Broadband - S** off

Big Brother in the news again, but this time one of its execs, Endemol’s (UK) MD of Digital Media, Peter Cowley lamenting how woefully the UK lags behind the US when it comes to made-for-broadband and mobile content.

Now as a programme maker myself who's sat in on a fair few commissioning soirees, there are obvious, small minded as they are, reasons for this.

So before I act out of character I'll say to this to the 2007 generation of programme makers "go yonder and use broadband"

Make those programmes, club together, become a tour de force. Find that job, but please do not foresake a frontier wide open to stake your claim because your employee of potential one thinks little of it.

Something I remember saying at the Front Line Club, you are the brand now, and woe betide anyone telling you you can't cut it. Because if you think differently and strongly about it there is a market ready to debunk that assumption.

So why we are lacking? Would you entertain the idea of a super Teso being built in your backyard if you were the only major super market in town? Those who get this would rather keep quite. Actually it's not even that. Many prog makers still see the Net/Broadband as a piddly little indulgence for geeks.

Hey did you see that girl swallow her eyeball and then place it back in on Youtube

er sorry where did you see that on the tube... that's disgusting @$^!!

No.. youtube

Ahh that!

Many execs will give short shrift, but you only have to look at figures like Kevin Sites, JD Lassica and Cairo Live which ranks in the top 20,000 in the world.. that's enormous traffic and power for an individual.

And the future we're entering is about personlisation. I don't say TV will die, but the more great content you see online (you're probably already spending a fair few minutes travelling the blog rounds), then the less time you have to make an appointment with TV.


Sheduled programming will come in for a pasting, so go to broadband and wreak professionalism. Viva la BB

Steady David!

Ohhhh noooo! Big Brother

I'm no cultural snob, nor is my lack of watching the most suucessful show on earth got anything to do with high brow-low brow, but that simply I just don't watch Big Brother and neither have I blogged it until today.

Watching Ms Goody on News of the World's (NOTW) interview yielded a couple of thoughts.

Should she be forgiven.. should she not is not what I'm onto here, but the footage of her crying.

Ms Goody is news, more so in her contrition state. There's many a headlines and newspapers to sell charting her come back, so NOTW will make a few bob from selling her film interview around the world, not to mention the newspaper interview (ah we'll see)

But the bit where she's breaking down and invoking the symapthy of viewers towards her children is a point many in her position would have made. And you have to feel for her, but the starkness of the edit smacks of some kind of cynicism to manipulate.

In part it's television news' failure for context and also for Ms Goody's PR team, which behind the camera will be be partly controlling what you and I see. There's too much at stake in cash signs and earnings for many attached to the Goody empire. The millionairess however would have final say.

Looking helpless with full blown tears tends to work, but this is a gamble. Ms Goody has already attracted attention as a master manipulator. She would have been aware of what she was up to in the BB House, even if you can attribute some of her antics to a lapse in judgement.

Had Shilpa been evicted, in her mind it would have probably vindicated the comments she meted out.

In the film Broadcast News William Hurt's character reveals how to cry on cue. No suggestion Ms Goody did so much, but remember she's got the editing say.

I'd like to see the footage after the interview camera stopped rolling, and if I was seriously demented, the conversation with her aides would go something like this

Goody: Was that alwrite?
Team: Yes, I think you nailed it
Goody: Wasn't a bit too much?
Team: noooo, I think you got the balance just right
Gooody: But you dont fink it makes me look stoopid or something
Team: We'd be the first to tell you
Goody watches footage: Yeah that's strong. I fink my makeup's running though?
NOTW: Thanks Jade, you were great. Ring you tomorrow to talk about the other things
Jade and team leave
NOTW team asked by others: So what do you think?
NOTW Team: Beeep, beeeeeep, beep she hasn't got a beeep beep beeeeep beep.

Expect a fair newspaper commentators to weigh in, firstly because they'll be running spoilers against the NOTW and how they judge what their readers want to hear, and secondly, this issue isn't closed as the UK's Race Czar Trevor Phillips is keeping the affair alive asking for heavy censure against the BB team and Channel 4's exec.

But you can bet BB will be back.. oh yeas!

Those to watch out for

Been enjoying looking at a range of work from extraordinary video journalists and multimedia gurus. Some I'm aware of Naka Nathaniel, bloody nice guy as well; JeJen Friedberg http://www.jenfriedberg.com/ David J. Leeson-pulitzer prize winner
Mindy McAdams- journalist & author and online journalism educator; Joe Weiss- developer of Soundslides, a multimedia authoring application; Cynthia O'Murchu www.wideopenmedia.co.uk; Ruud Elmendorp; Kevin Sites; and Rob Curly

Make it go away

"We've got to get back to basics. We've got to get back to basics. We've got to get back to basics".

