Writing on the Wall » Twitter

Breaking Down Journalists And The Web

brandonwall — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:10:44 +0000

I came across a survey entitled “Key Findings From the 2009 Middleberg / SNCR Survey of Media in the Wired World” today courtesy of Esprit Blog. The survey was a web-based questionnaire distributed to 341 journalists from around the world, and mostly focused on their perceptions of ‘the internet.’ Obviously ‘the internet’ is a big term; the survey mostly focused on multimedia content and social networking distribution.

Read the full survey here.

Here’s some quick background info I pulled from the PDF on who was actually surveyed.

More than 30 percent stated their role as editor (including “online editor”); 38 percent were reporters (including freelance reporters); others were producers and publishers. Nearly half of all respondents, 49 percent, work within newspaper or magazine organizations; more than 20 percent work for online media-only organizations; and 13 percent work for broadcasters (i.e., radio and television).

Now let’s get down to the fun stuff! Here are the main points the survey dug out:

Nearly 70 percent of journalists are using social networking sites

48 percent are using Twitter or other microblogging sites and tools, a 25% increase since 2008

66 percent are using blogs

48 percent are using online video

25 percent are using podcasts

More than 90 percent of journalists agree that new media and communications tools and technologies are enhancing journalism to some extent

Nearly 80 percent of respondents agreed that new media and communications technologies allow them to report with greater accuracy

80 percent of journalists believe that bloggers have become important opinion shapers in the 21st century and many are increasingly incorporating citizen-generated media into their reporting.

I put together this quick chart to give some context to the numbers. It compares the results of the survey (conducted in 2009) with the best data I could gather off Google for related American consumption. Most of the ‘public’ column is data collected in 2008.

	Journalists	American Public
Use Social Networking	70%	48%
Use Twitter	48%	11%
Read Blogs	66%	40%
View Online Video	48%	30%
Listen To Podcasts	25%	20%

The numbers mostly speak for themselves, and aren’t too surprising. Journalists are well aware of the trends that can (and are) dictating the future of their business. Journalists are largely becoming involved with digital technologies as both consumers and producers.

I would have liked to see the ‘podcast/video/blog’ question broken down a little bit more. What percentage of journalists actually produce content? I was surprised that the podcasting statistics were so low… I wonder what that says about the medium? I’ve recently gotten into podcasting and while I’m about as amateur as it comes, I have a lot of fun doing it and I can see the viability in the platform.

The Journalist’s Rallying Cry

brandonwall — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:53:19 +0000

Below is a screenshot of a tweet I received over the summer. It’s something that has been stuck in the back of my head ever since.

Is this the modern journalist's rallying cry?

Have fun and stay in trouble.

It highlights two things that have become fundamental tenants of journalism. One, have fun. It’s no secret that the current state of professional journalism is….less than ideal. Okay, that’s an understatement. It is probably one of the worst industries to be getting into.

Never mind the recession, that’s child’s play compared to our industry as a whole. it seems that every month, a new corporation is filing for bankruptcy. It’s easy to get depressed and carry a chip on your shoulder…at this point it’s part of the standard uniform.

Journalism is very much a labor of love. Those that are in the field and are not passionate will not be around long. So lighten up, journalists. It sucks, but we need to have a sense of humor about us before we become hollowed husks of a human.

Two, stay in trouble. Isn’t that just great? It really defines what journalism is all about. One of the biggest failures of modem journalism is the lack of real hard-hitting investigations. Sure, it happens. Big stories like Blago corruption, the Burr Oak Cemetery and other squeamish things like that will always be gleefully busted open. But on the day to day level of basic journalism, I don’t think we are pushing and digging as hard as we maybe should be.

We should constantly be asking questions that others would hesitate to ask. We must constantly be taking it to the next level, pushing just a little bit harder, to tell the whole story. A wise man once told me, “If your articles are pissing people off, you are probably doing your job.“ Not a universal truth, but probably a good indicator of your job performance, depending on what you cover.

I’m going to take these two phrases to heart. I’ve found that it’s sometimes too easy to slip into the monotony of journalism: get your assignment. Do your assignment. Revise your assignment. Submit your assignment. Repeat ad nauseum.

I’ve gone ahead and made two little placards for both phrases, and they now are pinned to the walls of my cubicle.

#WJChat links from ‘Journalist/Coder’ chat

brandonwall — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:12:37 +0000

Updated 18feb10 at 7:13 pm CST

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The folks over at http://wjchat.webjournalist.org/ organize weekly Twitter chats “where Web journalists share experiences, skills, tech, tips and tricks.”

February 17′s chat was about journalism and coding, and a healthy mix of journalists and coders (some were both!) showed up. A LOT of great information was tossed around, and a lot of helpful links were posted. I went through 53 pages of tweets to pull out as many links as I could spot. Here they are, in all their glory!

This is by no means a definitive list, so PLEASE feel free to post links in the comments to any sites that will help enterprising journalists enter the world of coding. Conversely, if you have any good ‘basics of journalism’ links to post for our coder friends looking to get their feet wet, share those too.

Video Tutorials

http://www.lynda.com/

tutsplus.com/plus-program/net-plus/

Jquery

docs.jquery.com/Tutorials:How_jQuery_Works

blog.themeforest.net/screencasts/jquery-for-absolute-beginners-video-series/

tablesorter.com/docs/

jqapi.com/

www.learningjquery.com/

SQL

sqlzoo.net/

Django

www.chrisamico.com/blog/2010/jan/26/journalism-django-part-one-prerequisites/

www.chrisamico.com/blog/2010/feb/07/journalism-django-part-two-required-reading/

Python

diveintopython.org/toc/index.html

Firefox plugins

addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5817

getfirebug.com/

Other Resources

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_application_frameworks

labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcs5/appsfor_iphone/

www.r-project.org/

headfirstlabs.com/

www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/wing/www/publications/Wing06.pdf

michelleminkoff.com/

Check out the feed from #WJchat below

CNN finds a way to put Twitter to good use

brandonwall — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:37:32 +0000

I found this gem via the Huffington Post today.

I’m not sure what kind of algorithyms they’re using to analyze data, but some fancy technology from Crimson Hexagon has allowed CNN to quantify and determine the moods and opinions in tweets during and after the President’s State of the Union address. It is further broken down by state.

This is the first time I’ve ever seen such a comprehensive review of the ‘mood’ on Twitter. Given how vocal the political side of Twitter can be, it’s fascinating to have tangible information about their moods. The analysis looks at nearly 150,000 tweets. It’s a neat application of social media, Twitter specifically. I think it gives a more accurate look at the mood of people compared to say, a simple embed poll.