Monthly Archives: October 2008

Are you teaching (or being taught) the News Diamond?

A couple of recent emails have brought home to me just how many people are being taught the ‘News Diamond’ model I first proposed as part of my Model for a 21st Century Newsroom series.

So I’d love to know – are you teaching this? What has the reaction been like? Or are you a student learning about it? What do you think?

When I first blogged it I was disappointed by the lack of critical reaction. Come on people, add to it, pick it apart, remix it! Comments please.

Blogging journalists: pt.3: Blogs and story research: “We swapped info”

The third part of the results of my survey of blogging journalists looks at how blogging has affected how stories are researched.

As journalists move onto gathering information for a story, the scope of easily accessible sources is made broader by journalists’ involvement in blogs. Continue reading

Blog Action Day – what are you doing?

It’s Blog Action Day .Here are 88 ways to do something about poverty now.

And if you’re in the Midlands, here’s an 89th: go to the Birmingham Social Media Surgery, to support voluntary and community groups in the city. Credit to Nick Booth for getting things going; credit to the Birmingham blog community for demonstrating once again what a fantastic bunch of people they are.

If you know a language other than English and would like to help Blog Action Day translation work, please email Easton at easton@blogactionday.org.

I’d love to know what you’re doing, blogger or not.

Blogging journalists: pt.2: Blogs and news ideas: “The canary in the mine”

The second part of the results of my survey of blogging journalists looks at how blogs have affected how journalists generate story ideas and leads.

Blogs and news ideas: “The canary in the mine”

Blogging's effect on story ideas by industry

For blogging journalists, blogs have disrupted the traditional processes of journalism in a number of ways.

Respondents spoke of a clearer perception of audience needs and interests as a result of comments and visitor statistics, which in turn fed into the choice of topics and angles to cover. Continue reading

Blogging journalists: survey results pt.1: context and methodology

Back in June I distributed an online survey to find out how journalists with blogs felt their work had been affected by the technology. 200 blogging journalists responded in total, from 30 different countries.

The responses paint an interesting picture: in generating ideas and leads, in gathering information, in news production and post-publication, and most of all in the relationship with the audience, the networked, iterative and conversational nature of the blog format is changing how many journalists work in a number of ways. Continue reading

40,000 hits: why news websites should make more of cartoons (and infographics)

Blogging cartoon in Romanian

Blogging cartoon in Romanian

Blogging cartoon in Arabic

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 . Continue reading

Lessons in community from community editors: #1 Shane Richmond

I’ve been speaking to news organisations’ community editors on the lessons they’ve learned from their time in the job. In the first of a sure to be irregular series, the Telegraph’s Shane Richmond:

1. The strongest community is one that belongs to its members Continue reading

Wiki journalism comes to the UK

http://www.wiki-north-east.co.uk/
 
Trinity Mirror have launched a ‘wiki for the North East’ as a result of an internal contest to bring out innovative ideas. Web developer Louise Midgley, from North-East division ncjmedia, received a cash prize and will receive future share of any profits from her idea: wikinortheast.co.uk “an online archive covering all aspects of the North-East region”. Continue reading