UM-Flint student blogger seeks readers

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — I received an e-mail today in my University of Michigan-Flint account — so you probably did, too — from Marcos Baston, a student blogger for UM-Flint. He's trying to generate some buzz and comments for his blog through his e-mail. Sounds like a good idea to me.

As journalism students, what do you think of the university having a student blogger? Does this compete with or augment other student media, such as The Michigan Times? As a university blogger, I wonder how much freedom to express himself that he has. What do you think of his blog?

Remember, if you comment, you can pick up some EC points. If not, this might be a good enough of a subject for me to post our “Discussion Board.”

New Twitter list tool expected to help journalists

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Twitter is about to unveil a new tool publicly that allows users to create lists — a move that will benefit journalists, according to Craig Kanalley in his post today on E-Media Tidbits.

It would be smart to check this post out because we will be working with Twitter in a few short weeks.

One other side note, I learned about this impending change last week at that training seminar put on by the Online News Association in Ann Arbor. I still plan on some posts from what I learned there as we go.

Figuring out No. 4

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — In this week’s assignment, I'm asking that you create a widget “with a list of at least three Web site links that relate to your topic that readers would find useful.”

So, today my plan is to build that link list for this site (See Must See Links on right).

Why is this important? There are two reasons. One, readers always appreciate an stable place of useful links, so I plan to include links to the AP stylebook, Yourdictionary.com and a free stock photo Web site (always useful to those of us seeking art — see notebook right). Second, you might have a favorite Web site that you plan on aggregating (collecting) news about your site and readers appreciate links to those places.

But here's where it gets a little complicated. Now, my topic is online journalism and we know I already visit Poynter’s E-Media Tidbits. But is that a Web site or a blog? Does it matter? Yes, it does. In the blog widget (which I'll be requiring people to create later), it includes an option for an update feed, which readers and you as a blog publisher might find useful. 

Because E-Media Tidbits is actually a blog, I'll wait for the blog roll for that one (I get e-mail updates already, anyway).

So, what do you think of my list? Any suggestions to add or subtract? Remember, you could earn EC points.

(Photo above right courtesy of SXC)

Breaking news, death and Facebook friends

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A blog post from Poynter today discusses the ethics of should a reporter contact a person’s friends on Facebook after that person died during a breaking news event. The Poynter experts weigh in. Notice, this is one of those tough, case-by-case, situations, but they do offer good advice. Feel free to give your two cents here (Remember, you could earn a point in the EC contest).

Don’t forget the labels (tags)

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — We learned from the text (pages 63-64) that tags can help people find related posts within a site and potentially help people searching the Internet find your posts.

So, over the weekend, I added the requirement of adding tags (called labels in Blogger) for your first post. Get used to adding them because you’ll be required to have them with every post. I've taken a few minutes and added labels and a widget for the labels, which you should see on the right (It's the cloud display, BTW). Notice that the greatest number is “online journalism,” which I basically put in nearly every post. Now, after this week, I might remove “online journalism” from the widget because if you clicked on it, you’d find virtually every post on this blog, but it’s good to keep as a label so people searching on the Internet might find the post because of the label. Yes, this can be tricky, I know.

Also, note you have several options in creating your label widget on the right (see screen shot above from my computer). Note, I didn’t require the label widget this week, but adding it now would help you get an “A.”

Blogging as a journalist — there is a difference

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — After reading a couple of more proposals, there’s another point I want to re-emphasize as we do these blogs — don’t forget that we’re posting with our journalist’s hat on.

That means while blogging does involve your personality and your opinions in certain situations, it  doesn't mean you compromise yourself as a reporter, either. The basic mission of journalism is to seek out the truth about something for your readers and that has to remain the top priority, at least when it comes to your final project and any other original reporting you plan.

Tease to generate buzz

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Well, my last post was 10 days ago. That's not what you want to do while blogging. Typically, you want to have content at least once a day if not more. But I have been busy. I did attend the Online News Association’s Parachute Training seminar Thursday in Ann Arbor. There was a lot of good tips about Twitter and how make yourself noticed as a blogger. One of those was to try to create a buzz about your content by not sharing everything … so let me just say I'll be incorporating many of those tips in upcoming posts. Come back often to find them.

How to share best

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A Monday posting from E-Media Tidbits provides some good tips that we should keep in mind once we start creating our blogs soon on how to best integrate Web-sharing tools, such as Twitter.

Does the author’s Web site follow his advice?

For those who need a kickstart

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Journalists keep finding ways to pay for their work, including this Web site called Kickstarter.

Anyone find a potential ethical problem here or if it's anonymous donors paying, does that nullify it?

‘Talking to the Taliban’

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Kaitlin D. sent this link from the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail about the Taliban.

