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An idea is of no use to anyone unless you put it into practice. I have a great idea for something bigger than a feature or news story. A book.
Unfortunately, it also requires a lot of research – it’s not something I can knock out from my desk at home. I will have to interview people and visit libraries. It could become almost a part time job.
I am approaching the end of my first year as a freelance. In that time I have been concentrating on making contact with potential clients and proving myself as someone they can rely on. After a slow start, I got to the point where I was working almost every day. Long may that continue.
However, I still have an ambition to write this book (and have had for the past six years or so) and I am becoming increasingly aware that there are other people who are also in a position to write something like this. So I need to make a start soon. My plan is to start researching the book alongside my freelance work and hopefully to start a blog to update potential readers on my research.
So now I’ve said it, I am going to have to do it. Watch this space…
To help out a fellow blogger I have tried to post a recent article I wrote for the NUJ magazine The Journalist. Unfortunately, there is no online version of The Journalist, just an e-zine which is hardly idea. I have managed to copy and paste part of my article but not the main part as issuu doesn’t make copy and paste easy.
Page 15
Open engagement
Shoreham Bfong Project
When residents of Shoreham-on- Sea saw that an empty shop had been taken over, they discovered that it had been turned into a newsroom for one day only. The project, organised by the Brighton Future of News Group (Bfong) and Dan Robinson, a social entrepreneur who specialises in reusing empty shops on a temporary basis, brought together journalists and members to tell the story of Shoreham through words and pictures. Bfong host Sarah Booker says some locals came to the event because they wanted to talk about Shoreham with journalists, while others were simply curious about what was happening in the shop. Bfong member Judith Townend, says the shop offered a sociable and less formal setting. She says one interviewee wanted to see how her story would be presented, and before it went online they looked at it together. “It wouldn’t be a suitable or efficient way to conduct all journalism clearly, but it was interesting to make use of the time and informal environment and be able to experiment with different methods for these type of blog features,” she notes. http://shorehambfongproject.tumblr.com/
Leeds Community Hub
The Guardian and Leeds Trinity University Collage’s collaboration is prompted by a desire to connect with the community and to help them unearth the stories that matter to them. “We had very good working relationship with Leeds Trinity journalism school, which also wants to reach out into the community so it seemed a good match,” says Sarah Hartley, Guardian Local’s launch editor. The project has been marketed at community groups and people active in their neighbourhoods. Hartley says this kind of project is particularly important for those who are not digitally engaged at present. But she admits that the community hub is not a particularly new idea. “I remember in the late 90s when I worked at Northern Echo there was an experiment with an internet cafe below the Darlington newsroom,’ she recalls. “I don’t know how successful that was for newsgathering or co-operation but why not provide a reason for people to drop in?” http://www.leedstrinity. ac.uk/news_events/news/ Pages/Leeds_Community_News_Hub_opens_for_ business.aspx
News: From the Field
When Kelly Metz’s newspaper The Morning Journal was building up its relationship with readers through social media, she read that The Register Citizen in Connecticut was opening a newsroom café in its building. She decided to create her own version in Lorain, Ohio. “We have a growing relationships with readers over these social media outlets, however, they still don’t really see us,” she says. “Because we don’t have that option of a cafe newsroom here, I decided to turn a small corner of a coffee shop into the newsroom.” Metz approached the owner of a café who agreed and also let her post on his Facebook page. While she says readers haven’t come with ideas in person, they like the fact she is making herself known. “If newsrooms don’t think they should be more open to the readers, they might as well plan an eventual decline in readership both in the online and print editions.” http://fieldlessons.wordpress.com/
TheJournalist | 15
“It means that every hour I spend on fundraising, I am not spending with a volunteer,” says Grey. “But fundraising is a necessary part of the job. If you are the best bid writer you write the bid.”
My latest piece for the Guardian’s professional networks.
Originally uploaded by Brenderous.
Long before social media and smart phones, the humble notebook was the reporter’s best friend. And for most of us it still is.
But not just any old notebook for the majority of print journalists it has to be spiral bound at the top of the pages making it easier to flick over the page. Anything else just won’t cut it when writing at speed.
In fact, the “reporter’s notebook” or “shorthand notebook” almost sets journalists that work with words apart from their counterparts who work in the media of television and radio. Read the rest of this entry »
Modern British journalism was born in the Coffee Houses of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century
London’s Coffee Houses were once at the epicentre of British science, commerce and journalism.
In the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century coffee houses were where the great and good met to exchange information and ideas. By the late Seventeenth Century there were thousands in England.
So successful were coffee houses as places for the disaffected to congregate that Charles II tried to suppress them.
The commercialisation and professionalisation of journalism took it away from its coffee house roots. But as the money is sucked out of journalism, the industry is showing signs of returning to its coffee house roots. Freelancers have long frequented cafes to tap out stories furiously on their laptops and sometimes to take advantage of free WiFi. Now big media organisations in the US are encouraging reporters to work in cafes in order to connect with readers.
There are signs that this trend is taking off in the UK, both at grassroots level and in big media organisations. In this month’s issue of The Journalist I wrote about news organisations that are making moves towards putting the newsroom back at the heart of their community. You can read the article by following this link and going to page 14.
Subs is playing at The Cock Tavern until 29/02
The working lives of journalists have been dramatised many times, both on stage and screen. From Hollywood blockbusters like All the Presidents Men to small screen hits like The State of Play, most portray the profession as glamorous and heroic.
But as many journalists would testify, the profession isn’t always like that. For every Bob Woodward, you’ll have the poor sod who has to write about pork belly futures for a trade magazine in Topeka, Kansas. The State of Play is particularly guilty of idealising the profession. Read the rest of this entry »
Originally uploaded by Pics by K.
So we reach the twelfth night, an evening normally associated with taking down Christmas decorations. But in Italy it’s the children’s Christmas when the good witch La Bafana visits families leaving gifts of fruit and sweets for children. And like La Bafana I am here to deliver a final Christmas gift – a blogpost rounding up my 12 Days of Christmas uploads.
Looking back over the previous days, I am finding a clear theme emerging in the content – community. As Adam Westbrook said back on Day 8, it’s becoming a big thing for journalists.
In an earlier post I highlighted the role of community manager as a key discipline for journalists in the future. Laura Oliver, who started her new job as a community manager at the Guardian earlier this week, told me that media organisations are taking this role more seriously. In the clip recorded back in June she said that community management is becoming a distinct role with its own set of skills. Read the rest of this entry »
For the past eleven days I have been uploading outtakes and audio content generated while researching an article on new roles in journalism for the latest edition of The Journalist. It started on Boxing Day with a blogpost highlighting the potential of professional transfer and ended with a hat trick of clips from the BBC College of Journalism’s director Kevin Marsh.
Due to internet problems, there were some days where I could not get online to upload clips and write posts. So here’s some helpful links to all the content so that you can be sure that you haven’t missed anything. The clip for the 12th night is coming later on today. Read the rest of this entry »
