This year the Prix Italia is 68 years old, but looking fresher and trimmer than in recent years. The first Prix Italia took place in Capri, in 1948, and it is fitting that another island, Lampedusa, is where we are rebooting and re-launching one of the worldâs most prestigious media awards.
Change was vital.
The Prix had become bloated with meetings and seminars, with no real centre of gravity, focus or identity. A plethora of workshops, on often unrelated, disparate topics, were overshadowing the awards themselves.
The time had come to press the metaphorical Ctrl-Alt-Delete keys to start again. Raiâs president, Monica Maggioni, demanded a new location, more focus on the awards, and fewer workshops related to a single, overarching theme.
A new secretary-general, Vittorio Argento, has not only reinvigorated the event, but also boosted morale and restored a personality to the Prix. Furthermore, in the four months since Lampedusa was chosen as the Prixâs venue, Vittorio and his deputy, Anna Nicoletti, have overcome a variety of obstacles to build a new conference centre and outdoor stage for public screenings on the remote island.
Lampedusa was not an easy choice, but Monica wanted the Prix to be more topical and in tune with the major editorial challenges facing broadcasters. That is why the migration crisis is this yearâs overarching theme.
Public service media are narrating history as it unfolds â hence this yearâs âHistorytelling, Nowâ title â while performing a key social function. Lampedusa, just over 100 kilometres from Tunisia, is one of the main gateways to Europe for refugees and illegal immigrants, from Africa, the Middle East and Asia, fleeing poverty, religious persecution or conflict.
Thousands of men, women and children have died attempting the crossing from North Africa. In one incident, on 3rd October 2013, 366 migrants drowned when a boat capsized off the coast of Lampedusa. Italy is marking the third anniversary of this tragedy with a national day of remembrance for all those who have died crossing the Mediterranean in search of a better life.
Public service media have a responsibility to help citizens understand the context of the current migration emergency. It is the job of radio, television and online channels to stimulate an informed debate about the underlying issues, in order to defeat the ignorance and fear that have given rise to a resurgence of racism and xenophobia.
This yearâs Prix will show how 360° video and Virtual Reality can convey greater understanding about the plight of refugees. Delegates will also hear about best practices in data journalism to create a fuller understanding of complex issues, such as the impact of migration on jobs and the economy.
This year, the Italian foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, will take part in a debate about the role of the media with the first vice president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, and the director-general of Rai, Antonio Campo DallâOrto. Monica, who also happens to be one of Italyâs best-known journalists, will chair the discussion.
As well as producing workshops and seminars, my talented team is responsible for creating engaging content for the Prixâs web channels, in both Italian and English. We are waiting for six multimedia journalists, from Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Poland and South Korea, to join us to produce even more innovative audio and video, not only about the Prix, but also about Lampedusa and the migration crisis.
We selected the successful candidates - five women and one man - from more than 20 applicants, all of them experienced, multimedia journalists under the age of 34 working for Prix Italia member organisations. They will come together to create what we are calling the YLAB, a newsroom run by millennials for millennials and other consumers of digital content.
The EBU-Eurovision Academy fellow, Mark Egan, will provide training, technical advice and troubleshooting, but really this is about them working together to try and reinvent the way we cover the event. We hope it can be the springboard for a wider discussion about how we cover the news.
Joining the YLAB team is the brilliant Jenny Quigley-Jones, a digital storytelling expert who usually works for one of the social media giants. Jenny has a Master's from Harvard University in the Syrian crisis, and has worked with many non-profits and social enterprises, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations.
Another gifted millennial journalist, Caterina Villa, will be coordinating and providing direction. All eight of them will also take part in a two-hour workshop about reinventing content for digital consumers.
Junichi Nogami, NHKâs deputy director-general for programming, will touch on similar issues in his keynote lecture about reaching young audiences. And the BBCâs radio director, Helen Boaden, will tell us about the challenges facing public radio and broadcasting in the UK.
We have squeezed all of this and more besides, including screenings and networking events, into three very intense days. For practical reasons, but also to give the individual prizes greater prominence, the number of awards this year has been cut back from 20 to seven, covering radio, television and web productions.
The Prix is a remarkable event that over seven decades has attracted the likes of David Attenborough, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Marguerite Duras, Igor Stravinsky, Andrzej Wajda and Wim Wenders. (You will find more names of famous participants here.)Â
The temptation, when you have such a rich history and tradition, is to wallow in your achievements and stop moving forward. As Wittgenstein famously warned, resting on your laurels can be as deadly as falling asleep in the snow.
In order to advance in the right direction, though, you need to be aware of your past. âYou look at where you're going and where you are and it never makes sense,â writes Robert Pirsig, âbut then you look back at where you've been and a pattern seems to emerge.â
To say that Jaakko Alasaarela is determined to succeed would be an understatement. The CEO of ZEF calls his 32 employees âwarriorsâ and identifies his corporate values as passion and bravery.
ZEFâs customers include Al Jazeera, MTV, IMF, Reuters, ITV, Vianor, Marimekko and Disney. Rovio, another customer, sits on ZEFâs board.
Mike Mullane: Describe your job in as close as possible to 10 words.Â
JA: Help people to achieve their goals and dreams in life!
MM: How would your colleagues describe you?
JA:Â I made a poll in ZEF and here is the conclusion of the answers: âAn enthusiastic, passionate and brave fellow ZEF Warrior fighting for our common goals and dreams!â
MM:Â What is your best quality and worst habit?
JA: My best quality is my ability to visualize great things and the best outcome in any situation. My worst habit is to smoke cigars when I feel I have achieved something great.
