New.Journalism.Review

Daily Mail's outrage over new MA in Social Media

A minor-storm erupted last week regarding the launch of the MA in Social Media by Birmingham City University.

Described inaccurately by the  Daily Mail as a  "Masters degree in Facebook" this was a cue for references to "Mickey Mouse degrees", "ex-Poly students" and "tax payers money + drains" etc etc......[Feel free to complete].

My favourite comment on the Daily Mail site was from "Paul", who (apparently) lives in Los Angeles. So incensed by the launch of an MA (not even from a university in his own country), that "Paul"  forgot how to spell...

"What unbelievable bovine,equine and Yak excremnet! i guess this proves people can get more stupid than they are mow."- Paul, Los Angeles USA, 29/3/2009 22:31

"Paul from Los Angeles" is clearly an idiot (where are those moderators when you need them?). And whilst the Daily Mail's reporting could easily be dismissed as "lazy journalism", sadly, it reflects a wider misunderstanding of the role of higher education in the mainstream media which dates back to the 70s when universities were attacked for teaching sociology.  

The reality is that  an MA in Social Media is relevant to anyone who communicates with audiences online or needs an understanding of the importance of online communities. So that could include people who work in the: computer games industry, PR, marketing and just about any business with a website. 

I'm no expert, but there has been a lot of interesting academic material on the rise of online communities, crowd-sourcing and the formation of social relationships coming out of the US and Australia in the past year. It is early days, but this is a subject that has a proper academic underpinning.

Whilst the volume of academic material and research is astonishing, one of the most common errors that students tend to make when discussing  the Internet is to assume its impact is the same in all countries. In reality, whilst the Internet is (obviously) global in nature, its impact is not homogeneous. That's to say, for example, a young person in the UK does not always have the same experience of Internet communities as someone in the US, Singapore, Germany or perhaps China. We interpret online actions differently.

Some more comments from Daily Mail contributors...

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In short, we desperately need a UK (or perhaps European) perspective on things. This is where the academics at Birmingham City University are leading the way.

I teach on a journalism degree course and often have friends in the industry ask me whether there is "enough" to say about journalism to fill a three year course.

The reality is that we're not short of things to teach. We obviously teach the basic writing skills, as we have always done. But there is also more technology to understand, ethics, law and business skills to learn. This is a sector that is changing beyond all recognition and we need to equip our students to understand this.

The same will be true for an MA in Social Media which lasts just one year. There will be a lot of academic theory to assimilate, as well as the practical development of new and, hopefully, groundbreaking online applications.I would be really excited to be a student on such a course.

I do have some criticisms. Birmingham City University says that the course comes from the angle of cultural studies, but I doubt if this will be enough. Running courses cross-faculty is always very difficult, but from my experience students want to know how things work from a technical stance. It can be tricky to decide where the cut-off point is, but it would be wise to make links with the computing department  (as they have done on the excellent MA in Electronic Publishin  at City University in London, which is run by two faculties). 

But  social media is a) important to the UK economy and b)  something worthy of academic study. So let's drop references to "Yak excremnet" (whatever that is?) and the rather tiresome discussion of "Mickey Mouse degrees" (much loved by tabloid journalists) and lets have a serious debate about the impact of social media.

Blogging as a way of building a personal online 'brand'

I try to encourage our level 1 journalism students to  blog. This is important for many reasons, not least it acts as a showcase for their journalistic masterpieces which can be viewed by potential employers. Unfortunately, this advice often falls on deaf ears. And blogging should never be forced on anyone!

But Robert Clarke, a first year student and games journalist, heard my cry and set up In Solent 2008. It provides a 'student-eye' account of the BA Journalism course. It's well-written and shows signs of some great reflection on learning. It's well worth a read.

Getting a job in MSM

As this blog has mentioned before, entrepreneurial students should look to set up their own news sites and blogs. Most students will seek work in MSM (mainstream media) when they leave university, but I hope some will consider a more interesting direction and try setting up their own media brands.

I'm not the only person to observe that individual journalist's names are now seen as 'multimedia brands'. This has been going on in the US for many years - CNN has Larry King and Anderson Cooper 360. Fox News and MSNBC has their own lot. These big hitters are promoted on billboards, websites and in supermarket tabloids up-and-down the country.

