Digital Media = Brevity?

Emily Bell in the Opinion page in The Guardian's Media Suppliment (11th Jan 2010) made fascinating point about a previosuly unknown (unknown to me at least) benefit of digital media.

Unlike her traditional print media article for the paper which has to fill a certain amount of space, digital media allows for a reappraisal of "what is enough in terms of good reporting, or commentary". Unlike the print media, digital media has no minimum or maximum word limit.

Bell points out that the format media is being presented on is changing rapidly as the technology revolution is altering the way we access media. Just as users are questioning the need for music albums as a format (if music is being downloaded why have a dozen tracks when I only like two or three of the songs) or the need for TV channels now that their favourite programmes are available online; we are now questiong the way our news is delivered.

She argues that "content, journalism, programmes and visual communication" will have to become comfortable moving onto the "smaller screen" as we start accessing them on mobile technology.

Despite the need to be versitile (ability to be accessed on the smaller screen) this doesn't translate directly into an increased apitite for brevity.

Despite the success of Twitter (which limits posts to a mere 140 characters) there is evidence according to Bell that "well differentiated long form content is as eagerly consumed as the quick soundbite". She points to statistics on The Guardian website which showed that a feature piece in the G2 suppliment (on Victorian sewers of all things) was the most viewed article of that specific month, which challeneges preconvied ideas of the results of the switch to digital media.

In addition Bell even questions the need for quotes in the new media as journalists can now link to other articles, statements or blogs.

As academic work, research and articles will be increasingly posted and debated online there is a tendancy to assume that for it to compete in the Twitter age the authors will need to be both brief and exciting - however this is an assumption which isn't supported by evidence.

Creativity in (digital) Education

Following on from my blog on TED, I'm today going to look at how TED can be used as a tool for digital historians or indeed any academic. I'm going to look at the example of the most watched TED talk, given by Sir Ken Robinson on the subject of education, which has been watched over fifteen million times.

Robinson

Robinson is an "educational expert" according to his TED biography (whatever that might be) and has been involved in the creative arts most of his adult life. His talk keeps to the 18 minute limit that I mentioned when blogging about TED, and he is one of the best speakers I have ever listened to. He has a simple message, reform eduction to recognise creativity and innovation, his delivery is excellent and at times very funny. After watching his speech I read his wikipedia entry and eventually bought his book "The Element" which I read on a few days of commuting last summer.

His book is now in the top 1,000 on the Amazon best seller list (it has been out for over a year), so I am not alone in making the transition from watching his video to buying his book. TED seemingly has had a major role in promoting him, his views and his work; so how is TED able to do this, and how can historians use TED and the like to promote an idea or some research?

Why use the likes of TED?

Firstly it must be stated that not anyone can take part in TED! The point of this blog is not to look at TED as the only option, but to look at TED as a type of website, a formula that an inidivual, university or organisation could easily recreate for themselves.

TED is a great platform for academics because of the reputation the website has for quality talks and speakers (therefore is UCC or an organisation were to develop a copycat version of TED it would have to use strict quality controls.

The TED format makes it popular with viewers though is a challenge for academics to meet; yet a successful talk has so many benefits. It firstly will be watched by many on the website, then perhaps shared online through social networking websites such as Facebook and blogged about, providing a huge increase in its influence. Secondly, presuming the topic is interesting the 18 minute talk will serve to whet the apetite of the viewer and they will want to read more on the topic, thus giving an academic a receptive audience.

Authors promote their books on radio and television freqeuntly, TED is in one sense just another method. Some academics have created accompaning television series when they are launching their work. A six-part television series requires viewers to sit down for six hours, a TED talk allows them to be introduced to the idea in less than twenty minutes! In a world where people are and will continue in large numbers to access digital media "on the go" the TED format is far more versatile.

The success of YouTube has perhaps shown us that people have short attention spans and want to be introduced to something quickly.

Practical uses of the TED format

Imagine if lecturers created short TED style talks to introduce their modules? I remember just over a year ago sitting down with with classmates making our choices about classes, the first few module choices were easy to make, they were almost instinctive reactions when we read the title of the class. However I remember almost all of us were stuck with five credits left to allocate, a bad choice would bring misery and suffering on us for several months! Having a TED talk on subject choices or module choices not only helps people see what the class will be like, but also gives some insight into what the lecturer will be like. But in addition to all that it will force to lecturer to give a reason as to why this topic is important and will provide some overview as to what the whole course is about.

