The paper is a case study of the BBC’s adoption of live text commentary to report breaking news. Indeed, Mumbai was the first time the BBC had used a ‘live-blogging’ format to cover a major terror attack.

I’ll be giving the talk at Westminster University’s ‘Global Media and the "War on Terror"’ conference on 14th September.

Abstract

The emergence of instant global communication technology has placed pressure on competing media organisations to publish news information at great speed (Gowing, 2009). In the event of an ongoing breaking news crisis, online journalists have begun to adopt live updates or live blogs as a way of disseminating news information quickly from a variety of sources (Newman, 2009).   

The BBC’s use of this format during the Mumbai attacks in 2008 was the first time the organisation had used live updates to cover a major terror attack. The BBC’s coverage won an Online News Association award and appeared popular with the online audience. The live update pages, however, raised a number of editorial questions both within (Herrmann, 2008) and outside the Corporation (Sutcliffe, 2008).

The inclusion of audience material from Twitter was a particular concern. Based on a content analysis of the BBC’s Mumbai live update pages, interviews with journalists who worked on the story and internal documents, this paper considers the impact that ‘live blogging’ a terror attack has on the BBC’s editorial process and journalism. 

The paper demonstrates that the imperative of ‘getting news out there’ meant BBC journalists often published news material on the live update pages on the basis of a single source using attribution to distance the BBC from the accuracy of the information.  

It also argues that the concept of ‘news as conversation’ is limited by the context of a breaking news security story where a serious tone is expected and careless reporting might jeopardise human life. Although the ‘live blog’ format did facilitate the inclusion of audience comment, the extent to which it should be included was contested both on practical and editorial grounds.

Cross-posted from my now rather inaccurately named Mediating Conflict blog, this is just a note to let you know that I’ll be running the Frontline Club’s blogging and social media training course on 1 and 2 February 2010. 

Hopefully it will be great fun and a really good way to get yourself started in online publishing if you haven’t already. (There’s funding available as well). 

It is a 2-day course (contrary to the current confusion on the Frontline Club website) which will run from 10 – 5pm each day at the Club near Paddington. 

Here’s a bit about what I’ll be teaching on the course: 

Synopsis 

Aimed at beginners, this intensive two day course will get you up to speed with the social media world. Using tools that are available for free on the web, you’ll learn how to set up a blog, and engage with social media to research, publish and distribute content. The course will also introduce you to several strategies for monitoring news and information on the web as you learn how to use RSS feeds and Twitter. By the end of the two days you’ll preside over the beginnings of a mini social media empire. 

Main aims

* Setting up and producing content for a blog.      

* Using microblogging for networking, promoting your content and as a personal newswire.

* Social bookmarking as a research tool.     

* Embedding photo and video on your blog.      

* Getting the most out of RSS.      

* Monitoring and verifying information on the web.   

Who’s it for?     

* Journalists who are interested in getting up to speed with the social media world.      

* Anybody who wants to learn how to publish online.     

* People who are interested in monitoring breaking news and information on the web.  

If you want any further information about what you’ll learn, then drop me a line at daniel.s.bennett-AT-kcl.ac.uk. I’m hoping to be flexible to what people on the course want to know so if you want to find about something that’s not there, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. 

The course costs £265. If you want to book a place or enquire about the Skillset funding available for the course then email: training-AT-frontlineclub.com.

Photo: Pretty sure that is one of Graham Holliday’s, my training predecessor, though I can’t seem to find it here.

Blogging and Beyond is an introduction to social media- explaining what it is, why it’s important and how to join the ‘global conversation’. On this very practical course you will get to know a variety of social media tools and learn how they can be used in your work. You will learn what RSS is and how to use it, how to create and publish your own blog and use social bookmarks as research tools.

Other areas covered in the course include
* Find interesting blogs using the custom search engines
* Monitor who’s reading your blog the easy way
* How photosharing enhances the written word
* Videosharing- uploading and embedding footage into a blog
* Social networking
* Why is microblogging important?

Duration: 1 day
Who it’s for: Journalists, Editors and Curious enthusiasts
Aims: To provide an understanding of Social Media and its impact on journalism, as well as working knowledge of the tools available
Trainer: Daniel Bennett

A previous participant says….“Bloody fantastic course- my brain was hurting at the end! If there are going to be other courses later in the year, I’ll be recommending them to others,” -Jem Thomas, Defence Media Operations Centre, Media Training School