The one and only tool a digital reporter needs

Just think what you can do if you were a digital reporter armed with an iPhone on the night the Titanic sunk? Your news outlet would drown in the great coverage you would supply.

Recently the Gannett media company in the U.S. purchased 1,000 iPhones for its reporters. The Wired Reporter doesn’t think it was because they wanted their journalists to be trendy. We all know it’s impossible for reporters to be cool.

No, Gannett’s bulk iPhone purchase is a strategic move to take advantage of the technology found in the iPhone 4S and some of the other high-end smartphones.

Let’s consider the latest iPhone and other current smartphones. They’re armed to the teeth with features and there are thousands of apps that add even more functionality.

Let’s say the Wired Reporter were onboard the RMS Titanic on that ill-fated night on April 15, 1912 and just happened to have his trusty iPhone. The first thing a cracker-jack reporter would do is use that smartphone to snap some high quality still images of that iceberg that strayed in our path. We’d then crop and edit the images before posting them to our news organization’s website, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and 500px.

We could then use the phone to shoot HD video of the Titanic’s crew assessing the damage and passengers playing shinny with chucks of ice sheered from the iceberg. We’d also turn the camera on Capt. Edward Smith to get his reaction to the collision. The video clip would be edited using an app and uploaded to the news site and YouTube.

The hard-working Wired Reporter would also be writing and posting an article at the same time, updating the story as things progressed. I could also use my smartphone to record audio interviews with John Jacob Aster IV, the wealthiest passenger on the Titanic, then edit the file and send it off to a news radio station in New York (just pretend the Internet has already been invented).

Get the idea? Every digital reporter is now a one-person multi-media reporting team, complete with post-production facilities.

Here’s a great article that outlines some of the skills and techniques involved in live digital reporting.

To learn more about digital journalism, enrol in the New Media Journalism Certificate program offered by Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies.

For more discussions and articles on digital journalism, go to SFU’s New Media Journalism on Twitter and Facebook .

Food for thought

Photo courtesy of Winnipeg Free Press

Who ever said there was no such thing as a free lunch, never spent time with a news reporter.

Public relations folks know this and attract hordes of journalists to press conferences and media events by including six little words in a press release: “Food and beverages will be served.”

You’d think members of the fifth estate were half-starved street urchins. But the truth is, and this is my theory, reporters are always around when free food is served because it’s one of the few perks of the job. Ethically journalists can’t accept anything for doing their job, with the exception being what you can take away in your stomach (as long as it’s not a meal).

So what does this have to do with digital journalism? Nothing really, other than food.

The Winnipeg Free Press has taken the concept of an open newsroom and added its own twist to it. They operate a cafe in the heart of the city’s downtown. The paper’s multimedia editor, video reporter and social media reporter all work out of the cafe and other reporters are assigned weekly to work out of the establishment.

The public has a chance to speak to reporters, holding them accountable but also feeding them the odd story idea. Events are also staged there, including political debates, and also live-streamed through the Free Press website.

Deputy online editor John White says the cafe is a way to make the Free Press a physical community hub, which he hopes will translate into the digital realm.

The website 10,000 Words has written about it and you can also find coverage of the cafe at the Knight Centre for Journalism in the Americas.

To learn more about digital journalism, enrol in the New Media Journalism Certificate program offered by Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies.

For more discussions and articles on digital journalism, go to SFU’s New Media Journalism on Twitter and Facebook .

Not all statistics lie

Click on the image for a larger view.

Journalists need to be picky when it comes to data.

Radio and TV reporters often have just 45 seconds to tell a story, so they don’t have the time to explain how each demographic group is affected in a story about the latest unemployment rate.

If you’re a newspaper reporter and you include all of the data in an article, the editor will curse you for writing a 300-inch story and then cut it to 30 inches so it cut it fits on the page. And that can be frustrating, especially if the editor chops the compelling paragraph about Grade 10-educated males who worship Ninhursag, the Sumerian earth and mother goddess, face 50 per cent unemployment.

Digital journalism is changing how we report large chucks of data like demographic studies.New types of journalists are telling stories using data visualization, also known as information visualization. They endeavour to display large chunks of complex data in an aesthetic, functional, intuitive and narrative format. It can also be interactive if it is presented on the web.

