Sally Wain-Heapy's Blog

Daniel Meadows

2005-12-05T03:50:00.000-08:00

Last week Daniel Meadows the creative director of digital storytelling at the BBC gave a lecture on citizen media.

It was a really interesting hour and a half and the stories we saw were extremely moving. Mr Meadows has created 'Capture Wales' where the public tell their own stories using their photos and poems etc... It is a celebration of the fact that we all have stories to tell.

The BBC runs workshops so that people can make a scrapbook of their lives to be shown on television. This represents the voice of the public better than main stream TV. Mr Meadows believes new technology such as blogs and mobile phones do not make citizens reporters but it gives people power and takes us back to basic story telling.

The stories we were shown were so effective and interesting. There are now more than 400 stories on the website and more than 250 digital stories from Wales screened on TV. Mr Meadows believes that more time should be given to user generated content and that scholarships should be given to make new media forms.

It was a really eye opening experience and I think that a project like 'Capture Wales' should definately be set up in England.

Pete Clifton

2005-11-28T06:42:00.000-08:00

Here I am again giving you a weekly update on what is going on in this new world of technology.....

Well last week Pete Clifton the head of BBC News Interactive came to speak to us. It was amazing to hear how many people rely on the BBC News website- when the events of September 11th took place the website crashed because of so much interest....

Two things Mr Clifton said particularly interested me. Firstly he explained how mobile phones are now being used to view websites. Soon we will also be able to view BBC news on mobiles. Secondly he talked about how much user generated content is now being used, especially in times of disaster... It makes me wonder whether there will be any jobs going at all in journalism soon?!? Apparently in the near future there will be a loop created just for user generated video.

I thought it was interesting how soon editors of BBC news will be creating a blog to give the public short updates about programmes. Also apparently we will one day be able to get broadband on TV - what ever next????

PR and the web

2005-11-18T03:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Quentin Langley gave us a lecture about how PR is changing due to the internet. He was saying that there has been a huge change in the way in which people who work in PR talk to journalists, and that they can now directly talk to the public.

He was saying that public relations is about reputation and that it must be planned. I thought that PR would be an interesting career to work in but he said that it is not very common for journalists to make the transition nowadays.

I can see how the relationship between journalists and people working in PR must be built on trust, and it seems that as quotes can be given in audio files, that PR companies would be very useful for broadcast journalists.

Mr Langley was also saying that the consumer now has more power and can check stories, which never used to be the case. The new technology means that PR people must work quickly and write clearly.

I was pleased to hear that PR companies still need journalists, as people trust what journalists say..... Thank God for that....

Lecture by Kim Hollamby

2005-11-11T03:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had a lecture from Kim Hollamby who is the Head of Electronic IPC, a consumer publishing house.

It was one of the most interactive lectures we have had and it really made me think. He was telling us about the on/off relationship of magazines with the internet and how magazines can use the internet to its' advantage.

He was saying how loyalty and activity are vital when creating websites. In my own mind I had never thought of a connection between magazines and webpages but it was interesting to see how they can work together.

Mr Hollamby travelled around on a boat for five months in order to write articles and to put up articles on the web. It seemed like a really original idea?!

He also spoke about how the internet can be used to find new readers and to create revenue. I agree with him that websites are here to stay...

Richard Burton

2005-11-04T04:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Richard Burton from the Telegraph online came to speak to us. It was a really enjoyable hour and it has given me a completely new view of papers online. I had no idea that the electronic telegraph was the first newspaper to go on the web.

Mr Burton emphasised how fun working for online news can be and it is incredible how quick news can be published. I thought it was a good idea how the telegraph does the career of famous people in pictures and how the public can respond to questions. They also seem to use some amazing technology - like a machine to dial ninety foreign correspondents to compile fact files.

I had never really considered the link between advertisors and news online and how money is made through partnerships. Also the idea of Blackberry informing people what is going on in the world seems really useful.

All in all a career in online newspapers seems to be really fast paced and interesting.

2005-10-21T05:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Amanda Powell the editor of online at BBC Wales gave a lecture on writing for online. It was really interesting and I learnt a lot that I had never considered before. I was surprised that the peak time of reading online news is between 11am and 2pm - I would have thought it would have been much earlier in the day??

I agree with her point that information must not be slow to download - nothing is more annoying... I also liked her idea about having fact boxes in a news story as it is a way of displaying more info without cluttering the page.

Although I had never considered a career in online journalism I am now aware of all the options available and it seems like a really interesting line of work.

My first entry

2005-10-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

So today I have taken a huge step forward in my technological knowledge! Although I have heard about blogs a lot , I have never before considered making one.... But here I am....as instructed by my online lecturers and it seems like a pretty good idea....

Over the weeks as my knowledge of the web increases I will be posting my thoughts up here.... Until next week then....