There's now just over a week before the closing date of the inaugural BBC College of Journalism innovation award for postgraduate journalism students. We've been very impressed by the standard of entries already received and look forward to seeing more over the next 10 days or so.

What's been so interesting is the range of different and experimental techniques being used by students to find, verify and tell their stories. The tools and skills needed to be genuinely innovative are changing and evolving all the time. It's fantastic to see this in action, producing first class journalism.

The award will be presented by a distinguished panel of judges at the BBC College of Journalism's Connecting Communities conference in Salford on 24th May.

The winner and all shortlisted entries will have their work shown on BBC College of Journalism website. You can find the details of how to enter here.

In 2007, Paul Bradshaw's A Model for the 21st Century Newsroom described how the old production line model for news was meeting a networked mode of operation - where anyone could take on editorial and distribution roles and journalists were no longer limited in the medium they could choose or the time and space to tell a story. 

Now, in a series of blog posts for the College of Journalism, Bradshaw revisits his work in the light of new developments and the growing experience of organisations and individuals.

What emerges is a picture of increasing formalisation of production processes together with entirely new fields of operation. Bradshaw sees breaking news, for example, as being handled online with particular confidence, while news apps and the increasing role of data present new challenges for information management and presentation.

If the battle of the past five years has been to organise people - both within and outside the news organisation - with a focus on speed, he sees the next challenge as organising information itself - with a focus on depth.

His report is based on a combination of interviews with journalists, editors, developers and executives and a review of current literature:

News consumption has changed over the past decade from a pattern characterised by clear points in time to one that has become so uniform we are now barely aware of it: no longer an irregular but pronounced beat, it is now a constant static.

The change is not just about access to the internet but the contexts in which that access is made. The workplace has become a key site for online news consumption (Boczkowski, 2010), leading to a rise in consumption of socially 'safer' content such as sports reporting and celebrity journalism, but not more sensitive material such as politics.

This notion of the popularity of socially safe content online is supported by research into the sharing of links on Facebook which found that, of news stories that were shared, the top category was 'sports/art/entertainment' with 40% of news links shared, while the bottom category was politics, making up 9% of linked news articles.

Online, we are moving from a model of distribution in which the audience is actively engaged with the news to one where they are, according to social network researcher Danah Boyd:

"Peripherally aware of information as it flows by, grabbing it at the right moment when it is most relevant, valuable, entertaining, or insightful. To be living with, in, and around information. Most of that information is social information, but some of it is entertainment information or news information or productive information."

This new rhythm of news consumption was identified in 2008 in ethnographic research by the Associated Press. Jill, an insurance broker from Brighton, is representative: 

- She watched TV news in the morning as she ate her breakfast and prepared for work

- Listened to the radio in the car on the way to work

- Checked her email every hour, seeing Yahoo headlines 10 times per day

- Received text messages and email alerts

- Had a live scoreboard on her desktop

- Listened to more radio in the car home

- In the evening she gets news through Facebook and email while watching TV.

Data on peak times of media consumption adds a quantitative dimension: radio peaks in the morning and the afternoon, TV in the evening, the web around the time that people arrive at work and at home. Similarly, email use peaks in the early morning just after web use (once people have checked the web, they check their mail), and text messaging peaks just before the peak of web use in the evening, and just before people go to bed (graphic below from PDF of Ofcom report - click to see original in context):

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/811898/Full_Chart_Pack.pdf

An understanding of these rhythms is forming the basis for a number of online publishing operations. Business Desk, for instance - an online-only operation which covers business news across three UK regions - receives 80% of its visits during a two-hour 'attention window' when its users are travelling to work, and during which the website sends out a daily email.

News online is particularly social, and related to lifestyle: news is shared, it is searched for. It is social currency, and it 'comes to me from other people'.

'Positive content' is distributed by users significantly more often than 'negative content', and the traditional neutral voice of news organisations therefore becomes problematic in distribution terms, as Joshua Benton, director of Neiman Journalism Lab, writes:

"If we tweet with wonderment and excitement ('Wow, this new WordPress levitation plugin is amazing!'), it'll get more clicks and more retweets than if we play it straight ('New WordPress plugin allows user levitation')."

This importance of social news online may be due in large part to the fact that internet use is dominated by participation in communities: in May 2010, 95% of internet users visited a site in the 'search and communities' category, for an average of six hours and 40 minutes. Facebook users alone spent six and-a-half hours on the site that month. 'News and information' sites, by comparison, were visited by 78% of users, who spent an hour and a quarter there (Ofcom).

