:00:25. > :00:29.On BBC News, it is time for news Welcome to the programme. Later, do
:00:29. > :00:34.BBC journalists need to rethink their use of Twitter? First, much
:00:34. > :00:36.of last Sunday's television news was dominated by this.
:00:36. > :00:40.Tributes have been paid to the singer, Whitney Houston, who died
:00:40. > :00:50.in Los Angeles. There followed a familiar complaint
:00:50. > :01:23.
:01:23. > :01:28.Oh, yes, football. Those of you who objected on last week's programme
:01:28. > :01:34.to that particular sport featuring so strongly in the news had little
:01:34. > :01:39.respite this week. If quite an afternoon here. Lyris so warriors
:01:40. > :01:44.and Patrice Evra face to face once more. Would they shake hands?
:01:44. > :01:49.taken three-and-a-half months but Carlos Tevez has finally returned.
:01:49. > :01:52.A sporting institution now in administration. For Rangers
:01:52. > :02:02.Football Club, this moment was a long time coming but it was still
:02:02. > :02:13.
:02:13. > :02:20.painful. You may remember that last year we
:02:20. > :02:23.featured an edition of Panorama which used secret filming to reduce
:02:23. > :02:26.-- show patients being physically and verbally abused. Some viewers
:02:26. > :02:30.at the time were concerned the journalist involved should have
:02:30. > :02:34.intervened earlier rather than recording the abuse taking place.
:02:34. > :02:40.The charge was rejected on this programme by Panorama's editor.
:02:40. > :02:44.Well, it is worth mentioning that last week, three staff from the
:02:44. > :02:48.place pleaded guilty to the ill- treatment of residence. There will
:02:48. > :02:53.be sentenced later. Credit is due to the Panorama team
:02:53. > :03:03.for their role in bringing those three to justice. According to Mary,
:03:03. > :03:33.
:03:33. > :03:37.The trust told us that while they continually monitor services as
:03:37. > :03:41.well as the rolling programme of reviews, they are strategic body
:03:41. > :03:45.for the BBC and it is not their role to pick up on issues such as
:03:45. > :03:51.this on an Hardtalk basis. A spokesperson added that there is a
:03:51. > :03:54.complex process which viewers can use of which the trust is a part.
:03:54. > :03:59.Won a long-running complaint made to the BBC concerns an internal
:03:59. > :04:03.report written in 2004, assessing its coverage of the Middle East. As
:04:03. > :04:06.the City called Stephen should have fought the report -- thought the
:04:06. > :04:13.report should be made public, submitting a Freedom of Information
:04:13. > :04:23.request which was refused by the BBC. This week, the Supreme Court
:04:23. > :04:42.
:04:42. > :04:46.agreed there was no requirement to The social media website Twitter
:04:46. > :04:52.has won over 100 million active users worldwide and counting.
:04:52. > :04:55.Increasingly, those 140 characters are being employed not just for
:04:55. > :05:00.teenage gossip but by a major media organisations for breaking news.
:05:00. > :05:04.The BBC has saved -- has embraced this technology enthusiastically
:05:04. > :05:08.but last week felt the issue to issue new guidance to its
:05:08. > :05:18.journalists on their use of Twitter. Premier League players took to
:05:18. > :05:28.
:05:28. > :05:30.The first inkling of the death of a summer Bin Laden was conveyed on to
:05:30. > :05:36.the social networking site as was the announcement of William and
:05:36. > :05:40.Kate's engagement. And of course, it along with Facebook played a
:05:40. > :05:44.major role in that the so-called Arab Spring. Up until now, when
:05:44. > :05:47.journalists such as Robert Karlsson have something to reveal, there
:05:47. > :05:53.Twitter followers have sometimes been the the first to know. Is this
:05:53. > :06:00.a sign that BBC News has been going overboard in the use of this new
:06:00. > :06:03.outlet? Those who thinks they might point to a survey that BBC
:06:03. > :06:12.journalists have posted 100,000 tweets in the last three months of
:06:12. > :06:16.last year. Some of you feel Not everybody has Twitter, internet
:06:16. > :06:24.and whatever. We have straightforward telephone and that
:06:24. > :06:28.is it. I know we are getting smaller and smaller, but I think
:06:28. > :06:38.there is a proportion of us still around. Be different objection is
:06:38. > :06:42.
