Journalism, the World and the Future
Discussion of the future of journalism from GMU
Archive for Skills
I just posted an item on the DC SPJ blog site talking about Live Labs’ latest cool item: PIVOT.
The posting includes a video from PIVOT’s developer Gary Flake.
You should look at it, if for no other reason, it will introduce you to what appears to be a great way to get better context for your stories.
Digging out data and making sense of it
One of the great things about the taxes we pay is that they fund a lot of research. And it is all “free” to us. (After all we did pay taxes, so is it really free?)
The U.S. Census Bureau has a lot of information to add facts and figures to any story.
Summer time is when a lot of people move.
And, true to form, the Census Bureau has some great data that can get you started on understanding the annual migration of Americans.
Story ideas: Summer time also means moving time. Some stats to help the story
One of the great things about the Census Bureau people as well is how willing they are to help you find the data you need and help you understand the data.
Give ’em a call or drop them an e-mail.
I just posted on the DC SPJ website a rather long item from the US Census Bureau with all sorts great data about mothers and Mother’s Day.
Mother’s Day coming! Need some background data for a story?
Did you know:
- The average age of a woman giving birth for the first time was 25 in 2006?
- August was the month with the most births in 2006?
- Wednesday was the most common day to give birth that same year?
- There were 9.9 million single mothers with children younger than 18 in 2009?
Now you do.
Earlier I posted a report from the WWW2010 about a Korean report on how Twitter was more of a news service than just a social network. (Twitter: An news service limited to 140 characters)
Well, we it is nice to know that the scientific process backs up what some people already knew.
In Twitter: That Wild Beast, Cuban blogger and free press advocate Yoani Sanchez talks about Twitter as a news service.
It is true that we broadcast blindly and that we cannot read our readers’ replies or references, but at least we are reporting on the Island in 140 character fragments.
Always thinking in terms of conspiracies, agents and plots, [the Cuban police] haven’t noticed that the technologies have turned every citizen into his or her own mass media. It is no longer foreign correspondents who validate a given story in the eyes of the world, but rather, increasingly, it is our own forays on Twitter that are turned into informative references.
We saw in Iran and China how Twitter has become a major source for news unfettered by the national censors. Here again is validation of that.
First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World.
A recent study in Korea showed that Twitter was more than narcissistic recordings of one’s breakfast choices. It is a news service the provides timely information about global events.
One of the researches, Haewoon Kwak, presented the paper at the WWW2010 conference in South Carolina last week.
Joad Jackson at ITWorld reported on the paper:
The newsy aspect of Twitter is reflected in the question its users are now asked when posting tweets — “What’s happening?” — as opposed to the earlier question, “What are you doing?” And many people use the service to search for up-to-the-second information about unfolding events, such as a football game or a natural disaster.
Jackson also notes that unlike Facebook or MySpace, if oyu want to follow someone, you do not heed his/her permission. Plus, Twitter allows you realtime searches of topics and the ability to keep topics organized with hash (#) tags.
If you are into complicated math, you can read the whole report here as a PDF document: What is Twitter, a Social Network or a News Media?
This survey backs up anecdotal information.
When PBS merged the various offices of the NewsHour into one place and enhanced the program’s online presence, the old and new media saw how the other worked.
When the shootings at Fort Hood took place the Old Media folks grabbed their phones and started calling sources. The New Media folks grabbed their mobile phones and started Tweeting looking for immediate and accurate information from people on the scene.
Thanks to Steve Klein at George Mason for Tweeting about this.
First posted at DC SPJ Pro site.
