Digital journalism trends in 2016: From social newsgathering to social journalism

This is the first in a series of posts between now and the end of the year looking at key themes I think will emerge during the course of 2016. It takes a foolhardy journalist not to be familiar with Twitter or Facebook these days. There are probably very few journalists who haven’t written a

Five reasons UGC has made the regional Press better

WARNING: This is a very long piece, written over several periods of time, looking at the power of UGC. In summary, its sets out why I think UGC has been good for the regional Press. * * * The other week, former editor and Holdthefrontpage blogger Steve Dyson turned his critical (often very critical!) eye to

What does it tell us about sports journalism when speaking up for fans is called ‘bold’?

So he’s finally gone. Steve Kean, that is, the now former manager of Blackburn Rovers. As I write this, Blackburn sit third in the Championship and, if they carry on like this, are in with a good shout at returning to the Premier League at the first attempt. This, however, didn’t appear to be enough

FOI Friday: Classroom languages, councillor pensions and criminals applying to be teachers

1. What land has your council sold? Interesting stuff from the BBC in London (although finding a link to their story was very hard, so I’ve linked to one from a local newspaper which credits the BBC at least). They used FOI to ask all London councils how many plots of land they have sold

Open data? Why the BBC had to use FOI to get data which was once published freely every week

The BBC today led several of its programmes with a news story which will be familiar to many local journalists: The delays ambulances encounter when they get to hospitals. It’s not a new story. The problem has been identified across the country time and again for years. As far back as 2007, the Manchester Evening

Gallery: How the newspapers which knew Gary Speed best covered his death

The death of Gary Speed was one of those news stories which, when read first on Twitter, always makes me think: “I need to see that several more times from people I trust before I believe it.” Confirmation followed soon after. As is increasingly the case on social networks, the actual news was soon superceded

Equal opportunities? Just rubbish according to one hospital

There’s nothing like a bit of frank honesty from a public sector organisation, so hats off to the person who posted this job ad on the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University website: I think the word here is ‘whoops.’ According to the Liverpool Daily Post, the advert was online ‘for a matter of minutes’ before

The council which investigated why an FOI information was doctored – but didn’t tell the reporter who made the request

The Liverpool Daily Post on Monday devoted its front page to report on how Liverpool City Council actively doctored information which was the subject of a Freedom of Information request. It’s a story which began life in 2009. The paper’s city editor, David Bartlett, first received a tip that it would be worth getting hold

My Liverpool Daily Post column: Phone hacking is bad, but do we need some perspective too?

I’m lucky enough (though readers of the paper might not agree!) to have a weekly column in the Liverpool Daily Post. It’s a spin-off of my blog on the website, called Outside The Bubble, and is meant to be an outside look on the world of politics. I’ve covered the phone hacking issue this week,

FOI Friday: Posh cars, charity cuts, ambulance waits and smoking fines

1. The cuts, they hurt  Good stuff from the Lancashire Telegraph as it set out to find where the cuts are falling at local councils, and who is suffering. For this FOI, it zoomed in on the amount being given out in grants to community groups and charities. No surprise, they’ve been cut. But the level