About the author

BBC's internet specialist Paul MyersPaul Myers is the BBC College of Journalism's Internet research specialist. His role involves training BBC journalists and providing research consultancy to BBC productions.

Paul has enjoyed a love/hate relationship with computers for many years. He first used the Internet in 1976 and fell head first into the World Wide Web in 1993.

The relevance of this background was not immediately obvious when, in 1995 Paul joined the BBC cutting up and filing bits of newspaper for a department called "News Information Research". 

Mercifully, he progressed to the role of senior information researcher - notably providing the research for BBC coverage of Princess Diana's funeral. This was happening at a time when the Internet was becoming an increasingly important research tool.

The Web, however was fraught with difficulties. It was hard to find relevant information amidst the millions of pages available. When you did find something that looked vaguely useful, it was often impossible to trace who wrote the material.

With his technical background, Paul found that he was able to bridge the gap between the worlds of computing and journalism and explain the more jargon filled aspects in plain English.

When he joined BBC Training in 1998, he set about developing effective online working practices for professional researchers. The techniques he pioneered form the core of courses he regularly delivers for the broadcast & media industry.

His vast experience has also seen him seconded to work on various BBC programmes; notably Watchdog, Scambusters, BBC Radio Five Live, Radio 4, BBC Scotland News and Panorama.

He regularly acts as a consultant for undercover and investigative research teams in the BBC - where he is renowned as a "web guru" (a epithet  he blushingly denies, but secretly revels in!) 

He has also contributed articles for BBC Online and has presented items for BBC World TV and Watchdog and produced online chat shows with guests as varied as Westlife & Ken Livingstone.

Outside of his BBC work, Paul has spoken at international broadcast conferences,  written articles for industry magazines, worked at Channel 4 with the Research Centre's training programme.

Paul  has also found himself helping the West Midland's police with their enquiries.....they were working on a similar case to a scam he uncovered on Watchdog!

 

With gratitude for their support and guidance, this site is dedicated to Charmaine De Souza and Jonathan Halls. Thanks also, to Annabel Colley who started me on this journey.

 

 

 

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