A journalist's name = 'multimedia brands'

In the UK, Sky News promotes the heck out of its on-screen talent. But the BBC has traditionally kept its news 'talent' in their place. No Jeremy Paxman 360. No Big Crunch Live with 'housewives favourite', Robert Peston (BBC business editor). On-screen talent should never become 'bigger' than the TV or radio channels they work for. (The Andrew Marr Show is probably the exception). These days, the BBC promotes some blogs. Robert Peston has his  BBC blog promoted on-air  - bbc.co.uk/robertpeston. A massive hit with British housewives, it has become so popular it has been blamed for causing City jitters.

Of course the Sky News approach is right and the BBC is increasingly looking out of touch in this platform world where cross marketing is king. Bearing in mind that many journalists spend much of their time a) freelancing and b) writing across media platforms - it makes sense that they will seek to promote themselves to get new contracts and win audiences. 

Internet identity

And any new student who is looking to make a name for themselves needs to be producing work of a consistently high standard and they must get it online. They don't need an expensive agent, but they should indulge in some not-so-shameless online marketing. A blog, a LinkedIn page, a personal website,  and postings to other respected blogs should do the trick to get any budding journalist listed on Google. It also seems pretty essential to register your name as a .com. (See Ways to Establish an Internet Identity).

If you have a really common name, as I do, then you may want to adopt a pen name (it helps with the Google rankings).  It's not difficult, but it does seem that only the really entrepreneurial journalism students are getting the message.

An essential post - Should journalism degrees still prepare students for a news industry that doesn’t want them?

It's a lovely sunny day and I'm feeling happy, but I  took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself to feel miserable before reading Paul's post [Should journalism degrees still prepare students for a news industry that doesn’t want them? | Online Journalism Blog] .

Paul's question is highly controversial and, of course, the responses make for very interesting reading.

One thing that dominates a lot of journalism degrees is the philosophy that journalism is a profession and only the 'pros' can do it well. It's this kind of arrogance that needs to change. Courses need to be far more inclusive.

I agree with Paul's view that students often come in with a 'mono-media' view of working in the industry. We've just 're-valed' our degree at Solent and hopefully, with the new structure, we'll beat this kind of thinking out of students [not literally] at level 1!

Kevin Anderson's view on changing 'mindshift'  is important. I may want to show his YouTube video to my class - it seems quite important. 

I also totally agree with Alison.  On the positive side, students have this amazing  opportunity to create their own brands online. Eventually, if they wish, they will seek jobs in MSM or perhaps not.  Well-known journalists seem to be becoming multimedia  brands themselves. They are bigger than the newspapers and websites that they write for.

The Guardian and its anti-BBC views.

Guardian Media Group (GMG) say “The BBC and BBC Worldwide are encroaching into online areas where commercially funded players could provide the content required.” [Yahoo Pans Ofcom’s Search Plan, Says BBC.co.uk May Be Too Big - PaidContentUK]

The report also states, rather too vaguely for my liking, Yahoo! has "joined the growing ranks grumbling about the BBC’s scale."

Really? Who the f***k are these grumblers?

The only sound of grumbling I hear (apart from that coming from gastro pubs in Farringdon) is from the British Internet Publisher's Alliance (BIPA). This rather secretive organisation is bankrolled by large media companies, including  Rupert Murdoch's News International (no surprise) and, oddly, the ever-so liberal - Guardian newspaper.

So whenever you read a news story or opinion in a broadsheet newspaper regarding the BBC, it's worth checking whether its publisher declares its membership of BIPA [Check its membership list NOW!]

Those that wish to curb the power of the BBC are in a minority in the UK. Unfortunately, they are a minority who happen to work in publishing, have massive public influence and tend be vocal sods.

The Guardian has the facility to spread the BIPA anti-BBC message to the great and the good using its well-read Monday media section.

It also now has a new platform  - PaidContent - which GMG bought recently. Can the Guardian possibly resist the temptation to dominate the online news funding debate using its new baby as a tool?

BIPA would like to see a 'level playing field in the online news environment' - sounds okay, right? In reality, many would like to see funding withdrawn for key BBC services enjoyed by millions. At the extreme end, some even would like to see the large and very popular news site pulled completely.

Commercially, The Guardian would find it very, very, handy if license fee funding for BBC.co.uk was abolished or it service significantly scaled back - not just in the UK, but USA. BBC News is a massive player in  the US online market, a market which The Guardian is hoping to also dominate.

The reality is that BBC.co.uk is a fantastic site and the on-demand, iPlayer, stuff is great. As it does with TV and radio, the BBC sets the standard in online journalism in the UK.

It is enjoyed and relied upon to give honest and accurate information by millions of people around the world, but this means nothing to those commercial rivals at BIPA who will do anything to attack the BBC.

