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.

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.