Unemployed? In Between Jobs? Now Is The Time To Launch That Blog!

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

When I do my free resume reviews for students and young journalists starting out, many times I either see gaps in employment or not enough internship experience or time on school media platforms.

When I discuss the findings of my reviews, I note the lack of experience or the gaps and ask what they are doing to continue to perfect their craft.  I get vague answers about how hard it is to find freelance work, and the conversation peters out.

The lack of freelance work is NOT an excuse.  With all the free and low-cost web-based platforms out there, there’s no reason why you can’t use them to showcase your work. Today, I found a great article forwarded to me by one of my Twitter followers from the International Journalist’s Network blog: “Six tips for journalists on launching a successful blog.”

I blog here. I also created AviationQueen.com back in November 2010, and I regularly guest post on journalism and aviation blogs.  My blog and others were godsends when I got laid off last October. Some gigs were paid and some were not, but all of them got me exposure and led to job leads.

But blogging is not the only thing you can do.  Create a talk show on BlogTalkRadio on the topics you hope to cover.  I met Hezzie McCaleb, one of the founders of Barbershop Sports, at the NABJ convention in San Diego. Check out their website and how they use BlogTalkRadio.

Other ideas to get your work out and practice your craft:

• Create your own stories using tools like Ustream and post them on your own YouTube or Vimeo channel;
• Start a Tumblr blog on a specific topic;
• Offer to guest blog on blogs you admire and have some expertise in;
• Create your own podcasts using tools such as SoundCloud, Cinch or AudioBoo;
• Comment on blogs and websites you admire, using the URL for your blog so people can follow your work; and
• Sign up for social media platforms to further promote your work.

I understand that we all have bills to pay, and sometimes we have to take that job outside journalism to make sure we have a roof over our head and food in the fridge.  But with all the tools out there, you have zero excuse not to keep up your journalism skills. Good luck!!

NABJ Multimedia Short Course Celebrates 20 Years

By Georgia Dawkins, Producer, Waterman Broadcasting

There’s only one word to describe the 20th Annual NABJ Short Course, EPIC! Forty-two students traveled to Greensboro, North Carolina to step their careers up a notch. Nearly half a dozen veteran short course mentors met them at North Carolina A&T State University to help them on their journey.

“They come with a greater sense of what they want to do,” said program coordinator, Gail Wiggins.

These students are no doubt the crème de la crème, but the short course serves as a reality check for some. The short course day begins with breakfast, newspapers, tweets and morning newscast. Students can be found next to their orange juice, buried in a newspaper preparing for the current event quiz that’s waiting for them in the newsroom.

“The multimedia short course an exceptional experience for me because I was able to experience and thoroughly understand every facet of the television industry,” said Ameena Rasheed, who awarded top honors during the workshop. The 22-year-old Texas Southern University student  said her hard work paid off when she received the award for Outstanding Reporting and Outstanding Stand Up.

Veteran Instructor Damany Lewis of KCRA said, “I think the future is bright for young journalists!” Lewis not only journeys to NC A&T every year, he also gets over to his alma mater, Florida A&M University for their multimedia short course.

These NABJ babies are working with seasoned journalists who show up to give them some tough love. Even keynote speaker, Paula Madison sat down to offer a few one-on-one critiques. Madison was the 2011 NABJ Legacy Award recipient.  The CEO of Madison Media Management and former NBCUniversal Chief Diversity Officer joined the crew on Saturday for the award reception and poured on the wisdom.

“They too can get to where [Madison] is from where they are now,” Wiggins told NABJ Digital. “but don’t forget the hard work and dedication.”

Reflecting on the last two decades, Wiggins realized that time has flown by. “We do it every year. We don’t think any differently.” But the program has grown, whipping hundreds of aspiring journalists into shape over the years. Over the time the focus has expanded from just cracking the diversity ceiling to teaching how to be multimedia and multiplatform journalists. “They come with the essential skills,” said Wiggins. “We have to make sure the students are able to produce for these different platforms.”

If you missed out on this epic celebration, check out the links below for a quick recap.

• Ameena Rasheed Storify on the Short Course
• Short Course Facebook Page
• Short Course Website by Shaletia Woodward
• Short Course Twitter feed: #NABJSC12

 

#Occupy Mobile Journalism

By Talia Whyte, founder and director of Global Wire Associates and freelance journalist

For the last few weeks, the Occupy Wall Street movement has taken over the headlines worldwide and put the future of the global economy up for discussion.  Based on the quickness this movement has grown in such a short amount of time, there are clearly strong feelings out there among the general population about the current financial system.

