BBC hears the future of news

A University of Westminster research team gave a presentation to the BBC on the future of news and broadcasting technology last week.

The eight-month study, known as the News Futures project, arose from a brief from Richard Deverell and Asha Oberoi of BBC News Interactive and explored developing trends and practices in news publishing and broadcasting technology.

Ten Masters students from international journalism, graphics, contemporary media and hypermedia courses collaborated on the project, which also incorporated ideas from fellow students and journalists.



"Big institutions often tell us how things are going, but it was really exciting that the BBC was willing to sit back and be told what we think is going on," said David Dunkley Gyimah, senior lecturer and executive director of the project.

"It's a win-win situation; the BBC gets our ideas and we get to see how they will push these trends forward."

News Futures developed five projects including i3, a multi-platform publishing interface, My World, an interactive news map for children and a project exploring the impact of moblogging - web blogging through a mobile phone.

The students predict that the mobile phone will become an increasingly essential tool for journalists, with moblogging replacing digital video footage and blogging on increasingly sophisticated content management systems.

Students were encouraged to be imaginative but also realistic, said Mr Gyimah, presenting practical ideas and tools for journalists to explore in the next few years. But the push towards new technology, particularly take up of mobile services, will be mostly consumer-led.

"There is a great deal of inertia within the UK news industry. The attitude is that if it's not broken, why fix it?" he said.

"We are creative in the UK, so why do these developments always have to happen in the States?"

The full findings of the report will be published online shortly.

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See also:
University of Westminster: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad
David Dunkley Gyimah: http://www.mrdot.co.uk/David

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