I’ve been busy this week working on a website redesign for a colleague, but I’ll be blogging and tweeting this weekend from the Mid-America Press Institute’s “Managing Change” workshop in St. Louis. You can follow along on Twitter at @cicm or @mpinews and read the stories on mpinews.org. Print Friendly
(Image by Flickr user Sistak, used under Creative Commons license) Following up on my post yesterday about information overload, I wanted to expand a little bit on a term I used: information sherpa. I first used a similar term “video sherpa” in a post for a Carnival of Journalism about the future of online video. [...]
UPDATE: via Jason Kottke (and my RSS reader) this related, lengthy piece from journalist Brian Lam, whose site I’ve never read. Last week, my intro to multimedia classes discussed RSS feeds, and why they were a good thing. I love RSS feeds for keeping up to date on matters at the intersection of technology, journalism [...]
Lots of interesting information that you may have missed over the last week: Can a Good Journalist Be a Good Capitalist (Carnival of Journalism): Good discussion this month on whether journalists can put aside their proletarian sensibilities and use the tools of the entrepreneur to ascend to the bourgeoisie. Student Press Version of ‘Lazy Higher [...]
February 8, 2012 in blogging, General Media
I’ve been busy this week working on a website redesign for a colleague, but I’ll be blogging and tweeting this weekend from the Mid-America Press Institute’s “Managing Change” workshop in St. Louis. You can follow along on Twitter at @cicm or @mpinews and read the stories on mpinews.org.
February 1, 2012 in General Media, ideas
(Image by Flickr user Sistak, used under Creative Commons license)
Following up on my post yesterday about information overload, I wanted to expand a little bit on a term I used: information sherpa. I first used a similar term “video sherpa” in a post for a Carnival of Journalism about the future of online video. I wrote:
Perhaps a new form of journalistic curator will arise – the video sherpa, a journalist who guides others through the mazes of videos on various platforms like YouTube andVimeo to find the nuggets of related content that are worthwhile, a la Andy Carvin‘sNPR tweets about the Middle East.
I should specify that I’m using the term “sherpa” in a specific sense. Wikipedia captures that essence here:
Sherpas were immeasurably valuable to early explorers of the Himalayan region, serving as guides at the extreme altitudes of the peaks and passes in the region. Today, the term is used casually to refer to almost any guide or porter hired for mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas. Sherpas are renowned in the international climbing and mountaineering community for their hardiness, expertise, and experience at high altitudes.
Another way of looking at our age instead of as “information overload” is to look at it as a mountain of information. News consumers who want to be informed, to stay on top of events that are important to them, need to find a way to scale that mountain. And they don’t always have the tools or experience to do so. That’s where a modern journalist can carve out an important role. The journalist as sherpa guides the info-mountaineer through the dizzying peaks and passes of the mountain of information, finding and presenting just the right information to help reach and stay on top of the mountain.
But I want to be clear about some things that are happening that are not what I mean by an information sherpa. The sherpa is not the mountaineer. The sherpa is not the mountain. The sherpa is not the treacherous weather that attacks the mountain suddenly. I’ll explain what I mean:
The sherpa is not the mountain: As I mentioned yesterday, there are too many sites on the internet that aren’t really providing high quality information. They’re posting intriguing photos and blurbs, or they’re posting barely disguised press releases, or hastily re-written information provided by quality news sources to juice page clicks. Those people are part of the mountain of information. They keep piling up the heights before the information consumer.
The sherpa is not the mountaineer: This is not the first time the sherpa has climbed the mountain. The sherpa knows a path through the mountain of B.S. masquerading as information, and is guiding the person who’s trying to make it up the mountain. More than ever, a journalist can’t be a generalist. Generalists get taken in by misinformation, slant, faux controversies and technical jargon meant to obscure rather than illuminate. A journalist needs to do everything possible to become fluent in whatever topic she is covering, learning who’s got an agenda, and when that agenda is shading the information she’s receiving. A sherpa doesn’t take the easiest path, but the best path.
The sherpa is not the weather: One of the most dangerous aspects of the ascent of Mt. Everest is the extreme and quickly changing weather, which can include high winds and sudden storms. In climbing a mountain of information, an info-mountaineer can experience frequent wild swings of information that can knock one off the path – useless information, sudden Twitter storms and Facebook outrages, breathless reporting about silly products and gossip about famous people. A true sherpa isn’t the weather. A journalist worth his salt doesn’t traffic in such chasing the weather. A sherpa stays the course, is aware of the weather, and knows to avoid its traps.
