So this our prize at the top of the hill was meeting with BBC Lincs news editor Maggie Curtis.
Like any good editor Maggie was well prepared and seasoned enough to give us a few tips and shiny learning things. Would you like to know some ?
Well tough luck because with scrolling down you'll see them.
1. News sources. Every journalists needs these, like fish needs water of builders need bricks or Michael Bay needs an 80's kid shows he can douche up. These come in many shapes in sizes like:
The Internet and conventional media like newspapers and controversial press releases- Maggie made it clear BBC journalists do not churnelise stories and everything must be original. Their may be similar stories with rival outlets but rarely and with the BBC doing their own ground.
People- People are key to journalism just like a door. Maggie encouraged us to get on the phone and talk. Local journalists will make relationships with people which hopefully lead to future stories. Cue the importance of a contact book.
Social network- That's right a way to be legitimately on Facebook and Twitter and you boss not getting upset. Keeping an interesting set of friends could rustle up new stories or good commendable contacts. For Twitter following someone else then a D list celebrity like Stepehen Fry or BBC news could you keep you close to the breaking news of the world. A sentence of warning though, not all sources and friends are reliable. So be careful not to like or retweet everything, double check with over sources, wrong information could lead to a lot of things going wrong.
2. The Beebbook- That's right to score even more bonus points with your boss at the BBC use their own special social network program/ online diary- ENPS. ENPS is the BBC personal social network in a digital nutshell. The programme provides breaking news updates from all the BBC journalists, an example would be whilst Maggie showed us said programme news broke. The system files important breaking news in red, so guess what colour came up ?. It may have been the most dramatic thing but it was a big key thing for that day. As the Chancellor was on the way to deliver his budget a journalist reported via an instant messaging like function the fact people were laying down in front of his car.
3. No more 9-5, it's infinity to infinity- The confines of 9 to (well I've never had this because I always worked till 3) 5 and comfy office is just a dream. To be a good journalist you need to be on alert all the time. Maggies said any journalists which didn't turn up to a news meeting without an idea or had been talking to people over the weekend in case of it being a Monday weekend was not doing their job and shouldn't be inside the building. Also you must be ready to get up in the night if code red news came in and more importantly preparation was key. Maggie told us two hours before she started she'd consuming news via the net to keep up and be ready, knowing what will be on the bulletins. She even listened to her own station to keep up to date.
4. Soft soft software and the curse of magnetic hardware- Another lesson Maggie imparted onto us was that your use of software will explode as a journalist. Maggie had ENPS and Radioman (sound editing software, very similar like many sound editing software systems to our own Lincoln one Cool edit). Though here's the downside Maggie hinted that maybe be higher up the journalist food chain you come a bit reliant on technology as your only news source. Maggie recalled what was a dark incident that morning when she had no access to her PC for 2 hours and compared it to missing a vital limb. So key a thing as editor is to never let your feet leave the ground and leave your precious news sources slip away.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
The BBC saga- Episode 3: Sounding right
Since radio is sound and no pictures (a phrase constantly repeated by a certain radio tutor back in college, which will one day lead me to a break down) it's need to be right and attractive for all.
This week we had our little BBC session with sound guru Tim Johns. What Tim taught us was that sound software is all pretty similar but more importantly he focused on jingles.
Most people consider jingles to be cheesy little tunes followed by some cheesy pop; however a lot of work goes into it. Like anything in the media it must appeal to its target audience. For example Radio 1's jingles are fast paced to suit its healthy active young audience. BBC Lincolnshire jingles however are a little slower and more relaxed and a slower beat.
Tim taught us any jingle music must be instrumental as any lyrics could clash with the audio within in the jingle. Though to go on top of this he explained timing was deftly key. For (yet) another example a jingle he played us followed the tone of the advert. The ad was about a woman with an eating disorder so the first 20 seconds was quite depressive to match her sad story, though the pace picked up at the end when her story become uplifting and cheerful.
