Online Journalism - JRN525

Assignment #5

2007-11-06T10:34:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-06T10:32:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-11-05T13:50:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-02T10:13:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-24T18:20:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-22T11:47:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-22T09:56:00.001-05:00

Test

This/Last Week's Assignment #3

2007-10-22T08:40:00.001-05:00

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

2007-10-19T08:48:00.001-05:00

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

2007-10-15T09:38:00.001-05:00

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?

2007-10-14T16:55:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-08T17:50:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-08T17:40:00.001-05:00

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

2007-10-08T17:19:00.001-05:00

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

2007-10-02T17:55:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-30T19:16:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-30T18:31:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-23T18:21:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-19T15:50:00.000-05:00

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

2007-09-17T18:49:00.001-05:00

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

2007-04-09T10:06:00.000-05:00

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?

2007-03-27T18:16:00.000-05:00

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

2007-03-19T13:41:00.000-05:00

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

2007-03-14T09:52:00.000-05:00

... 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

2007-03-12T10:53:00.000-05:00

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

2007-03-12T10:44:00.000-05:00

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

2007-03-12T10:35:00.000-05:00

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.

Audio Slide Show examples

2007-02-26T12:34:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-26T12:20:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-21T18:47:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-19T18:30:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-13T11:09:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-12T14:32:00.001-05:00

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

2007-02-11T17:51:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-09T10:51:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-09T09:41:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-05T17:00:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-04T15:51:00.000-05:00

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

2007-02-04T15:28:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-31T14:20:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-26T19:27:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-25T17:43:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-25T17:37:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-23T18:18:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-23T18:03:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-22T12:48:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-18T18:48:00.001-05:00

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

Newspaper blog readership is way up

2007-01-18T13:15:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-16T10:41:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-11T11:40:00.000-05:00

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

2007-01-10T14:38:00.000-05:00

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 :(

2007-01-09T18:30:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-01-07T18:03:00.000-05:00

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.

The end ....

2006-04-10T11:25:00.000-05:00

The end is near. Hopefully, some of you will keep your blogs going, but obviously you are not obligated once the semester ends. I hope you found the experiment interesting and useful. For the next week, concentrate on posting daily. I also want you to write one final essay that should be posted on your blog by Sunday (4/16/06) 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? I will type up comments and issue a final grade for everyone’s blog to hand out next Wednesday -- our last class.

Another place to promote your blog

2006-03-27T15:57:00.000-05:00

http://www.25peeps.com/

More on the future

2006-03-22T11:03:00.000-05:00

Here's a piece by a newspaper editor on why journalism students should think about a career on the Web. We will discuss in class.

My Space

2006-03-16T11:52:00.000-05:00

On the same thread of what we talked about in class yesterday ... here is a local story from WHDH on students who posted song lyrics on My Space, which their school found offensive

It's the law ...

2006-03-15T12:41:00.000-05:00

Here are a few links to sites I will be talking about in class today ....

Electronic Frontier Foundation's Legal Guide for Bloggers

Brad Templeton's 10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained

The future, your future

2006-03-13T17:17:00.000-05:00

When you have the time, it's worth reading the latest State of the News Media report 2006 - pick the particular area of journalism you are interested in or just read about the major trends. We will talk about some of these in class.

Another newsroom merge

2006-02-23T12:46:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal has announced that their print and online divisions will merge into one division. The New York Times already made this move last year.

Blogs and $$$

2006-02-22T10:58:00.000-05:00

New York Magazine had a piece this week on the bloggers (some not much older than you) who have turned their blogs into some cash flow. But note that there are now 27 million blogs out there! So not everyone is going to get famous doing this.

It's Jerry Time ...

2006-02-13T13:09:00.000-05:00

The Globe also has a piece on Jerry Zucker, a local resident who has turned his sad sorry life into mini-movies for the Web. You can check out his site here - It's Jerry Time

Wikipedians

2006-02-13T13:07:00.000-05:00

The Boston Globe has an article on today some of the volunteers who write and "guard" entries on Wikipedia

Photo manipulation

2006-02-08T10:55:00.001-05:00

We are doing Photoshop Workshops this week.
Here are some links we are going to look at in class -examples of altered magazine photo covers

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/

http://www.usatoday.com/life/2003-06-16-covers_x.htm

http://www.sree.net/teaching/lateditors.html

The perils of blogging

2006-02-02T13:33:00.000-05:00

A reporter for the Dover Post in Deleware was fired for a personal blog he wrote on the side. Read about the story here.

RSS feeds, etc.

2006-01-30T11:38:00.000-05:00

Today we are going to be talking about RSS feeds. And other ways of keeping on top of the topic you are covering in your blog. Here are some sites we are going to look at.

Bloglines

Feedster

And we're off....

