TWO media events are coming up this October in Bristol, co-organised by Bristol NUJ, on journalism, blogging and technology – and the conflicts and challenges they raise.
There’s a fantastic line-up of star speakers, and workshops where you can get to grips with the issues. It’s open to the public, down at the Watershed and the Pervasive Media Studio, so whether you’re a blogger or a journalist, neither or both, come and join us: tickets are on sale now!
What’s the Blogging Story?
Who can you trust in this age of blogs, tweets and high speed broadband? Top bloggers and journalists debate the future of news in: What’s the Blogging Story? A Bristol Festival of Ideas event, Watershed Media Centre, Friday Oct 22, 7pm
PlusNewsfutures
Two workshops on the impact of the blogosphere, Pervasive Media Studio, Leadworks, Anchor Square, Bristol, Saturday Oct 23, 11am-4pm
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What’s the Blogging Story?
The blogosphere is a powerful new force in Britain today as the Foreign Secretary William Hague could testify; only a month ago, he was forced to deny he was gay after gossip spread on the internet.
But who can you believe in this age of blogs, tweets and high-speed broadband? What’s the relationship between traditional and new media – the tired and the wired, as some call them? Is blogging a new form of democratic journalism, as dissidents have found in China and Iran, or a tool for the malicious and irresponsible?
Join some of the UK’s leading journalists and bloggers for a lively, and no doubt heated, debate to determine who will dominate the future of news, in a Bristol Festival of Ideas event at the Watershed on Friday October 22 at 7pm.
Speakers include Roy Greenslade (The Guardian), Donnacha Delong (NUJ Vice President), Sunny Hundal (Liberal Conspiracy), Brooke Magnanti (Belle de Jour), and Anton Vowl (Enemies of Reason and Mailwatch), a representative of the Press Complaints Commission plus an audience which will include some of Bristol’s leading bloggers.
The event has been organised as part of Bristol Festival of Ideas in association with the NUJ Bristol branch, the University of the West of England MediaAct project and MediaWise, and is part of a weekend study on the impact of the blogosphere.
What’s the Blogging Story? Watershed Media Centre, Bristol Friday Oct, 22, 7pm Tickets £7/£5 concessions & NUJ members Box office: 0117 927 5100 www.watershed.co.uk****
Newsfutures
Two workshops for bloggers as part of the UWE MediaAcT Project, organised in association with Bristol NUJ and the MediaWise Trust.
Workshop 1: Blogging Hell!
Saturday 23 October, 11am-1pm
Finding common cause across borders: planning for international action on media standards.
What’s the role of online journalism in sustaining democratic societies? What role can the blogosphere play in more rigidly controlled societies? Can bloggers develop systems of self regulation that could enhance journalism standards?
This is the opening workshop in what promises to be a long-running debate.
Workshop 2: Jo Bloggs – but is it journalism?
Saturday 23 October, 2pm-4pm
Is blogging the new journalism?
Are blogs a new, democratic kind of publishing, giving a voice to everyone? Or a platform where gossip, speculation and bias are passed on as fact, and nothing can be trusted?
As the lines between traditional and citizen journalism blur, how are mainstream media owners and regulators responding? Are the interests of citizen journalists, bloggers and mainstream journalists the same or contradictory? Where does the National Union of Journalists fit in the new media world? Should bloggers be able to join the NUJ?
Join leading bloggers and mainstream journalists for a revealing discussion and some possible resolutions.
Pervasive Media Studio Leadworks, Anchor Square Saturday 23nd October, 11am – 4pm
Workshop places are free, but space is limited. To register your interest, go to http://www.newsfutures.co.uk/category/event/
MediaAcT is a 13-nation EU-funded study of media accountability systems across Europe and the Arab world. Researchers at the University of the West of England are building a platform for bloggers to discuss issues of regulation and their influence on mainstream media content and standards. http://www.mediaact.eu
Bristol NUJ has pioneered debate about the relationship between bloggers and union. http://www.bristolnuj.org.uk
MediaWise is the journalism ethics charity based at UWE. http://www.mediawise.org.uk
5 responses to “What’s the Blogging Story?”
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Donnacha DeLong, Bristol Stuff. Bristol Stuff said: RT @donnachadelong – Info about Bristol blogging debate – http://www.bristolnuj.org.uk/2010/10/06/whats-the-blogging-story/ #journalis… […]
It should be interesting to find out whether bloggers can join the NUJ or not.
NUJ offers full membership ONLY to those who earn money out of writing, there are hardly any bloggers who can earn any money from blogging, if bloggers are accepted as NUJ members that would mean accepting the full membership of the exiled journalists who could not secure jobs in UK for different reasons including those who suffer a language barrier, yet, they do blog perfectly in their own mother languages and did make a change in their societies through blogging.
Yes, indeed an important issue. There is a partial reply to it already from Donnacha DeLong, NUJ Vice-President, elsewhere on this website – see his final comment, bottom of the page, at http://www.bristolnuj.org.uk/2009/11/24/bristol-nuj-to-target-new-media/
Donnacha will be on the panel on Friday night, so I hope we’ll be able to discuss this further then.
One thing that NUJ has to remember. WE the blogging bloggers who campaigned, online and offline with our MPs and every other way to save the jobs of our colleagues who are more fortunate than ourselves who have or had jobs and earned their living from writing. For that reason, we (the bloogy bloggers) feel it is unfair and unacceptable to negotiate anything less than a full membership of NUJ.
[…] the 22 and 23 October 2010, my local branch, the Bristol NUJ, asked: What’s the blogging story? taking me to grown-up settings of the Watershed and Pervasive Media Studio. (As a freelancer, I […]