College of Journalism Feed

Spending Review: The Economy

2010-11-17T14:12:59+00:00

The Economy

Hugh Pym provides an insight into how the Comprehensive Spending Review might be reported in the coming months.

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Big Stories

2010-11-16T20:22:53+00:00

Opinion and the Spending Review

BBC Head of Political Research, David Cowling, reflects on public opinion and the spending review ...

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News Debrief

An ongoing series of conversations with journalists about the back story of their own news reports.

Video: Robert Piggot
Chief religious affairs correspondent Robert Piggot on the UK papal visit.

Video: Jon Sopel
How the BBC News Channel covered the Cumbria shootings

Video: Nick Robinson
The Coalition. They're getting on, aren't they?

Spending Review: Economy

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Reporting the Coalition

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Video: CSR - The Political Dimension

2010-11-16T19:41:27+00:00

Video: Politics after the Spending Review

Nick Robinson argues how the political story of the next four years will be as much about reform and political argument as it will be about cuts.

Video: CSR - The Political Dimension

2010-11-16T19:41:27+00:00

Video: Politics after the Spending Review

Nick Robinson argues how the political story of the next four years will be as much about reform and political argument as it will be about cuts.

Video: CSR - The Social Dimension

2010-11-16T18:35:24+00:00

Video: CSR - The Social Dimension

What will be the medium- and long-term stories of the spending review? What can audiences expect?

Will journalists succeed in presenting a complete picture of the way society and public provision changes?

In this slideshow, BBC Home Editor Mark Easton reflects on the social changes to expect after the spending review.

More heat than light? Jon Snow interviews Zac Goldsmith

2010-07-19T10:13:30+00:00

The friend who drew my attention to the interview between Jon Snow and Richmond MP, Zac Goldsmith, on Channel Four Newslast Friday called it a "masterclass".

Two days later I'm still asking myself "a masterclass in what?"

Let's recap the story that the interview was supposed to illuminate. Mr Goldsmith faces questions over his electoral spending following a joint Channel 4 News and Bureau of Investigative Journalism investigation. The Conservative MP said these allegations were "a nonsense".

But he began the interview by insisting he had not had the chance to respond to the allegations when the report was first aired on Thursday evening. Channel 4 News stands by the assertion that it first requested an interview with Mr Goldsmith one week before.

The article on their website provides the nuts and blots of the story without any of the fireworks that characterised the broadcast interview.

It's roughly 13 minutes long, but we're two thirds of the way through before Snow and Goldsmith settle down to discuss the findings of the investigation.

The preamble involves the two arguing over when and how Mr Goldsmith was approached for an interview, and the circumstances in which he agreed to one.

Mr Goldsmith refuses to discuss the issue of electoral expenses "until you acknowledge that when you stood and talked to the cameras and implied that I had bottled out of talking about these issues live on Channel 4".

"A complete travesty of the truth," counters Snow later in the exchange, before advising Goldsmith to take his complaint to OFCOM.

Eventually they settle to talking about placards, stickers and promotional jackets.

What does this add to the sum of our knowledge about the story in hand - or journalism?

To my mind it demonstrates:

- How to stick to your guns as an interviewer when you're put on the spot in a live interview.

- Why you must be utterly confident in the veracity of your story and the robustness of your basic journalism - keeping accurate notes of bids for interviews etc.

- How to steer an interviewee towards the subject you, not they, want to talk about, firmly and politely.

- Why (if you accept Snow's line that Zac Goldsmith's stand was a delaying tactic to avoid answering the question) it's necessary for producers to allow an interview more airtime than they anticipated.

That said, there are few things that niggle me:

- Was the subject simply too London-centric - more suited to a local radio debate than a national television news programme?

- Did it assume that viewers would understand the production process that led to Goldsmith's beef with Channel 4 more than most would? It was two people arguing shop.

- And therefore was its target audience medialand - rather than the general public?

In conclusion, there were no winners in the studio. And unless you're a journalist or a student of journalism the whole business was of limited interest. I wonder how many 'ordinary' viewers reached for the remote control long before Zac Goldsmith started answering Jon Snow's questions.

Jon Snow is the speaker at a BBC College of Journalism event at the Frontline Club tonight.

Confessions of an NGO media-minder

2010-07-12T11:46:36+00:00

The relationship between media-operator and media-minder in disaster relief can be tense.

Sarah Wilson (above) has been a media officer for Christian Aid for six years, specialising in the Caribbean and Latin/Central America. Her official job title for the NGO is 'journalist'.

