The New Journalism

Photo by Markus Winkler on Pexels.com

I love great journalism and have been a subscriber of the Economist since 2010, when I started studying at the LSE. Each week I listen to the audio version of The world this week, the Leaders, and the Britain, International, and Business sections. I also read the daily WONKHE, a higher education policy website and newsletter that keeps me somewhat informed about the sector where I work.

However, I have recently started to move away from other forms of legacy news and find new media much more informative with high-quality, more in-depth, and longer-form content. These include mini-documentaries from Economics Explained, ColdFusion, and Johnny Harris and long-form interviews from Modern Wisdom, Triggernometry, and of course, Joe Rogan. 

Johnny Harris, formally of Vox, produces beautifully edited and well-written content. He has 810,000 subscribers to his Youtube channel and regularly gets over a million views on his videos. In a recent video, he provides seven lessons he has learnt over the last seven years of journalism: 

  1. Objectivity is a myth – every piece of news is produced by a human who has chosen what to include, what to leave out, and how to frame it. Aim to be fair and generous to the other side of the argument and present the best version of the viewpoint. Be clear and balanced about the facts.
  2. A lot of journalists write for their peers, not their audience – It can be challenging for people to understand the intricate parts of the news unless you already understand the area. The audience tends to feel left out. Use clear, simple language and avoid jargon.
  3. Journalism has a lot of very old customs/traditions – be a character (use I) and tell the story to the audience include facts, data, people, and help inform the reader. Be a part of the store, and make it beautiful with the imagery and music.
  4. Journalism school isn’t always the best way to go – schools spend too much time on theory, tradition, history, and critique of the old way of doing things. They don’t leave space for students to experiment with the new direct to consumer journalism. Just make content and aim to get better at it by learning in the trenches.
  5. Journalism is economic in its very nature – journalism is a business through subscriptions, donations, or ads, which comes with incentives. Private media can get out of control with the motivation to chase volume and clicks, which does not always lead to great journalism. If you want great journalism, pay for it and be the customer, not the product.
  6. Good writing is rare and beautiful – good journalism is good writing; it should be great storytelling, clear, concise and simple in its wording. Develop your writing to develop the quality of your journalism.
  7. Good journalism is important – good journalism is hard to produce but makes a positive impact. It is precise with the facts and honest about its biases to allow the reader to scrutinise it.

Here is Johnny’s affiliate link to his suggested book for improving your writing, The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker. You can subscribe to The Economist via their website. The writing course I am working through to improve my content is Ninja Writing: the Four levels of Writing mastery by Shani Raja, a former writer and editor for the Economist. Shani also has a free course on Ubemy called Secret sauce of great writing.

Let me know your recommendations for great journalism on Twitter @samueljtanner.

Britain reduces carbon emissions

There are three core areas where Britain need to reduce carbon emissions to hit the 2030 target; electricity production, heating, and transport.

Britain is ahead of other industrialised nations. This summer (2020) no coal was burned to produce electricity for over two months. Carbon emissions from electricity generation have been reduced by 44% since 1990, according to the Department for business, energy, and industrial strategy (BEIS) while the economy has grown by 2/3 in the same period. Britain cut emissions 1.8 times faster than the EU average. The country has four remaining coal power stations, and these will all be decommissioned by 2025. 

The reduction in emissions is mainly down to the move away from burning coal to natural gas which burns half as much carbon dioxide as coal. This move started with Margaret Thatcher and the closing of mines, privatising the energy markets, and introducing the north sea oil and gas. The Labour government carried on this move with the Climate Change Act in 2008, that made Britain the first country in the world to commit itself to legally binding carbon-emission reduction. Finally, the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition introduced the Carbon Price Support in 2013 that put a carbon tax on power production that made coal with its higher emissions uncompetitive. The carbon tax has to lead to coal production, making up around 25% of electricity production in 2015 to less than 2% in 2020. Wind power currently makes up around 25% of energy production and solar around 4%.

Electricity generation is only a third of the story, and Britain is currently projected to be 10% away from its legally mandated target for carbon emissions according to the BEIS. The current government has a 10 point plan for a green industrial revolution that includes a ban on petrol and diesel cars’ production from 2030, but it has rolled back the plans for mandating all new homes be carbon neutral. For the carbon-neutral goal to be met, buildings need to replace gas boilers with heat pumps, requiring larger radiators or underfloor heating.