2006-01-26T20:24:00.000-05:00

Our class of 21 students is setting up their blogs this week - lots of sports topics ... also fashion, food, humor, tv, film, etc. This is a journalism class, so we have some ground rules, which I will post. Sticking to journalistic standards while also experimenting a bit - getting a chance to do some opinion writing, write reviews, etc. I'm starting to add the links to student blogs off to the right. I'm impressed with how some people are already loading up their own photos, making their own graphics, tweaking the code to customize their blog, etc. I'm hoping this semester to play around with a bit of podcasting - loading up some audio to the blogs. Today we looked at CommandN - this great tech news Web TV program based in Toronto-a good example of what you can do with a blog and some multi-media tools.

By the end of the weekend, I should have everyone's blog linked up from here.

Same blog, new colors

2006-01-26T20:17:00.000-05:00

I thought the blog needed a new look for the new semester ... hence, the new look.

Houston Chronicle is looking for bloggers

2006-01-20T12:19:00.000-05:00

Too bad we don't live in Houston ...

Just a taste ...

2006-01-18T13:13:00.000-05:00

Online Journalism - A sampling of blogs

Directory of blogs
Technorati
http://www.technorati.com

Blogwise
http://www.blogwise.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/

Blogdorf Goodman
http://blogdorfgoodman.blogspot.com/

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

Froggy Ruminations
http://froggyruminations.blogspot.com/

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

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

Welcome Spring Semester!

2006-01-18T11:45:00.000-05:00

Round 2. It's now Spring semester - and we have a new group of students for Online Journalism. Hopefully some of the kinks we had last semester with our inaugural effort will be smoothed out this time around. First up, a piece in New York Magazine about Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist. Please read to discuss next week. Also if you are not famliar with Craigslist, spend some time exploring it. Craiglist is a threat to newspaper classifieds - the bread and butter of newspaper revenue.

Crossing the finish line

2005-11-29T10:15:00.000-05:00

The end is here. Hopefully, some of you will keep your blogs going, but obviously you are not obligated once the semester ends. I hope you found the experiment interesting and useful. For the next week, concentrate on posting daily – many took a hiatus over the holiday and that’s fine. I also want you to write one final essay that should be posted by Sunday (12/4/05) 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? I will type up comments and issue a final grade for everyone’s blog to hand out next Tuesday -- our last class.

There's gold in them Websites ...

2005-11-28T12:47:00.000-05:00

For those of us who worked on news Websites in the ancient period of the mid to late'90s, when many in the business didn't "get" what the Web was all about - it's fun to see these articles about how now the business gets it - the Web is the future for print. Here's a piece from the San Diego Union Tribune.

Must-read blogs

2005-11-16T10:55:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal has come up with their list of must-read blogs. Maybe some day yours will be among them!

The Arts and blogging

2005-11-15T10:24:00.000-05:00

We've touched on the subject a bit about how many people would love to be a music critic or a movie critic or a food critic, but those jobs are hard to get and the people who have them don't leave 'til they die -but the Internet is opening up a whole new world in this area (think Pitchfork), here's an article in the Wall Street Journal that talks about "artbloggers"

Newsvine - a wikipedia version of the news

2005-11-15T10:13:00.000-05:00

Here's a story from the Seattle Post about a new company called Newsvine - it's going to be an online news site that will let readers write and edit the news - it's a media development project under Walt Disney.

Audio Slide Show

2005-11-07T12:40:00.000-05:00

This week we will be starting to work on learning the tools to make our Flash audio slide shows and on today's New York Times Website there is an inspriring one of 28 disabledAmerican soldiers (many fought in Iraq) who ran the NY City marathon over the weekend - all 28 finished. Either go to the homepage today where it's linked or try the indexed page - try to view before class, if not, we will look at in class. It's called "Among the Finishers"

Another piece on teens and blogs

2005-11-04T11:15:00.000-05:00

The New York Times had a piece yesterday (similar to the one USAToday had) on teenagers airing their all on blogs, online sites, etc. Many stories have been focused on the privacy issues and parents concern about what info is out there and who is reading it, but I like how this story also points out how these kids are creating their own multi-media packages - using music, video, spoken voice, words, photos - they are adept at using various media equipment. These are the future consumers of news and they are going to want more than the products the current media organiztions are offering. The innovation in the business will come from these young minds (including my students) as they move out into the workforce.

The law and the Internet

2005-11-04T11:11:00.000-05:00

Here are a few links to sites I will be talking about in class today ....

Electronic Frontier Foundation's Legal Guide for Bloggers

Brad Templeton's 10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained

Cuts and more cuts ... jobs in journalism

2005-11-03T18:29:00.000-05:00

Interesting thoughts by Jeff Jarvis today (he writes the Buzz Machine blog, which I read pretty regulary) on the future of journalism - particulary newspapers with all the doom and gloom announcements there have been lately on lay-offs, etc. He also excerpts others who have interesting things to say. Yes, there is doom and gloom, but there are also a lot of people who have hope that the profession has a lot of opportunities in the future - it's just going to be different - not the media business your parents or grandparents once knew.

