News on the Future of News

Twitter for Journalists: Why and How

2012-01-22T16:05:00.000-08:00

You have to have a Twitter account and you have to send tweets. For some legacy journalists, that is the extent of the direction they receive about this social platform. This two-part series drills deeper, answering first the most important question: Why use Twitter as a journalist? The second part of this series covers the mechanics of how to craft effective tweets, who to follow and why (and who not to follow), when and how to retweet and add comments, and how to use hashtags, @-messages and especially "Lists" to increase the impact of your use of Twitter as a reporting tool.

And that's really the key: Twitter is only a tool, a means to the end of doing great reporting, no different really than a laptop, a word processor or even a notepad. There is no reason to be "on Twitter" for its own sake. But this social platform can absolutely become a valuable tool to add to the reporter's toolkit, if used purposefully.

Twitter for Journalists: Why?

1. Discover Breaking News
Hours before CNN was clued in, Twitter was lit up with reports of the terror attack in Myanmar. Associated Press has gone from first to last as the source for breaking news. In an era where anyone can commit an 'act of journalism', whoever is at the scene (usually NOT a journalist) can now be the first to report. Twitter is now the dominant platform to break, and discover, breaking news stories.

2. Track / Report a Developing Story
During live unfolding events, the 'crowd-sourcing' power of Twitter makes it unparalleled as a tool for tracking a developing story as it happens, in real time. Use SEARCH or the story topic hashtag (#), for example #opdx became the most-used way to 'tag' tweets about Occupy Portland.Twitter can also be a highly effective real-time reporting platform during developing news when other options aren't available (tweeting from a court proceeding, or a press conference or news story where no live signal is available).

3. Take the Pulse on a Story
Using Search or a topical hashtag to follow Tweets on a story topic gives reporters and producers a real-time view of what people are saying about an ongoing news story. #occupyportland went through a dramatic shift in 'Twitter temperature', with great interest and support expressed in the first days when 5,000 diverse residents marched through town; to an overarching frustration over the seeming squatting in city parks by hangers-on who didn't seem to be articulating a consistent message. The Twitter conversation shifted from calling for corporate accountability, to calling on the Mayor to end 'public camping' and address the crime and park damage issues related to #opdx.

4. Discover Story Ideas
Reporters, especially those with beats like environment, crime, health, etc. can discover story ideas before they make it to 'press release' phase by building up a relevant list of news-makers that they follow. Twitter "Lists" are an effective way to sort who a reporter follows by interest or expertise, eliminating the clutter and chatter of the main Twitter stream and instead offering at-a-glance view of what the influencers are saying.
More: How to make "Lists" in Twitter

5. See What's Trending
Twitter offers a localizable "trending topics" metric that displays in real time what the most 'tweeted' topics are. In your profile you set the area you want to track, e.g. "Portland." Trendsmap.com is another great web-based tool to access trending topics, and localize it to the region you choose (local, statewide, national, by topic, etc). Here is the direct URL to track what's trending in Portland: http://trendsmap.com/local/us/portland

These trending tools are valuable to producers and assignment managers, as well as reporters, as a way to identify topics that are bubbling up...and also when interest in a topic has died down.

6. Get Feedback (Leads/Fixes) on Your Story
Using Twitter to enhance reporting is more about LISTENING than talking - often the hardest habit to change for print and television journalists accustomed to telling the news to the audience, and expecting them to only listen. But reporters who also LISTEN by using the "Mentions" feature in Twitter can reap multiple benefits, including what people are saying about the story, corrections to errors in the story, ideas for other sources (personal stories, experts) and follow-up story angles.

7. Engage and Connect with the Audience
For legacy journalists, the most potent long-term opportunity offered by social platforms like Twitter is the chance to connect and engage with their audience. Again, listening and engaging/responding is the key. When people message or @-mention a reporter, respond! Use Twitter to humanize the news, pull back the curtain and share the view from behind the scenes, Tweet a pic from the scene of the story, allow yourself to share some of your personality. The bottom line: News is now a conversation, not a lecture - and Twitter is a great way to engage (listening as well as talking) with your audience.

And a few things NOT to do on Twitter:

NO: Shameless self-promotion

"I have a great story coming up tonight, be sure to tune in later!"
"Working on an exclusive story right now, check me out tonight at 11!"

Twitter is a content platform. The users are pretty sophisticated and don't take kindly to the old TV promotional approach of teasing the cute video throughout the newscast and showing it at 5:29!

Follow the 80-20 rule: 80 percent of the time, your posts should have standalone content, delivering value NOW. Keep those self-promotional messages to no more than 20 percent of your tweets, ESPECIALLY when you first begin to use the platform.

NO: Tweeting scanner chatter / unconfirmed news reports

You certainly should NEVER Tweet "news" unless you have confirmed it in the same way that you would confirm it for other platforms. Fortunately, since we are all human and mistakes happen, if you do make a mistake in Twitter, admitting so (on Twitter) quickly and honestly generally is accepted and even appreciated.

NO: Personal Opinions on News Stories - Be Professional
Do remember you are still a reporter, so personal opinions on stories you might cover can call into question your impartiality; and, if you wouldn't want your mom or your boss or the competition to read it...you probably shouldn't tweet it.

More on Twitter for Journalists

Poynter: 10 Ways Reporters Can Use Twitter

Poynter: What Reporters Should Consider Before "Retweeting" to Avoid "Endorsement"

Pew Center for Research: Mainstream Media using Twitter to push, not engage

Poynter Webinar: Twitter Uses for Broadcast Producers

Internet top source of news for ages 18-29

2011-01-17T18:54:00.000-08:00

The latest Pew survey reports that the internet is now the number one source of news for Americans aged 18-29.

While the internet share as a news source has been steadily growing at the expense of TV and newspapers, this is the first time that the internet has been rated as the first source for news by any key demographic group.

The national survey was conducted in early December 2010 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, polling 1,500 adults reached on cell phones and landlines.

Overall, the survey once again found that internet ranked ahead of newspapers as a source of news.

Television remained the most widely used source for national and international news – 66% of Americans say it is their main source of news – but that is down from 74% three years ago and 82% as recently as 2002.

Meanwhile internet grew to 44% and newspapers slipped to 31%.

Within television, there were also meaningful changes. Both cable and network news stations lost significant audience share (down 8% and 7% respectively). Only local TV newscasts maintained their audience share since the previous survey.

Read the full Pew report

Using Facebook to Spread the News

2010-05-24T14:24:00.000-07:00

As recently as one year ago, it would have been laughable to discuss a "Facebook strategy" for legacy news media companies.

As of early 2010 Facebook became, by membership, equivalent to the fourth-largest country in the world. Mainstream media aren't laughing anymore.

In April, Facebook rolled out a new set of social plug-in tools. These widgets offer media companies the chance to deliver their news "where the audience is".

