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QMI covers trial with branded Twitter account

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:53:05 -0500

Perhaps taking a page from our neighbours to the south, the London Free Press and QMI Agency have decided to cover the Michael Rafferty trial with a branded Twitter account (@RaffertyLFP) instead of using reporters’ personal Twitter accounts to live tweet the proceedings.

Many Florida-area newspapers and TV stations did the same thing when they covered the Casey Anthony trial last summer.

There are pros and cons to going this route for a court case.

Pros:

You don’t clutter reporters’ personal Twitter accounts with tweets their current followers don’t have an interest in reading;
Multiple people can access the account, meaning followers don’t have to follow three different people;
People can go back and read the case from beginning to end in one place.

Cons:

You have to build the account’s following from scratch (at least when you have reporters tweeting, you can piggyback off their following);
If not publicized correctly, it might never get much of a following.

From what I can tell, other media outlets are just using their reporters’ personal Twitter feeds to broadcast their courtroom play-by-play.

Just after the start of the trial Monday morning, the account had 212 followers. The trial could last three months.

It will be interesting to see how high the following on the account gets as the days and weeks of the trial go on.

Muck Rack: On Twitter, should journalists collaborate first, compete second?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:58:37 -0500

Muck Rack: On Twitter, should journalists collaborate first, compete second?:

muckrack:

In the wake of Sky News announcing it was clamping down on its social media policy, a lot of the Twitterati have publicly criticized the news broadcaster’s decision.

One of the main points to come out is that Twitter and other social media platforms are about working together with sources and…

Initials B.B.: An editor's advice to young journalists

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:13:31 -0500

Initials B.B.: An editor's advice to young journalists:

Young journos take note. This post is full of good advice. Read it, learn it, live it.

basemboshra:

I’ve been thinking a lot about young journalists lately. Maybe it’s simply because I’ve been invited to speak to some journalism classes in the past few months and have been impressed by how many bright, intelligent and ambitious young people still want to be part of an industry that few seem…

Five resolutions for journalists in 2012

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:42:00 -0500

At the start of last year, I wrote a piece for the Toronto Star’s intern blog with some resolutions for journalists.

The resolutions were:

Journalists should be wary of what they tweet;
One should always spell check before clicking “publish;”
One should not just social media source, but also talk to people in the “real” world;
One should have a life outside of work;
Journalists should join the conversation, not just observe.

I thought it would be fun to update the list with resolutions for 2012. I took to social media asking for suggestions, so here they are my five resolutions for journalists in 2012.

1. I will double check my facts before clicking publish

Hey, errors happen it’s a fact of life. Sometimes they’re funny, often times they’re not. As the media world evolves into a continuous deadline, it’s important now more than ever to make sure the information we are posting — in news stories, on Twitter or in live blogs — is as accurate as it can be. Take the time to fact check and due diligence. You owe it to yourself — and your readers.

2. I will embrace new technology

It would be great to say new technology is done, but that’s likely very far from the truth. New social media networks, like Path, continue to crop up while old social media networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, continue to make changes to stay current and maintain their users.

It’s important not to get too comfortable with the tools we use or to get too stuck in our ways. If the last 10 years has taught us anything it’s that new technologies and tools are always cropping up. If we get too stuck in our ways, then we’ll run the risk of going the way of newspapers or the music industry and dying a slow death.

3. I will not sit at my desk for my entire shift

This resolution comes from Kate Schwass-Bueckert, a wire editor with QMI Agency in Toronto. She writes:

This past year, I finally recognized my eyesight was not what it used to be. I had to get glasses. And I sit in front of a computer for 8 hours a day — getting up and stretching while I’m heating up my lunch or just taking a quick walk to get a coffee is going to be new goals — it will hopefully keep me healthier and keep my butt from becoming too large and flat!

4. Putting more honesty into your work

Also the result of crowdsourcing, this resolution comes from Alex Fox, who is not a journalist, but works in the communications industry. She writes:

As I’m moving forward as a communications person in the international development industry, I’m much more conscious of the factors that influence the messages we see depicting poverty and injustice.

The most common image you’ll see of Africa and development is one of poverty and despair (think World Vision and Children’s Christian Fund), and in contrast to this, a lot of organizations are shifting to more positive imagery (Like EWB and Oxfam).

After spending a summer in Ghana, I’ve really learned that neither of these one-snapshot representations are truthful, as the reality is much more complex, lively and ever-changing.

I’m currently working on a campaign called ‘The Complexity Project” that promotes Africa and development in a way that embraces the complexity of the situation and problems in all its material — rather than focusing on one representation or scenario.

When working on all the branding, written content and material, I keep in check by asking myself “Is this truthful? Is this message guided by what the public wants to see, or will get them more engaged? Does this representation of (for example) my friend Emmanuel from Northern Ghana show him and his reality objectively and truthfully?”