Copyright violations

2005-11-02T18:58:00.000-05:00

Lauren B. wrote this post about a recent WSJ piece on photo agencies scanning Web for illegal use of their photos - we're going to talk about copyright violations in class on Friday. Please read this article before then.

Free speech issues at schools

2005-11-01T10:58:00.000-05:00

Here's a piece about Tri-State University's (Fort Wayne, Indiana) new policy that faculty and students can't speak with the press without the university's permission. Usually this is standard fare for employees of a school, like faculty, but very unusual to include students in this mix.

On her blog, Jennifer wrote a post about a high school in New Jersey that has ordered (or risk suspension) its students to take down any online journals or profiles they have on the Internet.

Photo manipulation

2005-10-31T11:32:00.000-05:00

This goes back a few lectures when we discussed how easy it is to alter photos with software programs such as Photoshop. Here is an article on on USA Today altered a photo of Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice - it was an AP photo and they touched up the eyes for the Web version. Pics are included with the article - read it here

Following your blog topic in the news

2005-10-28T10:30:00.000-05:00

A great feature that Google provides is News Alerts. These make it easy to follow your topic in the news without checking out numerous separate Websites everyday. For example, for my Keeping Score blog, I have a news alert that sends me an e-mail with all the news stories that have the key words - "women, LPGA, golfers." Once a day, Google sends me an e-mail and I can scan the headlines and look at the stories that look like they might be something I want to put on my blog. You can set up as many news alerts as you would like - I have several. The trick is to have enough key words so you don't get flooded with a ton of links but not so narrow that you miss out on things. Google also provides links to blogs that match your key words also - so this can lead you to fellow bloggers in your topic area.

State of the Media

2005-10-28T09:43:00.000-05:00

We will be talking about this report in class - State of the Media 2005 put out by the Project for Excellence in Journalism

The media biz is freaking out over your news habits

2005-10-27T10:16:00.000-05:00

The Chicago Tribune also has a piece on where young people are getting the news. In addition to commenting on the New York Times piece, (see this post) you may want to add a sentence or two about this piece, along with it.

Something light ...

2005-10-27T10:04:00.000-05:00

I took the What Kind of Food Are You? test that Taryn links to from her blog and here I am ...

You Are Thai Food

Trendy yet complex.
People seek you out - though they're not sure why.

What Kind of Food Are You?

I want my news for free

2005-10-25T08:56:00.000-05:00

This week's blog assignment is to go off your blog topic and write an essay in response to this article in the New York Times "Why Should You Pay to Read This Newspaper". Post your response on your own blog. Write about your own news habits - how do you get your news? Also, talk about other kinds of content you use - music, movies, books, magazines, - what are you willing to pay for? How much a month roughly do you spend on media content? What do you get for free? How have your habits changed over the past few years? What technology has enabled some of these changes? Examine other questions - is the news worth paying for? What is the future of paid news content? How are these news organizations going to stay in business if no one is buying the product? What does this mean for your future as a journalist or other profession? Your essay should be posted on your blog by next Tuesday (November 1).

Promoting your blog

2005-10-18T09:17:00.000-05:00

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. I think 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’s 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.

** Finding other blogs. There are a few blog directory/search engines out there. Google has one, there is Blogwise, and Tecnhnorati

J-students and $$ - Part II

2005-10-14T10:29:00.000-05:00

Jeff Jarvis -- who writes the BuzzMachine blog and is heading over to head up a new media program at CUNY -- has a counterpoint post to that Cleveland Plain Dealer piece on j-students and jobs and $$$. Read it here.

Also the Dealer columnist responds to critics about the piece's lack of attribution, slam against PR people, etc - read it here

Professors who blog

2005-10-14T09:38:00.000-05:00

There is a story in the Chicago Tribune about a professor with a popular political blog who was recently denied tenure - the article looks at if it was his blog that doomed him - "Did blogging doom prof's shot at tenure?" You can read the prof's post of his "pretty bad day" here along with all the comments from his readers.

Is it all about $$$?

2005-10-13T10:14:00.000-05:00

Romenesko's media blog had a link to this story - "For future journalists, it's cash, not causes" - in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about how j-students are not interested in low-paying j-jobs. Please read and comment on what you think of the story.

Public vs. Private

2005-10-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went to a panel discussion here at Northeastern titled "Public Private: Intersections in New Media". It was moderated by David Marshall from Comm Studies and Dan Kennedy from my journlism dept. was one of the panelists. Here is a link to the materials that the library put together. Part of the discussion was defining what "new media" is. Another part was the whole concept of how what used to be viewed as private information has moved into the public sphere on the Internet - for example - facebook.com - which we've talked about in class. Our student newspaper - the NUNews also has a frontpage story on facebook this week - (Note: I was interviewed and quoted in the story)

Don't get your hopes up ...

