Bimbo Town

Leipzig was just great! The city is fantastic, the neighbourhood where we stayed was the industrial part of town (and when I say industrial is East Germany Industrial), with infinite derelict buildings, just waiting for people to make parties in them. My favourite thing was to look inside them through the holes in the doors and windows. The interior of some of them is still quite impressive. In some there are some people living, others were converted into huge apartments, in others there is nothing but past. It felt like half of the city had ran away from some plague: things left half done, plants growing in the ceilings of abandoned towers and massive massive plants with great massive smashed glass windows, all these places made of bricks and concrete. Nobody was around. It was a weekend.

Then the party was something else. We were invited -- to go to Leipzig in the first place - to go to the last ever party in Bimbo Town (which in German apparently means Negro Town, and is not related to bread as I thought, or to cute useless blonde girls as Ian thought)

I have been thinking in how I can describe what this place is like, and the best I could compare it to is Blade Runner's toy maker: that guy that seats around making his own little weird dolls and dwarfs and all these other weird, quite old and decadent things, which are incredibly curious and inspiring.

Jim, the author of such a parallel world, is a parallel guy himself. What an amusing, interesting, intelligent person to talk to. What an amazing man... he builds what he calls "friendly machines", which are, in fact, robots: small, funny, big, bumpy, rude, missing parts, they are every where. Then the sofas that "eats you up" and the bed that takes you for a walk, and the "giant pudding made of air chambers that feels your presence and bumps into you. And, the detail is that we have the place all for ourselves. It was like having someone closing Disney just to you when you are a kid (I guess)

I could spend the night writing about it.

The point I wanted to make is that for 2 days I have been to another planet: Spinnereistraße, 7. And it is difficult to get used to Earth again. And specially difficult is to make all last week's thoughts flow back again into my head...

1st week wrap up

So, that's it, the first week is gone. At first I had the impression I didn't gather much, but reading my notes yesterday made me change my mind.

I feel now I understand the basis of how the newsroom works, and I have contacted 13 people, observed 1 of them working, interviewed 3 others, chatted to other 4 and have interviews scheduled for the rest. Which is good, but not enough.

Yesterday I met Simon and he seemed pleased with the work so far. We had a good chat about AT, which I had kind had put in the back of my mind, for now. But now he read my "theoretical considerations" document he seems to be less suspicious about it now and less reluctant that I decided to use it as a framework. He also liked the document, specially the analogy of trip to an unknown city, regarding the question about using or not a framework to guide research.

He asked me to put together a list of "what the story is about", which is a great way of thinking for me, as this is what I do, I put stories together. He also clarified to which extent I need to explain "how I did it". He thinks, for example, that the story of the badge is a good example that shows I was sensitive to the constraints of the field, and to the people around me, which is a good methodological point, but the limit to which I need to tell the story "behind the scenes" in the theses.

There is another framework, which he used in his theses, by Rasmunssen, which in a way talks about the same things that AT does, with another language. He says it is enormous and very complicated to get your head around it, but recommended I read chapter 2 of his (Simon's) theses, where there is a good summary of it all.

I feel rested and today I could stay at home and write all day long. But I am off to Leipzig now and will be back on Monday. Looking forward to knowing a new city, this time, without any maps!

The things that (only) people do when you get close to them

"It is incredible what people let you do when you get close to them". That is what Simon said about the fact that yesterday I had the chance of observing a sub-editor doing her work, and talking aloud and explaining things to me. It was fascinating.

I didn't ask her to talk aloud. She just did. Not all the way through, but she did. And she explained errors when they happened. And they happened, oh lord, they did. :)

I'm feeling less uncomfortable, more capable of approaching people, but also a bit more annoying and less "news" to them. Which is good and bad. It is good because I am not supposed to be news, I am supposed to fade in the background. And bad because I don't have the excuse "hi I am new here" to introduce my conversations, so will have to come up with a different approach.

I will do a wrap up of the 1st week tomorrow, draw a route of the story as I understand it so far, make a list of issues I want to present to Simon, a list of questions I have for him, print the material produced -- specially the interviews -- and put together a plan for next week, including the people I have scheduled to talk to and a bit of a direction to the interviews I want to make to the head of news and the head of online.

One last point: I need to stop saying "right" every time the person I am interviewing stops talking. It is very annoying to hear when I am transcribing the audio. It must be annoying for them as well.

The badge-trigger

Today I had a real revelation: badges can do you a big favor in an overt observation. At The Newspaper there are a lot subeditors or writers who are "casuals", i.e., that come to the newsroom in an irregular basis. And they do rotate a lot, there are a lot of different people coming and going everyday. So, as far as everybody is concerned, I am just another "sub", or another "temp".

