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Journalists’ Resources

News about online journalism

News about digital media

News about skills/concepts

Organizations for online journalists

 

 

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JournalismNext Chapter 11: Building a Digital Audience for News

Digital publishers need to establish effective publishing goals and be consistent in their pursuit of those goals.

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.

Measuring Journalism

Developing a culture and processes to track and measure your work product is essential to competing in this data-driven world.

Track. Measure. Adapt. It’s the way the Web works.

Track all that you publish

Journalists and newsrooms should track content:

  • Total news stories per day by topic or section
  • Blog post by specific blog
  • Slide shows
  • Video stories
  • Pod casts/audio stories per week
  • News updates, breaking news e-mail alerts, SMS/mobile alerts
  • E-mail newsletters, Twitter/Facebook/social network posts
  • User-generated content

Use a web-based spreadsheet to track the information.

Create benchmarks for the contents that become the goals of the newsroom.

These goals should evolve to include other measurements like

  • Audience numbers
  • Revenue/audience satisfaction
  • User registration
  • E-mail newsletter subscriptions
  • RSS feed subscriptions

The reality of today’s competitive landscape demands that business needs and journalistic tactics work in concert.

Don’t set goals arbitrarily, make judgments based on historical data.

Think broadly when setting goals, but use the traffic data and audience patterns to manage and measure the pursuit of them.

Track your audience

After you know what you’re publishing, you’ll want to know what your audience is consuming.

Web services like Hitbox and Google Analytics make it easy to track your website’s performance with a web-based dashboard panel.

Decide which measurements are most important and will give you the best gauge of how your site is performing.

By analyzing traffic data and establishing benchmarks, you can more closely manage projects and improve them over time.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Understand search engines’ three main functions:

  • Spiders and robots: crawl the internet and track/record information on web pages.
  • Indexing: large databases with references to all content connected to the right links.
  • Queries: a keyword is used to make a query of the database

SEO for Journalists

www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/weekinreview/09lohr.html

www.wordtracker.com/academy/keyword-basics-part-1-how-search-engines-work

Use SEO to grow your audience

  • At its core, the practice of SEO is simply a matter of putting the words on your web pages that you think a prospective reader would type into a search engine while looking for an article on that subject.
  • Content is King
  • Linking is Queen (link to as many sites as makes sense)
  • Video is the largest audience growth segment, so its important to include video SEO in your strategy.
  • A web headline should be simple, literal and direct.

Use social media as distribution channels

  • The top 3 priorities of web publishing are distribution, distribution, distribution.
  • Social media channels that news websites should be watching and participating in: blogs, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, reddit, Fark, StumbleUpon
  • Journalists can earn social capital by engaging in multiple channels.

As the public’s perception of journalists and the news media continues to languish, those who can find new ways to build bridges back to the community they cover stand the best chance of increasing their audience.

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JournalismNext Chapter 10: Managing News as a Conversation

Now that news is a conversation, one of the greatest challenges facing journalists is how to manage, and leverage, that conversation.

It is often said that “information wants to be free,” but it is truer in the digital age that information wants to be analyzed, shared, synthesized, curated, aggregated, commented on and distributed.

Making Conversation

What began as comments on news stories and blog posts has mushroomed into full social networking tools on news sites and full participation by journalists in dominant social networks like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

“Being social with users is easier than ever before, and the more social a journalist is with people, the more sources a journalist can mine.” Patrick Thornton, editor of BeatBlogging.org

If you want more audience, you have to go where the audience is and participate how the audience participates.

The Bakersfield Californian launched the first citizen journalism project (Northwest Voice) in 2004 and a local social network (Bakotopia) in 2005. By 2009, the online community included 30,000 user profiles, 29,000 friend connections and 1,000 blogs written by readers. The news company developed a local niche strategy with 11 online brands, and 6 have a corresponding publication.

