12 Things to Stop Doing in 2009

Great link with advice for bloggers - and also relevance to journalists. My favorite piece of his advice - "synthesize ideas from outside your audience's circle"

Regret the Error

Here's a link to Regret the Error's "Best of 2008." If you're unfamiliar with the site, it posts corrections of errors run from media organizations from around the world. The site, often funny, is worth checking out to see how media handles corrections when they get something wrong. Once again, found the link on Poynter's Romenesko column.

Hints on establishing blog credibility

I was recently reading an article at work about the immigration raid at the Agriprocessors plant in Iowa and noticed a piece of the story that I hadn’t paid much attention to before.

After the Agriprocessors plant was raided by Federal immigration agents last May, a blog named “Postville Voices” was started by the “citizens” of Postville, Iowa, to defend the hiring practices of the plant. Unfortunately, it was later discovered that the CEO’s son and two of his friends were running the blog.

When I first read this story back in October, I didn’t think much of it. But now in light of our most recent class and our discussions of ethics, I’m thinking about it in a different way.

So I wondered: how is it that we determine what is a credible source in the online blogging world? There are some online-only sites, such as the Huffington Post and Salon, that have established a certain amount of credibility based on building a reputation.

But what about other blogs? How do we know when we stumble across some information on a random blog that it’s legitimate and credible?

For me, the obvious first answer is to check other sources to see what is being said elsewhere about the same topic. But what can we do other than that to evaluate how seriously a blog can be taken?

I found this blog post on “Evaluating Blog Credibility” that seems to offer some good tips. Some of the ones I like best are:

• The name of the author or organization and its contact information is made obvious on the blog


• Pay attention to what other blogs it links to – are they credible?


• Check the comments – are they free from spam? If they are, someone is probably actively maintaining the blog.

I found another blog post that recommends dropping the .blogspot.com suffix from your domain name if you have a Blogspot blog.

The article says that “approximately 75% of Blogspot blogs are spam blogs or 'splogs',” and it has a link to a study to back up its statement. If so many Blogspot blogs are not seen as legitimate, that tarnished image could affect the legitimate blogs on Blogspot.

I don’t have much experience with Blogspot, so I’m not sure if this holds true for other blogging sites. Wordpress, for example, seems to have a legitimate aura about it.

Does anyone else have information on the various blogging sites and which would be the more “professional” place to set up?

Last Day of Comm 535 - Brenda's in Charge!

(above: Brenda caters to cohorts on the last day of class)

Our journey into the world of writing for converged media has come to an end.

What did we learn? Well, for the journalists in the class, including myself, I think it was a wake-up call about where the industry is headed.

I always hate using the terms "industry" and "business" but in these days of lay-offs and contraction, it's never been more obvious that we still have to consider the bottom line in everything we do. Will the next article attract the hits we need? Could this video become viral and surge site traffic?

Back in the old days, journalists really didn't have to worry that much about attracting an audience. Now they do.

The other important part of the class was learning that we shouldn't be so one-dimensional in our approach to covering stories.

The biggest breakthrough I experienced personally was when I live-blogged during a homeless walkathon on the National Mall. As a television reporter, I'm used to gathering elements and putting them together within a few hours for the 6 o'clock news.

The live-blogging showed me the immediacy of the web. I had to write about what was happening and show people too, all at the same time. It's very different from television news, but just as effective. I'm not saying television news is going away anytime soon, but there's obviously a growing audience for the web blog style versus my tradition t.v. news methods.

And what about that presentation by John Bell from Ogilvy P.R.? What a shock to the system. We all need to be conscious of our social marketing optimization and our influence on the blogosphere.

Amy Eisman taught us a lot about where the industry is headed and how to write for it and think about using different media to tell your story. I'm now vooming along the information superhighway. Thanks, Amy.

Oh, and lunch was fantastic. Thanks for that, Brenda.

How people read online

Some of our class reading material reminded me of a Slate article from earlier this year that succinctly explains that writers and journalists should adapt to how people read online. The piece, "Lazy Eyes," even cites our good friend Jakob Nielsen, usability expert and apparent sage. In a nutshell, writers should use:

• Bulleted list
• Occasional use of bold to prevent skimming
• Short sentence fragments
• Explanatory subheads
• No puns
• One idea per paragraph
• Half the word count of "conventional writing"

It basically says we hunt for information on the Web and look elsewhere if we don't quickly find what we need. As such, writers should keep it short and simple but use links for the few who are going to read something in its entirety. Many of these insights go along with what Matt Greenberg was sharing with us in class Saturday. I'll end it there to follow their expert advice.

Who else thinks this kid's too young to be a cynic?

SPJ Notes (the Society of Professional Journalists' daily e-mail update) picked up this tidbit from a disgruntled J-school student today. The student's take on the news industry is sad (and it's a shame the kid probably paid a good chunk of change to become so jaded so quickly).

What struck me the most about the student's blog posting is that he (or she) doesn't think journalism make much of a difference in how people think, nor does he think it can affect change.

I'd argue it's just the opposite.

As this industry continues to evolve, it's going to become even more important for news organizations to put fair and balanced stories out there. The Web, for all its advantages, has one major disadvantage that I see, and that's allowing people to only choose to look at information that supports their beliefs.

Granted, people could still choose not to look at the information news organizations provide. But at least we're still giving them the option. You could also argue that news in whatever form it takes, be it print, broadcast, or online - and the education it provides - is crucial in maintaining a democracy.

And as far as affecting change goes, I think news organizations are still capable of doing that, in print, on TV or the radio, or online. In fact, online, a story exposing the flaws in a government system or the illegal dealings that a lawmaker has been involved in will have a much larger reach. (This is the point where we, as journalists, all point and yell "Watergate!" Because you know that's still one of the best examples out there.)