The UK is currently leading the industrialised world in green energy production. Still, both us as citizens, through our transport and home purchasing choices, and the government, through proper taxing of externalities like carbon emissions, need to do more to hit the target we have set ourselves. 

Free speech legislation for UK universities

Today the UK Government released a new law that puts a duty on universities to promote freedom of speech. The National Students Union (NSU), the Union of Colleges and Universities (UCU), and much of the UK press suggest no problem exists. They have responded that the government should be focused on supporting students. So what is the reason the government say we need the law and is there any evidence?

Freedom of speech and the free exchange of ideas are core to our way of life and are the foundation of democracy. The right to express opinions and share ideas is specifically there to protect people when these opinions and ideas are intellectually challenging, rebellious, dissenting, or controversy, no matter how uncomfortable. Voltaire famously defended free speech by saying ‘I may disagree with what you say, but I will disagree with your right to say it.’ This freedom of expression also covers the right for people to disagree with other peoples’ opinions and ideas openly, challenge and debate these publicly, protest, and, most importantly, speak truth to power.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. 

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights

The new law places a duty on Universities to promote freedom of speech as apart of their registration for degree awarding powers and receiving public money. Universities that do not comply will be fined and are now open to compensating academics, students, and speakers that are dismissed due to exercising their free speech. The UK is not the first to introduce such a law; other countries have laws specifically to protect freedom of speech in universities, including Ireland and the United States. It is important to note that this law only covers speech that is seen as legal already, speech that incites violence is still illegal.

The government say they are worried about censorship and ‘cancel culture’ within universities where pressure is used to silence dissenting opinions. They state that no-platforming denies other peoples rights to hear opinions and the right to challenge what they say, and has a ‘chilling effect’ on freedom of speech and academic freedom. Examples of no-platforming provided in the first reading of the bill include Amanda Rudd, Germain Greer, Peter Tatchell, Peter Hitchins.

Several surveys suggest censorship or self-censorship due to fear is a big issue in universities. The government state that Britain has the second-lowest level of academic freedom in all of Europe, a survey by Civitas states that 35% of Universities imposed severe limits of freedom of speech, and UCU state that 35.5% of academics self-censor for fear of the negative consequences of saying what they believe. Spiked produces a free speech university rankings that provided evidence that over half of UK universities are curbing free speech.

Universities are in a difficult position, with 50% of the population getting a degree by the time they are 30, campuses are increasingly diverse. HE Institutions have tension between freedom of speech and creating a safe and inclusive environment that supports students’ success. University rankings and recruitment are heavily related to student satisfaction, and these institutions need to be responsive to student opinions. HE institutions are also under pressure by the government to address the attainment gap between different ethnic groups achieving a first or 2:1. As well as creating an inclusive environment that provides opportunity, universities need to provide academic freedom for staff and students to debate essential and controversial ideas in pursuit of truth.

The NSU suggests that while there have been isolated cases of no-platforming, the problem has been overstated. The government should be focused on supporting students through the much larger issues of the current situation. The UCU has also criticised the timing of the new law and questioned the existence of a problem. Universities UK has suggested that Student Unions should have the democratic freedoms to decide how they should promote freedom of speech. However, individual academics have spoken out on both sides of the argument, with some questioning the effects on the autonomy of universities and others about their fear of the ‘Woke hate mob’.

Suppose the problem is small and isolated as the Unions suggest. In that case, the new law is only strengthening the rights that are already there, ensuring students and academics human rights are protected. If there is a problem as any academics suggest, this should protect democracy and the pursuit of truth.

The Feynman Technique

Professor Amos Wizrum taught me that teaching someone is the key to deep learning. When learning something new, rather than taking direct notes; read a chapter, close the book, then write a summary from memory. You can return to the text after you finish to pick out the bits you missed. The famous Physicist Richard Feynman had a similar idea.

The Feynman technique

  1. Get out a blank piece of paper 
  2. Write a concept at the top of the page
  3. Start writing
  4. Fill in the gaps
  5. Simplify the language
  6. Add an analogy

Deep learning should be hard. We learn by repeated recall, by continual testing, not by repeated exposure. The Feynman technique is a method that uses this idea to help you understand better.