Build and Mange a Community Online

Make news participatory

Bradley Horowitz, senior Director at Yahoo, conceptualized the 1-10-100 rule for participatory online communities.

  • 1% of the community actually creates content.
  • 10% synthesizes content by commenting, e-mailing the link, blogging and linking back, or voting on it.
  • 100% will benefit from the actions of the first 2 groups.

Examples

  • Message Boards: FredTalk.com
  • Most commented, e-mailed, viewed: various sites
  • Display blog links to an article: Washingtonpost.com
  • Social bookmarking and sharing tools on stories: various sites
  • Social networks on sites: Times People (The New York Times), usatoday.com

Journalists must get involved

  • User-generated content and community is not free. It doesn’t cost money, but it takes a commitment of time, energy and resources that in some cases could be comparable.
  • For Example, Bakersfield editors must now also solicit content and community participation, moderate comments, blogs, user submissions, running contests to drive participation and traffic, informing community establishments about advertising opportunities.
  • Breaking news, especially, bring excellent opportunities to tap the power of the crowd and build social capital for the news organization, the journalist or both.
  • Acknowledge a tip from your audience if you get one.
  • Set up a message board forum so your audience can ask and answer questions with each other.
  • Develop sources through social networks
  • Journalists can use social networks to develop deeper sources around specific reporting beats (find them on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn, find them on niche social networks like CafeMom or Gather, build a niche social network with Ning or Google Groups).

Collaborate with your community

  • Rather than competing with citizens who can supply first-hand accounts and footage of news events, journalists are learning how to collaborate with them.
  • Niche social networks for journalists to collaborate include WiredJournalists.com, ReportingOn.com, CodingJournalists.ning.com

Keep Conversation Accurate and Ethical

  • Set Guidelines for participants
  • Be aware of your company’s social media policy and ethics policy
  • Translate those policies into guidelines to be agreed upon by participants
  • In general, journalists should use social media the same way they use offline social interactions.
  • Monitor offensive postings
  • If a news story turns too controversial, some editors will turn off the ability for readers to comment.
  • Treat comment areas like a garden: a little care and nurturing every day will go a long way toward making a healthy community. And remove any weeds as soon as they appear.

Know your legal responsibilities

  • Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is the basis for how news organizations and other Internet publishers should handle comments, message boards and other controversial content submitted by users.

Correct Errors

  • Many news organizations add a note at the top or bottom of an article that has been corrected.
  • Corrections/mistakes must be made/acknowledged immediately.

Social media, used correctly, connects journalists and reporters to people and information.

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JournalismNext Chapter 9: Data-Driven Journalism and Digitizing Your Life

Clay Shirky said, “There is no such thing as information overload, only filter failure.”

This onslaught of information requires one to approach utilizing it both on a personal and professional basis.

Personal: learn to take advantage of digital tools and services to manage your day without drowning in e-mails, status updates, blogs and other information.

Professional: seize opportunities that new technology offers.

Your Digital Life

Organize your e-mail: use filters and folders to bring order to chaos.

-Limit the time your e-mail program is on screen so you can focus on other tasks for a few hours.

-Spend no more than 2 minutes on every e-mail. If you can reply in less than 2 minutes then do it. If you can’t, file it.

Find the right personal productivity tools

-Develop a strategy: list what needs to be managed, consider if you are willing to pay, consider if it must be integrated for a job or mobile device and if an offline solution is necessary.

-Tools: Google (contacts, e-mail, documents, calendar, sharing) Office Live (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) Zoho (full site of productivity and collaboration tools mostly free)

-Specialized tools: Instapaper (saves web pages) Remember the Milk (to-do and task lists) Backpack (info organizing and document sharing, notes, task lists, calendar)

Bring order to your contacts: Learn to use the contacts function in your e-mail program or use a spreadsheet or database.

  • The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington began using a database of e-mail addresses for what it called a “reader network” in 2001. Other newspapers have utilized this innovation as a resource for journalists and have even invited readers to join.

