Posts Tagged ‘journalism’
Live blog: Innovation at a hyperlocal with Joseph Stashko and Andy Halls
Joseph Stashko and Andy Halls were inspired by Josh Halliday‘s work with the SR2 hyperlocal blog when they started off with a blog called My Preston, and then took over Blog Preston from Ed Walker.
They started out with the general election, live blogging, and got a great deal of acclaim. They then took the blog on.
They reached 10,000 visits a month, were making money from advertising and started experimenting.
Joseph explains how they covered an English Defence League protest which ended up being linked to by numerous news sites, followed the police and reached the EDL’s red list.
They focused on live reporting and Twitter.
Ed started off with a token Facebook page. It has a lot of conversation on it. Lots of people tweet and reshare our stuff.
We knew what looks best on a website and how video works. It’s not like television. It’s a very simple idea. Its local beat reporting but online, giving it a few bells and whistles to make it look good.
Joseph starts to explain Foursquare. “It sounds a bit lame”.
I started up a Blog Preston page on Foursquare with all our restaurant reviews on it. It didn’t need extra work on our behalf.
It was a great way to bring content elsewhere. There are so many free tools, Soundcloud, Storify, Audioboo:
We try to find ways to use these tools rather than just for their own sake.
Andy was told off for tweeting from a council meeting.
All these councillors were saying ‘what you doing, what you doing’? Because of this hyperlocal bloggers have more rights.
They weren’t allowed to sit in the normal press area.
Carrying out readers’ surveys they found people really like the live coverage. They are also able to cover councils because they’re students they can go to meetings at noon.
They have had issues with the name Blog Preston because of the ‘blog’. Wikipedia moderators said they couldn’t be listed as local media, but people from the area came to their defence and said ‘we like Blog Preston’ we read it more than the local paper.
They hold workshops for people interested in getting their stories out into the world. It’s a funded year-long project.
Adam Oxford asks about readers surveys.
We know our readers are aged 30-40 and find us on Google.
Andy : We may be considered digital natives, but we look at what people are looking for. If it’s organic from search engines, or via Twitter and Facebook. We have more followers than the local paper. The click through rate on Facebook is really good.
We’re almost running the Facebook page as a page in itself. We host the local photography club’s pictures. We add the police blog, Preston North End etc. Bring people from around the area in.
We ask where does the reader get where they want to go? You may not get the traffic but you’ll get a loyal reader. They’ll see us as a good source.
We want to be a local news hub.
Joseph is looking at Data journalism. Finding data from numerous sources, police, council etc. and putting it out in the world for people to look at.
Joseph: Money is difficult. Big example is Lichfield Blog. They get a lot of traffic and have more resources. We have the luxury of being students. The advertising model doesn’t reap many rewards.
People say I should charge for social media advice, but that would make me feel dead inside.
Andy: When we introduced advertising we lost our pictures on the top.
Joseph: University praise us, and we know they could do a great job with a huge legal department of law students, a marketing department and lots of journalism students.
Andy: There are all these journalism students who could be going out to do their best. If you take 10 per cent that could be a bigger staff than many newspapers.
Now Andy has left Joseph to run it on his own.
Andy: Even though we get kudos from it and a CV boost, there are 300 journalists [at the university] who aren’t interested.
Joseph: There are only so many Friends repeats I can watch and the Apprentice has finished, so I do Blog Preston. We do more interesting things. Our classes are not innovative, it’s based on newsrooms from 20 years ago. You need to learn this but at least we’re experimenting a bit.
Kirk Ward asks about battling with the big business machine where you need to battle to get interest in new innovative tools.
You have to have someone who is interested. There are students not interested, just as local papers have someone to do it.
Andy: We’re not strung by having to make money and build an audience. We just enjoy it.
Joseph: Linking is really important. It’s a pay off, do you sacrifice traffic for engagement and loyalty, or do you see the long game and see yourself as a trusted source.
Kirk: You’re a web brand.
Joseph: Yes it doesn’t matter where they end up, but they come to you first.
Andy: Branding is important. I like to think we have achieved that with Blog Preston. A local visitor is as valuable as someone who reads 10 stories.
Greg Hadfield: Do other people at the university show interest in journalism? You’re at the heart of an institution paying £3,000 why not take it over? Use the student body as a resource, you can get between the institution and the audience.
