How Channel 4 News won the RTS innovative news section, 2012

David arrives early at the judging meeting at the RTS

The winning entry for this year's innovative news read as follows on the RTS's website

Innovative News

No Go Britain, ITN for Channel 4 News

“The winning entry stood out for the novel way in which it helped to give a new look at one of the year's big stories. It built upon the strength of crowd sourcing and social media and then added the clout of a broadcaster to build up the channel's continued commitment to people with disabilities in the year of the Paralympics.”

The Nominees were: 

• 50 States: 50 Voices, Sky News
• The Olympic Torch Relay, BBC News for BBC

Within the glitz, as well as, sombre mood from remembering fallen journalists, the industry gathered at the Hilton to crown the victors. A couple of months earlier, however, the business of finding a winner and why fell to ten of us gathered at the RTS headquarters in central London.

Jurors are pulled from across the industry, as well as academia, from where I come. It's an interesting area to diagnose. What does constitute 'innovative'? We have guidelines and the mood is relaxed, yet business like to soul search, if the need arises.

So why me, how did I get involved? I can't be sure. There's a panoramic look across industry for people with the skill, and presumably, the fact I have worked for BBC, Channel 4 News, WTN, ABC News and a host of others might suggest I possess some understanding of the broadcaster's production process.

In 2005 I won first place in the US' Knight Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism, a decade earlier was one of the UK's first videojournalists, and am completing my PhD which examines innovative news. So I guess I have a penchant for the innovative, which I try to reflect on my site, viewmagazine.tv.

Now, it would be grossly unprofessional to write about our conversations when judging, in that common courtesy alone dictates I should at the very least contact my fellow jurors. I also feel a bit of Chatham House rules  applies to be frank about our conversations, so I will only reflect on my thoughts on 'No Go Britain' and what caught my interest. I'll do the same for '50 States' and 'The Olympic Torch Relay'.

Also, a myth buster to friends who have asked. The voting is such that I genuinely have no idea who has won, until it's announced on the night.

No Go Britain

Awards Night at the Hilton

'No Go Britain' did something that broadcasters rarely have time for, because of the news agenda. They took an off diary event, that is people with difficulties getting across London because of disabilities and contextualised it  via a bit of advocacy journalism. Or as Katie Razzall, C4 reporter put it: 'This was about empowering disabled people to lobby for change'.

The plight of anyone disabled trying to get by on London transport may seem anecdotal or at best isolated, but the programme followed a couple of subjects around as they negotiated their way across the capital, evoking Robert Drew's mantra of 'being there'.  But how did they get their subjects or begin to understand how deep the issue went? Old media and the not so new in twitter collided.

The twitter discourse allowed the programme to pull the issue together. and once it turned from tweets to taped interviews, the subjects within the film were invited to speak on the programme. The shift had been made now to good robust studio debate. It could have been left here, but the producers now made the issue an open platform for the disaffected to meet and discuss on air with execs. 

If there's one thing new media by itself still has yet to do well,  its the clout and platform to call on high profile interviewees, in this case transport bosses and let them face their accusers. When John Major, from the Confederation of Passenger Transport spoke about changes that would take place in 2017, presenter Jon Snow tells us of an audible gasp from panelists, before Anthony Wilson quips: we live in 2012, not 2017.   Good television.

Channel 4 News then announced it would be taking on further campaigns and execute a similar strategy. So what made it innovative?  Tying all those elements together rather swiftly, mixing old and barely new media. Twitter was not incidental, but strategic.

A couple of years earlier CNN used twitter for the world cup in an innovative means. Nope, this doesn't mean you need twitter to impress. But C4News made it look integrated. Other factors included:  letting the stakeholders tell the story, finding strong interviewees who could articulate their concerns and were not fazed by the studio or even the execs they were meeting. 

Finally looking at the workflow, it appeared seamless and the thought did cross my mind of the strategic use of resources and personnel. 

As an acad-ournalist or hack academic ( both horrible words) a critique, such as this will hopefully provide ideas for up and coming practitioners, online media and Masters students looking to understand programme making. C4 News provided a text book case on how to leverage a story. I might have gone slightly further with the videoing, using the Go Pro 3 so the subjects could bring back vérité videos of the troubles they face, but that's a moot point.

Tomorrow I'll talk about 50 States and The Olympic Torch.

Click here for previous posts

David in Tahrir Square, February 19th 2013

In this post I talk about the debilitating effects Egyptian journalists say social media is having on finding the truth in Egyptian politics

David in Chongqing working with universities

In this post I present some pictures towards the shoot we did between new and old China.

