He believes a lot more can be achieved editorially than it is presently and at less cost and risk.

Hamman is a senior broadcast journalist/producer at the BBC in London and is responsible for the BBC Blogs Trial…as well as maintaining his own successful blog.

An American from Illinois, he has worked in online roles at the BBC and Granada in Manchester but has now been based in London for a couple of years now. He heads up an initiative to build online communities and teach new media skills. His qualifications for the role include an MPhil in communications studies from Liverpool University and a bit before that he ran his first online bulletin board as a 12 year old in 1985.

The subject of his post grad work, should you really need to ask, was “online community development.”

The project 

But to the project. Together with BBC Radio Manchester’s Richard fair, he is helping to promote the Manchester BBC blog. Its aims are to become a credible part of the blogging and wider online community in the North West, developing and publishing interesting content and sourcing note worthy material for other BBC channels.  Education, through online media workshops, also features strongly in his brief and beliefs.

Behind the aims there is something fascinating taking place. He argues that the current models being used by major media outlets to solicit and gather contributions from the audience can be impractical. The models he cites are the online community model and the send to us model.  Not scientific terms but quite recognisable to all of us as he explains the characteristics of each one.

The first encourages readers to submit comments.  It sounds fine until he points out the costs in providing moderation.  The policing of a site such as the BBC’s with more than a million comments a month is huge.  There are legal considerations if moderators miss anything and also technical risks.

The second model encourages the citizen journalist to submit images and news.  It’s a good way to build a relationship on the surface but an unmanageable flood of information makes it impractical at times.  He cites the example of the Buncefield fire, which generated 40,000 submissions in four hours. Unable to use all but a tiny fraction of the material sent in, risks alienating the sender and can create a superficial relationship with the channel’s audience.

BBC venturing into unchartered waters 

So what is different about the new BBC blog model?  The discussion is not managed.  

He explains, “The BBC Manchester Blog team form partnerships with local bloggers.  We link and quote content from blogs of interest across a range of subject areas.  The bloggers have a set of guidelines, to ensure no slanderous or highly offensive content is submitted, but they are independent.”  

Hamman continues, “It is an alliance and a community.  The BBC sources interesting news and views, which effectively promotes blogs with something interesting to say but not necessarily with the larger audience they deserve.  In turn we gain by populating the BBC Manchester blog with credible and engaging content.”

The BBC does not ask for a link or any other reciprocal deal, as often happens. Simply a blog gains a bigger audience. Experience however suggests that bloggers do link back and talk about the BBC blog though and the Beeb picks up brownie online points.  

Indeed Hamman claims that “we have more links into our blog than Chris Moyles or Chris Evans have to their online presence, despite having millions of radio listeners.”  

By supporting an online community, by having an open, transparent relationship the BBC blog is becoming as he puts it, “a credible part of the community.”

 “It is a two way street. A conversation rather than a request.”

With the new media workshops and seminars the bonds with local publishers are getting stronger.

The BBC blog is in putting itself in an excellent position: offering quality community driven news with less risk and cost. The BBC Manchester blog has proved a successful forerunner and others are now developing.

While commercial broadcasters and publishers complain about the Beeb’s incursions into their regional territories in the area of news provision – both broadcast and digital – they’ll need to keep a wary eye on Hamman and his team and their plans.

www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/manchester/

Hamman’s blog can be found at www.cybersoc.com/

Rob Baker can be found at www.artisanmc.co.uk

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