What The Pros Say We Should Know

I’m a fan of Mindy McAdams and her blog “Teaching Online Journalism.” I think I like it because it reminds me of things I need to learn that I didn’t pick up in school. Part of the problem was Penn State was on the cusp or realizing it needed to teach multimedia skills just as I graduated. I can write and edit with the best of the class of 2007, but my web skills are just so-so. I know my social media sites, I blog and I created a site through Weebly for my clips and resume. And I actually work for an online publication. However, we are a subscription-based, wire service covering politics and government. So, I don’t get too fancy. In my job, it’s far more important that I can accurately and clearly explain complex policy.

That being said, I don’t mean to imply that I don’t want to learn. McAdams posted a piece in October called “Stuff to teach the next journalists.” I still feel like the “next journalist” since I only graduated a year and a half ago. Here’s her starter list.

• Write a 12-inch story (400–450 words) in AP print style w/ Web-appropriate head, subheads and suitable hyperlink(s).
• Create a 2-minute audio clip with clear nat sound, narration and interview material, edited digitally and compressed for the Web.
• Shoot, edit and compress a video of 2 min. 30 sec.
• Create and maintain a single-subject blog for at least eight weeks (minimum 16 posts), with at least two posts per week.
• Create a 1:30 to 2 min. Soundslides presentation that tells a coherent journalistic story

Well, I can write a 12-inch story, write my headline and provide links for extra resources and I can blog. However, past that, I’m kind of failing when it comes to this list.

Conferences

One of the best part of conferences is you pick up an idea or two (or in this case, a Web site or two) that you hadn’t thought about previously. On Nov. 13 – Nov. 16, I traveled to Raleigh, NC for the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors’ Conference. It was my second go-around at this conference, and I can’t say enough good things about it.  Because of the ever changing nature of journalism, conference organizers were smart enough to include a multimedia track for journalists to pick up a few tricks.

One of the great Web sites shown to participants was Many Eyes, an IBM creation that allows users to take data sets and easily manipulate them into images. I didn’t have a data set handy, so I played around with one of their samples — unemployment rates in several countries from 1986-2006.  You can click on the different countries to see how the graph will change.

For some reason, WordPress keeps deleting the code I put in, so here’s a link to the page.

I’m off to find my notebook because I can’t remember the name of the other free application for data sets and maps.

Absence

I’m officially the worst blogger ever. And instead of making excuses for my absence from the blogosphere, I’m just going to say I’m sorry and let’s start over. Check for posts later today and more this coming week.

Make a Map In Five Minutes

I had never bothered to find out how to make a Google map. I figured it couldn’t be that hard, but I never tried. And it turns out, it is really easy and I am ashamed I’m so late to the party. There are really clear directions online. Google maps can be finished in a snap, they’re easy, and they’re free. You don’t have to buy anything and they can be easily embedded into a Web site. I made a simple one just to try it. I just put on three marks — my apartment building, my office and the Florida Capitol. However, they are easily used for crime maps.  The Penn State Daily Collegian web editors created an interactive map where readers could click on an icon to read the police report. Here’s my three icon map. Nothing too exciting, but it was a test.


View Larger Map

Fun Web Sites

Nothing new or groundbreaking here, but here’s a list of some fun/useful Web sites that might be helpful for young journalists.

The Obvious Ones

Facebook — If you’re not on it (and really, not many people aren’t these days), stop making up excuses. You can’t seem to get in touch with someone? Try messaging them via Facebook. You’d be surprised how many people are addicted to checking their Facebook accounts. Also, you’d be surprised how many put their phone numbers on their personal pages and what politicans have listed.

Twitter — People seem to either love or hate Twitter. It’s tough to get started and update regularly, but once you start “following” people regularly, it’s worth it. News organizations, friends and other users can post news stories or their own thoughts giving you more news to read or potentially story ideas. Read an old post by Dan Victor of the Harrisburg Patriot-News about his trial with Twitter.

LinkedIN — Network, network, network with all the other journos/webbies you know. You never know when a connection may come in handy.

Easy-to-use sites

WordPress and/or Blogger — If you don’t have a blog, make one. Chances are, you’re going to have to blog at some point, so you might as well start practicing now. These are free and easy to use.

Weebly — Want to make your own Web site for your clips or resume. Try weebly. Back in January, I put my clips up and started including it in my cover letters. When I started going on job interviews last spring, editors asked about it.  My colleague at News Service of Florida, Keith Laing, used WordPress for this.

