Living Stories!

I stumbled across an article a few weeks ago in reference to Living Stories which is a recent experiment looking at different formats for presenting news coverage online.




Google are responsible for the developement of Living Stories and have worked in collaboration with the American newspapers the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Living Stories provides the service of bringing together the ongoing coverage of a particular news story to one single place, in this case one webpage

You can search for a story and once you've found a particular article you'll immediately be able to see where it fits in within the ongoing narrative of that story. It provides immediate context for the reader.

As well as this, the story is constantly updated with the latest developments, so the reader can keep always be kept updated on how the story is unfolding

I can defintitely see this becoming a highly valuable research tool for journalists, particularly those journalists whose work is conducted mainly online. Something like Living Stories would be brilliant for those people.

The experiment has just finished, running from December 2009 and ending in February 2010. I've not heard any news of the Washington Post or New York Times starting the project up again, so it's a case of watch this space, but I'll be keeping my eyes and ears open and looking to see whether any other publihsers decide to take Living Stories any further.





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Privileged access for bloggers at Westminster

Earlier this week, House of Commons chiefs made the decision to allow a select group of bloggers privileged access to government communications, meaning that some bloggers will be allowed into the Westminster lobby system, which allows reporting directly from inside parliament.

On first thoughts, it sounded like a really bold and forwarding thinking move, but looking at the criteria that bloggers will be required to meet, far from opening up political reporting, those bloggers who will be accepted will still be part of the political journalism establishment.

Reading about this story in PR Week they explained that the Westminster lobby is where a small group of journalists have the opportunity of privileged access to certain parts of Parliament. But I feel the new proposals only want to expand this small group significantly.

The criteria has stated that the 'bloggers' must be proper journalists, operating for respectable news organisations. Well that's slightly subjective statement!

In addition to this they must have a large number of subscribers and they must use their pass for the purpose of journalism.

I wonder how many bloggers out there who write about politics will actually meet this criteria? It can't be that many!

It's been argued by Commons chiefs that an 'influx of bloggers into the lobby could further undermine the reputation of parliament'.

I don't think there has to be an influx, but it would be interesting to have a group of amateur bloggers 'citizen journalists' who are totally outside the political journalism establishment. Far from undermining the reputation of parliament it would help to make parliament more accessible to ordinary people.

Part of my understanding of blogging is that it's open to anyone. It only takes a matter of minutes to set up a very basic looking blog. It allows the amateur to publish their thoughts and opinions.

Of course many professional journalists have their own blogs, but I just feel that in this case, there is just going to be more professional journalist reporting on parliamentary affairs who just happen to be writing on a blog of some description.

It doesn't really sound like such a drastic new move when you look at it like that. Perhaps they should look in future at being a little more radical and inviting amateur bloggers to report on our political system.

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Nick Davies - Is the earth still flat?

Last week I was reading an interview in PR Week with the journalist and author Nick Davies.

Davies wrote the controversial book 'Flat Earth News' which came out in 2008 which set out to expose in his words the 'mechanics of falsehood, distortion and propaganda' in the production of news within the media.

I read the book almost immediately after it was first published. I'd just begun my own journalism training, and unsurprisingly thought it was something I really needed to read.

In the book the PR industry takes a bit of a battering from Davies. The industry comes out looking like an enemy of true journalism. He argues that the demand for PR has increased in regards to the production of news.

With more corporate owners, staff cuts, pressure to find and research stories, PR has taken on a much more important role.

The rise in PR has inadvertently reduced journalism to what Davies describes as 'churnalism'. Essentially a less accurate, less informed form of journalism, sometimes based around simply re-writing press releases. If was interesting to see what he had to say about his book and PR in general.

I remember a few years ago when I was thinking of retraining, my choice was between journalism or PR. After reading the book, Davies reminded me why I chose journalism as he makes it sound like the more noble profession of the two. Journalism is about seeking truth, reporting the facts, and exposing wrong doing.

PR on the other hand, has ironically a more negative image. Flat Earth News presents PR as a more unscrupulous, unreliable, version of the truth. In other words spin!

Obviously it's a lot more complex than that. There's always been good and bad journalism and PR clearly has an important role to perform. It occurred to me that he presents the roles of PRs and journalists as being opposite to each other, they're essentially in conflict.