I was in Haiti to report on the six-month anniversary of the earthquake, focusing on what the aid agencies are doing in this second phase of recovery - I travelled with Sarah and relied a good deal on her knowledge and contacts.

I took the chance to ask her about the central, but often troubled, relationship between people like her and people like me in covering disasters and their aftermath.

There's a fine line for a journalist between taking advantage of insight and support, and losing impartiality and independence. But where exactly is it?

Sarah sees the issue more diplomatically than that, with her role being as an honest broker between her aid partners and the journalists.

She is a former press and broadcast journalist herself, with, among other outlets, the Scotsman and Channel 4 News.

We sat down at the end of my brief trip, in the comfort of Le Plaza Hotel in downtown Port Au Prince, for a spot of counselling.

US media responds to soccer boom

2010-06-30T16:35:42+00:00

"An investment in the future" - that's how one senior executive from the giant US sports broadcaster ESPN described its ground-breaking World Cup coverage.

Fanciful talk in the US media of football getting real traction has been around for decades, but now it appears to be real. Almost 20 million US citizens watched their team go out to Ghana, which matches the average viewing figures for baseball's World Series last autumn.

So what's making the difference now? For answers, I turned to a former Major League Soccer player, Greg Lalas, editor-in-chief of the MLS website. He's also a regular broadcaster and a genuine football thinker.

He has some shrewd points to make about how popular demand and internet fandom are helping US media to make a defining shift towards giving the beautiful game equal status - but admits there may be limits because "doing something with your foot is so foreign to Americans".

How to present three news programmes at once

2010-06-01T15:12:36+00:00

Tasmin Lucia Khan has a busy four-day schedule in the BBC's London newsroom, where she fronts the E24 entertainment news programme on the News Channel, the hourly 60 Seconds bulletin on BBC3 and the Red Button online news service - all in the same shift.

She says the job isn't quite as her friends imagine it: "People think it's very glamorous, you must get paid shed loads and you're in hair and make-up. It may be more glamorous than the average job, but it's so much hard work - you need to be on the ball; you need to absolutely love current affairs; and you need to be inquisitive."

Tasmin gave up a City career to work in television. She's been a producer as well as a presenter, working in sport and entertainment as well as news.

Even with the number of spots she does in a night, live broadcasting is still not something she takes lightly. "When it comes to confidence, that grows," she says, "but every time I go on air there is a five-second pulling on the heart strings, where you get a bit nervous."

The film above follows her evening: planning her E24 programme with producer Emily Deeker, and presenting it, and her other news bulletins.

Download a transcript of the full interview with Tasmin Lucia Khan

Previous films in the Inside BBC Journalism series:

Radio Bristol producer Sophie Woodcock

Online sports reporter Damian Derrick

News output producer James Cann

A new life as an online sports reporter

2010-03-08T14:14:02+00:00

Self-confessed 'sports nut' Damian Derrick covers all sports for the BBC website. He aims to write a dozen stories a day and spends his weekends commentating on rugby.

Damian is a comparative newcomer to journalism, having switched from a career in IT a couple of years ago.

This is the second of a new series in which BBC professionals talk openly and in detail about their jobs - what they love, what they hate, and how they got them.

Sophie Woodcock, a producer at Radio Bristol, shows how she keeps the station on air and on track for three hours in the morning.

More videos featuring BBC journalists talking candidly about their work will be available here soon.

What the audience thinks of fancy graphics

2010-02-05T16:37:38+00:00

tag:bbc.co.uk,2008:cojo:1:playlist2009-07-07T16:24:54+01:00

Viewers' reactions to news graphics sequences

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Citizen Journalism Guide

2010-01-28T10:14:21+00:00

The BBC's Director of Global News, Richard Sambrook, introduces the BBC's upcoming guide to Citizen Journalism.

The coverage of the London bombs was a turning point for BBC News. It was one of the first major news events where technology - like a mobile phone - meant the public could not only contribute, but could lead the news.

This external content is available at its source: http://vimeo.com/9040400

News organisations had to recognise they didn't "own the news" anymore - the public could now determine what was reported.

Since then, much has been said and written about what's called Citizen Journalism. But what does that phrase mean? Why should anyone send pictures or video to news organisations? Why should they want to write their own news reports?

If you want to contribute to the news, or if you are thinking of reporting events around you, what are some of the things you might need to think about?

Tiger Woods and the public interest

2009-11-30T09:59:32+00:00