On another related matter  I am convinced that Chinese narrative, with its multiple foci in painting, holds an important understanding for elliptical narratives and new media story form.

Speaking at NewsXchange in Barcelona

Here I spoke about journalism and its fragmentation, which is a natural cause, given that journalism, as Schudson says, is a social construct.

Learning from the masters who make great television - judging the craft at the RTS

Royal Television Society Awards judging pack 2011

Will she won't she?  Will he do it?  And the winner is... As the best of innovative British Television News prepares to honour its own, RTS Juror David Dunkley Gyimah peers ahead and gives an insight into his working methods. 

The pack arrived through the post today. The contents, the invitation letter and DVD of this year's nominees.

David interviewing Sarah Abdelrahman
in Cairo for feature: Tahrir Memento
sarrahsworld Sarrah Abdelrahman 

It's been a memorable eventful year in the News. The Arab Springs: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria have been the more visible whose events are still reverberating.

Japan's earthquake disaster from its Fukushima reactor meltdown brought us to the brink of a a nuclear nightmare, while in the summer the heat of London's riots raged.

In the European Union, meltdown of another kind as economy after economy ran aground e.g. Greece, Italy and Spain teeter. While in the US, the prelims for which republican will take on President Obama is set to change gear and Iraq as "welcome home (troops)"- has the semiotics for a political turf war.

We know these things and more because those events are packaged into News conveyed to us through multiple media and multimedia. This is where the most talented of practitioners work their craft to inform us the spectators.

Their legacy becomes a footprint for the viewer to marvel. TV, satellite,  twitter, blogs, or the combination of such digital artifacts display these wonderment. Yet of the many news makers only a few can be chosen to represent their extraordinary trade.

RTS Judging

RTS Judging panel (2009)

That task of selection falls to industry figures and those conversant and knowledgeable of this evolving communication discourse, particularly in a digital age of news.

For the fourth year running I'm humbled and delighted to be chosen as one of the jurors for the Innovation in Television News section for the Royal Television Society Awards.

For the non news aficionados, you could call it the Oscars or even EMMY's of British Television News, though quite rightly, the RTS is simply with no comparisons. It is the RTS.

Past victors have included: the Guardian Newspapers Sean Smith Videojournalism, BBC Newsnight's "10 Days to War" and more recently CNN's use of Twitter in South Africa's World Cup.

I reveal no secrets talking about these and no more in what I am about to say.

But judging the best of British television news is obviously a serious undertaking and one that I'm pleased allows me to exercise skills accrued over 25 years.

That includes working in Television News, Dotcoms, Videojournalism, Radio, to helping to set up news networks, advising groups and lecturing in the UK and abroad e.g. Egypt, Lebanon, US and winning the odd international award.

But while heuristics and experience have been invaluable, a skill I'm heavily reliant on is critiquing.

Critiquing not as a surface layer, an exchange of personal views and tastes, but one coalescing a systematic, mental process of seeking objective cues, replicable views using various theories of meaning-making.

Innovation makes it even more interesting. What constitutes innovation and how can it be measured are just a few of the reasonings which are resolved.

Learning to Critique

Masters students in journalism at an editorial news meeting

In our last journalism session for Masters students this year and in subsequent documentary sessions next semester, I lecture in critiquing.  The cause-effect of critiquing is that whilst not all critics make good programme makers, the art of good critiquing intrinsically leads to the ability to make good programmes.

Critiquing and thus learning from the masters makes for great television.

Because embedded in the art of critiquing is understanding how the programme maker serves their audience. Critiquing thus is not a self-indulgent pursuit, but one that involves understanding the intentions of the maker, the internal codes of the network, and the value of us - the audience.

If you can read past the referential or the explicit, then the nuances of deeper codes, textual and visuals, may make you a better judge of media analysis, one that puts you in tune with your intended audience, and potentially makes you a better film maker as well. The lessons of those great writers of Cahiers du Cinema turned film makers e.g Truffaut et al tell us that.

Many post structuralist now agree film is not a language, but language-like and cover a spectrum of theories to make good their point.  Yet the act of good critiquing I believe involves choosing appropriate analytical methods that seek to remove the personalisation - however difficult that may seem for realists.

Thus whether it's the RTS, future journalists decoding the media, or the next generation of media flows, in a media world obeying Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle being grounded in the fundamentals in necessary, yet understanding and interpreting evolving theories for 21st century media is essential.

I'm about to approach my task of deconstructing the RTS nominees work with a humble hand. Something tells me as I open the pack, I'm truly going to enjoy this, immensely.

