tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32308309885773700122024-03-05T17:45:24.514+00:00RichardHorsman.comMade a career swimming against the tide in Radio and Higher Education. Maverick. Passionate skills trainer. Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.comBlogger139125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-28562437432304203732022-01-30T17:50:00.000+00:002022-01-30T17:50:33.714+00:00The News Isn't a Nuisance, Liza<p>Well, erm, hello. Bit of preamble first. It's been a while. Two years in fact. </p><p>Back in late 2019, well before anyone knew Covid was coming, I decided to opt out of commentary on radio and journalism. It had dawned on me I'd been out of a full time job in radio for longer than I'd been in one. </p><p>OK, I'd also spent a big chunk of time teaching news, and annoying proper academics with my single minded focus on vocational outcomes for my trainees over floppy hats and the rest of the HE theses, but the last thing I wanted to become was an out-of-touch armchair critic. </p><p>Even worse, a cardigan, railing on about how much better things were in the past (spoiler - they weren't, they were different). So I quietly went quiet. </p><p>It's all <a href="https://james.cridland.net/" target="_blank">James Cridland's</a> fault I'm back. He's been nudging me into doing a bit of interview training for his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wCQ1u8iiTc" target="_blank">cool podcast mates</a> who are right up there on audio's cutting edge; and he even goaded me explicitly in his <a href="https://james.crid.land/update/no-news-good-news?utm_source=james.crid.land&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=james.crid.land:2022-01-28" target="_blank">latest circular email </a>to hit the commentary keyboard once again. If a proper radio futurologist does that, who am I to argue? </p><p>So here goes. <span></span></p><a name='more'></a>The argument is this. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liza_Tarbuck" target="_blank">Liza Tarbuck</a> wants to drop the news in the middle of her Radio 2 show, or failing that morph it into something that features positive, innovative stories from around the world (if I've understood correctly - <a href="https://onaudio.mattdeegan.com/p/choosing-the-news" target="_blank">Matt Deegan summarises here</a>). I disagree.<br /><p></p><p>Let me say first of all I have huge respect for Liza Tarbuck - an entertaining and engaging presenter well worthy of a slot on a national network, and a rare authentic regional voice on any national station that isn't <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_6music" target="_blank">too-cool-for-school 6 Music</a>. But she's wrong to suggest canning the news.</p><p>Firstly Brand R2 is bigger than Brand Liza. For a long while Radio 2 was my go-to station whilst driving long distances outside Yorkshire. That preference has now shifted to <a href="https://www.boomradiouk.com/" target="_blank">Boom Radio</a>, partly because of the music, but mainly because I rather like the idea of a stroppy insurgent punching above its weight. Bit like my PG course, in fact. If only they'd sort the ad rotation .. but that's a topic for another day.</p><p>With Radio 2 on button 2 I know when I turn on the ignition when emerging into daylight in Folkstone, or picking up the car from a field not actually that near Gatwick, I'll instantly get three things - a familiar voice, traffic conditions on the M1 or the M6, and a three minute news summary at the top of the hour. </p><p>I don't normally want Today or PM whilst driving. It takes too much effort, and the style often annoys me. I need well produced, quality presenters making those miles of tarmac as inoffensively painless as possible. </p><p>Liza, however, considers the bulletin an intrusion ... "if my listeners’ energy goes, I have to work harder at the beginning of the second hour". Yes. Yes you do. With the greatest respect, that's what you're paid for - and it's second nature to anyone in commercial radio who's regularly baiting the audience with reasons to tolerate the ad break three or four times an hour. </p><p>Big beasts on the Radio 2 network integrate the news seamlessly - Steve Wright on the Big Show warmly namechecking newsreaders in London and sports reporters on the end of a wire in Salford as valued members of the intimate little world he rules, and Jeremy Vine cueing in the bulletin as an integral part of the programme after setting up the discussion topics at midday. </p><p>Once you start dropping some bulletins to allow private little lagoons within the overall flow of the station, the listener no longer knows what to expect. Frankly, I don't know without checking when Liza's on. If she has one news policy, Jamie
Cullum another and Elaine Paige a third - it all gets very messy. I can understand a presenter's pride in their craft, and of course individual names will attract their specialist fans, but no one personality can or should break the overall format. </p><p>So what about the content of the bulletin? Liza Tarbuck's got some interesting ideas:</p><p>"I don't watch the news and I don't listen to the news. It actually is
quite blandy bland and not the sort of news I'm after. I kind of want to
know about science departments in the universities. What are they
coming up with? Exciting stuff, that's actually relevant to me and mine
or might even punch some sort of use, thoughts of what could be, rather
than 'this' [meaning lockdown etc]."</p><p>James Cridland also does a forensic dissection of one particular R2 bulletin from 1900 on 22 Jan, commenting on the length and selection of items .. in particular he notes ".. nothing particularly positive apart from the [skiing]
gold medal".</p><pre><code>0:03 Blackmailing MPs
0:58 Man charged with double murder
1:18 Anti-vaccination protests
1:58 New COVID cases across the UK
2:10 Everton v Aston Villa report
2:41 UK skier wins gold medal
2:55 Weather</code></pre><p>
Now, I am (or was) a radio journalist, and whilst no-one would claim this is an award winner it appears to be a workmanlike job - not terribly exciting, I'd agree, but it updates me, if I've been away from the news for a bit, on the two main running stories - Sleaze and Covid - with a just-happened 'orrible murder charge, a current Premiership football game of wider general interest to those who follow such things (not including me or James, but we're a minority) and a -ahem- positive story of GB medal success to hand back to Liza with. </p><p>If you break format to prioritise stories from "the science departments of universities", for instance, you're going to annoy the hell out of those who'd rather hear specialist stories from personal finance, gardening, showbiz or computer gaming. </p><p>The related Pollyanna demand for "positive news" emerges at regular
intervals, and fails against the harsh test of reality. Like "proper
local radio" (TM) it appears to be something people like very much in
opinion surveys but don't actually read or listen to in any great
numbers. <br /></p><p></p><p>The curse of the internet has been to create an infinite number of tiny interest bubbles all conned by Big Tech into believing their pet obsession matters to more people than is actually the case. </p><p>An editor's job is to look at everything and to compile what she
decides, professionally, will have the greater appeal to the greater
number. </p><p>That doesn't mean Radio 2 bulletins can't be improved. Of course there should be a continual two way dialogue between programmers and editors, and
it would be ideal if the nation's biggest radio station could have the
resource to enable this to happen. </p><p>I'd like to see the BBC break away from slavishly reflecting the Westminster-centric agenda created and fuelled by other media, particularly the Infotainers Formerly Known As Newspapers, most of which are actively hostile to Auntie.</p><p>The BBC has two unique resources, if it chose to use them - a network of worldwide bureaux capable of feeding in stories I'm sure Liza would approve of, and an unparalleled network of local and regional reporters within the UK who get shamefully little national exposure (or TV airtime within the Regions unless you're also a Nation, which is just a Region with more political clout). <br /></p><p>But at a time when the BBC is facing renewed austerity, and with a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60014514" target="_blank">Culture Secretary vowing the Corporation's next licence settlement "will be the last"</a>, I guess they've got bigger fish to fry than the seven o'clock news on a Saturday. <br /></p><br /><p><br /></p>Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-43568001118710304392020-12-24T12:42:00.000+00:002020-12-24T12:42:08.508+00:00Creative for a Brexit and Covid Christmas<p> I don't write fiction. </p><p>I've never been good at making stuff up from a blank sheet of paper, but I do like parodies. I wrote quite a few as a teenager and since retiring from a full time commitment to anything one of the quirkiest odd jobs I picked up for a year or so was writing a column for <a href="https://www.winchestertoday.co.uk/" target="_blank">Winchester Today</a> - a newspaper, news website and radio station for that town run by my radio friend and BJTC colleague Kevin Gover.</p><p>Last year, at this time, I sat down to do my usual wry look at life and instead began typing what follows. I didn't think Kevin would go with it, and I'd have to write some more copy, but he printed it and now reading it back I actually quite like it too.</p><p>I don't claim to be any sort of a great writer but I hope this brings a smile on the Eve of what will be for our family and many others a strange, strained and very new if totally un-normal Christmas. </p><p>Have the best possible festive season in these wretched times, and let's hope 2021 is a lot better.</p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a>A SPACEMAN CAME TRAVELLING (with apologies to Jimmy Perry and David Croft)<br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“I don’t like it, Wilson”. Captain Mainwaring bristled in an
irritated fashion as he surveyed the happy crowds swirling around. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“There are Germans. Here. In the Market Square. In
lederhosen. One of them swore at me – loudly. ‘Fröhliche Weihnachten’ or some
similar foul insult …”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“it means ‘Merry Christmas’, sir”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“What year is this, Wilson?”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Er .. 2019, sir. The war ended - let’s see - nearly 75
years ago now. We’re only here because you insisted on the platoon taking cover
in that police box ….</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Plenty of space for everyone …”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“ .. and then I had to stop you from going back in time to
kill that German Corporal from the first world war with a paintbrush …”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“I wasn’t going to kill him with a paintbrush, I had my
revolver …”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“.. thereby ripping open the fabric of existence and
creating a new leg in the trousers of time”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Wilson. These trousers are good Harris tweed, woven in the
Outer Hebrides. I can assure you they won’t rip. Oh good grief is that a Sauerkraut
vendor?”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Well you have been calling them names sir, I’m not
surprised if they give you funny looks ….”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“So the Germans won then. We did our best. Gave it all we
had, but now here they are, camped right outside the town hall, staging a
German Market, singing The Red Flag …”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“It’s ‘Oh Tannenbaum’, sir, and it’s a carol …”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Lording it over the vanquished and noble English race by
imposing their strange, alien customs of drinking beer and enjoying big sausages
…”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mrs Pike looked up, startled, and then resumed her knitting.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“even the taxis are Uber … how did we get to this, Wilson?”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Well sir – we actually won. Hatred was defeated. A wall
went up, and then came down again. So now, 75 years on, people here welcome
their German friends to enjoy a Christmas celebration together … you do know it
was Queen Victoria who made all the old German traditions part of the English
Christmas? Advent calendars, holly wreaths, even the sparkle on the big tree is
thanks to that Prince Albert …”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mrs Pike dropped a stitch.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“So isn’t it good to know that even the most bitter disputes
can be resolved in time, and that people who are bitter opponents can overcome
their differences to drink and laugh together? I mean, they’ve been arguing
here over something called ‘Brexit’ now for nearly as long as our war lasted,
I’ve been fiddling with the Tardis thing and that doesn’t get settled until …”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Nooooo” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There was a wail of agony from Private Frazer, who’d just
seen the price of a wee dram in The Bull. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“But you get my point, sir. Peace on earth. Goodwill to all
men. It’s what Christmas is all about. If only the people here, right now, could
look ahead like we’ve done, they’d stop all the trolling and Twittering …”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Wittering?”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“.. same thing … and they’d look up for a minute. Look up
from the little newsreel gadgets they all carry around now. See the good
things, like the sky and the trees and the decorations and the Cathedral and Amazon
Prime next day delivery ...”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“What?”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“ … never mind … and they’d stop bickering, and shutting out
people with opinions other than their own and calling anyone who thinks
differently ‘meatheads’ or ‘traitors’ – because in the end what matters here
and now is today, the people we love and the people we share our time with. All
of them. Goodwill to all men. And women. All of them. Not just the ones we
follow and like …</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Snowflakes began to fall. They’d had a long day picketing
the Bratwurst stall. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The sound of “Stille Nacht” wafted through the air from a
choir of schoolchildren gathered around the big tree. The Sauerkraut vendor
found he had something in his eye. Mrs Pike sniffled gently. The two stalwart and
long-dead Home Guardians looked at each other for a lingering moment.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“… so merry Christmas, sir”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Merry Christmas, Wilson. We don’t belong here. We need to get
back. Back to our own time .,..”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Young Private Pike tugged the sergeant’s sleeve. “Uncle
Arthur …”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Yes what is it ...”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“I think I should tell Captain Mainwaring something ... I
just went round that corner and there’s a big new shiny sort of café place
where the fishmongers should be and it’s called ‘Yo Sushi’ and it’s full of
Japanese people ...”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Merry Christmas. Wherever you are.</p><br /><p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
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Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
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mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:107%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
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<![endif]--></p>Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-48592471641118174252020-09-01T00:00:00.002+01:002020-09-01T00:02:48.787+01:00Generation Shift<p>End of an era is in overused expression, but there's no doubt that's what we have witnessed over this Bank Holiday weekend as dozens of legacy ILR stations signed off for the last time ahead of Bauer Media's launch of its new national offerings on a patchwork of local transmitters.</p><p>It's been a long time coming, this demise of the topography stations - those named after rivers, hills and landmarks - as they make way for brands. </p><p>Brands, we're told, have the power to cut through clutter and aid recall in the era of infinite media choice, although in an age where names like boohoo and TikTok are rooted in nursery vocabulary the cognitive effort required to recall "Greatest Hits Radio" feels almost Herculean. </p><p>One can, at least, hope it delivers what it says on the tin.</p><p>Getting what you want in wireless has always come at a price. </p><p>Early ILR punished profitability with the IBA's secondary rental payments. Capital Radio, therefore, was obliged to sign a cheque that paid for Ralph McTell to perform a gig in Bradford to entertain punters in Pennine's Free Festival, which I organised as a fresh-faced teenager. At least he got to play "Streets of London" on Sir Dickie's dime.</p><p>More recently, at the turn of the millennium, the late, lovely John Myers employed me for two years to run a smoke and mirrors Media School for Real Radio; it looked good, with little actual effort. The setting up of that operation was a promise made to OFCOM as part of the beauty contest to secure GMG's regional licence in Yorkshire. </p><p>The fulfillment of that pledge paid for the conservatory where I'm writing this.</p><p>Now Bauer has secured its greatest prize, a national network to rival Global's as the two main players in mass market UK commercial radio go head to head. </p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>The price they agreed this time was a commitment to maintain local news, weather, traffic and community involvement in each of the individual squares which make up the now more-or-less homogeneous patchwork. </p><p>Technology certainly helps deliver such a commitment, and barring a few teething problems there's no reason why such local bulletins cannot be delivered as promised. </p><p>But in the longer term, will the enthusiasm be there to maintain an expensive commitment? Commercial radio managers have always had a love/hate relationship with news. </p><p>They know the listeners like it, but it costs significantly more than any other element of programming and a bit like a fire alarm, on a day when it's not front of mind because nothing much is happening it can feel like an expensive luxury. Leave it to the Beeb.<br /></p><p>The test will come when something awful happens. The stadium fire. The bomb. The dam burst. How much autonomy will the local areas have to serve their listeners when they need it most? Over the years, commercial radio has risen magnificently to the occasion. Pennine was the focus of community grief following the Valley Parade disaster. Capital's response to the London bombs was well judged and entirely appropriate, as was Key's coverage of the Manchester Arena attack. </p><p>It's hard to imagine the same sensitivity when almost all programming comes from London, or even from a vast regional hub. </p><p>All the more with the smaller stuff ... the flooding, the fires ... which have huge impacts on local communities but hardly register on the Metropolitan Awareness Meter. If they don't want bad weather, dammit, why do they live in the North? Here's another Greatest Hit.</p><p>I've not heard if Bauer have contingency plans for an all-local emergency service in such circumstances. If not, getting the coverage into a minute or ninety seconds of headlines - and with an appropriate tone in the surrounding programming - will be, to put it mildly, a challenge. </p><p>It's obvious why the radical, once unthinkable changes have been effectively nodded through, albeit with a bit of last minute scrutiny from the Competition and Mergers Authority. </p><p>Radio is facing an existential crisis bigger than any virus as online threatens to overwhelm linear free to air services. Big tech and big telecom have a joint vested interest in forcing us into buying more and more expensive kit to receive content they control through ever more expensive broadband and data contracts. </p><p>Audio is very much in their sights, and any sensible regulator must allow the industry a fair bit of slack to gather its strength to fight that battle. </p><p>The little remarked upon recent decision to make the <a href="https://radiotoday.co.uk/2020/08/dab-radio-to-be-standard-in-all-new-passenger-cars/" target="_blank">fitting of DAB radios in UK spec cars</a> compulsory in new vehicles sold with an audio system is a welcome development, but overall the UK commercial radio industry still has a big fight on its hands to retain relevance and market share in the world of infinite choice. <br /></p><p></p><p>So can they deliver? Where there's a will, there's a way. The changes have happened. Careers have taken new turns for dozens of creative people. The new world is here.<br /></p><p>I promised on Twitter I wouldn't say anything overly negative in this critique, because there's been a generational change .. the second one I've lived through. </p><p>Full service ILR of the seventies and eighties made way for something leaner and meaner in the nineties and noughties. The leading lights of <b>that</b> generation have just had their leaving dos. Now a new generation, once again, is in charge of commercial radio in the UK - and that's a precious gift.</p><p>I can't tell this generation what to do, it's theirs now. Just don't balls it up.<br /></p>Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-70763223249217903452019-02-26T15:35:00.000+00:002019-02-26T17:25:55.495+00:00Home Truths and Silver LiningsIt's time to face some uncomfortable home truths in UK radio.<br />
