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."