testing 2

testing 2

testing my blog on facebook

testing my blog on facebook

Online journalism lecturer - in two places at once

My online journalism lecturer from UCE, Paul Bradshaw (who is responsible for me starting up this blog in the module) has been presenting two different research papers from two different places.

Mediacourses.com reports: "At around 10am Paul will be at the Future of Newspapers conference in Cardiff, where he will be presenting his paper on 'Wiki Journalism' as part of a panel on 'user generated content'. Then, an hour later, in Birmingham, the New Researchers conference will host Paul's presentation on 'Online Journalism Technologies: a Case Study'."

News organisations see potential of wiki journalism

A survey I conducted indicates it may only be a matter of time before we see the first UK experiment with ‘wiki journalism’, with news organisations ranging from the BBC to Sky excited about the potential of wiki technology.

Robin Hamman, Senior Broadcast Journalist and Producer for the BBC told Online Journalism Blog: “The BBC has been using wikis internally for quite some time, particularly for product development and distributed team working within BBC Future Media & Technology. We haven’t, as far as I’m aware, done any external wikis although I’m sure that someone somewhere within the corporation has at least considered doing this.” Adam Gee, New Media Commissioner for Channel 4 believes that there are some hints of Wiki’s coming through online: “In effect, Big Art Mob uses the wiki mentality as the information about the art and the tags can be posted by either the contributor (ie photographer) or the viewer or both.”

Although some haven’t used them as yet, many news organisations see the potential of Wikis in providing a new form of user-generated news. Simon Bucks, Associate Editor for BSKYB is very enthusiastic about the potential of Wiki news features: “I’d love to use it but I don’t have especially imminent plans, sadly…it’s just a matter of prioritising what we can do. I think it’s clearly a tricky area and if we used it in any meaningful way we’d probably need to premoderate stuff. But I like the idea of wiki news stories - especially breaking news where users can add eyewitness accounts. There’s a lot of work to do educating folk but I am pretty bullish about it.”

James Montgomery, editor of FT.com does not have any plans currently to use Wiki’s on FT.com, but does agree that Wiki’s are something to keep an eye on: “In a slightly different sense, wikis are emerging as a form of newsgathering and story-telling: entries began in response to events that become a primary source of news. It’s a form of collaborative news writing; another form of user generated content. It’s fascinating to follow, but we have no current plans to adopt this approach on FT.com”

The main concerns raised are the issues of moderation, and the Wiki’s becoming ‘out of hand’. James Montgomery expressed concerns over issues becoming disputed too heavily: “Wikis online are still a tricky issue. From what I have seen, there is an emerging view that some topics or entries have to be “locked down” by an editor if they become disputed too heavily. That seems sensible.” Simon Bucks, agreed saying that: “The problem I find is that users tend not to understand the difference between information and opinion and too often user generated content-news becomes a vehicle for a rant!”

Robin Hamman believes that the use of hosts/editors is a way around any violations of the rules: A better approach is to use hosts/editors who are a welcoming presence, keep the discussions or other content on topic, and generally stop bad behaviour before it starts through setting the tone and reinforcing positive, editorially relevant behaviour.”

Not Updated?

Come across an interesting article on the BBC web site about some stats indicating that blogs aren't being updated:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6178611.stm

More from Sky News...

I have been speaking to Adam Harding (deputy editor of interactive) from Sky News again for another assignment at University. This assignment (for professional studies) involved profiling a media organisation and somebody who works within it. When speaking to him on the phone, some interesting points come up. I will post more after the deadline has passed (Monday).

Here is something that interested me from my conversation with him. It involves the next development in Sky TV. Adam told me:

"The next big move will be to link up with broadband internet. This is something we are currently looking at working towards at Sky. We hope to create a semi-broadband web experience. It would combine television with internet surfing. This will help personalisation. Your television will know where you are, and provide information which you need. For example it will know where you are, and tell you the weather forecast for your area. It could also target things such as shares directly for you. "

PS3 Delay: Confirmed

BBC.co.uk are reporting: "The release of the much awaited PlayStation 3 (PS3) games console has been postponed until November, Japanese electronics group Sony has announced. "

This confirms the news which I posted back in February from www.computerworld.be.

In the article it also states that Sony are looking to release the PS3 in the US, Japan and Europe simultaneously.

You can read the full article at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4807858.stm

The Future Of My Blog?

This blog was started as part of an assignment in an module on online journalism at the UCE.

I guess as I found out when researching - there are no (that I could find, and I will still look!) bloggers on quizzes and surveys in online journalism, or much that actually refers to them in articles on the net etc.

Even when I look now for blogs on blogger.com, I still find it constantly linking to my own blog, which is quite cool :)

Although I have no handed in my assignment, I will try my best to keep the blog updated if I stumble across any quizzes/surveys or anything about them in online journalism! (Just incase there is anybody reading this blog!)

--Matt

OJ: How Euro Are You?

Returning to the BBC for another example of how Flash can be used to make quizzes/surveys. BBC's 'How Euro Are You?' quiz is made completely out of Flash, and all results have been reported on their results page for everybody to see. This is also an example of what I was told by Adam Harding, deputy editor of Sky News online , they are useful to an editor as they can produce statistics that can be used in future news items/reports.

• The Quiz -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/

• The Results -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/how_euro_are_you/4283580.stm

• All the details about 'How Euro Are You?' can be found at -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/how_euro_are_you/4134442.stm

Gaming: Golden Joystick Awards to be televised

Heard on BBC Radio 1 this morning that the Golden Joystick Awards will be shown on the TV in the UK this year.

I was interested in finding out when and where it would be shown, and while looking, I came across an article on xgpgaming.com:

Now in its 24th year, the long-running gaming awards returns to the Park Lane Hilton, London on Friday, 27th October. With over a dozen categories chosen solely by the votes of UK gamers, the awards will feature in a special Golden Joystick Awards TV show screened on ITV4."

To read the full article go to

http://www.xgpgaming.com/news/news.php?id=2753