Among his other tricks Tim taught us the concept of allowing a song with lyrics (only use if necessary) to breathe. The idea that if you use a song with lyrics at least allow popping out a few lines before starting with the dialogue. Also he commented that sometimes a specific target audience meant sound was restrictive and you couldn't also pool in new listeners, like for example using a slower relaxed tempo for a jingle appeals to an older audience but probably not a young drum and bass generation.
Tim's final little sound tip or more of a fact was jingle and ad sound could vary in how long it takes to produce. For example if you have clear idea it could be done within half an hour, though if you’re out of your comfort zone a little longer.
Also he taught us sound files weren't the most transferable of software from one computer from another after finding a lot his examples couldn't be opened.
This week we had our little BBC session with sound guru Tim Johns. What Tim taught us was that sound software is all pretty similar but more importantly he focused on jingles.
Most people consider jingles to be cheesy little tunes followed by some cheesy pop; however a lot of work goes into it. Like anything in the media it must appeal to its target audience. For example Radio 1's jingles are fast paced to suit its healthy active young audience. BBC Lincolnshire jingles however are a little slower and more relaxed and a slower beat.
Tim taught us any jingle music must be instrumental as any lyrics could clash with the audio within in the jingle. Though to go on top of this he explained timing was deftly key. For (yet) another example a jingle he played us followed the tone of the advert. The ad was about a woman with an eating disorder so the first 20 seconds was quite depressive to match her sad story, though the pace picked up at the end when her story become uplifting and cheerful.
Among his other tricks Tim taught us the concept of allowing a song with lyrics (only use if necessary) to breathe. The idea that if you use a song with lyrics at least allow popping out a few lines before starting with the dialogue. Also he commented that sometimes a specific target audience meant sound was restrictive and you couldn't also pool in new listeners, like for example using a slower relaxed tempo for a jingle appeals to an older audience but probably not a young drum and bass generation.
Tim's final little sound tip or more of a fact was jingle and ad sound could vary in how long it takes to produce. For example if you have clear idea it could be done within half an hour, though if you’re out of your comfort zone a little longer.
Also he taught us sound files weren't the most transferable of software from one computer from another after finding a lot his examples couldn't be opened.
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
The BBC saga- Episode 2: Audiences
So week 2 of our adventures at the top of the hill revolved around that key thing for any media, the audience.
Our session this week was taking with the unique named Audience Editor Andy Roach. Any media savvy chap know that all media tends to have a target audience, like Teletubies is for (well supposed to be) young children and The World today on Radio 4 is for new savvy mature adults above the age of 30.
Though this week we took a focused view on how radio stations measure audience and specifically how the figures for radio stations in Lincoln look. We first did a short pub quiz (minus the beer) in which we had to guess the percentage of listeners for radio stations for adults and teenagers in Lincoln. Then we looked at habits of BBC Lincolnshires target audience (roughly fifty year olds with an interest in Lincolnshire.)
The not so pub quiz stats:
Adults of fifty to seventy years olds in Lincoln listening habits:
BBC Lincolnshire- 17%
Lincs FM- 37%
Capital FM- 9%
Smooth- 6%
Classical FM- 12%
BBC Radio 2- 28%
BBC Radio 1- 28%
BBC Radio 4- 14%
Listeners 15 to 23 year olds in Lincoln listening habits:
BBC Lincolnshire- 0%
Lincs FM- 46%
Capital FM- 34%
Smooth- 7%
Classical FM- 5%
BBC Radio 2- 10%
BBC Radio 1- 41%
BBC Radio 4- 6%
Average listeners to each radio station in Lincoln:
Lincs FM- 44 years old
Capital FM- 33 years old
Smooth- 51 years old
Classical FM- 58 years old
BBC Radio 2- 52 years old
BBC Radio 1- 38 years old
BBC Radio 4- 60 years old
Owners of a digital radio 3 years ago among listeners: 15%
Owners of a digital radio now: 25%
Stats on the habits and life's of BBC radio Lincolnshire listeners:
Work- 29%
Retired- 55%
Visit the website- 27%
Use the website daily- 17%
Not everyday- 43%
Own a mobile- 69%
Now these figures opened my eyes to one thing, their isn't that much radio listening youth as I expected and their is much more of a selection locally and that most people seem to supplement this with more national stations.
