"Journalism Next" Chapter 9

Chapter 9 of Journalism Next covers the crucial topic of information overload.

Few other causes of anxiety are more germane to the digital age; with Facebook and Twitter providing us endless insight into the mundane inanities of everyone's lives, with YouTube and Flickr and Tumblr broadcasting endless images our way, and with a formidable array of unfiltered blogs proliferating in the vast data pool that is the Internet, it's easy to get lost.

Briggs offers several important tips for turning the tidal wave of information we all face into a manageable stream:

• Organize your e-mail: Any reporter (or college student) is bound to have an e-mail inbox filled to bursting with Facebook notifications, personal messages, academic deadlines, potential leads--at least in the case of the reporters--and, naturally, spam. Going through your e-mail on a regular basis can help reduce the buildup, and not every e-mail needs to be read in full. Many e-mail services (including MasonLive, the official e-mail provider for George Mason, now provide categorizing features. 
• Utilize productivity tools: Google calendar has saved a thousand thesis papers. In the online maze there are also plenty of tools to help you stay organized and sane. RSS feeds can filter your news intake, while e-mail alerts can remind you when an important deadline is on the way. 

It's also important to discriminate in your selection of data sources.  The local blogger who lives one street down may be a good source for developments involving the community watch system, but the reality, a reality often lost in the sea of the Internet, is that not everyone is qualified to speak on every topic.

Remember: numbers don't lie. Statistics are a sure way to enhance a hard news story. Without objective data, everything is in a sense anecdotal.

"Journalism Next" Chapter 8

Chapter 8 of Journalism Next concerns a topic that is pertinent to any modern newsman: video.

Video has, of course, been an important element of journalism for a long time. Beginning in the 1950s millions of Americans received nightly broadcasts from ABC, CBS, and NBC. The first major conflict to take place in the video era, the Vietnam War, was described as a "living-room conflict" because images of its carnage arrived in American homes every night by way of television.

The action in Vietnam consequently sparked the largest anti-war movement in U.S. history and became deeply unpopular with the public.

In the digital age, the power of television had been democratized and the means of production given to the masses. Video-sharing site YouTube, which launched in 2005, has revolutionized both journalism and video production by allowing any user with a mobile device to upload footage at any time.

Briggs notes that "by mid 2009, YouTube reported that 20 hours of footage was being uploaded...every minute." (Briggs, 209) 



Beyond providing a journalist with a wide-reaching platform, video is more attractive to potential consumers of journalism. A video embedded in an online article can convey essential information in an easy way to a large audience.

And video journalism is no longer the expensive hindrance it once was: the Flip Cam from Cisco retails for $130 and is slightly larger than a classic iPod. 

"Journalism Next" Chapter 10

Chapter 10 of Journalism Next aims to demonstrate the art of "managing news as a conversation."

News has always been a topic for discussion, but it is only since the advent of the Internet, blogging, and comment boards that news has become a genuine conversation wherein the audience, who once had no choice but to mutely receive news from an elite coterie of reporters, now actively influence not only what is covered but how it is reported on.

Users have come to expect that they will have a voice in their news, and that isn't changing. 

This development has several implications for journalists:

• Gauging Public Reaction: The public's response to a news story can now be assessed immediately. Readers may give their opinion as to the event that has occurred, complement on the reporter's skill in handling the item, or even give their thoughts on whether the story was worthy of coverage at all.
• Obtaining leads: Particularly where local journalism is concerned, readers can prove to be not only an audience but a valuable source of information. Social networking sites like Twitter can be a good source of potential data for a beat. 
• The Tyranny of Traffic: Not all outgrowths of user-driven journalism are positive. In an environment where news organizations are hypersensitive to page views and comments, worthwhile news stories may be scrapped in favor of those that are more salacious or attention-grabbing. 

Remember to network through social media. If your audience lives on Facebook, then that's where you must reach them. 

Allen calls for smaller government

Senatorial candidate speaks to George Mason students

Former U.S. senator George Allen of Virginia, who is running to recapture the Senate seat he lost to Jim Webb in 2006, addressed a group of George Mason University students on Feb. 15. 

Allen echoed many of the concerns voiced in recent months by conservatives and Tea Party activists concerned with President Obama's healthcare initiative and the ballooning national debt. 

 "Bad, onerous legislation"

Allen directed most of his criticism at the large amount of money being spent by the Congress and expressed a general desire to limit the reach of the federal government. 

