Simon Says...

Capture Cardiff

SimonPusey@gmail.com (Simon Says) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:47:00 +0000

It first appeared in the UK a year and a half ago; on September 12th 2007 Northern Rock collapsed and went into administration. For many this signalled the start of the (now all too familiar) term: Credit crunch. Almost exactly a year later Freddie Mac and Fannie May were bailed out by the U.S government.

Since then the media has been awash with financial jargon: Toxic debt, leverage, recapitalisation, recession and accompanying these terms have been articles, columns, features, reports and surveys explaining how such specialist terminology affects you, me, and the average Joe.

So we've heard from emotional Woolies employees, seen factory workers marching through Merthyr Tydfil and read about immanent job losses (see picture to the right), all in a bid to relate to their audience. To report the effects, rather than the complex process, of our current financial state.

But one portion of society have once again been left out in the cold.

Street workers have never received much media attention. Charity workers, buskers and salesmen all represent something we'd rather not think about - being dependent on the generosity and sympathy of others for survival.

So how has toxic debt, leverage, recapitalisation and recession affected these people? Has there been a trickle down process of people tightening their belts? Or are their demands so small that they've been generally unaffected?

I went out to Queen street in Cardiff to find out.

The first person I spoke to actually approached me: The infamous chugger. Henry is a student at Cardiff who has worked for a charity (which he asked remain nameless) every Wednesday for a year and a half.

He told me had had noticed a change in people's habits:

"A lot of people who used to give are now using the credit crunch as an excuse. Often they're holding several bags of shopping, but say - sorry but I can't afford it - which is stupid.

Henry said he now signed up on average eight people a day to give to his charity. A year ago this was more like fifteen.

This makes sense given that a study carried out for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) showed Britons gave 200m less to good causes in 2008 than in 2007.

Friends Osahar and Asim had been busking outside Nat West since 8am. They had only been playing regularly on Queen street for about six months. But even they had seen the effects:

"We used to come here every day. But now we get more for playing in the Dragon (their local pub)."

Further on I met another busker called Peter. He had been in and out of prison after breaking the rules of his ASBO. And despite his frequent claims not to have any idea what was going on in the financial world he was nevertheless well aware of its consequences on him.

Next I met Malak. An Egyptian who is staying with his brother in Newport and sells hats with his girlfriend. Despite the lack of custom I witnessed while I was talking to him, Malak was adamant that for him, things hadn't changed that much.

He also said his hats are so cheap that the economic downturn hasn't influenced people's decisions to buy. A similar trend in consumer spending has been widely reported recently in the retail market, with discount supermarkets like Lidl and Iceland profiting while the more upmarket stores of Waitrose and Marks & Spencers have suffered.

"These are five pounds only. Maybe if I sold expensive things it would be different. But I am OK."

Finally I spoke to Alec from Media Wales. He's been selling the Western Mail and the Echo on Queen street for over three years.

"We used to sell 200 - 250 papers a day. Sometimes maybe 300. Now we're lucky to sell 100."

This grass roots example is typical of the difficulties facing almost all news outlets in Wales. Job cuts have been a common theme during 2008, prompting MP Dai Davies to say that Wales "is becoming a media wasteland" which is "very, very worrying for democracy". On Wednesday 14th January the Trinity Mirror group announced it was merging its Wales and north west England r egions.

I asked Alec whether he was worried for his job security because of this?

"Am I worried? There have been sixty redundancies at Media Wales. And that's in management. So yeah I'm obviously worried."

Thus, the general pattern for street workers appears to mirror every other area of the labour force. Whether intentional or not, the voluntary sector seem less prone to give to those who's office is the highstreet and their livelihood, our custom. Like many of today's bankers, their work has been affected, their job security jeopardized. This forgotten sector remains forgotten. But unlike their high-flying counterparts they have little chance of being bailed out by the government.

From Typewriters to Twitter

SimonPusey@gmail.com (Simon Says) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:35:00 +0000

On Wednesday 3rd December the BBC's technology correspondent, Rory Caitlyn-Jones took the trip back across the Severn Bridge to lecture in Cardiff.

After reminiscing about his time as a student, he described the journalism world he first entered - the 1980's news team: A huge operation with dozens of cameramen, sound men, engineers and technicians. Reporters were flexible and editors were gods of the newsroom.

