Will additional skills mean lesser quality?

It is well-known that new-age journalists are picking up new skills that deal with the digital transition of the news.  A journalist is not only expected to report, write and edit, but they need to be able to choose more additional features (interactive) to add to their story.

Video, audio slideshow, photographs, maps, polls …… What to choose? What to choose?  This is a journalist’s everyday question.

Now journalism has always been known as being a hectic field – with late night hours, making more than 10 phone calls  a day trying to retrieve quotes, attending meetings and such. Well, this new digital transformation isn’t making the field any less hectic. In fact, it stresses me out a little bit just to know this could be my future.

Journalists are expected to learn how to use layout programs, photo editing programs,  slideshow programs, video programs. The list goes on and on. These skills aren’t something you usually just pick up either- for most people, they take some time to adapt and learn.

But there aren’t only negative aspects of the digital transformation of news. Its accessibility to an unlimited amount of people actually works out to a journalist’s advantage. In fact, it saves the journalist time opposed to the demand of learning tons of new skills.  What I’m talking about here is crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing allows journalists to come up with new ideas and overall allows the public to form news that it wants to read and see in a newspaper.

Crowdsourcing can range from comments written in response to an article or an entire Web site dedicated to people’s experiences or opinions on a certain topic. Journalists are able to set these things up and refer to them later to pick the best quotes possible  – and then transform it in an article with a topic that the public was interested about initially.

In essence, after being enrolled in an online journalism for the past three months, I have realized that I do enjoy learning these new skills and programs. Yes, they do take time and can add a bit of stress to one’s life, but in the end, learning these skills is worth it and can make your great article seem fantastic.  Interactivity is key – readers enjoy it and what’s better than appeasing your readers?

I can see myself working for an online health publication in the future -  I look forward to building Web sites and learning all sorts of new programs/techniques. As computer-savvy as I am, I know that I will enjoy the digital transformation of our news today.

Councilpedia

After searching through the different winners of the Knight News Challenge, I came across an interesting project that won $250,000 in New York in 2009.

Gail Robinson, the creator of this project, created the Web site Councilpedia, which shows the various expenditures made by politicans in New York City. Now she hopes that people who have more time will go through and scrutinize every single expenditure that they received from people and organizations and where it goes.

Some questions she would like answered are “Did a candidate take money from a developer charged with building code violations? Click on that contribution and tell us. Does another council member introduce legislation at the beck and call of a particular union? Connect those dots for us.”

This is a super interesting way of going about finding any suspicious details about the transactions that your own politician makes. In fact, this is a way of crowd-sourcing – The Gotham Gazette will utilize these suspicious transactions found by regular people and can then use it for their own investigative piece. Journalism is changing in such a way that news is so immediate and timely that journalists lack the time to search through hours and hours of documents.

I think this is a great idea to allow others to do the work for you – they just have to really interested in the topic. This is basically what need this fills because it’s allowing journalists to work more on the quality of their current projects, while letting others with more time to do the research for a potential really great investigative piece on NY’s politicians.

Also, the Web site is really interesting in showing the exact details of where the politician went, where it is located, and how much they spent there. Any New York resident would probably want to see where the money is going anyways – to determine if the politicians on the right track in the politics world.

I think this ties to Tom Rosentiel’s speech about the Future of News and how his major theme is that journalism is more robust now than ever. People/readers are now allowed to comment, interact, discuss the news. In fact, they’re able to create their own news. He also mentioned that it was originally that it has gone from a “journalist as  lecturer to the consumer as its own editor.” More people are able to investigate the news and find out for themselves what seems to more right and more credible versus suspicious and possibly wrong.

Gail Robinson explains that readers learn from “Gotham Gazette about coverage and context about campaign contributions and voting record.” But now, with Councilpedia, readers can see where exactly these campaign donations from people and organizations are going to. Oddly enough, it’s not surprising to see a bit of it going to salons or restaurants, such as Inez Dickens.