I suspect that many Guardian readers enjoy the BBC site and see it for what it is - a fantastic resource which is an absolute bargain in terms of what we pay for it per a month. They would be shocked to hear that their respected newspaper is privately lobbying against it.

Commercial rivals need to get real. Work out how to raise your game and compete. Quit complaining into your chardonnay and DO NOT INSIST ON FURTHER CRIPPLING REGULATION THAT WILL EVENTUALLY KILL THE BBC.

But competing in a poor economic climate is difficult and that's why we can expect the grumbling from commercial rivals to get louder and more frequent in the pages of newspapers like The Guardian.

A new journalism degree course is born...

Our new BA (Hons) Journalism degree structure has got the official stamp(s) of approval and is set to launch in October [2008].

We spent a lot of time trying to understand the changes which have occurred in the industry and what it means to our students. The new degree has convergence journalism at its heart and this has required a far more integrated approach to teaching.

When it comes to technology, to paraphrase a speech by the BBC's Kevin Marsh,"you don't need to be right, just be ready." I like the sound of that approach. We don't know exactly where things are going in the industry, but I think we're on the right lines now. Our students will be much better prepared for entry into the industry.   

A few reflective points:

Here are a few reflective thoughts about the process...

1) Convergence journalism IS happening: Yes sir! Sounds pretty basic, but some people still seem to think that it's some kind of blip. We'll somehow return to a time when people only get content from the newspaper or radio. Normal service WON'T be resumed soon! It won't 'settle'. Most UK media companies run converged operations. It may not be quite as advanced as what is happening in the US media, but even the smallest local village paper normally has a web site. If they have a web site then there is usually a desire to integrate (even if it's just to save money). Social media, crowd sourcing...these are not just buzzwords.

2) 'Online journalism' versus 'convergence': There is a difference! All students need skill in convergence/multimedia. We kept online journalism as an option. Read on for more...

3) The old pathways remained: Initially there was an idea to have a separate online journalism pathway (possibly even an entirely separate degree!). This would be a mistake.It was decided to keep two pathways at L2 and L3 -  'print' and 'broadcast'. It would have certainly been easier to simply add a new pathway for online (in terms of timetabling), but that would be a non-converged approach. We decided that convergence had to be embedded into the existing print and broadcast pathways.

4) Students can still specialise: We want students to be able to operate in a multimedia and multi-platform way, but we were not creating 'jack  hacks of all trades'. Students must have competent multimedia skills, but we kept the specialist teaching in the pathways and options. It's pretty obvious that good research, interview, reporting and editing skills are as important as ever. You don't want to do anything to damage the teaching of  the sacred cows.

5) Have something to converge with: You have to worry about those courses based around single media ( like all those NCTJ pre-entry courses). How can they teach multimedia? We already gave students flexibility

6) Some software is non-converged: Students get teaching in a range of industry standard software, like : Quark, InDesign, Photoshop, FinalCutPro etc. But some of this software is pretty non-converged [take a look at Quark]. Adobe products are better because they have been built around the 'web workflow'. There is a whole new raft of software that needs to be looked at for internet publishing. New content management systems etc.

7) Visual skills are really important: Students often think they are on a writing course, but they need to understand how content is presented in linear and non-linear ways and the role of images. Audiences need help in navigating their way through vast amounts of information slush. Students need skills in managing content in different formats.

A few challenges still needing to be faced:

There is a lot more than this, but what the heck.....

1) Closer links with the computing courses: The design director of NYTimes.com  [see the full post here]  explained what he looked for in an ideal candidate (it makes for quite a list): XHTML, CSS,
JavaScript, Flash and a "commercially viable comfort level with database and application programming". Wooooooah!. With the exception of some Flash, we don't teach this stuff in the arts faculty. But I am guessing there are specialists in the computing faculty who are experts in this. Cross-faculty links can be tricky to arrange, but we need to do it. 

2) Mobile: Will this eventually become a significant platform for media consumption? Mentions of mobile are a little absent from the unit descriptors that I wrote! 

3) Web First?: I'm slightly skeptical about this. How many 'newspapers' are really operating in a 'web first' way? Come the big story, don't  we always save it for the paper version or broadcast? 

4) Getting students to take multimedia seriously: It can no longer play second fiddle to the perceived 'glamour' of print or TV!

There are some links and journal articles that influenced the thinking about convergence and I will list these soon. I will also be blogging about how I am getting on writing the new Inside Multimedia News course material and New Media contexts stuff. Speaking of which, I better get on with it...