MM:Â Whatâs your biggest challenge - what keeps you awake at night?
JA:Â The promises I have made for achieving something great. During the night I stay awake finding ways to make it happen!
MM:Â Which social networks do you use the most and how important is social media in your life outside the office?
JA:Â I am mostly using WhatsApp. It is the most effective way of staying in close real-time contact with all the people I love and to share highs and challenges of life. Still my most important âsocial networkâ is face to face meetings with the people close to me.
MM:Â What is the best advice you have ever received?
JA: âYou can achieve anything in life when you are willing to work for it with strong purpose!â
MM:Â What lesson have you learned the hard way?
JA: Humility, I have learnt the hard way how to treat people well and how to hire the right ones. I am proud and grateful that ZEF was awarded the Best Place to Work in Finland in 2016.
MM:Â If you could have dinner with any person alive or dead, who would it be?
JA:Â I would love to meet Elon Musk. I want to learn his way of thinking, especially how to set up âright questions to answerâ, which has been his way of getting answers and solving any challenge.
MM:Â How will people consume media 10 years from now?
JA:Â All media is brought automatically to people based on their needs, desires and values. This is done through social media, big data and algorithms which predict the right media to consume without the need for searching the information. This is actually what we are doing in ZEF!
Broadcasters may be waking up to the public service value and opportunities for creativity that social media offers, but the jury is still out on how best to integrate it into media workflows. Some companies have centralized teams working on social media strategy, while others leave it up to individual departments or production units.Â
I recently spoke to Radio TĂŠlĂŠvision Suisseâs Social Media Manager, David Lamon, about the Swiss broadcasterâs approach and some of the challenges the company is facing.
Mike Mullane: How important is social media at RTS?
DL: The importance of social media at RTS is growing all the time. Today, these platforms have become broadcasting channels in their own right, where we can interact with our audiences, disseminate content suited to these media and promote our complete package.
Often, social media enables us to reach demographics who are no longer responsive to radio and television. Social media is an integral part of our public-service remit because we canât leave digital audiences out in the cold.
MM: How embedded is social media and how is it integrated into the overall content strategy?
DL: The importance that RTS attaches to social media is reflected in the participation of social media experts in the programme-design process and special projects. It ensures that the creative contribution of social media can be considered from the outset.
Members of the Management Board and managing editors are intrigued by how storytelling is taking hold on social media and are eager for new experiences in this field. Interaction with audiences contributes a great deal to our thinking on the future of our medium.
MM: At RTS, would you say that social media is ever a point of departure, or is it something that is added onto radio and TV output as an afterthought? Â
DL:Â The trend is that social media is being slotted into the process at ever earlier stages.
For example, the new version of Nouvo â whose baseline is âkeep the news flowingâ â was specially thought up for social media as regards codes, grammar and target audience. This was also the case in the production of our latest web-series, most notably Bipèdes and Hellvetia.
Another example is the recent Exils project by Nicolae Schiau, who travelled with a group of Syrian refugees, posting updates of their journey on Twitter and Instagram.
The quintessence of these projects, in which social media take precedence, is that a specific narrative is developed for them. It is no longer appropriate simply to deploy content designed for TV or radio on these platforms; instead, bespoke concepts must be designed.
MM: How many people work on social media at RTS and what are their roles?
DL:Â RTS has a three-tier structure comprising a social media unit, a group of in-house specialists and editorial staff who write for our various accounts.
The three-member social media unit is in charge of Radio TĂŠlĂŠvision Suisseâs specific strategy in this area. It also acts as a incubator for projects relating to social media, provides much of the content that we post on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat accounts, and offers in-house training opportunities for journalists, web editors and managers.
This unit works hand in hand with the seven in-house specialists, representing the main RTS departments. These specialists are responsible for informing the social media unit about projects and ideas emanating from their respective departments and for ensuring that strategy is properly implemented at their level.
Lastly, the editorial staff responsible for posting to our various accounts function in some respects as community managers representing channels and individual programmes. It is important that such publications are managed directly by editorial teams to ensure optimal consistency with radio and TV output.
MM: How do you measure the impact and success of your social media strategy?
DL:Â We use several indicators: the size of our communities as well as publication frequency, reach and â most important of all â engagement. Engagement is central to our thinking as this factor measures the real impact of our publications by compiling likes, comments, re-tweets and instances of sharing.
By gauging our audiencesâ reactions, we can refine the selection of content that we offer to them. Engagement is also a useful indicator for measuring the degree of interaction with our community.
We use the enterprise version of Hootsuite together with the Agorapulse Barometer, which monitors our performance on Facebook.
MM: Which of your projects from the past year really stand out for you?
DL:Â The âExilesâ project, developed by journalist Nicolae Schiau, was managed on social networks by the social media unit thanks to the constant dedication of our colleague Magali Philip. For almost a month, Nicolae Schiau travelled with a group of Syrian migrants, from Kilis in Turkey to the Jungle refugee camp in Calais, reporting using a smartphone, a GoPro camera and a Shure microphone.
He conveyed his experiences in a radio report and a longer video diary. However, Twitter and Instagram postings soon became the main communication channels for this project.
Altogether, 2'000 tweets were sent with the #exils hashtag during his month on the road. In addition, there was interactivity on Periscope and videos were posted on Facebook â conveying a sentiment of being constantly with the migrants and experiencing their journey at first hand.
This immersive experience has laid the foundations for a new type of storytelling that we would like to continue with other projects.