Many others have focused on the analogy of journalist as curator. But I think I prefer this analogy more. I would love to know what others think. I also think this new paradigm should influence how we train college journalists for the future.
January 31, 2012 in blogging, career talk, General Media, industry news
UPDATE: via Jason Kottke (and my RSS reader) this related, lengthy piece from journalist Brian Lam, whose site I’ve never read.
Last week, my intro to multimedia classes discussed RSS feeds, and why they were a good thing. I love RSS feeds for keeping up to date on matters at the intersection of technology, journalism and college media. A lot of people have started using Twitter as an alternative to RSS readers, but I don’t find that a good thing, necessarily. The real problem for me is the amount of information that come through the RSS reader in a day. I was amazed at how much content some of the blogs I follow was pumping out in a day, so I decided to try an experiment. I “bankrupted” my Google Reader yesterday (Monday, Jan. 30, 2012) at 4 p.m. Central Standard Time. There were no unread items.
It’s now 2:30 CST on Tuesday, and I just went in to see how many items were in the unread RSS inbox. As you can see, there are 276 unread items. And I don’t follow any traditional media outlets (NYT, Washington Post, etc.).
The main contributors to this RSS glut?
Five sites, 170 new items in less than 24 hours!
Now, granted there’s probably a lot of good information in some of those blog posts, but who can keep up? I’m sure most people don’t read all these firehoses of niche information, preferring to focus on one or two. But if you’re trying to stay up-to-date on the latest happenings in a certain area, it’s not always an option.
It’s no wonder one of the more recent tech terms to become a buzzword is information overload.
I’m sure someone has a workable situation for this conundrum. I think one of the things we’ve created with the fast pace of the Internet is the need for constant content, some of which is little more than a picture and a blurb from another blog or a press release. And that’s not helping us get quality information, much less act upon the information we’re getting.
This isn’t specifically a college-media-related issue. But as journalists of the future, one of our college students’ key functions will still be to serve as trusted curators or information sherpas for people who don’t have time to follow all this content. And that means they will have to find strategies and tools to go where the information is and discover what’s important without having to spend hours in front of a screen sifting through stories.
January 30, 2012 in industry news, Links
Lots of interesting information that you may have missed over the last week:
Can a Good Journalist Be a Good Capitalist (Carnival of Journalism): Good discussion this month on whether journalists can put aside their proletarian sensibilities and use the tools of the entrepreneur to ascend to the bourgeoisie.
Student Press Version of ‘Lazy Higher Ed Journalism’ (College Media Matters): “There are simply some stories that on a scroll through the archives of any student media outlet pop up again and again and again, sometimes with a fresh spin (although many times, not so much), but always with the same core issue or topic intact.” Man, have we all been there or what?
What’s your problem with the internet? A crib sheet for news exec speeches (Online Journalism Blog): This is actually a couple of years old, but it’s been updated, and, really, the content is evergreen.
10 Inspiring Social Networks for Writers (Mashable): Social networks aren’t just for posting photos of your family and cats. If you’re a writer, these might be sites to explore.
New York Times releases code to help journalists collaborate on WordPress, other platforms (Poynter): The plug-in has a “track changes” feature that looks promising. Here’s hoping it receives further development.
The Death of the Editor and the Rise of the Circulation Manager (Brain Pickings): Brain Pickings is a site that’s found it’s way into my regular RSS rounds because of posts like this. And she finds an essay that points out that everything old is new again. She writes, ”so long as we have a monetization model of information that prioritizes the wrong stakeholders — advertisers over readers — we will always cater to the business interests of the former, not the intellectual interests of the latter.” Yep.
Google already knows you’re a 24-year old woman who loves wombats (Ars Technica) I never looked at my Google Profile until I read this article. It was pretty close. You can see your own Google profile here.
January 19, 2012 in College Media
Via College Media Matters, news that the paper formerly known as the Daily Universe at BYU is cutting back to a weekly print publication. You can read more about the decision at the Daily Herald.
I’ve long held that more publications will head down this path, as the Red & Black at Georgia did earlier this year. And I’m glad they dropped the “Daily” from their name, because “Daily” is a worthless appendage in an age of 24-hour publishing ability.