<br />
First, and most obviously, today has brought devastating news for those working in local and regional commercial radio. Global is scrapping local and regional breakfast shows across its brands, and sharing the last remaining local and regional content (generally Drivetime shows) across bigger areas.<br />
<br />
This will mean "significant changes at an operational level" as Global CEO Ashley Tabor smoothly and euphemistically puts it. Or massive redundancies, in the plain language commercial radio newsrooms have always excelled in.<br />
<br />
Arch rival and last-contender-left-standing Bauer could well follow suit. They're not commenting on speculation. Industry website <a href="https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/02/opinion-uk-commercial-radio-presenter-numbers-could-drop-by-more-than-250/">Radio Today is predicting up to two hundred and fifty jobs lost</a> as a direct result of the changes. For a small industry, that's a huge number.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile a lot of community radio is, objectively, poor quality. Don't take it from me. Travel broadcaster and former radio station manager <a href="https://www.facebook.com/keri.jones.7712">Keri Jones</a> put it far better than I could <a href="https://www.facebook.com/keri.jones.7712">in a Facebook post</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I have been rolling my eyes skyward at some community radio people who
seriously believe that this is an opportunity for them to seize the
Global audience [..] </i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Yes, there are a FEW community stations that do pass muster. A few. And
those are the stations that provide news and unique and meaningful
content that people cannot get anywhere else. That's community radio. Or
they use their radio setting to develop skills or make a difference to
volunteers' lives [..]</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>For far too many CR there's no
format, no plan and no quality control. For Ashley Tabor of Global that
means no worry. CR- be like Global. Define your audience. Find your
niche. Stand for something. Do it consistently. Don't assume you'll get
listeners by default.</i></blockquote>
So, amid all the gloom, is it possible to spy a silver lining? A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do some actual good for communities, for radio and for the future? Bear with me ...<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>A couple of hundred top industry professionals will be facing a future without a job in a few months' time. These are people who have been living, sleeping and breathing radio. For many, it's a passion and a vocation first, with the money a secondary consideration.<br />
<br />
Many will be moving into related fields, PR, promotions, venue entertainers at home and abroad whilst others will be giving up this precious bit of their lives to do something totally different.<br />
<br />
But, in the transition, is there a unique opportunity to make a difference for the future of radio, and to leave a legacy for the communities once served by 'ILR', soon to be provincial marketplaces for national commercial brands?<br />
<br />
I'd like to see many of those displaced by the "significant changes at an operational level" seize the opportunity to take on leadership and training roles in community radio - even if only for a few weeks.<br />
<br />
As a former ILR journalist and news editor turned trainer in HE, I know how rewarding it can be to pass on skills not from books but from direct experience of turning round stories against the clock to a new generation.<br />
<br />
Those speakers and guest editors I called in usually expressed the same sentiments.<br />
<br />
For presenters, producers and creative imaging staff made redundant by the big players the impact you could have coaching talent, setting up formats and systems, building a sound for community radio could have a benefit that will last long beyond the hours you put in, and could be a valuable legacy for your skills and experience.<br />
<br />
Most would just be passing through - and wouldn't it be a fitting gesture if Global were to extend contracts by a couple of weeks to allow this input to be on Ashley's tab?<br />
<br />
Not that he can't afford it, the future profitability of Global will be assured for as long as anything is certain in today's fast changing environment. And surely he's not worried about the competition? A media group focused on national sales can hardly be concerned about the potential leeching of a bit of local goodwill.<br />
<br />
And if the soliciting of the all-important "letters of support" in franchise battles was anything other than a pointless exercise in box ticking; now's the time for Global (and Bauer, if they follow in the same direction at a later stage) to show they really care about the communities that have sustained them to this point in their development. <br />
<br />
For those who go in as mentors, trainers and leaders .. it's something else to put on the CV. And for the community radio practitioners the benefits are obvious.<br />
<br />
So what about it? I'd like to think this could be the ray of sunshine on a gloomy day, the chance for something positive to come out of what is a sad situation for so many. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-86677877936170312022019-01-24T13:38:00.000+00:002019-01-24T13:38:41.817+00:00Embargo FarragoHere's the story. Simon Mayo, the very unhappy Radio 2 presenter who <a href="https://radiotoday.co.uk/2018/10/drivetime-changes-coming-as-mayo-leaves-radio-2/">chose to leave the station after being forced to work in a format which didn't work for him or his equally uncomfortable co-host</a>, found a new gig in commercial radio.<br />
<br />
This is part of a trend. Chris Moyles, Eddie Mair, Chris Evans and now Simon have all handed in the pass at the Beeb to take up high profile roles in a newly-confident UK commercial radio sector.<br />
<br />
Making the move is an art in itself. The objective is to get as much coverage as possible from other media normally too far up their own importance to acknowledge the massive audiences these and other radio giants draw every day.<br />
<br />
Simon started teasing his move on social media, letting first Zoe Ball and then Chris Evans have their moments in the sun as their new shows started .. playfully announcing an announcement, driving fans and radio anoraks to distraction as he kept them waiting.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile <a href="https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/01/bauer-to-launch-classical-station-scala-radio/">Bauer had their plans well advanced for Scala Radio</a>. These things don't happen overnight. Simon's announcement was the icing on the cake, an announcement timed for Tuesday 22nd January. But across the country, newsdesks were told in advance with an embargoed press release.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVnEUncmC3t7wJ7rTxAmqVXOmNWD4M74osltzp6K_CClW6djsG_1HgT-S850ty0OEoxsBXxmu1sBGHdxko-3L0bTHClLgRkPvg7OOxyHI7QxdRfh4w_j9t6p2bAEOe6USScxmQD44M-kQ/s1600/mayo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="679" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVnEUncmC3t7wJ7rTxAmqVXOmNWD4M74osltzp6K_CClW6djsG_1HgT-S850ty0OEoxsBXxmu1sBGHdxko-3L0bTHClLgRkPvg7OOxyHI7QxdRfh4w_j9t6p2bAEOe6USScxmQD44M-kQ/s640/mayo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The BBC's Media Correspondent Amol Rajan broke that embargo, and tweeted the news a day early.
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
1/ More big news in UK radio: Bauer Media are launching a new classic/entertainment radio station: Scala Radio. And <a href="https://twitter.com/simonmayo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@simonmayo</a> is their big name signing. He'll do a show 10am to 1pm 6 days a week. Will still do BBC Film show with Mark Kermode</div>
— Amol Rajan (@amolrajan) <a href="https://twitter.com/amolrajan/status/1087422944891019264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
And that, I believe, is a problem. Here's why.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>An embargoed story is ... complicated. It has no legal basis.<br />
<br />
News releases often have big, bold enhanced large-font banners across the top screaming<span class="rn-13yce4e rn-fnigne rn-ndvcnb rn-gxnn5r rn-deolkf rn-homxoj rn-1471scf rn-14xgk7a rn-7cikom rn-o11vmf rn-ebii48 rn-gul640 rn-ad9z0x rn-1mnahxq rn-61z16t rn-p1pxzi rn-11wrixw rn-bcqeeo rn-wk8lta rn-9aemit rn-1mdbw0j rn-gy4na3 rn-bauka4 rn-irrty rn-qvutc0" dir="auto"> "Under strict embargo until 0.01am Tuesday 22nd January" </span>or similar.<br />
<br />
You'd think the writs would fly and the rozzers turn up to cart off an errant journo to the cells if they ignored such a directive.<br />
<br />
But in reality it's no more than a gentlemen's agreement between a source and a publication.<br />
<br />
The former gives information, and pictures, and interview opportunities in advance of a big announcement. The deal is that they get better quality coverage because journalists can do a better job.<br />
<br />
Instead of scrambling the story out one scrappy line at a time until a complete picture builds up, an embargo allows for a bit of craft, style and professionalism to be used. Photographs can be taken in a nice setting with relaxed subjects. Interviews can be scheduled, with reporters who've had time to read the background, not just the first paragraph of a news release.<br />
<br />
One example that comes to mind is the announcement of a new Marie Curie hospice in Bradford.<br />
<br />
My newsroom knew of the announcement a week in advance. That gave us time to interview fundraisers, nursing staff, potential patients and their families; and to apply a delicacy of approach to the emotive topic of care for the dying. The local paper, meanwhile, was able to set a graphic designer to work creating a border of daffodils for the front page on embargo day. Marie Curie, of course, would benefit hugely from the additional emphasis given to what was an all round good news story for the city.<br />
<br />
Trying to embargo bad news works less well. When Eric Pickles was leader of the model Thatcherite conservative administration in Bradford City Hall he brought in sweeping reforms; changes to the way public services were delivered that involved mass selloffs, redundancies and pain for a workforce taken very often unawares.<br />
<br />
As part of the process he started holding off the record briefings for trusted journalists on a Monday morning. "On Wednesday we're selling the old folks' homes. On Thursday we're privatising school meals" or whatever. I forget the detail, but you get the drift.<br />
<br />
Attending these briefings involved an understanding that we would not break the stories ahead of their public disclosure. They were embargoed.<br />
<br />
This effectively tied our hands when - for the only time in my career - I really did receive a plain brown paper envelope with a leaked copy of the plans for residential care, delivered under the front door by what we'd now call a whistleblower; a concerned civil servant who risked their job to put details of the controversial proposals in front of a journalist.<br />
<br />
We stopped attending the Monday briefings after that. Others didn't.<br />
<br />
Breaking an embargo has no legal consequences, but can cause massive reputational damage. News works by means of contacts. Relationships with contacts give access to key players, those players give quotes that are vital to newsgathering. Contacts work by mutual trust.<br />
<br />
Bust an embargo, and there's a short term gain. Your outlet gets the credit for breaking the story first. Everyone else is running to catch up, and the 'nice' treatments go out of the window. Just publish what you've got, now.<br />
<br />
The long term pain is that the organisation who gave the information under embargo will never, ever do so again. They'll give it to all your competitors, and you'll be the one, potentially the only one, to have missed it.<br />
<br />
The macho response to this is to say a decent journalist will find out by doing journalist-y things, and that any newsroom worth the name should know what's going on without being 'spoon fed'.<br />
<br />
Or at the very least will have a mate working for a rival who forwards the embargoed email on the QT to keep your backside out of the flames.<br />
<br />
There's some justice to this argument.<br />
<br />
But fundamentally, an embargo is one of the techniques that oils the machinery of newsgathering. It makes the process easier and less stressful for everyone involved ... at least on a good news story, something light and fluffy, uncontroversial - like to move of a DJ to a brand new national radio station.<br />
<br />
Did Amol Rajan demonstrate massive journalistic cajones by putting out the story a day early? No.<br />
<br />
I don't know the details. I'm too far from the front line these days. But for anyone to bust an embargo for a bit of personal glory doesn't impress me much.<br />
<br />
It doesn't seem to have upset Bauer that much either, as they were happy to appear on Rajan's Radio 4 Media Show after the event.<br />
<br />
Maybe, just maybe they did so through gritted teeth, but the fact they went on at all allows a more cynical interpretation that possibly they colluded to break their own embargo, because of the profile and status Rajan enjoys.<br />
<br />
I don't know. I can speculate all this without fear of legal consequences because an embargo has no legal status. "Journalist puts out story he knows about, even if that will piss off rivals" is the allegation, and that's hardly defamatory. <br />
<br />
I'd be sorry to see embargoes go. They're a useful device in the right circumstances. I feel more sorry for the outlets that respected the Mayo release restriction, only to see Rajan bask in the glory of his 'exclusive'.<br />
<br />
Maybe this is just part of the publicity game, hyped up and on steroids in the social media world. There's always been the game of cat and mouse between hack and flack, and this is just the latest manifestation of it.<br />
<br />
But at a time when the news media is facing a crisis of trust, and allegations of manipulation and fakery at state level, the last thing we need right now is a new rod for our own backs.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-7096150882952253022018-09-17T00:01:00.002+01:002018-09-17T00:01:31.773+01:00Your First Day in TrainingIt's start of term today for dozens if not hundreds of wannabe journos as they arrive at universities across the UK to embark on a course.<br />
<br />
It feels odd, because it's the first time in a quarter of a century I've not had to give a speech to an incoming class of trainees.<br />
<br />
For most of that time, for very good reasons, my class started in late January or early February.<br />
<br />
My priority was always unashamedly employment, job outcomes and placement opportunities. Going on placement in October and November opened many, many more doors to my candidates than is possible in April or May, a time of year which suits the mindset of traditional University types. <br />
<br />
But whether class starts in January or September, the gist of my opening remarks was much the same. So I'll take the opportunity to make them anyway, just this time to a virtual audience. I hope you find at least some of them to be of value.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>1) Today is the first day of your professional life as
a journalist. Keep your eye on the exit. Three years will pass very
quickly, if you wait until finals to think about your first job you've
missed the opportunity.<br />
<br />
2) Noone in the real world cares about
your marks, so long as you pass everything. It's nice to get a First,
and with the right attitude it's more than possible, but given the
choice between brilliant grades and work experience, take the placement.
Every. Time.<br />
<br />
3) Get present requests in early to Santa, and put
driving lessons top of the list. Only this week I recommended a
brilliant ex-trainee (graduated in July) for a job with an immediate
start; but they couldn't drive so missed out on the opportunity.<br />
<br />
4) No-one made you pick Journalism. You chose it, and with that comes an
obligation to absorb the news like your mother's milk. Not as a passive
consumer, but as a critical practitioner. Where did that story come
from? How can it develop? What's the tomorrow line on it?<br />
<br />
5) That
means reading, watching and listening to a wide range of outlets to
compare and contrast styles and treatments. Uni will teach you to write
fluent Guardian, which is great, but you also need to have the voice to
write fluent Sun. And conversationally for broadcast.<br />
<br />
6) You can
learn all you need to know of the technology in a few weeks, and
although some tutors and institutions tend to obsess about the latest
tech that knowledge dates very quickly. Originality of approach, telling
an old tale in a new way is much more important.<br />
<br />
7) You will
hear the phrase "think of a story ..." a dozen times a day, as your
tutors progress through introducing the devices used in text, audio and
video ... ths is where you can really stand out if you come to class
with ideas of stories that matter to real audiences, NOT STUDENTS. So
don't propose stories on binge drinking, student housing, loan problems
or the latest STD testing campaign.<br />
<br />
8) If there's a chance for
work experience, grab it with both hands. Cancel the trip to Ibiza.