Davies doesn't seem to have any answers to this conflict between journalism and PR, but I suppose he's raising awareness of the issue, reminding us that journalism still involves trying find the true story behind the PR statements and not immediately excepting PR press releases as factual reporting of the issues. PR is still normally produced to create some form of commercial or political gain, for individuals, businesses and organisations.

Reading some of the comments left at the end of the interview, the one comment which I thought was really important was by Graham Goodkind, Founder of Frank PR. He raised the point that the biggest difference between now and when the book first came out was the impact that social media now has.

Social media is now a new source of information for journalists, and although it can still perform a PR function, it's also about sharing information, having discussions and building communities. Companies and brands can't control what's said about them within the world of social media. As Goodkind says it now acts as counterweight to the problems raised in the book.

I suppose in the journalism/PR divide I've always naturally sided more with journalism, but the two professions need each other in order to perform their roles effectively. They just need to remind each other every so often what it is they're meant to be achieving.

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The London Weekly does exist apparently!

The new London free paper The London Weekly was launched last Friday to a barrage of damning criticism and ridicule!

All of last week I kept reading various rumours on the internet suggesting that perhaps the launch wasn't going to go ahead at all. It was looking increasingly likely that the paper itself might be one big hoax. But no! To everyone's surprise it did make an appearance!
My plan was to pick up a copy for myself on Friday, particularly after I'd been reading various first impressions comments all afternoon on Roy Greenslade's Guardian blog.

To say it received some scathing comments would be an understatement! Truly awful,poorly designed, with spelling errors on the front page! Just some of the critical observations that I read.

On my way home from work I passed through Liverpool Street station expecting to find a copy, but I saw no sign of one at all!

This is what makes it all so baffling to me. Why launch a new free paper which you can't even pick up at one of the biggest train stations in London?

After moving on from Roy Greenslade's blog I also read Gordon MacMillian's blog on the advertising website Brand Republic. He actually had copies in front of him and described the paper as 'shocking'

Today I had a look at the papers website which you can find at www.thelondonweekly.co.uk . Under the headline 'London Weekly Finally Launched Today' the Sports Writer & Co-Founder of Global Publishing Group and the London Weekly, Tony Woodcock commented:

"Anyone who expects perfection for a brand new launch is practically living in a dreamworld. We are very content with the thousands of support we have had from readers who have picked up a copy this morning and this is our main focus to cater for the audience who want to grow with us as we keep improving issue after issue".

I don't think anyone is expecting perfection, but being able to spell peoples names correctly on the front page of your first edition isn't asking too much is it?

When I look at the launch of The London Weekly it makes me think 'either do something properly or don't do it at all!' Admittedly the paper has time to improve but surely they don't have that much time to produce a quality product. But for me it still goes back to the original point I made a few weeks ago. Does London really need another free sheet? If it does, The London Weekly isn't it.

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The First New Media Election

I found out today that the Media Society is holding an event next month at City University looking at the role of new media in this year's general election.

I've booked my place for the event which is taking place on 2 March 2010. At the start of the year I was thinking about this year's election, and about how this will be the first time that people will be able to follow and report on a general election through social media such as blogs, twitter, and facebook.

I've always been really into politics, but I'm looking forward to this election for a number of reasons. The impact of social media on this election being one of them.
The panel will include BBC political editor Nick Robinson, and is chaired by the BBC's Evan Davis.

You can find out more details of the event here.

Look out for my blog post on this early next month.

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Charlie Brooker - Newswipe

At the weekend a friend of mine suggested that I watch Newswipe, the BBC4 programme presented by Charlie Brooker. The way my friend described it, it sounded like a satirical review at the news media. I like reading Brooker's columns in the Guardian, so I decided to watch an episode on the BBC's iPlayer.

I have to say this programme is brilliant! Anyone with an interest in how the media produces and reports the news should have a look at this show. I've downloaded a clip from last week's episode which I thought was hilarious!

If you want to know how to produce a standard news item, take a look at this clip. It ticks every box!



After watching this clip it makes you realise just how lazy and formulaic so many news reports really are!

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