“I think more decisions should be made by the people in the states," Allen said. "But the federal government is making so many decisions that affect us, and every vote counts.”

Allen said that deficit spending was a threat to the U.S.'s long-term security. 

“The federal government should not be starting new programs now when there’s so much debt," Allen said. "The fact that China owns more of our bonds than do Americans is not a good position for us to be in. What the federal government needs to do is get its house in order and operate the way families and businesses do. They have to curtail spending when they don’t have revenues coming in. [The programs being eliminated] may be nice programs, but we can’t afford them.”

Reducing the government's role

Allen had strong words for a federal government that he said had "exceeded its powers" by implementing "initiative-sapping measures."

The former senator spoke out against pork-barrel spending, a problem that he said could be resolved by giving the president a line-item veto by way of an amendment to the Constitution.

"That way, even a Supreme Court justice could understand it," Allen quipped.

"Cock-eyed energy policy"

Allen lambasted the "sanctimonious social engineers in Washington" who he said viewed the U.S.'s reserves of coal, natural gas, and shale oil as "a curse rather than the blessing they are."

The former senator said that the U.S.'s energy dependence on other countries amounted to a national security risk.

He also alleged that the federal government was restricting domestic energy extraction.

“We have a counterproductive, cock-eyed energy policy,” Allen said. "Preventing our country from developing its resources makes no sense. The extraction of coal and natural gas creates American jobs and doesn't involve billions and trillions of dollars going overseas.”

He also slammed proposed carbon dioxide caps. 

"CO_{2 regulations will cause skyrocketing electricity, food, and fuel costs," he said. "It would be economic unilateral disarmament. China, Brazil, and India are not going to impose those regulations on themselves."}

Allen cited the ongoing unrest in the Middle East as one more reason for the United States to invest in domestic energy and said that Americans could learn from the example of France.

"The French get 70 percent of their energy from nuclear production, and they do it much more safely and efficiently than we do," Allen elaborated, noting that the French dispose of their nuclear waste through the process of vitrification, or encasement in glass. "I know darned well that if the French can do it, so can Americans."

"Journalism Next" Chapter 7

The goal of Chapter 7 is to show students about "making audio journalism visible."

Briggs offers compelling analysis of the current multimedia climate and advises prospective reporters on ways to utilize non-traditional media elements as a way of enhancing their storytelling ability and thus their final product:

• Podcasts:  Podcasts are non-streamed Web productions that are broadcast over the Internet and can be downloaded in MP3 form. Podcasts are the radio shows of the 21st Century; users can save their favorite programs to their iPods and listen to them at will. 
• Audio slide shows: An audio slide show is a happy medium between video and radio. These Web-broadcast  presentations not only carry a lot of information but are more cost-effective than traditional video journalism. 

Audio journalism is easier to do now than it's ever been; recording equipment is light and affordable, and in some instances can be integrated in your computer.

Editing is made simple with such programs as Windows MovieMaker, which can combine audio samples with pictures in addition to making films.

"Journalism Next" Chapter 6

Photography has long been an essential facet of journalism.

In today's world of multimedia reporting, visual storytelling is all the more important.

The right image can illuminate a topic for the reader in a way that a thousand words of text would not have been able to. Particularly now, with attention spans falling and the number of outlets exploding, ensuring that you have visual aids sufficiently striking to attract eyeballs is important.

After all, the value of journalism is measured not by what is said, but by how many people are watching.

Perhaps with enough brightly colored pictures, pandering or misleadingly scandalous headlines, and plug-ins to the newest popular but inherently worthless social media fad, you will be able to momentarily hold the fickle allegiance of a bare segment of the common masses.

At least until CNN posts video of a water-skiing squirrel.

"Journalism Next" Chapter 5

Mobile journalism is journalism on the go, facilitated by the critical aid of mobile devices like cell phones.

Briggs gives the example of Nicola Dowling, who was able to take pictures of a celebrity car crash with her cell phone and then e-mail them back to her newspaper before police had even arrived on the scene. Because Dowling was able to communicate share information in a mobile manner, she was a step ahead of traditional news organizations who sent professional photographers to the same site only to find that the authorities were keeping the press out.

The mobile journalist is always on assignment and always ready to report on what is happening around him.

"Journalism Next" Chapter 4

Microblogging is like blogging, but it requires more brevity.