Of course, just because a user is not on a news website does not mean they are not consuming news or information - and news organisations may have to ask whether their online distribution strategy should take this into account. Equally, news organisations should be aware of research into what people get and expect from the medium: one review of the literature on this lists the following benefits:

"Interpersonal utility, [to] pass time, information seeking, convenience and entertainment... Companionship and social needs... relaxation... Social escapism... interactive control... economic gain... fame... Problem solving, persuading others, relationship maintenance, status seeking, and personal insight."

News is connected strongly with email - both explicitly and contextually: Yahoo! Mail displays headlines while users are checking mail, for example. And consumption is, for many, a 'scratch the itch' activity undertaken because they are bored in what they are doing, not because they want to find out something specific, or are engaged in an issue.

Multitasking is identified in numerous surveys of media consumption: people consume news while doing other things. In some cases, they are digging further into the background to the news while they watch it, or talking to others about it. And for a majority of consumers news is something they stumble across while looking for something else.

Consumers are promiscuous in their news consumption: 65% of internet users do not have a favourite website, while research in 2009 by Oliver & Ohlbaum found that readers of the print edition of The Telegraph, for example, only spent 8% of their time reading online news on the website; in contrast, other print competitors in the 'quality press' accounted for 20% of their time (graphic below from The Economist - click to see original in context):

http://www.economist.com/node/15017453?story_id=15017453

The situation is still developing, with the increasing penetration of smartphones and tablets presenting further types of consumption behaviour which are different again from that of the web. Data from ComScore suggests that smartphones and tablets are shifting online news consumption from 'first thing at work' to 'first thing in the morning', a pattern repeated in data from Instapaper (graphic below from post by Nate Weiner of Read It Later - click to see original in context):

http://readitlaterlist.com/blog/2011/01/is-mobile-affecting-when-we-read/

These devices are used less throughout the working day and there is a suggestion that for many news consumers they help break the association of the internet - i.e. computers - with work. Mobile devices are social devices; tablets are a consumer technology. It is not only their technical functionality that is important but also their social contexts and meaning. News organisations - still getting to grips with publishing news online - are having to adapt again for patterns of mobile consumption that are very different from that seen on the desktop (graphic below from The Wall Street Journal - click to see original in context). 

But while consumers are increasingly experiencing news as something that surrounds them - sometimes from multiple outlets - they also demand depth. In the AP study, despite their tendency to 'snack' on news, people expressed a desire for more depth in their news: they were fatigued with constant bite-sized updates. Delivering depth was one of AP's three key recommendations, along with improving discoverability of deep content and creating social currency.

In a forthcoming post I will explore how news organisations are reacting to those desires for depth and for social currency.

Paul Bradshaw - @paulbradshaw - is founder of the Online Journalism Blog and the crowdsourcing website Helpmeinvestigate. He is a visiting professor at City University, London, and runs the MA in Online Journalism at Birmingham City University. 

We are looking for applicants from across the BBC Journalism divisions for two prestigious fellowships supported by the BBC:

• The University of Michigan Fellowship
• The Reuters Fellowship at Oxford University.

These opportunities are open to all senior journalists across BBC Journalism. Both fellowships offer a great opportunity for an experienced journalist to take time out from the day job, develop new insights and bring something back to the BBC. Details below:

• The University of Michigan Fellowship - closing date 16 April 2012

The Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan offers a four-month placement for BBC staff to the largest research university in the world. We are looking for applicants for one semester, to begin in either September 2012 or January 2013.

The fellowship is designed to provide "a broader perspective, nurture intellectual growth, and inspire personal transformation". While there, you complete the project you have outlined in your application form and select classes from the full range of courses offered at the University of Michigan.

You will also undertake an international trip - to South America (autumn 2012) or Turkey (spring 2013). Additionally, prominent journalists and leading academics give twice-weekly seminars. Typically, 12 American Fellows are joined at Michigan by six international colleagues.

Past BBC Fellows include Steve Titherington, Alicia McCarthy, Alf Hermida, Pam O'Toole, Andrew Whitehead, Sue Nelson, Joanne Episcopo, Caroline Finnigan, Mike Baker, Peter Burdin, Patricia Whitehorne, Charlie Partridge, David Edmonds, John Cary, Joanna Mills, Maurice Walsh and Roger Harrabin.

