Markmedia

Interview with Paul Bradshaw pt.1

A couple of weeks ago I recorded a conversation with Paul Bradshaw [Download paulbpt1.mp3 : 30 MB file]. Paul is a senior lecturer in journalism at Birmingham City University, an insightful commentator on the impact of the the shift to digital on journalism, the creator of the Online Journalism Blog and author of (amongst others) a forthcoming book on investigative journalism (review to come).

Our conversation was wide ranging but had the following themes:

• The theory/practice debate
• Media & communication degrees contra journalism degrees
• How can journalism education keep up with the fluidity of an ever changing market?
• How much influence should the industry have on the content of courses
• Are there skills that are no longer needed?

I have not edited the content of the discussion but have broken it into segments of roughly 20 mins. I will give a rough time-line for each segment.

Segment one:

Introduction
02.00 "If you want the craft skills of a journalist - do a craft course"
03.40 "The vast amount of students see the theory stuff as just something they have to do to get a degree"
05.16 "The intention is to create a thinking media professional"
09.10 "I don't think there is any point in journalism degrees"
11.05 "If I were an employer I would rather have someone with a Media & Communications degree than a traditional journalism degree"

13.11 Q: How can journalism education keep up with the fast pace of change in the market?
This section discusses validation of modules and flexible module planning. Also structural issues for universities in general and journalism departments in particular around how to meet new challenges.

Interviewing paul

power presentation

Doing my first Pecha Kucha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecha_Kucha) presentation tomorrow. 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds, which gives a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds. Cant see it working as that is about how long it takes me to say hi.
However, I will give it a shot. Luckly there is a lot of time after for discussion.
The presentation is a go-through of two projects, one at the Birmingham Post and one at the Liverpool Daily Post. Some strong language may appear :-)

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Creating communities

This is a reply to Alison Gows´utter on newspapers building communities
http://www.utterz.com/…Mw/utt.php

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Nick Drake and friendship

I have always loved Nick Drakes music. His voice and melancholic melodic music are, to me, quintessentially English (as is Roy Harper).
It is music I return to when ever I am feeling down, sad, tired or depressed. In a strange way Drakes music, infused with his own sorrows acts as a regenerator, a place to find refuge, a way to shelter in the stillness of sadness and come out feeling rejuvenated.
What got me thinking about this was a couple of pictures from a friend who had just been to Tanworth-in-Arden where Drake is buried. It is a place, like Drakes music, to go to with friends. To walk in and feel the warmth of conversation, give a healing hug, recharge batteries, rediscover how important friends are. When "living digital" I sometimes forget the power of face to face friendship.

Next time I am in the area I want to go there. Walk and talk with a friend. Play some Drake and drink some wine. Feelin the healin.

OK. Today's patheticness over. Back to work. :-)

Digital natives - pffff

Sarah Hartley has posted an interesting piece on the digital native theme.

Her post got me thinking and I posted a comment. Being the lazy sod I am, I repost the comment here as a posting.

I have some issues with the digital native/ digital immigrant meme.
I do not think it is a useful dichotomy as it makes age an arbitrary measurement to digital understanding. It makes it seem that if you are young enough, then you automatically have a digital mindset. I have seen no evidence of this. My j-students are often rigidly locked in to an analogue vision of the industry, see print (or radio or tv, or even a mixture of all three but in an analogue manner) as their future and do not easily understand the principals of conversation contra lecturing that many of us propagate as the (only) future for journalism. [When I say analogue I am talking about mindset, not technology. One can master digital technology and still have an analogue mindset. This is the situation for more and more journalists today.] They have some degree of technical knowledge (though that is often over-estimated) but no great conceptual grasp of the shift from analogue to digital.
(See Andys post  [ http://www.andydickinson.net/2007/01/14/journalism-education-we-lost-em-before-we-got-em/ ]as a starting point into this discussion)

The follow-on from this is that journalism educators develop courses that are tech based and program oriented which play to students strengths but never challenges their underlying “analogueness”.

Another problem with the meme is that it leads employers to believe that by just recruiting young people they will be gathering a base for change. This is leading to young, tech savy people being placed in leadership positions without them having the *journalistic* skills to make good strategic choices. I know of one example where the publisher is 34, has very strong tech skills but no journalism background and is making decisions that will have a long term impact on the publication. This is a danger to the journalistic development of our industry. A danger that the “digital native” argument perpetuates.

Also, looking around me, the people making a difference seem to be over 30. Have a look at your own area and see if that is also the case for you. I am over 50 and believe (possibly wrongly of course) that my grasp of the shift to digital and my immersion in and understanding of the process by far outstrips many (if not most) of the so called natives. This is not to say that there are not many under thirty doing great things in journalism, just that they are not doing them because they are under thirty

Its not an age thing. Its a curiosity thing. Which makes me a bit sad that so few journalists get it. Curiosity should be our stock-in-trade.

when a tweet makes a difference

Here is an example of how a listening and conversing journalist can allow the public to make a difference. It may seem a small thing but I dont think so. It represents a shift in mindset, power and ownership. If we wish it to. And if we (journalists/news organisations) can let go.

The Birmingham Post ran a story on how voice stress technology is being used to combat alleged benefit fraud:

A computer listens in on a telephone conversation between a claimant and officials and checks for changes in their voice frequency as they are asked questions, to determine whether they are telling the truth or not.

The original headline - Phone lie detector caught 160 Birmingham cheats - was seen as misleading by a reader who tweeted it. This led to a Post journalist (not the story writer) entering in to a conversation with the reader, an interaction which led to a change in headline to one that more accurately reflected the story content - Phone lie detector led to 160 Birmingham benefit cheat investigations -.

As I said, a seemingly small thing, but indicative of a change in how audiences and journalists can work together to produce a higher standard of journalism.

 

The twittered conversation can be seen in the pics below.

Daleks in the morning

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Paul Bradshaw

Interviewing paul

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