Fun Things

Wordle — I blogged about Wordle a week ago, and I still think it’s fun to play around with. Take a big speech and see which words are most important. Here’s GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin’s convention speech.

Tinyurl — I’m not sure there is a practical purpose, but this makes your url shorter. It’s helpful for twitter posts when you need to save your characters for actual text.

Digsby — Truly an amazing thing. I have fellow Penn Stater and journo Kat Lackey to thank for it. The web application can combine your gmail chat contacts and your IM contacts all into one list. Plus, it keeps tab on your gmail, facebook and twitter accounts, so you don’t have to keep all of those windows open.

Just good links

Alternatives to Google — Google may be the most common search engine, but there are alternatives. Here’s a big, long list of them.

Refdesk journalism tools — If you’ve never checked our refdesk.com, you should. It has links to news organizations all over the world, plus every possible to link to any subject you might need to know about. Here’s their page specifically for journalism resources.

Learning audio

Sorry for so long between posts. I started my new job and am settling into a new apartment, which has taken up a lot of my time lately. Anyway, I’m on a mission to try to look at one multimedia aspect per day through Mindy McAdams’s journalism toolkit. I chose audio for today, partly because I knew a little bit about it and partly because of something that happened earlier this week at work.

Last Monday, I went to a press conference on Hurricane Ike at the Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, recorder in hand. I sat and recorded the whole thing, but held my recorder with me at my seat instead of plugging it into a mult box (I didn’t bring a cord with me) or putting it up on the podium. The quality of the recording was fine for the reporter who wants to go back and check a quote from Gov. Crist, but not loud enough for the news junkie who wants to casually listen to the presser while reading other articles online or doing whatever else he/she happens to be doing at the moment. Lesson of the day: Make sure the quality is good. The recorders can only do so much.

I’m a fan of Olympus recorders. I have a VN-4100PC, which is the brand I used during the press conference, but my employer also supplied me with a WS-210S.  I have not used the new one yet, but it does have one advantage over the VN-4100PC. The new one can directly connect into a PC or laptop, so if you don’t have a cord with you, don’t worry.

Once you’ve got your audio, it’s on to editing. McAdams, through her journalism toolkit, provides instructions on how to use Audacity, a web-based software that allows you to edit audio. Audacity is easy to use, and best of all, it’s FREE. I’ve only played around with it a few times, but it seems easy enough.

Word Clouds

Ever wonder how to make those word clouds you see on blogs or other news sites? You know, the ones that analyze people’s speeches? Turns out, it isn’t that hard. I may be late to the party in discovering this, so mock me if you will. However, for those who don’t know about it, go to http://wordle.net and make your own cloud and see what comes up. I tested it using Michelle Obama’s speech from the DNC last week. See here.

Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine has a great post about wordle from late July. Check it out.

From Around The Web

I did a simple google search to see if I could come up with some links to help young journalists pick up some basic multimedia skills. Here’s what I came up with.

A slightly older (2007) post by consultant Paul Conley on easy sites for the inexperienced multimedia reporter to learn from. http://paulconley.blogspot.com/2007/05/teach-yourself.html

10,000words.net gives 21 photo editing sites http://www.10000words.net/2008/07/21-free-online-photo-editing-tools.html and then offers 12 more useful online tools that offer everything from free podcasting to video distributors at http://www.10000words.net/2008/07/12-more-useful-online-tools-for.html

Where do you go to pick up new tricks?

Bienvenidos!

Bienvenidos!

Lots of journalists out there mope about the state of the industry and bemoan its current failings. Young journalists wonder if they are making the right career choice or should run the other way and hide. And college students hear tales of what they should know but aren’t being taught at the university level.

Penn State student Kat Lackey wrote recently that she was tired of being self taught when it comes to multimedia skills that news organizations are now demanding. She wants her PSU journalism profs to teach her these things, to make her a bit more marketable when she applies for jobs.

That leads me to this blog. Unfortunately, we cannot depend on j-schools to give this type of instruction, leaving current college students and younger journalists (like myself) in a lurch. We still need the traditional set of journalism skills – writing, reporting, editing – but we also need a few other skills as well. Sound editing, photoshop, html are all helpful, but typically not part of a regular j-school curriculum. So what do we do? I’m on the lookout for the best and cheapest (preferably free) web tools to help young news journos navigate their ever-changing field.

E-mail me at khaughney@gmail.com or post a comment to let me know which tools/sites you like.