Here are Kaitlin’s comments: “While searching for an example of multimedia journalism, I stumbled upon “Talking to the Taliban,” as well as the story I chose. I found the Web site for this particular piece of journalism to be outstanding. Not only are there plenty of videos to keep me interested, but I loved how organized it was. There was so much information, yet it was neatly compiled according to the date it was written and further categorized into an introduction and parts one through six. There was also plenty of photographs and even maps and graphics to explain what the text said. I was thoroughly impressed with the organization and level of commitment this project clearly took. It is definitely not something that was put online quickly. It seems to have been very well thought out. And, as is the objective of journalism, it also taught me a lot. It gave me a deeper insight into the Taliban as well. Overall, I thought this was an exceptional piece of multimedia journalism. It also won an Emmy, so I assume I am not the only one who found it very thought provoking and outstanding. :)

http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/talkingtothetaliban/

-Kaitlin D.”

Learn about how to get internships

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The Poynter Institute’s Colleen Eddy and Joe Grimm, who also was the Detroit Free Press’ former recruiter, is holding a live chat today about how to get internships. If you're interested in a media career, I recommend you checking this out. Internships help you build contacts and a resume.

It's at 1 p.m. If you can't make it, you can go back and read the chat later.

Extra credit points for anyone who contributes a question to the chat that I can go back and verify afterward.

The next Wave?

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Jennifer S. sent in this story today about a new platform called the Google Wave.

Here are her comments: “Google has yet another new feature out trying to revolutionize the internet, the Google wave. This article even touches a bit on how the features of Google Wave can be used for journalism. What I find interesting about Google Wave is that it's very exclusive at the moment, kind of like facebook used to be. You have to have an invite to use it, but my gay ex boyfriend's friend he made at Swiss Business school used to intern at Google has super invites, so he's allowed to invite more than eight people. I commented on his status and asked him to invite me, so hopefully I get to try it out. I figure since we're already focusing on a Google feature this week it's interesting to read about a potential new feature of Google.”

BTW, this extends her lead over everyone but Lorry N., who has taken over second place by herself. Want to get in on the action? Send me a link or comment on this post or others here.

Serwach surges into lead

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Jennifer Serwach took the lead in the extra credit contest this week for her willingness to explore Second Life and report back, earning three extra credit points. That's the typical maximum you can earn in one week. She is now 11 points away from at least a 1 percent grade boost.

Running Google maps

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Back in Chapter 4 of “Principles of Convergent Journalism,” the text talks about Google Earth and discusses how journalists in Chicago have used crime data to make interactive maps with Google, showing crimes on a block-by-block basis. In Chapter 10, we're once again talking about adding multimedia.

One of your assignments this week is to make a simple Google Map. I've done one which you can view below the help video. It shows where I have run marathons (As a reporter, I had A LOT of stress covering Flint City Hall and dealing with editors, so I became a runner. I lost a lot of weight, too). I did it by creating a Google account and following their instructions in the video below.



Next is a wide shot of where I have run marathons. My dad likes to tease me about where I have gone, saying if I want to run 26.2 miles, all I need to do is put on my shoes and run out my front door. Why travel thousands of miles? I hope to run a marathon again in Detroit on Oct. 18, but I will bail if my wife is in labor.


View My marathons in a larger map

Lastly, we have a zoom of New York, where I ran the marathon in 2007 (I created both of these images using the customize embed feature). I thought I could run with Lance Armstrong and I blogged about my experience while I worked for The Flint Journal. I was wrong, but I did get a cool medal. Click on the placemark for a photo that I accessed through Flickr. We'll focus on Flickr more in a few weeks, but if you want to put a photo in, you'll need a place to host your images, so I set up my own account there.


View My marathons in a larger map

My take on Week 4 readings

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — So, here I am trying to figure out how to sit down on an log and I sit in the fire. Ouch, that hurt, I think?

That's how well my foray into Second Life was. Like Jennifer Serwach said on the Discussion Board, I wasn't that impressed with the interface or the virtual world itself — although after I did sit down some stranger walked up to me and asked me in Spanish if I wanted to be his friend (Not exactly like Facebook, eh?).

What I found more fascinating is how these people are writing and producing their own stories about this virtual world. Can't make it as reporter in the real world? Maybe you can make it in Second Life, a place with its own economy and problems just like the other world we share, although MSM, such as Reuters, has already cutback its own bureau in SL (just like the RW).

Apple’s expected tablet could redefine print

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Jennifer S. sent this link about a rumor that Apple will soon have its own digitial book reader to compete with the likes of Amazon’s Kindle.

Here are her comments: “So this article basically says that there's rumors of Apple releasing a product similar to the Kindle. As we all can tell from the iphone, Apple tends to revolutionize technology so perhaps the Apple alternative to the Kindle will be even more unique and revolutionary. If Kindle catches on more mainstream, that could impact newspapers greatly since the Kindle has a lot of features for seeing a newspaper in more of the form that you would see in print. And since Kindles aren't backlit in the same ways computers are they tend to be easier on the eyes. So more companies creating products similar to a Kindle means that they're catching on and that could help the news industry in the long run.”

A virtual summit on arts journalism

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Lorry N. sent this link earlier today about a virtual summit on arts journalism (P.S. This puts Lorry in the lead).

Here are her comments: “Check this website out - I believe it's just a blog but I never knew about this event. It seems like it would be very interesting to get on and watch. But, I'm not sure if it's open to the public or not!
Lorry N.”