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Charlie Beckett

January 28th, 2008

Reporting from the digital frontline

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Charlie Beckett

January 28th, 2008

Reporting from the digital frontline

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The legendary Jon Snow is teetering on the bring of sanity (again) thanks to the complete technological revamp of the Channel 4 Newsroom. Here’s today’s dispatch from the digital frontline:

BRAVE NEWS WORLD (DIGITAL VERSION)

I’m going to let you into a small secret today, but an interesting one. This is a milestone in modern television news production. We have moved into half a new newsroom with completely new technology. There’s no paper, there’s no tangible video or film. Everything is digital. And those of us who were mad in the analogue age are now completely crazy in the digital follow-up.

Perhaps I should have made that a singular observation. The potential is fantastic – instant everything and instantly edited everything (perhaps I exaggerate a little). But the human capacity to keep up with it all and to ensure that the journalism does too – that is the real issue. You won’t notice any difference – well, not unless the entire thing blows up and blue smoke starts coming out of my ears. But we certainly hope that we will be able to provide you with an even better Channel 4 News than heretofore. The whole process of change will not be completed until well into April.

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Charlie Beckett

Posted In: Research