Assignment #5

Some of you have already been including some original reporting on your blog - whether it was a Q&A with your podcast, a review of something related to your topic, etc. For this assignment, I want everyone to do a post that is based on your own reporting work - if you've already been doing this, try to do a different format. For example, if you've been writing lots of reviews, then do a Q&A with someone talking about your blog topic (doesn't have to be audio/podcast) or include some photography - but something that tells a story - not just one picture.

Clearly label your original reporting post as fulfilling Assignment #5. Also, if you've already been doing a lot of this, you can send me an e-mail noting other examples of original reporting on your blog. You have until the final blog deadline of Nov. 30 to do this.

Assignment #6

For your last weekly blog assignment, write one final essay that should be posted on your blog by Friday Nov. 30 about your blogging experience – what did you get out of it, if anything. What would you do differently? What did you enjoy? Dislike? Do you think you will continue your blog? Were there any surprises? What do you think of blogs in general? Did you share your blog with family and friends and what did they think?

Finally!

Boston.com has redesigned its Website - hurray! I've been complaining about it forever. Have not had the time to really explore it yet, but anything has to be better than before.

Indy Star writer fired for blog posting

A columnist for the Indy Star newspaper was fired for comments he made in a blog on the newspaper's Website. You can read about it here.

This/Next Week's Assignment #4

Support your classmates! This week's blog assignment is simply to peruse your fellow classmates blogs and post a comment in at least two of them. This way you will see what others are writing/podcasting/photographing about. Sometimes you get ideas from seeing what others are doing.

Breaking News and Mulit-media

A good example of how multi-media can be put to good use can be seen on the LA Times Website - with the coverage of the wild fires that are wreaking havoc in Southern California right now. There are static and interactive maps, constantly updated photos, a place for residents to post their stories, lists of who should be evacuating and what is closed, etc. This is all organized and easy to find on the homepage.

Testing Podcast host site

Test

This/Last Week's Assignment #3

This went out in an e-mail last week, but I wanted to post it here also.

Making a podcast for your blog. Record some audio with your recorder.
We will edit the audio and make the podcast in class next week.
So what should your podcast be? You could write a long post
and then read it. You may find you make a few recordings of
yourself saying the same thing, because you don't
like how you sound, you make mistakes, etc. You could
be a bit more creative and combine you talking with some
other sounds related to your topic. You could do a brief discussion
with someone else that is topic-related.  (Last semester,
one student did weekly podcasts of him and a friend discussing the
latest in baseball.)  The time length should be anywhere from 2 – 5 minutes. 
You may have multiple audio files that we will combine into one audio
track for the podcast. You should have your audio file ready to
go for Tuesday Oct. 23.

Promoting Your Blog

Where is everybody? It can be a bit discouraging, when you are writing post after post on your blog, but don’t see anyone commenting on your prolific witty and knowledgeable writings. There are many blogs out there that got off to an enthusiastic start, but slowly fizzled because the writer wasn’t sure if anyone was reading and gives up. The best course is to just to keep plugging away. Write and write and write. It is good discipline and you will grow as a writer, even if no one, but your best friends or parents, are reading you. If you feel you are starting to find a voice, and you are writing regularly, you might want to think about getting your blog “out there” a bit more. There are a few ways to plug in to the blogosphere. One is to link to other blogs on your site and then read them on a regular basis. When you click on the link from your blog into theirs, they may notice you if they are following their referrer links (some blogging programs allow bloggers to see how much traffic they have and where it is coming from). Some of these blogs, may in turn, put up a link back to you, driving their readers over to your site for a visit. To be more involved, start commenting on these other blogs to join the conversation. To find other blogs in your topic area, see below **

Another option is Google. Share your url address with Google and they may add it to their vast index. This means when people type in certain words during a search, your blog may turn up as one of the links. Go to this page to learn more about this: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl.