A refrain I'm hearing more and more. A backlash to the new deal in a cyncial attempt to play out the last vestiges of our worth as old time journalists or that simply there's a fundamental flaw in the production of today's journos.

Like most things perhaps a bit of both. If journos can't write what good is a blog. If they don't know structure sod any multimedia wizzardry they're likely to produce. If you're an educationist I can hear you already: "here here!"

If you're outside of that, phlurh! What's the fuss about?

The exclusively mutual worlds of traditional vs new seem poles apart, yet in the ever revolving door of innovation one thing seems clear: an understanding of the foundations; the building blocks of journalism, that which provides us with a moral and ethical compass as well as a hearty understanding of how to tell a story.

Foundation came up as a talking point at the Broadcast Journalism Training Council meeting at the BBC. The BBC is soon to launch a scheme, still in draft phase so Chatham House rules, that will give a leg up to new journos entering the profession.

Meanwhile my podcast interview with City University's head of journalism, Adrian Monck reveals his thinking about how the basics influence everything else. Sort of guess what? All this new media stuff wil not do away with the fundamentals.

Its is the new black and I doubt we've heard the last if its universal utterance so early in the year. Only thing is will ex-Tory Prime Minsiter John Major be swept back into power. Seems his slogan is finally catching on

Podcast lectures for uni students

"A lecturer at a West Yorkshire university has abolished traditional lectures in favour of podcasts.
Dr Bill Ashraf, a senior lecturer in microbiology at Bradford University, says the move will free up time for more small group teaching."

This from bbc news

At the beginning of my teaching semester, I posted a blec ( web lecture) or Wele (A web lecture designed to be in the wiki format, though still some work to be done on the Wiki part). But it remains one of the most accessed pages from my logs.

It's probbaly not making my work any easier, but it is a transcript almost of the lecture I'm giving with various links for students. The pod has a much better ease of production, but , and these are issues students will likely grapple with.

1. Can it replace the lecture. No, but that's not what Dr Ashraf is saying
2. The quality of the lecture now resides on a new variable - how good is your pod. Other presentation skills come into play
3. What do the echelons of the university think about it?

"Your giving away trade secrets" is the refrain. On the other side of the spectrum, the University of Westmintser's out going vice chancellor, Dr Geoffrey Copland believes soon everything wil be open souce, and even podded - a direction that's been taken by the Open University.

At a Wiki Wednesday meeting in central london - a gathering of hard core wiki enthusiasts - I met a technician from Ravensbourne College who said they'd be using podcasts, so Dr Ashraf may not be the first, however certainly it appears to be the fiirst time it's been reported on.

I am hoping to catch Dr Asraf for a chat, if his inbox isn't full of requests which it probably is. Skype? Well yes except most unis firewalls don't allow skype penetration.

We'll get there. First few steps by Dr Ashraf. Giant leap follows.

James Brown is dead. Long live the JBs

Very sad news indeed. I never met the Godfather, but by proxy, like millions was touched. I hope to write a fuller article soon, digging into my vinyl collection from the King label and the whole fraternity of the jbs, Lynn Collins, Fred Wesley, Maceo whom I had one of my best interviews with.

"When Mr Brown turned round and waved his finger at you as if he were conducting, he was actually docking your wages", says Maceo Parker.

This is obviously not how the hardeest working would want to be recognised, but it's what I remember most from that interview. James Brown is dead. Long live the King (label). Long live the JBs.

The Law of Averages and Success

"So where would you like to be in ... say 5 years time?"

The clocks ticking away. Your palms begin to secrete even more. You're sitting opposite 3 figures. One's fidgetting with a pen, the other gazing at you as if you're about to confess a crime, and the interlocutor is waiting.

"I would like to be an editor"

There's a pregnant silence.

1 MINUTE EARLIER - DEJAVU
"So where would you like to be in ... say 5 years time?"

Clocks ticking. . .

"I would like to be a foreign reporter

Silence. .

OK PEOPLE CAN WE SCRUB THE TIMELINE BACK EVEN FURTHER I'M READY THIS TIME.

'So where would you like to be in ... say 5 years time, David?"