Have a look at The Jobless Rate for People Like You, published in the New York Times in 2009. This data visual uses just four demographic indicators – race, gender, age range and education level – to interactively show how various groups were effected by unemployment.

An example of a more complex data visual is The Top World Cup Players on Facebook, Day by Day, also published in the Times.

To learn more about digital journalism, enrol in the New Media Journalism Certificate program offered by Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies.

For more discussions and articles on digital journalism, go to SFU’s New Media Journalism on Twitter and Facebook .

New ideas needed to bring in new readers

I resent this article I found on Poynter.org.

The article, 8 strategies for reaching elusive young readers, has some great ideas. However, the second point – Hire young people – strikes me as a bit of ageism. It would have been better to phrase it: Hire young-thinking people.

Normally this sort of thing wouldn’t bother me but I’m getting cranky in my old age.

D’oh!

Anyway, great read. Here’s the link.

• Don’t forget to visit SFU’s New Media Journalism on Twitter for more digital journalism discussions and articles.

• To learn more about digital journalism, enrol in the New Media Journalism Certificate program offered by Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies. Click here to register for a June 23 information session on the program.

‘This just in, Twitter reports…’

Once one penguin jumps into the ocean they all follow.

Before social media came around, a lazy journalist was one who didn’t check out the facts and/or relied heavily on institutions for news stories.

Most common are reporters and editors who vividly blanket cover every utterance that comes out of city hall, the mouths of celebrities and press conferences. This kind of pack journalism can result in the news agenda being set by governments, corporations and individuals already over exposed, while giving a voice to those who already have one and ignoring those who likely need to be heard.

Which brings me to social media and the tendency for news organizations to become followers of whatever is trending on Twitter, YouTube or the host of other social media channels. The problem with social media trends is facts can be unsubstantiated while journalists risk repeating stale news already the subject of millions of tweets, Facebook posts and social media entries.

You can read more about this on Seth Godin’s blog and a book review on the tommorrowtoday website.

Other interesting links on the subject can be found at:

• Examinator.com

• J-Source.ca

• RTDNA.org

To learn more about how journalists should use social media, enrol in the New Media Journalism Certificate program offered by Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies. Click here to register for a June 23 information session on the program.

Should digital reporters have their own voice?

It used to be that only columnists and editors represented news organizations. They became the personalities the audiences related to because they were allowed to have opinions and their mug shots regularly appeared in the pages of newspapers.

Today, of course, social media has changed all of that. Once invisible reporters often tweet and blog on the news they cover using their individual social media channels. And it is advantageous for news outlets to encourage this. Readers, viewers and listeners begin to identify even more with the media organization.

But there appears to be limits, as some television networks and newspapers have created social media policies for their news staff to abide by.

Here’s an article that looks at how this issue is creating conflicts and offers some solutions.

Learn more about how journalists can use social media by enrolling in the New Media Journalism Certificate program at Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies.

Laptops once needed a suitcase to carry

My TRS 80 had a whopping 16K of memory.

Back when I was a cub reporter, I managed to convince my editor to send me on a road trip to Jackson, Tenn. to cover SFU women’s basketball team competing at the NAIA national championships. It was a big deal for my paper (the Tri-City News), which rarely sent a reporter outside of the GVRD on assignment.

They made sure I was well equipped with the latest technology, a TRS 80 laptop by Radio Shack and a 300 baud dial-up modem that required a small suitcase to carry all the parts. I felt like a big shot because sending stories through the phone lines was something no other reporter in our company had ever done.

But being on the cutting edge of technology proved to be a headache. For starters, with the TRS 80 (also known as the Trash 80) you could only read eight lines at a time. It weighed four pounds and had a power unit that was just as heavy.

It took about 10 attempts to send each story, since the modem used acoustic couplers that you attached to the phone. As a result, I ended up with a $100 phone bill from the hotel I was staying at.

So why am I dredging up the past? I came across this video the other day that reminded me of just how far we’ve come. View this video of  online journalism in 1981.

Learn how journalism is adapting by enrolling in the New Media Journalism Certificate program at Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies.

Sh*t Journalists Say

Why should journalists not be part of this viral trend on YouTube? Check out

Sh*t Journalists Say