One example is this embeddable "LIKE" box, which can be placed on a news web site and used to encourage visitors to "like" the media company. Why does a media company care? Once someone on Facebook "likes" your content, you can then post news stories to your company's Facebook page and those stories will be automatically "published" onto the page of every single person who is a "fan" of or likes your news site.

For example, KGW.com in Portland Oregon now has more than 3,500 'fans.' Every news story published onto the site's Facebook page is instantly added into the feed of those 3,500 fans. Each one of them has anywhere from 100 to 300 friends with whom they can choose to "share" the story. Those 3,500 can exponentially turn into 350,000 simply by a station's "fans" assigning value to the content.

That is the power of using social media not merely as a marketing platform but also as a news publishing platform.

The Mobility of News

2010-05-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

There was a time when the news came once a day. It landed on your doorstep, in your driveway, or through the mailbox. After the morning paper arrived, you'd have to wait until the next morning for the next round of news.

Radio meant no waiting for news. TV meant seeing the news. And getting it more often: Mornings, noon, at dinner and late night. Miss a newscast? No problem. There will be another in 3-5 hours.

The internet changed all that. Anyone at a computer with an internet connection could get the news in real time.

Mobile technology is poised to complete this transformation by enabling access to and consumption of news anywhere, anytime - for everyone.

A recent study of (web-enabled) "smart phone" users found they would rather lose their car keys, wallet or purse...than lose their smart phone. For most owners, the smart phone has quickly become the single most indispensable piece of technology in their lives. What's shocking is the speed of penetration of this latest disruptive innovation.

The implications of ubiquitous "smart phones" for legacy media are profound. The web-enabled mobile device is both the greatest threat, and the greatest opportunity, for legacy media companies.

The threat is already visible. Newspaper and TV companies who've already seen their core news product cannibalized by migration to the web now must face the fact that even their own web sites will be diluted by migration to mobile. Each time the screen shrinks - for example from TV to TV station web site to TV station mobile site - so do the ad dollars. That is the threat.

Mobility is also opportunity. Someone must create the content that will populate these mobile devices. Today, legacy media outlets have an advantage: They are already creating vast quantities of daily, fresh news content that is trusted in their markets. Any new entrants must compete with their strong existing brand, established processes for finding and reporting news, and the volume of content they generate. In many ways, legacy media outlets are in the lead position to own the news space on mobile. As news consumers migrate from more traditional platforms to their new smart phones, they are likely to take with them the trusted brands from those bigger "screens".

The only question is: Will legacy media companies have the courage to take the plunge and invest in their mobile news platform before they lose their head start?

Real-time reactions during Debate webcast

2010-04-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

KGW.com (NBC) in Portland, Oregon live web streamed the Republican Gubernatorial Debate from 7-8 p.m. Wednesday, April 21. That's nothing unusual in this age of Digital Media.

What is interesting is kgw.com's partnership with Momentum Market Intelligence, a Portland-based firm specializing in attitude measurement technologies. Working with MMI, KGW.com offered a second version of the debate, streamed with a real-time overlay graphic displaying the reactions of a panel of undecided voters to the candidates' responses.

Here is what the mixed media stream looked like:

Doom...and Hope for Future Journalists

2010-04-15T23:10:00.000-07:00

I spoke to a room full of future journalists at the National High School Journalism Convention on Friday, April 15. The first part of my talk rehashed the all-too-familiar "bad news" about the state of legacy media: Declining newspaper subscriptions and TV news ratings, stagnant or slumping revenues, and layoffs and pay freezes.

The graphic (literally) illustrations of the state of the state of legacy media can be found on Journalism.org in the 2010 report. But to be honest, this is bad news to the journalists who are the age of these kids' parents.

The good news for would-be journalists is that a Wild West of new opportunities awaits. Here are some of the examples of the New Journalism that have me excited for this next generation.

Multimedia Storytelling
13 seconds in August (Minn. Star Tribune)
Year in Review (KGW.com)

Citizen Journalism
West Seattle Blog

Niche Content Sites
BikePortland.org

Old Media, Reinvented
Seattlepi.com

New Investigative Journalism
Pro Publica (which just won a Pulitzer )

Social Media
Twitter breaks Mumbai

Cross Platform Journalism
http://www.kgw.com/thesquare (TV & Web)

Journalism layoffs shift power to public relations professionals

2009-09-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

Noam Chomsky has proposed a “propaganda model” to describe the function of the mass media. Chomsky (1988) described five filters that drive this propaganda model: concentrated ownership, advertising as the primary revenue source, reliance on public relations bureaucracies, “flak” as a means of disciplining media, and “anticommunism” as a control mechanism. This essay focuses on the influence of public relations bureaucracies and argues that large-scale layoffs in journalism since 2001 have dramatically increased the power of these information bureaucracies to shape news coverage.

According to Forbes (2009), more than 10,000 newspaper journalists have lost work since 2001, which equates to the loss of one in six newspaper journalists nationwide. These losses were far greater than in other job sectors. Editor & Publisher (2009) reported that journalism jobs disappeared at a rate three times higher than the overall loss of jobs during the past year.

Job concerns have also distracted reporters from focusing on quality coverage. A survey by The Pew Research Center for People & the Press (2008) found that journalists were more than twice as concerned about their own industry’s financial problems (55%) as they were about the quality of their coverage (22%). Quality of coverage had been the top concern in both 2004 and 1999. Newsrooms not focused on quality and reduced in size by almost 20% lack the motivation and resources to combat the influence of public relations bureaucracies.

Resource-strapped newsrooms are also more likely to need these bureaucracies because these public relations experts lower the cost of news gathering. According to Chomsky, “the large bureaucracies of the powerful subsidize the mass media, and gain special access by their contributions to reducing the media’s cost of acquiring the raw materials of, and producing, news.” (1988, p. 22).

Groups like law enforcement, government agencies and large business organizations are well-funded and have large staffs; they understand the deadline requirements of the media and are willing to be accessible; and, they are seen as “objective experts” which protects the media from bias charges.

Chomsky argues these information bureaucracies shape the news. To test that claim, I performed an ethnographic analysis of a typical local TV newsroom “daybook” from a network-affiliate in the northwest. The daybook is the list of potential stories that news managers and reporters review in order to make daily story assignments. On the day in question, there were 47 possible stories listed. Of that total, 66% were press releases from organizations; another 13% were simply stories taken from other local media outlets; only 13% of the stories came from reporter ideas and just 9% came from average citizens not affiliated with any organization.

Since most assigned stories come from this initial pool of potential stories, the fact that two-thirds of the pool came from public relations staffs demonstrates the significant dependence of the media on these sources, and the role that public relations professionals play in shaping the news of the day.

Adding to this power shift is the trend for ex-journalists to become PR professionals. Schneiderman (2009), in an article entitled “change your career from media”, recommends public relations as the most natural replacement job for unemployed journalists. The article quotes career coach Jeff Aulenbach as saying: “Your skills as an effective writer and communicator are well suited for internal or external PR.”