:06:42. > :06:46.There is also the fear that the potential Twitter encourages a
:06:46. > :06:56.tendency to focus exclusively on breaking news, to the detriment of
:06:56. > :07:07.
:07:07. > :07:11.So does the BBC's use of Twitter require more radical rethinking?
:07:12. > :07:17.Should it be thought of as a platform for its journalism or as a
:07:17. > :07:24.competitor? Chris Sampson is social media editor for BBC News and joins
:07:24. > :07:28.me now. What is changing as a result of for new diktat? I would
:07:28. > :07:31.say it is not a new diktat. In fact it is a clarification of our
:07:31. > :07:34.existing guidance about the way our journalists should handle a line of
:07:35. > :07:39.breaking news when they get it. What we were trying to do with that
:07:39. > :07:45.was explain we wanted for breaking used to be delivered him to our
:07:45. > :07:49.newsroom systems if possible at the same time as people are sending it
:07:49. > :07:53.out via their own to accounts. that practical? It is. We have a
:07:53. > :07:57.piece of technology which allows us to offer that service to our
:07:57. > :08:03.journalists say they can do that. We do say when it is not possible
:08:03. > :08:08.for whatever reason, that the news room should come first. 100,000
:08:08. > :08:12.tweets in three months. I'm slightly surprised be assiduous
:08:12. > :08:16.have that much time. Have they gone overboard? It is not all wonderful
:08:16. > :08:23.breaking his. My understanding of that survey is in fact it included
:08:23. > :08:28.some of our big branded accounts, with over 4 million followers. At
:08:28. > :08:30.that time, they were treating a lot of headlines generated
:08:30. > :08:33.automatically, News website sweat and a large proportion of those in
:08:33. > :08:38.year 100,000 tweets will have been from those accounts, rather than
:08:38. > :08:41.individuals. In any case, the role of Twitter and social media in
:08:41. > :08:45.general is so important now and an important part of our Toolkit, but
:08:45. > :08:50.I don't have a big problem with our journalists engaging heavily in
:08:50. > :08:54.using the system. You are on Twitter, I wanted to, but the
:08:54. > :08:58.majority of licence payers are not. You heard a few their from someone
:08:58. > :09:01.who is not on Twitter and he feels that maybe the BBC should be
:09:01. > :09:07.getting on with its more orthodox journalism on radio and television.
:09:08. > :09:12.One of the main things to say on that issue is that a lot of the
:09:12. > :09:18.activity that our journalists take part in on Twitter is although
:09:18. > :09:22.feeding into our mainstream right for to -- is also feeding into our
:09:22. > :09:26.mainstream I'd put. Our journalists to go to court cases or the Leveson
:09:26. > :09:29.Inquiry for example, find that at the end of the day's reporting from
:09:29. > :09:34.inside the courtroom, the tweets they've sent out are a useful
:09:34. > :09:38.framework for them for their Scripts and their 6:00pm bulletin
:09:38. > :09:42.on Radio 4, the 10 o'clock News. It feeds back into the reporting they
:09:42. > :09:46.are doing on our mainstream output. At the end of the day, is Twitter
:09:46. > :09:51.an outlet for the BBC or a commercial competitor? We think
:09:51. > :09:55.Twitter and social media in general has three main uses for us. It's a
:09:55. > :09:59.platform for our content and we can reach audiences who might not be
:10:00. > :10:06.reached by BBC News any other way. News-gathering is also an offence
:10:06. > :10:09.shall part of why we use Twitter. - - an essential part. The third key
:10:09. > :10:13.role for us is around talking to the audience, engaging with our
:10:13. > :10:15.audience. We have direct conversations with our audience
:10:15. > :10:19.about what they think about our journalism.
:10:20. > :10:24.It before we go, some of you have noticed that the after new
:10:24. > :10:28.presenters on the news channel, John's Opel and Emily Maitlis, have
:10:28. > :10:35.been developing a rather jerky on- screen relationship. I thought you
:10:35. > :10:40.are being cynical? The? Never! Sceptical, big difference. Plessey.
:10:40. > :10:46.Thank you very much. I love it when you ask a big theoretical question,