Forget the birthday party. When you're in your first job interview and
an editor asks what you've got apart from a degree, you can point to
election or match day coverage.<br />
<br />
9) That said, make time for
yourself on the other days. Do a workmanlike job, but no story, package
or treatment will ever be perfect. Because the carousel never stops. Do
the best job you can and move on.<br />
<br />
10) Enjoy your time with your
coursemates. It's a small industry. If they're any good and you're any
good your paths will keep crossing for life. You'll be competing with
each other for jobs, sure. But you can maintain friendships on all the
other days.<br />
<br />
<br />
Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-41409600561576305452018-08-29T12:15:00.000+01:002018-08-29T19:51:22.363+01:00We're Not All PoshYou've heard the expression "repeat until true".<br />
<br />
Especially so in the age of memes, falsehoods can be repeated over and over until at least a substantial proportion of the audience believe them to be facts.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-wwii-propaganda-campaign-popularized-the-myth-that-carrots-help-you-see-in-the-dark-28812484/">"Carrots help you see in the dark"</a> originates in Second World War propaganda designed to shield the development of radar, whilst simultaneously boosting the mythic status of the RAF and helpfully creating demand for surplus veg.<br />
<br />
"<a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/suspended-animation/">Walt Disney's cryogenically frozen waiting for science to cure cancer</a>" is another. He isn't.<br />
<br />
Neither is "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/may/30/channel-4-cities-national-hq-birmingham-manchester-glasgow-liverpool-leeds">Channel Four looking for a new national headquarters</a>". The meek way regional journos have swallowed the spin on that channel's petulant refusal to give up its London base is shameful.<br />
<br />
But the lie I really want to nail is the suggestion that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2018/apr/29/journalism-class-private-education">all journos are posh</a>. We're not. And the meme created round the suggestion we are is actually harmful for all of us who've devoted a career to helping diverse candidates into the profession. Here's why.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>First, some disclosure. Get a brew, this will take a minute or two.<br />
<br />
Yes, I'm a grammar school boy, in that I was one of the supposed lucky ones under a selective system in the seventies. That resulted in five years of hell for me in a school that was fuelled mainly by testosterone and the worship of sporting prowess. Only in the sixth form did I finally emerge from that nightmare, so no, I'm not a fan, actually.<br />
<br />
I got three so-so A levels (B, B and D as you're asking) and a random S level in Economics.<br />
<br />
I went on to get a very ordinary Ordinary degree, with no honours (the equivalent today would be a 2:2), in Communication, Arts and Media at what was then an Institute of Higher Education.<br />
<br />
No glittering spires, no rubbing shoulders with, or shagging, future prime ministers, no <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullingdon_Club">Bullingdon Club</a>; although the experience did admittedly introduce me to the late 70s elitist delight of <a href="https://blog.liebherr.com/appliances/us/sweet-cheap-liebfraumilch/">sweet Liebfraumilch</a>.<br />
<br />
I did however have a burning desire to get into radio. The origins of that are a story for another day, but by combining my second year studies with 0500-0900 traffic and travel shifts at Pennine Radio, for which I received £10 a week and my travel expenses, I got a foothold in a career that's sustained me for nearly four decades.<br />
<br />
I stuck it out with the degree, despite hating the psychobabble social science claptrap I was forced to regurgitate, as it would have broken my parents' hearts if I'd abandoned it. <br />
<br />
Dad was a motor mechanic, mum was a clerical worker and I was the first in the family, from a Leeds council house, to go into higher education. However, it was clear the day my tutors agreed it was "probably the right decision" for me not to continue for a fourth honours year that me and academia were not a good fit.<br />
<br />
As my subsequent writings repeatedly demonstrate.<br />
<br />
They did have some nice studios to play with though, and the long placements and holidays were absolutely vital to breaking into the industry.<br />
<br />
So far, so mundane. I'm braced for the usual "council house - luxury!" and coal-in-the-bath ribbing.<br />
<br />
The above is to make very clear that I'm not, by any definition, posh.<br />
<br />
I'm privileged in as much as I had enormously supportive parents, and lived at a time when there was a grant system in place to nurture students from my kind of background, but there was no silver spoon.<br />
<br />
I'm more privileged in that I've enjoyed just about every day at work for almost forty years.<br />
<br />
I've tried to help others from what we euphemistically call "non-standard backgrounds" into news, and I'm a big advocate for greater diversity in newsrooms. My track record demonstrates I've had decent success in helping such candidates along.<br />
<br />
Mine was the training newsroom derided as "too small, and too Northern" by one grandee when deciding whether to include it in her scholarship scheme. I take that as a badge of honour.<br />
<br />
That's why I'm totally pigged off with the renewed onslaught this week, led by keyboard warrior Owen Jones, attacking the alleged elitism in journalism.<br />
<br />
The story hinges, crucially, on stats from the <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/">Sutton Trust</a> who find that an obscene proportion of those they subjectively define as "top journalists" went to public school.<br />
<br />
That definition of "top journalist" boils down to those holding a senior position on a London based national publication, so the "top" category ignores completely the majority of UK journalists who are based outside the capital, reporting for regional and local outlets.<br />
<br />
The <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/">Sutton Trust </a>and their cheerleaders are absolutely right to point out the issue, and to demand action to address it. But in the narrowness of their definition, honed for its shocking impact, they do a scandalous disservice to those of us working for greater diversity in journalism here and now, on a day to day basis, outside the dinner party bubble.<br />
<br />
I'm imagining a young Richard .. or an Amina .. in Leeds today reading this stuff.<br />
<br />
They're deciding whether to accept the place they've been offered on an industry accredited (<a href="https://www.bjtc.org.uk/">BJTC</a> or <a href="http://www.nctj.com/">NCTJ</a>) journalism course where they'll get industry approved training and some academic study. Maybe they're the first in their family to have an offer, landing on the doormat of their council flat.<br />
<br />
Taking it up will require accepting 40-odd thousand pounds of student debt (thanks, Nick) and a three year commitment with no certainty of a job at the end of it. But there's a feeling inside ...<br />
<br />
Then I read again I have no chance. Just look. It's all over social media. All journalists are posh. Everyone says so. Perhaps I abandon that dream, and do accountancy instead.<br />
<br />
The facts are these. In regional news, over forty years, I've known very few posh folk. A few have passed through newsrooms, using them as stepping stones to something else, but the huge majority of local and regional journalists are fiercely dedicated to what they do within the communities they serve.<br />
<br />
They are united by an outlook of apolitical cynicism, a love of storytelling and an instinct to spot the quote at fifty paces. They enjoy highlighting injustices and the absurd, and especially challenging authority. They do all this for very little money over stupid hours in places the "elite" only set foot in at election times, or to write opinion pieces about depravation.<br />
<br />
They are egalitarian, in that the better story will always take precedence, they'll fight like cat and dog until a decision is made on priorities. Then they'll put everything into hitting deadline or keeping the needles wobbling. Short of the military you'll seldom find such camaraderie, just with a wider vocabulary.<br />
<br />
Don't be deterred. Journalism is bigger than the bubble. Go for it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-53054239518231064402018-07-15T13:11:00.000+01:002018-07-15T13:11:04.676+01:00Keeping It Real - The Case for Immersive Newsroom Teaching One of the major challenges in news training is making the
student experience as realistic as possible. It’s an objective that sits
uncomfortably with the norms of university life, because it requires total immersion
in the newsgathering environment over a period of time.<br />
<br />
A key feature of the postgrad course I ran for two decades
at <a href="http://www.leedstrinity.ac.uk/">Leeds Trinity University</a> was the “month on air” – 28 consecutive days of radio news for
<a href="http://www.bcbradio.co.uk/">BCB 106.6 FM</a>, with trainees providing bulletins from 0800-1800 weekdays and
0800-1200 at weekends. They also did a fortnight of live TV programming,
originally with cable TV, more recently online. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Compare that with the sector norm, which is quite often a single
newsday at the end of a module, maybe two consecutive days if the institution
has taken on board guidance from the <a href="http://www.bjtc.org.uk/">BJTC</a>.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve seen course leaders literally wringing their hands at
the prospect of finding just fifteen days a year in the timetable for all
newsdays … “that’s not how universities work!”. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, it should be. This post, originally commissioned by my good friend <a href="https://twitter.com/rich_thomas99">Dr Richard Thomas</a> for the <a href="https://journalismkx.com/">Journalism Knowledge Exchange</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/JournalismKX">@JournalismKX</a>) website, sets out why.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<a name='more'></a>The problem with the “big finish” approach is that, for the
students, it’s all an adrenaline rush.
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
In at 9, scramble some output together for lunchtime from a
standing start with no overnights, refine it through the afternoon, big
showcase around 4 then a bit of feedback and off to the pub, hugging each other
at what they’ve achieved.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Real news operation isn’t a sprint. It’s a gruelling
marathon that never actually ends.<br />
<br />
Experienced journos know there will be feast and famine,
stupidly busy days and quiet weeks. They have strategies to cope with both.
Those working daily in a newsroom also acquire a thorough, in-depth knowledge
of the current agenda, so morning conference is a nuanced exploration of lines
to develop rather than “Hey, let’s do something about Trump” or a panicky
glance at the local paper’s website just before the session starts.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
At a human level it’s about shift work. Getting up early,
coming home late, staffing evening events. Truly realistic 5am starts are awkward for trainees without cars, but coming in for 9 does nothing to
prepare them for the reality of an early alarm.<br />
<br />
And if ignoring the breakfast audience ill prepares them for
jobs in radio, a 5 o'clock finish likewise disregards the rhythm of a typical local
or regional TV operation. It’s making the news cycle fit the convenience of the
university, rather than adapting the institution to news.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Professionally, it’s about learning to be selfless. Handing
the best stories forward to be used at breakfast or drive when the audience is
there, not firing them off at 1000 or 1500 because individual students want the
satisfaction of hearing themselves on air. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More importantly it’s about developing the instinct for the
morning angle, the second or third day of a big story, about previews and
buildup and reflection and reaction. About news management, not flinging
everything we’ve got at the transmitter.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s about giving trainee journos the satisfaction of owning
a story and probably (given that there’s never a shortage of staff in a
training environment) the chance to really work contacts they acquire to find
new and exclusive lines through access or familiarity. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To make an immersive newsroom work it’s essential to have
staff who’ve been there and done that. They can run an operation which mirrors
as closely as possible what happens in the real world. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Issues arise around law, ethics and regulation in real time
and against deadlines where a bulletin is minutes away. Students really get
that when a suspect’s just been charged, that voicer they’ve worked on for an
hour is dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Public Affairs becomes
relevant when Councillors try to exclude reporters from a meeting. And as for OFCOM –
can we have that word at breakfast? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Flexible academic colleagues can guide and talk through such
issues as they arise, rather than lecture on them, making learning so much more
meaningful. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s also a key pastoral role for tutors. Often a student will find the stress just too much. If a
breakdown happens in the safe environment of a training newsroom there’s always
chance for a time out. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I’m in the newsroom, I’m an editor. When I’m in my
office (or as wry trainees would call it, “the situation room”) I’m a caring
tutor. Far better for a trainee to discover they can’t hack it in such a
supportive space, with the chance to rejoin and try again, then to be sent away
from a placement. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the words of one trainee “It’s a freelance gig you can’t
be sacked from”. That’s the best possible training experience. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When the trainee
then goes on to bid for work there’s a steadiness in the eye and a firmness in
the handshake that says to the employer they’ve had an experience as real as it
gets.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-69005276728054673352018-06-19T10:45:00.002+01:002018-06-19T10:59:44.037+01:00What a Journalist Isn'tI'm sick and tired of the abuse journalists are getting at the moment. They don't deserve it, at least real journalists don't - but that's the problem.<br />
<br />
The title has become devalued, muddy, imprecise because basically anyone with a keyboard and a wifi connection can call themselves a journalist. Is it any wonder the punters have become confused?<br />
<br />
Rather than trying to define what a journalist is, it's probably more useful to start by making clear what a journalist isn't.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>A controversialist is not a journalist. This is the biggest issue at the moment. Reporting is expensive. Chasing fire engines, or going to the press bench of a Court, costs money and isn't very sexy. Local reporting has been cut back to the bone, and with the endless pages of the infinet to fill it's much easier to employ an egotist with an opinion (real or feigned) and a reasonable grasp of writing.<br />
<br />
Get them to say something outrageous, and watch those social media notifications spike.<br />
<br />
Journalists don't have opinions. Actually, of course, they do; but a professional leaves those opinions at home when reporting and does the best time and resources allow in relaying a wide range of opinions in the most effective way they can. Making an interviewee sound good, even if their opinion is very different from your own, is one of the most satisfying aspects of the job. When you've actually met and interviewed the person, of course, because ...<br />
<br />
Journalists don't cut and paste. A news release is a tip off that a story exists, not a story in itself. The most interesting quotes come from interviewing around the release, not simply repurposing the content of a pre-prepared statement.<br />
<br />
Just try speaking the quote in the release aloud. Chances are that particular sequence of words could never be uttered by an animate human being, ever. Too many "quotes" have been drafted, revised, amended, approved by a committee and finally given a gloss by a publicist. On which point ...<br />
<br />
Journalists are not employed to speak on behalf of organisations .. especially in the public sector. A lot of hacked-off former hacks have ended up as PRs for councils, police and other public bodies, effectively writing the same stories they always have, but then syndicating them for the actual media outlets to cut and paste, as in the par above.<br />
<br />
It's possible to argue that there is a public benefit in a well written version of the story originating from the original source, if the reality of the marketplace is that it's going to be recycled without scrutiny anyway. The difficulty comes when such "comms professionals" become defensive or obstructive when external journalists try to probe beyond the statement, query assertions or try to get to question the actual decision makers directly.<br />
<br />
I have a simple rule in training journalists. I tell them they are an insignificant worker ant in the edifice of news, and their job is to minimise their own personality in their reporting. I ban the word "I" from copy, except in direct quotes. No-one cares what you think.<br />
<br />
The job of a reporter is to hold power to account by asking the questions their listener, viewer or reader would want to know the answer to. That's the end of it.<br />
<br />
A journalist is tenacious in probing for answers, but is never tedious by way of haranguing an interviewee. Trust the audience; the punters are a lot more intelligent than we often give them credit for, a lying bore or a charlatan will come over as such if questioned directly and politely.<br />
<br />
Tomorrow morning, a few hundred tired souls across the UK will haul themselves out of bed before dawn to deliver the best possible breakfast radio news they can, serving communities the length and breadth of the UK. They're not well paid. I'd challenge you to name more than a handful, they're not famous.<br />
<br />
They do it because it matters. Local journalism matters in all its guises, but it's swamped and drowned out by the noise of the controversialists.<br />