As a freelance journalist I not only find this to be a monumental moment in recent history, but it is also a great opportunity to practice mobile journalism.  As technology and digital tools to capture information on the go becomes more common, many reporters are spending more time on the ground, filing stories online and interacting with followers on their social networks.

I live in Boston where the Occupy movement has both fascinated and angered local residents and politicians.  I have visited the Occupy Boston site located in the city’s financial district multiple times just so I can better understand what the group’s complaints, demands and recommendations are for improving the system.

Anyone who follows me online knows that Twitter has become my BFF in the last couple of years.  I have been using the social network on my Blackberry to tell the stories of the “Occupiers,” as well as tweeting out pictures of the activities in their tent city.  My followers have been re-tweeting my posts and I have been getting feedback from others all over the world.  The feedback has been good for me because I have gotten many ideas for future stories.

I generally cover issues concerning Boston’s communities of color, so I was quick to notice the lack of people of color in this movement. I put this observation up to my Twitter and Facebook followers, as well as my email correspondents, and had quite a discussion about how the role of race plays in this debate.

Luckily in the last month, there have been two major rallies involving mostly people of color taking on economic issues that directly impact their communities.  National housing justice organization Right to the City made noise in Boston last month, when 2,000 activists rallied in front of a Bank of America, protesting its alleged predatory lending practices towards vulnerable customers.  Twenty-four people were arrested during the protest for trespassing on the bank’s premises.  This was a great opportunity to use my Flip camera to interview both victims of foreclosure, as well as those who were arrested during the protests.

I did the interviews because I wanted to put real faces on this pressing issue.  Again, I received inspiring feedback online from professional journalists and activists alike that sparked further discussion about the issue at hand.

The other rally I attended with my trusted Flip camera just last week was the first gathering of Occupy the Hood Boston – the first such gathering in the country to address issues directly affecting communities of color.  I captured on video tear-jerking footage of a woman who lost her nephew last summer to gang violence.

I also used Twitter to report on the many speeches given by community leaders on a wide range of issues, including police brutality, education and black unemployment.

One thing I learned so far from doing mobile journalism is the importance of keeping it simple.  There has been much discussion in recent years about what a backpack journalist is supposed to use for equipment.  Many technological advances have made it possible for journalists to do more with less.  All I use for my field reporting, especially in an ever-changing protest situation, is a Blackberry and a Flip camera.

Also, my mobile journalism in the last few weeks has helped expand my personal brand.  I have more people looking out for my work online, including more editors contacting me about doing freelance assignments using my digital skills.  Being open to using many platforms for storytelling really does help further your career.

Carnival of Journalism: Online Video-I’m Not Feeling It

By Benét J. Wilson, chair, National Association of Black Journalists’ Digital Journalism Task Force & Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week

Whenever I hear the term video in the newsroom, a picture forms in my mind of me, a broadcast journalism senior at American University (Go AU!), swimming in Sony Betamax video tape (just Google “Betamax,” kids).   I was always causing the Betamax video editing deck to chew up tapes, causing my professors to think I was cursed.

That, along with a bad internship at a local D.C. television (among other things), was enough to make me abandon my plans to be a video producer/editor and run to print journalism back in 1985.  I was happy knowing the worst thing that could happen to me as a print journalist was a leaky ink pen.

Fast forward to 2006, when the digital world — including video — hit me right in the face. But it was OK.  Growing up all over the world as an Air Force brat made me nimble and quickly able to adapt to any and all new situations.

So I embraced the digital world with gusto.  I started one of Aviation Week’s first blogs (the dearly departed Towers and Tarmacs). I harkened back to my days at AU’s campus radio station, WAMU-AM, and learned how to edit and produce podcasts.  I bought my own still camera, shot and posted more than 7,000 aviation/airline photos on my Flickr account, many of which have graced the pages of Aviation Week magazine and AviationWeek.com.  I oversee three AvWeek Twitter accounts (@AviationWeek, @AvWeekBenet and @AvWeekTweets) and am one of three administrators of the Aviation Week Facebook fan page.  I’m always trying out the latest tools and toys on my iPhone.

