It combines brain scan technology and other scientific techniques with traditional economics, and some enthusiasts claim that it has the potential to transform social policy …

… we hope that this will be just the first of many videos produced by ID students to help teach others about techniques, methods, and other aspects of design through the powerful and entertaining medium of video.

I won’t try and summarise the film here other than to say that it does an excellent job of demystifying ethnography and showing the benefits of getting in to the field.

Radio 4’s Political Animal recently featured a fantastic rant from Chris Addison on the banality of television news.

There is a tremendous lack of political engagement that we now feel in our county. And conventional wisdom has it that this is to be laid at the door of politicians. We’re not attracted to politicians; we find them cavilling and tedious and lying and so we don’t like politics. But I think that view hugely lets off the hook a whole bunch of other people who are massively responsible, and that is the people who make and broadcast television news. Because television news has become so insulting to the intelligence that if you are not shouting at the television news I believe you should medically be declared dead! I genuinely think an official way of telling if you are alive or not should be turning the news on….

They just think we’re idiots… Tonight with Trevor Mcdonald … it’s got incedental music on it! You’re a current affairs programme! Incedental music is designed to tell us how to feel. So there’ll be a voiceover saying ‘… And at the age of twelve James contracted lukemia …’ And underneath there’ll be Albenoni going ‘nah nah nuh nere’. You think, ‘Oh that’s lucky because for a minute there I was wondering which way to go on little Jim’s lukemia; turns out it’s a bad thing.’

The news editors, on one hand they think we’re idiots and on the other hand they seem to be desperate to know what we think about things. Stop asking us to e-mail the news. I don’t give a shit what George from Grimsby thinks about the emerging Asian economies.

Spot on! The BBC’s coverage of the recently announced crime figures had me bellowing at the box. With absolutely no hint of self knowledge or even any further analysis George Alagiah asked why, when recorded crime has fallen by 10 percent this year, is there such a mismatch between the public’s perception (that it is rising) and the statistical reports? Hmmm. I wonder? If people’s direct experience of crime is that it’s falling where on earth could they be getting the idea that it’s on the increase? The only place where the BBC even alludes to this is in the third paragraph of an article on their website:

While we in the national media may have been highlighting brutal knife slayings, the reality for most parts of England and Wales is completely different.

That’s the real story; sloppy, sensationalist journalism, but for some reason the mainstream media aren’t shouting about it.

PV creates a story told by users in their own way about issues that matter to them. In the traditional version, participants film and share short videos. The researcher acts as a facilitator providing training to use the video equipment; a series of games to introduce specialist concepts like storyboarding; and help to identify issues for study. When done well, it presents the ‘inside view’ in a lively way that is accessible to people at all levels. It promotes the skills of filmmaking and storytelling and delivers outcomes that can be used as tools for education. This isn’t like a diary study, capturing things exactly as they happen when they happen. It’s about people telling a story, distilling the essence of an issue that matters to them. Remember a group project you did at school or college, then add video and you’re getting there.

A streamlined version could see some of the facilitation done online or through pre-prepared packs, with people recording clips on mobiles then exchanging and responding to them using services like Google Video or Viddler. Imagine workers at a car production plant making a film about their day, or a group of diabetics sharing the story of their condition.

If this sounds interesting, why not check out Insight UK’s fantastic ‘Insights into Participatory Video: A Handbook for the Field‘ (you can download a free PDF version of the book from their website; you just need to register a few details). It’s an excellent guide to using Participatory Video and a great example of an accessible and practitioner-focussed resource. Even if you don’t think there’s much mileage in PV I’d still suggest having a look at the handbook. It really is excellent. (I’m not in any way associated with Insight UK, I just think they’re doing good work.) And anyway, it looks like Participatory Video is already happening on sites like YouTube. The question is whether we as designers want to embrace it.

Abramovich’s wife goes undercover as she learns how to run a hotel chain
Irina recently paid a number of visits to the chic Mayfair establishment Brown’s…, not as a guest – but as an undercover trainee. The elegant Russian has embarked on secret ‘work experience’ at the five-star hotel.

You don’t have to be a trained user researcher or a billionairess to live in your user’s shoes (although either helps), you just have to be willing to get out there and meet with them; to be open to what they’ve got to teach you.

So what are you waiting for?

… what do I have to do to make sure this film is shown in Birmingham?

You’ll end up a lonely figure, unsure of what you believe in, forced to peddle your practice from an old garage whilst the global media watches on (AKA leader of the Conservative Party).

Whilst in town at lunchtime I spotted this advert for the perfume Insolence. Insolence?! What’s next? Contempt, by Chanel?

I’d love to have been a fly on the wall when they pitched this; to have witnessed the focus group’s reaction to it. And I can’t begin to imagine the mood boards!