New media?

“If you can’t spell, you can fuck off,” was Pete Clifton’s succinct message this week.

This phrase sums up the Head of BBC News Interactive’s no-nonsense views when it comes to the changes and challenges facing those in the fickle world of journalism today. He confessed to being “obsessed by core writing skills”, and this emphasis echoed Richard Burton, who a fortnight ago said he was “keen to preserve old journalistic practices, because they’re not there by accident.”

Clifton went further, saying, “News on demand is not new – we’ve been doing it on Ceefax for 32 years,” and, “Everyone goes on about UGC, but it’s not a new thing.”

What is new, says Clifton, is the ability for this user-generated content (UGC) to be sent quickly and immediately via the internet and mobile phones (as opposed to popping into the office for a chat, or – shock, horror, remember this? – writing a letter).

This reflects what I said in my post on Daniel Meadows’ lecture. The heart of journalism and what we do as a profession has not changed with the arrival of the internet and UGC. Technology has simply expanded the range of forms in which we are able to produce and provide it.