Anthony Mayfield

Head of Media, Spannerworks.

What is the current state of play with the World Wide Web?

Having heard a number of lecturers touching on the subject (including today's with search engine marketing specialist Anthony Mayfield) I feel fairly confident I can give an answer.

The speed of communication has accelerated. Newspapers for example are no longer competing on a daily basis, but minute by minute online. The scale of available content is vast because the individual living in countries rich and poor has been empowered to create. According to Anthony, by 2010, 70% of online content will be created by individuals rather than companies and organisations. Individuals are communicating and interacting more and more through social networks - of the 1.25 billion people online, 400 million (and rising) use social networks.

In relation to journalism, rather than being passive readers, internet users are expecting to interact with journalists by emailing them and writing comments on their articles. And content lasts - yesterday's news is no longer today's chip shop paper. For example, yesterday on Guardian Unlimited, a story written in 2000 was the second most read on the website, incidentally it concerned sex in space (Astronauts test sex in space - but did the earth move?)!

That's some of the main characteristics of today's internet. It's clear to me that every aspiring journalist needs to embrace them to be successful.

Kim Hollamby

Digital Development Director, IPC Media

Search engine optimisation (SEO) was not a term I was familiar with until recently, but thanks to an excellent article in the Media Guardian I now feel well informed. Kim Hollamby, believes we trainee journalists need to be well aware of SEO.

Search engine optimisation is when news organisations aim to get their stories as high as possible in search engine results. Where newspapers replicate their stories online, this has proved problematic as their headlines often rely on puns. Some newspapers are re-writing headlines and sub-headings for online. Where newspapers simply replicate their stories online, for example with the South Wales Echo, internet users will miss some of their stories. I suspect this will soon change and all newspapers will have to make different headlines when they put their stories online.

SEO is yet another example of how successful journalists will fall behind if they do not work with digital media.

A great day of interviewing

Thursday reminded me why I want to be a journalist. It was so uplifting to get out of the classroom and interview.

On Thursday afternoon I headed to the Welsh Beer and Cider Festival to interview a member of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and a local brewer. I used the opportunity of the festival to do my ‘As Live’ assessed piece. This is where a reporter does a ‘live’ interview on location (ie away from the studio). I thoroughly enjoyed finding out why the festival is so popular and why local breweries are important. To finish the ‘As Live’, I sampled last year’s Champion Beer at the same time as asking the brewer to describe its taste and popularity. CLICK HERE to listen to the beer festival 'As Live'.

Then, thanks to a tip off from housemate and newspaper student Ben, it was a dash to the Millennium Stadium. I interviewed the Wales Rugby coach Nigel Davis next to the pitch about their upcoming match with World Champions South Africa. I felt I held my own next to the genuine journalists that surrounded the coach in the incredible national stadium.

Now I’ll edit the audio and so this week will have practised two of the key skills of interviewing and editing that we’re taught on the course.