I think this is transferrable to all communications and journalistic endeavours: Is the message or story that is being communicated show all sides and complexities of the situation? Is it geared toward a specific audience? Is it tilted a certain way for an influential audience (for example advertisers in a newspaper)? I truly appreciate news stories that show all perspectives and realities of situations and stories, and I am trying to do so in my work representing Africa, development and injustice in the world moving forward, in 2012 and longer.

5. Explore the open source world

Another resolution from Schwass-Bueckert:

I know there’s a whole world of information out there, willingly being shared, and I am not as knowledgeable as I should be about it. I want to learn more about it, and how I can tap into it. I’m not even sure if calling it “open source websites” is the right name for it, but I definitely want to: a) figure out what to call it; and b) figure out how to use it in 2012.

What are your journalism resolutions for 2012? Please share them in the comments.

openfile: Have you seen the new features on all of our cities’...

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:46:15 -0500

openfile:

Have you seen the new features on all of our cities’ sites? Now you can vote on the suggested story you want reported, and you can also view all suggested stories for our cities.

The screengrab above is for Toronto, but the features also exist on our sites in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver.

Don’t forget, we’re always looking for your suggestion. Got a story idea? Suggest a story in your city today.

The accountability of online news

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 11:17:00 -0500

A piece in the Toronto Standard ~~today~~ this week demands more accountability for online news. Amelia Schonbek uses CBC’s Rob Ford called 911 and used the F-bomb story (from almost two months ago) as a way to illustrate her point that online news is not accountable enough to its readers.

(F)ew have discussed a potentially more serious issue: the manner in which CBC.ca published and revised its reporting as the story developed. … The CBC’s original story was published at 5:18 a.m. on October 27. Over the course of the day, it went through several updates. By the time it was last updated, after 9 p.m. the same night, it had become a completely different piece—new information had been added, old information had disappeared, and it even had a different headline.

Schonbek is quick to point out many newspapers often do this, but she writes this is wrong because:

There was no way for anyone to revisit and assess the original content. It was made invisible.

I don’t know that I buy that. I can’t turn back the clock to compare the two stories, but I do believe the CBC stood by its story. There was no correction, no retraction. If anything, the CBC probably moved the story forward by adding Ford’s apology and denial, as well as the comments made by his brother, Doug Ford. To me, this is all good reporting and what the story has become.

It’s important to remember that with any story, the story that is posted at 5:18 a.m. is bound to change throughout the day into something different by 9 p.m.

Schonbek does propose changes to how online news is posted to make it more “transparent” to its readers:

Newspapers could, for instance, implement a tab system: at every URL, a reader would be able to click through different versions of the story in different tabs, each of which would be time-stamped. The most recent version would appear on top, but if readers wanted to reference past reporting, they could simply flick through the tabs and compare versions.

While an interesting idea, I don’t think this is at all practical. Online news consumers, for the most part, would never read all that content, they just don’t care that much.

The biggest question I have after reading this piece, and other pieces like it, is: Why do we not criticize 24 hour news stations, such as CNN, in the same way we criticize online news?

In her piece, Schonbek also references how (some) of the media killed Gabrielle Giffords back in January. Fair enough, but it wasn’t just online news that got that wrong, CNN also reported the congresswoman had been killed. CNN even said it had confirmed it “with CNN sources.” Now, whether CNN’s sources were tweets from NPR and Reuters remains to be seen, but CNN still killed the congresswoman. And then, she was brought back to life and no one demonized the news network for their misreporting.

(I’m not saying online news reports should not correct errors, or point out to readers when they change something that was wrong in their copy, but I do not believe that to be the case here. As far as I know, CBC continues to stand by their original story.)

News networks are often filled with erroneous reports throughout the day as a story develops because, well, a story is developing. If the Internet did not exist, then that CBC story would have been read on air first thing in the morning, then changed, amended and moved forward as the day went on. One would assume the story you would hear on the radio on your way into work would be nothing near what you’d hear on the way home.

Where is the demand for accountability with 24-hour news networks? Why are we demanding online news be held to a higher standard than the rest?

Interesting food for thought. donohoe: The Washington Post...

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 13:38:08 -0400

Interesting food for thought.

donohoe:

The Washington Post Social Reader app unnerves me. The act of “Reading” is now itself an action. You don’t click any “read this” button. It may be benign to some but there are potential pitfalls on the privacy front.

What if your friends saw a steady stream of articles that you were reading?

1. Finding comedy in cancer

2. Study: Sexual potency after prostate cancer can depend on age, weight, treatment type

3. Quiz gives facts about skin cancer

4. A fight that’s only begun

and so on…

What do you think they might want to ask you about?