All of this had the slight whiff of 'golden age' journalism about it. But his point was that in today's chaotic multi-media environment, everyone is doing everyone else's job by comparison. Cameramen used to be cameramen, and sound men did, well sound stuff. The big teams of the 80's have shrunk while production demands have intensified.

I'd like to think the development of the young multi-skilled, multi-platform 'super' journalist is the reason for these cuts in personnel. Or the advance of technology and mans success in harnessing it. But money makes the world go round and the new corporate Murdoch's of the industry have probably a larger part to play.

Nonetheless this brave new fragmented world represents a massive opportunity to get your voice heard. While newspaper sales and TV news ratings are plummeting, websites, social networking sites, and blogs all illustrate the huge opportunity for savvy journalists to increase their broadcasting space.

Adam Curtis, world editor of the BBC News website echo's these sentiments when discussing the power of the Internet after they ran a story of a Sudanese man marrying a goat:

"It seems to be a fine example of the viral nature of the web. A story is picked up and passed on to an ever growing circle of readers – a sort of chain letter in cyberspace".

This leads me to my next topic - give them what they want. Rory told us that 'Man marries goat' is still the most popular story on BBC Online. So where's the problem? It's cheap to run. It's safe to run. It livens up the website with a bit of whimsy. And most importantly, it gives the people what they want.

Unfortunately this growing trend means less time, resources and importance dedicated to stories that matter - those under-reported stories like the 1 million refugees in Somali a in 2007 or the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008.

This notoriously defines tabloid coverage, expressed perfectly in a memo from the news editor of the Sunday Express, Jim 'Mad Dog' Murray, which was leaked in the summer of 2003: "We are aiming to have six sex stories a week". The most obvious impact of 'give them what they want' is that it promotes the trivial: Foreign is boring, war is depressing, and both are expensive.

But this is nothing new. A predacessor of mine in the broadcast group - Tom Williams - wrote a piece detailing the lecture of the then Head of BBC News Interactive, Pete Clifton in 2006

"He revealed that of the 500 or so videos that are put on the BBC News website every week - many of which are gleaned from user-generated content. The most popular tend to be the 'wacky' ones. As a result of their popularity, they appear in the day's 'Most Popular Stories' box - which is on the BBC News front page - prompting viewing figures to escalate further."

So editors are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to deciding their running orders: surrender editorial judgement to the pressures of consumer demand, or risk low viewing figures in the name of traditional news values. Unfortunately under the present financial cloud, I think the, "if we can sell it, we'll tell it" attitude will continue to prevail.

Images used courtesy of 'Demosh' at: www.flickr.com/photos/44222307@N00/1477086299/
and 'Monika's Dad' at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/virtualsugar/371619351/in/photostream/

Si Pusey Ltd

SimonPusey@gmail.com (Simon Says) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:47:00 +0000

Brands originated in the 19th century with the advent of packaged goods. Industrialization moved the production of household items, such as soap, from local communities to centralized factories.

Coca cola is just one of many brands today that has worldwide fame. The company is so brand-savvy that it has people all over the world calling for the return of its infamous 'Holidays are Coming' advert. "Its not Christmas till these come on" (hazabean) is typical of the feedback left below the video, such is the extent to which Coke has mastered its image.

And today even lowly journalism students like myself are being urged to think of ourselves as brands.

This weeks guest lecturer, Rick Waghorn, told us he believes many of his readers simply transferred from the Norwich Evening News to his new creation - MyFootballWriter.com. The reason: because he had become their football writer. The man they knew, trusted and everyday, read. For them he had become bigger than his employer, a brand in his own right.

I was surprised in a lecture to a group of aspiring journalists, and on the topic of brands, Rick failed to mention an increasingly important concept: Brand Journalism. The term was dubbed by Larry Light, McDonald's chief marketing officer at the AdWatch:Outlook 2004 conference. A definition of the term is to think of it as "the end of brand positioning as we know it"; put simply, effective marketing should use many stories rather than employing one message to reach everyone.