<br />
Wake up. They're not journalists, whatever they call themselves. Remember that.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-47383009828130293432018-04-02T16:14:00.003+01:002018-04-02T17:24:52.375+01:00Regional BlindnessI'm just back from a week spent in Cornwall.<br />
<br />
It's a part of the British Isles I've never visited before. I was in the habit of heading down the M1 and turning left for France, but since the Brexit fallout means my Pound is only worth 7 Francs or so today in real money (instead of the 9 or 10 that mean decent food and accommodation is affordable) we decided to turn right instead and head for the West Country.<br />
<br />
We had a great time, thanks for asking. The Eden Project, couple of fabulous National Trust places, and some cracking little seaside villages that give Robin Hood's Bay a run for its money. But as I explored around Bodmin, St Austell and the wonderfully-named Lostwithiel I realised this is a part of England .. my own country .. I know next to nothing about.<br />
<br />
Why's that? Regional blindness. It's the reason why more .. much more .. network TV and radio production needs to be moved (at gunpoint if necessary) out of the comforting embrace of the M25.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>BBC and ITV regional news programmes like Look North and Calendar are regularly among the most viewed in my own 'home' region of Yorkshire. They're certainly the most popular news strands on TV. The genuine affection shown for presenters when they participate in charity stunts or host awards events shows how they touch region-wide audiences, even in this age of infinite digital distraction.<br />
<br />
So I have a reasonable perception of my own region, even those bits of it like Castleford I never visit. (I'm perilously close to entering my seventh decade, and I've never knowingly been to Castleford). It's referenced, not every day but regularly, in the news I hear, see and read online. It's on my radar.<br />
<br />
I also have a perception of bits of the country I've never been to. Islington, Brixton, Shoreditch and Brick Lane are all names that bring up instant images and associations. All in or around London. I have an appreciation of these communities brought to me when they are regularly referenced in national media coverage, in text as well as in broadcast.<br />
<br />
I have no similar appreciation of Bodmin, save possibly a vague association with Sherlock Holmes (and that dates from the nineteenth century. And it's fiction). St Austell I had certainly heard of, but could not begin to locate on a map without GPS to help. And Lostwithiel I had genuinely had no knowledge of at all until we arrived in it. A town in my own country, completely alien to me, because I never see or hear anything about it.<br />
<br />
Bear with me.<br />
<br />
If it's reasonable to suppose that BBC Points West and ITV West Country do at least as good a job as their northern counterparts in Leeds, then regional audiences in Bodmin or St Austell will be as well informed about their own region as I am about mine. I can also assume they are just as ignorant about Halifax or Harrogate or Pudsey as I was about their neck of the woods.<br />
<br />
However, just like me, they are constantly fed a diet of images, words and sounds from within the M25 illuminating that golden space.<br />
<br />
Developing the argument further, audiences within London and environs get the best regional news of all - local stories, like snow or train strikes, are elevated to the importance of national news because those who determine what the national news is are inconvenienced by them on their way to work.<br />
<br />
BBC Radio 4 Today is the best local radio there is for London and the South East. Even on sunny days it's more convenient to illustrate stories by reference to Bloomsbury or Brixton than by travelling further afield.<br />
<br />
The metropolitan audience is superserved by the national broadcasters, and furthermore has no perception at all of what's happening beyond the M25. They're equally ignorant of Bradford <b>and </b>Bodmin.<br />
<br />
The self-perpetuating loop is closed.<br />
<br />
The answer to this? Relocate national newsrooms across England. (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are already better served because of their "nations" status - and bolshy devolved governments of various stripes). Channel Four news from Birmingham would be a start. Bradford would be better, but probably too much of a stretch for a first toe in the water. News at Ten from Norwich. Sky Breakfast from Truro.<br />
<br />
The BBC has already decided "The North" and "Manchester" are synonyms. The Salford operation was a long overdue first move for the Corporation, but now we need the World at One from Wakefield and PM from Preston. Newsnight from Newcastle goes without saying.<br />
<br />
There was a mantra in the Beeb a few years back that "the BBC should look and sound like the people who watch and listen to the BBC". Great strides have been made in ethnic diversity, but regional accents are still far too much of a rarity. Social diversity is the next objective, and moving much more production to the regions would help so much in achieving that breakthrough.<br />
<br />
It's not even a lack of infrastructure. The Beeb has fantastic radio and TV facilities the length and breadth of England. They're just not used to anything like their capacity.<br />
<br />
Some of us can even remember when the nightly Nationwide magazine programme got some use out of this network by showcasing regional stories nationally, albeit with wobbly sets and too many beige cardigans. They did that in an age of 16mm film and sticky tape. Imagine what a similar programme could achieve now, if there were just the will to make it.<br />
<br />
So we need to set a target, here and now. Let's go Nationwide. Seventy percent of BBC news output made outside London within five years. If there's the will, it can be done.<br />
<br />
It would even go a long way towards healing all the post-Brexit wounds the London commentators are so keen to commentate upon, if they're informed by on the ground experience in Dudley and Doncaster, instead of limiting their scope of perception to Dulwich.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-51029239137941830912018-01-21T16:19:00.000+00:002018-01-21T23:19:37.608+00:00Heart and SoulI'm just back from a lovely weekend in England's lake district, doing the winter warming <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygge">hygge</a> thing of good food, wine, board games and hot chocolate with some close friends lucky enough to have made their home there.<br />
<br />
The Lakes are a rare bit of "the North" Londoners are likely to have experienced, even if they think of it as "sort of Scotland" as they drive around in their company SUVs just off the M6, getting the wheel arches all dashingly mudspattered in a way the weekly shop at Waitrose can't match.<br />
<br />
They're also home to two traditionally-programmed local commercial radio stations, <a href="http://www.thebay.co.uk/">The Bay</a> and <a href="http://www.lakelandradio.co.uk/">Lakeland Radio</a>, although not for long as they're about to be assimilated by the Borg-like Global as they <a href="https://radiotoday.co.uk/2018/01/plans-announced-for-the-bay-and-lakeland-radio/">roll out mega brands Heart and Smooth into Cumbria</a>.<br />
<br />
I have mixed feelings about that.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>I heard a bit of The Bay during my time away, and frankly I didn't hear much that struck me as award-winning content.<br />
<br />
It was competent, if a bit old-fashioned, and I was mightily chuffed to hear ".. and local news" pared with whatever specific variety of music they promised (in all honesty I forget) in the idents.<br />
<br />
The presenters were friendly and engaging. I was impressed by their professionalism; I have no idea which of the voices I heard are facing an uncertain future under Ashley's new regime. Yet there was nothing in the on-air sound to suggest looming pessimism, and there were plenty of relevant local mentions in just about every link. Good stuff.<br />
<br />
What was more important was the ease with which the station passed the <a href="http://rhorsman.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/chip-shop-test.html">chip shop test</a>. Or given this is the lake district, the posh warm jumper shop test.<br />
<br />
Whilst my better half was choosing robust and weatherproof leisurewear in one such "designer outlet" The Bay was playing softly on the speakers. Not just there, but in a number of shops, and wafting through from a pub kitchen as the steaks were grilled. <a href="http://rhorsman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/radio-must-have-soul.html">As I've written before</a>, this level of engagement is always a good sign that stations have their finger on the pulse of local communities.<br />
<br />
Ah yes, The Pulse. The West Yorkshire station where I spent the later part of my front-line career. That's how it was rebranded from Pennine Radio after marketing consultants tested a number of P-words on prospective listeners who were (apparently) turned off by the original ultra-community feel of the little station on Forster Square. Too many lost dogs, allegedly, so time to become Power. Or Pop. Or The Pulse. That was favourite.<br />
<br />
I'm hoping The Bay and Lakeland Radio survive their makeover into Heart and Smooth. It goes without saying they'll be a commercial success.<br />
<br />
Global will add the extra listeners as part of a national sell to existing clients, there'll be a slick and well-rehearsed marketing push in the launch period to bring in new audience, and many existing punters will just keep tuning in by habit, eventually accepting new names and London syndicated content without much fuss.<br />
<br />
But something important will have died.<br />
<br />
Back in Bradford I remember being called into the programme controller's office shortly after a new guy took over. Always a tricky interview. The new guy with the shiny buttons was Steve Martin, and when he asked me what I thought about the output on The Pulse I could have played safe and parroted the party line. More music - fewer lost dogs. In fact none. Ever.<br />
<br />
Instead I opted to tell Steve the truth. I said that whilst the station was in many ways more slick and professional than it had had ever been, in adopting policies to homogenise output across days and time bands it had lost its soul.<br />
<br />
That might sound a bit mystical, and in a way it is. But it's also very practical.<br />
<br />
A compelling reason to listen is more than the frequency of songs and the words in a strapline.<br />
<br />
It's the belief that the presenter a listener is sharing their time with on the radio actually cares. Cares about the listener, uniquely, as an individual. Cares about the shared community the listener calls home, at a level of granularity that includes the schools, the hospitals, the weather, the annual show and the football result.<br />
<br />
A presenter can be well informed about all of these, but still fail to demonstrate concern at a level where the listener senses real, unfeigned empathy.<br />
<br />
I'm fortunate that Steve listened, and didn't replace me there and then with someone who'd read the memo. I went on to be his news editor in a later management buyout. Every dog has his day.<br />
<br />
The Pulse was left behind as the unwanted child of the marriage as EMAP adopted Hallam and Viking to run together with Aire in the first of many subsequent rounds of consolidation.<br />
<br />
Steve went on to deftly modify "The Pulse" into "The Pulse of West Yorkshire", thereby regaining some of the lost common identity with the Pennine hills, and he picked up a Sony Gold Award as programmer of the year for community initiatives including charity campaigns, educational outreach and a brilliant "dirty but proud" car sticker to back a water saving campaign by Yorkshire Water, then struggling to cope with the drought of 1995.<br />
<br />
As we showed then, as we showed again as Bradford was rocked by rioting in 2001, and as the original Pennine Radio had <a href="http://rhorsman.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-original-social-medium.html">amply demonstrated when the city was grieving following the Valley Parade stadium fire disaster that claimed 56 lives</a> - to succeed as a medium that matters to people's lives, radio needs both heart and soul.<br />
<br />
Just Heart alone may not be enough. However Smoothly delivered.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-79127474751694930212018-01-13T11:52:00.001+00:002018-01-14T09:41:55.393+00:00The Horsman TestAs a news editor in commercial radio, I had a simple rule when it came to budgeting.<br />
<br />
I would throw resources at a big story. No-one remembers the news on an "ordinary" day, just as no-one forgets the news on the day a city is torn by riots, as Bradford was in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/asian-youths-in-battles-with-police-petrol-bombs-and-burning-barricades-during-second-night-of-riots-1585838.html">1995 </a>and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jul/08/uk.race">2001</a>.<br />
<br />
I engaged a freelance in Florida to deliver harrowing and compelling courtroom audio of a West Yorkshire woman whose boyfriend was <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10309026/US-man-who-murdered-British-tourist-resentenced-to-40-years-in-prison.html">killed next to her in a car in a botched robbery</a>. That cost a year's freelance budget, but the content was worth every cent.<br />
<br />
I met a former BBC senior exec in the region who admitted the little station on Forster Square "gave the Beeb a run for our money" and "kept us on our toes". No mean compliment when you compare the resources of the respective newsrooms.<br />
<br />
These reflections matter when considering the future of commercial radio news.<br />
<br />
As everyone will be aware by now, regulation is being swept away as the last Ofcom rules on what UK commercial radio can play, and where they can play it from, are removed. I highlighted the contrasts with old style ILR in <a href="http://rhorsman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/a-dish-best-eaten-cold.html">a lighthearted post for New Year</a>.<br />
<br />
This post, originally published as a <a href="https://radiotoday.co.uk/">Radio Today</a> UK <a href="https://madmimi.com/p/1aea5b?fe=1&pact=3995493-143173202-190173339-06147167f51bff0d1efe022820a3cd49f254e635">eRADIO blog of the week</a>, looks to the future.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>We only have one chance to get this right. It's the last bit of station output that will be mandated; even if all your jocks are in London, the brand's generic and formats can flip overnight, owners will still have to provide local news relevant to each individual licence area. In the words of the DCMS response to its public consultation on the issue:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"The consultation revealed strong support for maintaining strong requirements<br />on commercial radio stations to provide national and local news and core<br />information such as traffic and travel information and weather. In bringing<br />forward legislation we will clarify Ofcom’s powers in this area to allow Ofcom<br />to set clear guidance on how these requirements are set and to enable it to<br />set requirements based on the size of the target audience for each station."</i></blockquote>
There's no doubt technology can be a great help. It's no big deal to insert local news, traffic, weather and ads into each transmitter feed. Presenters have long had the ability to pre-rec and insert local links into otherwise networked programming.<br />
<br />
Reporters no longer need a radio car - nor even a studio to work in.<br />
<br />
For all I detest the iPhone personally (I find touchscreens unreliable and fiddly, and I resent the idea of being locked in to Apple's propitiatory systems, however convenient they may be) mobile journalism is a liberating development, as pioneers like <a href="http://nickgarnett.co.uk/">Nick Garnett</a> were telling us a decade ago.<br />
<br />
The use of iPhones in news is all but universal. Journos now require no external engineering other than bandwidth to function.<br />
<br />
The key question, then, is to decide what kind of news we want and expect from commercial radio.<br />
<br />
There are some bosses who believe some news should be left to the BBC. The difficult news.<br />
<br />
Courts and councils for starters; the sort of thing journos need training to understand, and which are expensive to cover because of the time they take. <br />
<br />
Politics, because it's hard to sum up Brexit in an eight word soundbite, and local politicians are irrelevant in a public sphere reduced to Leave v Remain, Corbyn v BoJo. And of course we don't touch community stuff like pensioners and pets, because they're boring.<br />
<br />
These kind of bosses are rarely from a news background.<br />
<br />
I learned my craft from the best radio journalists of their generation, and I learned quickly there are no boring stories, only boring treatments.<br />
<br />
News is ultimately about people, and if you get out and actually meet people, you find great stories.<br />
<br />
Dullness in news comes from the repetition and corner-cutting that goes hand in hand with asking too few journos to fill too much airtime. Which is why, as I've written before, <a href="http://rhorsman.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/memo-to-pd-shedding-journo-is-false.html">Sacking a journo to save money is a false economy</a>.<br />
<br />
The alternative to hard news is soft news - especially the "s"s - showbiz, 'slebrity and social media (I'll leave "sport" for the time being, as that's a whole different -er- ball game). Which are conveniently free to report, or rather, recycle endlessly from the same YouTube viral videos and Twitter feeds your radio audience can already access for themselves.<br />
<br />
Oh, and there's "selling"; PR puffs are always free. The colour of a Starbucks cup, or the arrival of a Greggs pasty as Christmas stories. No.<br />
<br />
People still respond to the big stuff. This year's Gillards, as well as the IRN, Bauer, 02 and Global awards were full of mentions for radio coverage of the Manchester bombing and the Grenfell Tower disaster where local teams worked as hard as my generation ever did to get the stories out. The stuff audiences remember.<br />
<br />
The issue now is how this plays out in the new deregulated world.<br />
<br />
When on-patch studios cease to exist, news will increasingly be played in remotely from hubs.<br />
<br />
There are huge benefits from hubbing, not least better newsreading voices on air. I was a cracking reporter, but I was never a great reader, and it's rare to find an individual who is brilliant at both. I speak from the experience of having trained more than 400 radio journos.<br />