But when it comes to video, I hit the brick wall.  My company uses it on our website, but usually only in conjunction with major events, like the Paris Air Show or the first delivery of the Boeing 787.  We have two portable video studios, and we were offered video training, but most of us aren’t doing it.

It comes down to two questions: one, is there enough demand — by viewers and sponsors/advertisers — to justify the expense of creating and posting videos; and two, is there enough time in the day for our editors to learn how to shoot video and use Final Cut Pro to produce packages that are good enough to go up on the web?

I have taken video workshops at many NABJ conventions and spent a week down at the Poynter Institute for a really great week-long video storytelling program.  But video still confounds me, and I think we’re still trying to figure out its role on our website.  We’ll see what the future brings.

Friday Fast Five + Five

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

1. 10000 Words — Use conversational video to bridge the gap between journalist and reader
2. Journalism.co.uk — Five great examples of data journalism using Google Fusion Tables
3. Journalists’ Toolkit — Flash Journalism Updates
4. Mashable — HOW TO: Find and Land Freelance Work
5. MakeUseOf — 5 Interesting Ways To Use Google News RSS Feeds
6. SmartBlog on Social  Media — 6 tools to measure your personal branding efforts
7. MediaShift Idea Lab — How to Design Fast, Interactive Maps Without Flash 
8. Lost Remote — Crowdsourcing a live video interview via Twitter
9. Networked — Build your own website for free
10. CyberJournalist — Facebook tips for journalists, from Facebook

VIDEO — Log On To Life

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

I want to spotlight some of the great work being done by DJTF members.  Below is a 2:23 minute video from Howard University graduate student Brandon Gillespie from his lifestyle coaching video series.  You can see my May 20, 2010, profile of him here. Enjoy!

Top 10 Apps I Picked Up At NABJ 2011

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

At last week’s NABJ Convention, Val Hoeppner of the Freedom Forum taught MOBILE STORYTELLING 101 as a half-day Learning Lab. As part of the lab. Hoeppner showed us a bunch of iPhone apps that journalists can use in mobile storytelling, Here are my 10 favorites. All are free unless otherwise noted.

Val Hoeppner – Google+ If you need to take your multimedia skills to the next level check out our Advanced Multimedia Boot Camp in Nashville, Tenn. Oct. 12-16, 2011. Advanced Multimedia Boot Camp Offered Oct. 2011. Workshops and Conferences. Advanced Multimedia Boot Camp is for professional journalists, journalism educators, students and others with some multimedi…

2011 Convention – Tuesday and Wednesday – National Association of Black Journalists NABJ BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Location: 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. REGISTRATION & WELCOME CENTER Location: Broad Street Foyer Make sure to visit the registration & welcome center for all of your convention materials. Sign up for the special events, including the golf tournament, the 5K Walk/Run, and purchase tickets to the Salute to Excellence Awards Gala and Saturday Gospel Brunch.

“	I have so many #nabj11takeaway moments, it’s hard to choose. I’ll pick @vhoeppner Visual Storytelling & @webbmedia top 10 #techtrends. #NABJ
	NABJDigital August 8, 2011

Let’s face it — even though we are all news gatherers, we are also voracious news consumers.  I’m shocked that I didn’t have the AP Mobile app on my iPhone, considering all the great content available on it.

AP Mobile AP Mobile is an award-winning multimedia news portal developed by The Associated Press that provides anytime access to international, national and local news. In addition to AP’s own worldwide coverage of breaking news, sports, entertainment, politics and business, more than 1,000 AP members and third-party sources provide content for AP Mobile.

I’m one of those people who is addicted to the Notes function on my iPhone.  But the problem is, Notes is very static and I can’t access it when my phone isn’t around. In comes Evernote.  This app is Notes on steroids.  I can “Type a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screenshot.” I can snap a pic of a business card.  I can store web pages. I can copy notes from Twitter.  I could go on, but you get the point.  The bonus is that I can access my Evernotes from any device — iPhone, iPad or laptop computer!

Remember Everything | Evernote Corporation Save your ideas, things you like, things you hear, and things you see. Evernote works with nearly every computer, phone and mobile device out there. Search by keyword, tag or even printed and handwritten text inside images. Get Evernote Download Now It’s free.

