“Journalists on the Guardian and Observer in London have backed colleagues on the local titles in their group who are fighting against massive job cuts and almost certain compulsory redundancies,” reports the National Union of Journalists.
“A joint meeting of NUJ members from the two national titles unanimously agreed a resolution that said: ‘When the chapels in Greater Manchester, Surrey and Berkshire decide on a course of action, we will support them,'” the release states.
From 9.30am (GMT) @journalism_live will be interviewing @RuthBarnett, Twitter correspondent for Sky News, about her new job. Follow the conversation here, and please drop in your own questions with the tag #SkyRB. After 30 minutes answering questions from @journalism_live she will answer the questions from the ‘audience’.
Update: and here’s how it went. The live updated stream has now been replaced by the conversation that took place (slight changes for ease of reading):
journalism_live: @ruthbarnett to be interviewed via Twitter and @journalism_live shortly…
RuthBarnett: #skyRB Hi I’m here and ready to go!
journalism_live: Morning @ruthbarnett! Thanks for finding time in your Twitter day. Followers – please tag yr Qs #SkyRB and she’ll take them after 30 mins
journalism_live: @ruthbarnett Firstly: You’re ‘really’ a Twitter correspondent for Sky News: is that the actual job title on the business card?
RuthBarnett: @journalism_live I still have my old business cards which say multimedia producer! But it would be cool to get Twitter ones.
journalism_live: @RuthBarnett so what does yr day involve? You must do other stuff, as well as scan Twitter all day?
RuthBarnett: @journalism_live Yup I look for stories, write things up for skynews.com, live tweet from events eg Google launch, do some TV
journalism_live: @RuthBarnett How did it get suggested? Was it your idea?
RuthBarnett: @journalism_live Its really the brainchild of news ed @jongrip but it followed conversations we’d had about Twitter, new media etc
journalism_live: @RuthBarnett There’s been a lot of online attention about yr appt: do people ‘get’ what you’re doing?
RuthBarnett: @journalism_live I think most people do. Its about being part of the conversation – listening and responding. Coverage was a shock!
journalism_live: @RuthBarnett yes, you’re enjoying Twitter fame! so, how’s the first week gone: what have you done?
RuthBarnett: @journalism_live I’ve made my first two TV appearances, written stories for online, let followers give their views on stories + more
journalism_live: @RuthBarnett not bad! any really good scoops sourced via Twitter yet?
RuthBarnett: @journalism_live We were v quick off the mark on the London fire and pix. Also people have been in touch about their real lives
journalism_live: @RuthBarnett Interesting – how does it shift dynamics of your relationship with users and viewers?
RuthBarnett: @journalism_live eg this story today www.tinyurl.com/tillygeorge came from a tweet.
RuthBarnett: @journalism_live I hope it makes us easier to approach, you can give feedback to us v quickly, its a genuine interaction.
journalism_live: @RuthBarnett There’s so much noise on Twitter – are you able to filter out the bad stuff and find the gems?
RuthBarnett: @journalism_live Yeah I hope so. And people are quick to let me know if they think I’ve missed something which is useful!
journalism_live: @RuthBarnett well we cd go on but we’ll open to the floor…. Any questions for the professional Twitterer?
journalism_live: @ruthbarnett maybe start with a Q from @1DimensionalMan: What do you think of the idea of a premium version of Twitter? Its impact?
RuthBarnett: @journalism_live I thought that had been outed as a hoax this week? I may be wrong. I’m not sure it would work to be honest
RuthBarnett: @journalism_live It would change the way the community worked and perhaps people would move to another service? What do you think?
journalismnews: @ruthbarnett is now taking questions from the Twitter masses: what do you want to ask about Sky News use of Twitter?
RuthBarnett: @journalism_live @PoppyVix asked if I also look for stories as well as tweet. Yes – from breaking news to interesting quirky stories
hfitz: @journalism_live What do you think of PR people using Twitter? Is it intrusive or do you encourage it?
RuthBarnett: @hfitz If they do it in an open way it can be useful. But people will unfollow if they just push their product, no?
NewspaperWorld: @ruthbarnett has there been an increase in readers accessing sky news since twitter?
RuthBarnett: @NewspaperWorld Too early for me to comment on that but I believe we are reaching out to new readers which is great.
Partois: @ruthbarnett Twitter still appears to be a North American fad. Can it really take off in Europe?
RuthBarnett: @Partois Its true many users seem to be from the US but anecdotally I think its really growing in the UK
makemusicnotwar: @ruthbarnett Some say you dnt need a “twitter correspondent”. Shouldn’t all skynews journos just use twitter to hunt for stories etc?