Despite the layoffs and the uncertainty plaguing the industry right now, I don't believe it's going to die out or become ineffective. In fact, I think it's kind of an exciting time to be trying new things and help shape the direction things are headed. And if this kid chooses another path without even giving journalism a shot (like Amy says, front row seat to history), I think he's missing out.

State of the Industry

The bad news just keep coming.
Now it's a little closer to home.

In the latest round of the journalist shakedown,
NPR has announced this it is laying off 7 percent of its workforce. Earlier this week,
there was news that the New York Times Co. was contemplating selling its assets. And just a week after the Tribune Co., filed for bankruptcy, American Media, Inc., which owns the National Enquirer tabloid, was trying to pay off a $21 million debt.

It hasn't been better for newsmagazines. Newsweek is mulling over whether to drop its guaranteed circulation by 1 million. This summer, its competitor, Time, dropped its guaranteed circulation by 750,000.

Last week was even worse for the media industry.

NBC laid off 500 or 3 percent of its workforce while Viacom which owns CBS, MTV, VH1 and BET laid off 850, 7 percent, of its workers.
During this same time, McClatchy put the award-winning Miami Herald up for sale.

I'm scared. My goal has always been to work for the mainstream press.
But the mainstream press is dwindling. I better stay put.

But where are all these journalists going to go? What are they going to do?
Write books? Go online? Start blogs?

I know. Let's all go join the staffs of the ever-popular growing industry of the "judge" show. Court room shows seem to be immune to the recession and sagging economy. In fact, Judge Judy takes home a cool $38 million a year and has just signed another contract to stay in place until 2012.

$38 million? Hmmn, I could work with that.

User comments changing the news

Are readers of online articles becoming the watchdogs of the watchdogs?

Yesterday several users commented on several articles that failed to mention the party affiliation of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Blagojevich was arrested for several reasons today, including attempting to "sell" President-Elect Barack Obama's Senate seat in Illinois.

The Chicago Sun-Times, certainly a paper that knows reporting 101 and the governor's affiliation, is accused of this omission in their comment section.

CNN is also accused of the blunder, as well as MSNBC.

The Associated Press left out the affiliation, which is likely how most online newspapers came to post the incomplete story. A PDF of the original story was provided by TheWeeklyStandard.com.

Although users may want to make this a story about left-leaning newspapers failing to publish negative news about Democrats, Fox News also failed to mention the detail in their story.

All news sources have since updated their articles. Live updates are a wonderful thing.

Pulitzer Prize Board: Now accepting online-only entries

Found the link to this on Poynter's Romenesko. The Pulitzer Prize Board announced today that online-only publications will be eligible to earn prizes in all 14 journalism categories. Online content from newspaper Web sites have been eligible to earn journalism's most prestigious prize since 2006, but online-only papers weren't allowed to enter and online-only entries were allowed in two categories: breaking news and breaking news photography.

"This is an important step forward, reflecting our continued commitment to American newspapers as well as our willingness to adapt to the remarkable growth of online journalism," said Sig Gissler, administrator of the Prizes. "The new rules enlarge the Pulitzer tent and recognize more fully the role of the Web, while underscoring the enduring value of words and of serious reporting.”

Is today's announcement another nail in the print media's coffin?

Big Brother reads blogs, too (and is sending some online journalists to jail)

With the future of journalism sprinting to the Web, take a look at what’s happening in other countries. A recent report by the Committee to Protect Journalists shows more online journalists have been jailed worldwide than any other medium.

The report says that 45 percent of the 125 journalists currently in jail are bloggers, online editors and reporters – surpassing print journalists (42 percent) for the first time since the study began in 1997.

“Online journalism has changed the media landscape and the way we communicate with each other,” said the group’s Executive Director Joel Simon. “But the power and influence of this new generation of online journalists has captured the attention of repressive governments around the world.”

The biggest repressor appears to be China, with Cuba, Myanmar, Eritrea and Uzbekistan following close behind. Charges range from subversion, divulging state secrets, and acting against national interests.

But wait... the U.S. is on the list, too! And has been for the past five years – the length of the current war in Iraq. The survey says “U.S. military authorities have jailed dozens of journalists in Iraq – some for days, others for months at a time – without charge or due process.” Reuters photographer Ibrahim Jassam was just released on December 1st after an Iraqi court ordered there was not enough evidence to keep him.

“The image of the solitary blogger working at home in pajamas may be appealing,” says Simon. “But when the knock comes on the door they are alone and vulnerable. All of us must stand up for their rights--from Internet companies to journalists and press freedom groups. The future of journalism is online and we are now in a battle with the enemies of press freedom who are using imprisonment to define the limits of public discourse.”

Undeniable proof of the ever-increasing power and influence of blogs and social media. The world of journalism may have found a new home, new terrain that has proven its ability to disseminate information to more people, faster than ever. Unfortunately, it’s brought along with it some unfinished business: the battle over free speech – an age-old fight that, depending on where you live, some are still losing.

More on SEO

I found this article on SEO in Website Magazine

SEO Fresh Perspectives: Brand, Content Optimization, Keyword Research, Site Structure, Links, Analytics

A few points from Cameron's presentation are mentioned, but I think it does a good job at explaining (sometimes, too much) additional SEO details. Warning: the article's quite techy!

Website is pretty neat. I'm still poking around the site, trying to find relevant stories. But its aim is to education Web site managers.

This one's just for fun...

I thought this was a fun (and timely!) article listing Top Gifts for Online Journalists.

I'm definitely going to try out the free version of iTalk, an application that turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a recording device. You can't go wrong with free.

