Gameiac Maniac

http://www.venturebeat.com/2010/04/12/twitter-ad-model/

Twitter: the leading service for microblogging

• Great way to share a link to the article you’ve written
• You get your content read quicker — very satisfying
• Can crowdsource or network with other journalists

Microblogging: one of the biggest changes in journalism 

• Provides entry into new social network that allows journalists to connect more closely with other journalists and readers
• Means participating in the “live Web” — information published and consumed in real time and constantly updated — gives journalists best sense of what’s happenning right now online
• Fastest way for journalists or news organizations to report breaking news and promote other work
• Like an instant messaging journal
• Brief text messages — usually no more than 140 characters
• Links to other Web sites, photos or videos
• Messages can be submitted and consumed in a variety of ways
• Easy to subscribe to or follow an individual and that person’s updates

Why is microblogging so popular? 

• Ease of publishing combined with ease of consuming
• When you find someone worth reading, you can easily follow that person
• The more updates people post for one another, the more connected they become
• “Ambient awareness” or “ambient intimacy” — ability to maintain a constant connection with others without a direct communication tool; allows for one-to-many communication; persistent but passive; more polite — updates available whenever someone has time and interest to read and comment
• Over time, the bits of information create a sophisticated portrait of friends’ and family members’ lives

Why is microblogging important? 

• Twitter is useful tool for tracking conference happenings and organizing meetups with friends
• Many people find Twitter strangely addictive and useful
• FriendFeed, Twitter and Tumblr — signal the emergence of the “Real-Time Web”; unlock information that previously would not have been published
• With Twitter, witnesses start spreading the word of a breaking news event immediately and marketers can run a search to read what people are saying about their products (don’t have to wait for survey or brand study)
• Microblogging is “a community navigation tool, producing information that people want right now and helping people find what they’re looking for”
• Microblogging is going to play a role in the future of journalism

Emergence as an important tool: 

• Austin, 2007: at South by Southwest, a festival of music, media and technology, Twitter won award for best mobile application; the next week, the number of Twitter users grew 55%
• San Diego, 2007: Twitter and Flickr used to provide real-time updates about evacuations, meeting points and places to gather supplies or bring animals during wildfires in the area
• Twitter “trains you to look for interesting things around you (and think how you can communicate that in 140 characters)”
• Makes it easy for people to participate in the live Web
• “Social media platforms such as Twitter enable budding reporters to be part of a more open journalistic culture”
• Journalists can be more open about their work, offering insights and connecting with audiences in a way that wasn’t possible a generation ago

Effective medium for breaking news: 

• “It’s equally important to be on Twitter to receive information about breaking news as it is to send it.”
• Many news stories break first on Twitter and also develop first on Twitter
• Journalists still play an important role by varifying facts and publishing updates as more information becomes available
• Twitter is a way for news organizations to broadcast what they’re doing
• Twitter’s quick publishing format fits nicely into trial coverage
• “The more we can do to open the process to the public … the more legitimacy the public system will have in the eyes of the public.”
• Engaging in community conversation essential to getting the most out of the live Web

Crowdsourcing and building community: 

• Microblogging platform is a social network disguised as a short-message publishing platform
• There’s power in finding new people to follow and extending your network
• Social capital earned by actively participating in that network
• Biggest benefit for journalists is learning about your audience — what they’re doing, thinking and reading
• Journalists invite audiences to work with them
• Twitter very effective at finding news leads — tips come faster and more often from people who are starting to think of themselves as more than just readers
• Culture of contribution has emerged on microblogging sites
• Community grows only if you post messages that offer some benefit to your followers
• Best postings on Twitter get “retweeted”
• Follow the 80-20 rule: use 80% of your posts to add something of value to the community; 20% can be self-promoting

Marketing and building your brand: 

• Business model for journalsim is crumbling: innovation must include awareness of new business models and marketability
• Twitter and Facebook are social lubricants online, making old newspapers more approachable
• Journalists earn social capital by becoming the “trusted center” within a structure of relationships through digital communication
• Social capital can be developed and transformed into ecenomic gains
• Proficiency with new technology can help young journalists land their first job
• Social media gives journalists a platform to demonstrate talents and engage with others

Start using Twitter: 

• Post a message, read other people’s messages, read reply messages other people direct to you, and send and receive direct messages, which are private
• Build your network: find people to follow; get people to follow you; post good content and promote those you follow; add your Twitter, FriendFeed or Tumblr URL to your e-mail and other electronic signatures
• Five different types of tweets:

              – What are you reading?  Find interesting links to post. 

              – What are you thinking? 

              – What are you doing later? 

              – What are you liking on Twitter? Retweet it. 

              – What can you ask or answer? 

Tap the Power  
 

NOTE:  I’ve made my first couple of tweets.  I feel like “Rockin’ Robin!”

http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/collaboration.html

“The best journalists are embracing technology and a more open approach to gathering and presenting information.”

“This chapter…[is] about how to harness a wide array of digital tools and knock down barriers, to bring journalists closer to readers and readers closer to journalism.”