But the purpose of our assignment is not to become the most popular blog or build high traffic. The point is to be "out there" with your voice, improve your writing, and possible connect or tap into a community that exists in the blogosphere. Good luck!
** Finding other blogs. There are a few blog directory/search engines out there. Google has one and Tecnhnorati

This week's Assignment #2

This week's assignment for your blog is to include an original photo/s with a post. Some of you have already been doing this, which is great. Some of you have blog topics that are really suited for this, and you may have to get a bit creative to figure out what will work. It doesn't need to be award-winning photo work - I just want you to add an original visual component to your blog. If you haven't been using any photos/visuals on your blog, you will see how it can really add to it. Let me know if you have any questions, etc.

The death knoll of journalism?

The above headline is a bit extreme - however, we can talk all we want about the important role media plays in society, but without advertising dollars to support the industry, we are sunk. (There are a few exceptions that aren't dependent on advertising such as public radio and television, but the majority of the industry is ad dependent). The New York Times has a piece on changing advertising practices with Nike as the main example - they are relying less and less on traditional print and TV ads - using there own Website and broadcasting most of their ads online. They are also reaching out to consumers with community-based strategies - running advice, runner's groups, etc. It's an interesting piece and anyone going into journalism needs to stay informed on what is happening in the advertising world as well.

This week's Assignment #1

On your blog, write a review or summary of another blog or Website related to your topic. Don't forget to link to it. If you need some suggestions, ask me.

Audio Slide Show examples

For your final project, peruse some of these to get ideas. As I was putting this list of links together, I realized how hard it is to find some of these on news Websites. For example, I know that Boston.com has done some of these but just try finding them. They don't have a main multimedia page. The poor organization and navigation on some news sites still amazes me since some of them have been in existence for at least 7-8 years if not more.

New York Times Audio Slide Shows

The Christian Science Monitor

Minneapolis Star Tribune
On this one - look at the Long Commute - and how they incorporate the basic sounds in background into the piece.

Blogs I like/read

This week's selection for blogs I like/read is Buzz Machine, a blog that is related to the topic of our class - new media. It's written by Jeff Jarvis, who has worn many hats in the media business and is currently associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York’s new Graduate School of Journalism. He is extremely enthusiastic about new directions/changes in the business and keeps tabs on all the latest happenings, gadgets, debates, etc.

Sourcing Facebook and My Space

The American Journalism Review has a piece about how journalists are starting to use Facebook and MySpace for background information on people - their hobbies, likes/dislikes, etc. One interesting use the article mention was reporters tracking the pages of U.S. men and women serving in Iraq.

Your fellow bloggers

Just to recap a few interesting posts on some of your blogs. Heather wrote up a nice one on her Style Stalker blog about the recent annual fashion show over at The Cambridge Artists' Cooperative Craft Gallery. She also loaded up some original pics, which is great. Shari, who is writing about reality TV, was able to rub shoulders with three reality TV personalities at the recent collegefest - with the photo to prove it. Jillian, who is blogging about health and fitness, writes about an upcoming PBS special on the Boston Marathon and includes a dramatic pic from her photo archives. Jewell writes about the Colorado State University college newspaper free speech issue with their F--- Bush headline on her higher education blog. And Matt. D. turned 21 and you can read all about here. Happy Birthday!

Chronic commenters

The New York Times had a piece today about how some people are making names for themselves just by commenting on other people's blogs - a few don't even have their own blogs, they just spout off on others (many, many times).

Blogs I read

Once in a while I'll write a post about a blog I check out on a regular or infrequent basis. Usually I'll try to cover one that is not one of the work/school related ones I check out. Today, it's Petite Anglaise. The last time I was in Paris was two New Year's Eve ago and I came back all enthused about all things Paris - dreams of moving there, planning another longer trip, ordering cafe au laits in my Dorchester coffee shop, etc. Needless to say the closest I'm getting to any of that is reading blogs of people who do live there - some are Americans and some are French. This blog is a British woman living in Paris and an example of a real personal blog - with photos, daily accounts. I like reading blog of people living other places - there are a ton of them out there and some give some real insight of daily life in places around the world.

