Passing on knowledge

Friday saw an escape from London for the relative quiet of Cardiff to impart what wisdom 16 months of real world journalism have taught me on the current student of the post-graduate magazine option at JOMEC.

Although strange to be back in the old "mag lab", it was nonetheless enjoyable to be able to offer some tips and knowledge on what I have learnt, which focused mainly on business journalism, freelancing, and a few things on C.V.s and interviews.

Having had many speakers when I was on the course, some good, some bad, some indifferent, I tried to make sure I was honest and realistic about things, and that, like anything and everything, there are positives, negatives and moments of surrealism, to the journalistic profession, but that the course they are on does equip them to be able to handle all that is thrown at them. I should know, I do almost every single aspect of what I was taught, including page design, subbing, coverline writing, feature and news writing, the use of CMS, and, yes, blogging.

There's no denying the current job market is slim to non-existent, but I at least hope they took the fact that they are on one of, if not the, best journalism courses in the UK as some solace in their future endeavours.

An Unclear View...

Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, was this weeks (very well attended...) lecturer on the R&R series.

Although he too spoke about the threats to print from online and UGC he did it from more of a perspective of someone at the very top, the front line and who was as in the dark about the future as anyone else.

He was open and honest on both the opportunities this new wave of Web2.0 has created for the media, and the downright annoyance at the loss of the old, top-down and basically all-powerful media world that existed just five or six years ago.

From the dramatic rise of The Huffington Post in the USA, a website with a far higher hit rate than the NY Times website, (and which bizarrely was started on May 9, my birthday, and features a blogger named Dan Worth, my namesake...), to the Independent's re-interpretation of a newspaper as a "viewspaper" it was an interesting look at the changing world of the newspaper. A world on which even Rupert Murdoch has said "I can't predict five years ahead."

He discussed the unique perspectives offered by their "Comment is Free" section and the way the instant responses that can be posted on commentators posts has helped improve the quality of journalism. The instant response has created a fear of being jumped on and criticised by the mass army of readers and bloggers out there who are just waiting for a reason to attack.

The newspaper people shifted uneasily at his frank and discomforting reply to a question about being worried at the decline of newspaper sales with the response of "Yes, yes I would be worried."

On one level it was a fascinating look at the future, or possible lack of, for newspapers and on another it made me glad I'm studying magazine journalism...although it's not all good news for magazines either...

6.07am

Today was the second lecture from Richard Tait. And very insightful it was too...

He went into great depth about the Andrew Gilligan, BBC, Lord Hutton, Dr David Kelly, 45 Minute "sexed-up" claim and the rather shocking failings that led to the BBC being dragged across the coals in the Hutton inquiry.

It was fascinating hearing how a short "two-way" between Gilligan and John Humphreys at 06.07am on Radio 4 led to one of the most dramatic examples of shoddy journalism being uncovered and held to account in recent years. Despite the report essentially saying the Government lied about the 45 minute claim, at no point did anyone actually ask Gilligan if his "source" (which we now know was David Kelly) had explicitly said "45 minutes".

As it turned out of course, it was an inference, not a quote. And from this, as Richard Tait said, a potentially award-winning piece of journalism which uncovered serious misgivings from several senior intelligence sources about the Iraq dossier, was instead responsible for Hutton inquiry and all the upheavals the BBC suffered as a result. All because Gilligan went too far with his story.

He, ironies of ironies, sexed-up his own piece of journalism, and in a profession in which "words are precision tools" and there is "no tolerance for error" he paid a heavy price.

A sobering reminder of one of the first, and most basic, rules of good journalism: Check your facts...

On the Other Hand

I (finally) passed my Teeline 100wpm shorthand exam today. Many people on the three options at Cardiff have taken the shorthand course. Some gave up soon, some gave up after serious trying, and some are still going. But even the best, those that passed in November, have been asking: "Is shorthand really worth it?" (see image)

In the media world is there any excuse for not using a nice shiny digital dictaphone which is almost irrefutable evidence in a court of law? Will a series of rushed scrawls on low grade paper really look very impressive in the face of the stern law system where accuracy is vital?

Well I'm still not sure. Part of me wants to think shorthand is necessary, is useful and will provide me with an 'edge' in situations when others there don't have it. But then another part of me knows I will use dictaphones on almost all occasions to ensure perfect clarity on any transcriptions that need to be done.

Perhaps, as one of my course colleagues frequently says: "It's nice having a secret code that most people don't understand." With this I can only agree...
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Added 09/02 - Confirmation of pass - with "Credit" - nice...

The All Purpose UGC Blog Entry

Today's talk from Chris Shaw was another trawl through the merits and pitfalls of UGC and, in particular, how Five News now pays upwards of £100 pounds for "Your News" stories.

It was interesting to hear about Five's individual stance on the benefits of UGC but I'm sorry to say it was a case of "heard it all before."

Therefore I present the catch-all guide to what most big-wigs in the industry make of UGC (words in bold are the buzz-words you should use in order to pass yourself off as knowledgeable on this subject).

"The opportunity for community involvement that UGC, or 'citizen journalism', presents is one which media companies must recognise - in all multi-media formats. Although we're not sure why yet."

I shall refer any further UGC relevant talks to this post in future.

Here's another slide...

So R&R renewed today. That's Reporters and the Reported for those who don't know. And we were graced with Ian Hargreaves.

I'm afraid to say it was a fairly ominous start to the latest series of lectures. It basically consisted of: "Here is another slide showing information which is irrelevant, not left up long enough for you to read and impossible to decypher. And here is another one..." - This was made doubly painful by the fact that the first half consisted of findings from a survey in 2002...

It's nothing personal. It is clear from his C.V. that he is a 'proper' journalist; The FT, The Independant, The New Statesman. And he was a former member of staff here at our beloved JOMEC. But as a talk it was, frankly, boring.

If the only worthwhile tangent I can take from it was that young people are fairly uninterested in politics you can appreciate the struggle....

I suppose the only thing I thought was this - we are well aware of the disengagment of today's youths and politics. But if, say, 65% are uninterested, then 35% must be interested. Maybe we should find out why they are interested and work on that. People will only come to politics if they deem it be to 'cool'.

You can't make people realise something is 'cool' by saying: "Honestly kids! Politics is so hip! Don't be a square...VoTe!"[Sic.] They will just roll their eyes and flick over to MTV.