Journalism 2.0: An Overview

Journalism is still about people, not technology. Technology is changing how we're reaching people, but it doesn't change that we're trying to reach people to tell them stories that are interesting, relevant and useful to their lives.

We need to change how we do journalism to adapt to how and when people get their news, but we are NOT changing our values.

In many ways, today has never been a better time to be a journalist. In the history of civilization, people have never consumed as much information as they do today, and in so many different ways, like:

-- Print.

-- Traditional broadcast (TV, radio).

-- New broadcast (cable and satellite TV, on-demand TV, satellite radio).

--  Online (news Web sites, blogs, aggregators, social media, ect.).

-- Mobile (smart phones, tablets).

-- The next big thing on the horizon, whatever it may be.

Likewise, there has never been a time that offered so many powerful ways to tell stories and serve the audience.

Journalists can reach the audience in a multitude of ways, no longer being limited to a single specialty medium. The Web means there are no more constraints based on time and space. Whenever you get the story, you can share the story, and in endless ways. No more solely having to wait for the start of a printing press or for an 11 o'clock broadcast time. 

No longer are we pure media companies sticking to a single medium. We are information technology companies producing content across many mediums.

That means mastering fundamental skills that have not changed. Story-telling, gathering and organizing information is still critical; so is affirming accuracy and focusing on what is most relevant,  interesting and useful to your audience. The only difference is, we do that across many mediums, and not just one.

We will use traditional print concepts as a foundation on which we will build your skills and expertise in telling stories in many ways: in print; in breaking news stories for a Web audience; with video; and with real-time social media tools like Twitter.

And we will experiment with these techniques in inventing our own multimedia approaches to story-telling. Think of the technology you use as information consumers: to get news and information, how do you use social media? Or multimedia? Or mobile? Then, let's apply those habits to how we tell stories.

We will learn all this by doing. We will put these skills into action almost immediately. Then, we will review what we did and apply those lessons going forward.

The pace has to be fast, and there's no time to waste. As Journalism 2.0 says; The fact is, if you work in journalism, you work for an online news organization --- whether you want to or not. Change is inevitable. Progress is optional. The future is now.

Now, let's go evolve journalism.

Journalism 2.0: How To Report News For The Web

Of all the new skills, this should be the easiest to learn. It simply requires a new way of thinking and working.

Writing news for the Web is very similar to wire service reporting, like what's been done at The Associated Press for over 150 years. Think less in terms of filing one complete story, and more in terms of fling "takes." Each "take" has the latest information, in the briefest form and updating the previous "take."

The news must be timely and relevant. Time is of the essence, as competition is in real time.

Write lively and tight. Be simple and direct. A more analytical, stylistic writing style can be saved for later. Write actively, like you would for a TV news script. And only have one idea per sentence -- don't overload it.

We still have to ensure fundamentals. Facts need the same level of checking as in print. We still need the "why" of a story prominently included.

Use hyperlinks to connect to supporting sources and background information that may be relevant and helpful to the audience in trying to understand the story.

Don't forget visual aids like photos or locator maps (which you can easily create on Google) or video!

Journalism 2.0: How To Blog

What makes a good blog? And a popular one? The same principles of what makes a story good and popular apply here. Blogging is just journalism done differently.

What does a blog do? It allows a reporter to enhance authority via the ability to publish information outside the traditional news cycle and story format. And it allows a news organization to establish a deeper relationship with its audience and leverage the wisdom of the crowd for the benefit of the reporter's coverage.

The rules are a bit different. You can play off of other information via links to competitors. You can  have a more personal and conversational (but not necessarily opinionated) voice. Plus, a blog is an ongoing conversation. You tell a story post-by-post, rather than all at once.

What is a blog? There are several common characteristics:

-- It's frequently updated.

-- It's written in a conversational style.

-- It's in reverse-chronological order, with the newest stuff on top.

-- It links to other news and information found on the Web.

-- It's more analytical.

-- There are reader comments appended to the end of each blog post.

To get started, first we must know the form. Before you wrote your first news story, you probably read one, to see what a finished one should look like. Do the same thing here: read other blogs.