The project

The proposed programme of research should be relevant to your work as a BBC journalist. For example, it may be related to a specialist or topical subject, or the changing nature of journalism as a whole.

To apply

To be eligible to apply you must be a BBC journalist on a continuing contract who can demonstrate a successful career history and show the potential to make the most of this investment in you and your job.

Terms and conditions

The successful candidate will need to take unpaid leave (up to a maximum of three months) or a career break in order to take up this opportunity. Your BBC salary will not be paid during the time you are in the United States, nor will the BBC pay your travelling expenses. However, the Fellowship carries a stipend of $35,000 and covers all academic fees, health insurance and one international trip. Before considering an application, you should ensure that your line manager is willing to support you, and to release you at the appropriate time. It is also important that you understand the implications of taking a career break in terms of its possible effect on your pension.

Selection will be based on career history, management endorsement, proposals for study and an interview. A BBC panel will select one or two candidates to recommend to Michigan for a final decision.

To apply, please download and complete the application form at this site. (Ignore suggestions that the deadline has already passed!) Note that the form requires you to submit two separate papers of 1,500 words and 500 words respectively and that, if you are selected to go forward for consideration by Michigan, you will be asked to provide examples of your work.

When you have completed the form, send it to Alison Lobo at the College of Journalism (Room 2365, BBC White City Building, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS. Ext. 02 26043) by 16 April 2012. DO NOT send it direct to Michigan.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

• The Reuters Fellowship at Oxford University - closing date 16 April 2012
 
The fellowship provides mid-career journalists with the opportunity to study and research for three to four months on a work-related project that will broaden their academic horizons as well as being of benefit to the BBC.

The programme brings together experienced journalists from around the world to study at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. This is an opportunity to study in Oxford for one term in the academic year 2012-13. The successful applicant is expected to be a resident during the period of study. A contribution to accommodation expenses will be paid, and tuition fees will be met by the College of Journalism. The team at Reuters will help you to find a suitable place to live.

Recent BBC Fellows include: Jeremy Hayes (2008/09), Ric Bailey (2010/11), Emma Jane Kirby, Giang Nguyen (2009/10) and Richard Lawson (2012).

Dr David Levy, director of the Institute, says: 

"The Journalist Fellowship Programme at Oxford has now been established for more than a quarter of a century and over that time has attracted nearly 500 journalist fellows from around the world. The BBC fellowship is an immensely valuable part of the Oxford programme.

"The BBC features prominently in the international, comparative research, discussion and debate of journalism that is at the heart of the Institute's activities. The international journalist fellows typically know about the BBC and want to learn more or include it in their research projects. Equally, BBC journalists can learn a huge amount from the Reuters experience through the chance to move outside their comfort zone, engage with journalists from around the world, and have their ideas challenged through exchanges with other journalists and experts.

"That experience, the network of fellows they will establish, and their excellent research projects, give BBC journalists a great deal to take back to the BBC."

The project

The proposed programme of research should be relevant to your work as a BBC journalist. For example, it may be related to a specialist or topical subject or the changing nature of journalism. Fellows are asked to produce a major piece of writing of between 8,000 and 10,000 words. Candidates will also be expected to show how their research could be used by the BBC when they return to work. It's important to remember that you will have only three months to complete this project, so make sure it is realistic and achievable.

Fellows are given access to Oxford University and Green Templeton College facilities and services, and are assigned their own academic adviser to help them with their project. They also take part in seminars and other special events involving distinguished speakers.

To be eligible to apply you must be a BBC journalist on a continuing contract who can demonstrate a successful career history and show the potential to make the most of this investment in you.

The successful candidate will need to take unpaid leave (up to a maximum of three months) or a career break in order to take up this opportunity. Your BBC salary will not be paid during the time you are in Oxford, and there is no stipend over and above the tuition fees and accommodation allowance which the BBC will pay. Before considering an application, you should ensure that your line manager is willing to support you and to release you at the appropriate time. It is also important that you understand the implications of taking a career break in terms of its effect on your pension.

You can find out more about the Reuters Institute here.

To apply

If you wish to apply, please email alison.lobo@bbc.co.uk for a form on which you will be asked for: 
- Details of your career history
- A supporting statement from your manager endorsing your application and confirming your release for three months
- An outline of your proposed research topic. This should indicate a planned approach to your research and the sources you might seek to use.
 
