Sustainable Journalism

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It’s been a long while since I’ve posted, and this is just a quickie, but it will hopefully break the deadlock and encourage me to pull my finger out.It’s less than three weeks until the biggest party in the world rolls into the Mendips.

This year will be my 8th consecutive festival, and I’m vouching it’ll be my last – for a while! So for that reason I’m turning up the hype and staying excited by keeping an eye on site preparations on the BBC webcam.

Bring on, sun, cider and stone circles

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.

Well what an incredible anti climax the end of that old television institution was. No glorious send off.  No best bits montage. Just a rushed see you, thanks for coming and hope you don’t bugger off to BBC Breakfast.

It’s a crying shame that GMTV didn’t get a good chance to reflect on its past 17 years with us on the tellybox. I’m not going to pretend I was an avid fan watching everyday, but for a bit of a light-hearted news fix in the morning – something to simply make you smile – GMTV did not fail. The problem is that ratings wise its been in slow decline ever since the competition phone in scandals in 2007.

I suppose I have more of an affinity with it than most having done a night shift in the newsroom there and now producing the regional news opt-outs within GMTV for ITV Central News. All that aside I feel a bit let down by its rather lacklustre departure from our screens – especially as I dragged myself out of bed on my day off expecting some pure television nostalgia.

There is a bit more reflection on their website, but why they made more of a fuss when Ben Shepherd left a few weeks ago than for seeing off the entire programme, for now remains a mystery. For reasons unknown they’ve had to bow out quietly to make way for Daybreak – which bulldozed its way straight onto our screens merely a second after seeing the GMTV logo for the very last time.

From the their website banners things look like they could be staying very similar – and many of the staff have transferred – so what will make Daybreak different? How will it return to the heyday of the nineties and win back its viewers from the Beeb? ITV bosses must be confident their new line up and swanky new studio will do the trick.

So from Monday at 6am we’ll have that grumpy Brummy and his chirpy Irish counterpart gracing Itv1, and although it might not sound like it, I am looking forward to it. I hope it brings the refreshment to breakfast news that’s needed to try and compete with a rather stoic and middle class BBC alternative.

If the way we’re having to refresh our regional news bulletins is anything to go by, it’ll hopefully be a much pacier and news-led production. However with news this morning that 4 Poofs and a Piano are reportedly joining the show – perhaps I’m hoping for too much. That aside it needs to offer something different, as it has a lot of hype to live up to.

It could be in with a fighting chance of a return to the glory days if it can deliver from word go and win over viewers. I reckon it has an even better chance of success with plans to move BBC Breakfast northwards in the BBC’s massive relocation programme to MediaCityUK in Salford.

However, rebrands are a risky business. TVam morphed into GMTV without too much difficulty – but who remembers the ill fated successor to The Big Breakfast – RI:SE on Channel4. Heavily promoted, brand new studios, a promise of bigger and better things. Granted in slightly different circumstances and for different audiences.

The Big Breakfast nor RI:SE were about news like the breakfast output from the BBC or ITV. But at the time the new programme was much fanfared and it just did not deliver. RI:SE flopped lasting just 20 months, from April 2002 to December 2003.

Will Daybreak meet a similar fate? I doubt it, but who knows? Ever the optimist me! For now farewell GMTV – it’s not been as emotional as it could have been. As they say out with the old and in with the new.  Lets just hope the editors of Daybreak aren’t soley relying on their anchors to make it a success. Otherwise I fear it won’t be too long before you end up on the scrapheap too.

The post started with the last moments onscreen and so it should end with the final moments of GMTV filmed behind the scenes in the production gallery…

So that’s it. Exam results have been checked and verified and the majority of us CJSers have passed. The time has come and we can now change our email signatures to read real ‘Broadcast Journalist’. I can hardly contain myself. But that also means we’re dispersing into the far flung corners of the journalistic world and will not be sauntering around the corridors of JOMEC again any time soon.

Let’s then hark back on the year that was, by starting off with looking at our best bits below, so expertly put together by the notorious Nick Hartley and the magnanimous Huw Morgan.

Who would have thought a year has passed, with the highs and lows of production days, filming out on location, early starts for the breakfast shift and the joy of the television two-way from the newsroom.

