Live blog: It’s a great time to be a journalist – Open data, storytelling and more @greghadfield #bfong
Greg Hadfield came to Brighton Future of News Group on our first birthday.
Quotes George Orwell from Decline of the English Murder and other essays.
He explains he wants to talk about why we want to write, how painful it is.
It’s like pulling teeth with every deadline.
Why be a journalist?
Egotism
Get back on grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood.
Perception of beauty.
Sound on another, prose on a window pane.
When first decided to become a journalist thought of George Orwell. Wondered where George Orwell went in Barnsley, he stayed with NUM members working down the pit.
Greg went along 50 years later and found the granddaughter of the householder.
Sharing where I come from because it informs what we do.
Talking about data, but people think data journalism is cool and trendy, but in The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell tracked down the wages, the bills the earnings, he listed them in tables.
He did the same in Spain in Homage to Catalonia, it became journalism.
I came to journalism to change the world. Wanted to write a 4,000 word article to change the world.
Greg wrote about women’s right to choose for the Wakefield Express and met his wife at the rally where he researched.
Went to the prison, wrote about the NUM, the pit, Labour MPs, thought he was following George Orwell during his work at the Wakefield Express.
Working for the Western Morning News to cover nuclear test veterans.
Asked “who transcribed your recording?” No one, was the answer, and he found the envelope with his files on the story written in his own shorthand.
In those folders was data from every veteran Greg met who witnessed the Christmas Island nuclear tests he met in Plymouth.
There were hand-written surveys, shorthand notes, the lot, all the data on two envelopes. Back then the stories were typed up on carbon paper.
Greg produced copies of his original pages showing the articles he wrote about 600 people from Devon and Cornwall who suffered after witnessing the nuclear tests in the Pacific.
Through his interviews he discovered the children and grandchildren of the veterans have deformities. He drove up and down Devon and Cornwall to find the data and the story continues.
Think how much easier it would have been in the data was available. If there was a social network where people could share their experiences. The data was being amassed in academic and health journals and stories weren’t making it in to newspapers.
That data related to people’s lives, collating it. Imagine if there was a database.
It would be so much easier to do these stories these days.
The Christmas Island story goes on.
Greg commended Argus reporter Tim Ridgeway for his piece about empty homes in The Argus, how many people need a home while many people are homeless.
Orwell did the same thing looking at homelessness in Barnsley and Wigan.
One of the things Greg is interested in is using open data in Brighton and Hove to address social issues.
This week we’ve had crime maps. Putting out housing data is very important. The local authority has obligation over private landlords who don’t meet regulations.
Why not publish all that data? Why rely on The Argus printing it once? Curate it, come back to it.
Greg was responsible for the first league tables in The Sunday Times. The release of that data the government kept up with, now people knew where their schools stood.
The crime map doesn’t work in the same way as Chicago or New York police map. No data has been released, it’s closed. We can’t work with it. Police.uk is a single piece of central information.
If we had the data a variety of patterns could emerge, show crime near schools etc.
There is a mass of data about Brighton and Hove. Some of it is hidden away
There is a narrative and story to be told with that data.
Simon Rogers and the data blog at The Guardian is a great thing.
Journalism is better than that, it’s grabbing hold of the data and seeing meaning in it in prose that can change the world.
These days Greg does understand why The Argus doesn’t spend two pages of expensive newsprint on planning applications.
Why can’t we have a planning site similar to a My Society project for Brighton and Hove?
People talk about the internet as a global platform, it’s transformed my life.
He produced Soccernet when there were 600 websites on the internet.
Greg Hadfield with the computer used to create Soccernet
Brighton back in 1995 had two ISPs, and one of them was used by Greg’s 12-year-old son who came up with the idea to put football results online.
The site was written manually in HTML on an old computer, which Greg brought along to show everyone. Now he has set up his first WordPress blog in 10 minutes. How times have changed.
I think open data is changing our lives for good.
When there were 600 websites in the world, and Soccernet was one of them, people didn’t know what to do.
