Online Journalism

The GMU home for cross-platform journaism.

Online Journalism

Mark Potts 3/29/11

March 29th, 2011 · Comments Off on Mark Potts 3/29/11 · Comm361, Student Blog Posts

Mark Potts

Interesting creative ways to submit news:

  • Wikipedia is an amazing news site. Is away to get a really quick overview an event or something.
  • Using facebook to tell a story… the Washington Post used facebook as a story telling device for a pregnant sick mommy.
  • The people news- straight from the horses mouth. Ask the audience whats happening there on the ground.
  • Hyper-local trend is exploding, community can participate. (Stuff like Patch.com)
  • Crowd Sourcing ^ information your not going to get from the Washington Post or other newspaper

TBD- a great news site.

“Do what you do best, and the rest up to the link.”

“Journalism requires passion- the bloggers have it.” Klein

You may not always like was is made public.

Using Data in a Different way:

  • API is a away to make your data public so it can be used by others.
  • Build things with data like maps, webs, timelines- what are the people watching? What r people interested in? Listening to? reading? eating? etc….
  • Its about creating a database for people to use

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Guest Speaker- Mark Potts

March 29th, 2011 · Comments Off on Guest Speaker- Mark Potts · Comm361, Student Blog Posts

“Wikipedia is a great news source”

TBD is a lot better than Patch.com

“Do what you do best and link to the rest”

I don’t do this for money, I do it for respect in my community.

Classic stories you see in hyper-local journalism, “What is the vacant BlockBuster store going to turn into?”

“RSS, is the only social media I cannot live without” – Mark Potts

Most important tool for journalists in the last 5 years is the smart phone, no questions asked.

We need to be our own filters.

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Tech Blog #11: Guest Speaker Mark Potts, Owner of RecoveringJournalist.com

March 29th, 2011 · Comments Off on Tech Blog #11: Guest Speaker Mark Potts, Owner of RecoveringJournalist.com · Comm361, Student Blog Posts

“We haven’t fully taken advantage of the medium,” said Mark Potts, commenting on the vast world of the Internet.

Mark Potts, creator of RecoveringJournalist, his blog, came in to speak to our class today! He offered some useful opinions on great ways to tell stories.

Potts began with Patch.com.

“It’s important because it’s close to you,” said Potts, referencing hyperlocal news and why it’s a big deal. “The Washington Post doesn’t cover it.”
Then, Potts pointed out why bloggers blog. The passion for journalism was quite alive and vibrant back in the days of the Vietnam War and the Watergate incident, but nowadays, it’s not nearly as strong.

Professor Klein, though, pointed out that bloggers are the driving force behind the passion these days. They write because they want to write.

Sites with data collection Potts went over:

  • Nate Silver’s blog, FiveThirtyEight, is seriously interesting stuff. Titled off of the number of seats there are in the electoral college, the Web site examines political data and makes predictions. In short, the site is to “give the best possible objective assessment of the likely outcome of upcoming elections.”
  • Very, very cool.

Groupon is definitely a useful tool as well, says Potts.

Twitter, though, isn’t. “It’s good for keeping an eye on what’s going on, but I just don’t find it that interesting. It’s too much stuff, and it’s not that interesting.”

What is the most important tool for journalists, according to Potts?

“THIS,” he said, holding up his smartphone.

And lastly, while speaking about a journalist and their work, Potts believes in  “getting it right the first time.” Sure, a writer can tinker with their work endlessly, but, generally, write stuff “that’s ready to go.”

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Chapter 9: Data-Driven Journalism and Digitizing Your Life

March 29th, 2011 · Comments Off on Chapter 9: Data-Driven Journalism and Digitizing Your Life · Comm361, New York Times, Student Blog Posts

graphic design work by Emmanuel Cloix

Image via Wikipedia

Digital life is based upon a gratuitous amount of information and data; therefore, managing the data is the most critical part of digital life in journalism. Organized data not only helps journalists retrieve their memories from certain events via computer-assisted reporting, but also helps keeping in contact with colleagues and people of interest, and even coming up with new story ideas. Data-driven journalism excels in the following areas: depth, customization, searchability and long shelf life. The areas of management ranges from:

  • Emails
  • Contacts
    • Digitally stored contact lists expedites search
  • To-do lists
  • Calendars
  • Notes
  • Productivity tools
    • Word processing
    • Spreadsheets
    • Presentations
    • Images
    • Databases
    • Project management
    • Web or graphic design
    • Collaboration with colleagues

Besides Google and Office Live, there are a variety of productivity tools that one can start with

  • Instapaper: Saves web pages to be read later
  • Remember the Milk: To-do list manager
  • Oh don’t forget: Reminder tool that uses SMS
  • Evernote: To-do list and note taking utility that can also record audio using cell phone
  • Jott: Audio to-do list
  • Dropbox: Collaborative cloud file storage
  • Backpack: Organizer that is used for document sharing, plus notes, task lists and calendar
  • Basecamp: Team project manager
  • Socrata: Database and spreadsheet-managment
  • MindMeister: Brainstorming helper that uses mip-maps

Often these services use cloud-computing method — in which the user accesses the third-party server outside of his or her own computer to use the service. This method requires internet connection at all times, but it is also convenient that the user does not need to always bring the storage required for the project.