In the new world of reduced staff in mainstream newsrooms across America, fewer reporters are working with less time to independently track down stories. In that model, skilled public relations professionals who understand the needs and limitations of the mainstream media have greater influence and are relied on to an even greater degree.

Not surprisingly, a study recently completed by the Pew Center (2009) found public perceptions of media accuracy to be at a two-decade low. Only 29% of Americans thought that news organizations generally got the facts straight, a 50% drop since 1985. Only 20% of respondents thought that news organizations were independent of powerful people and organizations, an all-time low score on that survey question.

Perhaps the hidden glimmer of hope in the Pew study is that those surveyed are more skeptical than ever of what they see and read in the news. In this era of sharply reduced newsroom staffs, consumers of news should heed the advice of Romano (1986, p. 78), who wrote: “what the press covers matters less in the end than how the public reads.”

References:

Fitzgerald, M. (2009). Journos losing jobs at three times rate of average workers. Editor & Publisher. Retrieved on September 25, 2009 from http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004014096.

Herman, S. and Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media. New York: Pantheon Books.

Romano, C. (1986). The grisly truth about bare facts. In R. K. Manhoff & M. Schudson (Eds.), Reading the News. New York: Pantheon Books.

Streib, L. (2009) Journalism Bust, J-School Boom. Forbes. Retrieved on September 25, 2009 from http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/06/journalism-media-jobs-business-media-jobs.html .

Schneiderman, M. (2009). Change your career from Media. New York Time Out. Retrieved on September 25, 2009 from http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/jobs/77242/change-your-career-from-media#ixzz0SNBxp3dD.

The Pew Research Center for People & the Press, (2008). Financial Woes Now Overshadow All Other Concerns for Journalists. (2008) Retrieved on September 25, 2009 from http://people-press.org/report/403/financial-woes-now-overshadow-all-other-concerns-for-journalists.

The Pew Research Center for People & the Press, (2009). Press Accuracy Rating Hits Two Decade Low. Retrieved on September 25, 2009 from http://people-press.org/report/543/.

Anonymous news story comments: Dialogue or diatribe?

2009-09-15T22:35:00.001-07:00

By Frank Mungeam

For decades, newspaper readers who wanted to comment on the news had one option: Write a letter to the editor and wait. These letters had to be signed and were always reviewed. With luck, the reader's comments might appear in the newspaper days after the story that evoked the response.

The internet has transformed that process, and now readers of almost every newspaper, from the New York Times to the Portland Oregonian, can comment on news stories online, anonymously and unedited, in real time.

Story commenting has become hugely popular. In a report about story commenting published in the Lawrence Kansas World, the newspaper notes that its online stories receive 20,000 comments per month. However, story comments can range anywhere from lively, thoughtful discussions of the issue of the day to racist, off-topic rants that critics argue reflect poorly on the newspaper as well as the anonymous author. As a result, opinions are sharply divided over whether this new technology has improved or harmed public discourse and news reporting.

The Poynter Institute reports that some newspapers have restricted or even turned off story comments because of uncivil online discourse. For example, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis has identified several categories of stories - crime stories, racially sensitive stories, and stories about gays, to name a few - where comments aren't permitted based on previous experiences with "flame" posters. The Grand Island Independent turned off reader comments entirely. The Boston Globe published an op-ed piece entitled: "Got a comment? Keep it to yourself.

These critics complain that anonymous commenting allows uninformed readers to degrade discourse and the news organization’s image. But to the extent that there are uninformed readers, technology is not to blame. Those readers were just as uninformed when reading the print edition of the newspaper. All technology did was enable them to make their views public.

Critics also complain that the anonymity of online story comments encourages uncivil discourse. To be sure, news story comments can degenerate into playground-like name-calling at times. However, anonymity enables readers to express opinions they might hesitate to honestly express if they were publicly identified. In its report on the commenting controversy, the Lawrence, Kansas World noted that some posters said they would fear retribution for speaking their minds if their name was publicized, and others noted concerns for their privacy in the online sphere. Ironically, journalists themselves have been willing to go to jail to protect the anonymity of sources who fear retribution for speaking their views publicly.

Thurlow et al (2008) note that it's too simplistic to blame technology for uncivil online discourse. Critics who wish to turn back technology and unplug public comments are guilty of technological determinism. In reality, people have behaved rudely to others long before the internet. What is racist graffiti if not anonymous hate speech in the pre-internet world? How many of us have known otherwise polite people who turn into road raging drivers when encased anonymously inside their cars during the rush hour commute?

Neil Postman (1998) argued that every new technology creates winners and losers. In the old days of newspapers, editors had all the power and readers had none. Editors decided what would be in the newspaper, and readers could only passively read it. The internet has transformed that power relationship. Online commenting technology has given readers a voice and shifted power out of the hands of editors. Postman’s theory of technology winners and losers may be the best explanation for why a survey by the Associated Press Managing Editors of newspaper editors and readers found that 64 percent of editors opposed anonymous comments, while the majority of readers favored them.

Rather than try to turn back technology, online editors should look for ways to utilize both technology and basic communication tools to encourage constructive dialogue and discourage uncivil speech. Kurt Greenbaum, Director of Social Media for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, recommends starting with clearly posted guidelines. Editors must then aggressively review and remove posts that violate those guidelines. Those are just common-sense communication principles applied to this new medium. Technology can also help. Greenbaum notes that web sites like Digg.com and slashdot.org have extra commenting features that enable readers to rank and sort comments, elevating "quality" comments.

The solution to managing comments on news stories is not unlike the problem of getting kids to play nice at the playground. The simple rule we all learned in school is that every playground has its rules and, as long as the kids obey the rules and play nice, they can stay and have fun with all the other kids. The internet is just a different playground.

References:

Bailey, D. (2009). Got a comment? Keep it to yourself. Boston Globe. Retrieved on September 12, 2009 from http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/07/15/got_a_comment_keep_it_to_yourself/

Fleming, K. (2008). Online Journalism Credibility. Associated Press Managing Editors. Retrieved on September 12, 2009, from http://www.apme.com/credibility/online/summary.shtml

Greenbaum, K. (2009). Seven news story comment guidelines worth looking at. Retrieved on September 12, 2009, from http://www.igreenbaum.com/2009/01/7-news-story-comment-guidelines-worth-looking-at/

Hittle, S. (2009). In the world of online comments, there are plenty of opinions, but few names. Lawrence Kansas World. Retrieved on September 12, 2009 from http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/jul/23/plenty-opinions-few-names/

Mitchell, B. (2009). Dialogue or diatribe? Poynter Institute. Retrieved on September 12, 2009 from http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=103&aid=123290

Postman, N. (1998). Five things we need to know about technological change. Denver, CO. Speech.

Thurlow, C., Lengel, L. & Tomic, A. (2008). Computer mediated communication: Social interaction and the Internet. London: Sage Publications LTD.

