Why I Donated To The For Journalism Kickstarter — And Why You Should Too!

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/enewsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Back at the beginning of 2013, the International Journalists’ Network website did a post entitled “Three skills journalists should learn in 2013.”  I’m not sure if they did this on purpose, but number one on the list is coding.  IJE says we need to learn to code in order to “spruce up a blog or to conceptualize remarkable projects.”

So when my friend and fellow Online News Association board member, USC professor Robert Hernandez, told me about a new Kickstarter to fund the For Journalism: Data Journalism For All project, created to teach journalists how to code different languages, I was hooked.

I believe in helping to fund good journalism projects, and For Journalism is the third Kickstarter I’ve supported.  The first was a project to help DJTF Secretary Kiratiana Freelon’s “Kiratiana’s Travel Guide To Multicultural London,” which helped fund her travel to cover the Summer Olympics and write her book.  You can read Kiratiana’s blog post about doing a Kickstarter program here.  The second was to keep Laura Amico’s DC Homicide Watch blog alive after she won a Nieman Fellowship.

Every dollar counts with the For Journalism Kickstarter, which ends on March 11.   Donations range from a low of $5 to a high of $10,000.  I donated $45, which will allow me to take Michelle Minkoff’s charting and visualization course.  So I encourage you to throw some dollars to this worthy project. Depending on how you donate, not only do you help a worthy project, but you can even take the courses!

How To Overcome Social Media Overload

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/newsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

I admit it — I’m exhausted from trying out new social media tools and toys while I’m still juggling the existing ones.  At last month’s Online News Association convention in San Francisco, one of the workshops I really looked forward to was “Pinterest, Instragram, Google+: Keep Up, Keep Sane.”

I’m a newbie social media editor, and as such, I really need to find tools that work, tools that could make the cut and tools that need to go away.  But it seems like every week my email box, Twitter account, Flipboard or Google Reader is telling me about some new tool that will be the next Facebook or Twitter.

The panelists were: Farai Chideya, Professor, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute,
 New York University; Phoebe Connelly, Senior Editor, Yahoo News; and Stephanie Clary, Senior Editor,
Breaking News / NBC News Digital.  First, I was glad to hear that they were also exploring their social media options.

One great piece of advice, from NBC’s Clary, was to accept beta invites.  I’ll even reach out to companies for beta invites. I asked Storination for a beta and told them I’d use it at the NABJ convention.  Not only did I get that beta invite, but I did the Storination for NABJ in New Orleans and the UNITY NewU Startup Loft AND I was cited in a story at Journalism.co.uk and HerbertLowe.com about my use of this tool.

Some of the beta invites I’m currently holding are: Bitcasa; Siftee; Visual.ly; UberConference; Contently; WolframAlpha; Cowbird; Irrive; About.me; RebelMouse; and Medium.  I’m taking my time and playing with them to see what fits for my needs.

The best advice I can give is to pick three or four tools and play with them.  I’d love to hear about what you’re using and why, so please share.

Friday Fast Five + Five – Great Blog Posts From #ONA12

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/newsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

I really meant to do more blog posts from last week’s great Online News Association convention, but life has just gotten in the way. So I’m going to kill two birds with one stone — passing along other great posts from ONA and using my usual Friday Fast Five post to do it. Enjoy!

1. Craig Kannely of Huffington Post was one of the speakers at our great unofficial session at Facebook headquarters.  He also did a great blog post breaking down all the tweets from ONA.  My girl (and NABJ member) @Marissaaevans made the list of top 30 tweeters!!
2. For those of us who had to decide between attending ONA in San Francisco (me) or Excellence in Journalism in Ft Lauderdale (not me), this Storify from freelance journalist Brian Ballenger offers a nice summary of both — and a promise that they won’t schedule these conferences at the same time again!
3. I like the approach that Nieman Journalism Lab took with its post — print Tweeting the conference.  An old school method that appeals to my heart – pen and paper!!
4. Jeff Sonderman of the Poynter Institute offered 12 bite-sized takeaways from ONA, including “Advertising is a cruel game,” NPR’s Matt Thompson said in a business-model presentation.
5. The WordCount blog offers the top 20 online news highlights from #ONA12. I love the @dan_carino cartoon of Twitter’s (and NABJ’s) Mark Luckie encouraging us to “tweet our beat.”
6. Steve Buttry (who I finally got to meet), Digital Transformation Editor for Digital First Media, used Storify to admit that “social media is a time suck, like lots of useful journalism tools.”
7. The Gannett Tumblr has this great post on the best technology tools for journalists.
8. Reuters social media editor Anthony De Rosa was kind enough to use Google Drive to share all his notes from the convention, ranging from the password for the convention’s free wifi to keynote speaker Jose Antonio Vargas.
9. Mandy Jenkins of Digital First Media (and a fellow ONA board candidate) used her great Zombie Journalism blog to lay out her ONA board platform. I especially enjoyed this post on shaping the next generation of online journalists.
10. Finally, the Journalism.co.uk blog offered up its ten lessons for digital journalists from #ONA12.