The ability to share data is also a critical advantage in data-driven journalism. Several large news organizations such as the New York Times, the BBC, NPR, and the Guardian utilize application program interface (API) to allow anyone to borrow their data and build tools for their webpages. The API helps circulation of the digital ecosystem, bringing up full potentials of any data provided. Some of examples include interactive maps that geographically explain certain stories.

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Skype session with Kevin Anderson

March 29th, 2011 · Comments Off on Skype session with Kevin Anderson · Comm361, Storify, Student Blog Posts

Courtesy of his Twitter; Kevin Anderson: Digital strategist and freelance journalist with more than a decade experience with the Guardian and the BBC. Helping create the future of journalism. FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER!

On Thursday, March 24, 2011, Anderson skyped in to chat! Being half way accross the world didn’t stop him from making his 3:30 p.m. EST Skype sesh.

Valuable advice given to aspiring job-searching journalists: Go to WordPress.com or Tumblr, set up a blog, start writing and taking pictures. The costs of doing that is almost nothing. Use your moble phone and take pictures of videos. Think of the best ways to tell stories with graphics and data. You need to show you didn’t need that first job to make the initiative.

Anderson said, “With BBC, I did interviews with military bloggers. One of the most powerful radio programs is I got three soldiers together talking about their experiences. With a joint interview, you can usually get more out of them; you can have them talking to eachother. They all conversed and shared their stories. I still get shivers when I think of that radio program.”

Storify has been a hot topic in the Online Journalism classroom the entire semester.  He did raise caution with one aspect of the site. “Its grat to collect material, but make sure you use the text tool to add content to what youre making,” said Anderson.

Professor Steve Klein responded with, “So in otherwise, bridge the material with good old fashioned writing.”

“Absolutely,” said Anderson.

Twitter. On the topic of media giant Twitter, Anderson said talked about maps and locations. In all seriousness, he said that he includes his location in his tweets so he can map them later. Although, don’t do that in Syria because you don’t want to encourage an air strike.

Relating to online journalism and storytelling. Anderson wrapped up the Skype sesh with, “You couldn’t tell the horror without the Japanese tsunami without the videos. And that is a small example of it. You can’t tell the story of the revolution in Egypt without the voices or the people submitting their videos online.”

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Briggs Chapter 10

March 29th, 2011 · Comments Off on Briggs Chapter 10 · Comm361, Facebook, Student Blog Posts

Managing News as a Conversation

“The speed of communications is wonderful to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.” -Edward R. Murrow

It began as comments on news stories and blog posts, this has mushroomed into full social networking tools on news sites.

“News as a conversation has transformed journalism in many ways, but perhaps the most significant way that is has transformed journalism is in how journalists and their communities can cover a beat better,” says Patrick Thornton, editor of BeatBlogging.org.

Tips for Journalists using Social Media:

  • Use sites like Twitter and Facebook becuase familiarity is important.
  • Be mindful that you represent more than just yourself.
  • Presume your tweets, status updates or other content will go further and reach more people than you intend for them to go.
  • Ask your boss to follow your twitter. It’s a good accountability measure.

Making news perticipatory was important for mainstream organizations. They did this by using Message boards, FredTalk.com (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star); Most commented, emailed, viewed links and information; using their own social networks on their sites, TimesPeople (The New York Times), USAToday.com, Vita.mn (Star Tribune, Minneapolis).

Last but not least, keep your conversations accurate and ethical!

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Briggs Chapter 7

March 29th, 2011 · Comments Off on Briggs Chapter 7 · briggs, Comm361, Student Blog Posts

Making Audio Journalism Visible

Audio Journalism? It works when using a few tools like a microphone or recorder to make full-featured segments that sound like radio epidodes. You can distribute them as podcosts to gain an audience!

Importance:

  • Presence
  • Emotions
  • Atmosphere

How to use this audio? 

  • Reporter overview
  • Podcasts
  • Audio slide show
  • Breaking news

National Public Radio has set this standerd. NPR’s success stems from the connection to the audience its reporters and show hosts are able to make. Personal wins the audience.

Getting started with audio is easy, but improvising is not good enough when it comes time to add voice to a multimedia project. Investing time to plan and prepare your voice contribution will make your effort worthwhile.

Getting ready for prime time! You need to:

  • Record interviews
  • Choose location
  • Gather natural sound
  • Prepare your subject
  • Watch what you sau
  • Try delayed recording
  • Do voice-overs

Now edit, edit, edit your piece! And publish!