MM: What are your biggest challenges going forward? Â
DL:Â This year is a sporting year, featuring the UEFA Euro 2016 football championships and the Rio Olympic Games. With both these events, we will be testing out new tools.
Staying close to the public â especially the 18-25 age bracket, which is increasingly impervious to our radio and TV channels â is an obvious challenge.
Additionally, output on social media will be increased through the establishment of a dedicated editorial team, which will select and edit existing content for these platforms. It will create innovative content, totally different from our standard broadcasting practices.
Against this backdrop, we have to maximize community participation to streamline our offer and meet the expectations of our audience.
Bipeds is a Radio TÊlÊvision Suisse (RTS) comedy series brings a whole new meaning to second screen interaction. Each episode of the series, which is still in beta, can be watched in sync on a computer and smartphone.
Biped.es is a spoof wildlife documentary that offers its audience an innovative, interactive feature. The Swiss web-based âmockumentariesâ allow viewers to pair their smartphones with a computer to see the action from a different angle, or to have a wider picture.
For example, viewers may be watching a scene inside a bathroom. By simultaneously using a smartphone browser, they can see who is waiting on the other side of the bathroom door.
The comedy shorts target millennials and younger teenagers. Standard, non-interactive episodes are also available in five languages: English, French, German, Italian and Romansh.Â
I asked the RTS Digital Innovation Lab Project Manager, Mounir Krichane, about the format of Bipeds.
MK: Bipeds is a web series (seven times three minutes), which was released in November 2015 by the RTS. The series portrays the everyday life of young people as if they were part of a wildlife documentary.
In addition to the standard episodes, which are available in five languages, we developed an innovative and interactive feature that allows the viewers to watch one of the episodes on a computer and a smartphone simultaneously in order to see the action from a different angle, or to have a wider picture.
MM: How did you come up with the idea?
MK: Bipeds was one of the winning projects of the 2014 contest for web-first series organised by the SRG SSR (Swiss Broadcasting Corporation). In this context, the production studio had to include an interactive feature and the RTS Digital Lab helped them to design and implement it.
MM: What kind of response have you had from users?
MK: The standard episodes had a fairly good success and so did the interactive feature.
MM: What kind of challenges did the interactive format pose the writers and production team?
MK: Because of the way the interactive feature was designed, the episode that was selected had to be written and shot with that in mind. This also implies an extra effort from the author and the production team.
MM: What have you learned from the experiment?
MK: We learned that such a feature had to be included in the project at an early stage in order to be developed successfully.
MM: What would you do better next time?
MK: We had some difficulties promoting the interactive feature because it was referenced using a different URL than the standard episodes. We need to find a better way to package them altogether.
MM: How many people work on the show?
MK: A team of four people was mainly involved in implementing the interactive feature: a video editor, a designer, a developer and a project manager. The first three were under the responsibility of the production studio and I, as a project manger, was leading the project from the RTS side.
MM: Do you think Bipeds could become mainstream?
MK: Yes this format could become mainstream, but we have to keep in mind that it is strongly dependent on the assets and the story. It needs to make sense in order to add any value to a content.
BBC Your Story combines your Facebook timeline with the events that have marked world history during your lifetime. I asked Andrew Martin, the Editorial Lead of the BBCâs Rewind project, to tell me more about Your Story.
AM:Â It is a personal tour through the history your lifetime. It triggers the BBCâs archive of global news and current affairs to match significant political, social, entertainment and sporting events, to those of the user.
Short text explanations are accompanies by some of the most stunning and iconic images of the past century, and wherever possible, video footage. For those who want more, there are links to fuller stories and explainers.
It is both a reminder, and an exploration of how the world has evolved around you; as you grew up, went to school, turned 21, or got your first job. Users of Facebook (although it is by no means Facebook-dependent) will find deeply personal matches, placing their big moments alongside those that shaped the world. It can be shared, used as a topic for discussion, education, or simply as a pastime which is full of intrigue, and nostalgia.
MM: Tell me more about the thinking behind Your Story.Â
AM: Â The BBC has an incredible wealth of information in its archive. The Rewind project, which developed and created Your Story, is one of the ways in which we are opening that archive to a global audience.
Rewind is constantly seeking new ways to use the archive, much of which has not been seen since it was first broadcast, or indeed, has never been seen at all. Through Your Story Global we can offer a glimpse inside some of the thousands of film-cans which, until recently, sat unused upon dusty shelves.
Your Story is one means of bringing the BBCâs core aims of informing, educating, and entertaining, to new audience. We are furiously digitizing the reels and rolls, the tapes and text of the archive.
We want to show it off, to allow others to make use of it. This is one of many ways in which we are trying to do that.
MM: Itâs currently available on the BBC Taster website. What happens after the beta testing phase is over?
AM:Â It has proved more popular than many had predicted. There are fresh requests for new versions, focusing on different issues.
The âbest bits,â of BBC comedy and entertainment will soon go live, there are versions to accompany a BBC drama called 13, and there are requests for immersive, personalised versions which would place the user in the middle of significant historical events.
It could become a means by which we can bring history to life. The possibilities are many, and the reception has been positive, so we have high hopes of developing the format much, much further.
MM: What kind of response have you had from users?
The first version proved so popular, it crashed the site. The new global version has been introduced gently. It is, however, doing incredibly well after just a few weeks. There have been over 4 million page views, with around half a million unique users across the globe.
MM: How are you gauging the impact of Your Story with online users?
AM:Â We have a feedback panel on BBC Taster, which is hugely informative, and those who have taken the time to give us their views have, in very large part, been extremely positive.
