Multimedia Journalism

Blogs in Spanish

2005-05-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

There is a very interesting survey about blogs in Spanish language made by a blog in Spain,Tinta China. Eventhough it includes Latin America in the the survey, it seems more representative of the Spanish blogosphere, which is more developed. Findings include habits in the blogosphere, sociodemographics, frecuency of posts, etc.

Hey, check this out!

2005-05-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

You might well know now about OhmyNews. Why don't you be part of the online newspaper as a global citizen reporter. As you may know, it opened its citizen reporter login system to the world last April. You can find how to join it at the address below.

http://english.ohmynews.com/

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=8&no=219455&rel_no=1

PR person blogs about online journalism

2005-05-02T21:10:00.000-07:00

I was doing some research for the super fun paper that is due this week and came across this blog for PR people. I thought this post was interesting and in the vein of what we have been discussing in class the past few months. Here is the cached link so you can find the post:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:ueXuk5Ls0_EJ:online-pr.blogspot.com/+magazine+transition+online+print&hl=en

Big questions: how expensive will online news become? will the public have to take on the news themselves in order for it to be free?

Want to be a media entrepreneur?

2005-05-02T11:31:00.000-07:00

"Every citizen is a reporter" is a well-known motto of OhmyNews, a South Korean online newspaper. Then, how about this? "Any journalism student can be a media entrepreneur." This is what Jeff Jarvis, a professional journalist and blogger, said at the Exploring the Fusion Power of Public and Participatory Journalism conference last year. What he meant is that a journalism student can get out of school and use low-cost editing tools, camera and software to create a media Web site to be an entrepreneur. Well, cosidering what we have learned and witnessed in the class, it sounds quite promising. I might need to think about that, cause I am gonna graduate soon. How about you guys?

No, Seriously. WATCH THIS.

2005-05-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

Is this a crystal ball gaze into the future of journalism? Can we please discuss this?

WATCH NOW

Business blogging makes cover story of staid mag

2005-04-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

Hey, check this out. Business Week's cover is BLOG and the articles inside offer a myriad of tendrils. Dan Gilmore is highlighted (he's trying to raise $ and interest for a new online co.)

I, being in that "what are you all talking about?" generation, felt like I have alot of company in not knowing how or why to get with the blog program, nonetheless want to. So, my generation isn't quite ready to be left in the dust.

A growing curiosity I have is: "who will fund blogs?" I am very curious as to when and if ever, some type of venture fund will ante up captital for a blog. VCs are part of the hard copy culture believers. And, though percieved as being cutting edge in financing ideas, VCs are some of the most conservative people I have ever met.

So follow this link and brace yourself for a huge time commitment. I have saved this article but will buy the hard copy mag tomorrow, and will peruse the links after I write my paper. I love paper, but not the kind that is 'due'.

Blogs Will Change Your Business

Why Blogs Suck.

2005-04-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

I was playing around on the computer today and found something pretty funny. I typed in "blogs suck" on google and got a whole list of sites with that title. This one I found pretty amusing, even if it is an old post:

http://www.stephenesque.org/2004/10/why_blogs_suck.html

Now I don't think that blogs suck by any means, but I do think there is some truth into what he says about the people who post one sentence blogs that get tons of comments. I think my favorite part of the post is the comment at the bottom:

"it also gives people with no critical thinking skills the ability to
instantly become critics. (shudder)

as if critics who actually WENT to journalism school weren't
bad enough."

Don't you just love the way people percieve journalists??

Despite stephenesques' feelings, I love blogs. Regardless of whether it's political opinions or personal stories, people, including myself, enjoy reading about other people's lives for really no good reason other than the desire to be in everybody's business. This quality, good or not, is something that I have gotten in to a lot of trouble for in the past. So I guess blogs are perfect because you can be in anyone's business anytime and they actually want you there!

Oh, and I think pundit is my new favorite word.

Terra Incognita

2005-04-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

The presentation was awesome. It showed some incredible and well develop techniques of story telling. However, I still wonder how does a journalism company or a freelance journalist may fund (or recover his money) from that kind of projects.

