Recruiting guru gives 2010 class advice

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Poynter recruiting expert Joe Grimm offers some good insight on the current job market for those about to graduate in 2010 in his latest Ask the Recruiter post.

His advice is grounded in many years of experience, so I advise checking out the post and I would encourage you to e-mail your own question. Take it from someone who knows. Grimm, who used to work for the Detroit Free Press and is now at Michigan State University, interviewed me when I  applied for an internship at the Freep in the early 1990s. Even though he was uncompromisingly intimidating — a good thing for an aspiring journalist — he also was friendly and more than willing to provide feedback on my clips later on, even though I didn't make the cut.

One way to do an infobox

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Here is a possible info box … Below is what I used to run at the end of blog posts I did about running for the The Flint Journal and the HTML code is on the jump. If you'd like to use, copy the HTML, and paste in your HTML editor, customizing your information.

Really, this is a healthy obsession …

About Christofer Machniak's running hobby

Age: 34

Occupation: Lecturer at Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan-Flint

Running background: One year of cross country at Livonia Churchill High School in the fall of 1991 (had a crush on a girl, found out I loved running instead). Got hurt in 1992 and quit running while adding "The Freshman 15" every year in college at Michigan State University (Go Spartans!).

Running highlights: Losing about 90 pounds after not really running for about eight years/winning 14 road races in Michigan (all small field events)/completing 16 marathons (including one during an Ironman triathlon in 2004 -- yeah, it was tough, but it was worth it).

Personal records: 16:46 (5K in 2003), 35:25 (10K in 2004), 58:42 (10M in 2004 at the Crim), 1:16:09 (half marathon in 2004), 2:49:03 (marathon in 2003) -- looks like my better days could be behind me (hope not).

Help with Google sites

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Here's the video to help with the Web portfolio assignment. Please e-mail me if you have any questions.

Figuring out Facebook fan pages

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Here is the video to assist with the Facebook assignment. And remember to publish your page.

AddThis video help

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — This step-by-step video aims to help you with this week's AddThis assignment.

Twitter, Internet (again) scoop MSM

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — This post focuses on how an Internet news service (BNOnews) and Twitter kicked butt on the Tiger Woods auto accident story.

The author points out how this story was out for 45 minutes before ESPN and CNN first reported it, arguing this is the future and the future is now. It's hard to disagree.

Jayson Blair discusses ethical missteps on CSPAN

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. —  Disgraced ex-New York Times reporter Jayson Blair — who was caught plagiarizing and making up quotes — spoke about his experiences to students and faculty at Washington and Lee University earlier this month.

The event made headlines at the time – it begins with a lengthy intro defending Blair’s appearance by the professor who invited him. It caught my eye early Saturday when I found the talk on CSPAN, but you can watch it anytime you'd like on the channel’s Web site.

This is an online journalism class in which ethics are an important aspect so it makes sense to examine real life transgressions at newspapers such as this. The program is lengthy at about 85 minutes, but I think any journalism student can learn as Blair says he accepts responsibility while adding it happened during the context of his personal problems. Now a life coach, he faces a fair but tough grilling from audience members who among other things want to know why he did what he did, how could anyone ever trust him again and what makes him qualified in his new career.

Layoffs hit multimedia journalists

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — This post from E-Media Tidbits shows that newspapers are even laying off those with multimedia skills.

It doesn't surprise me, though, because when The Flint Journal went from a daily to a three-times-a-week publication earlier this year, it cutback heavily from what had been exclusively an Internet-focused team among many other cuts across the board. This happened, I believe, because the paper could no longer afford a separate team and is now having its reporters and editors attempt to pick up the slack. To a certain extent, this flattening of specialization has been a long-running trend in journalism. This means those entering the profession will have to be a reporter, an editor, copy editor, videographer, etc. That'll be the reality, I think, until a more successful business model evolves.

Helpful minor blogging tips

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Here’s a short video I did to present three tips about Blogger — how to switch to the new editor, how to embed links into your text and how to insert a jump link into your post.

The reason I decided to point them out was because some of you aren't utilizing these tools in your posts and your posts would benefit if you started to use them.

Feed blog posts to Twitter

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — As promised here’s a short how-to video on sending blog posts to your Twitter account. Please e-mail me if you have any questions.

11-20-09 4:01 a.m. update: I had an interesting surprise after the feed posted. It didn't go to the JRN350 account, it went to tofermachniak instead. I think this was because I was already signed in at Twitter under tofermachniak. So, if you have multiple accounts, make sure you're signed into the correct account when creating your feed.

Send tweets to your blog

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — It took several takes, but I've created a short video on how to set up a feed from Twitter to your blog. If you have any questions, please e-mail me.

Twitter plan, blog roll in place

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Just like the rest of the class, I've added all the elements required in recent assignments, including a blog roll of online journalism related blogs and two Twitter widgets (One searches online journalism tweets while the other is for this blog’s account JRN350).

All the new widgets line the right-hand column, which admittedly is becoming crowded, and I know I want to add a Facebook feed next. Am I in danger of looking too busy like too many newspaper Web sites? Is this why WordPress, with its menus, is considered a better blogging platform?

In the meantime, a short-term solution could be finding a widget that fits at the bottom well, but I haven't yet.

Facebook tips for journalists

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — I came across this archived chat this week about giving tips about Facebook for journalists. It's from the Poynter Online and it should help us with our research with more social networking in the coming weeks.

Advanced Twitter searching

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — In next week's assignment, you’ll be exploring Twitter much more closely and one quick point I want to make now is about the much-talked about advanced Twitter search that journalists covet.

You’ll quickly notice the search on an individual’s Twitter account focuses on people and businesses and doesn't offer advanced options like (search.twitter.com/advanced) can. So, when I ask that you to do an advanced search next week, that's where you should go.