Joseph: Yes, we’re syphoned off, The journalism department is separate. We’re cut off from the programmers and artists. I have to work hard to find them, it’s ridiculous. Some are in different buildings, but there’s no cross departmental contact.
It would be brilliant if a computer science lecturer would come in and teach us HTML.
You don’t need to do a journalism course to be a journalist. Other universities without courses have newspapers. We have a student body of 300 journalists who don’t seem interested in doing what we’re doing.
Andy: Look at student newspapers at Oxford and Cambridge, they have people from all courses writing for the papers. We ran the uni newspaper but it was all journalism students. But again it was the same seven of us doing the same thing.
Joseph: There are cross overs for every university subject. You get journalism students on a cookie cutter, all taught the same thing.
Making their way in journalism – the @wannabehacks #bfong
Brighton Future of News Group April meeting with Ben Whitelaw and Alice Vincent, the student and the maverick at Wannabe Hacks.
Ben: “It’s coming to events like this you realise you’ve done something different.”
It started with five lads from Birmingham University who all wanted to work in journalism. They looked around for courses and sought advice. It was difficult to find a single view. Many older journalists had a different route into journalism.
Three guys had places at City University, and one had an internship and the other was freelancing.
They decided to start up a website. Looked into court reporting. Great advice from people including Paul Bradshaw and thought it would be good to write up stories and sell them via the website.
“It was too much hard work to sit in court without shorthand or media law.”
Got the Mad Men style images from a friend, and sought advice on how to make the website work. Martin Belam of the Guardian said not to worry about the way it looked but go for it.
In the week the trio started at City they had a feature in The Guardian and had 1,000 impressions on their two-year-old blog.
Ned, the detective, had to drop out, but they were joined by Alice, who was working in New York.
“It’s been a fast eight months”, Ben said.
Alice Vincent, the Maverick, “I checked them out and thought it was interesting.”
She got in touch with Matt, the Freelancer, and asked him how he managed while fresh out of uni. Asked to be a guest writer from New York as she was off.
The first post Alice wrote was about working at NYLon.
“It blew my mind, after several work experience placements in London, once working with Lady Gaga’s stylist.”
Alice was able to write a review of a novel and really get on with it.
She was called in to join the hacks, “It’s kept me sane, even though I’ve been employed for three weeks.”
Worked in a shop for a while, but writing for an online publication kept her sane.
“We get a daily thread of emails. It’s really nice to feel part of a community.”
“I’m always amazed by the amount of people who Tweet us about stuff.”
“It’s great to hear from other journalists who don’t know what they’re doing but, don’t know shorthand, we’re all in the same situation.”
Alice has been working at Wired.co.uk for three weeks.
Ben has passed his law exams at City and also has his 100 wpm shorthand.
“What we say to young journalists when they ask how we do it, we’re five journalists writing a blog together, we’re a mini collective with more force behind us.”
Alice: “Hacks isn’t a vanity project. It’s not selfish.”
“Ben’s posts always get the most hits, but he doesn’t milk it.”
As a team they appreciate each other’s writing. They support each other and share ideas and contacts.
Ben: “We didn’t think we’d get a job out of this, we did it to keep ourselves busy and learn from it.”
“Hopefully it will help people. You don’t know if it helps but the work Alice has done has probably helped her get work at Wired.co.uk.” Ben said.
“I’ve applied for a job working at the Independent, but they chose someone with little experience.”
“Not doing it to get the job, but because you love it and have fun talking to people.”
One girl wrote about taking cake in to the BBC. Taking cake into work is a good idea.
Ben finds himself writing at 1am.
Alice used to babysit for the chief sports writer at the Telegraph.
Best advice he gave was “you will lose your 20s”.
“You come home from doing your job, you get home, you’re writing, but you love it, it’s not a chore.”
Tom and Ben went to Kingston University to talk about Wannabe Hacks. They held an event where 80 people turned up.
“You get to meet interesting people. Meeting people comes full circle.”
They have received praise from Journalism.co.uk and FleetStreetBlues placed them as the second best journalism blog when it was just five months old.
Everyone’s very busy. Limited time for podcasting through work. Getting together renews their enthusiasm and ideas. It’s hard work.
Alice’s first post was slated by Fleet Street Blues, but “we’re still waiting for our point to hit the wall.”
