It’s widely dubbed the geeks spring break but the heaving human mass descending on Austin Texas for another year’s future scoping at South-by-South West is a much broader church. Film makers, artists, journalists, writers and musicians mingle with programmers, developers, gamers and interaction designers for five days of content, camaraderie, context and cocktails. It’s where people meet to discuss the future before they go out and build it. And if you think that might be SxSW over stating its position maybe Doug Rushkoff, speaking at one of the opening sessions could persuade you other wise.

Rushkoff’s stinging attack on contemporary society’s uncritical consumption of all things ‘web’ was delivered to an initiated congregation perhaps looking for more affirmation than conflagration. Program or be Programmed built on Postman’s thinking applying his frequently referenced idea that ‘to a man with a pencil the world looks like a book’ and translates it for the digital age. His prophetic warning came in the form of Ten Commandments reminding SxSW worshippers that binary code demands a much more absolute view of the world than the analogue legacy it is fast replacing. The clue is in the title – ‘Binary’. It’s either a ‘one’ or it’s a ‘zero’. There’s no room for an analogue ‘maybe’ or ‘almost’. Instead, binary code and the programmers using it offer a series of pre-programmed choices requiring a yes or a no answer. Think about the average Facebook profile where users indicate whether they are in ‘in a relationship’ or ‘looking for a relationship’. If they’re ‘religious’ or not. It’s a tick box questionnaire limited by the toolset, and maybe the imaginations of people who use code to deliver a product. They cannot afford to allow anyone to consider the millions of other permutations or lifestyle choices they haven’t been offered. There’s a statistical impossibility in any attempt to present the creation of boxes for the individual who may be ‘pseudo religious but only occasionally depending on the weather and/or mood’.  And so the overly simple tyranny of binary code shapes its masters in the same vein as the old Churchillian quote about us shaping our buildings, which thereafter shape us. Rushkoff cautions us against the mindset of the programmer presenting their machine coded choices as cold rational solutions without alternative. Commandment number four: ‘you may always choose none of the above’.

Here are the rest of Rushkoff’s Ten Commandments to address the biases of digital media for your edification:

• Time: Thou shalt not always be on.
• Distance – Thou shalt not do from  a distance what can be done face to face.
• Scale – Exalt the particular (resist the temptation to ‘scale-up’).
• Discreet – Thou may’st always choose none of the above.
• Complexity – Thou shalt not always be right.
• Corporeal – Thou shalt not be anonymous.
• Contact – Thou shalt remember the humans.
• Abstraction – As above not so below.
• Openness – Thou shalt not steal
• End Users – Programme or be programmed

If all that sounds a bit too academic SxSW hosts hundreds of practical sessions. A cursory glance through the 256 page programme lists workshops, seminars and keynotes on citizen journalism, augmented reality, design collaboration, Javascript Architecture (whatever that is), iPhone apps and web 2.0 marketing. Among the more interesting titles: What if your phone had five senses? Augmented Reality Games and Women. Neuroscience and Marketing. Exploiting Chaos. Can Wikipedia survive Popular Success and Community Decline?

Then there are the parties, or should that be ‘networking opportunities’ which I suspect is how the marketing people refer to them when they’re talking to their Financial Directors. 17 floors up sipping Martinis and watching Austin’s high-rises dissolve into the night sky is only the start of a nightly ritual lasting long into the wee small hours and playing out in dozens of downtown venues. For the FD’s wondering whether the money they spend hosting these bacchanalian extravaganzas is well spent rest assured it is. But then, as a sharply dressed advertising type person passes me another cocktail I guess I would say that wouldn’t I.

Picture by Designbyfront on flickr

Top Journo and  launch editor for Guardian local Sarah Hartley was one of the delegates at our recent Meld event to look at the future skills of journalists (and the world they will be working in). She’s been pondering  the future, how close it is and what others think it will have in store.

This post first appeared on Sarah’s Blog

A journalistic world where personal branding is a lifestyle, managing micro communities is second nature and developing areas of specialist knowledge is essential for survival in what is a freelance work sphere where multiple revenue streams as a sole trader are the norm.

Welcome to the lot of a journalist in 2012!

That’s my personal summary of far more detailed discussions spent considering such things as part of the MELD experience last week.

Held at the futuristic Sandbox at UCLAN, the two-day industry think-tank to consider what skills the journalist of the future might need prompted some interesting dilemmas.