<br />
Those benefits are lost, however, if the newsreader is locked in battery-farm bulletin land.<br />
<br />
When the same journo has to pre-rec bulls for half a dozen stations whilst somehow keeping those bulletins updated for each of the patches, something has to give. It won't be the on air performances, as everyone in wireless knows the ultimate bottom line is to keep the needles wobbling. So any shortcuts that have to be made will inevitably impact on the quality of journalism.<br />
<br />
Hence breakfast-time cuts still being used at drive, and other crimes against news.<br />
<br />
This brings me then to the point of this post. How is Ofcom to determine if the needs of a specific local audience are met, given the new landscape, enabled by tech but also enslaved by it?<br />
<br />
I propose the Horsman test.<br />
<br />
<b>"To meet the requirements for delivering local news and information, a station must be able to get a reporter to the scene of a news story within that station's official transmission area within an hour of the story breaking".</b><br />
<br />
What's important is the boots on the ground.<br />
<br />
Cutting and pasting social
media is never the same as looking into the eyes of an terrified witness, a
shifty company chief exec or a politician we need to hold accountable. Far more
is picked up from the body language, the half-overheard exchanges, the
other people coming and going from the scene than will ever be harvested from Twitter.<br />
<br />
The ideal would be a staff journalist, based on the patch who gets to know important contacts well; it's so important to be on first name terms with key figures when disaster strikes. Note I don't specify a staff journalist; if groups can set up robust, 24/7/365 arrangements with local, appropriately trained freelancers that's also great, so long as they have the in-depth local knowledge and the necessary radio technique. (I'm available to give 'em that last bit - hint)<br />
<br />
Stations should also build positive, two-way relationships with community radio, many of which are run by excellent broadcasters encouraging others to participate (arise, Mary Dowson BEM) or with quality hyperlocal news organisations like the <a href="http://westleedsdispatch.com/">West Leeds Dispatch</a> or <a href="http://www.southleedslife.com/">South Leeds Life</a>.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Congratulations to our Director Mary Dowson for receiving a BEM Award in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours, for her services to Community Radio - a richly deserved award! <a href="https://t.co/oZSBer1teD">pic.twitter.com/oZSBer1teD</a></div>
— BCB 106.6fm (@bcbradio) <a href="https://twitter.com/bcbradio/status/946880106135478274?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 29, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
And of course many <a href="http://www.bjtc.org.uk/">BJTC accredited</a> training courses at Universities and in the private sector can provide support, even for BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine programme when <a href="http://www.timjohns.org/2014/11/16/the-amazing-story-of-the-deer-the-decapitation-the-roller-coaster-and-the-student-journalist/">a deer meets an untimely end in a North Yorkshire theme park</a>.<br />
<br />
So that's my proposal. I look forward to debating it with others who have an interest. We can't afford to get it wrong. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-43769635149263288342018-01-04T19:40:00.003+00:002018-01-05T08:23:09.502+00:00Talking TitlesIt was all going so well for BBC Local Radio, with the announcement that £10 million of proposed cuts to the network are to be shelved, and a promise that local stations would in future be loved by DG Tony Hall, with a renewed purpose serving "everyone", not just the older demographics ignored by everyone else.<br />
<br />
As I wrote at the time, <a href="http://rhorsman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/a-new-hope-for-cinderella.html">a new hope for the Cinderella service</a>. <br />
<br />
Then the Corporation announced today that Managing Editors (known as Station Editors in some places) are to be demoted. Ouch.<br />
<br />
OK, that's not what they really said. As such. The Beeb actually said that they're aiming to reduce the number of job titles across the organisation, and bring the pecking order within local radio into line with that existing in other departments.<br />
<br />
This means that current "Station Editors" or "Managing Editors", who have the overall
responsibility for running a BBC local station, will in future be known as "Senior News Editors". Now, does that sound a more important or less important job to the listener in the street? <br />
<br />
To make it crystal clear, Assistant Editors (who report to the soon-to-be Senior News Editors) will in future be known as .. Assistant Editors. And News Editors, running the station's newsroom, will remain News Editors. Editing news.<br />
<br />
No possibility of confusion there, then.<br />
<br />
But what's in a name? Does it actually matter? I think so, and here's why it does.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>It goes against the idea of immediate community <span class="_Tgc _s8w">relatability</span>.<br />
<br />
I liked the old form title of "Station Manager" - no doubt there what they do, they're in overall charge of the station. "Station Editor" or "Managing Editor" conveys much of that gravitas.<br />
<br />
If you're a punter with a complaint, or a Lord Mayor's secretary with an invite to a civic do, it's pretty clear who's the figurehead for the station, who exactly it is that represents the BBC in this parish.<br />
<br />
"Senior News Editor" suggests the bod with the title is in charge of news bulletins. So who's in charge of the presenters? Who runs the charity campaigns?<br />
<br />
Unless this is actually the start of a move to marginalise news a bit. To pave the way for a new generation of super managers, running "content" across "clusters" of local stations. With news less important in the overall mix.<br />
<br />
Important people brought in at group level to hire and fire talent, decide what the station will sound like, and do strategic stuff - just like commercial radio, in fact - whilst the Senior News Editors get on with supervising the News Editors. And the Assistant Editors assist, generally. At least, that's what it could look like.<br />
<br />
No-one can deny the BBC has form in creating new layers of management, however hard it pleads the latest moves are actually designed to do the opposite.<br />
<br />
True, it's only a name, and relatively few people in the real world will notice any difference at all.<br />
<br />
But it does seem a silly, mistimed step in the wrong direction just at a time when Tony Hall is promising so much for local autonomy and accountability.<br />
<br />
A shot in the foot following a shot in the arm. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>(I've not forgotten about the Horsman test, by the way, as a measure of whether local commercial stations are meeting their local news and information obligations in the light of Ofcom's latest moves. That post is coming soon)</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-55323629989346662412017-12-30T13:33:00.000+00:002017-12-30T14:25:46.815+00:00A Dish Best Eaten Cold<br />
Imagine the scene. You're in Brompton Road, London, above a branch of Boots in the late 70s.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Good morning, and congratulations ... you're the new ILR licence holder for Bigtown!<br />
<br />
<i>"Thank you so much, we're looking forward to a great relationship ..."</i><br />
<br />
"Hmm. Now about your business plan. Making money - from advertising."<br />
<br />
<i>"Yes .. well, after all, it is commercial radio and ..."</i><br />
<br />
"Independent. Local. Radio. We had words with your trade body about that. The only c-word we'll have in here is 'contractor'".<br />
<br />
<i>"So, we think we can make a working profit with a mix of sponsorship and ...."</i><br />
<br />
"Sponsorship???"<br />
<br />
<i>"For example, if Louis Vuitton sponsored the breakfast show ...."</i><br />
<br />
"A handbag??? We'll have none of that. At least, not for a few years, and then we'll call it .. ooh ... co-funding"<br />
<br />
<i>"OK then, with 12 minutes of spot advertising an hour...."</i><br />
<br />
"Nine"<br />
<br />
<i>"What?"</i><br />
<br />
"Nine minutes. Not a second more. We'll be listening. In an hotel room. With a stopwatch".<br />
<br />
<i>"We have some lovely charity ads planned ..."</i><br />
<br />
"No charities. No politics. No religion. No dentists. Oh, and no condoms. Obviously"<br />
<br />
<i>"And with our friendly DJs voicing them for local clients ..."</i><br />
<br />
"Ha ha ha ha .. no. No station voices in commercials. Oh, and how were you intending to properly distance the commercial messages from the programme content?"<br />
<br />
"<i>Pardon? It's seamless, y'know, radio ..."</i><br />
<br />
"Our preferred buffering would be along the lines of 'programmes on Radio Metropolis, the Independent Local Radio Contractor for Bigtown, will resume in two minutes and seven seconds here on 235 metres medium wave and 96 VHF in stereo' ..."<br />
<br />
<i>"What?!?"</i><br />
<br />
"...but we'll settle for some ghastly Americanism like 'we'll be back after these ..."<br />
<br />
<i>"We've not gone anywhere! Frankly it's going to be difficult to thrive as a business ...."</i><br />
<br />
"One other thing"<br />
<br />
<i>"Yes?"</i><br />
<br />
"If you do make ...a profit ... we'll take some more transmitter fees off you to pay for .. ooh, I don't know .. an arts festival in the north. We'll call it secondary rental. Good luck!"</blockquote>
<br />
They were very different times.<br />
<br />
If you were starting commercial radio from scratch you would never choose the model we now have in Britain. Conceived under Edward Heath's Conservatives, Independent Local Radio (or "ILR") was born in the Labour Callaghan years with masses of public service obligation.<br />
<br />
As senior producer at Pennine in about 1983 I had to find the evidence to satisfy "inspections" from the Yorkshire-based regional officer of the Independent Broadcasting Authority. "What programming have you produced for disabled listeners this week?" The answer, on at least one occasion, was recommending kneeling mats on a gardening phone-in.<br />
<br />
Commercial radio has always craved big, national brands. From London. Direct competition for Radio 1 and Radio 2. Services which reach the whole of the UK, and make money. Classic FM and (originally) Talk Radio were the only national "INR" services, deliberately chosen for their not-very-commercial formats of classical music and speech. <br />
<br />
Since the broadcast ownership regulation reforms of the late Thatcher years, which were the death knell for the strong regional TV companies like Granada in Manchester and Yorkshire in Leeds, radio has instead created what it always wanted by brute force.<br />
<br />
Local stations have been bought, sold, resold and assimilated Borg-style into quasi-national brands.<br />
<br />
The furious ownership wars sapped creativity and limited innovation for more than a decade as management time and effort was focussed on survival and/or empire building (OK, to be fair there was also a massive distraction over the introduction of DAB).<br />
<br />
These battles have now just about ended, with three or four remaining players at the table. But it's been messy.<br />
<br />
The victorious owners have been left with a tangled web of supposedly local stations, with regulatory requirements to produce programming within the individual transmission areas. They've been chipping away at these last regulations.<br />
<br />
So now OfCom, which has never really seen radio as anything other than a minor distraction from its role of building a digital future, is doing away with the last regulations constraining the industry big beasts.<br />
<br />
In future, the rule is simple. Play what you like, from where you like.<br />
<br />
Switch overnight from hiphop to classical if you feel so inclined. If twenty stations are all playing Mariah simultaneously on 23 December, so be it - the market will decide who comes out victorious. The sales manager whose ulcers grew from the stress of running a regulated media business is smiling. They've got what they wanted forty years ago. <br />
<br />
OfCom has made the pragmatic decision.<br />
<br />
It's become increasingly pointless trying to impose rules devised in the ILR era on contemporary commercial radio. There's no denying the industry is more successful, commercially, than it has ever been. We should celebrate that, and in doing so it's probably the right time to sweep away the last remnants of local regulation. <br />
<br />
If it sounds like a London station, it says "Capital" over the door and as much of the output as permissible originates from Leicester Square it's probably futile to imagine it really is local radio for local people in Grimetown. <br />
<br />
The exception to all this is local news ... too many MPs made a fuss, probably, as they can't all be on Question Time and local radio news provides one of their few between-election profile-building opportunities.<br />
<br />
The owners will still be required to deliver local news and information. How they do so, in practical, day to day, hourly bulletin or Twitter feed, hubs, networks, stringers or otherwise is still a matter to be decided.<br />
<br />
An important matter, and the subject of my next piece in which I will introduce "The Horsman Test".<br />
<br />
We'll be back after the break (for New Year).<br />
<br />
May we all have a happy, healthy and peaceful 2018.<br />
<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-29972441464783292922017-12-12T17:35:00.001+00:002017-12-12T18:10:41.730+00:00How Long is a Piece of String?There's been a lot of discussion this week about UK government support for "short" degree courses, which would allow students to take a degree over two years rather than three.<br />
<br />
The argument has centred around cost - the two-year degrees would be priced at around £11,100 a year instead of the almost universal £9,250 currently charged for each year of study on a three-year course.<br />
<br />
My concern, however, is less about the fees and more to do with the breathtaking arrogance with which the academic establishment has turned against the proposals, alleging that any shortening of a three-year delivery cycle automatically diminishes the experience for students.<br />
<br />
I profoundly disagree.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>That's not to say I would call for the traditional system to be scrapped.<br />
<br />
Three years might work very well, for all I know, in a subject like French Philosophy. What I do know for certain is that it works very badly for training journalists - a subject <a href="http://rhorsman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/looking-back.html">I do know something about</a>.<br />
<br />
There is a fundamental mismatch between the demands of a newsroom and the demands of a typical academic university course.<br />
<br />
Both involve deadlines. News deadlines are nearly always short and absolute. The programme or bulletin must go to air at the scheduled time, or not at all.<br />
<br />
Academic deadlines are generally much longer, set in stone and published well in advance, so there's little chance for courses to adapt their delivery around breaking news events like a General Election. Worse, they're often designed primarily to suit the convenience of the institution.<br />
<br />
That's before we consider any degree of flexibility with hand-ins .. Friday (or next Friday if you can't quite manage it) still happens in some places. Officially or otherwise.<br />
<br />
A more serious issue comes with the design of course delivery.<br />
<br />
A typical undergraduate 20-credit course involves 40 hours of contact time - delivered as either four hours a week over one ten week semester ("short and fat"), or two hours a week over two semesters ("long and thin").<br />
<br />
Imagine as a worst-case scenario, trying to teach a practical subject like radio with two hours a week contact time stretched out (allowing for holidays, the unofficial half terms known as "reading weeks" and other interruptions) over the best part of nine months.<br />
<br />
Not every student arrives punctually; allowing for just five minutes of tardiness, and five minutes' early dismissal to allow a chance of crossing campus for the student's next class knocks another 3 hours 20 minutes off the available teaching time .. call it 10%. Or 5% with the "short, fat" model.<br />
<br />
Now guess how much the student retains and remembers from one week to the next, or across holidays. There is never a real chance to get up to speed with news writing, editing and reading. No sooner are they getting into the zone for the exercise than it's over.<br />
<br />
It's for this reason that professional accrediting bodies like the <a href="http://www.bjtc.org.uk/">Broadcast Journalism Training Council</a> insist on news days as part of a course - days on which the students work non-stop for at least six hours.<br />
<br />
Or what any actual newsroom would regard as a short(ish) day at the office.<br />
<br />
It never ceased to amaze me, when serving on the BJTC's Journalism and Accreditation Board, how many universities found even the modest requirement to complete ten news days a year to be a burden.<br />
<br />
I recall one course leader literally wringing her hands at the prospect of negotiating such timetabling arrangements from the Academic Committee greybeards at her institution. "It's not what universities do!" she cried, in anguish.<br />
<br />
Well, they should do.<br />
<br />
There are some accredited short courses which better suit the requirements of teaching news. They're generally in the private sector. Few universities would consider something as radical as a six month course .. but whyever not?<br />
<br />
Universities could deliver vital elements of news skills, such as Media Law, very readily over a few weeks using their existing faculty if only they would break away from the "long, thin/short,fat" template.<br />
<br />
There's a big push for diversity in news. Quite rightly.<br />
<br />
Every employer wants more candidates from "groups currently under-represented in newsrooms". The most crying need is for social diversity. Bluntly, there are too many posh kids entering newsrooms, whatever their ethnicity. One way to tackle that, and for which I believe there is pent-up demand, would be to offer short form courses over six months or so.<br />
<br />
