E-Media Tidbits - Poynter Institute Online
As a person who fears online journalism, I have to give credit to what the folks over at the Michigan State Knight Center for Environmental Journalism did, in creating on online community and fully functioning citizen journalist forum.
I am really intrigued by citizen journalism, and an RSS feed is a form of that which I haven't really looked into. In the case of the Knight Center, the feed was able to connect people from all over the country to a topic that they otherwise wouldn't have known about. And it gave them a space to share their own ideas with the other members.
Using a timeline to tell a story
At The Ithacan, we have actually been using timelines a lot. Really, we've been thinking about what is the BEST way to tell a story. We we are now able to start thinking outside of the article. We have online multimedia to add to the online story, and for the print, we are using other kinds of sidebars to add to the story.
I find that timelines are really useful when there are a lot of dates in the story, or a clear progression of an idea or organization. By pulling that information out of the story and into a timeline, it gives the reader a clearer way to take in the information.
Chapter 4 in News Reporting and Writing
Quotes are like candy for the reader. They break up informative text and offer flavor to an article. Many new journalists, however, sprinkle cheap candy all over their articles. Rather than paraphrasing what can be easily paraphrased, they get into the trap of thinking they need a quote every other paragraph. I think it is much more effective to hold off for a really good quote. I try to quote people when they say things better than I could paraphrase it, or with colorful language that shows their personality.
The section on quotes really reminded me just how important it is to RECORD EVERYTHING. Even the most seemingly straight forward interviews should be recorded. This is constantly stressed at The Ithacan. I also just found out last week that in NY state, the law says that you do not have to tell someone you are doing a phone interview with that you are using a taping devices. I'm not sure on the other state laws, but hearing my editors talking about that reminded me of how important it is to check that.
Quoting brings a whole new possibility of libel into the picture, and the only way to fully avoid that is to tape everything, and never misquote what you've taped.
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We appreciate the props over at the
Knight Center. It is an interesting experiment and was recognized yesterday (9/18/07) at the Knight-Batten Symposium in Washington D.C.
Here's an interesting disconnect that arose from the symposium: Susan Clark-Johnson, president of the Newspaper Division for the Gannett Co., was the keynote speaker. She discusssed how Gannett was really pushing hard to be innovative. That said, of the 10 projects recognized for innovative journalism, only one was associated with Gannett. Only four had any kind of affiliation with traditional mainstream newspapers.
And the most exciting, innovative and unusual public watchdog, investigative, explanatory journalism projects were mostly done by non-profits.
The exception is the Fort Myers News-Press which is doing some interesting things with crowd-sourcing and citizen watchdogs.
But right now, the non-profits have taken away the newspapers' traditional watchdog role with some very innovative stuff. I appreciate what Gannett has done with its Indy Moms and Roc Men projects. That's OK to build those kind of things. They may generate revenue. But I fear that major media is missing the boat on the "watchdog of democracy" thing. It isn't particularly profitable. For a young journalism student looking to do good, I think the exciting new journalism opportunities are in the non-profit sector. Of course, funding those is a perpetual battle.
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