Top 10 Things I Learned at #ONA12

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/newsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Editor’s note: please join the NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force for a free webinar tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET on how to craft the perfect workshop proposal for the 2013 convention. Program Committee members Sarah Glover (NBC10 Philadelphia social media editor and PABJ president), Denise Clay (writer/editor, Philadelphia Sunday Sun and adjunct professor at Temple University) and Glenn Proctor (40-year journalism veteran and founder of career services consultancy ReddJob) will offer advice.We’ll also leave time for questions and answers. The webinar is free, but you must register, here.

This was my second time attending the Online News Association’s annual conference, held last week in San Francisco.  Sometimes I feel like I’m learning so much my head hurts.  You can get the complete roundup — sound, blogs, video, etc. — here.  But below are my top 10 items I learned at the show.

1. I volunteered to stuff bags for conference attendees. We got a free lunch and a great talk with Denver Post news editor Kevin Dale about how his news room covered the Aurora shootings from every conceivable angle. it helped that there were still reporters on staff who covered Columbine (shout out to veteran reporters and institutional memory).
2. Amy Webb blew us away — again — with her top 10 tech trends, with a twist!
3. The headquarters for Facebook in Menlo Park and Google News n San Francisco are just as cool as you think they are.  I missed the Twitter tour because it was at the same time as Facebook.
4. John Keefe of WNYC’s half-day session, Intro to Data Viz, was a standing room only, well worth the $50. John did a truncated version of this session at NABJ 2012, and I plan on bringing him back for the Orlando convention.
5. 

   Gayle, left and Evans, right.

   I was thrilled to see two NABJ students — Marissa Evans of Marquette University and Anna-Lysa Gayle of Howard University — working hard as part of ONA’s Student projects team (with Boston University’s Michelle Johnson serving as an advisor).

6. My friend (and fellow ONA board candidate Robert Hernandez) asked a great question during the candidates’ forum: where are the people of color at this convention?  Check out this story on diversity at the convention.
7. Speaking of people of color, NABJ did represent, but I would have liked to see many more members. I did see Sybril Bennett, Retha Hill, LaToya Peterson, Doug Mitchell, Matt Thompson, Mark Luckie, Rick Hancock, Dori Maynard, Michelle Johnson, Lanita Pace-Hinton and Bobbi Bowman (forgive me if I’ve missed you; I’m still jetlagged).
8. One more item on people of color. There are five of us running for the ONA board. They are: Richard Koci Hernandez, Assistant Professor New Media, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism; Maribel Perez Wardsworth, Digital News Executive, Gannett; Ingrid Sturgis, Professor, Howard University; Robert Hernandez, Professor/Web Journalist, USC Annenberg; and me. See the story (by Marissa Evans) here.
9. As a new social media editor, I found the session — Social Media Debate: Best Practices vs. Bad Habits — provided great information for those still navigating what is an evolving job title.  But the hashtag for the session, #smpractices, might not have been the best choice.
10. One word: livestreaming.  Friend (and another board candidate) Greg Linch of the Washington Post did a fabulous job with livestreaming all the workshops again this year. I really want to see this at the NABJ 2013 convention in Orlando.

5 Reasons Why I’m Running For the Online News Association Board

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/newsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Voting for the 2012-13 Online News Association board opened on Saturday, during the annual convention in San Francisco. On that day, the 15 candidates (running for seven slots) outlined their visions for ONA and what they would do if they were chosen to serve. Below are my reasons for running. I hope you’ll support me.