More on how Traditional Media might survive

2005-04-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

Good article , on Christian Science Monitor Web site at:

News Papers struggle to avoid their own obit

I don't know much about Christian Science but his paper is pretty good.

Traditional Media is waking up...

2005-04-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

Mostly in response to Megan's posts, I too would like to discuss where we are going to get our news. Right now I'm missing class and it is killing me. I finally got my youngest to school.

Interesting, this morning, as most mornings, I sat in the kitchen reading the papers (AAS and NYT) while my kids had breakfast, we talked about the day's schedule and I signed field trip forms and wrote out checks for lunch accounts.

Getting the news online is not, I beleive, an option at times like this. It is exclusionary. With hard copy, I can separate the sports section and hand it to my son who will comment on some trade, or statistic or upcoming game. My daughter usually looks at the weather page and updates us on what to expect. I pick out headlines, scan stories and pass on news that may be relevent to their day or a project that I know they are working on in school. Neither of them ever get online for news or sports, just IM and email.

For the past couple of weeks I have been pointing out biased news stories about races, cultures, etc. as I had a paper due on Diversity. Both my kids said that intolerance was alive and well in their schools.

So, while 2014 is entertaining, I think the stock play is in innovative delivery companies but I'm not ready to short the traditional media companies. Did you all know that Adobe bought out Macromedia? There is some grumbling about monopolies on some blogs. I think that neither of these companies had the resources to keep going on their own, but having only one company doing the development is not good. I have much more to say but I gotta go.

This from our president . . .

2005-04-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

"We look forward to analyzing and working with legislation that will make—it would hope—put a free press's mind at ease that you're not being denied information you shouldn't see."

—Washington, D.C., April 14, 2005

Discuss.

two interesting articles in The Economist

2005-04-23T13:34:00.000-07:00

There are two articles that appeared in The Economist recently that are relevant to our class discussions. One, 'Yesterday's Papers,' appeared a few days ago and was an analysis of some statements made by Rupert Murdoch about the future of journalism. The other, 'Crowned at last,' was a special series of articles in a recent issue about the shift in power to consumers in the digital marketplace. These articles make several interesting points about how the Internet has changed advertising and the impact those changes are having on mainstream media outlets. I'd especially like to draw your attention to a graph that appeared in one of the articles, which forecasts a dramatic percentage increase in spending on Internet advertising this year. From the article: "[Internet advertising] was 32% up on 2003, according to a study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. And that growth is accelerating, leading some forecasters to suggest that the online ad market could double in value this year."

media convergence in Kansas

2005-04-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

NPR did a very interesting two-part story on a company in Lawrence, Kan. that is a relatively successful innovator in media convergence. I wish I'd posted this before our conversation on business models, because it would have been interesting to discuss. But, I didn't, so I'm hoping we can discuss it on here.

bloggy

2005-04-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

Check out bloggy, an ibiblio creation. And don't forget to check out bloggy's blog.

Seriously, we should watch this in class and discuss.

2005-04-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

OR, we could discuss it here. But you should DEFINITELY watch this - a sort of prediction of what will happen to the media in the next ten years. It can't be too far off.

PLEASE check it out.

NBC considering blogs for its anchors

2005-04-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

From Reuters (on Yahoo! News)--NBC could create Internet blogs for its top news anchors and celebrity interviewers as it seeks to maintain the appeal of U.S. network news, its top executive said on Tuesday.

Could Nightline and the like be on their way out?

2005-04-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

Donaldson: Network News Dead

By Bill McConnell -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/19/2005 3:06:00 PM

Former ABC News reporter/anchor Sam Donaldson is ready to say the last rites for network news because it will soon lose its dominant position as Americans' primary source of news. "I think it's dead. Sorry," he said during a breakfast panel Tuesday at the National Association of Broadcasters' convention in Las Vegas. "The monster anchors are through."

Even though 30 million viewers still turn to networks news each night and garner ratings well above CNN and Fox News, networks news operations long ago lost their role as the sources Americans rely on during time of major breaking news, said Donaldson

"God forbid, if someone shot the President, which network would you turn to? It will be cable, the Internet--something other than General Hospital being interrupted."

