Posts Tagged Twitter
Hi Journalism career, my name is Emily.
Posted by Emily in Journalism 101 on May 3, 2009
So I have this plan. My plan is not carved in stone, nor an outline of what to come complete with Roman numerals, A’s, B’s, C’s and 1’s, 2’s, 3’s. This outline allows for ample ounces of Wite Out and crossed-out words. And the wonderful thing is that these revisions are encouraged. What is this s
cheme up Emily’s sleeve, you ask? Oh just my future career plan…
I want to be involved in journalism. Period. The end. Any aspect. I’ll take it any or all. Every part I feel is vital. I have never been more thrilled to start at the bottom of the ladder and climb.
My plan is one that changes as the industry changes as well. The online epidemic will continue to spread allowing my job at a print newspaper to tap into my technological skills, become a dedicated member of Twitter, and keep my Word Press blogging account going strong. Long ago I would have said my career plan was to get a job as a print journalist. Now a days, my future title can have quite a few more bi-lines: Photojournalist, Broadcaster, PR, Web Designer.
Once upon a time long LONG ago, I thought working for a newspaper was only about writing your chosen story. Not about taking your turn at writing the obituaries or learning about HTML. How young and stupid I once was? (Don’t answer that.)
![[Post to Twitter]](http://emilylynnpatton.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
Tweet Tweet
Posted by Emily in Journalism 101 on April 19, 2009
What are you doing?
This question is one you hear nearly everyday. When you answer the phone. When you pass a friend in the hallway. When you check your text messages. When you log onto Twitter or Facebook. One question. One simple question. This one question has turned into a journalist’s dream (or reality).
Social networking sites, like Twitter, are opening doors to the “new journalism” wave like never before. (104 characters)
How?
Well let’s take a look around the world via Twitter (what a wonderful world):
jordinn somebody has been using my credit card information to stay in hotel rooms in Europe. lovely.
rubeedoo Finished making homemade pizza for dinner. You would have thought I handed the hubby a million bucks.
kevbow7 thinks his GPA is going to be a negative number this semester. Anyone up for selling grass skirts and coconut milk in Bermuda for a living?
kairarouda Watching Peyton Manning play golf at Scioto Country Club. Signed autograph for my son! He’s wearing a bright orange shirt, big smile.
These “tweets” are from real-life people describing what is happening in their worlds or in their minds in 140 characters or less. Imagine a headline news source at your fingertips whether you are a journalist or an ordinary person curious about a world other than your own. Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn link people to the world around them, and has become a tool for journalists unlike any other.
Using Twitter, the response is fast. Most people tweet information as soon as it happens, before placing it on a blog, or texting a friend about the same information. Pemily has done this on many occasions. This winter she drove her car on an icy road and tweeted the fact she was in a ditch before calling for assistance (Notice the third person and under 140 characters). Stupid, maybe? Or keeping my faithful followers updated?
From “How We Use Twitter for Journalism” written by Marshall Kirkpatrick
Whether it’s natural disasters, political developments or breaking tech news – it’s common to discover items of interest first on Twitter.
Robert Scoble wrote a year ago about how Twitter users reported a major earthquake in Mexico City several minutes before the USGS did. Zolie Erdos chronicled last month how Twitter users beat government agencies and the world’s (formerly) leading news organizations in reporting on March earthquakes in both China and Japan.
We discover tech news tips on Twitter first on a regular basis. When Google bought Twitter competitor Jaiku, for example, we learned about it on Twitter. That early news tip lead to our covering the news before any one else and getting our story on the front page of Digg – good in this case for tens of thousands of pageviews.
To access this article, click here.
Minutes and seconds are so crucial in today’s journalism. If Twitter is a way to beat those competitors, it will be utilized, and obviously already is. Just take a look at the “Trending Topics” on Twitter, the headlines of tomorrow are right there. Yep, a journalist’s dream realized. (Thank you Twitter for this beautiful creation.) These social networking sites have connected a journalist to their future story in a flawless fashion. Journalists can “follow” their tweeters in a non-creepy non-stalkerish way and assemble a story that produces thousands of hits with the facile idea influence of a five second tweet by an ordinary everyday person or the inner workings of the most famous celebrities.
Tweeting helps spread the word to your followers what you are trying to do, whether its featuring a new blog post, directing viewers to an online broadcast, or advertising a live event your friends should check out. Forget the days of being the one who is the last to know the information. This information can be sent directly to all of your friends’ cellphones, with a text message of the new status and updates the website, automatically.
Newspapers are learning to master Twitter and Facebook as well. Want the latest news story? When its tweeted, you have it. Journalists are also using a “Tweet this” function on their blogs so with one click, their followers are now linked to their latest post. Readership becomes a daily habit, not a daily chore.
Sites like LinkedIn keep you updated with what is going on within your business company, other companies like that one, and the industry itself your company belongs to with news articles and contacts in your own personal posse.
As journalists begin investigating the powers of social networking, new journalism continues to make its way into our lives.
