Emily Bell, Director of digital content for Guardian News and Media, edit of interview by Sharon Robins

Emily Bell, Director of digital content for Guardian News & Media:

Journalism today uses technology but it also uses really rigorous editorial thought.

The fundamental is still how do I tell this story most accurately? … in an immediate way but which adds real depth and value to users and audience.  The real time web exposes people’s interest in a story’s life cycle. 

Twitter has made an incredible difference; (I could) see who knew about ‘it’ and what was being said about it, not just in the UK but around the world and who’d already published.  I could tweet and directly ask a question. 

The impact on the actual process of journalism of social media is that you have to start your engagement much earlier.  Publishing is not the definitive event.  It’s a continuing conversation and it’s a continuing process.  Curate your community.

 (Overall) I think social media has made a marginal difference to output but I think that that’s because the real impact of it hasn’t been fully absorbed.

Social media is less impactful where…you really have to have personal contact and get access to information which is not only not in the public domain but which is actively protected.

Face to Face still needed

In investigations (which thrive on secrecy), it’s very important to keep tabs on the story and actually visiting. The best example I can give from the Guardians perspective is the G20 where we had the video of Ian Tomlinson being pushed over by a policeman.

That came out of a collaboration where people had videoed it and very traditional reporting methods whereby Paul Lewis our reporter went backwards and forwards to the scene and talked to the family and talked to the police and talked to witnesses.

And that’s the sort of kind of investigation and even those now are helped by the network and the gathering of real time information by more people than just professional journalists.

Curating community

I’ve got followers; 6,000 people on my twitter feed.  At least half of them are going to be able to help me in some way if they catch my tweets.

You have to feed that audience; gathering your contacts.  And the process is to be interested in the conversations around the stories that you think are important or that you’re following.

In other words, commenting on tweeting they’re links as well as creating your own.  And then actually responding to and interactively engaging with feedback.

Fastest or best?

How do you balance deadline and immediacy with actually the fact that you don’t have a bounded format? In a digital world it is about what is the value of fastest and what’s the value of best? 

And a brilliantly argued, lengthy, properly linked thesis about a particular aspect of the story that arrives three weeks after the event has to really add something dramatically valuable.

So in a way the churnalism aspect of it is, are you being asked to churn out instant opinion and have an authoritative view on something in a compressed way?

Is there anything else that myself and my colleagues, trainee journalists, need to know about social media in the future?

Go and have a look at the way Andrew Sparrow live blogged the Chilcot enquiry when Alistair Campbell was appearing in front of it.

And some of his preparation on that, even though it was a live event, but just his retrieval of the documents and his ability to highlight particular phrases – he can now mark on his recorder; “Oh that’s interesting” and drop it into another folder.

We are getting better journalism out of all these processes and technologies. Journalists must embrace new media.

Click for the Emily Bell Interview page which has the transcript

A basic ideas framework

So, by now, everyone should have tried to have made the first contact with a potential interviewee.

Here is the fledgling skeletal frame-work for our presentation. Obviously, this is a first-ditch attempt, and I imagine that it will evolve pretty quickly from here. Doubtlessly, we will get rid of bits and add in new ideas as we do more research and get more involved in the project. But I believe that it’s very important for us to think thematically, even at this early stage.

A skeleton of ideas

So: What is the impact of social media on news gathering techniques and output?

1) The concept of news (output)

-News is now 24 hour, it’s available wherever you are (on your mobile/laptop). You can choose which news you look at, at any point (internet, iplayer radio shows).
So… News has moved away from being a top-down, rigid array of stories decided upon by “outletters”. Where it was once a single product made by two or three major agencies, it is now a MARKET of thousands of products. With a democratic element! (Digg.com, Web 2.0, etc.)

2) The integrity of news (output and gathering techniques)

The parameters of news have clearly been changed by social media. But by their inclusive nature, have social media diminished the reliability of news? I.e.: blogs, Twitter, and other forms of citizen journalism. Anybody can get a story out, but do people really treat that genre of news in the same way that they treat traditional forms, eg: BBC broadcasts, broadsheets, C4? Anyone can be a journalist these days, but does this put journalists out of a job? Or do we still look to established, respected and professional news outlets to guarantee us quality, accuracy and reliability? (And impartiality?)

3) Moral and legal restrictions (output)

If blogs don’t adhere to reporting restrictions, then does this make those very restrictions redundant? Eg: Guardian injunction collapsed by Twittering. Has news become more gory and crude? Does the unpoliceable internet mean an end for the ethical and legal frameworks established in print and broadcast to protect individuals and the audience?

Is there any way of policing the internet?

4) The job of a journalist (news gathering techniques)

Journalists have to work around the clock now…. Just like they used to in the olden days!! Facebook and other social networking sites give journalists a much quicker access to sources. Twitter means you can find a story as it happens. Does this quicken the pace of news? Do journalists now spend more time trawling the internet than actually going out and finding things the old fashioned physical way?

Trawling the net

That’s over and out from me. As I said, this is a bare skeleton, and we will need to flesh it out, if not reorganize the bones. It would be cool to have some feedback on this. Maybe we can simply use this as a springboard from which we can bounce ideas around.

First Date: Impact of Social Media group

by Sharon Robins

Getting together for a first date was no easy task for five busy MA journalism students; James, Jason, Lydia, Shan and Sofia.  But we managed it, pulling wheelie chairs into a huddle at the back of the media centre to get started.

Our task, to plan the way forward to complete a group assignment: A 15 minute live multi-media presentation followed by 15 minutes for questions and discussion.

And the subject?  What impact are social media having on established news gathering techniques and output?

A tasty pot full

Into the pot went what we knew and we shared what we had found out, e.g. blogging – effect/risk to news, Al Jazeera listening posts – how social media works,  wikileaks, Twitter- quick way sharing research, Digg – voted by readers not news corporations, facebook – a photo stolen for a news article?,  Prezi – could it be a useful presentation tool?

What are established news gathering techniques?   What is happening now?   What about the future?

Horse's Mouth

Between us we came up with names of social media guru’s and journalists in different media that we are all going to contact, the aim being to interview them. 

Timeline

Count 11 weeks from First Date to Baring All (the presentation).  Not a lot, if it then becomes 7 weeks if you skip the Christmas break wherein some of us are on work experience. 

Others will be, hopefully, wrapped up in Christmas shenanigans and we’ll all be studying for the lovely law exam upon our return.

A Leader or Two

Our Producer is Jason.  It was not democratic since Sofia was attending a tutorial for a few minutes but hey, you snooze – you lose.  But of the remaining group, those who wanted to be Producer let it be known.

Jason (tells us he) makes a great completer/finisher and will feel most comfortable knowing he is in control of being sure there is a final product, i.e. the presentation.  Sounded great to me.

Lydia is Assistant Producer/Chairwoman and will keep us on the straight and narrow.  Her main task is to drive the meetings and keep us focused on the subject.  Secondary she will assist Jason in producing the presentation.

The group blog Administrator is Sofia who will also develop the design as we go along.  Sofia has specialism in this area and will share it with the group.

James and I (Shan), along with Sofia, are neither shy nor retiring so we will stick our finger into the pie whenever we feel the need.  Lydia will ensure we stay on track.

ACTION

• Create Blog – Sofia 
• Conceptual flow of how we will focus – Lydia 
• Make contact with guru’s and journalists – All
• Dream up blog name – All
• Set up Twitter account related to subject for stream on Blog & info sharing - All

All actions to be completed by next meeting.

And another thing, although these are minutes of the first meeting, the next and last one will be after ‘Baring All’.