The semantic web will change things. It could be changed by a 12-year-old boy in Brighton or a tech ace in Bombay.
People living and loving in Brighton and Hove can create a new form of journalism using the semantic web and data and produce something George Orwell would have been delighted with.
Q&A
I do believe there’s never been a better time to be a journalist but it is a rubbish time for newspapers.
Brighton is a great place to be a journalist now.
(A little crash meant I couldn’t note Greg explaining how great the internet is for journalism, individuals working on their own or within organisations using data).
You have to have drive. Individuals can do their bit.
Work for a newspaper, work for an NGO and get information to do something world changing.
Working with HIV AIDS Alliance in Hove.
Can you setup a blog and change the world? It’s very difficult.
Looking at the miners then, now wonders where the journalism about the homeless, the marginalised living on council estates?
Greg would like to see embedded journalism within the community. Live the life of the community. Working at the Wakefield Express he was living and working with miners.
There are great causes to fight. Every generation of journalists has their campaigns to fight.
In Brighton it’s the housing and social housing situation. We need to shed light and publish data about it.
Who has the most to lose from open data?
The council and the police will gain from releasing data. It’s a weight off their backs. The democratically elected organisations have little to lose and everything to gain.
Those who exploit ignorance have something to lose.
Releasing information about exploitation means the exploiters will lose and everyone will gain. From bankers bonuses to Rackman style landlords, get the information out.
Data is the start but there’s the optimism to create something.
Brighton and Hove buses has one app built by a developer in his spare time when the information was released. to him Portland, Oregon, information released and numerous apps created.
Let’s release the data and have 1, 000 flowers blossoming.
Brighton Buses, Southern Rail, NCP, release the data and we could have an integrated transport system app.
With the information out there, will the data be rendered meaningless by spin?
Yes, it worries me. When we published one piece of information about a school told parents will take it out of context.
But we need to have more faith in the people in the street than the teachers, governors and politicians do
If you publish the immigration stats as open data, there would be different interpretations, graphics and opinions.
Whether the Daily Mail (have worked for) or The Guardian.
Different visualisation and commenting.
We live in a pluralistic society, not one or two media barons, we are thousands.
Data literacy is important. There are different perspectives.
Mentions Ben Goldacre Bad Science, as critical of misunderstanding data.
Today there was a debate about Free Schools. It turns out 76 per cent of schools are good or outstanding. The fact 24 per cent aren’t good can put a different twist on it.
I want to make sense of that data. Don’t want THEM to tell me I’m not intelligent enough to understand that data.
We can all debate that data if it’s out there.
Data isn’t about figures.
Everything can be out there from the trivial to the heavy stuff.
It’s about the individual choosing where they’ll find their helpful and fulfilling stuff.
Lack of outroar about Primark and sweatshops. Do we live in apathetic times?
Do not think we’re living in apathetic times. Don’t think we’re opiated by the mass of information to not be active.
Youth engagement in politics blame young people for not being engaged in politics. Look to thyself. Young people with access to information are fantastic, energetic and want to be engaged.
John Keenan mentions comments where people don’t get it.
Greg wrote Normanton news. Sit in a pub and listen to people talking about the newspapers. Those negative conversations have always gone on.
You don’t hear the conversations now you do hear them online.
On Twitter you’re in tune with people. Look at a hashtag out of your comfort zone and you see everything is out there.
Need to have citizen centred journalism, understanding them and helping people fill a gap to lead more informed lives.
People have always been trolling journalists. Don’t read the comments if you don’t like them.
Anyone can write on the web, would it be better to see a short bit about Wikileaks on BBC News?
Trusted authority of a band, journalists working for a title, is an overwhelming privilege, whatever the title is.
When you write something public there is tremendous issue to be public.
Criticism about big media is they haven’t made the most of human talent giving its all to work in a career to be proud of.
When journalists move their Twitter followers go with them. They’re loyal to the brand.
Get out of jail free card is “my tweets are my own”.
If media companies are lucky the new young journalists will stay with them.
If cities open up their data, make it easy to understand. Say transport data there’s money for people to make apps and sell them. Digital media businesses interested in that.
