By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group
As Apple prepares to ship out the first iPads, my work and NABJDigital Twitter followers have been discussing whether or not to order their own. I love to have the latest tech toys, but I’m just not feeling it for the iPad quite yet. I have an iPod Touch, a Blackberry Curve and a Dell laptop. I’m just not seeing how an iPad would fit into my life right now. And $629 for a 16GB iPad with 3G wi-fi access is a bit steep for my pocketbook.
But if you’re still thinking about getting one, there is help. Thanks to Mark Luckie of the 10000 Words blog for passing along a column from Wired magazine’s GeekDad blog, which has a cool flow chart that walks you through the process of whether or not you need to buy an iPad. If you get one, drop us a line — we’d love to write about how you’re using it!
By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group
New York City’s Mediabistro is holding a workshop entitled Advanced Social Networking for Media Professionals, featuring Columbia University journalism professor Sree Sreenivasan, March 31, from 6:45-9:45 p.m. You can get a 25% discount on the class price by using the discount code SREE25.
The Online News Association is now taking applications for its student newsroom at this year’s annual conference Oct. 28-30 in Washington, D.C. Students will hands-on experience producing content for the ONA10 website. The application deadline is Midnight PT, April 16.
The Interactive Innovative blog posts about a series of multimedia training with Maine Media Training May 23 through Oct. 30. Courses include Stills & Video for Multimedia; One-man Band; Intro to Web Design; and Audio Narrative. For more information go to Maine Media Training.
BusinessJournalism.org is holding a free Webinar, “Using Social Media to Cover Business Better” April 19-20. The first hour-long Webinar will target those new to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The second hour will help you take your use of social media to the next level.
The American Society of Journalists and Authors is holding its 39th annual writers conference April 23-24 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City.
The Knight Digital Media Center is taking applications for its News Entrepreneur Boot Camp 2010 May 16-21 at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California. The deadline to apply is February 19.
The Toronto Star is holding a series of new media workshops May 17-19, covering Visual Reporting, Mobile and Social Media Reporting and Web Reporting.
The Knight Center for Specialized Journalism offers the seminar Digital Life: Policy & Privacy Online at the University of Maryland College Park’s at the Philip Merrill of College of Journalism May 26-29. Topics include Social Media and Crowdsourced Journalism, Knight News Challenge and Back-to-the-Newsroom.
NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force co-chair Andrew Humphrey and member Michelle Ferrier are among those putting together the next Journalism That Matters conference, in Detroit June 3-6. The conference theme is Help create communities that initiate, innovate and incubate.
The Poynter Institute is holding a seminar – The Backpack Journalist – June 7-11. Tuition is $995, and applications are due April 26.
The Poynter Institute is holding a seminar — Going Mobile With Your News – June 16-19. Tuition is $895, and applications are due April 1.
BusinessJournalism.org is holding a free Webinar, “How to be an entrepreneur as a business journalist” Aug. 9-13. The weeklong Webinar, which teaches how to use your skills to make a living outside mainstream media, will be taught by freelancer and National Association of Black Journalists member Maya Smart and “Ask-the Recruiter” blogger Joe Grimm will teach the five-hour course.
The Poynter Institute is holding a seminar – Multimedia Storytelling With Video – Sept. 20-24. Tuition is $995, and applications are due Aug. 9.
If you have any items that I’ve missed, please drop me an email via the DJTF Yahoo! Listserv or at regaviationqueen AT yahoo DOT com. Thanks!
By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group
I’m seriously thinking of changing the name of the column to Friday Fast 10. I thought that using our @NABJDigital Twitter account would help me clear the decks of this bookmark folder, but it hasn’t worked out. So today, you get 10 items — nine from the Mashable blog — because regular readers know I refuse to do this column without including an entry from the 10000 Words blog!
10000 Words shows some great visuals on how the media are covering the same-sex marriage debate. (Mark Luckie would really appreciate your support in buying his new book, “The Digital Journalist’s Handbook”
7 Superb Social Plugins for WordPress – here are some great tips for those of us always looking for the next big thing to improve our WordPress blog!