For the more academic among us who can forget those enthralling public administration lectures, reporters and the reported and never forgetting Duncan Bloy’s masterclasses in how not to get sued the pants off through libellous broadcasting.

Further still, those glutton for punishment who were either brave or foolish enough to get up at 9am every weekday in the autumn semester to learn shorthand, I salute you, you’re made of sterner stuff than I. So here’s a treat – try flexing that grey matter and transcribing this!

Just think, now all we have are production days every day of the week. Just what have we let ourselves in for?

The year in Cardiff has had its testing times and for me it has only been bearable thanks to such a stellar group of people.

There’s been a lot of love between us. We’ve baked cakes for each other, we took a trip back to primary school and made a class tea towel, we’ve visited castles, been go karting, beaten City University at netball, almost went camping, bloody loads of stuff. For the love of cliché we’ve worked hard and we’ve played harder; Vodka Revs often did not know what had hit it! This all topped off with an end of term BBQ in the stately Llanishen venue of the Morgan estate, and the night that was Milgis.

What has been the defining moment of CJS 2010? For me I reckon it was the big man’s birthday. In the few shifts I’ve done so far, when you tell people in the industry you’ve been studying in Cardiff, it isn’t long until you’re asked the question “How’s Colin?” Well to mark the passing of Colin’s 62nd year two clever people had the ingenious idea of the perfect send up. They do say afterall, that imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

It truly has been a blast, and I’ll miss everyone who has been a part of my short time in Cardiff. The class of 2010 is bound to go far. However far that may be,  something tells me it won’t be too long until we see each other again.

All the best and stay in touch news team!

Halpin xxx

Cardiff Journalism School is all over for me now so it’s time to get into the real wide world of work. To kick things off I spent a couple of days with BBC Radio Derby where they had me out straight away reporting for them.

The first piece I did was about the ongoing problems the multi million pound Westfield Shopping Centre is having with its roof, in that it’s struggling to keep out the rain. I was sent out to cover the piece for their breakfast programme Phil Trow’s Breakfast Show. Have a listen below.

Then on my second day I was sent out to interview the work colleagues of local lass Rachael White, who has just entered the Big Brother house for its final series.

I went to Bonds hairdressing salon in Derby City Centre to get the lowdown on what Rachael is really like. This was broadcast on Colin Bloomfield’s Drivetime show on Thursday 10th June.

It was a great couple of days, and is a personal milestone in that they were the first two pieces I have done that have gone to air. I learnt a lot in the process, with some things I could do differently for next time, but thanks to the news team at Derby who gave me plenty of constructive feedback the experience has further galvanised my confidence for reporting out in the field.

Between them Supermarkets throw away 1.8 million tonnes of food each year, much of which is still edible. Here I take a look into the different ways people are trying to save some of this waste from landfill.

As part of the Cardiff course not only do we hone our journalism skills but throughout production days we also get a stab at presenting the weather. As I’ve had some previous experience with this before, and as it’s a great way to practice ‘pieces to camera’, I thought I’d spruce up a weather forecast with my Photoshop and burgeoning Newscutter skills.

Let me know what you think.

I’ve been quiet on the blog front the past month or so. That’s because student life is fast becoming a thing of the past; I’m soon to be evicted from the safe confines of Cardiff University Journalism School to practice the art of journalism in the real wide world. It’s placement time, and I started my five week window with a night shift at GMTV on Monday 5th April into Tuesday 6th April.

When I told my non-journalist friends I was working a twelve hour night shift for nothing they thought I was mad. Yet I couldn’t have chosen a better night for it; it being the eve of the start of the 2010 election campaign. It was all hands on deck in the newsroom and that’s when my Avid and Newscutter skills came in handy. Rather than merely shadow, I was put to work to cut some pictures and get some scripts outlined for the morning bulletins.

With the news that Scrabble’s rules were going to get a revamp for the first time in 60 years, I got myself involved with a bit filming; my hands are now famous as we filmed some shots of my dubious Scrabble skills. I also kept an eye on the wires watching news break on the worst mine disaster in America, where hour by hour more fatalities in the West Virginia explosion were announced.

