On Jan. 1, two Tennessee bloggers launched a resource site to help journalists understand and use digital media technology: NewsTechZilla.
This site will focus on beginner-level tutorials and tips to help journalists who need to catch up fast on the digital media tools and channels now available to them. It will also explore some journalists’ experiences with negotiating this learning curve.
The founders are journalist Trace Sharp (aka Newscoma) and technologist Scott Adcox (aka Sadcox). Yesterday Jack Lail, director of news innovation for the Knoxville News Sentinel published an interview with NewsTechZilla’s founders.
Sharp told Lail: “One thing some of my posts will be about is how in one generation, I’ve gone from using wax in paste-up to everything computerized. … We are also going to be utilizing featured editorials from folks on how the changes in news have impacted them even if they aren’t in news and technology. Our hope is also to create a community at NewsTechZilla where folks can ask questions.”
And Adcox told Lail: “As far as niche goes, [Sharp and I] were actually just joking this morning that it’s sort of like ‘citizen journalism for journalists,’ which is a little bit different than all the ‘journalism for citizen journalists’ stuff that’s out there. I’m not sure that’s something journalists would want to hear, but that was sort of the genesis of the whole project.”
I think this project is worth watching. And if you find yourself baffled by some aspect of digital media, you can ask a question. Maybe they’ll answer it in a post.
