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Andy Dickinson

Andy Dickinson

Andy is a Senior lecturer in Journalism at Manchester Metropolitan University where he is the program lead for the MA Multimedia Journalism.

📍 Manchester

Making the leap from X...

Twitter’s (X) continued fall from grace has meant a lot of journalists (and others) are making a more committed step to other platforms like Threads and BlueSky. Making the change is a good time to stop and assess the way we manage our social media platforms. In and amongst

Experimenting with AI-assisted first steps for journalism students

AI and journalism make for a contentious mix at the best of times. However recent experiments from Jschools show how it could work in bringing student journalists on board.

Don't blame the pyramid, blame the pharaohs.

BBC Radio 4 have a new series starting this week aimed at "giving you the tools to decode the news." How to read the news" was a good listen. But it did rub against some things about journalism that I find quite frustrating.

Pulling at Threads

So, Threads the much-trailed Meta Twitter clone is finally here. It brings with it a load of questions. But there's also a once-in-a-lifetime chance for journalism organisations to pause, touch and re-engage with social media. It's officially here! Threads. Meta's Twitter clone has gone

Scraping local election results.

The recent local elections were a good chance for a quick reminder of how scraping can help quickly release the data trapped in the amber of HTML

Innovation in Journalism: The weight of tradition and expectation.

Journalism startups want to change journalism for the better. But success means you’re still doing journalism. And that's baggage you’ve got to carry beyond the initial pitch.

A rat-like cunning and a good pair of shoes

Nick Tomalin famously said all that was required for success in journalism was “ratlike cunning, a plausible manner, and a little literary ability”. But it turns out a good pair of shoes and a sensible coat help too!

Do...journalism

Anyone who has even a passing interest in Journalism will know the 5W's - the five questions you can ask to get the information or the answers you need to tell a story. But is there a more fundamental question worth asking?

The name’s Code. Introducing code.

A basic look at using python to explore text using the lyrics from Bond Themes.

Journalism.cards — Ideation for journalism.

Journalism.cards is an ideation app aimed at encouraging creative thinking in journalists and journalism students