KEN LAYNE: PROPHET?

Posted today by Ken Layne:

At the end of Saturday's panel on "digital lifestyles," I was asked -- as were all six panelists -- to make a prediction. What would we see in the next 12 months?

My answer: We'll see online-only local news sites starting to compete with the monopoly chain daily newspapers in many American cities. What I meant was that we'll see blog-based local news sites that not only cover the local media, but also produce original content: news, sports, feature stuff, etc.

Was I right? We shall see. I'm back home now, and waiting in the e-mailbox was a note from my comrade Kevin Whited, who's been working on just such a site. It's called blogHouston, and it is now in "soft launch," meaning you can read it but you should probably defer judgment until they have a few weeks to get rolling.

A case of good timing. And I agree with Mr. Layne. The number of community-based news sites (not affiliated with local newspaper or TV) is growing. As these sites become more professional and start breaking more news and presenting more interesting features, they're going to start competing with the monopoly media, not only for readers but for advertising dollars.

The impact on monopoly media will be small to start, but it will grow. If I'm mainstream media, I don't have to be worried, but I'd better be aware of what's coming.
5:36:50 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

TWO FOR A SUNNY SUNDAY

A Photo a Day and Interactive Narratives both point to sites worth visiting when you've got some time to spend glued to the screen.

Melissa Lyttle at APAD recommends Jon Lowenstein's photography site and with good reason: the individual image section and two photo stories contain excellent photojournalism. The pictures are great to look at and even better to learn from, particularly Lowenstein's use of selective focus and framing.

From Interactive Narratives comes a link to VE 2004's A Turning Point. It's an on-line magazine featuring nine multimedia stories produced by teams of professionals, students and journalism educators from the Poynter Institute.

There are interesting elements to all nine stories (my favourties are Love the Greyhounds, Soul Tappin' and Educating, Not Babysitting). The stories that rely primarily on video suffer a little from pixelation and stuttering, even with a high-speed DSL internet connection.

Poynter has added a valuable resource: links to the lessons (PDFs) for those of us who are exploring and learning the possibilities for multimedia.

11:19:06 AM  LINK TO THIS POST  

COMMENTS MAY HAVE TO GO

When I started this blog, one of the possibilities I envisioned for it was conversation: the decision to allow comments makes it possible for reaction to, and debate about, anything that's posted here.

That hasn't happened to a significant degree. Comments are used only occasionally (sometimes to point out errors I've made: thanks for that).

But that's not why I'm on the verge of shutting off commenting. It's because of the last four comments that have been made, three are spam. The trolls, it seems, have discovered the site, which is fairly amusing. Given the relatively low number of visitors, it hardly seems worth their effort.

It's an annoyance and hardly fair to my occasional readers: when you click on the comment box to see what others have said, you shouldn't have to put up with spam. The commenting software I use doesn't allow me to easily remove spam. And even if it did, I'm not sure I'd want to spend the time doing the pruning.

That's where things stand. If the ability to comment suddenly disappears, you'll know it wasn't because of something you said.

10:37:59 AM  LINK TO THIS POST  

ENVIRONMENTAL AID

The Investigative Reports and Editors organization has released a new book, Covering Pollution: An Investigative Reporter's Guide, which may be of value to reporters who can convince editors that environmental reporting is still important.

From the IRE website:

This guide seeks to be immediately useful to investigative journalists. Although it offers extensive resources for in-depth and time-intensive investigations, its main focus is to show you how you can get to the heart of an investigation quickly and without waiting months for Freedom of Information Act requests to be fulfilled.

Much of the information in this guide focuses on how to use Web-based, federal database searches to get the data you need to both find and drive environmental investigations, but you'll also find numerous tips from veteran reporters about how to handle other aspects of investigative environmental journalism, including interviews and writing.

While the book ($15 US for IRE members; $25 for non-members) is written from an American perspective, the tips on handling stories, interviews and writing should make it a valuable resource for those on this side of the border.

10:15:59 AM  LINK TO THIS POST