I don't ****ing know. What the **** do you think I am a futurologist. If I said I wanted your job. You'd think I was an arrogant a***. If I pitch myself any lower, you'll think I lack ****ing ambition, so where do I wanna be in 5 years. Truth? Doing something I love doing. Being successful at what I do.. Yeah, not because of you. But because of the hard work, I'm going to put in and the law of averages.

SILENCE

I walked out of the interview room thinking that's what I would really like to say, but I'm weak and feeble. My final answer was average. My clenched fist almost made it past my oesophagus.


There is ambition; what we love doing; drive; bloody mindedness; and the law of averages.

A loose assessment (1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8 seconds, there!) leads me to a conclusion - how we so easily misconstrue and become determinants at what they mean.

Ambition is good in the US. In the 80s it took on a more aggressive persona: "Greed is Good"- ala Wall Street's Michael Douglas' character.

In the UK ambition is to be left in the fridge with the half used can of beans. We all love doing something and working in the media has a high "I love my job quotient". But here too there are tacks on the floor. How much do I love you to want to stay on late and impress the editor who will remember my radiant chuckly reply when I spoke of drive, and combed my thoughts which screamed "Bloody mindedness".

We all want success: to be the best postman, most accomplished burglar, and a good journalist. And we'll do what we can legally to get there. But we're lumped into an ecosystem which rewards the antithesis to that we deem good character.

B****... HE IS A RIGHT W******
My diary shows I uttered those words possibly 1 trilion times in the beginning of my employ. Well actually I didn't but I must have heard it amongst the small gathering around the coffee machine.

There can be few professions in the world that are so personality driven, residing on ego ( in varying dollops) and insecurity.
And it's this unhealthy mix that is in part the daily catalyst to spring step to work to the sound of music, walk, then drag feet by midday.

But we love it. Many of us wouldn't do anything less. This is no place for shrinking violets my boss told me. Er what did he mean? I had no idea what he meant. Translation, if you can't shout about what you do, then no one will do it for you. Actually the more succesful ones are more tactful about how that's done. Oh yes and at some point you're gonna be loathed. Fancy becoming a manager?

Email 13.17 Sunday
As you know Jim there was a slight problem with the edit that carrie should have dealt with so we went back. Did you see that item on Ar** irrigation on Newsnight's newsbelt?

Inference: The sods working late again, post 10.30. No 11 that's when their newsbelt's on. Gosh how ambitious can you get? And look at the time of the email. **** off and die.

In part, the green mist could quite easily descend on me on these ocassions. But what was it that I/we felt envious about? Them or my lack of that killer "et tu brutus" stroke doing the same thing. I didn't want to

The web cohabits this wierd and wonderful world of contradictions. More so because of our abilty to interact, scrum and thwack that arrogant journalist/writer back in the face. Particularly joyous if it's the paper or journo you love to hate.

But as the new superstars of the web are showing, the old personal human traits so prevalant in the media are showing no signs of abating. One major differences is that this new group have had a rather meritocratic rise in blogospshere based on you, I and my pet dog sparky who would bark when he saw Amanda Congdon on Rocketboom.

No where would you like to be in say years; no where did you go to school; no er, we already have a person with a disability, ethnic background, er whatever in the workforce. This time it's me and you. Our blogs, the quality of them, our youtube videos, flick pics, sniper-edge pods say more about us than anyone could.

Yeeeeees, (i'm squirming) and No (very abruptly !)

Jon Snow on my reel produces the biggest reaction to this schizo-mania. Those who know me, will probably have guessed what it means, that when I sit down the chairs don't illuminate. Of the student's I know and have had the pleasure or working with, I can't imagine a more crass intro walking firstly into a lecture. Not because of what Mr Snow says, but by actually believing it.

C'mon...

But the Snow effect, a visual CV, the equivalent of those pithy comments for the paperback you're planning is a proxy vote of sorts, a short cut if you like Snow to cutting the author some slack, a grandfathering ping

Grandfathering?

Three pieces of advice passed to me, passed on. When considering a career into the media.

Find yourself a grandmother/grandfather - a mentor.

If your dad happens to be Michael Grade, mentor? They'll be coming to you? I was once paying a brief visit to the home of a very powerful TV exec. She sat me down with a cup of tea and begun to tell me about how I should work hard to get where I wanted and then segued into a tale of her daughter.

"Gosh she works so hard. She's just finished two attachments and even the Managing Director's are calling asking if she want to come back", she said gushing.