Online journalism: Trading speed for accuracy?

2009-02-17T19:52:00.001-08:00

How does journalism change in a wired world where publication can be immediate, and global?

It's one of the fundamental questions we face in journalism. Does the speed and immediacy enabled by the Internet come at the price of accuracy? And, if so, is that necessarily bad?

In truth, the answer is yes - in the online world, with greater ease of publication and fewer filters between the content creator and the 'publish' button (compared to the traditional newspaper model), mistakes are more likely to make it onto the web than into your daily paper.

The less considered other half of that equation is that those mistakes are fixed more quickly - and permanently - online.

One of the great aspects of journalism in a wired world is the immediate feedback from the news consumer. Even if the online editor does miss something, readers are (eagerly) quick to point out errors, which can be immediately corrected without having to wait until the 'next day's edition.'

Furthermore, those corrections replace and eliminate the digital record of the error. One of the great frustration for anyone ever misquoted in a newspaper is that the correction usually runs in another part of the paper on another day, completely separated from the original erroneous story, which lives on in print in perpetuity.

The more provocative issue is, are there stories where the benefit of speed of coverage can make up for and even justify errors committed in haste? Are there other stories where caution and correctness must trump considerations of speed, even in a wired world? This is the question grappled with in an interesting New York Times article by their Public Editor.

Clark Hoyt makes a persuasive argument that small errors of fact in the continuous coverage of a developing 'spot news' story like the plane that crashed into the Hudson River are OK, because those facts get continuously updated and speed of coverage is important. He contrasts that with the Times' own failure by reporting too hastily insufficiently researched comments about Caroline Kennedy, where errors can 'stick' on a person's reputation despite later efforts to correct the record.

It's a bold but I believe legitimate distinction to draw between spot news stories with emerging details and these larger character/investigative stories. The reality is, in the wired world, news flows constantly to the audience. The audience is no longer willing to wait a day for the print newspaper model of multiple editors reviewing copy and then a single version of the truth being 'posted' . There is a level of sophistication on the part of online news consumers, who recognize the evolving nature of breaking news stories. In those situations, I believe they are willing to accept some errors during the incremental reporting process, provided those errors are corrected by new reporting. They are even willing (nay, WANTING) to be part of the 'conversation' about the news of the day, whether through blogs or story comments, are more than happy to quickly ferret out errors that in the previous era could have taken days to identify and correct.

Finally: A discussion of Journalism's future

2009-02-16T20:18:00.000-08:00

The New York Times has authored a multi-pronged piece on the future of newspapers called "Battle Plan for Newspapers" that is worth reading.

For a topic that too often has been addressed from a backward-looking view, aka "How to SAVE Newspapers", the NYT piece is refreshingly forward-looking. Sure, it catalogues the litany of financial obstacles facing print. But then it moves forward.

In particular, the inclusion of multiple "essays" offering divergent scenarios for the Newspaper of the Future are provocative.

Anyone who claims to be certain about the future form of what has been The Newspaper should be distrusted, but the Times has done a real service by pushing the dialogue away from finger-pointing and 'preserving the existing order' and instead focusing on what newspapers might become.

TIME cover misses the mark

2009-02-09T13:15:00.000-08:00

TIME magazine's latest cover story, "How to save your Newspaper", repeats in its headline the very thinking that has contributed to the demise of newspapers.

Many in print journalism continue to confuse content with distribution. In a multimedia world, we should all want to "save journalism", if in fact journalism is endangered and needs to be saved.

However, there's nothing inherently sensible about expending energy saving a distribution method that has been usurped by technology. It's the same thing as launching a "save typewriters" campaign in the wake of the advent of word processors and PCs.

Newspapers are in trouble for a number of reasons, almost all of which derive from the newspaper's distribution method: The cost of printing and the cost of delivery put newspapers at a competitive disadvantage compared to other media; the lack of immediacy of newspapers compared to internet, radio and TV has cost newspapers subscribers; and the superior ad value provided by internet players like Craigslist, compared to print ads, has cost newspapers revenue.

The focus, for TIME and for newspaper executives, should be How to Re-Invent Newspapers to adapt to the changes in the competitive landscape.

Inauguration a streaming video milestone

2009-01-25T18:46:00.000-08:00

The inauguration of Barack Obama as President was historic not only politically but in the world of new media.

Conducted during normal business hours, the inauguration wasn't accessible via TV for most working people, who instead logged on and watched via live web streaming in record numbers.

Akamai, which provides bandwidth services for about 20% of the world's internet, recorded "unprecedented global demand for bandwidth" during the inauguration, according to Beet.tv.

The inauguration wasn't only about volume. Media companies took major strides in presenting streaming video in a more content-rich and user-controllable format.

As Kent Chapline describes on Lost Remote, the CBS O & O's offered a page with seven different streams, allowing the user to choose the perspective they wanted for the Inauguration. The page also included on demand offerings of the inauguration speeches of presidents back to FDR, and an embedded live Twitter feed during the event.

MSNBC's player also included past inauguration speeches with this great add-on: Each speech had a searchable transcript in the sidebar; click on a section of the speech in text, it cues it up to that point in video. Cory Bergman of MSNBC.com offers more details on Lostremote.com.

Overall, these digital media tools enabled large media companies to tell the inauguration story immediately with greater breadth and depth than ever before, all while giving more control over the content experience to...dare I say it...the media consumer.

For a complete review of all the major media companies' streaming coverage, check out the review by Dan Rayburn on Businessofvideo.com.

Mapping a story with geographic breadth

2009-01-10T18:00:00.000-08:00

The recent flooding in the Northwest provided a good example of a situation where taking the extra time to MAP the news can add real context and meaning to a story.

Unlike the preceding winter storm, which was concentrated in well-known, urban areas, the flooding hit small, lesser known towns hardest. Many of these communities are places the average local TV viewer may not have heard of, or at a minimum would have difficulty locating.

On KGW.com, we wrote stories and posted photos and videos from the affected areas, as we would normally do. But we also created an interactive map using Google's mapping feature, situating the stories, videos and photos onto a map that the user can control and explore.

View Larger Map

The result is a highly visual way of putting the story in context, conveying the breadth of the storm and also educating users about the places where the damage happened.

Creating a quick where-did-a-story-happen map takes only minutes using Quikmaps. Creating a multi-media map that includes multiple locations and multiple tyoes of media content can take several hours but is well worth it when the geographic reach is part of the story, and where there are many content elements.

Internet overtakes newspapers as news source

2008-12-31T18:33:00.001-08:00

It's official.

A new Pew report confirms that the inevitable intersection between declining newspaper audience and growing internet audience has happened.

In the Pew survey, 40% of the respondents said they got most of their national and international news from the Internet in 2008 compared to 35% using newspapers. That internet share was 24% in 2007, so 2008 marked a dramatic leap for internet-based news.