David (at) viewmagazine (dot) tv

Coming Up for Air - learning how to learn

Under a sea of books

It took an eternity to surface from Turkish seas and feels just as long coming up for air from a period of binge reading.

It would be simple enough if I had a photographic memory latching onto facts as if they were football figures whose stats were worth noting.

We can try all sorts of things to increase our capacity to retain information, but what's required is active learning. Anytime I'm offered the chance to present, I sneak into the room early, to 'mark territory'.

It is my little ritual, as I imagine it is to others.  Listening to Professor Gabriel Radvansky on the BBC, his authoritative musings on the human memory appeared to show my predatorial walkies make sense.

Radvansky's published research in a book on memory claims our memory auto refreshes when we past a door way. Indeed when was the last time you entered a room and forgot why you were there, and the only way you could remember was to return to the source of the thought.

So the answer to Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney could have been to learn which three agencies were for the chop within the theatre.



Now, if that were the case, the idea of any successful presentation would be unheard of, since we're forever travelling walking through doors.

So part of the solution I guess is a bid to understand and to become the text, removing the idea of learning by rote.  That requires making meaning from what Donald Schon ( listen here for BBC Lecture)   calls reflection-in-action.

Essentially it's thinking about what you're thinking about, your experiences and learning to unravel the complication by logically setting about a new solution.

Active Learning
Learning becomes an active discussion with others or yourself. In lectures rooms, that's something I actively encourage.

The idea of getting into character with the text - method approach - and thinking about the audience opens us to wider solutions.

Questions such as how do I know this, and coming at yourself from another POV, may sound schizophrenic, but it questions expectations.

It's that technique which I'll be using this year acting as a juror for the UK's prestigious Royal Television Society Awards ( RTS) 2012.

Thankfully I won't have to memorise any presentations, but the collective work I'm going through now, I guess can only help.

RTS Award Prelude- juror for best of the best in journalism

RTS Judging package arrives with DVD

Nestled between CS5 and code hints and introductions to polysemic documentary making,  I can see on my diary, RTS awards.

[Read here for response to Mike looking for further explaination  of RTS Award Prelude]

This will be the third year running I have been invited to sit with a panel of experts to adjudicate which UK TV or newspaper takes the Innovation award for Journalism.

Two years ago, it was for me unequivocal: 10 Days to War by BBC Newsnight - an impressive dramatisation of the lead up to the Iraq war involving what looked in the end- a hand in glove fit between documentary mode and drama (fiction).

The programme didn't have it its own way. A rigorous vote ensured from a shortlist, which itself proceeded arguments for and against contenders.

Sitting down to Judge the awards. In shot Toby Castle ( ITN), Nigel Baker (Chair) APTN,  Iain Dale, Deborah Gorbutt (APTN), Martin Turner (BBC)

What got me thinking was how the concept flagged up the notions of embedded videojournalism. That wasn't the casting vote, for by itself 10 Days was an imaginative piece that tackled a subject which wrestles the collective conscious.

It was a sort of Green Zone - Dir. Paul Greengrass, but more newspaper journalism than novel-cinema.

Its relevance can't be over emphasised enough. What really happened and why the world (a US-axis with Europe et al) went to war is still as contentious then as it is now. The programme should be made available for all secondary schools to study.

I pondered though, what if programme makers got videojournalists into these pivotal events?  In  cases, some of the scenes were predictable according to the press. Almost any follower of the build up would have known from the media that Colonel Tim Collins would be delivering a rousing speech.



"You tread lightly there. You'll have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people  than the Iraqis. You'll be embarrassed by the hospitality they offer you even though they have nothing. Do not treat them as refugees in their own country".

The above from the loquacious Shakespearean actor, more recently the director of Thor, Kenneth Branagh, underscores the paradoxes of war.

Two years later, I caught up with the figure behind the series. Peter Barron, an old acquaintance from my Newsnight days in 1991, who also hired me to work on Channel 4 News from 1997-2001 and is now a senior executive at Google. Peter reflected on the programme.

"It was bold", I said, "What of fact-fiction storytelling?"

It came with huge risks and must be treated with due care, he cautioned.

Last year that latent thought materialised in the shape of photojournalist and self-taught cineist  Danfung Dennis  Battle of Hearts and Mind. ( Please note there's swearing and some scenes could be considered not appropriate for youngsters)




Here was a film that had the affectiveness of cinema wrapped around factivity. Zeitegiest! I interviewed Danfung - an incredibly humble and self-effacing person at the Southbank Centre - as part of a programme for my artist in residency.

Danfung had thrown film form's vividness into a dramaturgical cauldron wrestling verisimilitude . 

