Friday Fast Five

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

This column is back! Every Friday, I’ll list five things for your consideration as you continue your journey on the road to digital journalism. Enjoy!

1. Nieman Journalism Lab — Metrics, metrics everywhere: How do we measure the impact of journalism?  The Associated Press’s Jonathan Stray writes a thoughtful piece on a not-so-new topic.
2. 10000 Words — What Are Basic Social Media Skills Journalists Need? The debate rages on,  but I do agree with this basic list.
3. Mashable — Ethics Basics for Bloggers. As a journalist, I learned the rules in college. But blogging is the wild west for many, so this guide comes in handy.
4. Journalism.co.uk — #Podcast – Lessons in long-form video journalism from the Guardian and Vice. As the conversation about the future of long-form journalism continues, this podcast discusses how the Guardian is making it work.
5. BlogHer — Blogger Beware: You CAN Get
Sued For Using Photos You
Don’t Own on Your Blog. When I do website portfolio reviews for NABJ students and young journalists, 99% of the have nice photos. And most of them are used without permission.  This post explains what can happen if you’re caught.

Friday Fast Five

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

First, I want to wish you all a happy new year.  One of my resolutions for 2012 (besides getting my pilot license) is to get this blog back on track.  That means more posts from more guest bloggers, along with keeping up with regular features like our Calendar, which comes out every Monday, and this column every Friday.  Enjoy!

1. 10000 Words: 3 Things Journalists Can Teach Themselves Over Vacation (OK, this was for the recent Christmas holiday, but it’s relevant year round)
   
2. American Express Open Forum:  How To Start Managing Your Online Reputation
3. BaltTech blog: Hey Google: Let 410Labs show you how to launch an email app
4. Brazen Life: 4 Things You Can Learn for Free (or Cheap) to Help You Land Your Next Job
5. IJNet: Top five multimedia tools for journalists of 2011

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

Friday Fast Five

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

Here are my picks for the week!

1. 10000 Words – 4 Ways Newspapers Can Better Use Facebook To Engage Readers
2. All Twitter – How to use Twitter to Spy on the Competition
3. Journalists’ Toolkit – The best video export options
4. Mashable – 8 Ways to Improve Your Live Event With Social Media
5. MakeUseOf – 10 Ways To Update Facebook & Twitter Simultaneously

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

1. 10000 Words — 3 iPad apps to help you give better presentations
2. Reynolds Center — Steve Doig’s best of CAR Conference: 13 free tools to analyze, display data
3. Media Shift Idea Lab — How to Design Fast, Interactive Maps Without Flash
4. Journalists’ Toolkit – Web hosting and domain names
5. Mashable — 8 Ways to Improve Your Live Event With Social Media
6. MakeUseOf — The Top 5 Best Search Engines To Search Photos On Flickr
7. SmartBlog on Social Media — 6 tools to measure your personal branding efforts
8. Innovative Interactivity — Five mobile apps to deliver multimedia news in real time
9. Social Media Examiner — 17 Ways to Grow Your Blog From Top Bloggers
10. Journalism.co.uk — Five great examples of data journalism using Google Fusion Tables

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.

Carnival of Journalism: What Tools Do You Use To Work Smarter?

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

I am one of those people who love the latest in tech tools, toys, apps and programs that help me do the business of journalism.  Every Friday on this blog, I share some of my favorites as part of the Fast Five series.

Which is why I began to drool when I saw the topic for this month’s Carnival of Journalism: “What are your life hacks, workflows, tips, tools, apps, websites, skills and techniques that allow you to work smarter and more effectively?“

That being said, I’ll narrow my list down to my top five:

1. Twitter: this program (and its accompanying tools and apps) has become my number one tool to getting the job done.  I use it to post stories, find sources, get story ideas and crowdsource for information.  I use Echofone on my iPhone, UberSocial on my Blackberry and split between TweetDeck and HootSuite on my desktop.  And a bonus for me is both TweetDeck and HootSuite give me access to Facebook, which I don’t use as much as a professional tool.
2. 10000 Words: this website is at the top of my Google Reader.  Ever since Mark Luckie started it up, it has been my go-to site to keep up with all the latest  in tips, tools, apps, websites specifically targeting journalism.
3. iPhone 4: my dad bought me the 32 GB version for my birthday last year, and I thank him for it every time we speak.  I can update my WordPress blogs, shoot live video with Ustream, edit video with iMovie, access all my contacts using LinkedIn and Plaxo, take and send pretty good photos, record interviews/podcasts and post them on AudioBoo, I can check the AP Stylebook and upload to my YouTube channel. Oh – I can also make phone calls!
4. A tie – The Digital Journalist’s Handbook by Mark Luckie and the No-Fear Guide to Multimedia, by Prof. Mindy McAdams: when I started on my road to multimedia nirvana, these two guides were extremely helpful.  Even today, I still look at them as inspirations.
5. A pad and ink pen: amazingly enough, this is still a very effective tool for getting your stories.  I always have at least one pad and three ink pens on me at all times.

I love all the stuff that has helped this old-school journalist make the transition and keep up (somewhat) with the kids.  But I always emphasize that while you can have all the tools in the world, they aren’t worth a pitcher of warm spit (hat tip to former FDR VP John Nance Garner) if you don’t have the basic writing/reporting/editing skills down pat.  So have fun with the toys, but don’t forget the skills that actually make you a journalist.

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

Friday Fast Five + Five: The Job Search Edition

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

I was in the car on Sunday and the NPR show “Marketplace Money” was on.  Host Tess Vigland was talking about how an internship at Oregon Public Radio launched her journalism career.  That got me thinking that as our latest crop of students graduate, now was the time to pull out the job search items lurking in my Fast Five bookmark folder.  But these links can be used by anyone searching for a job.

And NABJ members can get a free resume review from me.  I’m tough, but fair.  It’s better to hear what issues there may be with your resume from me rather than wonder why no one is calling you for interviews.  I’m at regaviationqueen AT Yahoo DOT com.  Now, on with Fast Five!

1. Marketplace — More companies hiring interns
   
2. 10000 Words — 3 Reasons Why You Should Have an Infographic Resume
3. Mashable — 10 Creative Social Media Resumes To Learn From
4. GigaOm — Landing Your Dream Job in a Networked World
5. Lifehacker — Top 10 Ways to Rock Your Resumé
6. Mashable — You Can Now Convert Your Facebook Profile to a Facebook Page
7. New Grad Life — 22 Tips for Landing a Job On LinkedIn 
8. Mashable — HOW TO: Ask For an Online Recommendation
9. Position Ignition — 5 Tips in Using Social Media for Job Searches
10. SmartBlog on Social Media — Using enterprise 2.0 tools to ease into your new job