Michael Rosenblum has been doing his ’sky is falling in’ schtick again this time at the recent society of editors do. Thanks to some spiffing video from Paul Bradhaw Rosenblum’s view has been stirring up some nodding comments of agreements.

One of the things I like about seeing Michael talk is not because of what he is saying. I like it to see which arcane ‘industry’ from the past he’ll pick to compare the industry to.  Last time I saw him it was the ice industry. He’s great value.

But is that why people listen to Rosenblum?

Say what you like about Michael, his message is always pretty consistent and in the best tradition of a good sales pitch contains an unarguable truth - you can’t carry on as you are. But there is nothing unique about that message. A lot of people have been saying for a long time especially with respect to video.

So is it his success rate?

Well, there are certainly those who have benefited from his way of doing things but there are plenty of other projects that have had mixed reaction and success. Michael has as many doubters as fans.  I’m a fan but I don’t think he has an answer that works across the board.

So what is it? Here’s my theory.

Like for like

Micheal gets listened to, especially at events like this, because he looks like the majority of people in the room. He is a senior-management/executive talking to a room of senior-management/executives about what they should do.

Is that a poor reflection on Michael? Of course not. He has a view to pitch and aims it really well. It’s more a problem with his audience.

Many people are listening to Rosenblum because they are hearing the message for the first time. That doesnt mean Micheal has anything new to say. It means that, too their shame, the people in the room have not been listening up until that point.

As suprising as it may be to them, there are people in their organisations who are as knowledgable and passionate about video as he is. They may have more experience of the particular problems in their company and more direct suggestions to help solve them.

They may not give as good a show but they may give as good advice.

The fort dunlop sign, originally uploaded by Andy Dickinson.

As a brief reason (excuse) as to my lack of posting over the last month or so I present a view of a place I’ve been spending some time at training.

Normal services will be resumed at some point, I hope.

• The Digital Narrative - Find your story - A fantatsic site that has a number of resources for digital story telling and teaching through them
• Are we ready for the future news consumer? - A really interesting round up of research on news consumers - “We need to find ways to make online news appealing to both Net-Newsers and Integrators – perhaps even to Traditionalists”
• User-generated content as a form of newsgathering - Alf has a useful round up on the development of UGC via the BBC’s Pete Clifton. I think Alf’s last point about Multimedia is an interesting one. What’s the value of that word in the changing media landscape?
• Teaching Journalism Today - Thought provoking stuff on how and what we should teach in J-schools “The best journalism teachers are the ones who understand that talking is not teaching. The best journalism students are the ones who realize that listening is not learning.”
• David Talbot: Find your own journalistic tribe » Nieman Journalism Lab » Pushing to the Future of Journalism
• YouTube Translate: So Your Babushka Can Get What Your Video Blog is About - Today YouTube unveiled a Translate feature for videos which include captions. Translates can be messy, but it’s better than nothing, we think!
• Couch Potatoes Sprout - Group citizen journalism is emerging in local communities as mainstream media reduces its reporting ranks. This book describes how community group journalism operates at adult and youth levels..
• BBC pledges to link out - but holds back the Google juice - Paul Bradshaw’s take on the BBC linking thing
• Final Cut Pro: HDV timecode offset with Capture Now - one of what seems to be a real flush of ‘problems’ with FCP
• Greedy BBC Blocks External Links - The original ‘critisicm’ of BBC’s linking policy
• Quick video explainers: An easy way to tell a complicated story » Nieman Journalism Lab » Pushing to the Future of Journalism
• Now you can annotate Freedom of Information requests and responses - This stuff just gets better and better.
• Defining who the Knight News Challenge is for » Nieman Journalism Lab » Pushing to the Future of Journalism
• The biggest deal for online video this year - “Anyone interested in video on the web - and particularly making money from video on the web - should pay close attention to the partnership between MTV and MySpace” I agree with Paul. But what’s the bet that a number of msm companies try and develop something themselves.

The Belfast Telegraph Crime map

Still, whilst exploring I noticed a slideshow of the recent homecoming parade of The Royal Irish Regiment in Belfast. It’s shame that the slideshow was the the bog standard html click and link job (very old school next to a sexy mashup). An audio slideshow with soeme sound from the event would have been really evocative.

Especially when you have such fantastic shots like this one

Great pictures still sell a story

She continues:

In fact, in today’s media reality many editors don’t dare to let their journos out of the office, as it might bring down their production due to time spent travelling etc, unless it’s to some big conference they know will generate plenty of copy (in which scenario, you might not find time to actually TALK to people while there).

So it was interesting and timley that Kristine posted a job ad she’d seen on:

Are you dreaming of traveling? Do you want to write long feature stories? Do you enjoy writing comprehensive profile interviews? Are you interested in writing about international politics? Do you think printed newspapers are more exciting than the web? Then you don’t need to apply for a job at Varden.

We are looking for a competent journalist for our newly created central news hub. You have to understand what readers are interested in; have good journalistic instincts and comprehensive local knowledge. High speed, a good attitude and an understanding of new media is a must.

She admits it was a hasty translations. Still perhaps in job ads, as in life, honesty is not always the best policiy.

The Washington Post

There is so much great multimedia coverage of the US election out there. But The Washington Post’s TimeSpace beta caught my eye. Fun to navigate and explore and it includes tweets.

So I’m posting this to get it out of my head.