Yep, musn't be judgemental. her daughter probabaly did sit down to Gustav Holst's The Planets in Full Score, but it didn't seem illogical that the reason also her daughter was being pursued... you get it!

But grandfathers/ mothers have a place, and self belief as well. One of the professions I advocate to anyone/friends e.g. journalist aspiring journalist is to teach.

Because a) I'm finding I can shortcut all the ***p I went through by hopefully passing something on
b) the first time you stand in class you're as naked as the day you were born. If what you're saying doesn't make sense, watch out. Furthermore, there are no airs and grace in the lecture just what I refer to as the cauldron.

Everyone is equal, our respect reciprocated. It's an assymetric coms line, where often the more you're pressed, the more you learn about yourself. The more you learn about yourself, the more you want to push further.

I worked at so many outlets in my broadcasting career that I lost touch, and while a quick flash at my CV may look dandy, it's in part a card trick; huge highs followed by lows. In the UK in 92 I couldn't fnd work in the UK, so relocated to South Africa, ploughing townships and the most aweful places for a story. In 97 I emerged from an agency disillusioned and then like everyone else probbaly goes through badgered enough people to get work, in 2002 having dusted down the last year's general election, I begun to question whether this is what I really wanted to do.

And then I had a idea - viewmagazine.tv though it wasn't called it then. here's an early incarnation if you're interested.

The law of averages says this it's a big numbers game. The 5 percenters. The more we play in the field, the more we're likely to get the ball. Success is relative. Hah I was once touted in the Evening Standard as some doer. What i want to do is pay my mortgage. The law of averages says in this ecosystem where there's a lot of back/foreground noise, find something you're good at and keep doing it. The law of averages says it's a big bell curve, that only a few will make it, a large percentage of us will do ok and a small amount will... well.

The law of averages says those who work hard will be rewarded and the best reward is that which you like doing, whatever that is

I want my newsnight

So have your ever been watching BBC Newsnight and thinking I can do that. Well you can but Doh it's too late, at least this round to do anything.

Oh my Newsnight. . . er, yes, Oh My News . . . has you submitting to this bastion of British news your own take on events.
Sorry MAJIs and PGDipers, I missed this.

But it was brought to my attention by a journalist in South West Britain who I had the pleasure of coaching on the finer points of DIY TV.

This is an early piece, demonstrating her prowess as a young print journo turned video journalist . She shot everything her self.

Her email to me ff:

Hello david

Following my VJ training I made a very short film which was selected by BBC Newsnight... 13 films are on the Newsnight website and the 5 videos with most votes will be broadcast on Newsnight in January. Fingers crossed!

If you have time, it would be nice if you could watch my video and give me any construictive criticism (I know there will be a lot!). I hope you are not too disappointed. It is very much presenter-led which is unusual for me as I'm normally so shy but I hope my shots are ok, it was made in a day and a half!

My Video has been (re)named CARBON, it is number 7 on the page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/2006/12/oh_my_newsnight_the_shortlist_1.html

Briefly; I had a week off and a trip to Poland fell through cause I was broke so shot it in a couple of days. Edited it at work with pinnacle (YUCK! finally got final cut pro on my mac thank goodness). Looking to move onto docs next.

Thanks
Alice

My reply... well now that's a job well done. Second real piece and makes it onto the deck of newsnight.. can't be bad.
Now for my offline chat with Alice.. er sorry, thank you but this is er a bit private..

p.s you could go vote for Alice or frankly anyone of the ones you think are good

er, X factor

It's pointless.Unavoidable. Despite slaving over my mac peering across the fields wondering how i'm going to cut my next film, on either side of the divide the din from the x-factor is proving a distraction.

I haven't heard much thus far. Am I really in a minority? But OMG for sheer songbirdness ( is that a word?) last week was good for me.

In a studio in central London, an audio specialists chuckles and fades up one of 12 buttons marked "drums", "vocals" . . and the rest.

When this track was first released it garnered such awesome reviews, you wondered what could better it. Well it betters itself. Marvin Gaye's" What's going on" stripped to its barebones in a surround sound studio is concert hall music personified.

Angels singing. Then slowly the mixer fades up thevarious data tracks, horns, etc. Sweet sweet music, but not to an industry last week clenching its first to move judgement on the retention of copyright past 50 years.

The reasons, livelihood of course but its also reminded me of a skewed debate at a digital media dinner. Call it the Mickey Mouse factor. Does copy/trade mark rights around this mouse encourage or discourage creativity?

Do current methods of retaining our creations spark new ideas or suffocate them? Is the mash up culture minor larceny dressed up as collaborations?

