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.

Twitter plan for JRN 350 site

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — I’ve required you to formulate a plan and meet a deadline — so this is my turn at detailing a Twitter strategy.

For this blog, I’m proposing a two-part approach (Don’t forget, extra EC points if you tell me what you think about this in the comments below):

1. Include a widget (gadget in Blogger) of my own tweets.
2. Include a widget that searches Twitter for all posts related to "online journalism."
   

Before implementing No. 1, I have to decide how to brand the new account, and I've decided to create a separate identity for this site specifically geared toward this class (and I already have), as discussed the Mashable article “How to: Build your personal brand in Twitter.” In the article, it noted how Mashable’s founder associated himself with his more famous brand on Twitter, so it's not necessarily a bad idea, although some online journalism experts believe creating your personal brand is the way to go. (My name is also on the account and background also are on the account, so maybe I'm splitting hairs here).

News University offers Webinar on Facebook

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — We’ll be focusing on Facebook after we're done with Twitter, but if you want to learn about how journalists can use the social networking site, News University is offering a 2 p.m. Webinar on Thursday (that's tomorrow).

The session will focus on:

• Best practices for news organizations using Facebook.
• Techniques to build your online presence — personally and as a news organization.
• Ethical concerns.
• Strategies to build relationships with your online audience.

The cost is $24.95 and it lasts about an hour. I've learned a lot about the latest trends in online journalism from other News University Webinars. So, while we will be devoting some time on Facebook, this can only add to what we will explore.

The growing twitosphere

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Ignore Twitter at your own peril.

That was the message I heard from a presentation by Twitter media veteran T.J. Ortenzi at an Online News Association training seminar I attended last month in Ann Arbor. He cited some staggering numbers why. The microblogging Web site already has 25 million users and it's expected to quadruple to 100 million by the end of 2010 and 1 billion by 2013 (Well, Twitter thinks so in internal documents, anyway — we should be skeptical — we are journalists).

The Trouble with Twitter

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — This week we're examining Twitter as a tool for journalists, but some think the site isn’t useful at all and worth some humor. (I first watched this during the Online News Association’s training seminar I attended a few weeks ago). So, take a look. Warning, there is some adult-level cartoon violence:

Online journalism blog now open to the world

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Today I've opened up our class blog to the public so I can add features, such as an RSS feed and an internal blog search, that I'm requiring for all of your blogs. To help protect anonymity, I've abbreviated everyone's name, but if anyone objects, e-mail me and I will put the privacy wall back up. If we stay public and you want your name public, e-mail me and I'll change that, too.

Journalism class investigated

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — While not online journalism, this column about a state investigation into a journalism reporting class at Northwestern University reveals how one course probing murder cases in Illinois is “hands-on, gritty and raw.”

Twitter, lists enlisted in Fort Hood coverage

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — E-Media Tidbits focused on the use of Twitter in coverage of this week's shootings at Fort Hood in Texas. This is timely because next week we will focus on the microblog site.

Using Flickr Part II — The Movie

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — I decided to try something new with my how-to post. Please tell me in the comment section below if this was helpful or if you almost fell asleep (It would be worth an EC point to those who haven't commented yet this week). You might want to view this on YouTube directly for a higher quality and/or enlarge the image to a full screen. If you think this was effective as a presentation, I will do more posts this way.

P.S. (Updated at 11:06 a.m. Nov. 4, 2009) — Sorry about the blurriness. It was much sharper on the original. I already see that's one place I need to improve.

The social media bypass

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Jennifer S. sent in this link of an article about politicians using social media to bypass the mainstream media. Her timing is excellent because social media is on the agenda in two weeks.

Here's what she said about the link: “Here's an extra credit article for the week. It's about how politicians are using social media to bypass the press and I think that's an increasing trend for politicians being able to put forth whatever positive press they want. I'm friends on facebook with Dayne Walling and it's a very good way to be informed on those matters.”

P.S. Jennifer is back in first place all by herself. Is anyone going to catch her? Will she get to 15 points? Only time will tell. Remember, each week you can earn points by sending me links like this one (two point maximum) and by commenting on posts on this blog (one point maximum). Also, you can earn even more by doing more posts to your blog this week (See the assignment sheet for details).

Using Flickr Part I

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Flickr — a photo sharing Web service owned by Yahoo! — is considered by some a valuable tool for bloggers. Online journalism professor Mindy McAdams has a great post that discusses Flickr and using photos on a blog that I'd like you to read in addition to the rest of this post.

How personal should a journalist’s blog be?

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Meet Lily. She's my daughter who was born at 2:07 p.m. Friday, sharing her birthday with my wife’s.

Obviously, I'm a proud papa — why else would I post a photo of her here as I did on Facebook? But a larger question looms, especially for journalists — how personal should their blogs be? Is it OK to venture away from the main topic, as I have here, and detail a little about my own life? What would be too much information?

Tell me what you think (in addition to how cute you think she is) to earn some EC points.