OPEN

The BBC’s The Editors blog continues to be one of the most interesting and useful media blogs around.

On Friday, Daniel Pearl, Deputy Editor on the BBC’s daily heavyweight  news / analysis show Newsnight wrote about the impact of people emailing in feedback ("If you email us during the programme the chances are that, if I’m editing, I’ll read your message almost instantly") and discussing both current affairs and his programme specifically on blogs:

…communication from you to us is not new. What I think is new is that we can now know what you are talking about and interested in without you ever telling us. Sounds sinister but it’s not really. It takes seconds on a site like Technorati to discover what people are talking about and searching for. This has begun to make an impact on the programme.

Mr Pearl recounts how there was a great deal of discussion on blogs on Monday night about Newt Gringrich‘s comments about the we were engaged in World War Three. Newsnight responded to this buzz directly by putting questions to him on the next day’s programme: "blogging had an immediate impact on Newsnight’s running order".

He also discusses the strange case of someone being surprised when they discovered that Newsnight editors were reading about them, he sense that people somehow feel that what they write on blogs is somehow, sometimes a private conversation, and not exposed to the all-seeing eyes of Google and Technorati.

Check out his post also for his frustration with work experience people posting the night’s running order on their blogs and when challenged, saying effectively it was "just for mates". Just because you’re a digital native, doesn’t mean you understand everything (or sometimes even the basics) about how digital works. ‘Twas always thus: just because people read newspapers didn’t mean they understood how newsrooms or privileged briefings worked…

: : I also really enjoyed the picture Daniel painted of a despondent Jeremy Paxman reading feedback – presumably challenging feedback – from the audience.

: : : I should note that I enjoyed my own moment of "interactivity" with BBC News this week when I took issue with a statement by BBC Breakfast Business Presenter Declan Curry and emailed the programme. Before the end of the show he had emailed me back personally and a brief but pleasant debate ensued. How much more satisfying than the days of just shouting at the news presenters when one felt they were off the mark.

Tags: BBC, journalism, blogs, technorati