RuthBarnett: @makemusicnotwar Colleagues do! But useful to have one point of contact & give that person time to invest in it
RuthBarnett: Any more questions you’d like to ask? Thanks for all sent so far, interesting to hear what you’re curious about #skyRB
GoooRooo: @ruthbarnett if I @ you can you sort out my rubbish Sky customer service?
RuthBarnett: @GoooRooo Don’t think so I’m afraid. Surprised to hear that as I’ve always had a good experience and fast response
NewspaperWorld: @ruthbarnett could you further explain the benefits of having one twitter correspondent instead of many journalists on twit?
RuthBarnett: @NewspaperWorld Sure. Helps you know who to contact. Means we one person delve deeper, devote more time, + interact
NewspaperWorld: @ruthbarnett Thanks. What do you think of interviews on twitter? effective?
RuthBarnett: @NewspaperWorld Yes because its quick and simple and reaches more people. It’s been an interesting experience.
makemusicnotwar: @RuthBarnett Has having a journo devoted to twitter paid off? Hav u found stories, involved users & done things your colleagues cudnt?
RuthBarnett: @makemusicnotwar Yes I hope so. But I’m only five days in! Will always listen to how I can do better.
makemusicnotwar: @RuthBarnett Thanks. It’s been very interesting to hear from you. I will be following your progress with great interest.
RuthBarnett: @journalism_live Thanks Jude at Journalism.co.uk for hosting today.
journalism_live: @RuthBarnett our pleasure! Thanks for your time. Happy Tweeting and speak again soon…
This blog has, so far, concentrated on the Lambeth College, National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) course. There are a multitude of other courses out there, many of which offer online teaching and IT skills, which, in the current climate especially, are essential.
Below are the experiences of three other journalists who recently undertook training courses at Sportsbeat/News Associates, Cardiff University and noSWeat.
Sportsbeat/News Associates
Vivienne Raper, 29, is a freelance writer and journalist and has just finished her NCTJ course at Sportsbeat/News Associates.
Prior to this she worked full-time as a writer for a healthcare and life science PR agency. Other highlights of her career so far include an internship at a think tank, a PhD in climate change monitoring, serving on the national executive of the Liberal Democrats’ youth wing, and a spell as a receptionist in a prison.
Yet surprisingly, she maintains that journalism is the most interesting thing she’s ever done. She particularly enjoys breaking off-diary news stories.
“The NCTJ accredited Sportsbeat/News Associates course is run by a sports news agency in Wimbledon, London. I did the course part-time over 10 months but they also offer a full-time, fast track option. It cost £3,500.
“Unlike most NCTJ courses, students don’t need to have a degree to be accepted onto the Sportsbeat course. You must sit an entrance examination and interview, conducted by the course director or one of the heads of journalism training and a senior editor.
“Most of the students on my course were career changers in their late 20s or recent school leavers who had jobs and didn’t plan to go to university.
“The part-time course was brilliant for getting through the NCTJ exams without giving up the day job. I have no complaints – it did exactly what it said on the tin. I’d heartily recommend it even though I’m not remotely interested in sports reporting.
“If you are, you can take a module in sports reporting and help out in the newsroom after class on Saturday evenings.
“That being said the course suffers from the inherent problems with taking the NCTJ part-time i.e. everything is geared to passing the exams and leaves little time for anything else. If you have more money and want to learn about feature writing, podcasting or the history of journalism, I’d recommend a one-year diploma.
“The tutors are very professional, extremely supportive, know exactly what the NCTJ requires and will help after the course has finished by checking CVs, offering additional shorthand classes and forwarding on job or story (usually sports) opportunities.
“Time pressure meant we couldn’t do much outside preparing for the NCTJ. However, we did a couple of projects to teach journalism, learn QuarkXPress and collect clips for our NCTJ portfolio. We were split into groups and given an area of London to cover. Each group had to find stories and design a fake front page with headlines.
“Like all NCTJ courses, it’s hard work. It’s a real challenge to combine NCTJ study with a full-time job and it’s particularly difficult to get through shorthand studying part-time. You need to be committed to journalism to get through a part-time NCTJ – amazingly, no one dropped out. Media law and public affairs are tedious and it was hard to stay awake at 9:30pm on a Monday evening or on a Saturday afternoon. This is a problem with the NCTJ exams and not the tuition.”