Branding People like Products

Have you optimized your social marketing lately?
Just like the newest car or latest tech fad, you too can be branded in the world of cyberspace. Just ask John Bell. He's worked to improve the perception Sleepnumber beds and even raised awareness about plans in case of a pandemic flu. But he's also an expert in something that you probably never think of: raising your own online influence.

Bell is an executive vice president at Ogilvy Public Relations in Washington, D.C. He's in charge of the firm's "360° Digital Influence team". It's an interactive discipline coming up with new ideas to manage brands.

"Who’s influential right now? Anyone can be an influencer today given the right context," Bell told a class today at American University.

Bloggers with a big following can have a large following and make a lot of money. Just ask Arianna Huffington. But even barely-known names can gain influence and effect decision making. All it takes is the right marketing.

When Bell's firm started that campaign to raise pandemic awareness with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Ogilvy even contacted "detractor bloggers" on the fringe to join in the dialogue. They simply didn't want to be "torpedoed" by those detractors is how Bell puts it.

HOW TO BRAND YOURSELF




You need to get started on building a web audience. You've got to "optimize your social marketing," Bell told us. Get those blogs going. Bell has "3 or 4". He suggests getting out there on Facebook, post your videos on youtube, sign-up for technorati, dopplr, and del.icio.us. Basically just get your name out there.

Also make sure people can find what you're writing about. "Search is everything," Bell insists. Make sure your posts have the right keywords so that people can find them.

You should also encourage dialogue within your posts and visit the blogs of people who've left comments. it's an exchange that Bell says encourages people to return to your blog.

Troubles for Journalists

A good deal of discussion time was spent talking about the challanges a journalist would face trying to market or "brand" themselves outside of their workplace.

For instance, a television reporter (like myself) may not be able to post their views on many subjects, for fear of losing the public's perception of professional objectivity. Also, some news organizations frown on journalists commenting or creating their own blogs outside of its own commercial website. A journalist could even risk losing their job over it.

Bell admits that is new territory the news industry must, at some point, come to terms with.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An example of blogging and branding video below. An Ogilvy campaign that encouraged Olympic athletes to blog:

Penetrating Social Media for Marketing

Last questions from the audience
3:03PM

An audience member asks about measuring "word of mouth" mentions. Bell responds by discussing the "net promoters" score, an concept created by Fred Reichheld. It's based on the simple question, "would you recommend this," and is supposed to measure loyalty.

Journalists and a personal brand
2:56PM

"All you need to do is look at someone like Robert Scoble," says Bell in asking why more journalists don't develop and promote their own brand. Responding to an audience question about news industry layoffs, Bell says that a clear option is building independent identities and content as newspapers and traditional media struggle.

"What is the Huffington Post," Bell asks. "A collection of personal brands aggregated under a larger brand," he answers, as he goes on to say that the future for journalists may require that time of brand development and affinity.

Confluence
2:53PM

"I think marketing and communications are coming together now," Bell says, "they have become so complex they can't work independently anymore."

"Journalism is still different because - you know - the sanctity of it."

He goes on to discuss the Knight Foundation and its program on community journalism. Not only is it philanthropy, he says, but they are looking to build new business models based highly local, aggregated journalism.

Measuring Success
2:46PM

"Engagement, reach, and conversion are the three main buckets," Bell says in talking about measuring efforts on the web. Citing the new tools' abilities to measure mentions on the web, tracking positive and negative language can be a compelling information, according to Belt.

Bell goes on to describe the need to engage users that share an "affinity" for a brand or product (or even a "personal" brand, as he describes it) in order to create a greater "product preference" towards the purchase of an item.

"Social Media Optimization"
2:42PM

Content wants to be found, says Bell, but once the user lands on a page they should have strong opportunities and incentives to link and bookmark. In talking about "linkability," he first delves into social bookmarking and the his view that giving away content can be a strategy toward spreading the reach of your organization.


Photo Credit: Cameron Nordholm

"Building your social graph"
2:36PM

Bell defines "social graph" as an organization's digital footprint. Business blogs, personal blogs, Facebook, Twitter all represent opportunities to "fuel your social graph," says Bell. He has pulled up a slide showing a radiating network of outlets for self promotion, which he descibes as his projection of his "personal brand."

New Views on SEO
2:31PM

"I can't get SEO from gaming the system anymore," says Bell, going on to discuss why he works with clients to bring "third party corroboration." He has now aims squarely at consumer review blogs, such as Consumerist.com, which pose a threat to the brands with which 360 Digital Influence works.

The other side to this coin are non-influential voice, says Bell. And in an example of Select Comfort beds shows how aggregating user feedback provides an opportunity to both reinforce the positives and reach out to detractors.


Influencers
2:23PM

"It's not enough to look at Technorati," says Bell, "what we end up doing is building a segmentation model." In the example of a bank in the current financial climate, he shows an array of "influencers" to major events. Bell says that a goal should be to reach out to these influencers and engage them to bring users closer to the product.

He now rolls a video of Lenovo's "Blogging Olympics" campaign, whereby they provided equipment to and a platform for 100 athletes to blog their Olympic experience.

Rewards of Listening
2:15PM

Radian6, Google Blogs, Technorati are all provide an aggregate perspective of what is being said about your organization or issue, says Bell, and can assist you in monitoring discussions that can affect your goals.

In his work with the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) he worked to tap into a network of previously unknown "Flubies" and "Flublogia," writes and blogs focused on pandemic flu. Involving them in the development of the HHS blog on pandemic flu was crucial to bringing community to new outreach efforts, says Bell.

"It's not all about blogging"
2:10PM

"Anyone can be an influencer" in online media, according to John Bell of Ogilvy Public Relations. Bell runs 360 Digital Influence, a business within Ogilvy, and encourages his clients towards a goal of penetrating conversations throughout the social media landscape.

