Sustainable Journalism

Last week was the 40th birthday of my journalism school, and I went back to Cardiff for the gala dinner. Guest speaker – none other than one of Cardiff University’s more successful journalism alumni Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News. But on my table it was nice for me to be sat opposite an expert in the realm of digital media.

Last year Claire Wardle gave our postgraduate course an energetic and impassioned speech on the future of digital media, and how to use it in our future careers. Back then I wasn’t so sure, but now I’m in the workplace I’m discovering what an essential tool it is. And, one year on it was nice to be having a more frank discussion with her about it now I have a couple of months experience under my belt.

As far as newsrooms go, ITV Central is quite hot on their social media. So much so just last night the late presenter I was producing was tweeting to viewers while she was on air. Luckily she wasn’t in the middle of reading a cue when she tweeted – she at least waited until we were within the relative safety of a package!

But it just goes to show the interactivity a programme can have with its viewers – if the journalists are all on board.

There is a reticence among some of the reporters and producers to get themselves an account. One looked over my shoulder the other day when I had Tweetdeck running and was watching George Osborne rattling through the government’s spending review at the same time and remarked – ‘Isn’t all that information giving you a headache?’

As I mentioned before I was once cynical too. I didn’t quite get the point in it all. And my non journalist friends don’t really get it now either. They’re continually taking the mick out of me for being a social media monster. But I’m so glad I got on board.

It’s only recently I’ve started seeing the benefits though. I’m tweeting a lot more, and that’s down to Tweetdeck. It refreshes tweets live, you can sync it with multiple accounts like facebook and do searches all in the same place. The newly launched twitter is better than it used to be, but simply put, Tweetdeck for me is it.

When I told Claire it was popping up on more and more machines in my newsroom she was clearly surprised.

She has a PHD in the emergence of social media. A part of her job is to help train BBC staff about it. And as you can imagine she comes across people of varying ability and enthusiasm towards the internet. She explained some still don’t really get how to get on the internet at all – something that to me seems incredible.

But what’s my point. Well I’m not meaning to sound all evangelical about this, but when I hear more experienced reporters say things like ‘why are we bothering with twitter and facebook and the internet so much- we’re about making television’ it fills me with sadness.

If you harness these things properly it can only add to your programme, bulletin, and even news report. It’s a shame not everyone can see this. Perhaps I suppose with experience comes cynicism, and maybe ignorance. That may well be sometimes way too difficult to overcome.