We’re being joined by Mike Goldsmith, editor-in-chief of Future’s iPad editions. Stay tuned.
Mike Goldsmith
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Towards a set of phone tools
Android invasion, Sydney, Australia (Photo credit: Pranav Bhatt)
Journalism.co.uk have just posted a list of Android apps for journalists. I’ll be posting some of my fave iPhone ones in due course – anyone up for giving some of these a go and writing a review on the site.
If you want to suggest apps for any platform – or even hardware or software recommendations – just give Glyn a shout in the usual way.
Don’t jump blindly with social media
A neat little slideshare on verifying before you tweet from Sue Llewllyn
Facebook reading list
I’ll be updating this post over a period to give you some tips on how to get the best out of your social media toolkit.
This is an interesting post from Steve Buttry – who I recommend you follow on Twitter.
Facebook news-feed changes mean newsrooms need new engagement strategies « The Buttry Diary
Two important conversational techniques are taking a conversational tone and asking questions. Share fun stories and images on Facebook with the casual tone you’d use in telling a friend about them, not the dry tone many journalists use in writing most stories and headlines. Tragic content, of course, needs a respectful tone. If you think you’re posting something people will want to talk about, go ahead and start the conversation. Ask a question. (A study by Buddy Media found 15 percent higher engagement on posts that end with a question.)
How do you find your witness?
An excellent example of using social media and old school sleuthing to find a witness to a news event.
Find that fireball! When journalist turns stalker | Storyful Blog
Initially, we had suspicions. Is this video a set-up? Or an old clip copied from elsewhere and reposted as new? Because if not, we knew this was something news organizations would be interested in. So we set about sleuthing.
Getting started
One of the key things about the module is the community site project (no, I will not call it a blog project despite the fact it is running on blogging software).
A big part of being a journalist is learning that you are not a one-way communicator, rather you should be embedded in the community you are interested involved with.
What is community?
Let’s be clear, community can be:
- geographical – so for example that might be a village, council ward or region,
- interest – I’ve been learning kung fu for a while and am fascinated by the differences in styles, and to a wider extent how other martial arts from different regions cope with the same issues but different cultural/political backgrounds
- shared problem – this can be anything from cancer patients campaigning for a new drug, those for (or against) a ban on badger culls to those fighting a planning application in their backyard.
All of these groups care about what they are doing, what affects them and what happens around their topic.
The project
At the moment this is a simple pitch – email over some ideas you’ve had. This doesn’t have to be Cardiff-based BUT having a local element will mean you can go out and speak to people (one of many the reasons being you’ll have to write a feature around an issue in your niche).
What this project is not:
- long opinion pieces from you
- only your perspective
- boring very insular content
The starting point for this project is something you are interested in, but the scope is wider. Other people wil care about it too, so how do you engage around that and find people who are interesting, engage with them.
The pitch is pretty simple – email me a couple of paragraphs describing your topic, the community and what you want to do. I’ll then offer some advice.
Once you’ve pitched you’ll then get advice on community strategy, content strategy and be asked to fill out a basic proforma. You’ll then run the site until the end of the semester (end of January), when you will be asked to reflect on the process.
So, get pitching.
Data journalism slides
Community is just like a wild party
A guest post from Marc Thomas of Plastik Magazine
Imagine this for a moment. You’re at a party. It’s a wonderful party – full of people you haven’t seen in a long time. Someone’s showing pictures of their trip to Barcelona, another guy is retelling a hilarious joke he heard in work earlier in the day, there’s another person offering to get the drinks in.
And then there’s Brian.
Brian’s a normal guy. He’s got a job at a management consultancy firm, he likes rugby and ales. Brian’s already been to Barcelona so he doesn’t want to see any pictures of it, he was the guy who told the joke in the first place and he brought his own six pack to the party so he doesn’t need a drink. Continue reading
Just tell the story please
Good post from Andy Dickinson on how we shouldn’t write “clever” print headlines for the web. Develops what we were talking about during the writing for web lecture.
Thanks to Niamh Hannon for the heads-up.
The future of the media in Wales
BBC footage from the Task and Finish Group on the future outlook for the media in Wales.
Presentations included
- Martin Shipton, Chair, Cardiff and South East Wales Branch of the National Union of Journalists
- Meic Birtwistle, representing Wales on National Executive Council of the National Union of Journalists
- David Donovan, National Officer for Wales, BECTU
- Gwawr Hughes, Director of Skillset Cymru
- Dr Andy Williams, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies
Related articles
- NUJ’s ‘weekly Western Mail’ fear (bbc.co.uk)
- BBC Wales cuts outlined to staff (bbc.co.uk)