Speaking today at American University's School of Communication, he began his talk by describing his client work with over 50 sites and platforms on the web. "There's no way to scam word of mouth," Bell said.

Photo Credit: Michael Flynn

Journalism Intrigues

Is this tweaking??? Wait, no...I'm not on drugs. Thanks for clarifying, Micheal Flynn. It's tweeting...yet that's not what I'm doing now.
Blogging? Yeah, that's it.
This jargon will one day get the best of me.
Surrounded by so much experience, it has been a great start for my journey into journalism.

So, while reading the Foust book, Chapter 10, I was curious about your perspective when it comes to online copyright on the internet. It seems that even in the worst cases of illegal linking or infringing material, the only consequence is a mere slap on the wrist! Wait... not even that.
If ever "convicted," you must simply remove the information off your site, or give proper attribution.
That's it
So are there really any legal implications? And who really cares? Well, traditional journalists of course.
Is anyone gonna take the time to sue you anyway?! Sounds exhausting to me.

Twitter Replacing Journalism?

Today TechNewsWorld.com posted an article entitled “The Mumbai Reports: Will Twittering Masses Supplant Pro Journalists?” As a journalist, still trying to navigate the new waters of the ever-increasing convergent media phenomenon, the headline immediately caught my eye.

I have to admit: I jumped on the Twitter-wagon a few months ago. Part of it was out of sheer curiosity after it was first brought to my attention during media coverage of the presidential election, the other part was because of all the hype.

On a personal level, I can see why it’s becoming so popular – giving people a little bit of insight into your life. It’s fun! What am I doing? "...people-watching while waiting for my train at Dupont Metro." Or "...unsuccessfully trying to feed my 1-year-old peas while at the same time trying to find my 5-year-old's shoe (while at the same time tweeting you!)." But, after a few tweets of my own and then reading others’, I found myself asking, “Who the heck cares?”

Now, on a professional level, to me, that’s where it starts to get a bit more complicated.

In the article, writer Renay San Miguel writes:

“We have a new entrant in the technology-changes-news sweepstakes: Twitter and
its use during last week's horrific terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.
Depending on which media analysis you prefer, the free mobile micro-blogging
service is now officially influential, and has either single-handedly made TV
news irrelevant by sending scraps of information halfway around the world while
network news was still putting on its shoes, or it's making regular news
gatekeepers that much more important because whether we like it or not,
traditional media helps narrow the stream on the digital information firehose
we're all trying to drink from in the 21st century.”

Which analysis do you prefer? I’m leaning towards the “making regular news gatekeepers that much more important” one. I was responsible for tweeting DC’s 21st Annual Help the Homeless Walkathon last month for the American Observer. You can see my tweets here. I must say, I really enjoyed it! I understand how beneficial and cool it is to have lightning-speed information available at one’s fingertips during news events, especially when it’s breaking (not that the walk was breaking, but it was fun nonetheless). But what I don’t understand is the notion of some that citizen journalists - through the help of Twitter and other social networking tools like YouTube, Facebook and a camera-phone – might somehow, someday force professional journalists into nonexistence.

San Miguel references a conversation with Dianne Lynch, a journalist who posts regularly to PBS’s “Mediashift” blog, in which Lynch told San Miguel the idea that “we’re all journalists now. That is nonsense. A journalist gets a message and then spends the time and resources to make sure it’s true before he shares it.

“Twitter is a tool,” she says. “Like all technology platforms or tools, it has a purpose and value in a particular time and context.”

The thing is when news breaks in the newsroom, yes, there is an undeniable rush to get the information out to the public as soon as possible (and yes, be the first station, paper, or site to do so). But, I’d like to think that the incessant (sometimes annoying and nagging) pull or inner-voice we as journalists should always feel and hear, reminding us to “check the facts… remember accuracy… credibility… fairness” still exists. Just because we have a faster, bigger and better way of getting the information out there, doesn’t mean we forget everything we’ve learned. And, it also doesn’t mean anybody can do what we do.

Twitter is fun. It’s exciting. It’s a great tool to have in your journalist tool belt. But just like the pen, reporter notebook, laptop computer, and cell phone… the instrument (or in this case, technology) is only as good as the person using it.

Newspapers on the Ropes

With 232 editorial employees at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver worrying about the survival of their newspaper, someone sent me an interesting graphic - don't know how true it is, but it reflects, worldwide, the number of journalism jobs lost this year. Its called "Papercuts" and also features blogposts from journalists and Twitter updates.
It provides an interesting tool for journalists to keep track of layoffs and rumors of layoffs.

Freedom of speech in a Web 2.0 world

Blogging may be an optional job function for many American journalists — something "nice" within the Web 2.0 world but not yet a part of the day-to-day workload of a daily newsroom.

Traditional journalists may also look at blogging with a sense of disdain, seeing it as only a platform for opinion.

But in countries like Iran, blogging is sometimes the only way to present accurate news and air opinions, without the intervention of a heavy handed government on state-run printing presses.

A group of film students at the Vancouver Film School explored the issue of Iranian blogging in a short video essay.

The production is a mix of dramatic animation and music exploring the prevalence of blogging in Iranian society. The country ranks third in the world when it comes to the number of blogs, the video claims.

While this video production focuses on the role of blogging as a reformist movement, blogs are not limited to underground topics of dating, government opposition and entertainment.
President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has even his own blog as have many of the country's clerics.

But even as part of the country's blogosphere, the government and its controlling forces aren't making it easy for bloggers on the other side.

As a group of Iranian bloggers started to board a plane to the U.S. to cover the presidential election in October they were abruptly stopped and their passports were confiscated.