Who do you see taking on the burden of wading through great swaths of data? Local newspapers? Are people going to take on that responsibility?
Big national news organisations have teams to take it on, but outside of that not much has happened.
Who is going to take that responsibility? Joel Gunter asks
Conrad Quilty-Harper stayed up all night dealing with data for the Telegraph @coneee – Follow him, Greg says.
We, as journalists demand information, then there’s a huge tidal wave of data.
There’s MPs expenses, Wikileaks, miss it but it’s still there.
Need to curate the stuff we’ve got.
Need to say “I’m going to be the expert journalist on housing”.
Will it be journalists? Journalists in big media? NGOs, don’t know.
Now every morning can wake up and see in Google Reader and see a host of information.
Would encourage people to specialise. Think Global act local is the phrase, but Greg doesn’t agree, keep the global perspective, think local, act local, think global act global.
Greg is passionate about education, transport and housing data. Know we have the technology to do something special.
He would love to have tenant advice housing data. Have social recommendations for tenants and landlords.
Isn’t this working a different way around from tradition?Used to start with person. It’s great stuff about people who matter. It’s people telling story then dig out information. Seeking data is horrid. Cathy Watson
Don’t see data in a geeky sort of way. Do see information as data and seeing a patter. Nuclear test dates, son’s birth, granddaughter’s birth, it’s all data.
Good work done digitally and virtually. Google British Nuclear Test Veterans not a lot of stuff has been done since the web started. These stories could be found.
Met a detective who had access to 600 databases. He knew if you had county court orders. It was pre serious stuff. Now we all have access to multiple databases. It’s what we do with them that’s the trick.
Find all the people in Linked In in Brighton and Hove.
Used to go through Who’s Who finding the local people.
Got trainees to go through Who’s Who to find out schools and universities. Got a lead out of it that the majority went to Eton and Oxbridge. Went back 50 years and found it was no different.
It’s data but it’s about real people.
Woodward and Burnstein told to follow the money, still the same – John Keenan.
What skills do journalists need? Data mining rather than shorthand?
You need 120 wpm shorthand. With a recorder you waste so much time trying to find that quote.
Touch typing is good. Greg was the boy in a touch-typing class.
Got to love Excel.
Discovered the delights of Google Fusion.
Compared with how it used to be it’s phenomenal.
Love keynote, love visualising stuff.
Do you need to know PHP, nope.
Couldn’t do his PHD at Oxford, so went back to Barnsley. Went to the same school as Michael Parkinson.
Applied to work for the Barnsley Chronicle didn’t get it. Made apple pies until he went to the Wakefield Express.
JoshR asks what is journalism or reporting?
Reporting is of the moment. Something has happened.
The buzz is interesting, but it’s not the journalism that interests Greg.
Spent two weeks dealing with Rose and Fred West. There was the moving story, then there’s the story behind the story. That is what Greg enjoys.
The two-page spread with the mega headline gives texture to the story.
How is Tunisia these days? Who cares? We’re on to Egypt now. Next stop who knows. There’s a great story to come out of Tunisia. Now the spotlight’s off the journalists there don’t have to write it by 9am.
Rolling news, commodity news agenda. Then you have the iconic journalism.
Have these people on TV who are names. They don’t exist in isolation. Quality journalism is about supporting iconic journalists with people who can help them be who they are.
Sports journalist at the Telegraph asked what he should be doing. Greg response, be yourself in more channels.
Great to see journalists adapting to new environment. Keen to get the journalism out with media.
One of the four motivations of George Orwell, egoism.
Word Nerd viral by News International out today. It promotes something behind the wall.
It’s innovative and should be celebrated.
Whatever you think of The Daily or the pay wall, Word Nerd is something new and innovative.
What do you think about the pay wall?
Don’t like the word wall. Applaud a big media organisation which wants to know about its readers.
Daily Telegraph doesn’t know who its individual readers.
Been using the Telegraph website since 1994, but they wouldn’t know.