The student, and more specifically an older career-changer with the kind of life skills and experience in non-news jobs newsrooms crave, could save up (or take a more affordable loan) to sustain themselves for a short, intense period knowing it would all be over in 20 weeks or so.<br />
<br />
Shut themselves off from other distractions, and immerse themselves in the skills of newsgathering.<br />
<br />
Immersion. That's the other essential.<br />
<br />
The problem with news days is when they're disconnected. The BJTC recommends that at least some news days are sequential.<br />
<br />
Just about anyone can psych themselves up, work flat out for a day, thrive on the buzz of adrenaline, achieve spectacular results, hug themselves and head to the pub to celebrate. Then go to bed for the weekend.<br />
<br />
What differentiates career journalists is the need to come back the next morning. And again. And again. And again.<br />
<br />
Pacing themselves, and staging a story over morning and afternoon bulletins - plus finding the all important overnight line. Preparing for weekends and Christmas holidays - "Don't eat turkey more than three days old warn health bosses", anyone?<br />
<br />
Learning to cope with burnout, and learning what a "workmanlike job" means. Doing the best we can with the story in the time available, and then walking away from it.<br />
<br />
To have a life.<br />
<br />
I found a way, with my original postgraduate Broadcast course, to build in at least a month of consecutive newsdays split over TV, radio and latterly online production. These newsdays were the heart of the course, and what just about every successful trainee I had remembers with affection.<br />
<br />
The time it all came together, when they stopped being a student and became a journalist. Pure alchemy.<br />
<br />
So I for one am a big advocate of diversity, not least in course delivery models. Let's smash the cartel that demands courses are delivered to a "one size fits all" university template. Let's encourage novel delivery stystems, and involve the employers in the process.<br />
<br />
It's time to stop running our 21st-century training institutions to fit the convenience of some traditional academic lifestyle. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-70502306937424797662017-12-05T16:16:00.001+00:002017-12-17T14:13:37.385+00:00Looking BackIt's always nice to be recognised, and I was delighted to be honoured by the <a href="http://www.bjtc.org.uk/">Broadcast Journalism Training Council </a>with a Special Recognition Award for being ..well .. towards the end of a longish career.<br />
<br />
I spent 23 years in all training broadcast journalists, the first decade or so of that whilst still working long hours in a broadcast newsroom at <a href="https://www.pulse2.co.uk/">The Pulse in Bradford</a>, latterly as News Editor through some turbulent times.<br />
<br />
I've been extremely privileged throughout my professional career. I didn't have a day of unemployment between 1 October 1980, when I was taken on as a copywriter at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennine_Radio_(radio_station)">Pennine Radio</a>, and 31 August this year. That's remarkable given the volatile nature of the radio industry.<br />
<br />
More importantly, at a human level, I've been extremely privileged to work with over four hundred trainees who passed through my courses.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>I've always refused to use the word "student". My trainees are treated like newbies in a newsroom from day one. It serves most of them well. Those who respond positively to the ethos avoid the pitfalls.<br />
<br />
Too often "students" are whiny creatures, especially as undergraduates, living in a small and narcissistic world of lectures, assignments and (for many, by no means all) an all-consuming social life.<br />
<br />
Given the choice of an interviewee, they'll look to someone like themselves. Given a choice of topic, they gravitate to education, housing, binge drinking and sexual health. Relating to the lives and interests of an audience of over-forties on BBC local radio doesn't cross their self-obsessed minds.<br />
<br />
Many lecturers indulge lax student attitudes by being lenient towards late arrival in sessions, and no-shows are tolerated so long as they're not too frequent. Students are rarely professional in their appearance, and increasingly lack even basic conversational skills, never mind the sophisticated interpersonal communication techniques required to get a quote out of a reluctant interviewee.<br />
<br />
Don't even mention "talking to someone on the telephone". I've seen some skulk away down a corridor with a mobile rather than hold a simple conversation in an open office. <br />
<br />
It's also fair to say "students" are not popular in newsrooms.<br />
<br />
I've lost count of the number of employers with horror stories of placement candidates they've encountered (not mine) who turn up late for blue-chip placements, sit in a corner showing no initiative throughout the attachment, play with an iPhone and miss that once in a lifetime opportunity to impress.<br />
<br />
So we need professionally-minded news trainees, not students. At least not that kind of students. <br />
<br />
My trainees are treated very differently.<br />
<br />
Historically, they've been dragged from student haunts in Hyde Park, Woodhouse and Headingley and the shiny bars and clubs of Leeds to report on real stories in Bradford, a multicultural and socially disadvantaged city just 9 miles away, but which for many could as well be on Mars.<br />
<br />
In all but the last couple of years I have required male trainees to wear collar and tie, at least for the first few weeks until the expectation of smartness when facing members of the public becomes ingrained.<br />
<br />
We start our transmission days on <a href="http://www.bcbradio.co.uk/">BCB Radio</a> with a bulletin at 0800. A kind of earlies, the best I can do given the sorry state of public transport. This is Yorkshire, not London. 0500 starts are not an option and would upset University security.<br />
<br />
Trainees describe the immersive, month long BCB newsroom experience as being "like a freelance gig you can't be sacked from". Unlike the real world, they can still come back for a second and a third day even if their performance on the first wasn't up to scratch.<br />
<br />
There are tears, of course there are.<br />
<br />
Facing a live mic, in front of a real audience, is a daunting experience. There's no option to stop and start again, no possibility of dissolving into giggles when there are four thousand real BCB listeners in the audience, whose lives are affected by the content of your bulletin. Not just your mates through the glass, having a fun experience in a class at Uni. <br />
<br />
I always had a rule that in the newsroom I was an editor, and would behave as such. In my office I could be a compassionate tutor when having private conversations about strengths, weaknesses and outside concerns. At least one cohort referred to my office as "the situation room" ... as in "Dickie wants to see you in the situation room".<br />
<br />
Dickie. Using the name was a privilege the trainees earned, once that had been through the process and proved themselves competent to run the newsroom unaided. Once they'd taken the phone call offering a job, or battled the demons holding them back from overcoming their fears on air. <br />
<br />
Beyond all this, it's a true privilege for me when a young person, or even more so a mature career-changer, puts their future in my hands. A privilege and an enormous responsibility.<br />
<br />
The process involves an amazing degree of trust for trainees to get out of their comfort zone, to go on air, to walk down a strange road, to keep editing at three minutes to transmission, to accept a placement hundreds of miles from home. It's often life-changing stuff, and I hope I delivered my side of the bargain in the majority of cases.<br />
<br />
The process is pure alchemy. Raw trainees go in, golden journalists come out. At the end of the course there is a directness in the gaze and a firmness in the handshake that means that person will convince an editor to take a chance on them in a live environment with audiences far, far bigger than BCB. If I can deliver that, I rate it a success.<br />
<br />
I'm not giving up teaching completely. I've just completed a fortnight in which <a href="http://www.leedstrinity.ac.uk/">Leeds Trinity</a> trainees made four excellent hour long programmes, broadcast live. I'm starting a visiting role at Sheffield University in the new year, with <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/journalism">a course that has won many accolades</a>. And I'll be back running a month on air (actually three weeks) for BCB in April. I'm up for a bit of travel, if any of my overseas audience fancy a novel input from a mildly eccentric and strongly opinionated Brit. <br />
<br />
In conclusion - it's been an immense privilege to be able to contribute something to the development of so many journalists, so many of whom now hold senior editorial and presentation roles in news at levels I could never dream of achieving on national radio and TV. <br />
<br />
I'm so grateful to have had that opportunity in life, and to have this recognised by the BJTC as the voice of the industry in broadcast training.<br />
<br />
I've never been lauded with academic honours, I really don't fit in that world. I leave my faculty position as I arrived, a plain "Mr", but I'm so proud of my <a href="http://www.bjtc.org.uk/">BJTC</a> award ... and even more so with what my trainees have achieved over the years.<br />
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Next objective? National treasure.<br />
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<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-34225446336156955632017-11-22T22:30:00.000+00:002017-11-22T22:38:55.817+00:00Responses to "Driving Ambition"Publishing a pull-together of Tweets on a controversial subject is now apparently a thing.<br />
<br />
So in the interests of modernity, here are just a few responses to <a href="http://rhorsman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/driving-ambition.html">my blog this week</a> asking whether a driving licence should be a prerequisite for embarking on a vocational course in journalism.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Firstly, in the article, I wondered what the two main industry training bodies, the BJTC and the NCTJ thought about it - and their answers were the models of clarity I would expect:<br />
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NCTJ campaigns for diversity; those who cannot drive, for financial, physical or other reasons, should be encouraged into journalism and supported. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NCTJdiversity?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NCTJdiversity</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/The_JDF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@The_JDF</a></div>
— NCTJ (@NCTJ_news) <a href="https://twitter.com/NCTJ_news/status/932609273774919682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Being able to drive is not a prerequisite to a career in journalism. There are many jobs that do not require this. Inclusivity is key to ensure the journalism sector is reflective of everyone in our society. <a href="https://t.co/lIkg7xwmhV">pic.twitter.com/lIkg7xwmhV</a></div>
— BJTC (@BJTC_UK) <a href="https://twitter.com/BJTC_UK/status/932671186798108673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Those with long experience of training journalists in HE seem less convinced this attitude has perculated through to the front line decision makers:
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Dilemma. “We’ll take your students but unless they have a driving licence they’ll be stuck at a desk for placement.” - news editor. Encouraged students to beg for lessons as BirthDay or Xmas gifts. Frustrating when some had genuine talent and solid attitude.</div>
— Ronnie Bergman (@regnron) <a href="https://twitter.com/regnron/status/932331431656861697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Those actually in the business of employing journos - especially in newsrooms outside London - suggested it's not so cut and dried:<br />
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I agree. You can get away with it in some sectors of the profession but ultimately no licence or car will prove a hindrance to the job at some point, a matter about which interviewees/news editors will be unforgiving.</div>
— Mark Casci (@MarkCasci) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkCasci/status/932202450693607424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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It's definitely an industry where you maximise your chances massively by having a licence. Which isn't to say they should be a requirement to get on a course!</div>
— Tim Johns (@timoncheese) <a href="https://twitter.com/timoncheese/status/932281867365105664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Doubly difficult for those trying to break into sport reporting - midweek away fixtures by public transport just not viable. Unfair, yes. But the practical reality.</div>
— Richard Wilford (@wilfordwm) <a href="https://twitter.com/wilfordwm/status/932202640334819328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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It makes life a lot easier if everyone in the news team can drive.</div>
— Patrick Dunlop (@PatrickJIDunlop) <a href="https://twitter.com/PatrickJIDunlop/status/932202001248776192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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And a number of current journalists who've been through the system shared their own experiences:<br />
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Be practical. If you are chasing a story could you get to the heart of it without a car? The news story you are broadcasting is the most important thing- can you do it without a car- no. If this means alienating individuals then sadly it’s beyond control</div>
— Johnny Seifert (@JohnnySeifert) <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnnySeifert/status/932377787058540546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Definitely agree! I worked as a broadcast journalist in Manchester for 3 weeks using public transport and that was hell. It makes it very difficult and employers will push you out or won’t offer you a job.</div>
— ℰmma (@Emma94B) <a href="https://twitter.com/Emma94B/status/932401175470661633?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Being honest it hasn't stopped me getting jobs so far at all, but I can see how it would for BJ reporters at BBC etc rather than presenting. Also as my journalism is predominantly celebrity it doesn't require driving to incidents/accidents.</div>
— Jen Thomas (@JournoJenThomas) <a href="https://twitter.com/JournoJenThomas/status/932203184541650949?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Depending on the job and location certainly. But I know that in most parts of the country driving is essential. Even in London it's a HUGE advantage for a reporter. My current job (and several prior) has no need for a car whatsoever</div>
— Jonathan Savage (@JSavageTweets) <a href="https://twitter.com/JSavageTweets/status/932264730512777216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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I couldn't drive when I began as a trainee journalist. But I was lucky enough to start in an age when regional newspapers had staff photographers, who drove me to jobs (and taught me loads). <a href="https://t.co/d481pUzKZq">https://t.co/d481pUzKZq</a></div>
— Mark Hanna (@MarkHannaMedia) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkHannaMedia/status/932247562089893888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Doing what I do now as a Newsreader and producer I rarely need to drive (except for the odd OB on a breaking story). But as a freelancer trying to get a foot in the door at local commercials and Beeb...</div>
— Liam Smedley (@liamjsmedley) <a href="https://twitter.com/liamjsmedley/status/932272906045939713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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...I wouldn’t have got half the work if I couldn’t drive. It’s rare that a new graduate would get to choose doing newsreading and producing. The first thing they’ll probably get to do is reporting...</div>
— Liam Smedley (@liamjsmedley) <a href="https://twitter.com/liamjsmedley/status/932273383751942144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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...and reporting is very tough if you’re relying on Train and bus times</div>
— Liam Smedley (@liamjsmedley) <a href="https://twitter.com/liamjsmedley/status/932273696085078016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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A scroll through the Radio job listings would suggest a driving licence is a must for most. Would be harder to do my shifts without one.</div>
— Jools Oughtibridge (@joolsmedia) <a href="https://twitter.com/joolsmedia/status/932327777969336320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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A million years ago when I had my brief journalism career I didn't drive (still don't). Employer attitudes varied!</div>
— #HelloMyNameIs_Anna (@real_meaning) <a href="https://twitter.com/real_meaning/status/932273871465656321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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And it seems in times not that long past, a driving licence was an overt requirement, even in the big employers:
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I seem to recall back in the 70s BBC LR Station Assistants had to hold a driving licence - and it stated in the job spec. Am I right?</div>
— Paul Easton (@PaulEaston) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulEaston/status/932266341465231360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Core requirement for BA’s and all production staff was clean licence. I remember sweating on my driving lessons whilst at LCP (Now London Media) doing Radio Journalism course because I needed it. BBC LR gave you a permit once EiC passed you fit to drive Radio Car. Keep mast safe!</div>
— Jake Fowler (@JakeinYorkshire) <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeinYorkshire/status/932509644848803840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2017</a></blockquote>
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I was one in the mid 80s and I think it was a requirement then. Not certain mind</div>
— up north (@gerardtubb) <a href="https://twitter.com/gerardtubb/status/932282894134988801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Although some employers could be more generous than others (Disclosure: Pennine Radio bought me a company Metrocard for a year or so whilst I was a student. Kerching.)