Met a woman who worked at 5Live, encouragement to continues means they are doing to see how they can continue with it and see if they can develop into a business.
Different approaches to the job works well together. Nick Petrie (the intern) comes up with some of the great ideas.
Have to be practical with the big ideas. Hogwarts for Journalists is a long way off.
On May 20 the team is having its second meet up. There will be cup cakes from Cute as a Cupcake.
Questions time:
Cathy Watson: “How did you get your first 1,000 visitors.”
Ben: “Got in touch with the editor of Media Guardian, and wrote a piece about the student media awards.
“Wrote 700 words, cut to 300, with a little pictures of us and a bit about what we’d done.
“It was perfect for me and Tom (the Chancer) on our first day at City.
“Hope a few came back to us.”
Now they average between 3-500 visitors a day. A busy day is about 1,000.
“Tom working on the Guardian sports desk this week, but preferred work experience at The Forester.”
Deputy sport editor told him he’d read his post. Apparently they were quite surprised.
“Tom stuck up for himself, saying he had seen enough. It had gone”
They have organised themed weeks, production, magazine, local journalism etc.
Alice was surprised her interview with the editor of NYLon didn’t have as many hits as a piece by two students writing about women’s magazines.
Cathy Watson: Do you have a Facebook page?
“Yes.”
Here it is www.facebook.com/wannabehacksfb
They want to encourage younger journalists.
Alice has wanted to be a journalist since she was 16.
“There is a market out there to target 16-year-olds who want to be a journalist”.
Ben says they’re trying to get more people using Facebook using polls.
They also have a Tumblr account.
Rich Hook: How do you choose the hacks?
Ben: ” It was just five mates at university together moving to London.”
At City they already had the site. Some have taken the piss. Others have written pieces they know more about.
“Some are too proud to say they don’t want to become a hack. Others have seen it really helps raise your profile.”
Alice: “We have a really open policy for guest blogs.
“Style blogger the Sartorialist criticised a slim woman for being ‘chunky’.”
Alice sent a call out. They also ask for a pitch.
Rich – Some people seem to be afraid to put their work out there.
Ben “Today I wrote a piece about passing 100 wpm, some people thought it was a bit ‘preachy’.”
Rich – There must have been a time before it blew up.
Ben: “At the start, when someone tweets or comments they don’t agree, then worry.
“It’s not a bad thing. It’s more of a two way thing, it’s not just writing a news story or piece about shorthand for other’s to absorb, but people can say they disagree.”
“Journalism is becoming more about dialogue.”
Alice: “First time you write something controversial and get a reaction it’s great.
Ben congratulated Rich of the Brighton Lite team for getting something out there.
Personal posts are often the most popular.
Paul Watson: “There is no reason why you couldn’t set up as a Hogwarts Academy, other companies around the country do so.”
Alice: “We’re not established enough, but getting a team of tutors on board would be great.”
Paul: “You have the early stages of the brand.”
Rich: “Hacks finishing school.”
Alice: “One day when we’re all working, we want to get other people to take it on.”
Ben: “In a few month’s time our experiences will be irrelevant.”
“We want it to be an organic project to be passed on.”
Laura Oliver talks about Ed Walker, who passed on Blog Preston to other students. He created it to learn at university, got a job with WalesOnLine and now it is an award-winning blog.
There is discussion about advertising, sponsorship etc.
Ben says they have got some advertising from City.
They don’t know about advertising, but are learning as they go.
Have thought about charging for video, or helping people set up WordPress.
Today Ben read about small businesses going to evening classes learning how to use Twitter.
They have plans for an eBook.
“If it’s 50p for a chapter, it shows how it can be done.”
Sarah Marshall: “How have you divided up the tasks?”
Alice said Ben is the nicest person in the team, so he asks people nicely for money.
Ben: “It’s time consuming.”
Ben organised the pub, Tom organised the newsletter.
Whomever comes up with the idea gets to do it.
Sarah Marshall: “Do you sub each other’s stuff?”
They used to but they tidy up each other’s work. It’s not efficient, no post pending, it’s a bit rough and ready.”
Praise for Joseph Stashko as someone to watch, for young journalists.
Ben describes Joseph as a good story teller who introduced him to Storyfy.
Paul Watson then explains his own experience with Storyfy, which he used at last months’ BFONG and also has a long-running Uckfield spring blog.
