Image via WikipediaThis is something that I have addressed before, but it is too important to ignore – the issue of repurposing content for the web.
The BBC has taken its first steps towards integrating its news departments, with TV and radio now working in a common newsroom. The online team will join them in June.
As BBC head of newsroom Peter Horrocks admits, most journalists will continue to work primarily in the media that they have traditionally worked.
One new role is what the BBC calls a “web conversion producer”, who will be responsible for taking stories originally produced for broadcast platforms and turn them into online content.
This is a flawed concept and risks undermining the reputation for excellent online journalism that the BBC News website has built over the past 10 years. In any case, we tried in the early days of the site when I was a daily news editor, and it didn’t work.
It also implies that online is an after-thought, picking up the scraps off the broadcast table, rather than considered an equal.
Maybe the BBC should introduce “broadcast conversion producers”, to take content from the web and repurpose for TV and radio?
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I thought we had left this stage of development behind a long time ago. And how does it square with the head of training at BBC College of Journalism’s view that multiplatform journalism is a genre in itself and not simply a matter of combining video, audio & text.
[...] The rights of integration and wrongs of repurposing « Reportr.net Alf isnt impressed with the idea of Multimeida convesion producers in the new BBC multimedia newsrooms. He would rather see “broadcast conversion producers”. I think he is right. (tags: bbc onlinejournalism hermida) [...]
Alf, I think it’s a bit unfair to call a web conversion producer a flawed concept. It’s not the only thing BBC News is doing to create multimedia content and the roles themselves are much less passive than I suspect that you think. Their job is not just to sit there waiting for a broadcast story to be delivered and type it up in text. They are part of the broadcast teams and are involved in the process from the early stage of an idea. They can work with correspondents to ensure that a project is developed in a way that means it is properly tailored to the web. We are a news organisation whose newsgathering resource has historically been broadcast-oriented. I see nothing inappropriate about putting really talented online journalists alongside those correspondents to ensure they produce appropriate on demand content.
But, of course, “conversion” doesn’t just go in one direction. Our brilliant online experts – e.g. your former colleagues such as Darren Waters, Jonathan Amos and Richard Black – are all now broadcasting. But some of then inevitably need guidance in voice, writing style etc. The broadcast producers are therefore helping them to “convert” their text journalism into effective broadcast material. I see nothing flawed about that sort of conversion either.
Of course, it would be wonderful if all news organisations had available to them fully formed multimedia journalists who effortlessly produced content for all platforms. But we are all prisoners of our own inheritance. Achieving a multimedia nirvana will be difficult without people who can train, support and, yes, convert great content makers.
Peter
Thanks for the input Peter. My concerns are that online should not be an afterthought as the BBC moves beyond its roots in broadcast.
It is good to hear more about how you see the web conversion producers working with the broadcast colleagues. From your comment, it sounds like the BBC is not planning to simply repurpose content and instead considering throughout the production process how the content will work on different platforms.
It will be interesting to see how this works. Ideally the TV, radio and web journalists would work together from the start, to ensure the final result works well on all mediums.
There is an obvious need for a greater understanding among journalists about how to best tell stories across different platforms, as well as understanding of the different audiences on these platforms.
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