With a pay wall they know who I am, where I live and communicating.
The Guardian know who people are.
What do you think about journalists being paid for journalism? Frank LeDuc
Don’t think about business models. Don’t get paid to be a journalist, but part of a machine, bigger picture, bigger business mode.
Don’t write to get paid. Like to get paid, like to be valued.
Brighton open data city and story telling with Greg Hadfield #bfong
Former Fleet Street journalist Greg Hadfield is talking about his idea to make Brighton an open data city and story telling at the February Brighton Future of News Group meeting.
One of the most enjoyable periods of Greg’s professional life was spent at the Wakefield Express and he believes local newspapers are very important to a community. Without them stories are not told and information is not shared.
By opening up data from numerous sources he hopes open data will breathe life into the newspaper industry and find new ways to tell stories.
He presented his ideas at the recent TEDx event in Brighton, and wrote a guest blog about his presentation for Journalism.co.uk
Find out more about Greg’s ideas at the Brighton Future of News Group meet up on Monday, February 7, at The Eagle, 125 Gloucester Road, Brighton, from 7.30pm (upstairs in the function room).
Greg is hosting his own meet up for Open data Brighton and Hove on Tuesday, February 8, at The Quadrant, 12-13 Queens Road, Brighton, from 7.30pm.
Blog list: Josh Halliday at Brighton Future of News Group #bfong
Josh Halliday’s visit to Brighton Future of News Group proved extremely popular.
As well as attracting one of the biggest audiences BFONG has ever seen, Josh’s enthusiasm for newsgathering was infectious.
Blogs written up so far are:
Local journalism – alive, well and working at the nationals by Martin Thomas
How to get a job on a national days after graduating by Paula O’Shea of Journalist Works
From blogger to Guardian reporter: deconstructing Josh Halliday’s x-factor by Chie Elliott
Josh Halliday at #bfong blogging to success
Josh started out on an NCTJ accredited course at Sunderland University, Graduated in June and two weeks later started working at the Guardian.
He was looking for new ideas in journalism when he found the Tomorrows News Tomorrows Journalists forum on Journalism.co.uk, it was all full of American students talking about branding, rather daunting to a lad from Bradford.
“It was a brave new world. Something that wouldn’t be discussed on my degree, so local news focused.”
Josh was reading about personal branding and found “it was more about your name”.
“When you think about how many people graduate a year you have to do something to get ahead.
“From there I flung myself into it. I wasn’t an early adopter. Went on Twitter in December 2008, found myself blogging about journalism education.”
Josh set up a European-wide chat about journalism education, only interesting to “five geeky people” in the US and Europe.
He started blogging from there, ingratiating into the right circles and finding people in the realm of media and technology.
“From there you get talking to people who wouldn’t usually give an undergraduate the time of day.
“To talk to someone like Matt Wells from The Guardian, it was unbelievable. As a foot on the ladder it was like nothing else you’ll come across.
” I was lucky to graduate at a time when Twitter was adopted by people working in newspapers.”
Towards the end of his degree Josh set up a hyperlocal website SR2 blog, as his final project.
Going out and meeting people Josh learned more than he did in the classroom.
“Meeting people, having conversations with people was so much more interesting.”
Through the SR2 blog he found people weren’t getting the local coverage from their local paper.
However, Josh had to print out copies of stories and take them to meetings as many people weren’t online.
Josh didn’t know what he was going to do after university, but was invited down to The Guardian and took part in a student podcast. Then he was invited on a tour. Then he was invited down again and was told it would be more formal.
When he arrived he found he was in a job interview and didn’t know what the job was.
He was asked what two questions he would ask Steve Jobs, and ended up being offered a job.
Was so flustered he can’t remember what the question was.
Josh said The Guardian had cut back too much and hired half a reporter in him.
The secret is:
“Work hard, have no friends and do as much extra curricular stuff you can do, particularly your own journalism.
“Anyone can work for the university paper, but setting up on your own, writing news for people who matter is so much better.