Me, I dunno.

But I am set on seeing how I get my paws on that Marvin track and . . . . listening to some real xfactor

The circuit

I exchanged a Q and A with Nelson Mandela and later shook hands in South Africa. I interviewed Moby in Wash DC; Fela Kuti proved alongside George Clinton to be the baddest interviews in London; and former head of the CIA James Woolsey provided a fascinating insight to me of his profession.

In Turkey diving 50m to WWI wrecks of Gallipoli, the ensuing interview with Ian Hamilton's grand nephew ( Ian Hamiton was the Commander in Chief of the campaign) was engaing to say the least.

Last week I added a further name. To many he floats on air. Similarly many of us will not know his name. He is Hillman Curtis. A Flash designer who in the late 90s revolutionsed an industry. To many in the design world he is one of the Masters of Flash and last Tuesday we spoke at length on camera, courtesy of Charles Amponsah from Reeltime productions behind the camera.

Why was I so enthralled? Hillman has now turned his hand to video and in a short space of time has reworked his aesthetic into something which could pull an audience to pay-to-view.

The ocassion was Flash on the Beach and the line up... well, honestly I was gratifed to be asked to present, looking at Next Generation TV. Thank you to everyone and their kind words afterwards.

If the highlight was Hillman Curtis, and Neville Brody, then Chris Orwig is someone I would like to package into a pill. Take one a day. Awesome presentation, indelible energy.

As the rest of the last couple of weeks go, it's been Digital Hollywood where I showed a short I made about how universities will shape up in he future; at the Front Line Club, Digital technolgy and the future was the theme; and a couple of articles here and there, and some great work from different cohorts of students.

I now feel the book I wanted to write is starting to write itself. Looking forward, we've only just begun. . . The strive towards a newer system to occupy the old wll feed my leftfield mind.

Our life

James rolled from his bed, Kate stared at the clock wishing some type of mystic gaze would freeze its progress.

Grey clouds materialising from the night, one the shape of a goose and her many goslings broke Sheryl's concentration on the island of Ayia Napa. Change of scene imminent she thought.

And then in this part of the hemisphere as if the world population of ants had, in unison, made that trill sound, barely audible, but magnified and dampened in the human hearing range sounds like computer bytes, ones and zeros at war, the world exploded.

7.00 - It's a beautiful Day ( U2 playing)

"Today's lecture will examine an aspect of Ferma's Theorem"
" Can we use people's genes to id them or what about their isp, when their voice protocol claims they want anonymity"
"An evaluation of journalism in 2009 showed the biggest spike in interest levels but also the most unsettling period of strikes and despair in the profession".

Tseeet tttt eeeek bleeepp!

" Hi james. Hi Kate. Hi to anyone joining us on quiet mode. My name's Sheryl I see some of you have opted for journalism and technology. I'm going virtual so if you want to join please switch on your green room so I can take you to the journalism zone".

Sheryl dance-all-night is a solo lecturer - a new breed of independent teachers gilded to the teeth with computer skills to teach online, inside the grid. It is an experience so far removed from the present that cohorts of the 2027 real world skills experience chortle at the crude methods used some 15 years ago.

2027: Tuesday/ second quad/inside the green zone/ grid 45...

James: " Ok I'm in.. sorry where are you.. ah see you!

The technology is so simple in its elegance that generations in the 20th century would have clamoured for its use. In 2015 digicorps companies started seling of green space - essentially virtual reality backdrops - so anyone with a tetra computer could buy, access their space and interact with anyone else given the right coordinates.

This is Second Life gone mad, but the real k.app is the input sensor attached to your ear and eye pod allowing you to experience whatever it is, wherever it is without having to leave your home.

Terra computers you could say rule the world. Imposing edifices- universities- a feature of modernity but born from the womb of early civilisation, where the Platos and Socates held court in designated ampitheatres with select groups worthy of the knowledge, are no more.

Welcome to the new world.

David Dunkley Gyimah writes: It's only fiction so steady on before I start getting hate mail, but this emerging world had me thinking after interviewing the University of Westminster's Vice Chancellor Dr Geoffrey Copland about the future of Unis after I'd been invited to speak about the subject at the forthcoming digital
hollywood forum.

What the VC had to say took my breadth away. You'll have to watch it to understand that my active imagination hasn't made up all of the above. The future for Dr Copland is students logging on to their courses via handhelds, devising their own curriculum, education has become open source - anyone and everyone can attend. . . and so on.