1. “I Just Wanted To Put A Little Color On The Bridge.” This is a quote from “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry. He used it to describe the Uhura character to the NBC executives when he was selling them on the show. ONA has come a long way, but as current board member Robert Hernandez asked during the candidates’ forum: where are the journalists of color at this convention? I would take that a step further and ask why more aren’t ONA members and what can we do to change that? As a member of the diversity and membership committees, these are questions I would try to answer as a board member.
2. I Believe That Students Are Our Future. One of the things I love about the National Association of Black Journalists is its embrace of student members, from nurturing college chapters to giving a student a seat on the board. There are too many great journalism schools (UC-Berkeley, USC, Syracuse, Howard University, City University of New York, University of Maryland-College Park, Arizona State University, UT-Austin and Ohio University, to name a few) that don’t have ONA student chapters. This would be a focus of mine, designed to bring in revenue and ensure the organization’s long-term future.
3. Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks. I’m an old-school print journalist (I started my career on an electric typewriter) who has transformed — thanks to organizations like ONA — into a 21st century multimedia, multi platform journalist. But there are still too many folks of my generation and just below that still lack these skills. As a board member, I would work to pair our younger, more savvy members to help teach older journalists who are open to learning these skills.
4. To Serve Man (And Woman). You can’t have great organizations like ONA, NABJ and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (I’m a proud member of all three) without stepping up to the plate and serving. With ONA, I served as a judge for the inaugural Google-AP Scholarships. I’ve been a member of the membership and diversity committees. And I brought ONA Camp to the 2012 NABJ convention. I serve as chair of NABJ’s Digital Journalism Task Force, where we use our blog, Facebook and Twitter to disseminate jobs, events, tips, tech and tools for anyone who follows us. We also do monthly free webinars and TweetChats on key topics. I’m in my second year as NABJ Program Chair, responsible for creating workshops and learning labs for the organization’s annual convention. I also do free resume reviews and mentoring for any student or young journalist who asks.
5. Taking It To The Streets. I’m a West Coast/East Coast girl who’s lived around the world. Board candidate Mandy Jenkins made a good point during her remarks at our forum: ONA is an east/west organization and tends to leave mid-America out of the mix. I would tap my network of SPJ, NABJ, AAJA and NAHJ members in middle America and encourage joint events with ONA and encourage folks to join the organization. ONA should make creating new chapters and holding events in the Midwest, the South, the Mountain region and the Southwest a priority as a way to make the organization more regionally diverse.

In my remarks at the candidates forum, I noted that ONA members have a great slate of potential board members to choose from. You get seven picks; I’d love to be one of them.

Amy Webb Flips The Script On Top 10 Tech Trends At #ONA12

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force & social media/newsletters editor, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association

Every year, it’s standing room only at Amy Webb of Webbmedia’s session on 10 top tech trends.  She blew away the room when she did the presentation at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Philadelphia (my summary is here).

But at last week’s Online News Association presentation, she changed it up — big time. And because she didn’t release any of the materials after the presentation, if you weren’t there you missed it.  Click here to read my Storify on the event. Enjoy!

Missed #NABJ12? Check Out Storination!

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF chair & freelance aviation/travel journalist and blogger

We know that everyone couldn’t join us for this year’s fantastic convention in New Orleans.  In a perfect world, we would have had live streaming of the workshops, similar to what they do at the Online News Association’s annual convention.

But since that wasn’t an option due to budget considerations, NABJ went all out with social media.  So many of our members and attendees were on Twitter that at several points last week, we were a trending topic.

Right before the convention, I learned about Storination, a cool web-based tool that allows you to put all the Storifys from a single event — like #NABJ12 — in one place for folks to read and share.  I went on Twitter and begged for a beta code, then sent an email explaining exactly what I wanted to do with the tool. 

I want to thank all those members who did Storifys on key sessions, along with two plenaries, the board meeting and the business meeting.  Click here to see all the Storifys done from New Orleans.  If you did one and it wasn’t included, please email me and I’ll include it. Enjoy!

NABJ and ONA Show The Love To New Orleans Journalists

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF chair & freelance aviation/travel journalist and blogger

As we prepare to attend the  National Association of Black Journalists‘ (NABJ) 37th Annual Convention & Career Fair, we arrive with heavy hearts.

In an ironic twist, it will be a week to the day that Advance Publications, parent of the iconic Times-Picayune newspaper, announced that 84 of its 173 people in the newsroom were losing their jobs, effective Sept. 30.  On the same day in Alabama, three major daily newspapers laid off approximately 400 employees, many of them in the newsrooms at The Birmingham News, the Press-Register in Mobile and The Huntsville Times.

Among those losing their jobs were Birmingham chapter founding member Eddie Lard — the newspaper’s lone African-American editorial voice — along with former chapter president Sherrel Stewart and current officer Roy Williams.

NABJ this year partnered with the Online News Association to bring their popular ONA Camp to New Orleans.  ONA Camp brings one day of world-class digital journalism training to those trying to beef up their skills.  Courses available include Mobile Newsgathering, (Mostly) Free Tools and Google Fusion 101.

In light of what has happened in Alabama and Louisiana, we are opening up registration in ONA Camp to anyone affected by the layoffs. So whether you are an NABJ member or not, you can pay $10 and attend this great training.  Click HERE to register.  We hope many of you will take advantage of this offer, and look forward to seeing you!!

How Improving Your Math Improves Your Journalism

By Malik Singleton, Contributing Editor at City Limits

Want to write better stories? Do the math.  It’s a great post on the Online News Association’s site about reasons math skills are more essential in reporting than ever before, especially since readers have ever-increasing access to information and they’ll fact check your credibility to pieces (just recall Dan Rather’s Bush 43 fiasco).