“University news is so Teflon-wrapped there’s so much more from real news.”Josh Halliday at Brighton Future of News Group
Assange live blog
Josh had been up working since 7.30am and was shaking, but the buzz of running the live blog, hearing the news breaking and putting it out was amazing.
Wikileaks Cables
Searching through the cables can lead to great stories.
” It’s a goldmine, there are stories at every turn.”
“The way the news has covered them there are stories which would have terrible ramifications for countries which would have been back in the paper were dominating the news agenda for the first 12 pages of the paper.”
How does doing a live blog differ from normal news stories? Is there a weakness?
“It’s captivating. It doesn’t take any stories away from the paper. The live blog is done by someone who isn’t writing the story.
“It’s a genuine snapshot of a moment in time. It shows when something came out to the rest of the world. Now you know the time.
“If we didn’t do it everyone else would do it. Can’t be seen to be a step behind on a story.”
Is there a downside with people expecting stories to be broken by Twitter and live blogs. There’s a competition to break it, it’s so intense.
“There is room for it to develop, but it won’t calm down yet. Can see with the Yeates story, it may have ruined the landlord’s life. That didn’t happen because of the internet but it’s the demand of the newsdesk.
It will reach a tipping point that went too far, where no one considers the laws of libel or contempt.”
Legal and live blog
“First thing I asked was where’s the McNaes? Always run something past a senior. It’s hard when the Twitter stream is on one side and the CMS is on the other.
“Screen grabs are a worry.
How do you pick up a live blog when there’s so much information around?
“The Guardian loves its live blogs, but investigations are close to the knuckle. Even broadsheets can be full of innuendo.”
Live blog in house software or do you prefer off the shelf like Scribblelive or CIL?
“Don’t think off the shelf with community would work with investigations.
“For G20 or student protest? Can be just noise, but you could be letting in one in every 50. The way it works now, particularly with the football live blogs there’s a great deal of reader interaction.”
How did he set up his own blog?
No advertising just social media. Sunderland page on Facebook with 70,000 fans. It out-performed the local paper every day. Got into the group and that helped spread the word. Just set up in WordPress.
Have to be patient.
SR2 blog was about 900 unique user a month for quite a small patch. Quite a few uus from the Sunderland Echo building.”
How did you define your patch? Why 1 1/2 square miles and not the county or town?
Looked to see “what is SR2?” Made it quite difficult for elections, but that was a good thing. It was four or five council wards and ended up being split between two parliamentary constituencies. It was a bit slap dash start up, just jumped into it one day in two hours.
Came up with the name and then SR2 blog became the brand, the concept and the audience.
Tried to do as much off-diary stuff as possible. Used council RSS feeds, used advanced Google search to find the background and history. Information the Echo reporters didn’t have time to find.
Why weren’t people on your course interested in local news?
“Quite a few people wanted to be entertainment writers, sports, the next Charlie Brooker. No one wanted to be a local news reporter.
Most people on the course were from the north east, thought they would be interested in the local area.
No one wanted to be involved in the uni mag. Most don’t have jobs now. Most don’t want to start at the bottom of the ladder.”
How did you find out how popular stories were?
Just used Google analytics. Saw enough to see what was going on each day.
Frank Le Duc: “Google analytic now shows you right down to the stories.”
Richard Gurner also has a wordpress plug in with Google analytics and WordPress stats.
Is hyperlocal the future of news for regional reporting?
“I would love to think so. It’s the best option for the punter on the street, but there should be more working together between the regional BBC, universities and local newspapers.”
Never seen any fruit from talk of local media coming together.
The future is networked journalism, but who knows.”
Wanted to work more closely with Sunderland Echo, had a great relationship with Lee Hall working on maps etc. but it didn’t happen higher up.
Paula O’Shea, Brighton Journalists Works, “All trainees have a patch and will be reporting for The Argus, where should they start”?
Sunderland Police had neighbourhood areas. It’s a goldmine for stories. Everything there is reportable. When Josh went there were half a dozen pensioners in a church hall and a couple of coppers, “brilliant stories with tips and leads you can chase up.”
