Best Practice of the Day
May 16, 2012 - Poynter
From Craig Silverman - "Alfred Hermida‘s research on
social journalism can help journalists better understand verification
and accuracy on Twitter. Two papers in particular caught my eye: “Tweets and Truth: Journalism as a Discipline of Collaborative Verification” and “Twittering the News: The emergence of ambient journalism...”
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Read MoreMay 15, 2012 - Poynter
From Casey Frechette - "Sound can make or break a multimedia production, whether it’s
an audio slideshow, a documentary video or an interactive narrative.
Unfortunately, audio often gets short shrift. Visuals and interactive
elements tend to command our attention, and just getting the story right
can become an all-consuming task. Sound, it’s hoped, will somehow take
care of itself.
If audio weren’t critical to the quality of our productions, this
approach might work. But, there’s a reason radio has been called the
most visual medium. There’s something about sound that puts our
imaginations to work, making us more active participants in the story
we’re hearing..."
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Read MoreMay 14, 2012 - Poynter
From Steve Myers - "There are three challenges in using social media content for reporting, as Storyful’s Mark Little has written: finding it, verifying it, and figuring out the best way to publish it.
In breaking news situations, reporters often rely on text searches —
names of places, keywords like “crash” or “fire,” and hashtags. They
look for users whose bios mention a particular location.
But it’s hit-or-miss. Even when they use the right terms, they have
to wade through all the conversation from people who aren’t at the
scene..."
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Read MoreMay 11, 2012 - Poynter
From Jill Geisler - "Great bosses know it’s important to build trust
in organizations. But managers can’t simply mandate it, any more than
Poynter faculty can command people in our programs to reach out to each
other. It must be their own choice.
But leaders can create an atmosphere where the choosing comes easily.
That’s important work with a great payoff. So here are eight tips for
building trust among a group of people, whether they’re in a workplace
or a workshop..."
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Read MoreMay 10, 2012 - Poynter
From Kelly McBride - "Did you say “Yay”? Tweet out a “hurrah”? Did you pass along a funny joke or link to a partisan headline like “Obama declares war on traditional America” or a story that declared the president’s announcement “A victory.”
Journalists everywhere balanced on that tightrope Wednesday as Twitter and Facebook exploded with news of President Obama’s declaration that he believes gay couples should be allowed to marry.
Many wanted to post a headline that reflects their beliefs, or shout
out an opinion. Some did, like Tina Brown, the editor of Newsweek and
The Daily Beast who Tweeted: “Much joy at the Beast about Obama’s gay history moment. A historic day.”
Others posted links to straight news stories or non-partisan
analysis. And many of us just lurked, hesitant to join the conversation,
knowing that it’s hard to say anything about gay marriage without
revealing your opinion..."
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Read MoreMay 9, 2012 - Poynter
From Mallary Jean Tenore - "Since The New York Times launched its metered paywall last March,
about 472,000 people have become digital subscribers. The Times saw a 73 percent gain in circulation
over the past six months, according to the latest Audit Bureau of
Circulations report. This was largely due to digital gains; the Times’
daily digital subscribers actually exceeded its daily print
subscribers.
My colleague Rick Edmonds said recently
that “you can bet the farm” the Times won’t get that many digital
subscribers in the next year, and that “ten to 15 percent more would be a
solid performance.”
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Read MoreMay 8, 2012 - Poynter
From Jeff Sonderman - "Emerging evidence suggests the sudden decline in usage of Facebook news apps is a symptom of the social network’s varied experiments in promoting reading activity in users’ main News Feeds.
On Monday I questioned what could have happened in mid-April to simultaneously and similarly disrupt so many of these frictionless-sharing apps.
Ryan Kellett at the Washington Post and Josh Constine
of TechCrunch both blame it on Facebook’s shift from a big “recently
read articles” module that listed five headlines read by friends, to a
small “trending articles” box that shows only one headline at a time...."
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Read MoreMay 7, 2012 - Poynter
From Julie Moos - "Samantha Swindler,
then 27, had been managing editor of the Corbin (Ky.) Times-Tribune for
about three years when she asked 20-year-old Adam Sulfridge to report
on a corrupt sheriff, Lawrence Hodge, who was involved in trading guns,
drugs and favors. At the time, Sulfridge was a local college sophomore
“whose only experience was working on his high school newspaper.”
Swindler told “60 Minutes”‘ Byron Pitts she hired Sulfridge because, “He
was smart, he knew about the community, and he cared about local
government.” Sulfridge also had a personal stake in the story: his aunt
had overdosed. “My first question was, I wonder if she got her drugs
from somebody that the sheriff was protecting.”
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Read MoreMay 4, 2012 - Poynter
From Roy Peter Clark - "I have been reading more poetry lately, and not just because April
was National Poetry Month. For reasons I can’t explain, I have not found
poetry; rather it has re-discovered me. Perhaps the re-connection was a
natural result of my search for good examples of short writing, stuff
for my next book “How To Write Short.”
In any case, the result has been exhilarating. In learning from the
work of Shakespeare, Frost, Eliot, Yeats, Dickinson and Plath — their
themes, passions and failures — I’ve hit upon some writing techniques I
can use in my prose every day.
Take, for example, the different effects created when I use short
Anglo-Saxon words as opposed to their French-derived synonyms, as
described in this essay..."
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Read MoreMay 3, 2012 - Poynter
From Roy Peter Clark - "In January 1967, I began my first serious study of poetry under the tutelage of a brilliant young professor named Rene Fortin.
The poetry was 20th century, described as Modern, and took us from
William Carlos Williams to Sylvia Plath. The style of interpretation
derived from a school called the New Criticism. Nothing mattered, I
learned, except for the words on the page, especially any evidence of
tension, ambivalence or ambiguity.
The focus on the words was rigorous. The history of the period meant
nothing. The poet’s biography meant nothing. His intent, stated or
hidden, meant nothing. Derive meaning, I was told again and again, from
the words on the page..."
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