Increasingly, viewers will continue turning to alternative sources for everyday news as well, he said.

Donaldson was joined on the panel by CNN political analyst Jeff Greenfield and CBS Sunday Morning's Charles Osgood., both of whom were less pessimistic about network news' future.

"If it's dying, it's dying a very slow death," Greenfield said. Although the network news monopoly was "smashed" by cable, broadcast news will redefine itself, thought he didn't yet know how.

Osgood said the network news can remain competitive with other platforms but must be constantly reevaluated to remain competitive--a fact that makes him glad he's at the tail end of his career rather than the beginning. "It used to be when we wanted to make a show more appealing to more people, the first thing we did was design a new set."

During their talk the three reporters came out in favor of a federal shield law that would allow journalists to protect the identity of their sources without threat of jail.

Donaldson, however, said journalists shouldn't have blanket protection when lives are at stake, but didn't know how to draft a law that would balance the need to ensure that journalists can protect whistle blowers but won't impede legal investigations.

The three also agreed that that Internet bloggers have had a generally positive impact on news because mainstream reporters are forced to better verify their information and pare opinions out of their work or face he wrath of scrutinizing critics.

Blogumentary Thoughts

2005-04-19T07:02:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed the documentary (Blogumentary) we watched in class last week. Part of what made it so interesting, I think, was the fact that the personal/humor aspect was brought into it (which is kind of the theory about blogs--they are personal yet political at the same time, well, some of them). It really made me think about how I personally feel about journalism as a whole. Since coming to the School of Journalism, I have become really disillusioned about the whole process. I feel that I have been taught to be so critical of the mass media that I can't even stand watching/reading anymore. I get most of my news from discussions I have with others who watch the news, and I find it a much more interesting/less frustrating way to get information. If there is a something I find particularly intriguing then I will go and try to find a story about it. Maybe some would call me uninformed, but how informative is it to get news from "reputable sources" that most of the time turn out to be biased and inaccurate? What I find nice about the blog world is that it is this grassroots movement where, yeah, people will be wrong but they can identify it and turn news into more of a conversation rather than someone talking at you. Maybe I am just frustrated that we are taught to be critical yet at the same time we must conform to the models that cause problems in the first place. That is just my opinion.

2005-04-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

impact of extensions on online advertising

2005-04-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

I found an interesting Firefox extension today: Adblock. The extension makes it possible to setup filters that, well, filter certain types of page content or content from certain sources. For example, you can block all ads from doublick.net.

It seems like this Firefox extension and other extensions, such as the BugMeNot extension, could be problematic for online news sites, which rely pretty heavily on advertising, which in turn relies partly on registration at many sites.

Because the extensions are for Firefox, which I last saw held only 6% of the browser market share (still putting it in second place behind IE), it certainly won't be too problematic for online news sites. But, I still wonder: as Firefox spreads and these extensions become more common, will there be an impact on the advertising strategies of online news sites?

Online Publishing/Journalism in Higher Education

2005-04-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

I have realized recently that there is a major lack of sufficient education opportunities for online publishing and multimedia journalism. Just think about it: in our class so far this semester we have covered such a wide range of topics and learned so much that it could really be split into two classes (one on the journalism aspect itself and another on the actual publishing, such as in Flash). To get to the point: there need to be more classes that help students to get experience with online publishing, writing for the web, and journalism on the web. I think the lack of such classes in the University is a problem that needs to be fixed. I almost feel jipped by the University as a journalism major in the multimedia sequence.

Which classes would you suggest for addition to the course offerings in multimedia journalism?

I think there should be classes on HTML, PHP, Java, and other languages for publishing on the Web. There should be a class on writing for the Web, etc. Any other suggestions?

small thought on technology and journalists

2005-04-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

I realized at the symposium yesterday that the way online media is advancing, there need to be more people in journalism who have technical proficiency as well as the ability to create compelling editorial content. Someone yesterday (I think it was Jane E. Stevens) said that multimedia journalism isn’t being taken “far enough.” I think that’s because journalists that create online content don’t really understand the technology that enables their storytelling. Without that understanding, they can’t do much to advance that technology or expand it to accommodate new ideas. Also, they can’t have real creative control when they don’t know the capabilities of the technology on which they’re relying.

