a negative capability scrapbook
Good grief. There’s wifi in the campsite. It rained a lot. Torrentially. Then it hailed. Then, at dusk, it stopped and some people went fishing.
The van has such excellent ventilation.
Is it any wonder my feet get so cold when driving?
Thank goodness for Adnams beer.
There’s a new look. You might not be able to see it until you press the shift key and click on refresh button in the browser.
That better? or not? Please tell me what you think – colours, layout, design, accessibility etc.
My own thought is that the banner picture is too big for small screens; I want the whole bang-shoot to be centred in a web page rather than stuck to the left hand side; I want lovely Alan Johnston to move down slightly so he’s in line with the top picture to the right (or the pictures to move up); the borders around images could be thinner and I want the odd spacing between the divided column and the single column in the sidebar to be evened out.
There are still some things to be done here and there, links pages and about page to be updated etc, but otherwise I’m rather pleased with the overall effect. It’s a modified version of the Leia theme designed by Kapikua. As you’ll be able to see if you visit either of those links, the original language is Spanish which made things slightly surreal since I don’t speak a word but ultimately I suppose it doesn’t matter what something is called as long as it’s spelt consistently across the site.
She’s Hoarding her Ordinaries in a slightly different place after a nasty outbreak of the white screen of death. Go for your daily fix of insight and beauty to http://hoardedordinaries.wordpress.com/ – Hoarded Ordinaries, now with added WordPress loveliness.
I went to the Madvertisement photoshoot. “It’s been manic here” said the man overseeing operations, without showing the faintest trace of being aware of what he’d just said.
I went in my best mutton dressed up as lamb juicy street duds but with a smart outfit as requested in the e-mail. The lamb’s fleece did not impress the arty people – most other people had turned up with max street cred it seemed.
“The set’s really retro 50s, flying ducks on the wall” I was told. “Well”, I ventured, “I have got a vintage 50s outfit with me since you asked for both casual and smart”. This turned out to be just what the shrink ordered so I retired to the nearby toilet and emerged as mutton dressed as mutton.
Those shoes, though, they’re worth a picture of their own one day. Bought in 1988 from Emma Hope‘s first London store they are black suede, called “jabot” and have a wavy crest running up the front worthy of the greatest crested newt in existence.
The photographer’s assistant used my camera to take a picture of the photographer taking the picture. Using a mac, of course.
I assume, judging by the image on the screen, that the official angle is more flattering than the unofficial. But why, I wonder, have a modern digital radio on the sideboard.
And in other madness news, the mental health charity, Mind, is inviting all mental health service users and survivors to send in their art for an installation to celebrate 60 years of the charity. M.A.D. art – Making A Difference. I’m going to print up some photographs.
Phew. That’s better. I am eating a cheese sandwich as I type (Tesco’s value red Leicester on Kingsmill 50/50 sliced bread). And here’s a picture of my cat.
Isn’t he lovely? It’s not a recent picture but that could be because I’m using him as a narrative device. Or maybe not. Maybe my camera’s broken or he’s become unadorable or I’m just too lazy to take and upload another one. You decide.
Now then. Having established myself as deeply facile and boring I can go on to say that my snappy, attention-grabbing headline has got absolutely nothing to do with the event I went to this morning. Absolutely nothing to do with the “traditional media” in general, and of course, absolutely nothing to do with the BBC in particular. Oh no.
Uh, but hang on a bit. I’m a blogger aren’t I? So that means I might be um, less than accurate. Unlike, of course, the “traditional media”. Oh, the terrible uncertainty in the minds of my readers.
It was interesting, the discussion this morning. The most interesting thing, to me, was said by Stewart Purvis, professor of journalism, fabulously experienced award-studded former ITN head honcho etc. “I’m just waiting”, he said (and of course I’m paraphrasing here because I wasn’t taking notes or recording the session), “I’m just waiting for a really big blog hoax”.
A ripple ran around the room. Not the Severn Bore, but a perceptible ripple. Sort of schadenfreude-in-advance with an added dose of “please don’t let it be me”. The implication, it seemed to me, in both speaker and audience reaction, was that this would be proof of the inherent danger of “blogs” and that once this had happened journalists could stop being quite so concerned about them.
That’s one interpretation that might result from a “traditional media” organisation falling for a blog-based hoax. There is, of course, another. And it is that if a media organisation ends up falling for such a hoax it will demonstrate that said media organisation had not checked its facts properly. Verified its sources. Done what journalists and editors in the room this morning congratulated themselves upon, and quite rightly so (in many cases). Exercised all those skills that journalists insist, quite rightly in many cases, distinguish them from bloggers.
It really, really isn’t rocket science. You cannot eat your cake and have it at the same time. You cannot laud your own professionalism on the one hand and blame a source for being inaccurate if you transmit that inaccurate information on the other. Blogs are not journalism. Just as press releases are not journalism. Just as party political statements are not journalism. Just as stories seen in other, rival, “traditional media” do not or, rather more accurately, should not, be lifted and reproduced without being checked.
Does this attitude toward information generated by individuals and published on the internet have something to do with a perceived (or actual) erosion of power? That the future cuts both ways has already been demonstrated by the Reuters picture incident. Did the smoke of the doctored picture from Beirut which was “outed” by bloggers hang heavy but unacknowledged in the air?
It isn’t (she types, slowly and heavily, because this is sooo old and it’s soooo tedious to have to repeat it all the time) “them and us”. It really isn’t. Get your head out of the sand, get on your surfboard and ride the frikkin wave. Change is difficult, change (nowadays) is extremely fast. Entrenched, adversarial, inflexible, defensive attitudes are not going to get you anywhere.