Notice which posts you like. Ask yourself, what makes those posts compelling? Note which ideas you can borrow or incorporate. Notice the frequency of the posts. Are they as frequent as you'd like? Are they too frequent? Is there too much information to keep up with?

There are several keys to the mechanics of blogging. First, write tight and quick. Get to your point immediately. There is no set length for a blog post, but 100-400 words is a good target. If you have a lot to say, you can always write a second related post! And a third. And so on.

Plus, think email: think of it as an email to someone you know. Think about a long-winded email you received -- that's what you want to avoid.

Also, link, summarize and analyze. You need attribution and background, like with a news story. But here, attribution and background come via hyperlinking. So, hyperlink frequently to offer background, instead of stuffing that background in the next of your blog.

And, be the authority, but with a personality. Write it in the way you'd talk to someone about a story you wrote. Make it conversational. Sound like a human being, and not a lecturer.

Be short with posts. I cannot say this enough. You are a middle man, linking sources (like links) to readers. Let the links fill in the blanks, and the background. No need to write it all in the post when people can just click on the links for more info. And again, you can always write another post!

Use photos and screen shots to illustrate your posts. Keep in mind, you cannot simply take an image you found on the Web and use it. That's likely a copyright violation if you do so without permission (and even if you give credit without having first received permission!) It's best to use your own photos, or clip art, or to get permission before using a photo or image you find online.

Post often. At least once a day. If you have a blog worth reading and writing, you should have plenty to write about. A blog is like a friend; you build a relationship by frequently sharing new thoughts. A blog that's rarely updated is like a friend with nothing new to say.

Journalism 2.0: Putting It All Together

Our task is, according to the Journalism 2.0 text, to serve people in our community by telling them useful and entertaining stories through whatever technology they want to use.

There are many new ways to serve the audience, like new writing styles (like blogs), and non-linear story-telling methods (like interactive online stories). Conversations between media and the public is no longer one-way like a lecture; it's a two-way conversation empowered by the Web in general and social media in particular.

There is no excuse for not learning how to tell stories in ALL mediums, and continuing to evolve mediums for story-telling purposes. That is true whether we work in print or TV or radio or magazines, or even online.

(The Detroit Free Press has Web videos. ESPN has a magazine. NPR has a Web site. People don't go to the Free Press for something to read or ESPN for something to watch or NPR for something to listen to; rather, they go to those news sources for news, regardless of the medium.)

The era of the single-tool journalist is over. We must be proficient in all mediums. Newspapers are hiring people who can do videos and blogs. Blogs and Web sites are hiring people who can do traditional long-form writing. (Over the past few years, CNN has hired a number of former State Newsers to do print-style stories for their Web site, for example.) The inability for us to master multiple mediums will make us less desirable to employers.

To get better, we should practice for fun. Play with new mediums, especially ones that we use as consumers, or that your friends use. Find ways to create content that fits those mediums, and the content people want in those mediums. 

(For example, by playing with Twitter we know that it works well with telling a breaking news story as it happens, and blow-by-blow. With a deeper, more in-depth story, not so much.)

Plus, look for examples of the type of mediums and content you're playing around with. Once we start playing with a new medium, it will be easier for us to identify things that we like or don't like as practiced by others using the same medium.

(It took The State News probably two years of experimenting with Twitter before it found formulas for using Twitter that the audience found useful and engaging, and journalists found as good ways to break and broadcast stories.)

The goal isn't to produce multimedia just to produce multimedia; it's to produce multimedia that is as interesting, relevant, useful, and of the same quality as more traditional news products.

JRN 200: A Field Trip Opportunity!

From J-school internship coordinator Amy Haimerl:

Lucinda has graciously agreed to rent a bus to take students to Detroit for a tour of newsrooms so they can get a better idea of the different opportunities as they embark on their career paths.

Here are the details:

Date: Thursday, November 30

Time: 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. 

Newsrooms: Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, Channel 4, Crain Communications, media startup created by alum Aaron Foley

Space available: 20

Transportation and lunch provided.

Students can sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/detroit-newsroom-tour-for-jrn200-students-tickets-39256069962

NOTE! This is a private listing, so they need the password: JRN200

If you can start spreading the word to your classes, that would be great. We’d love to get this all sold out soon!

