Joining Forces: The Four Need to Knows.

Even with new technology, the world demands its news. And with the Internet population shifting their focus onto blog sights such as: blogger, tumblr, etc. News sites are finding themselves going towards that direction.

Before News sites do make this change, there are four key elements they should take into consideration before pursuing it's Local blog.


The first element the News site should ask is: What does their Local Blog need?
Like any good relationship, whether it be personal or business, it is important for both sides to portray what they need from each other, as well as short term and long term goals. The site should ask directly, and this would be a good way to find out if you can supply the needs before committing into the blog.

The second element is be prepared. Whether it is to form a rough draft with what you plan on writing in the blog or just a future plan, always be ready for questions that may form. Another good thing is to invite your partner blog into conversation. Team work will make this run more smooth.

The third element is to understand how the Web operates. Not only just how to function on search engines, but how the blog operates as a whole. You need to take in account how many views are on a page or what drives attention to the blog site. To sum it up, know everything about your site/blog.

The final element is to get your advertising and marketing departments to support you. This is where the entrepreneur comes into the whole aspect of this business. Always ask for team work and support. It is very essential to have everybody feel the same excitement you do about this particular project. If you get them to support the effort, it will run smoothly and quickly into something fabulous.

I believe these four elements are very interesting, since I too blog on my own personal site.( I'll put it down on the bottom if anybody cares to look at it on their free time.--I have to warn you though, its kinda messy right now because I haven't had time to really work on it lately) I never knew that News sites actually did join up with their local blogs, and it makes me kind of want to sleuth around and see if KCCI joins up with a local Des Moines blog.


Works Cited: www.poynter.org
Picture Cited: www.creativecommons.org

Cait's blog:http://thelifeofcait.tumblr.com/

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How To Write A Great Blog

Writing a blog can be tricky. Writing a great blog can be even trickier.

The point of writing a blog is to get people to read your posts. If you are writing about boring topics then there is no way anyone will subscribe to your blog.

One important thing to remember is to write about what you know. It doesn't matter if it's a hobby you enjoy or a news story that you have kept up-to-date on. The important thing to remember is to research and report the subject well.

Using a first person voice is always a good plan. It keeps your audience engaged. They will also tend to feel like they are reading something more personal as if the blog is meant for them.

The worst thing you can do as a blogger is lie. Don't act like you know everything about your subject. You don't want to get caught up in a lie and have your readers distrust you.

If you are unsure about something look it up. If you are unable to find the answer admit that you don't know it. Your audience will respect you much more if you admit that you don't know everything then if you lie about it.

Another thing you should try to develop is a voice. Creating your own personal spin on things can make your blogs more unique and distinguishable.

By using these tips in your next blog you are bound to write your way to a large following base.

Photo Credit: Shiva Chettri via Creative Commons

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Useful Tips for Social Media Users

Social media creates a world were anyone can be a journalist. However, it takes effort to be a successful social media user.

Spencer Critchley blogged some useful tips for bloggers and social media users to help make their posts reader friendly and respectable.

It is important to know your point and get to it quickly in order to respect the value of your readers time.

The focus of your post should be strong and the content following should relate. A focused post should be a simple idea that people are interested in.

The post or article should be appealing. It helps when a post or article has an emotional content.

Its important to write about people, actions and physical objects no matter your subject. These engage the imagination and emotions of your readers.

Write in a simple fashion. If you can't say it in a simple way that may indicate you don't understand what your writing well enough.

Focus on nouns and verbs and less on adjectives and adverbs.

Opinions are not facts. Opinions can make personal journalism lively when they are used appropriately. It is essential to know the difference between fact and opinion.

Identify sources so the audience knows where the information came from. That way the audience can judge your information's credibility.

Make sure to check your work for spelling errors and make sure to spell names right.

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

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Reasons to Blog

So as most of you all know midterms are happening right now. This of course means we have hit the half way mark. In our BNR class we have been blogging because it is an assignment and most of us probably don't want to fail so we just suck it up and write about something every week. Would any of us actually use this blog site if we were not forced to do it? Maybe yes, or maybe no, but there are reasons on why you should blog.

