bbc.co.uk Navigation

Rory Cellan-Jones

Twitter, Qik, Flip - how to cover news?

  • Rory Cellan-Jones
  • 10 Sep 08, 12:30 GMT

What's the best way of using new media tools to cover a news event? An issue close to my heart, as I now travel round with a whole lot of clobber designed to enable instant communication, in text and video. I decided to try out various options at Apple's music event on Tuesday evening - not a major story, so a good venue for a bit of experimentation.

Rory Cellan-Jones with iPod NanoI set off for the Islington Business Design Centre - where the keynote from San Francisco was being relayed to a huge crowd of expectant hacks from across Europe - with a very overpacked kitbag. I took a laptop with a 3g dongle for instant net access, three phones - one with a video camera and the Qik streaming video application enabled - and a Flip video camera, a very cheap and simple device that produces reasonable pictures. Plus an invaluable gadget called Dan Simmons, my multimedia colleague from Click, who brought along his much more professional video camera.

My aim was to Twitter, Qik and Flip my way through the event - and work out which method was best. I had previously asked on Twitter which option people favoured - and, surprise, surprise they favoured a constant stream of Tweets.

So that's what I supplied. From the moment Apple's very Gallic European boss talked of a "great lunch" - it turned out he meant the launch of iPhone 3g - through a rather subdued "Stevenote", to the Jack Johnson performance at the end I attempted to provide some instant headlines. Now I'm not sure if it was "broadcasting" - after all Twitter is a pretty narrow community - but it was an enjoyable way of covering the event, with plenty of interaction coming back to me from other Twitterers.

As I left the hall, I came across other journalists who'd been trying the same trick, and one who'd been following my own Tweets while watching the keynote, which must have been a strange experience. I'd also been reading messages posted by colleagues at the San Francisco event, so what Twitter succeeded in doing was creating a temporary micro-community, which built up a mosaic of news and comment about Apple.

But, along with the micro-blogging, I managed a bit of instant video, using Qik. The quality is pretty poor - it's being streamed over a 3g network which seemed to struggle to get into the hall - but immediacy is the thing here. Apple is very controlling and bans live video relays of these events, so there is a kind of "pirate" appeal to getting the pictures out ahead of time. We now have a new BBC application which takes video straight from a mobile phone and feeds its straight to our broadcast server - but I judged these pictures did not merit that treatment.

Then there was my Flip video, which has the advantage over a mobile phone of shooting an hour of material wthout needing a charge - it uses a couple of AA batteries - and the disadvantage of a lack of instant connectivity. Still, I loaded it straight onto my laptop, cut it together with a simple editing programme and produced this behind-the-scenes video.

In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.

But of course it was Dan Simmons with his small, but semi-professional, video camera who made the most important contribution - after all his pictures were of far greater quality than mine, and reached a far bigger audience.

So what's the conclusion about the modern reporter's toolkit? Well, a laptop with a wi-fi or 3g connection seems pretty essential, whether to send reams of text or the odd 140 character Tweet. A mobile phone with an instant video application can get you out of a hole when there's no alternative. But I'd be reluctant to go anywhere without the services of a professional, wielding a decent video camera. As I think you'll agree if you look at my pictures.

Maggie Shiels

Reports of my death...

  • Maggie Shiels
  • 10 Sep 08, 09:37 GMT

That Apple guy Steve Jobs has a sense of humour and it was on display on a giant screen at the company's product launch for the new iPod and iTouch here in San Francisco.

The last time he stepped out in public a few months ago at the Apple Developers Forum he looked gaunt. That prompted a lot of speculation about whether or not he was seriously ill with a recurring bout of cancer. It especially got the money mavens worried because Mr Jobs is seen as such an integral part of the company.

Well at the 'Let's Rock' event, he opened his pitch to journalists and analysts with the message "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

Steve JobsWhile he still looked skinny in his trademark jeans and black turtle neck, he was full of smiles and pumped up.

With that matter out of the way he said "Let's get onto the real topic of the day and talk about music".

And that's just what he proceeded to do for around an hour as he introduced the new generation iPods and iTouch to great fanfare from the audience.

Now forgive me for being cynical, but I did at one point wonder if they were a paid crowd because journalists never cheer and clap and I have never considered the analyst brigade to be the whooping and hollering kind. So just who was it making all that noise everytime Steve introduced the new features in the products or pulled out another figure about users and downloads?

While Mr Jobs described one product as 'the funnest iPod ever' his old mucker and fellow co-founder Steve Wozniak was not as razzed. He told me realistically Apple can't set the heather on fire everytime it comes out with something new.

"Some of our introductions are weaker than others and well we didn't really expect an awful lot," he said. However, he did point out that he wasn't disappointed with what came out.

"I was happy with things like longer battery life and thinness and I love the new iTunes and the genius bar. I had other ideas even beyond how they can improve it in the future but then all engineers do that."

Woz, who doesn't agree with looking for freebies, said he will be ordering his new iPod online. But first there was lunch to attend to with his wife and he told me "Tuesday is pea soup day at Marie Callendars".

And he would probably have had plenty to talk about over lunch besides the new Apple products because we were all treated to an impromptu gig by the singer Jack Johnson.

Jack JohnsonMr Jobs told us he was the number one selling male in iTunes history and had sold over 16million albums worldwide. The soft rock balladeer wandered on stage and sang a couple of his well known hits while also noting that the virtually all male rows of men immediately in front of him was not his usual audience.

"I'm used to seeing a line of 20-something girls right there," he joked...or lamented!

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk