Social media workshop for weekly newspapers

I’m presenting a workshop on social media this afternoon for the Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association, meeting in Calgary.

Links related to the workshop are my #twutorial series, especially the posts on breaking news, advanced search and livetweeting. We’ll also be talking about crowdsourcing and Facebook engagement, including the use of photos from your archives.

Here are slides for the presentation:

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

How Jeff Edelstein crowdsourced a Springsteen-style Fort Lee traffic song

When I saw Jeff Edelstein‘s music video about New Jersey’s controversial bridge and learned how he crowdsourced it, I asked him to explain. Here’s a guest post from the Trentonian columnist (I added the links, illustrations and embeds):

Jeff Edelstein

Basically, when you write a Bruce Springsteen parody song about the governor of New Jersey being embroiled in a massive controversy bordering on cover-up, you’re going to need to find someone to put it to music.

This was the position I found myself in Friday morning, Jan. 10.

The Chris Christie scandal was at a fever pitch. It was a day after his press conference, and still at the top of the news.

So I wrote a song.

Read Full Post »

If you want video of the winning shot, ask the crowd

If you didn’t catch the miracle shot, there’s a good chance someone did.

Nearly every high school sporting event has some mom or dad or kid in the stands recording the action on a cell phone video camera or something better. So if you miss the winning shot, be sure to ask for it.

That happened Monday night to Dan Fenner, who covers high school sports for the Oakland Press. He thought he caught the winner, when he shot some video of Todd Moore’s shot with 2.2 seconds left, giving Farmington Hills Harrison a two-point lead over Walled Lake Northern.

Sports Editor Jeff Kuehn picks up the story:

As he was preparing to interview coaches, the ball was put in play and a kid launched a half-court shot to win the game.

Dan tweeted the result and his own dismay.

FINAL: Walled Lake Northern’s Chris Cliff hit a buzzer beater from half court to give the Knights a 48-47 win over Harrison. @miprepzone

— Dan Fenner (@DanFenner) March 5, 2013

Can’t believe I don’t have the video of the halfcourt buzzer beater from this game I covered. It was too improbable. Story to follow.

— Dan Fenner (@DanFenner) March 5, 2013

Meanwhile, colleagues Jason Schmitt and Jeff Dullack got busy crowdsourcing: 

If anyone does have video of the half-court winner by Walled Lake Northern, we’d love to share it. Email sports@oakpress.com TY

— MIPrepZone (@MIPrepZone) March 5, 2013

A player from the first game of the double-header came to the rescue:

@danfenner I have the video

— BrandonNafso (@BrandonNafso1) March 5, 2013

Jeff continues the story:

Within minutes, it was up on our website, tweeted out to ESPN (possible Top 10 plays) and placed in the later game story. Obviously, it was the number one story on MIPrepZone.

Of course, Dan and his colleagues tweeted their thanks:

@brandonnafso1 Are you the one who sent it in to MIPrepZone?If so, I really appreciate it.

— Dan Fenner (@DanFenner) March 5, 2013

We want to give another shout-out to @brandonnafso1 for sending us the video of Chris Cliff’s game-winner – bitly.com/WIVCY4

— MIPrepZone (@MIPrepZone) March 5, 2013

A video like that deserves more than thanks, though. This calls for some swag:

@brandonnafso1 we will be in touch, we’ve got a MIPrepZone T-shirt for you. Again, thanks for answering our call last night

— MIPrepZone (@MIPrepZone) March 5, 2013

Read Full Post »

Crowdsourcing workshop for the Farmington Daily Times

I’m leading a workshop on crowdsourcing this afternoon for the Daily Times in Farmington, N.M.

I’ll be using a lot of the tips from my 2011 post about crowdsourcing.