Seems obvious after the fact, since reporting is supposed to stress getting news right over getting it first (just recall the media’s recent premature Joe Paterno death embarrassment, as covered in the New York Times).

So numbers should be every journalist’s trusted weapon, especially we investigative journalists. In his post, Lucas Timmons says:
“Don’t be scared of math. It’s a strong storytelling tool that journalists need to embrace and use to do their jobs better… The lack of basic math literacy can lead to shoddy journalism.”

Timmons points to this 2011 post by Libby Copeland on Slate about misreading and misreporting numbers,  “Church Makes You Fat and News Stories Make You Stupid.”

I’m pointing out these perspectives as I prepare to attend Investigative Reporters and Editors & NICAR’s  conference dedicated to computer-assisted reporting, happening the last week of February in St. Louis.  Yes the name of this concentration is totally outdated and antiquated because it was coined in the forgotten era when reporters used noisy, clunky typewriters — what are those?

Meanwhile we all use computers now, so who are these hermits at this conference who haven’t noticed that we’re all assisted by computers now? Well, they’re still running circles around computer users who mostly copy/paste from Word into a CMS.

Most panels and workshops at these events delve deep into ways to improve your reporting by mastering data and statistics analysis. The topics can get very technical and start to seem geared toward software programmers more than to people who we think of as news reporters, but programming skills, math skills, and data-driven journalism skills are being demanded increasingly by news organizations large and small so it pays to pay attention.

If you’re interested — if not for this year then hopefully for next year — believe me, the CAR conferences definitely have plenty of sessions geared toward total newbies; ripe green novices who feel they have no natural ability whatsoever. That’s how most folks start out and then surprise themselves so don’t dismiss this area too early because, hey, there will be opportunities to do the work that others freak out about or give up on doing.

It’s one thing to master multimedia and social media skills and consider yourself tech savvy, but you will step it up tenfold if you master math and data and news app programming skills. I really hope to start seeing more NABJ and NAHJ folks up in NICAR’s conferences.

AP, Google Join Forces For National Scholarship Program

By Tyrone Hall, Sports and Minority News Freelance Writer

Hello current and future journalists and welcome to the new year.  I’m sure right now you’re just getting into the swing of things. Before you complete the first full week of implementing your resolutions and goals for the year, have you heard the big announcement?

No not voter’s registration, state of the economy or latest celebrity reality show. I’m talking about the partnership that is set to take the journalism field to another level.

That’s right folks. The Associated Press and Google have joined with the Online News Association to bring all undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to enhance both their digital and media skills.

AP, as many of you college journalism majors know is one of the premier global news networks and one of our most trusted independent news sources. If you ask me AP, which stands for Associated Press, should also stand for “Always Prepared.”

Simply because when you want the latest information and unbiased content, AP is ready to deliver it to you.  This worldwide media giant has been standing strong since 1846 when print industry was far less digital as it has become today.

Yet, AP recognized that today’s college students need more resources to truly present news in the ever-changing digital world.

According to Sue Cross, AP senior vice president for the Americas, the scholarship program will help build these vital skills in a new generation of journalists — which is where the global technology leader Google comes into play.

Let’s be honest here for a moment. Internet users seek Google for answers to everything — not just news.

Google has helped today’s readers locate information through web search and advertising that has made life a bit easier even during difficult times.

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably wondering why this didn’t happen sooner, but it doesn’t make any sense in trying to figure that out.

Just know it has come at the perfect time!

Are you ready to sink your journalistic skills into this stepping stone to your future career?  What can this scholarship program do for you?

The AP and Google Journalism and Technology Scholarship will offer $20,000 in scholarships for the 2012-2013 academic school year to six deserving undergraduate or graduate students planning to pursue academic degrees in the area of journalism, computer science and new media.

This program is seeking individual students that have an interest in creating innovative projects that will further the ideals of digital journalism.

Beside the $20,000 in scholarships, do you know the primary purpose for this program? The key goal is to promote geographic, gender and ethnic diversity with an emphasis on rural and urban areas.

This is where NABJ students and future digital journalist of tomorrow have been granted a resource — a new platform to help tell your story using technology through various components of multimedia.

NABJ students should find this new partnership as a passage way to not just funding their education, but a contributing factor to making their vision of future projects a reality. Student members of NABJ should seize hold of this program because it’s been designed with them in mind.

The deadline to apply for the AP-Google Journalism & Technology Scholarship is January 27^th 2012. To find out eligibility requirements you can check out http://ap-google.journalists.org/eligibility

What are you waiting for NABJ Students? This program is your chance to create and bring to life your very own journalistic content!