By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group
A few weeks ago, I received an email from Alexandra Nicholson, who handled corporate communications for USA Today. She was writing to tell me that she had been moved over to a newly created Digital Marketing team at USA Today as the manager, social media strategist. She works with Brian Dresher, Manager, Social Media and Digital Partnerships.
This move, said Nicholson, is part of a larger development of social media efforts for USA Today. You can see some of the team’s work at the USA Today Media Lounge blog. Nicholson discussed the development of the social media team and what we can expect to see from them moving forward.
NABJDigital: Why did USA Today decide to create a social media team?
Alexandra Nicholson:USA Today has been active in social media for some time. Our efforts have extended from Facebook and Twitter, to news sharing sites and beyond. This recent announcement just takes what was already being done and gives it new structure and a more clearly defined team with individual roles. Brian Dresher, in his former role of Online Marketing Manager, has been critical to USA Today’s social media efforts already. And in my past role as communications manager, I was seeing the importance of using social media in getting out the corporate message.
ND: How many people are on the team?
AN: Brian Dresher and I are focused primarily on social media, reporting to Wendy Matney, the Director of Online Marketing. However, this position reaches into multiple parts of company, working with several people who touch social media and digital initiatives on the editorial and business side.
ND: What has the company charged you do to?
AN: Brian Dresher is responsible for social media training and will focus on off-site social media initiatives and strategic digital partnerships, cultivating new partnerships and leveraging existing relationships across the company. I am focused on research and development, strategy, social media as a public relations platform and on site efforts, working closely with editorial to integrate social media on-site and leverage social media for their off-site initiatives. We’re also increasing our presence at events to reflect the need to tell our story, engage with other thought leaders, and create new opportunities.
ND: You mentioned that USA Today is looking to work with others on digital or social media projects. How would that work? Give an example of a project that could be done?
AN: I think the best example is a deal we made with Fark.com at the end of last year. This was actually a deal that came about over beers last year at South By Southwest [event]. USAToday.com’s Tech section became the exclusive host and sponsor of the Geek page on Fark.com.
The page is available at fark.usatoday.com. The partnership offered signature features from USAToday.com on the Geek page, including: USA Today Tech section header with USAToday.com navigation; Top News, offering the latest in technology news; and Talking Tech, regular videos from USA Today Tech Reporters Ed Baig and Jefferson Graham. As part of the arrangement USA Today manages advertising placements on the Geek page, extending USA Today’s online impressions to marketers and advertising clients.
We’ve seen wonderful results in terms of traffic and it’s created a new opportunity for advertisers to reach a desirable audience. We’re happy, Fark is happy, we all win.
ND: How will the team fit with the USA Today Social Media Lounge?
AN: Brian Dresher and I author the Social Media Lounge. We see it as a place to offer a look at what USA Today is doing every day through marketing, communications and social media efforts. We post tips, case studies, best practices and general feedback on social media, with an emphasis on what we have been doing in an effort to help people and organizations apply our key learning’s to their own social media programs. We also view this space as a place where we can start conversations with readers about what works best for them.
ND: How will you handle the team’s Twitter and Facebook accounts?
AN: We have been managing @USATMediaLounge for some time now and will continue to do so. Additionally Brian does a great job with @bdresher. It’s a great way to communicate directly, and quickly, with our readers and we love the conversation. Our Facebook presence is managed by a cross-departmental team of people from the business and editorial side. We will remain involved and see no immediate changes to how it is managed.
ND: Why do you think it’s important to have a social media team?
AN: It’s a growth area and as a media company we think it makes sense to put additional talent and resources behind social media. USA Today has long served as a conversation catalyst, and we’ve already seen the tangible benefits of being involved in social media We realize users increasingly turn to social networks as their primary destination for connecting with others and consuming information. For this reason, we need to be where our audience is and understand how to participate in these communities, so that when they go to a news site, USA Today can remain a top of mind news brand.
By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group
First, please allow me to acknowledge a milestone for the NABJDigital blog: this post marks our 100th since we started back in October. I’d like to thank all the contributors that have helped us reach 100 posts. Now, on to today’s post.
I am always looking for inspirational stories on journalists who are taking that leap of faith and taking their fate – and their career – into their own hands. This is how I found Leila Noelliste, creator of the Black Girl With Long Hair Web site. She had a good career as a journalist, writing for publications including the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Defender and the Associated Press. She started BGLH as a blog in April 2008. She went natural in late 2006, and started the blog after about a year and a half later after realizing that resources for her didn’t exist. Our chat is below.
NABJDigital: How did you come up with the idea for the blog?
Leila Noelliste: It was because there was a lack of representation for natural hair. I went natural in late 2006. I wanted to see pictures of what it looks like to have different styles, like Afros or exquisite styles and there wasn’t one location I could to go to for inspiration. I gave out my email and asked women to send in pictures of their natural hair. I wanted it to be real women, not models, and feature people who had stopped straightening their hair, and that’s how it began.
ND: Why did you think it was important to create the blog?
LN: I don’t know if it’s a slight sense of narcissism, but I wanted to be reflected in the media. I felt it wasn’t fair that go through entire day and see nothing but straight hair. I couldn’t do a TV show, but I can create this pocket where women can come and be inspired. I needed style ideas and I wanted to know what other women were doing. Natural hair has its own trends and I wanted to see what women were doing. Natural hair is not just twists with Cori shells, and I wanted to see that.
ND: Are you still freelancing?
LN: No. The blog is what I’m doing full-time. It was very scary to quit my job. I went to Wheaton College and decided to be a reporter and had a good run. I worked at WGN Radio News as an intern. I worked for StreetWise magazine, which was a newspaper combined with a non-profit organization for the homeless.
Then I went to the Chicago Defender, where I was full-time staff. I was 22 at the time, and they saw potential. A few of my stories were picked up by AP and I got to interview some cool people. But the paper fell on hard times and they had to let me go. I found a job doing courts and legal affairs reporting for the Daily Journal. I was doing well there, but I just thought blog was filling a void. It became popular so fast I knew it needed attention. It was a huge leap of faith, and I decided to quit in November 2009 because I had to see what happens with the blog.
My parents are supportive and I make money on sponsorships. All my advertisers are black females. A lot are women who also work on the blog. It’s been so exciting to help them get to a broader audience. When comes to beauty, we need things that are unique to black women, and it’s cool to be able to help support that.
ND: How do you attract the advertisers for your blog?
LN: I think it’s been really organic. I made an announcement on the blog to sell ad space and it snowballed. There is a large community of black women online. Because there are so few services and media directed at black women, we’ve created online communities for ourselves. There are blogs on fashion, art, hair, beauty and politics; there are huge assets out there. As the word spreads, I don’t have to seek advertisers. I have actually had to turn away ads.
It’s important for black journalists to know that when you’re doing a blog, there’s so much potential, because there’s so little established media for us. My blog has about 3,800 subscribers, but I’ve seen natural hair forums with 100,000+ members. It’s amazing that there are so many women who want to be part of a community. I feel very blessed.
ND: How did you develop the skills to create and format your Web site?
LN: I’m the content person. I’m blessed to have Shari Nicole Neal Design on my team. Shari did the Web design. I actually made the transition from blogger to my own domain. On the old blog, I couldn’t have tabs. When I transitioned, I went to my archives and found recurring themes and created the tabs. I have amazing pictures and I chose my favorites, and that is the most popular part of the site. My list of natural hair salons all came from my readers. There’s also a tab where people can buy products and that all comes from my readers. You get information that’s current and validated when it comes from readers. Everything has been tested and proven. I don’t endorse anything.
ND: What advice would you give to those who want to do what you’ve done?
LN: The first thing is to really think through it. Make sure you have a quality, unique product. Even though there’s a lack of representation in the black community, there’s still a lot of repetition. Blogs are a dime a dozen, so think about how yours is unique. And have a financial plan. My parents help me, I do freelance and I live with my finance. In hindsight, I might have stayed at my job a bit longer, but I’m now bringing in money. You do have to think about monetization. It doesn’t pay if you don’t think it though. Just go for it, because there’s such a low representation of black culture, and what’s out there is dated. You need to take time to bring it to light.
The Knight Digital Media Center has set a March 26 deadline to apply for its Multimedia Reporting and Convergence Workshop, being held at the University of California-Berkeley May 16-21 and June 13-18. The workshop will offer technical skills needed to produce quality multimedia stories including audio/video recording and editing, Flash graphics, digital cameras, Photoshop and web design concepts.
