The second day of Journalism week provides a variety of perspectives to the industry, this time from Perform Group, Sky News, Birmingham City University, Buzzfeed and BBC Radio…
Day two of Leeds Trinity Journalism (I have being dying to type this incredibly witty line all day so I do apologise) kicked off with progressive sports media mogul Graham Shaw, the director of the Perform Group. Goal.com is essentially his baby, for anyone that checks out the site. Although the company has many links to Leeds, including the man himself, I couldn’t help be a little turned off that we started the day with football.
And we’re not just talking about any football here, his company only publicise the Premier League – none of the Bradford City riff-raff. He explained to us that his reason for this was to maximise interest in his sporty target audience which is at international capacity. Shaw is a business-minded fellow and it was hard to focus on the journalism side of things when the first half of his talk seemed to completely surround the statistics proving that Perform Group and all of its ‘portals’ really were top dog.
I’ll give him that – considering the company launched in 2007, it has evidently come on leaps and bounds which they achieved by being so business orientated with a rigid strategy plan and rigorous traffic analysis. However, I was delighted that the second half of this mechanical method man’s speech focused specifically on how to get where he did, listing necessary characteristics to possess, the way in which you write, and the way you package it.
I didn’t know what SEO was up until this lecture (well, he didn’t explain it but the acronym was there and I then googled it). Even though there was no obvious passion for the audience Shaw wants to attract, he still values them highly saying that without them companies die so it’s important to keep moving with the times and adapt to suit their ever-changing interests.
A massive contrast in presenting style, enter Gerard Tubb, a Sky News Correspondent for the North of England. All of that cold hard fact attitude was washed away by the warm fuzzy approachability that came with a little Northern charm. Also, the mood in the room had altered slightly prior to speaker change as a group of what I can only assume Master’s students joined us, suited and booted with razor sharp haircuts and BBC facial expressions. Shit just got real.
None of this reflected what would ensue for the next hour however as Tubb was incredibly pleasant – the absolute opposite to what I imagined, a flunky succumbed to Rupert Murdoch’s ginormous empire. We were told that thirty years prior he was making tea at BBC Radio York, and considering he didn’t even study journalism, he very much knew what he was talking about. Quoting Nicholas Tomalin he highlighted just how important it was to embody “rat-like cunning, a plausible manner, and a little literary ability”. On top of that he cautioned that we make our own luck through the choices we make, and it is imperative to have a healthy distrust for authority. All very good advice I’d say.
He went onto exemplify the advice he’d given by relaying an instance of gold-dust where he’d chased a story that started out as the illegal selling of a pig during the Foot and Mouth outbreak of 2001 to a member of parliament being forced out of office by what was uncovered. He added that his honesty, nosiness and drive was what kept him motivated, and that a good journalist kit consists of a notepad and pen, a phone, money (chequebook journalism certainly isn’t dead) and jokingly added a coffee shop loyalty card, although I imagine it does comes in handy.
The main event had to be when Luke Lewis walked through the door at 11. This guy is the UK editor of Buzzfeed. For all those unaware of it, it is the predicted future of journalism so it’s worth having a look. Despite the UK site only launching last year, it has been extremely popular among the internet community, and has added a much needed British spin on the American parent company that launched a lot earlier.
Buzzfeed’s main ethos is to produce original content that people not only want to see for themselves but also share with their friends through social media, with Facebook being the top medium for this. Lewis bragged that they were the top Facebook publisher last year topping the Huffington Post, The Guardian and the Times Online. They set out initially with list-format slideshows of humorous topics that were inevitable crowd pleasers such as “21 Pictures Of Politicians In Wellies Staring At Floods”.
Since then however, they have gained such an audience since they launched they have begun to occasionally included more serious content, but in the same format, most recently “28 Intense Photos From The Bloodiest Day of Ukrainian Uprising”. There is no doubt why Buzzfeed got so much backlash for sensationalising such tragic events in a series of eye-catching pictures, purely to attract the audience. Having said this, Lewis was quick to point out how journalism is evolving, and reporting the facts like this is the best way to keep the audience engaged. He said that even just a good headline can mean the difference between 5,000 and 750,000 reader views – something to entice but also inform the audience.
He concluded his lecture with some recurring topics such as using data and analytics to keep on top of what kind of audience is being attracted. However, no-one has been as visually minded as Buzzfeed have been, and Lewis pointed out that this was a good skill to possess – as well an overall awareness of internet culture such as memes, fandoms and specialised language.
Professor Alan Middleton I suppose represents the pantomime baddy of the day as we reconvened after lunch as he, deadpan, asks us if we believe journalism to be a profession. To a room of aspiring journalists, there was no doubt that the answer was emphatic and resounding “Yes, Duh!”. However, for the next hour Middleton bravely unravelled his theory about how the lack of professionalism in the industry of journalism led to the events that the Leveson Enquiry exposed (just to be clear Middleton is author of Journalism Beyond Leveson, read if you dare.)
He implied that unethical acts were being carried out across the board, and it was just happened to be News of the World that got the brunt of it. My main issue with what he was saying was that he was highlighting that a, b and c are problems that exist within journalism but offered no solutions as to how to move forward. He concluded by basically telling us that the general public don’t trust journalists – a very disheartening thing to hear when in search of inspiration.
Richard Edwards and Katie Hall, both working for the BBC, concluded the day with an insightful view as to how to get into journalism straight out of university, and Hall would know being Leeds Trinity alumni. They were concise in the advice they had to offer, much to the relief of a room of people who had been talked at for six hours. Edwards, DJ at BBC Radio Leeds, explained that having experience in the print industry provide a decent core knowledge needed to get into broadcasting which he found very useful coming from working at the Yorkshire Evening Post.
The other point he had to make, an extremely useful one, was how important it is to get to know your ‘turf’ when working in local newspapers and radio – by gaining the community’s trust it is a lot easier to find out the necessary information when it comes to chasing a story (good manners is a great way to start!).
Hall shifted from radio to internet journalism (BBC News Online) when she found it suited her better but was able to make the transition very easily with reputation she had built up from previous employers, “editors talk!” By being pro-active at her work experience placement she was able to jump right into a career that has got her to where she is today. She got involved with the National Union of Journalists whilst still at university and was elected Equality Officer – something she is well recognised for, and was today able to offer useful advice to students regarding working for no pay.
The main tips that came from Edwards and Hall’s talk were the importance of treating each story on its own merits, and with the same level of importance, along with the necessity to be thorough in your research to back each individual story up.
Feel free to return here tomorrow for a round-up of tomorrow’s talks at Leeds Trinity Journalism Week – you can follow the event on Twitter @JournalismWeek and #ltjw.