The story-teller, or should that be "bletherer"?

"If we only give people half a chance they will take it."

When Daniel Meadows uttered these words he was referring to the idea of letting people tell their own story. He said that in the modern age we, as journalists, should be prepared to facilitate the stories of others as well as writing our own.


And I thought "great", because quite honestly I'm a bit sick of facilitating my own stories and hearing my own voice and anyway, as I said last week, I think that a major condition of having a voice is to use it responsibly.


Giving others the opportunity to tell their story seems as good a way as any. This is especially true if you are helping those who otherwise find it difficult to express them, people who aren't so good with the written word or just not used to using it.


My Dad is a very interesting man. He has been working on the same farm for almost forty years and living within five miles of where he was born, all his life. To some this might sound like a pretty tame life story. But the way I see it, he has spent his days driving all over the county watching the seasons change and talking to people from all different walks of life. The Scots definition for my dad would be a "bletherer", he wouldn't mind me saying this because he knows its true.


I have many a memory from when I was younger of being out and about with my Dad. Always a bit of a Daddy's girl, I loved it when he took me with him on his jaunts and now I realise that for him, it was a way of getting to spend more time with me because he worked such long hours. Much as I loved those times, more often than not they would end with me tugging on his arm and moaning "Da-a-ad" in an attempt to try and get him moving again and stop talking to whoever this boring person was (rude I know, but seriously he could talk for hours and I would be getting hungry).


Now that I'm all grown up, and encouraged to look into and think about these things a little, I've realised my Dad is a potential gold-mine of stories. Sorry if this all seems a little romanticised to you ("Aww, bless the Scottish lass who grew up on a farm, all rosy cheeked, with a dog and some hens") but I suppose thinking about multimedia stories has brought me over all nostalgic.

Initially, when introduced to the Capture Wales project, I thought the two minute time frame would be pretty limiting. But it is the snap-shot quality that makes these stories so effective. We get to know the person as much through what is not said as we do through what is. In this way the stories are reflective of real life. After all, we learn a lot about others through their body language and what they tell us implicitly, not just from their direct speech.

This video in particular struck a chord with me: "Life isn't about things, it's about people."

The fact that the statement comes from a rather burly looking gent makes it all the more poignant. I wouldn't expect Gavin Allen from Arabella Street (which, incidentally, is just round the corner from my home in Cardiff) to say such a thing. And this is why it is important to give that person a chance because more often than not they will tell you something which firmly dispels their stereotype

My siblings and I have a habit of referring to what we call Dad's "wise words of the week", any turn of phrase or comment which we deem to be spoken like a true parent. Now that I am living away from home I often hear an imaginary echo of my Dad's voice giving an up front and direct assessment of a situation.

So what would his take of the digital story-telling phenomenon be? "Well, the cat's out of the bag now, isn't it."

The World of Photography and Flickr

Today I was in Bute Park taking photo's for my magazine production course. The sun was shining, the autumn leaves were gently cascading to the ground and all was right with the world. Network journalism, civic journalism, online journalism; these were the last things on my mind.


But once I was back in the maglab and had begun uploading my photos to Flickr, thoughts of how I could be contributing to all these types of journalism started to trundle through my head.


I had been out and about in Cardiff, taking photo's for the purpose of an assignment set to us by our tutors. I have never been massively into photography; I'm of the school of thought that you should live in the moment rather than see it through a lens. So I was surprised by how much I got into the assignment: two hours literally whizzed by as I was caught up in a world of angles, light and framing.


The shots I came back with were definitely worth the time and effort. Don't get me wrong, after one- albeit beautiful- morning in the park I am under no illusions of grandeur. But because of flickr, my shots are no longer limited to an audience of family and friends.


If someone was looking for a photo to tell the story of autumn, under the Creative Commons framework they could use mine. This is just one example of how the networks in journalism are extending and how we can use them in simple yet very effective ways.


And how proud I would be! Considering that until yesterday my experience with a camera was limited to holiday snaps and photos of my friends, taken almost solely to be put up on Facebook, if someone deemed my first attempts at "real" photography good enough to use alongside their article it would tickle me pink.


So I can quite easily see how one can catch the bug and it must be a similar experience for civic journalists. To be included within the process and not be just a mere onlooker gives a great amount of buzz. I think I understand what the motivation behind being a contributor can be. To be given a voice in this way is quite a heady ego boost; the trick is learning how to use your voice in an ethical and responsible way.


As a tool for online journalism, Flickr has to be the most useful I've come across so far and the fact that you can use the account for a combination of personal and professional activities is great too. Consider yourself warned though, once logged in it is just as easy for the time to whiz by as you absorb the snapshots of other people's lives as it is when you are taking the snapshots yourself. Embrace and enjoy!

UGC and democracy, or what about not-got-a-lot-to-say?

Whilst doing some online browsing on the development of multimedia and it's implications for democracy, I came across this interesting opinion:

"The multi-media race has begun and you'll be disqualified pretty quickly if you don't step on the gas."

I noticed that John Burke, the author of this blog, had been writing back in 2005. This got me thinking about whether or not what he had written was as pertinent as he seemed to think it was at the time. I promptly typed the name of my local newspaper into the Google search engine: How was the East Lothian Courier keeping abreast of multimedia technology?

This was something which had never crossed my mind before. The Courier, as it is referred to by its readers, is known more for its occasional error in reporting rugby scores (much to my brother's annoyance) than for leading the charge in modern multimedia. It is probably a good indicator if I say that it was deemed a massive progression when The Courier left the tradition of monochrome print firmly behind last year.

So what did I discover during my foray into the previously uncharted (by me) waters of the local rag online? I think it would be safe to say that I was pleasantly surprised. All of the buzz words I had been hearing in the last couple of weeks featured on the site. From Delicious and Digg to RSS, The Courier had it all and the articles seemed to be updated and changed frequently as well. Perhaps I had been a little too quick to dismiss the proliferation of technology?

But once I spent a little longer familiarising myself with the site, I soon realised that there were a grand total of zero comments to be found. I would have thought, maybe slightly naively, that the issues covered in the local paper would provoke more comment because people are more intimately involved in the situation and so have a more direct opinion. Apparently, this is not the case.

Following the trends identified in Dr. Andy Williams’ lecture last week I thought there would be at least a small amount of User Generated Content (UGC) on The Courier website; even if I was expecting an excess of posts from the notorious county busy-body and not a whole lot else. Now I cannot decide which is worse. Domination of the comments section by a few people with the time, confidence and inclination to do so, or a complete lack of comment at all.

It would seem that in keeping with what John Burke said above, my local paper has entered the multi-media race and, to pay it's dues, is ticking all the right boxes (“social bookmarking: check, RSS: check, comments section: check.”) but something tells me that I could be waiting a while for The Courier to get it's free t-shirt at the finish line. Whether this is the fault of the paper or of the community is hard to tell. I am inclined to sit on the fence, coward that I am, and see it as indicative of how the relationship between multimedia, UGC and democracy is not a straight forward one.

However, can I just say that there is one good thing to come out of The Courier going online. After checking with my brother, I can confirm that the rugby scores are correct for this week. Just as well, I can imagine that the comments section may find a few passionate contributors if the result of a local derby was reported incorrectly. It may be best not to take Jamie’s word as gospel though, he is probably just happy because he managed to bag a personal mention in the article.

What moral can we take from this story? It doesn’t take too much to satisfy your reader after all!