Luckily two other chaps on the course, David Baxter and Damian Fantato were interested in devolved politics. We decided a collaborative blog on devolution in the UK in general would be the best way forward.

We settled on the name Theory of Devolution after toying around with Crossing the Severn. The former has better SEO qualities, and the latter misses out on the Scottish and Northern Irish angle.

A major landmark was the day we first started getting traffic from Google searches. Before that point we either didn’t have content people were searching for or missed out on Google searches due to being too new. With lots of search terms like ‘theory of devolution explanation’ I suspect much of our traffic came from politics students looking into the topic.

As our blogging went on we got more hits from searches for keywords in our posts rather than the name of the blog itself. I’d say we were pretty astute with our post tagging, looking back through the posts now there doesn’t appear to be any huge oversights.

Twitter was another great tool. It was too our regret that the Twitter handle @theoryofdevolution was too long, we had to settle for one which made us sound like we were over-analysing the 70s band Devo.

Like minded Twitter users didn’t immediately stumble across us. One of our earliest followers was @devolutionmag, a heavy metal magazine who had little apparent interest in constitutional politics.

It took longer than I expected to build up a decent following on Twitter. Despite the efforts of three people going into @theoryofdevo, it never reached the number of followers on my personal Twitter.

All said I think promotion from our individual Twitter accounts had a greater effect than @theoryofdevo, though as I don’t know which part of Twitter links to us I don’t have the specific stats to support this.

As a referrer, Facebook was perhaps just a whisker ahead of Twitter. The issue I mentioned above was still present on this social network, our Facebook page has 39 people liking it. Again, I cannot be sure, but I suspect our personal wallposts and status updates had more of an impact than this.

An unexpectedly rich vein of hits came from a post on the politics of Belgium. This post on Belgium’s protracted post-election negotiations was one of our most successful in terms of search engine traffic. This may be due to a lack of posts covering the topic in English or the fact the issue had largely been ignored by the UK’s mainstream media and blogosphere.

Our most successful day, with 117 hits, was Tuesday, December 7 2010. This was in part due to the Belgian boost, but also our posts on various political forums which essentially advertised the blog. These would often generate a flurry of hits initially, but since our forum visits were merely introductory they rarely lasted.

Being added to the blogroll of prominent SNP blogger Lallands Peat Worrier was also useful. Since his blog included a sidebar with the latest posts from bloggers on his blogroll, the more we posted, the more traffic we got from his site. Our description of him as ‘Occasionally bemusing’ still sits on his site’s front page, bloggers obviously respond to flattery! We didn’t have much luck in provoking responses from some of the key bloggers we identified at the start of the process.

Though when discussing traffic, we always bore in mind the effect of other CJS students following us. All 90 odd members of our diploma tend to follow each other, and when we post links on Twitter on Facebook, a good number of clickthroughs will come from people sitting a few computers away. That is hardly audience engagement of the type we were going for.

Overall, we should have been more proactive in engaging with our audience. We should have posted more on forums, engaged in more debates on Twitter, commented on other blogs and posted links on Facebook. We got results when we did this, but rarely kept it up.

Our use of multimedia was relatively good, though I did not find our video interviews (which included BBC Welsh political editor Betsan Powys and Peter Black AM) producing radically more hits than non-video posts.

In terms of the actual process of shooting and editing video, our technique definitely improved from post to post.

As we became distracted by coursework and other issues involvement, posts and, unsurprisingly, our hits went way down. Despite a few posts in January, in 2011 Theory of Devolution is a rump of its former self. Oddly, we seem to be ticking by with four or five hits a day.

We intend to continue with Theory of Devolution after this assessment for as long as possible. As a brand it sounds relatively solid and authoritive, and covers quite a broad range of topics. It’s been enjoyable and informative to contribute to it, and I’m sure the blog has a lot more life in it yet.

My post on SEO.

ToD’s interview with Betsan Powys.

That crucial Belgium post.

Though traditionally a Labour stronghold, the fate of one of Welsh politics’ rising stars rests on the outcome of the seat.

Labour’s Vaughan Gething will face off against Plaid’s Liz Musa, the Conservatives’ Ben Gray and the Lideral Democrats’ Sian Anne Cliff in the election in May.

Labour candidate Vaughan Gething

Gething, previously a president of the Trades Union Congress in Wales, is a trade union lawyer from Thompsons solicitors. He was a councillor in the Butetown ward of the constituency before losing his seat in the last local elections. Observers will be watching closely to see Labour’s results in the area.

Gething started off his political career as the President of the National Union of Students in Wales. He then became an active trade unionist with GMB and UNITE, and was the Welsh TUC’s first black President. Also in his impressive political CV is chairmanship of the Right to Vote campaign, which sought to engage black and ethnic minority voters in Welsh political life, and a stint as the current AM’s research and press officer.

I spoke with him as he was delivering leaflets in St Mellons introducing himself to voters. He says voters in the area are angry at Lib Dem broken promises over tuition fees and a controversial plan to build over the Rumney Rec green space in Llanrumney. He has also argued for the need for more social housing.