And here I thought my installed iPhone camera app was perfectly fine. Wrong!! I hate to pay for apps, but this has been worth every penny of the $1.99 cost.  I can use the camera flash as a continuous light.  I can better control and focus my pictures. I can shoot in different modes.  And I can automatically post to Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Cool!

Camera+ …the ultimate photo app Use the iPhone 4 LED flash as a continuous fill light to improve photo quality, especially for portrait and macro shots. Use the grid to line up your shots and eliminate tilted shots. Up to 6× zoom with advanced digital processing provides you with quality that simply blows away the competition.

You have a cool camera app. Now you need an app to edit and organize your pictures. Photoshop Express is it.  You can crop, change the exposure, add colors and tints and upload to your favorite social media outlets.

Photo Editor, Online Photo Editor, Photoshop Express | Photoshop.com First things first… create an account Create a free Photoshop.com account so you can use Photoshop Express apps to upload photos, store and organize them, and create interactive slideshows-and to quickly post your edited photos to sites like Facebook. Does your photo need a quick fix? Crop, straighten, adjust color, and touch up imperfections.

Staying with the photo theme, Hoeppner told us about the Pano app, which allows you to easily take fantastic panoramic pictures.  I love that this app tells you just where to move the camera to use up to 16 photos for a 360 degree shot.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwareSocialPreview?id=293709029&mt=8&s=143441&wdId=32800

I’ve used the iPhone video camera, but the MovieCamera app just rocks! You can use your flash to light a scene, it has auto focus, exposure and white balance, you can go hi res and HD AND you can see the sound recording levels. Sweet!

iPhone – iPod Touch – iPad Apps Finally! A motion picture camera app for the iPod touch, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 that allows your professional skills to shine. Movie Camera is designed for professional cinematographers who want to leverage the small size and portability of the iPod touch or iPhone but still want complete control over the picture settings.

The iPhone comes with a perfectly good audio recorder.  But iTalk (the free version) is SO much more!! You get three levels of recording (good, better and best), a huge red record button and it puts your files in alphabetical order.  You can email smaller files, but need to download iTalk Sync to transfer larger files to your computer.  But if you buy iTalk Pro for $1.99, youcan use Dropbox to transfer your files.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwareSocialPreview?id=293673304&mt=8&s=143441&wdId=32800

iTalk Sync Free Download for Mac and Windows | One More Tap Griffin Technology has just released a public beta version of iTalk Sync for Windows computers. iTalk Sync is a companion program to iTalk. iTalk Sync for the Mac is also available and requires Mac OS X v10.4 or greater. iTalk turns your iPhone, iPhone 3G or 2nd generation iPod touch into a high-quality recording device.

Hoeppner had nothing but high praise for Tumblr,a microblogging site that can be used via browser, phone, desktop or email.  Tumblr allows you to post content including ext, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos.  Check out how NPR is using Tumblr, below.

Sign up | Tumblr

When analyzing the black women who are 35 and older, the percent who have never been married drops to 25 percent, indicating that a solid majority of black women get married before they turn 35.

The Dragon Go app lets you speak to find the things you need.I used it in Philadelphia to find a restaurant that had late-night delivery because I was still starving after an evening reception.  I highly recommend the soup dumplings!  This app links you to everything from local businesses to books to maps to weather — all by voice. Keeping it in the family, I also like Dragon Dictation, which records you speaking and allows you to send an email, a tweet or a status update on Facebook.

Dragon Go! Say What You Want and Dragon Go! Delivers Across the Mobile Web Imagine – one app access to everything you want on the mobile web! That’s Dragon Go! You just say what you want and Dragon Go! not only hears what you say – it also understands what you want and gives you direct access to the best sites on the Mobile Web delivering what you want.

Compose message and update Social Networking status – by voice on iPad, iPhone or iPod touch Dragon Dictation, powered by Nuance’s world-renowned Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, allows you to stay connected all the time, even when your hands are busy.

We ended the session with Hoeppner sending us out into the halls to use one of our tools to do a small mobile storytelling project.  I chose to use Audioboo, an app that lets you record up to five minutes of audio and attach a photo, that is easily posted to Twitter, Facebook, Posterous, Tumblr or Friendfeed.  Below is one I did with one of my fellow attendees. Enjoy!

