Journalism that clicks

trAce Online Writing Centre - The Nottingham Trent University

http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/Opinion/index.cfm?article=123


Great article - good examples of online journalism.

Contrasting Artic Monkey blog entry

All I found yesterday when looking for blogs were positive comments, reviews, bla bla bla.

So imagine my surprise when I came across this truly individual entry:

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/mmannion/tag/arctic_monkeys/


It's a very well written entry that does well to justify an opposition to the consensus.

"The Arctic Monkeys are distinctly average, boring and bordering on shit."

Quotes, research, humour and most importantly emotion make this enjoyable to read.

Reviews on Indie albums

I know this seems a bit typical, however whilst researching the net I found that Amazon have a good selection of independent reviews on bands. For example one of my favourite bands the Editors are a fairly new set up, but at the time of this post there are already 47 comments (some very thorough) on their debut album 'The Back Room.' The only drawback being, as a journalist, you could not use these people as contacts due to privacy rules on Amazon.

Another good site (which I heard about through my university) is found at http://www.open-your-mind.co.uk. Here are a good, yet small, collection of articles and reviews about Indie music. Contact details are accessible so I could use them as experts on an article I write myself.

Backgrounder

In the world of Indie music at the moment, I think there is one thing that stands out most...

Looking at a specific story I would concentrate on the Artic Monkeys, writing up a profile as such of the band. This would be of much relevance due to the issues surrounding the band and the fact they have recently won a load of awards (The Brits and NME) and critical acclaim.

What makes them most interesting is the fact that their popularity and fan base was born online. They quickly escalated from an unheard group, to having the fastest selling album in British history. Not only is this story of relevance to my specialism, is also has an interesting online aspect.

"Legend says it was thanks to the power of the internet that an army of fans latched onto free downloads of demo recordings on the web." Read more

So how would I go about the story?

For an imaginative, not typical approach to the story, I would include comment from those who were there from the beginning. From this message board - http://bb.rocksbackpages.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000069.html - I would post and ask for a reliable person to give me there experience of the Artic Monkeys pre-fame. It was at small venues that the quartet started handing out demo cd's to the crowd, who in turn uploaded them onto the internet.

The following message board would also act as a place to scour contacts:

http://www.soundgenerator.com/messageboards/threads.cfm?b=8


After getting a consensus of opinion I would next look at blogs. Contradictory to the mainstream approach, I would also use blogs from the following locations...

Ignoring the obvious BBC link:

• http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2006/02/arctic_monkeys_.html
• http://www.arcticmonkeys.com/forum/index.php
  

From these two sites alone I get a general feel of what the current issues are about within the Artic Monkey universe. Obviously a bias towards the band can be found in the official e.g., however with the 'A VC' blog, I found a large difference of opinion. Additionally the blogger is from America, interestingly allowing me to give a foreign perspective (I could ask how they were promoted in the U.S.) This contrast of views would hold up well in my (proposed) 'light' article.

[From my experience of blogs, the best are the ones that are able to digest news stories and issues around the topic into easy to read chunks, while giving their own clear opinion. Links are valuable too]

Harking back to a previous posting by myself, I could also use the satirical website SoYouWanna. This would add a comic element to my backgrounder, and possibly providing a decent source.

Although this would be an online type of journalism, somewhat keeping with tradition, I would include comment from experts.

These are my most relevant findings:

tim.wall@uce.ac.uk - Director of Media course here at UCE, very knowledgeable about popular music and culture. Easily accessible and knows his stuff (see his list of publications).

public-relations@bristol.ac.uk - Dr Lee Marshall. His research is on how people consume music, and in particular, how this is structured by copyright. He would be ideal to explain phenomenon of digitally available music, plus the impact of the Artic Monkeys. I would ask him if their success could be recreated.

R.W.Dyer@warwick.ac.uk - Found the experts search page and this guy would be most useful source to comment on the rise of this band and the influences that have fuelled it.

Further Information: (could use some of the information for the article)

News:

http://www.nme.com/news/arctic-monkeys/ - good source of all news relating to the band. Would be the best place to start to flesh out the history of the band.
http://www.mardy-bum.com/ - comprehensive news database for all that is Artic.

Features:
http://www.ilikemusic.com/features/Arctic_Monkeys_Biography-1581 - a great article about the band. Somewhat typical, but having an interview with them-this is the style they chose.
http://www.prefixmag.com/features/A/Arctic-Monkeys/255 - question and answer style interview with the main singer (good, but presentation is very basic).

Others:
http://www.arctic-monkeys.com/ - fan site that is very well built, also contains a forum.
http://www.arcticmonkeyslinks.co.uk/ - as the name suggests, this site contains links to everything possible that can be connected to the band.

You wait for a bus....

Yes, here's another article.

