EDITOR'S NOTE -- Jonathan Roberts is executive director of TV Producers Online, in London. He submitted this report about the work of David Dunkley Gyimah. He notes that Gyimah's work has also been reviewed at the website Cyberjournalist.net.

2005 Batten award first place winner, David Dunkley Gyimah has completed a pioneering and ambitious program converting newspaper journalists into videojournalists in eight days. 

The pioneering programe launched by one of the Great Britain's oldest  press bodies, The Press Association (PA), has prompted huge interest in regional newspapers claims the head of training for the Press Association, Tony Johnston.

The three-week overall program, which provides newspaper journalists with aggresive videojournallist skills allowing them to shoot, package and post their own stories online is the industry's attempt to tackle the BBC's plans to introduce 'ultra local television', as well as  increase value for readers.

The results of their program can be viewed at www.thisishull.co.uk where journalists post print and video stories and icliverpool.co.uk which was the first outlet to post a high profile race murder end-of-court case.

Paul Hartley, assistant editor of the Hull Daily Mail said he was very pleased at the results so far and the enthusiasm of staff to learn new skills.

David Dunkley Gyimah, one of the first group of videojournalists in the UK more than a decade ago said he was highly in awe of what the journalists were doing after such a short period.  Gyimah is producing a film, 8 Days, documenting the journalists work after eight days covering a re-enactment of a merciless murder investigated by Cleveland, Ohio, police. It will be released on a newly produced site about video journalism and solo jos www.mrdot.co.uk

Gyimah adds: T'he future of the web is broadbandcasting and the lines will be blurred between traditional broadcasters who are losing audiences  on terrestrial networks to the net'.  Podcasts have paved the way to the rich mass capabilities of the net, and its only a matter of time, that video constructs as vloggs will be common place as Net speeds increase.

Gyimah is a director of the UK's giverning body for university media accreditation and a 12 year member of Britain's oldest political and diplomatic think tank, Chatham House - the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Pioneering Brit scoops top US award
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story1518.shtml
'My Gyimah was called a 'media giraffe' by the judges; his work stands out above the rest because he has been prepared to take a risk.'
video report - http://www.viewmagazine.tv/Battenawards2005.html

David, whose background includes the BBC, Channel 4/ITN and ABC (South Africa) was described by Janice Castro of the ONA who invited him to the NY conference as a speaker as an energetic and knowledgeable speaker.
http://journalist.org/2005conference/archives/000374.php

David spoke earlier in 2005 at the Restoring the Trust conference in San Antonio on research work he was conducting that is pushing boundaries in the UK. In the last week he has completed the first pioneering programme of converting newspaper journalists into videojournalists:

http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2005/11/uk_hull_newspaper_provides_online_video.php
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=93350

The results can be viewed on a web site he is building, Www.mrdot.co.uk, whose template is to be adopted by  one of the global  news  networks in the future/.

Next year he is helping apple launch their new institute of technology, the first of its kind  http://www.bsnti.ac.uk/apple/days.htm as well as further devleop work in conflict reportage, working with Nato as their Editor for their simulated war exercise in March.  Some of his ideas from a recent presentation can be viewed here:
http://www.mrdot.co.uk/david@apple.html