Back at the BBC
I’m in strangely familiar surroundings, the iconic Bush House, HQ of the BBC World Service, where I’ve spent many days (and nights) in the past. I hope that this time I won’t be in for a ten year stretch. Actually, I’m here to work on an interesting blog project for the Russian Service for a month or so. In the past I worked as a producer on English business programmes. Ocasionally, I see some of my former colleagues on the stairs, still running to the studio as they always did, still in a mad rush to keep the cycle of news turning 24 hours a day.
Here, I enjoy being surrounded by Russians who can create a homely atmosphere anywhere they land - even inside a big corporation. My Russian is pretty rusty, but I’m trying to soak up some of the conversation, and am peering at Russian blogs trying to decipher them. My first little trip will be to Birmingham for a Russian media conference. Later I’ll be going to Moscow for a few days.
In the meantime, I stumbled across this (English) blog entry about the 15 web principles for BBC2.0. It’s really interesting to see the influence of blogs on the mainstream media, especially when it comes to the advice to create an informal conversation and to link out to rich content.
I still think journalists have a problem linking out. It was so discouraged in the past, that they have trouble understanding that now they are supposed to do it as part of the service to readers. If you want to build a bridge to the informal media - and that’s part of what I’m trying to do here - then linking out is the first small practical step. Culturally, though, it’s a giant leap.