Twitter, the largest and most used microblogging service, allows its users to use no more than 140 characters per post.

In the fast-paced world of modern technology in which readers will often jump across multiple blogs and news sites in a matter of minutes, microblogging allows journalists to communicate the most important information they have in a succinct form that their followers are able to digest.

Tech Blog: "How To Use A Simple Flip Video Camera To Generate Referrals" with That Interview Guy

Flip video cameras have made a major impact on video journalism. Whereas ten years ago a journalist who wanted to film an event would need a cameraman or possibly an entire crew, today video can be captured and stored on a camera that fits easily into a pocket.

Even I have been affected by the change; last summer I worked for George Mason's Office of University Relations and was able to enhance some of my public relations stories with video footage.

According to That Interview Guy, a technology blogger, interviews aren't the only thing the flip camera is being used for.

He recalls the experience of Shannon King, a real estate broker.


"Shannon, also known as The Road Warrior has figured out a way to brand affordable FLIP video cameras and then give them away to her clients.

Her clients in turn document the buying/selling experience using the video which creates quite the buzz amongst their family, friends and co-workers.

That buzz translates into Big Wows and more importantly … referrals and new business for Shannon."

King has capitalized off of the low cost and high quality of flip cameras to endear herself to her clients and generate a constant stream of near-free advertising. 

 

"Journalism Next" Chapter 3

The most important concept in Chapter 3 is crowdsourcing, which Briggs defines as focusing "an Internet community on a specific project and demonstrat[ing] how a committed group of individuals can outperform a small group of experienced (and paid) professionals." (Briggs, 69)

Chapter 3's essential focus is on collective journalism, which can be achieved through the incorporation of blogs, comments, Twitter posts, and feedback from readers. It is interactive journalism.

"Journalism Next" Chapter 3

Crowd-powered collaboration refers to the phenomenon of reporters using their audience not merely as a receptacle for journalistic material but as a vital source for information.

Particularly in the age of the Internet, when "citizens can do their own hunting and gathering [online]" (Briggs, 68), such collaboration is an essential component of modern journalism.

Crowd-powered collaboration consists of several important elements:

• Crowdsourcing: Focusing the "community power" of Internet users on a particular task or story
• Open-source reporting: Briggs says that open-source reporting "refers to design, development and distribution 'offering practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge).'" (Briggs, 69) This means allowing readers opportunities to utilize the resources traditionally available only to professional journalists. 
• Pro-am journalism: Pro-am journalism allows the audience to post in the same format as the journalists. By distributing the means of publication, journalists ensure that more voices, even those with no qualification whatsoever to speak on matters of journalism, will be heard, and that stories will be enriched and/or polluted by a diverse group of contributors, each with his own unique perspective/uninformed bias.    

My Media Pyramid

I recently signed up for an aerobics class at George Mason University.

The class wasn't necessary for my general education requirements, nor was it related in any way to my major (which, if you're interested, is government and international politics).

Rather, I felt the need, for the sake of my own health and wellbeing, to be educated about physical fitness.

My father thought I was being very silly about all of this.

"Ethan, why do you need to sign up for a class to be healthy?" he asked. "Just head to the gym, lift some weights, and hop on the treadmill. It's easy."

It wasn't that simple, though, I explained to him.

I knew of plenty of exercise options out there, and that in a way was the problem; there was simply too much to choose from, and I needed to find something targeted.

Hence, the aerobics class.

Now I report to the campus fitness center every Monday and Wednesday morning to learn about essential nutrients and spend exactly 30 minutes on a treadmill for a total run of 2.5 miles. It's regimented. It's structured. I know what's required of me.

It would be wonderful if everything were like that.

For better or worse, though, the world is not a course on personal wellness, and in diet as in other things an individual must be able to use his discretion to determine what would be in his best interests to consume.

Media is a good example of this.

In his 2006 article, "What Is Your Media Pyramid?", Eric Deggans compares the average person's daily media interaction to caloric intake. News and analysis, he argues, are the essential fruits and vegetables that many of us neglect, whereas entertainment programs and gossip websites are the fattening sugary treats in which too many indulge.

A forthright appraisal of my own media diet shows my green intake to be wanting.

The first website I visit each morning is my university's e-mail system, which I check religiously throughout the day, scouring assignments mailed in from professors, dubious greetings from potential roommates responding to an online ad, Facebook notifications, and project updates from muscially inclined friends.