Blogs are bad ... no they're not

The Globe ran an op-ed by local author Steve Almond about why blogs aren't right for newspaper Websites and for the news in general. I disagree with most of what he writes, although I do agree that many newspapers just added blogs to their Websites in a desperate "we can do this too" approach and many of them aren't that great. However, some reporters are writing great blogs that greatly expand their beats and establish a smart and intelligent rapport with their readers. One that I particularly like is Cathy Horn of the New York Times who covers fashion - her blog, On The Runway, gives a behind the scenes look at what she does, the business, the people - stuff that would never get in her printed pieces.

Welcome Fall 2007

So the Fall 2007 semester has kicked off and this year's online journalism students are setting up their blogs. I'm starting to add the links over to the right under Student Blogs. A few students from prior classes have still kept their blogs going in a one form or another and they are listed below in the former student category.

Boston music blogs

Yesterday's Sunday Globe had an article on local music blogs. One is Bradley's Almanac bradleysalmanac.com - which is 7 years old and posts recordings of live local shows. Another one is Band in Boston bandinbostonpodcast.com - which has podcasts. There are a few more local blogs profiled in the piece.

Who's afraid of the big bad blog?

Adam has a post on Dan Shaughnessy's (Globe sports columnist) column from yesterday, which was a mock on Curt Schilling's personal blog - basically Shaughnessy was making fun of Schilling's blog and the fans who post to it and basically just the whole concept of a sports star communicating with the fans. I think it was suppose to be funny, but it wasn't. And I felt it barely concealed "old media" angst about blogs. Read it for yourself and judge.

Blog highlights

On the blogging front, Adam has making good use of You Tube on Every Game is a Superbowl, Dinah writes about her audition on the reality show "So You Think You Can Dance" Rose has posted some pics from Puerto Rico, and from Em's blog I found out that Vanilla Ice (ugh!) is actually performing in Copley Square tomorrow to promote Dunkin Donuts! (free iced coffee on Wed. if you can bear to stand in the line at Schillman Hall)

Speaking of copyright

... which we talked about last class, Viacom is now suing You Tube for "massive copyright infringment" - mainly for all the clips of Viacom shows like the Daily Show, which are available on You Tube. This is the first major legal challenge to Google and portends to be a big clash between old media and new media.

Blog assignment

Blog your break. So I want everyone to write a "what I did over my break post." If you have some photos - this would be a great place to post one or two. Please write the post by Friday the 16th. So here's mine:

My break was spent in the library for the most part - I'm trying to finish two papers for conference deadlines. I've put the book to the side for a few weeks while I work on that. But I also got away for two nights to NYC. I didn't bring any work/computer, etc. It was great. Stayed at Bryant Park Hotel in midtown. Usually we stay in Tribeca, but decided to be different this trip. Went to MOMA on Friday night - it's free during that time. Saw an exhibit of Jeff Wall's photography and also checked out a few of the stand-bys - Picasso, Van Gogh, etc. But it started to get really crowded. Here's one of the Jeff Wall pics that I liked here. That night we headed down to the lower East Side to hang out - went to the Backroom and also ate at this great tiny Asian tapas place called Kuma Inn - I highly rec. it. The next day was lots of walking and a visit to the Neue Gallerie - mainly because I wanted to see this recent acquisition of a Gustav Klimt. We saw it, but most of the museum was closed because they are setting up for a new exhibit - but it meant free admission! Long walk through Central Park. That night we headed over to Brooklyn for dinner at Superfine - we'be been there a few times, because every year we come down to see the Wooster Group - a theater group that performs at St. Anne's Warehouse in this part of Brooklyn. After dinner we went to see them perform a very different "Hamlet"- they incorporate a lot of multimedia - usually video into their performaces. It was long - almost three hours! - but excellent. The next day we head to back to pick up Zoe at my parents and celebrate my brother's birthday. All around great little respite! Now back to work!

Blog highlights

Just some highlights from your blogs - although most people slowed down on the blogging over the spring break, there were still a few people busy out there. Glenn is actually blogging on Boston.com this week as his band Cassavettes tours in Texas. Click on that link to help drive up the traffic to his blog, because news Websites track that stuff! On Boston Heath and Fitness, Ami had an interesting post of a new energy drink that was actually called 'Cocaine' - talk about extreme branding - the name has caused the drink to pulled off the shelves of some convenience stores. Adam weighs in on the recent suspension of long-time Globe sports columnist Ron Borges for plagarism. Jeff weighs in on the death of Captain America - for all you comic book fans. Welcome back!