New York City’s Mediabistro is holding a workshop entitled Advanced Social Networking for Media Professionals, featuring Columbia University journalism professor Sree Sreenivasan, March 31, from 6:45-9:45 p.m. You can get a 25% discount on the class price by using the discount code SREE25.
The Online News Association is now taking applications for its student newsroom at this year’s annual conference Oct. 28-30 in Washington, D.C. Students will hands-on experience producing content for the ONA10 website. The application deadline is Midnight PT, April 16.
The Interactive Innovative blog posts about a series of multimedia training with Maine Media Training May 23 through Oct. 30. Courses include Stills & Video for Multimedia; One-man Band; Intro to Web Design; and Audio Narrative. For more information go to Maine Media Training.
BusinessJournalism.org is holding a free Webinar, “Using Social Media to Cover Business Better” April 19-20. The first hour-long Webinar will target those new to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The second hour will help you take your use of social media to the next level.
The American Society of Journalists and Authors is holding its 39th annual writers conference April 23-24 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City.
The Knight Digital Media Center is taking applications for its News Entrepreneur Boot Camp 2010 May 16-21 at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California. The deadline to apply is February 19.
The Toronto Star is holding a series of new media workshops May 17-19, covering Visual Reporting, Mobile and Social Media Reporting and Web Reporting.
The Knight Center for Specialized Journalism offers the seminar Digital Life: Policy & Privacy Online at the University of Maryland College Park’s at the Philip Merrill of College of Journalism May 26-29. Topics include Social Media and Crowdsourced Journalism, Knight News Challenge and Back-to-the-Newsroom.
NABJ Digital Journalism Task Force co-chair Andrew Humphrey and member Michelle Ferrier are among those putting together the next Journalism That Matters conference, in Detroit June 3-6. The conference theme is Help create communities that initiate, innovate and incubate.
BusinessJournalism.org is holding a free Webinar, “How to be an entrepreneur as a business journalist” Aug. 9-13. The weeklong Webinar, which teaches how to use your skills to make a living outside mainstream media, will be taught by freelancer and National Association of Black Journalists member Maya Smart and “Ask-the Recruiter” blogger Joe Grimm will teach the five-hour course.
If you have any items that I’ve missed, please drop me an email via the DJTF Yahoo! Listserv or at regaviationqueen AT yahoo DOT com. Thanks!
By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group
The good news is there continues to be a great deal of digital/new media related material coming out every day. The bad news is that it’s piling up in my Friday Fast Five folder quicker than I can get it published here. I say that to say you get another bonus five in this week’s edition. And my 10000 Words streak continues unabated. Take that, Cal Ripken Jr.! Enjoy!
By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group
The University of Southern Mississippi is offering a three-week Study Abroad program in Ghana that will mix history and multimedia journalism courses. The course, scheduled for July 7-23, will visit historical sites that represent West African culture and history. As part of that, students will produce multimedia journalism stories that connect African history with American culture and traditions. Applications for the program are due by May 18, and the program is open to students from other universities and even non- students.
USM Professor Gina Gayle
We speak with Gina Gayle, professor photojournalism and multimedia at the university’s School of Mass Communication and Journalism, on the program and what attendees can expect.
NABJDigital: How did you come up with the idea for the study abroad program?
Gina Gayle: The University of Southern Mississippi has really great international programs. I was casually speaking with Dr. Curtis Austin, a professor in the history department who created the Ghana program and did research in the country last summer. I mentioned that I’d love to go to Ghana with some of my students. We had lunch, I gave him a proposal and it came about that quickly.
ND: Why did you choose Ghana?
GG: I’ve always wanted to go to a country in Africa. Dr. Austin had gone last year and done the site research, so I just stepped in to offer my multimedia journalism course. My course will be historical in nature, with students tracing the history, culture and traditions of African-Americans that lived in Ghana and eventually came to southern Mississippi.
ND: When a student asks why they should attend this program, what do you tell them?