Looking forward such a relatively short amount of time was a tricky experience, not least because the audience who will be old enough to vote in three years time, are one of the first who will be true digital natives.

Today’s teenagers have only ever known mobile phones, games, the internet and on demand services. They are also unlikely to have got the newspaper habit, so how will their experience of the world impact on journalism?

But as we all wrestled with the issues of who will be funding the journalistic endeavour of the future, how organisations will need to change their structures and the skill sets individuals might be faced with, there was one aspect which sparked little controversy – that the next generation journalist is most likely to be a freelance worker.

And for that individual journalist, the future which emerged from our discussions operated in a complex personal ecosphere where some sort of web presence was the essential hub of activity, where earnings could come from sponsorship and affiliate relationships alongside mainstream media commissions for content packages, or access to the special interest networks which they had nurtured and managed.

Contemplating the short-term with some of those who may help shape the future of the industry was a thought-provoking experience  – and wasn’t purely an intellectual exercise.

Some of the input from the sessions will help inform journalism educators about the tools the journalists of the future might need.

I’d be very interested to hear what other journalists think the future might hold – join in with the time travel if you will! What do you think lies in store? Is the scenario detailed above a world which you’d embrace or recoil from? Where do you see the journalist of 2012? Thoughts most welcome.

Applications are now closed

If that headline grabbed your attention and the idea of 3 months paid placement in a media organisation and a week of free training in all things digital sounds good then inFuze may be just what you are looking for.

• INFUZE is a creative workshop for professional journalists.
• INFUZE is a multiplatform storytelling programme
• INFUZE is a 12 week paid work placement in a digital newsroom.
• INFUZE is learning from the Industry’s top multi-media talent.
• INFUZE is your preparation for tomorrow’s media today

We are accepting applications now but the deadline is fast approaching.

We want you to send a copy of your CV along with a short statement about why you think the journalist of tomorrow needs a new set of skills. (400 words maximum). Deadline for Applications is Tuesday 3rd of November at 5pm.

Find out more about inFuze and how to apply here.

APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED

• INFUZE is a creative workshop for professional journalists.
• INFUZE is a multiplatform storytelling programme
• INFUZE is a 12 week paid work placement in a digital newsroom.
• INFUZE is learning from the Industry’s top multi-media talent.
• INFUZE is your preparation for tomorrow’s media today

InFUZE is intensive training for 10 professional journalists from the NW with creative flair and ability coupled with a willingness to learn. Successful applicants will work with a team of mentors including the cream of digital talent from the BBC and UCLan’s School of Journalism, Media and Communication.

Read the rest of this entry »

October sees the launch of a new version of inFUZE by someone who knows a thing or two about thinking differently about journalism. Amanda Michel is the Director of Distributed Reporting at ProPublica.

The goals are to tap into local knowledge and expertise, particularly when reporting on the US federal stimulus program, and to build broader public interest in investigative journalism.

Anyone—including practicing and retired journalists, students, policy experts, construction workers, homemakers, accountants—can join the ProPublica Reporting Network.

The first assignment for members will be to “Adopt a Stimulus Project,” where people will dedicate themselves to following a local road or bridge reconstruction project funded by the stimulus and to monitor it through its completion. These reporters will be looking to see what is getting repaired, how highly trafficked the road or bridge is, whether companies that receive funds are following environmental and labor laws, how many people are employed by the project, and so on.

Read the rest of this entry »

Amanda Michel

North West Vision and Media want talented journalists to join ProPublica’s Amanda Michel on Wednesday October 21 to launch inFUZE.

inFUZE is a cross platform journalism training course offering a 12 week paid placement for successful applicants.

inFUZE has been developed by the BBC and the University of Central Lancashire’s Meld team to provide 10 journalists in the region with up-to-the minute skills in producing content for online, TV, radio, and mobile. Training will be a mix of inspirational seminars, technical training and a 12 week paid placement opportunity at various news outlets across the region.

The training is timed in preparation for the move of five BBC departments from London to MediaCityUK in Salford, which include BBC Radio 5Live and BBC Sport. Read the rest of this entry »

The Meld team have been busy on a number of projects including the next stage of the Meld Pathfinder project. After a successful validation of the course modules, developed with our industry panel, we have been gathering course material for the Postgraduate Certificate in Digital Media. Read the rest of this entry »

Image by Archangeli via Flickr

Where’s the audience? (insert reader, listener, viewer as appropriate). The past few months have reminded us they’re not reading regional newspapers – certainly not in the numbers they used to be. Drooping viewing figures suggest they’re not watching TV in quite the same quantities either. Radio seems to’ve faired better though books haven’t escaped the digital revolution.

