:00:08. > :00:13.$:/STARTFEED. Now it is time for Newswatch with present 24/7. --
:00:13. > :00:19.Samira Ahmed. Welcome to Newswatch with me,
:00:19. > :00:26.Samira Ahmed. Have both sides of the Scottish independence debate
:00:26. > :00:32.been getting a fair hearing? And we ask Lyse Doucet what the
:00:32. > :00:38.rise of social media means for traditional TV reporting? How she
:00:38. > :00:42.journalists Highness this new resource? -- how it should
:00:42. > :00:46.journalists Highness of this new resource?
:00:46. > :00:50.Some of the details about the referendum on Scottish independence
:00:50. > :00:53.were announced this week, and the issue was discussed on many
:00:54. > :00:58.programmes. Those included Thursday night's
:00:58. > :01:02.Question Time. Scores of viewers contacted the BBC complaining that
:01:02. > :01:12.one side of the debate got more of an ailing then the other. Among
:01:12. > :01:28.
:01:28. > :01:33.them was Alastair Wright from Scotland also featured in one of
:01:33. > :01:37.this week's football World Cup qualifying matches. Not that you
:01:37. > :01:47.would know -- have known much about it according to a pure Michael
:01:47. > :01:47.
:01:47. > :02:52.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 65 seconds
:02:52. > :02:57.We asked BBC news for a response to Let us know your thoughts on the
:02:57. > :02:59.issues we are covering it in this week's programme. Details of how to
:02:59. > :03:03.contact us at the end of the programme.
:03:04. > :03:11.Last weekend at there was an unusual new competitor in the
:03:12. > :03:16.Sunday night's ratings. Millions of people watched coverage of Felix
:03:16. > :03:21.Baumgartner's fall to earth on YouTube. Meanwhile, pollsters and
:03:21. > :03:26.analysts watched Facebook to follow the BBC -- the American at
:03:26. > :03:32.presidential debate. And Nick Griffin has been criticised by
:03:32. > :03:38.police after leaking the address of the gay couple refused a broom by a
:03:38. > :03:48.bed-and-breakfast. Some Newswatch viewers believe an
:03:48. > :04:11.
:04:11. > :04:15.obsession with the social media is That is the perspective of a couple
:04:15. > :04:22.of viewers, but what has the development of social media meant
:04:22. > :04:27.for the traditional reporter? Last week the BBC's chief international
:04:27. > :04:32.correspondent Lyse Doucet posed that question.
:04:32. > :04:37.Do we take to our trenches and say we are bigger and better, or do we
:04:37. > :04:43.joined forces with the social media revolution, and say that we are all
:04:43. > :04:48.on the same side? Do we admit defeat in this age old battle to be
:04:48. > :04:55.first with the news? To the answer, ladies and gentlemen, is about
:04:55. > :04:59.nothing less than our own survival. Lyse Doucet addressing the great
:04:59. > :05:03.and the good of the television industry. She joins us now from
:05:03. > :05:08.Brussels. If you have talked about journalists needing to embrace
:05:08. > :05:14.social media to avoid being obsolete. How far has it made news
:05:14. > :05:20.coverage better for viewers? would describe our job as trying to
:05:20. > :05:25.get as close to the truth as quickly as possible. I would say it
:05:25. > :05:30.is obvious that we should embrace social media. You have a source of
:05:30. > :05:35.information which like any source of infra -- information has to be
:05:35. > :05:39.verified, but it provides you with a tip offs, and access to the
:05:39. > :05:43.officials that are part of the stories, so why would we not try to
:05:43. > :05:49.be part of this endless stream of information it it is out there and
:05:49. > :05:53.available to us? Are real concern that listeners and viewers have is
:05:53. > :05:57.how they feel things like Twitter and Facebook are intruding into
:05:57. > :06:07.coverage. They talk about journalism on the cheap, where
:06:07. > :06:08.
:06:08. > :06:13.journalists are reading out tweets instead of authenticating stories.
:06:13. > :06:19.One blogger and recently did not turn out to be a Serbian woman but
:06:19. > :06:24.a Scottish man blogging from Scotland. -- but Syrian woman.
:06:24. > :06:28.There is a need for scepticism, but our job is to be there on the
:06:28. > :06:38.ground at speaking to absolutely everyone who go and help us tell
:06:38. > :06:43.the story. There are times we cannot be everywhere. You get very
:06:43. > :06:47.few visas to go in through Damascus, I am one of the few people who has
:06:47. > :06:51.been able to go in, and going in with activists on rebels without a
:06:51. > :06:59.visa is dangerous, so therefore we have to see what other information
:06:59. > :07:06.is coming through, whether it is on a YouTube or Facebook or Twitter.
:07:06. > :07:10.How do you authenticate it? If you are not there. We now have a whole
:07:10. > :07:16.hull but which is called the user generated content hob. They have
:07:16. > :07:21.come up with the a rigorous check list, checking the weather,
:07:21. > :07:26.checking what is known about the location, checking voices and audio,
:07:26. > :07:34.before it goes out on death. Nothing goes on air before it is
:07:35. > :07:40.verified, -- before it goes out on death. Do you think there is a
:07:40. > :07:43.pressure on the BBC to run stuff about what -- perhaps always
:07:43. > :07:47.carrying out all the cheques he would have in the days before
:07:47. > :07:51.social media, because everybody else is doing it? The only pressure
:07:51. > :07:58.should be to get the story by it. There is the pressure to be first
:07:58. > :08:08.with the story, but it is better to be second and wrong -- second and
:08:08. > :08:09.
:08:09. > :08:12.right, but second and wrong. -- than this first and wrong. I invite
:08:12. > :08:18.everyone to come and see a our dedicated team of journalists which
:08:18. > :08:21.is going through all those videos, and there is also our viewers and
:08:22. > :08:26.listeners telling us what they think of our coverage and sometimes
:08:26. > :08:31.adding to it. We have to exercise the same journalistic standards
:08:31. > :08:35.that we do what every other aspect of the job. We have to move with
:08:35. > :08:40.the times. Technology is offering as new opportunities, but we have
:08:40. > :08:44.to maximise the opportunities and minimise the risks.
:08:44. > :08:50.Looking to the future, do you think social media will take over from
:08:50. > :08:55.the role of the traditional news bulletin? I do not think so,
:08:55. > :09:01.because we have been told time and time again that what matters the
:09:01. > :09:06.most is a story and the storyteller. And also trust and credibility.
:09:06. > :09:11.Therefore people keep turning to us to say, and I have seen this
:09:12. > :09:15.information and heard these rumours - let me see what the BBC, our
:09:15. > :09:21.correspondent I trust, is saying, let me make sense of the story and
:09:21. > :09:26.why it matters. I think we still have a purpose, people are still
:09:26. > :09:29.turning to us, but if we are not dare telling the story as well as
:09:29. > :09:34.possible, people will turn elsewhere.
:09:34. > :09:38.As the US presidential election approaches, we are hearing more and
:09:38. > :09:48.more reporting from America, but has that country infected did
:09:48. > :09:55.
:09:55. > :10:03.Thank you for your comments this week. If you want to share your