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Floods improve ITV Local ratings

Here's an article writen for the ITV internal intranet site. Flooding in Yorkshire led to a huge upsurge of interest in the service - particularly among people offering photos and videos. I won't go into the figures but the jump of viewers to the Your News section was astonishing.

ITV Local Yorkshire achieved  record viewing figures yesterday, proving that in times of emergency local viewers still turn to familiar media brands for information.  But how does ITV Local make the best of these natural opportunities?

Of course achieving improved ratings is more than relying on the external forces of nature. Part of broadband News Editor Rabinder Bhachu’s role is to ensure that the web site works in harmony with Calendar News and that promotional opportunities are exploited both ways, "It’s essential that we work closely with the Calendar News team to look for ways of building bridges between the public and the whole of our output” said Rabinder.

As well as taking extended coverage of the floods from Calendar, the Local team is able to offer a wealth of user generated content back to ITV 1. Yesterday there was a flood of photographs and videos from the public which added an alternative dimension to the traditional coverage.  

See Your News images here

Judith Knight, the Channel Assistant was able to compile a pan regional round-up of all the images gathered during the day – only a small portion of which could be shown on the evening news, "The pictures were amazing, but we were all getting worried about how we were going to get home” commented Judith.

Watch Judith’s compilation here 

While this activity was going on, ITV Local also managed to publish a Floods Special newsletter to its many hundreds of subscribers and featured some of the images on the ITV Local Yorkshire blog

See ITV Local Yorkshire blog here

(Mark W)

UGC, Exploitation?

One of the disappointing aspects of broadcasting now is that it no longer enjoys lavish budgets to make programmes.  There are a few high budget productions, but by and large cost cutting is creeping into most areas. 

New technology is seen as a means of reducing the budgets without spoiling the quality. However, there is a fine line between cutting to the bone and killing the animal.  Cost cutting has become a pre-occupation - sometimes even a focus - for some production units.  In former years the focus was much more on the fine details of quality typified in some of the pre-delivery reviews of programmes. In these reviews, every detail, technical and editorial, would be scrutinised.  My impression is that with fewer layers of management and vastly more output, the emphasis now is on speed and volume.

It's clear to me that as the range of media becomes broader and more complex there have to be new ways of acquiring content. The volumes are huge.

Organisations like the BBC, ITV, Current TV, Propeller and many more are pitching for free content produced by willing members of the community.  The motivation for giving their content freely is usually exposure on an important channel.  Many suppliers of free content are operating in areas where budgets are practically  non existent, but where there is usually valuable exposure to raise their profile as producers;  at the very least they do it as an ego boosting exercise.

Broadcasters often talk about their relationship with the public, but I sometimes wonder if it is really a relationship at all.  If the viewer sends in a piece of User Generated Content and the broadcaster shows it, does this constitute a relationship? I don't think so.  I think there needs to be measurable  benefits back to the audience in ways that recognise the respective needs of both parties.

At ITV Local, where I work, we are making a genuine effort to look at the issue of exploitation and work out the nature of the relationship. Much of the media that is generated for ITV Local is done so in the context of an existing relationship with the viewer or group.  Sometimes we will plan a piece of content in advance in ways that respect the particular ambitions of the group or person.  It might be part of a charitable campaign around which we develop a mix of professional and non-professional content, or a student project which is part of a work experience programme and may lead to real employment. Whenever we receive a piece of content we will go to great lengths to credit the provider and inform them of its use on air.

Sounds like I'm taking the high moral ground!  But perhaps we all have a long way to go, and I'm sure the emerging relationship with content providers requires much discussion. (Mark W)

Who's left out?

This is a question that was raised right at the end of the recent conference at Leeds University - although I did make an attempt at raising it during my talk. For many reasons there will be sections of the population who may not have the confidence, technology or will to contribute to the media flow. On the other hand there will be others who simply can't stop doing it. I'm sure we need to be very, very aware of imbalances creeping into what is claimed to be a democratic environment. (mw)

Here's a video piece by Leonard Witt on citizen journalism. This is what he says abour himself.

