Is all blogging journalism ?

Theirs no denying that online journalism is certainly here to stay (were still a long way away from anything like Tron). Though it's wide spread and has lead to the birth of community journalism via the various blogging systems available across the web, could every blogger be considered a journalist ?
Though a lot of blogs consist of conventional aspects which would be found in more professional journalist outlets likes newspapers which essentially relies on interviews as a source of news but are they represented with the unbiased nature they should have ? (I know that some papers like the Sun who support the Tories  have biased but I'm trying to look at it from a academic utopia view)

For example nostalgic blogger critic Linkara interviewed voice artist and former Power Ranger Johhny Yong Bosch (http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/linkara/specials/26652-interview-with-johnny-yong-bosch). Straight off when the reviewer begins to talk to him about his views of on what should be done with his character could be seen as bias as the producers may have had a reason for his character not being killed off and how he describes himself as the 'background ranger' could again be lob sided because theirs no balance.

Again listening to this interview two other flaws become apparent. Throughout the interview a lot of sound clips are used from various animes and the Power Rangers which clearly infringe copyright and could face a legal penalty. Also the quality of the interview is slightly echoey and crackly which could be because of the quality of equipment and the fact is sounds like it was done over Skype.

Focusing on a wider view of blogging in general one of the benefits it has especially when it came to the Egyptian revolution of last year was it enabled the public to get organised and overthrow the government at the time.

According to Martin Conboy 'online journalism will come increasingly to be considered as genre in it own right rather than as an adjunct to print, radio or television.', so the question is does it require censorship ?

TV and Radio have Ofcom and print has the PCC (which debatably could be compared to a 'toothless dog' and has little authority). Since SOPA and PIPA proved widely unpopular with the internet community because it essentially attacked free speech to the point the internet would cease to exist as it is it could be more logical to approach it from the idea that bloggers who claim to be 'journalists' should have to abide to a code of ethics, I'm going to make it clear I don't want the internet to be censored I just want their to be a scheme of accreditation to ensure those with news and journalistic content are heard.

To ensure theirs no kind of bias it should be monitored by a group like the NUJ but the shear scale of the internet hinders ever such a move. Though if this was ever to go ahead I believe a version of the NUJ code of conduct would make a good template (http://media.gn.apc.org/nujcode.html)

Even if my ideas are impractical I believe the public are being feed a negative image of blogger journalists. For example in the film Contagion Jude Laws character is depicted as being sleazy and deceptive and overall as unhinged individual, these puts truthful journalist bloggers in a poor light. Though their is a positive portrayal which resides in comics of the Spider-man character Betty Brant who works a journalist blogger and always searches for the uncensored truth.

Though to conclude this negative depiction of bloggers comes back Chris Frosts findings of how journalists are depicted are that essentially journalists serve as background characters and rung for the hero 'reporters are played as unpleasant in order to build the moral uprightness of the hero. This almost means that the reporter is seen as someone who is either self obsessed or rude and overbearing.'    

Multi-video madness

As I discussed last week multi platform journalism is becoming a necessity for any working journalist. As the New York times showed more print outlets are using video for their online content.
Looking at how this content is used could be best described as 'picture tells a thousand words.' This can be best demonstrated with the story in which David Haye was involved in a press conference brawl http://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/sport/video/2012/feb/19/dereck-chisora-david-haye-brawl-video?fb_source=recent_activity&fb_action_types=video.watches The Guardian posted a video which contained footage of how the fight started.

The benefits of the website doing this is that it acts as USP for the site instead of a full news article which could be off putting to someone in a hurry and has no huge interest in the story. However a video could be considered dynamic and fresh and helps to illustrate the story in a more digestible manner.  

Though this leaves a lot of print media outlets at a disadvantage since many may not have multi media training or have access to recording equipment. It's vital to have some kind of skills in these fields as Chris Frosts write 'Telling the story in radio or television means getting to the action and capturing it on tape'. As you can see from The Guardian video it had been taken from a different company.

For students at my age I have the advantage. I have the access to the equipment via the university and some training all I need to do is practice and like Chris Frost writes on the subject of planning multi media stories 'News coverage does not allow for the kind of full-scale planning expected for a documentary, but nevertheless it is necessary to have some idea of who and what the reporter will see when they arrive at a shoot.' so at least some kind of organisation is required.  