Further more Andy broke it down for the two types of listeners they receive:
Utility listeners- These people listen for a specific reasons, like the news or for information on a big event like a snow day
Emotional listeners- These people have a bond with the station, it's like swearing by a product like cadburies over Mars. They could have a bond or liking with one of the presenters or just enjoy the programming.
Another key thing here that made this all possible was RAJAR ( Radio Joint Audience Research) the data research group for British radio. They took 600 people in Lincoln of a wide variety who over a week noted down which radio stations they listened to, which show, what time and day. This then gives radio stations a chance to see what working and what isn't, like if their day time stuff is working well or not.
Our session this week was taking with the unique named Audience Editor Andy Roach. Any media savvy chap know that all media tends to have a target audience, like Teletubies is for (well supposed to be) young children and The World today on Radio 4 is for new savvy mature adults above the age of 30.
Though this week we took a focused view on how radio stations measure audience and specifically how the figures for radio stations in Lincoln look. We first did a short pub quiz (minus the beer) in which we had to guess the percentage of listeners for radio stations for adults and teenagers in Lincoln. Then we looked at habits of BBC Lincolnshires target audience (roughly fifty year olds with an interest in Lincolnshire.)
The not so pub quiz stats:
Adults of fifty to seventy years olds in Lincoln listening habits:
BBC Lincolnshire- 17%
Lincs FM- 37%
Capital FM- 9%
Smooth- 6%
Classical FM- 12%
BBC Radio 2- 28%
BBC Radio 1- 28%
BBC Radio 4- 14%
Listeners 15 to 23 year olds in Lincoln listening habits:
BBC Lincolnshire- 0%
Lincs FM- 46%
Capital FM- 34%
Smooth- 7%
Classical FM- 5%
BBC Radio 2- 10%
BBC Radio 1- 41%
BBC Radio 4- 6%
Average listeners to each radio station in Lincoln:
Lincs FM- 44 years old
Capital FM- 33 years old
Smooth- 51 years old
Classical FM- 58 years old
BBC Radio 2- 52 years old
BBC Radio 1- 38 years old
BBC Radio 4- 60 years old
Owners of a digital radio 3 years ago among listeners: 15%
Owners of a digital radio now: 25%
Stats on the habits and life's of BBC radio Lincolnshire listeners:
Work- 29%
Retired- 55%
Visit the website- 27%
Use the website daily- 17%
Not everyday- 43%
Own a mobile- 69%
Now these figures opened my eyes to one thing, their isn't that much radio listening youth as I expected and their is much more of a selection locally and that most people seem to supplement this with more national stations.
Further more Andy broke it down for the two types of listeners they receive:
Utility listeners- These people listen for a specific reasons, like the news or for information on a big event like a snow day
Emotional listeners- These people have a bond with the station, it's like swearing by a product like cadburies over Mars. They could have a bond or liking with one of the presenters or just enjoy the programming.
Another key thing here that made this all possible was RAJAR ( Radio Joint Audience Research) the data research group for British radio. They took 600 people in Lincoln of a wide variety who over a week noted down which radio stations they listened to, which show, what time and day. This then gives radio stations a chance to see what working and what isn't, like if their day time stuff is working well or not.
The BBC saga- Episode 1: The tour
So instead of waking up at 9am on a Tuesday for my usual 3 hour lecture Sue decided to shake it up and send us off four sessions at the BBC on a Wednesday for more respectable 11am.
Our first lecture, well actually not a lecture and look into the life of BBC Lincolnshire. So here's what we learnt. We found out the target audience is roughly 50 years old and it's a mainly speech based station, something we found out on our tour when we walked in on the Melvyn Prior show in which he was using a radio suitable voice to charm listeners as he discussed the top topic of the day which was fuel prices.