Councilpedia is an aggregation of all the expenditures made by politicians, Inez Dickens, John Liu and Bill de Blasio.  The Web site is not very technical or established as there are only three politicians to investigate.  Some of the Web site even seems like it’s unfinished. It’s not exactly aesthetically pleasing, but provides really good information on the politicians – when it’s finally found.

I think it would work if the Web site was changed up a bit (physically.) If it included more politicians and had links on the left for each politicians, then the information would be easy to find. Right now, it just says “Explore” underneath the introduction, which is incredibly obscure. After changing the physical Web site to look more appealing and easy to use, readers can better navigate the site.

Next, it is already known that a lot of New York citizens are highly interested in politics, which only means that they want to know more about the state’s politicians. If they’re able to scrounge up interesting or suspicious expenditures that their politicians made, they would feel rewarded if they were to see their suggestion appeared in the newspaper’s Politics news.

Overall, everyone wants to know that the money is being utilized in a fair way – The way money is spent can really tell you something about the character of someone.

Convenience? Yes, but not very fun.

Interactive elements that appear on the MinnPost all have a specific purpose of providing convenience for their readers.

A box appears on the left side of the homepage specifically designed to allow readers to see Minnpost’s Youtube, Facebook, Myspace and specific Twitters. This is a sufficient interactive element that also has the purpose of being a crowdsourcing mechanism.

But, this doesn’t make MinnPost differ from any other Web site because all other news organizations are using this. So what makes them stand out?

I’m not sure about other news sites but MinnPost has a searchable database called MN Jobs which is a great tool for Minnesotan people (or others) to find a job in the particular area without having to refer to a Minnesotan newspaper (which costs $.)

I also noticed that on the left side of the homepage, a weather box is implemented into the Web site, specifically referring to the Twin Cities. Readers can click through the box and go right to the weather page to get any additional weather information they need/want.

Surveys, maps and  polls are unseen on the Web site and could create an additional fun hands-on activity to get readers more involved with what they’re reading or seeing.

Besides providing convenience for their readers and potentially driving user engagement, which isn’t a bad thing at all, the MinnPost has not utilized interactive elements in order to supplement their articles. Providing weather, links to one’s Twitter or Myspace and helping readers find a job is all part of a sufficient Web site, but this doesn’t add any journalistic value.

Add some polls, surveys or maps MinnPost!

I hate to whine about online design

When first glancing at MinnPost.com’s homepage, my eyes go toward the center photograph for the “top” article of the day. That’s because MinnPost has not conformed to the norm of placing the most important articles on the left side, but hey it still works.

The font size of this headline is barely bigger than the headlines of the other front page stories. The first building block of good online design that MinnPost could work on is their usage of contrast. In fact, the lack of contrast makes the online design much more harmonious than it needs to be.

By really differentiating headline sizes from caption sizes from by lines, it is much easier for readers to know what they’re looking at. Bylines, captions and headlines are all in the shade of black. By making headlines black, bylines light gray and captions blue, then the usage of contrast on their Web site would be more apparent. MinnPost could use The New York Times as a role model in the fact that it uses different colors for each aspect.

Now looking at harmony, MinnPost is quite consistent in using an light yellow/olive green combined with maroons, navy blues and forest greens. Pictures are relevant to each particular article and differ in size as to show what is more important. Though, the photographs look as if they are high school photos- maybe they could be more creative.  Example:

MinnPost has done a good job with divvying up each section with a colored section header, such as .. (see below) This allows for easy navigation of the Web site and allows readers to choose what they want to read.
In terms of proximity and simplicity, I believe MinnPost is doing a good job. MinnPost uses text and some graphics to get the point across. They are TOO simple in the fact that they never use alternative font colors, which could be a problem (going back to contrast.) But besides this, font is easy to find for each article and photographs are not overdone to supplement the articles.

For proximity, items do seem as if they appear together because they are  located tightly together (photographs and articles.)  Lastly, as I said before,  there are sections that allow different articles with certain topics to be all in the same area so it is easier for readers to find what they want to read.

