Tag Archives: BBC

BBC: Prototype app feeds related web content into live TV streams

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The BBC is working on a prototype application that will feed links to relevant web content into live TV news reports available on BBC News Online, according to a post on the backstage.bbc.co.uk blog.

The prototype shows how hypertext which links to online articles relating to the topic of discussion can appear on screen as the news develops, signposting users to further reports on the web.

Andrew Littledale, who has been working on the prototype, explains that the idea has evolved from plans to develop an interface which will suit a future in which TV and the web become bedfellows.

The most useful application we could think of was something that would provide web content that was relevant to what was being talked about on TV. So we created a Flash application that pulls in live subtitles from an IRC channel and places them underneath a live feed of News 24 (…) As the subtitles appear on the screen they are sent off to a natural language processing API and relevant concepts are extracted from the text (and in our case returned as DBpedia terms).

When the concepts come back from the API they are placed over the EMP on the left of the picture. We’ve mapped these terms to BBC News content and clicking on them reveals links on the right. Clicking on these opens up the web page in a new tab.

While he admits it needs a bit of work yet, the concept is also being considered as a more tailored product for specific platforms on the site.

See his full post and demonstration of the prototype here…

BBC shares results of social media and accountability research

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An interesting update via the BBC Internet Blog on Friday regarding the broadcaster’s approach to social media. Social media executive, BBC Online, Nick Reynolds shares the executive summary of research conducted by Unthinkable Consulting into accountability and social media use.

The findings of the research were given to the BBC in April and as such some of the recommendations made are already being worked on. But it makes for interesting reading – both in terms of what the BBC should be doing with social media, in particular blogs and user comments, and what other news organisations can learn.

Key recommendations include:

  • “We recommend that blog authors respond at least in part to popular comment threads where new points or questions are being raised. We also recommend greater empathy and consistency from hosts.”
  • “There needs to be a culture change inside the BBC such that it becomes an accepted and expected part of the job of senior editorial management to read online social media output associated with their linear brands, as well as being aware of the competition.”
  • “We recommend that the BBC should consider to what extent  conversations which are now conducted on bbc.co.uk could be conducted externally instead. Regardless of the outcome, the BBC also needs to  spend more time reading and engaging with online commentary around itself and its brands.”

Read Nick Reynolds’ full post at this link…

View the executive summary:

BBC presenter faces wasting police time charge after euthanasia confession

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BBC presenter and documentary maker Ray Gosling is to be charged with wasting police time following his part in a documentary earlier this year in which he claimed he had killed a former lover suffering from AIDS, according to reports.

The Inside Out programme on mercy killings was broadcast in February and Gosling’s claims in it led to an initial arrest on suspicion of murder and a six-month police investigation.

BBC Dimensions: Making the news more geographically relevant

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The BBC has launched ‘Dimensions’ – an interactive map prototype which aims to ignite a public interest in history and the news by making it geographically relevant to an individual.

The technology uses the address of a user to show the scale of an event in history, such as the recent oil spill in the Gulf, and applies it to a map of the user’s home and vicinity.

Discussing the technology, which currently “sits by itself”, BBC commissioning executive Max Gadney says the tools are being considered for use on BBC History and News pages.

When I took over the online History commissioning job, I knew that we would need a mix of traditional, trusted BBC content with some attention-grabbing digital stuff to get people to it.

It’s easier said than done. Many technologists and designers are not really interested in history. Like much of the audience they were turned off by dull lessons at school. Our challenge was to make it relevant to audiences.

See his full post here…

BBC: 100 days of government in 100 seconds

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As the coalition government enters its 100th day in office, the BBC has created a 100 second video slideshow documenting events so far.

The slideshow begins with David Cameron’s speech outside Downing Street as he steps into the role of Prime Minister, before moving through a string of events covered by the broadcasters, from the resignation of David Laws and the “unavoidable” budget to Cameron’s recent visit to Pakistan to discuss the terrorist threat.

See the full piece here…

Telegraph: Frederick Forsyth on starting out as a journalist

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Author Frederick Forsyth discusses how his passion to travel led him to an early career as a journalist, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph this weekend.

His time spent reporting for news organisations including Reuters and the BBC was not only valuable in developing the investigative research skills which would later help him write “meticulously researched” novels, but also for revealing where his true passions lay.

“Journalism seemed like a good idea. It meant I could travel and keep my own timetable.” After a stint in Fleet Street, Forsyth joined Reuters, the foreign news agency. It was there that he honed the journalistic skills that are a hallmark of his novels. “I suppose I created a genre,” he agrees. “I was the first novelist to set fiction in the factual setting. Lumbered myself with it, I suppose.”