So to begin with we were introduced to station manager Charlie Patridge, a lovely man who seemed proud of his successful radio station. He took for a tour around the station and we found out it used to be an old cinema which explained some of unusual architecture. He showed us the main radio studios mixing desks and pointed out that the old school tapes and 70 styles computers had just simply been built over for the new hip flashy equipment, which we actually found out was fresh from 1985 but no system had yet to outclass it.
We found out another thing to, radio stations aren't just for radio. In a small hidden away room with a camera just in case anyone from the local area is going to be on BBC news and needs a live link up. We also found upstairs in the bustling but calm as a clam news room two dedicated techies working on the Internet site. The news team seemed pretty together and had everything ready for the upcoming 12 o'clock bulletin and was giving themselves a pat on the back for what sounded like another high quality bulletin.
Back downstairs we found the batmobile of radio. A highly visible BBC radio car taken out on local events to help the BBC get around and make the county realise the BBC wasn't just a channel, (we'll skip over the mysterious dent we found).
So what I found out from this was simple. This wasn't a relaxed community radio station, it was serious, from the two producers trying desperately to get an interview for Melvyns shows and to the journalist who had to be in for 5am to do her shift. My view of local radio has gone up and has seriously impressed me.
Our first lecture, well actually not a lecture and look into the life of BBC Lincolnshire. So here's what we learnt. We found out the target audience is roughly 50 years old and it's a mainly speech based station, something we found out on our tour when we walked in on the Melvyn Prior show in which he was using a radio suitable voice to charm listeners as he discussed the top topic of the day which was fuel prices.
So to begin with we were introduced to station manager Charlie Patridge, a lovely man who seemed proud of his successful radio station. He took for a tour around the station and we found out it used to be an old cinema which explained some of unusual architecture. He showed us the main radio studios mixing desks and pointed out that the old school tapes and 70 styles computers had just simply been built over for the new hip flashy equipment, which we actually found out was fresh from 1985 but no system had yet to outclass it.
We found out another thing to, radio stations aren't just for radio. In a small hidden away room with a camera just in case anyone from the local area is going to be on BBC news and needs a live link up. We also found upstairs in the bustling but calm as a clam news room two dedicated techies working on the Internet site. The news team seemed pretty together and had everything ready for the upcoming 12 o'clock bulletin and was giving themselves a pat on the back for what sounded like another high quality bulletin.
Back downstairs we found the batmobile of radio. A highly visible BBC radio car taken out on local events to help the BBC get around and make the county realise the BBC wasn't just a channel, (we'll skip over the mysterious dent we found).
So what I found out from this was simple. This wasn't a relaxed community radio station, it was serious, from the two producers trying desperately to get an interview for Melvyns shows and to the journalist who had to be in for 5am to do her shift. My view of local radio has gone up and has seriously impressed me.
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Project echo answers
In the print edition the story is marked as 'exclusive'.
What is your understanding of this term? Has the definition of it
changed since the advent of the internet? Explain your reasoning and
reference any sites you access/texts you look at to back up your
conclusions.
Following on from Jon's comments on storygathering at the Echo, how do
you think the Echo reporter got the idea for the story and the
information to write it?
Following the appearance of the story in the Echo can you find evidence
of any other local media outlets trying to follow it up? Suggest
organisations which may have been interested in it and how they reach
out to different sections of the community.
Can you suggest an angle for a follow-up story by the Echo? List
individuals and organisations you would consider approaching and their
contact details.
Finally, do you think the Echo style of journalism, with its 128 year
tradition, is still relevant today?
What is your understanding of this term? Has the definition of it
changed since the advent of the internet? Explain your reasoning and
reference any sites you access/texts you look at to back up your
conclusions.
Following on from Jon's comments on storygathering at the Echo, how do
you think the Echo reporter got the idea for the story and the
information to write it?
Following the appearance of the story in the Echo can you find evidence
of any other local media outlets trying to follow it up? Suggest
organisations which may have been interested in it and how they reach
out to different sections of the community.
