Blog your way through college in the US October 18, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentA great opportunity — if you're a US citizen or resident. As Alfred Hermida notes, how about an international contest or other national version? How about it WordPress. Blogger, Typepad, Live Journal etc?
"The scheme offers students who blog the chance to win a $10,000 scholarship. The contest has just started accepting submissions, but you only have until the end of the month to apply."
The Secret Journoblogging Method October 15, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentGawker enjoys a dig at blogging journalists (and at Paul Bradshaw's survey report):
"…we already know (from personal experience!) the five-part process that all blogging journalists use:
1. Look at a blog in your beat (Romenesko for media, Deadspin for sports, Andrew Sullivan for politics, etc.). Find something there that looks interesting.
2. Chew pen for a few minutes.
3. Rewrite the item you stole, taking a slightly different angle than the original blogger.
4. Send what you wrote back to the original blogger, in search of a link.
5. Celebrate newfound internet fame."
MediaShift . Journalists Consider Risks, Conflicts of Running Personal Blogs | PBS October 14, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentCNET requires similar standards for employees who blog as for journalists:
"Andrew Nusca, a recent Columbia University journalism school grad and editor and producer for ZDNet (part of CNET, which was recently acquired by CBS), forwarded me a copy of the blogging policy that his company made available to him.
…it also mandates that the blogger should "do your homework," essentially requiring that the employee must adhere to the same journalistic standards in his personal blog that he would in work. "Check your facts and give readers enough context to understand whether a particular post is written to report, analyze or offer an opinion on an issue," it says. "Use citations and provide links to other relevant topics. Correct any mistakes." "
The Twitter-isation of the news — andrewlewin: let me think about that October 12, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentTwitter comes of age?
“Ironically then, it seems that microblogging is a return to actual reporting of fast moving events, while the other pieces are analysis or comment that have become confused/synonymous with journalism only in the last couple of decades. Journalism has come home to the future, and it matches perfectly the emerging online set-up: live text is to Twitter as analysis/comment is to blogs.”
Twitter for reporting – Living in a Media World October 11, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentRalph Hanson offers some examples of reporters using Twitter (for their work, that is):
"twittering is also being used by reporters and news bloggers to post news links. There are political debates taking place by Twitter. Barack Obama's campaign has an official Twitter feed. St. Paul Pioneer Press technology reporter Julio Ojeda Zapata uses Twitter as a reporting tool. And bloggers covering live events (such as the Republican National Convention) use Twitter to make blog posts from their smartphones. In fact, the busiest outside link to my blog in August came from a Tweet posted to Fishbowl DC during the RNC."
Why UK Blog Networks Are Really Failing October 9, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentFailing to break stories are among the weaknesses of (professional/commercial) blog networks in the UK — Shiny Media and others — according to SEO and online marketing exec Patrick Altoft:
"For years I’ve wondered why the people running UK blog networks just don’t seem to “get it” when it comes to online publishing.[…] UK bloggers need to ask themselves when was the last time they broke a news story that was a world exclusive? […]
UK blogs need to break exclusive stories and create a social media culture so ensure that the stories are spread around the world as fast as possible."
Seven blog news trackers compared | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone – CNET October 5, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentCNET's overview of blog-tracking services for news:
In many ways, Wednesday's release of an updated front page to Google Blog Search has put blog news tracking into the limelight. Google didn't get there first though. Sites like Techmeme, Blogrunner, and Technorati have been tracking the hottest blog posts for quite some time. Now's a good point to take a look at what makes these sites (and others) individual and different from Google's new tool.
Reading Blogs at Work: Why You Should Do It & How You Can Make it Worthwhile – ReadWriteWeb October 4, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentNeed to convince anyone that blogs could inform their work? A round-up from ReadWriteWeb, with some interesting links (inc research): “If you’re not reading blogs at work, you may not be doing your job as well as you could be. Below we discuss three advantages to reading blogs on the job and offer examples of the kinds of blogs that people could benefit from reading in three different non-tech professions. 1) Staying Up to the Moment on News 2) Knowing What People are Talking About 3) Reference Resources”
Was the Scotsman right to sack Nick Clayton for blogging? September 27, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentLaura Oliver at journalism.co.uk follows up the apparent sacking of Nick Clayton from The Scotsman because of a blog post on allmediascotland. How many staff journalists’ contracts forbid them (in theory) to contribute to other publications?: “Reactions like this and the idea of more stringent restrictions on where journalists can write online are counterproductive: letting journalists write, comment, engage and react with colleagues and readers online can help build an online community around them and their content, driving users back to the publisher’s site. Spilling company secrets is one thing, but Clayton’s post was hardly exposing something that’s hidden from the rest of the newspaper industry.”
More follow-up on the MediaShift blog by NYU journalism student September 27, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a comment“Embedded” Blogger-Journalism Student Confuses the Hell Out of PBS – More follow-up on the MediaShift blog by NYU journalism student: “Remember the NYU professor who banned blogging about class, after one of her students wrote a piece for PBS’s MediaShift blog criticizing the class and the journalism program? Now PBS’s ombudsman (they have one?!) has chimed in negatively about the piece: “I have serious problems with the episode that unfolded recently in which a journalism student at New York University, Alana Taylor, authored a Sept. 5 posting as an ‘embedded’ blogger on MediaShift, writing critically about her class content and professor at NYU without informing either the teacher or her classmates about what she was doing.” Um, he wrote over 2,000 more hand-wringing words on the subject.”