Here are links to some crowdsourcing examples I will be using (what are some other good examples to add?):

Guardian project on MP’s expenses

Morning Sun crowdsourcing on winter storm

Crowdsourced flooding map

#wheretheyserved map

Guardian coverage of meteor explosion

Atlantic coverage of meteor explosion

Here are helpful links for crowdsourcing (what are some other links I should include?):

Lessons from the Guardian’s expenses crowdsourcing project

Daniel Victor explains a project that used crowdsourcing

Crowdmap

5 ways to crowdsource easily, legally & with quality (Jeremy Caplan)

Lisa Fernandez shares a crowdsourcing (or fetching) lesson

Crowdsourcing Hurricane Irene recovery map in Connecticut

Of course, I crowdsourced tips for the workshop, with pretty good results:

@stevebuttry Did a story this week about a prof teaching people to go on better 1st dates. We got blind-date pic through FB outreach.

— Trevor Hughes (@TrevorHughes) February 15, 2013

@stevebuttry Story (was only meant to be quick-hit): noconow.co/XMb3Ky and photo attached. twitter.com/TrevorHughes/s… — Trevor Hughes (@TrevorHughes) February 15, 2013

@stevebuttry And here’s the picture we got from that outreach, plus the loopback post we did: twitter.com/TrevorHughes/s…

— Trevor Hughes (@TrevorHughes) February 15, 2013

@stevebuttry After Hurricane Sandy, we started the #njgas hashtag to help people find open stations. It went viral. Trying to think of links

— Jen Connic (@jenconnic) February 15, 2013

@stevebuttry #njgas hashtag after Sandy

— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) February 15, 2013

@stevebuttry easy crowdsourcing: pets dailyfreeman.com/articles/2013/… Some nominations media.dailyfreeman.com/2013/02/13/dai…

— Ivan Lajara (@ivanlajara) February 15, 2013

@stevebuttry as for why crowdsource pets: To be familiar with workflow and to develop UGC base, to be ready when big news happens

— Ivan Lajara (@ivanlajara) February 15, 2013

@stevebuttry because small news orgs, specifically, need to know whom to ask from the ouset. I’ve seen many a tweet in the forest.

— Ivan Lajara (@ivanlajara) February 15, 2013

@stevebuttry Guardian and others crowdsourced meteorite videos this morning. guardian.co.uk/science/2013/f…

— Ken (@kensands) February 15, 2013

@stevebuttry Looking for good watchdog story ideas? APME does editor crowdsourcing: apme.com/?page=WatchDog

— Ken (@kensands) February 15, 2013

Here are my slides from the workshop:

Read Full Post »

News-based games, crowdsourced on Twitter

I asked my tweeps yesterday for examples of news-based games. They responded, so I Storified their responses. (I initially published the whole thing to this blog from Storify, but the coding was garbled somehow, so I deleted it. The embed code doesn’t work on wordpress.com, so it’s best to read from the link above.

Read Full Post »

Workshops on digital-first journalism for The Gazette in Montreal

I will be leading workshops this week for The Gazette in Montreal. Here are links and slides I will be using in workshops:

We will discuss leading a digital-first newsroom. Here are slides for that workshop:

We will discuss the thinking and values of digital-first journalists. Here are slides for that workshop:

Read Full Post »

13 ways a reporter should use a beat blog

A beat blog gives a newsroom a vehicle for providing in-depth coverage that the general-interest approach of a newspaper generally doesn’t allow.

I have decades of memories of arguments with editors (when I was a reporter) and with reporters (when I was an editor) about the reporters’ desire to tell stories in greater depth than the interest level of this mythical “typical” newspaper reader. A newspaper has finite space, and to tell the stories that serve this general-interest need of the masses, its reporters gather far more information that has appeal only in niches of people with keen interest in a particular topic.

Beat blogging is a way to serve that deeper level of interest, to use all the information a reporter gathers. It makes a newsroom’s content more valuable to the community, by serving the broad but shallow general interest and the narrow but deep niche interests.