That is just a hastily put together example, but I think it illustrates my point.

We are what we read, and sometimes we need to explore topics and subjects that need to stay in the private realm. There are plenty of good and bad reasons why you would extensively read up on articles regarding to health, diseases, diabetes, marriage, death, suicide, taxes, depression… the list goes on.

Would you want those articles bunched together in your public feed?

The Washington Post has an Editor’s Note. Its says many things including:

“All you have to do is read, just as you normally do. No “recommending,” “liking” or “sharing” — just read and we’ll do the rest of the work. The app gets better the more friends you have using it.”

Thats a very nice spin on it.

Earlier this year when I was still at the Times we talked to Facebook about a news app. Facebook had a whole set of new features in the pipeline (presumably just launched) and this passive reading action was one of them and they were looking for us to use it. It came up in conference calls and on-site meetings. I believe Facebook is very eager to catch-up or even displace Twitter as a go-to place for news, and this is how they think they can do that.

To their credit the newsroom shelved the idea. The consensus was that this was intrusive and potentially an invasion of privacy. I think after that was repeatedly communicated that Facebook lost interest in doing anything at all.

I think its one thing to broadcast your taste in music, but what you are reading raises the stakes a bit. For now, all I have is this isolated case but everything has a beginning.

That is the last tweet sent out from “911 ten years...

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:21:32 -0400

That is the last tweet sent out from “911 ten years ago,” a Twitter account set up by the Guardian, who was using the account to tweet out events of Sept. 11, 2001 as they happened that day. (For example, if you scroll through the account’s timeline, you’ll see such tweets as: “Flight 11 crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center, between floors 93 and 99.) The account came under fire on the Twittersphere as being in bad taste.

I’m curious to know what you think. Was 911 ten years later in bad taste? Why? What makes it any different than the television stations that did the same thing as key events happened this morning? (An example, CNN noted on the bottom of their screen when United 175 reached it’s highest altitude.) How is it different from static timelines?

I’m curious to see when/if the Guardian ever speaks about this Twitter account and why it was really abandoned, but would love to hear your thoughts about it, too.

"Most of us learned about the events of that day in one of four ways — by television, by radio, by..."

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:14:33 -0400

“

Most of us learned about the events of that day in one of four ways — by television, by radio, by newspaper, or by a phone call from a friend. And while we are all incredibly grateful for the ways in which technology has enhanced our lives, I think we are also grateful that we didn’t live through 9/11 with all of that technology.

We didn’t have to see live video footage shot from inside the collapsing buildings and uploaded onto YouTube. Cellphones didn’t have cameras back then. … Can you imagine how horrifying it would have been if we had tweets from the victims on the planes or in the offices, or if they had posted to their Facebook pages?

… Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and all the technologies that have yet to be invented make all these events more real, and more horrific. Television pales in comparison.

”

- Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth on how 9/11 would have been “more horrific” if social media existed at that time. (via Poynter)

Thank you, Jack.

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:46:45 -0400

Thank you, Jack.

Amazing journalism. A must read piece.

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:34:21 -0400

Amazing journalism. A must read piece. :

mrdirkadirka:

This is probably the saddest, yet well written pieces I’ve ever read. I hope to be able to produce something close to this caliber someday. Rocked me to the core. Long, but definitely worth the read.

So about that Google+ thing...

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 03:05:50 -0400

Is Google+ the higher education of social networking?

That’s the thought that came to me tonight as I logged on to my Google+ account. I stared at my ~~newsfeed~~ stream for a few minutes when I noticed something.

Barring a few exceptions, a lot of the people I ~~follow~~ circle(?) are posting to Google+ ways the site can be used, what it’s good for, what makes it great.

That got me thinking about the beginning of Facebook, and even Twitter, when that kind of theorizing wasn’t done on the individual social networks’ platforms.

No one ever posted a status update on Facebook about how Facebook could be used, they posted passive agressive status updates.

It made me wonder: If Facebook was the high school of social networks, is Google+ the university of them?

But then if one were to factor in Twitter, I guess that would make Facebook the, gulp, junior high of social media.

It makes sense when you think about it. Especially for those of us who were in school at the time of Facebook’s rollout and got to experience a blissful (and parent-free) Facebook experience. Status updates were more personal. More direct. More aimed at your “friends.”

They could be used as a way of hoping the guy you were crushing on noticed you. Or to let the girl you went out with know you had a good time the night before. It was an indirect way to let your best friend know why you were mad. Pretty junior highish.

Then Twitter came along: “What are you doing?” it asked us. Like a high schooler’s social calendar, we filled in the details. We were shopping. We were on holidays. We were working. FourSquare was a nice addition to Twitter High, allowing us to let our friends know exactly where we were at all times.

