Blogging For Journalists / from SreeTips.com

June 27, 2006

ARTICLE: Brian Williams, anchor - and blogger

Filed under: Articles - MUST READ, Blogs by journalists, Should journalists blog?

Brian WilliamsMark Glaser, who writes the MediaShift column for PBS.org, interviews the blogger with arguably the largest regular, non-blog audience in the world, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams (his show’s The Daily Nightly blog just turned one). 

Blogger-Anchor Brian Williams Defends Nightly Newscasts
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/06/digging_deeperbloggeranchor_br.html

One of the many interesting points: "People should know that I read every e-mail received by the broadcast, I read every e-mail received by the blog."

June 20, 2006

3 QUESTIONS: Tim Porter of TimPorter.com

Filed under: Blogs by journalists, Should journalists blog?, 3 Questions

THREE QUESTIONS for Tim Porter, veteran news guy, who blogs at First Draft ("Newspapering, Readership & Relevance in a Digital Age") at TimPorter.com. More about him here: http://www.timporter.com/resume.html

1. Why and when did you start to blog?
A: I started blogging on Dec. 4, 2002 with the somewhat arrogantly named Quality Manifesto. I had been out of newspapers for a couple years, working in Internet start-ups and, after the dot-com bust, building a house in Mexico. When the time came to go back to work, I began looking around at newspapers again, thinking I could bring some of the entrepreneurial, innovative culture I had found in start-ups back into newsrooms (which I had left primarily for the lack of the very same thing). I found, in "reading in" on papers after a couple of years off the grid, so to speak, that the cultural problems that  left me dissatisified had worsened. I thought I might have something to add to the nascent discussion that as arising about changing newspapers and helping to them prepare for digital future, but I had no real place to say it. So I blogged. I downloaded a free (at the time) copy of Movable Type, endured the teeth-pulling (at the time) installation procedure and began.

2. What have you learned (about your work, journalism or yourself) since you began to blog?
A: What have I learned? Too much to bang out here (from the Red Carpet Club in O’Hare), but a couple of things I can say quickly.

June 19, 2006

3 QUESTIONS: Daniel Pink of DanPink.com

Filed under: Blogs by journalists, Should journalists blog?, 3 Questions

THREE QUESTIONS for Dan Pink, author of "A Whole New Mind" and widely-published tech journalist, who blogs at DanPink.com. More about him here: http://danpink.com/aboutdp.php

1. Why and when did you start to blog?
A: i actually had a blog in 2002 called Just One Thing.  so i blogged before it was cool and after it was trite.  i do it largely to test out ideas, get things off my chest, and keep folks up to date on what i’m doing and working on.

2. What have you learned (about your work, journalism or yourself) since you began to blog?
A: i’ve learned that i actually don’t have an opinion on everything — and that i shouldn’t try to muster one.  i’ve learned that a blog can be an enormously useful and searchable database of what i’ve thought and read at particular moments.  and i’ve learned — or, more accurately, reaffirmed — that i prefer getting paid for my writing! 

3. Should journalists blog?
A: sure. why not?  journalists should enlighten, provoke, and entertain readers.  the medium by which they do those things doesn’t matter all that much.

Read more Dan Pink at DanPink.com.

3 QUESTIONS series archived here. 

3 Questions: Asking blogging journalists three questions

Filed under: Blogs by journalists, 3 Questions

New feature on this blog: Three Questions - I will ask blogging journalists the following three questions via e-mail:

1. Why and when did you start to blog?
 
2. What have you learned (about your work, journalism or yourself) since you began to blog?

3. Should journalists blog?

If you are a blogging journalist, please answer these. If you know of someone I should ask these of, let me know.

An archive will be collected at http://bloggingforjournalists.blogsome.com/category/3-questions/

 

 

June 15, 2006

ARTICLE: Using blogs to make reporters more relevant

Filed under: Articles - MUST READ, Blogs by journalists, Should journalists blog?

Romenesko points to an interview by Robert Niles in OJR.org with reporter Mark Sando about his Seahawks Insider blog:

 

Mark SandoMark Sando, who writes the award-winning Seahawks Insider blog, is asked about the potential risks for a newspaper reporter who blogs. "I think a blog will expose a poor reporter more quickly, while allowing a good reporter to flourish more demonstrably. Also, the comments section of a blog will test a reporter’s restraint. I’ve spent a fair amount of time maintaining the comments section by discouraging crassness, hot-temperedness and overall idiocy."

 

Read "Using Blogs to Make Reporters More Relevant." 

June 14, 2006

SERVICES: MovableType offers free personal edition

Filed under: Blogging services

I had thought that Movable Type did not offer a free blogging service, but it does.

One disadvantage: You have to download the software and run it off your computer (unlike others that are web-based, so you can blog from anywhere, not just one machine). 

