#Trials on #Twitter – the #Stephenlawrence case

I’m not a legal expert. I’m not even a regular court reporter. But I was one of the BBC team assigned to cover the Stephen Lawrence murder trial at the Old Bailey in November.

I am also the BBC broadcaster who used Twitter to present “breaking news” programmes about the verdicts and sentences given to  Stephen Lawrence’s killers this week.

This is not a polished article. It’s my attempt to reflect on the uses – and perils – of using Twitter in our courts. Thank you for your comments on the issue; do keep the feedback coming!

A little about me first. I love using Twitter as @PhilippaNews. It keeps me in touch with stories & contacts around the world, and I enjoy what we’ve come to call the curation of news – sharing links on everything from London life to Arab Spring politics to the US election campaign.

But this was the first time I’d used the social media channel as another form of broadcasting.

Covering the #Stephenlawrence trial by #Twitter – your thoughts

I’m writing something about covering the Stephen Lawrence trial on Twitter – and would appreciate feedback about the uses and limitations of the twitterstream for those who are following it.   You may have found the notes and quotes useful pointers which supplement longer form coverage online / in the press – or you might point out the problems of  ”reducing” complex legal arguments to 140 characters. I’ll reply to your thoughts.  P

Send the BBC your views today on “Technology – the pace of change”

Hi there – I’m very excited to be a first time presenter on the fantastic World Service radio programme “World Have Your Say” at 1800BST today. It’s a programme that belongs to the audience, and I’m asking YOU to give me insights that I can read on air.

Here’s the idea. Can you imagine living in a world without the iPod? Using a computer without Google? Sorting out your social life without Facebook? Or your news without Twitter?
Or imagine a world where you didn’t have to hear about them all the time?

Well it’s not long ago that none of us had heard these names. Today marks a number of BIRTHDAYS – ten years since the iPod was unveiled, thirteen years since the launch of Google. And it seems every day brings us a new product launch – Amazon’s Kindlefire? – or a social media makeover – like the new look Facebook.

SO I’m using the moment to ask how this whirl of invention has changed YOUR life. What does it make you think about the way we communicate, the way we share, how our behaviour has changed

Are you excited about living in a world where it seems every day brings us a new product launch or a social media makeover?
Is it a lifestyle you aspire to?
Or is the world of Apple and Google and Amazon unreal and irrelevant – or one that makes you excluded and frustrated?

You can comment here – or tweet to @PhilippaNews or @BBC_WHYS – I’ll try to get as many of your thoughts as we can into our hour on air.

With the families in London on #sept11

The Stars and Stripes flew at half mast from the roof of the American Embassy.  In the green square below, the families took turns to lay a  single white rose in the Memorial Garden. The motto inscribed there reads  ”Grief is the Price we Pay for Love”.  Underneath are the names of the 67 British citizens who died.  It’s a simple, peaceful space, wreathed with wisteria and lilies, roses and rosemary.

How to be Happy

This isn’t original but it’s new to me, and they’re words worth spreading. Here are the late psychiatrist Anthony Clare’s Seven Steps to Happiness. I’m taking them to heart as I transition from the US to London, to a different desk, different home, and different assignments. I’m still following what fascinates me in the media, politics & society. I’m still reading novels & streaming tweets. And one of my passions will definitely be… to continue to blog!

So, here are seven tips from a thoughtful man about a life worth living… as recounted by author Gyles Brandreth at the end of my latest read, his biography of Prince Philip.

“Number one: cultivate a passion. It is important in my model of happiness to have something that you enjoy doing. The challenge for a school is to find every child some kind of passion — something that will see them through the troughs. That’s why I’m in favour of the broadest curriculum you can get.

The Warmth of Other Suns

I thought I knew the outlines of America’s racial history, from the battles of the civil war to the struggles for civil rights. I knew very little.  Isabel Wilkerson’s book helped me imagine the inside story, and absorb some astonishing details. 

It’s a great read about America’s 20th century “great migration”, the outflow of around six million black southerners over six decades.  It’s a vast “macro” book that’s anchored in three “micro” stories about Ida Mae, George and Pershing – ordinary characters who did the extraordinary thing of leaving everything they knew, risking punishment or worse, and heading north.

Kashmir and Korea: stories from the inside

Kashmir and North Korea. We see both in news headlines, both as political flashpoints, both as tough places for outsiders to comprehend. 

They both exist in my imagination today in a way they didn’t a week ago – thanks to two women writers I met at the Oslo Freedom Forum – and their books, “In the Valley of Mist” and “Nothing to Envy”.