A few days ago status updates like this were doing the rounds on Facebook:

“Change your facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday (December 6), there should be no human faces on facebook, but a stash of memories. This is for eliminating violence against children.”

Of course it is. Or maybe not. Today, the rumour changed poles:

“This cartoon thing has been set up by paedos using A registered charities name to entice kids. apparently on the 6th dec you will be kicked off fb if u have cartoon pics. The more folk that… put up cartoon pics the harder it is fo…r the police to catch these sickos!!”

There doesn’t appear to be any truth in the latter rumour. Internet hoax library Snopes has a similar hoax listed, and this seems to be variant of it. ThatsNonsense.com also covers the hoax.

SEO as a public service

Hoax updates do the rounds on social networks and text messages on a semi-regular basis. Remember the one about children being kidnapped in supermarket toilets? Or how about police banning English flags in pubs for fear of offending people?

In both cases the mainstream media was slow to react to the rumours. A Google search – which would be a typical reaction of anyone receiving such a message – would bring up nothing to counter those rumours. (Notably, perhaps because of its public and real-time nature, Twitter seems better at quashing hoaxes).

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is much derided for a perception that it leads news organisations to write for machines, or to aim for the lowest common denominator. But SEO has a very valuable role in serving the public: if searches on a particular rumour shoot up, or mentions of it increase on social networks, it’s worth verifying and getting up the facts quickly.

This is another reason why journalists should be on social networks, and why publishers should be monitoring them more broadly. Whether your motivations are civic, or commercial, it makes sense both ways.

Of course, on the other hand you could always recycle urban myths about councils banning Christmas…

PS: If you need any tips on methods and tools, see my Delicious bookmarks for verification.

(h/t to Conrad Quilty-Harper)

Blogging cartoon in Romanian

A couple weeks ago I published the ‘5 Stages of a Blogger’s Life‘ cartoon, drawn by Alex Hughes. It was an experiment to test a theory of mine: that cartoons could be particularly successful in increasing news website visitor numbers, and that news organisations should be doing more with them.

The results? In one week that cartoon got over 40,000 hits, making it the most popular single post ever on the Online Journalism Blog .

Here’s why: cartoons are close to a universal language. You do not need to read English to understand them. The cartoons went around the world.

I say “close” to a universal language, because there is often a small amount of text. The effort to translate that is minimal, and that also presents an opportunity for bloggers to add value with a little effort – this is what bloggers in Spain, Romania and Iran, among others, did.

And it doesn’t stop with cartoons. How about a well-produced infographic? The second most popular post on the Online Journalism Blog is The World According to Newspapers, a series of cartograms by Nicolas Kayser-Bril that illustrate how different news operations ‘see’ the world. Tens of thousands of visits – many from the Far East – due in part to the fact that it made sense in any language.

And the popularity of video also owes something to this transglobal appeal. Apparently, Cult of the Amateur author Andrew Keen decries the fact that The Evolution of Dance is the most popular video on YouTube. No, it’s not Shakespeare, but he’s missing the point. Its popularity lies largely in how it transcends linguistic barriers, and indeed even cultural ones, spanning as it does a vast range of eras and styles. It’s Saturday evening television gone global. It’s Mr Bean.

So, newspapers would do well to look at one of their often undervalued assets, put it online to begin with (many don’t), and make the most of the opportunities it presents. More on that in a future post.

Meanwhile, if you have any insights into newspapers’ use (or not) of cartoons, infographics and video, let me know in the comments.

(Thanks to SedNonSatiata for the translation of the Romanian cartoon)

Hope you enjoy this. Concept by Paul Bradshaw, drawings by the wonderful Alex Hughes:

1st stage of blogging: play

2nd stage of blogging: feedback

3rd stage of blogging: community

4th stage of blogging: fame

5th stage of blogging: exhaustion/death

Here are some Twitter avatar-size versions too:

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In a guest post for the OJB, The Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation give an overview of how news organisations are treating cartoons online.

Cartoons have long been an essential part of British newspapers, so why do so many of those publications fail to do justice to drawn content on their websites?

The digital display of the web is a visual medium and cartoons and illustrations thrive on it. Yet many newsprint employers have not been quick to develop the advantages that drawn imagery offers as a digital communication tool and as existing sticky content for their sites and products.

Too many publications hide, or don’t publish, drawn work on the web, sometimes through lethargy and often through an unwillingness to discuss reprint fees with the creators of the work. (Almost all of the people working in this branch of visual journalism are self-employed.)

This is not to say that cartoonists aren’t without fault, sometimes we aren’t the quickest to embrace change either, although we have now set up the UK’s first digital sites for the working professional cartoonist: The Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation and its online diary, the Bloghorn.

At a recent London event, the BBC’s Andrew Marr wondered whether we were a trade union. We are not, and it was a costly question for him: he was kidnapped and is now one of our patrons, along with the Times columnist Libby Purves.

To be fair, some publications are beginning to buck the trend, and decent examples of the display and promotion of drawing can now be found at the websites of most of the major newsprint titles and some broadcasters.

The Guardian stands out, not least for its roster of cartoonists, running from Steve Bell, through to Kipper Williams, Martin Rowson, Nicola Jennings and Harry Venning. (Why no online place for Ros Asquith or Kate Taylor?)

The Telegraph does well too, particularly for its high-up, front-page promotion of Matt Pritchett and of Peattie and Taylor’s cartoon strip Alex as key pieces of quality editorial content.

The Independent’s much improved web showcase also does well for Dave Brown, Peter Schrank and Tim Sanders. This is in contrast to The Times site which lacks a web archive and a sensible display solution for the drawings. This does no favours to the work of either Morten Morland or Peter Brookes.

Mac at The Daily Mail doesn’t fare so well either, as he finds himself relegated to the Coffee Break pages, a distance from his original front page link. The signed-print offer is enterprising though. The Mail also buy-in a US animated cartoon from Joe Martin.

On the homegrown animated front, Matt Buck’s clickable Hack cartoons appear at Channel 4, and the Telegraph scores again for this innovation with Pat Blower’s Livedraw, which also shows weekly as video.

The Spectator magazine now offers a simple click-through slideshow of some of its weekly gag cartoons and Private Eye continues to publish a selection of work from talent such as Pete Dredge, Martin Honeysett, Ken Pyne and Royston Robertson.

The Mirror’s promising cartoon home page (wide selection) is spoiled by appalling sizing of the cartoon strips which are close to illegible in display.

The Sun does better on this front but the home page is so advertising graphic heavy, its a wonder anyone can open it at all. The Sun’s editorial artist, Bill Caldwell, is hard to find too.

Of course, cartoonists are lateral thinkers and resourceful, and many have followed the self-publishing road. Below we list below a few notable cartooning blogs.

One of our older magazines, Tribune, has run a political cartoon blog for more than two years. You can find Alex Hughes, Martin Rowson, Matt Buck and the great cartoonist John Jensen there regularly.

On the creative front, we were pleased to see Steve Bell of The Guardian doing something called a Visi-blog from the Democratic Party National Convention in Denver, USA. That’s visual progress isn’t it?

The Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation

Cartoon blogging:

• PCO’s Bloghorn http://www.procartoonists.blogspot.com
• Pat Blower and Christian Adams of the Telegraph
• Matt Buck (Hack) of Channel 4 News
• Wilbur Dawbarn (wiLbur)
• Alex Hughes of Tribune
• Alexander Matthews
• Morten Morland of The Times
• Royston Robertson
• Bill Stott