Bring order to your work: Try a project management program to assign tasks, share files, establish deadlines and include notes.

  • Basecamp (requires a subscription)
  • Zoho (basic services for free)

Data-Driven Journalism

Many newspapers have launched event calendar databases where event info can be accessed and contributed. www.usatoday.com/sports/salaries/index.htm

“With database journalism, perilous or hopeful trends and conditions can become worthy of storytelling and comment.” Adam Levin

Newspapers have begun using API (application program interface) to allow anyone to tap into their data and build tools and web pages.

Building Spreadsheets and Databases

  •  Include as many fields as possible
  • Use Excel or Google Docs

-A spreadsheet may be the first step to creating a database.

-To build a database try Microsoft Access or Filemaker

  • Online database builders include Socrata, Zoho, or Grubba

See example of data-driven journalism and find links to instructional resource at

http://data.nicar.org

Map Mashups

Take physical location data  and organize it based on a category or information type.

http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com

LA Times’ Homicide Map

www.latimes.com/news/local/crime/homicidemap

The Salt Lake Tribune built a collaborative map after a magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred in the region so that users could share their experiences.

www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=138368

Build an interactive map with data

If you are comfortable with HTML and want full control over your mashup.

www.google.com/apis/map

If you don’t want to mess with code try MapBuilder.net, ZeeMaps, MapAlist.com, Umapper, My Maps with Google.

Think beyond single-use maps

More news organizations are discovering the power of building entire data ecosystems from geographically based journalism, data and user-submitted content. ( see The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Cinci Navigator)

Location-aware devices are changing the game

Organizing information geographically opens up new possibilities to deliver news, information and even advertising tailored to a neighborhood, town or region.

Check out

http://lojoconnect.com/2008/06/26/locative-journalism-recommendations-for-journalists-news-organizations-and-media-companies

http://lojoconnect.com/2008/06/25/locative-storytelling-findings-from-our-project

Everyone needs to leverage existing resources to get the most out of their data. Storing data electronically is a good place to start. Then convert, organize, update and enhance the data.

After you experience the power and ease of working with structured data, you will want to open yourself up to the possibilities of data-driven journalism.

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JournalismNext Chapter 8 Telling Stories with Video

Some TV news companies have broken up traditional news teams to create VJs – Video Journalists. Also known as backpack journalists, they work solo and serve as both reporter and videographer on assignment.

The best way to build a solid video story is to think about it the same way you would think about writing.

There are essentially two types of video assignments, a full documentary style video story or breaking news and highlight clips. For a breaking news event, capture reactions and environmental footage. For a full documentary style video use storyboarding to determine interviews and footage to shoot.

Storyboarding is a visual sketch of the story, separated into different parts so it can be organized. Choose interviews and demonstration sequences (A-roll), plus environmental footage (B-roll), to support and help explain that main idea.

The best way to capture different views is to think of them as separate shots and reposition yourself each time. Shoot 25% wide-angle, 25% close-up and 50% medium or mid-range shots for the general footage.

The BBC uses the five-shot sequence to illustrate the main idea of a story.

1. Close-up on the hands
2. Close-up on the face
3. Wide shot
4. Over-the-shoulder shot
5. Creative shot

When video interviewing pick a location that is comfortable and complements the topic of the story. Also, try to avoid a lot of environmental noise and find a well lit spot. Have several pre-written questions and allow the subject to view them in advance.

Buying a video caner should be based on four factors.
1. media type (buy a camera that uses mini-dv tapes or a memory card.
2. high definition or standard
3. software
4. accessories (extra batteries/memory, microphone, tripod, headphones, lighting)

To shoot good video be selective, avoid panning and zooming, hold each shot for at least 15 seconds, be quiet, follow the
“rule of thirds”, get goos audio, and mix in still images.

