A Little Birdy Told Me: The other side of the Twitter storm

As a journalism student I expect to be the one finding the story. However Monday 9th May was an interesting 24 hours!

I had become the story, as the media wrongly suspected me of being behind the controversial Twitter account leaking information about a spate of celebrity super injunctions including false allegations of an affair between Jemima Khan and Jeremy Clarkson.

The lead was a non-starter. I had no information or any relationship with this account. However this didn’t stop journalists from numerous outlets including the Evening Standard, The Sun and ITV News attempting to hunt me out, with the Daily Mail even turning up at my parent’s home in Hertfordshire.

Hear my side of the Twitter scandal that rocked the UK’s media in May 2011. Understand the investigative process journalists take when putting a story together and find out what happens when a student journalist gets on the wrong side of a story!

Students and Social Medi@

Students: Sexing up social media

The relationship between students and the British media is a tenuous one. They call it “outmoded” while it calls them “lazy” and “ungrateful”. The recent furor surrounding student fees in the UK has acted only to exacerbate the situation further as many papers condemned the student protests.

The birth of social media however, has created an opportunity for students to integrate themselves into the media landscape.

We all remember our first venture into social media. Mine was Bebo, while for some MySpace was their chosen arena to showcase wall posts full of teen angst and pouty profile pictures taken from above.

One of the earliest social media sites, Classmates.com launched in the US in 1995, was designed to assist members in finding friends and acquaintances from kindergarten, primary school, high school, college, work, and the US military.

From the off, these websites were designed with the social habits of students, and former students, in mind.

Not only are these sites frequented most by students, but many have also been established by students.

In 2004 Mark Zuckerberg and his college room-mates at Harvard University launched Facebook. Now considered the most used social networking service, it is estimated that over 85% of university students have a Facebook account.

Witness the Fitness

However Zuckerberg is not the only student getting in on the action.

In January I told you about Floxx. But for those of you living in the dark ages here’s a quick recap:

In June 2010, UCL student Rich Martell set up FitFinder. Using his bedroom as an office, his website allowed the anonymous cataloguing of any “hotties” studying in University libraries across the country, under the tagline “Witness the Fitness”.

Despite being taken offline and fined by UCL for “bringing the university into disrepute”, in January this year Martell returned with Floxx-the new FitFinder.

Backed by Former Dragon Doug Richard, users are able to post 140 character messages detailing any “hotties” in the vicinity; plotting them on a map, allowing users to see where the best looking people hang out.

It is the simplicity and universality of plotting on a map that has already led Floxxing to take place around the world, even in Moscow!

Media on the move

Despite criticism, the success of student-led social media start-ups such as Floxx and Facebook, has led other media outlets to place a much higher value on student participation.

A recent example of this is the launch of the “i” Paper. Considered a condensed version of the Russian owned Independent, the “i” aims to provide concise and digestible, yet high quality material for those who want news on the move.

Amongst businessmen and commuters, the i paper also considers students and young people a part of their target audience.

The development of mobile apps supporting Facebook, Floxx and Twitter amongst others, continues to place power in the hands of the user. In a world where a student’s smart phone is his/her best friend, it is almost no surprise that the younger generation is increasingly leading the way in mobile media.

That traditional media is starting to catch on only confirms that it is up to us, Generation X, to continue to pioneer ways of keeping the media alive…

So keep pouting, poking and liking because it all acts to shape the media footprint of the future!

Q and A with Jenny Kleeman

This week Jenny Kleeman, reporter for Channel 4’s Unreported World came to talk to us about her experiences as a documentary film-maker out in the field.

Here’s some of her answers to students question’s at the end of the talk:

*You’ve spoken about moments of being lucky, what about being unlucky?
About 3 years ago I made a film in India.  The end product was very different to what we’d been sent out there to do. It took us about a week to learn that the story we were going out there to do (the Godmen of Kerala) didn’t really exist. You learn to ask questions in advance.

*In what ways do you get emotionally attached to the stories?
We did a story about children getting raped in Lyberia-I thought it was important to remain as calm as possible. You don’t want to be interviewing someone and have some journalist crying her eyes out. But then you feel guilty when you get a really good interview. It’s confusing because you have a really good interview which is great for the film but it was a horrific story. I only show my emotions on camera when it’s really necessary-I’m very careful to save my emotions for when I get back to my hotel.

*How do you choose a topic for your film?
We make 20 Unreported World’s a year. Because there’s so many it’s quite difficult to come up with stories because obviously they have to be unreported. So we have people researching stories all the time.

*Why did you become a reporter?
You have to be a particular type of person: you have to be out-going, you have to be a bit of a show-off. I had made documentaries where I was behind the scenes. If you’re a producer or an assistant producer, while you don’t have the same authorship, your career is a little longer. A reporter-it’s your story out there but people can get sick of you quite quickly, it’s quite easy to lose your job.

*Are you afraid of things when you go abroad?
You have to put together a 40-page dossier which outlines any potential scenarios, anything that could go wrong so you are prepared. This has to satisfy Channel 4’s insurance. But obviously you are scared, you don’t know how people are going to respond. You have to weigh up how much a story means to you.

*Do you feel there is any conflict between your life and your responsibilities as a journalist?
Everyday I set myself an exercise where I wake up and write down  where I’m going, why I’m going there what I’m wanting to achieve. If I can’t think of those reasons then I shouldn’t be going.

