I linked to this site almost a year ago when I first discovered it, but I thought it was worth looking at again: xtranormal.com. The site allows you to produce an animated movie based upon the text you type into a script. It allows for various camera angles, characters, and actions. And, as with most online . . . → Read More: Xtranormal: in ur text, making it video
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Via Al Tompkins at Poynter, here are the guidelines for social media as proposed by the Radio and Television News Director’s Association. College journalists should perhaps pay special attention to this one: • Avoid posting photos or any other content on any website, blog, social network or video/photo sharing website that might embarrass you or undermine . . . → Read More: RTNDA’s social media guidelines  Comments - (Comments are closed)  ideas, industry news, management  guidelines, Journalism, social media I come across new software that might be of use to college media outlets all the time. Most of them end up in the reinventing delicious account. Here are a few recent finds that might pique your interest: Produle: This is an online Flash-based widget builder, sort of like Sproutbuilder. Also like Sproutbuilder, . . . → Read More: New software link dump
Use of a texting service is different than a mobile site or iPhone application because it delivers news to the reader without requiring the reader to seek it on his own. All he/she has to do is sign up. I can see how it’d get annoying — perhaps spammy– but the service is all opt-in. If you have high-quality content, this won’t be an issue. Barack Obama’s campaign is proof tha text alerts can be successful. He texted alerts to his supporters and even broke news of his VP via text message. It baffles me that most news sites which offer text alerts bury the feature somewhere on the site. Pro news organizations like Tampa Bay Online offer text alerts, but the feature is hidden under the “tools” option. The New York Times offers the service too, but again, it’s a hidden option that most readers probably don’t realize they have. Even a Google search didn’t yield results for LA Times’ mobile alerts, which only leads me to assume they don’t offer the service. The option to subscribe for text alerts should be offered prominently on the homepage, right alongside the option to subscribe to RSS. OaklandNorth.net, a project out of UC Berkeley, is a great example of college media that offers text alerts and features it on their homepage (found via Richard Koci Hernandez). The best texting service is designed with narrow subscription options (i.e. specific categories/sections of news alerts) so your readers receive only the news they want. 1. Crime map If your campus puts out a regular police log — which most college police departments do — setting up a crime map like this one is easy and your readers will love it. Go to Google Maps and under the “my maps” feature, set up your . . . → Read More: Three easy features that add value to your site The free photo-sharing software Flickr is a quick, effective way to archive your photos, maintain a remote backup and embed slideshows like this: Although there are other means of creating slideshows for your news site — like Slideshow Pro (used by College Publisher) and Soundslides Plus — there are advantages to using Flickr: Others can embed your slideshow . . . → Read More: Using Flickr in the newsroom News writing for the web is a challenge. Not necessarily because it’s hard, but because it means changing the way you think. This lesson will be a foundation for future lessons on audio, video, Flash and all the fun skills you want to learn. But be patient. We’re taking this one step at a time. Writing for the web is a different experience– you have to think about search engines and reader attention span and site traffic. This is about more than copying and pasting your stories from InDesign to your CMS. It’s about mastering an art that few in the college media industry get. Continue reading Nationwide classroom No. 1: Writing for the Web Catching up on e-mails, here’s an example of an interactive graphic that “pulls back the curtain” by putting a face and some details to the names of the editorial board: When you click on a photo block, a window pops up with a brief introductory video from each editorial board member. Credits for the package: Film by . . . → Read More: Pulling back the curtain: Daily Tar Heel’s “Know your editorial board” interactive This morning, I threw out an idea for journalists – the Unicorn Chaser sidebar. Read it and tell me what you think (it’s on my bryanmurley.com site, everything that doesn’t fit into college media-related material). So the cool part is that Scott Karp of Publish 2.0 has agreed that it’s a semi-good idea and is even . . . → Read More: The Unicorn Chaser sidebar |
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Have you ever deleted a text message without reading it? Most people wouldn’t, which makes SMS text messaging a potentially valuable tool for news organizations.
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