It is rating very well when set alongside some of the most popular content tried out on this innovative platform; better, in all honesty, than we had hoped for. Taster has such a wealth of interesting digital content, that to even compare to that is pleasing.
MM: Whatâs the target audience and how has that influenced your social media strategy?
AM:Â It is often assumed that digital content is only consumed by one demographic, but we have stories in there dating back to the late 1920s. The more life experience one has, the more rich the pickings.
Those with a few decades or more to muse over can get an incredible amount of detail from trying it a few times; no two experiences are likely to be the same. If you try it again and again, your pub quiz potential is indefinitely multiplied.
The target audience is anyone and everyone, wherever they are.
MM: What have been the biggest challenges?
AM:Â One serious challenge was the translation element. Your Story Global is currently available in four languages, and the translation teams rose to the challenge with an incredibly positive attitude. The BBC is fortunate in having so many specialists, who can also advise on the stories that are crucial to each region.
Getting the balance right with regard to who would get what stories was interesting, matching sports interests east and west took a bit of thought for example. The genius though, is in the developer team, which has created wizardry beyond the editorial to make it all work.
They have graded out the glitches and battered the bugs until the experience is (hopefully) a pleasure to use. The team also has to be wary that there is no watershed on digital, and some events had appalling outcomes.
Long after the fact, it is crucial to be cognisant of and compassionate towards victims, survivors and their loved-ones.
MM: What did you learn from your beta testing of the English version last year that has helped you with the international version?
AM:Â That was not something in which I was involved, but the team gathered a huge amount of experience with regard to the requisite workflows, and design- build which have improved the user experience and look of the product. They learned a lot about what the audience wants, and how to balance that against what an experience like this is supposed to be; informative as well as illuminating and interesting.
MM: How many people are working on it and how have you organised the workflow?
AM:Â We have a developer, a technical project manager, one researcher, and one person with editorial oversight. Above that, the Rewind Editor is the driving force in terms of the vision for the product.
Everyone on the team is simultaneously working on other projects to promote the BBCâs archive, and we have built resilience among the wider team by rotating a fantastic group of committed researchers, to ensure that the content keeps going in, and to get fresh eyes on how it is working to make it as good as it can be.
MM: Do you think the format could become mainstream?
AM: Â We genuinely believe that is moving in that direction. It will need to constantly evolve though, and each version will become more immersive, more bespoke, and more intuitive than the last.
Mika Rahkonen leads the News Media Lab and Development team at Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company. Mikaâs team is charged with driving innovation in journalism, redesigning radio and TV programmes and finding new ways to engage with audiences on mobile platforms.
Mika career in Yleâs News and Current Affairs Division has included stints as Head of Internet and overseeing strategic planning. He was Managing-Editor of Yle News and spent 10 years in the Business News Department.
Mikaâs Twitter handle is @MikaRahkonen
Mike Mullane: Describe your job in as close as possible to 10 words.
Mika Rahkonen: I try to help to re-invent the news. Someone's gotta do it.
MM: How would your colleagues describe you?
MR: Loud, foul-mouthed, impatient, not boring. Probably.
MM: What is your best quality and worst habit?
MR: My best quality might be that I tend to get really excited and enthusiastic about things, and I think I can make other people excited too. As for my worst habit, I don't know if it's the worst, but I do have to remind myself to listen more and talk less.
MM: Whatâs your biggest challenge - what keeps you awake at night?
MR: The transformation of a 90-year-old public service corporation into a digitally fluent and innovative media company. That's big. I don't know if it keeps me awake at night, but if you're a light sleeper and in a responsible position in a Public Service Media company in Europe, you might have worse reasons to be awake at night.
MM: Which social networks do you use the most and how important is social media in your life outside the office?
MR: Very important. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Snapchat, in that order. That's where most of my friends are, and I care about my friends and want to hear and see how their lives are. Twitter is excellent for work too.
MM: What do you love most about public service media?
MR: There's a value-based sense of purpose in PSM. Now, if you're a progressive and modern commercial media company, maybe you are not that different. But we can have strengthening democracy as our KPI, or voter turnout in national elections. That's pretty cool.
MM: What is the best advice you have ever received?
MR: Something along the lines of, âDon't wait for the right moment â it will never come. Do it now, whatever it is.â
MM: What lesson have you learned the hard way?
MR: Is there an easy way to really learn things?
MM: If you could have dinner with any person alive or dead, who would it be?
MR: Someone who has come up with something that has lasted for centuries or thousands of years. Jesus, perhaps. Who was that Greek philosopher who started talking about freedom? Someone like that, or Anthony Bourdain.
Bourdain seems like a super-cool dinner companion, would be able to talk endlessly about food and travel, and might have one of the best jobs in the world. If someone reading this is friends with him, please let him know.
MM: How will people consume media 10 years from now?
MR: All the time, in ways we can't understand now. Right now it seems that VR and AR will provide unprecedented opportunities for media in that time span.
I believe convenience always wins. Always. Media professionals should remember this if they want to invent something for the mass market. It does not look like they do at the moment.
Also, when you think about things 10 years from now, you should remember that there really was no Facebook 10 years ago. Ginormous things can and probably will happen in a relatively short period of time.
It doesnât seem that long ago we were predicting everyone would want a Second Life and that youngsters would be flocking to check into Habbo Hotel. In the end, though, the public never shared our enthusiasm for virtual worlds, or more likely were too busy living their lives in the real world.
