CitizenSpin

Blogwatch: Why is the BBC getting involved in blogging?

Why is the BBC getting involved in blogging? It's a question that was raised in a session I was running the other day. Followed by the comment: 'Blogging is for amateurs, and provides an easy way for them to put their opinions, however flaky, online.'

It's interesting that the comment came on the day that the Baghdad Burning blog was nominated for an award a measure of how some blogs can be credible and offer a new perspective, not often portrayed by 'big media'.
But it's not just individuals getting into blogging. Big business is there too ­ with GM, IBM, Microsoft etc. using the Internet to connect with consumers. Connecting in a way that allows consumers to enter into a dialogue.

The BBC too has just started to expand it's blogging operations. The first was political editor Nick Robinson, Paul Mason of Newsnight and the World Have Your Say programme from the World Service have recently joined him.

When the BBC already operates chat forums, message boards and community sites, and lets people add comments to some news stories ­ - so what's the point of adding blogs to the mix?

It's early days and hard to tell how blogs at the beeb may develop, but some of the ideas delegates suggested were inspiring. Blogs needn't be just personality based, but could also be built around events, or the genre of programme. They'd be more interactive ordinary web pages, provide more insight to the production process and journalistic process and more depth to programming.

It's similar to the way that big business is using blogs to get closer to consumers, big media can use blogs to engage with the audience in a more one-to-one way.

Matt

Testing times - web survey pilot

How much credibility do consumers lend to information from different sources online? I’ve already written about the ethical considerations in blogging – and the fact that bloggers seem to see no need for a code of ethics. So are consumers savvy enough to work out what’s credible comment, and when someone is biased?

As regular readers will know, one of the points of setting up this blog was to help with my exploration of trust and sources of information online. It’s now come to the time when I can’t delay the research for my dissertation any longer … and so I’m piloting my questionnaire here.

I’m planning to deploy the questionnaire sometime towards the end of the month. The link will be put on a web site which is run for people who are searching for bargains and products and services online – www.moneysavingexpert.com. So the sample will be self selecting, and already pretty web savvy.

The main focus is to try and find out if consumers view different information on line, with differing credibility, depending on its source. Some of the questions are based around work that I’ve done to produce semantic differentials form journalistic values here.

Please feel free to complete the pilot version of the survey and send me your comments. It would be really helpful in developing the research. If you think there are issues that I’m missing, or better ways of finding information then please make suggestions.

That link to the questionnaire again: http://www.thesistools.com/?qid=11255&ln=eng

Thanks
Matt