[Keyword: online journalism]. The tabloids aren’t particularly well-known for their use of the web in their journalism, but yesterday’s News Of The World demonstrates that one area in particular – the video ‘sting’ – could prove increasingly fruitful. “Blowing the whistle”on Footballers’ Wives star Holly McGuire’s “secret life of vice” the paper’s cover story pushed readers to the website to “watch our undercover video of Holly brazenly offering her sexual services”. The links are given below. Titillation aside, it’s also an interesting document of how an undercover reporter goes about his ‘interview’.

[Keyword: online journalism]. Sarah-Kate Templeton, Medical Correspondent at the Sunday Times, demonstrates a great example of Computer Assisted Reporting in her article ‘Doctors spit blood over plans to let nurses operate‘. It documents doctors’ reactions to NHS reforms giving nurses the right to carry out routine operations – but rather than looking up her list of GP contacts, Templeton has the much better idea of scouring the messageboards at Doctors.net.uk, producing quotes she probably wouldn’t have got from a straight interview (“would you let an air hostess fly the plane with your family in it?” being one particularly juicy example), as well as a ‘community response’ feel from passages like “A doctor who urged the BMA to “put the boot in” won the support of more than 200 postings.”

[Keyword: online journalism]. This has become a pet topic of mine of late. It seems that the term ‘citizen journalism’ (which used to refer more specifically to sites such as OhmyNews), as it has gained currency, has also gained a vagueness which includes blogging, moblogging, podcasts, vodcasts and other forms of online journalism under its umbrella. Some journalists’ understanding of the term seems to be muddied, and often twinned with that is a view of it as inferior in some way. Mindy McAdams gives a strong argument as to when blogging can be considered citizen journalism – but it’s worth noting that not all blogging is citizen journalism, and the same is true of podcasts, etc. Those who spend a little time browsing these forms will be able to pick out the good stuff.

[Keyword: online journalism]. Those interested in Flash journalism or teaching online journalism should take a look at Mindy McAdams’ blog (http://tojou.blogspot.com/), which has been running since December but doesn’t take too long to catch up on.

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Thanks to Steve Outing for pointing out this one: Citizen media ‘guru’ Dan Gillmor has begun writing a column for the BBC on the subject. The first attempt is the sort of generic introduction that often kicks off these affairs – “Media are becoming democratised, and a global conversation is emerging,” he tells us, which may be news to those not in the business, but is starting to sound hackneyed. He then takes a quick tour around the tools of this global conversation – blogs, wikis, podcasts and mashups. Again, introductory stuff. No doubt as Gillmor gets into his stride and feels confident that his readers know what he’s talking about, things will become more interesting.

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. The answer, suggests Robert Niles, is to publish your running stories in a wiki:

“I’m suggesting that — instead of distinct daily takes — news stories could be covered with encyclopedia-style articles that staffers would update with new information whenever available. How many more inbound links would such an approach get? How much higher in SERPs might this page place than a traditional story archive page? And, most important, how much more accessible would a new or infrequent reader find this approach — as opposed to the traditional list of links to daily news stories?
“[…]Of course, there is a drawback to the wiki/encyclopedia approach. This way of writing does not well serve the loyal, frequent readers, who come to a news site looking for the latest incremental information on a topic. Why make those readers wade through paragraphs of familiar background, looking for the new stuff?
“This is where a hybrid of blogging and a wiki could prove killer. Set up your front page as a blog, providing an entry point for frequent readers to learn what is new on the site. Then maintain the archive as a collection of wiki-style summaries, recapping “the story to date” on those topics. Maintain a chronological archive, if you must, but meta-tag it as “no index” to spiders, as not to dilute their attention to your wiki-style archive pages.”

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. The OJR reports from OJR 2006 on ‘bringing readers into the loop’. My favourite quote comes from OJR editor Robert Niles, who “compared moderating blog comments or discussion boards to basic journalism skills.”

“Just asking readers the general “What do you think?” question as a topic starter will get broad, unfocused answers, he said. As any good journalist would, it’s important to “maintain control of the interview.”

“”If you ask a targeted, well-tailored question, you’re more likely to get a specific response,” he said.”

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Vin Crosbie over at Rebuilding Media reprints his speech on newspaper revenues online – well-informed stuff; here’s a key quote or two:

“American newspapers are earning significant revenues online, particularly now
that local advertisers are going online. However, newspapers are in danger of
losing local online advertising revenues, not to TV or radio stations but to
‘pure-play’ Internet competitors such as Google and Yahoo. And that newspapers
must their expand their online advertising focus well beyond just the
traditional classified advertising categories of jobs, properties, and
automotive, because those three categories account for just a fraction of the
monies advertisers are spending online.”

“More U.S. households now have Internet access than purchase daily newspapers.”

“The average persons who visits a newspaper website visits almost eight times per month. He reads more than 45 newspaper webpages and spends more than 40 minutes on newspaper websites each month.

“Some surveys report that 40 percent of those 50 million persons are people who never read printed editions of newspapers.

“‘pure play’ Internet companies, such as Google and Yahoo, earned more than half of all online advertisement spending during 2005: Almost nine billion dollars. Almost 53 percent of all online advertisement spending in the United States.

“Newspapers however earned most of the local online spending by advertisers: a 41 percent share.

“Nevertheless, the ‘pure play’ Internet companies captured nearly a 32 percent share of local spending. Google, Yahoo!, and companies of that type are now in the local advertising business.”

You can also find coverage of the issue at Cyberjournalist.net, who in turn report on coverage by AdAge…

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Journalism.co.uk has a raft of reports from the Online Publishers Association London conference, much of it revolving around citizen journalism and blogging. Here’s the headlines:

• EW Scripps MD on leveraging traditional brands for the web
• Guardian lines up 200 contributors for new comment site
• Search – the end of the friend or foe debate?
• Are publishers making concessions for bloggers?
• Reuters CEO warns against protectionism, as well as surrender

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Matt King is a journalism student at UCE Birmingham’s media department who has responded to the task of exploring quizzes and surveys as a form of online journalism with the kind of investigative streak all students should aspire to. Finding articles about the area hard to come by, he went out and spoke to Adam Harding, Deputy Editor of Sky News Interactive; Jon Dennis, deputy news editor for Guardian Unlimited; and a member of the Fox Online team. You can also find some great examples of the medium at his blog: http://wrdmatt.blogspot.com/, and expect to find more as the deadline for submitting his work approaches!

Disclosure: I set the task in the Online Journalism module that I teach.