I log into Blackboard, a site where university professors can post class materials, several times throughout the day to download readings or homework guidelines.

Of course, I wouldn't be a self-respecting member of Generation Y if I weren't multi-tasking; I'm listening to a song on YouTube while I write this and have also been conducting a Facebook Instant Messenger conversation.

In the afternoon I'll typically read personal blogs, sites with little political or news value that nonetheless provide me with an intimate view into the lives of others whom I've come to know through the Internet. Many of these men and women live abroad or in parts of the U.S. I've never visited, and I find their accounts of their day-to-day activities to be fascinating.

Every few days I upload photos to Flickr, but I can be counted upon to check my photostreams's statistics several times a day.

(As an aside, my most viewed image has been visited a total of 5,534 times. It's a picture of a house.)

The early evening is spent perusing Blackboard, CNN (with discrete trips to the main page and a larger amount of time spent lingering on the Politics section), The Onion, and perhaps more blogs.

In between all of this I have been known to sneak in some actual reading from a book. The tome currently sitting in my backpack is The First American, a biography of Benjamin Franklin. During the weekends I can easily clear a few chapters a day, but when school is in session I'm lucky to get in even ten pages.

I will occasionally watch the news at night, CNN for national events and the local channel for weather, before checking my e-mail once more and turning in.

It's not the worst media pyramid ever, but it's certainly not the best.

There's just a great deal to choose from out there, and much of it is pure garbage. The myriad of media options often makes me wish that there were some sort of filter, that, as in my aerobics course, someone could lay down the line and explain what's good for you and what isn't.

Then again, I suppose that's the point of enrolling in an online journalism class.

I'm learning how to be my own personal trainer.

"Journalism Next" Chapter 2

Blogging

In the second chapter of Journalism Next, Mark Briggs discusses the importance of blogging as a multi-disciplinary medium and its specific impact on the field of journalism.

Briggs argues that blogging has increased the tools available to journalists (and, indeed, broadened the journalist label to include many non-traditional reporters) while simultaneously posing new challenges.

The goal Briggs sets is to help aspiring journalists successfully adapt in a transitioning industry.

What Is a Blog?

Briggs lists three characteristics that he says all websites must have to be considered genuine blogs:

• Frequency: Blogs are updated often
• Format: Each blog has a main body of text, possibly including video, images, and links, beneath a headline
• Comments: Blogging is an exercise in community, and under Briggs' definition any self-respecting blogger will have a comments section on his site. 

The Context

The first news blog is widely attributed to Dan Gillmor, who started the blog for the San Jose Mercury News in 1999. Since then, blog readership has exploded across the Internet, with an estimated 77 percent of Internet users in the U.S. saying that they regularly read a blog of some sort.

Briggs says that, as of 2009, The New York Times alone had 65 blogs. 

Resources

Blogger and Wordpress are the two largest blog hosting sites, and both offer free accounts.

Technorati ranks the most popular blogs on the Internet. 

 

"Journalism Next" Chapter 1

Understanding the Internet

In the first chapter of Journalism Next, Mark Briggs discusses the vital role of the Internet in modern journalism and outlines some of the concepts most central to 21st-century media:

• Bytes: The byte is the basic unit of computer information storage, with one byte being the equivalent of a single typed character. A kilobyte comes out to roughly 1,000 bytes, a megabyte to 1 million bytes, a gigabyte to 1 billion bytes, and so on.
• Web server: Web servers are the storage facilities from which sites are uploaded onto the wider Internet.
• RSS: RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, is a service wherein a person is regularly sent a series of updates from pre-selected websites.
• File Transfer Protocol: When files are too big to be transferred by e-mail, they are transferred via FTP.

The Language of Cyberspace

The Internet has a language all its own that, once mastered, gives the user the ability to express himself in multiple forms across the world's most far-reching medium. Here are some of the different dialects:

• HTML: HTML tells your web browser how to display information uploaded from a web server. It is the architectural blueprint of most web pages.
• CSS: CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, allows designers to enhance the aesthetic appeal of websites constructed with HTML. Rather than altering the essential structure established with HTML, CSS can be used to alter font, text size, color, and other stylistic aspects of a web site.
• XML: Used in conjunction with HTML, primarily to standardize the appearance of RSS feeds.