This week at the College of Journalism: going undercover, plus bishops and pickpockets

With the Syrian regime under mounting pressure, the BBC correspondent Paul Wood explained how he worked undercover to reveal some of the atrocities that took place in Homs. He sneaked over the Syrian border using smugglers’ routes and only reported incidents after he had been able to film several eyewitnesses giving the fullest details.

Wood calls it “a very old-fashioned form of journalism” - in that the BBC let him “disappear for a couple of weeks” and return with his story, without, of course, any of the usual requirements to appear on multiple news outlets during his time in the country.

Modestly, he acknowledges the role of those back at base who he consulted on matters of safety and editorial judgment before and after the trip: “What’s spat out on the 10 O’Clock News is not just me: it’s the work of many hands.”

But you can’t watch this interview without feeling that Wood is just the kind of person you’d want at your side if things started to turn nasty in a conflict zone.

If you haven’t had a chance to catch up with the website this week, have a look at another behind-the-scenes account of a BBC journalist at work: Chris Rogers’ TV report on pickpocket gangs in Barcelona was unusual in that he invited them to show how they commit a crime and then used them to help him film other pickpockets in action.

It was not only a complicated piece of work in getting access to his subjects and producing the report, but, as you might imagine, a minefield of BBC editorial policy considerations. Rogers was helped by the fact that both the Spanish and British police supported the project. You can read here his account of how he negotiated the issues.

Robert Pigott gave an insight into editorial considerations of a more esoteric kind, describing the difficulties of presenting a clear but not simplistic account of the women bishops debate in the Church of England. He says the real question is not whether there should be women bishops, but how. But the media bias towards binary debates (for or against) tends towards equal exposure to both sides whatever the actual balance of support they have. He compares it to the debate on climate change.

Looking ahead, expect a kind of Olympicisation of all news in the coming weeks. It started out as sport, but now it’s going to be transport, security, business, and no doubt international politics too. There are at least 10 news events down in the diary for tomorrow alone, starting with a breakfast photo-op with the International Olympic Committee at a London hotel.

But there are other things going on. Lord Leveson is expected to hold his last hearing next week before retiring to see what he can make of it all – or perhaps taking a long holiday before getting onto the difficult bit.

On Wednesday the latest figures on the UK economy will be out, and on Thursday Mitt Romney will be fundraising in London and may give a speech about foreign policy. But I doubt if even these will necessarily be Olympic-free zones.

Follow us on Twitter for the College’s latest news and events.