Online Journalism

The Soldier Transition Project aims to highlight and tell the stories of returning soldiers who are trying to readjust back into life as a civilian.

As the techy in the group, I will be in charge of the web site development/layout along with helping other group members out with incorporating their sections into one area. I will be utilizing audio, video, social media and text onto the web page. The web page will be hosted on its own server and not with any platform such as WordPress or Storify.

Building a Digital Audience for News

The fundamentals for this are the following:

-Track your content

-Use Web analytics

-Get Search engine optimization

-Use effective headlining for the web

-Distribute through the social media

You should always track what you publish and set benchmarks. It’s so easy to see your stats nowadays it makes sense that you can utilize this and try to increase those numbers. You could even make some cash!

You should also use SEO to grow your audience and USE THESE FEATURES:

MAKE YOUR CONTENT AMAZING! (content is king)

LINKING IS YOUR BEST FRIEND! (just do it in another page)

make sure ^ that makes sense!

Use videos!

Do this all well and you could make cash (and work from home!!!!)

sharenator.com

• “Quality content published in some significant quantity, and engineered to be easily found in search engines, is a recipe for a successful digital publishing business.”
• Capture new online readership with useful and engaging tags
• Good writing still prevails
• Analyze what your readers like and don’t like, then do more of what they like

• Fundamentals of building online audience:

             1. Tracking your content  

             2. Web analytics  

             3. Search engine optimization  

             4. Effective headline writing for the Web  

             5. Distribution through social media  

Measuring journalism:  

• Newsrooms now track and measure everything they do
• Essential to competing
• Producing work product on regular schedule vital to business
• No business, no paychecks

Track all that you publish:  

• Productivity is one of the key measurements for managers
• Tracking content published is a smart business strategy
• Easiest way to track is with a Web-based spreadsheet; updating the information can be distributed; spreadsheet will do math for you

How to set benchmarks:  

• Create benchmarks that become goals to aim for
• After tracking content, goals should evolve to include other measurements like audience numbers, revenue and audience satisfaction metrics
• At Google, they call this process OKR, “objectives and key results”
• Most important metrics are revenue and unique users
• Establishing benchmarks and goals done on a case-by-case basis
• Goals should include more than numbers of pageviews — Are there new advertisers? Is the audience happy?

Track your audience — to know what your audience is consuming:  

• Use Web analytics software to track Web site traffic

             1. Commercial systems charge monthly fees but allow real-time traffic  

                 reporting  

             2. Free programs provide detailed traffic reporting but update only once

                 every 24 hours  

             3. Built-in tools offered by the content management software or hosting  

                 service you’re using  

             4. Google Analytics: free Web-based tracking service almost as powerful as

                 any commercial traffic service  

             5. Clicky offers a low-cost service that will give you real-time tracking  

             6. Check out Site Meter and StatCounter  

• Identify key data points – measurements that give you the best gauge of how

             site is performing

             1. Pageviews: the total of Web pages viewed in a given time period; how  

                content is ranked in terms of popularity; if site is supported with

                advertising,  this is also directly related to the inventory the site has

                to offer prospective advertisers  

             2. Visits and unique visitors compared: visits is the number of times  

                 everyone accesses a Web site; pageviews divided by visits equals  

                 average number of pages viewed per visit  

             3. Engagement and referrers: engagement is the amount of time spent on  

                 the site by each user; tracking referrers tells you where your traffic is  

                 coming from  

             4. Context and perspective are important when you use Web metrics to  

                  make journalistic decisions  

Search engine optimization (SEO):  

• Understand search engines

              1. Spiders and robots: small computer programs sent out by search  

                  engines to crawl the Internet and track and record information found  

                  on Web pages; programmed to look for new pages or new information  

                  and send back reports for indexing  

              2. Indexing: larger programs that take information sent from spiders and  

                  robots and build large database files with references to all the content  

                  connected to the right links; catalogue of the Web  

              3. Queries: when you type a keyword search into the home page of a search  

                  engine you are making a query of that search engine’s database; the  

                  index is searched for the most relevant results for your keywords      

• SEO for journalists:

             1. Search engines rank results, usually displaying 10 results per page 

             2. Google gives more importance to a Web site that other sites are linking to  

                  – phenomenon called “Google juice”  

             3. Majority of Web searchers don’t go past first page of results, so having  

                 your Web site among first 10 helps grow your audience  

             4. If journalists understand the basics of writing search engine-friendly  

                 headlines, they can drive more audience to news and information  

Use SEO to grow your audience by putting words on your Web pages you think a prospective reader would type into a search engine while looking for an article on that subject  

• Grow audience with content and links:

              1. Content is king  

              2. Linking is queen – make anything important a link off the home page  

                  because search engines give greater values to those links  

              3. Make sure your links make sense — use descriptive links  

              4. Title tags – search engines give a lot of credence to them               

              5. HTML meta tags provide information about Web page that doesn’t

                  actually display for the user; good idea to put a few relevant

                  keywords here  

Grow audience with video SEO:  

              1. Video is the largest audience growth segment  

              2. Newspapers’ effectiveness at making video content available in

                  search engines “nowhere near their potential;” also perform poorly

                  in social media sites  

              3. Lack of on-site search engine to distinguish, filter and display video  

                  content leads to a “video ghetto” that can make video difficult to find   

                  on many news sites  

• Write effective Web headlines:

              1. Basic SEO is the conduit between an audience and content  

              2. The secret to the power of the headline and why it determines the  

                  effectiveness of the entire piece — on average, eight out of 10 people  

                  will read a headline, but only two out of 10 will read the rest  

              3. Thought and strategy must be put into headline writing  

              4. Write for readers and robots:  

                    * For readers: Web headlines should be simple, literal and direct; must  

                       motivate readers to click the mouse  

                    * For robots: if headline contains search keywords repeated elsewhere  

                       on the page, the story will aquire more Google juice and return higher  

                       on search pages  

              5. Make good headlines better:  

                    * Keywords – write for readers with Google in mind  

                    * Use conversational langauge – be direct, focus on the unique  

                    * Don’t be afraid to inject a little attitude – be fair, not boring  

Use social media as distribution channels:  

• Target specific channels: commenting and linking are effective ways to get others to view, link and comment on your journalism and become part of your community

             1. Blogs: read and contribute to blogs that write about same things you do  

             2. Flickr, YouTube, etc.: follow channles and streams of people who post  

                 content related to what you cover and link to them on your site  

             3. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.: make sure people can get your news  

                  through these popular platforms  

             4. Digg, reddit, Fark, StumbleUpon, etc.: social news and bookmarking

                 sites can provide significant short-term boost in traffic;  converting them  

                 into loyal audience is challenge  

• Increase social capital:

             1. Journalists earn social capital – becoming the trusted center for a  

                 community — by engaging in multiple channels  

             2. Participating in social media forces you into having a two-way   

                 conversation  

             3. Social media puts a face on a news organization

             4. Reminds readers journalists are part of the community  

             5. Those who can build bridges back to the community they cover have best  

                 chance of increasing their audience  

Track, measure, distribute, adapt:  

• Helps you discover new stories and provides more context for your journalism

Course: RSCH 110-005, in Fenwick Library, Room A214.

Described as follows: “Zotero is a Firefox browser based utility that makes capturing bibliographic content from around the Web a snap! Learn how to install and manipulate your own Zotero library.”

Right now, Zotero only works through Firefox. It helps you “collect, organize, cite and share your research sources,” according to their official Web site. It recognizes sources immediately off of database Web sites — users can instantly select the sources and add them in their Zotero folder, straight from the database.

Exporting your library of sources is quite simple, too. Users even have the option to include their notes for each source along with their files. APA and MLA citations (among others) are accounted for when exporting, too, and they can even be assigned separately to different sources.

Personally, one of my favorite features right off the bat was the ability to create a timeline of your sources. It made it so simple to spot exactly when the source was written. Additionally, if you’re working off of multiple computers while researching, you can make an account on the Zotero Sync Server to bring back up all of your previously saved research. It truly saves a lot of time — just make sure you sign out!

Also, in Zotero, adding something manually has been given a new twist. From Instant Messages to films, from bills to maps, just about anything can be cited. When users have no idea how to cite something but really want to add it in their piece somehow, Zotero will figure it out.

Managing News as a Conversation

First of all, I find this book really hard to keep open when trying to reference to it. Other than that though, lets talk about this chapter.

This chapter goes into about how journalist do three things;

1. Participate in the conversation without sacrificing their objectivity or credibility

2. Using legal and ethical issues now that everyone can publish anything they want on a professional news site.

3. Wanting the audience to participate, but they refuse to.

It’s important to always try to initiate your audience and the conversation.

The book says to converse through comments. Now I doubt most popular bloggers could actually go through and respond to each and every comment. But if done appropriately it could really make your audience feel a connection with you.

Using social network can really help start conversations and keep your readers involved too. Most online journalist keep a twitter or something like that nature to CONSTANTLY keep their readers updated on stuff. For example, John Watson (prollyisnotprobably.com) at the national hand made bicycle show kept twitter updates constantly while he was there, so his readers could come back and read/reply whenever.

The benefits to news as a conversation are many according to the book, by providing transparency on the reporting process, enabling an immediate feedback loop, and by spreading awareness of news coverage through word-of-mouth marketing you can make your online writing easier to sell.

Sen. George Allen

In a C-Span video conference with George Mason University students, former Virginia Governor and former U.S. Senator George Allen discussed what it means to relate the U.S. government to sports. This time, though, he’s stepping up his own game — to be reelected in 2012.