And this new journalism, well its connecting people by presenting news to both journalists and readers. Both journalists and readers connected better than ever. And that, my friend, is just a beautiful thing. (139 characters)
From “In Your Facebook: Why more and more journalists are signing up for the popular social networking site” by Kelly Wilson
Across the board, social sites are a way for people to interact as they never could before (or at least, never could with such ease). For journalists that means contacting others for ideas and support on tough assignments or connecting with editors for advice and job opportunities. As in any form of journalism, if you don’t understand where the audience is and what it’s doing, you don’t understand the audience. To access this article, please click here.
In the Palm of Your Hand
Posted by Emily in Journalism 101 on March 15, 2009
See the television there…. Yeah, you know the one. Turn it off.
You do not need it on.
That evening news program, nah… not important.
Close those other tabs in your browsers.
Yep, even facebook.
Hit the X. Go for it.
You do not need that either.
So now, you are thinking I am being extreme. I made you close out of facebook for goodness sakes. I must have something really important to say. Well, I don’t know about that, but I’ll do my best. And I promise after I’m finished you can go back to updating your status.
Quick question.
How do you get the news? The recent events from around the world… How do you receive that information? Seems like a simple enough question…
Well, maybe not.
The classic six o’clock news may not be one of your answers. Nor the print newspaper edition. Now you must be thinking, “She must have dove head first off the high dive, because if you do not get the news from a broadcast or newspaper, well how do you?”
Let’s look at a few examples of how I sometimes receive my information.
The other day….
I was sitting with an extended family member watching television. I was falling asleep on the couch (as usual) and he turned off the program, heading to bed. The next morning, our conversation stumbled on the latest March Madness drama. This led into me dishing out the news of the six overtime game Syracuse vs UCONN that had occurred while we both were sleeping. He seemed surprised that I had watched the game while he slept. Yet, I hadn’t watched any of it. I had to explain that I found out about the game through the help of facebook and tweets.
The next day….
Over spring break, I did a little traveling. While being out of state, enjoying the sunny weather, I discovered there was snow and freezing temperatures in my home town. Not from the weather channel, but by tweets from Twitter.
And a few days later…
After spending the entire week in California, I was flying back home. My phone’s battery was dying, and I needed to call my dad when I landed, so I could have a ride home, not a big deal or anything. Luckily, I talked to him for a few minutes before my flight home explaining the fading life of one of my best friends, a Nokia flip phone, before its life was lost. As I headed to baggage claim, I found my parents waiting, discovering my dad had logged onto Southwest receiving mobile updates of my flight information.
From Mindy McAdams’ “Mobile data: Next hurdle for journalism”
Zac Echola, a young wired journalist, is already using his phone the way older folks use a printed newspaper. He’s that guy in the deli who’s staring at his tiny screen while he chews on a cheeseburger:
“When I’m at lunch, I can pull down any news I’m subscribed to via RSS. On a mobile device. Text, pictures and video come together on my phone. I can do the same on the bus … or on the crapper. And I’m engaging with the news. I’m sharing it …” To access this article, please visit http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2008/mobile-data-next-hurdle-for-journalism/
The way we receive our news is not quite how we used to do things. Sure, I still grab the USA Today and College Heights Herald each day, and log on the Internet, checking out the latest headlines on CNN, but that’s not all. No wonder I was nearly stranded at the Nashville International Airport for my cell-phone is becoming a work horse of information and this is a cold that everyone seems to be catching.
On our cell phones, much of our news comes through are RSS feed. RSS, is abbreviated for “Really Simple Syndication,” which enables you to find all the latest information from each site you visit.
Not familiar with RSS? Think again.
When you’re receiving the “Word of the Day” from dictionary.com on your cell, sports scores from ESPN, or the latest weather information, you actually hanging out with your new best friend, Mr. RSS, didn’t you know? Or as Rick would say in Casablanca, “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” (Did you say it with the accent?)
From Mark Briggs’ “Journalism 2.0″
The push for immediacy will continue as news operations master breaking news on a Web site and move to present breaking news on mobile devices. It also means a broadening of the scope of information that will be considered worthy of an immediate update, meaning all types of information and news (sports, business, entertainment) will be part of the mobile equation.
To access this information, please visit: http://www.j-lab.org/Journalism_20.pdf
The signs are flashing, blinking, and some, yes, are even dancing around, telling us that more and more mobile devices will be continually used in the future.
Don’t believe me?
According to “Journalism 2.0,” there are 200 million mobile phone users in the United States. 70 percent of those users are Web-enabled. Need more? The Weather Channel has 4.8 million paying subscribers a month for its mobile service. ABC/Disney has 2 million subscribers at $15 a month delivering ring tones, voice tones, wallpapers and video clips.
Almost every week a new and better mobile device is on the market. And with each new invention, we are progressing. Never before has our society been more apt to better ourselves with technology. And as we get better, the mobile devices will continue to adapt to improve to meet our needs. In ten to fifteen years, desktop computers will begin fading, like digital cameras that use floppy discs or video recorders that require VHS tapes.