And now, back to the cat. In a glorious example of web2.0 loveliness I have to relate that I was contacted to take part in today’s exciting event by flickr mail. By AnnabelB who, I notice, already has a picture of the event on her photostream.
She, it transpires, has been reading this blog (no doubt concerned that she’d contacted some cat-loving madwoman) and had been following the saga of the cards closely. So when we met and I offered her one she immediately demanded the one with the most embarrassing photo title. Which I think has to be “don’t mess with me”. Which is (you will have realised by now, I hope) a picture of….. my cat!
So. I’m to take part in an internal BBC discussion tomorrow morning. The “100 top editors and managers of BBC global news” apparently get together for a monthly breakfast meeting to discuss… stuff. Tomorrow the topic is defined by two questions – “what is the best journalism in the world?” and “what will journalism look like in 2012?” Also on the panel will be Professor Stewart Purvis and Glen Drury of Yahoo!
Without further ado herewith reproduced are the biog and summary of what I think the best journalism is, both of which I was requested to supply.
Biog:
R- R- lives on the net and feels naked without her computer, but a wap-enabled mobile is a good substitute.
When she started a year’s stint as managing editor of the international citizens’ media portal, Global Voices Online (http://www.globalvoicesonline.org) she was welcomed to “the light side”. Presumably her career as a journalist, predominantly for the BBC World Service, was regarded as “the dark side”.
She has taught journalism for both the BBC and the UN and media skills – aka how to deal with journalists – to groups including human rights workers and academics.
She started her blog four years ago whilst suffering from a major depressive disorder. These days she writes far less about suicide and much more about her cat. She has never, as far as she can recollect, mentioned having a cheese sandwich for lunch.
The best journalism in the word? (I’m assuming a global audience and BBC core values of independence, impartiality and truth):
offers illumination rather than strobe effect; is collaboration not commandment; is genuinely global and above all harnesses the potential of digital collection and distribution.
The last point first – it’s easy to underestimate global connectivity. Individual desktop computers are predominantly a western phenomenon. Cheap yet sophisticated mobile handsets are the most common modes of access to generating and consuming digital content in the developing world, as well as shared resources such as internet cafés.
This means information from individuals across the globe is easier to access in addition to already established interest groups, governments and media. Individuals increasingly become stakeholders in stories. Information becomes more a collaborative process between sources and moderator (journalist).
Finally, in an increasing culture of instantaneous-info-consumption, the best journalism in the world steps back and gives the bigger picture. Info-nuggets without compelling background and context are analogous to the reports given by a group of blind men about an elephant. Not necessarily inaccurate but (potentially dangerously) incomplete.
Now interestingly (or not) I appear to have been billed as “R- R- who blogs at frizzylogic.org”. Which is why I’m putting the above information in this post. Because I’ve noticed the odd BBC link trail meandering this way and I’m assuming anyone who might be described as a “top 100 editor [or] manager” is probably thinking wtf? Or even WTF!
Hence the blognitive dissonance. Here’s a small, utterly insignificant and rather shy blog way, way out in the hinter-of-blog-land which has that most egregious example of a cliché of blogger inanity – pictures of cats (even worse, perhaps, a personalised lolcat), but which happens to be tended by someone who knows quite a bit about citizen media, mainstream journalism, social networks and global news. Who doesn’t tend to blog about it.
Robin Hamman has the sort of blog one might expect a social media person to have. (Hi Robin – I hope I get to meet you tomorrow.) Full of great stuff, thinky thoughts and linky links. From this useful source of information I learn – and am rather puzzled by – the fact that the BBC held an “Internal Management Conference, The Future of News” less than a fortnight ago. Addressed by, among others, Stewart Purves. Yes, the same Stewart Purves.
I am attempting to quell as cynical and without evidence my suspicion that “news” (aka domestic TV followed by domestic radio) gets a day-long conference with lunch etc while “global news” (aka the World Service radio and possibly TV) gets an early-morning hour of time which is in addition to most people’s already probably long working day.
Oh, and I’m looking enviously at Robin’s picture of his podium complete with laptop etc which was no doubt connected to both the internet and a projector. I checked, as one does, to see if the internet connection in the meeting room tomorrow would be cable or wifi… there isn’t either. There’s going to be a single slide with the BBC Global News brand projected behind the panel.
Le sigh.
At least the cards arrived in time, for what it’s worth.
About How We Are Now
For the first time, Tate is inviting members of the public to contribute to the content of an exhibition.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
How We Are: Photographing Britain (Tate Britain, 22 May — 2 September 2007) takes a unique look at the journey of British photography, from the pioneers of the early medium to today’s photographers who use new technology to make and display their imagery. To demonstrate the evolving nature of photography in the twenty-first century, Flickr photographs will be featured in the exhibition.SUBMITTING YOUR PHOTOGRAPH
To submit a photograph to the exhibition, simply join this group and contribute your photograph anytime until 25 July 2007.
See the link above for more information.
I hope this is just the beginning of many collaborative cultural projects using social software to integrate (potentially) global virtual contributions into a physical exhibition space.
I like the way too there is the less-moderated element of the flickr group and then the smaller curated sample from that volunteered pool.
Now, what to submit?
And I wonder how long it will be around…
I was once told that it wasn’t Disney which pulled all the company’s footage which found its way onto YouTube but YouTube itself. Companies like Disney would, apparently, like to have the viral marketing leverage that the site provides but YouTube retains copyright of all work posted to the site.
Some organisations make deals with YouTube under which they consent to allow some of their material to appear. So far Disney has not.
[Update: see Correction in the comments]
Only now he’s ZMJEZHD which is even more difficult to pronounce.
How I do love the league of language learneds.
frizzyLogic 