In a small way that's almost happening, Blogs and blecs have become an interesting guide for the class of 2006 to discover how their colleagues around the country are doing.

Victoria, James, David, Ruth and Rachel and their contact with Adam Westbrook firstly via blogs and then in person, plus some other interesting stuff they intend to do is the forerunner to
open source new transparency.

The virtual bit is my imagination gone silly again. I went into a green room last week and got viewmagazine as the backdrop. What emerged from conversations with the technical manager is that within a couple of months I should be able to walk down a corridor of pages and pull out links while having a live chat with users.

Ahh technology.

"Ping"
"Radio 4 . That's all from Sunday with me Roger Bolton. Join me next week on Sunday, untill then goodbye. . .

"I just had the wierdest dream about some future technobable stuff"

music journalism

There's only so much you can do on a PGDip course, but one area I have given some thought to is Music Journalism.

Today I got to clearing out some junk and trawled through one, then another, then. . . LPs. Yes those black plastic discs with tunes grooved in em.

Gosh despite my penchant for all things techy, my LPs are one vestige of yesterday that I can't shake. I can barely play em. My record players taking leave of of its functioning sense. Yes I could buy a new one, but nostalgia would rather have me admire the things.

Bobby Byrd, Lynn Collins, mostly of all James Brown's stuff from the 60s/70s/80s, Shalamer.... Shalamer ! Oh dear that brings back memories dancing at Soul Train

The heady days of music journalism: NME, The Face, ID, Blues and Souls, Paul Moss, Julie Burchill, Punk, The Smiths, Pogues, Chilli Peppers, Nirvana and you can fill in the rest.

It's not that anything worthy isn't happening at the mo. That's a **** nonsence. It's all relative. My mother would have me believe Bing Crosby turned water to gold.
,
Yep I'd be as much into Snow Patrol, Razorlight, Beyonce, Music undergrad Nancy Ginindza and at some time I'm looking forward to one of PGDip Journo Ruth Owen's gig. Maybe it's just that I can't go three days without food, sleeping in the same clothes and a bottle of Sam Miguel which lasts me just as much ( I don't really drink) in pursuit of toones, which leaves me bereft of feeling it...

But somehow I feel that living it breathing it ethos of music journo'sm has waned. Although George Skafidas', a 05 Masters student would beg to differ with this site, more than sounds

So how do we make this work and could it? Kienda Hoji - head of commercial music is all for it. His newly created Faculty Records - the only label within a uni is one reason why Music Journalism as a module makes sense. So what do we do next?
It's not up to me, but suggestions on a LP cover pushed under my door.

Long way up and a short fall down

Be careful what you do climbing the media ladder, cuz it could lead to an almighty fall down

Not as many articles this week on viewmag as I would have wanted to, but a busy week and even busier next, when I hope to introduce an aspect of the outernet onto view that had me jumping up and down like a three year old.

Thursday was interesting, the debate about technology and freelancing at the Front Line Club, chaired by CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Hoping to post this soon after some work on it. Name dropped a good friend into the debate, Riz Khan - a keen advocate of digital technology - and now one of the big names at Al Jazeera.

When I got home I emailed him and then what emerged from our emailings to and fro was a story he kept modestly quiet about. We spoke about technology and programme making while editing a programme about the Hajj one evening and he mentioned "Oh there might be an Al Jazeera international".

Might be!@$$%$% It now emerges he started it all... well AJ approached him and he sounded out a few people, got in contact with an old manager friend and the rest is history. Humility... If you've ever met Riz, you'd understand. He'd walk into a room unassuming and beam with an extended arm the words: "hello I'm Riz Khan".

The fact that he was interviewing Bill Gates or some president earlier makes no difference to his attitude and "joe-us".

It is a lesson indeed. As journalists, seen on TV or what have you, we are no different from anyone else. The shop keeper sells essential commodities, we sell information.

But as we walk throough the corridors of this profession, we meet those who believe themselves too worthy of anyone's presence other than similar celebrities. Ah well...

And so off to aerobics again and then back to finish off a chapter on my nameless book. Hello to you if we met at Front Line and a hearty thank you to those that organised it all

Will freelancer rule the broadcast world?

Will advances in broadcast technology lead to more and more freelance journalism? In a nutshell this is the debate being held at the Front Line Club today, which honours emerging talent through its Kurt Schork award.

Chaired by CNN’s inveterate broadcaster Christiane Amanpour this question is the low hanging fruit. There will be room to explore deeper questions, but the answer is unequivovcal: yes.

