Taking Out The Trash

Bloggers big bash in Bristol

What’s the Blogging Story

October 22nd, 7pm / Watershed Media Centre, Bristol

Who can you trust when the new media meets the old? An evening of debate with mainstream journalists and bloggers. What’s the relationship between traditional and new media – the tired and the wired as some call them? Is blogging journalism? And who can you believe in this age of blogs, tweets and pay walls?

Join Roy Greenslade (The Guardian), Donnacha Delong (NUJ Vice President), Sunny Hundal (Liberal Conspiracy), Brooke Magnanti (Belle du Jour) and a panel of popular bloggers to determine who will dominate the future of news.

A Bristol Festival of Ideas event, in association with the NUJ Bristol branch, the University of the West of England MediaAct project and MediaWise, as part of a weekend study on the impact of the blogosphere.

Blogging Hell!

Pervasive Media Studio

Leadworks, Anchor Square, Bristol

Saturday October 23rd, 11am-1pm

Finding common cause across borders: Planning for international action on media standards.

What’s the role of online journalism in sustaining democratic societies? What role can the blogosphere play in more rigidly controlled societies? Can bloggers develop systems of self regulation that could enhance journalism standards?

This is the opening workshop in what promises to be a long-running debate.

 

Jo Bloggs – but is it journalism?

Pervasive Media Studio

Leadworks, Anchor Square, Bristol

Saturday October 23rd, 2-4pm

Is blogging the new journalism? Are blogs a new, democratic kind of publishing, giving a voice to everyone? Or are they just a platform where gossip, speculation and bias are passed on as fact, and nothing can be trusted?

As the lines between traditional and citizen journalism blur, how are mainstream media owners and regulators responding? Are the interests of citizen journalists, bloggers and mainstream journalists the same or contradictory? Where does the National Union of Journalists fit in the new media world? Should bloggers be able to join the NUJ?

Join leading bloggers and mainstream journalists for a revealing discussion and some possible resolutions.

 

Educating the children of military families

The Big Issue in the North has published a news story of mine about how the state educates the children of military families.

A fuller feature on this topic appears in the latest edition of Families Journal, the magazine of the Army Families Federation.

Two local authorities (North Yorkshire and Wiltshire) are making particular efforts to improve the way they deal with the particular needs of service children. For instance; they often arrive at schools at late notice making the planning of provision difficult. They often have a parent absent for long periods (obvious, I know, but the impact of service children is not something that is recorded by Ofsted). There is an impact on children who are required to lose and make friends quickly.  There is, unfortunately, the question of bereavement.

However, what is surprising, is that basic information is lacking. Data on the performance of service children is patchy. It is not even clear how many children from military families are being educated in the state sector at any one time. The census run by the Department of Education has a section asking LEAs to list their number - but it is not mandatory and the results are suspect. Wales and Scotland don't bother counting at all.

As one education official said: “They say that one of the most stressful things is moving house, another is moving to a new country or moving to a new job. Service children can go through all of that and the education sector just expects them to cope.”