In some subjects however using video could be considered a total alternative to using a text based article. An example of how this has been used can be The Escapist, an online gaming magazine. It's content includes a blend of video and text based articles.

Since the common thought is that videos tend to be quicker then reading lots of text however

it could be argued that maybe it's just simpler to watch. As an example I looked at two different reviews of Sonic Generations. One was text based (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5284-Sonic-Generations) and the other was a video review (http://www.edge-online.com/reviews/sonic-generations-review). Took look at times according an online time reading estimate which came from http://niram.org/read/ which gave the results of the article taking 2 minutes, 8 seconds to read and contained 427 words. Whilst the video review clock in at 5:09.

By looking at these results it could be concluded that time may be not an issue but simply the nature of the content and simply a video is seen as flashier more interesting addition despite it's length.

How to take the fan boy/girl out of interviews

This week feedbacks suggested I should be a little more careful with my grammar and spelling. So I hope this is reflected from now on.

This week I'm going to look at interviewing and how sometimes the interviewee could compromise the un-biased nature of the role of a journalist. I will also look at how negative stereotyping of journalists could lead improper behaviour of reporters.

Chris Frosts writes on the image of how a journalist is portrayed. 'The public's view of reporters often seems to be coloured by the reporters fiction. This impression comes from films and TV where reporters are played as unpleasant in order to build the moral uprightness of the hero.'

When this could have been changed to the other scale could have been when a BBC Breakfast reporter interviewed Hugh Grant and was accused of flirting. This an example of the school of attachment in the most negative sense.

When it comes to interviewing someone you admire it can be difficult to stay detached and un-biased.

An example of when I've had to be careful and ensure I keep that balance is when I interviewed Andy Desa.

I study martial arts and a martial artist like Andy Desa is quite inspirational to me so it was difficult for me to deal with is request to mention a product he used to keep him fit as I feared it was un-ethical. However my editor said it was fine with no ethical difficulties. (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2010/11/desa-is-lincolns-silver-centurion-at-38/ )

Again sometimes attachment can add heart to the story and can be necessary. As Chris Frost says their are two types of interviews:

'1. As research for a news story;

2. As a performance; part of the story in its own right (mainly for broadcast)'

This is more suitable for point 2. Though it wasn't intentional during a recorded interview with a war hero I may have come off as attached. Have a listen and see what you think and post in the comments: (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/03/pilot-recalls-world-war-2-experiences/ )

Ironically I've written in a way of self help guide for myself and other journalists who sometimes get carried away interviewing their role models. Some final points to remember:

1. Spoke slowly and clearly

2. Research is good but don't show off about it and state fact after fact.

3. Keep calm and take some deep breaths and the end of the day it's another human being and if you see them that way a relaxed environment should ensue. 

The nature of an ideas meeting

The ideas meeting. This is essential to my placement for without in the most basic of ways I'd have no stories to cover.

What is done in a news outlet meeting is for staff to pitch ideas for stories to follow up or editors to assign each reporter a story. When pitching an idea their a two things you need to remember-

1. Ensure you clearly understand what you're trying to pitch. For example for my card game story (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2010/12/lincoln-teens-frenzy-card-swapping-hobby/)  I wrote a note form script of what I was going and made sure I said 'I want to go to a card game tournament and speak to the participants'. Their have been instances in which I haven't properly prepared for a story pitch and the angle has thus come out as quite convoluted, for the student employment story my original angle was to look into the difficulty of employment and how fake job advertisements was adding to this problem, however due to a lack of preparation the idea may have come off as little formulaic and predictable (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/03/students-struggle-for-jobs-in-lincoln/ ).