The government had earlier signed off on the trip but decided at the last minute to keep the bloggers from traveling to the U.S.

The government has also blocked access to more than 5 million sites, according to the British newspaper the Telegraph. Among the sites banned are Facebook and YouTube.

Bloggers who make a name for themselves are also being targeted. Hossein Derakhshan was recently arrested and charged with spying for Israel, according to a state news agency.

It's obvious cyberspace can be more difficult to monitor than ink and paper.

But as the industry steps into a new era of web-based journalism, does this new medium remain at the mercy of the state censors and oppressive government policies?

In places like Iran, it appears so.

Wish I'd Thought of This

I'm still not sure how I feel about knowing the end of the story first. 

If you don't mind starting with the happy ending,  I recommend this very engaging
Thanksgiving Day Live Blog I came across on the New York Times Web site.

 I have nothing but respect for a person who can make Thanksgiving Dinner and blog about it at the same time. Did he plan an approach to the assignment before starting or was it all spontaneous? Did he do any prep work, like gathering links that he thought might be useful?

  There is so much more going on than just the words. There are photos with captions, multiple links -- including a related article with a guy who phoned while the writer was cooking. There's even a brief appearance by a guest blogger helping out in the kitchen. The piece has plenty of personality and recipes.

Live blogging is a great format for covering breaking new. What makes this piece so intriguing to me is that it's a feature -- in the food section -- and a fun read. Maybe it's the universal theme -- everybody has had something go wrong with Thanksgiving Dinner -- that makes it interesting.

I did not see this on Thanksgiving Day (I was too busy in the kitchen to log on). I wonder, if I had seen it live, if  this guy's Thanksgiving would have been compelling enough to draw me away from my own drama. I don't think so, but that's just me.

With installments running for nearly 12 hours, it was a clever way for NYTimes.Com  to entice viewers to come back for more on a holiday when traffic may have been lighter than usual.
From a labor standpoint, I wonder whether the writer was paid double-time for working on a holiday.

Twitter's death watch trumps Gannett's

Forget blogging about their layoffs. Twitter has a feed called The Media Is Dying that keeps people informed of the industry's latest casualties. The feed - which is both saddening and oddly fascinating - has more than 1,200 followers and, at this point, 138 updates.

All The News That's Fit To Aggregate

NYTimes.com introduced "Times Extra" this morning, a version of the site that links to related news stories and blog posts below New York Times news stories. Does this trial balloon represent a tentative step toward an aggregated home page for the stately news giant?

Utilizing tools from its 2007 acquisition of BlogRunner, stories and posts from a selected number of outlets are dynamically linked to feature news content and NYTimes.com blog content.

Responding to readers' questions earlier this year, Marc Frons, New York Times Company Chief Technology Officer, spoke about the upcoming Times Extra features.

"Later this year we will be releasing a version of our home page we call Times Extra that will contain links to other news sites and blogs alongside the articles we publish. The page uses a technology called BlogRunner that we purchased a few years ago ... The idea is to give our readers as complete a picture as possible of the coverage around the Web on the stories our editors think are important."

It's not a full leap, however: Users must choose to 'opt-in' to Times Extra and they will be automatically returned to the standard version of the site within 24 hours.

Regardless, it's a big step for a company that - despite expanding its online coverage model at a steady pace - has not until this time fully embraced a portal mentality. Time will tell if this version of the page is a success for its audience.

Blog roundup on Times Extra:

• The New York Times Clutters Up Its Homepage With Links From Elsewhere (In Beta) (TechCrunch)
  
• NYTimes, Now Also in News Aggregator Flavor (Mashable)
• Read All About it (Subtraction)
  

The media 'is' out to get us?

Or is that 'are' out to get us? Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield of On The Media reminded listeners this week that 'media' is the plural of 'medium'.



But has popular usage irrevocably changed its definition? As the title of this post suggests, it's commonplace to find references to a singular, monolithic "media", which Gladstone suggests stems from a perception of corporate concentration and 'group think' mentality.

"Do we [On The Media] say, for example, “The media is out to get us” or “The media are out to get us?” We chose “are.” Grammatically it’s a no-brainer... The singular of “data” is “datum.” The singular of “media” is “medium.”

Guilty as charged. How commonplace is the singular usage though? The popular use of a word often portends the future for that piece of dialect, even if the arbiters of proper definition trail behind.


To find out, I conducted a highly unscientific analysis of both Google Trends and Google search results. The singular won both: Google Trends shows the singular used 4-5 times as often in queries and Google search results show the singular with over 11.2 million results to the plural's meager 4.7 million.

On The Media's guest Jeff Jarvis goes on to suggest that the singular is appropriate not because of consolidated corporate control, but because mediums have coalesced to the point where a distinction is no longer relevant.

"Now, still photographers can now do video on their still cameras. Print reporters are doing video as part of their stories. TV reporters are doing video and text and graphics and everything else. So it all becomes one... We all own it now."

Public opinion and arguments about a convergent future noted, Gladstone and Garfield remain unswayed, wrapping up the piece declaring, "are." They are right - for now - just look it up in the dictionary. But the future of "media" is clearly up for grabs.

Really Sad Post

I really don't know what to say to this story. I guess this is reality and Amy is right on, we are very smart to be in school right now. I don't like the headline either but I'm posting it as a I found it: Watch Gannett Layoffs in Slow Motion.

Journalists, Technology, Jail?

On Nov. 24, Philadelphia anchor Larry Mendte was sentenced to six months house arrest, three years probation, 250 hours of community service and fined $5,000 for hacking into his co-anchor, Alycia Lane's email accounts. The Philadelphia Inquirer detailed the case about the dueling anchors.