It's very interesting as it describes a site produced by students only, where narrated slideshows do form some of the content.

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060306/NEWS01/603060346/1001/news

The piece goes on to explain the positives of online journalism as a whole, but also the pitfalls faced whilst running a website. With a more light hearted approach (in comparison to print), many items can be seen as controversial:

"Other, milder controversies have attached themselves to Rachel Wilkerson, the publication's managing editor who blogs under the name Spartanette.

"Wilkerson's blog posts are mostly comedy. But with posts such as the one that said (jokingly) that buying a woman dinner should entitle a man to sex, she's proved a bit raw for some readers."

Finally found an article on Narrated Slideshows

Although mainly technical, I have finally come across an article about this form of online journalism.

The article does well at stating the positives and negatives of this form, especially the difficulties that face creating one. This could be the reason why many tend to disregard this form for representing news, (as stated in a previous post by Ian Mayes). It simply takes too long to create, and where urgency is needed in news, this is an obvious flaw.

See: http://www.technologyreview.com/blogs/Wade_Roush/wtr_16506,292,p1.html

Free Indie music available as podcasts

There's no doubt, following the success of online champions the Artic Monkeys, record labels feel that an underground popularity of bands is extremely commercial (contradictory I know).

In the face of this many UK (Indie) record companies have decided to give free licences away so websites can upload previews of an artists music legally for fans to download onto their Ipod (or other similar advice.

The most comprehensive article on his can be found at the BBC.

Reply from Ian Mayes from the Guardian (Slideshows)

This guy is basically the bridge between the newspaper and the audience, known as the "readers' editor". He is knowledgeable about online journalism too.

For a more detailed description of the man himself see his online profile.

His (edited) reply:

"We have a strong emphasis at the Guardian Unlimited on interactive features and by looking at the website this is obvious.

"We pride ourselves as being one of the best online providers of news, where slideshows are integral to this..."

[He goes onto explain, quite rightly, that their interactive features are both easily accessible and among the best out there]

"Slideshows are used mainly for timelines, historical pieces, or those that are complicated and need simplifying. We do depend on them a lot...we use a template. Other news organisations may not have this luxury...”

[Additionally there are few articles about this type of online journalism; people tend to ignore them as they seem too familiar]

“Many of those in the industry do stay away as there is an element of them being either too arty, or too amateurish.”

[I should have asked him why there is such an emphasis online-is this not taking away people from the paid papers.]

more messageboards

Ignoring BBC's Radio 1 'Indie' section (and other obvious boards such as NME and Kerrang!) I came across the following top examples:


http://www.soundgenerator.com/messageboards/threads.cfm?b=8
This is an alternative Indie message board where you can "Rant, rave...or politely chat about Alternative / Indie music issues". I particularly like the way moderators stimulate discussion between users; the website seems very popular.


http://www.goldfrapp.co.uk/msgboard/index.php?s=5306acf39be180b3e8283bc3c95c2863
Many artists (like the Kaiser Chiefs and Goldfrapp) have their own message boards on official sites; it is here where they seem most maintained and constantly active. It is a virtual place where people who have similar taste in music can discuss opinions (which are weirdly alike) with fellow fans.

message boards, newsgroups, articles & blogs

Prefix: As a journalist (in this case of music), there is an importance not to rely on mainstream sites for information and more importantly your sources. I have spent a long time searching for links to post on here, below are a selection of the best. Some sites I found were inactive or in desperate need of updating, therefore I filtered these out.


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This is a great website for intellectual articles; this link in particular is a great piece on the future of Indie - http://www.melancholyrhino.com/so.html

However what it also highlights is the problem in obtaining sources, there isn't even a by-line.

I will separately post articles as I find them in the future; they are hard to come across!

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Encountered this accidentally but found it intriguing! http://www.moremusic.co.uk/links/uk_res.htm#ng - It's a directory where you can subscribe to newsgroups, and somewhat unusually to trade Indie records.

[There doesn't seem to be many newsgroups relating to this genre of music, besides from the one above all the others were from the U.S., therefore I decided not to post those here.]

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An appealing blog that champions new bands and contains terrifically independent reviews: http://www.indie-mp3.co.uk/ - would be a very reliable source.


Finally this is a blog directory where I found a range of examples: http://www.britblog.com/directory/interest/indie+music.html

From here the best was: http://featherboa.blogspot.com/

Why? - It looked good; is very clean and crisp. Writing style is quite informal yet not too chatty. This is why I read the guy's comments more thoroughly (especially on Indie music.) Also contains a great list of links, including those to similar blogs-something that make a good blog great. Would be another good source of information.

The worst: http://www.willhowells.org.uk/blog/

Why? - Simply too cluttered and not a pleasure to read. The content is good, but paragraphs would be nice. It just shows how online, looks are everything.