The start of the summit has prompted demonstrations in Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin and London.

But an artist based in Cardiff has been raising an awareness of climate change through a much more laid back method – painting.

Rowan Huntley, who is originally from Berwick in Scotland, is displaying her depictions of ice and glaciers in the Senedd building in Cardiff Bay.

Ms Huntley has been painting icy landscapes for fifteen years and this most recent exhibition focuses on the Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland.

She hopes to raise awareness of climate change with visitors to the Senedd and the politicians based there. Ms Huntley said:

“As it’s the start of the Copenhagen climate summit this week in Denmark, it’s a fantastic opportunity to be able to show people what will be lost due to global warming.

To actually display iceberg paintings from an endangered site in the west of Greenland, I find that if I can contribute to raising awareness of their fragility, then hopefully that will be beneficial to everybody.”

Hear the full interview with Rowan Huntley:
Rowan Huntley Interview by adambearne

Ms Huntley said that she had noticed the change in the ice that she paints, even though fifteen years is no time at all in comparison to the lifespan of a glacier.

Welsh ministers will be travelling to Denmark by train. It will take them twenty-four hours to get to Copenhagen.

It will be Carwyn Jones’ first trip abroad if he is elected First Minister as expected.

Environment Minister Jane Davidson is also attending. She is the co-chair of a group dealing with sustainable development of small countries.

The exhibition in the Senedd is being hosted by Jenny Randerson, Assembly Member for Cardiff Central.

Hear the full interview with Jenny Randerson:
Interview with Jenny Randerson AM on Copenhagen Summit by adambearne

Mrs Randerson is confident in the ability of her colleagues:

“Jane Davidson has a reputation which has started to impact internationally because she has been so firm and so strong on climate change issues in Wales.

The key thing about having people like Jane there is that you can send out the message that this is like a jigsaw puzzle and even the small pieces matter.”

Ms Huntley agreed that the Welsh contingent could have an important role:

“If they can contribute to finding an agreement to reduce emissions to the level that will no longer effect places of ice in our planet then that has to be beneficial.”

Mrs Randerson also spoke of her fears for Cardiff should climate change continue unabated:

“The World Wildlife Fund produced a picture where they demonstrated climate change by pointing out that if we don’t do something about it the Millennium Stadium is going to be flooded. They have a mock up picture of boats floating around outside [it].

Certainly the Senedd building will be flooded if we don’t do something about [climate change].”

She also pointed out that the flooding that occurs now – such as that seen in Cardiff Bay recently – should be a warning of things to come:

“The regular flooding that we now get is a warning sign, to my mind, of something that will be very serious for us all in the future.”

Mrs Randerson was in no doubt as to what she thought was required from the talks in Copenhagen:

“I very much hope there will be a firm agreement between the nations of the world.

One of the exciting things this time is the full engagement of the USA because the fact that they were missing last time in terms of any commitment was a huge blow to the progress of climate change.

Measures need to be taken throughout the world.”

Although large countries like America and China are responsible for the majority of climate change causing emissions, Mrs Randerson believes that small countries like Wales also have to play their part:

“If the small countries are not doing their bit, then together that makes a huge difference.

I think what we have to accept nowadays is that in order to do something about climate change, we are going to have to alter our lifestyles.”

The protestors that travelled from all over Wales will have to wait until the end of the summit to see what contribution the Welsh team have made and to see whether or not a legally binding agreement will be reached.

Until then, they can brush up on their knowledge of the effects of climate change by visiting Rowan Huntley’s exhibition of paintings at the Senedd.

With every guest lecture we have, the doom and gloom surrounding print journalism seems to grow.

Rob Andrews, editor of Paid Content UK, did little to assuage these fears.

Rupert Murdoch, along with some others in the world of newspapers, believe that creating paywalls – blocking full access to material unless you pay – can stave off the death knell for print journalism.

Rob showed us that this is probably not the answer.

A poll commissioned by Paid Content UK shows that few people are prepared to pay for news online and that of those who would, most would want a year subscription for less than a tenner.

This doesn’t bode well for broadsheets who charge around £300 for a year’s subscription in print.

Of course, some have charged successfully for online content.

The Financial Times is one of those, but they have specialist content that really can give businesses an edge (or stop them from falling behind).

‘Normal’ news cannot make any such claim.

So what’s the answer?

I’m afraid I’m too tied up with broadcasting to come up with one… *grins*

Of course, there is the theory that Murdoch wants to charge for content in order to drive people back to the paper… we shall see.

Rory gave us an interesting example of how to make a fairly dull technology story quite interesting.

