Pushing Twitter trial coverage a step forward: federal court

In less than a year, covering trials via Twitter has gone from an experiment to one of my regular reporting tools. With each new trial, I've gained about 100 followers - both locally and even from other countries - and that doesn't count the people who watch it from our news web site or on my work blog.

The reaction has been stunning at times.  Other news sites, notably the Orange County Register, has also picked up on this kind of coverage for the courts.

But this week brought a giant step forward when a federal judge in Wichita gave the go-ahead for me to use Twitter there.  I don't know if it's a first, as some of the legal bloggers think, but it is a big step in expanding live coverage of the courts.

See, federal courts don't allow cameras or video or audio recorders.  The federal courthouse in Wichita doesn't allow cell phones, so I had to get the judge's permission to bring my smartphone and Bluetooth keyboard into the courtroom.

The trial, which begins testimony Monday, surrounds federal charges of racketeering aimed at accused members of the Crips street gang.  Federal prosecutors around the country have used racketeering laws for years to try and curb the problem of street gangs.

But to see these trials, you had to go to the courthouse. Twitter will allow people to follow the trial in real time and learn more about federal courts and how they work.

Follow the trial next week. After it's over, I'll report back with an update on what I learned in this new venue.

To be a journalist: to publish, to benefit a community

Used to be, we needed people who owned big printing presses or big towers in order to be journalists.  But today, when most people are getting their information online, anyone can publish content.

The business of big media is watching their stocks fall, while watching the rise of citizen journalists.  But what is a citizen journalist, and what makes them different from professional journalists.  Even SPJ, the largest organization of professional journalists, struggles for that definition.

Serena Carpenter gives the best one I've seen:

“An individual who intends to publish information meant to benefit a community.”

Serena even explains her definition, by reaching into decades-old First Amendment law, then concludes:

"This means citizen journalists and traditional journalists fall under the definition of a journalist," Carpenter says. "Not every person is a journalist, but any citizen can become one."

A newspaper experience minus the actual paper?

I just ran across this post on Mashable. If you don’t read Mashable regularly, you should. Add it to your feed reader today. 

Okay, now back to the real reason I’m posting today on my day off.

There’s a new service called Feed Chronicle that pulls feeds from various sources and puts them in a newspaper layout on your screen.  The full name is: "Feed Chronicle:The Collaborative Newspaper," and it's still in Beta.  All of th big online news sources seem to be present, but you can also suggest additional feeds. 

I’m too short on time to share my thoughts on it at the moment but I have toyed with it for the last 10 or 15 minutes.  I do find it interesting that people may no longer want the physical paper in their hands, but they want the layout.

I know you have something to say about this. Check it out and leave a comment.

Angela Connor

When neighborhood news blogs own hyperlocal: An interview with Tracy Record of West Seattle Blog

This is a cross-post from my blog, Online Community Strategist.

Tracy Record, editor and co-publisher of West Seattle Blog took the time to answer a few of my questions during the biggest snow storm in recent Seattle history and for that I am grateful.

I asked Tracy why news organizations haven't figured out how to own hyperlocal, and here is what she had to say: 

"The question for some is really, SHOULD they? I think that newspapers, which even with their much-lamented cuts still have comparatively HUGE content staffs - I spent most of my old-media career in TV news, where you might have a dozen reporters/editorial managers spread across seven days and three dayparts, while big dailies still have dozens - should focus on context and perspective. Until and unless we add more staff, I can’t do that in a major way, though we do longer-form articles and enterprised stories/features when we can, and look for alternate ways of offering context and empowering people to find it themselves. Aside from that, some companies still think all they have to do is aggregate their content that mentions or targets a given neighborhood and voila! it’s “hyperlocal.”  Doesn’t work. There’s no “there” there, and if ever you need a “there,” it’s when covering a “here.” You need a trusted guide, a sense of neighborhood, even if that person/team (like us) doesn’t give opinions."

Tracy also discusses whether or not neighborhood blogs are a viable option for laid-off journalists.

You can read the full interview, here: Building community around neighborhood news: An interview with tracy Record of West Seattle Blog (Part 1 of 2)

Angela Connor
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Seeing the future of journalism, and trying to save it, in Denver

The Denver Press Club recently invited me to participate in a weekend workshop looking at the future, and the precarious present, of journalism.

Denver Channel 8 taped my presentation and put it online.  My wife found it stunning that, 1) anyone would invite me to visit their city to talk about Twitter and 2) broadcast it on TV.

I also got a chance to talk to newsrooms of both the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News.  I made some great friends. So it especially pained me after I returned home to Kansas and learned this week that the Rocky Mountain News was up for sale.  And people these days are hard pressed to buy newspapers.