In our evolving sphere of the multi-platform, this message seems most apt. Our brand should mean different things to different people. We should cater for different needs and demands especially when the consumer is so fragmented. By recognizing that we're better served by adapting ourselves to customer requirements instead of preaching a "position," the journalists of tomorrow should be on the right track with brand journalism.

The idea of a barter economy was one that immediately grabbed my attention: Something that saves money by reducing syndication and wire costs, giving readers the best content while supporting journalism at its source.

Google has certainly done OK through its methods of link bartering earning it a $122 billion market cap. However, as Donna Bogatin argues, the only guaranteed winner in its link barter based business model is the Californian based search engine, which shrewdly barters links to maintain its hefty profit margins.

However it does seem to go against a lot of what we've previously been told. Surely our present course is all about preparing us for a multi-platform approach to journalism. Giving us the skills to handle a camera, write in short-hand, keep a blog, operate a radio desk, and so forth.

Nonetheless present infrastructure does appear to be increasingly prone to share and link to other peoples work. PA and other news agency journalists replaced the former artillery of men with clip-boards in the newsroom. Similarly media corporations are encouraging its former audience to get involved and participate with its output. Within this sphere Newspapers in Ohio are leading the way:

"Eight of the largest newspapers in the US state of Ohio have forged an alliance to share their top stories... the papers will now post content to private website - accessible only to those eight newsrooms - from which partner organisations will be able to select pieces to use"

As Rick Waghorn says, “swallow your pride and just get into bed with them.”

Images Courtesy of: tattoodjj at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tattoodjay/2569446073/
And: Fer..'s at http://www.flickr.com/photos/fernandocarmona/2450475324/

Newspaper Communities

SimonPusey@gmail.com (Simon Says) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:30:00 +0000

"Don't bother blogging less than four times a week".

Is it just me or was this advice by Shane Richmond, the Communities Editor of the Telegraph, the most valuable gems of information we've had yet in our online lectures?

For the first time someone has told us, in the simplest of ways, the commitment we should be prepared to make if we are to survive in a multi-media news environment.

And as we have been told repeatedly, this means any of us who want to work in modern journalism.

And he has a point. I blog once a week at most, and the biggest response I've ever had is three comments, one person of whom, is only doing his job.

So I've decided to up the anti. I will from this day forth be starting a sports blog. A witty, yet meaningful name is yet to be decided upon, but into this I shall pour my heart and soul - pictures, videos, links (all referenced correctly of course) and maybe even a cheeky podcast or or two.

Why so keen? The juxtaposition from negative absent mindedness to earnest enthusiasm within this sphere is due to Shane's next comment:

"They work best when they're opinionated". Finally after weeks of: "it's not opinion it's discussion", "report the facts, not your interpretation of them", I can cling onto this one thought.

Firstly I'm not sure how much discussion can arise without opinion to start the process in motion. Secondly I don't want to sit on the fence while giving both sides of the debate. Objectivity is the great myth of journalism. The idea that a good newspaper or broadcaster simply collects and reproduces the objective truth.

What people mean when they think of objectivity is neutrality. Neutrality requires the journalist to become invisible, to refrain deliberately from expressing the judgements which are essential for journalism.

The former Sunday Times writer Nicholas Tomalin put it neatly in a feature about reporting:

"The idea of a 'fact' is so simplistic. It is a lie. Facts are not sacred. The moment any reporter begins to write his story, he has selected some and not others, and has distorted the situation".

Opinion is interesting. Opinion breeds debate. Claiming to be impartially listing statistics doesn't work for me. "Politicians cling to statistics like a drunk clings to a lamp-post: always for support but never for illumination". An ingenious phrase from a debate on Radio 5 Live yesterday, although regrettably I failed to catch the name of the interviewee.

Chris Ahearn, president of Reuters Media, believes once we've got over our current crisis of confidence we'll realise this is a golden age of journalism. One of the examples he gives is through the use of blogging - a source of liberation for the contracted journalist to step outside the constraints imposed by his/her employer.

And I shall being doing likewise. So stay tuned for some opinionated sports talk, at least 4 times a week...well, maybe.

Images courtesy of: cambodia4kidsorg at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/beeskneesindustries/

And Cate Anevski at http://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/267060150/

Blogging

SimonPusey@gmail.com (Simon Says) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:36:00 +0000

Blogging about blogging - how incestuous. But it doesn't matter. Apparently we're all wasting our time. Blogging is dead according to Paul Boutin in a piece he wrote for Wired magazine:

“The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.”

