• Sony Handycam HDR-TG1 VS Sanyo Xacti HD1000 : Akihabara News .com
  A nice head to head of sony and sanyos handheld ‘pistol’ style of camcorder. Sanyo wins - just
  (tags: sanyo sony)

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• Beat Blogging - Using a blog as a conversation starter to engage users
  “Some posts simply serve to be conversation starters”. I agree but would say that all posts should be conversation otherwise its just shovelware.
  (tags: journalism blogging socialnetworking blogs media newmedia beat)
• Wordblog » Blog Archive » BBC local web video could boost local news diversity
  Want to blog about this but needed to get a link saved to this great post by Andrew. Back blogging in style
• BBC’s website plans threaten regional groups, but does that matter? | Greenslade | guardian.co.uk
  Greenslade steps in and quotes Andrew’s post. The comments are interesting to. The work plurality sneaks in and that makes me think back the the EU stuff that recently surfaced.
  (tags: bbc greenslade local video newspapers)
• Colin Walker » What brings us to social media?
  Colin ponders what it is that makes us settle on a social media platform.
  (tags: socialmedia)
• Headlines and Deadlines: Networks and Journalism
  “Mainstream journalism is like a hunter-gatherer hugging all the food to itself and dispensing it grudgingly, then expecting everyone else to share during the lean times.” Alison Gows wise words

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The formula shows that the lines are the same colour as the car.

I don’t watch a lot of TV when it broadcasts, I tend to catch it online, on digital replay or on repeat on one of the many digital TV channels. I’m in to timeshift rather than tivo. But I happened to be channel surfing the other day and came across a series called Numb3rs. It’s the highest of high concept - you can tell by the way they spell numbers.

It’s about the ongoing adventures of an FBI special agent and his math genius brother. Yes, they use maths to solve problems. I told you it was high concept.

But I was reminded on it when I read a post by Dan Shultz over at the Media Shift Idea lab.

In his article World of digital mediacraft, Dan suggests that the mechanics of World of Warcraft could easily be applied to collaborative journalism. It isn’t a new idea and anyone with even a passing interest in this stuff knows that ‘risk and reward’ is where it’s at.

But two things struck me about Dan’s take on things.

He outlines some community ‘traits’ that could fit within a risk and reward model

Recognize quantity - The more a user ranks and judges new content, the more potent that user’s vote could be. For instance, after voting on 100 articles that person’s vote could count as 1.01 votes in future. As always, Newgrounds.com uses a system like this.

Recognize accuracy - The more accurate a user’s judgment is when categorizing new content the more sway they could have over the categorization process in future.

Recognize quality - If a user has a track record of submitting valid journalism articles, maybe it could be slightly easier for them to submit future journalistic articles.

Recognize wisdom - If a user’s contributions are regularly judged to particularly insightful or even just accurately reflect the attitude of a community then their future observations could have slightly more prominence.

Recognize roles- As a user performs acts that fit the role of a good journalist or good citizen the system will slowly start to associate their digital identity with these social roles.

A nice range there - could it work? I’m not sure. But it struck me that you have a pretty workable equation for defining a journalist in your communities. There has to be a pretty nifty mathematical equation in there somewhere. Perhaps an applied maths journo wants to take that on and solve the case.

That’s tongue in cheek I know and I don’t hold out too much hope. Because the second thing that struck me was a point Dan made about roles.

Api journalists

In an earlier post Dan made a plea for journalism and content organisations to look at developing a ‘api’ that would allow people to identify the ‘journalistic’ role. Having read through the post a few times I’m convinced it’s a bad idea. Why? Because it’s a journalism licensing system. An open source one, but a licensing system none the less.

What both of Dans ideas have in common is a programatic approach. The idea that a genius brother can come along and find the formula that solves the case.

By the numbers

Over recent months I have seen a steady shift of perspective in the world of digital content.   The extremes of the division seems to be on where the value of the content we create really lies and how we profit (not just in terms of money ) from that.  And the responses to the problem seem as high-concept as numb3rs.

On the one side is the view that the value is in those who create it. The trust we can place in the individual or organisation. Build the brand and people will ignore the rest.

Imagine the pitch for that. A hard bitten editor uses his MBA genius brother to solve the journalism crisis by applying cardboard box production techniques to journalism.

But the journalist first model relies on roles, responsibilities and an implicit structure  - never articulated but policed ruthlessly. The programatic response demands that this can be quantified. But this is an exercise that is framed at the point where the internal and external market touch. It doesn’t engage with the internal roles other than through, apparently arbitrary measures only fixes half the problem.