But the folks at the news have decided to use the new media to help save the old, and some jobs in the process.  Check out what they're doing at IWantMyRocky.com.

We ought to stop thinking of these as newspapers and see them as valuable news organizations: top content providers for Google and Yahoo! that are worth saving, no matter what their platform.

That's part of the message of the documentary "Stop the Presses," made by former Dallas reporter Manny Medoza and filmmaker Mark Birnbaum, which I saw for the first time at the Starz Denver Film Festival.  The documentary not only skillfully looks at the demise of the American Newspaper but also probes its future and why it's worth saving.

As one viewer noted:  the film interviewed executives of some of the most respected newsrooms in the country and the best business observations in the film come from Dave Barry.

Dave, take the lead. We're ready to follow.

Jon Stewart asks his "depressing riddle" about newspapers

"What's black and white and completely over?" Jon Stewart asked last night on the "Daily Show."

We knew the answer before he said it.

Here's the video.

It smarts.  But good satire is that way.

That's why we're learning these skills for online.  But still, it smarts.

The rise of social media and the demise of newspapers

I remember a kind of panic going through the newspaper industry -- around 1989.

Young people weren't reading newspapers, and there was a great amount of money being spent trying to figure out how to change that.

"How are we going to get the next generation to read the newspaper?" publishers asked.  They spent a lot of money making youth-oriented sections for newspapers that went unread.

Now we know the answer to that question: We're not.  But we were asking the wrong question.  The question should have been: How are we going to get information to the next generation?  If we'd asked that in 1989, someone in the news industry might have developed Facebook, MySpace or Twitter.  Instead, journalists are left to catch up with social networking -- the tool that's being used to pass information.

To succeed in that arena we have to be social.  Patrick Thornton guides us with on Beatblogging.org dealing with how have have to stop hiding behind bylines and put ourselves out there.

“I don’t think social media will really work for journalists, unless we are willing to share a little bit about ourselves and our personalities,” Thornton quotes journalism professor Carrie Brown from a video.

Meanwhile, newspapers may be disappearing faster than we can Twitter about it.  Editor & Publisher blogger Mark Fitzgerald says we could begin seeing the first cities beginning to lose their newspapers next year, according to the Fitch Ratings service.

"Fitch believes more newspapers and newspaper groups will default, be shut down and be liquidated in 2009 and several cities could go without a daily print newspaper by 2010," the credit ratings firm said in a report on the outlook for U.S. media and entertainment.

Local TV News Competitors Join Forces

There was no shortage of blogs predicitng the loss of revenue that would plague local TV stations after the election, largely because political ads were keeping them afloat.
Well, there's a major cost saving measure underway between Fox and NBC that will allow both to eliminate fewer jobs by pooling resources.
It's a new vidoe sharing arrangement or "news service" that will make video of non-enterprise stories available to interested local media outlets in each market, including TV and radio, newspapers and digital.

I've worked in local TV news in Cleveland, Tampa, West Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale and the competition is fierce. I'm sure it will seem a bit odd sharing video, particualrly on breaking news. I'll be watching to see how it all works out.

You can read more about this new arrangement here.

-Angela Connor

The big digital news of today: Spot.us launches

Just in case you haven't seen it yet, the non-profit Spot.us launched this week - the very definition of civic journalism.

Brought to you by David Cohn, a.k.a "DigiDave," he describes the idea behind it this way:

"Journalism is a process not a product, but that process takes time and people who do it professionally need to be compensated. The process of journalism should be participatory - and perhaps one way it can be made participatory is if the public has the opportunity to commission the journalism they want to see."

It's journalism that doesn't demand 30 percent profit margins or big advertising budgets.

Spot.us was funded by the Knight News Challenge.

David has been an inspiration as we've watched him put this together and followed him on Twitter and other social networking sites.

As journalism faces new challenges and some even question its future, Spot.us is a reminder that there's more than one way to report a story - and more than one way to deliver it.

We wish DigiDave and Spot.us all the best, and it's a site all professional journalists should be watching.

Who are we trying to reach by video: journalism, the audience or ourselves

CNN: A newspaper wire service?

Move over AP, there's a new game in town.
Possibly.
I just read on Lost Remote that CNN is courting newspapers with a new wire service it plans to launch soon. We all know that many, if not most, newspapers are fed up with AP so this could actually come to pass. Editor & Publisher  reports that editors are being invited to a three-day event in Atlanta at CNN's expense that will  showcase CNN's expertise in covering news, highlight on-air and online coverage, demonstrate the latest in news gathering technology, and explain how the CNN Wire can become a valuable resource for your newspapers and websites.