There are plenty of other examples of where we have got it wrong, but what they all have in common is that we listened to the hype, instead of our gut feeling. Â Sometimes, there is a fine line between wisdom of the crowds and a herd instinct.
With Second Life, we were so eager to anticipate the next phase of the digital revolution that we forgot about the real world of work and schools. Iâm as guilty as anyone.
In 2007, Paul Bennun of Somethinâ Else spent a week locked in his London flat for a BBC radio programme about virtual worlds. I remember it well because during that week I interviewed Paul on Second Life for a media conference in Geneva.
It was enormous fun, but if Iâm honest, a big part of me was never really convinced about Second Life and Iâm sure many of my colleagues felt the same way. Certainly, I rarely felt like visiting Second Life in my leisure hours â it was a bit too convoluted, pointless and dare I say it, unreal.
That is in stark contrast to the world of social media, where the likes of Facebook and Twitter instantly had us hooked and just made sense. Fast-forward now to 2016 and all the hype is about Virtual Reality.
VR wonât make monkeys out of too many media experts in the Chinese New Year, but I am concerned that once again some of us are not listening to our gut. Itâs common sense. If people are consuming ever larger amounts of mobile content itâs because they need the freedom to be able to move around and to multitask.
Donât get me wrong, I wouldnât mind an Oculus Rift headset for my birthday, but itâs never going to be part of my daily routine. I couldnât use it at work or on public transport, and a VR headset is a lot more anti-social than a smartphone.
The other issue is that at least with Second Life it was clear what we were talking about.  But most of the media content weâre now calling VR is actually 360° video.
Itâs more about oomph than spades and shovels: VR just sounds sexier than 360° video. Itâs happening now because Google Cardboard and smartphones have provided a relatively cheap and easy way to distribute this kind of content.
An example is the BBCâs Strictly Come Dancing experiment, which offered users a new perspective of the dancers and audience from the centre of the dance floor. Itâs good stuff, but not VR.
We all know about The New York Timesâ foray into 360° video, but here are a few examples that may be less familiar:
BBC Taster (UK)
SVT Musikhjälpen (Sweden)
ARTE (France/Germany)
RTVE (Spain)
NPO (Netherlands)
Excellent and inspiring they may be, but none of this content offers an immersive VR experience. Although some broadcasters do avoid using the VR tag, others may be unintentionally misleading audiences about what VR has to offer.
On a more positive note, all these initiatives, including The New York Timesâ mailing of more than one million Cardboard units to its subscribers, are reaching a non-geek public for the first time. It is about awareness.
But are we on the cusp of another revolution in mainstream media consumption?
We must develop new ways of telling stories to stay relevant and to exploit all the potential that digital tools and platforms have to offer. VR is undoubtedly a new frontier for media and we will see much more of the real thing in 2016, in film, journalism, documentaries and various services.
Sales of easily affordable VR headsets will take off 2016, but demand will be driven by gaming on mobile and console devices, not journalism.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to storytelling and design. Journalists must always be aware of user needs and the strengths or limitations of different platforms. Â
The media companies that I know differentiate between mobile apps and the mobile web. App users are not only a loyal audience, but also have greater expectations.
That is the good news. The bad news is that all the empirical evidence suggests that the average user engages on a regular basis with just a small handful of apps.
The top five apps are responsible for 80% to 90% of all app usage.Â
One of the ways that broadcasters are trying to ensure that they stay popular with users is by offering ever more personalised services. They are providing users with access to their favourite content across multiple devices, as well as local news, weather and road conditions.
A good example is Yleâs NewsWatch app. It offers users a highly customised and personalised experience. The news is based on individual topic choices, reading history, what is trending and what Yleâs editors select as the dayâs top stories.Â
The Yle news app allows users to choose from 140,000 topics: for example, users may be interested in Cristiano Ronaldo stories, but not in football.
The idea is that users crave content that is both relevant and personal. Given that there is no shortage of competition, the fear is that if you do not offer users what they want, they will simply look elsewhere.
But not everyone agrees.
CNNâs Inga Thordar recently told a conference in London that CNN is reluctant for the time being to offer personalised services to its app users. Their argument is that too much personalisation runs contrary to their journalistic mission to make editorial choices and to introduce their audience to a wider range of stories than they might otherwise see.
The mobile web is a different beast altogether. If anything, there is even more pressure to make page design intuitive because irregular or first time users will be less patient.
Mobile has a different set of technical and design challenges, but above all, just because something works on the web does not mean that it will work on mobile. Even responsive design is not mobile optimised, as users have to download redundant data, even if it is hidden by a style sheet.
In many ways, mobile has forced the pace of UX design. Smaller screens and data capping place a greater emphasis on simplicity and speed.
âWe aim for every page on mobile to be like a home page, without overloading it,â says Inga Thordar.
Story navigation needs to be one point at a time and tables should be made manageable by filtering the data on display. The BBCâs mobile website is a good source of best practices..
Elsewhere, Buzzfeed excels at grabbing attention, as well as making news digestible and shareable on the go. This is crucial for them because at least 60 per cent of their traffic is mobile.
What they show is that a successful mobile strategy is not only about design. It is also about finding new ways to tell stories and perhaps of persuading journalists that there are different and more relevant ways to present their content.
Mobile journalism is something that Buzzfeed does very well. Although they often use mobile-friendly formats like bullet points or lists, their stories are never devoid of contextual information â even their push notifications always provide context.
