Amanda Powell

This week we were visited by Amanda Powell who is the Head of the BBC Wales News website. Amanda's talk was interesting. It was not the most philosophical or wide-ranging but I think it is refreshing to hear about the nuts and bolts of journalism rather than great ethical debates once in a while. It was useful to hear something on the discipline of writing and producing content for the web, since it will soon be nearly impossible to be a journalist without being a web journalist.

Amanda mentioned that she would rather someone spent less time on a page than a lot because this indicates that they are being punchy and producing good web content. This is, of course, a valid way of doing things but I don't think journalists should aim to make their content too easy to turn away from. Content should always be punchy, and it should be accessible for those people with a limited amount of time on their hands, but it should also aim to entice the reader.

Even people with a limited amount of time on their hands can be made to stay on a page longer if it is an interesting piece of work, and if it has different features- such as the chance to interact with whoever is providing the content.

Overall Amanda Powell provided a really good introductory-style lecture.