So where are the audience?

A ‘build it and they will come’ mentality pervades the media industry looking to fund production of a plethora of media products. Many of them do so with little thought about who they’re building for. Those that do may have a few market research stats offering broad demographic ABC categories lumping groups together generically along socio economic lines. Ask a journalist who they’re writing for and few will offer a description of a real person the rest of us would recognise.

Developing a clear idea of the audience for a project needs to start well before any of the production process. Getting wrapped up in the elements of the story without thinking who it is for, why they’d be interested and where or how they’ll receive the story.

In the internet age there are plenty of tools that help identify, understand and engage an audience before stepping out to cover the story. Seeding stories on social networking sites, sitting on twitter feeds looking for similar relevant conversations are both reasonable ways of finding niche audiences, engaging them in your story by pulling them top your blog or web site. All these people are connected to others with shared interest in the subject you want to discus and the story you’d like to tell. They’re not just potential contributors for you to interview. They’re part of the story as they share their subject knowledge, introduce others in their virtual and real communities to what you’re doing, and open the debate.

This approach has an impact on the media product itself. No longer is it a static or linear dictate. Instead it’s a conversation focussed on the subject seeded by (in this case) a journalist and with an audience genuinely engaged in the subject matter, prepared to discuss it and add their own slant through comments, video posts and twitter.

What’s emerging as newspapers, television broadcasters and traditional media organisations face up to being digital is the alluring promise of a fresh, vibrant and very different kind of journalism. An evolution of the profession into something that is richer, more inclusive and much more dynamic than anything we have seen before.

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inFUZE group prepare to meet the people formerly known as the audience

inFUZE is funded by the Skillset TV Freelance Fund and the Digital and Media Skills Programme, delivered by Northwest Vision and Media in partnership with Skillset, and supported by the North West Development Agency.

inFUZE rolled out of the starting blocks this morning with a great bunch of creative people. Matt Foster, Programme Manager, BBC at MediaCityUK kicked off formal proceedings with colleague Moira Kean. inFUZE, hosted by Sandbox (www.sandbox.uclan.ac.uk) is the latest initiative from the UCLan’s School of Journalism, Media and Communication.

Essentially it’s a cross platform training programme for professional journalists in the North West developed by the School in Partnership with the BBC. This morning the groups preconceptions of ‘audience’ were challenged as they met people they thought they knew and discovered the people formerly known as the audience are considerably more diverse and interesting than traditional media statistics might indicate. For those of us living in the real world that won’t come as any great shock but it’s a little surprising that mainstream media still treats audiences generically, as consumers of their vision. Meanwhile the audience is off doing something more interesting, like making their own content.

Ironically, in a shared media space much of the new content consumed on blogs, watched on You Tube or ‘tweeted’ on Twitter is user generated.

This is often a difficult lesson for traditional media much of which still operate on the ‘build it and they will come’ principle, only to find that their audience isn’t there once the media spectacle they’ve crafted is complete.

A good deal of user-generated content isn’t actually “content” at all, at least not in the sense of material designed for an audience. Instead, a lot of it is driven by the audience as part of a conversation.

According to Clay Shirky (2008) ‘Mainstream media has often missed this, because they are used to thinking of any group of people as an audience. Audience, though, is just one pattern a group can exist in; another is community. Most amateur media unfolds in a community setting, and a community isn’t just a small audience; it has a social density, a pattern of users talking to one another,that audiences lack. An audience isn’t just a big community either; it’s more anonymous, with many fewer ties between users. Now, though, the technological distinction between media made for an audience and media made for a community is evaporating; instead of having one kind of media come in through the TV and another kind come in through the phone, it all comes in over the internet’.

And that changes the relationship wit the audience. They expect a level of interaction. An opportunity to contribute. To feedback or enrich a story by offering new angles and providing different sources.

This doesn’t negate journalism. It does however fundamentally change the role of the journalist – and that’s what inFUZE is about.

inFUZE is funded by the Skillset TV Freelance Fund and the Digital and Media Skills Programme, delivered by Northwest Vision and Media in partnership with Skillset, and supported by the North West Development Agency.