Selection will be based on career history, management endorsement, proposals for study and an interview by a panel on which both Reuters and the BBC will be represented. The form should be sent to Alison Lobo at the College of Journalism (Room 2365, BBC White City Building, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TS. Ext. 02 26043) by 16 April 2012. Again, please get in touch with me if you have any questions.

Jonathan Baker is head of the BBC College of Journalism. 

A few years ago I visited one of the frontlines in the West's battle against Al-Qaeda.

It wasn't in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but inside an innocuous-looking prefab building on the outskirts of Las Vegas.

At Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, US and British serviceman control heavily armed Reaper and Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or drones, flying high in the sky thousands of miles away.

UAVs - or unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) as they're also sometimes called - are playing an increasingly important role in counter-terrorism operations. But, alongside their place as a weapon of war, more peaceful uses are also being explored for tiny drones, from scientific research to monitoring disaster zones from the air.

The development of relatively low-cost unmanned aircraft systems fitted with small high-definition cameras is also beginning to generate interest in the news industry.

Dramatic aerial footage of recent demonstrations in Warsaw shot using a small Polish-made drone gave a tantalising glimpse of how they could be used as newsgathering tools.

Photographers covering election demos in Moscow also deployed a UAV - prompting some onlookers to suspect they had spotted a UFO over the Russian capital.

The resulting images were widely used by international news organisations including the BBC (above).

Under current UK regulations, a small drone can be deployed providing the operator can see it at all times - giving it a range of a few hundred metres.

In theory, that could be perfectly adequate to cover events such as protests, large fires or police operations - the sort of stories that news organisations often send helicopters to cover.

The problem, however, is that tighter regulations apply (in the UK at least) to unmanned aircraft flying in built up and congested areas - exactly the sort of places where most news stories take place. Understandably so - no news organisation would want to have to deal with the legal consequences if its unmanned camera crash-landing onto the head of a peaceful protestor.

Gadget geeks in the news business such as me are excited by the prospect of using Big Boys' Toys as part of our newsgathering.

A nascent group has even been set up to explore the possibilities.

It may be some time yet before drone journalism becomes commonplace but, potentially, the sky's the limit.

Stuart Hughes is a BBC World Affairs producer.

The past decade has seen massive changes in the UK's communications market. We've seen the launch of Freeview, Sky+ and the iPhone, as well as new services like the BBC iPlayer, YouTube and Facebook. Many of these are now mass-market technologies and services.

At the same time, the dial-up, landline-only, analogue four/five-channel TV home has become virtually moribund.

Certain technologies are now so ubiquitous that we forget how new they actually are. None of the above examples have yet to celebrate their tenth birthday, and several have only recently celebrated their fifth.

It's hard to remember that ten years ago ownership of a mobile phone, multichannel digital TV and a domestic internet connection was far from the norm for most households. By 2011, that's no longer the case.

The chart below illustrates these changes, showing the take up of communications services between 2000 and 2011. As you can see, the growth curves are pretty steep:

Source: Ofcom/Oftel survey research.

But, despite massive change, the size of the industry - if you take revenue as your yardstick - has remained relatively stable. Total annual communications industry revenues in 2010 were £53.4 billion, remarkably similar to the (inflation adjusted) revenues of £54.3 billion in 2000. Moreover, traditional industries like TV and radio have seen consumption remain relatively stable, even if there has been a proliferation of the methods by which we consume this media.

Perhaps not surprisingly, telephony-based services have seen the biggest changes. From the advent of 3G to the demise of dial-up internet, faster speeds and a greater choice of mobile and fixed providers, this is an area which has seen a massive increase in consumption.

Much of this has been driven by mobile, but it's worth noting that in the UK fixed telephony still remains the main method of making and receiving calls for just over half of the UK population (53% when calls made from a fixed-line phone at work are included).

And while mobile voice minutes increased by around 350% between 2000 and 2010, we still - but only just - make more fixed voicecalls (i.e. from a landline) than we do from a mobile. No doubt it won't be long before that is reversed.

What all of this shows therefore is that, despite massive technological change, we're broadly doing what we did before - just doing it in different ways.

Whether we'll be saying the same thing in ten years time is of course another matter. Until then, here's a final chart which shows the story of the past decade as the UK became truly digital:

Source: Ofcom research 2000-10.

As LP Hartley says in the opening to The Go-Between: "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there". We did indeed.

Damian Radcliffe is Manager, Nations and Communities, at Ofcom. He is writing here in a personal capacity.