Why? Because the monopoly that consolidated broadcasting, particularly television engineered at its inception has finally been broken.

Historians will note how TV emerged more or less from the bowels of radio, which in turn was heavily linked to engineering firms producing the nuts and bolts of broadcast production and distribution.

It was and still is an incredibly highly politically charged medium, so only few, very few deep-pocketed, politically connected companies could afford to buy their way into the gathering and distribution of the message.

Manufacturing receiving equipment was a cinch; herein is the asynchronous relation in broadcasting that held back johnny-have-a-go.

The Net changes all that. The production of low cost cameras and editing gear changes all that. The ability to travel by air at monstrously low costs compared to the advent of air travel changes the scene; the allure of broadcasting and fame by proxy in journalism alters the mediascape; the deconstruction of media – a more televisual aware public as witnessed through citizen journalism - provides an understanding for changing times

Ironically, the debate comes as I’m emerging from intense contact with newspaper journalists turning to video journalism to up the content game. The BBC [no less than a DG team I'm told] sent a video journalism team to look at the Press Association and the programme I helped them set up.

More on that in a later blog. This programme may not necessarily yield more freelancers but undoubtedly there are increasingly more journalists in the field with the stock to become their own brand.

I have spoken about this in articles on viewmgazine.tv and I note that broadcaster and journalist Andrew Neil said that much at last week’s society of editors meeting.

We now have the tools to do just about anything: radio, TV. Web, . . . quinne media .

And a new generation of technologically fearless, multiskilled, journalists are emerging who will push their own brand if they can’t find work or the working conditions of employers appears Victorian.

There is a greater subtext to the debate by Institute of War and Peace Reporting held on the day when they're honouring Kurt Schork – a highly experienced journalists - and there are many other names that we must pay tribute to.

Comrades who have fallen in action by merely doing their job. More recently Martin Adler – another highly experienced freelancer was short dead in Mogadishu.

The absence of readily accessible broadcast news from some of the world’s most notorious hot spots is one good reason for skilled and unskilled freelancers to make the region their own. If anything it provides a steady stream of stories plus income and sates the appetite of the curious in peeling back the complexities of an area’s politics.

That much led me to South Africa in 1992, armed with a uher and sony recorder to report from among others Katlehong – then the world’s murder capital.

Award winning video journalist Ruud Elmendorp one of the industry’s most skilled journalist started life off as a freelancer 6 years ago reporting from Central Africa. Today , the calibre of his work has led to more clients taking his pieces, but he still freelances, and each time he’s out on a story he must keep his wits about him.

This raises deeper questions of security and safety. If more experienced journalists can find their life in peril, what more those just entering the profession equipped, yes, with modern day broadcasting equipemt – dv camer and alaptop.

Some organsiations provide cover for their bona fide freelance journalists. That's security awareness, insurance, bullet proof vests et al, but for every freelancer in the bossom of a network broadcaster, there are many clamouring to suckle.

The reality is simple. There are more journalists that jobs in are industry – 100,00 grads in total with only 20,000 jobs available in a year according to BBC network’s radio 1 – a station for the 15-35s.

It’s unlikely this number will improve as more centres of journalism set up. And so statistically speaking we can presumably expect more casualties. What can we do?

Does the industry need to get together to address this? That’s just one question that I’d be interested in hearing more about today.

Make her famous

Sitting on a train wifing, my mind drifts away from all things journalistic. C'mon - there is life beyond those borders. Nancy Ginindza - a talented musician comes to mind.

I abs love her music and have used its power to convey visuals from videos I have directed including a vastly downloaded vid on Iraq with photos by award winning Yannis Kontos.

So its simple, please make her famous. Because, well, one way or another she will be. Savour this.

+++

Meanwhile Shirley Thompson, a phenom composer has just reurned from Broadway scoring for Push. You can listen to the themes on her debut CD New Nation Rising which she's kindly let me use to mix with Yannis' reel for his award ceremony. go to viewmagazine.tv

The Tao of TV

About to post a video of me reporting on London's commercial TV Network. It's a finance and got me thinking about a myriad things.

This week the BBC held out an olive branch to newspaper publishers saying it would accept their footage, presumably alluding more favourably to "local TV"

The deal is this. The BBC with is division of video journalists has spotted a tier lower than regional TV to sell its wares. The same has been made of ITV.

Local TV is set to become a battle ground for eyes and advertising. The latter is something the BBC has no worries over, but that leaves local newspapers apoplectic with rage.