It got in my head again at the end of last week as I found myself eavesdropping on a group of students sat at their computers.

“I need to do a search for a story for my portfolio assignment” says one student who then proceeds to fire up a collection of news sites including the BBC and a number of different local news providers.

Frustrating as I find this behaviour sometimes, I know it’s not limited to students.

Reverse engineering stories - finding an article online and then unpicking the threads - is more common than I think any of us a prepared to admit. Is that a bad thing? Maybe not, but it happens. But that’s not finding a story, it’s just (re)reporting the story for your audience. It’s also a mono-media approach to the journalistic process. Everything is geared towards servicing an article at a publication point.

Web 2.0 journalism

Working the ‘Web 2.0′ way approaches the story from a different direction. It builds a critical mass of content through the appropriate application of digital technologies. Web searches, crowdsourcing, alerts and all the other good stuff can be weaved in to the ‘traditional‘ journalistic process to serve the increasingly voracious content machine.

But does that process really address where stories come from?

What you will find on the web is data and information. But they are not stories. They can help develop and support a story but they are meaningless without context. You need to know the story you are trying to tell before they become useful. You still need the story.

People make stories

Ultimately, stories come from people. They come from the collective experiences, social contexts and relevence of communities. To find a story and know why it’s a astory, you have to be part of or active in those communities. That’s something that ‘traditional’ journalism is supposed to be good at. Understanding the communities/audience they serve. Being relevant through the intimate knowledge of a patch. Having the ‘in’ at the ground floor of a story.

Of course the web will get you next to people, sometimes in the most direct and immediate way. But the web still won’t give up that story unless you approach those people in the same way you would in real life. That means going to the places where people gather and inhabiting them.

The thing to remember is that people don’t gather in the same place and, more importantly, you cannot force them to.  So even though RSS feeds and alerts will allow you to monitor the conversations effectivley (and if you arent using these tools then you should be) you need to get out there.

Platforms are places for conversation

Web 2.0 is all about platforms. Sites that enable people to do things are real honeypots. But the really successful web2.0 sites are the ones that encourage conversation between users.  We have thise platforms in real life. People will go to the post office to send a letter or the pub to get a drink.  But the conversation in those places could be about anything. The same thing happens online.

Take a look at Pistonheads - a site about motoring. The site has some very popular forums

Over 2 million posts in the online 'pub'

Lots of good stuff about cars (in minute detail) but take a look at the Pie and Piston (general chat areas in forums are often called the pub, bar or take pub names). 2,401,820 posts. Over 2 million posts and the majority are not about motoring.

Push not pull

The thing I recognise more and more is that’s a challenge in a journalistic environment where strategy and staffing is defined by pull rather than push; the idea that you can bring everything to your desktop could be one of the reasons more journalist find themeselve effectivly desk bound.

But we can still exhibit a bit of that push behaviour when it comes to communities even if it is just virtual. Think of the platform as a place - a shop, a pub or a street corner.

Hang around long enough and someone will give you a story.

I’ve been doing a lot of talking (shocking for me I know) about using the web for research - journalism toolbox stuff. And one of the things I have been stressing is that the web will very rarely just ‘give’ you a story. It will give you lots of data and information but the story is in the way you, as the journalist, put the things together. The phrase that I heard last week that best summed that up journalists are sense makers. Phil Trippenbach has a nice post on this so I won’t labour the point.

But whilst I was browsing for resources and examples to show my students and delegates I came across a site that made me wonder if I had to re-think that position - fixmystreet.co.uk

Fixmystreet.co.uk is a site by the fantastic Mysociety group who specialize in socially aware, achingly web2.0 sites. Top stuff on a number of levels and their other sites are worth a visit. Anyway, here is how they describe fixmystreet:

A site where people can report, view, or discuss local problems like graffiti, fly tipping, broken paving slabs, or street lighting.

Nearly 25,000 problems have now been reported across the UK, with our users following up many thousands with updates, news and notifications that problems have been fixed

Here’s an example of an ongoing problem with litter.

Fixmystreet.co.uk - tracking local problems

You can also sign up for an RSS feed or email alerts for a location. Told you it was brilliant.

So I’m showing my students the site today as we discussed ways that you can get a handle on a patch. They enjoyed it, not least because it offers, what must be, the most accurate geographic mapping of poo that I have yet to see on the web. With pictures! Anything scatological is a hit with students it seem.

I made the point that it shouldn’t replace physically getting out on the patch but it could provide some insight and a conversation opener when wandering around. But it wouldn’t throw up a story. Then we came across this entry.

Is this just about dog poo?

Take a look and ask yourself if there is a story in that or not and if it’s a story about dog poo.

Locating the meaning

In terms of the way you would work a beat to get a story to pitch to an editor this site serves up a hell of a lot in just a few lines of comment. Perhaps it’s the fact that the story is located that adds the context you need. Maybe it did take my eyes on the story to make the connection. But one thing is for sure, fixmystreet proves that locally focused geo-mashups work.

So if the embryonic geotagging of your content or the occasional attempts at mapping this kind of thing have fallen of the radar or been dismissed as gimmicks, maybe it’s worth looking again.

Take more of a healthy interest in your audiences poo.

UPDATE:Because I am that plugged in at the moment I didn’t see this great interview with one of My society’s developers Francis Irving on Journalism.co.uk/ (thanks the Alex Lockward for the nudge)