His leaflets say ‘Only Labour can beat the Tories here’, with the area’s MP Alun Michael saying ‘a vote for the Liberal Democrats or Plaid Cymru in Cardiff South and Penarth is a vote for the Tories.’

Listen to my interview with Vaughan here:
Vaughan Gething interview by neilpooran

He said: “I wanted to be a Labour member for a few years now…. I thought our country could and should be a better place. It was social justice, I wanted to see a fairer and better community and country.” He also spoke of the contribution devolution had made to Wales over the past 12 years.

He remembers Conservatve candidate Ben Gray from his days in the NUS, where Gray was also active. Gray is now a Student Liason Officer at the University of Wales, and there is a great podcast from the University on his background here.

The Liberal Democrats have come under increased scrutiny recently, with the vote in Westminster on tuition fees proving bitterly divisive.

The Lib Dems’ candidate in Cardiff South and Penarth is Sian Anne Cliff, a keen local campaigner. Sian works in the Welsh Assembly as a researcher for the Lib Dems, and living in Splott means like Vaughan she stays inside the constituency.

I caught up with Sian as she was leafletting in the upmarket Cardiff Bay area around the Assembly. She’s been delivering letters asking residents to take part in BT’s ‘Race to Infinity’ competition, where if enough residents write to BT their phone exchange will be upgraded to one ready for ‘superfast’ broadband.

Sian said: “I think it will be a difficult campaign for every political party. It has been a tough economic time recently, and everyone is feeling the effects of it. But I do think that we are making positive differences in government in the UK at the moment, and we need to get that message out to people about the effects we are having and the positve changes we are making to people’s lives here in Wales.”

Results from 2007:

Source: BBC

The sitting AM, Lorraine Barret, is standing down from politics to become a secular celebrant. She enjoys a generally good reputation in the constituency, and her successor will have big boots to fill.

With such a large and diverse constituency of around 70,000 people, the campaign will likely be a gruelling one for all involved next year.

There are certain parts of her answers I can’t divulge openly, but she stressed that a key part of the strategy in bringing people behind the paywall was sharing links on social media. I lost count of the number of times she brought up the slide for that.

She’s delighted that the Times has taken this huge leap rather than having the industry remain as a ‘monoculture.’ Overall I got the impression that the Times paywall was put into place despite the editors knowing full well the enourmous risks it presented. It’s been a bold move, though wether it will pay off or not remains to be seen.

He highlighted the main difference between audiences in th 1970s and the audiences of today: interactivity. While 70s audiences were happy to be passive recipients of news and programming, today’s one’s can’t go one series of Top Gear with pressing a red button, commenting on the website or phoning in to complain.

This has its upsides in TV makers getting a better idea of what their audiences want, but the downside is that it takes the focus away from original journalism. “There is still not enough original journalism today” the BBC technology correspondant said.

One interesting thing I learned was that Rory’s 50meg broadband package (which BT probably has to provide to the BBC’s tech correspondant by royal charter) still can’t match his old ISDN line for speed. As The Apprentice stuttered it’s way fram-by-fram across my laptop last night, I couldn’t help but despair.

Adam, of trade magazine group RBI, used plenty of interesting graphs and diagrams to describe the way to success. While it’s relatively easy to build up a readership based on the journalistic side of a magazine’s website, it’s getting users to pay for the content that’s the tricky part.

‘Paywall’ has become almost a swear word in online journalism, but it isn’t necessarily an anathema to a publications’ online content.

The infamous Times paywall, which announced recently that it had 105,000 customers, was discussed at great length. This figure shouldn’t be taken at face value, as it essentially double-counts subscriptions from iPad users etc.

Though special interest magazines can go about this in a different way. People in a certain niche will be more willing to pay for specialised information than, say, the general readership of a newspaper. This may help out some trade magazines, but luring people in with certain amounts of general journalism is not necessarily a sustainable option.

If nothing else, I am now a semi-expert on the Trent 900 engine, the (allegedly) faulty jet that failed onboard a Quatas superjumbo, sending Rolls Toyce hares tumbling. This was because of Adam’s story of Jon Ostrower, a Flightblogger whose technical know-how earned him a huge readership from the aviation enthusiast community.

This led to me reading a few of his posts, and entertaining many people at a party with a long detailed discussion of the possible causes of the failure. Long live niche blogging!

It might be a bit glib, but SEO is still an essential skill to pick up for any online media site. Our course tutor Glyn Mottershead gave us a crash course in how to optimise our content for search engines, which I’ve summarised here briefly.

Only the first 25 words of an intro matter to Google’s spider, and like good journalistic practise, it helps if they are clear, concise, and spelled accurately.

Where SEO breaks from standard good practise is the choice of some of the words. Here you might have to change a word you’d normally use to one that people are likely to search for. For example, a headline nd intro about the sinking of the Belgrano would do well to include the words ‘Belgrano’, ‘Falklands’, ‘submarine’, etc. ‘Gotcha’ probably wouldn’t work…

Page elements

Other page elements like subheadings

• Bullet points

Indented quotes

Hyperlinks and highlighted words can also help.