Cardiff University
Amy Davies, 22, is currently studying for her postgraduate diploma in magazine journalism at Cardiff’s Journalism School. She also did a journalism undergraduate degree at Cardiff – she must love it there – but is originally from the Midlands. She sees herself working for a variety of different magazines, even freelancing so as not to feel tied to one style. Eventually she wants to be an editor, but thinks this may be a long way off.
“The course at Cardiff is accredited by the PTC (Periodicals Training Council) and has quite a high reputation. It runs for one academic year, from September to June, and costs around £5,500.
“A degree in any discipline is needed to get onto the course. After applying candidates are called for a day-long interview and will sit a news knowledge and writing test. They will also have a formal interview with one of the tutors and must submit two feature ideas. Previous publishing experience is useful, but not essential.
“The course is fairly well run in most areas and certainly provides many interesting lectures and modules. However, sometimes marking can be slow and so I do feel that progress can be hard to judge.
“The diploma offers a choice of newspaper, broadcast or magazine options. All paths share some modules including media law (taught separately), public administration, reporters and the reported (a series of ethics lectures), online and mobile media and shorthand (although this is optional for the magazine and broadcast path).
“Before we started the course in September, our shorthand teacher sent us worksheets and tapes instructing us to get up to 30WPM.
“Shorthand classes were then Monday-Friday mornings from 9-11am and by December, a number of students (about half the class) were able to take and pass the 100wpm NCTJ paper.
“In addition to the core subjects, students on the magazine course are taught news writing, magazine craft (how to use programmes including InDesign and Photoshop) and feature writing.
“We also have the opportunity to create and publish our own complete magazine and website.
“The course benefits from a high number of guest lecturers, hailing from various newspapers, magazines, broadcasters and online publications, who come and talk on various changes in the media.
“Magazine students must also complete a minimum of two weeks of work experience at a magazine(s) of their choice.”
noSWeat
Tara Kelly, 27, is a freelance journalist and has just finished her NCTJ-accredited course at noSWeat Journalism Training in Clerkenwell, London. Originally from New York, Tara has worked in corporate responsibility and the IT industry in Brussels and London. She holds an MA in International Conflict Analysis with a specialty in Conflict Diamonds. The fulfilment that comes with pitching and chasing up a story led Tara to journalism.
“NoSWeat Journalism was founded by a former journalist who noticed there were no part-time, London-based NCTJ courses on offer. The success rate of its graduates and its central London location are what attracted me to apply and enrol in the course. You don’t need a university degree to get in, but you do have to sit a written exam and have an interview with the school director. The tuition is £3,500, but you get a slight discount if you pay early.
“Media Law and shorthand were the most useful classes I took. We had the luxury of being taught by a practicing solicitor who is a renowned media law guru. The tutors held extra study sessions prior to exams, but have little patience for those who don’t attend class and make a sincere effort.
“Journalism classes entailed learning QuarkXPress, practicing sub-editing, attending mock press conferences and going out into town in search of a local story. Much of what they teach you is centred on passing the exams, so the outlook is rather local and regional given the nature of the NCTJ.
“The advantage of being a part-timer is that the course lasts 12 months allowing you more time to plan for work experience and complete your portfolio. On the other hand, part-timers working full-time may find it difficult to take advantage of the guest speaker lectures at lunch or the specially arranged day trips to the Old Bailey or House of Commons.
“Like the field of journalism, don’t expect to be spoonfed at noSWeat. Students must approach editors and secure work experience themselves. NCTJ is definitely the magic word for gaining work experience opportunities though. Some of the national newspapers that our class completed placements on included the Financial Times, the Guardian, The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, The Times and The Sunday Times.
“Studying part-time, freelancing and managing to do a full-time job was extremely challenging in the final few months of the course, especially with exams and the portfolio hanging over your head. But if your devotion to journalism is unquestionable, it is well worth your Saturdays and Wednesday evenings.”
Communication via a Ning network led to tickets for a information architects’ (IA) mini-conference in London ‘selling’ out in just ten minutes.
Information architecture is ‘the emerging art and science of organising large-scale websites,’ increasingly important for media sites.
The Ning network created by Ken Beatson last year, has allowed the UK’s information architects to talk more freely and effectively than via the old mailing list system, Martin Belam, a member of the group and information architect for the Guardian, told Journalism.co.uk.
An event was set up, hosted for free at the Guardian’s offices and sponsored by Axure and Aquent, and after a bit of promotion via its Twitter account (@london_ia), 40 tickets were rapidly snapped up for the event which will take place on April 20. Another 10 will also be released at midday on Friday.
