Ink Stains

Storytelling still matters

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 09:32:09 -0700

Sometimes in our race to rule the digital and social media spheres, to whittle everything down to 140 characters, we forget the simple power of good storytelling.
Here’s a historical piece a colleague and I produced recently. We need to give readers more of this.

"Hey, journalists: This is a very, very dangerous time for you. Know it. Be careful."

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 08:40:06 -0700

“Hey, journalists: This is a very, very dangerous time for you. Know it. Be careful.”

- Jonathan Bernstein, in his recent Salon piece about slow media months and hyped scandal.

He writes:

What academic research tells us is that slow news days create scandals. That’s what Brendan Nyhan and other media researchers have found; indeed, Nyhan believes that the lack of scandal during Barack Obama’s first two years in the White House was caused, at least in part, by a series of very eventful news cycles. The mechanism, obviously, is that if there’s no major news, then minor news fills the hole, and if there’s no minor news, then we’ll hear plenty about stuff that if you squint just the right way might sort of pass for news.

And:

Granted, newspapers and cable news networks can’t just shut down until the real news starts up again, and some of this is inevitable, but a little self-skepticism is probably a good antidote to the understandable impulse to hype whatever you’ve got.

FJP: Bernstein gives us a rundown of news stories the world is waiting on right now to break, such as what’s next for the Eurozone, and the upcoming but not quite there yet presidential election in the U.S. But here is the important part. He also gives some suggestions on what reporters can do to avoid meaningless reporting and spend this summer digging out the good stuff.

First of all: Be aware. That gaffe that you think is election-changing? Probably going to be forgotten in three weeks. That story that seems just perfect to fill a slow news day? Wait a second – where did it come from, and does whoever produced it know that you’re just itching for something good to cover today? Granted, newspapers and cable news networks can’t just shut down until the real news starts up again, and some of this is inevitable, but a little self-skepticism is probably a good antidote to the understandable impulse to hype whatever you’ve got.

Second: substance, substance, substance. The candidates really do have positions on issues of public policy. They really would enact them if elected. Some of those are, I promise, about things that will affect readers and viewers in fascinating ways. You’re not going to be able to fit much of that in once the fall campaign starts; between polling (much more meaningful then, by the way), and charges and countercharges, and whatever other real news is out there. This is a great time to get a little substance reporting in. Hey, another advantage: It’ll pay off for reporters who actually know the issues in the fall.

And one more: Can I recommend … House and Senate elections? That’s almost 500 elections; add the governors, statewide and local propositions, and even some other down-ballot races, and you have a ton to work with. Any reporter who can’t find a number of fascinating stories in all of that isn’t worth much. Bonus: They’re actually important. More important, certainly, than Ann Romney’s hobbies or whether Democratic back seat drivers are happy with the direction of Barack Obama’s campaign.

Nyhan’s study is an interesting read too, and you can see it here. We look forward to a scandal-free summer, journalists.

(via futurejournalismproject)

The FJP: Low Cost, No Cost and Open Source Software for Digital Storytellers

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 08:38:18 -0700

The FJP: Low Cost, No Cost and Open Source Software for Digital Storytellers:

futurejournalismproject:

Investigative Reporters and Editors has a nice rundown of free production tools for journalists. These include old standbys such as Gimp for images and graphics, Audacity for audio editing and Open Movie Editor for video editing.

IRE also includes data tools such as Google’s Fusion…

maschup: The Bastards Book of Photography An open-source guide...

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 08:37:42 -0700

maschup:

The Bastards Book of Photography

An open-source guide to working with light by Dan Nguyen

"At newspapers, we’re hamstrung by the editing and content management systems that are used to..."

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 08:36:47 -0700

“

At newspapers, we’re hamstrung by the editing and content management systems that are used to publish our work. They were built for putting ink on paper. Then, as something of an afterthought, we added the ability to publish on the Web. But they are so rigid and constrained by our old templates that we have little flexibility to create new story forms.

Another problem is old media thinking. Editors and reporters haven’t stopped to invent new forms of storytelling — or even consider how they might do things differently on the Web and mobile devices. Their automatic response is to do the same basic thing they’ve always done: ‘Go write a news story about that.’

”

- Bill Adair, Let’s blow up the news story and build new forms of journalism (via copyeditor)

Who follows whom on Twitter isn’t all that interesting. What we do with those connections is why it matters.

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:24:40 -0800

Who follows whom on Twitter isn’t all that interesting. What we do with those connections is why it matters.

Any hockey history buffs out there who can tell us the story...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:38:35 -0800

Any hockey history buffs out there who can tell us the story behind this Penticton Vees cap? We think it was sold to fans during the 1955 world match with Russia. Hoping to solve this mini mystery for one of our Kamloops Daily News readers.

Why journalism needs to get back to basics

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 06:56:25 -0800

From Seth Godin:

“How much do we care about the race for ‘first’ when first is now measured in seconds or perhaps minutes?

“We don’t need paid professionals to do retweeting for us. They’re slicing up the attention pie thinner and thinner, giving us retreaded rehashes of warmed over news, all hoping for a bit of attention because the issue is trending. We can leave that to the unpaid, I think.

“The hard part of professional journalism going forward is writing about what hasn’t been written about, directing attention where it hasn’t been, and saying something new.”

shannonmariesmith: shortformblog: Paragraph three has a little...

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 09:47:09 -0800

shannonmariesmith:

shortformblog:

Paragraph three has a little something that may have made the publisher of the Greenville, S.C., News get a serious case of indigestion. (thanks Charles Apple)

uh ohs. I don’t think that’s proper AP Style.

