GROKKING RSSRSS is hot, hot, hot. Good overview of what it is and how to use it to make it easier to keep track of all those web sites.
SOURCE: STEVE RUBEL AT MICRO PERSUASION |
THE GREENSBORO PLANJay Rosen has details of, and comments on, the just released blueprint for citizen journalism at the Greensboro News & Record. This has been in the works for a couple of weeks and drawn considerable interest from media bloggers. It's a potential watershed moment, as a mainstream publication reaches out to the community and asks it to help make the journalism better. Lex Alexander wrote the report for editor John Robinson. It includes proposals to widen the News & Record tent to include bloggers (working with reporters, blogging editorial board meetings), adopt a must-link policy for articles (to the extent of linking to the competition when it's required) and much more. Rosen has highlights; the full report is here. (The idea of blogging editorial board meetings was one I suggested when Lex Alexander asked, through Rosen's Press Think, for ideas. Another of my suggestions also made it onto Lex's final list.) If you read through the full report (and if Greensboro is able to incorporate the changes into the way it does journalism), what's happening at the News & Record may be huge. There's no reason to think that Greensboro can't make this work. It's not just the newspaper that's involved; there's an active community of bloggers in the city that by and large appears to support what the newspaper is trying to do. (Ed Cone is one of those bloggers, and he's excited.) I wrote a post a while back that suggested it's going to take the newspaper equivalent of a "killer app" to force change in the way newspapers modernize. That happened in the 1980s, when US Today was not just a brand-new paper, but a collection of brand-new ideas of what a newspaper should be. Although it was widely derided by mainstream media at the time, many of US Today's innovations are now standard features of newspapers everywhere. Greensboro may turn out to be the US Today of the new newspapering. Here's what I see as the significant moves that are being made by Lex and the others at the News & Record. 1. Erasing the distinction between newspaper and readers. Saying we are all in this together. 2. Expanding the base of information that is available to readers and letting them use it (see what they are proposing for wikis, blogs, obituaries, etc.). Instead of saying "trust us," the newspaper is saying "we trust you." 3. Redefining a newspaper as part of a community, instead of merely an observer of it. Saying help us build something that's of value to you.
If Greensboro can make this work, newspapers will have a model for change, for rebuilding the relevancy that's been slipping away for decades. Some will adopt it and expand it on it and make it better. Some will try to adapt bits and pieces of it, without adapting the philosophy behind it, and fail miserably. But the change will have begun, and not in a small way. |
HELPING JOURNALISTSUp to 200 journalists and media staff have been reported lost or missing as the result of tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean just after Christmas. That's prompted the International Federation of Journalists to launch appeal to help provide aid. According to the IFJ, the Serambi Indonesia, one of Aceh[base ']s leading daily newspapers, was among the hardest hit, losing 100 staff. Its shoreline printing plant and offices were washed away. So far, a number of journalists' associations from around the world have made donations. The IFJ has already sent 18,000 Euros in aid to "colleagues in Indonesia." Donations can be sent to:
Asia Disaster Relief for Journalists and Media Staff |
A GIFT FROM STUDENTSI met a new class today and they provided a moment that blew me away. I asked how many were planning a career in newspapers (it's a newspaper production class) and not a single hand went up. So I asked how many saw themselves working in newspapers at a some point during their careers. Most hands went up. I asked how many saw themselves working in broadcast during their careers. Most hands up went up. I asked how many saw themselves working for online media, and about half put their hands up. About half of the class saw themselves working in print, broadcast and online during the career. At least three-quarters of them feel they'll work in print and in broadcast. Almost everyone of them sees a "multi-platform" future.
It's the first time I've seen this in a class. The individual students might not have been able to articulate it, but they appear to clearly get the distinction between "content" and "container" (see number six on Jay Rosen's list of Top 10 ideas from 04) and are preparing for a flexible future, not wed to a specific platform. Zowee. |
Last update: 1/30/05; 10:21:33 PM .