Copyright

Here are some links we are going to be talking about in class.
10 Big Myths About Copyright Explainedhttp://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
Creative Commonshttp://creativecommons.org/
There was news last week about the Recording Industry Assocation of America (RIAA) targeting college students (once again) who are downloading music.

More audio slide show examples

Here is a New York Times example, "Climb Like a Girl" where there are multiple people interviewed.

Here is one where the reporter does the narration - it's on high-end Indian restaurants in London.

Audio Slide Show examples

Here is a simple one from the New York Times. Notice the audio quality isn't great (most of ours won't sound perfect either). The subject of this slide show is the only one narrating. You can choose this approach or I will also post an example where the reporter's voice in in the narration also. The piece only runs about 1 1/2 minutes. There are simple captions under the photos. Notice how one of the photos includes the sign of the dog business. There was a story about finding your dream career that was related to this slide show. I'll be posting other examples soon. If you come across any you would like to share - please let me know!

Newspapers and video

New York Magazine columnist Kurt Anderson had a piece on how some newspapers are embracing streaming video over their Websites - some, like the New York Times, experimenting - with some that work and some not so much. Take note of how magazine giant " Time Inc. just announced a new “studio” to develop Web video." Lots of future jobs in this area!

Blogs, blogs, blogs

I've noticed the mention of blogs more and more in the stories linked from Romensko's media blog -- what at first was not considered journalism or worthy of attention, blogging is now getting a lot of chatter in media circles. One of the stories linked today from the site is about how 45% of NYU undergrads read blogs - mostly of the entertainment/gossip genre.

P.S. - I've mentioned Romensko's site in class - it's worth following if this is the business you want to get into - it's filled with stories about what is happening in the industry - gossip, news, etc.

Blog your debt away

The New York Times has a piece yesterday on people who blog about their debt - how much they have, how they are trying to pay it off, etc.

No more wikipedia

UVM has said that students can not use Wikipedia as a cited source for papers. They're not banning it completely - because as we talked about in class, some of the wikipedia entries footnote credible sources, which you can seek out on your own and possibly use in your work.

Promoting your blog

Where is everybody? It can be a bit discouraging, when you are writing post after post on your blog, but don’t see anyone commenting on your prolific witty and knowledgeable writings. There are many blogs out there that got off to an enthusiastic start, but slowly fizzled because the writer wasn’t sure if anyone was reading and gives up. The best course is to just to keep plugging away. Write and write and write. It is good discipline and you will grow as a writer, even if no one, but your best friends or parents, are reading you. If you feel you are starting to find a voice, and you are writing regularly, you might want to think about getting your blog “out there” a bit more. There are a few ways to plug in to the blogosphere. One is to link to other blogs on your site and then read them on a regular basis. When you click on the link from your blog into theirs, they may notice you if they are following their referrer links (some blogging programs allow bloggers to see how much traffic they have and where it is coming from). Some of these blogs, may in turn, put up a link back to you, driving their readers over to your site for a visit. To be more involved, start commenting on these other blogs to join the conversation. To find other blogs in your topic area, see below **

Another option is Google. Share your url address with Google and they may add it to their vast index. This means when people type in certain words during a search, your blog may turn up as one of the links. Go to this page to learn more about this: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl. You can also submit your blog address to Blogwise – here is their page on how do to it.

But the purpose of our assignment is not to become the most popular blog or build high traffic. The point is to be "out there" with your voice, improve your writing, and possible connect or tap into a community that exists in the blogosphere. Good luck!
** Finding other blogs. There are a few blog directory/search engines out there. Google has one, there is Blogwise, and Tecnhnorati

All of me - online

There is an interesting piece in New York Magazine this week about how the "younger" generation are comfortable exposing their personal lives -via words, photos, video on the Internet. I thought this was going to be another story with a "young people post risque pics on the Internet" angle - and there is some of that, but it goes deeper into privacy issues, generational shifts in communcation tools, approaches. Please take the time to read this week and I would love to hear what everyone thinks of the piece. While I'm more cautious about how much information some people are putting out there - I do love how creative some of these kids/young adults are. And I don't think that all of them who are claiming they won't have any regrets when they're "older" may necessarily feel that way 10, 15 years from now - but who knows?