They’re also looking at Bundlr, where you can highlight things and drag them together on a theme.
They blag and muddle their way through.
“Because we don’t know that much.”
We’re not an authority, we’re just wannabes.
Laura Oliver praises the Wannabes and Joseph Stashko as professional people who take it seriously and are efficient.
Wannabe Hacks – finding ways into media careers #bfong
Wannabe Hacks is a collaborative site written by five graduates trying to get into journalism through different means.
One is a female job seeker. Two are doing postgraduate courses in newspaper journalism but are very different in their approaches. Another is freelancing for a number of magazines. And the fifth is completing several internships at large media companies.
Since they created the site last year they have each built up a great network of contacts.
Now they are coming along to Brighton Future of News Group to share their tips, talk about their experiences and give advice to other wannabe hacks.
Anyone who wants to get a foothold in the media today will get a great deal out of this event.
Please visit the Brighton Future of News Group Meet Up group and sign up if you would like to attend this event.
The March meeting spawned interesting debates with Nick Cloke, Sussex Police’s head of media relations and the force’s multimedia producer and social media specialist Christine Smith.
Paul Watson curated the #bfong tagged tweets using Storify
Live Blog – Sussex Police: Interacting with social media #Bfong
With Nick Cloke, head of media relations at Sussex Police and Christine Smith, multimedia producer and social media specialist.
Nick works with traditional media, and uses social media. Christine is one of the people driving the social media forward. He has worked with a number of forces.
Christine has worked as a journalist with national titles, including the News of the World, The Sun, The Mirror and has worked in media relations for Kent Police before joining Sussex.
She is also a special constable, these days she works as a traffic officer, part time as a volunteer.
Three years ago the team started with Operation Otter using social media for communication. In the last year using to connect with the community. Twitter is the main tool for Sussex Police.
It is used for community engagement. To provide a service to the community and join in the conversation.
Not just putting the message out and running away, but joining a conversation and getting ideas from the public.
Senior officers have used it. Christine has been pushing it for some time. A common request is “can we have a Twitter account?”
“We decided weren’t going to give people what they wanted immediately. Not a scattergun but getting it right with training and resources behind it.”
“It’s new technology, policing is usually five years behind in terms of technology.”
Christine started working with neighbourhood teams.
“It’s not just about setting up accounts, it has to be set up according to the law, because we’ll get into trouble if we don’t set things up in the right way.
“We have a responsibility to the public, and social media is a part of that.
“We took a closer look at what other forces were doing, particularly the Met, and found there were no social media users.”
Sussex Police Twitter account started up manually and it’s progressed.
“We have about 2,000 followers force wide, and have across all accounts, almost 10,000 followers.”
Christine is responsible for training. Pushing it out and getting involved with hyperlocal communities. Ensuring officers are trained in how to engage in conversation online.
Historically you’re not supposed to have a presence on Facebook. It’s cultural through all forces.
“We don’t want to focus on the medium, but about the message. It’s about talking to people.”
Have been working with Public-i in Brighton.
“We didn’t used to ask people what they thought of us, it was just about surveys. With hyperlocal communities it’s changed the dynamic.
“We’re finding out what the public want and focus policing that way.”
There are 34 Twitter accounts, some area, some individuals. Neighbourhood policing team accounts can be faceless, but there is resilience.
“We need to know once they go online they’re not going to do something daft when time has been spent building up reputation.”
“It maybe anonymous but hashtags for PCSO names give personality. If they move on to another role, then there is continuity.”
NC – Senior officers aren’t serving community in the same way as a neighbourhood team. Senior officers offer reassurance and security.
Lawrence Taylor had a strong personality, but people move on, as he did. With a team then the account doesn’t lie dormant.
Publishing information on Twitter but have to conform to the law. Christine created a training package so officers know how to make the most out of it but also the risks of what they shouldn’t be doing.
CS – We don’t put them in front of a computer. It’s not difficult to run a Twitter account, what is difficult is tone of voice and whether you reply to someone.
Regularly asked what should I say? What can I say? Some messages can seem flippant, to others they’re conversations.
Some have been really for it, some really against it. We need to know everyone online has shared values.
“It’s not IT, it’s a communication tool.”
NC – A waterjet moment getting social media going was protests. Outside London this area has a great deal of protests.
This time last year had March for England and Unite Against Fascism in town.