Mobile broadband reviewed in PC Pro

This month's PC Pro magazine (available in the UK, August 2008 issue) reviews the mobile broadband offerings from UK operators - 3, Orange, 0_2, T-Mobile and Vodafone. The article compares the services on price, ease of use, speed etc. It's certainly the most comprehensive review that I've read to date.

I was particularly interested to see how the five networks performed outside London, where mobile broadband coverage can be patchy at best. Part of the tests involved a reviewer using each of the services on a train commute from Sussex to London.

I commute by train from Surrey to Southampton, but South West Trains appear unable to provide WiFi connectivity which would obviously be ideal.

In the meantime, an ever-growing number of my fellow commuters obtain Net access using various dongles and USB sticks.

Vodafone seems to be the most popular service on my particular route. But coverage must be pretty shaky, particularly in the stretch from Winchester to Eastleigh in Hampshire where deep embankments and hills obstruct mobile reception. It's so bad that you can't even make a voice call at times.

Vodafone also comes top in the the PC Pro tests. This comes as no surprise as most people seem to think it has the best coverage of all the operators. T-Mobile is runner-up in the test, followed, perhaps surprisingly, by the cheapest mobile broadband provider, 3. As for 0₂ and Orange the least said about their performance the better.

The article warned that unless you are located in select areas of  London, you're highly unlikely to get the really fast access speeds. Forget those advertising billboards that promise impressive speeds of "up to 7.2 meg", outside the main cities you may only pick up internet via GPRS  -  which can be REALLY slow.

More worryingly, PC Pro is reporting that the 3G mobile networks may be unable to cope with demand in the future.

Watch out for those services that attempt to compress image files, apparently it's really annoying. And on a similar theme, the costs of going over your usage limits (out of bundle costs) can be horrific (up to around £4 per MB when abroad).

The good news is that they all boast easy set-up, although Mac users find that they have to do a little more configuring. But software packages vary in quality. If you hope to use broadband service on a train,  it can be handy to have software that tells you when you are connecting via HSDPA (i.e. fast Internet) and when are slumming it on GPRS.

Where does it leave me? Still looking. I need a service that A) Works on my train commute - Vodafone seems to be the obvious choice for coverage B) Is affordable. I want a PAYG or a short contract because I won't use it every day or even every month. Perhaps T-Mobile at £4 a day will be best.

I reckon for those outside the big cities, these services are still too expensive for the kind of speed and coverage you are likely to receive.

Choose the best free CMS, good advice in ,Net magazine.

Those looking for a decent content management system (CMS) for a website [quick tip: look at open source before opening your wallet] should check out the current issue of .Net* Magazine [Issue 177 / July].

*Note: The magazine is known as Practical Web Design outside the UK.

It has some good general advice, roughly translated as follows:

1. You probably don't need to bother with a CMS if you have a small site which you don't update very often. Just design it in Dreamweaver instead.   
2. Use a CMS if you're running a content-driven site (e.g. one that contains plenty of news), you do regular updates and/or have multiple authors of content.
3. Avoid outdated and expensive CMS solutions i.e. the type in-house CMS solutions really bad web design agencies love to recommend. 
4. You don't need to spend a fortune. Many great CMS solutions are open source and FREE, but the amount of support varies between products. Wordpress is so popular that there are loads of community websites offering free advice and tons of how-to books about it, including a recent addition to the Dummies series. But quite a lot has been written about DotNetNuke and increasingly there are books about Joomla!

It reviewed a large number of CMS, but focussed on five main ones. [.Net gave the star ratings and I've added a few comments]
Wordpress [rated five stars....Bang on the nail, in my humble opinion]
ExpressionEngine [4 stars]
MovableType [4 stars.....looking a bit outdated, deserves two stars in MHO]
Blogger [3 stars...what's this doing on the list?]
Drupal  [2 stars........?????? MHO]

Little space was devoted to Joomla!, a PHP-based solution, and has plenty of fans. It's also easier to learn than the feature suggests.

.Net also need to separate out those CMS solutions which are suitable for creating news-based sites and those which are better for blogs.

But nobody can dispute the .Net view that Wordpress is king. It can do no wrong in my view and gets better all the time. Security issues aside, the hosted version of Wordpress is great for beginners and when you get round to hosting in yourself - it's just really flexible! It's ideal for blogs, but also can be adapted for  content-driven news sites. See some interesting examples of Wordpress uses.