GG: It will be very historically rich because Dr. Austin is one of the teachers. He specializes in African-American history and I think that everyone should have the chance to study abroad and see different cultures. You can get an understanding of different things going in the country. I think people are nervous about race relations. If you can go and learn about a culture that’s different than your own, it takes away fears and misconceptions. Dr. Austin notes that African-American history didn’t start in America. We have a whole history on the African continent. You can find out who you were before ancestors your were enslaved. That crosses any racial divide. White people and black people should know about us before we were slaves. It can heal and help people.
ND: What kinds of stories do you think will appeal to students?
GG: We’re going to a lot of historical sites. The W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Centre for Pan-African Culture is in Ghana. There are also slave castles and a lot of craft markets. We will also meet people who live and work in Ghana and trace the origins of things including fabrics, jewelry and African art.
ND: What types of multimedia projects do you expect the students to do?
GG: I expect them to do projects that include audio, still photography and video, and include at least two mediums in a story. I am having them find stories that best tell about their experience in Ghana and how relates to what they see in Southern Mississippi.
ND: What will you do with the projects once they are completed?
GG: Our Mass Communications Department has a student media center that is developing a Web site where the stories will be posted.
Yahoo! 2 Buy Sports Site Source: The Wall Street Journal
Author: Kara Swisher
According to numerous sources inside and outside the company, Yahoo is poised to slam dunk–I apologize, but sports puns are so easy–an acquisition of an online sports site this week. And, predicted several of those sources, it is most likely to be San Francisco-based Citizen Sports, a maker of…
Comcast Buys Blog Site Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer
Author: Michael Klein
The Philly-centric sports blog “The700Level.com” has gone corporate. Comcast SportsNet yesterday said it had acquired the five-year-old site and hired founder Enrico Campitelli Jr. and awarded contracts to…
Mobile Apps’ Sales Rise Source: BBC News Author: Maggie Shiels
The global appetite for mobile applications will explode over the next two years, new research suggests. A study done for…
More On B-More Wanting Google Fiber Source: The Baltimore Sun
Author: Gus G. Sentementes
Using a bus billboard campaign, a coalition of 20 churches, labor groups and community organizations is trying to pressure Verizon Maryland to bring its next-generation, high-speed Internet service to Baltimore…
Facebook Beats Google Source: The Detroit Free Press
Author: Mark W. Smith
The online battle between search engines and social networks as aggregators of news and information hit a new milestone last week, with Facebook becoming the most-visited Web site in the U.S. — topping search giant Google for…
By Andrew Humphrey, CBM
Founder & Co-Chair, NABJ’s Digital Journalism Task Force
C-SPAN just did the best thing any network can do. It put nearly its entire video collection online for FREE!
As of 2010, the fly-on-the-wall footage goes back twenty-three years. Consecutively, that’s five U.S. Presidents, twelve U.S. Representative terms and fourteen separate, overlapping U.S. Senate terms.
Politicians are not the only subjects of coverage. There is a significant stockpile of commentary and activity of journalists, and it is super-easy to find. The search portal is located on the homepage’s top left and is always there for you, and it’s extremely user-friendly. After executing a search, results appear in the categories of persons, programs and transcripts. Also, you can modify your search by date, topic or category with results changing on the fly without having to click and “ok” or “modify” button.
During my cursory use, I searched for “black journalists” and got back sixteen person results, fifty-two program results and “searching…” continued for transcripts with “exception” as the eventual result. Maybe I should have made a more specific search to yield some transcripts.
NABJ Past President Bryan Monroe's picture from C-SPAN's image archive.
Remember when you saw the C-SPAN cameras at the NABJ conventions’ awards banquets or super sessions and attendees would star in their own little cameo role during the Q&A period or if they laughed especially hard at a joke or two? Well, I decided to see if the coverage of NABJ2000 in Phoenix was present, and sure enough it was. An August 18, 2000 video of Tom Joynerspeaking about his “career in journalism and the importance of the African-American press.”
You do have a chance to own any of these videos on DVD, but you will have to dig into your wallet or purse. The video player is easy to use. My wireless cable modem handled the playback well. The play slider allowed be to navigate to any point in the video. The volume control is simple. Videos are expandable to full screen, and it appears they can be share by email or embedding all or a portion of them into your web site.
If you are a video junkie like me, this digital treasure trove could keep you busy for hours. I highly recommend you take C-SPAN for a spin!
NABJDigital Blog 