The Power of Photo Slideshows

Here is a photo slideshow that I couldn't stop going through. These are photos for the cruise liner crash off the coast of Italy.
It looks to me as if there is a mix of professional photos and photos shot by passengers and crew.
Anyway take a look at the slideshow (Please notice how I just embedded a link to the slideshow. When you create your slideshows you should embed a link to it from your story.)
To embed a link, you can create a link using a word or a couple of words in a sentence. Or, you can just write something like "Click here" and embed the link in the word "here."

Editor ovehears councilwoman's phone conversation, tweets about it; ethical or not ethical?

'll admit it. One of my favorite websites is poynter.org. It's a gathering place for people in the news media to get a little gossip, learn about some of the new tools for story-telling, and even find a job.

This is the story I was talking about it class. Bob Salladay, a senior editor with California Watch and the Center for Investigative Reporting was on a train sitting near Santa Ana City Council member Michele Martinez. Martinez was talking on her cell phone and Salladay could hear her side of the conversation. He started tweeting what she said. 

Click here for the Poynter story on the what happen. Embedded in the Poynter story are links to three publications that reported on the incident.

One of the issues Poynter asks about is whether you should tweet information you haven't verified. According to "The Element of Journalism" you should. You should always verify before reporting. Remember, if your mother says she loves you, ask someone else to verify her statement.

Examples of the Web Protest Against SOPA

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a bill in Congress that has pitted Hollywood against Silicon Valley.

The movie studios want a law the forces Interest Service Providers to stop linking to websites that host boot-legged movies, TV shows, and other entertainment.

Many digital media companies want "net neutrality," that means that everyone is treated the same on the Internet. These companies say there is another to stop entertainment piracy. Just give us time, the Silicon Valley firms say, and we will develop a way that satisfies everyone.

Click here to see screen grabs of some of the websites that joined in the Jan. 18 protest.

UPDATE: The online protest seems to have worked. Check out this story from the Los Angeles Times.

Everyone makes mistakes ...

But we should be extra careful when writing and publishing on the web.
Here are two mistakes that should have never happened. The first is a mistake that can only happen on the web. Someone wrote a description of a photo and that description should have never been made public. Remember, whenever you write something that is attached to a photo, a video or a story that is going to be published on the web, make sure that you won't be embarassed--or you publication won't be embarassed--if and when people see it. This goes for material that you believe will never make it out on the web. Trust me, it will get out.
The editor of laobserved.com said it best, "Tags, URLs and alt text all count as editorial content these days, for better or worse."
The second mistake is something that good research should have prevented. None of us can know every scrap of information that the world contains. That's why it is OK to check, and double check your research before publication.

Why We Are Emphasizing Video This Semester

One of the goals of the Spring 2012 News Production & Management is to get everyone involved with video. We all should leave the class with at leas one video experience.
This experience can be you in a news video (either telling a story or using video as a companion to a written story).
You can interview someone in a video. You can have two people debate in a video.
A few weeks ago, the New York Times announced that it is "embracing" video as a primary reporting tool. That's right, a print product is going to stress video, at least for its online components.
If it is good enough for the New York Times, it's good enough for the Menlo Oak.
Check out the Beet.TV interview with the Times editorial director of video & TV on this shift.
Also, click here to for a story and video on how the non-profit group  One Laptop Per Child is developing a low-cost(in some cases around $100)  tablet so kids in the world's poorest countries can connect with technology, and the organization hopes, a brighter future.
Please watch the video. I think it is too long at six minutes, but it is a good online video, even with all the crowd noise in the background. I bet the writer is using his smartphone camera to shoot the video.

Anyone interested in experimenting with audio clips?

Adding audio to our stories is a great way to provide the human touch and context (two elements from the First Five Graphs).
In the digital media world, we all need to know a little about a lot of tools to tell stories. Now it is becoming easier to add audio to our stories.
According to an article on poynter.org, the Poynter Institute is xxxxx..... " Everyone who has a smartphone doesn’t just have a camera in their pocket, but a microphone. And unlike video, you can listen to audio you and others create when you’re doing other things.
Journalists should at least experiment with online audio – whether they work in radio or not."
Here's a link to the complete Poynter story.
One of the audio apps mentioned in the Poynter article is SoundCloud. Here's how Jay-Z recently used SoundCloud.
 Glory - Jay-Z feat. Blue Ivy Carter by Warhol2011