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Tech Blog #2: New Dictionary Words

March 28th, 2011 · Comments Off on Tech Blog #2: New Dictionary Words · Comm361, online journalism, Student Blog Posts

     There’s a fun new article on Mashable.com titled “OMG, the Oxford English Dictionary Added New Words! We ‘Heart” It! LOL!”  So, OMG, maybe the dictionary’s editor is just a Valley Girl at ‘heart,’ you know?

     OMG and LOL, along with FYI, are all, according to the OED, “initialisms associated with the language of electronic communications.”  It’s interesting to note that the first use of OMG dates back to a 1917 letter and in 1960 LOL meant “little old lady.”  Official recognition for a word seems to be as slow as the beatification process.  Who knew?

     A symbol for the verb “love,” the heart sign “may be the first English usage to develop via the medium of T-shirts and bumper stickers.”  In the future, we should brace ourselves for a flood of new entries based on the new social media.

     There are many other new entries you can check out for yourself by clicking here.  My favorites are “doughnut hole,” a dessert made from the cut out center of a doughnut, and “muffin top,”  defined as “a protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers.”  Too many of the first can definitely lead to the second.

Creative Commons

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Chapter 11: Building a digital audience for news

March 27th, 2011 · Comments Off on Chapter 11: Building a digital audience for news · briggs, Comm361, Student Blog Posts

There is no denying that the Internet has changed the world. So, how do we keep up with it? For most of us, using the Internet doesn’t cost much. So, why pay 50 cents for a newspaper when you have access to all the information in the world for free?

One way journalists are trying to keep up with the new business model is through advertising digitally. Marketing with ads, using viral campaigns and creating memorable slogans are all ways to make enough money to be sufficient.

According to Mark Briggs, there are five ways journalists can build and sustain an audience.

  1. Tracking content
  2. Web analytics
  3. Search engine optimization (SEO)
  4. Effective headline writing for the web
  5. Distribution through social media

Tracking content

The key is to track anything that can be tracked. Here are some sample ideas of what should be tracked regularly:

  • Total news stories per day
  • News stories by topic or section
  • Total blog posts per day
  • Videos per week
  • Podcasts or other audio stories

The best way to track information is by using a web-based spreadsheet that is accessible to many people at once.

Web analytics

Web analytics can be a software or mechanism that is used to track website traffic. Software such as Omniture, Google Analytics and Hitbox are easy tools to track your website performance.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In a nutshell, SEO allows web users to find you as easily as possible. When you type “John” into Google’s search engine, SEO displays a list of websites ranked from most popular and relevant to what “John” could mean or who it could refer to. Whether you are referring to the “John” meaning restroom or whether you are looking for a biography of “John Travolta” that is what SEO does best to determine.

By using HTML meta tags, title tags, links and other user-friendly tricks, you can grow an audience using SEO.

Writing effective headlines

Everyone can write a headline. However, not everyone can write an effective one. According to Brian Clark, writer of Copyblogger, an average, eight out of 10 people will read headline, but only two out of 10 will read the rest of the story.

Here are some tips to write effective headlines:

  • Use conversational language: Be direct and focused.
  • Use keywords: Remember the basics — who, what and where.
  • Use attitude: Being fair and accurate doesn’t mean you have to be boring! ZZZZZ

Using social media as distribution channels

Social media is the new newspaper of this decade. Here are some websites to market your story though this medium.

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Chapter ten: Managing news as a conversation

March 27th, 2011 · Comments Off on Chapter ten: Managing news as a conversation · Comm361, online journalism, social media, Student Blog Posts

One of the greatest challenges journalists face today is learning how to manage a news conversation. According to Mark Briggs, this begs three questions:

  • How do journalists participate in the conversation without sacrificing their objectivity or credibility?
  • What about legal and ethical issues now that everyone can publish anything they want on a professional news site?
  • And what happens when you really want the audience to participate, but they don’t?

News conversations have changed drastically over the past few decades. What once was a lecture is now an interactive conversation. Journalists require feedback and encourage discussion among readers and viewers.

What are some ways that online journalism has allowed for user participation?

  • Comments: That little box on the bottom of every story that allows you to type your thoughts on the story allows journalists to receive feedback.
  • Discussion forums: These discussion forums range from topics such as politics to fashion to sports. They allow the media to keep up with how the conversation is going among the public.
  • Social networking: Websites such as Facebook and Twitter have been critical in listening to conversation among the public. Believe it or not, when you write a status update about Joe Smith, Joe Smith is out reading it.

Sometimes it can be difficult to monitor such conversation when people become outraged and nasty. All communication is not good communication. But remember to take everything with a grain of salt and try to learn from everything, even the negatives.

Happy reading folks.

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