While print reach continued to decline, newspapers could find hope in the dramatic growth in audience share for the online version of their content. Newspaper web sites drew 69 million visitors in October 2008, up more than 60 percent compared to the comparable period in 2004.

Overall, TV continued its long-standing dominance as the number one source for daily news, with 70% naming it as their primary source. However, the devil is in the details for broadcasters who might think they don't need to fear newspapers' fate.

That 70% share is a drop from 74% last year and a bigger decline from the 2002 peak of 82%. Foreshadowing the demographic-driven losses of newspapers, TV has fallen into a tie with the internet among those under 30, with an equal number citing TV and internet as their primary news source.

This year, 18-29, next up, 25-54?

Year in review, using multimedia storytelling tools

2008-12-31T11:52:00.000-08:00

The "year in review" is a staple story of the news business. In the world of online journalism, it's also an opportunity to create a more rich, multimedia experience that includes text, audio/video and images from the big stories of the year.

Not long ago, only those with HTML and Flash coding skills were able to create high-end multimedia presentations. I've blogged before about one of my favorite examples, the Star Tribune's multimedia recap of "13 seconds in August", the story of the Minneapolis bridge collapse. The project is beautifully done. However, it took four months to create, and the most powerful elements required coding skills far beyond those of the typical journalist.

Barely more than a year later, much has changed. Web sites like widgetbox.com make it easy to create and embed widgets on a web site without any coding skills. And web sites have sprung up that enable non-techies to create multimedia content - for free - and embed that content.

Here is the Year in Review multimedia show I build for kgw.com in Portland using the free 'collage' feature on vuvox.com. The entire Year in Review page can be found at kgw.com.

2008 Year Ender, and New Media Predictions

2008-12-26T12:16:00.001-08:00

2008 was a tumultuous year for those in the traditional journalism business: layoffs, bankruptcies, and reorganizations dominated the news - and this was all before the entire country was hit with the worst economic recession in decades.

What were the big take-aways from 2008, and how will the business and practice of journalism change in 2009. Here are a few of my thoughts, and a round-up of what other media bloggers are saying.

Frank's 5 for 2009:

1. Audiences will continue to shift toward consuming their news "on demand": online and, in 2009 more then ever before, via MOBILE devices. This will come at the expense of newspaper circulation; and, for the first time ever in 2009, more people will get their news daily from online than from local TV news.

2. Newspapers will continue to see declines in readership and revenue.

3. In 2009, with the election-year revenue bump behind them, local TV stations will experience the same kinds of deep layoffs newspapers have been enduring for the past several years.

4. Niche blogs and hyperlocal journalism will rise up, both as a competitor to and as a result of reductions at mainstream media outlets

5. Another year will pass, and we still will not have a sustainable business model answer to the question: How do we monetize the web?

Here's what some other media bloggers are saying:

On Poytner.org, Rick Edmonds offers journalists Four Reasons to be Hopeful about newspapers in 2009.

In newsless.org, Matt Thompson offers 5 Questions Worth Asking about journalism's future.

On his News After Newspapers blog, Martin Langeveld came out with his Predictions for 2009, then did a nice follow-up entry summarizing the other 2009 predictions by media bloggers.

Niche blogs: the future for laid off journalists?

2008-12-26T11:35:00.000-08:00

The year 2008 saw widespread staffing reductions at newspapers across the country. Those cuts raise a macro and micro question, whose answers may be intertwined as we move into the next era of journalism.

The macro question is: What is the future of traditional journalism, now that the business model seems irreparably broken?

The micro question is (if you were any of the thousands of journalists laid off) : Where is my next job as a journalist?

The answer to both question may be: Niche journalism blogs.

As newspapers crumble under the weight of their financial debt and fixed costs for production and delivery, a content model that is more nimble and smaller makes sense. In Seattle, several neighborhood blogs have sprung up to meet the need for hyperlocal news.

The West Seattle Blog and the My Ballard blog both regularly break news in their respective neighborhoods; they are frequently updated and often pilfered by the local MSM; and they have developed regular contributors. As Cory Bergman, MyBallard.com creator notes on Lost Remote, it's not quite a 'quit your day job' revenue model, and it's also a lot of hard work. But for journalists who have a passion for local news, it is also an opportunity. As Bergman points out - amazing things can happen if a local news blog reaches "a critical mass of an audience AND contributors in a dense geographic area."
(Full disclosure: I know Cory personally and professionally; he once worked for Belo, my current employer.)

Laid off St. Petersburg Times reporter Scott Barancik has come up with a different and creative business model for individual journalism. As Steve Meyers reports on Poynter, Barancik has launched Baylawsuits.com, "newsworthy cases from the civil courts."

Meyers digs through the court dockets and identifies cases that could be newsworthy, then does bullet point summaries. He then makes his research available on his password-protected site to media clients, who pay for access and then follow up and report on the cases he's found. Meyers, in effect, is the media middle man, using his journalism skills to identify and summarize newsworthy cases that staff-strapped media outlets might overlook. Meyers started with the idea of targeting media clients, but has since expanded to law firms and PR agencies. Again, the dollars don't yet compare to his previous salary, but the idea is creative.

A third approach, the niche blog, has perhaps the most promising business model. A great example of this is Portland's bicycle blog, BikePortland.org. Created several years ago by Jonathan Maus, the blog has grown to become the destination web site for all things bike related in Portland, a city known and nationally recognized for its interest in bicycling. By taking a topic rather than a location, Maus has had business as well as audience success. Specializing in a single topic, he's drawn all of those most knowledgeable to his blog, where they then become posters and tip contributors, making the blog even more of a go-to destination. I know from first-hand experience that the blog is checked regularly by the Portland TV stations looking for story leads. And, thanks to having a targeted subject matter, Maus also has an ad-friendly web site for those looking to reach that very well defined audience. Maus has been making the site work as his full time job for several years now, and while not all of the content is what we'd traditionally call 'journalism', Maus regularly breaks news in this niche category.

Journalists looking to answer the question, personally and professionally, "what next?" may want to think hyperlocal and niched.

Shrinking to survive: Newspapers get smaller

2008-12-12T18:00:00.000-08:00

Here in the Northwest, the largest daily papers in the region's two major markets - Seattle and Portland - announced within the past two weeks that they would shrink or merge sections and cut back on content in their papers. Two other local papers, the Tacoma News Tribune and the Bend Bulletin, announced similar changes.

Today, Nieman Journalism Lab picked up on the Wall Street Journal report that the publisher of the major Detroit daily - the Free Press - will announce Tuesday that the newspaper will halt deliver on all but the three most profitable days of the week: Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Readers presumably will be encouraged to pick up the paper at newsstands or read the paper online.

Last week Tribune declared bankruptcy, in what could be a ghost-of-Christmas future for other struggling newspaper companies.

The decision to halt delivery of a major news daily would be a watershed announcement, and could lead to copycat decisions elsewhere. Shocking as the decision might be to newspaper veterans, the alternative is worse.