Adam Tinworth would have probably pointed Paul towards Robert Peston or Andrew Marr's blogs. The usage of BBC blogs now outstrips that of the BBC’s own corporate site. According to the BBC, 70 BBC News and BBC Sport editors made 500 posts and received over 30,000 comments from readers in response in 2006-2007.

However one of the biggest gaps in the BBC’s use of blogs seems to be the lack of engagement with the audience. As Adam today maintained - blogging is a discussion, not opinion. BBC blogs get thousands of comments, but their writers rarely respond. That’s an opportunity missed, not just by the BBC but by many mainstream media blogs.

But I was frustrated by Adam's inability to answer my question: Instead of disagreeing with me on the subject that broadcasters aren't as free to publish opinion as our print counterparts - a fact that has been drummed into us over a number lectures - I would have appreciated his thoughts on whether a broadcast journalist is limited by his employer when it comes to blogging.

For example if Kay Burley were to start criticising Gordon Brown's policy on immigration in a blog, no matter whether this is defined as 'opinion' or 'discussion', it would surely make her position as an impartial, fair, balanced, presenter of the 'news' untenable.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated...

(Image used courtesy of Beth Kanter at http://flickr.com/photoscambodia4kidsorg cambodia4kidsorg)

Digital Storytelling

SimonPusey@gmail.com (Simon Says) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:28:00 +0000

Digital stories are a powerful means of allowing the voice of the average Joe to be heard. They are told in the storyteller’s own words, and combine still images, a narrator and sometimes music.

They offer a unique and creative tool for working with individuals and communities in discussing difficult, personal or educational topics. And they can be produced by people that have no previous skill in using computers, taking pictures or telling stories.

But the real brilliance of digital storytelling lies in it's simplicity. In a world where we are continually bombarded by images, sounds, videos and graphics the digital story comes as a welcome relief. The contrast to it's more advanced technical buddies is striking. It offers an honest account of a tale important to the author with a childlike innocence which is rarely seen in today's media age.

Network Journalism

SimonPusey@gmail.com (Simon Says) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:12:00 +0000

“Networked journalism takes into account the collaborative nature of journalism: professionals and amateurs working together to get the real story, linking to each other across various social and geographical boundaries to share facts, questions, answers, ideas and perspectives. It recognizes the complex relationships that make news. And it focuses on the process more than the product". (Jeff Jarvais)

Network journalism by definition seems to rest its fate on two principles: First - the "wisdom of the crowd," the notion that a large network of people will have a collective intelligence that is greater than any single reporter. The second is "crowdsourcing". In this case crowdsourcing is the idea that a group of people will be able to tackle a large investigation in a more efficient manner than a single reporter.

It seems to me that journalism has always been a network of different shapes and sizes. ‘Old boys’ networks have existed for centuries. Sources - named and unnamed, PR people, experts, activists, editors and friends and colleagues have been in place for just as long. What seems to be happening now is it’s becoming more transparent and accessible. Not so much a bigger network than a more ‘public’ one.

“The idea of the 'foreign correspondent', sent off to a strange land to report on the activities of the “natives” for the benefit of those who require their strange customs to be interpreted and sanitised is a relic of a pre-network age.” (Bill Thompson)

Revenge of the Experts

SimonPusey@gmail.com (Simon Says) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:14:00 +0000

Citizens are increasingly active in the media/journalism world. Google, Youtube and Wikipedia have all contributed a punch to the dead arm of traditional journalism by feeding off user generated content. With this, professionals slow to keep up with the times, have for many years, been relegated to the gutter.

But a shift is occurring. The pendulum is swinging.

- In December of 2007 Google carried out its final test of a new wiki called 'Knol'. This professional alternative to Wikipedia is produced by "authoritative" sources who share the advert revenue generated by their entries.

- One month later BigThink.com, a self styled "Youtube for big ideas" was launched. The site, backed by Harvard president Larry Summmers, is a chance for new and opinionated voices to take on world leaders, academics and experts on an array of topics. "We think there's demand for a nook of cyberspace where depth of knowledge and expertise reign," says cofounder Victoria Brown.