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Very lucky with my first radio job (Central London, 4am start) as they payed for my taxi in. Next job was in Cornwall (I live in Devon) and I started at 6am. I used to drive two and a half hours to get in once a week. Couldn’t have done it if I didn’t drive or have my own car.</div>
— Millicent Cooke (@millierosecooke) <a href="https://twitter.com/millierosecooke/status/932280815618351104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2017</a></blockquote>
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And not just in London:
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Just remembered. When I freelanced at Wave 102 (Dundee) back in the pleistocene era we took cabs to reporting jobs on the company account. No station car or means to claim expenses</div>
— Jonathan Savage (@JSavageTweets) <a href="https://twitter.com/JSavageTweets/status/932744219558543362?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2017</a></blockquote>
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I think we can all agree lack of a licence shouldn't be a bar to a newsroom career. The industry is keen to signal its virtue in stating it isn't. The first hand accounts paint a less clear cut picture.<br />
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Of course, we could all just get on our bikes:
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/jonsnowC4?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jonsnowC4</a> hasn't done bad for himself <a href="https://t.co/0vogebqIwn">https://t.co/0vogebqIwn</a> "I can even claim to be a better journalist for cycling. Not only do I get to stories and interviews faster...." (with usual city/London caveat)</div>
— Rob Greenland (@TheSocBiz) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSocBiz/status/932515778343194624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-81849793214371437922017-11-19T15:00:00.001+00:002017-11-19T15:19:49.495+00:00Driving AmbitionOne of the freedoms that comes from leaving a staff job in Higher Education is the opportunity to question policy. I always had a simple goal in mind when training a young broadcast journalist, and that was getting them into a job at the end of it.<br />
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I succeeded around 93% of the time, and I'm proud of that stat.<br />
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One trainee in my last proper Broadcast PG cohort told me, with great wisdom, that the course was "like a freelance gig you can't be sacked from".<br />
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She meant it was as real as I could make it, but with the freedom to make mistakes and still come back the next day, or have two or three goes until the story is right - a luxury newbies don't enjoy on an actual first freelance shift.<br />
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I had to compromise in recreating the real world. 0500 starts upset security, so "earlies" (sic) had the more agreeable, mid-morning start time of 0800. Even then there were squeals of anguish from those coming in on public transport.<br />
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Which begs an important question.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Should vocational Postgrad Journalism courses, those seriously setting out to prepare trainees for a job twelve months down the line, make holding a driving licence an entry requirement?<br />
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It's a tough one.<br />
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On the one hand, pragmatic me says yes it should. Over twenty years I've seen hundreds of my proteges interview for jobs. It's inevitable they sometimes interview against each other. I might have a good idea of both candidates' journalistic ability. But often the job would go to the comparatively weaker journo.<br />
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Because they could drive.<br />
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To be clear, I'd never suggest owning, taxing, insuring and maintaining a car should be an entry requirement. Just having the licence in the bag, along with the 2:2 degree, the GCSE Maths, the good grades at A level and the 25 yard swimming certificate my academic colleagues set as arbitrary hoops to jump through.<br />
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Principled me sees the counter argument. There are enough rich, privileged kids in newsrooms already. White, Black and Asian rich kids. Rather fewer rich kids with disabilities. But the glaring issue in diversity across the board is the lack of any poor kids. What the diversity industry calls "socially disadvantaged" types.<br />
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We're only just beginning to address this, even though the employers are screaming for candidates.<br />
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Poor kids can't afford driving lessons. That's just common sense. So if we exclude them from the industry-standard training that's on offer, that goes against efforts to increase diversity.<br />
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But is it even more cruel for institutions to accept "socially disadvantaged" candidates, who are already giving up more than the comfortable tutor will ever truly understand, for a chance at getting their dream job when they know for a fact what will happen at that interview a year down the line?<br />
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The employers say all the right things, and may even take on and encourage a trainee or two recruited through non-standard schemes. Let's be kind, and say it's still early days on this type of initiative. <br />
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I'm not pretending I know the answer on this one. It may be different in London (basically, most things are) where there's decent 24/7 public transport and most potential stories are within a stone's throw.<br />
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News by bus simply doesn't happen in Cumbria, or Cornwall, or Lincolnshire - nor in the investment-starved "Northern Powerhouse", where a train an hour to an important town on the patch only runs Monday to Friday - and not at all after 2000.<br />
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The candidate with the driving licence is going to get the gig nine times out of ten. It shouldn't be, but that's how the world is. Discuss.<br />
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<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-48003462592136705272017-11-12T16:43:00.000+00:002017-11-19T15:05:35.517+00:00A New Hope For CinderellaI've been privileged to be a Gillards judge four times in the past six years. There's some great work going on in BBC Local Radio, and hearing station entries from places I've never been is like opening a door into a different world.<br />
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There's also some astoundingly average stuff going on. What I heard often sounded too much like a logging tape. Competent, but not attention grabbing, or award-winningly good. <br />
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I wasn't invited this year, though - so I wasn't in the room when DG Tony Hall announced that ten million pounds worth of cuts to local radio were being scrapped.<br />
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It's normal to hear platitudes from the suit handing out the Gillard gongs about how valued and important local radio is. It's unheard of for fine words to be backed up with hard cash, even if the reward for 50 years of sterling service amounts only to a reprieve from yet more punishment.<br />
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But the surprises were not yet over. Dave and Sue are finally banished. No more catering for the over-50s alone. BBC Local Radio is for "everyone". The All-England network show in the evenings will be scrapped in the spring. Each Managing Editor will in future be responsible for filling the whole schedule.<br />
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This creates a wonderful opportunity for local radio, as it moves into its sixth decade. But it also creates a number of problems.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Other commentators have been quick to point out that industry lore dictates no station can really be for everyone. That ambition has been the downfall of many a bright-eyed community hopeful.<br />
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I'm going to be uncharacteristically upbeat and suggest instead that the DG mis-spoke; or, more likely, didn't have enough time to finesse his arguments between dessert and coffee.<br />
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What I hope he meant was that local radio is to be given the freedom to respond to the unique needs of each community in a way that will serve each community in the most appropriate way.<br />
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If the turmoil over Brexit has taught us anything it's that the English regions are totally and utterly pissed off at being told from the centre what they are supposed to think and do. The BBC in its London bubble has some serious soul-searching to do about that, as most London-based TV and London-based network radio were (to varying degrees) part of the problem.<br />
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However the BBC also has at its disposal a unique resource; look at the praise routinely heaped on local radio whenever a tragedy like Grenfell or the Manchester bomber strikes a community, or when places suffer the more mundane but still devastating weather events of storms, flooding and snow.<br />
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Whenever a community is in need, local radio is there. Just read the Gillard award citations.<br />
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The Cinderella service, working hand in hand with fire, police, ambulance, coastguard, councils, volunteers. Reliable information, even in a power cut. Consistent information, reassurance and help with rebuilding lives long after the national and social media, with their goldfish attention spans, have moved on.<br />
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I want to believe Tony Hall intends to build on that reputation and goodwill, by giving every BBC local station the opportunity to develop in a way that responds to the currents and longer term needs of urban and rural areas; north and south; prosperous and less fortunate.<br />
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Of course, developments must be online as well as on air; but without the oppressive diktat from London that everywhere must do the same thing at the same time.<br />
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For this to work, each Managing Editor must be given the freedom to manage.<br />
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Clean sheet of paper, power to change things radically.<br />
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With power comes responsibility. Each station should write its own strategic objectives, with measurable performance indicators (of which RAJAR is just one, albeit important, aspect). Those managers who meet or exceed targets should be rewarded. Those who fail should leave, with good grace, as those in the commercial sector have done for decades. No more jobs for life above SBJ level.<br />
<br />
They wouldn't be asked to do the impossible on their own. The Beeb has fantastic resources to call upon. The DG's speech suggested music programmers from Radio 2 could help with playlists, and across the BBC there are experts in imaging, engineering, digital and promotions who would relish the opportunity to make a real difference.<br />
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Critics will say local control is a recipe for anarchy. But surely we've tried central control and homogeneity and it's resulted in demoralised production teams and declining audiences. Try something fresh and radical.<br />
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Let localness thrive .. and let there be something for everyone in the process, but not necessarily all on the same station. Share the learning. Build on the best.<br />
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Here's to the next 50 years.<br />
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<i>(These are just initial thoughts. I'll return to this topic in future - in particular to address the worrying sentiments, expressed elsewhere, that journalists have too much say in BBC local. They don't, but that's a post for another day)</i><br />
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<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-13399793648394017882017-03-19T17:17:00.000+00:002017-03-19T17:33:36.677+00:0025 Years of BCB Radio<br />
I was delighted to give a talk this week to members of BCB Radio (<a href="http://www.bcbradio.co.uk/">Bradford Community Broadcasting - 106.6FM</a>). They're celebrating a special anniversary this year, 25 years of delivering great community radio for Bradford.<br />
<br />
I was originally asked to give a bit of a pep talk to the membership on the opportunities offered by expanding the hyperlocal news service. Somehow, in the pre-publicity for the event, this became "Adventures in Broadcast Journalism" - a rather more ambitious brief - and then it was billed as the opening event in a series of "Creative Bradford" talks to encourage creative industries in the district. So no pressure, then.<br />
<br />
I was surprised, but after the foregoing shouldn't have been, to discover, the day before the event, that not only was it to be broadcast live on BCB but it was also to be livestreamed on Facebook.<br />
<br />
So this is the literal, verbatim account of the session as it happened - there is more I could have said, more I wish I'd said in retrospect.<br />
<br />
I'll be writing a follow-up blog when pressure of other commitments allows.<br />
<br />
It will become obvious why I never did telly.<br />
<br />
Enjoy.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fbcbradio%2Fvideos%2F10154837080241072%2F&show_text=0&width=560" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="560"></iframe>Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-33749976985546897782017-02-10T15:15:00.000+00:002017-03-19T17:00:57.161+00:00Viewers in the North? How Awful for YouImagine the scene. It's January, 2010. Children are <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243057/After-blizzard-chaos-ready-great-flood.html">crawling on their hands and knees to get to school</a>, because the roads and pavements are too icy to
stand upright.<br />
<br />
This has come about because of a rare weather phenomenon where lying snow
and ice has begun to melt, then frozen suddenly as temperatures drop sharply.
You'd think it would be a huge story for journalists - pictures! Human
interest! Once in a lifetime event! Did I say pictures?<br />
<br />
But it hardly got a mention
outside West Yorkshire, because it happened in Holmfirth. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AijNCV_JWMs">Not Holborn</a>. For a
while the BBC News website marked the unseasonal weather with a picturesque shot of
a snow-flecked red London bus passing by the tower of Big Ben.<br />
<br />
This is a classic example of regional discrimination, in its own way as bad as sex or race discrimination, and the basis of a piece I've just written for an ebook on diversity from the <a href="http://www.bjtc.org.uk/">Broadcast Journalism Training Council</a>, of which I'm a Journalism and Accreditation board member.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Often a story which happens
"in the regions" is perceived as less important than one which affects the
capital. This comes about less, in the main, from metropolitan conceit than from something
more human.<br />
<br />
Journalism is an art as well as a craft. Beyond objective news criteria we
apply values to stories on the "ooh gosh" scale of pure, visceral gut
feeling. It's what (for now) differentiates the living journalist from an
algorithm. That gut feeling is informed by my daily lived experience. The price
I pay for milk, the ethnic origin of people I mix with, the frequency of public
transport, the films showing in the cinema are all unconsciously internalised
as the norm. Even when they’re at odds with the lived experience of a majority
of my audience.<br />
<br />
I have an idea of what "the elsewhere" is like, of course - I've
never been to Inverness, but I've been to Scotland so I apply my internal
Scottish template to a story there and I probably won't be far wrong. The
problem arises when places become stereotypes. Like my home patch of Bradford.<br />
<br />
I remember the day I took a phone call in the newsroom at Pennine Radio from
a TV film crew. "Hello, I'm looking for poverty". So how could I
help? "Can't find any. Where should I go?" Resisting the first reply
that came to mind I asked if he was looking for visuals - stray dogs, bricks in
the road, that kind of thing? "That's right - been driving for hours all
round Bradford - can't find shots anywhere". They'd chosen their location because
Bradford, to them, was synonymous with deprivation. Likewise a documentary chose to illustrate the prosperity of the South East with pictures filmed
inside a very ordinary Arndale Centre - the twin of which exists in, you've
guessed it, Bradford.<br />
<br />
This isn't just a "London versus the North" issue. Far from it.<br />
<br />
My own station was based in Bradford, but covered the neighbouring towns of
Huddersfield and Halifax. The same issues applied - we were more likely to do a
vox pop yards from the studio in Bradford because it was easier than driving
half an hour to Halifax to do it. Guests from the Alhambra Theatre or City Hall
were convenient, those from the Huddersfield Choral Society or Calderdale
Council required more effort. It was Drury Lane and the Westminster bubble in
microcosm.<br />
<br />
The message from all this is that it's important to be genuinely inclusive
of people and stories throughout the editorial area we serve, whether that be
local, regional or national. That takes effort. Effort to avoid stereotypes,
lazy assumptions and tokenism (it's almost worse to include news of little
merit to meet some quota of "stories from the sticks"). Effort to
apply the same tests we routinely use when deciding if a story is racist or
sexist.<br />
<br />
A bit like the effort the kids and teachers had to apply to get to
school that winter's day in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<![endif]-->Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-26512580478781557292016-09-03T15:41:00.002+01:002016-09-03T16:35:45.231+01:00On Demand? It's Not The SameI've struggled for a while to articulate why podcasts, or indeed any type of on-demand audio including listen-again recordings of radio output, are fundamentally different from live radio.<br />
<br />
I meet uncomprehending stares from the download-everything generation, then get the kind of nods and smiles that mean I'm being indulged.<br />
<br />
Don't get me wrong, I think catchup services are brilliant and I'm convinced podcasts (despite the awful name) offer the best potential for radio to reach new audiences in future. But they're not the same as live radio, happening now and being shared by a disparate audience .. in real time. It's a concept the brains behind BBC Five Live understood when they named the station.<br />
<br />
Then, just this week, an example presented itself. An example involving one of radio's finest practitioners.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><a href="https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine">Jeremy Vine</a> was involved in an unpleasant road rage incident with a motorist on a narrow street in central London. He caught events on helmet cameras and posted the footage online:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F1691455784407633%2Fvideos%2F1841782049375005%2F&show_text=0&width=560" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
Cyclists and cars rarely co-exist peacefully, so the incident brought out the usual extreme opinions on both sides of the argument. Then another national treasure stepped into the debate in the ample form of <a href="https://twitter.com/JeremyClarkson">another Jeremy</a>, who wrote a typically forthright piece in a newspaper column.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Always good to hear from <a href="https://twitter.com/JeremyClarkson">@JeremyClarkson</a> on the subject of… oh <br />
<br />
(via <a href="https://twitter.com/ACEFACE67">@ACEFACE67</a>) <a href="https://t.co/DCeBWPaJYD">pic.twitter.com/DCeBWPaJYD</a></div>
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) <a href="https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine/status/771990749806198784">September 3, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Now I've never been convinced by Clarkson's act. There's something in the delicate wordplay in his writing that suggests strongly to me he's extracting the Michael oh so subtly from an audience that laps up the jaw-dropping opinions he claims to hold. Punching a producer gave pause for thought, admittedly, but I've known plenty of ego in far less accomplished telly types.<br />
<br />
Vine is the consumate radio interviewer, knowing how to give precisely enough rope so a single step is all that's required to drop a guest through the trap to oblivion. Clarkson is the master of articulately provocative performance. Put the two together and that would make amazing radio .. as I suggested ...<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
. <a href="https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine">@theJeremyVine</a> Get <a href="https://twitter.com/JeremyClarkson">@JeremyClarkson</a> on the show for a proper discussion then, <a href="https://twitter.com/timoncheese">@timoncheese</a>. I'd plan my day round listening to it 😁.</div>