Information, news, ordering a pizza, running to the bank, placing a bet on the number five horse in race 9, well… it will all be in the palm of your hand, (not quite the whole world, but pretty close.)
So by all means, go ahead, visit facebook and update your status…. using your mobile device, of course.
Want a little more? Find the 100 most subscribed to RSS Feeds. Please visit, http://radio.xmlstoragesystem.com/rcsPublic/rssHotlist
What you are NOT going to teach me…
Posted by Emily in Journalism 101 on February 15, 2009
From “Old Thinking Permeates Major Journalism School”
I am convinced that I am taking the only old-but-new-but-still-old media class in the country. At this point I may not learn too much I don’t already know about my generation and where it’s taking journalism. But one thing’s for sure — I’m certainly going to gain some insight into what exactly they mean by generation gap. To access this post, visit: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/09/old-thinking-permeates-major-journalism-school249.html
Alana Taylor, a junior at NYU, could be considered a quite controversial blogger (in the most negative connotation of the words ‘controversial’ and ‘blogger’), or… could she actually be onto something?
Taylor wrote in her post, “Old Thinking Permeates Major Journalism School” of the lacking in her “Reporting Gen Y” journalism class. After reading the post, I feel like I have sat through a journalism class at New York University, and have felt the anger and frustration that Taylor feels. However, is it justified anger?
For starters, let us move pass the obvious. College costs money. Money that most cannot just shovel out for an empty degree.
Question: Why do we pay the overpriced tuition costs?
(Hands raise)
Answer: To get a degree for a job to make more money. (Fine print reads: at least that is the plan.)
More from Alana Taylor’s “Old Thinking Permeates Major Journalism School”
Disappointment at NYU
What is so fascinating about the move from print to digital is the freedom to be your own publisher, editor, marketer, and brand. But, surprisingly, NYU does not offer the kinds of classes I want. It continues to focus its core requirements around learning how to work your way up the traditional journalism ladder. Here is the thinking I find here:
1. Get an internship at a magazine or newspaper. “This is good for your resume.”
2. Bring the New York Times to class. The hard copy. “It’s the only way to get the news.”
3. Learn how to write for a magazine or newspaper. “Writing for blogs or websites is not journalism.”
4. Become an editor at a magazine or newspaper. “This is the only respectable position.”
So hold on, hold on… let me get this right. According to Alana, she is paying money for a degree that is helping her land a job in the 90s. Well that is ok, sure, they are a few years behind, but you know what, our economy is doing lovely, so she will do just fine. (Cynical laughter follows)
In my first journalism class, I almost left with tears one morning. Not because of the stress level or perhaps it was a cold winter day, but it seemed to me I was attending a funeral without my knowledge. An industry, who had been on its deathbed for sometime, had officially passed over. I left thinking, “What am I doing in a major for a dying industry?” That is when fear overcame me. Suddenly, the grief over my loved one had vanished, and now anger and fear resided in its wake. The questions kept arising, “How am I going to get a job? How am I going to make any money? Where do I go to change my major?”
Then, something happened. The fear and anger slowly dissolved as I sat learning the next semester about blogging, podcasts, online reporting, and about the growth of journalism in the digital generation. I have always been a fan of blogging, from reading friend’s blogs to simply surfing on the web reading. But I had never known the simple beauty of typing your own thoughts.
Today, journalists have to learn to go digital. It is essential. Alana is paying money to become more knowledgeable about a career she wishes to pursue. The strange thing about this choice of profession is that it is changing. A university must adapt, change, and better itself to better its students. This may consist in letting go of the traditions, the New York Times (deep breath everyone), and negative connotations around the word ‘blogger.’
My experience has been a bit different, with my professors stressing the importance of the glorious things called Twitter, Wordpress, Mashable, Photoshop, Movie Maker, and the list continues. But is that all they reiterate, you ask? Of course not! It is about having that small idea in the back of your head that even when you have mastered the new digital media, it will always be about the basics. The basics of knowing how to write, report, ask good questions, translate the answers, and edit your work. No technology in the world will get you anywhere if you cannot do those things. Never have I felt more fortunate at Western Kentucky University for being blessed with that small idea in the back of my head.
I believe Alana makes wonderful points, yet sometimes there is a little bit more to it… If you are not receiving the education you want or need (yes, I chose the second word for us middle class families out there), go somewhere where you can receive the type of degree necessary to make it in this progressing world. Why waste your time complaining? Do something! Maybe the freedom that Alana talks about goes to a person’s head, being “your own publisher, editor, marketer, and brand.” And maybe, we should look at the classroom as a place to learn from others, their views and opinions, and not just walk through the doors with a long list titled, “what I already know and what you are not going to teach me.” And sometimes, just sometimes learning takes time, humility, patience, hearing, listening, curiosity, and that wonderful word that we forget in many aspects of our lives… faith.
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