By that I mean the notion now of what's real in cine-mode, resurecting debates around neo-realism, and dramatic constructs of  Honore' de Balzac or more recently epic realism of Brecht.

[Added notes next day to clarify: the cinema mode is not just the screen look e.g. Shallow depth of field, but founded on several principles refined since cinema began. Video as a format has struggled with this, read David Bordwell]

Show the two videos side by side to the screen generation in secondary schools and they'll be hard pressed to consider Danfung's piece as verity outrightly. Is that cinema? it looks real one youngster told me during an exchange with a group talking about modern day filming. 

On the night of the awards, I couldn't make it to black tie do, for I was many miles away in Miami at Wemedia, where thanks to the huge support of Dale and Andrew, its founders I was being treated untold generous hospitality - shortlisted in their game changer award.

A year later and a submission would raise the bar, courting a wee bit of controversy from us jurors. but that's for another story.

.. continues next week
End

David Dunkley Gyimah is midway into PhD study on hyermedia film and is a juror member for RTS 2011 Innovation in News Journalism Awards. He lectures at the University of Westminster and publishes Viewmaagazine.tv where he showcases processes and techniques of the digitalisation of film form e.g. Interviewing with former CIA chief.


 

RTS Awards - Television still the place to go

Tomorrow by this time, we'll know who the best news broadcaster in the UK is, with regard to innovation.

In fact I have a strong hunch who it is as one of the juror and the debate we had, but that wouldn't be cricket, so you'll get nowt from me.

But as awards go from the UK's most prestigious: the RTS, what does this tell us, at a time when media is generally having its legs hacksawed.

TV is in great shape!

Well like most things there's always a caveat. TV has turned the corner and the imminent threat has been obtusely exaggerated.

So what of all the new media buffs, chomping to elbow TV aside?

The catch!

It's not the programmes per se, but the device of a mini cinema screen in your living room that looks set to continue to death do you part.

Truth it was never under threat, only the poor substitute for programmes that wash across the screen.

Online video has eaten into some of that market, and TV has itself learned that its virtual upstart is now a partner, like it or leave it.

The fact that the RTS honors the excellence of broadcasters engaging in innovation illustrates how TV has changed in our times and from the two years I have been involved that they (broadcasters) are attempting many ingenius ways at attracting eyeballs.

And that's where if you're a student of news' new media there's comfort. The misnomer with multiskilling was always a dilution of skills. Not so!

At the interstice of videojournalism ( programme making by one person) and Net semiotics is the power of the future broadcaster.

We've only first generation yet, but the trend sees the emergence of a new generation of TV person who straddles the old ( traditionalist) and particularly the new.

Who can find fresh ways of telling that story, while seeking the idea platform. Who isn't just a processor, but leads in the evangelism of story telling that stays longer than the assumed fleeting flashes ascribed by Baudrillard's Ecstasy of Communications

Tomorrow's RTS awards then should be viewed as not just a celebration of television, but for the television new mediast who's more loudly being recognised.

If you're joining TV's la la land, you may want to take stock with your new "jack of all traders, master of all". Your name could well be written on the next award

Rebirthing journalism, storytelling and videojournalism

Judging the RTS Innovation news awards

On Thursday January 14th, I had a moment, mini disruptive epiphanies - a rebirthing of storytelling and journalism. I hope that's not too strong a word.

It started at 10.15.

In central London at RTS' headquarters we sat.

Iain Dale; Toby Castle from ITN; Martin Turner, BBC; Deborah Gorbutt APTN; Phil Wardman and Nart Bouran, under the stewardship of chair Nigel Baker - Vice President of AP's Business Operations in Europe, Middle East and Asia.

The task, to find the UK's most innovative news. And there I must leave this, for the deliberations must remain unspoken until such time as the winner is announced at the awards ceremony in February.

RTS Awards
But what I can say is these awards serve to illustrate a changing face in journalism aided by an assortments of technology and the web.

Last year's winner was Newsnight's 10 Days to War and the year before The Guardian newspaper became the first newspaper to win an RTS with photographer Sean Smith's solo videojournalism work in in Iraq.

Midday as we wrapped I headed off to the South Bank. There we're a week into one of the most extraordinary plays in interdependent interaction. Artists - poets, film makers, musicians - from around the world have gathered to share ideas.

For the past three days I have had the deepest privilege to learn and listen to Mark Cousins, one of the UK's leading film historians, critics and film makers and they've been explosive, yielding new thoughts - a rebirthing.

NewsRewired
By 3 O'clock I had dragged Mark ( sorry mark!) across town to the NewsRewired event.