January 18, 2012 in General Media, Politics
As much as possible, we try to stay clear of politics on this blog, but there’s a pair of bills before the US Congress that, if passed, would have a huge negative impact on the Internet we all know and love. The bills are the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
A number of Web-based companies are blacking out portions of their sites today in protest against the measures, including Wikipedia, Google, WordPress, Reddit, BoingBoing, Craigslist and others.
The Internet isn’t broke, and there’s no need for a new US law to attempt to fix it, with all the unintended consequences that entails.
The best thing US citizens can do is contact their elected representative to oppose the acts. You can find information to do so here.
Here’s more information:
Electronic Frontier Foundation (PDF)
January 9, 2012 in Links
Hope everyone had a nice holiday break. Now, it’s time to get back to the spring semester. Here are some curated links to get the mind muscles going again:
The New Lazy Journalism – Seth Godin: “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.”
Linking out: Support your work and serve your readers – Bleacher Report: One of the most difficult tasks to get some reporters to perform is to add links to their stories before they go online.
What newsrooms should learn from Kodak – Steve Yelvington: “Businesses still need convey offers to consumers, and if anything, digital technology has chopped the audience up in to little pieces and distributed it all over the universe.Pulling audiences back together creates value. Make that your goal, and don’t let up for a second.”
Everything you need to know about buying a camera – The Verge: A really comprehensive report for anyone in the market for a new digital camera.
WeVideo: A cloud-based video editor that also works as a YouTube plug-in. 1GB of free storage, then there are premium plans.
It is not about whether the Washington Post is innovating too fast – Alfred Hermida: “The challenge for news organisations is taking a strategic approach to innovation. There is a risk of becoming enamoured with the latest shiny bit of technology or adopting a platform such as blogging without thinking through the why and how.”
Newspapers, Paywalls and Core Users – Clay Shirky: This is a lengthy read that explains some of the continuing push and pull in the newspaper industry regarding paywalls. Well worth the time to digest.
December 7, 2011 in Academics
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about news judgement and curiosity, because I sometimes find those traits lacking in students (and professionals, for that matter). And I sometimes feel that the Journalism 101 model is broken. We spend so much time getting students to write a good lede that we neglect the basics of *reporting* the story.
So I’m going to throw this idea out there just to hear what you have to think about it. The idea is for a course that is solely about reporting, not writing. Please respond in the comments.
The key thought behind this is to teach students how to identify the value of news and how to get the right information from the right sources before even beginning to talk about ledes, inverted pyramids, or story structures.
Step 1: Begin with a discussion of news judgment: what is news? What elements of a potential story make it newsworthy? This is basic to any beginning newswriting class.
However, this is where the process might seem a bit different.
Step 2: Have students select a newsworthy topic, perhaps a topic that is currently in the news – say, Libya. Ask them why this topic is important? What are the questions surrounding the topic? Why are those questions important?
Step 3: Next, have students select another topic, perhaps a topic that is in the news on campus, or in the local area. Ask again, why is the topic important? What are the important questions related to that topic? Now, ask: where would you go to look for answers to those questions? Make a list of potential sources (people, documents, databases, etc.) For each “source,” ask: “Why is that a good source? Is there more than one source available for each question? Which source seems more “authoritative,” or should the question be asked of them all?
Step 4: Select another topic that is related to the campus: Repeat the process of Step 3, and then add another step to the process: Have students go ask those sources those questions. At this point, you can discuss notetaking, recording audio, etc. Interviewing techniques, things to observe during an interview, etc. Off-the-record, anonymous sources, etc.
Step 5: Now that students have interviewed sources and gathered source documents, go through the answers/documents. Ask: which part of this information is most important? Why? Which parts are incomplete? Are there further sources needed on some information? Are there facts that are stated that might not be “facts.” Discussions of attempts to influence, frame news, etc. are applicable at this point. Organize the facts, statements, documents that are crucial. Rank them in some sort of order. Ask students how such information should be ranked? What are some ways to organize the information?
I haven’t waded into grading or assignment particulars, but the key thing is to keep the writing out of it, to deal with what is really the most basic thing for a journalist to learn: getting the information.
What am I missing here?
UPDATE: I should clarify that I think the writing component would be heavily emphasized in a second-semester required course.
December 6, 2011 in Links
Wow, this semester is flying by. Here are a few of the articles I’ve come across recently that are worth a read. You can also see recommended reading in the CICM Twitter feed.