Editing Software
-Final Cut Express HD (Mac)
-Adobe Premiere Elements (Windows)
-Sony Vegas Movie Studio (Windows)

Practice visual storytelling by
1. arrange video clips in a coherent and interesting order.
2. run audio of an interview/voice-over “under” the video
3. keep it short and to the point
4. define your story in the first 20 seconds
5. have a beginning, middle and end
6. use short slips, the more the better.
7. focus on one central idea
8. the better your characters, the better a story will be.

Use YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv or Metacafe for free video sharing.

http://www.nppa.org
http://www.interactivenarratives.org
http://www.mediastorm.org
http://www.b-roll.net

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JournalismNext Chapter 7 Making Audio Journalism Visible

Audio journalism can make or break a story as much as any other publication medium.

Jim Stoval, Professor of Journalism at the University of Tennessee, wrote on his blog “Reporters and journalism students must stop thinking about sound as an exclusively radio format and adopt it as a reporting tool that can be learned and used to effectively deliver information to the readers or listeners.”

Today with high quality portable digital recorder, free editing software, free sound clips and music released under creative commons, all the phases of audio publishing can be handled by the reporter alone.

By combining voice-overs, natural or environmental sound and sound effects (for transitions), you build a multidimensional story much like a compelling written narrative or a great documentary video.

NPR sets the standard. The key to NPR’s success stems, at least partly, from the connection to the audience its reporters and show hosts are able to make.

Check out the book “Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production” by: Johnathan Kern

Audio offers numerous opportunities even to journalists just getting started:

1) Reporter overview: newspapers routinely post quick, simple audio overviews by reporters that accompany their articles.

2) Podcasts: regular episodes on a selected subject help build an audience but can be time-consuming.

3)Audio Slideshows: add audio to images to tell a richer, more compelling story.

4) Breaking News: free services like utterli.com allow a reporter to file a quick audio report from anywhere by mobile phone to be published on a website.

Most forms of audio journalism have a few basic ingredients: interviews/voiceovers, natural or environmental sound, and imported sound clips/music.

When recording interviews follow a checklist.

1) Choose a quiet location with good acoustics, if possible.

2) Gather natural sound that will help describe the setting. (record in 15 second intervals.)

3) Prepare your subject by giving them a quick summary of the interview and its purpose.

4) Watch what you say. Nod to indicate listening and understanding. Research the subject to establish rapport and converse intelligently.

5) Try delayed recording. Ask the subject to speak about the most important points for a second time after the interview for the audio clip.

6) Mark the best spots by writing down the counter number from the recorder of a good quote.

When doing voice-overs write a script with short, simple declarative sentences, warm up by stretching face  muscles and humming, find operative words, and keep it conversational.

Some of the gear needed for audio journalism include a digital recorder, external mic, and headphones.

When purchasing a digital recorder key points to consider include recording quality, digital file format, compatibility with your computer, ease of use and ease of transferring files.

Check these companies’ digital recorders

Olympus www.olympusamerica.com

Samson www.samsontech.com

Rolandus www.rolandus.com

You may also be able to record with a mobile phone or mp3 player.

Test everything before using it on assignment.

When editing digital audio understand digital formats.  (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/streaming-video-and-audio.htm)

Basic editing tasks can be done with free programs like Audacity. Some techniques to experiment with are fading, cross-fading, music, segue and transitions.

Use iTunes or another service such as podcastalley.com to start podcasting.

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JournalismNext Chapter 6: Visual Storytelling with Photographs

These are the highlights of chapter six of Mark Briggs’ JournalismNext: A Practical Guide to Digital Reporting and Publishing.

Even if you don’t aspire to become an artist with a camera you should understand how digital photography works.

The key to understanding how to work with digital photographs is all in the pixels. Compress high resolution images for publication on a website.

Be aware of lighting when taking pictures. Take a picture when there is natural lighting or use flash as the primary light. As a last resort, use a mixture of flash and natural light.

When shooting mug shots avoid flash at all costs. Avoid high-noon sunlight and strong back light. Try to photograph when the skies are overcast or a situation similar to overcast skies. Also, pick a neutral background, stay away from walls, and beware of poles and lamps.

