MULTIMEDIA MEETS RADIO

Why Kate Adie hates blogs

A gloriously sunny day in Stockholm was drawing to an end and I was enjoying dinner on a restaurant ship cruising to the historic Royal Palace at Drottningholm. I spent the evening admiring the scenery, enjying the food and arguing with Kate Adie about the merits of blogging.

Kate is instantly recognisable to most Brits and a household name. The only way I can think of describing her is as a sort of cross between Dan Rather and Dame Flora Robson as Lady Bracknell.

During her quarter of a century as the BBC’s chief correspondent, Kate reported from many of the world’s trouble spots.

There used to be a joke among British servicemen that when Kate arrived in town, they knew something serious was happening. To TV viewers she became famous as much for her steely gaze and no nonsense style of questioning, as the trademark flak jacket she wore when filing from war zones.

There I was tucking into my shrimp salad and listening to one of my heroes, a living icon of broadcast journalism in Britain, dismissing my blog as “egotistical nonsense.” She didn’t actually mention my blog, of course, but that is how it felt.

Emboldened perhaps by the Chardonnay, I pointed out that although my audience can be measured in the dozens, there is interest nonetheless in what I have to say. I know I have an audience because they post comments on my blog and send me e-mails.

Tools like Statcounter tell me where my audience is based, how long they spend on the site and whether they come back again.

By the time our pudding arrived, Kate had admitted that what she really objected to was not so much weblogs, as the idea that journalists should spend their "precious time" writing about how they obtained their stories:

“You are blogging to a peer group - that's all right - I can understand there is a demand for that. But journalists shouldn't have any time to blog - there are too many stories waiting to be told!”

The other thing that Kate objects to is BBC managers who blog during working hours. Their weblogs, she maintains, are proof they have nothing better to do.

I am not mentioning any names.

The one thing Kate and I did agree on was that radio is having, in her words, “a wonderful resurgence.” As the audiences for TV news tumble, the numbers turning to the radio for in-depth analysis are growing.

Kate told me that in the early 1980s, something like 15 million viewers watched the BBC’s flagship evening news bulletin. Nowadays, the figure is closer to three million.

What caught Jonathan's eye

It is almost as difficult to imagine the IBC conference without Jonathan Marks as it is to picture the Netherlands without windmills. You simply expect to see this big, jovial man wandering the corridors of the Rai Congress Centre - certainly, there was expectation aplenty among the more than 100 delegates who crowded into the conference room to watch Jonathan's fourth annual "What caught my eye" session.

And they were not disappointed. Jonathan expertly mixed PowerPoint slides with short films to discuss trends and pick out some of the more interesting gadgets on show at this year's IBC exhibition.

For those of you who don't know him, Jonathan does training, production and also plays devil's advocate to several media companies, questioning their strategies, but at the same time preparing alternative scenarios for what technology is making possible. He recently set up Broadcasters Without Borders to save lives by improving the flow of information to communities devastated by natural disasters.

Jonathan began his session by highlighting a dilemma facing many radio reporters: now that DAT is dead and the Sony Pro no longer in production, where can they get hold of robust, easy-to-use and reliable flash recorders? To compound matters, many people, including Jonathan, are predicting that the demise of the MiniDisc player is imminent.

"And yet, the majority of the MP3 players and recorders are actually designed to play back music and not to stick under the nose of a politician," noted Jonathan.

The problem with several of the wonderful, new solutions being touted at the IBC is that they are way beyond the budget of most freelancers. Jonathan described some of the others as "Rolls Royces with only three wheels - the people who have designed them have never made a programme to a deadline."

One piece of technology that Jonathan singled out for praise was Technica del Arte's mobile phone-based solution. Like Jonathan, I think they have got it right and while the 650 Euros price tag may deter some budding reporters, it costs significantly less than rival solutions.

Jonathan highlighted three trends during his hour-long talk.

Firstly, radio no longer had a single future. The UK had embraced DAB, South Korea had said yes to DMB, with China likely to follow suit, satellite radio was booming in the US, while Finland and some other European countries were leading the way with DVB-H.

But India and many of the countries that make up the African continent were only now discovering what local FM analogue radio could do for the economy and culture of their cities.

Trend number two was the central importance of consumers and the need for broadcasters to focus on content. Most people do not care about technology: DAB radio was a success in the UK because there was enough relevant and compelling content to make people want to buy the sets.

Thirdly came the growing influence of bloggers and the impact they were having on the way broadcasters and manufacturers treated their customers. Jonathan claimed that PR hype was spotted within minutes and cover-ups were not forgiven:

"It's like the consumer association on steroids," he quipped.

Jonathan was as entertaining, informative and prescient as ever. It was left to the IBC session host, David Allen, to underline the magnificent job that Jonathan is doing for radio.

"It's a great delight," he said, "to have somebody with such a passion for radio in a conference like this, which tends to be dominated by people wanting to talk about the telly." 

Keep an eye on David Brewer

David Brewer appears to have hit on a very simple formula for not getting stuck in a rut: he looks for a big challenge, rises to it and then moves on. When I first heard about him, in 1997, he was the original managing editor of BBC News Online.

Three years later, having played a key role in turning News Online into the world's most successful website, Dave left the BBC to set up CNN's European, Arabic and African web operations. More recently he was in Doha to help Al Jazeera create its planned new international service.

But perhaps Dave's biggest challenge has been working with media in transition and post-conflict states to help them become stronger and more independent. His work has taken him as far afield as Belgrade, Damascus, Guatemala and Yerevan.

In between his trips, Dave finds time to do occasional stints for BBC World Service Trust, where he filled in as a director last year, and to teach journalism at London's University of Westminster.

Dave's latest project is Media Helping Media, a social network which aims to help media in developing countries to achieve financial independence.

MHM is a meeting place where media professionals can share ideas and experiences, offer help, or find support for projects and ideas.

"The idea was for it to be a place where media in trouble can send up distress flares, and where those able to help can pitch in and offer support," says Dave.

"It's also where those with new-found solutions can offer their ideas so all can benefit. Think of Media Helping Media as an open-source meeting place for problem solving."

If you are interested in journalism, ethical issues or would like to join a global dialogue about building free media, the MHM message board and blog are well worth a visit. Check them out.