Tips for Contemporary Journalists from Experienced Writer
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
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The latest in news-industry issues, as written by multimedia journalism and integrated marketing communication students at Simpson College.
President Barack Obama takes time out of his busy schedule to conference call select universities to answer journalism students' questions.

Being a new tweeter myself I am still getting used to the in's and out's of what and how to say what you want in 140 characters.
One Twitter user offers some pretty good advice.
While you have 140 characters it doesn't necessarily mean you need to use each and every one of those to say as much as possible.
Instead of having diarrhea of the fingers you should try and make you tweets more like a headline.
You all remember back in the good old days when newspapers were still around when the headline was what captured a reader's attention.
Well, while we still have newspapers and more than enough online it seems people are forgetting that less is more. So get to the point people and save space for other things, such as hashtags or a link.
Here I will offer a few pointers from not only the article I read but also my Beginning Newswriting and Reporting Professor.
First off, always aim for the "active voice". Make your subject do something rather than have something happen to them. It's catchier but passive is sometimes acceptable as well.
Next, ditch the conjunctions and articles. You can simply replace conjunctions such as "&" with a comma. No one cares about, and really need the "the" to get the point across.
Abbreviate when possible, it save's time and space. The final piece of advice offered in the article is to not capitalize every single word in your headline.
So, take this advice everyone and make your tweets shorter, snappier and more like a headline.
How many of us want to travel (outside of our own state) to cover news stories? The chance to go to a different country would seem like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and many of us would probably jump at it. However, have we stopped to think of the consequences?
If you've looked at the news lately, you've probably noticed that reporters in Mexico are have been "disappearing" or are being murdered. This has been ongoing since 2006, when their new president came to office, Felipe Calderon. A South Carolina newspaper recently ran an article about how reporters in Mexico are being urged to use extra caution. What are they being murdered for?
Reporting on the drug trafficking problems. Since 2000, at least 65 reporters (in various fields) have been murdered, sometimes seemingly at random. This makes Mexico the deadliest country in the world for news people, according to a report from a Utah news station.
To us (or so I'm assuming), reporting on something such as drug trafficking doesn't seem like that big of an issue, but we are sitting a couple thousand miles away from the problem.
So why are journalists being killed for doing their jobs?
This is nothing new, and people have been persecuted over this for years. Do you remember Daniel Pearl who was beheaded over his investigation into Al-Qaeda a few years back? He had traveled to a war-torn country, tried to do his job, and was subsequently killed for doing so.
Would you be willing to travel to a foreign country, is you knew there was a chance you wouldn't be coming back? Do these kind of reports scare you, as a potential reporter, about what could happen? Or does it make you want it that much more? Just because the United States embraces journalists (for the most part), does not necessarily mean that the rest of the world does.

If you've been on Youtube and looked up songs of current popular artists, the first video listed may be one from Vevo.
Vevo is a music video website designed to attract big advertisers that launched a year ago this December. It plays videos from large record labels like Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI.
On Youtube, the Vevo video usually has the best quality and plays music videos to their entirety. They also have their annoying 30 seconds or less long advertisements at the beginning of each video. In the end it's worth waiting the extra 30 seconds because it's doubtful you will find a video with better quality.
Since Vevo launched it's been very successful. So successful that it is making plans to make their own television network and compete with MTV.
Vevo claims that they are the number one site to visit if you're looking for music videos. Although MTV receives more views when you add up everything they have on their channel.
Surprisingly in my opinion, MTV is not bothered by Vevo's hopes of creating their own TV channel. “We welcome new players in the music video category and think any exposure for music is good for the industry and everyone in it, from Fuse to Vevo,” an MTV spokesperson said.
That being said from MTV, I give them a lot of respect for being up for the challenge.
Vevo has yet to sign deals with satellite and cable providers since they are just beginning. If the Vevo channel happens, I wonder what the difference will be compared to MTV. For example, if Vevo will be strictly music videos, like MTV used to be.

Ethics. They're what we live by.


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| Entrepreneurial Journalism covers several platforms, all of which begin with technology. |
For two-and-a-half hours, many of the 550 million Facebook users experienced the "e-pocalypse" this past Thursday.
Two days ago, Facebook experienced an outage due to a glitch on Facebook's databases causing the site to be unavailable for a few hours.

Every journalist needs what is considered the top tool in some form.
There is a list of the top five tools for journalists, and the voice recorder is number one.
They are crucial to a journalist's writing.
So many mistakes can be made if the journalist doesn't have this tool.
When writing an article that involves interviewing, which I've found that most do, having some form of voice recorder is an absolute necessity.
If a journalist doesn't happen to have some type of recording device on them, they may be in a critical condition later on when trying to write the story.
The reason for the voice recorder is to make interviewing and jotting notes simpler. If something is missed it may be listened to later on to see what was said.
Another reason voice recorders are important is that when quoting somebody, a journalist must use exactly what they said. If the journalist merely jots notes instead of writing word for word then there will be no quotes to use.
Without quotes the article or story will be bland. The public will not want to read anything they can't relate to.
To avoid these mishaps, get some form of voice recorder.
Now, get out there and start interviewing.

