Returning to JEEcamp
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So, it has been a year since I attended my first Jeecamp – At the time I didn’t really know what to expect, I was just ready to learn. What I found was a melting pot of ideas, challenges, uncertainty and inspiration; I left Jeecamp overflowing with plans and possibilities to take back to Redbrick.
People such as Nick Booth, Joanna Geary and Christian Payne took the time to speak to me and my colleague Pete Blakemore, they were happy to pass on advice and have been happy to answer a tweet or email asking for help in the last year as well.
Unfortunately this blog has lost all the observations I made post Jeecamp last year, so I will do my best to summarise them now:
• I came away thinking the future was about engaging our readers better, Christian and Joanna suggested we think of them as ‘participators’ or ‘contributors’ rather than readers, which suggests a one-way relationship.
• I knew we needed to be introducing projects that were of value to our ‘readers’ as well as good journalism, which is where ideas such as the Selly Oak Crime Map originated.
• We wanted to build a community around Redbrick using social media, getting students involved in the process of analysis and comment after the fact.
• I thought we needed to be experimenting with all the mediums available to us through the web. There was no reason we shouldn’t be live blogging sports games and tweeting and interviewing using Audioboo.
So, what does Jeecamp hold for me this year? – I am a third year, so I am graduating; I will no longer be involved in Redbrick so I will not have as direct an output to test out ideas. However I am sure that Jeecamp will show me a new way of thinking about old problems, it will offer the opportunity to connect with individuals who are trying to navigate their way through the murky world of journalism and I am sure it will leave me just as excited about the potential for the future as it did last year.
I don’t know what I will be doing in 6 months time; I do know I would like it to be a project of my own. I think journalism is in such a state of flux at the moment that it is time for it to redefined, (as some people are doing) I want to be helping to shape the future of journalism, not training myself in the ways of the past.
When saying this to a friend the other day, she asked me what I thought that future is, I said:
• The future is niche, specialist content, it is local and it is data driven.
• It is about conversations and discussion and debate with your audience.
• It is about empowering people with data and knowledge.
• It is about collaboration and sharing.
These are the components I think will be at the core of what is to come and I don’t just want to be along for the ride.
(I will be looking at what we achieved at Redbrick this year in a different post)
