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.

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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.

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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.

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Friday linkage, some fun and some deep, and lots to think about. Happy Veteran’s Day, and it’s also 11/11/11, which means something – I’m not sure.

First, this was the tempest in a teapot this week from Poynter: Romenesko resigns after 12 years at Poynter. Poynter has been hammered in the comments. I’ll leave it to you to decide the merits of whatever it was that caused his abrupt departure. But someone on Twitter had the audacity to call him journalism’s Joe Paterno. Someone needs to get a grip, a clue and some perspective.

Mixel for iPad: A social art collage app. Free, and one of the authors is Koi Vihn, whose design ideas I’ve appreciated.

Smart is the new sexy (NAA): This is an ad campaign by the Newspaper Association of America. I suppose it’s trying to make newspapers “hip” or something through the use of pastels and sans serif fonts. Maybe I’m just too old to see the effectiveness.

What is Photojournalism (Ed Kashi): “Ed was asked recently by Whitney Johnson at the New Yorker magazine how he defined photojournalism today. Below is his response, illustrated with examples that highlight the 3 distinct parts of Ed’s definition.”

Ten technical Twitter tips for journalists (journalism.co.uk): For those new to the platform, or some tips for the longtime user.

We Are Journalists (tumblr): “We are journalists. We are proud of what we do. We are tired of bad press about the press. We are trying to be “team players.” We are terrified of more layoffs and paycuts. We would like to produce quality work without ‘obamasux99’ posting some non-sequitur rant at the end of it. We complain because we want things to be better. We would like some respect, plz. We are journalists.”

Cameras Everywhere: The Promise and Peril for Human Rights (MediaShift): It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

The Social Graph is neither (Pinboard blog): “Social networks exist to sell you crap. The icky feeling you get when your friend starts to talk to you about Amway, or when you spot someone passing out business cards at a birthday party, is the entire driving force behind a site like Facebook.”

A Brief Rant On The Future of Interaction Design (Bret Victor): This is worth reading for its contrarian take on the future of interface design, and this paragraph: “Pictures Under Glass is an interaction paradigm of permanent numbness. It’s a Novocaine drip to the wrist. It denies our hands what they do best. And yet, it’s the star player in every Vision Of The Future.” is pure gold.

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Time for some links!

Occupationalist: I found this site via Aram Zucker-Scharff (The storytelling of the 99 percent), and was mesmerized by the way it incorporates a ton of data from various social media sources into a single site. Worth checking out and filing away for ideas for future big event coverage. Apparently, the site was made by Boulder Digital Works, out of the University of Colorado.

John Robinson: “Find thinkers who will challenge you,” and more advice for newspaper editors (Nieman Journalism Lab): John Robinson has always been my go-to example of an editor who “gets it.” So it was a little shocking to hear he was stepping down as the editor of the News & Record. He says he’ll still be around on Twitter. I wish him well in whatever the future holds.

What we told current Journalism majors about working at startups (BitMethod Brick by Brick): In a similar vein, Scott Kubie and Amanda Morrow had some advice for Drake University students. The future will likely feature a lot of jobs for j-students outside the traditional career, and the skill set for landing those jobs will also change. (via @selfmadepsyche)

6 Tips to Support Digital News Through Advertising (MediaShift): One would think most of this advice is common sense by now. It’s not. Here it is in a list.

Confidence Game: The limited vision of the news gurus (CJR): Dean Starkman’s lengthy essay takes on some sacred cows in the Future of News discussion. (via @Chanders)

Data Analysis 101: Seven Simple Mistakes That Limit Your Salary (Occam’s Razor): This is written about web site marketing, but the principles apply for any kind of data presentation. Kaushik also has a handy Statistical Significance Calculator. (via @gmarkham)

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