Tag Archives: BuzzFeed

Developing persistence and tenacity as a journalist (7 habits of successful journalists part 3)

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Apple alone on bare tree. Image by Rodger Evans
Tenacity image by Rodger Evans

In the third of a series of post on seven habits often associated with good journalism I look at how persistence and tenacity can be taught in journalism training — and why it should be.

One of the earliest skills that broadcast journalists learn is how to conduct a vox pop. The vox pop is an attempt to ‘take the pulse’ of the public on a topical issue: the journalist will stand in a busy public place and ask passers-by to share their thoughts on the issue of the day.

The results will typically be used as part of a news package (not, it should be pointed out, as a standalone story), particularly when the news story in question doesn’t have many other interviews or visuals to draw on. Most are quickly forgotten. Continue reading →

Journalism’s 3 conflicts — and the promise it almost forgot

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As 2018 comes to an end, in an extract from the introduction to Mobile-First Journalism I look at how the past few years have shaped the current face of mobile and social-native journalism — and what that means for its future.

The mood around mobile and social changed dramatically in 2018. To those working in the field, it could sometimes feel like being caught in the crossfire of a battle. Fake news, Russian trolls, concerns over filter bubbles and hoaxes, censorship, algorithms and profit warnings have all shown that the path to mobile-first publishing is going to be anything but an easy one.

Like any new territory, the mobile landscape is being fought over fiercely. But take a step back from the crossfire and you will see that different actors are fighting over different things, in different ways: and there isn’t just one battle — but three. Continue reading →

What changed in 2017 — and what we can expect in 2018 (maybe)

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Because he sends me an email every December, Nic Newmanhas a tag all of his own on this blog. So as this year’s email lands in my inbox here’s my annual reply around what I’ve noticed in the last 12 months — along with some inevitably doomed predictions of what might happen in the next year…

Surprising in 2017: horizontal storytelling and Facebook disappointments

The rapid spread of horizontal storytelling (‘tap to advance’) struck me particularly this year. 2017 saw it become the default for new launches, from Facebook’s new ‘Messenger Day‘ feature and Medium’s Series, to Instagram‘s Carousel feature and WhatsApp‘s Status feature, while the BBC news app’s videos of the day feature used the same approach too. Continue reading →

Guardian profiles routinely link to PGP keys – why aren’t other news orgs doing this?

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guardian-profile

What a pleasant surprise to visit a profile page on The Guardian website and see a big, prominent link to the member of staff’s public key. Is this routine? It seems it is: an advanced search for profile pages mentioning “public key” brings up over 1000 results. Continue reading →

Podcasting and money in the UK

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In a guest post for OJB first published on his blog, broadcaster Joe Norman explores the UK market for podcasting.

Over the past few weeks I’ve found myself questioning whether — in the UK in particular — it is possible to make money from podcasting.

The bigger productions seem to be an add-on to radio programmes, heavily reliant on content produced — presumably — using on-air budgets.

Many of the others appear, on the face of it, to be labours of love with some sponsorship that may cover cost. Continue reading →

5 of the best: podcasts about data journalism

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Image of podcast on mobile

Image by Carla Pedret©

Podcasts are a great way to listen to stories on the move, be entertained, or keep up with developments in a particular field. However, have you ever thought about using them to learn data journalism?

In this list, I have pulled together some of the best podcasts about data. Some are specifically about data journalism, whereas others approach data from another perspective.
Continue reading →

Curation is the new obituary: 8 ways media outlets marked Bowie’s life and death [now 16]

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The media’s reaction to David Bowie‘s death from cancer early this morning demonstrates just how widely curation has become in journalism practice – and specifically, how it has become the web native version of the obituary. Below I’ve done a bit of curation of my own: 8 13 16 ways that different publications used curation to mark the death of a legend. If you have seen others, please let me know.

1. Liveblogging curation

The Telegraph’s live reporting of Bowie’s death is an example of curation itself, incorporating just some of the following elements:

  • The Facebook update of the statement confirming Bowie’s death
  • Embedded tweets from key figures reacting to the death
  • A video playlist
  • A single video of his last single, along with other videos to illustrate reactions
  • A posting from Bowie’s official Instagram account

Continue reading →

The viral choice: too good to check – or too good not to debunk?

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We are in the golden age of verification: a generation of journalists trained to process content rather than check it; the culling of the subs who used to; and a generation raised on bullshit with the means to check it and the networks to exchange notes. Continue reading →

Now a police force is using Buzzfeed to publicise odd FOI requests

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Two years ago the newspaper group Local World received a lot of attention over their decision to allow local councillors, police forces and others publish directly on their site.

And one year ago Torbay Police hailed the “historic moment” as they published their own story to the local news website, a moment which the Chartered Institute of Journalists condemned as “wholly unacceptable” and Dominic Ponsford critiqued in some detail.

https://twitter.com/SgtSheps/statuses/444135359979724800

But why bother going through the local press when you can publish on Buzzfeed? Continue reading →

Is This The Beginning Of The End For The UK Headline?

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Until recently a journalism trainer in the UK could safely berate a trainee for Writing Headlines Where Every Word Began With A Capital.

It is a style of headline writing common in US publications, but non-existent in the UK, where newspapers have traditionally fit into one of two camps: the SHOUTY SHOUTY REDTOPS and the broadsheets who Only make the first letter uppercase unless there’s a proper noun.

(The mid-markets, as might be expected, took the best of both worlds, reserving shouting for the front pages and lower case for the inside pages).

So a journalism trainee who Wrote Like This had likely never paid much attention to newspapers, or only when they appeared in Hollywood films.

Or perhaps they just read Guido Fawkes, who, for whatever reason appears to have followed the Hollywood style of headline writing:

Guido Fawkes headlines

Guido Fawkes’s headlines adhere to the US style

 

Continue reading →