Allen outlined to the class the reasons he believed he lost his 2006 reelection for the Senate to his opponent, Democrat Jim Webb. He stressed that the “digital divide” was a main reason, stating that, without taking advantage of the Internet, he didn’t stand a chance against Webb.

Allen continued into what he learned in the years later. He said that, with knowledge, the United States can compete against other countries — knowledge of the high demand for electricity and ways to conserve it. Creating jobs within the United States will ensure that money will stay in the United States.

“Oil and gas, we have it in this country,” he said.

A strong defense, Allen states in his book “What Washington Can Learn From the World of Sports,” wins championships. In his talk to the class, he compared the United States today to a game that was currently being played. ”Common sense” ways to conserve energy were one of his strongpoints in a strong defense for our nation. Specifically, teleworking and utilizing our limited resources were his primary suggestions.

Further, Allen states that in the Middle East, if one wants “a free and just society,” freedom of religion, freedom of expression, private ownership of property and the rule of law must be implemented into society.

“If the French can [recycle nuclear waste], so can Americans,” said Allen, concerning France’s recent technical advancements to reduce and reuse nuclear fuels. He believes that, by using the following steps that the French took, it will help create jobs for Americans as well.

For someone who was, years ago, inspired by Ronald Reagan to get into organized politics, Allen appears to have done his homework. He clearly cares about the Commonwealth of Virginia. As a Representative, a Governor and a Senator, the man is going to stick around for a bit more.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Former Senator George Allen (R-Va.), who announced that he will be running for his old seat in the 2012 Senate race, met with C-SPAN’s Steve Scully to discuss federal and state spending.

Allen, who strongly believes that more decisions should be made by the people, said that the federal government should not be starting new programs while there is so much debt. In fact, he blames the federal government’s laws and regulations for our country’s “ballooning national debt.”

“The federal government needs to get it’s own house in order and begin to operate the way families and businesses do,” Allen said. “If there is no money coming in, then they need to stop spending.”

One way to increase revenue in the United States is by utilizing the abundant, plentiful coal resources within our own country. Approximately 41 percent of our trade deficit is due to the importation of oil, according to Allen. He suggests that the federal government to allow states to explore off the coast so that we can keep the money and jobs at home.

“If the French can do it, so can Americans,” Allen said.

Students are now facing a different world from Reagan’s days, according to Allen.

“Our competition now is all of Europe,” Allen said. “They’re all over the world.

The method in competing with the rest of the world is through knowledge, according to Allen. Once we beat out the competition, we can “celebrate after victory!,” exclaimed Allen.

To view the conference, please visit:
http://legacy.c-span.org/distance_learning/feb_17_11.asp

Visual Storytelling with Photographs

“The ability to publish to a global audience for free, with just a few clicks, opened up te world to a cacophy of new voices.” -Biggs

So who is considered a photogropher now?:

• You
• Me
• Anyone with a camera
• Anyone with a cell phone camera

There are two primary kinds of cameras, says Briggs. The two are: A point-and-shoot, where it is easier to use and more affordable. Lens and flash are built in. A DSLR camera will capture better photographs because its image sensor is commonly 10 times larger, usually costs two to three times more.

Editing: Like capturing compelling photos, this is a skill that takes thought and consideration to master. If you can, enlist someone else in your photo editing. A cold eye on your photos, with your description of the story, may yield surprising feedback. Or it may simply reinforce what you thought before!

When preparing for online publishing:

• Edit, never use original
• Crop
• Resize
• Modify resolution
• Tone and color correct
• Save a web version
• Keep it simple!

“American journalism needs a spine transplant,” stressed Dan Rather, famous American journalist, in a CSPAN video conference on February 24, 2011. Students from George Mason University, Pace University, and University of Denver all participated in the conference, provided by C-SPAN’s distance learning program.

Joining Rather was Tucker Carlson, a political news correspondent and editor-in chief of The Daily Caller. He explained, “the best journalism is tough and doesn’t suck up to power.”

Both journalists seemed to agree that the transition period we are in as journalists has led to the downfall in our credibility. “The old order is gone and the new one is not in place yet,” said Rather.

Online journalism offers writers all the tools they need to get their stories out to their readers, but without a business model they are having trouble doing so. Even more detrimental to their work, according to Rather, is the fact that “conglomerates control 80 percent of major news distribution.”

Rather and Carlson believe that the new world of online journalism will have tremendous payoffs. The only issue, however, is staying true to the iron core of journalism: investigative journalism.

According to Rather, we need to “get the truth and lay it out there, no chaser.” We must continue to be “honest brokers of information” to help our readers make sense of this age of information overload.

To watch Dan Rather and Tucker Carlson’s videoconference at length, click here.