I didn’t know everyone in this (smallish) session, but did recognise my former boss Jem Stone. Grace, the new media editor for the BBC World Service Trust was also there, as well as Daniel Bennett and journalists from current affairs.The question raised various issues from the different people, for example:

  • Do we receive too much feedback?
  • How do production teams handle the deluge of feedback?
  • How can production teams adapt to these new streams of feedback
  • Do we spend too much time and money on feedback? 
  • How do we tap into existing communities when researching news stories?
  • How do we moderate incoming comments?

Of course we couldn’t answer all of these, but did get to some answers:

  • We do receive too much, but production teams and process need to change and adapt. The media world is changing, and we can’t keep on going with 80-year old production approaches.
  • The same goes for journalism. Even 20 years ago a journalist hit the phones, then hit the pubs. It was a time consuming process, and good stories took time to build up because it took time to build the contacts
  • It’s faster to get information, but the challenge now lies in identifying the trustworthy, balanced, fair comments
  • The processes are changing, and the tools are changing
  • The BBC does an excellent job of listening to its audience, but we’re also learning how best to do it
  • Production teams need co-ordinated guidance and central support
  • Production teams need ways of tapping into existing online communities who know the content better
  • Ideas like open sourcing and crowd sourcing research were mentioned, but it depends on the team/story/editor

See my BeeBCamp intro and disclaimer.