Audioboo

http://boos.audioboo.fm/swf/fullsize_player.swf

Friday Fast Five + Five

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

1. 10000 Words — Five ways to visualize your personal data
2. Journalists’ Toolkit — Flash Journalism Updates
3. Mashable — 11 Excellent iPad Apps for Meetings & Presentations
4. Ragan’s PR Daily — 5 writing tips from newspaper editors
5. MakeUseOf — The Top 5 Best Search Engines To Search Photos On Flickr
6. Innovative Interactivity II — Five tips for emerging video journalists
7. Web Design Ledger — 10 Blogs to Help You Become a Photography Expert
8. Gizmo’s Freeware — 9 Superb Free Apps that you Simply Must Install on Your Android Phone
9. Social Media Examiner — 17 Ways to Grow Your Blog From Top Bloggers
10. Dumb Little Man — Top 12 iPhone Apps That’ll Increase Your Productivity

Friday Fast Five + Five

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

As usual, I have an overloaded bookmark folder with stuff I want to pass along.  So until I find the time to whittle down the pile, you’ll be getting five plus five until further notice.  For newer readers, I do this column every Friday of interesting tools, technology, websites and tips that can help you do your job as a journalist better.  Enjoy!

1. 10000 Words — Five ways to visualize your personal data. I found the Tweet stats website to be particularly insightful, since I oversee five different accounts.
2. Adam Westbrook — 10 free and totally legal programs every multimedia journalist should have. I’m one of those people who likes to try all the latest programs. Some I use suggested here include GIMP, Audacity and Instapaper.
3. Networked — Streamlining your social media posting: How to update more than one site at a time. Between my work and personal life, I’m juggling several social media sites, so you need to control that. The suggestions here are good, but I’m a BIG fan of TweetDeck, which lets me manage my Twitter accounts and my various Facebook pages.
4. Journalists’ Toolkit — 7 Do’s and Don’ts for Video on Point-and-Shoot Cameras.  For those who are still using these types of cameras for shooting video, these are some good tips.
5. Mashable — 46 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed.  I love it when Mashable does this list, because I always manage to find something I haven’t used before.  This time I discovered the following: HOW TO: Avoid and Prevent Facebook Spam; 7 Superb Short Films Shot With Cellphones; and HOW TO: Launch Any Product Using Social Media.
6. MakeUseOf — 5 Cool Ways To Make Use Of National Geographic Maps.  Here’s an alternative to the usual map suspects.
7. Teaching Online Journalism — Ideas for using Encyclo in journalism classes. While this post is targeted to teachers, aren’t we all trying to keep up with the latest tools in journalism? Encyclo can help.
8. Innovative Interactivity II — Hosting options for multimedia websites.  Thinking about finally getting that new website off the ground?  This post tells you the best places to host said website.
9. Vadim Lavrusik — New to Twitter? Here Are 12 Tips From the Community. As I watch more and more friends jumping onto Twitter, this is a handy guide from the guy who is now running Facebook’s project to attract more journalists.
10. PC World — 12 Must-Have Android Apps for Road Warriors.  I’m an iPhone user, but plenty of my peeps out there (hi @brandonvivo!) are addicted to their Android phones, so I’m showing them the love.

Friday Fast Five + Five

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

Before I get started with this week’s five plus five, I want to address a few housekeeping items.  First, voting is now open for this year’s National Association of Black Journalists board of directors.  Avoid the crowds at this year’s convention Aug. 3-7 and vote online now, here.

Second, the NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force will be holding an online forum for the NABJ candidates for VP-Print — Denise Clay and Errin Haines — on Wednesday, June 8 at 7:30 p.m. EDT.  The webinar is free, but you must register, here.  Now, onto Fast Five!

1. 10000 Words – 5 Creative uses of DocumentCloud
2. Networked – Streamlining your social media posting: How to update more than one site at a time
3. Journalists’ Toolkit – 7 Do’s and Don’ts for Video on Point-and-Shoot Cameras
4. Mashable – Facebook Profile Migrations: A Cautionary Tale
5. MakeUseOf – 5 Cool Ways To Make Use Of National Geographic Maps
6. SmartBlog on Social Media – 6 tools to measure your personal branding efforts
7. Teaching Online Journalism – Teaching about storytelling
8. Web Design Ledger – 10 Blogs to Help You Become a Photography Expert
9. David Lee King – 5 Tips for Editing Videos
10. Mastering Multimedia – Producing Audio Slideshows with Final Cut Pro