Lane had been in the news for more than a year. First she sent photos of herself in a bikini to a married NFL Network anchor (whose wife found the pictures). Shortly after Lane was arrested for punching a female cop in the face. Philadelphia Magazine wrote an in-depth article about Lane's shenanigans. Lane's life became the stuff of tabloid fodder. She was no longer just reporting the news, she became the news.
As a result, she was fired.

But if Lane wasn't already going through enough heartache, she learned her co-worker, the man she reported the news with nightly, had secretly been reading her private emails.

Mendt confessed in August to hacking into Lane's three email accounts and leaking information to the press.

How did Mendt get into Lane's email accounts? What does this say about privacy? Will access to technology change as a result of cases like this?

Journalists have used technology to improve their craft.
In this instance, technology was used in an evil and dishonest way.

Today, both Lane and Mendt are both out of a job.
They became the news. Bad news.

Why is Twitter so hard to use?

Because that's what makes it fun. It's easy to post your first few tweets, set up a background image, and start following a few of your peers. Beyond that, it's actually pretty hard to master (at least for me). I've posted 83 tweets since I signed up August, and I still have a lot to learn.

First of all, not unlike the middle school lunch room, there are social norms--"twittiquette"--to adhere to. Here's an article about 14 ways you might accidentally annoy people. It's easy to remember not to post while drunk, but some of the tips, like "plug modestly" are more subtle. I set up an account for my magazine the other day, with the sole goal of roping in new readers. But no one will follow you if you're a robo-flack, so how do you get around that?

The best thing to do is to make your tweets as interesting and useful as possible, which isn't always easy in a 140 character post. That's where this article: "101 Ways to Rock and Be Rocked by Twitter" comes in. It encourages people to start using all of the cool applications that have popped up, like Group Tweet, which lets you add multiple contributers to one account. It also taught me that I made a mistake by starting an account for my magazine under its name, instead of my own.

Trying to get good at Twitter is time-consuming and sometimes frustrating. But even as a newbie, I've already seen a lot of benefits. It's made me one of the first people to know when a major crime happens in my city, and it keeps me up to date on media trends. Plus, it gets me a chance to communicate with reporters and editors who wouldn't have had time to talk to me otherwise.

Is Media Responsible for Black Friday Death?

The New Times has a perspective piece today from David Carr claiming the media is just as responsible for the trampling death of a temporary Wal-Mart employee on Black Friday as retailers: Media and Retailers Both Built Black Friday.

He argues that all the pre Black Friday pieces like Newsday’s Black Friday blueprint, which lists store openings and touts deals so shoppers can “plot strategy”, are pumping up consumerism and driving the public to the become the deadly shopping-crazed mob.

“It’s convenient to point a crooked finger in the wake of the tragedy at some light coverage of some harmless family fun. Except the coverage is not so much trite as deeply cynical, an attempt to indoctrinate consumers into believing that they are what they buy and that they should be serious enough about it to leave the family at home.

Media and retail outfits are economic peas in a pod. Part of the reason that the Thanksgiving newspaper and local morning television show are stuffed with soft features about shopping frenzies is that they are stuffed in return with ads from retailers. Yes, Black Friday is a big day for retailers — stores did as much as 13 percent of their holiday business this last weekend — but it is also a huge day for newspapers and television.”

I agree with Carr to an extent. The media needs to cover Black Friday, especially in times of economic distress. It is important to note the outcome for diligent business reporting. But providing a blueprint and encouraging shoppers to “sharpen their elbows”? It’s a good perspective piece and made me think. I would love to hear your viewpoints.

Blogging the Mumbai bombings

If you have a minute, check out writer Amit Varma's blog of the Mumbai attacks at Indiauncut.com.


We watched transfixed, and as the apparent scale of the incidents grew, we realised we couldn’t go home. We asked if they had a room vacant; they did, so we settled in, switched on the TV, and watched in horror.

Updating Online News: what's the standard?

Chapter seven of our Foust textbook Online Journalism (pg. 148-154) details the way in which MSNBC covered the Virginia Tech shooting in April 2007. The book describes MSNBC’s method of updating the existing online article with new information, highlighting new portions of the story as it developed with a light shaded background “to allow readers to recognize updated information quickly.”

As I read this, I was thinking about this technique of updating online news and wondering how effective it is with articles that are not as important as this one.

I think this technique of updating makes perfect sense for the Virginia Tech shooting incident because it’s likely that readers are checking back for updates on the situation. But what about news items that people aren’t following closely? I’m not sure anyone would see the update to a story of lesser importance because I think people don’t usually return to a story they’ve already read.

I’m curious as to how an editorial decision is made between updating a current online story or writing a new, separate story with additional information. Does it have to do with the amount of time between updates? For example, if new information needs to be added within a short period of time, the first story is updated, but longer periods of time require a new story? Or does it have more to do with the prominence of the story and how many people are reading it?

The publication I work on doesn’t have news stories with frequent updates (somehow the news in the payroll world just doesn’t work that way), so I would love to know how other news organizations handle updates. Do most update the way the Foust text describes, or are there any that have different policies?

A Light View of Obama Newser

It's hard to find any humor in this financial crisis that's swallowing the country. But here's a Wonkette live blog that took my mind off the scary stuff for a few minutes.
It's funny, it has personality, and manages to convey a sense of "being there." And between all of the snarky comments, the real news is covered: Obama introduced economic team headed by Geithner and Summer; he says things are really, really bad and he want an economic stimulus package passed as soon as possible; and he declined to put a price tag on it.
I was entertained and informed. I had heard much of the news conference and had read the Reuters story before I read the live blog. Now, I'm wondering whether my appreciation of this Wonkette piece is because I'm seeing the event from another perspective.