Mobile editor Brianne OâBrien has a nice way of explaining Buzzfeedâs approach to storytelling: âWhatâs the most atomic unit that someone needs to know about whatâs going on in the world?â
Peter is the Editorial lead for the BBCâs digital innovation team, the Connected Studio, that works across BBC divisions on new storytelling initiatives. He also runs the BBC Rewind programme which is making the BBC archive a much more regular and signature feature of the BBCâs digital public service storytelling.
Peter is a multi-award winning senior BBC Journalist. Previous roles include Editor of Newsnight on BBC Two; Editor, The World at One and PM on Radio Four; and Editor Newshour on the BBC World Service.
MM: Describe your job in as close as possible to 10 words.
PR: Transforming a much loved old linear public broadcaster into a much loved digital public service storyteller.
MM: How would your colleagues describe you?
PR: Highly creative, entrepreneurial and indefatigable (when being nice)
MM: What are you reading at the moment?
PR: Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey
MM: What is your favourite TV and/or radio programme?
PR: Live Sport on TV and The Great British Bake Off: Â TV as a national event, bringing huge audiences together.
MM: What is your favourite smartphone or tablet app?
PR: So many. Strava: genuinely enhanced community experience for super-fans. Â
MM: Which social network do you use the most?
PR: Facebook. It is where everyone else is. Â
MM: How important is social media in your life outside the office?
PR: Pretty huge. Connecting with friends.
MM: Whatâs the best idea that you ever had?
PR: I am still waiting to have it.
MM: Whatâs the biggest mistake that you ever made in your professional life?
PR: With hindsight, too many to mention; without it there are just calls, not mistakes
MM: How will people consume media 10 years from now?
Big data is a bit like fishing. Imagine a net, a bucket, an aquarium and a frying pan: the net is how you capture your fish; the bucket is where you store them; the aquarium and the frying pan are two things you might do with the fish afterwards.
Online we capture two kinds of data. The first is via standard analytics, while the second involves a degree of interaction.
Examples of the first kind include the amount of time spent on your website, the pages visited and where users go after they leave your site. The second kind comes from services that require users to provide personal data in order to subscribe or register. Â
Once you have caught your fish, it is crucial that your bucket does not have any holes. As well as the more obvious technical challenges of storing data efficiently, there are a lot of legal issues to contend with.
Media companies must understand and comply with both national and international data protection regulations. Most people are aware of privacy issues, but the fact that data is such a valuable asset, opens another swath of legal challenges.
Although no-one owns data about individual citizens, database rights in the European Union afford a measure of IP protection to incentivise the storage and processing of data. In general, companies have rights regarding their investment in the aggregation of data in order to provide valuable services, such as marketing intelligence, targeted advertisements or personalisation.
Of course, data is only really valuable if you exploit it in a smart way that adds value to the services you are offering. Sometimes the frying pan will be the right choice, but sometimes the aquarium is what you really need.
The huge amount of data out there is providing national broadcasters, often funded via a licence fee, with an opportunity to reinvent public service at a time when audiences have new expectations. The internet has created an environment of abundant choice, where traditional media companies are no longer the exclusive packagers and distributors of content.
Some of Jay Rosen's âthe people formerly known as the audienceâ even have their own audiences, especially on social networks. Commissioning editors should be shot if they are not listening to audiences to ensure that they invest in the right programmes.
Public service means catering to the needs of citizens. Online that means using data to make content that is both relevant and personal, while respecting and protecting privacy.
Smart broadcasters are encouraging their audience to share data with them in order to tailor recommendations to individual interests, preferences and consumption patterns. They are providing users not only with access to their favourite content across multiple devices, but also local news, weather and road conditions.
Used smartly, data can help media companies to retain audiences and increase consumption. The days of shouting at audiences from the top of a hill are long gone because the web and social media have empowered audiences to the point that nowadays they are also creators, curators and critics.
It is sometimes surprising, though, how many broadcasters are still producing and delivering content in a very traditional way. Their focus is still on scheduling, rather than putting audiences in the driving seat, while the social networks are a platform for pushing messages, rather than an opportunity for listening. Â
Sam Taylor is a senior multimedia news journalist, channel controller and change manager with industry-leading experience of digital development, breaking news, social media and the launch of new products and services.    He is currently UK 24/7 editor for BBC News, managing its UK online and digital video operation, the market-leading BBC News Channel and the BBC News at One TV bulletin.
Sam led the design and delivery of the BBCâs multimedia newsroom at New Broadcasting House, and has overseen a succession of major change projects. He has overseen much of the work to establish BBC News' presence on social media in recent years.
Samâs Twitter handle is @samtaylornews.
MM: Describe your job in as close as possible to 10 words.Â
ST: I run the BBC's News Channel, Â UK online and digital video operation
MM: How would your colleagues describe you? Â
ST: Working hard to make sense of a constantly evolving news business - while still breaking news
MM: What are you reading at the moment? Â
ST: My iPad
MM: What is your favourite TV or radio programme?Â
ST: Strictly Come Dancing - perfect Saturday night entertainment for every generation.
MM: What is your favourite smartphone or tablet app?Â
ST: Flipboard - always throws up interesting things I don't find elsewhere
MM: Which social network do you use the most?Â
ST: Facebook for friends and monitoring the competition at the same time
MM: How important is social media in your life outside the office?Â
ST: Very - I often have more time for social media when I'm not in the office!
MM: Whatâs the best idea that you ever had? Â
ST: Deciding to put live TV and online teams together in our new newsroom, before we moved in
MM: Whatâs the biggest mistake that you ever made in your professional life?Â
ST: Not pushing on rapidly enough to the next set of changes after our big building and newsroom move
MM: How will people consume media 10 years from now?Â
ST: Still in very large quantities - but with a much wider variety of approaches and devices.