2. Have a little preparation done. Going back to my student employment story if I had looked at some statistics of how students were fairing for employment or even looked further into fake job adverts maybe I could have pitched it in a stronger manner. Preparation was extremely important for my Bishop story since the nature of the interview was different from what I was used to. Me and a collection of journalists were only given a short period of time with the Bishop, this meant I had to research into what the Bishop stood for and look for anything unique to ask (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/11/new-bishop-of-lincoln-enthroned/ )

Focusing on the word I used in my last sentence 'unique' which in a more journalist like term means original stories. If I can I try to look for these stories since we live in a media saturated reality their tends to various instances of outlets covering the same stories. For example the Lincoln Christmas market-

http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/12/lincoln-christmas-market-ready-to-kick-off/ - The Lincolnite

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/Traders-gearing-return-Lincoln-Christmas-Market/story-13938469-detail/story.html The Lincolnshire Echo

The Lincolnshire Echo-

http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/12/lincoln-christmas-market-ready-to-kick-off/

Chris Frost believe the key for finding off diary stories is 'keeping your eyes open for unusual happenings.' This is how I found my Indian street art story as he simply caught my eye whilst I walked past him (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/04/street-artist-brings-indian-art-to-lincoln/ )  

The head of headlining

With media outlets ever struggling to create a strong captivating headline story. This has even gotten to the point journalists have delved into the ethical grey (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8634176/Phone-hacking-timeline-of-a-scandal.html) to obtain an eye catching headline.  

Though it's on a smaller scale local news outlets also have the problem. Chris Frost writes on the nature of information people want to have in their news their are two types:

1. This kind of news tells us about our surroundings and environment that we need to survive. An example of this would be (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2012/01/cctv-appeal-over-sexual-assault-in-lincoln/) - though it may pertain strictly to Maslows hierarchy of needs this still informs people of Lincoln about the dangers on the streets. This kind of news tends to be breaking and what could be considered as 'hard' news, as demonstrated from the link above hard stories pertain to a serious subject.

2. This kind of news is about ourselves and, by extension, our fellow human beings. These kinds of stories are what could be considered on some occasions to be 'soft' news stories like for example the story of Karl Mcartney growing a goatee for the Movember event (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/12/lincoln-mp-grows-a-goatee-for-charity/ ) , this is soft as it does not directly relate to a serious event. However the story of a mother setting up a charity in honour of her childs death has the human element but relates to a very serious subject (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/12/my-babys-disorder-was-incompatible-with-life/ ).

To apply this to one of my stories and why this was immediately placed in an area of central visual impact (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2012/01/fewer-gift-pets-abandoned-in-lincoln/ ). The story could be considered as maybe a hybrid soft news story of point 1. Because the story concerns itself with the surroundings of the city (the animal population). Though the subject is serious it's not considered as serious as the story used in point 1 and fortunately my findings for the RSPCA story were more optimistic then those the CCTV story. Another reason the story was considered to be headline news could be attributed to the photo since it's unique and pertains to something which conotates 'cuteness' and again according to Roger De-Bank it includes someone doing something interesting.

The truth in interviewing

This week we've examined the ethics of interviewing. That's right another subject that's loaded full or moral questions.

As part of demonstration of the difficulties we face with interviewing Alex played us an interview with the lead singer of 3 foot ninja who name is Jordan and had difficulty putting across some sound byte suitable responses to his questions. He came off as uninformed and mumbled and stumbled throughout the interview.

Alex then played us the edited shorter version of the interview which then made Jordan sound like he just had a poor connection.

Three points to consider when editing an interview are:
1. Is the interview going to embarrass anyone ?- Has the interviewee slipped and maybe they deserve some kind of gate keeping to avoid unnecessary ridicule. An example of when this could have been avoided but because it was live was David Blaine interview with Eamon Holmes on GMTV after one of his recent stunts. He came off as dazed and confused and thus Holmes further probing made his come of as very dim witted.
2. A total P/R failure ? Does the interview come off as a complete P/R disaster and could be damaging to them or the station ?  An example of this could be Lady GaGa's interview with Johnathan Ross in which she was unclear and difficult when she asked about the nature of her lyrics.
3. Right person ? Is the interviewee even the right person to be interviewing, Jordan displayed that maybe he wasn't the most vital part of the band as he was unable to answer a lot of questions fully referring to another band member who seems to hold all the answers.

However sometimes these points have to over ridden in the public interest. An example could be the Richard Nixon and David Frosts interview which effectively destroyed the public image of Richard Nixon and exposed his illicit activities while he was President. Breaking it down with the three point system:
1. The interview was highly embarrassing for Nixon who arranged the interview and didn't expect such a probing nature from Frost. However this was about exposing his corrupt nature and failures in office.
2. Nixon had planned for this to be a P/R event which would sway public opinion in favour but Frost decided to stick to his ethical code and fairly conduct the interview.
3. Nixon was the right person to interview in a sense, however one of his subordinates may have more details on how the Watergate scandal was implemented. Though in a sense he was the architect of the scandal however secondary interviews could have cemented his point.

