A speciality far far away

This week I'm going to look at a branch of journalism which seems to be quite appealing to me. Sci-fi journalism.
As wide sweeping as the term science fiction is this can cover a variety of subjects concerning games, comics and films, the standard palette of what could be considered a 'nerd' or 'geek'.

Looking at the teachings of Chris Frost 'reporters need to be able to think up good story ideas and develop them into follow-up stories, features or other stories.'

In my opinion this one of the genres of journalism with the most creative space. For example if you look at the reviews of Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation) the kind of descriptive reviewing techniques he employs are quite unorthodox compared to say a book review (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/16/eddy-merckx-william-fotheringham-review). However this could depend on the site as Yahtzee reviewed the Darkness 2 (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5394-Darkness-2) and compared to the review of similar website Game spot (http://uk.gamespot.com/the-darkness-ii/reviews/the-darkness-ii-review-6349874/) does not employ any of the humours or descriptive reviewing techniques Yahtzee does.

Whilst were on the subject of this brand of journalism I've noticed some of the more prominent figures in this section of journalism tend to have a go to franchise, something their extremely knowledge and passionate about. Game journalist Jim Sterling has proven himself to passionate and knowledgeable about Kirby and Alien. Though it's been clear journalists should have at least beginners knowledge of a wide variety of subjects it could be beneficial for me to find a subject like this which could make me stand out from the rest, in a sense my own personal USP.

As Angela Ripppon mentioned at a guest talk at the University of Lincoln for your personal subject 'you must know everything about it', this will be difficult for me to pin down one subject I could be more knowledgeable then most in. I may have to lead this blog on a to be continued line until I can think of one..

How special should we be as journalists ?

This week after my brief wading into P/R I'm going to return to my safety blanket of journalism.

So if you read my Lincolnite blog I'm going to warn you what's coming up is going to be spoilers.

This week I had to attend a public admin lecture in relation to my course options. Feeling to polite to leave after the talk had finished I stayed for the lecture and it highlighted another philosophical journalism rhetorical question which I'm going to have a partial attempt of answering.

'Is specialising in journalism more of a career hindrance ?'

Looking at the subject of employability and how journalists are supposed to be the guardians of truth shouldn't we through our net a wide as we can or are we spreading ourselves to thin ?

As a local reporter I'm not able to specialise in one subject look for example Jim Sterling who is solely a video game journalist (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/articles/Jim%20Sterling) or Gordon Smart an entertainment journalist for The Sun. When spreading your net out further could help with their reporting Jim Sterling recently did a piece about the ten worst video games and made a reference to the X-men game, if he had some knowledge about the comic franchise his criticisms could have been even further diverse. Though he did spread his net extremely wide when he reported on the SOPA act and as Christ Frost writes 'A good reporter is unavoidably linked with what society sees as important about journalism.'

As a local reporter I have to be as diverse as possible as my target audience is what could be considered the general public and have a huge variety of interests. This means I have to try and cater to them. Below I'm going to try and demonstrate this with the stories I plan to pitch for my Lincolnite meeting tomorrow and place each of them into a genre of news-

1. Kony coverage event- As a tie-in with the viral video concerning Joesph Kony I want  to report on the planned promotion event which is happening in April to see if it has the desired effect it outlined. Looking at this I think it could be placed in foreign politics because it revolves around  a debated controversy in another country

2. Finding the most interesting displays at the local museum- I propose the idea of going to the local history museum and compiling a list of the most interesting displays they have. I would place this story in the genre of history since I looking into in a sense the history of the city.

3. Bug wildlife- I've heard from friends their has been a bizarre shift in wildlife in the local area so I propose investigating to see if the shift in weather which is unnatural for this time of year has caused this. I would place this story in the genre of science/wildlife.

Here I'm covering a wide variety of stories. Though through writing this entry I've decided we should basically remember the standard ethical behaviour of a journalist in no matter what we cover and a specialist is useful but it's worth remembering to mindful of all news coverage. In a nutshell it's worth remembering Chris Frosts words 'We know that much is expected of us in terms of gathering the truth and presenting it to a public'

PRlogging (P/R blogging)

So last week I looked at the relationship between journalism and blogging. This week I'm going in the opposite direction and looking at how journalists can use P/R blogs as a news source and why it's more preferable.

 As Chris Frost writes that press releases are very useful and 'have grown in importance over the last twenty years as editorial staffs in many provincial papers have been reduced and more and more organisations have become media sensitive.'

This is beneficial as news teams get smaller and smaller especially in the situation with the Lincolnite in which the staff has tendency to be only two people  and can also be step in the right direction for researching a story. For example a few months ago I was sent a press release about a new texting service in which you text a question and they respond for an answer. I used this press release as part of my basic research for a story in which I researched if these text services have a more sinister side,  the story was rejected as it's didn't really have any geographic viability for the Lincolnites target audience.

However it's strongly advised not use this a your only news source. Chris Frost writes that press releases and 'handouts are a propaganda vehicle for the sender. No one sends a press release which shows them, their company or group in a bad light.' However the interactive nature of blogging could add some balance to these corporations unbalanced representation.

Mohammad Ahmadinejad the current leader of Iran who has been known manipulating his nations media to hide certain occurrences in his country has his own blog (http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/fa/) and thus has a commenting system, this then allows anyone to take a post and have a series of balanced comments to go on to do further research to back up their facts with solid research. Chris Frost however puts it better 'You must read between the the lines to get at the real story and you may need to ring the contact for further information.'

An example of when I had to do this is when I was sent a short press release from Grindhaus skate boarding shop talking about an event he was holding. If I hadn't gone I would simply written a short article about an event planned. However since I went to the event (http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2011/11/businesses-put-on-fun-day-for-lincoln-shoppers/) I was able to discover a stronger of angle of the fact the shop has it's own skateboarding team and also I found a series of follow up angles including the underground nature of skateboarding.

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/ )