For those who missed this earlier this week …

theprovince: Province throwback to 1958 “With me, mornings give...

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 09:46:13 -0800

theprovince:

Province throwback to 1958

“With me, mornings give me the opportunity to rest and think. After breakfast with the older children off to school, what a pleasure it s to relax with the morning Province, to scan the news from London, New York, Paris or Moscow, to turn leisurely to Eric Nicol … Reading The Province with my morning coffee has become as much a part of my day as washing or cooking.”

— Mrs. Henry Delesalle

I wonder how many newspaper editors yearn for a return to these days? I know of at least one.

The future of news and why "digital first" matters

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:55:16 -0800

The future of news and why "digital first" matters

futurejournalismproject: Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed...

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:33:35 -0800

futurejournalismproject:

Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors

Ben Mendleson, a masters student at the New School, created this 10-minute documentary on how Internet infrastructure actually works as part of his graduate thesis.

His primary focus, a Manhattan building that houses one of the world’s largest digital nodes.

The Atlantic has a Q&A with him for more.

Future Journalism Project: AP releases a new edition of Social Media Guidelines

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 07:14:18 -0800

Future Journalism Project: AP releases a new edition of Social Media Guidelines:

futurejournalismproject:

example:

RETWEETING

Retweets, like tweets, should not be written in a way that looks like you’re expressing a personal opinion on the issues of the day. A retweet with no comment of your own can easily be seen as a sign of approval of what you’re relaying. For instance:

RT…

Jobs you'll have as an editor.

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:32:06 -0700

Jobs you'll have as an editor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/opinion/sunday/do-happier-people-work-harder.html

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:28:34 -0700

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/opinion/sunday/do-happier-people-work-harder.html:

Do Happier People Work Harder?

Newspapers Could Fuel Your Ride

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:10:39 -0700

Newspapers Could Fuel Your Ride:

futurejournalismproject:

What are newspapers good for?

Tulane researchers say they’ve found a bacterial strain that can turn yesterday’s news into tomorrow’s fuel.

Via the Tulane press office:

Here’s one way that old-fashioned newsprint beats the Internet. Tulane University scientists have discovered a novel bacterial strain, dubbed “TU-103,” that can use paper to produce butanol, a biofuel that can serve as a substitute for gasoline. They are currently experimenting with old editions of the Times Picayune newspaper with great success.

TU-103 is the first bacterial strain from nature that produces  butanol directly from cellulose, an organic compound.
“Cellulose is found in all green plants, and is the most abundant organic material on earth, and converting it into butanol is the dream of many,” said Harshad Velankar, a postdoctoral fellow in David Mullin’s lab in Tulane’s Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. “In the United States alone, at least 323 million tons of cellulosic materials that could be used to produce butanol are thrown out each year.”
Mullin’s lab first identified TU-103 in animal droppings, cultivated it and developed a method for using it to produce butanol. A patent is pending on the process.

And with that, an industry saved.

neighborhoodr-athensohio: Newsrooms in ACM-Ohio region go...

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 19:16:18 -0700

neighborhoodr-athensohio:

Newsrooms in ACM-Ohio region go through “Digital First…Print Best” training

On Wednesday, reporters and editors with the Athens (Ohio) Messenger, the Jackson County (Ohio) Times-Journal and the Vinton County (Ohio) Courier went through “Digital First… Print Best” training at the Messenger office.

Read more from ACM Newsroom.

Still no word on whether they’ve learned how inhibitive their paywall is.

I decided it was time to try a little multimedia reportage on...

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 18:32:00 -0700

I decided it was time to try a little multimedia reportage on Friday, so I trotted on over to a Harley show-and-shine where a number of colourful bikes and colourful bike enthusiasts were gathered for the national Harley Owners Group convention in Kamloops.

I figured it would be the perfect setting to whip out the iPhone 4 and shoot some video as I interviewed bikers and spectators for my story.

First off, it’s not easy juggling a notepad, pen and the video app all at once — and that was immediately apparent. Three arms would have come in handy.

As a typical newsprint journo, I take notes during interviews. I also record the interviews on a Sony digital recorder for backup because I never did learn shorthand. But on Friday, as I held out my phone to capture my subjects on video, there was no way I could take notes, too. So I held my digital audio recorder in one hand and the iPhone in another, paying close attention to the iPhone’s screen to keep my subjects within the video frame.

The first thing you’ll notice when shooting video is how unsteady your hand seems. Even the slightest inhale or exhale can make it look like you just ran over a speed bump, bouncing your subject all around the frame like a rubber ball. I hope to get a lot steadier with practise.

Still, I was pleasantly surprised with the output of my phone’s HD video. Less so with the audio, which picked up my voice without problem but barely registered my subjects. If I keep shooting video with the phone (and I’d like to), I’ll add an external mic — the kind that plugs into the earphone jack and can be twisted around to aim at the subject.

By the way, I came back with several clips for our web guy to edit into a video, which he did. But just for fun I tried another experiment with the iPhone this weekend. I edited my own version of the video right on the iPhone with iMovie.

http://www.mediahelpingmedia.org/training-resources/social-networking/636-content-curation-for-journalists

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 09:28:09 -0700

http://www.mediahelpingmedia.org/training-resources/social-networking/636-content-curation-for-journalists

More astute analyses from Judy Sims

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:08:03 -0700

More astute analyses from Judy Sims:

“Being a great leader requires doing things no one else wants to do.

It may mean re-structuring for a new reality as Clark Gilbert did at the Deseret News when he separated the print and digital parts of his business.

It may mean putting the digital talent in positions of power as John Paton did when he put the digital people in charge and fired those who could not adapt.”