More music

We have another musician in our midst in addition to Glenn - here is a post by Dani with a clip of her singing (hard to see her, but it sounds great!)

Politics and blogs

We were talking in class a bit back about the next presidential election and the Internet - today the New York Times has a piece about John Edwards and his decision to keep two liberal feminist bloggers on his campain staff - the risk is that their freewheeling postings may draw him some heat later down the road.

The advertising business

For those of you interested in working in advertising - digital skills are the way to go. A recent article in the Boston Business Journal profiles Arnold Worldwide (based here in Boston) and how

"had cut 40 jobs, some of which were culled from veteran creative ranks. Arnold said the layoffs were made to 'get ready for the future.'"

But how

"In the same statement, the agency said it planned to add nearly 30 interactive jobs."

This is you guys!

There' s more:

"Arnold's layoffs were termed a direct "weeding out" of staff that were not
evolving, according to one Arnold insider: "They went in and they took
inventory (of the staff). It's causing a huge rift through the company --
there's old school and new school. The whole industry is convulsing right
now.""

Restaurant bloggers

Today's New York Times profiles some restaurant bloggers who make noise online about their likes and dislikes in the NYC restaurant scene - some of the bloggers profiled include Restaurant Girl, and Eater

Student blog highlights

Some more highlights from various blog postings of your classmates. Erin's bank card was one of the ones stolen in the TJMaxx/Marshalls computer data scandal - she writes about it here.
Adam was asked (I'm assuming by his newspaper) to come with new ideas of how to cover sports online- here are his thoughts. Danielle, who is blogging about art, writes about an upcoming Jackson Pollack exhibit at Boston College.

Collecting $$ for Darfur

Your classmate Melissa has been blogging about Darfur and she is collecting spare change to donate to a related charity. Here's her post on the grassroots fundraising campaign. If you have any loose change in your bags, feel free to hand it over!

Podcasting complaints

The San Francisco Chronicle is starting to put up podcasts of voice mail messages left by irate or fact correcting or happy readers. The Pilotless Drone one gives you a good taste of what can come into the newsroom on a regular day.

Pics from a 4-year-old

So we've been discussing digital photography in class and you are all taking shots for Monday's photoshop workshop. Just thought I would share the lastest from mi hija. We got her a real basic cheap camera just a few weeks ago. Here is her latest. (Yes, 4-year-olds are into Barbie's - supposedly they grow out of them at 7. I don't even want to know what comes after that).

Another blog highlight

I also meant to point out this blog post in my previous post - your soon to be very famous classmate Glenn is blogging about his band Cassavettes (the Globe recently called them "The Boston buzz band"). So here is a clip of their appearance on the local Fox25 affiliate with reporter Kim Carrigan.

Student blog highlights

Once a week, I will try to highlight different posts from your blogs. First, Tom has already started podcasting (we'll be learning how to do this in class in a few weeks). Tom writes about baseball on his blog Bleacher Seats and here is the link to the post with the podcast. This is great Tom! Nicole is writing about film, and someone has already stumbled across her blog The Reel Scoop and posted a comment. If you are a "24" fan, Susan Torres recaps last night's episode for those who missed it or those who want to relive it! I teach a Monday night class and don't get home until 25 minutes into the show, so this recap helped fill in the holes! Dinah, who is blogging about all things dance, is also doing the same kind of recaping with MTV's new Dancelife show. Both Adam, who is covering non-traditional sports, and Jeff, who is covering the life of writing comic books, are going to town - lots of blogging! That's all for now ...

Boston Globe closing foreign bureaus

We talked in class yesterday about the changes taking place in the media industry. Today, the Boston Globe announced the closing of their three foreign bureaus - here is Prof. Dan Kennedy's take on it, including the memo from Globe editor Marty Baron.