Build a reputation with chief of police for the area. In Sunderland the chief would do crime breakdown to street level and Josh would pinpoint on a map. Police are a wealth of information.
How did police press office feel about the map?
Boss knew Josh was doing it. Wasn’t being revolutionary, police knew he was going along to meetings as a person/journalism. Did it for months without complaints.
When police crackdowns didn’t work officers would talk about it. It was down to personal relationships. One thing you don’t get taught is how to have a conversation and get on with them without seeming to be trying to get a story out of them.
RG – Pressures meant couldn’t get out and felt didn’t go enough getting out and about and meeting people. It is a key reason to be a journalist to meet people. A priviledge to enter peoples lives during stressful or funny times.
Rich Waghorn asked via Twitter about keeping SR2 blog going
Changes in personnel at the university, a new job and a multitude of pressures meant it hasn’t survived.
Changing style for audience?
Now he writes about gadgets he, his friends and people he used to write for could never afford.
“To do good technology reporting is to know how it impacts peoples lives not how it influences other tech companies. Write for people.”
Compare to SR2 blog, Hendon is an area of deprivation, former shipyards. Terrible live expectancy, unemployment and crime. On the other side was a middle class Conservative area.
Didn’t see Echo reporters because they weren’t working on a patch, cut back so much just too much.
Sunderland Echo has a massive patch up to Durham and Northumberland.
Reporters want to do the best they can. How often do they get out of the office?
Tips for blog
Search for area and find questions about dry cleaners. If you can answer that question then they come back.
Just talk to people, get to know people. Follow up stories in the paper by adding something new.
How did he get into the election count?
Made friends with candidates and got an invitation from the local Labour Party. Sunderland Central is the first place to declare and Josh was desperate to be the first to report it. BBC with big cameras, Josh with his little Flip cam. He could see the lead and was Tweeting the information.
Greg Hadfield, admires Josh for joining The Guardian having followed his career and asks Where do you see yourself in five years time?
Would love to be a local reporter, working in an area he loves reporting about an area.
Greg Hadfield: “One of the most interesting time of my life was on local newspapers. Leading campaign for Brighton and Hove to become an open data city in the UK.
“If Brighton and Hove can become an open data city then we would have the bedrock of information and data to lead local journalism.
“Leave My Society and get journalism built around the data with the police, council, buses etc. ”
Have the energy of local journalism “the most satisfying journalism in the world”, but lead the active citizens.
“Brighton is the grooviest place in the UK.” Greg Hadfield
Future of papers and digital?
Papers stay around but the digital develops. Habits are shifting.
People still enjoy reading a paper. Can read more widely.
RSS Reader?
Josh uses Google Reader, follows a range of tech, media, What Do They Know and Leeds United.
Guardian still shows the whole story on RSS feeds.
Agreed by the working journalists use Google Alerts and RSS feeds.
Get asked how to get into journalism. Would you have got your job without your degree?
“I knew what I wanted to do. Enjoyed English and sociology and wanted to be a journalist. It was the bedrock but didn’t prepare you for the full-on experience of working in a newspaper.”
People can get in without but not sure how.
Would you have been doing what you were doing without the degree or were your credentials needed|?
“Guardian needed me to be as much of a reporter as possible. Needed me to be able to write a story and ring people up, not something a music graduate would be able to do.”
Blogs have grabbed Alan Rusbridger’s attention such as Dan Sabbagh’s Beehive City.
Josh Halliday – Blogging his way to success
The Guardian’s media and technology junior reporter Josh Halliday graduated this year and went straight into a prestigious job on a national. How did he do it? Traditional hard graft but in a multi-media world.
Journalists in the Twittersphere have been aware of @JoshHalliday his ideas, projects and work, for some time.
He developed the SR2 Hyperlocal blog, breaking news stories before the local daily and winning awards for it.
In October Josh was part of a panel of young journalists speaking to City University about how blogging helped them get jobs.
Read the Media Flair blog about the event here
Josh will be talking about his blogs and how he developed as a journalist by starting from scratch. He found his niche and was working in the right way at the right time.