The other side sees more value in the way we move the content around. Tag it, geotag it and make sure its semantic and the digital economy will decide. Cream will rise and the people will lap it up.

if we tag it and postcode it we achieve perpetual content motion - trust me I’m a genius.

That’s right. A hard bitten newspaper editor uses his SEO genius brother to solve the crisis  in journalism by finding the right tag that gets everyone reading a story.

This relies on the numbers to do the editorial work. But this falls in to the centralised distribution model.  Print, and the clicks and mortar fiascos of the nineties show that a centralising model inevitably means that the means of production will also be centralised and moved away from the communities they serve.  Relevance to an audience,  niche, geographical or other wise, suffers and no amount of tagging solves that.

Across the great divide

Last year the divide’d’jour was the Quality Vs Quantity video debate. But, appearing now on your screens is the new divide. It’s a numbers game.  It’s high concept. But it glossily produced and just about lacking in enough substance that you can’t help but take it seriously.

But both these positions are problematic as they both rely on an programmatic response to the problem.

Neither view engages properly with the value of risk and reward or the value of clear roles.

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I was tootling around the web looking at some of the sites that Alex pointed out in his post about environmental journalism. I was especially taken with them Manchesterismyplanet site (nice map thing) and the  Planet St Helens site and wondered how much involvement the local press had with them:

So a quick Google got me to The St Helens reporter and this:

That Wigan today thing in the middle is nothing to do with the story, it’s an advert for Tower College and it is on auto play. So you can read about going green whilst listening to the benefits of private education.

Please, please, turn off the autoplay.

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Take a look at this list

• Deals in the real, the tangible, the directly imaginable
• Speaks the language of collective action, in contrast to the disempowered individualism of ‘small actions’ at the national level
• Addresses the individual as a member of a community, as opposed to a citizen of the planet
• Speaks peer-to-peer rather than from the standpoint of authority
• Pragmatic, descriptive and inviting (we are doing this – come and join in!)

Now considering what I blog about here you could think that it’s a list of ideals local journalism should stand for. Perhaps a manifesto of community journalism.

It’s actually a list of some of the defining features of an “energetic local discourse” in green issues that Alex Lockwood identifies in post about green issues and local journalism - why local journalism is better for green issues

Picking up on the subject I proposed for the last carnival of journalism, Alex thinks that local is exactly where the green issue is best discussed and developed. The national level of debate just isnt hitting home.

One of the biggest disjuncts in climate change has been between the size of the problem (global, system-changing) and the dominant ’small actions’ communications set (let’s change the lightbulbs; ‘do your bit’). The size and threat of climate change is communicated too effectively, and many people have felt overwhelmed or that the problem must be exaggerated.They feel their actions are too small to matter.

Citing research from the IPPR Alex points out that locally focused initiatives has been more effective at getting people to engage:

“what has emerged through these initiatives is a powerful repertoire of ‘communal address’ that differs from the campaigning or top-down national communications of government, NGOs and the national press.”

I like the idea of a “repertoire of communal address” as appose to the national line. Local rather than national.

The directly imaginable, communal address, community, peer-to-peer, and importantly, the ability to join in with activities… The digital/local combination is a powerful way of providing people with agency and positive local messages, so they can see how they can make a difference in tackling climate change in their local areas.

Makes sense doesn’t it. And according to the research, its a “potentially useful positioning for organisations promoting climate-friendly behaviour”. But despite the possibilities Alex points out that many in the media are missing a trick or worse ignoring an opportunity.

It’s a shame but not suprising. Take green out of the thing and you could apply the logic for engaging in the way that Alex describes to any issue. But it’s clear that it isnt happening on any level or with any issue.

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A quick post to say congratulations to the students who did well at the Press Gazette Student Journalism Awards. Students won in the radio journalist of the year and student team of the year categories. Well done to them and all involved.

A special mention though to Frida Larsson who won Student Multimedia Journalist of the Year and Ricki Dewsbury who won, well just about everything else. Scoop of the year, News writer of the year and Student Journalist of the year. Well done to both of you.

I taught Frida and Ricki this year and can honestly say they both deserve it.

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• 50 Niche Search Engines That Will Make Your Everyday Life Easier
  Or generate more information to worry about. A good resource though. Thanks to Martin Bellam
  (tags: search web)

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• JP Digital Digest: SPOTLIGHT - MAPS
  Louise has a nice round up of resources for mapping
  (tags: maps jpdigital)

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