the Bee Lucks Be.

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Appendix of interviews (transcripts or emails with time stamps avail. on request. All interviews were given with permission.)

1. Welsh Roots story; My family members: Rosella Loux, Jeff Loux, Oscar Fricke, Julie Fricke, Kerry Daane Loux, Kati Loux, Lois Daane, John Thomas, Kathleen Hughes, Janet Hughes and Hannah Hughes (all in person or via email)

2. "Spice" story; Clayton Quick (outside the Kendal Hostel in Kendal), Camilo Santa Cruz-Cottle (via facebook message), Dennis (in person in Cardiff)

3. Jonny Brick at the BBC Music Festival and in a follow-up email

4. information gathering from: Cashiere at Windemere Lake District N'tl Park Gift Shop about the LD£, Patricia who works at the Euro Championship Headquarters and was on site at the Loch Lomond finals

2017/2018 MSc Computational Journalism Dissertation Documentation

Introduction

the Bee Lucks Be. is an innovative slow news site which publishes stories centred around the UK's 15 National Parks. I chose to approach this dissertation project like an editor in chief, as if my deliverable was a fully publishable publication. First, I proposed a software-focused project which would display a map of the UK and denote the outline of each official UK National Park and provide pop-up links to inform the user further. These boxes would include information on the sustainability plans and budget concerns of the central governing body of each Park. In the end, the project became much bigger than that. Because of my critical eye of my own work, this tool as a stand-alone software for recreational consumers of the park was not enough. My personal mission for this project was to be able to self-publish it after it is marked and have the publication make what I view as a positive impact on the journalism industry, my home government and the world. One of the things I care about almost more than anything else is spreading a message of sustainability and making tangible change in human society towards a more environmentally-focused mindset. After years as a political and environmental organizer, activist and advocate, I have seen that this is not an easy task. Yet, for the bumblebee and the beaver, the frog and the nightingale, daily reminders that humans are part of a greater ecosystem come as naturally as breathing. The Bee Lucks Be. is a new approach to news, a new approach to computational media, and a new approach to using data and biological science to promote environmental stewardship. The project became a pet project of mine, outside of just the need to pass this masters course. I spent countless hours going over my research and interview notes and researching ways to code the map. I hope you like the finished product! It is not perfect, and in no way is it near to what I had originally intended. Yet that vision pervaded throughout my process, because I never lost sight of the fact that my true “boss,” if you will, in this dissertation project has been the birds and the bees.

Critical Review

Not much can be found already as far as existing news blogs or sites specifically covering local news centred around the UK's national parks. https://www.rei.com/h/national-parks is a website created by REI which connects tourists to all kinds of relevant information and articles and resources framed by the US National Park Service. Their mobile app version helped inspire my layout and web design, because they used images to click in to the parks in an effective manner. I feel that the main issue with most coverage of National Parks (not just in the UK, but drawing off my knowlege of the US and other National Parks systems as well) is that news from natural places is not taken seriously. People browse the web for fun about funny things that bears in Yosemite do in interacting with recreational parkgoers, but it seems rare that one would look at an altercation between a bear and a human as a serious piece of news if no one was hurt.

It is my view that all news can be taken seriously or not. I love parody and the self-mocking humour that digital and online media has become so good at. Everyone loves an effective meme.

But I feel that my project, in concept as well as in practice, fills a niche for nature-related news that is not a joke. The idea behind the Bee Lucks Be. came whilst travelling the east coast of the UK when my Mom was visiting, and feeling the joy of seeing the ocean for the first time in a long time, even though it was a completely new body of water to me. Discovering new geographical regions on Earth always makes me feel connected to the whole globe, human society included.

So even though I feel the name of Bee has been overused (perhaps I'm biased as I grew up right next to Sacramento with their "Sacramento Bee"), I chose to use a slight poetic alteration on that journalistic cliche which is also a play on my own name. Writing my own byline in so many places, naming the whole site a bit after me, and writing and visualising the whole thing all felt quite overwhelming and even a little self-indulgent at times. But I am confident coming out of this dissertation phase--and this whole program, really--that I have learned what I came to learn: how to produce and edit an entire publishable work of media on my own. Now I am free to keep publishing the Bee Lucks Be. every month! I plan to, or at least bimonthly if I get another job :).