Concept of journalism as a conversation

“Collaborations with readers are a permanent part of the media landscape.”

New reporting methods:

• Crowdsourcing (distributed reporting): can ask hundreds, or even thousands of people in a community to lend a hand with an investigation or data collection; reporting based on the work of  many people, including your readers; the animating idea – readers know more than we do
• Open-source reporting: using transparency in reporting; started with reader networks; journalists increase their credibility and social capital; way for news organizations to build brand loyalty; news organization goes public with most story ideas early in the reporting process and invites readers to help report the story
• Pro-am journalism: DIY (do-it-yourself) journalism; allows audience to publish directly to the same platform, or Web site, that professional journalists use to publish their news; premise – “no news organization can be everywhere all the time”
• Beatblogging: builds a social network around a traditional reporting beat and brings the stakeholders together; leads a discussion to see what they say to one another; by “listening” to an informed conversation among loyal readers a reporter can discover new angles and story tips; “Rolodex 2.0” – greatly expands the number of available sources a beat reporter has access to; great way to find out what people are thinking because users can interact with each other, share links and debate topics

Link journalism: taps the power of the Web; builds readership; brings readers back; provides a fuller picture of the news than one news source can supply

“Do what you do best and link to the rest”

Anyone can collect links, but it takes trained editors to select and collect the best information and build a loyal audience.

“Online journalism is about continually finding better ways to inform, engage and harness the people formerly known as the audience.”

Must add value to the information by providing analysis and context

Must prove we value readers as equals by demonstrating an eagerness to interact on a personal level

Must acknowledge that some readers are smarter and better informed than us in ways that can add value to what we do

Print, especially localized print editions, can be a powerful tool:

• Power to validate shared experiences and strengthen community connections
• Lure of publication and friendly competition helps motivate contributors
• Can learn something about a community if you pay attention to what kind of news people are submitting and what people are reading online

NOTE: Technology is swiftly changing journalism.  Openness and transparency are encouraged.  Journalism is seen as a conversation and a collaboration with all members of the community — even news competitors.  Readers are no longer just “the audience,” they are also sources and reporters whose contributions are valued and appreciated.  There are times when we all do better with a little help from our friends.

bestfreeicons.com/c18-computer-4.html

Blogs have changed the way information is shared – fast, interactive and freewheeling

Three characteristics of a blog:

• Frequently updated Web site with entries displayed in reverse chronological order
• Each entry/post has a headline + body; most inlcude links to other news; many have photos + graphics
• Most contain a link for comments from readers

Why blogs are important:

• Can be published by anyone
• Can be updated several times a day with little effort

Blogs changed Web publishing:

• Became effective way for people to share responses to events and discuss what they thought was happening to the country after terrorist attacks in 2001
• Ushered in new era of interactivity between writer and reader
• Have more total unique visitors than either Facebook or MySpace

Blogs changed journalism:

• Bring journalists and their audiences closer, removing constraints of time and space that once limited journalist’s ability to report a story and engage audience
• Bloggers are journalists and publishers
• Innovation and experimentation are easier with the flexible format of a blog

Becoming a blogger:

• You must read blogs in order to write an effective blog
• Find blogs that cover a subject you hope to cover, and analyze what is or isn’t working on each one
• Blog concept has evolved from a single person’s online journal
• Most popular blogs are professional news Web sites that have chosen the blog as their publishing format to increase their audience
• Most popular old-fashioned, one-author blog written by marketing guru Seth Godin

Learn the language – blogging terms:

• Post: n. an entry on a blog; v. to make an entry on a blog
• Permalink: a link available on each post that provides direct access to that post, ususally with comments visible
• Trackback: a mechanism for communication between blogs, enabling one blogger to let another know that he or she is linking to their material; helps readers easily follow a conversation
• Blogroll: a collection of links usually found on the sidebar of a blog; informs blog readers of the sites the blogger visits frequently
• Vlog: blog that features video commentary as its primary medium
• Moblog: blogging from a mobile device

Make a plan, create a blog:

• Pick topic you can write about with authority — something you’re passionate about
• Name your blog (1-3 words) and write a good short description or catchphrase
• Explain the mission (2-3 sentences)
• Use basic CSS to customize your blog’s appearance
• Use Blogger or WordPress to add features called gadgets

How to build an audience for your blog:

• Regularly publish high-quality posts
• Write effective headlines
• Participate in the community

Craft blog posts:

• Put the reader first
• Organize your ideas and limit to as few items as possible
• Be direct; use simple, declarative sentences
• Be the authority, with a personality; write as though you’re telling news to a friend via e-mail
• How’s this, Mom?

