Greetings and welcome to the blog created for the exclusive use of participants and faculty taking part in Poynter’s “Reporting and Writing for Multi-Platform Newsrooom” seminar.
Usually, we communicate through the listserv and that forum can continue to be an outlet for logisitcal questions, etc.
This blog, like your homework assignments on NewsU, is yet another way to explore the world of online journalism.
If you haven’t blogged before, this will give you a chance to familiarize yourselves with the form, and experiment with tone, style and other aspects of writing online.
If you blog now, consider this another way to join our seminar experience.
WARNING: This blog is private, and intended for use by seminar participants and faculty. However, as many have learned to their dismay, even supposedly private online materials can make their way onto the Internet. While this is not intended to hinder your right to free speech or ability to criticize, be mindful that whatever you write here may sometime in the future come back to haunt you. So before you let loose a volley of negative comments about colleagues, news organizations, etc. take a moment to look your post or comments over before you hit submit.
Whatever your blogging experience, I think you’ll find this screencast tutorial produced by Meg Martin, Poynter Online’s associate editior, to be very helpful. It requires Flash Player, a free download available at
Blogging software varies from one another so Meg’s tutorial will enable you to use Poynter’s system with relative ease.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION: Tell us about favorite blogs!
Let’s kick off the conversation by sharing 2-3 of our favorite blogs, either by hyperlinking from the software or simply cutting and pasting the title and link into your message.
Please include at least one journalism blog; otherwise the choices are upt to you.
Here are some of my favorites:
1. Interested video and interactive media from one of the best multimedia staff’s around. Scope out “Behind the lens,” the blog maintained by the multimedia.com at washingtonpost.com. Items tell the story behind the story and usually include the video under consideration. One disappointment: the latest blog is January, 2007. The team may be too busy too blog.
2. Creating Passionate Users
Although, like ours, this is a group blog, Kathy Sierra, a software trainer, seems to be the driving force. As a trainer, I like her posts because they’re witty, informed, and motivational. They also fly in the face of conventional wisdom that blog posts must be short. Hers can be quite long, but their length isn’t off putting. That may be because she uses imagery to break up her text, and her style so conversational. I also get a kick out of the 50s-era photos that she spices up with balloon comments.
3. Gangrey.com The subtitle of this blog says it all: “Prolonging the slow death newspapers.” Created by Ben Montgomery, a St. Petersburg Times reporter, the blog is “A writer’s approach to helping bail water out of a sinking ship.” It does so by spotllighting great writing and increasing, online content, that generates lively comments.
4. The Mechanic and the Muse: An Owner’s Manual for Writers.
I created this blog last year, having hit bottom in a number of ways (see “Why I blog” on the top left rail). It violates a cardinal principle of effective blogging by failing to appear consistenly. It’s written for me as much as for whatever readers it attracts–I use it to capture ideas, stories, etc. and to comment on topics that capture my attention, such as plagiarism. It also features photos, something that makes newsy blogs more alluring.
I got the idea of photo illustration idea from Janine Kahn, who blogs “School Me: Aventures in Education” for the the Los Angeles Times web site.
Kahn’s blog is intensely local and features short items. Its layout and steady drip of news items makes it a must-read. Notice how the blog maintains its own ethical standards; at the bottom of an item about the arrest of a former LA school official for fraudulently getting the large district to buy his textbook a note points out “Note: An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.” [How many times do we include such boilerplate in print versions?)
Ethical note: It’s a snap to find photos on the web, but it’s unclear about whether their use constitutes a form of visual plagriarism. I make a point of crediting the source, but am not sure if that’s good enough. Grist for our ethical session with Bob Steele on Wednesday morning?