Active recall

By first putting down what you know and remember about a topic you are practising active recall and helping your brain remember the concept in future. Write this as if you were explaining it to someone else that does not understand it at all. After you have everything you can remember out of your head, go back and review what you are not sure about from your notes, through a web search, or in a book, and add to your page. Revisiting source material will fill in the gaps in your knowledge and provide feedback on how accurately you remember the things you wrote down.  

Analogy: a comparison between one thing and another, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification. 

Oxford Languages

Make it relatable

Once you have written down what you remember and added to this from other sources, simplify the language and have a go at adding an original analogy. As a child, Richard Feynman used to go for walks with his father and discuss anything Richard was curious about. To help Richard understand, his father would use analogies, for example, when describing how big a Tyrannosaurus rex was, Feynman’s father related it to the size of their home, saying if it were standing outside, his head would be tall enough to reach Richards bedroom window. By connecting challenging to understand things to those that his son would encounter each day, he could speed up Richards learning. 

Have a go with something you are trying to learn

Set yourself a time limit of 20-25 minutes, or a Pomodoro. Try to do this once per day; you could even turn it into a blog.

Vitality and Wisdom

If you want a long term goal as a direction of travel, you will struggle to find a better one than building vitality and wisdom.

Vitality [ vahy-tal-i-tee ]

noun, plural vi·tal·i·ties.

1. exuberant physical strength or mental vigor: a person of great vitality.

2. capacity for survival or for the continuation of a meaningful or purposeful existence:the vitality of an institution.

3. power to live or grow: the vitality of a language.

4. vital force or principle.

Dictionary.com 

Wisdom [ wiz-duhm ]

noun

1. the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight.

2. scholarly knowledge or learning: the wisdom of the schools.

3. wise sayings or teachings; precepts.

4. a wise act or saying.

Dictionary.com

Vitality

Vitality, or vigour, can be summed up as staying physically young for as long as possible. Someone with vigour has energy, enthusiasm, and ‘aliveness’ and the absence of fatigue, weariness, and exhaustion. Most research attempt to measure it using a Vitality subscale as part of various medical questionnaires that include four questions: 

  • Did you feel full of pep? 
  • Did you have a lot of energy? 
  • Did you feel worn out? 
  • Did you feel tired?

The feelings of energy and aliveness are both physical and mental, linked to self-actualisation, self-esteem and self-motivation. As well as having physical strength and being free from pain, those that see themselves as having vitality also express excitement, enthusiasm, and spontaneity. The subjective element of vitality suggests that it goes much further than being physically healthy and an attitude that can be chosen and practised. 

Wisdom

The traditional interpretation of wisdom from western philosophy related to ‘knowing the truth of things’. For someone to be wise, they must have integrated knowledge, unbiased judgement, ethics, compassion, insight, and self-awareness. Psychologists mainly use self-assessment methods to measure wisdom; these suggest that wisdom is developed through life experience, openness, emotional control, and reflectiveness. The DIKW pyramid from Information theory provides a more objective view of wisdom, listing it at the top of the cognitive hierarchy. Data is processed to create information (the what), cognition is used to turn information into knowledge (the how), and finally, judgement is used to produce wisdom (the why). 

Developing vitality and wisdom

To develop vitality, you need to maintain high energy levels and avoid fatigue. Training consistently with moderation is required and keep high-intensity exhausting sessions that push you towards failure to short blocks once or twice per year. A foundation of strength and mobility is essential that is supplemented by sport and adventure.

To develop wisdom, you need to focus on gaining knowledge, applying it, and then reflecting on your decisions to build better judgement. Charlie Munger suggests starting by learning the various cognitive bias to understand better how you come to conclusions. Naval Ravikant recommends learning the basics of all the hard sciences so you can pick up any book in a library and understand it. Read, do stuff, then try to understand the outcome.

First impressions are made in a blink of an eye and can have lasting effects

I have not worn a shirt for work in 12 months. Since working from home, my wardrobe has gone toward the relaxed end of business casual. I convince myself that this is OK because I run a team of people with Designer in their job title and I make an effort to buy quality, branded, smart clothes that last. However, my premise somewhat fails when I look at my calendar and realise that I spend most of my time in video calls with people in director or management roles. Tuesdays for me are the busiest days for meetings, and so for a few weeks I started to wear a shirt each Tuesday, but two of my reoccurring committees that day ended as we moved to a new phase at the university, so my shirt-wearing ended along with the meetings.