Romney and the Internet trail

Today's Boston Globe has an article on an activist who is taking former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (who is hoping to be the next Republican presidential candidate) to task on past positions by scouring the Internet for old stories quoting Romney and then sending out a e-mail newsletter detailing Romney's changing viewpoints, etc. We'll talk a bit in class about how the Internet is playing a bigger and bigger role in politics - in both poisitive and negative ways.

We're off and running

I've started putting up links to your blogs over on the right!

Newspaper blog readership is way up

Here is a Reuters story on how the readership of the top 10 newspaper blogs has tripled since a year ago. Some newsrooms have been reluctant or unsure about using blogging in the newsroom, but these numbers will probably encourage more to jump into the blogosphere.

Blog about College Media

The Romensko media blog had a link to this blog about innovation in college media
and in particular this Q&A with Howard Owens who is the Director of Digital Publishing at Gatehouse Media. The following are some parts of the interview about what you should be learning as a journalism student that jumped out at me:

ICM: Which leads a little bit into my next question … The online media universe has been changing dramatically over the last two years. What parts of that change do you think are most crucial for student journalists to comprehend?

Owens: Blogging and video. I don’t think many people grasp how much we can learn from blogging about how the way people consume information is changing ...

And ...

ICM: Taking those ideals from blogging and video, then, how can those be added to the skill set students are cultivating while working in student media. Maybe some tips on how students can get started here.

Owens: Blog. Shoot and edit video. But mainly, blog. Every student journalist should spend at least six months totally immersed in blogging. Start a blog and try to draw an audience. Do the things that bloggers need to do, read other blogs, create a blog roll, link to other blogs, post frequently on topics relevant to the audience you’re trying to reach (and read those blogs in that category), comment on other blogs. Learn to be a participant. That’s my advice to pro journalists, too: if you want to learn this culture, become a participant in it. It will totally change the way you think about media and online publishing.

TV-Newspaper marriages are breaking up

Here is a piece in the Washington Post about how newspapers, which at one point, saw their future in partnering up with TV stations - now realize they can do their own TV on the Web. I mentioned in class the other day how the NYTimes sold off their TV stations and we looked at some of their mulit-media examples in class, including video they are now producing online.

Sample of Blogs

We will discuss some of these in class ....


Technorati
http://www.technorati.com

Media
Romenesko's
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45

Media Nation
http://medianation.blogspot.com/


Politics/Law
Daily Kos
http://dailykos.com/

Instapudit
http://instapundit.com/


Sports
Over the Monster (Red Sox)
http://www.overthemonster.com/

Women’s Hoops Blog
http://www.womenshoops.blogspot.com/


Gossip/Misc
Gawker
http://www.gawker.com/

Defamer
http://www.defamer.com/

Post Secret
http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Fashion
I am fashion
http://iamfashion.blogspot.com/

Go Fug Yourself
http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/

Military
Blackfive
http://www.blackfive.net/


Technology
BoingBoing
http://www.boingboing.net/

Gizmodo, the gadget blog
http://www.gizmodo.com/

Sigh :(

Here is an article written by a journalism student (not Northeastern - phew!) who writes about how she/he faked many class assignments - made up quotes, people. So this piece really depresses me - it's not that I'm (or other profs) not aware of this problem - the past few semesters I've randomly called/e-mailed student sources to confirm identity/involvement, but it's not foolproof, and I don't like the role of trying to catch someone doing wrong. I would like to think that someone who cheats eventually is consumed by guilt, and is cursed with doom and gloom for the rest of their life. But this cheater is so blase, ho-hum, even a few years later. But I'm curious for comments on what you, the students, think about this piece. Do you think this is now status quote for j-students? Or an anomaly? Don't worry, I'm not expecting confessions, just your thoughts, ruminations, etc.

Spring Semester 2007 - Welcome!

Welcome to Online Journalism. This is the class blog, which I will use to post interesting reading links, additional class material/instruction, general musings on life, news, etc. I will also point out noteworthy posts on your blogs. I hope everyone had a great semester break. Mine was good, but busy. Not as exciting as last year, when I was here ... sigh ...




But I did visit the new Institute of Contemporary Art - over on the waterfront. Here's the family inside the museum.