The force had expanded its communications team, so they were open to new ideas for operations. Had a week’s notice about these two opposing groups.
March for England’s purpose is to make St George’s Day a public holiday. Previous events had little impact.
Then local councillors and MPs signed a petition against them, believing they were linked to EDL, even though March for England distance themselves from this group.
There were stronger feelings against the march, which resulted in stronger feelings from more right-leaning people.
Corporate communications found chatter on Twitter, blogs, Facebook, about the opposition to the march.
Use social media as a monitoring tool, looking for potential issues.
Police realised they had to prepare for two opposing groups in the town.
Had strong feelings on both sides, tried to reason with both sides, almost as mediators online.
Saw numbers tail off. Tie up to traditional media. On the Friday the Argus were informed about potentially volatile situation. Agreed it would be a good event to cover, but opposing views were egging the situation on.
A front page headline saying far right coming to Brighton, would inflame the situation. Argus chose to cover the event and not push it in advance.
Dispelled rumours in advance. Numbers were less than 1/3 lower than first though. Cost of policing the event was reduced.
Public order approach means can reduce the number of police on the street by managing information and dispelling rumours.
Issues are a balancing act. Never going to win as police. Always two groups in opposition. We will say what our line of tolerance is. Tell people they have a right to protest. Find tension decreases.
Christine Smith and Nick Cloke
“Our role is communication, not intelligence. There is a strict divide between intelligence and our plan.”
Criticism from the floor about the lack of information after the TAJ squat eviction.
People were not available.
Kemp Town neighbourhood policing team coming for training.
CS – Sometimes operation policing takes priority.
NC – The shooting of Fitzpatrick was handled on Twitter more quickly.
Have a better understanding with photographers.
Want to hear people opening up dialogue.
Trade off between person multi-channeling on the day, at events. Live Tweeting. Have officers on the street Tweeting live photographs.
Sometimes it’s for information purposes.
Student protests outside Hove, great number of tweets saying students were being tazered. That rumour was killed because we sent out photographs proving it didn’t happen.
Keen to avoid misinformation.
CS – It’s evidence based. Police officers like hard facts and figures. Social media gives us statistics. I can prove people are reading messages. Who isn’t. Who is interested in what they think isn’t interesting.
“As soon as you can thrown down a load of stats, they’re happy. If it didn’t work we wouldn’t be using it.”
NC – Target witness appeals. Look at what the victim was using in terms of social media. Target messages through friends and family.
Twitter is a great way to find missing people. Attach a picture to it and see it go out.
Greg Hadfield asks if police can take over someone’s Facebook?
NC- Have situations when someone has died. Lots of tributes on someone’s page, sometimes family were quoted in articles. Also photographs being ripped out. Came to the fore for Nick four years ago.
A woman who was very media friendly went missing. Lots of pictures of her and messages from her family.
She was murdered by her boyfriend on their second date. he is now serving 20 years.
Journalists took photographs from her Facebook. Unsuitable pictures of her on holiday. Now advise family members on how to take Facebook pages down. We make families aware of what they want on show.
Police cannot close it down.
Police will post on someone’s wall, tribute page and post appeals and messages without taking over the account.
Nick and Christine are both active social media users. Use it socially and professionally. We replicate our jobs online.
Nick’s job is speaking to journalists, off the record briefings. A great deal can be regulated online.
It’s good to talk to journalists Nick doesn’t see often, build reputation and nurture reputations.
Complaints last year about interaction with photographers. Complaints about being stopped from filming in a public place. Debated the issue with people on different forums and ended up being featured in articles on The Register.
Now have a training package on public photography. Ended up working as advocates for photographers when it came to national policing.
Christine is starting a project using social media to work with the gypsy and traveller community.
“Some people might think they don’t use social media, but I’m going to go out there and prove they do.”
CS – Twitter account started to show role as special constable. First special Tweeting with support from the force. Showing I was out on duty and what’d I’d been doing.
Realised it was part of professional life.
“What I experience on duty reflects on my day job.”
Found out people were jumping red lights in Uckfield. Went, gave out tickets, Tweeted and got a positive response.
Use to communicate with other police officers in other forces. Get asked advice from other police officers. Have been giving training and advice to other forces, including the Met and Manchester. Build network through Twitter.
“Limited what I say about personal life in case crazy motorists come after me.”
