Video Interview: Glenn Freeman

An interview with Glenn Freeman. On the 12th of December 2011 I interviewed Glenn Freeman, the news editor of Auto Sport magazine and Autosport.com on Technology and the Future.

I asked him five questions:

1. Can you list three ways technology has changed your job?

2. What kind of technology do you use for journalism?

3. What was the last bit of technology you used for your job?

4. If you could invent a piece of technology to improve the way you do journalism, what would it be?

5. Can you give one top technology tip for student journalist?

Glenn has been working in the field for six years. He starting out at Motorsports news where he completed some work experience before being offered a full-time job there. With lots of hands on experience and no degree Glenn then moved onto autosport magazine.

Glenn had a lot to say on the topic of technology and the future for journalists.

Since working at Auto sport magazine Glenn’s job has changed rapidly because of the impact technology has had. When he first joined the magazine it didn’t have a website and he worked towards a weekly deadline. Now he works for one of the biggest motor sport websites in the world with a daily deadline.

Glenn has found that in the last 12 months social networking has changed the way he works. Glenn uses twitter and Facebook within his job to help him get a news story and promote himself and his publication. On twitter Glenn has almost 2,000 followers. I found this interesting and very useful. Throughout my first semester at university we have been talking about how important it is to gain an online profile and how it is done. With twitter being used worldwide and it being the number one source of fast up to date news it is an achievement I feel to gain over 1,000 folowers.

When asked to invent a piece of technology that could help journalists Glenn came up with a very useful idea, one which he thinks isn’t far from being created. A piece of technology that would enable you to transcribe audio files and interviews automatically. He says you lose a lot of time transcribing, interviews in particular. I found this interesting and I have experienced using a voice recorder to record an interview and then having to type it all up. It is, like Glenn says very time consuming and an invention like this would be very useful.

Glenn gave a tip to journalism students, which i feel is rather important: “With all the wonders technology brings, don’t get caught up.” He reiterates how important the basics of journalism is, especially the researching. He says make sure you do all the basics of journalism and with that use technology to your advantage. In my first semester of university we have been told time and time again how important it is to get all your research done properly and to make sure you have facts to back up your story.

Twitter:https://twitter.com/#!/glenn_autosport

Amelia Hill: Is the Internet Good or Evil?

Amelia Hill

Journalist Amelia Hill broke the phone hacking story of Milly Dowler and Sarah Payne. She also exposed claims that News International attempted to delete emails, which related to the News of the World scandal.

Amelia works for The Guardian as a feature writer and an investigative journalist but before that she wrote for The Observer for 10 years. She is a joint winner with Nick Davies of the Foreign Press Media award, for the exclusive of the Milly Dowler phone hacking case.

Amelia thinks the internet is a beautiful but dangerous tool. She feels there are many ups and downs that come with the internet. As a guest speaker, Amelia gives her thoughts.

One of the negatives of the internet and probably the most dangerous is that it is so easy to hide your identity. You can pretend to be someone you are not online.

‘A gay girl living in Damascus’ was a well-known blogger. She claimed her real name was Amina Abdallah Arraf al-Omari and said she was 25. Five years after starting the blog, thousands of readers found out that the blogger was really a fraud. Amina Abdallah Arraf al-Omari was actually a man living in Scotland. This proves Amelia’s theory. It is so easy to pretend to be something you’re not behind the screen of a computer. Amelia said: “Millions are misinformed online.” She says that the internet strangles the truth, it does not liberate it. People can be seduced by the internet because it’s such an easy tool to find information.

Amelia thinks young people can sometimes be naive when it comes to believing strangers online. She wonders if it is a form of laziness? Trusting someone on a social media website who you have never met, they say they are the same age as you and that their name is Jason Wright and then arrange to meet. There have been so many horror stories in the press of young girls being murdered because they trusted someone they had not met online. Ashleigh Hall was allegedly killed by a stranger she met on Facebook.

Amelia also believes that the younger generation are getting ‘lazy’ when it comes to research. She said: “Don’t rely on one source, don’t rely on the first page of google results. Dig deeper!”

Amelia gave us some top tips. She says to be brave and bold when researching. Check where our information is coming from and check our sources. She says to avoid online interviews, do you really know the person on the other end of the email? She said: “If you don’t trust your source, don’t use them. Don’t print any quotes you cannot rely on.” It is easy to lie in an email but when face to face lies can often be noticed.

Even though Amelia thinks negatively about the internet, she admits she could not do her job today without the internet but strongly believes that it is possible to work as a journalist without the internet, it would just be a lot harder and a lot slower. Without the internet stories were much harder to find, investigate and research.

Although Amelia gives some good points on the dangers of the internet, it is an extremely useful tool for journalism and publications today wouldn’t be able to run at the same level without it.

The Paywall

 

Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch has famously introduced a pay wall. This means audiences will have to start paying to view The Times website online. This is an attempt to try to save newspapers. Some newspapers, such as The Guardian are struggling financially since the new digital media has started to take over. Advertisers are moving over to the web so print publications are losing money. But will charging their audiences to use their online sites work? KPMG research, Dec 2010 – ‘Only 2% of Britians would pay for a website they currently use for free.’

National Newspaper Circulation Figures, October 2011

Dailies  – month on month

Daily Mirror : 1,143,778 ; -5.73

Daily Record : 298,010 ; -8.01

Daily Star : 681,268 ; -21.18

The Sun : 2,725,323 ; -8.37

Daily Express : 617,640 ; -6.37

Daily Mail : 2,008,817 ; -6.32

The Daily Telegraph : 607,186 ; -7.92

Financial Times : 344,583 ; -11.70

The Herald : 46,797 ; -12.28

The Guardian : 232,566 ; -16.38

i : 184,402

The Independent : 176,983 ; -3.17

The Scotsman : 39,428 ; -9.23

The Times: 429,554 ; -11.77

Racing Post : 50,122 ; -7.14

Harry Potter Newspaper

With thoughts of newspapers disappearing in the next 20 years because of new emedia, scientists have come up with an idea that almost seems impossible, newspapers with moving images, just like the ones in the Harry Potter films. Below is a video about this new electronic paper.

Below is a video showing what the newspapers could look like:

Convergence

Is technology the future for journalism?

Publications have begun to merge print and emedia together, which has led to new jobs for staff. New rolls have been made to help run online newspaper and magazine websites. Some believe that this is an issue for some of the older generation who have learnt journalism by the style of pen to paper. So this convergence is a challenge, especially for journalists that ‘hate’ the web.

Advertisers are more inclined to move over to the web. this is because it is much cheaper to advertise on a webpage then it is to advertise in print.

Websites are forever changing. They are updated 24/7 and do not have a fixed deadline unlike print publications. The internet has made the media more democratic, websites give its audience the opportunity to interact and give their own opinion, something print can not do. Although this can be seen as a negative to some. Should everyone have their say? Including racists, homophobes and political dictators? Websites are also able to use moving image, which is important. This enables the audience to get a real feel and understanding of whats going on in the news.