Media consumption has skyrocketed over the past two years.
A study done by Ipsos OTX of 7,000 online consumers ages 13-74 shows that people now spend over half of every day consuming media. New technology like smart phones and high tech laptops has fueled this increase in consumption.
The big form of media that has been fueled by new technology is social media. The study showed that 77 percent of the people who participated in the study were members of one or more social Media site.
So, what is it big deal with social media?
Bruce Friend, president of Ipsos OTX Media CT said in an interview with TheWrap, "Communicating is now entertaining, and entertainment is communication."
Social media has broken its boundaries with the help of new media to take on the role of communication and entertainment combined.
Media consumers want to be informed, they want to be in touch and they want to be entertained. Social media has all of these aspects. Social media sites are constantly changing and revamping in order to attract media consumers who have these demands.
Thanks to new technology, social media sites are also being forced into making products available through every different type of smart phone or other media device on the current market.
Are media consumers demanding too much out of their media outlets?
Is entertainment becoming more important than communication, or can they coexist equally through social media?
Only time, and an eye on new technology, will answer that.

Aol's hyper local project called Patch says that it will be the largest employer of upcoming journalists. Patch U is teaming up with several universities and giving journalism students the opportunity for internships. New journalists are going to define the media and how we use it and Patch is committed to preparing them for this.
Schools such as Stanford and New York University's journalism programs are taking part in this opportunity. They will have the change to write leads, cover stories, be at events, shoot photo and video, and the editing process. This is a great experience for the students to get a taste of the life as a journalist.
However, with the world of journalism heading down hill this opportunity may not be as good as it would have been ten years ago. Journalism students may be getting the experience but then are finding it hard to get a job after college. They end up putting their stories out there for free Patch is avoiding exploiting students by limiting them to a two month unpaid internship.
http://http://www.editorsweblog.org/web_20/2010/09/patchu_offers_internships_to_journalism.php
Recently, I have been dabbling in the idea of starting my own blog outside of Beginning Newswriting and Reporting class. However, a few questions arise:
What in the world am I supposed to write about? Who would want to read what I have to say? Do I have the qualifications to write a “real” blog? And, what about my time? Do I have enough?
Luckily for my fellow, future bloggers, I have the answers.
According to Nathan T. Wright of Lava Row, you can write about anything at all. Wright presented "The Brand of You" at Simpson College tonight, in which he talked about making yourself a marketable brand. One area of branding Wright encouraged was blogging.
This means that if you're interested in writing a blog about sex and relationships like Glamour Magazine's blogger Erin Meanley- whose most recent article was entitled “Can We Please Discuss the Hotness That Was Last Night’s Dancing with the Stars?” -you can!
There are all types of readers around the world, so you shouldn’t ever worry about people not being interested in your blog.
And remember, anyone can write a blog. You just need to have the drive.

Don’t know how to get started? Here are some sites to help you out:
- Tumblr
- And of course Blogger
Overall, they follow the same general set-up. You just have to find the one that is right for you.
As Wright said, “There is no barrier to entry.” You just need to have the will and the time (at least once a week) to get your blog going.



Social medias as a social network are transitioning to an intriguing marketing tool for marketers.

In recent years, more and more print articles have become extinct and available only online. I don't know whether to be sorry, or excited.
Apple wants to make newspaper and magazine subscriptions available on iTunes and has been messing around with this idea for a while now. Even before the iPad was launched.
Some publishing companies released an iPad version of their work to go along with the iPad's release. Time Inc. was one of them.
Of course it seems like a bright idea, but after you think about it, the question is money. Print and online subscriptions go for $4-$5, and when you can get it for less through database subscriptions or iTunes. Publishing companies like to use their database subscriptions to gain customers and advertisers.
Apple takes a 30% revenue on everything it sells on iTunes, and hopes to do the same with periodicals.
The iPad has hopes of making magazines and newspapers more engaging to the audience rather than just the glossy finish on the print version. Publishers hope that Apple's iTunes will help increase sales since songs, video, and other downloads do very well.
iTunes still has a small amount of books, but the iPad will allow a much better experience which will increase the amount of e-books in the future.
It makes me wonder what will take place of the magazine racks at the check out. Maybe Amazon's Kindle and Barnes and Noble's Nook will follow. This is just another step towards less print articles.
Go Green?
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