Get Up Off Of Your Ideas

University of North TexasDepartment of JournalismOnline Journalism 3340

February 12, 2008

Today’s Lineup

Hot news Generating Story Ideas Your Blog Entries

What Makes a Good Story? Good reporters Undying curiosity Tenacity Bold Good listener Quick thinker Persuasive What Else?

Where Do You Begin?

Who is your audience?

Print/Broadcast audience differs from web audience

Local, Regional, National … Global

‘Insatiable desire for information’

What can I add to create a rich, informative online experience?

“...we needed ….to make a special editorial emphasis that goes beyond what the print journal does or what the newswires do. It is a different audience. It is a complementary audience, but it is not the same as print, and we try to meet those information needs.”

- Rich Jaroslovsky, Man. Ed.,

WSJ.com

Where Do You Begin?Traditional Sources Sources/individuals Newspapers

Local and community Television News Wire Services Observation

Covering a meeting, events Press conferences Documents

Police reports, court filings, press releases

Where Do You Begin?Today: It’s a Two-Way Street

Feedback pages Readers suggestions to

editors, specific reporters

Message boards (NOLA.com)

Readers post comments everyone can read

Chat Rooms A dialogue among readers

Online polls (cnn.com, foxnews.com, Boston Globe)

Instant non-scientific reaction to stories, subjects

E-mail Reporters/Editors contact info published

Where Do You Begin? New Reservoirs of Ideas

Groups (Yahoo!,

Google, others)

Formerly ‘Usenet’ – broad range of subjects

Blogs (USAToday, NYPost,

Millions of them

Search engines Find sources, studies, special interests

MySpace, Facebook, YouTube!

Personal webpages … from human interest to the absurd

Tech Sites CNet, Mobile News, TechWeb

Trash Into Treasure

It’s boring Who cares? It’s obscure It’s pointless It’s ridiculous It’s a cliche

Interviewee boring

The story has already been done

Nobody wants to read this

Nobody will understand it

CrowdSourcing – “We Media” Coined by Jeff Howe, 2006, Wired News article In his words: “crowdsourcing represents the act of a

company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call.

“This can take the form of peer-production (when the job is performed collaboratively), but is also often undertaken by sole individuals. The crucial prerequisite is the use of the open call format and the large network of potential laborers.”

Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting Methods”

Crowdsourcing cont. Ability to gather vast amount of

information from a large group “Harnessing the power of community on

a continuing basis to improve the information base”

Beyond a grassroots concept, but as much a journalism tool as a corporate tool

Wikipedia, iStockPhoto, YouTube.com

Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting Methods”

CrowdSourcing

Why? Gathering information quickly from

multiple Engaging method to involve

readers/viewers/customers Educating a community of users who

have access to a greater variety information to make more informed decisionsSource: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting

Methods”

Crowdsourcing cont. It’s for real

Gannett Corporation – “Information Centers”

Prioritize local news over national news; Publish more user-generated content;

become 24-7 news operations, in which the newspapers do less and the websites do much more;

Use crowdsourcing methods to put readers to work as watchdogs, whistle-blowers and researchers in large, investigative features.

Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting Methods”

Real Examples Cincinnati Enquirer – Voter Issues – Nov

2006 A Gannett newspapers Newspaper invited readers to submit

information about voter irregularities Newspaper posted them on a Google Map

BlackAmericaWeb.com – 2008 Election Partnership with NAACP National Voter Fund Voters call in to report problems Interactive map showing call volumes Tom Joyner Morning Show driving listeners to

submit comments to the website or a phone line

Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting Methods”

Real Examples The Spokesman-Review

Create reader networks E-mail databases sorted by beat:

Education, Police, Specific cities Correspond with sources Seek/verify information Gather reader opinion

Why? Ken Sands – created the ‘networks’ Interaction occurs before publication – during

information gathering process Proactively contacting people you get a wider

reaction than waiting for them to call you

Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting Methods”

Story Mapping

Source: http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=17432

‘Story Tree’

Source: http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=17432

Once You Have An Idea, Now What?

Key questions to ask yourselfa) Why is this news?

i) Timeliness? Trend? Celebrity? Human Interest?

b) What’s the ‘so what’?c) Who wants to read the story?d) Why is it important?e) Can I localize it?f) Can I make it into a regional? National

story?

Now What…..

Once I have an idea, what’s next?a) Who are my sources? b) Where do I find them?c) How much research do I have to do

to better understand the background of the story, the person I’m going to interview?

i) Newspaper/magazine articles/archivesii) Documents – reports, public filingsiii) Other individuals

Now What…..

d) What questions do I need to ask?i) Assess for each source: You may need sets of

questions for each source, depending on the story

ii) Constantly remind yourself: “What’s this story about? What’s the ‘so what’”?

e) Evaluate what graphic/interactive elements you need to bring the story alive

i) Photosii) Chartsiii) Mapsiv) Audio and/or video