Why you are smart to be in the IJ program, Part I

New Study: Millennial journalists are quick to embrace social networking tools for journalistic purposes.

No on Facebook

I don't think journalists should "friend" sources on Facebook. If nothing else, it might raise expectations of a relationship where one doesn't really exist. Some of the freelance reporters I work with want to "friend" me and I don't feel comfortable about it. I'm on Facebook to keep in touch with friends. For professional relationships, there is LinkedIn.

I know some journalists use Facebook as a promotional tool. They post links to their columns and stories. But in those instances, I don't think posters expect more than they get.

I keep business relationships off my Facebook page, because there are some times when I just don't like to be reminded of work.

Of interest only: Should Journalists be Facebook friends with people they cover?

Discuss.

http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4628

From the Mall

Beth and I were on assignment this morning at the National Mall covering the 21st Annual Help the Homeless Walkathon. Our story will be posted later here.

I think it's been six years since I've been on the ground to cover a live event and I have to say, I was definitely missing the comforts of a warm newsroom to return to.

I need to stock up on the slim flippy reporter notebooks, because Mead© was not cutting it. And my pen quickly dried up because of the cold. The weather seemed colder the longer we stood outside. Is this really how they did it in the old days?

Live Blogging from the Walkathon

DETHAWED

It's a good time to reflect on the live blogging assignment, since I'm now in class and almost completely dethawed. My mission this morning: to live blog from the annual Help the Homeless Walkathon which started and ended on the National Mall. You can see the blog HERE.

What a crazy and cold experience. What I'll probably remember most is how I almost lost all my digits to frostbite. At one point, I could barely move my fingers to type on the laptop. I had regressed to simply tapping my index finger on each key - one by one. Also, the mousepad on the laptop stopped recognizing my finger because there was no warmth left in it. It added about ten minutes to each blog entry.

When I started the morning the temperature was in the 20's. Around 8 a.m. I parked on Madison Street next to the Mall and got to work. I interviewed a woman sitting on a bench, waiting for the walk to start. She was wrapped up like a baby. I interviewed her about the unbearably cold weather and later posted that video on the live blog.

JUST THE FACTS, MAME

I then interviewed one of the main organizers of the walk. She gave me details about the event including how many people were expected (despite the cold) and how much money they were hoping to raise. I put all the factual stuff in my first post, to get it out of the way. I knew that afterwords, it would all be about the people and mood of the event.

I actually enjoyed posting the video elements. They added a lot. I shot everything on my little Nokia camera phone and used a mini usb to connect to my laptop. I have a Verizon aircard so I was able to make blog entries at americanobserver.edu while at the same time uploading video clips to Youtube and imbedding those clips on my blog.

YOUTUBE TROUBLE

The second, but most important video, took forever to upload. That video was the start of the walk around 9 a.m. It was a great shot of thousands of people on the move. You can see it HERE. I tried to upload it about 10 times before it finally took.

In between shooting video, I posted details on who I'd been talking to and, of course, what they thought of the bitterly cold day. Some complained, some didn't. I liked mixing it up with both perspectives.

Posting video to the americanobserver.net blog was pretty easy. After my editor, Erin, helped me figure out how to get into "full html" mode, I was able to simply copy and paste the embedded player url of the Youtube clip right where I wanted the video to play.

WIMPING OUT

It was way too cold for me to go all around the Tidal Basin and through East Potomac Park. I decided to stop right at the Tidal Basin and cut-off the front of the line back on Independence Avenue. I had already fallen far behind the start of the line with my uploading nightmare.

After walking with a few more poeple, I was getting close to the finish line. Once there, I did another video interview with two friends who just finished the walk. I ended the blog by posting that interview and summing up the event.

TRUE MULTI-MEDIA

I think the video added a lot to the blog. It gives visitors the option of just reading, or getting a first hand perspective of the event. Also, having a clip that only shows people walking was important. It felt like you didn't even have to get out of your warm bed to be at the event. You can just click on the blog video.

Overall, I'd say it's a really effective way to report on an event as it happens.

Walking with the Walkathon

It was cold. And it was a blast. I was assigned the sidebar for the 21st Annual Help the Homeless Walkathon and I arrived at the National Mall just before 8am to meet the group from Charlie's Place, a food kitchen located at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Dupont Circle. I had talked to volunteer Tim Green a couple of days ago, who told me to get to the mall early, "there's going to be a huge crowd."

The crowd was huge, but I found the Charlie's Place group with no problem. I brought a Marantz digital recorder with me, which was a good thing because it was too cold to take notes. I also brought a digital camera. It was challenging trying to decide which media to use during which interview. Should I focus on the cute kids? The many dogs and their owners? The homeless people lining the mall or walking with the crowd? There was an enthusiastic group of college kids jamming to the music near the stage. Should I interview them? They were, after all, from Howard and NOT American University, but they were having a good time.

Also, my cell phone was functioning, but it was so cold! And loud - there was a band playing and speakers blasting at me from various points.

In the end, I kept my focus on the crew from Charlie's Place. There were a lot of good stories there. As a radio person, I'm used to plucking 10-15 second sound-bites from an interview and writing 40 seconds of copy around it. It was interesting to record an interview, take notes and frame a photo at the same time.

For a story as big as the Walkathon, no single photo or interview could capture the enormity of the event.  Several articles are useful in telling some of the many stories to be found in a huge crowd.  The blog and video tape by Michael and Latoya and Meredith's Twitter updates captured the mood of the crowd, the cold and the atmosphere.

