Online Journalism

Bloomberg Analytics

2012-01-02T08:42:00.002-05:00

Excellent analysis from Varun on the readership stats for Bloomberg.com. Varun checked out information collected on quantcast.com and alexa.com.

Will SOPA hurt the Internet?

2011-12-21T11:17:00.003-05:00

As of today, the United States legislature is currently working on putting together the Stop Online Privacy Act, a new bill intended to prevent companies from losing business by pirating downloads and software.The bipartisan bill will make unauthorized streaming of content a felony, will bar ISP's from giving access to the sites, and bar search engines from linking to the sites. It is up to the

Frictionless Sharing

2011-12-20T13:41:00.002-05:00

During a recent conversation I had with Time Inc.'s social media editor, Allie Townsend, she mentioned a lot of online publications are turning their attention to frictionless sharing. If any of you use Spotify (If you don't, I highly recommend it.), you've already experienced it firsthand. In a nutshell, whenever you listen to music using Spotify it shares the information with your Facebook

2011's Top Searches for Google and Yahoo

2011-12-15T10:23:00.004-05:00

Now that 2011 nears an end, websites are steadily posting those top stories of the year. Here's what ABCNews.com says were Google's and Yahoo's "fastest rising searches" for 2011.http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/google-top-searches-2011-rebecca-black-herman-cain/story?id=15156587

Journalists on Twitter

2011-12-14T13:26:00.002-05:00

Many editors and professors encourage (strongly) for their journalists to be active on Twitter. However, at the same time, criticize the under-reported and inaccurate information that is often posted on the social media site, not necessarily by journalists. My question is this, in order to further define the distinction between active citizenship and journalism, would journalists be better

So it's not really out with the old, then

2011-12-12T18:04:00.003-05:00

This post on Chris Daly's blog reminded me of the brewing feud between the FONers and the FOMers that we discussed today in class. Daly is a journalism professor at Boston University.

Twitter's New Design

2011-12-11T23:07:00.001-05:00

Speaking of twitter, the New York Times recently released this article about some design changes the social network is making to attract more users and advertisers.http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/twitter-tries-to-simplify-its-service/?scp=1&sq=twitter%20tries%20to%20simplify&st=cse

ESPN Twitter policy

2011-12-09T00:52:00.001-05:00

Back in September the Houston Texans starting running back, Arian Foster, tweeted a photo of his injured hamstring. This was not a violaiton of the NFL's twitter policy and therefore no League action was taken. However, the ability of athletes to break their own news poses serious conseuences for the future of journalism. Some fear that one day players, leagues, teams, or colleges will no longer

An example of breaking news on an online-only news magazine

2011-12-08T15:51:00.003-05:00

News is breaking today about a gunman who killed two people at Virginia Tech's campus.As an example of how a modern news website combines breaking news, here's Huffington Post's page of coverage on the event.It has a text story that's been edited throughout the day, links to multiple videos, a live blog, a link to another news source's live news feed, and a Twitter feed.In such a short time, all

This afternoon, Dec. 8

2011-12-08T11:50:00.002-05:00

This just landed in my inbox: I wanted to let you know that this afternoon, December 8, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings will be webcasting a forum exploring how mobile technology can ease the everyday lives of Americans. I will moderate a discussion with Chris Dede of Harvard University and my Brookings colleague Allan Friedman. Peggy Johnson, executive vice president and

Most Kids Want an IPAD for Christmas

2011-12-08T05:15:00.002-05:00

I saw this story on WUSA-TV this morning and thought about you, Chris! According to Nielson.com, the iPad tops Santa's wish list, followed by the iPod Touch.http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/us-kids-looking-forward-to-iholiday-2011/

What the Frack Is Going On?

2011-12-07T23:16:00.000-05:00

How would you explain a complicated environmental issue like fracking? Check out how students at NYU did it, with this video, selected by Time Magazine as one of the most creative of the year.

Maybe USA Today isn't the Evil Empire!

2011-12-06T08:50:00.007-05:00

OK, I admit it. I had a bias going in on this trip. Having done work in the 90's for Channel 9, also owned by Gannett, I had heard lots of bad stuff about the newspaper side of the company. How it sucked up money from everything else. When I saw the new building I could believe it. But I came away from this visit really impressed. It seems to me that USA Today in terms of the digital space is

Google Maps

2011-12-04T15:30:00.002-05:00

I ran across this interesting article about new innovations in Google Maps. Basically, Google is making this new feature just for Android phones right now, but people will be able to use Google Maps to get directions for inside locations like shopping malls and airports. They just introduced this news this week, so it could be adapted for the future.I think this is interesting in that it just

Cool Graphic Online

2011-12-03T17:13:00.005-05:00

Check out this cool graphic on The Economist magazine website. http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/01/comparing_us_states_countriesIt compares American states to other countries with similar populations and similarly sized economies (measured by GDP). Vermont has the nation's smallest economy. It is the size of Yemen. California's is the size of Italy. If it were a country it would be

USA Today Trip on Monday

2011-11-30T07:07:00.000-05:00

Class, a reminder: We'll be meeting with editors at USA Today at 10:55 a.m. next Monday, in lieu of class. We'll likely stay till 12:30, for a tour and chat with social media editors and others. You'll need to car pool. I can comfortably fit three additional bodies into my car, and will be coming and going from campus. (Four would be a squish, but I'll do it if necessary.) Since I need to beat

Commission in EU Turns Spotlight on Facebook over Privacy Concerns

2011-11-27T05:36:00.000-05:00

A battle is brewing in the European Union over privacy concerns with Facebook. The Telegraph reports on the European Commission's concerns over the social media giant's use of users' personal info by advertisers. Have you personally found the targeted ads on Facebook off-putting?

