Kate's Life of Riley

Well no, not quite, in fact it was a lecture by guest speaker, Richard Burton Online Editor of the electronic telegraph.co.uk . Richard was invited to address my class of journalism students and introduced himself as a 'hack' not 'geek.' But it soon became clear that aspiring journaists of today need to be both.

The electronic telegraph has been the longest established online newspaper website in the UK, dating back to 1996. And while it is a profit making site and has the fastest sms news alerts it does not have the same resources as other news rooms for example 600 people at BBCi News verses five people at the Telegraph.

Burton delivered a fascinating insight into how quickly internet journalists have to work and informed us that the fastest headline he published on the internet was within 12 seconds. He also briefed us on how the website can cover the same story as the newspaper but in different ways included that of public figure's life in stories (something unheard of in print.) Other differences included were the number of letters the newspaper can publish versus the number of letter that can be put on the net (an infinite number.)

The aforementioned infinte number of letters being put online does come with some limitations which include editorial moderation to prevent the threat of libel and therefore maintains the right to not publish defaming user generated content. Regardless of whether the medium is print or online, the Telegraph is a trusted brand and it is evident that editorial integrity is still the most important element of the brand.

Ten days or so ago, visiting lecturer, Amanda Powell visited Cardiff School of Journalism to talk about the role of the online journalists and the issues that could face them in the years to come.

Amanda Powell is currently the Editor of New Media at BBCi Wales. Her talked raised various issues, one including the notion of knowing what makes a good photograph, surprisingly. I was particulary interested to learn how important the role of photographs within a written piece of online journalism is sometimes more important than that of a piece of printed journalism. Often photographs are used as a tool to lure readers to a piece of written work that they might not have read if it wasn't for the initial interest from the picture link.

User generated content was another subject up for discussion. Having worked for two summers on a local BBCi desk I could fully appreciate her higlighting this topic and potential difficulties. While it's understood that technology is moving at such a fast rate, costs are rapidily falling and access to recording and digital equipment is readily available to the public, questioning the role of the journalit. Therefore if journalists cannot make it to the where the action is, often members of the public will send in their video footage or pictures instead. While this does question a journalist's role in the news room, I don't think that there the quality of amature footage would ever take the place of that of a professional's in a news room. Another issue embedded in the user generated content arguement is how reliable the source of the news actually is and whether or not the story is 'newsworthy.'

Ms. Powell also offered some pointers to help us increase the usability of our personal websites including:
Simple language,
Originality,
Attention grabbing photographs and
Consistancy.

Over and out...