[Keyword: online journalism, flash journalism]. Poynter showcases a great example of multimedia journalism that also incorporate conversational journalism: the Christian Science Monitor’s feature: Hostage: The Jill Carroll Story:

“Along with a gripping, detailed account of Monitor freelancer Jill Carroll’s widely publicized 82 days of captivity while on assignment in Iraq, this package also includes streaming video of an extensive interview with Carroll — as well as links to related
coverage, including the still-active Jill Carroll update blog.
“Back in May, the Monitor started taking reader questions for Carroll… several of the hundreds of reader questions will be answered with video clips and full
transcripts
“[It] is an excellent example of how multimedia can become conversational media. I’d like to see this concept expanded, maybe by offering a call-in line where readers can record their comments in audio format, and even send in a photo or a link, so you can splice that in to the final video interview. And, as I mentioned earlier, I’d love it if the Monitor allowed online comments to each Q&A segment, to continue the conversation.”

Save this story on del.icio.us

[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism, blogging]. The editor of The Independent may not think that there’s a model for making money out of websites, but two stories today may just force him into a rethink.

The first is a simple story of success from a publication that took the bold step to put its core content – in this case listings – online. Press Gazette reports that Time Out claims its success in the latest ABCs as justifying “the “bold step” of putting its London listings online.”

Meanwhile, and perhaps more significantly, Journalism.co.uk reports on the launch by Washingtonpost.com of a service linking advertisers and bloggers. Sponsored Blogroll “invites writers to register their interest in carrying advertisements on their sites. Marketers are then encouraged to select relevant destinations on which to buy space; the blogger shares advertising revenue with the newspaper company and will receive a link from a promotion box on the washingtonpost.com front page. Launched as an experiment, the project claims three sites as launch partners and is seeking writers publishing about technology, business, health, cars and travel.”

What the article doesn’t point out is that this is a rather canny approach from the Washington Post to the threat that bloggers – and the likes of Google AdSense – represent to their advertising revenues in the long term. This way, they protect their revenues without having to actually produce any editorial. In fact, what the newspaper is actually doing is selling advertising, and marketing, to bloggers, while the bloggers concentrate on the business of producing content. Now there’s a turnaround.

Save this story on del.icio.us

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. I wrote this way back in February before Stuart realised his publishers may not be pleased about it leaking out. The book is now ready, so here’s the blurb:

Students of online journalism may be interested to hear Stuart Allan is in the process of sending his latest book on the subject to the OU Press. He’s very kindly sent me a blurb which uses words like “exciting” and “important”, and which I reproduce below in the hope it will all come true… It certainly sounds much-needed:

Online News Journalism and the Internet
In this exciting and timely book Stuart Allan provides a wide-ranging analysis of online news. He offers important insights into the key debates concerning the ways in which journalism is evolving on the internet, devoting particular attention to the factors influencing its development. Using a diverse range of examples, he shows how the forms, practices and epistemologies of online news have gradually become conventionalized, and assesses the implications for journalism’s future.

The rise of online news is examined with regard to the reporting of a series of major news events. Topics include coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing, the death of Princess Diana, the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, the September 11 attacks, election campaigns, and the war in Iraq, amongst others. The emergence of blogging is traced with an eye to its impact on journalism as a profession. The participatory journalism of news sites such as Indymedia, OhmyNews, and Wikinews is explored, as is the citizen journalist reporting of the South Asian tsunami, London bombings and Hurricane Katrina. In each instance, the uses of new technologies – from digital cameras to mobile telephones and beyond – are shown to shape journalistic innovation, often in surprising ways.

This book is essential reading for students, researchers and journalists.
Contents 1) Introduction
2) The Rise of Online News
3) Brave New Media Worlds: BBC News Online, The Drudge Report, and the Birth of Blogging
4) Covering the Crisis: Online Journalism on September 11
5) Sensational Scandals: The New(s) Values of Blogs
6) Online Reporting of the War in Iraq: Bearing Witness
7) Participatory Journalism: IndyMedia, OhmyNews and Wikinews
8) Citizen Journalists on the Scene: The London Bombings and Hurricane Katrina
9)New Directions

[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism, blogging]. Yes, I have a new box on the right if you want to subscribe to regular emails. And there’s some history to this…

Frequent readers of my blog may be familiar with my ongoing quest to find a suitable way to offer email subscriptions. My first effort involved getting my blog to email posts to a group on Yahoo! Groups which anyone could subscribe to. However, for some reason the group stopped working, so I switched to Google Groups. Neither solution was ideal, as it still required users to do more work than simply entering an email address, so I was pleased to discover BotaBlog offered a simple email entry field. Thing is, it didn’t seem to work properly either.

