Today is the deadline for public input on The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. The commission, funded in part by the Knight Foundation, is working with PBS Engage to find out how you get your news and information today, and how would you improve the quality of information available to you.
This is the first major study in the digital age assessing how information needs are being met in communities nationwide. The commission has received about 1,000 comments so far on the future of community news. Here's a chance to add your voice.
We know this is serious stuff, and it's important. Spend a few minutes. Share your ideas and thoughts: http://www.pbs.org/publicinput.
Actually, we've been on Twitter for a while. But we have gotten serious about sharing what's going on at NewsU via Twitter. Our user name on Twitter is "
newsuniversity" We are also thinking about offering discount codes to our Twitter followers once we build our new NewsU site. More details on that to come very soon via a new blog called NewsU Next.
Innovative Interactivity recently brought to our attention a new social network on Ning called “Journalists / Coders.” Founder Justin McLachlan sees this project as “an across the board platform for those interested in coding and journalism and how the two should fit together.”
Journalists / Coders is shaping up to be a good hub for conversations about the technologies available to produce well-crafted multimedia journalism. You can read tips and techniques, troubleshoot thorny code and see what other members are working on.
The network has about 100 members, and 10 groups have been created around specific technologies, such as Ruby on Rails and HTML/CSS. (You can add your own group, if there’s a topic you’d like to see get more attention.)
You can get preview the content by visiting, but you have to sign up for the good stuff.
Ning is a tool to create niche social networks around topics of special interest. Usual social networking features -- including friends -- activity feeds and profile pages are built in. You can use Ning to create your own social network in just a few minutes.
Visit “Journalists / Coders” now.
Photographers from the respected cooperative photo agency Magnum are writing about the industry. The dozen or so Magnum photographers contributing to the Magnum blog (http://blog.magnumphotos.com/ ) lend a unique insight to living a life of photographically documenting the world. With categories ranging from "Behind the Image: What Happened as the Shutter Clicked" to "From the Field: Stories from Around the World" you'll learn from photographers, editors and other industry professionals.
One article in particular brings together many of the photographers: "Wear Good Shoes: Advice to Young Photographers." More than 30 photographers share how they got interested in photography and offer tips to anyone starting out.
This blog also offers some unique, and occasionally lighthearted, competitions. In April, blog readers had the opportunity to be picture editors, looking through the Magnum archives to find the photos that best illustrated a quote from Oscar Wilde. Check out the edits of the winner and finalists.
Magnum is a cooperative photo collective, owned by the photographer-members. It was created in 1947 in France by four famous photographers: Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David "Chim" Seymour. You can learn more about Magnum at http://agency.magnumphotos.com/about/about .
It's that time of year again, when our friends at the
Journalism Education Association celebrate Scholastic Journalism Week. This
year also marks the 40th anniversary of Tinker v. Des Moines, the landmark Supreme Court ruling
that protects students' constitutional right to free speech.
We want to thank all those teachers who have shown countless
students the value of the First Amendment and the essential role of journalism
in preserving democracy.
If you're looking for resources for the week, head to the
JEA page at www.jea.org/resources/jweek/index.html
Want to make your own commemorative Tinker armband?
Instructions are here:
scholasticjournalismweek.weebly.com/
You can also check out resources at the Student Press
Law Center
at www.splc.org/default.asp
And don't forget: NewsU has a course created in partnership
with Ball State University
specifically for high school journalists: First Amendment for the High School
Journalist at www.newsu.org/FirstAmendment
Here at Access, we're always excited to find an online archive of a conference or workshop. We think it's the next best thing to attending the live event, and you can view the archive on your schedule.
“Whose Rules?” a Poynter/Kent State Media Ethics Workshop, is no exception. This September 2008 workshop focuses on the ethics of blogging and how the need to publish quickly and frequently squares with traditional journalistic values.
Key topics include the protections bloggers deserve, the responsibilities they carry and the models for successful, ethical blogging. Breakout sessions dig deeper on such issues as the ethics of handling user comments, how individual bloggers fit into the blogosphere and how “truth” plays out online compared with print and broadcast channels. Jay Rosen provides the keynote, titled, “If Blogging Had No Ethics, Blogging Would Have Failed.”
The archive offers on-demand videos from all the talks – the main sessions, the keynote, breakouts and the wrap-up. You can also browse the Twitter feed and participate in the online ethics wiki. Bios for all the speakers are also posted.
Watch the full archive at http://jmc.kent.edu/ethicsworkshop08.