So this morning I had an insight: I noticed that nobody wears their badges, which works as a security pass, opening doors and allowing you in and out of the building. My theory was that if I did wear a badge, it would be a sign for people to notice that I am not one of them. I dress up like them, (I'm wearing my glasses and hair tied back, which gives me this "journalist look"), do a lot of what they do: take notes and write in a computer, which allows my existence in the newsroom without causing disturbances.

But there is a little sign hanging around my neck saying "are you interested? talk to me!". And it worked! People looked at me and asked what on Earth I was doing there, which gave lead to explain the project and what I am doing and ask questions about them. It is quite tacky, but I don't mind. I think it is worth it. Also prevents me from losing it.

Strange are the triggers of conversations in the field...

First day in the field

So, if all they say in the books about feeling extremely uncomfortable, quite lost and drained on your first day in the field is true, I think I am on the right path. It is one of the most exhausting things I have ever done. Because it is not like going to a press conference, where the "thing" you want to know is there in front of you, or interviewing someone looking for a lead that is news. It is more subtle than that.

Today I just let myself get acquainted with the place: who is who, who seats where, where is the bathroom, how does it all feels together. I think I did a good job on that.

It is a funny game to be an ethnographer: you want to be as discrete as possible, to "merge with the background", but you also need to be interesting enough for people want to talk to you. And I tested it today: it all depends on your attitude and your body language. I am sure that some people thought I am a complete weirdo, others got interested in what I do, others couldn't care less. But in all cases it really depended on my attitude.

The other thing is that it is quite difficult not to confuse it with "the first day in your new job". I don't work there, and I won't work there. These people are not my colleagues, they are my subjects, I am interested in what they do -- trivial that it sounds when I explain it to anybody outside my own little usability/ethnography world -- and how they do what they do. So that might be kept in mind.

Tomorrow is the second day. And I don't have the "admin+getting to know the place" excuse. I need to bring home some solid results.

Points of general interest

Before going to the field later on this morning, I elaborated this list of points that can be of general interest to me. It is short, which I think is a good thing, since each of these points can originate a paper of its own. I am sure, though, that it will be changed and expanded with time and as I get to know the business better.

• Process: how is a story born and how is the path it follows in the newsroom? What goals people have individually and how to they compare with the goals of the organization?
• Sources of news: original material x newswire material. Who produces them, how do they do that, why do they do that, what are the differences?
• Destination of news: online x paper for deadlines (time), formats, requirements, planning, editorial meetings, interactions with the readers, multimedia, people involved, production involved.
• Organization of the newsroom: how are desks distributed, “themed” x “un-themed desks”, hierarchies, flows of interactions
• Flows of interactions: communications, duplications, disposition, rules, means, “outlouds”…)
• Jobs: as they are described x reality, what each “type of job” does (editor, writer, subeditor, head of desk, etc)
• Routines: what are the routines people have in the newsroom, how were they created (may be impossible to find out), what purposes do they serve, how do they change?
• Added value: how does a story get “The Newspaper" value? How do the people involved in its production make it unique, how do they communicate about it. Novices x experienced journalists.
• Software: how does it support what they need to do? Different softwares for different activities?
• Documents: how are they used and produced. Tangibility, hierarchy, meanings, format (printed, screen, PDFs, available, not available, public, restricted, etc).


I believe that I will have to choose one of these to follow, instead of trying to understand them all. A good hint of that is Macaulay's theses, which is entirely focused on origin of news. My main flaw, so far, is that in the proposal for this project I didn't limit this focus, and offered a quite wide one ("how do journalists gather, process and convey information").

As for today, I need to talk to my gatekeepers and find out where I can start talking to people. An internal change in the company will make my life more difficult today (or not, because people love to criticize internal changes). It might not be a very productive day, but it is important that I leave the newsroom today with a sense of its dynamics, who is who, who seats where. According to Hammersley, I hope not to feel comfortable, because when one feels comfortable in the field it is a sign either that things are not going well or that they are finished.

Let's see what the day reserves

Beginning of fieldwork

Tomorrow is my first day at The Newspaper. I am not very clear about how things are going to go, specially because they are launching a new design today, so the moods might not be very calm in the newsroom tomorrow.

I prepared my theoretical considerations and the one sentence explanation I will give to the gatekeeper when we meet in the morning, so he can help me finding out with whom I need to talk.

I'm not having a good personal day today and I am not as focused as I should be.