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Robin Bulloch

Teenage guest blogger


I'm Robin Bulloch and I edit the Victoria Derbyshire programme, which goes out on Radio 5 Live each weekday between 0900 and 1200. 5 Live's got a uniquely close relationship with its audience and our programme is at the heart of that.

Radio Five Live logoWe talk to people in the news, be they nurses, students, teachers, victims of crime, teenagers - whatever. Listeners know they can contact us all the time through calls, texts and e-mails and that their voices will be heard. They can react to whatever we're talking about on the programme and share their opinions and experiences. This not only creates some great radio but also informs our editorial decisions and helps set the agenda for 5 Live every day.

Victoria's blog, which is steadily increasing its readership, has become an important new way of reaching the audience. Victoria's really committed to it and writes something new every day. The aim is to give the audience something more than they'll get by listening to the programme.

Sometimes Victoria gives an insight into what goes on behind the scenes, how we choose subjects and decide which guests to have on. Sometimes she'll share her own experiences, relevant to a topic we're discussing on air. It can be very personal and judging by the comments listeners post on the blog, they appreciate that. It's about direct contact.

This week we've asked a guest blogger to write about his life. Georgie, who's 18, is one of the teenagers we've invited to help produce Friday's programme, fulfilling a promise Victoria made on air during a discussion about anti-social behaviour when some listeners made the point that the media only ever seems to portray young people in a bad light.

We gave Georgie a pretty free rein to write about whatever he wanted, but we did give him guidelines to make sure his blog stayed within ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ editorial guidelines, didn't expose him to any kind of danger and didn't put us at risk of legal action.

Georgie has written candidly on the blog about struggling with anorexia, losing his father, being bullied at school, being gay and trying to find a job. The results have been revealing and have provoked a varied and interesting response from the audience. We aim to repeat the exercise with more featured bloggers in the coming weeks and months.

Robin Bulloch is editor of the Victoria Derbyshire programme

John Boothman

Ringing the changes


It's that time of year already (it always comes round so quickly) - the spring conferences of the Scottish political parties.

MPs, MSPs, councillors, party activists and the media's political correspondents leave their traditional habitats of Westminster, Holyrood and the council chambers to go off to an exotic location for a weekend of intense politicking.

Nicol StephenThe first one is the Scottish Liberal Democrats, so this weekend it's Aviemore and the Macdonald Highland Hotel.

This year ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Scotland is introducing changes to the way we cover these events.

For decades we've broadcast them much the same way. Big live chunks of debate, some edited reports anchored by a presenter on site and broadcast live on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Two Scotland.

We've provided news inserts in our radio and television bulletins with packaged reports and live interviews on radio and TV programmes like Good Morning Scotland, Newsdrive, Reporting Scotland and Newsnight Scotland.

Live leaders' speeches and some debates have found their way onto News 24 and Radio Five Live and in recent times we've introduced stories and analysis on the .

This year we've decided to ring the changes. In an effort to make our coverage more accessible to a wider public audience we're putting , and changing our television offering. Our radio programming remains much the same.

At the beginning of each conference there'll be a live online question and answer session hosted by our political editor Brian Taylor with each Scottish party leader.

So, on Friday at 1100 GMT you can watch Nicol Stephen, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, answering questions supplied by our online audience.

We'll also be streaming up to six hours of each conference on the web, picking up key debates and speeches from the agenda.

The televised offering will bring live coverage of the Scottish party leader’s speech in a special programme, this weekend from 1430 GMT on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Two Scotland.

A highlights programme will also be broadcast at the end of the proceedings, on Sunday night, with the best bits from the three-day event.

It should mean our conference programmes will reach more people - viewers, listeners and users. Have a good look and tell us what you think.

John Boothman is editor of political output, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Scotland

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