This should be interesting.

Journalists' should make sure their voices are heard in community conversations

I'm catching up on reading, and blogging, after knee surgery. Still a little loopy on the pain meds, but I'll see if I can patch together some coherent sentences.

I watched this video interview with social media guru Howard Rheingold. He's talking about libraries here, but what he says about their mission is much the same, I believe, as journalists.

Journalism is more than a TV clip or newspaper article.  It's passing along reliable information:  seeking the truth and reporting it.  But as the availability of information expands, as Howard says, we are competing for attention with all the porn and scams and everything else.

It's our job to help make sure people can find our reliable information.  These days, we can do that by understanding social networking on all levels, and how people are using this to pass along information.  So if people in your colleagues aren't spending a lot of their time using social networking to build sources and as conduits for reporting that information, then encourage them to start.

I especially like how Howard talks about people looking for reliable information within their specific interests.  A challenge of every major news web site has been making the transition from general interest publications to making information easy to find within the details of our readers' lives.

That's the point Amy Gahran makes in her Poynter E-Media Tidbits this week. The days of editors sitting in a room and deciding what everyone else reads or hears is ending, if it's not already over.


Amy linked to a useful presentation of the 1999 Cluetrain Manifesto.  Written for marketing and PR folks, there's also a warning for the journalism business that it is only now beginning to heed, a decade later.  It deals with the way people talk to each other, compared with the sometimes stilted way the media presents information. Social networking is now making it easier for larger groups to hold those informal discussions.  These groups were formerly known as the newspaper and broadcast news media markets.

Social networking is about participating in a community conversation.  As journalists, part of our role is to provide trustworthy information to those conversations. You can either participate, or be left out.  Too often, journalists are choosing to be left out.

If you know colleagues who aren't usuing social networking as a major part of their work days, or don't know how, encourage them. If they don't understand why they need to learn about it, show them this video.  Show them the slide presentation.  Maybe that will get through to them.

Angry journalist: "I check my brain at the door."

I came across a very depressing blurb today at AngryJournalist.com. And before I share it, I do hope that this person is completely in the minority. I mean, we all know that times are dire in many respects and that things are changing, but this comment made me want to go home and go back to bed. This from Angry Journalist #6911:

I have become numb.
After 10 years of working my way up as a reporter, I now do the minimum.
I surf the internet for about five or six hours a day, chat with co-worker for another hour or so, and drive aimlessly around town. Somewhere in between I’ll make a few calls, check the fax and spend 15 minutes writing a story.
Funny thing is - editors love it. I check my brain at the door and just do whatever they say.
Back when I cared and devoted myself to writing the best stories I could, everything was a fight.
Now, I do almost nothing and make $18 an hour.
That makes me very angry.

These are the people we need to invigorate. If you happen to know Angry Journalist #6911, please send them my way. I want to talk to him or her about blogging, crowd-sourcing, friendfeed, twitter and brainstorm some new interesting ideas that will get buy-in from the top. This cannot happen if you give up, as this person has. It makes me sad. And if editors "love it," well shame on them.    

What is your advice to this angry journalist? Come on, leave a comment. We need to start a conversation. 

  

The Fall of Newspapers

There's an interesting debate taking place on a blog I read frequently. 

In this particular post, Jeff Jarvis maintains that the fall of journalism, is indeed, journalists fault.

Here is a paragraph from the blog post:

"It is our fault that we did not see the change coming soon enough and ready our craft for the transition. It is our fault that we did not see and exploit — hell, we resisted — all the opportunities new media and new relationships with the public presented. It is our fault that we did not give adequate stewardship to journalism and left the business to the business people. It is our fault that we lost readers and squandered trust. It is our fault that we sat back and expected to be supported in the manner to which we had become accustomed by some unknown princely patron. Responsibility and blame are indeed ours."

Ask yourself....did you play a role in this?

Now go read Jeff's post for yourself, and be sure to add BuzzMachine to your blog aggregator.   

-AngelaConnor

Is content still king?

Absolutely.
Because without content, there would be no Google News or Yahoo News or wildly popular and successful blogs, and the news readers or aggregators such as Bloglines and Google Reader would essentially have no function to perform.

So, while I am a firm believer that content is king, I also think it's important to define exactly what type of content fits the bill because all content is defintiely not created equal.

A post by Jeff Jarvis got me thinking a little more about this today. He maintains that the building block of journalism is no longer the article and I think he is 100% correct.

According to Jarvis, the new building block of journalism needs to be the topic and the "link" is king. Read it for yourself. You just might be sold.