- A few weeks later Mahalo launched the final test version of its search engine. The idea replaces Google's 'popularity based' page rankings, with more quality controlled results. For example if you enter 'Paris hotels' into Google, the search engine returns 18 million pages. Put the same request into Mahalo and you get the "Mahalo Top 7," a list of big-name sites, including Frommer's, Fodor's and Lonely Planet.

- The decade old reference site About.com says its traffic has rocketed by 80% in the past 3 years due to the nature of its sources. 670 freelance journalist 'experts' are employed called 'guides' to inform and enlighten enquisative clients. The site hires them based on their education and experience and pays them according to the page views they generate - many 'guides' earn 6 figure sums for their efforts.

- Finnish news publisher 'Sanoma Digital' has recently launched their new user generated website - Varitti.fi. Varitti editors publish stories and breaking news items without pictures while encouraging users to send in their own amateur shots. Those that manage to get published are paid. The technique has so far seen Varitti break the news of the train fire in Helsinki with passengers uploading pictures to the site from inside the train. One of the first pictures of the Jokela school shootings was also published by the site; sent by a witness on her mobile phone. These pictures were then bought by the sites editors and sold to publications and media outlets all over the world.

The expert is back.

http://knol.google.com/k
http://www.bigthink.com
http://www.mahalo.com/
http://www.about.com/
http://www.sanoma.com/
http://www.newsweek.com/id/119091

Across The Threshold

SimonPusey@gmail.com (Simon Says) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:33:00 +0000

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein made the famous observation, "If a lion could talk, we would not understand him." The point being that the social world a lion occupies is so far removed from the one we inhabit, that any form of communication would immediately be rendered impossible. This explanation is not meant to patronise, but serves only as a precaution; I have heard a man in his 40s respond, "Even if it's English?".

I was reminded of Wittgenstein's aphorism as I was bombarded by computer jargon in last week's online journalism lecture. Flickr, Twitter, Wiki, Widgit, Mento, Django. These are sounds not words. At the very most they vaguely resemble a rival family to the Telly Tubbies. And until I've had their shorthand outlines rhythmically drummed into me by Marlene, this sceptical attitude to online journalism shall remain. Fortunately we're currently learning crucial language like 'chip-pan' and 'frontage', so I've probably got a while.

But the problem is I don't. It was way back in April 2005, a time when I'm pretty sure pogs were still all the rage, that Rupert Murdoch told a group of American newspaper editors in no uncertain terms they were doomed: "Today's teens, twenty- and thirty-somethings, don't want to rely on a god-like figure from above to tell them what's important"..."as an industry, many of us have been remarkably, unaccountably, complacent.”

"The Times They Are A-Changing". And I am becoming increasingly aware that if I maintain this stubborn, childish campaign I'm going to get left behind. My new journalism friends will be far too busy twittering their Japanese counterparts in Tokyo about the advantages of the most recent 'Wiki-wig-wog' social networking system to bother with old school face-to-face interaction.
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It's been three days and I think I've made progress. Rather than pay £2.00 and read £0.01 worth of the Sunday Times in it's traditional version, I decided to digest AA Gill's column on the Times' online page instead. I also got stuck into the podcasts on the Guardian unlimited website. This was the scene of my Revelation. I'd found the diagnosis for my scepticism: The story never ends.

Below each podcast is a comments section. My particular choice happened to have 4657 comments below it. Thus the dialogue is never ending. The argument never over. The debate never closed. The God complex that Murdoch referred to in 2005 is turned on its head. Now you've got Geoffrey drunkenly stumbling through the pearly gates into heaven, puffing on his crack pipe and telling God that he should have bloody well taken 8 days to create the world.

Worse than this is the realisation that as a journalist you are no longer the teller of the tale or the narrator of the story. No longer can you write an article or produce a two way without a barrage of comment, critique or assessment. It is this warm comfy structure of the column and the documentary that gives journalism its appeal. A beginning, a middle, and most importantly, an end. It's easy, it's digestible and for decades it's worked.

So I've signed up to picker and ticky and wangadoo. My scepticism suppressed in the name of survival. Now all I need is a half decent conversation with the lion.