2005-10-12T10:54:00.000-05:00

But some bloggers are finding a way to make $$$ from their blogs. Here's a piece from Wired magazine - Can Bloggers Strike It Rich?

J-Learning

2005-10-11T09:44:00.000-05:00

For anyone interested in free, do-it-yourself materials for building Websites, blogging, digital photography - there is a great online resource called J-Learning. You don't need to, but you can register for additional access like forums, etc. It is run by The Institute for Interactive Journalism, a center at the University of Maryland's College of Journalism. They gave a presentation at a educators conference I was at in August and I have found their site to be a great tool. We are using some of their materials in class. J-Learning is a big supporter of community journalism and their site is focused on getting people to use the Web as tool for the community.

The missing link

2005-10-11T09:36:00.000-05:00

I forgot to add Barry's Notes from the Roller Disco - a blog on the Boston music scene. Music writing is a hard beat to break into professionally- but the online music writing scene has been a boon to Lester Bang wanna-bes. And the blog is a great format for it. Barry's blog is now on our class blog list in the sidebar and everyone is up and rolling ...

The History of the Internet

2005-10-07T09:21:00.000-05:00

Next week, we will be working on Basic HTML and building Websites with Dreamweaver software. We so often take the Web for granted - just hop on and point and click, etc. But I think it's important to know how the Internet came to be - so today we will be doing a bit of history. Here is a link to Wikipedia's History of the Internet - Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that is written by anyone who chooses to write or edit an entry - read an introduction to the site here. Some people are leary of a site that allows anyone to write an entry - and there are some valid concerns that Wikipedia addresses here- . I find it to be a powerful research tool that sometime leads me to other sites, ideas, etc. A lot of the "techie" entries for topics such as the history of the Internet are dead on and just a wealth of information. Look for an article in the November issue of Esquire, where an editor submitted a factually incorrect piece and let the Wikipedia readers edit it.

Facebook story

2005-10-06T12:48:00.000-05:00

There is a piece in today's Boston Globe (you need to register to read this site now - it's free) about a Fisher College student who was expeled for postings he wrote in a discussion board on Facebook. We talked about this in class the other day - how what you write online should always be considered as something that is out there for the public to read - even on sites like Facebook where the "members" are limited to people with a .edu e-mail. There are no private spaces on the Web. Whether he should have been expeled or not, is another matter all together, which we can discuss in class.

Blogs as satire

2005-10-05T13:14:00.000-05:00

Someone has morphed The Onion's fake news humor and the Daily Show shtick with a blog format to create Harriet Meirs's blog -it's completely fake, obviously, and somewhat funny and it also raises a lot of online legal and ethical issues that we will talk about in class.

Online Journalism - JRN525

Assignment #5

Assignment #6

Finally!

Indy Star writer fired for blog posting

This/Next Week's Assignment #4

Breaking News and Mulit-media

Testing Podcast host site

This/Last Week's Assignment #3

Promoting Your Blog

This week's Assignment #2

The death knoll of journalism?

This week's Assignment #1

Audio Slide Show examples

Blogs I like/read

Sourcing Facebook and My Space

Your fellow bloggers

Chronic commenters

Blogs I read

Blogs are bad ... no they're not

Welcome Fall 2007

Boston music blogs

Who's afraid of the big bad blog?

Blog highlights

Speaking of copyright

Blog assignment

Blog highlights

Copyright

More audio slide show examples

Audio Slide Show examples

Newspapers and video

Blogs, blogs, blogs

Blog your debt away

No more wikipedia

Promoting your blog

All of me - online

More music

Politics and blogs

The advertising business

Restaurant bloggers

Student blog highlights

Collecting $$ for Darfur

Podcasting complaints

Pics from a 4-year-old

Another blog highlight

Student blog highlights

Boston Globe closing foreign bureaus

Romney and the Internet trail

We're off and running

Newspaper blog readership is way up

Blog about College Media

TV-Newspaper marriages are breaking up

Sample of Blogs

Sigh :(

Spring Semester 2007 - Welcome!

The end ....

Another place to promote your blog

More on the future

My Space

It's the law ...

The future, your future

Another newsroom merge

Blogs and $$$

It's Jerry Time ...

Wikipedians

Photo manipulation

The perils of blogging

RSS feeds, etc.

And we're off....

Same blog, new colors

Houston Chronicle is looking for bloggers

Just a taste ...

Welcome Spring Semester!

Crossing the finish line

There's gold in them Websites ...

Must-read blogs

The Arts and blogging

Newsvine - a wikipedia version of the news

Audio Slide Show

Another piece on teens and blogs