Also, as a side note, it seems as if the MinnPost is being too modest in promoting its own name because the news organization name is neatly placed in a small corner on the left side. It seems so cramped up in the corner so make it bigger MinnPost. Promote your name, it’s important! Once again, look at The New York Times – they’re not so modest in really selling their name.

Side shot again. Capturing the moment.Perspective - being able to see the snow in the air.

Emotion. Graphic.

Perspective.

Using the quality of light to produce silhouettes of the people in the photo. Also, a graphic because of its aesthetically pleasingness.

Burning couch fire at Downtown Annapolis on St. Patrick's Day. Rule of thirds.

Web video

Videos on MinnPost are there, but hard to find. After searching through, I found an entire section dedicated to MinnClips.

Located under the blogs on the right side of MinnPost.com,  MinnClips is a bunch of “MN Videos compiled by Ken Ronnan.” MinnClips is a space to watch videos relating to Minnesota that are taken from Youtube, Vimeo, MinnPost-made videos or videos from whoever wants to send one in.

There is about one clip posted a day that relates to anything from “finding the best golf putt” to “the anatomy of a pothole.”

Most of these videos are from outside sources such as Associated Press or different Minnesotan organizations. Very few videos from MinnPost have been posted and most pertain to videos of their events, such as the Book Club Blast. This is a great way for crowdsourcing and leaves a bit of incentive for their readers to get their video posted up on MinnPost that they believe may interest the Minnesotan people.

Minnesota shares that: “If you have a Minnesota-related video that you’d like us to consider, simply upload your video to your favorite video sharing web site (like MNStories.com) and email us the embed code. Videos must be in good taste, with no copyright violations. When submitting your video to MinnClips, be sure to point out the Minnesota connection.”

MinnClips is an effective way to get the audience involved, but I realized that it is not the most easiest feature to find. If they made MinnClips as a section at the top of the homepage, they could find themselves posting more than one video a day and getting more Web site hits for creating more of an incentive for their readers.

So besides MinnClips, Videos are very rarely used to supplement their own articles which may create less of an interactive feeling to the Web site and more as a print news organization.  As many readers learn in different ways, videos are great for auditory learners.

So besides posting videos from outside sources, it’d be great to add more interactive features to accommodate all different types of readers on their online news Web site.

Photoshopping images

Photo credit: infomatique

Photo credit:  U.S. Embassy New Zealand

Crowdsourcing = comments?

So, user-generated content on the MinnPost is apparent in the form of comments and a Community Voices section.

Comments are a common form of  user-generated content on most news organizations Web sites. But not all take the necessary precautions to make sure comments are written with good intentions. MinnPost provides a disclaimer underneath each article that says:

MinnPost does not permit the use of foul language, personal attacks or the use of language that may be libelous or interpreted as inciting hate or sexual harassment. User comments are reviewed by moderators to ensure that comments meet these standards and adhere to MinnPost’s terms of use and privacy policy.

We intend for this area to be used by our readers as a place for civil, thought-provoking and high-quality public discussion. In order to achieve this, MinnPost requires that all commenters register and post comments with their actual names and place of residence.

So, basically, anyone who wants to comment must abide by these rules, but also register to verify that their post is not  spam.

I talked to Derek Wallbank, the Washington D.C. correspondent I referred to in my previous post, and he referred to crowdsourcing as “getting tips.” He believes that interacting with readers through social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook and comments is most important to get ideas from the audience.

“One builds sources from amongst the readership, which for MinnPost is a pretty involved and interested one,” Wallbank said in an email. “Sometimes those folks who started out reading your work become some of your best sources. I’ve had that happen more than a few times.”

The Web site also contains a section for Minnesotans to post their own articles. “Community Voices features opinion pieces from a wide variety of authors and perspectives. MinnPost welcomes submissions on current topics of broad interest in Minnesota,” according to the Web site. One article is posted a day and articles range from stories on politics, metro, medicine, and more. It’s a great way to get the community involved and to get their say into the news.

Comments and the Community Voices are the two closest forms of crowdsourcing projects that the MinnPost has to offer. Strict guidelines seem to be set on both, which helps to stream the best sources of information for the people of (mostly) Minnesota.