Ars Technica’s 2011 holiday gift guide extravaganza (Ars Technica): This is really a comprehensive list of geekery.
Censorship, Curse Words, and a Dodgeball Championship: Student Press Trouble at Pacific Lutheran University (College Media Matters): A really dumb action by university administrators in a censorship controversy, and a good reason to host a college website off-campus.
Dicing onions like a pro (Craft): Filed away for future reference.
The inevitable collision of journalism and everything else(Sean Blanda): “You shouldn’t be worried about pageviews, Facebook likes or what Poynter is saying about you. You should worry about the trust of your customers and the strength of your product.”
New journalism platforms call for new journalism rules (John Robinson): Yes, the rules are changing.
The art of the interview (and journalism students who don’t practice it!) (Mario Garcia): “It’s a recurring theme, and its frequency disturbs me: journalism students who ask for an interview, to which I agree, then they show a total lack of preparation with the most essential facts and details. There was never any excuse for the unprepared reporter, but, in the era of Google, the list of excuses just got shorter.” I think every journalism student should be required to read this.
LETTER OF INQUIRY TEMPLATE (Ian Bogost): As a semi-funny chaser for the above.
Tool of the Day: Cuttings.me (10,000 Words): “Enter Cuttings.me, a new service that provides journalists with a free, online platform to showcase their work. The site launched in October and was created by travel journalist Nicholas Holmes to fill the void he found when he tried to share and upload his work online.”
The aggregator’s dilemma: How do you fairly serve your readers & the sources you rely on? (Poynter): “a lot of news sites have developed strategies for aggregating but are still figuring out how to serve readers without undermining original content providers. I talked about this challenge with several aggregators and asked for their thoughts on how voice, analysis and editorial judgment factor into aggregation.”
Writing with authority: When to drop the “he said, she said” (UPIU blog): Really good explanation of a difficult concept to get across.
The Future of Computing (NYT Bits Blog): A big report by the Times that ranges across a number of topics, many touching upon journalism.
December 1, 2011 in industry news
Image via CrunchBase
The news industry has entered another round of comment concerns. The New York Times just implemented a new “Trusted Commenter” system that requires a connection to your Facebook account. Gannett announced last month that they’re switching their comments system to one that uses Facebook Connect.
And the college media listserv had a recent round of e-mails about the advantages of using Facebook log-ins for comments.
There are obvious arguments for going with the FB log-in. People are less likely to be nasty, brutish or mean when their “real” names are associated with what they say in a comment section. Facebook log-ins are an easy turn-key method of authenticating user names. And the FB log-in is becoming ubiquitous. Randy Lovely, senior vice president of news & audience development, doesn’t mention Gannett’s company-wide shift in an online chat about the new system, but admits that 81 percent of adults in their area have Facebook accounts.
I certainly understand the desire to have a community of commenters who are civil and reasonable in their comments about contentious issues of the day. And I can’t imagine the amount of time it takes a site like the New York Times to wade through comments every day.
But, as I’ve written before, I really don’t agree with the push to associate “authentic” real-world identities with comments on a web site.
First, these papers are outsourcing the “quality” of their site’s community to a third-party. And there are people who have legitimate issues with the entire Facebook platform, who don’t have accounts with FB and don’t want them. My parents, for instance, don’t have Facebook accounts. Should they be required to create such accounts to comment on a news site?
The second concern is a legitimate concern some people have about connecting their IRL (In Real Life) identity with comments they make online. I don’t have to go through all the hypothetical examples that have been hashed and rehashed in this arena, but suffice to say that there can be real implications for people if they say something negative about a controversial topic. So their voices will be effectively muzzled by “authenticity.”
You may think that’s a small price to pay for ridding comments sections of obvious trolls and boors who don’t know how to be polite. I’m not so sure. And I’m not so sure I’d be comfortable risking someone’s job because of something they said in a comment section.
There is a long history of pseudonymous commentary in American life. Some of it good, some of it bad. But I always thought the point was that we suffered the bad because the same rules protected the good.
In many ways, I keep coming back to what long-time blogger Anil Dash wrote earlier this year when this topic got hot again. Cultivating an online community of commenters is work, sometimes hard work. And Facebook Connect is a cop-out. And adopting the “authentic identity” paradigm just means the trolls have won.