Reading the Twitter updates and the blog, I wasn't focused on whether there were grammar or spelling errors - in fact I didn't notice if there were any or not- what was exciting was reading about events as they unfold.  It gave me a feeling of being there - even reading about it after the fact.  I was there at the Walkathon and didn't know the Ballou High School marching band had attended until I read the Twitter coverage.  

I look forward to seeing Angel's photos and Jackie and Beth's Main story to complete what was, for me, a good experience.

Comment here on Comparing Coverage: Liveblogs, Twitter and more

All:
Please take a moment to review the work underway at americanobserver.net. Several in our cohort took part in coverage of the Homeless Walkathon. I am asking them to share experiences and "learnings" here once the main story, sidebars, liveblogs and tweets are all in. But I want anyone and everyone, particularly as readers, to discuss what are the best ways to present feature stories, or breaking news stories like these. A combination of all? Just a liveblog with video? Just a video story? A main story?

Also, we started considering issues. Should we edit blogs to update them for typos? Would you consider that for Twitter?

Please weigh in.

A sign of the times--in more ways than one

Six Apart, a San Francisco-based blogging startup that makes TypePad, is giving free blogs to journalists who've been laid off or think they're about to be. I think this is a pretty good indicator of where this industry is headed, particularly since PC Magazine recently announced its move to become online-only.

According to Read Write Web, Six Apart is calling its endeavor the Journalist Bailout Program and is giving all takers a free Typepad account, enrolling the blog in its advertising program and promoting it on blogs.com, a blog directory. Six Apart says it's already gotten a number of of takers.

This seems like a great idea, both for journalists and Six Apart. While traditional print journalists will be able to explore new platforms and highlight their work, Six Apart--as one commenter put it on Read Write Web--will likely have the largest network of journalists creating content on the Web.

Came across an interesting article over at Poynter about journalists changing media platforms. The piece is timely considering the most recent class speaker, Christina Pino-Marina, and her experience going from reporting for a newspaper to reporting for a Web site to creating video online.

The article “More Journalists Switching Platforms to Work Online” gives several accounts of people who moved from newspapers, TV or radio to producing work for the Web, often for a competitor in a different medium. It was interesting to see newspapers going after TV reporters to help the paper with its online offerings or vice versa.

I also found it interesting that the sources saw their switches as moving from one job in digital journalism to another digital journalism job and not as switching mediums.

Newspapers are apparently adopting multimedia storytelling quicker than other organizations. The article also mentioned that papers seem to have trouble with picking up video skills quickly, which was something Pino-Marina touched on during her appearance in class.

One of the sources made the point that journalists must have a broad range of skills — writing, audio and visual — because of the Web. I got the impression from the article that it’s fairly common for journalists in one medium to easily transition to another, but I wonder if that is the case. Does anyone know? Perhaps it will become more commonplace to make such transitions in the future as the demand grows for journalists to have a wide range of skills.

Timely, on videography at WaPo.com

I know you are reading journerdism.com (!), but in case you missed, here is a timely item on the forms/types of videography at the washingtonpost.com

Enjoy.

Amy

How to make money as a journalist: Be your own boss

For every minute you spend worrying about the future of journalism, don't you spend at least a few seconds feeling excited about all of the new stuff that's out there? Pillars of journalism are faltering all around us, but they are leaving room for visionary startups to find footing.

Poynter Online interviewed Muckety and ePodunk founder Laurie Bennett about entrepreneurship in journalism. Muckety is a website that tracks and charts the connections between powerful people in the news. Useful databases like Muckety have the potential to make money because they are offering tons of information that's not already out there. Start-ups have to be original. If they're not doing something new, they have to do something better than anyone out there. Take it from Bennet:

"Unless you come up with a way to offer additional content that users can't find elsewhere -- whether it's through a database such as (the ones) we compile, or photos, graphics, interactive features, opinion, sources, whatever -- you don't have a chance."

I think we should all be on the lookout for holes in the web's content, or at least places where there is a frustrating lack of quality content. That's where we can thrive. Even if you are happy working for someone else, keeping tabs on money-making ideas will make you invaluable to your boss.

I like the idea of combining some elements of journalism with another type of business. Yes, that raises all kinds of ethical red flags, but I think it's possible in some cases. Another article on Poynter talks about how some newspapers are teaming up with local high schools to teach journalism to students and produce online yearbooks. Print yearbooks are dying out, so there is a hole there. The guy Poynter interviewed, Bill Ostendorf, thought the yearbooks should be ad-driven. I think he could probably convince students and schools to chip in, too.

I wish the IJ program included a class on news enterpreneurship. It would be great to have a forum to talk about new ways for journalism to sustain itself. The class could cover everything from google ads to business licenses.

Lots of journalists get queasy when money comes up in the newsroom. It's true that in order to have credibility, you can't be biased or pro-business. But talking about the business side of journalism could actually help your newsroom's ethical quandaries. As money gets tighter, we're going to get more and more pressure to bend over backwards to hold onto advertisers. Now is a good time to start brainstorming other ways to stay afloat.

Wow! The NYT's interactive piece "Choosing a President" is a fabulous piece of work. It's very engaging and packs a lot of material into a short amount of time. It managed to cover, in just a few minutes, the key moments from the 2008 presidential race, the longest in U.S. history. I love the use of the music in the piece, which I think set the tone and created a sense of movement. Even when still photographs were on the screen, I felt as if I were watching a movie. Also notable, and quite creative, is the way they made links to other material appear as the narrator talked about the subject seen on the screen. How did they do that?

Welcome to "Cameron"

We will use this blog to discuss the digital news future, spotlight great online writing and dissect Web presentations. This Saturday our speaker is Nina Pino-Marina, a videojournalist and adjunct professor. I think to get you in the mood for her presentation, I'd like to make sure you saw this account of the NYT interactive, "Choosing a president."