Like it or not, the impact of the iPhone is disproportionate to the number of people who actually have one. It's thought that barely 5% of phone owners globally have an iPhone in one of its various guises, yet for journalists it's becoming the device of choice.

BBC Newsgathering recently revealed it is developing an app to record and deliver content to its newsrooms. A number of other journalists are singing its praises too.

Late last week, Apple made public the biggest update for years to the operating system which runs iPhones and iPads. iOS 5 is said to contain more than 200 innovations, and I've picked out just three which could help the growing band of journalists who rely on their devices.

Taking a picture at just the right moment is an art for many a photo-journalist, let alone someone using a phone. Under the previous iOS, they had to wake up the phone, put in the password (assuming they had one), find the camera app among the dozens they'd downloaded, wait for the app to load - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand they'd be too late. Now, under iOS 5, the camera can be activated by double-tapping the lock screen, which reduces markedly the delay between seeing the moment and capturing it.

Once the photo's been taken, iOS 5 has added a few tricks to edit the image, such as cropping and removing red-eye.

Admittedly, many of these innovations were possible through either free or paid-for apps - but their inclusion within the iPhone's operating system will likely ensure that it remains the most popular camera for the photo-sharing site Flickr (For those who've upgraded to the new iPhone 4S, that model also gives a better camera as well as image stabilisation.)

For journalists who need to use the same phrase again and again, a new feature could make life easier. No matter the length of the phrase, it can be added as a keyboard shortcut so, for example, 'BBC College of Journalism, White City, London W12' can be 'cojoadd' - just type that and the whole phrase will be added.

Twitter has also become a mainstay of journalists, be it for keeping across breaking news or sharing their content. iOS 5 has integrated Twitter into the devices so that, instead of having to copy the address of a web page and then paste it into Twitter before tweeting, a tweet can be sent directly from the web page itself - or from a photo for that matter.

Those are three changes which could benefit journalists; for a complete look at all the changes.

Marc Settle specialises in smartphone and social media training for the BBC College of Journalism.

Is it possible to prepare for deployment to a war zone by playing a video game?

An Australian journalism lecturer, Tony Maniaty, thinks it could be.

The former ABC foreign correspondent was first struck by the possibility of using video games as a training tool while watching his sons playing a first-person shooter.

"They came to a point in the game where they reached a roadblock," he recalls.

"I thought it looked like journalism - you're in a situation you've got to talk your way through. The environments seemed very similar.

"I had the idea of replacing a gun with a video camera but I thought it must have already been done. I found that it hadn't and I was quite staggered."  

Maniaty has teamed up with a film director and games designer to produce a "proof of concept" prototype. Funded by Aus$250,000 (£155,000) from Screen Australia and Screen New South Wales, they have created "Warco".

The title comes from the nickname given to correspondents covering the Second World War.

The game, set in a fictional African country, introduces some of the hazards journalists may face in real-life war zones - snipers, improvised explosive devices, ambushes, kidnapping, illness and hostile crowds.

I met Maniaty during a tour of the US and Britain where he has been showing the game to major news organisations including the BBC. He explained that he is seeking to develop two versions of the game: one aimed at the retail market and the other at entry-level journalists and freelancers who are unable to afford a full hostile environment course, which can cost more than £2,000.

Advances in digital technology mean that anyone with relatively cheap off-the-shelf equipment can travel to a war zone and set up as a freelance foreign correspondent.

Over the years, many star careers have been made by young and eager journalists taking their chances overseas. Maniaty is concerned, however, that, as the barriers to entry into the profession become lower and news budgets become tighter, safety is becoming a secondary concern.

"They're all itching to get overseas," Maniaty says of the journalism students he teaches at the University of Technology, Sydney.

"They know how to use a camera and how to use a laptop; they basically know how to do all the things a journalist does for a living before they leave the building.

"The number of graduates coming out of media courses and journalism schools is booming and there aren't jobs for all of them.

"Students have the idea that they can accelerate their careers by getting on a plane and going to Kabul or Mogadishu and having a go."

Unlike a video game, however, the dangers facing journalists working in real-life war zones are all too real.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, almost 900 people working in the media industry have been killed in the line of duty since 1992.

The idea of using a video game to train would-be correspondents troubles some journalists.

"My worry is that it dehumanises a war zone," says Allan Little, one of the BBC's most experienced foreign correspondents:

"I don't like the close association between a video game and real-life wars.

"I think anything that encourages the view that you can understand real-life shooting wars better by playing a game has to be treated with caution." 

