Kellie Maddox's posterous

Journalism student at Birmingham City University, blogger and freelancer, on twitter @Kellie_Maddox

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HMI: Workplace bullying and harassment in universities - the findings

 [This post was written for Help Me Investigate]

As Ben already mentioned in a previous post, AcademicFOI.com is a great example of how FoI data can be published well. One of the site's latest reports is the findings of an investigation into workplace bullying and harassment in UK universities and higher education institutions. The results of the 132 FoI requests are published in an Excel document for ease of use.

What's great about this investigation is that every aspect of the process is very public, very clear and well explained with notes covering key findings, incomplete data and even the threats received by Ian Benson from some institutions who did not want to disclose information.

So, what did the investigation aim to find out? In his FoI request, Ian asked a series of 14 questions related to bullying and harassment in the workplace between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2009. Interestingly, 132 institutions responded in full and 13 failed to do so. A number of institutions also cited privacy concerns as a reason not to disclose and two uni's  - Bristol and Salford - claimed it would exceed the 18 hour time limit to address.

From the data received back from universities, the site was able to produce a summary of key findings:

 - 1,957 university staff asked for support or advice due to bullying or harassment during 2007-2009 (true figure likely to be higher do to informal complaints)

 - 998 formal investigations were made into complaints

 - Of those, 764 concluded that no bullying or harassment had taken place and the rest were upheld (23%)

 - Top 3 UK universities Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial had an uphold rate of 54%

 - 41 UK universities had a 0% uphold rate (430 staff sought help, 56 left citing bullying and 169 investigations found no evidence)

The findings also highlight that a total of £1.35million was spent on legal fees and Benson points out that an 'astonishingly high number of instances where invoices from solicitors were not broken down by reference to specific case' were found.

Only 20 staff were dismissed out of 234 proven cases.

So many stories can be found within this data; be it an overall look, a regional look or a specific university of choice. Regardless of the subject, the use of FoI and the presentation of findings in this case is exemplary and should be encouraged by other users and sites interested in the public process of investigative reporting.

The site also has two previous reports on employment and tribunal claims and TV interview permission rights which are equally worth a look.

Threatened by hyperlocal? Are newspapers taking action?

Whilst flicking through tonight's Cannock and Lichfield edition of the Express and Star (yes, we still have it delivered at home), I came across this article which made me think twice (can't find the online version unfortunately).

Paper3

Basically, the E&S is sending its reporters out to various Midland locations to meet its readers, claiming 'everyone has a story to tell' and 'we want to hear from you.'

Lisa Wright writes:

"All too often we find out things from people and ask them why they never told us about it. The answer tends to be "I didn't think you would be interested." Well we are interested."

Now I could be missing a trick here, but the cynic, trainee journalist and hyperlocal-wannabe in me says that the nature of hyperlocal is starting to reach the mainstream media. Hyperlocal is all about community, its all about covering those little events in the church hall and community centre that the local paper doesn't have time for. Its about giving your patch (no matter how many miles it covers) a voice; not the voice of the journalist but of its readers and users.

And this article makes me think that papers (not just the E&S) want a piece of this community voice. They want to be seen to care about all the mundane goings-on in their town because its very likely that someone with a solo blogging effort is picking up on these little gems.

Their intentions seem pretty clear:

"Now our reporting team is out to get more contacts among the community to intensify our local coverage of what is happening in your areas."

This is of course never a bad thing; communities deserve a voice regardless of who's providing the platform. I just think its interesting to see an article (the only one I've ever seen) like this. The rise of the hyperlocal blog has got to be something to do with it?

Thoughts welcomed...

 

Damian Radcliffe: 'Small is the new big [in media]'

Damian Radcliffe, Ofcom regional manager and media enthusiast, gave a talk at Birmingham City University today about his observations and thoughts on hyperlocal media and where its heading.

He started with some interesting comments including 'over 90% of people consume local news on a weekly basis' which goes to show that localness really does matter; it always mattered in the heyday of the local newspaper and it still matters now, as we see hyperlocal making waves in the media sphere.

Damian then went on to talk about all the different hyperlocal projects that are out there right now and the models that these projects are based on from commercial models, online forums and storytelling sites to community radio and local TV media. 

So what's happening right now in terms of hyperlocal? Damian picked up on five key trends:

  1. Open data and transparency - hyperlocal media making use of open data from councils and public bodies, using data to find stories and hold authorities to account.
  2. Civic engagement
  3. Hyperlocal advertising - this is increasingly location-based and specific to small areas and communities. Advertising is now also being dealt with by specialist hyperlocal agencies like Oxbury Media and Addiply which aim to bring advertisers to local media.
  4. Traditional media goes hyperlocal - 'big media' are seeing the hyperlocal trend and moving towards it such as the Birmingham Mail Communities and the Guardian Local.
  5. The changing face of journalism - people in the hyperlocal 'community' being at the forefront of developments in the wider media industry and focusing on how the future of journalism will pan out.

Damian then went on to pose the question, 'does hyperlocal do journalism?' I guess many people would say yes, I certainly think so anyway. Damian pointed out that there are many overlaps between 'big media' and hyperlocal - they both hold authority to account, both often do investigative pieces, council reporting and follow campaigns. I think its less of question of 'does' and more of a question of 'how' hyperlocal does journalism.

Although hyperlocal seems to be the 'big thing' right now, Damian also reiterated the challenges that those in hyperlocal know only too well:

  • Discoverability - how do hyperlocals get noticed? How do those who aren't online find you? How do you reach marginalised audiences?
  • Funding and making it pay - the one we're all still trying to work out! All these models keep surfacing but as yet there is no guaranteed, tried-and-tested method to making hyperlocal the breadwinner.
  • Resources - often hyperlocals are the product of one, single-handed, dedicated person who also has a full-time job and a family. How do we make them sustainable resource-wise as well as financially?
  • Isolation and opportunities to learn from others - there's probably someone else doing exactly the same as you less than 10 miles away and you don't realise. Meet up with those in the same boat as you and learn from each others experiences of hyperlocal.
  • Audience perceptions of quality - this is something I hadn't really thought of but I guess its a valid point, do audiences trust hyperlocal over the BBC or their local paper? How do you build that trust and keep them coming back to your website?

Unfazed by the challenges, Damian thinks there's a big future in hyperlocal:

  • Overseas players in the UK market - AOL's Patch recently announced its increasing its local sites to 500 across 20 US states by the end of the year.
  • Location based services will take off - following in the footsteps of Facebook Place and Foursquare; location-specific content will be key.
  • New partnerships and tie-ins - like the Starbucks digital network
  • More reverse publishing - online content being converted into print products like the HU17.net magazine using tools like Sweeble to create publications
  • Everything is social - 75% of the news consumed online is through shared news from social networking sites or email [source: mashable]

Damian finished by surmising that our relationships with 'old' media are changing, we increasingly want different things from the media we consume. We want to be able to engage with and discuss news and events in our local area. That's where I see the place of hyperlocal; creating a niche that 'big media' can't and probably never will do. 'Small is the new big' apparently.