There isn't very much that is more frustrating online than being on a poorly designed website and not being able to find the information you are looking for. What I donât understand is how people forget about their own experiences as users when they build websites.
Like much in life, getting it right has a lot to do with common sense: you don't even need to know about the niceties of SEO and UX to make some improvements. Simply look at your website as though you are visiting it for the first time and then, if you are looking for inspiration, learn from websites that you like.
I used to know a family that ran a very popular eyewear and camera equipment business. One of the secrets of their success was that they always visited their competitorsâ stores to see how merchandise was displayed and to judge the quality of the service.
Online it is much easier and you donât even have to get out of bed. Let me give you an example.
Imagine if you were put in charge of a media competition that was longer as well known as it used to be. You might start your first day in the office by visiting the Webby Awards site.
You would notice that it was updated with details about the shortlisted nominees and that they were given âbadgesâ to promote their achievement. Â This not only raises the profile of the awards, but also drives traffic back to the event website.
You don't have to be a genius. These are not original ideas and very easy to copy.
All of these thoughts flashed across my mind earlier this year when I was invited to take part in a long-established media awards festival. My first negative was almost immediate, when I began searching for a website that would tell me more about the competition and the shortlisted nominees.
I kept looking, but bizarrely a new website was only published on the day the festival actually opened. It is common sense that it should have been there much earlier to promote the competitors and the various workshops taking place.
Never mind. I was briefly relieved when the website finally appeared, but was soon frustrated again.
For one thing, I struggled to find details about the nominees. Not only was this a disservice to visitors, but also not very appreciative towards all the talented people who had created the great content that the festival was built on.
Nominations create buzz â interest and expectation - especially when the entries are mainstream, popular radio, TV and web content. If the information is there and managed properly, online and on social, it will generate conversation. This ought to be obvious.
Once the website finally appeared, another annoying experience for visitors was trying to plan their daily schedules. The online programme promoted Day 1 for the entire week, with more clicks needed to locate the day you were looking for.
Although you could select specific workshops or meetings, all the links took you to the same page offering a schedule for the entire week. More time wasted.
Sadly, the content on the website was equally as disappointing. Although the theme of the festival was storytelling, very little effort had gone into telling any stories on the website.
The news was always at least a day old. The items were short and often no more than a cut and paste of information from the festival programme.
The social media strategy was another disaster, but I might save that for another blog post. Suffice it to say for now that no effort had gone into engaging the nearly one thousand delegates, participants and jury members attending the event.
When we were children, the story of the three little pigs was meant to teach us the importance of building things properly. Forget the big, bad wolf â failing to promote your brand and annoying your customers can be just as lethal.
Martin JĂśnsson is Swedish Radioâs Digital Director. Martinâs responsibilities cover digital strategy and content, online, apps, social, third party platforms and collaborations, and digital development, including CMS and API.
During his career as a journalist, Martin was Deputy Editor in Chief of Swedenâs Svenska Dagbladet newspaper. He was also Visiting Professor in Practical Journalism at Gothenburg University.
Martinâs Twitter handle is @MJSverigesRadio.
MM: Describe your job in as close as possible to 10 words.
MJ: Responsible for all things digital at Swedish Radio, except DAB/DAB+.
MM: How would your colleagues describe you?
MJ: Constantly connected, change oriented, efficient, a music nerd, a bit stubborn, impatient and a devoted opponent of bureaucracy and unnecessary meetings.
MM: What are you reading at the moment?
MJ: John Szweds terrific book on Billie Holiday - âThe Musician and the Mythâ -and Patti Smiths âM Trainâ.
MM: What is your favourite TV or radio programme?
MJ: I watch very little TV, I listen to loads of podcasts. New finds are Song Exploder and NPRâs âWait, wait, donât tell meâ.
MM: What is your favourite smartphone or tablet app?
MJ: At home: Sonos, for all kinds of listening.
MM: Which social network do you use the most?
MM: Twitter, for news coverage. Whatâs App, for keeping in touch.
MM: How important is social media in your life outside the office?
MJ: My main source of information, at all times.
MM: Whatâs the best idea that you ever had?
MJ: To ask my wife to marry me.
MM: Whatâs the biggest mistake that you ever made in your professional life?
MJ: To stay too long in a job, when I should have just risen and walked out.
MM: How will people consume media 10 years from now?
MJ: Constantly and collaboratively (if thatâs a word).
If you were asked to describe a detective story you might think of an Agatha Christie novel or one of Alfred Hitchcockâs films. What they have in common is a linear narrative that guides the reader or audience along a carefully constructed path towards a denouement.
But what does a web-native detective story look like? The user experience is of course different to anything in books, broadcast media or on celluloid because every medium has its own language.
The web enables storytelling to be non-linear, allowing users to find their own way towards the conclusion, as well as interactive, dynamic and participatory.
âThe Last Hours of Laura Kâ is an immersive detective story from the BBC and provides a good example of what is possible. In order to solve the mystery, users must look for clues and find a motive for Lauraâs murder by plunging themselves into the charactersâ digital lives, including their social media updates.
Users are given 24 hours of fictional CCTV footage to help them recreate the victimâs last hours. They have access to Laura Kâs profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Spotify and Tumblr.
The fact that only a very few people have managed to solve the cryptic puzzle has helped to create and consolidate a sizeable online community. Users can follow the official Twitter account, use #LastHoursofLK, or join the Facebook group to share ideas or discuss theories.