The event will see participants talk for 10-15 minute slots in an informal way.
Martin Belam told Journalism.co.uk that ‘the goal of good information architecture is that people understand information,’ so it suits them to share knowledge and skills in this way. London is one of the biggest centres for information architects, perhaps the biggest outside New York and San Francisco, he said.
An overlap between editorial and technological roles is increasingly important for newspapers, Belam added.
Belam hopes that the event could be rolled out three times a year, with the next one being held in September.
Also see: Q&A with Martin Belam here.
“I’ve seen both sides of the story,” writes Dan Mason, a former regional newspaper editor (Coventry Evening Telegraph and Birmingham Post) and most recently, managing editor of 12 weeklies in London.
His post looks at ‘five things journalists should do now – before they face the threat of redundancy’. “It’s a beginning more than an ending,” he writes.
Firstly, ‘understand the redundancy process clearly BEFORE it starts,’ he says.
“How are a few extraordinarily wealthy individuals from the most senior ranks of the world’s most brutally repressive societies succeeding in muzzling free speech on major international issues? The unlikely answer is, simply, by ‘visiting’ London”, writes Christopher Walker at the International Herald Tribune.
“An increasing number of well-heeled litigants – libel tourists – are using England’s plaintiff-friendly libel laws to silence critics. Unlike American law, which sets a high bar for libel lawsuits, English common law puts the burden of proof on the defendant, who can be hit with enormous damages and legal costs,” Walker reports.
Also see Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press at this link, for a summary of the bill re-introduced in the House.
This morning Al Jazeera English’s managing director, Tony Burman, held a breakfast meeting in London and invited journalists along to ask about latest developments at the channel.
Burman is in town for tonight’s Royal Television Society Awards (2007/8), for which the channel has been nominated for the ‘News Channel of the Year’ award – and it’s up against BBC and Sky.
Burman was, however, not overly optimistic and said that he thought it would be the BBC’s win. However, “next year will be the Gaza year and we will be here again,” he told the group. We’ll report back with an update tomorrow.
Burman’s message was clear: the channel is increasingly strengthening its reputation (that includes within the US, he said) and he emphasised that the fact it broadcasts to nearly 140 million households, after two years on air (it launched in November 2006) was a feat he considered very impressive. Getting Al Jazeera onto the satellite and cable networks in North America is a priority, he said.
The real topic of the morning was the crisis in Gaza: the two correspondents, Ayman Mohyeldin and Sherine Tadros, who had been on the ground prior, and during the 22 day conflict were also there to answer questions.
It was again confirmed that Al Jazeera English was the only English-language broadcaster to report from the Gaza strip before the press ban was lifted (see a previous interview with the channel’s head of new media, Mohamed Nanabnay).
So, here a few of the things that were discussed. Journalism.co.uk will be following up in more detail on these and other points raised, in due course.
Gaza:
Tony Burman said that ‘coverage was really very comprehensive’ and that the reaction to the channel’s output ‘was a reminder that there is a hunger in the world, to get a sense of what is going on’.
The Al Jazeera site had, at times, seen a 600 per cent increase in traffic during Gaza coverage, he said.
Because Israeli, as well as other international media couldn’t access the area either during parts of the conflict, Al Jazeera was watched by a bigger Israeli audience too, he said.
Sherine Tadros, who said it was just ‘chance’ that she ended up reporting from the ground (she is normally the Jerusalem correspondent) said that ‘everything was a risk’. ‘There was no green zone,’ she added. She ‘wasn’t meant to be there’ she joked.
Tadros was asked to go and do a feature from the region before the media clamp-down became apparent, and she hadn’t even packed clothes to take, thinking that her stay would be brief.
To be the only English channel on the ground could be a ‘one-off experience’ during her career, she said. While she thrived on being part of the only English-language media team on the ground – ‘everything we did was exclusive’ – Tadros was aware of the responsibility to cover as much as possible for an English speaking audience.
There was no way they could go away and ‘Google’ for additional information, for example, she said. All the information from the ground had to be gathered by themselves directly. While Tadros said she was already quite familiar with the region, she also had to adapt very quickly to the surroundings and context, she said.
Ayman Mohyeldin described how other international broadcasters were eager to use their material and how he did then feed back to US networks. One of the main differences between the Arabic and English coverage was the level of detail in the reports, he said.
Reports can’t assume context for an English-language audience, whereas an Arab audience has grown up very aware of 60 years of history, he said. As a result, English coverage must supply more detail and background. So while the English and Arabic channels worked closely via multimedia channels (there is a joint new media team) and shared information and sources in their newsrooms, the output can vary.