It was during a stint with the BBC, covering the war in Biafra, that the restraints of journalism led Forsyth into the altogether more lucrative world of fiction. Though he didn’t think so at the time. The deeply conservative BBC took issue with his political line, and Forsyth left. “I didn’t go into journalism to be a PR for Whitehall,” he says drily. “And it isn’t much different today. The hard-hitting investigative programmes no longer exist. The BBC is an arm of the Government.”

See the full interview here…

‘I was so exhausted I almost walked away’: Nick Robinson talks about the election

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BBC political editor Nick Robinson has admitted he was close to “walking away” from Downing Street before announcing David Cameron as the new Prime Minister because of exhaustion.

Speaking in an interview with BBC College of Journalism, Robinson shares some of the challenges he faced covering the election.

At the end of the five days there was just the sense of total exhaustion. I had planned really to go to bed after staying up for 24 hours on air after polling day closed and suddenly discovered I couldn’t because of all the ups and downs (…)

When it finally came to Gordon Brown leaving Downing Street I remember being so cold and so tired that I actually said to Laura Kuenssberg, ‘you do it’ and she looked at me as if I was completely mad. I was so exhausted that I briefly thought of walking away. But it was a great story to do.

Robinson also discusses how he dealt with surprising exit polls live on air and how he wants to encourage more debate via his blog but first needs to tackle “abusive” comments.

See the full interview here…

Afghanistan government criticised for closing down TV station

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Press freedom groups have condemned a decision by the Afghan government to close down privately-owned TV station Emroz.

According to a BBC report, the government closed down the station which is owned by MP Najibulla Kabuli for allegedly fueling religious tensions.

The Committee to Protect Journalists urged the government to put the station back on air while Reporters Without Borders added that the move breaks media law.

The government must not under any circumstances violate the media law, which gives the media commission sole decision-making authority when a media commits an offence. We call on the government to rescind these decisions and never interfere in the content of Afghan TV stations again.

See the RWB full post here…

Three of four kidnapped journalists freed in Mexico

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Three journalists thought to have been kidnapped in Mexico have been freed according to national reports, while one remains missing.

Journalism.co.uk reported on industry calls for the safe release of four journalists who went missing on Monday after covering a demonstration taking place outside a prison.

Police have now reportedly announced that two cameramen, Javier Canales and Alejandro Hernandez, were freed over the weekend while another journalist, Hector Gordoa, was freed on Friday. It remains unclear whether the three men were released by their captors or rescued by security forces.

Reporters Without Borders said the country is one of the deadliest in the world for journalists.

We are very relieved to learn to learn that cameramen Jaime Canales of TV Milenio and Alejandro Hernández of Televisa have been freed and our thoughts are with reporter Oscar Solís of El Vespertino, who is still being held. The war between the drug cartels and the authorities is wreaking havoc in Mexico and journalists are being targeted with increasing frequency. Those responsible for killing journalists take advantage of the prevailing impunity, which is fuelling the violence.

A total of 67 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000 and 11 have gone missing since 2003. In the 2009 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, Mexico was ranked 137th out of 175 countries.

BBC must remain editorially independent, says culture secretary

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Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has said the BBC must remain editorially independent to continue producing “world class news”.

Speaking in an interview with Andrew Marr yesterday, Hunt also indicated some change was needed to the licence fee:

We’ll be having discussions over the future of the licence fee, the next licence fee settlement next year, in which I’ll be talking to Mark and the BBC management in a lot of detail. And I do want the BBC to demonstrate that when it comes to their management pay, they’re on the same planet as everyone else because of the economic inheritance that we’re facing. Government ministers are having to be careful with every single penny of taxpayers’ money and the BBC does need to show that it’s careful with every penny of licence fee payers’ money as well.

But he added that the government support the idea of a similar stream of revenue continuing:

Well what we’ve said very clearly is that we accept the principle of the licence fee, which is the idea if you like of a household tax to fund public service broadcasting that is ring-fenced, and we think that one of the reasons we have some of the best TV and broadcasting in the world in this country is because we have these different streams of income including the licence fee, including subscription income and including advertising. Now the way we collect it may have to be rethought because technology is changing, a lot of people are watching TV on their PCs. We’re not going to introduce a PC licence fee and that is something that I do need to have discussions with the BBC to see what their ideas are.

Marr also asked Hunt for a response to the news that Express Newspapers owner Richard Desmond had purchased Channel Five. Hunt said the news was “encouraging”:

Well what people need to remember about that is that the regulations over what broadcasters can do are much stricter than over people who run newspapers and magazines. And it was a Conservative government that founded Channel Five in 1997. Indeed Conservative governments have actually been responsible for most of the big changes in broadcasting. We founded ITV and Four and did the Sky and satellite and cable revolution as well. But what I think is encouraging is that one of the first things that Richard Desmond said was that he was committed to Five’s future as a public service broadcaster.

See the full programme here…