J-Lab

Duncan Campbell was the crime correspondent of the Guardian and chairman of the Crime Reporters’ Association. He has written four books on crime, including his latest, We’ll All Be Murdered in Our Beds, the Shocking History of Crime Reporting in Britain. Most recently, he acted as consultant on King of Thieves, the 2018 film starring Michael Caine and Ray Winstone about the Hatton Garden heist, which was based partly on an article Duncan wrote about the case.

Duncan was speaking at an investigative journalism conference at Newcastle University hosted by the Civic Journalism Lab in association with the Centre for Investigative Journalism. And he was interviewed by Zubeida Malik, a journalist and broadcaster who worked on the BBC's Today Programme for 18 years.

HuffPost UK executive editor Jess Brammar, who’s a former deputy editor of Newsnight, gives us her thoughts on investigative reporting in a digital age. And HuffPost UK special correspondent Emma Youle — who is a previous winner of the Paul Foot award — describes how she and colleagues discovered that Kensington and Chelsea council made £129 million from selling property in the years leading up to the Grenfell fire tragedy - money that could have been spent on the tower’s renovation works which may have been fatally compromised by cost-cutting.

Both talks were given at a recent investigative journalism conference at Newcastle University hosted by the Civic Journalism Lab in association with the Centre for Investigative Journalism.

In this episode, we hear from someone who has probably done more than anyone else in the last couple of years to highlight pay discrimination. As the BBC’s China editor, Carrie Gracie clashed with the broadcaster over gender-pay inequality and left her role after learning she was being paid much less than her male counterparts. But she continued to fight and was eventually given an apology and back pay, which she generously donated to the Fawcett Society charity.

In this episode on the persona of journalists on social media, we'll hear the thoughts and experiences of Ash Sarkar, senior editor at Novara Media, contributor to the Guardian and Independent and regular commentator on politics and society on BBC Question Time, Newsnight and Have I Got News For You; Susie Boniface, journalist and author who uses the pseudonym Fleet Street Fox in her Daily Mirror column and on Twitter; Chris Stokel-Walker, journalist and author of YouTubers, a book which charts the rise of influencers and explores their personas; and Dr Bethany Usher, former Fleet Street reporter, whose research focuses on persona, politics and the press in mainstream and social media.

"Big-name" journalists have some of the largest followings on social media. But how do journalists balance their personal and professional personas on social media? How can they protect their authenticity and credibility while also building a personal brand? Can they be objective and opinionated? And what are the challenges/opportunities this heightened visibility brings them?

Listen to this podcast episode to hear what our panel of journalists and academics think.

In this episode on the reporting of Brexit, we'll hear the thoughts and experiences of LEWIS GOODALL, political correspondent for Sky News; LISA O'CARROLL, Brexit correspondent for The Guardian; FERGUS HEWISON, political correspondent for BBC North East; and DR DARREN KELSEY, author of Media and Affective Mythologies

Has the media done a better job on Brexit than our politicians? Have voters from around the country been fairly represented by news organisations? Has there been enough diversity of voices and opinions on Brexit? Have we heard the stories that matter? Or been fed too many myths? Listen to this podcast episode to hear what our panel of journalists and academics thinks.

The focus of this podcast episode is artificial intelligence and how it might shape the future of journalism. Taken from our Can Technology Reboot Journalism? event, we hear the thoughts and experiences of PETE DAYKIN, CEO of Wordnerds, whose career has taken him from writing for football fanzines to teaching computers to understand humans.

(If you want to watch a version of this podcast and see Pete's slides, visit https://youtu.be/LoQpBhYuwMw)

* This podcast is brought to you by The Civic Journalism Lab, a forum for professional, student and community journalists in the north east of England to meet, learn and collaborate. It’s supported by Newcastle University and by BBC North East & Cumbria. Follow us on Twitter: @CivicJLab

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have been a huge disrupter for news organisations – and it’s where millions of people now get their fix of daily news.

In this podcast episode - taken from our Can Technology Reboot Journalism? event – we hear the thoughts and experiences of KATIE CARROLL, managing editor of the US and UK Daily News function at LinkedIn, which has has built a massive network of more than 600 million users, across more than 200 countries

(If you want to watch a version of this podcast and see Katie's slides, visit https://youtu.be/uErMHd67k1I)

* This podcast is brought to you by The Civic Journalism Lab, a forum for professional, student and community journalists in the north east of England to meet, learn and collaborate. It’s supported by Newcastle University and by BBC North East & Cumbria. Follow us on Twitter: @CivicJLab

As part of our Can Technology Reboot Journalism? event, we hear the thoughts and experiences of Paul Gallagher, who is digital innovations editor at Reach plc, formerly Trinity Mirror, which is the UK’s largest news publisher.

(If you want to watch a version of this podcast and see Paul's slides, visit https://youtu.be/3oj4hX_EoQM)

For much of the last 20 years, technology has been viewed with suspicion, maybe even as the enemy by journalists who didn’t like seeing their traditional methods and business models disrupted, even destroyed.

Are we entering a new phase now, where we’re beginning to see technology as an enabler, that can not only help us solve problems like combatting the scourge of fake news, but empower us to do even better journalism?

* This podcast is brought to you by The Civic Journalism Lab, a forum for professional, student and community journalists in the north east of England to meet, learn and collaborate. It’s supported by Newcastle University and by BBC North East & Cumbria. Follow us on Twitter: @CivicJLab

In this episode we hear the thoughts and experiences of ADAM CANTWELL-CORN, one of the co-founders of The Bristol Cable, on the opportunities and challenges for community-based journalism.

(If you want to watch a version of this podcast and see Adam's slides, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9m41rcgaEw)

The crisis in the news industry has in many ways been felt most acutely at the local level where there are no economies of scale and smaller profit margins. In a region like the north east – or the south west - this creates the potential for a serious democratic deficit.

While mainstream local media has been struggling to cope with the challenge presented by the internet, community news organiations – sometimes in print, sometimes online – are blossoming.

From the Medocino Voice in California, updating residents around the clock about the spread of wildfires, to the Bristol Cable’s investigations into local council actions against rough sleepers, grassroots local journalism initiatives are emerging to fill the gaps.

* This podcast is brought to you by The Civic Journalism Lab, a forum for professional, student and community journalists in the north east of England to meet, learn and collaborate. It’s supported by Newcastle University and by BBC North East & Cumbria. Follow us on Twitter: @CivicJLab

Jo-Anne McArthur, award-winning Canadian photojournalist, campaigner and author

In this podcast episode, Newcastle University's Civic Journalism Lab meets Jo-Anne McArthur, best known for her We Animals initiative, a photography project documenting human relationships with animals. Jo-Anne was herself the subject of a 2013 documentary, The Ghosts in Our Machine, and is the founder of the Unbound Project, which aims to celebrate and recognise female animal activists.

Her work has been published in a variety of media, including the Guardian, Der Spiegel, Elle and National Geographic Traveler.

(If you'd like to see Jo-Anne's accompanying slides while listening to this podcast, visit our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv3stU7wTn8)

Follow us on Twitter: @CivicJLab