If we’re lucky we might find out what The Guardian media and tech team think is the next big thing.
Sign up for the meeting at The Eagle in Gloucester Road, Brighton, from 7.30pm on Monday, December 6 January 17, through the Meet Up group.
Do online writers and community reporters need help with the law?
Brighton Community Reporters has invited Brighton Future of News Group members to join its December meeting – Staying Legal: Online Writers and the Law and community reporters’ surgery.
The meeting is on Wednesday, December 1, at Community Base in Queens Road, Brighton, from 7pm. Please confirm via the group’s site bhcrdecember2010.eventbrite.com
Do online writers and community reporters need help with the law? If so where will that help come from?
Judith Townend, co-founder and original organiser of BFONG, surveyed 71 UK-based online writers, who publish independently or for sites with fewer than 10 employees, to recount their interactions with UK law. The majority of the respondents write about specific topical issues or cover local (or hyperlocal) news.
Judith will review the findings and offer signposts to the most useful resources. Read more about her work on her website at www.meejalaw.com
Could you give help and advice to a community reporter?
BFONG members are invited to help give advice and gentle criticism of Brighton Community Reporters work.
Telling tales and sharing skills with #BFONG
Brighton Future of News Group (BFONG) is taking over an empty shop in Shoreham-by-sea.
The Agora empty shop project part of the national Empty Shops Network based in Worthing.
In June Dan Thompson came to BFONG to talk about how the Empty Shops Network started out and, through the use of social media, has expanded from a local project to a national movement.
During the session Dan set a challenge and on Saturday, October 16, it will be fulfilled when BFONG members host a day in the life of Shoreham and skills sharing workshop at Agora.
Visitors from 11am until 4pm can share memories and thoughts of Shoreham, tell their stories, and bring in items of interest.
Videos, text, photographs, and audio records of each visit will be uploaded to shorehambfongproject.tumblr.com
The skills sharing workshops offers help to null who would like to tighten up their Facebook privacy, learn how to blog, use Twitter, and basic digital picture editing.
A social media surgery is also on offer for voluntary groups and charities which would like to enhance the organisation’s profile on the internet.
Brighton Future of News Group at Agora Empty Shop in Shoreham, is on Saturday, October 16 from 11am until 4pm. There will be biscuits.
October meeting (postponed), podcasting with @vobes #bfong
Richard Vobes is Britain’s most prolific podcaster, broadcasting daily from a beach hut in Worthing.
His shows are a mix of conversation, history, beer, food and anything that springs to Richard’s mind.
The Vobes Show is online daily at www.vobes.com
In addition to the daily show subscribers to the Vobes Vault can listen to Naked Englishman podcast.
Richard will talk about his podcasting experiences, the methods he favours and equipment and answer questions about his shows at BFONG on Monday, October 11 from 7.30pm at The Eagle pub function room
Due to an unexpected freelance job Richard has had to postpone his visit to BFONG, but will return.
What would you like to learn? #bfong
WHAT are the skills needed for success in media today? This was the key question discussed at Brighton Future of News Group’s September meeting.
Suzanne Kavanagh from Skillset spoke about the organisation’s current research into the skills required for working in the media today.
The research is ongoing, but headlines coming out so far include:
“People expect free content”
“Digital £1 of ad spend is worth less than £1 of print ad spend”
“Rise of news entrepreneur and hyperlocal”
“How to aggregate and distribute content”
“How to use data”
… and many others.
During the group discussions it was generally agreed that core skills for any writer, publishing in print or on the web, needs a fundamental understanding of libel and copyright law just to protect themselves. This is in addition to the ability to write.
It was agreed shorthand a useful skill but essential for journalists.
Understanding social media, blogging, coding and the internet were among the new skills writers need to master to get ahead in the modern world.
During the discussion Adam Oxford said he would like to learn more about data visualisation, whereas Paul Watson would like to improve his media sales and marketing skills.
Following on from the discussions what we would like to do with BFONG is discover what skills members want to learn and then match people who can teach others.
Brighton Future of News blog 