Dan Gillmor is the man

2005-04-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

Dan Gillmor, author of We the Media, was the first keynote speaker at the Symposium on Online Journalism on Friday morning, and I thoroughly enjoyed his presentation about grassroots journalism and the need for citizen-based media. I would encourage anyone who can get to the symposium to attend as much as possible. I was surprised at how interested I was in the first two panels.

Wikinews and Blogs...

2005-04-06T19:37:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a little bit of research on Wikinews since I'm writing my symposium article on it, and I found some interesting thoughts on blogging and how in the past several months Wikinews has tried to start working with bloggers. I'm not sure how many of y'all are into blogging or who frequents Wikinews, but you might want to check it out.

Some of the bloggers are talking about how important it is to get the blogging community involved with Wikinews because if bloggers link to Wikinews then more people will read it and possibly participate in editing. Not only that, but if Wikinews starts reading blogs, they may be able to get stories and information quicker.

My question for y'all:

Is Wikinews going to take over the world?? Ok, maybe not that extreme, but do you think that eventually the majority of people will prefer to read Wikinews over the NY Times or watch TV? What do you think of this type of journalism, where anyone can edit and change things??

How many Americans read blogs?

2005-04-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

"Only one in four Americans are either 'very familiar' or 'somewhat familiar' with blogs," according to an article from last month in Editor and Publisher that covers a recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.

"Only" huh? It turns out about only one in four Americans are smoking cigarettes these days too. I think that's rather impressive that there are as many people "familiar" with blogs as there are people smoking.

The E&P article went on to say that "as of late February, when this poll was conducted, only 3% of Americans said they read blogs every day. Fewer than one in six, 15%, read blogs at least a few times a month." And the poll found an age gap: "21% of those 18 to 29 read blogs at least monthly, but only 7% of those over 65 do so."

While E&P interprets the poll to mean that "relatively few Americans are generally familiar with the phenomenon of blogging," I think the findings of this poll indicate otherwise. I find it more interesting that according to the poll results, 55.72% were "Not at all familiar" with blogs. While that's over half the country, that means that almost half the country knows what a blog is.

An even more significant question the poll raises is who are those Americans that read blogs regularly? It seems like more people are influenced by information than just those that are initially exposed to the information. In other words, if my little sister reads a blog, she might tell her school friends about it, and the information probably won't spread very far beyond that group of friends. But if one of the editors of BoingBoing reads a blog, then links to it, then goodness knows how many people find it, including maybe a writer for Wired or G4 TV, who comes along and then spreads the information through another media outlet. So even if only 3% of Americans read blogs daily, the overall influence of blogs depends on whether that 3% consists of monks or journalists. The overall influence of the blogosphere is magnified beyond the immediate audience of blogs.

Furthermore, the communal, hyperlinked nature of blogs is such that even if you read one blog a day or even a month, you're being exposed to information in who knows how many other blogs. For example, if you read only one blog every day, that blog will undoubtedly consist of information culled from other blogs and will link to other blogs. So, the information in one blog is often actually the combined information from many blogs.

Interestingly, Gallup, which co-conducted the poll that revealed the paucity of blog-viewers in America, has a blog.

The Survey Says . . . GLBT people most likely to read blogs.

2005-04-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

Check it out.

A GREAT blog . . . about BLOGS!

2005-04-05T06:21:00.000-07:00

Check it out.

Feeling sad...

2005-04-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

I feel sad because we lost one of the greatest spiritual leaders. I feel sad because the media has covered the event in such a disrespectful way as the blog below mine shows. As a journalism major, I think I can or should kind of understand why it happened. But still feel sorry to see the media making all the fuss, while trying to get a scoop on someone's death.

FOX News not taken to task . . .