This kind of non-linear storytelling, which is clearly influenced by gaming, can also be found in other genres.
The multi award-winning âRefugee Republicâ is an immersive web documentary that mixes sound, drawing, photographs and film to transport users to a Syrian refugee camp in northern Iraq. Users navigate around the camp with the aid of an interactive, hand-drawn map.
Users gain insight about the lives of the nearly sixty thousand refugees by seeing the places, hearing the sounds experiencing the atmosphere of Camp Domiz. As they explore users stumble across stories and find out how the refugees have transformed the camp into a bustling town, complete with schools and businesses.
User-generated content often plays an important part in digital storytelling. Belgiumâs French-language national broadcaster, RTBF, created âPhone Booth Storiesâ when the countryâs last public telephone booth was demolished in May 2015. Before the ubiquity of mobile phones made them redundant, there were eighteen thousand phone boxes in Belgium, covering the length and breadth of the country.
RTBF asked users to share their memories about things that happened in pay phones on a dedicated Facebook page and via a special dial in number. There is also a web documentary.
Digital storytellers are finding new ways to engage audiences and to provide them with original multimedia experiences. This is not only immensely exciting, but also vital for the future of legacy broadcasters who need to engage digital audiences.
Weâll be looking at the importance of digital storytelling for public service media at our first Eurovision Online Media Conference. Register to participate at the NDRC, in Dublin, on 22nd October.
Pope Francis has compared vanity to a peacock: beautiful from the front, but not so impressive from behind. Web and social media metrics can also look very impressive from some angles, but tell a different story from others.
Although we all understand the importance of setting goals and monitoring performance, a lot of managers measure the wrong things when it comes to social media. Some metrics may flatter your vanity, but they won't tell you how you arrived where you are now, and certainly won't help you to understand what you need to do next.
We actually use the term "vanity metrics" for measurements such as page views, hits, registered users, downloads, Facebook likes or Twitter followers. At best, they provide a useful snapshot of your performance online.
At worst, they can create a misleading picture and the numbers are easy to enhance. Like movie stars who have been under the plastic surgeon's knife, they might look better on the surface, but it doesn't reflect the reality.
It costs very little to buy Twitter followers, and services like 500views.com can boost your performance on YouTube. But a lot of Twitter followers isn't much use if they aren't registering for your website, or showing interest in your products and services.
Unscrupulous community managers know how easy it is to mask the failure of a community that lives behind the firewall, by reporting only the number of registered users, without mentioning active users. Page views will look sexier if you keep quiet about the high bounce rate.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is perhaps the ultimate example of someone who has always understood which numbers are important. From the early Harvard days, when Facebook was targeting university students, Zuckerberg would always talk about daily active users and the speed of the site's penetration into a new campus.
Actionable metrics help us to focus on the right strategies - as the name implies, we can act on them. They correlate specific actions with specific results.
But don't get me wrong.
When used properly, vanity metrics provide proof that you do have something relevant to say and that people are listening. After all, thousands of likes and followers show that you must be doing something right.
And just as the peacock's ostentatious display impresses peahens, vanity metrics may keep corporate bosses happy. It never ceases to surprise me how little some decision-makers understand web and social media analytics.
The fashion designer, Karl Lagerfeld - a man who knows a thing or two about the effects of botox - says that vanity is healthy. I'm not sure about that, but when you are competing for corporate resources, good-looking vanity metrics might buy you the time you need for your engagement strategy to bear fruit.
Miriam Hernanz leads the RTVE Lab, in Madrid, where a multidisciplinary team of digital innovators creates new tools, approaches and techniques for storytelling. The Labâs groundbreaking work on digital narratives and interactivity has been recognised with prestigious Lovie and Webby awards.
Miriam began her career at El Mundo before moving to the Spanish public service broadcaster, in 2008, as a member of the founder team of the news website, rtve.es. She joined RTVE Lab in 2011.
MM: Describe your job in as close as possible to 10 words.
MH: I´m a digital journalist developing new audiovisual narratives for news and entertainment formats.
MM: How would your colleagues describe you?
MH: When I asked them, colleague number one said, "Energetic, cheerful, and a thinker." Colleague number two said, "Happy, overly responsible, with a high sense of journalism."
Who am i working with!?
MM: What are you reading at the moment?
MH: At he moment I´m reading The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes. The last one was Lâadversaire, by Emmanuel Carrère.
MM: What is your favourite TV or radio programme?
MH: At the moment, itâs House of Cards. For me, is the best way to understand the joys and sadness of life.
MM: Whatâs your favourite app?
MH: WhatsApp... It is the most basic and my number one app.
MM: Which social network do you use the most?
MH: Instagram - it´s so attractive, intuitive and addictive.
MM: How important is social media in your life outside the office?
MH: I live more consciously in my virtual world than in the real one. Have I answered the question? For me, social media are an important extension in my life, where I can connect with my people, learn from anonymous people and show other features of my personality.
MM: What's the best idea that you ever had?
MH: Being part of an innovation department, to work in a place where people demand that you think of something new everyday!
MM: What's the biggest mistake that you ever made in your professional life?
MH: Stopping myself from developing a project just because someone said, âIt ainât gonna work.â
MM: How will people consume media 10 years from now?
MH: I´m a Her - the film - fan and I think we will have personalised media and devices. Video is going to be everywhere, with interactivity highly developed.
We will have personalised software to make our lives easier.
jacobvanloon
dailybridgerton
romaincrisis
theartofmadeline
annaxmalina
turnnoffyourmind
stormborns
kaledo-art