A nice example of the symbiotic relationship between blogging and journalism occurred in Birmingham this last week. It started when Nunovo picked up on a short briefing note from the Government Office for the West Midlands (which I never knew existed until now) from local MP Liam Byrne which was remarkable in that it outlined what’s happening in the Eastside district over the next few years. Concise information about this is very hard to come by (perhaps understandably as it’s all in a state of flux) so I posted about it on the nascent Custard Factory blog. This was immediately noticed by blogging journo Joanna Geary, specifically for the apparent confirmation of a “Brit School” on the wasteland behind Curzon St Station. Not knowing what a Brit School is I’d just skimmed over this, assuming it was something to do with the Birmingham City Uni expansion into the area but it seems it’s something bigger. According to Jo’s article it’s “a major new Birmingham acting school” details of which have been kept securely under wraps while the final negotiations took place. The result is Jo gets a front page scoop, we get to hear about something quite significant planned for our city and communication issues between the mindboggling number of agencies operating in this area are revealed to be lacking. Which, to be frank, is no big surprise.
Naturally the briefing note has been edited removing all mention of this Brit School which seems a rather stupid move. Surely issuing a clarification would have been more sensible, but then our leaders seem to prefer to try and stifle the conversation rather than engage or take control of it. Here’s hoping they figure it out in time. After all, trying to shut down debate is a red rag to someone like me as I’m apt to do this:
The beauty of issuing things as PDFs or Word Docs is that anyone reading them has to download them onto their computers thus having a copy to hand should any edits be made. (The same applies to web pages thanks to the Google Cache of course.) So in the interests of, well, annoying certain people I guess, here’s the before and after. And if you’re really keen you can click on them for the actual PDFs which, lest it be forgotten, are very interesting to those following the Eastside story.
How desperately exciting, huh?
And then, in what’s possibly a first for Birmingham journalism, the follow up article actually credits the blogs in question. Now that’s progress!
So how does it feel to be part of the muck-raking fraternity with the likes of Matt Drudge and Adrian Goldberg? Pretty awesome, eh? All without hardly raising a finger. I am now looking forward to a similar sort of reaction when some stuff about Chamberlain House and Highbury Trust gets published.
What’s a Birmingham City University? There was always talk of amalgamating Aston and B’ham Unis, but it was an over-my-dead-body option to the respective power brokers in both institutions which did tend to stymie things. Is it about football, or has the dreaded merger come to pass?
BCU is UCE. They did a name change the other month. Oddly I’ve already gotten used to it 100%.
Nice piece Pete. After spotting this on your site and adding it to the Birmingham Conservation Trust site I got a touch riled to see the post front page piece implying weeks of investigation. For Joanna to acknowledge one understanding of the flow of information in print is good news.
I’m not suggesting their first piece was wrong – I do appreciate the acknowledgement of a collaborative uncovering.
Before publishing the piece on the BCT blog I called the council press office to check I was understanding the right site. They were a touch lairy about the idea of a blog being media and didn’t call back with confirmation of any facts. That is one advantage still carried by the Post.
Good grief. Does that mean I need to change it in my CV, I wonder?
Good summary of events Pete.
Nick: Yes, hands up. I’m dead sorry I didn’t mention the blogs in my first article. I’m glad putting the sources in the second went some way to remedying that error.
The truth was we had known about the Brit School for weeks! We had heard rumours that it was in negotiation and would likely be announced by a minister on December 13th.
However, we couldn’t get the rumours officially substantiated (believe me I tried). Then, suddenly, it started appearing on blogs in black and white. It rather took me by surprise, given how tight-lipped everyone was being about it, so I figured something was awry.
I think the first time I saw it was on the Conservation Trust blog (which is in my Google Reader – sustainability is an interest).
What you said about the city council press office worries me though. One would have thought your call should have set off alarm bells, especially as they hadn’t yet announced the plans for the school.
Left hand – right hand .. Government – Real World ..