James Rodgers, Senior Lecturer in International Journalism at London Metropolitan University, is also uneasy at the prospect of using a game to train students. 

"When I'm teaching conflict journalism, I do draw my students' attention to the large number of casualties," says Rodgers, who is finishing a book on conflict reporting.

"I think this game does suggest some of the dangers you might find in a war zone, but my concern is that it could glamorise them and that's not a good thing.

"I can see how something like this game could potentially be a useful training aid for a generation that's very comfortable with video games, but I think it really needs to avoid glamorising the profession, because people really do get killed."

Despite the reservations expressed by some in the news industry, Maniaty insists the response so far has been largely positive - and denies that "Warco" represents hostile environment training "on the cheap".

"Some people have said 'this is kids' stuff' or 'why should we play a video game to train journalists', but for the past ten or 15 years the military and the police have been doing this," he says.

"I think the media's the last place where it hasn't been introduced as a concept.

Maniaty adds: "I would never say this game should replace proper hostile environment training but if we can save the lives of a few journalists it'll be worth it."

Stuart Hughes is a BBC World Affairs producer.

A version of this article first appeared on the BBC News website.

"Death and taxes" was Benjamin Franklin's famous dictum about the only certainties in life. If the Founding Father were alive today he might add the quickening pace of technological change to that maxim.

Certain technologies are now so ubiquitous in many people's lives that we forget how new they actually are. And if you think the pace of change is quickening then you're right. It's not just that you're getting older; the classic adoption curve for new technologies is very different to that for analogue - or even early digital - technologies.

Part of the reason for this change, in my view, is the ability of new technologies to spark a 'must-have' response from consumers. Think of the queues outside the Apple Store every time a new iPhone or iPad is released, or the lines snaking around the block for the midnight release of the new version of Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto.

Technology arguably didn't spark this reaction a decade ago. People didn't tend to get excited about a new phone, or a new computer, in quite the way we do now. Nor did they plan for the future. We increasingly buy technology in anticipation of future services or needs. HD-ready TV sets are now in six out of ten UK homes but only a third of homes are currently enjoying HDTV services.

In contrast, ten years ago the take up of new services was much slower than it is now. Mobile phones and multichannel television took more than a decade to reach 50% penetration. By the time social networks and online TV were launched, it took just four to five years to reach this 50% figure. Analysts predict smartphones will reach the same landmark just as quickly, with e-readers and tablets not far behind.

But desirability isn't the only factor in this speed of growth. Many of these new services and technologies have benefitted from other interdependent developments, all of which have laid the foundations for this faster growth.

The continued use of PCs at home and in the workplace helped social networking to initially take off, with smartphones helping to drive this further. The trend for bigger TVs no doubt helped aid Blu-ray or Wii sales (neither of which works quite so well on a smaller screen), while faster broadband speeds have made live web streaming or online catch-up TV a more enjoyable experience.

And of course underpinning all of this is price. Technology is often proportionately cheaper than it once was. This article published on the BBC News website back in 2004 reminds us that "The first video cassette recorder went on sale at Dixons in 1978 priced £798.75 - the equivalent of about £3,000 in today's money." (In 2011 money that would be even more.)

Similarly, according to Wikipedia, the second Star Trek film, The Wrath of Khan, cost $39.95 when it was released on VHS in 1983 - "$40 below contemporary movie cassette prices". 

And I can now watch iPlayer on a £200 notebook. A decade ago a machine with a similar spec might have cost five to ten times as much. All of which means that in many cases we get more for less.

Given all these factors - from desirability to price, interoperability to increased tech specs - is it no wonder that many of us own more communications devices than we ever did?

No doubt the next decade will bring even more change, and it will happen even more quickly than it did before. As Albert Einstein said: "I never think of the future - it comes soon enough."

Damian Radcliffe is Manager, Nations and Communities, at Ofcom. He is writing here in a personal capacity.

In retrospectives prompted by Steve Jobs' recent decision to stand down as CEO of Apple, not surprisingly the iPod, iPhone and iPad were all cited as major successes. Apple, of course, didn't invent the technologies behind these products, but it has undeniably played a major role in bringing them to the mass market.

But what's striking about all of these examples is the speed with which they have become a ubiquitous part of so many people's lives - especially the under 25s.

The first iPhone didn't launch until 2007. Android phones appeared a year later. Yet in the first quarter of this year almost half of UK mobile sales were smartphones, up from 4% just six years earlier.