In the 15 minutes allotted me, I hoped to sow ideas that we could follow up later that looked at the historical, technological and pedagogical sense of videojournalism.

The brief is this. Videojournalism born many years back is badly in need of a debate which explores the pluralism of story telling and how new organisations work within the gaps.

It requires a forum that discusses form and function and how we mine a deeper context for exploring data that matters to you.

I'm grateful for the wonderful feedback on Twitter.

Back at the Southbank and one of the most extraordinary films I have seen in a while, a UK version of boys in the hood meets the Wire, which makes adulthood look very tame.

Quite simply a remarkable film casting non professional actors in a backdrop of grime.

Rebirthing
So why do I allude to a rebirthing?

The debates here, on my PhD programme, and at the university open up an incontrovertible fact in knowledge creation.

That the ideas lay within us but they take on an extraordinary lustre when we dare to step out of our comfort and entertain others to speak.

The Oscars for News - that would be the RTS

The season of awards is nigh.

In no time it'll be the that 34cm statue that will enthral a global TV audience. HurtLocker appears a shoe in for those awards.

Elsewhere away from the glare of cameras one award that will be widely anticipated by UK newsmakers will be the Royal Television Society's Broadcast News Innovation.

To those in the industry, simply the RTS. For other non committals it's easy to describe it as the Oscars, or more relevant to my US friends the Emmys of UK broadcast news.

Last year's horrid economy should bring an extra cheer to 2010. In times of recession, cut backs ensure real creativity, operating on recessionary resources, has its work cut out.

Last year's winner
This year, as lasts, I'll be in a room with 10 or so other industry figures making pronouncements about innovation and who should be deserving of the gong: Broadcast News Innovations Awards 2010.

Last year's victor was indeed a worthy winner: Newsnight's 10 days to freedom. Journalism meets documentary dramatised with some heavy hitting talent such as Kenneth Branagh.

There were a few videojournalism offerings that didn't quite make it; be interesting to see how far videojournalism's come this time around.

This year I don't know yet who's in the runnings and wouldn't tell. Primarily because a sort of Chatham house rule means little is discussed of the procedure. But it's an interesting exercise we travel courtesy of the Chair, in reaching our decisions.

This year though with some luck, I'm hoping to blog something a bit more insightful about the awards, which culminates in the dinner event in the coming months.

I can't say what I'll talk about - something a bit academic - but after speaking with the awards team, I'll know. See you here again.

Shooting drinks at the RTS Awards -Profile Don Omope

Profile Don Omope:

Don in full directorial flare shot some footage from the RTS Awards, which will be used as a package soon.

It's a behind-the-scene film before the announcements of the nominees and winners, and Don gets to show us the au natural look.

I'll post a bit of the footage this week.

Don started out as a TV and Film Undergrad before going off to Goldsmith to earn a Masters in Broadcast Journalism.

I met him at Westminster and we've stayed in touch and done quite a few shoots together. I don't know whether it's mentoring, but it's been good to see how far he's come in confidence and TV making skills.

His doccie from Nigeria is the stuff of nightmares. He dropped by my house with hours to go before boarding the plane and I gave him chapter and verse about what he may face and then the rest was one calamity after another.

The doc was fine, ( it was a grade just short of a First) but the assaults and intimidation he suffered; his driver was beaten, one of his cameras stolen, leaves you feeling lucky to be able to go about your filming business in London.

A couple of the shoots I really admired him for were:

• Dreamgirls - the red carpet. It was mad and bloody cold. Not though he says as cold when he had to spend 11 hours filming in a cemetary.
• Vlog Butterfly - an interview with Head of BBC Multimedia News Peter Horrocks, Don captured the making of the documentary behind the scenes.

Don writing now:

There is no better time to be a video journalist than at present, with cheap equipments and an abundance of stories to tell ... especially when working for and with David one of the 1st video journalist around. The RTS was one of those shoots you attend and you get reminded of how much more ethnic minorities are absent in our media sphere.

And this very much ties in with the current debate taking place next week. You'll kick yourself if you don't turn up.

Newsnight shows a future of journalism

Newsnight's triumph at the RTS Journalism Awards for its programme 10 Days to War, has a larger resonance in television news making.

You can't win em all. In this case me, as whilst I was enjoying 70 degree weather and mixing with the folks at wemedia, I had also forfeited my invitation as a Jury member to the Awards night.

There's a lot I'd like to tell you about this award, and that Viewmgazine.tv has footage from the event, shot by video journalist Don Omope.

That should be up by Monday. See you then.