10 things I would do if I were a researcher/multimedia assistant for BBC Radio 4

Richard Brennan, A Masters in journalism student who blogs at Newsjiffy, also admired for his posts, tells us what he would do to bring areas of BBC radio into the mash-up age.

3. Each edition of the BBC in-house magazine Ariel should have a column entitled "From the Blogosphere" where a staff member discuss the reactions to the BBC on both BBC and non-BBC blogs. I would be able to write this column as well as other duties.

4. Blog posts that are pertinent to a news story could be linked in current BBC blogs like the Editor's Blog. This would involve me keeping BBC Online staff informed about the content of the BBC Radio blogs via e-mail.”

Astute thinking.

Richard's CV is here for you to peak.

If I were a BBC manager I'd take a look and ping him for a chat.

I suppose the fact that they're not doing what Richard suggests will bring some comfort to the commercial sector e.g. radio stations.

The Guardian's Emily Bell made the point on Today of the BBC restraining itself from tramelling the commercial sector with its ballooning online presence.

The BBC's Trust report reviewing the corporation's services and distinctiveness in its online activities will be available on BBC.co.uk later today.

Radio journalism -South Africa

You hear less and less of the term Radio Journalism nowadays.

During my postgrad we spoke of nothing else. TV was for those flash lot, but radio was real journalism.

Has that changed much???

Anyhow, I'll be posting the doc First Time Voters which I made for BBC Radio 4 during South Africa's transition.

On hearing it for the first time in ages ( 10 years) I think it stands up pretty well, and in some way you can spot the influences in Videojournalism.

The premise was simple. I'd found a couple of alpha males/females in SA whom I thought would make great interviews. Back in London, I wrote an article for the BBC's internal magazine, Ariel.

A BBC producer ran with the idea and we got the commission - a programme I'd probabaly put in my own top ten of personal favourites for many reasons, not least it was also aired by the SABC - South Africa's pubic radio - on the eve of the election.

Like many many people I too believe that radio is a much more powerful and immediate medium than its sibling TV/video.

I go to bed with the world service and awake to Today.

Video [podcasts] may get all the attention at the moment, but getting to grips with the mechanics of radio packaging can go some way in influencing the VJism.

My evidence, after the BBC Radio 4 I had a welter of ideas how to produce VJ pieces- such as this one -and this here

Letter from South Africa

"I don't want affirmative action to continue", says one of South Africa's talented youth, in this doc by Viewmagazine's David

It's always going to be incendiary reporting South Africa with race centre stage, particularly in the context of employment and affirmative action .

The BBC's report this morning had some choice moments, taking a town to serve as a microcosm of South Africa and seeking to find out what each side, black and white, felt about the impact of this policy.

One woman suggested with indignity and pejudicial slant "We have helped them" or thereabouts, and these emerging blacks are now buying swanky cars, while another suggested "affirmative action hasn't gone far enough", and one of the last clips that these blacks are being given jobs with little qualifications.

On the Successor Generation, a doc, radio, net piece, first made for BBC Radio such views were not uncommon, as were those who advocated that they would have to be a time limit on affirmitive action.

We don't want it going on like it does in the states, says an interview. See the doc here.

360 Degree Reporting
My bone, was not the report but the manner in which we so try to simplify complex debates, not a problem in itself, but that they should be given a forum to allow for greater expression.

Yes you could argue where does that stop then?

Shall all reports have a circular 360 degree dimension?

Perhaps, as much as possible to allow listeners a chance to engage and expand on the debate to get a wider understanding.

The BBC's report sets an agenda because it's the BBC, but there's nothing to stop the corporation from linking to say SABC radio who might debate this issue in greater detail, in the manner of "Any Answers".

Or providing its own forum to Q and A.

Yes, yes, yes blogs is one avenue, but with the amount of broadcast web technology and propensity for peopple to want to engage, at the very least, deploy skype as a conference set up for us to q the reporter.

The days of linking radio or podcasts in the same way we do text will one day, one day, be upon us, when it allows for a much better rigorous understanding of issues which sometimes eschew such deconstructions.

The BBC's mistake over 'The Trouble with Black Men" is an example of this. The programme may have been provocative, not giving anyone the forum to debate your findings does not reach the evolving and sandshifting threshold of future journalism

BBC radio goes interactive IPM

PM, one of the BBC's stalwart radio news analysis progs is to launch a new show on Saturdays called IPM.

A show shaped by you the listeners, says the presenter.

It's a great idea, but why stop at the thought: You send us your ideas and we'll make the programmes etc. .

Why not give the whole thing over to listeners?