At a recent media conference, I was joined on the lunch panel by the former managing editor of the Spokane Spokesman review, who noted that only 17 cents of every dollar of newspaper spending goes to the content. The rest of that is burned up primarily in production (printing) and delivery (distribution) costs.

These 20th century sunk costs simply cannot be offset in a 21st-century business environment, and they are crushing a business already suffering from the 'Craigslist effect' of lost classifieds revenue.

Drastic times require drastic measures. Although newspapers will certainly have to make rate concessions to their advertisers to the extent that they halt delivery or publication of some days' papers, this approach is worth trying. As we noted at that same journalism conference, the "production and distribution" costs of the online version of a newspaper are almost zero.

That's a business model for journalism that has a future.

Grading Social Media coverage of Mumbai

2008-12-05T17:44:00.000-08:00

The recent tragedy in Mumbai offered the latest chance to assess the continued evolution of the role of Social Media in the coverage of major breaking news stories.

As noted on the TechCrunch blog, in the early hours of the attacks there was more information on Twitter than on CNN, and photo sharing site Flickr had some of the first images from the scene.

On Poynter, Amy Gahran noted the diversity of Social Media coverage of the attacks, from Twitter Tweets to Blogs, Flickr photos and Wikipedia entries.

In the aftermath, CNN posted a story on "Tweeting the Terror" in which it correctly pointed out the pitfalls and failings of social media "coverage." The story notes how false rumors were posted, and then rapidly repeated, spreading like a 'Tweet' wildfire reminiscent of that old campfire circle game.

Professional journalists will appreciate how Social Media coverage of Mumbai illustrated the dynamic tension that always exists between being fast and being accurate. Clearly, social media - populated by 'civilians' - can easily err on the side of rumor spreading.

Following up on that point, Gahran authored a second blog post suggesting some "teachable moments" provided by the use of Twitter during the Mumbai attacks. For journalists, she throws down the challenge to teach/correct 'tweeters' who are merely repeating, by querying their source; and, when errors are found, tweeting the source of those errors to alert them.

Mindy McAdams, in her blog post Twitter, Mumbai, and 10 facts about online journalism now, nicely recaps some lessons reinforced by the Mumbai story, among them: In this era, major breaking news will be reported online before on-air; non-journalists will be the first to report it; cell phones have become the first-responder reporting tool; and, cell phones with camera/video/internet connection that can publish remotely are the reporting killer app when on location during breaking news.

Clearly, the general public - untrained in journalism - committed typical novice errors in repeating unconfirmed rumors during the Mumbai attacks. But no journalist interested in using all ethical means available to get the full story fast...can deny that Social Media represent both a resource and a publishing tool for a new era of journalism. Trained journalists are in the ideal position to use those tools well, and teach that practice to others.

Can 'new media' actually improve journalism?

2008-11-25T23:21:00.000-08:00

That was the provocative question raised today by students in a Masters Journalism program at the University of Oregon.

It turns out the procession of guest experts who'd preceded me to the classroom had left the students with the impression that 'new media' was killing journalism.

While there can be no doubt that competition from new media outlets and new media formats (online, mobile) are eroding the audience share of 'old media', it does not follow that new media is harming journalism. It may only be that it is harming the job security of traditional journalists.

In fact, it is possible that new media tools can significantly forward the principles of journalism for anyone willing to embrace these tools and technologies. Here are a few examples:

Aggregation
TheMoneyMeltdown.com is a great example of the use of aggregation to create a central location for information on a subject. The web site's creator didn't need to be the expert that wrote every article about our current economic meltdown - the value he performed was to go out and locate the best information about each aspect of the current economic crisis and aggregate all that content together in one well-organized web site. That a new-media application of one of journalism's oldest tenets: start with good research, then organize the information in a way that's useful to the audience.

Mash-ups
Data is everywhere, but data alone has no meaning. It once took reporting teams months to pour over data to give it meaning and then report the results. Mash-ups are a new-media tool for taking vast quantities of data, and empowering the public to be able to access the data easily to find out information they need. Chicagocrime.org pioneered this work way back in 2005, taking huge piles of crime data and making it searchable by location. The folks behind that initial project have since expanded their application to include location-based news stories, and also expanded to about a dozen cities with their application EveryBlock.com.

Audience Engagement
For too long, journalism has been a one-way conversation with the audience. Reporters report, readers read, and that's the way it's been.

New media tools make it possible for journalists to engage in a dialogue with the audience, which can make stories better from beginning to end. ReadWriteWeb has a great article detailing four ways they use Twitter to improve story-telling: Discovering breaking news; soliciting suggestions for interview questions for upcoming stories; quality assurance (readers catching/reporting errors), and even (gasp) promoting their stories so that their journalism reaches the largest possible audience.

Multi-Media storytelling
Perhaps the most exciting of all the advances offered by new media tools is the opportunity to provide a richer, more in depth and more compelling rendering of the most important stories of the day. The ability to richly interweave text, images, video, mapping and other media elements transforms yesterday's print or TV report into a powerful multimedia experience.
My favorite example of this is the excellent online multimedia report on the Minneapolis bridge collapse put together by a team at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, called 13 seconds in August. This is the 'New Media' equivalent of a long-form TV documentary, or a newspaper 'special section' - but frankly, is far more compelling. The ST team spent four months creating this compelling mix of mapping, images, text, video and audio.

We should all be encouraged by the possibilities of what journalism can become if we look at the new media tools as just that - new tools to continue the tradition of journalistic excellence.

State of the Mediasphere

2008-11-18T22:48:00.000-08:00

Imagine if we had studied the adoption and development of the medium of Television from its very inception. What would we have learned if we could have tracked and interviewed those who used the nascent medium as it evolved?

That idea is behind an extraordary study underway at USC's Annenberg School for Communication.

Dr. Jeff Cole, Director of the school's Center for the Digital Future, has led a study begun in the year 2000 that includes panels of 2000 participants in 30 different countries - a global 'focus group' of 60,000 people tracking the evolution of the internet and mobile.

He gave a fascinating keynote at the Monaco Media Summit, posted on YouTube and embedded here.

Among his insights:

Newspapers spend only 30% on their content creators - writers, editors, photographers. Most of the expenses of a newspaper are related to production and distribution, costs which could be virtually eliminated in a digital distribution model, for papers courageous enough to jump the curve.
TV, by contrast, has a great future, according to Cole. He believes that mobile technology will "allow Television to escape from the home." TV content will be ubiquitous in a mobile broadband world: "It's going to be our constant companion."
Paying for content on the web is a dead model. Users are willing to accept advertising on the web to get free content...and thanks to Google the marriage of contextually relevant ads to content will unlock real advertiser value in new media.

