The RSPB Announces a Winter Bird is on their Critical List.

According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, murmers of these incredible birds are dangerously low. Which is a shame, because they're a pretty incredible sight. Not to be mistaken for Vampire bats! Watch the video to find out more.

Preston Football Fans are choosing to stay warm rather than suffer watching their team's failing form.

High attendances at Deepdale have slipped as Preston North End's fantastic form hits the metaphorical bannana skin.

Looking at how the attendances at PNE FC's home ground have fallen with the amount of wins they have achieved, it appears the fans would now rather stay indoors during the cold period- and presumably so would the players.

The squad at Preston North End played fantastically at the beginning of the season. Five wins on the bounce saw them shoot right up the table. But then the problems started.

On the 26th of October manager Phil Brown admitted the side have defensive problems. This knocked the wind out of the Deepdale sails, as PNE found themselves sinking from second in the table down towards the middle spot. It wasn't just league points that went missing though- large chunks of the crowd vanished too.

The chart above shows the attendances at Deepdale from the beginning of the season up to their most recent home game. It also shows the result of the games. The attendance clearly picked up when the wins started rolling in.

The post-success hangover is felt during the match on the 12th of November. The only other time attendances fell below the ten-thousand mark was at the beginning of the winning streak.

However it wouldn't be fair to call the Prestonians fairweather fans. Attendances have shown signs of picking up once again.

Supporters should take heart in the fact that the lowest attendance this season, of only 5401 loyal fans, marked the beginning of the wins.

Perhaps the fear of falling support is what drives Preston's players forward, and perhaps this bannana skin is the kick up the backside the team needs to carry on with their winning ways.

Preston's League Campaign So Far- and the weekend results.

Listen to a weekend roundup of some Lancashire clubs from the Premiership, Championship, and League One divisions. From the weekend of the 19/20th of November 2011.

Lancashire football roundup by cityzengeorge


Listen to a short comment on Preston North End's opening third of the footy season. Can they cure their winter blues?

Preston review by cityzengeorge

The Power of Data (plus a little history).

Data is really important to good investigative journalism. I’ve included some history here too because I believe understanding the past helps us understand the present, and is a good foundation for new journalists.

A lot of investigative journalism seems to involve handling data well. It is a great skill to be able to gather and then analyse a big heap of information which is what survey’s and records are; resembling more ‘the Matrix’ at first than the foundations of an important news story.  When the British M.P’s expense scandal was revealed, this was because some trooper had trawled through a very long list of where public money was going. He found that some M.P’s were taking a lot of money to spend on luxuries.

The weight that data and surveys can have is clear when reading history. When I was studying history we’d look at things like surveys of workers from the 1700’s through the industrial revolution. Historians like E.P Thompson and the Hammonds would use data records to argue living conditions decreased massively, as holidays decreased and working hours increased. But then other historians like Nardinelli would use different data, i.e. economic data from new industrial workers, to show the increase in pay and labour.

Records can be used to make different arguments seem true. Nardinelli did not look at data from non-industrial workers, who still struggled, or include actual job satisfaction. One historian used the data on declining holy days of workers in the Industrial Revolution to argue a decrease in religion because of capitalism.

Debates on things like work and pay and job satisfaction still continue today. Following the recent divide of the Church of England over the St Paul’s Occupy London protestors, it seems the capitalism vs. religion debate could re-emerge again.

Following more tips from my online journalism class, I have explored a few more great sites for citizen journalists on the subject of data analysis.

Knowing where to find data is important. Unless you are personally conducting a survey yourself, you will need to use other sources gathered from others who may work in government or the public sector for example and have better means to collect data.

http://data.gov.uk/ harbours a collection of good surveys, which may hide important news stories. These are revealed by the British government.

Datablog is a collection of surveys which are contributed from individuals. These could be from doctors or property managers, or anyone who understands the public’s need for knowledge.

‘Scraping’ is the method of getting data out of web pages and onto your own spreadsheets so you can edit it to create graphs etc. Some websites offer services which do this. Scraperwiki is one of them. Junar is a good site which can collect, organise and share data.

'Abandon Normal Devices' Festival in Preston's Market.

Shezad Dawood, an artist and movie director chose Preston's Harris Museum to host his art exhibition. The reason he chose Preston is because it has the most recorded UFO sightings. His extra-terrestrial inspired exhibition also led to some artists and actors descending onto Preston's covered market to toy with the public's gullibility. Watch the video clip to find out more.

This was filmed with Yvette Spedding.