Questions: Students can email me at haimerla@msu.edu

Thanks!

Amy

---

a m y  h a i m e r l

professor/Michigan State University

author/Detroit Hustle: A Memoir

journalist/NYTimes, Fortune, Reuters

amyhaimerl.com

tel: 917-847-3006

twitter: @haimerlad

JRN 200: Your Wednesday 10/25 Homework

First, read the latest blog posts, including those from the latest practice story assignments. Next, we need to read Ch. 12 and 13 (p.253-284) in Reporting For The Media, 11th Edition, by Friday morning.

Also, we need to read a download: The Reporters' Guide To Multimedia Proficiency (p. 1-42) by Friday morning.

You can get the free printable download right here by clicking on the following link: here is The Reporters' Guide To Multimedia Proficiency.

Plus, please set up FREE accounts at YouTube.com, blogger.com and twitter.com for use in class by no later than Friday morning. You may use personal social media accounts, but please be aware that if you do, I will see your personal content and your friends will see your class content. If this is a problem, please set up class-only accounts as needed.

Also, please make sure these accounts are set so they are open to the public.

And, please make sure that you have some sort of video recording device (for many of you, a recent-model smart phone should suffice) and an editing program on a desktop or laptop (iMovie or some comparable program is A-OK) that is ready to be used as soon as Friday afternoon.

Is something afoot? You bet.

For our practice exercises, we will be moving away from traditional writing for print, and moving toward story-telling by video, via social media and using a more multi-dimensional Web format. So, basically we're done with written practice stories; writing will focus on the out-of-class stories, and we'll move on to practice videos and online stories and social media streams before moving on to out-of-class story versions of those mediums.

I think the change of pace will be fun for this class, so don't worry and do get ready to try some new stuff.

Plus, don't forget your second out-of-class story is due by 9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 3 to omars@msu.edu. Please see earlier homework blog posts for details.

Lawsuit: You And Me Are (Almost) Fatal-Free!

The good news is, we had only TWO of us fact-fatal this time. We've had as many as eight do so in any one assignment lately, so this is progress.

The bad news is, we had a number of people who failed to turn in the assignment. And that's really bad. The 0.0 we get for missing an assignment is far, far worse than the 1.0 we get for a fact fatal. Here's why:

The worst thing we can do in journalism -- even worse than getting a fatal -- is to blow off an assignment. A newspaper can't go to print with blank spots in the pages, and a 30-minute newscast can't to to air without content that fills up all 30 minutes. That means in the media business, you can never miss a deadline.

And yes, to reinforce good habits and deter bad ones, assignments that are not done will have a much more severe impact on your final grade than fatals will, and if I have to use a tie-breaker in determining your final grade, the first categories I will use will be whether you blew off any assignments, since that tells me how seriously you are taking this class.

I express that value in the grading scale. Everything we do in here translates to a 1,000-point scale to which your grade is converted to a smaller subset of points that add up toward that. So when we get a 4.0 you get 100 percent of points, a 3.9 gets us 99 points, a 3.8 gets 98, and so forth.

And under that scale, a fact fatal that gets us a 1.0 still gets us 70 points. If we screw up an assignment so bad that we get a 0.1, that's still 61 points.

But a 0.0 is zero points. At a 0.1, we're closer to a 4.0 than a 0.0.

Again, that's to emphasize that missing your deadline is simply not an option in the media biz. We always need to hit our deadlines. Every single time.

Beyond that, none of us can afford to miss a single assignment because we need the practice! This semester we're working on out-of-class stories (which are our biggest projects that most impact your final grade), and the best way to make sure you're writing it in a proper journalistic manner is to have opportunities with these practice stories to try our best, review our work, keep applying good habits and learn how to fix our bad ones.

We can't do that if we don't do that.

Again, the more you tell me you are unreliable as a journalist by skipping assignments and not showing up without a valid excuse, the more I will recognize that in your final grade. I can work with you if you give me an assignment that's not up to snuff -- and so can an editor in a real-world setting -- but I can't work with nothing, and I can't work with you if you're not here. Neither can your future bosses.