Guardian, magazines, radio

I have done a longer post on Medium about the YouTube debates proposed for the next UK general elections. I am finding that Medium is more suitable for a longer rave. This Sqarespace starts with a smaller box, probably a size that fits on a mobile screen. It can be expanded but I'm not sure it should be. The sun may shine soon and it will be time to leave this desktop. May come back though.

Today's detail is a piece by David Hepworth on the state of magazines as in print. Not very encouraging for anyone but at least he is writing directly about the situation of magazines as it is. Eventually there will be something similar about newspapers. If a magazine has a dedicated set of readers and a limited budget one option is to invite their contributions. There is still very little consideration of the Citizen Journalism model as in OhmyNews. It may take several publications going away before professional journalists are ready to respect the readers.

And another thing about radio after this quote-

If magazine publishers want a chilling warning about what happens in a one revenue stream business they could always look at radio. In my old colleague Mark Ellen's newly published memoirs of his time in magazines, Rock Stars Stole My Life, he recalls the 90s when Emap's music magazines were delivered up to its radio division. One senior radio head briefly floated the idea that since magazines' five-star reviews were so valued by record companies it surely made sense to run more of them and market them to labels as a kind of advertorial on steroids. They didn't go through with it. The fact they even thought about it illustrates the gulf between a business that has traditionally put the readers first, knowing that if you build it advertisers will come, and the sort where the only customer is the one with the chequebook.

I would just like to suggest, as someone who contibutes to Phonic FM, that it is possible for radio to have editorial integrity even though it is just sound. Why is txt more credible?

Google Hangouts as interview, the next phase #mtw3

I'm now back in Exeter after holiday near Ambleside. It worked ok to leave an mp3 for the Wild Show, Phonic FM Thursday 10 -12, and also to upload a short comment to YouTube. They managed to play it ok as part of the show last week. So the next phase could be with a better idea on how to work with Google hangouts or similar setups. Radio can become a selection from what is found online as social media. The production quality is getting closer. I think the sound from YouTube was fixed just a little and there is some rain in the background. But the possible is getting closer.

See previous posts for how to select Creative Commons in YouTube. The the remix button comes up so the only issue is how to edit online. You need to work with quite a small space but a lot is possible. Certainly clipping an extract. So far I have taken this bit and others from an OLDS MOOC hangout.

There may be some selections from the Community Journalism course. They are one of several Futurelearn courses that make use of Google hangouts. I'm not sure when this crosses over to general social media. Do you have to sign up for a MOOC if you just happen to come across something on Youtube? You can add comments anyway. And if it is Creative Commons then you can take an extract for your own video. So far not many examples though.

While near the Lakes I met again with John Burgoyne. Last year I recorded a talk in a boatshed on Lake Windemere. It took a while to render and upload so has only been available this year. Some of the ideas relate to the opening keynote for the first Management at Work conference. Possibly there could be a form of conference based on various selections and added links. I will be trying this out with the aspects that mostly interest me. Any links to something similar that is actually working would be most welcome.

By the way, there are developments with phone cameras that are just about on the same topic. The recent Samsung and Sony phones can record in 4k definition but apparently you can't see the difference on the phone screen. You may need to buy a new television. And one reviewer found that you could save about three minutes in a gig of space. So probably the options just going out of date may be enough for an interview. I have been using a Kodak Zi8 and moving the card somewhere to upload. This has worked ok so far but the phone option is interesting. 

homework for Community Journalism course #Futurelearn

The short term bookshop at Exeter University has closed down yet again for a summer break. It is unclear what will be in place for the new academic year starting in the autumn. There have been other cases of closing bookshops as online alternatives develop. What is unusual in this situation is the university policy to demolish the original Blackwells shop and then not to allow space for a replacement in the new Forum.

The new Forum space is a central feature for the campus. Comment in Exepose, the student newspaper, has comared it to a shopping mall or departure lounge at an airport. A bookshop may appear too dated to fit the style. There was a similar issue in Princesshay, a shopping mall in the centre of Exeter. After a rebuild the Post Office was moved to an upstairs space and no postbox was provided. After protests a postbox was allowed inside the Post Office space. It was not thought suitable for a modern street design.