And while you're at it, don't miss NewsU's course on media law for bloggers, “Online Media Law: The Basics for Bloggers and Other Online Publishers.” This course shows bloggers their rights and responsibilities when it comes to defamation, privacy and copyright.
Whether you're one of the 20,000 journalists traveling to China for the Olympics, covering the games from home or just interested in the challenges and opportunities facing foreign journalists in China, be sure to check out "Reporting in China: The Olympics & Beyond."
This informative conversation with an expert panel is brought to us free of charge by the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA). Topics include the current reporting climate in China, how to protect sources and how to report aggressively but sensibly beyond the Olympics. The conversation includes many practical tips, including how to work with embassies, equipment considerations and translation and interpretation issues.
CNN Headline News anchor Richard Lui moderates the conversation. He's joined by:
- Philip P. Pan, former Beijing bureau chief for The Washington Post and author of the newly published book, "Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China"
- Mary Kay Magistad, Beijing-based Northeast Asia correspondent for Public Radio International
- Ching-Ching Ni, Beijing correspondent for the Los Angeles Times
- Steve Wade, sports reporter for The Associated Press in Beijing
The recording runs 67 minutes; Lui moderates an open-ended discussion in the first half and participants dial-in and e-mail questions in the second half. The audio runs in Flash, so make sure you've updated your player to version 8 or higher.
Looking for more resources? The Foreign Correspondents Club of China has produced a reporters' guide for journalists traveling to China for the first time. It's available for free at www.fccchina.org/reportersguide.html. The guide covers the items you don't want to leave home without, sensitive topics to be mindful of, tips on covering the games and 10 other topics.
When you're ready to dig even deeper, check out International Reporting Basics: What You Need to Know Before You Go, a free e-learning course available on NewsU. International Reporting Basics covers how to plan and pack for your trip, and how to gather information and stay safe once you arrive.
Newsroom
101 can help you master the basics of grammar and AP style with more than 1,900 easy-to-use exercises.
The site is great for reporters, editors, students and others who want to write with accuracy and clarity. In fact, the examples are so simple that
parents might even use them to help school-age children with their homework.
Stumped by the difference between who and whom? Do you know when to use hyphens? What about those
darned apostrophes? Newsroom 101 has the answers.
While the site is free, there is a place to donate $2 for its continued
online existence.
Thank Ron Hartung (of the Tallahassee Democrat) and Gerald Grow
(a journalism professor at Florida A&M) for this easy-to-use resource.
The Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) have posted a series of short (2-5 minute) video clips covering a range of issues that affect business section journalists. The clips were captured at the society's 45th annual conference, April 27-29 in Baltimore.
Highlights from six sessions are covered:
- Entrepreneurship: The Most Uncovered Business Story?
- Health Insurance: Is it Enough?
- Using Social Networking in Business Reporting
- So You Lost Your Section: Is That So Awful?
- Search Beyond Google
- Using Campaign Finance Databases to Find Great Business Stories
Moderators include Lisa Gibbs, Gail DeGeorge and Jay Rosen.
The videos are hosted on Magnify.net, which allows for comments, tags and links to related clips.
SABEW is based out of the Missouri School of Journalism. According to its "About" page, its purpose is to "encourage comprehensive reporting of economic events without fear or favoritism and to upgrade skills and knowledge through continuous educational efforts."
Here's the link to the videos.
SABEW also offers a range of other training materials, but most are available only to members.
A post on Twitter, the most popular "micro-blogging" service, is limited to 140 characters, so the site is far from a serious journalistic tool, right? Maybe not. Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb recently explored ways you can enhance your work with Twitter. Kirkpatrick notes four ways he and his staff use Twitter for journalism:
- Breaking news
- Interviews
- Quality assurance
- Promotion of online work
He offers some interesting anecdotes to back up just how serious Twitter journalism can be:
Zoli Erdos chronicled last month how Twitter users beat government agencies and the world's (formerly) leading news organizations in reporting on March earthquakes in both China and Japan.
and
When we got to interview Mark Zuckerberg at SXSW this year, we solicited interview questions via Twitter.
If you're ready to write your first "tweet" (a post on Twitter), here's the signup page. And if you need a quick introduction to what Twitter's all about, check out the video on the home page. (Click the red "Watch a Video!" button.)
For a peak at how other journalists are using Twitter, check out:
Also, read Fons Tuinstra's recap of Twitter's role in documenting the earthquake in Sichuan, China.
We also invite you to read Poynter's very own Twitter feed.
And here's the link to the original ReadWriteWeb post: How We Use Twitter for Journalism.