The Future of News - SPJ video now online

2008-11-13T14:40:00.000-08:00

Last month, the University of Oregon hosted the fall conference of the Society of Professional Journalists. Along with a number of workshops on specialized topics, there was a lunch panel where I joined two newspaper managing editors for a spirited discussion (argument?) over the future of media and journalism.

Not long afterwards, the Portland Business Journal followed up on one comment by panelist Steve Smith with a page one story predicting an impending plunge in local TV news revenues, and potential layoffs that could mirror those that have plagued newspapers in recent years.

Now you can enjoy the entire luncheon chat online. SPJ has posted the video on the SPJ web site.
Moderated by Rob Smith, editor of the Portland Business Journal, the discussion featured Steve Engelberg, managing editor of ProPublica (and former managing editor of The Oregonian), Steve Smith, former editor of the Spokesman-Review, and myself, online editor at KGW

Election Night 08: Tipping point for New Media?

2008-11-07T18:12:00.000-08:00

On the surface, it would seem like great news for a beleaguered industry: Wednesday's "Obama Wins" newspaper editions sold out their runs. Here in Portland, The Oregonian sold every copy and could have sold more. Likewise for the Washington Post. Copies of the New York Times edition are already on eBay earning $150 bids. But, as Ken Sands opines on Poynter, it's quite likely that "the print edition is more of a souvenir than ever before in a presidential election."

More than ever before, public turned to newer media. Mediaweek reported record tune-in across the major networks for TV and Cable coverage of the election.

The online story was even more dramatic. According to Akami, Internet News use reached its highest one-day total ever. CNN.com was among the many online networks setting one-day records. Lost Remote captured the web site home pages of a number of major online news sources, and the diversity of content and links helps explain why audiences flocked to the internet for continuing coverage and user-directed depth. Twitter also reported a 43% bump in traffic.

Perhaps the most interesting development was the anecdotal but undeniable increase in importance of mobile as an information delivery platform. At party headquarters here in Oregon, many in attendance had their faces glued to their phone screen.

In an era where the audience can read the New York Times in their hand, moments after a new President is elected, while attending an election celebration, the traditional newspaper seems like a souvenir. That's only bad news if your image as a journalist is tied to a specific 'platform', like 'print'. After all, someone has to write those stories that appear minutes later on the internet and mobile phones.

Covering the election in a digital age

2008-11-06T15:37:00.000-08:00

It wasn't that many years ago when election coverage was pretty straightforward.

We would go to the polls, and hurry home by 8 p.m. to gather around the TV to watch the national networks collect and report the results. It might be several more hours before the winner was sure. The next morning, we would dive into the newspaper to read all about it.

That was election coverage.

Fast forward to November 4th, 2008. At KGW-TV here in Portland, NBC called the presidential race for Obama the second the west-coast polls closed, at 8:00 pm on the dot. But the speed of reporting wasn't the biggest change.

Our election coverage included an unprecedented depth and diversity of content made available on every conceivable platform:

'Mainstream' new media content, like constantly updated text stories and videos, and real-time election results on kgw.com

Breaking news emails pushed to subcribers alerting them to the results

Continuous "tweets" on the KGW Twitter feed, reporting local race results as they came in
Stories and election results updated in real time and available on the go on mobile phones via kgw.com/mobile

Live blogging analysis from Portland's top political blogger, Jack Bogdanski of Jack Bog's Blog.

Interactive polls, both yes/no and open-ended, with viewer and user questions posed to studio political analysts

Continuous live video streaming coverage of the local election while NBC network coverage kept us off local TV

The 2008 election truly represented a new level of multi-platform journalism, and the winner was an informed electorate!

Widgets bring National election home

2008-11-01T16:14:00.001-07:00

Here is the MSNBC widget for Election Night coverage...a great example of how 'widgets' make it easy for local and smaller news outlets and blogger/journalists to enrich the quality and content of their own coverage, without added staff or even technical coding skills.

Widgets: Add rich content without being a coder

2008-11-01T15:33:00.000-07:00

For news reporters and bloggers whose focus is on content, HTML and RSS and Javascript can be scary words. "Widgets" are a great way for content creators and publishers to enrich their own stories and blogs with content from other sources, without needing to be an expert in code-writing.

My favorite tool for this is the web site widgetbox.com, where easy tutorials guide the user in how to create a widget and generate the necessary code that can then be simply pasted into a web site or story for easy embedding. On Widgetbox, you can either search for a widget application you'd like (say, a countdown clock), or create a widget.

Here in Portland, the big news is the return of #1 Trail Blazers draft pick Greg Oden from season ending injury, so I found a widget that enables me to embed Greg Oden's blog onto my web site. I clicked on the widget, clicked on "Blogger" as my publishing platform and the widget placed it in the right column of my blog. Take a peek in the right-hand column to check it out.

Alternatively, you can simply go to a web site that has content you're interested in and see if they already offer it in widget form.

Want to embed automatically updated gas price information onto your web site? GasBuddy.com has a localizable gas prices widget. You can see an example here, on the web site I manage, the "Portland Gas Prices" page of kgw.com.

How about the Presidential election? Downloadable widgets are available from both CNN and MSNBC that enable local media and bloggers to pull the content & resources of these large national networks into localized web pages. I've added the CNN widget here, and the NBC widget in a separate blog post above this one.

A poster to the New Media Blog, JMK, recommends another great web site for getting and building wigdgets: http://www.go2web20.net/

The journalistic power of utilizing widgets is two-fold: non-programmers can now add complex multimedia content to their story pages without needing to know or even understand the underlying coding (it's all done by the widget); and, local news outlets and even bloggers can take advantage of the resources and expertise of larger or distance content creators to enrich and add substance to their local coverage. So, go forth and embed!

Christian Science Monitor discontinues daily

2008-10-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

Is this the tipping point for print?

The announcement by the Christian Science Monitor that it will discontinue its daily print operation, shifting to weekly print editions with an online-first focus marks the first major national daily newspaper to take the leap.

Newspapers continue to be beset by a brutal combination of declining subscriptions, loss of ad revenue, and an onerous production/distribution cost structure for printing and delivery of their core product. Gannett newspapers has announced an additional 10 percent reduction in staff at its community newspapers by year-end, after already eliminating 1000 jobs earlier in the year.

The economy is tough for everyone, inside and outside of journalism. Of greatest concern should be newspapers' continuing loss of audience. Subscriptions have fallen just under 5% in the past year.

We all know the audience is migrating online. Perhaps the CSM decision to take the leap to weekly and online-first is the only way to shed the burdensome production cost structure and survive in the new media world.

Can a blogger also be a journalist?

2008-10-27T22:15:00.001-07:00

Can a blogger also be a journalist? The answer appears to be: It depends who you ask.

At the fall conference of the Oregon chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists, I shared a panel with two former newspaper managing editors. Like many traditional reporters, their disdain for blogging was thinly veiled.

Since the topic of the panel was purportedly the future of journalism, and my panelists represented the end of the biz seeing the sharpest declines, I found myself using bloggers as an example of the hope for journalism's future.