             – Wait 15 minutes before publishing so you can edit yourself dispassionately

             – Write as if your mother were reading your work

• Make posts scanable for busy readers by using bullets, numbered lists, bold text, subheads and quotes set apart from the rest of the text
• Link, summarize and analyze: in a blog, attribution takes the form of links
• Be specific with headlines
• Have a good attitude
• Use photos and screenshots
• Post early, post often — about once a day
• Participate in the community — read, comment on and link to other blogs
• Use RSS feeds to find new blogs and news sites to follow      

NOTE:  This chapter explains in clear and simple terms how to create a blog and build an audience for it.  It should have been titled “Blogging for Dummies.”

bestfreeicons.com

Introduction:  Briggs compares the technological upheaval in journalism today with the one faced more than 100 years ago during the Progressive Era with the advent of the telephone and linotype.  Journalism evolved and flourished then, and there is no reason it should not do so now.  There is a steady demand for journalism.  The key is innovation.  Journalists will have “the opportunity to shape the future of journalism online” and “have a say in how the fourth estate evolves and how citizens are informed and engaged in the decades to come.”

Chapter 1: 

Explains the essential building blocks of online work:

• How Web browsers work
• How to make RSS work for you
• How FTP transfers large files over the Web
• How HTML, CSS and XML work

Digital information:

• Learn to create several types of digital files:  text, audio, photo and video
• Understand how to “weigh” files because the larger the file size, the longer it takes to download
• Byte – unit of measure for digital information; single byte contains eight consecutive bits and is capable of storing a single ASCII character
• American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) – first published in 1967; defines ninety-five printable characters that create the text in computers and communications devices (letters, numbers and basic symbols on your keyboard)
• Prefixes used to show number of bytes:  kilo – about a thousand; mega – about a million; giga – about billion; tera – about a trillion
• Never send an e-mail with an attachment larger than 1 MB – you’ll clog your server and the recipient’s server
• Never send an e-mail with a large attachment to a group list because the server has to make copies of the large file for everyone on the list

How the Internet works:

• Internet refers to a network of connected computers that share  information; not synonymous with World Wide Web
• The Web refers not to the computer network but to a way of accessing information through the network, using hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and Web browsers; does not include e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and file transfer (FTP)

How Web servers work:

• Web server – special type of computer that stores and distributes information over the Internet
• URL (uniform resource locator) – Web address that works like your home address does so server knows which information to serve
• IP (Internet Protocol) address – a unique, numeric identity of a Web-server location that computers recognize; all Web addresses have corresponding IP addresses
• Registering a domain name secures a human-readable Web address and associates it with a computer-friendly IP address 

How Web browsers (Internet Explorer, Safari or Firefox) work:

• Searches and finds information on Web servers
• Retrieves the information and brings it back to you
• Renders the information for display on your computer or mobile device
• Cache – a temporary storage of all the files you download while browsing the Web; clear it regularly so your browser and system run better
• Use REFRESH button to make sure browser shows most updated files for Web page
• Most Web browsers need plug-ins or extentions to display more than text and graphics (ex: Adobe Acrobat Reader for reading PDFs)

Syndicated content with RSS (really simple syndication):

• RSS enables you to subscribe to an information feed that gets delivered directly to an RSS reader or Web browser
• Subscribing is free and can increase the amount and improve the quality of the information that interests you
• RSS is the most efficient way to consume massive amounts of information in a structured and organized way

FTP (File Transfer Protocol):

• Simple process used by computers to move big files e-mail can’t handle
• Primary method for uploading Web pages onto a Web server to publish them online

How Web pages work:

• Basic Web page – document created with HTML code stored on a computer that is running as a Web server
• Code tells Web browser how to display text and where to include graphics (or audio or video)
• When Web browser finds right Web page on right server, it makes a copy of the HTML document (and any images included) on your computer and builds Web page based on instructions in the code

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets):

• Makes Web sites look cool
• Enables you to edit, modify and troubleshoot existing Web pages and designs

XML (Extensible Markup Language):

• Uses tags to describe what data is, not how it should look (as HTML does)
• Most commonly used in RSS feeds
• Enables people to search for information more by content instead of structure

NOTE:  Firefox is the Web browser “highly recommended” by Briggs.  I’ve used both Internet Explorer and Firefox.  At first, Firefox was more reliable and seemed to attract fewer virus and malware attacks.  But that didn’t last.  I finally switched to Internet Explorer and signed up for Microsoft Security.  So far, so good.

COMM 361 Media Pyramidpdf

washingtonpost.com

According to Achenbach, the future of journalism is on the Web.  The “dead-tree edition” of the news is showing up on fewer and fewer driveways.  One of the reasons for this is that “often the print version of the news is Old on Arrival.”  On the Web readers can tap into the latest breaking news and get constant updates.

Another reason for falling subscription rates is that major newspapers are often associated with a single point of view.  They are biased.  As Achenbach said, it is important to “get it right and be fair.”

Many journalists seem to be a bit unnerved with the readers’ desire for interactivity.  Howard Kurtz, for example, frets that tracking page views is “not journalism, it’s marketing.”  Achenbach refutes that argument.  He said: “The most-read stories online are often what we’d all agree are the best pieces of journalism.”

Achenbach serves notice that “newspaper journalism is different these days.”  If newspapers want to survive in the current market, they must change with the times.  If they do not, they will be as “dead” as the “dead-tree edition.”

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