2005-04-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

For reporting the pope had died when he was indeed still alive and thereby causing yo-yo-like emotional distress to thousands, FOX news should be at least investigated. Yet, as it stands, I only came across one mention in my daily routine (which consists of many sources that are vigilant about the content on FOX news). Way to go Houston Chronicle.

Check it out.

Edit: So they killed the link to the story already. Since I think it was an interesting and important story and we have unlimited space - here is the story:

A report in early afternoon that the pope had died was quickly retracted
By MIKE MCDANIEL
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Ted Koppel's Nightline producer put it best.

"Today is the sort of day that gives television producers gray hair," Tom Bettag wrote in his Nightline e-mail newsletter. "It began about 3 a.m. when the beeper went off at my bedside: 'The pope is dead.' I crawled out of bed, got on the phone, got on the computer ... the beeper went off again: 'The pope is not dead.' It has been that kind of day."

That kind of day was full of panic for some, after some TV networks cited an Italian news service that announced the death of Pope John Paul II.

Sometime after noon, KTRK (Channel 13) broke into its programming with a report, citing the Italian source, that the pope was dead. Cable news networks — Fox first, followed by CNN — also forwarded the Italian report. The networks cautioned that the rumor had not been confirmed, but viewers reacted to the news, some heading to area churches in tears.

The Vatican quickly announced that the report was false, and TV coverage continued to hold vigil. The cable networks flashed repeated pop-ups and crawls with little updated information. "Pope's condition worsens." "Vatican: Christ opens the door to the pope."

The Rev. Leon Strieder, assistant professor of liturgy and sacraments at the University of St. Thomas' school of theology, compared the confusion to sitting in a hospital waiting room and first being told a loved one had died and then being told it was just a mistake.

"It is unconscionable," he said. "There has to be more dignity to all of this."

The viewers' confusion echoed the response during the notorious coverage of the 2000 presidential race, during which TV networks, in their haste to be the first to call the election, prematurely declared Al Gore the winner in the deciding state of Florida.

By late Friday, none of the broadcast networks had committed to sending an anchor.

The cable networks, however, were taking a full-force approach to the story.

Fox News Channel dispatched Shepard Smith to Rome, and he and Geraldo Rivera were scheduled to anchor during prime time Saturday.

CNN was sending Anderson Cooper, Aaron Brown and Bill Hemmer to Rome, where they would join Christiane Amanpour and a half-dozen other reporters. Four reporters were already in Rome Friday for CNN en Español, and another was there for CNN Radio. In all, CNN planned to have 52 people, including crew members, in Rome by the end of day Friday.

Some Houston news stations reserved their coverage to newscasts. Univision's Channel 45 stayed with regular programming while Telemundo's Channel 47 ran continuous network coverage on the pope.

Channel 13 was first to have someone in Rome: reporter Jessica Willey. KPRC, Channel 2 anchor Bill Balleza was en route. Channel 2 also planned a special weekend report, by Courtney Zavala, about Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez of Honduras, mentioned as a possible successor to Pope John Paul II.

Among the more informative programming choices will be on the National Geographic Channel, which will rerun its instructive report Inside the Vatican at 9 p.m. Sunday. The show includes an introduction to members of the cardinal electorate that will select a new pope.

A difficult challenge facing the networks: how to distinguish their coverage from their competitors, with limited visuals. And all will wait weeks for the puff of smoke that signals the selection of a successor.

What is a blog?

2005-04-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

To me a blog is just a public forum for instant messaging. I don't instant message. It feels impersonal and time wasting to me. I really don't have any interest in blogging or monitoring blogs.

Though this is an assingment for class, I would have to not do something else in order to blog.

Not do: writing freelance; leveraging the info I am learning in the MMJ class; not looking at how traditional news sources are transitioning to mulit-meida, reading "We the Media" or "Web Journalism", or myriad other books that I have amassed.

So, I can blog about online journalism, but I think my time resources could be put to better use at this stage in my journalism career.

Also, as an aside, I was re-reading my prior blog input and it has numerous errors.

Well, I am not going to be bothered to edit it for AP style or just plain better writing.

So, I am very reluctant to blog. I do not want to get in bad habits.

I am in grad school to get sharp, accurate and concise.