1. One reason to blog is that you can express yourself through your blog. Did you just watch a great movie and want to let others know about how fantastic it is? (Sanctum 3-D) Or maybe you want to rant about how outrageously high gas prices are. (Seriously, have you looked at them lately?) Whatever you want to say you can say it on your blog. This can help you stay connected with your friends or family who read your blog.

2. You can use your blog to market or promote something. I just promoted the movie Sanctum above. I also am promoting our BNR class by contributing to The News About The News.

3. Many blogs are written to be informative. This can range from helpful tips for interviews, how to take good pictures, or why to blog. By blogging about topics that are important to you, you can connect with people with similar views. Also, you can stay active or knowledeable about a variety of things.

4. The last reason I am going to give, is that by blogging you can get your name out there. It shows that you are "hip" with technology, and when somebody googles your name it will bring up your blog and show them what you are all about. By blogging about topics that are important to you, you will show them what matters to you. By blogging about your interests, it will show them what you find interesting or entertaining. Your blog will show them a better insight on you then perhaps your Facebook.

I hope that you will consider blogging after our BNR class is over.

Photo Credit: Via Creative Commons

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Why Should We Blog?

At the beginning of enrollment in BNR class, a majority of Simpson College students had never contributed to a blog in their life.

Many students pondered about this whole blogging business at the beginning of this course. Why would we need blogs? What are we going to write about for our blogs? How are we going to know what we're blogging about is useful? How do people even use blogs?

Traditionally, blogs started out as being a sort of online diary for people across the world. However, as blogging became more popular, many businesses and journalists decided to contribute to the blogging world to gain publicly.

Blogging has helped the journalist world in all different aspects. Once writers have exposed their work online, they are easily able to catch reader's attention. In result, they can receive feedback and gain subscribers to read their daily postings.

As you continue to blog, you will notice an improvement in your writing skills. For those who have previously blogged, think back to the very first blog you wrote. Now snap back to the present. Your writing portfolio and skills have improved tremendously because of your frequent interaction with writing.

What if you aren't interested in blogging for journalist purposes and promoting business? There are still many different reasons you can post your blogs online.

One last pro of becoming a blogger is you can even make profit from blogging. A lot of people blogging have not found themselves becoming a blogger to make money, but find out later that will end up doing so.

An unknown author once said, "Blogging is the new poetry."

If you have never blogged before reading this article, please consider the benefits of blogging. Go ahead and give starting your own blog a shot.

Photo Credit: Tutor2U @ Creative Commons

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Journalists not Checking Facts

College student Shane Fitzgerald used the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia in an experiment to show just how dependent journalists are on the internet as their source. Fitzgerald posted a fake quote on Wikipedia supposedly said by Maurice Jarre, a French composer who had recently passed away. After posting the quote, Fitzgerald was surprised to find that not only had various blogs and websites used the quote, but mainstream high- end newspapers as well included it in their versions of the composer’s obituary.
It surprised me that so much of the media depended on such an unreliable source. While I understood how low key bloggers could made the mistake, I would have thought the more upscale and bigger newspapers would not be able to afford making the same one. These papers affect many more people and it should be important for them to get their readers accurate and dependable news. Situations like this may cause them to lose readers and promote the image of their newspaper as being unreliable. While, like in this case, the mistake may not have been very important to many people, I believe a newspapers' reputation is still hurt because in the end it shows their carelessness and laziness when it comes to checking the facts. I think this experiment is a good wake up call to journalists out there in regard to checking facts. It also raises public awareness on being able to identify which source "got it right."

Photo Credit: Britannica via Creative Commons

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Bloggers' jailed for controversial content

Bloggers around the world have been imprisoned for controversial content of their blogs within the last few years.

Many of the bloggers have simply state their opinions in their blogs.

Believed to be the longest imprisoned bloggers, Egyptian Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman withthe blogger name Kareem Amer, for ridiculing religion and the leadership of Egypt, was released recently.

Because of the political importance behind his case, international support was given to Amer regarding the freedom of the people.

Many

bloggers around the world have experienced similar situations. According to a report released by Reporters Sans Frontières the number of bloggers arrested went from 59 to 151 between 2008 and 2009.

On top of the the 151 percent increase of imprisoned bloggers, one blogger died and 61 were phy

sically assaulted.

Omid Riza Misayafi is understood to be the one blogger to lose his life while imprisoned. His death is still a mystery.