The style of English reporting is also different, Tadros added. Whereas an Arabic channel might do one hour of footage inside a hospital, that wouldn’t be something they would necessarily do on the English channel.
Expanding into Africa:
With a good presence in Nairobi, Zimbabwe and Johannesburg they’re keen to meet the needs of a ‘growing’ African audience, Burman said.
In regards to whether a full bureau would be opening in Nairobi (to add to bureaux in Washington, Doha, London and Kuala Lumpur), Burman was hesitant. In the current economic climate he ‘can’t talk about expansion,’ he said. For now, little is being said about big investments he explained, adding that Africa is a very important region for them and more correspondents would be added around the continent.
Obama digital campaign ‘guru,’ Thomas Gensemer, has attracted a fair bit of attention with his arrival in London – check out the Guardian G2 feature and this article at TimesOnline, for example. A Guardian video can be watched here at this link.
Gensemer, whose company Blue State Digital built the Obama website and managed the online campaign, was also speaking at City University on Tuesday evening: at an event entitled ‘Obama’s (not so) Secret Weapon: the role of the internet in the 2008 US Presidential Election’.
His talk officially launched the journalism school’s new MA in Political Campaigning and Reporting. A video of the event can be watched here.
Etan Smallman was at the event, and shares his report with us here:
Plain old-fashioned email is the key tool for successful political campaigning in the digital age, the mastermind behind the Obama digital campaign, Thomas Gensemer, told an audience at City University this week.
Thomas Gensemer, managing partner of Blue State Digital, who built the highly acclaimed online operation, dismissed the impact of social networking in favour of ‘the simplicity of email’.
The message is ‘use tools, not gimmicks’, Gensemer said. “For all the talk of social networking, blogs, and mobile applications, email is still the ‘killer app’. Our email list of 13.5 million individual email subscribers was the backbone of the campaign,” he added.
“This is not a story about technology; this is not a story about Facebook or Twitter. This is about dynamic, personalised, two-way relationship via email,” he said. Gensemer said that more than a billion emails were sent out to over 13.5 million email subscribers throughout Obama’s presidential campaign. It resulted in my.barackobama.com raising half a billion dollars in donations.
The mainstream media is ‘still included in the cycle’, Gensemer said. “It is often that you’re bypassing them to get to the audience, and then encouraging the media to tell the story to the audience. You’re inverting the relationship a little bit. They don’t serve as the filter any more – when you have the engaged constituency online, you go directly to them.”
Gensemer, who previously worked in the UK on Ken Livingstone’s unsuccessful London mayoral campaign, is currently expanding his operation to the UK political arena by opening an office in London.
Some organisations still believe their audience isn’t online, he said. “It’s no longer the case in the ‘first world’. Even people over 70 – the ‘silver surfers’ – they’re out there. They’re willing to do something for you. They just need to be asked. This isn’t just about college kids. This isn’t just about bloggers in Westminster.”
“It is not about magical technology,’ he said, arguing that the key components to successful online campaigning are transparency and authenticity: “You can’t fake it,” he added.
“Do you really believe that the average MP is Twittering?” he asked. “Do you believe that Barack Obama Twitters? I’ll tell you, he doesn’t.”
New social media crazes like Twitter ‘tend to distract,’ Gensemer said.
“It tends to be from shiny object, to shiny object, to shiny object. For organisations that need to invest in deep personal relationships with a variety of people, just doing that sort of scattergun approach is dizzying.
“It burns through political capital pretty quickly because it doesn’t really talk to the people it’s trying to talk to,” he said.
“The lesson of the Obama campaign is to use tools to facilitate a message – don’t use gimmicks. None of this would have happened [just] because somebody was Twittering.”
A Twitter debate kicks off this morning at 10am London time, organised by Alexandre Gamela (@alexgamela), which looks at ‘new business models for media’
“We do not want to discuss just the transition from traditional to online media and their revenue sources, but how money can be made online by independent bloggers and journalists too,” Gamela writes on his blog.
You can follow via CoverItLive, or make use of the Tweet stream below.
The British Journal of Photography (BJP) is covering the photographic ‘event’ against the new Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, which comes into force today, with live updates and images posted to Twitter.
A Facebook group for the gathering outside New Scotland Yard in London describes the event as ‘NOT a protest! It’s just photography!’
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is also supporting the action against the act, which makes photographing a police constable (“Eliciting, publishing or communicating information about members of armed forces etc”) an offence.