Found can make mistakes and use those mistakes to teach. Mistakes end up on the Argus website.
Challenges faced
Claire French asked about using smart phones.
Up until the late 90s journalists talked to police. Now run a press office function. Criticism is less information available to journalists.
Controlled environment now more professional. Now people feel ownership of information. Need to let go.
There is quicker distribution of information.
Traffic light system of media information and interactions.
Not over complicated. Happy for police to talk about.
Amber information issue where want people to talk to police communications team.
A big project is red, when need a corporate communication person involved, such as in a murder situation.
Flip side, some savvy journos pick up on the social media accounts and using it as an information gathering tool.
Something have to bring in is get what’s on Twitter for story, and a unique story.
Want lots of detail, cannot justify the time spent gathering information. It’s not a journalist information tool.
CS – Issues around this, we don’t want to know personal opinions. The Twitter is not for that. Journalists pick up soundbites, but discourage that.
Enthusiasm is being dampened by court results. Have Tweeted court results. I will only know limited information.
NC – Capacity issue. Have a small team and prioritise whether it’s public interest. Do we have a need to put it out. Lots of stories we don’t have resources for.
Go with the consequences and say that’s the level of information. Cannot provide lots of information without sinking the ship.
More officers tweeting stories is a brilliant thing. But if source story from an officer through social media, keep interaction going, but can’t have best of both worlds and expect the communications office to give chapter and verse.
Adam Oxford – Put more online?
NC – We are keen on open data, but level of detail requires sanitation. Lots of manual work about getting a response.
Four times more stories out there but don’t have the resources to give best of both worlds.
Contention between Tweeting.
Can’t find out the details.
Cathy Watson and Chie Elliot
Cathy Watson – Can’t you answer journalists queries.
NC – Can do what we can.
CS – Want to send out information. We will give as much as we can, but bear with us.
NC – We want more to be out there, if journalists want to interact with individuals, but can’t expect for every story, to get all background details. Very stretched team.
Put out as much as we can.
Need media to realise the stories that really matter.
Greg Hadfield – Could do as Manchester Police did, and put out everything. Resolving of the trust we’ll tell you what we can.
Christine selects when she’s Tweeting. Will block abusing tweets, engage in banter.
Make it clear not to report crime through Twitter.
Does social media make journalists role redundant?
At the heart of what we’re seeing is information going direct to people.
Cathy Watson – Why are you the people who decides who should read a story?
Nick – Too much expectation to provide information. Journalists also controlling the information.
Wale Azeez challenges what information goes out.
Still giving access to questions.
Greg – Best story is the whispered story from the guy on the case. The scoop is: There’s a murder, there’s the cop on CID with the fact, there’s the splash.
NC– Not controllers of information. One function is not to ask us.
CS – No resource for smart phones. Officers can use their own phones. Would love them to be able to do that. Can’t tell them to. Can’t be liable for breakages.
Blackberries are not web enabled.
Sarah Marshall and Tim Ridgway
Use Internet Explorer 6. Have only recently had access to Facebook and Twitter. Bound by policy.
Deputy chief constable has helped remove a great many barriers.
Use Firefox for social media. Now after a year’s work, they will give it to anyone who asks.
Some forces do not enable access to the internet for security reasons.
Greg Hadfield expresses sadness at the loss of the blue police box at the clock tower.
Chie Elliot asks if crime can be reported via Tweets.
Christine – No, but if there are reports of anti social driving and behaviour, then we know where a problem is. Can’t provide direct cover for a mugging with current technology. Would love to see something like that wired to contact centre.
Nick – Can react to crimes such as vandalism online already. Never say report online if someone’s at risk and need a police response, always call 999.
Social media work has been done without any budget.
NC – Were questioned after TAJ squat as to why police were in body armour.
Clive Reedman – If knew it was going to happen, then should be ready to respond. People Tweeting around Kemp Town, but Sussex Police media team were in a meeting.
Claire Smyth – 50 police sent in, but few people there.
NC – Difference between policing March for England and UAF, and Smash EDO, not so willing to engage with police. Put out more officers because they weren’t communicating. Didn’t know where they were going to be or how many.
Officers deployed at TAJ didn’t know how many people there. How dangerous the building was. Found two people there.
Can only do we what can.
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.
Brighton Future of News blog 