Eyes = advertising. The piece I'm posting says that much. Big sponsors now have music events firmly sowed into the corporate strategy. To have you brand flown across Glastonbury et al guarantees the ad team get the wink of approval from the CEO.

The newspapers have gone on their own offensive. Meanwhile ITN multimedia brand ( a quiet evolution) continues to grow and its online sites - localising their reach - are caching and pushing their assets.

So I'm back to video again. I'll deconstruct this for media students in the context of how video journalism may have approached this later. But meanwhile here goes. There's a bigger story in this.

Game Over - there's no such thing as broadcasting

A month ago I spoke about the erosion of singular disciplines, how the difference between broadcast and print student was soon to vanish. Was I a bit too prescient? The news this week is of a meeting of minds between the NCTJ and BJTC.

"The National Council for the Training of Journalists has said it is to work more closely with the Broadcast Journalism Training Council as the demand for multi-skilled, multi-media journalists increases". according to Hold the Front Page .

I was locked into lecturing at the time so could not attend the monthly BJTC meeting for which I am one of the members to report on this. But I'll be catching up with our secretary Jim latham et al to bring you greater detail.

Make no mistake this is a landmark moment - an irrevocable change to the media in defining what constitutes a newspaper journalist and broadcaster.

If you're a print student reading this. It's now the industry that's changing, not the imagination of those who pass you by in the corridors. Is this good news? You could easily argue course not, but it is change that's taking place.

007 and some

Casino Royale starts its rounds to flush out the fakes. 007 is the real deal and with a new Bond at the helm you can bet your last hand, movie bosses will be going big on this. So I wanted to know what the real intel chiefs thought. This interview was recorded before Casino Royale was slated but gives a good impression of the life of real 007 agents.

I appreciate EX CIA chief, James Woolsey, for giving me his time in Washington DC.

Meanwhile is it video journalism or not and what makes good vj - the debate apparently was a key issue at the Society of Eds meeting in Glasgow. I couldn't go but here's my 20 second take.

There is vjism by dint of one person holding a camera and then there's vjism that seeks to create a new lingua franca to that which dominates traditional TV. Put simply there are photographers and very good ones and there are photojournalists. One must capture the moment for the front page. The other attempts to contextualise a reportage with an appropriate shot. They're both snappers. There are VJs and Vjs - both do a job. I would like to think man with a movie camera ( geddit) is re-inventing/breaking rules.

What is this... ?

I had in mind today to speak to someone I have a lot of respect for after sharing a podium with him in the US last year. Naka Nathaniel works for the New York Times, as a Video Journalist /writer etc and is just about to set off to Dafur.

This time with his correspondent Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for The NYT they're providing a piggy back for NBC. Naka and Kristof have been to Dafur a number of times and its mightly encouraging to see that his newspaper continues to bring news of the region to its readers through Naka and Nicholas' efforts.

I started off recording the session with this contraption above. It is state of the art mp3 and if you've ever used a uher before this really is like way beyond anything.

Half way through however and the devices capture card gave up ( hahaha ) I hear you snigger. So we switched to skype and a nifty device called audio capture that allows you to record sound coming out of your mac. The free version only allows ten minutes a pop, but its worth a future investment.

So to the questions.. Naka talks about video journalism and a question being adressed by the Front Line Club about freelance journalism and the future.

Join in the debate nearer the time when I hope to put up a range of views forward for us to discuss.

Science woes

British Students shunning science screams the headlines. Notwithstanding the brilliant number of scientists in academia and industry, perhaps a more acute bit of navel gazing is required.

My first attempt to continue my science studies- a degree in Chemical Engineering - ended in tragedy. After three weeks on the course at a uni I won't name crammed into a class of 60 plus, with a lecturer who was so monumentally unispiring it was time to leave.

But the real worries was the p**s poor salaries on offer back in the 80s and I doubt its changed much. I'll post a feature piece I made for BBC Reportage, The Brain Drain.

Verdcit: many students, researchers were high tailing to the US where they receive more money and recognition.

Until somebody adresses this and the bias to business qualifications ( media is a belated fad) then the UK will continue to haemorrhage.

Incidently I did complete my degree in Applied Chemistry but by the time I'd got passed my second year, I'd already begun freelancng for BBC radio, realising the sciences and all the additional maths, integration, Newtonian mechanics, organic chemistry was not for me - as a career.

This morning I have just been looking at my notes from Uni on Nucleophilic attacks