Now we’ve moved on to Google+ (we’ll forget Buzz ever existed), and instead of playing with the network or trying to make it work, there’s so much theory. Almost a month in and I’ve already read about how journalists are using Google+. It took journalists (myself included), years to get on Twitter and now suddenly we’re embracing a social media RIGHT OUT OF THE GATE? Puzzling.

Perhaps it’s time we remembered what social networks are for: To be social.

Sun Media ditches press council, citing issues with ‘political correctness’

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 14:19:01 -0400

Sun Media ditches press council, citing issues with ‘political correctness’

"What it really comes down to, I think, is that he was in a hurry and didn’t want to take the time to..."

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:58:00 -0400

“What it really comes down to, I think, is that he was in a hurry and didn’t want to take the time to grind out a career the way most journalists do. Forget the daily grind of compromises and small sacrifices in the service of something more important. No, for Kai Nagata, it was now or never. ‘I thought if I paid my dues and worked my way up through the ranks, I could maybe reach a position of enough influence and credibility that I could say what I truly feel,’ he writes. ‘I’ve realized there’s no time to wait.’ Indeed.”

- Max Fawcett in response to Kai Nagata’s Why I Quit My Job blog post.

"It’s a vicious cycle, and it creates things like the Kate and Will show. Wall-to-wall, breaking-news..."

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:14:29 -0400

“It’s a vicious cycle, and it creates things like the Kate and Will show. Wall-to-wall, breaking-news coverage of a stage-managed, spoon-fed celebrity visit, justified by the couple’s symbolic relationship to a former colony, codified in a document most Canadians have never read (and one province has never signed). On a weekend where there was real news happening in Bangkok, Misrata, Athens, Washington, and around the world, what we saw instead was a breathless gaggle of normally credible journalists, gushing in live hit after live hit about how the prince is young and his wife is pretty. And the public broadcaster led the charge.”

- 24-year-old Kai Nagata, who was CTV’s Quebec City Bureau Chief up until last Thursday when he quit. He posted a 3,000-word explanation as to why he on his blog yesterday. (A follow up post his here.)

Poynter did a post on how different U.S. media websites reported...

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 17:36:23 -0400

Poynter did a post on how different U.S. media websites reported today’s verdict in the Casey Anthony trial. MSNBC, above, went the biggest with coverage (even more so than local Florida outlets).

"If you happen to be reading this article online, you’ll notice that right above it, there is a..."

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:21:03 -0400

“If you happen to be reading this article online, you’ll notice that right above it, there is a button labeled “like.” Please stop reading and click on “like” right now.
Thank you. I feel much better. It’s good to be liked.
Don’t forget to comment on, tweet, blog about and StumbleUpon this article. And be sure to “+1” it if you’re on the newly launched Google+ social network. In fact, if you don’t want to read the rest of this article, at least stay on the page for a few minutes before clicking elsewhere. That way, it will appear to the site analytics as if you’ve read the whole thing.”

- From Neil Strauss’ article “The Insidious Evils of ‘Like’ Culture” in The Wall Street Journal. And yes, I’m aware how ironic it is that I am sharing that article with you, but he makes some good points. So go read it, just don’t like it.

Why can't journalists spell?

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 19:18:00 -0400

Why can't journalists spell?:

That’s the question 23-year-old Danielle Ryan asked in a recent blog post of hers, quoting an article in the Irish Times:

It is a sad day when journalism schools need to teach basic English grammar and spelling.

“When we talk about declining literary standards … what I mean is that in the context of everybody having a B in honours English, which is a high standard, there is a surprisingly high proportion who can’t spell or who don’t properly understand words…”

This would seem to reveal that students are given A and B results in English papers, even with numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes. This in turn would reveal that they have been let away with handing up crappy pieces of “English” for six years prior to taking their final exams.

She also slams the “excuses” she believes she’ll get from media publications as to why such mistakes, and more, exist in copy online (and presumably in print):

No doubt if I was to engage in a discussion with the editor of a horribly edited website or newspaper she/he would try to pawn me off with stories of how these days they “don’t have time”, everything is so “immediate” and we are living in the “24 hour news cycle” where “Twitter rules” and journalists “simply don’t have time”, they just need to “keep up”.

And then she hits her message home with this:

If you have time to spell something incorrectly, you have time to spell it correctly.

Agree? Disagree?

Cameraman live-tweets the ITV Evening News

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 17:17:29 -0400

Interesting use of a Storify post if I ever saw one.

itvnews:

A behind-the-scenes look at being on-the-scene for the Rod...

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:55:00 -0400

A behind-the-scenes look at being on-the-scene for the Rod Blagojevich verdict from the City Room blog of public radio station WBEZ in Chicago. And to think, before this I only knew WBEZ for giving us This American Life.