An Education in Crime

As the title suggests this week has been somewhat of an education.

– What can one possibly be educated about in crime?

I’ve never really had anything to do with crime, the police, or in fact anyone associated with crime.

I was once pulled over as part of a sting on drink-driving in my local town, Hertford. Despite it being the night before my A-level results came out, and having been drinking only water all night, I still drove away feeling very shaky after my (non) brush with the law.

As part of our course we were sent on an outting to the Old Bailey.

Interestingly I was not alone in my nerves. Meeting outside St. Pauls underground we all shuffled our feet, a little unsure what to expect.

We ended up sitting in on a murder trial.

At first none of us really understood what was going on, the case seemed to get lost in amongst the technical jargon employed by the members of the court. It was only after a physical description of the murder itself we realised the severity of the case we were sitting in on.

It was a confusing experience-We were glad to have found such a good case, but at the same time struggled with the reality of the things we were hearing. You wondered if the jargon used by the barristers allowed them to distance themselves from the things they were describing.

After a brief lunch break I returned to court to listen to witness statements at the same trial.

Again it was confusing, and almost disturbing to listen to the witnesses be cross-examined and match up each suspected crime with the men sat behind the plastic screen. Looking around the spectators gallery, I couldn’t help but wonder who there was family.

Then not days later, I became a victim of crime as I fell prey to a London pick-pocket.

While only my phone was stolen between tubes at a busy Underground station, I couldn’t help thinking that this was the side of London my limited experience, and perhaps naivety, had sheltered me from.

I’m never going to be one of those people ruled by fears over safety but let’s just say this week definitely taught me a thing or two.

And as my Mum said: “It’s not too late to go to Law School if the Journalism thing doesn’t work out!”

Cheers Mum!

A Love letter to Boris

What is it about Boris Jonson, Mayor of London that makes me swoon?

Leaving Mayor’s Questions at City Hall last week, I whispered to my classmate “I think I love him,“ drawing a gasp from my tutor who was stood behind us as she looked at me incredulously.

But on the journey home it emerged that I was not alone in my political crush.

There was something about that silly red-faced man with his silly floppy hair that seemed to have bewitched all the women on my course.

Yes we all agreed that his answers, whilst poetic, lacked some substance. At times he was even accused of using a tone close to “bullying” by Chair Dee Doocey.

Yet even she reprimanded him in a manner befitting a naughty schoolboy.

Scoffing at the mention of “Peace deals” with Transport For London’s union leaders; Visibly struggling to suppress yawns, and placating Assembly Members with purrs of “I do so love it when we argue,” Bozza seemed more like one of us mere mortals than a stuffy politician, and certainly not the Mayor of London.

But after the umpteenth repetition that he “would look into it,” and hollow reiteration that London’s Underground was “one of the safest in Europe, if not the world,” it became clear that Assembly Members were starting to tire of his charade with members apologising to the viewing public about the Assembly meeting’s descent into chaos.

When asked afterwards is meetings were always as classroom-esque as the one I’d just witnessed, Victoria Borwick, councillor in Kensington and Chelsea told me: “All of the Assembly Members were texting each other asking ‘why’s [Boris] being so obnoxious?’.”

Everyone loves a joker but perhaps time and place are key terms in this situation.

But for anyone still unable to understand my crush, just watch this montage of Boris’s “Funny Bits” at the Tory Conference, held in Manchester in 2009.

I’m not usually a blonde’s girl, but in this case..!

Have a Heart: A visit to Heart FM

As part of the Global Radio network, and with 18 stations across the country, Heart Radio receives 7.3million listeners a week; making it the flagship station for the biggest commercial radio network in the UK.

Heart London 106.2

The recent amalgamation of the Sussex and Kent newsrooms at Heart Sussex means that News broadcasters Charlie O’Brien and Tim Humphries now broadcast 168 local bulletins a week, including hourly broadcasts between 6am and 6pm-as Charlie told us “the 4am starts are the worst!”

So how has Heart overcome its criticism for replacing local radio stations?

As Tim admits “we’ve received a lot of flack” and whilst the station was in danger of “becoming like Woolworth’s”, the focus on local news, punctuated with national stories is what has kept the listeners loyal.

“Mum’s are the bullseye”

Hearts target audience are listeners aged between 25 and 44, their focus being women between 30 and 39 years old. To make sure their news is relevant, Tim told us he simply heads to the school gates to find out what issues the Mum’s are talking about. This way they’re able to make news bulletins which cater to their audiences needs.

But with such a large region to cover, Tim and Charlie have their work cut out for them to ensure their news remains both interesting and inclusive. “Mum is the bullseye,” says Tim “but the kids and husband are outer rings. If they don’t like it the channel gets changed.”

They achieve this by selecting stories that are “topical, showbiz, local, active and of interest to our listeners,” explains Charlie. And quite often you get stories which cover local and national news margins. Charlie told us her most memorable story included being sent out to do a live commentary on the Tour de France when it passed through Kent.

Active Listeners

And if there was ever any danger of Tim and Charlie missing a story, you can bet a listener will call in to tell them about it-“we get calls all the time” say the pair.

It seems like this is the secret behind the team’s success. In looking to serve the Sussex/Kent community news that’s relevent to them, it has in turn become a partnership; both parties reliant on the other.

“Radio is the most immediate media,” states Charlie, “You get to meet so many different people..it’s the best job in the world!”