I’ve talked before about how refreshing it would be to assign a reporter on a student media staff to monitor the campus “blogosphere.” Here are some simple steps that would make that happen.
1. Identify a good candidate - keep an eye on the staff and pick a student who knows something about weblogs, who has some technical “savvy.” Maybe they navigate facebook or myspace well, or they seem to be instant messaging or text messaging a lot in between stories.
2. Set some parameters - Define the beat. Are you going to monitor only student weblogs? Or professor weblogs as well? What about alumni? Anonymous or only those who disclose their identity?
3. Set up an RSS reader - My suggestion would be to use Bloglines or a similar web-based news reader like Newsgator. This will allow the student to follow their beat from anywhere. They don’t have to come to the newsroom to check the weblogs. They will need to sign up for a free account with the service. You might make this account accessible by anyone on staff, so other reporters or editors can add weblogs if needed.
4. Search for and identify likely weblog candidates - This will require some “cyber-shoeleather” on the part of the student. They will probably need to check Technorati and search for the name of the school to identify some affiliated weblogs. From there, they might want to check the links that appear on those weblogs to see if the blogger links to other campus-affiliated bloggers. At this point, they’d do well to also check Xanga and myspace to search using the school name as well. Xanga and myspace blogs don’t always show up in Technorati searches. Another place to look is Google’s Blogsearch.
5. Add weblogs to the RSS reader - Once you’ve located the weblogs you want to keep an eye on, add them to the RSS reader. This can be done through manual entry by looking for a link on the site that says “subscribe through RSS” or a little orange “RSS” or “Atom” logo. When you find this bit of linkage, copy the URL and paste it into the appropriate place in the news reader (every newsreader has a different formula for this, so I’m not going to try to explain each one. The best way to identify how the reader subscribes is to read the FAQ or Help section of the web site.)
For instance, Bloglines’ feed subscription field is accessed by clicking an “add” link on the feed page. From their web site:
Enter the URL of the blog you wish to subscribe to, and Bloglines will attempt to locate the appropriate feed. An easier way to subscribe to blogs and newsfeeds is to use the Easy Subscribe Button, which makes subscribing to a blog you’re viewing just one click away.
6. Check the weblogs frequently - Some webloggers update daily. Some more frequently. Some only occasionally. The beat reporter will hopefully get a sense of how often he/she needs to check these blogs for information after a couple of weeks.
7. Monitor and edit feeds - It’s almost certain that most of the weblogs that you find will have nothing of significant interest to your readership most of the time. A few, however, may post about topics that *would* interest your readers. You can organize the news feeds into folders, which will make sifting through information much easier (like folders marked “read daily,” “read weekly,” “read occasionally”).
8. Follow up and verify - This is crucial. Train your reporter to verify information found on weblogs. Encourage them to contact the bloggers in question, and - listen carefully - cite the weblog as a source if you got your original information from the weblog. This is just good community relations, and the ethical thing to do as well. But it’s almost a given that some of the information you find on the blogs will be slanted, or half-accurate. Just because you’re following the blog beat doesn’t mean you check your journalism sense at the door.
9. Write, Write, Write - Turn the blog beat into a regular feature. A regular story requirement will make the reporter put forth more effort, and result in a more satifying experience on the beat. Recognize when something of value comes from the beat, just as you would when the cops reporter shows up with a hot story. Oh, and don’t relegate this to a “web-only” feature. Put some of these stories into the newspaper as well. It might draw some of your print readers into the online audience as well.
10. Evaluate - Set a period of time to experiment with this beat. After a couple of months, or at the end of the semester, sit down with the reporter and editors and find out if the beat is worth continuing. If it’s not, pull the plug. It’s okay. Maybe your campus isn’t a hotbed of blogging information. Move on to the next brave experiment in new media.
11. Share your experience - If you follow these steps, let us know! Send me an e-mail: scmurley (at) gmail.com and tell us how it worked for you. You may be the campus that innovates for the nation.
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