People are much more forgiving of your presentation and other elements of professionalism once they know you than when you first meet. First impressions are made within a tenth of a second and once formed can affect the way you think of someone for over six months after you meet. First impressions can be so influential over how you feel about someone that even when presented with facts that contradict these initial feelings, your brain will side with the false first impressions.

Professionalism is the habits and norms that people see as acceptable within a field and is highly specific to an industry or profession. The variability of standards is particularly relevant for your appearance. Many design agencies would not hire someone who turned up to an interview in a suit, but it is the opposite for many corporate positions. A study found that wearing a brand named cloths has a positive effect on first impressions. Other habits, however, like turning up on time and good levels of personal hygiene are universal.

Acting professionally in the right context allows people to focus on your work skills. You do not have to change or hide your personality but making sure you don’t distract people with your appearance or grammar, this will allow them to focus on what you say and make them more open to getting to know you. Just be genuine, making an effort, and respect peoples time. 

 Quantic suggests that you pay attention to: 

  • Appearance: be neat, clean, and dressed appropriately
  • Demeanour: be confident, articulate, have good posture, and a firm handshake
  • Reliability: Show up on time and prepared 
  • Ethics: Be honest, kind, helpful, and moral.

The FIRE movement and financial independence

Wouldn’t it be great if you could tell you boss to F**k off if they start to take advantage, or you could walk out the door when work takes you down a road you do not want to go down? Wouldn’t it be great also to be an owner rather than just labour? Many more people worldwide are taking up this dream and aiming to reach this financial independence point earlier than the traditional retirement age.

The FIRE movement or Financial Independence, Retire Early is a movement started by Vicki Robin in the book Your Money or Your Life. FIRE borrows from the idea from the finance industries ‘F**k You money’ and has increased its popularity over the last ten years as investing becomes more accessible. Followers aim to maximise savings by minimising their spending, and accumulate assets that give them passive income. You achieve financial independence when the revenue generated through your assets is equal to or greater than your living expenses. At this point, you can retire and spend your time doing anything you like; you could go down to part-time, find more enjoyable work, or continue your career in the sweet knowledge that it is by choice and not by necessity that you clock in each day.

The goal is to reach the point of not having to work as early in your life as possible. This presents a trade-off between your future security and your current lifestyle. The more you save, the quicker you reach independence, but this requires you to live far below your means and forfeit many of these things that might make life more enjoyable like a lovely house, extensive international travel, and other experiences. Your definition of financial independence is ultimately up to you; you might decide that you want to have three, five, or ten years worth of living expenses rather than the idea of never working again. It is a journey, and your definition will evolve along with your earning potential and your taste for the finer things.

Step one is to start to save. You should begin by putting away 10% of your income into an investment account, so you start your journey from labour to an owner-labourer. Depending on your situation, 10% might be tough but commit to working up to that amount and make sacrifices with some creature comforts. If you work for a publicly-traded company, buy at least one share so the next time you walk through the door, you can smile and know you own a part of the company, it will start to change your mindset.

The 4Ps of Software Engineering

Software engineering is a set of processes carried out by people undertaking various practices and informed by an overarching paradigm.

Processes are a series of activities that move from an idea, problem, or opportunity to completed software delivered to users. Most processes include four phases-specification, development, validation, and evolution. Agile and lifecycle are two different process approaches to software development. 

People involved in software engineering include developers who do the work to enable users to interact with the software in some way. The customer, sometimes the user, makes decisions about the design. Maintenance staff (operations) launch the software and look after it once completed. Testers check that the software meets the original requirements set by the customer, and technical authors write user guides/manuals.

Practices are the specific activities a developer carries out to develop the system. Examples include analysing and modelling people’s problems, collecting user requirements writing code, and testing the system works. The order of the various practices is dictated by the process chosen.

A Paradigm is a set of practices linked together around a set of beliefs about developing software. The two most common paradigms are Object-oriented programming where software is built as a set of real-world objects with properties and behaviours, and Structured systems analysis where software is a set of functions operating on data.