The topic was ‘cloud computing’ and his story included lots of ‘wooshy’ graphics of Joe Bloggs using his computer and it zooming out and up into the clouds. Entertaining stuff.

He then told us how useful Twitter can be as a tool for journalists.

At first I was a little bit skeptical, thinking “here we go again – talking Twitter.” But then I realised that Rory was telling us about it for a reason.

He wouldn’t have known that we had talked about it before. Yet the fact it was being mentioned again reinforced how key it really is.

I hope that those who say that Twitter is a fad that will die out are wrong. I find it really useful for keeping on top of all the latest developments in the world of journalism, and have even got story ideas from it.

It’s also great for keeping track of blogs from the likes of Nick Robinson and Garry Gibbon – giving me the inside track in the world of Politics.

Rory’s own blog isn’t bad either.

So here’s to Twitter… long may it continue!

It was the most interesting lecture I have ever been to. He talked about his first major project, Photobus, travelling around England photographing random people in order to build a real profile of his country.

He then talked about Digital Storytelling: ordinary people telling stories about their lives, outside of the ‘establishment media’.

You can see some of the videos on this page.

But the journalist in me is asking: “so what?”

Stories about random people’s lives are great in a Big Brother kind of way, but are they really relevant to lots of other people?

It goes against everything I have been taught so far – making content as relevant as possible to your target audience.

Perhaps even more important these days: how do you make money from it?

Conclusion: Digital Storytelling is great as a quirky, arty project, but it isn’t news journalism.

Our lecturer from the week before had more of an idea on how to make online journalism work for us.

Adam Tinworth of Reed Business Information is somewhat of an expert on online journalism.

His most important advice?

“Cover what you do best, link to the rest.”

Having a niche is obviously so important. So I’ve been taking it on board.

Here is my effort, a blog about the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group from northern Uganda.

Let’s see if it drives the kind of traffic that the blogs Adam Tinworth oversees do!

But that isn’t stopping it from adapting to new technology.

Last week we had a lecture from Claire Webster, BBC College’s guru on all things online.

What was left in no doubt was that the internet provides the modern journalist with all sorts of tools.

Twitter obviously, but all that spawns from it too – Twitterfall, Tweetdeck et al.

But then Delicious, RSS feeds and much, much more.

I’m looking forward to getting acquainted with all of them, though I may miss sleeping while I set them all up!

However, I’ve been amazed at all the electronic high-fiving and back-slapping that has been going on in the world of tweets regarding Trafigura.

I’ll admit that at first I thought the sheer mass of tweets on the topic forced Carter-Ruck to drop the injunction.

However, closer evaluation shows that it would have fallen anyway.

The ‘super injuction’ blocking reporting of the Minton Report only applied to the UK.

As soon as The Guardian – a media organisation followed online by people all over the world – had published the fact that they were being blocked from reporting it, its worldwide readers found the parliamentary question and published it online from overseas.

In the age of the internet, something as controversial as blocking the reporting of parliamentary activity was not going to stay secret for long, Twitter or no Twitter.

What Twitter can be congratulated on is bringing far more negative publicity to Trafigura than may have happened otherwise.

However, by asking Carter-Ruck to block something so inflammatory, Trafigura truly shot themselves in the foot.

I couldn’t agree more. My German colleagues rightly point out that the Internet is such an important part of our society.

Alison Gow also agrees. She also makes a fair point however that those who need to take the manifesto to heart are the same people that don’t use the internet.

Online journalism is probably the greatest tool for those who want freedom of expression in countries where this value isn’t sacrosanct. Clear evidence of this was found in the Twitter revolution after the Iranian elections.

This can also help those of us who need information on a story without being able to go to a certain location or speak to people freely. To call on an army of people ready and willing to contribute to a story is a tool that we can’t ignore.

So why have journalists at all? Why doesn’t everyone just chip in with other ordinary people’s stories?

The obvious answer is quality, and my German colleagues note this too. From day one of my journalism course here in Cardiff we have been reminded of the importance of the standards and ethics that seperate us from the ‘citizen journalist’ or the blogger.

But the most compelling reason I can think of for mastering Flickering, Tweeting and blogging is less to do with grand theories of journalism and more to do with simple old-fashioned self interest:

If two people are applying for the same journalism job and one person ‘gets it’ but the other is a Can’t, Don’t or Won’t, guess who is getting the job?

‘Nuff said.

adambearne86

I hope to be blogging about a number of things. Mainly I’ll be commenting on how my journalism training is going – what I’m enjoying and also the challenges. I’m sure I’ll be hoping to debate some of the issues surrounding journalism today – it seems like a daunting but exciting time to be getting into the business.

That’s all for now folks!