Newspapers using Drupal CMS video

Quick video from Drupal Rocks which showcases some Drupal-based journalism/news sites, the free CMS. Tons of big names are using it, including Playboy in Germany! The video is small, but you can make it full size by clicking on it.

 
Drupal Rocks Newspaper and Journalism Websites from Drupal Rocks on Vimeo.

There's cash in those podcasts..says The Guardian

The Guardian, the producers of Media Talk and the Sony Award nominated Islamophonic, has revealed some impressive download stats for its range of podcasts.

Some stats:
1.5m - downloads for its 12 Guardian pods in December.
80-100,000 downloads of it's Football Weekly pod a week [Proving that football and cricket analysis has a massive, global, audience - but we don't need to tell The Times or Telegraph this].
15-20,000: MediaTalk downloads a week.

Source: Journalism.co.uk

To put these figures in some kind of perspective BBC London, a local radio station, pulls in weekly audience of around 500,000 a week for its entire output.

Assuming the other Guardian pods not mentioned above are getting an average of around 10,000 downloads per week each, it appears its investment in pod studio technology is finally paying off and the service should become profitable soon.

But how easy is to generate revenue from podcasts? On paper, they have a lot going for them. If you look at the ludicrous way traditional radio figures are counted in the UK by Rajar [Rajar reissues listening figures], you can be far more precise with measurements. Evidence from Edison in the US suggests podcasts audiences are upmarket, I also feel podcast audiences really do listen.They've bothered to download the file after all. But whilst the market is expanding, it is still relatively small. Rajar estimated around 15-20% of those with MP3 players have downloaded podcasts,  this is broadly matched by figures from the US.

But I'm not entirely sure how The Guardian plan to integrate the adverts into the broadcast. It has tried sponsorship before on the Media Talk pod, but I just fast forwarded through it.

It would be less annoying if sponsorship messages or adverts appeared on the screen of your iPod or Zen Micro, rather than having to listen to it.

But hopefully these stats will give a much needed boost to UK podcasts. It would be nice to see some successful independent and home produced pods coming through, as has happened in the US. But we need the big guys to prove a revenue model first.

A Dummies guide to Xaraya - can someone write one?

Would Xaraya make a suitable platform for our university news website? A couple of days ago, I put a call out for comments.

The extent of my knowledge about Xaraya can be written on a very small postage stamp. Thankfully, Dan (aka Baraboom) from the excellent Xaraya development site Xarigami.com came back with a few answers...

Xaraya or Joomla! - what's best for a university news site?
I think xaraya could win this one, depending on the complexity of the requirements. Joomla is a very CMS oriented application whereas Xaraya offers a framework with a lot of CMS functionality that can be extended and customized (tailored) to an organization's needs.

So is this something we should be teaching our journalist degree students?
I think it'd be prudent to cover a variety of open source applications as they pertain to online publishing - lots of applications do not get enough exposure in an educational environment, despite their potential effectivness for small and large businesses.

How easy is Xaraya to learn and who offers hosting?
This is a special combination trick question. Short answer is, no, Xaraya's not the easiest to learn. Support is available, however, for anyone that walks into the IRC #support room, posts on the forum or the mailing lists.

As for hosting, Xaraya should run on any -decent- host that supports php and mysql. However, don't expect any special support from a generic host - and don't expect it to run well on a crowded, over-burdened $1.95 / month hosting account.

JoJo and I have opened xarigami.com to the community-at-large to provide code, themes and support for those interested in developing with Xaraya. Additionally, we do offer hosting as well for those interested in a positive and productive hosting experience.

Will students be able to spell its name, when they already struggle with Joomla!?
Xaraya is easier to spell than pronounce, perhaps - but it certainly looks and sounds cooler, wouldnt you agree?

This all started when I met a senior bod from Hearst Digital, home of hugely popular sites Handbag.com , Netdoctor.co.uk and many more.

I expected the big guys to be using a huge, expensive and bespoke CMS - i.e. the type of thing we're never going to be able to afford.

The reality is that Hearst was using something open source - Xaraya. Open source is good news and not just because of the price factor, they tend not to date as quickly as the commercial products and there's no software company to go bust and mess everything up.

The university went with Moodle as its VLE over the commercial Blackboard for similar reasons. I also tend to think that open source is far more 'with the flow ' of how the Net should work.

Problem: in terms of learning resources, there seems to be bugger all published about Xaraya on Amazon. Although there seems to be some cross-over with PostNuke. Still there are some dedicated Xaraya hosts.

In short, I have a lot more to reading to do at Dan's site!