North West Tonight gave viewers a sneaky glimpse into the crazy world of news yesterday with a special ‘behind-the-scenes’ social media drive.
Pictures were tweeted throughout the day by the production team in order give viewers an insight into the way news programmes are put together.
A BBC spokeswoman said that it also allowed people in the North West to see all the different elements that go into making the news.
“The aim of #bbcnwtlive is to give viewers and followers a glimpse of how the news programme is put together and to see the different elements involved,” she said.
“It is also a good way to raise awareness of the BBC NWT Facebook page (www.facebook.com/bbcnorthwesttonight) and Twitter feed (@BBCNWT).
“Hopefully it will have an impact on social media and to help gather new followers/fans on the BBC NWT social media accounts.”
“The idea initially came from one of our reporters Elaine Dunkley and has been in the pipeline for a little while.
“One of our technical editors, Phil Smith, came up with the idea of streaming the gallery live online.”
The BBC told MM that the show were hoping to capitalise on the emergence of social media and tap into the unique method of communicating with fans.
“Photos will especially help to tell the story as the day’s action unfolds, from internal news gathering meetings to reporters out and about in the region,” she said.
Interaction on Twitter was high with one user, PatrickAJourn, saying: “I’d recommend anyone follow #bbcnwtlive tomorrow as they give us a behind the scenes look at news production, I can’t wait.”
Michelle Mayman, editor of NWT, said: “Oh my goodness. It’s almost one day to #bbcnwtlive.”
The spokeswoman added that the event was unique and that one of the staff would be taking his first steps into the world of Twitter.
“Presenter Roger Johnson will be tweeting for the first time,” she said
Roger described dabbling in Twitter as ‘daunting’ in one of his first tweets and admitted: “Took me a while to work out which button to press.”
North West Tonight is a nightly regional news programme covering North West England and the Isle of Man.
Images courtesy of BBC North West Tonight via Facebook, with thanks
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