I’ll be leading a workshop today for Digital First journalists in Connecticut on beat blogging. You can watch the livestream and ask questions on a live chat, starting at 3 p.m. Eastern time. You also can read about how the beat blog fits into the full work of a reporter in my earlier posts that addressed the work of reporters covering courts, sports, statehouses and other beats. Other helpful resources would be the BeatBlogging website (no longer active, but loaded with helpful advice and links), my Introduction to Reporting course for News University and my general blogging advice. I’m sure others have produced many other helpful resources. Please share some of those links in the comments.

I will try to compile a list of good current beat blogs, and I welcome your contributions to that list. Who are good reporters who blog regularly about their beats (don’t hesitate to suggest your own beat or someone on your staff)? But for now, I want to offer some basic advice for beat blogging.

Read Full Post »

Lisa Fernandez shares a crowdsourcing (or fetching) lesson

I enjoy watching journalists grow and learn about our profession. I recounted last month how Lisa Fernandez of the San Jose Mercury News tried live-tweeting after a webinar I led on using Twitter to improve your journalism.

Lisa tweeted and emailed recently about another lesson she learned about engaging with the community:

I "crowdsourced" and found my perfect Christmas story for all of you who knew I was on the hunt. You'll have to wait till Christmas to read.

— Lisa Fernandez (@ljfernandez) December 16, 2011

I also once vowed NEVER to use the word "crowdsourced."

— Lisa Fernandez (@ljfernandez) December 16, 2011

Lisa’s email to me last week told the story:

Read Full Post »

Questions to guide a digital-first reporter’s work on any beat

When I wrote about how a digital-first approach changes a journalist’s work, people asked for more examples.

In that initial post, I provided examples of how the approach would change the work of a court reporter, sports reporter, visual journalist, beat reporter and assigning editor. In response to a question from a colleague planning to hire a statehouse reporter, I blogged separately about how that reporter might work. On Twitter and in comments and emails, people asked me to explain how the digital-first approach might change the work of a business reporter, investigative reporter, lifestyle reporter and a reporter covering multiple beats.

Part of me wants to answer: You tell me. I haven’t been a business reporter in 20 years (though I have covered a few business stories since then). I was never a lifestyle reporter. A purpose of that blog post was to stimulate the discussion and experimentation of journalists so that you would answer those questions for yourselves and colleagues.

But more examples from me might stimulate more discussion and experimentation, so I’ll provide some answers, with this caveat: I’m not spelling out here how anyone should work. I’m suggesting things to consider as you decide how to work. Instead of going through each of the beats I was asked to address, as I’ve done with some of the others, I’ll list some questions and tasks any reporter should consider in working on any beat. I’ll answer them for some of the examples I was asked about, but the answers may be different for your beat.

Read Full Post »

How a digital-first approach guides a journalist’s work

“Digital-first” means different priorities and processes for journalists.

As I’ve visited newsrooms discussing digital-first journalism, I’ve heard again and again from editors that they are “all in” for the digital emphasis. But in the next breath, some editors ask questions about what “digital-first” means for them and their newsrooms. They believe but they don’t fully understand.

Digital-first is way more than just publishing breaking news online and shooting video (though it involves both). Steve Yelvington explained:

Digital-first is about making the future your first priority, with everything that implies.

It requires restructuring all your priorities. Not just when you do it, but what you do and how you do it.

In a series of blog posts starting today, I will attempt to explain what those priorities mean. 

Read Full Post »

A simple community engagement step: Share your daily news budget

Journalists like to keep their work secret, then make a big splash when they publish.

Of course, those big splashes are rare. Mostly we’re covering routine or well-known news, which there’s no reason to keep secret. Perhaps we’d make a splash — even a little one — more often if we were more open with the public, inviting people more openly to tip us to or contribute to potentially big stories.

Several Journal Register Co. newsrooms have recently started publishing their daily news budgets, inviting the public to contribute to the stories they are working on.

Read Full Post »

Developing a culture of innovation

I will be leading a workshop this afternoon for the National Newspaper Association on developing a culture of innovation.

I have already blogged about many of the topics we will be discussing in the workshop. Some links that will be helpful to workshop participants interested in following up (and others interested in changing their culture):

Read Full Post »