Don’t be in a rush; the best photos take time to capture. Do anything you have to to steady yourself when taking pictures. Pick one thing to focus on and fill the frame of the photo with the subject. Move around to ensure a beneficial angle. Shoot action photos whenever possible and avoid posing people.

When editing photos be sure to do so with a copy of the original. Steps of editing: crop, resize to accommodate publication, lower resolution if being published online, correct tone and color, and compress the  image.

Photo editing software

On a computer: iPhoto, Windows Photo Gallery

Online (full-featured): Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket

Online (editing-only):  Photoshop Express Live, Picnik, Snipshot

Value-Priced Software: Photoshop Elements, Paintshop Pro

Professional: Photoshop CS5

The advantages of Photoshop software are the abilities to create graphics, modify screen shots for design, and create cutouts and collages.

The New York Times utilized publication of photos online after the Inauguration in 2009. Slideshows of the event were created and published the day after. www.niemanlab.org/2009/01/nyt-sees-bigger-pageview-numbers-post-inauguration-credit-slideshows

Publish photos to your blog to make it visually appealing and create slide shows when publishing a number of photos with the same subject.

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JournalismNext Chapter 5: Going Mobile

Moblile reporting has caused a revolution in journalism by creating a whole new field. From a scene where news is happening, mobile reporters do it all- write and up date constantly, and take and transmit videos and photos directly to their audience. Mobile reporters can report in any medium, from anywhere, anytime.

Necessary equipment for a mobile reporter: laptop computer (a netbook is suggested for its portability), internet connection, camera (point & shoot with video mode), audio recorder (digital that records to a memory card), and a cell phone, of course!

Mobile Microblogging: Twitter

Live Blogging: Regular blogging service or add on like CoveritLive (when using a standard blog post new entries for updates of the story)

Mobile video: Qik, Kyte,  and Flixwagon can be used with a cell phone.

The Washington Post has created an interactive map from contributions of users and reporters. TimeSpace is an interactive map that allows you to navigate articles, photos, video and commentary from around the globe.  http://specials.washingtonpost.com/timespace/world

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JournalismNext Chapter 4 Microblogging: Write Small, Think Big

Microblogging is the product of three previous forms of short, text-based communication: Internet Relay Chat, Short Messaging Service, and Instant Messaging.

It has allowed users on the scene of breaking news to spread the word immediately.Twitter users regularly spread news about events before a news organization releases a story.

In 2007, Twitter emerged as a meaningful form of communication for people in San Diego. Horrific wildfires were reported by two citizen journalists on Twitter and Flickr. They provided real-time updates about evacuations, meeting points, and places to gather supplies or bring animals.

Author of Online Journalism Blog, Paul Bradshaw, said, “One great things about Twitter-and this is why it is so useful for student journalists- is that after a while it trains you to look for interesting things around you( and think how you can communicate that in 140 characters).” http://bit.ly/g1MCvf

For journalists, the biggest benefit of microblogging is learning about your audience. http://to.pbs.org/359Nrh

There is social capital to be earned by actively participating in microblogging. Response and reaction is the whole point of microblogging. You should give information, ask questions, and expect your followers to do the same.

On a personal microblogging account follow the 80-20 rule. Use 80% of your posts to add something of value to the community (a link to a news article, a tip on a website, or something your followers would find interesting). The other 20% of the posts can be self-promoting.

News companies will expect interns and new hires to possess a proficiency in social media, which may help in acquiring a job. http://rww.to/E3k

Twitter Basics:

DM stands for direct message. RT stands for retweet. @ is to reply to a tweet and precedes a twitter ID. # is a hashtag and used to label an tweet that should be tied together.

Utilizing microblogging means to build a network. To do so first you should find people to follow. Search for terms you’re interested in. Add people to your feed in whose posts you are interested and add people that are followed by the people you follow.