Google's role in preserving history

Google have come to an agreement with the Italians to digitise almost one million books!

I posted the article as it makes an interesting point, being digitalised the books are protected "forever" and can not fall victim to disasters;

Mario Resca of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage said the deal would help save the books' content forever, noting that the 1966 Florence flood ruined thousands of books in the city's library

Climategate - loss of history?

If you haven't heard about "Climategate" you have either lived under a rock or work for the IPCC.

In a nutshell thousands of e-mails between scientists working for the Climatic Research Unity (based at the University of East Anglia) were leaked and distributed online, one month before the Climate Conference which took place in Copenhagen in December 2009. They showed the lengths at which scientists went in order to discredit and essentially silence climate change septics.

In one email, Benjamin Santer from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., wrote to the director of the climate-study center that he was "tempted to beat" up Mr. Michaels. Mr. Santer couldn't be reached for comment Sunday.

In another, Phil Jones, the director of the East Anglia climate center, suggested to climate scientist Michael Mann of Penn State University that skeptics' research was unwelcome: We "will keep them out somehow -- even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!" Neither man could be reached for comment Sunday.

Wall Street Journal, 23rd November 2009

An article in today's Guardian, How to avoid your own 'climategate' scandal, highlights the risks for academics working in the post Freedom of Information age. The Freedom of Information Act which is so beneficial in many ways inevitably has several unintended consequences, namely;

For sensitive information that you would not want in the public domain, rather than putting it in email or in a document, it may be better to discuss it face-to-face or on the phone.

Documents of historical value will nto exist as academics (but also policy makers etc.) will for fear of a climategate style scandal avoid using communication methods which could become public.

"Every email I write," says a lawyer colleague of mine, "I write as though next week I could be reading it in the newspaper."

The Lost Digital History

Earlier this week I mentioned the great plethora of resources available to me online in my area of research. It got me thinking of the huge amount of history which is currently stored online.

I read this article a few weeks ago but was able to find it again by searching online, Legal delays have blown a hole in UK's digital heritage (The Guardian, 4th October 2009). It is UK specific as it concerns the failure to implement the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 which would have forced the British Library to record and store digital material.

The article suggests that six years of digital history has been (potentially) lost as the government has not enforced the 2003 act giving the British Library (and others, including Trinity College Dublin) the ability to store digital material in the same way that these libraries currently store books and journal articles etc.

"At least 26 other countries, including France, Germany, Canada, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand and Norway, now have similar laws in force."

Digital history is becoming more important as more of our resources originate online, and thus its beneficial to a historian to see this 2003 Act enforced and copied internationally.

An abundance of information

My thesis topic (NATO Expansion under President Clinton) is relatively modern, focusing mostly on the last half of the 1990s; so far the biggest difference between my thesis research and my dissertation research last year (on the US opposition to Salvador Allende in Chile) has been the volume of data available online.

I remember having one excellent book, "The Pinochet File" by a NSA archivist, Peter Kornbluh. The book compiled a significant amount of pertinent US documents which had been declassified in 1998 by President Clinton under pressure from Secretary of State, Madeline Albright.

The book was by no means perfect, firstly I can't tell you how many times I wished I had the ability to "Ctrl+f" (to search the text) it is only when you are used to using online texts do you realise how inadequate the index in most books are! Also as the book was a compilation of documents Kornbluh had to decide what documents to include. Although it is 590 pages long there was a limit to the amount of material he could include.

So far my MA thesis research has been mostly online, I decided to familiarise myself with the history of NATO in the 1990s by reading almost every article connected to the organisation in the period. Thanks to still being free to use, I didn't have to pay to access the New York Times archive (although from 2011 you will have to subscribe) or The Times, The Guardian, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal.

I can access the newspapers archive, and simply search for key terms such as "Nato" and there in front of me is everything I need from that website. It is so easy to find sources for my research this year that a new problem has emerged - deciding what resources are of value.

The abundance of information online presents a bigger problem for historians in the future - how are we protecting our digital history for the future. This is something I have read a little bit about today in the newspaper, and I will blog on it once I have done some reading on the issue.