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 target audience is anyone and everyone, wherever they are.
Andrew Martin, Editorial Lead, BBC Rewind, January 2016
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 BBC’s Rewind project, to tell me more about Your Story.
AM: It is a personal tour through the history your lifetime. It triggers the BBC’s 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.
AM: 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 BBC’s 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: It’s currently available on the BBC Taster website. What happens after the beta testing phase is over?
AM: It has proved more popular than many had predicted. There are fresh requests for new versions, focusing on different issues.
The ‘best bits,’ 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: 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: What’s the target audience and how has that influenced your social media strategy?
AM: 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: 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: 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: 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 BBC’s 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: 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. Mika’s 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 Yle’s 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.
Mika’s 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: What’s 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, “Don't wait for the right moment – it will never come. Do it now, whatever it is.”
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.
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.
Mika Rahkohnen, Head of News Development & Media Lab, Yle, January 2016