My view is that blogging is just another method of publishing content, like printing a paper or broadcasting a newscast. The transformational power of blogging is that it is so easy that anyone can now be published. No wonder traditional print editors hate it. For decades, those who controlled the printing presses controlled the definition of what was news. Blogging gives publishing to the masses.

But as Steve Engelberg, managing editor of ProPublica, noted at the SPJ conference, the American revolutionary pamphleteers were the "bloggers" of their time, finding a grass roots way to publish views excluded from the official state press.

This issue stopped being academic in Oregon recently, where a local blogger was denied access to closed-door meetings because the city deemed him to not be a member of the "press". The blogger, on Loaded Orygun, argued that he shouldn't be denied press status merely because he did not work for some large media organization. Not surprisingly, in an Oregonian editorial, Bob Caldwell worried about who would hold an individual blogger accountable for journalistic misdeeds, the implied promise being that no reporter for a mainstream news organization would violate the principles of journalism. (Does anyone else immediately think of NY Times plagiarist Jayson Blair?)

In German last year, a blogger was named journalist of the year. It seems clear to me that some bloggers are engaged in journalism and others are not, and it is the content that they create, not the backing of a media monolith or the 'publishing platform' used that should define them. Professor Jack Balkin suggests exactly this kind of practical test for bloggers as journalists.

A post in Media Shift documented the continued blurring of the lines between bloggers and journalists. Although it clearly torments some traditional print reporters, a number of new voices have emerged thanks to the blogosphere, voices that were not previously heard when a few dominant media companies did most of the talking in their local markets.

Some of these blogging voices are original, knowledgeable, and add to the conversation as watchdogs and protectors of the public trust. That sounds like journalism to me. What do you think?

SPJ at UO

2008-10-25T10:20:00.001-07:00

Carla Savalli, author of the Newsroom of the Future report, speaks at a Multimedia storytelling workshop at the University of Oregon. The Oregon chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists held its fall conference Saturday in Eugene.

Savalli, a career newspaper journalist, described how she transformed the Spokane Spokesman Review's process from a once-a-day print cycle to a 24/7 news cycle, including introducing a Breaking News team that started each day at 5 a.m. Savalli said she expected print reporters to continue to be expected to develop 24/7 reporting skills for online, while the likely future for print editions was as a source of depth, content and context.

Joining Savalli on the panel, I shared some of the multi-media tools detailed here, including blogging, hyperlinking, mapping the news, and embedding slideshows

A Picture is Worth...a Slideshow

2008-10-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

Slideshows are one of the most powerful ways to enrich a text story. Just take a look at this slideshow from the Dallas Morning News after Hurricane Ike pounded Texas.

The good news is, building slideshows is also surprisingly easy, and is an effective way to increase views for a story.

Traditional reporters who once relied on a print or TV photographer to take care of collecting images and video in the field for them now need to develop visual storytelling skills themselves.

Cost-cutting has reduced the number of photojournalists; 'one man bands' require story-tellers to collect the pictures as well as to write the words; and, camera-enabled cell phones give first-on-the-scene reporters the opportunity to collect and publish images from the field long before video or still images can be driven back to the newsroom.

Composing and capturing compelling images is a skill in itself. Legacy photojournalists can be an invaluable resource in learning the basics of shot composition and lighting. The National Press Photographers Association web site has multiple resources for developing shooting skills.

Once the shots are taken, manipulating those images doesn't have to require an advanced degree or a big software budget. Irfanview is a free downloadable image manipulation program that can be used to crop, resize, and adjust images quickly. Photoshop Elements from Adobe is the simplified, lower-cost version of the industry standard Photoshop imaging software.

Building slideshows and publishing them to the web doesn't have to be hard, either. While many media companies have proprietary tools within their own content management system, Soundslides is a popular, low cost ($39) and easy to use product that enables swift creation and publication of slideshows, with the option of adding narration or music audio track.

Mapping the News

2008-10-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

Where is the world is a story taking place? It's one of the fundamental "W's".

In the world of online news, there's no reason not to answer that question visually, and interactively.

Quikmaps is a simple, free online tool that can be used to create an embeddable map in a matter of minutes:

For more elaborate features and functionality, Google maps offers zoom, pan, linking and more.

Here's a simple application KGW.com built to tell the story of a homeslide: SW Portland home slides 300 feet down hill

Mapping the multi-media elements of slideshow, video, 911 call audio, and additional background took about an hour.

Going forward, geo-tagging stories by location (embedding meta tags that capture address/location information) and automatically being able to map those stories so users can choose their news by location is the exciting and logical next step.

Hyperlinks: The world beyond words

2008-10-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

Traditional TV journalists who are asked to write "online versions" of their stories tend to simply make a few stylistic changes - switching present tense to past, placing attribution after quotes, converting to AP style for numbers - and submit the story. For traditional print journalists, the process of 'writing for web' is sometimes no more than the keystrokes 'copy', 'paste', and 'send.'

Simply repurposing the original story to the web misses out on the "world wide" part.

Adding relevent hyperlinks, both in the flow of content and in sidebars, can transform a traditional media report into a much richer, deeper, online version.

1. Hyperlinks can be used to provide background/chronology by linking to previous reports on the same topic: Mayoral candidate to stay in race despite loss of funding (kgw.com)

2. Hyperlinks in-content can offer pathways within the flow of a story to learn more about a related person, place or event: Wikipedia entry on Britney Spears

3. Hyperlinks as sidebars or end-bars can add depth and context, allowing readers to explore a story as deeply as they choose: TheMoneyMeltdown.com

Reporters routinely use the web to research their stories. In traditional print or TV newsrooms, those links were often discarded when the final story was written. In the online world, including those links can significantly enhance the depth and breadth of a story.

Blogging 101

2008-10-21T16:49:00.000-07:00

Whether you are a 'mainstream journalist' being asked to contribute to your company's web site, or an independent journalist trying to carve a nitche, a blog is the basic publishing tool for simply and quickly getting information out.

Compared to a traditional reported story, a blog entry should be:
- shorter in length
- more conversational in style
- more personal in content

The best blogs are updated frequently, ideally several times daily.

Blogs should also be set up to also allow comments, as this feature often enables in-the-know readers to contribute to advancing a story or topic.

This article on EchoDitto.com has many more 'best practices' tips. More tips here at Poynter.org.

Popular blogging tools include blogger, Word Press, and Moveable Type. Even a beginner can create a free blog and begin posting within minutes. It took less than 15 minutes to make this New Media blog.

Welcome to the New Media blog

2008-10-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

Traditional print and TV journalists who wish to "write for the web" must do more than simply copy and paste a text version of their original story into a web page.

There are an entirely new set of tools available to help journalists tell the story in an online world. In this blog, I'll post information on some of those key tools, and ideas on how to employ them, and examples of best practices being used by both traditional and new media outlets.