Reporters using social networking

After trying to find reporters from  the MinnPost on Twitter, I found that  Derek Wallbank, coincidentally a Washington, D.C. correspondent, was one that really utilized this social networking tool. But the question is, is he using it right?

Well, after reading “10 ways journalists can look like a Twitter newbie,” it seems that Wallbank is on the right track. He’s not signing his tweets, forgetting to post links, he’s posting more than just his own published work, he follows people and he communicates with others.

Wallbank explained that he set up a protocol that allows all of his MinnPost articles to automatically update to his Twitter.  Promoting articles through social networking “can help increase the number of people reading these articles by exponential rates,” he said. “It’s [Twitter/Facebook] a vehicle to get interesting stories out to people who might not know about them or to those who doesn’t always check MinnPost all the time.”

He also shared this his Facebook is where he puts more of his serious work, where he has around 800 friends. But, he chooses to put the more interesting articles onto his Twitter, where he has around 315 followers.

Wallbank communicates with his followers and even shows a bit of his personality through some opinionated Tweets, such as something a silly as his retweet:

@tomscheck Love Jimmy Johns. Unfortunately there are NONE of them in D.C. proper (just in the burbs) 6:26 PM Feb 23rd

Wallbank admitted that his Facebook and Twitter “both have personality and in a professional fashion  so I’m comfortable with putting up anything.”  Also, he admits that “a reporter  can’t have a bland personality on Twitter and be as successful as they should be.”

He is also using Twitter to retweet articles from other organizations, which I believe is quite admirable. “I post things that are interesting and that people on my account would find interesting” he said.  Most of Wallbank’s followers are from Washington D.C. or from Minnesota. “It’s  about half and half,” he said,

Lastly, Wallbank has used social networking to find story ideas. “I have turned tweets into blogs many times,” he said. He said  he has utilized Facebook to get sources/a lede, localized the story and was able to create  a breaking news story.

He is tweeting several times a time, communicates with his audience, finds story ideas, and promotes his articles and others. I’d say a lot of reporters could learn from this one.

Hello more responsibilities!

After hearing John Cutter, an editor at the Orlando Sentinel,  speak about the transformation of journalism, it became clear to me how many skills present and future journalists must have in today’s digital-evolving realm.

A  journalist is expected find a good story idea, find sources, write an interesting story, fact-check, and edit their work.  But, this article means nothing if the journalist isn’t using the proper resources to get their article out in the open- which today – is social networking.

Facebook and Twitter are two extraordinary ways to promote one’s article, as millions and millions of people live on these Web sites.

After journalist get their article out in the open via Twitter or Facebook, reporters are then expected to interact with their audience through comments and such, which allows readers to know he/she is interested in their thoughts.

As time-consuming as this may seem, it can be extremely advantageous for a journalist.  By interacting with the audience, journalists can easily find new trendy topics to cover or maybe just take a whole new angle to a previous story already written.

Cutter gave advice about the three rules for social networking and of which I think each journalist should stand by. First, you should always reach people where they live online, which nowadays, is mostly Twitter and Facebook as I’ve mentioned before. Second, you should make it easy for people to share your stories, AKA always link it!  Lastly, maximize your engagement by partaking in discussions and always responding to reader’s comments to better interact with your audience.

If every journalist abides by these three rules, social networking will easily promote their news organizations Web site, but most importantly, their article.

Time seems to be limited as journalists are expected to do a lot of things for just one article. This might be putting constraints on their accuracy and overall, just  affecting their production of high-quality work. This a giant con to the new age of journalism, but it’s something that we must improve.

It was  intriguing to hear that because some news organizations want to get their story up as quick as possible on their Web site, they may sacrifice high quality photographs from a Nikon and demote down to photographs from 2.0 mega-pixels from a Blackberry.

Cutter’s discussion really put things in perspective for me as a future journalist. In essence, I have learned that every skill  I learn in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism is one that I should retain because it seems that I will be using every skill in my career and each will be essential to my success.