See list of blogging services here:
http://www.sreetips.com/blogs.html#yourturn

Hat tip: Elva Ramirez

June 13, 2006

WORKSHOP: Agenda for Blogging For Journalists workshop

Filed under: Workshops, Agenda

This four-hour "Blogging For Journalists" session is a new type of workshop by Sree - see the others at SreeTips.com. The first edition was at Columbia, Wed., May 10, 2006, with Peter Rojas of engadget as our blogstar guest - we had more than 70 attendees, with some as far away as DC and Atlanta. The second edition was at Columbia, Tues, June 13, 2006, with Jen Chung of Gothamist as our blogstar guest - we had 100+ attendees.   Watch for more events or let sree@sree.net know if you want to schedule a similar session for you group.

Comment from attendee Phelps Hawkins of Mission Media: "It was an excellent workshop, utterly worth our time, money, and effort, with wonderful refreshments, in a lovely setting, and a terrific, knowledgeable host/guide."
E-mail: sree@sree.net

AGENDA FOR BLOGGING WORKSHOP
5:15 p.m. - Registration + optional: setting up your laptop, connecting to WiFi, etc.
6:05 p.m. - Welcome: Alice Pifer, director of professional development
6:10 p.m. - Sree Sreenivasan introduces program

UNDERSTANDING Jen Chung of GothamistBLOGS 

  • Blog basics and stats, state of the blogosphere
  • Meet a Blogstar - Jen Chung of Gothamist.com
  • Blog tour - a look at interesting blogs

7:20 p.m.
YOUR TURN

  • Quick blog exercise
  • The big difference: Change of pace and rhythm
  • Coming up with an idea
  • What are you going to say?
  • Who are your readers?
  • Blog software options
8:30 p.m.
LET’S BLOG
  • Time to work on your blog idea
    Volunteer helpers will be on hand to work with small groups
    Those not creating a blog watch others to see the process or discuss their own ideas with Sree
9:35 p.m.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER & NEXT STEPS
  • Building traffic
  • Making money
  • Next steps
  • Q&A
  • Feedback

Ends at 10 p.m.

INTL: Blogs & Freedom of Speech

Filed under: Articles - MUST READ, History/background, International

WorldPress.org has an article that looks at the state of blogging around the world and includes some interesting trivia about the origin of the word blog and related matters. It also highlights threats to free speech and citizen journalism.

     A bulletin from France’s Reporters Without Borders (May 3) presented a foreboding look into the possible future repression of bloggers’ freedom of expression: "Dictators would seem powerless faced with this explosion of online material. How could they monitor the e-mails of China’s 130 million users or censor the messages posted by Iran’s 70,000 bloggers? The enemies of the Internet have unfortunately shown their determination and skill in doing just that. Censorship of the Web is growing and is now done on every continent. Traditional ‘predators of press freedom’ - Belarus, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Libya, the Maldives, Nepal, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam - all censor the Internet now. In 2003, only China, Vietnam and the Maldives had imprisoned cyber-dissidents. Now more countries do.

Full item: http://www.worldpress.org/2373.cfm

Hat tip: Julia Levy

June 10, 2006

JOURNO BLOGGERS: Chip Scanlan on “Why I Blog”

Filed under: Blogs by journalists, Should journalists blog?
Chip Scanlan, author, writing coach and member of the Poynter faculty, has been blogging since January 2006 at "The Mechanic & The Muse" (a blog I recommend to all writers). Here is "Why I Blog."
Here are seven reasons I joined the millions who communicate through a form that is part reverse diary, commonplace book and soapbox.

1. Blog items respond to a rapidly changing media landscape. I like the way blogging lets me tackle multiple topics in a day or through the week instead of focusing all my time and energy on one weekly column. It’s the difference between being a beat specialist and a general assignment reporter. I can write on subjects that draw my attention. I’ve written about journalistic subjects and pointed readers to repositories of stories that represent best practices. But I’ve also written about fiction and memoir, two forms that are passions of mine. Like Cream, the ’60’s mega-group, sings, "I feel free."  

2. When I blog, my standards are lowered, always a key element in producing writing that can be revised, even after it’s published. A blog, by its very nature, is more informal than a column and less freighted with the expectations that a metro or sports column can impose. Blogging hasn’t made me indifferent to revision or accuracy; it just makes the process of generating words less susceptible to the inner critic.

Read the full item. 

June 8, 2006

NEW: Eat the Press on HuffPo

Filed under: New to Sree

A fascinating new blog by Rachel Sklar that compiles, in one place, all the media commentary on The Huffington Post. Check out the Google Blog Search mashup on the left side, Huffpo’s People Tracker:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eat-the-press/ 






















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