Ofcom's recent Communications Market Report showed that over a quarter of the adults and almost half the teenagers in Britain now own a smartphone, with the majority of these acquired over the past year. And this pace of take up is only likely to increase.

IDC predicts the global smartphone market will grow by almost 50% in 2011, with 450 million smartphones being sold across the world this year alone. And that figure is expected to double to a billion smartphones a year being sold by 2015.

It's heady stuff, and an opportunity for journalists, businesses and consumers alike.

A recent study from the US showed that a quarter of US adults get some form of news via their mobile phone, with users under 50 almost three times as likely get news on the go.

Twitter, Angry Birds or check-in services like Foursquare are just some of the businesses to benefit from the creation of an app market. From a standing start a couple of years ago, this market is expected to be worth $25 billion in 2015.

And, for consumers, smartphones bring a range of benefits - including replacing other technological devices like a traditional alarm clock, GPS devices or even their camera.

An 'always on' phone also enables you to do many of the things you used to do from a PC, wherever you may be. As a result, Facebook is not only the most popular UK website in terms of time spent on it from a PC (169 million hours across the UK in April 2011), it is the UK's most popular mobile website.

It is perhaps no surprise then that in a recent Ofcom survey more than a third of adults and 60% of teens admitted to being 'highly addicted' to their smartphones. They use them while socialising with others, during mealtimes, or in places where they should be off - like the cinema. And more than a fifth of adult and nearly half of teenage smartphone users admitted to using or answering their handset in the bathroom or toilet.

This isn't just a peculiarly British phenomenon, either. More than a third of US adults now own a smartphone. According to the Pew Research Center, two-thirds of these sleep with their phones next to their bed. (I'm an under the pillow man myself.)

But to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Hence the quiet yet slowly discernible rise of the Digitox - a typically self-imposed temporary exile from Facebook et al. The Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel is just one establishment where you have to surrender your digital devices on check in.

Guests taking the 'Zen and the Art of Detox' package find that "Prior to your arrival, the television, phone, and ihome dock station will be removed from your guest room and replaced by literary classics." Excellent. But what if I promised to read Austin or Dickens on my Kindle? Well, probably not. 

Damian Radcliffe is Manager, Nations and Communities, at Ofcom. He is writing here in a personal capacity.

Twenty years ago, a correspondent wanting to go live from the field ran a real risk of developing a hernia.

During the Bosnian war of the early 1990s, long before the iPhone and Blackberry, the state of the art in 'mobile' newsgathering was one of the first-generation satellite telephones. They came in heavy flight cases and included a clip-together satellite dish as wide as the wheel of a car (below). Correspondents and producers hated them because they were so bulky and temperamental. Even so, in newsgathering terms they were revolutionary.

Inmarsat kit

Stuart Hughes' shed

'That's television, isn't it?' I hear you cry. No, it isn't. But the combining of radio programmes with web video is an interesting phenomenon that warrants exploration.

It's become known as 'visualisation' and it's becoming increasingly popular and sophisticated, as Roger Bolton reported for Feedback on BBC Radio 4.

On my first day as a news presenter at the BBC World Service, I realised that, in order to produce and present an impartial, balanced and accurate report, in addition to journalistic training I badly needed to know the in-house style of my department: which Pashto word to use; which pronunciation to go for; and how to translate a word accurately.

Ever since, it has been my dream to create a mechanism which will support journalists in the language they are broadcasting.

Three years ago, I saw the possibility of achieving that goal when the BBC College of Journalism accepted my proposal to create a set of websites about journalism for all of the languages in which the BBC broadcasts.

In partnership with the BBC World Service, 30 language sites were created, to serve as a reference point for in-house styles that had been developed in the different departments over many years.

Now the BBC College of Journalism is relaunching its Arabic, Persian and Russian sites with a wide range of new material. 

Arabic

The Arabic website is publishing new films and guides to journalistic skills and the particular requirements of the Arabic language against the background of fast-moving events in the Middle East and North Africa. 

Taking as an example a recent investigative documentary by BBC Arabic exploring hidden torture in Tunisia, the site takes users through a series of key editorial decisions and dilemmas. BBC Arabic Service experts discuss how to identify and investigate a story. They talk about how to avoid legal difficulties, and the importance of authenticating material before using it.