To conclude the nature of editing is influenced by the soft or hard news status of the interview. Maybe it doesn't matter that Jordans interview was cut down to remove some of the more dazed answers but it still put across the point he's possibly not the best interviewee. On the case of Nixon editing it was less of a finer tool helps to put across the sheer nature of the interviewee and expose in a sense the completely uncensored truth.

Again maybe the P/R nature of stations coming in again, the desire not to incur the wrath of a popular interviewee could reduce ratings of they can never get that person again due to poor interview. The fact is very few interviews are displayed to portray someone in a negative spotlight, people like Chirs Brown however displays very poor media training and allows his anger to dictate his behaviour adding to his already poor image.

The return post

So welcome back to the intrepid adventures I like to document on my blog (a slightly dated form of blog introduction but it just seems polite)

Today in our lecture Alex revealed the best way to enhance our marks was to dedicate sometime of our placement blogs (150 to 200 words) to critiquing our work. So the subjects for today will be an overall look at my performance in my blog so far.

So far the feedback from editor is that the nature of my ideas are strong subjects for features especially the ice cream story (which has yet to be published but will be in my portfolio), the type of stories my editor expects and I seem to be excelling at are off-diary stories. A definition to this is mentioned by Christ Frost 'These require the reporter to be more creative, thinking up ways to track down stories that are not going to be notified to newsdesk.'. When looking at the ice cream story I feel I've been creative enough to come up with a story no other outlet has covered. Though what has let me down for this story is not being able to find any other seasonal businesses to prevent the story from feeling like a promotion rather a then a look into the cities seasonal economy.

When looking further into what I could improve comes down to collating interviewee details. When it comes to interviewing I have found that in haste I have forgotten to obtain full names of subjects and various bio graphical information. According to Chris Frost 'interviewing allows you to find out the who, what, when where, why and how of the story', maybe with a little more detailed research into my subject could give my these details like correct spell, full name and job title etc. However for vox popping stories like I've recently done (but no currently published) in which I took to the streets of Lincoln and ask people did they feel the actions of the council are helping them feel involved in the 2012 Olympics I found that the ideas of Chris Frost explain clearly why I felt embarrassed and novice to ask for spelling clarifications of in haste forget to collate all details especially for one gentlemen who I forget to ask how his first name was spelt and what his last name was. What Frost said was 'The trite old phrase, 'There's never a second chance to make a first impression' is only annoying because it's true.'

Also maybe more persuasion is needed. Especially when it came to my interview with local author Hobb Whittons (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/06/blue-fire-burning-for-local-author/), the name is clearly a pen name and did not want to reveal his true identity. however conventionally editors like Andrew David recommend obtaining their name though respecting their wishes for it not be published to avoid any legal difficulties which may arise. This is even professionally recommended by the NUJ, point 7 of their code of conduct says- 'Protect the identidy of sources who supply information in confidence in the course of his/her work', though this is not on the level of whistle blowing it's still ethical to respect their wishes.

To ensure I do not continue to make these mistakes I will try to do more detailed research for pre-arranged interviews and ensure one of the first questions I ask are strictly biographical.

Now onto another subject I want to look a the unconventional skill set journalists may require.

Looking at the example of my work colleagues I am aware they quite up to date with modern technological trends and do freelance works for technology outlets thus they have another employable skill set on top of their journalism  and various other subjects degrees. Since my editor also has to deal with the business side of the website gives him another skill set.

This has now proposed the idea that maybe I should start cultivating a collection of unconventional but useful skills to help in my career. This could also lead me into a specialist subject though I will need to find a subject as Angela Rippon suggests 'That you know everything about', in a guest talk she described an encounter with a student who wanted to specialise in the entertainment industry but mentioned how they had limited knowledge of the later part of the 20th century something she believed to have limited their understanding as they did not know about what some people considered the best dancers of all time.

For skills however I believe my demonstration of photo manipulation has proven useful when I was on my BBC placement I was able to help a producer rotate an image when she was struggling to perform the task herself.

To conclude I need a specialist subject and skills. I think I will start to understand these slowly if I try to cover subjects which interest and try to experiment with different story treatments.