Can you suggest an angle for a follow-up story by the Echo? List
individuals and organisations you would consider approaching and their
contact details.
Finally, do you think the Echo style of journalism, with its 128 year
tradition, is still relevant today?
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Project: Echo- Group work
Previously on Joshes blog...
Josh and his fellow FDA enthusiasts travelled to the whimsical dimension of the Lincolnshire Echo to speaker to the master dimension only known as editor Jon Grubb regaling us with tales of wonder about being a honourable warrior known as a journalist. After leaving this dimension the FDA's were tasked with answering a set of riddles for their blogs, the catch was it must be answered in groups.
Ok now wannabe comic bit's over let's get going.
Following on from Sue's last lecture our job was to answer questions surrounding a exclusive article the Lincolnshire Echo published surrounding councillors shady dealings with expenses. Link here- http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/news/COUNCIL-EXPENSE-PURSEarticle-3245880-detail/article.html
The trick was doing it in a group. These are the steps we took to get it done and little log along the way:
Arrangement: The first thing was to get everyone somewhere we could all talk and do the work together. This started off we a few of us sending out ideas via text. After we decided a location, date and time we sent out a mass email to everyone in our group explaining why we emailed and our plans. Also to come prepared with ideas of how to answer the questions.
Making sure everyone got the message: Since not everyone used the Universities email we knew it's possible some people may have not got our message, it involved us meeting with people prior and post lecture to make sure they knew the plan. On the day we meet, we had a seminar so we reminded everyone once more to the time and place and luckily we had special session that day, so those who attended went to the library after that.
Getting to work: So the place we chose was the libary due to the fact it had wide resources and made use feel really clever when we told people where we would would been. When we got their we sat in a group at the computers and bought up the questions on Blackboard and worked through them logically. We noted down our answers and gave everyone a chance to speak.
So what made this whole little adventure work? Well it was being able to communicate and I’m now pleased to say I do have suitable contact details for people now. Another key point was using an old GCSE English trick called the PEE (Point Example Explain) chain when we went through the questions verbally. So you'd bring up an idea, draw on some kind of example to support your idea and then explain it to get your message across.
Josh and his fellow FDA enthusiasts travelled to the whimsical dimension of the Lincolnshire Echo to speaker to the master dimension only known as editor Jon Grubb regaling us with tales of wonder about being a honourable warrior known as a journalist. After leaving this dimension the FDA's were tasked with answering a set of riddles for their blogs, the catch was it must be answered in groups.
Ok now wannabe comic bit's over let's get going.
Following on from Sue's last lecture our job was to answer questions surrounding a exclusive article the Lincolnshire Echo published surrounding councillors shady dealings with expenses. Link here- http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/news/COUNCIL-EXPENSE-PURSEarticle-3245880-detail/article.html
The trick was doing it in a group. These are the steps we took to get it done and little log along the way:
Arrangement: The first thing was to get everyone somewhere we could all talk and do the work together. This started off we a few of us sending out ideas via text. After we decided a location, date and time we sent out a mass email to everyone in our group explaining why we emailed and our plans. Also to come prepared with ideas of how to answer the questions.
Making sure everyone got the message: Since not everyone used the Universities email we knew it's possible some people may have not got our message, it involved us meeting with people prior and post lecture to make sure they knew the plan. On the day we meet, we had a seminar so we reminded everyone once more to the time and place and luckily we had special session that day, so those who attended went to the library after that.
Getting to work: So the place we chose was the libary due to the fact it had wide resources and made use feel really clever when we told people where we would would been. When we got their we sat in a group at the computers and bought up the questions on Blackboard and worked through them logically. We noted down our answers and gave everyone a chance to speak.
So what made this whole little adventure work? Well it was being able to communicate and I’m now pleased to say I do have suitable contact details for people now. Another key point was using an old GCSE English trick called the PEE (Point Example Explain) chain when we went through the questions verbally. So you'd bring up an idea, draw on some kind of example to support your idea and then explain it to get your message across.
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