If you were awake before breakfast time last Saturday, you might have heard me on Radio 4 talking about the Olympic Park. The programme in question was Open Country, a long running series about rural Britain, whose latest episode features various eye-witness interviews from the Lower Lea valley. I was right chuffed to be invited to take part, and duly trotted up to the Greenway a couple of weeks ago to be pre-recorded by Matt Baker and a woman with a big furry mike. We chatted about the park and its legacy for 40 minutes or so, and that's been duly whittled down to four and a half minutes in the final broadcast. And blimey, there's me sandwiched inbetween top 2012 honchos and proper wildlife experts. Only on BBC Radio 4.
If you were listening to Open Country on Saturday, you might have been inspired to find out more about the issues by visiting the Radio 4 website. Open Country had its own homepage, with a detailed archive of programmes each supported by background information and a selection of relevant links. On the Lea Valley page there were 250 words to read, and a specially-taken photograph, plus links to British Waterways, London 2012, the Waterworks Nature Reserve and, er, me. Useful multimedia backup there, adding a bit of depth to the broadcast programme. [website Saturday] [now deleted]
If you're around just after three o'clock this afternoon, you might hear me on Radio 4 talking about the Olympic Park. It's the Open Country repeat slot, and there'll probably be rather more people listening this time. They might also be inspired to find out more about the issues by visiting the Radio 4 website. But they'll be disappointed.
Open Country still has its own homepage, but it's considerably depleted. There's a brief series description and a generic photograph of a hill. There are lots of tagged links to other BBC content that you might otherwise not have noticed. The archive of programmes has been hidden in smaller text at the bottom of the page, then buried deeper into yearly catalogues. All of the richness of the individual programme descriptions has been lost. On the Lea Valley page, where there were once 250 words, there are now 34. This bland summary is nothing more than a brief preview of the programme with absolutely no background information whatsoever and no relevant external links. In short, the Open Country microsite now boasts absolutely nothing worth reading.
It's early days for the Radio 4 website revamp, and it would be wrong to judge the entire transformation solely based on a single programme I happen to have taken part in. But where the web designers are claiming "uncluttered", I see "empty". [Before, after] [Before, after] [Before, after] Where there were once useful links chosen by a human, there are now auto-generated connections churned out from an unseen database. And whereas all the most popular programmes used to be given some degree of prominence, the emphasis is now solely on shows available on the iPlayer or via podcast. If you can't listen to it, it's no longer important. The new Radio 4 website appears hellbent on delivering audio content, not enhancing the audio experience. I hope that one day soon it might do both.
If you were awake before breakfast time last Saturday, you might have heard me on Radio 4 talking about the Olympic Park. The programme in question was Open Country, a long running series about rural Britain, whose latest episode features various eye-witness interviews from the Lower Lea valley. I was right chuffed to be invited to take part, and duly trotted up to the Greenway a couple of weeks ago to be pre-recorded by Matt Baker and a woman with a big furry mike. We chatted about the park and its legacy for 40 minutes or so, and that's been duly whittled down to four and a half minutes in the final broadcast. And blimey, there's me sandwiched inbetween top 2012 honchos and proper wildlife experts. Only on BBC Radio 4.
If you're around just after three o'clock this afternoon, you might hear me on Radio 4 talking about the Olympic Park. It's the Open Country repeat slot, and there'll probably be rather more people listening this time. They might also be inspired to find out more about the issues by visiting the Radio 4 website. But they'll be disappointed.