Of course, though the specific concept for my tool and publication framework doesn't seem to be already available based on my own research for the UK, that doesn't mean that many similar works have not been published. I chose to include a "global bulletin" board on the "Hive" (or Home) Page which I curated with some of my own published articles for VRScout and some world and California news, all of which are relevant to themes of environmental concern, biological systems and other science and sustainability. This was done mostly as a proof of concept--that a "slow news" site doesn't have to ONLY focus on long-form journalism and data visualisations, but rather can combine a twitter-like idea of keeping readers up to date with a magazine-style features section and external links to visualisations. Of course, the design is not perfect and if I had more time I would spend it. But I feel that the framework, at the very least as a proof of concept, is quite innovative. Something I struggled with in both the layout coding and the writing throughout this project was my tendency to be silly and focus too much on wordplay and puns, when I want the tone to take news about flora and fauna and the humans within and surrounding it seriously. I left some quirky elements, because I think my personality shines through every aspect of the publication so I want to stick true to the mentality that led me to come up with the idea in the first place. I left the "invisible link" to the bee lucks be slack channel, for example.

Here is an example of some code and the image caption that I took out (which was a silly throwback photo from 6th grade): "idimage Click on the "crazy hair day" photo from sixth grade at Patwin Elementary--courtesy of my childhood friend, Dan Kimble of the then-green-hair--to reach out directly to our Slack channel if you're interested in volunteering or learning about employment opportunities. Bonus points on your application if you can accurately tell me which one you think is little me. Extra bonus points with hot fudge and a cherry on top if you read this caption carefully enough to figure out that the link is actuallly the purple heart logo right here instead.

P.S. There is also an invisible link to our slack to the right of the publication name. Couldn't resist. ..♥..♥..♥ "

Methods

I chose to cover this topic becasue environmentalism and finding ways forward to sustain the human race on this planet (specifically without having to relocate vast sums of the population to Mars or other planets) is my biggest dream.

I chose to be a journalist instead of an activist because I realized that through my communication skills and my way with words, I can make just as much (if not....more?) of an impact this way as I could with a megaphone and pre-scheduled meetings with politicians.

I decided to actually travel to the parks I was covering to collect data and interviews because I believe in first-hand journalistic methods. Even in an increasingly computational world that relies on technology increasingly for human communication.

The software tool I built within the website framework is necessary in concept becuase we hear all about National Parks and regional parks and protected forests and rivers and streams all over the world. Usually, though, it is from a tourist perspective. I wanted to code and write something that could be useful for any traveller who, like me, views the world a little differently.

If you're like me, you understand directions in terms of mountain peaks bordered by streams. If you have a backpacker's mindset as I do, your goal in a day cannot always be determined by words read or typed or media consumed, but by miles traversed and canyons crossed.

I believe in James Harding's Slow News movement; in fact, I am currently seeking employment with his start-up called Tortoise Media focused on accurate data and infrequent publication. And I was inspired by his decision to quit the BBC and actually put his money and time into his vision. My fingers are still crossed that that will be my first real job in media! But in the meantime I am content to have created the Bee Lucks Be., which is certainly nowhere near perfect. But it is mine, and I have completed it using my journalistic methods. I am proud of how far it came by deadline, even though the original vision in my head was so much grander.

Conclusion

I had no idea what kinds of data-driven stories I might find while exploring the coasts and lakes and peaks of this island. What I certainly didn't expect was to end up writing the piece for this project that has been brewing on the back burner of my mind all year. I felt a great sense of peace at realizing that it was all connected: the family history/Welsh roots story that I'd been pouring so much of my own time into didn't have to be a freelance project after I complete this masters. Not only did life and job circumstances drive me to sign a lease to stay in Cardiff, but I realized quite naturally during my time in Scotland seeking stories for this publication that my half-baked idea of finding the data to back up my grandmother's claims about my great-great-grandmother and -father's story. Now, with my better understanding of statistics and data analysis and visualisation, I was able to understand what was possible which is what allowed me to dream so big on this project. When I decided to incorporate the Welsh Roots story, it was as if a fire was lit in my journalistic heart. No longer did the project feel like an assignment I'd doomed myself to all summer: I was discovering the UK Parks system as I was discovering my own past. Because I had struggled a lot the second semester with self-doubt about computer science and data visualisation techniques, I was experiencing a lot of anxiety and depression. At first, a daunting task like this dissertation project seemed doomed to worsen what I was already going through. But by realizing that the story I really wanted to write was part of a larger story of the UK Parks system I also wanted to tell, I got my academic motivation back along with my usual "bubbly" self (using a word others have used to describe me!)

Thus, my project is done for now. I still plan to self-publish once it is turned in and I'm excited to incorporate feedback and write more for the first official release to the public. I've already crowdsourced messaging and interest about the framework via the facebook page I created to promote this site. I look forward to hearing your comments!

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