Leonard Witt is the Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication at Kennesaw State University and the chief blogger of PJNet. His academic interests include public and citizen journalism and how to get citizens' voices heard. He has spent most of his professional career as an award-winning journalist.

The value of citizen journalism

I had the pleasure of contributing (in a very small way) to a conference oraganised by the University of Leeds' Institute of Communications Studies.  Peter Horrocks the Head the BBC Multi Media Newsroom gave a talk on the value of citizen journalism.  Link to the Peter Horrocks' blog  Here you will find him discussing the Have Your Say forum on the BBC site, and particularly the comment recommendation facility. He explains that they considered turning off the facility when reaction to the death of Benazir Bhutto came in. The comments on his own blog suggest that there is anxiety about opening up to extreme views at the expense of balance. (mw)

Any time, any place, any where

The portability of capture devices - small video/stills cameras and mobile phones - allows the public to be prepared at all times to record that special moment in history. Whatever happens and wherever it happens, a lens can be in place within seconds. Mark Thompson of the BBC described it as the Martini culture - picking up on the adverts which sang, any time, any place, any where.

The question for our curator journalist is not whether an event was captured, but by whom - usually the person with the most compelling pictures will not be a professional member of staff.   

In the old world, a camera-person would be dispatched to record the aftermath and the reaction to events. Although sometimes they would capture unfolding events, there was a good chance they would be playing catchup.  Eye witnesses would be sought to describe what they had seen. 

The quality of the professional piece might be judged in various ways, including the visual story telling - the scene, the characters, an orderly description of the way the story unfolded. The story told using all the classic craft skills of writing and visual construction. Hopefully vivid verbal account of what happened would be supplemented by the actual footage of the event.

Now the order of things seems reversed. The footage of the event's climax is the star of the show and all other elements are of subservient. The drama of a plane crash or an explosion enthralls us. The business of the story telling is slotted in fragments around the images, often only filled out when there is a gap in the action.

It would be good to think that there could be time for a considered presentation of the story, but a new breaking story soon takes its place and we move on. (mw)

BBC News - Have You Got News For Us?

The present environment

The number of channels possible through ditital distribution has grown rapidly. The costs of running these have been met by savings made through the introduction of new technolgy. New technology has also made it possible for the public to set up their own TV production and transmission arrangements.

Broadcasters no longer hold a monopoly when it comes to broadcasting and particularly journalism. There have been significant challenges to the authority of the main broadcasters by so called amateurs. Anything the broadcaster does can be and is challenged by the public in blogs and other discussion forums.

There is an increasing appetite for more localised media and the main broadcasters are responding to this by finding ways of offering news, sport, weather and travel information to local audiences.

As a way of meeting some of the huge demand for content, the broadcasters are opening the doors to user generated content and citizen journalism. These partnerships with the public are a way of achieving more immediate and intimate coverage at a very local level. This level and type of coverage could not be possible by conventional means.

If the broadcasters are successful at achieving very localised services, the volumes of material required will be high. If the public responds enthusiastically to this call to participate the role of the broadcaster will be more of curator and quality controller than that of producer.

The task of verifying the integrity of the incoming material by a broadcaster would be labour intensive and require a high level of expertise. This role would not only require the traditional skills of journalism but additional knowledge about issues relating user generated content. Use of UGC is high risk if the sources and  interests of the producer are not fully understood.

So add to this task the huge volume of material required to achieve social, cultural and geographical diversity, we have a resource challenge. (mw)

Welcome to participation TV

This is a space to capture some thinking on the issues surrounding development of user generated content as seen on broadcast TV. More than that I want to explore the ways in which broadcast TV is forming a new kind of relationship with audiences.  The thoughts will not be very refined, more spontaneous. I will try to work out a way of catergorising the posts. (mw)