Blackwells insist that the bookshop is viable and they  with welcome a permanent site. So far there have been "pop-ups" at the beginning of the academic year with a selection of course books. The site just closed was on the top floor of Devonshire House, a building now mostly used by the Student Guild and hidden by the new structure. It has survived over two terms and has some stock outside the course requirements. The space is now needed for a student study area, a combination of relaxation and wifi.

Over the summer the bookshop will be a desk in the Forum retail area with a screen showing the Blackwells website. Based on conversations with sources that cannot currently be identified, it appears there may be a permanent site in the future, but located far away from the Forum. It could still be viable if the location became better known.

The move of books to digital formats is not as sudden as sometimes appears. There are complex issues but developments ae not just in one direction. A longterm bookshop site on a university campus may not be news in most cases, but if it happens there will be interest in Exeter where demolishing the previous bookshop is estimated to have cost £124 m. 

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note for editors

I'm actually on holiday at this time and don't know what is happening. End of April was the deadline to quit previous site so I guess there is some info on what happens next. Words above will be re arranged on next hard fact.

Guardian heading back in time?

Will Self has announced that the novel is over, or at least there is no business model that encourages anyone to start writing. The emphasis on books in the Saturday review is not new but the scope of Will Self's view seems to be narrowing.

 I've no intention of writing fictions in the form of tweets or text messages – nor do I see my future in computer-games design. My apprenticeship as a novelist has lasted a long time now, and I still cherish hopes of eventually qualifying. Besides, as the possessor of a Gutenberg mind, it is quite impossible for me to foretell what the new dominant narrative art form will be – if, that is, there is to be one at all.

Not so long ago he was prepared to write about the hipsters in East London. See my previous blog post for a video link. There was at that time some open approach to new forms.

What seems to be happening is that the "digital first" policy only applies online. The print version of the Guardian is designed to keep a print audince of Gutenberg minds in the same solid state for as long as possible. The tech and media pages midweek are much reduced so it is mostly on a Saturday that the issues around print are reported. It seems to me quite possible that even when midweek has moved online the Saturday Review will appear to travel back in time to a world that started with the hardback book.

Meanwhile the spaces for advertising are filled with yet more masterclasses that seem mostly variations on professional writing. Will Self claims that the creative writing courses in universities are "a self-perpetuating and self-financing literary set-aside scheme purpose built to accommodate writers who can no longer make a living from their work. " Could this also be true for a course in print journalism? Offering a course on how to blog like a professional seems to me to be losing track with what each medium is about.

There may be a connection with why the Guardian is so opposed to the MOOC. Mostly ignored this year but lots of opposition during 2013. King's Cross is a sort of campus where experts offer personal guidance. 

Maybe there is an online version somewhere with links to free resources and discussion. I would just like to be able to imagine some coherence with this when reading the print.

Meanwhile I am going to imagine the future through a fiction device borrowed from Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut. Not sure when the next Timequake will start but it may not take ten years, probably closer to five but it will appear to repeat in different locations at slightly different stages. In the early years the closure of print mid week and the growth of weekend magazines. Later the move of business to business magazines entirely online. Eventually a rethink by editors on how to relate to an audience. More detail later. current tag #TQ15  

Guardian and Citizen Journalism

Today first solid rain day of ten in Lake District so good one for catching up online. I have bought a few copies of Guardian and am struck by the ads for Masterclasses, more on this later when I read Will Self again. This post is mostly to check some facts.

The new course is called "social media for journalists" and on the webpage there is a video selected from a previous one I think, then called "how to be a citizen journalist". From what is included it is claimed that the Guardian handled this well, even though the first response of professional journalists to online possibilities was not that positive.

Thing is, what I remember is the long series of not very funny in my view takes on citizen journalism in the Media pages and the fact that the only reporting on OhmyNews was on the technology pages. Guardian Unlimited Talk was scrapped without any warning or explanation. there was no offer for anyone to save their copy. 

If the new course is similar to the video then the new description is more accurate. The skills are for traditional print journalists looking for content that can be packaged as part of business as usual. There is not much about contributing to the social media where the content is coming from.

Suggest search anywhere for OhmyNews take on citizen journalism. Any links to where my info on trashing of Guardian Talk could be wrong would be welcome. Hooray if there is a backup somewhere.