual storytelling
• Sarah Hartley: BBC offers experimental programming format – too soon?
• BBC creates 12 new regional broadcast roles as part of new local news plans

Scotland on Sunday: Rangers bans BBC from press conference

Rangers football club, which filed for administration this afternoon, has banned the BBC from its press conferences as part of an ongoing row between the club and the broadcaster.

Scotland on Sunday reported yesterday that the BBC was banned from recording a post-match conference because of what the club described as “repeated difficulties” over its treatment by the broadcaster.

The paper said: “After the club’s 4-1 victory over Dunfermline Athletic, listeners to Radio Scotland’s Sportsound programme heard BBC reporter Chris McLaughlin state that a Rangers press officer had stopped him recording. A witness said: ‘He was asked to remove his microphone and the conference carried on.’”

Similar posts:

• PM’s listener mashup
• #bigotgate: Would BBC rules have prevented broadcast?
• #jpod: NUJ stages protest against BBC World Service cutbacks
• Should there be a media club for Scotland?
• Scottish Sun: Naming Baby P’s mum and step-dad

Riots and phone hacking coverage shortlisted for RTS awards

Al Jazeera English, the BBC News Channel and Sky News will do battle for the title of news channel of the year at this year’s RTS journalism awards later this month.

BBC News at Ten, Newsnight and Channel 4 News are shortlisted for news programme of the year at the awards, which celebrate excellence in UK television news and current affairs.

Two rival channels’ coverage of last summer’s riots are nominated for home news story of the year – Sky and Channel 4 – alongside Newsnight’s reporting of the phone hacking story.

The nominees for TV journalist of the year are Sky’s Alex Crawford, Channel 4′s Alex Thomson and Newsnight’s Richard Watson.

The full shortlist is not yet on the RTS website, but can be found below. The awards ceremony will be hosted by ITV newsreader Mark Austin, in London on 22 February. More »

Similar posts:

• Tom Giles made editor of Panorama
• Royal Television Society journalism award winners in full
• Guardian: Jeremy Vine to quit Panorama
• HoldtheFrontPage: Southern Daily Echo wins regional Newspaper of the Year award
• News teams nominated for 2011 BAFTAs

#jpod: Broadcasters reflect on the challenges of 2011

This year has been an extraordinary year for news. 2011 has seen the deaths of dictators and despots, revolutions across the Arab world, natural disasters in Australia, Brazil, Thailand, the Philippines, New Zealand, Turkey and Japan and a global financial crisis.

This podcast hears from four broadcasters on the greatest challenges of this year and the news agenda for 2012.

Journalism.co.uk technology correspondent Sarah Marshall speaks to Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director, CNN International; Jon Williams, world news editor, BBC; Sarah Whitehead, head of international news, Sky News; and Tim Singleton, head of foreign newsgathering and assistant editor, ITV News.

Podcast: Download

For more reflections on 2011 read our interview with Sarah Whitehead, Sky News and with Tony Maddox, CNN International.

You can hear all our podcasts by signing up to the Journalism.co.uk iTunes podcast feed.

Similar posts:

• #jpod: How Apple’s Newsstand is revolutionising the publishing industry
• #jpod – SoLoMo: a look at the Guardian and Northcliffe’s innovations in social and local
• #jpod: Lessons from the NY Times and Guardian in managing reader comments
• Digital developments at CNN: Gustav raises traffic, as new international digital role is created
• #jpod: Debating online content copyright in the UK and US

App of the week for journalists – iRig Recorder, for recording, trimming and sharing audio

App of the week: iRig Recorder

Operating systems: Apple (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad)

Cost: £2.99 (there is also a free version)

What is it and how is it of use to journalists? iRig Recorder is a fantastic audio app, an essential for broadcast journalists, podcasters and anyone wanting to turn their iPhone into a high quality recording device.

The huge benefit of this app is the ease with which it enables you to trim audio and upload it, making it easy to edit out a fluffed introduction or an interruption at the end of an interview.

You can also clean the sound before exporting to SoundCloud, uploading to FTP, transferring to iTunes, by email or over a wireless network.

At Journalism.co.uk we use this app to record face-to-face interviews, immediately uploading the audio to our SoundCloud account (where we have acquired almost 4,000 followers).

Reviews: It gets three stars in iTunes App Store.

Have you got a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week for journalists.

Similar posts:

• App of the week for journalists – DropVox, for saving audio to Dropbox
• Five nifty ideas for journalists using SoundCloud
• App of the week for journalists – VC Audio Pro, a must-have for radio journalists
• Ten ways journalists can use SoundCloud
• App of the week for journalists – Showcase, for creating audio slideshows

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to write scripts for radio news

The Media Helping Media site has published a copy of a useful guide for those starting out in radio, which the post says was produced for the Media Resources and Training Centre at the University of Jaffna in Sri Lanka, outlining key issues for journalists to consider when writing news scripts.

The advice includes a look at the pros and cons of writing a script before or after carrying out interviews, as well as construction a powerful introduction and close to the script.

Read the full post here.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – the pros and cons of videojournalism
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – use Posterous for quick and easy blogging
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – comprehensive Twitter guide for journalists
• CMLP: Is liveblogging a trial journalism?
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – attribution guidance

#news2011: Russia Today on raising awareness through its FreeVideo platform

After the second day of sessions focused on business at the Global Editors Network news summit, including paywalls and paid-for app, it was fitting that during the third and final day of presentations we heard about projects offering content and platforms for free.

One such project came from Russia Today which outlined its FreeVideo platform, described as an “English language video agency”. The website, which should be of interest to journalists worldwide, provides free video footage that journalists can download, edit and reuse for their own projects and output.

Answering a question from the floor about the business model, Alexei Nikolov, managing director of Russia Today, said it was to “promote the channel” on a global scale.

The site includes “stock footage” as well as video covering specific news events. Xenia Fedorova, head of the department of promotion and development of media projects for the broadcaster, explained that all the footage comes with multilingual scripts and shotlists.

She added that the website has more than 9,000 news channels already registered and using footage “on a daily basis”.

I spoke to her more at the end of the session about the decision to go down the free distribution route, their attribution methods and to find out whether there are plans in the pipeline to monetise the platform.

There are of course other platforms out there offering video content to journalists, such as the UK-based Video News Agency and also in 2009 Al Jazeera opened up its footage under creative commons licensing.

Similar posts:

• Online video: Reuters wants to offer more raw video to clients
• #news2011: Bringing animation into news content: ‘provides fuller picture of events’
• Asian News International signs deal with ITN Source
• Video from Beet.tv: How Reuters used social media in Iran to source video
• YouTube creates channel for reporters