I do want to identify serious news sites and tune in so I can leverage my knowledge. And maybe blogs will be on my list; maybe I will be pulled into the blog world.

blogs?

2005-03-31T09:06:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been desperately searching for something to post on the blog site, and have scoured the web searching everything from "blogs rock" to "blogged out," and am getting some interesting results. I noticed others have mentioned this, but is seems that all they are is a forum for people to post opinions, argue moot topics and other non-news items. In my search I found out that according to Merriam-Webster, the word blog was the most searched word in the year 2004. I found a blog page on www.mandarinedesign.com that is a random culmination of thoughts from several different people, and even different languages. People basically posting information about themselves along with personal thoughts. Its hard to find news in this hodgepodge of blogs floating in cyber space, but it is interesting to see so many people taking an interest. Sorry my post wasn't more insighful.

Joe

re: my daily blog intake ritual

2005-03-31T09:05:00.000-08:00

The two blogs I visit most often are Slashdot and BoingBoing. But there are several blogs I vist maybe once every other week or so. If you'd like to see some of the blogs I visit, go to my del.icio.us page:

Perhaps this is really just an excuse to show you all del.icio.us. If you're not familiar with it, it's a social bookmarks manager. In other words, you can set up an account and use it basically like you would use your bookmarks manager in your favorite browser. The benefit of using del.icio.us is that you can access your bookmarks from anywhere. But, the reason I feel it's appropriate for bringing up in this class blog is that it's a good way to see what sites people are bookmarking. You can go to the del.icio.us main page and it lists all the sites that have been recently bookmarked, along with the number of people that have bookmarked them. For example, you can select the "blog" tag from the del.icio.us home page, and it takes you here: http://del.icio.us/popular/blog, where you can see the blogs that have been bookmarked recently. After a few minutes of browsing, I found this page, which seems like a good resource for this class: http://del.icio.us/hypergenesb/citizen+participatory+media+journalism

The Faces Behind the Blog

2005-03-31T08:54:00.000-08:00

HPIM1222
Originally uploaded by Joshua Howton.

In case you were wondering what a multimedia journalism class from The University of Texas at Austin looks like . . . here we are. Well, "we" minus 2. And though you can't see it very well in the picture, the missing two are with us in graphic representation and spirit.

Enrique's Journey

2005-03-31T08:32:00.000-08:00

This package right here won the Feature Story Pulitzer and voila, it's also an amazing Flash. Reading the article familiarized me with the subjects and issues, but it was the application that really made me part of the story. There was an angle that the story did not explicitly mention that the package did, and that was the writer's perspective. By sharing her experience, the article tells the inspiring stories of both the the main subject and the reporter.

http://www.latimes.com/news/specials/enrique/

The Coolest Blog in the World

2005-03-30T20:55:00.000-08:00

Since I am lacking on awesome things to say about blogs, I decided to go to Google and type in "the coolest blog in the world." Surprisingly enough there were quite a few results. As I'm going through them, however, I'm noticing that most "blogs" I am running across sound more like journals than real-time news (a.k.a. real-time sharing of relevant information rather than "Dude, I drank some tequila last night and slept until 3 in the afternoon"). An excerpt from one of my favorite results:

"dis is the coolest blog in the world if tini, nick,angela and everyother person cooler then i didnt have one." Source: http://bryansasexyman.blogspot.com/2003_08_17_bryansasexyman_archive.html

Wow.

Stories Mainstream News Sources Aren't Picking Up

2005-03-30T13:27:00.000-08:00

I've been following this story for over a week and have yet to see any mention of it except in blogs and indie news. Anyone else have examples? Stories you feel aren't being covered?

Check it out! I learned how to post a link!

online news streaming possibility

2005-03-30T12:40:00.000-08:00

Right after class yesterday I was scanning a section of the Statesman and saw a 'advancer' (as Rusty Todd would call it) for a Senate Education Committee hearing scheduled to start at 8:30am. One of the panelists was the superintendent of the school district which I sometimes cover for a weekly community newspaper.

I had spent a month working in a US congressman office in Washington, D.C. during college so I knew that nothing every happened on time.

