"Errors are amplified in this media environment because most Twitter followers and bloggers aren’t so much validating and confirming their facts as they are reinforcing an opinion or statement they already agree with. But while the social media sphere is a business of corroboration for regular people, it should not remain so for journalists."
"Piece by piece, the story came together before our eyes, in public. The journalists added considerable value. But this wasn’t product journalism: polishing a story once a day from inside the black box. This was process journalism and that ensured it was also collaborative journalism – social journalism, if you like."
A couple of Twitter sceptics are forced to reconsider their position after seeing tweets from Iran - Ellen Goodman and Gideon Rachman. (Note how the authors use the same idea in opening paragraph in some sort of strange 'I-see-how-Twitter-can-be-useful-but-I-wouldn't-go-so-far-as-to-actually-update-my-own-account' show of solidarity).
Laura Oliver, who was sitting a few rows behind me, has a good summary of what Richard Sambrook said at journalism.co.uk. Well worth a read for his thoughts on the end of the old foreign correspondent model in the face of economic pressures.
While he urged broadcasters to "embrace" UGC as a "valuable supplement" and a way of capturing the "authenticity" of news events, he also said the "expertise of seasoned journalists" was still required.
Generally, the panel was optimistic about the future, expressing particular confidence in state funding and pledging to continue to send journalists to all parts of the world.
I know it's pretty early on in Monday's grand scheme but this is a classic from journalist Rob Crilly:
'Interesting talk with one of my editors last week. "That job is too junior for you, mostly online stuff." Some papers still don't get it'
I think I might end up referencing some of these sort of nuggets in the PhD, which will probably mean making up my own reference system.
I doubt they'll be much guidance in my King's College handbook. After all, it tells me that when citing Internet sources:
"You should beware when using information from the internet as it can be easily changed (hacked), often does not give an author [?] and is consequently not authoritative. However, if you [yes, you. You crazy 21st Century researcher] do want to cite internet sources [pretty unavoidable I'm afraid when you're researching blogging] it is worthwhile seeking a copy of the source as well [ha - print your blog for me please...], or as a last resort printing and keeping a copy of the internet information [!] (which could be shown to the external examiner if necessary [let's hope it's not for the sake of the rainforests, my sanity and the external examiner's summer holiday])."
Sorry folks, I'm abusing my blog for research purposes by embedding the video below. It's an example of a military blog making the news, so I wanted to make sure I didn't lose track of it.
It's about Col Sgt Michael Saunders (2 Mercian) who has been blogging while on deployment in Afghanistan. I wrote a piece which included a reference to his blog for the Frontline last week. I missed the fact that his pub/blog posts had made the news back in April because I was preparing for a conference.
The great thing about blogging is that when you post stuff up people get in touch with you, and I was really pleased to get an email from Mike's brother, Tracey Tyrls, who features in video. I've been following that up this morning.
(Beats working on interview transcribing. Yesterday I finally wrapped up several days work on one that came to 18,908 words. I am left wondering how the people at Hansard transcribe sessions of parliament and remain sane).
Joanna Geary, now of The Times, on why she started blogging and what she learnt from it: "Although, I didn’t really know what I was doing with the thing, with hindsight I can see from the second post on I started exploring the idea of increasing audience interaction."
Former Iranian President, Mohamad Khatami, wants to see Mir Hussein Mousavi as Iranian president. Khatami thought it would be a good idea to answers questions from Iran's bloggers. According to Global Voices, he "loves blogs". But then slamming blogs just prior to fielding questions from their authors probably wouldn't be the way forward.
The Reuters Institute had a roundtable discussion on blogging at some point recently. It produced some global perspectives on the impact of blogging on journalism in various countries.
I recently completed my PhD at the War Studies Department, King's College, London. My thesis considered the impact of blogging and 'new' media on the BBC's coverage of war and terrorism.