Naglaa El-Emary, Editor of BBC Arabic, says:

"Investigative journalism within the Arab world is in flux. In the past, repressive measures by many governments meant there is little tradition of investigations as a genre. However, the wave of revolutions spreading across the region means there is an unparalleled opportunity for sources and stories that have never been heard before. There is a lack of rigorous journalism on these kind of stories and their coverage is patchy. BBC Arabic makes its values and its expertise in the genre available to journalists." 

The BBC Arabic Service has been developing an in-house style for more than 70 years. Its style guide is published for the first time on the Arabic site.

It includes tips on classical Arabic language, which is used for broadcast, and the BBC's recommendations about impartiality in relation to the use of Arabic on air. 

Persian

The College's Persian website is publishing new guidelines for journalists on how to use social media - which now plays a major role in all BBC journalistic activity around the world. It is of particular importance in Iran, where there are many restrictions on traditional sources of information and means of reporting the news.

In an interview on the site, Liliane Landor, Controller Languages at BBC Global News, explains the rules governing BBC journalists' behaviour when using sites like Facebook and Twitter. She distinguishes between BBC journalists' use of social media personally, including for the acquisition of contacts, and the need to avoid expressing political views as a member of BBC staff.

Sina Motalebi, Head of Persian TV Output, says:

"It's neither a case of pride nor admittance of defeat that Persian TV has to heavily rely on social media and citizen journalists to cover Iran: it's merely a fact of life for a broadcaster which has no access to its main target area!

Our significant dependence on social media only means that our journalists need to exercise an even higher level of care to preserve the BBC's reputation, values and standards - including fairness towards our contributors and a duty of care for their safety."

The Persian website is also publishing key learning points to develop television, radio and online skills.

The language category of the site has a rich linguistic guide to the Persian language, including Persian grammar, the creation of new words and the art of translation.

Russian

New features of the Russian site include items on journalistic ethics as well as key advice on the impartial use of the Russian language.

Sarah Gibson, Head of the BBC Russian Service, says:

"The College material really enhances the Russian Service's offer to its audience. There is a great deal of interest in Russia in how the BBC works; its editorial guidelines and standards; and its approach to the multimedia world. Attitudes in Russia to the BBC can vary, but its journalism is highly regarded by many. Being able to make this material accessible to the journalists of today and tomorrow is a great demonstration of the BBC's commitment to journalistic standards."

This is the first phase of a programme that will eventually see the overhaul of all the College's 30 language sites.

The sites are available via the College of Journalism website, and can be accessed via the homepages of the BBC's Arabic, Persian and Russian services.

Najiba Kasraee is Project Editor for the BBC College of Journalism's international websites.

I know from experience how seriously we take training at the BBC. I was lucky enough to start here 20 years ago as a news trainee. At the time, that meant TWO years learning the ropes - from crafting that tight, crisp intro that keeps the listener listening, to wielding a razor blade lovingly over a few miles of audio tape. And, in the middle of all that, learning how not to break the law while practising the noble art of journalism.

During my trainee years, I was given the chance to report on the 1984 miners' strike in Nottingham, and to put together a documentary on a lifeboat crew in Dorset. I also learnt how to dent the car of a senior reporter before leaving the car park. And I experienced the surprise of silence after discovering (one hour later) that I had threaded my tape the wrong way during an interview with the head of the Cornish fire brigade.

Training is indeed about learning from your mistakes. That learning also gave me the chance to go on assignments to Germany and Kazakhstan within the first two years of my first proper job - as a producer with the BBC World Service.

Over the past 20 years, I've been privileged to see the fruits of the BBC's unique dedication to training in action, through the talent of so many people I've worked with - on film, on the airwaves, live, behind the scenes. The bringing together of every element of the BBC's journalism training - regional, national and international - in a College has made that dedication more effective and more prominent, within and, just as importantly, outside the BBC.

The scope of what we can now offer is huge: from basic journalism skills to specific craft skills; from masterclasses to short-and-sweet modules on areas such as interviewing, economics and explaining the 'Big Bang Theory' (well, maybe not quite, but we do offer training in science journalism).

And it's not just the scope but the reach. A lot of journalists come to us in London; but if they can't we go to them. Recent assignments have included trips to Bangladesh, Jakarta, Moscow, Cairo, Delhi and Dhaka. Within weeks of these, material has made it to air as a direct result of training.

But we can't be everywhere, which is why I'm so pleased that our foreign language websites play their role in spreading our message - and why it's so important that the process of updating them is continuing this week.

Mark James is Head of International Training at the BBC College of Journalism, and is part of the team which develops training programmes for journalists outside the BBC.