Of course, the election coverage took centre stage and in the morning there were live outside broadcasts to come from 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace and the South Bank. It was fascinating to sit in the gallery and see how logistically such a complicated live TV programme goes out. Here’s one of John Stapleton’s live links and a package that was broadcast that morning.

So what did I learn? Well I suppose that I’m not that far off, and that studying Broadcast at Cardiff has given me all the practical skills I need to slot into a busy newsroom environment. Not that I doubted it for a minute, but it’s a confidence boost to know that I’m not a million miles away. It was great to see the inner workings of a vibrant and dynamic 24 hour newsroom (not two words I’d have described myself to be at four thirty in the morning if I’m honest), and a great buzz covering internationally breaking stories. Moreover, it was encouraging that I was able to get stuck in and had the skills to all intents and purposes do the job.

And the 6am sunrise over Central London was worth the all-nighter alone.

Alright so I used some artistic license – I couldn’t see this from my desk but it was a stone’s throw away!

UTV Announced as preferred bid

So it’s been announced. UTV is the preferred bidder for the Independently Funded News Consortium bids to provide national news here in Wales, under the name Wales Live.

There was a wave of surprise among Cardiff University Postgraduate broadcast journalists when the announcement was made by the Department for Culture Media and Sport at eleven o’clock this morning. No less because at the public meeting last month it seemed very much like UTV were the outside bidders, despite having a robust proposal.

Now they’ve been announced, perhaps the reasons why their bid outshone the rest will become clear. Can they stand alone and self generate revenues to stay afloat, or will they need to rely on public funding? Did their blatant criticism of ITV Wales’ current output clinch it for them, or was it their sums that made them the most attractive candidates?

Last week U Turns by ITV… this week UTV

Also could last week’s somewhat surprising change of heart towards regional news output by Archie Norman, ITV’s chairman, have played apart in todays decision? The whole reason the IFNC scheme was drawn up was because ITV indicated they wanted out of their public service broadcasting responsibilities, which encompasses regional news. Perhaps in fact this late U-turn did have an impact on today’s announcement, as all of the bids launched by current ITV teams have lost out.

The preferred bidders for Scotland are Scottish News Consortium (SNC) (major newspaper groups Johnston Press, Herald and Times Group, and D C Thomson along with Llanelli based TV production company Tinopolis) , and for Tyne Tees News 3 (Trinity Mirror, Press Association and independent TV production company, Ten Alps).

In the Welsh Assembly last week this topic was hotly debated, and despite Conservative opposition to the news pilot taking off, the Assembly is in favour of this fresh new take on Wales’ National news output.

Will IFNC’s even get off the ground?

What will happen next is now the question ringing around our student newsroom. At the meeting in February UTV insisted they would be retaining ITV staff at Culverhouse Cross, yet I bet there will be some doubts as to what will happen now circulating there at the moment. Also UTV were fairly damning on the way things have been done up until now at ITV Wales, which surely won’t make for an easy transition.

As the Conservatives have been vehemently against the IFNC project from the off, and as Archie was a Conservative MP until 2005, it wouldn’t be surprising if the campaign to derail IFNC’s intensifies. Indeed there has been criticism of a rush job to identify these preferred bidders before the calling of the general election. Whether the bids will be given the help they need to turn from pilot to permanent will surely depend on government support, and a change in government would throw a fairly large spanner in the works. So rather than being set in stone, there may still be a while to go until we see something like this on our screens.

It’s certainly been a tough contest for the bid here in Wales, and I’m sure the teams working on the Taliesin and Tinopolis bids must be feeling pretty deflated. However, it’s been a great opportunity to go back to the proverbial drawing board in terms of discussing what’s important in the provision of news coverage today, and how this can set the agenda rather than lagging behind the times and technology.

Let’s just hope this process has not been a rush job, and that Wales Live is not just a transposition of Northern Ireland’s existing service under a different guise.

Above is a three minute special TV report myself and Jennie Clark put together as part of our production days at Cardiff Journalism School.

Luckily we had a week of lovely weather which really enhanced the footage, and we were also able to film the last users of the water, Llanishen Sailing Centre, which made for some really nice pictures.

For the full accompanying article see Welsh Green Dragon.