More from Andy Dickinson (see post on the previous incarnation of this blog) on Newspaper Video:Editing and Apps. Part 3 looks at the low/no cost option, (in the second post he looked at packages that “may not have the reputation but may have what you need at a price that suits.”)
If you’re one of the subscribers to the FeedBurner email newsletter that I set up for this blog’s previous incarnation – do not worry: I have updated the details so that you will continue to receive updates from the new, WordPress-based version.
If you’re interested, the new feed is at http://feeds.feedburner.com/onlinejournalismblog
Following Shane Richmond’s detailed analysis of wikis and factors hindering their growth as news tools (namely vandalism and inaccuracy), Jemima Kiss has an interesting article highlighting another: PR companies, “after Microsoft apparently paid a blogger to work on various technical entries”. It’s a trap that blogs have already fell foul of – from fake blogs like Cillit Bang’s Barry Scott’s and the even faker WalMart couple-travelling-across-the-USA blog, to PR companies who are employed to seed positive mentions of their clients’ products/services across blogs (among other sites).
Press releases, sponsored ‘surveys’ and PR-organised media events have always provided a large amount of journalistic fuel, so this is nothing new, but one skill the future editor must have is the ability to spot these tactics in their blogs and wikis.
I’ve bowed to the inevitable and decided to move the Online Journalism Blog to WordPress. I’ve had a few good years with Blogger but the relationship never felt like it was going anywhere, and, to be honest, on occasion I even felt ashamed to be seen in public together.
I admit, I was starstruck by the prospect of better Google rankings, but the indie appeal of WordPress has finally won me over. Oh, and the fact that when Blogger went over to a Google sign-in I couldn’t log on at work (I’m sure it’s something to do with cookie settings and I could sort it out if I had the time, but no, I’d rather spend endless hours configuring WordPress to work the same way).
So, if you want to carry on reading my clippings, comments and very occasional flash of insightful analysis, add https://onlinejournalismblog.wordpress.com/ to your Favourites and https://onlinejournalismblog.wordpress.com/feed/ to your RSS feed.
I may occasionally still post to Blogger while I figure WordPress out, but don’t hold your breath.
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Paul Bradshaw lectures on the Journalism degree at UCE Birmingham media department. He writes a number of blogs including the Online Journalism Blog, Interactive PR and Web and New Media
Following my previous post on the free xwiki service for creating wikis, I’ve discovered SocialText, a more commercial operation but which does offer a free ‘personal version’ as well. Worth exploring if you’re thinking of experimenting with ‘the new blog’ (TM).
UPDATE: Added to the list is Zoho’s wiki, part of a whole suite of free online office products. And you can add PBwiki to that, too.
Article at the OJR highlights mistakes that “cripple” reader interactivity. These are, in a nutshell:
Not reading or responding to your readers’ comments
Responding too quickly, and too often, to readers’ comments
Not giving readers a place of their own place to talk
I’ve long been a fan of the personalised page that Google allows you to create through selecting RSS feeds and adding them to your selection. But, thanks to Poynter, I’ve discovered an even better, more intuitive tool, called Wikio. It’s a personalised news service, but based on keywords as well as RSS feeds. Yes, I know you can create an RSS feed based on a keyword, but Wikio just does it much more intuitively, and makes it easier.
That’s not all – there’s a built-in social recommendation-type feature which recommends additional keywords based on the ones you’ve selected. And there’s a ‘Publish’ feature which allows you to create material yourself.
The only downside at the moment is that the generic and unpersonalised ‘news’ tabbed page is always the default – so you have to click on your personalised tabbed page to begin surfing.
Online Journalism Blog 