So, I’m thrilled to discover a new feature on Feedburner where you can choose from three different email delivery services: the first, provided by Feedburner itself, simply requires users to enter their email address in a box you can insert on your site; the second, from Feedblitz, not only does that, but provides you with subscribers’ email addresses too. The third, from Squeet, doesn’t provide subscriber email addresses, but does allow them to ‘buzz’ their favourite articles and promote them further.

Save this story on del.icio.us

[Keyword: online journalism]. Here’s a blog that’s worth perusing if you’re interested in the changes in newspapers brought about by new media: Innovations in Newspapers. Produced by a consultancy (clever way to spread the word about your services) it demonstrates a good understanding of good and bad practice in online journalism.

Save this story on del.icio.us

[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism, blogging]. More from Press Gazette as the latest issue includes an interview with newly appointed head of multimedia for Trinity Mirror’s regional newspapers Michael Hill.

It seems Hill is going to be firmly focused on making the most of citizen journalism, as he says:

“I think newspapers, particularly regional newspapers, need to be — and will be — much more open to news being generated and sent to them by their readers.

“There is going to be much more of a focus on being inclusive, rather than publishing to an audience at a time you specify, and giving the audience the news diet that you decided.

“There’s going to be a bigger focus on interacting with that audience, answering to them, and using a lot of the stuff that they produce for you.

“I think the distinction between professional journalists and citizen journalists may become a little blurred.

“Rather than seeing the content that citizen journalists provide as being useful exclusively on a website, papers can start looking a lot more to use some of that content in print as well.”

These are great things to be hearing from a ‘multimedia chief’, although as part of his role will be “advising local editors on best practice ideas for multimedia” the biggest challenge, it seems, will be persuading them to implement the impressive ideas he has.

Save this story on del.icio.us

[Keyword: online journalism]. Press Gazette reports on continuing changes to the Telegraph.co.uk website with online editorial director Edward Roussel quoted as saying: “We want our readers to be engaged with the news-making process, by sharing their views on our blogs and other forms of online discussion.”

The article lists changes including

“larger text … and more news added throughout the day in the form of written
articles, audio and video. Other new additions include more “economic snapshots”
on the business pages including info on key indicators such as house prices,
unemployment, inflation, GDP and interest rates; content on the travel pages
divided by continent and country using maps; property pages to include data on
historic prices and access to 7.5 million UK house prices; a revamped blogging
site including online diaries from Telegraph writers such as Celia Walden, Ben
Fenton and Hilary Alexander.”

Save this story on del.icio.us

[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism, blogging]. There’s a call for contributions on Dan Gillmor’s citizen journalism blog after the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced the award of a grant to Gillmor’s Center for Citizen Media “to create five online training modules for citizen journalists. Those modules will cover 1) thoroughness, 2) accuracy, 3) fairness, 4) transparency and 5) independence.”

“The modules will be available initially on the Knight Foundation site and here, and will also be available under a Creative Commons license.

“We need your help,” says Gillmor. “To that end, we’re creating discussion boards where we can have a conversation about the content and ideas behind these modules. Watch this space for more details.”

Save this story on del.icio.us

[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism, video]. There’s a lengthy column at Editor & Publisher with some useful advice for any newspapers looking to jump on the latest bandwagon: user-generated videos of the YouTube variety. The writer suggests:

“1. Understand the benefits and drawbacks of the existing sites for viewers and advertisers alike.

“2. Make a conscious transition from being strictly content creators to become local communication facilitators.

“3. Create new channels to capture and share the best content from around the country and world (similar to the Associated Press or ESPN but for user-generated content).

“4. Integrate, don’t segregate. Video needs to be integrated directly into existing sections.

“5. Experiment. Create new sections and new services to test what types of videos
people want to share and whether they’ll pay to place or see them. “

There’s plenty more advice including why newspapers have an advantage, how to make sure cream floats to the top, and even the idea of video comics.

Save this story on del.icio.us

[Keyword: online journalism, citizen journalism, blogging]. Mindy McAdams has blogged about a good example of multimedia being used at a small newspaper:

“The Star-Exponent just won an award from the APME for “Online Convergence,” for a story in January 2006 about the lynching of a black man in Culpeper in 1918.
The award apparently hinges on the multimedia element of the story package (this was designed to pop up in a small window). It includes a slideshow with sound and some original documents. It’s not one of the cleanest or most usable Flash packages, but this is a very small newspaper, and I give them a lot of credit for making the effort.”

Save this story on del.icio.us