Below is a video about just one of the many corrupt areas that are struggling to incorporate the new social media with traditional values.

IRAN: A Nation Of Bloggers from ayrakus on Vimeo.

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Online News Becomes a Conversation Between Journalists and Community

With the race to make it online, journalists are learning to use social media sites, and the users of these sights, to their advantage.

Future journalists will be more a part of the community than ever. Bloggers will be relied on for credible sources. Everyone will become a part of social media by reporting what they see.

It used to be the journalists telling the community what they should know. Now it's become an online conversation of news between the two.

Community members have become their own journalists. They are already reporting the news around them using social media. Journalists need to learn how to use this to their advantage. Social media platforms shouldn't be used just as a way to get readers back to your site.

Social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube will become social media platforms for the news. These sites have become like editors by telling readers what's important. Readers are curious about what friends are saying and looking at.

Along with this, a new job will arise for those who can curate all the information flying around. Readers don't always have time to sift through everything. Important information can be pieced together from social media sites into a story. Storyful is currently working on using information from sites like Twitter and Youtube to do just this.

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Avoiding Collapse Through Blogging

The media as we know it may soon be coming to an end. In a recent article for MediaShift, writer Roland Legrand tells of how another media scholar and writer, Clay Shirky, believes that traditional media outlets have become too big for their own good, destining them for collapse. This may seem disconcerting to journalism students such as myself, however, as Legrand continues he details several ways future journalists can save themselves in the face what I am titling, with inspiration from John Stewart, "mediapocalypse."

In examining the newspaper industry, it becomes evident that the structure and functioning of a large newspaper remains extremely complex. First, as Legrand points out it must employ, reporters, editors, news managers, graphics editors, printing, and sales and circulation departments. Also, with new online technologies, papers must employ people involved in digital news, who produce stories and video often 24 hours a day.

With all this complexity and need for employees, Shirky points out that traditional media entities will soon not be able to produce profit and will collapse in on themselves. Yet, in his article Legrand provides a well argued case for how blogging can help. First, blogs provide an interactive community and running them is far less complex. In following three simple rules, Legrand believes individuals and newspapers can find success with blogs.

First, newspapers must keep their blogging staff at a minimum and utilize simple software. Using simpler software will make the blog more manageable and limit the need for a more complex technical staff.

Second, blogs must be run similarly to small businesses. Although Legrand does not expound on this idea, in my opinion, this rule involves a local and creative approach to the news.

Lastly, bloggers must be granted freedom of control over their blogs. While it may be tempting for large news organizations to enforce too much control over bloggers, ultimately this will limit the creativity and life of the blog.

I agree that Legrand's approach to blogging is good sound advice for students such as myself. The last concept he discusses is the blog's ability to create a personal brand for an individual blogger, an idea that will come in handy for journalists after "mediapocalypse." As we've discussed in class, there remains a good chance that future journalists may someday be forced to take control of their own business and work independently. So, take Legrand's advice and continue to develop your brand as a blogger, your future may depend on it.

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Please, No More Hateful Comments

The Washington Post is taking steps to curtail online commentary from anonymous bloggers that is particularly abusive. They have no intention of stopping anonymous bloggers from posting, just a more careful moderating. Online commentary is important, it draws attention to the issues of the day and provides a forum for the public to express their views.

However; some anonymous comments serve no purpose but to convey hate. Andrew Alexander cites the following examples:

"Excellent!" exulted a Post commenter when conservative columnist Robert Novak died in August. "Hope he suffered."

When Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died a week later, a commenter wrote: "They are going to have to bury him in a secret location to stop people from defecating on his grave."

And after The Post reported last month that the wife and daughter of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had been badly injured when their car was hit by a tractor-trailer, a commenter applauded: "I would dearly LOVE to shake the hand of the driver of the other vehicle."

The Post would implement a system of tiers where some bloggers would be considered "trusted commentators" and placed in one section and those that do not provide their names or first time bloggers may be placed in another tier and still others who violate the rules in another or blocked.

I applaud The Post for taking steps to curtail these hateful comments. A public forum is no place for some of these distasteful and sometimes heinous comments. It is no wonder that are children are bullying each other on Facebook and in text messages when this is the example that is set.

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