I called the super's secretary, found out that the panel wouldn't be up for a while yet. I hoofed it down to the Capitol, caught up with the superintendent and determined that it would be at least another hour before she spoke. Everyone milling around was in business attire and I felt uncomfortable in jeans; I did a quick shop, picked up batteries for by digital voice recorder and returned to the Capitol.

Three hours later, I had a good spot story.

I called the community newspaper's editor and asked him if I could come over to his office and type up a story. The paper goes to press on Tuesdays.He said yes, and it would go on the front page.

When I showed up he let me use his office and then brought me a piece of chocolate cake while I just started typing and finding the quotes on my recorder. I had close to three hours of audio.

When I left around 7 pm the editor said, "you are my favorite person."

So, for the first time in my short journalistic career I got, wrote and published a story on the same day. It is a real breakthrough for me. I was motivated in part by the fear of having to do spot stories at the Symposium coming up. The community paper comes out on Thursdays.

The Statesman had a short story today on the hearing and I didn't think it was very good.

There were a couple of terrific quotes by other superintendents from around the state; I was surprised the Statesman didn't use them. Also, I observed some unprofessional behavior by a couple of senators and got some remarks on tape that would have been good to use.

This material did not fit in with my story but I thought the Statesman article was very vanilla.

I think that covering a hearing like that would be a great opportunity to do real time, online reporting. A reporter could feed the timetable, comment on observations and interview others scheduled to speak (there were four panels, with four people on each); they were clearly weary of waiting around all day and were very accessible.

Back at the newspaper office, someone could supplement the reporting with information, do some background on the school districts represented, associations and attorneys to provide some context.

One observation I had was that there was no security. I only brought a small purse and pad of paper. I left my backpack in the car assuming I couldn't bring it in. But there was no one checking anything. I thought that was strange, especially in light of the court-related shootings the past couple of weeks.

I did to miss my second class on Tuesday - Lasorsa's issues class where Prof. Alves was addressing the class. But, as a classmate reminded me, Rusty Todd said once, why be in a class learning about journalism if you can be out doing journalism.

Interesting Use of a Blog

2005-03-30T08:30:00.001-08:00

Check out what this guy decided to do with an entry in his blog . . . essentially destroy the college career of a young woman who, in my opinion, brought it on her self. It begs the question though, is this the wave of the future - publishing digital conversations for all the world to see/hear and incriminating people for what used to be pretty uncatchable crimes?

http://www.aweekofkindness.com/blog/archives/2005/03/laura_k_pahl_is.html

(Anyone know how to make a clickable link so that I can learn??)

2005-03-30T08:30:00.000-08:00

Online Journalism Awards

2005-03-29T09:57:00.000-08:00

The Online Journalism Awards are a comprehensive set of journalism prizes honoring excellence in English-language Web journalism. They are administered by the Online News Association and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.

http://www.journalists.org/2004awards/

News on line

2005-03-29T09:39:00.000-08:00

I don't think that people go first to blogs in order to get news. They probably monitor or eventually read blogs to contrast informations. Without being a compulsive blogger, I think that on line sources to get news are similar to print. I am suscribed to the on line versions of The New York Times, The Onion, and two Peruvian publications (El Comercio, Caretas).

Open Discussion Thread:

2005-03-29T09:21:00.000-08:00

What is your daily blog intake ritual? Where do you go to get your news online?

hard copy

2005-03-29T09:18:00.000-08:00

I read the paper everyday, sometimes several papers - always with a pen in my hand to edit. I am having a tough time transitioning to online reading. Even in class, I write down much of what is in the overheads as I need hard copy to retain info.

So, this blogging experience will have me wondering, maybe waking up at night, what did I say online? I am used to writing and then putting my article aside for 15 or 20 minutes then coming back to it fresh to finalize, tighten and then submit.

I do think that online blogging will not improve my style and may contribute to short cut phrases. That is what I will have to watch.

Maiden Voyage

2005-03-29T08:49:00.000-08:00

This is the first post of the new blog for J334/J395 at the University of Texas at Austin. Welcome!