Avoiding Black Hat SEO is also a good call. This involves sticking searched for phrases like NAKED, LOHAN or POKER in prominent places purely for the search value. Why it’s called Black Hat, I don’t know.

Categories and tags also need to be deftly manipulated, and I get the impression only time will tell which words tend to work out best for each individual blog or site. I’m pretty sure I’ve done a half-hearted job at best at optimising this entry…

JOMEC lecturer Daniel Meadows explained how the medium’s low barriers for entry can allow people who would not normally have a place to record their stories a chance to write their own histories. Compared to the expensive process of professional video editing, it’s a remarkably empowering and effective way to let people tell stories on their own terms.

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Oh, wait. Sorry, something’s interfering with the blog post. Just like those minutes-long hundred-decibel blasts of static that interrupted the lecture…

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You see, er, low-cost media such as digital storytelling can…

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Right, ah, think that’s it sorted out now. Worth checking out is Daniel’s website, which has plenty of great examples of digital storytelling. His digital storytelling workshops allowed people who would normally never have a shot at a recording studio to produce memorable and engaging clips.

I was also interested to learn just how old digital storytelling is as a medium. Like many in my generation I’d assumed that online video clips pretty much started with YouTube. But since its so simple to put together, I suppose there’s no reason why it couldn’t pre-date Web 2.0 by several years.

I’ve had a few ideas for my own digital storytelling projects, though which one will be the most feasible I’ll have to wait and see.

Bringing together successful graduates from the School of Journalism, current students and assorted movers and shakers, it was a fascinating day of lectures and talks.

Pete Clifton (BBC), Peter Barron (Google), Nick Brett (BBC Magazines)

Starting off the day, and chaired by graduate Alex Thomson, these three new media lads discussed the ‘challenge of convergence.’ Pete Clifton said that most multimedia newsrooms had a long way to go before they could truly describe themselves as such, but the BBC was yards ahead of the game. He showed us pictures of W1, the BBC’s planned ultra-modern newsroom which brings all the news-gathering arms of the organisation under one roof.

Peter Barron and Nick Brett both raved about the advent of tablet computers, with Brett calling the iPad ‘the magazine’s messiah.’ Barron, a man who has all of Benelux under his remit, also elaborated on the concepts of cloud computing and monetising traditional media’s online content.

Simon Lewis

Lewis was Director of Communications at 10 Downing Street during Gordon Brown’s most turbulent period at the end of the last government. Despite dealing with the press at their most ferocious, he’s keen to see a more conciliatory atmosphere between the press and their sworn enemies the political spinners.

Malcolm Tucker he was not. His cool, unflappable style and fresh ideas for reforming the lobby seemed to win over the audience.

Alan Edmunds (Western Mail), Ron Jones (Tinnopolis), Arwel Ellis Owen (S4C), Clive Jones (S4C)

What is the future of regional news? Bleak. I think that’s the one word I’ll take away from this especially gloomy session of the conference. That’s mainly down to the S4C guys’ complaints about a forthcoming cut in public funding, which could see the Welsh channel’s future in jeopardy.

Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt therefore emerged as the villain of the conference, but fellow student Peter Smith did ask if regional language funding was perhaps a valid target for austerity measures.

Tomorrow’s Journalists- Today

The last batch of speakers included Hannah Waldram, Harriet Brett, and Sally Rourke. All recent graduates, they’ve used their new media skills picked up at Cardiff University to help them get ahead in their varied mediums. Sally’s fun-looking VJ clips got me excited for video training later in the course.

Post conference fitba

They day after the conference was marked by Jomec’s annual football showdown between staff, students and graduate ‘Oldboys,’ captained by Guardian blogging supremo Steve Busfield.

I managed to set my prejudices aside for long enough to cover the event by live-tweeting it under the hashtag #jomecderby. Fortunately we were able to integrate this with Adam Smith’s live-tweeting event on Scribble Live, which I’ll be sure to use in the future.

The word ‘convergence’ is often used (perhaps over-used) in relation to journalism, but Claire, a teacher at the BBC’s journalism college, was able to spell out what it really means. Journalists will have to pick up lots of new skills as consumers’ tastes change; video reporting, podcasting, and managing social media. Yet this is offset to some extent by the massive array of tools the internet provides us to help us research.

At the very least, with my new-found knowledge of personal information search aggregators like 123people.com and 192.com I can get started in the privated detective industry if journalism doesn’t work out. Using Google to sneak past certain firewalls is another useful trick I picked up.

Though Claire sang the praises of Netvibes, I think I’ll probably stick with my humble Google Reader account for RSS feeds. This is down to a combination of being stuck in my ways and not being sure that tabbed RSS feeds can bring me a huge amount more than Twitter lists.

Another interesting fact was that the New York Times now posts videos of its editorial meetings online. As far as I know, the closest any major British media have come to this is Krishnan Guru-Murthy and the some of Channel 4 news teams’ tweets around their meetings. Wouldn’t be a bad idea at all if a few British papers opened up their editorial process in this way.