Headlines

2011-11-21T10:05:00.003-05:00

Both of these headlines are from the Washington PostGood Headline: ‘Al-Qaida sympathizer’ accused of NYC bomb plots; defense says he’s no conspiratorVery descriptive headline that gets straight to the point. I almost feel like I don't need to read the rest of the article with headlines like these.Bad Headline: Peyton Manning to start at QB for Redskins in 2012Note: This article has been altered

Drew Grossman: Headlines

2011-11-21T10:03:00.003-05:00

Time.comWhen Wenzhou Sneezeshttp://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2099675,00.htmlThis is a cute headline but it doesn't really tell the reader what the story is about. If you have been keeping up with the story then you will get it, but this will go over the head of the average reader.Winners and Losers of the Deficit Supercommittee Deadlockhttp://swampland.time.com/2011/11/21/

CNN Layoffs

2011-11-20T22:36:00.002-05:00

CNN recently announced it would lay off about 50 workers, stating an "evolution allows more people in more places to edit and publish than ever before."Just goes to show, how important it is to keep those multi-media skills up to date. Read more on Mediaite.com:http://www.mediaite.com/tv/report-cnn-lays-off-at-least-50-editors-photographers-and-other-staffers/

The Evolution of the News Cycle

2011-11-19T08:43:00.002-05:00

What does the breaking news cycle look like today on the multiple platforms where it's published? And how might it look in the future--if we move onto an all-digital platform? A smart analysis from Lauren Rabaino of the confusing, and often dead-end, threads that now greet readers trying to follow a story as it develops: http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/

Strong and Not-so-Strong Headlines

2011-11-18T09:49:00.001-05:00

Class, a reminder to please post a comment to this thread before the next class on good and bad headlines. Here are the instructions from your class schedule: Please find a good and not-so-adept headline on one or more news Web sites, and explain why you think so. Please be sure to give the full URL and headline for each. Include a sentence or two of constructive comments. Please be sure your

A Must-Read on Aggregation

2011-11-13T11:28:00.003-05:00

Jack Shafer writes a thoughtful piece about best practices for aggregation, while offering a defense for Jim Romenesko, who stepped down after a dozen years from his post at Poynter.

On becoming a student entrepreneur

2011-11-11T12:02:00.005-05:00

Amy Reinink, who is an SPJ-DC member and friend, just wrote a great piece for the Washington Post Magazine on college students who are either skipping college to become entrepreneurs or graduating from school as their own boss. While the University of Maryland probably does not want us to skip out on our graduate studies, there are some valuable lessons from this story that I think our professors

Join us to discuss media diversity in Brazil, South Africa, US with 3 guest speakers

2011-11-09T23:30:00.006-05:00

I thought you might be interested in a seminar a colleague and I are moderating this Friday at 1.30pm. Paulo Rogerio is from Brazil, and he will be talking about media diversity in Brazil and I will be giving the perspective from South Africa. There will also be three guest speakers from leading agencies in the U.S.

" Why Johnny Can't Search"

2011-11-04T08:08:00.007-05:00

This the title of an article in this months edition of " Wired." I think it sums up quite succinctly the reason why we as journalists need to be highly suspect of Internet search results. As the article by clive@clivethompson.net points out, " kids know how to Google- they just can't tell when the results are crap." (pg.062)In his piece Thompson cites a study done by College of Charleston

Status updates

2011-11-03T11:14:00.001-05:00

Use this handy guide to decide where to post a status update.

Twitter, Facebook to star in 2012 election

2011-11-01T14:13:00.004-05:00

I was referred to this survey, conducted by Digitas and Harris Interactive, by this story. There I was, reading through it, when I hit paragraph two, which said that :"A recent survey of adults found that a majority of respondents — 61 percent – said they expect candidates in the 2012 U.S. presidential election to have a social media presence. And 38 percent of respondents in the survey, which

Will there be a future for social media editors?

2011-10-30T21:16:00.005-05:00

I attended the Journalism Interactive conference on Friday, and I really enjoyed the Friday morning session on journalism and social media use. New York Times social media editor, Liz Heron was on the panel and said that she thought her job might not be around in five years. You can see more of what she said here: http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/10/

Introducing Visual.ly

2011-10-29T20:29:00.003-05:00

Hello Everyone,I came across Visual.ly - a new infographics start-up - a few weeks ago and since I wanted to share it with you. This video tells who they are and what they do very effectively. It's just another source that shows the power of infographics and data visualizations today.This one was one of my favorites. via

Rest in peace, English language

2011-10-25T13:53:00.003-05:00

It's Never Too Late

2011-10-24T06:52:00.002-05:00

It is my belief that learning is life-long. Just consider how quickly technology changes from year to year. For this reason, and many others, more and more "older" students are returning to the classroom. Take a look at this clip.58-Year-Old Proves It's Never Too late, by Post University

Oh well... too late now

2011-10-21T11:24:00.002-05:00

This is especially for Kathy, Jack and me. Here's how it starts: "Let’s say you’ve been a journalist for a while but you feel a bit out of the loop when it comes to using social media and multimedia... Should you go to grad school?'Lord, no,' says Jen Lee Reeves of KOMU-TV, who’s on the faculty at the University of Missouri. 'You can teach yourself anything. You just need a little quiet time.'"

The dangers of tweeting

2011-10-21T10:06:00.002-05:00

A few high profile slip-ups on Twitter illustrate why we have to think twice before cooing or clucking on the 140-character communication medium. In defense of the French minister, he was sending a message to his wife. He just messed up and, instead of pushing just her buttons, pushed one that tweeted the message to her and 14,000 followers.

Links for Clips Pages

2011-10-17T09:05:00.001-05:00

Please add your link to your clips page in the comments below!

Using Augmented Reality Animation to Make Sense of the World

2011-10-11T08:40:00.002-05:00