Refactoring, Reuse, and Learning Design

The increase in digital technology in many fields has also brought software engineering language and practices into these areas. I studied Information systems and management at University, so I am more guilty than most for this trend. I have introduced rapid prototyping, the Capability Maturity Model, and daily stand-ups to my team’s work to name just a few.

Refactoring: The process of changing a software system in such a way that it does not alter the external behaviour of the code, yet improves its internal structure.

Martin Fowler

This week I have come across a company using ‘Refactoring’ as a term used in learning design. In software engineering, programmers use refactoring to describe going back to old code and cleaning it up. Refactoring is a continual process of improving code and reducing the number of lines while maintaining functionality. Code is usually written quickly to solve a functionality problem, so programmers revisit it, and rewriting it to run more efficiently. Reuse is a significant part of the refactoring process where a programmer copies some code from another programme to replicate the functionality and simplicity somewhere else quickly.

The company that I will not name used refactoring to describe unbundling a course and then restack it into different offerings. It is splitting a degree or Masters into its separate modules and then offering these individually or in groups of modules to other potential students. This might be offering the first 180 credits of a degree or a combination of modules from all three years into a certificate. It might also be offering working professionals the option of studying a single module that they need for work. The idea they tried to get across was that universities already have these bundles of modules that can be rearranged into courses that attract a wider audience, but I do not think the term quite works.

Reuse: An Engineering strategy where the development process is geared to reusing existing software

Ian Sommerville

After the session, I revisited my university notes to see if ‘refactoring’ was a marketing effort and taking liberties. I came across a line that I am not sure is mine or a direct quote from a book but refactoring ‘allows us to think about reuse of previous components or looking at alternative ways of doing things.’ Reuse is borrowing code from existing software to reduce the amount of code required to produce when developing a new system. I can’t help but feel that ‘reuse’ is a better technical term for what was implied, but it is not flashy. 

Let me know on Twitter if I am wrong or want to share other terms taken from software engineering misused (think Agile). We can have a group eye roll.

n.b. The rest of the presentation was excellent, and they had great ideas.

The UK Government support for jobs

The coronavirus is causing UK Unemployment to rise. According to the Office for National Statistics, over 800,000 employees left the payroll in the last twelve months, with a record number of redundancies and reduced vacancies. With the national lockdown continuing the picture is likely to get worse before it gets better. 

Even before the pandemic, the Department of Education has increased its focus on the 50% of people that did not go to university. In September 2020, the Prime Minister announced a significant expansion of education and training for workers to boost productivity, narrow the skills gap, and deliver some details on the promised support for ‘the other 50%. The Prime Minister’s announcement included a Lifetime Skills Guarantee and entitlement to flexible loans for micro-credentials style study.

Degree Apprenticeships have been the flagship scheme to ‘unleash talent’ for those who do not have high qualifications, but many additional services are available as part of the Governments approach. I have listed some of the currently available services to those who need a job or improve job security by upskilling. 

For people looking for work, the UK Government provides:

For people wanting to learn, the UK Government provides:

  •  The Traineeship website to get help and at least 70 hours of work experience to prepare for an apprenticeship or job
  • The Skills Toolkit with access to 70+ online short courses in digital, numeracy, and employability skills provided by educational experts and employers including Microsoft
  • The National Skills Fund is the first part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee and is focused on adult level three qualifications
  • Skills Bootcamps lasting 12-16 weeks that build sector-specific skills to get people to interview ready
  • The local Jobcentre Plus pre-employment training, work experience placements, and guaranteed job interview.

For people that have lost their job:

  • The Job Entry Targeted support scheme provides six months of personalised support after the first three months of searching for a job
  • Work coaches match peoples skills to available jobs to help get them back into work
  • The Restart scheme from Summer 2021 to provide 12 months of personalised support for those out of work for over 12 months  

For people needing financial help due to coronavirus:

There is much more to be done, but there is now a direction of travel. The Apprenticeship levy and growth in work learning has been positive, but details of the future schemes are not yet clear. However, there is help for people who need it, and there are great jobs for people with the right skills and opportunities to develop these skills for those who want them.

My promise

If you are interested in working in Learning Design or Educational Technology and want to talk to someone for advice, please contact me on Twitter. There is a massive need for people to support the design and development of high-quality online courses, and I would love to give you an hour of my time on a call and help you on the journey from whatever starting point.