19/10/2012 Newswatch

$:/STARTFEED. Now it is time for Newswatch with present 24/7. --

Samira Ahmed. Welcome to Newswatch with me,

Samira Ahmed. Have both sides of the Scottish independence debate

been getting a fair hearing? And we ask Lyse Doucet what the

rise of social media means for traditional TV reporting? How she

journalists Highness this new resource? -- how it should

journalists Highness of this new resource?

Some of the details about the referendum on Scottish independence

were announced this week, and the issue was discussed on many

programmes. Those included Thursday night's

Question Time. Scores of viewers contacted the BBC complaining that

one side of the debate got more of an ailing then the other. Among

them was Alastair Wright from Scotland also featured in one of

this week's football World Cup qualifying matches. Not that you

would know -- have known much about it according to a pure Michael

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 65 seconds

We asked BBC news for a response to Let us know your thoughts on the

issues we are covering it in this week's programme. Details of how to

contact us at the end of the programme.

Last weekend at there was an unusual new competitor in the

Sunday night's ratings. Millions of people watched coverage of Felix

Baumgartner's fall to earth on YouTube. Meanwhile, pollsters and

analysts watched Facebook to follow the BBC -- the American at

presidential debate. And Nick Griffin has been criticised by

police after leaking the address of the gay couple refused a broom by a

bed-and-breakfast. Some Newswatch viewers believe an

obsession with the social media is That is the perspective of a couple

of viewers, but what has the development of social media meant

for the traditional reporter? Last week the BBC's chief international

correspondent Lyse Doucet posed that question.

Do we take to our trenches and say we are bigger and better, or do we

joined forces with the social media revolution, and say that we are all

on the same side? Do we admit defeat in this age old battle to be

first with the news? To the answer, ladies and gentlemen, is about

nothing less than our own survival. Lyse Doucet addressing the great

and the good of the television industry. She joins us now from

Brussels. If you have talked about journalists needing to embrace

social media to avoid being obsolete. How far has it made news

coverage better for viewers? would describe our job as trying to

get as close to the truth as quickly as possible. I would say it

is obvious that we should embrace social media. You have a source of

information which like any source of infra -- information has to be

verified, but it provides you with a tip offs, and access to the

officials that are part of the stories, so why would we not try to

be part of this endless stream of information it it is out there and

available to us? Are real concern that listeners and viewers have is

how they feel things like Twitter and Facebook are intruding into

coverage. They talk about journalism on the cheap, where

journalists are reading out tweets instead of authenticating stories.

One blogger and recently did not turn out to be a Serbian woman but

a Scottish man blogging from Scotland. -- but Syrian woman.

There is a need for scepticism, but our job is to be there on the

ground at speaking to absolutely everyone who go and help us tell

the story. There are times we cannot be everywhere. You get very

few visas to go in through Damascus, I am one of the few people who has

been able to go in, and going in with activists on rebels without a

visa is dangerous, so therefore we have to see what other information

is coming through, whether it is on a YouTube or Facebook or Twitter.

How do you authenticate it? If you are not there. We now have a whole

hull but which is called the user generated content hob. They have

come up with the a rigorous check list, checking the weather,

checking what is known about the location, checking voices and audio,

before it goes out on death. Nothing goes on air before it is

verified, -- before it goes out on death. Do you think there is a

pressure on the BBC to run stuff about what -- perhaps always

carrying out all the cheques he would have in the days before

social media, because everybody else is doing it? The only pressure

should be to get the story by it. There is the pressure to be first

with the story, but it is better to be second and wrong -- second and

right, but second and wrong. -- than this first and wrong. I invite

everyone to come and see a our dedicated team of journalists which

is going through all those videos, and there is also our viewers and

listeners telling us what they think of our coverage and sometimes

adding to it. We have to exercise the same journalistic standards

that we do what every other aspect of the job. We have to move with

the times. Technology is offering as new opportunities, but we have

to maximise the opportunities and minimise the risks.

Looking to the future, do you think social media will take over from

the role of the traditional news bulletin? I do not think so,

because we have been told time and time again that what matters the

most is a story and the storyteller. And also trust and credibility.

Therefore people keep turning to us to say, and I have seen this

information and heard these rumours - let me see what the BBC, our

correspondent I trust, is saying, let me make sense of the story and

why it matters. I think we still have a purpose, people are still

turning to us, but if we are not dare telling the story as well as

possible, people will turn elsewhere.

As the US presidential election approaches, we are hearing more and

more reporting from America, but has that country infected did

Thank you for your comments this week. If you want to share your