Things you should be tweeting: what you are reading (interesting links), what you are thinking (a part of your internal conversation), what you are doing ( an event you will be attending, a meeting, or a deadline), what you are liking on Twitter (retweet something), and a question or an answer to someone else’s question.

You should find 20 people to follow each week to build a network.

Go mobile! Reporters are using mobile phones to post Twitter updates from breaking news events, press conferences, high school sports events, etc.

Check out these links to see how news organizations utilized microblogging during breaking news events.

http://bit.ly/fxATKk

http://bit.ly/e6OqzH

http://bit.ly/1hazXa

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JournalismNext Chapter 3: Crowd-Powered Collaboration

In journalism, crowdsourcing relates to reporting a specific project or answering a specific question. Jeff Howe coined the term in 2006 in an article for Wired. News organizations have utilized crowdsourcing to report on voting, natural disasters, etc.

Crowdsourcing harnesses the sustained power of community to improve a service or information base. Howe wrote about the power of this innovation in the Winter 2008 Nieman Reports. Read it for yourself at www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=100695

Even large companies have used crowdsourcing in some of the most interesting projects.

Amazon pays people to complete tasks that people do better than computers on their Mechanical Turk project. While people have to complete a high volume of tasks to make real money the simplicity of them has attracted thousands. Check out www.mturk.com to see the project for yourself.

Another form of crowd-powered collaboration is known as open-source reporting. Open-source reporting is when a news organization will go public with story ideas early which invites readers to help report the story.

New York University Professor Jay Rosen and partners launched NewAssignment.net in 2006. This was a site for a number of open-source reporting projects mostly produced by volunteers. The first project, Assignment Zero, produced 80 stories, essays, and interviews on crowdsourcing. Twelve of the best stories were run by Wired in 2007.

Beatblogging has spawned from open-source reporting. A journalist can utilize this innovation by building a social network around a traditional reporting beat either with a blog or a free technology platform and use it to lead, coax, and weave a discussion with their readers. To see the best examples of how reporters are using beatblogging check www.BeatBlogging.org

Some news organizations have begun using Link Journalism. This is when stories provide web links to other sources of news and information that could be of interest to the reader. Originally, the idea of providing a link to another news source was the last thing news companies wanted to do. It has since been embraced. Jeff Jarvis, director of interactive journalism at the City University of New York, advised news organizations to “do what you do best and link to the rest.”

One of the most popular examples of Link Journalism is the Drudge Report. Other examples of Link Journalism are http://ideas.blogs.nytimes.com or http://voices.washingtonpost.com/political-browser

The last form of crowd-powered collaboration highlighted by Briggs is Pro-Am Journalism. This form of journalism lets the readers provide the story idea and the reporters provide the detail. Pro-Am Journalism is based on the idea that readers are going to be reporting everything from breaking news to neighborhood events somewhere online. So, it might as well be done on news organization sites.

The best known example of this is CNN iReport. It invites anyone to contribute photos and video some of which is aired on CNN programs. Another example of this is NowPublic, a participatory news site based in Vancouver with 100,000 contributors all over the world.

Newspapers have begun to include citizen journalism in niche publications that target people in certain neighborhoods. The Bakersfield Californian newspaper launched Northwest Voice in 2004, it was later renamed The Bakersfield Voice and delivered in print as well as online. Other newspapers followed the example. The Dallas Morning News introduced their community newspaper, Neighbors, in 2005. In 2007, it was renamed Neighborsgo and was accompanied by a website. The Dallas Morning News now prints 18 different community newspapers each targeting a specific geographic area.

These crowdsourcing formats have become an important part of a news organizations plan to utilize technology. More than ever before people want to be involved in their news and these advances help them to have a voice. For journalists they may make the job a little easier. Many who are using crowdsourcing techniques enjoy the interaction with their readers. Overall, the techniques are a significant part of the revolutionary form of journalism that has emerged.