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Hyperlocal blogs are a great way for student journalists to get some experience of reporting, community management and online publishing. But what do their potential readers think of student-run hyperlocal blogs? Members of a community in Sheffield recently gave student bloggers a very hard time when they attempted to engage with their potential readership.
The problem seems to stem from the fact that there are two universities in Sheffield, plus a very good further education college, and therefore a lot of students working on community-based projects. Not only do you have journalism students working on community-based projects, you have film makers, geography students, law students and nursing students. At any one time there must be hundreds of students making contact with community groups and local online forums.
Now, there are of course some fabulous examples of students who have done fantastic things for a community as part of their course or with a student society. There are law students who have helped to challenge wrongful convictions as part of the Innocence Network and there are many other fantastic examples of where student projects have been a force for good. Read the rest of this entry »
Originally uploaded by MeLicA.
This morning Radio 4′s Today programme hosted a discussion between three successful career women about the existence of a glass ceiling preventing women from progressing in their careers. It was part of former Commons speaker Betty Boothroyd’s stint as guest editor of the show.
The discussion involved Lorraine Heggessey, the first female controller of BBC1, Lucy Neville Rolfe, executive director and a member of the board of Tesco and Rachel Lomax, former deputy governor of the Bank of England. They agreed that often women need to speak up a bit more and overcome the barriers in their own mind, such as fear of failure.
Heggessey said men are often better at pointing out all the things they can do whereas women are often stuck on what they can’t do. If men do get that voice in their head “they squash it down,” she said. Read the rest of this entry »
Last Tuesday, I marked the first anniversary of going freelance full time. It was quite a satisfactory landmark because I would never have thought that I would ever be self employed at all, let alone for an entire year. Business studies was one of my weakest subjects at school and I am sure my teacher would be surprised to hear that I am a relatively successful sole trader.
Back on 23rd October 2010, I wrote about what I had learned about freelancing from my first two weeks. Looking back at what I wrote, it is surprising how little has changed. I am still doing shifts, many booked in the last minute, it is still a feast or famine and I still have slack days. Read the rest of this entry »
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 »
In the next installment of my 12 Days of Christmas, I am sharing more outtakes from my feature for the Journalist on new roles in journalism.
Back in June I spoke to a number of journalists at the POLIS / BBC College of Journalism event on the value of Journalism. Among them were Laura Oliver, who at the time was at Journalism.co.uk, and Kevin Anderson, then of the Guardian. Over the past three days I have been uploading content from these interviews to my Audioboo account. Read the rest of this entry »