— Richard Horsman (@leedsjourno) <a href="https://twitter.com/leedsjourno/status/771992863173439489">September 3, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
And others agreed ...<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/leedsjourno">@leedsjourno</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine">@theJeremyVine</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/JeremyClarkson">@JeremyClarkson</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/timoncheese">@timoncheese</a> I'd cancel anything I'm doing that day to listen to that one.</div>
— Scott Reid ⚡️ (@scottreid1980) <a href="https://twitter.com/scottreid1980/status/771994319716745216">September 3, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
The simple fact is a live on-air encounter between Vine and Clarkson would be captivating radio. The kind of radio that would bring workplaces to a halt, would tie drivers spellbound to their car radios and would be talked about in other media for weeks.<br />
<br />
Radio is normally a background, hands-free activity that goes well with baking or wallpapering; and of course it remains the only mass medium that can be enjoyed whilst driving. When it becomes a foreground activity it means something significant - like war being declared (via <a href="http://www.davidlloydradio.com/">David Lloyd's Radio Moments</a>):<br />
<br />
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<br />
Or in my own working lifetime, when Peter Milburn and Christa Ackroyd gave their first hand account of the trial of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe on his first appearance at the Old Bailey.<br />
<br />
In happier circumstances Real Radio breakfast host Terry Underhill held audiences spellbound as he teased contestants with the competition "Risk it for a Biscuit", where the prize could be a car or a custard cream. All of it radio, in the foreground. And radio in the now.<br />
<br />
Listening to a podcast or iPlayer recording of Jezza v Jezza, or how the cookie crumbled, would not be the same, because it's not shared.<br />
<br />
The outcome is probably known by the latecomer, and will have been discussed in social media. Unlike the old football results, there's little chance in the connected world to avoid spoilers by "looking away now".<br />
<br />
But even if, somehow, an individual listener doesn't know what happens it's not the same because there's no risk ... no chance of a four-letter expletive, no chance of a walkout, because the recording would be sanitised. And even if something unexpected remains, the impact is lessened because it isn't shared in real time by an audience of thousands, all experiencing the moment together.<br />
<br />
There is something deeply human, deeply affecting in that which can never be replicated by a sound file downloaded and played in isolation.<br />
<br />
It's part of the magic of the medium that is radio, and we must never let that be forgotten.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-42244579633141715782016-08-23T13:28:00.000+01:002016-08-23T18:09:00.617+01:00Don't Confuse Style and SubstanceThere's been a lot of discussion this month about changing practices in newsrooms.<br />
<br />
It's mainly a newspaper thing. Both Trinity Mirror and Johnson Press have been getting a lot of stick from award-winning journalists, and disgruntled former employees, alleging that "clickbait culture" is becoming so prevalent that easy-reading listicles on soft topics are pushing more difficult issues out, unless they are likely to generate more than a thousand views per article.<br />
<br />
There are issues in the argument that also apply in radio, and more generally online; the culture wars are back in full swing.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>The current row started with a tweet from <a href="https://twitter.com/Gareth_Davies09">Gareth Davies</a>, taking issue with editorial standards in the Croydon Advertiser after an issue appeared with two sets of "listicles" - numbered lists of random facts - on adjacent pages.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Why the Trinity Mirror model threatens local journalism, by me <a href="https://t.co/pwaG6ynoWl">https://t.co/pwaG6ynoWl</a> (via <a href="https://twitter.com/gameoldgirl">@gameoldgirl</a>) <a href="https://t.co/CLwDvKqbI4">pic.twitter.com/CLwDvKqbI4</a></div>
— Gareth Davies (@Gareth_Davies09) <a href="https://twitter.com/Gareth_Davies09/status/760438002766209024">August 2, 2016</a></blockquote>
I don't know Gareth and have never worked with him, but in his <a href="http://www.sub-scribe.co.uk/2016/08/gareth-davies-why-trinity-mirror-model.html">blog commentary</a> he comes over as a committed, decent, local journalist who cares deeply for the patch he once covered - a "four-time winner of the weekly newspaper reporter of the year title and [..] the subject of a harassment order as he pursued the story of a conwoman who was subsequently jailed."<br />
<br />
The ensuing social media storm <a href="https://davidhiggerson.wordpress.com/social-media/">provoked a response</a> from Trinity Mirror's digital publishing director <a href="https://www.facebook.com/davidhiggersonpage/">David Higgerson</a>, who took particular issue with Davies' claims that a story needs to attract a thousand clicks to be considered acceptable by the bosses. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Has Trinity Mirror instructed
reporters to get permission to write stories which generate fewer than
1,000 page views? No. Do we think it’s a good idea for the people who
know a story and an area best (the journalists in the newsroom) to
discuss how to ensure a story generates more than 1,000 page views? Yes.</blockquote>
(CORRECTION 1805: My fears that <a href="https://twitter.com/davidhiggerson">@davidhiggerson</a> had left Twitter since the row erupted prove to be unfounded. I blame searching on an old app in the garden)<br />
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It seems a very 21st-century argument. But it goes back a lot further. As <a href="https://twitter.com/tradingaswdr">Bill Rogers</a> points out in his blog this week, the writer and radio producer George Orwell <a href="http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/catching-up.html">was railing against the BBC for "dumbing down" in 1942</a>.<br />
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It's important we don't confuse style and substance in the culture wars. News will change, as the ways audiences consume it have changed beyond recognition. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/247529528953418/">TV reporters from the 1970s appear impossibly posh today</a>, and a typical local newspaper article from that era would probably read turgid and dull to a present-day journalist like Davies.<br />
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I took over as News Editor at The Pulse in Bradford when my predecessor refused to implement 3-minute news bulletins, in place of the long-established five minutes' duration. I in turn handed on the reins when another manager wanted to bring in music beds underneath the news. We all have our lines in the sand on style, and Davies has drawn his over listicles on adjacent pages. That's his professional prerogative.<br />
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There are some stories for which a listicle is the perfect treatment. In the example above, the Southern Rail story would seem to justify a lighter angle. "13 things you'll know if you're a Southern rail passenger" would pass my internal editorial test for getting a wider audience to engage with a dry political issue. I'm less sure of the merits of the Blockbuster story, or indeed the "live tweeting of a Poundshop opening" alleged by one commentator - if it happened.<br />
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That said, live tweeting can sometimes add a new dimension to the coverage of a rapidly developing situation. Personally, I thought this coverage of a phone box sit-in was brilliant: <br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
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In case you were in any doubt .<a href="https://twitter.com/Gareth_Davies09">@Gareth_Davies09</a>, there is no limit to what can be live-blogged <a href="https://t.co/qGHMTRS4GL">https://t.co/qGHMTRS4GL</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/journalism?src=hash">#journalism</a></div>
— liz gerard (@gameoldgirl) <a href="https://twitter.com/gameoldgirl/status/765457093419671557">August 16, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Of course it's reasonable for editors to set the aspiration that a story should reach at least 1,000 readers. When did an editor, ever, not want to attract more audience? If a story is not going to touch a minimum number of people it raises a legitimate question about the resources used to generate that story.<br />
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However this mustn't distract from a more fundamental issue. If journalists are being asked to generate too many stories with inadequate resources they will begin to take short cuts. A pull together of tweets on a shopping centre development, for instance, is no substitute for interviewing at first hand the key players in the dispute. That's short changing listeners and readers.<br />
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Bosses at Trinity Mirror, Johnson Press and elsewhere are fighting hard to square an impossible circle. They are in the front line of transition from print to digital publishing, whilst simultaneously trying to reinvigorate the print product for a new generation.<br />
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Journos like Davies are being asked to work harder than ever, across more platforms, find time to generate award-winning material whilst still filling quotas for the paper and the website - all with less and less production resource. Professionalism and goodwill will carry the process so far, but there comes a point when every journo may decide enough is enough. I think that point is very near for a lot of professionals in the front line, right now.<br />
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We may need to decide to do less, better. Let TV producers make great TV. Encourage radio types to make creative and exciting radio. Stop the instant fetishising of every new platform that emerges, just because it's there.<br />
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However in this argument, which will play out over the next several years, it's important not to confuse innovation in style, which is important to attract and retain audiences, with changes in substance when the content of a newspaper or a radio bulletin is no longer worth the audiences' time.<br />
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If that happens, we've all lost the game.<br />
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Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-52921067363619375112016-08-09T13:17:00.000+01:002016-08-09T15:34:23.416+01:00Nine Out Of Ten<br />
The figures are in. Again. The beast won't lie down. Radio, that most unglamorous of media, is consumed by <a href="http://radiotoday.co.uk/2016/08/rajar-q2-2016-quarterly-infographic-data-sheet/">9 out of 10 people in Britain every week</a>. Nine out of ten. Ninety percent. We need to shout that number loud and long at every opportunity. It astounds each new class of students I face.<br />
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Astonishingly, given the proliferation of shiny new distractions, that figure has hardly budged in decades. Big events like the Olympics, or a general election, can even nudge it up a point or two. Calmer news agendas might see it subside to 89, but there's no doubt radio remains an established part of our lives for an overwhelming majority of the population.<br />
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Commentary on the latest figures has been pretty upbeat, with Folder Media's <a href="http://www.mattdeegan.com/2016/08/04/rajar-q22016/">Matt Deegan even suggesting we're in a new "golden age"</a> for radio (lots of detailed analysis on that link too). That might be putting it a bit strong, but I think there's definite room for optimism.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Let's remind ourselves of a few facts. Radio is cheap and simple to produce, and to consume.<br />
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For the listener there's no need to give in to <a href="http://rhorsman.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/overlooking-something-important.html">the big tech, big telecom cartel</a> of expensive iGimmick tech and data contracts to access content. Broadcast radio is free to the audience. Even the kit to listen is cheap as chips - or cheaper. I love showing my news trainees the fully functioning FM radio my kids were given, free, with a burger at Disneyland Paris.<br />
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Further evidence of radio's health comes from OFCOM's latest market report. Look at that big, pink slice - that's radio, with the paler bit for "other audio": Really look at it. If a new medium came along today with a performance like that it would be the wonder of the age.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Fascinating chart from Ofcom's Communication Market Report. [Claimed] activities by age: <a href="https://t.co/8MIi42xqjO">pic.twitter.com/8MIi42xqjO</a></div>
— Adam Bowie (@adambowie) <a href="https://twitter.com/adambowie/status/761120043732086784">August 4, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Radio is there, in the air, free to consume with a multitude of music to discover for every taste from grand opera to hip hop. Speech formats include two superlative national services (and their growing DAB offshoots) from the BBC as well as emerging national contenders from the commercial sector, with newcomer <a href="http://talkradio.co.uk/">talkRADIO</a> taking its place alongside <a href="http://www.lbc.co.uk/">LBC</a> and <a href="http://talksport.com/">talkSPORT</a>. <br />
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It's not just the big kids at national level who are growing speech. UKRD is experimenting with specialist content on stations like <a href="https://www.strayfm.com/specialist.php">Stray FM</a> that combine added local listener choice with great opportunities for advertisers to sponsor content - squaring the golden circle, if the sums add up.<br />
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The much-maligned BBC local stations are doing great work. I know that because I'm a judge again this year for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gillard_Awards">Frank Gillard Awards</a>, and once again I'm blown away by the range and quality of the original journalism currently sitting in my inbox. At its best, the content is brilliant, and the overall BBC local brand just needs a bit of repackaging so people become more aware of what it means, with great local journalism at its core, and presenters who relate to a 50+ audience.<br />
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For the first time in my professional lifetime the industry isn't staring at its navel.<br />
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For the commercial sector, the long running zero-sum game to decide who owns what appears to be largely over.<br />
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Rupert Murdoch buying into radio by <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/murdochs-news-corp-agrees-to-buy-talksport-owner-wireless-group-a7111711.html">taking over Wireless Group</a> will no doubt give my <a href="http://rhorsman.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/hackademic-id-rather-chew-my-arm-off.html">hackademically-inclined chums in HE</a> a fit of the vapours, but with News Group, Global and Bauer as established players perhaps we might see a bit more attention given to the output.<br />
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In commercial radio there should always be a healthy tension between shareholders, advertisers and listeners. For too long now the desires of the boardroom have dominated, the showroom has been sold short and the living room has been totally neglected. I see signs of a will to put that right. <br />
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For everyone, DAB has arrived. It's arrived in cars as more or less standard, and creative innovations such as pop-up stations, as well as brand extensions, give a richer radio experience on the move than I could ever dream of in the days my Vauxhall Viva had four pre-tuned buttons. For those who insist on paying big telecom for the experience, there's also the <a href="http://www.radioplayer.co.uk/">Radioplayer</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio">iPlayer radio</a>.<br />
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Perhaps most exciting of all, the punters have found an appetite for podcasts. Dreadful name, but we're stuck with it. That's clearly where the future lies if we can start transferring radiocraft skills to a market currently well supplied with overlong self indulgent audio twaddle (amid the good stuff). I'll be writing more on this topic soon.<br />
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So radio has a new opportunity to enjoy a golden age. Just keep pushing that number. 9 out of 10. <br />
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<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3230830988577370012.post-56846173449610404832016-08-02T17:40:00.000+01:002016-08-02T21:13:34.794+01:00The Truth About the MSM Journalists have always had their critics. Back in the days of typewriters and carbon paper complaints would arrive in the post, often scrawled in green ink on lined Basildon Bond writing paper.<br />
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Complaints are usually from people unhappy about what has been published; or, just as often, about what has not been used. Editors have to make rapid decisions, and a big part of that gatekeeper role is to keep out free advertising and, vitally, the sort of unmoderated, opinion-heavy "press releases" turned out endlessly by those with a cause - whether that cause be political, religious, or just an obsession.<br />
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Recently I'm concerned to see a new kind of conspiracy theorist emerge online; the keyboard warrior who blames what they call "the MSM", or "mainstream media", for all the world's ills. It's a lazy slander of many hardworking journalists.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>A good local newsroom will give fair exposure to groups and individuals in their community, such as those with a mission to stop a road scheme, or to protect badgers, or to promote veganism.<br />
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The problem is, they'll never give enough coverage to the zealot's pet subject to satisfy the importance they think it deserves, even though repeated stories on the same narrow topic would bore casual listeners or readers rigid.<br />
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The arrival of the internet meant your local militant flat-earther could publish infinite amounts of material online to a worldwide audience of billions. Except, strangely enough, only a handful read it, most of those his existing mates, <a href="http://rhorsman.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/the-binary-world-of-antisocial-media.html">living in the same silo</a>.<br />
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So the idea is born, under the tin-foil hat, that "they" are stopping the message getting out. Them. The MSM.<br />
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It's a conveniently broad definition. The mainstream media in question include everything from the national press and the BBC to local papers, news websites, and radio.<br />
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I've long argued against the view that the national newspapers influence anything very much. All they do is hold up a mirror to the existing opinions and prejudices of their readers. It wasn't <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_The_Sun_Wot_Won_It">The Sun Wot Won It</a>, it was Sun readers voting as they would have done anyway, with the paper conveniently on the winning side as cheerleader. If you're obsessed with health scares, house prices and Diana you'll buy the Express. The Express won't persuade you to venerate a dead princess.<br />
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The BBC has been stuck for a while in reflex apology mode. The default reaction to any form of criticism is to retract or, almost worse, hold an inquiry which somehow implies guilt upfront whatever the eventual findings of the investigation turn out to be.<br />
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The issue which has really brought the issue to the boil is the current Labour leadership contest.<br />
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Corbyn supporters routinely post pictures online of rallies which "the MSM" are not covering. Except in many cases, they are, but just not with the prominence the faithful feel their story deserves in the overall agenda. We're right back to the green ink, but now it's in the form of a Tweet or a Facebook post.<br />
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Let's nip this one in the bud before "it's the MSM" joins "<a href="http://journalism-education.org/2012/11/no-cause-for-celebration/">the media's all about dumbing down</a>" and "<a href="http://hackinginquiry.org/">they all hack phones</a>" as one of the lazy tropes applied to all journalists, irrespective of the facts.<br />
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<br />Richard Horsmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12870193588395496620noreply@blogger.com3