Thursday Dose of social media: How to get retweeted
HOW TO: Get retweeted on Twitter --; Getting retweeted on Twitter is a great way to gain more followers. It turns out there is a science behind getting retwe...
Dogma meets reality - 2 compromises
We';ve just completed the testing phase on Help Me Investigate and already there have been some valuable lessons. 2 in particular stand out as challenging so...
Leaderboard for week of 6-29-2009: Good link journalism edition
This week';s Leaderboard examines what good curation/ link journalism is all about. Link journalism seems so simple. It just some links and a little text. Not...
BeatBlogging.Org’s funding runs out Sept. 1
Friends, I regret to inform you that BeatBlogging.Org';s funding will be running out in about two months. It has been a great ride. We';ve chronicled a lot i...
Tuesday Dose of social media: Even 100-year-olds are on Twitter & social media
Centenarians show it';s never too late to tweet — If someone 100 years old can use Twitter and social media, so can anyone. Hear that journalists: Three pe...
How to attract followers on Twitter and build a useful network
Twitter';s power only becomes apparent to new users once they get some followers and find worthwhile people to follow. Unfortunately, many people don';t know...
Thursday Dose of social media: YouTube mobile uploads exploding
YouTube Mobile Uploads Up 400% Since iPhone 3GS Launch — We said that the iPhone 3G S was a game changer and early returns support that. The 3G S makes it ...
San Franciscans Will Have to Pay Up for Not Recycling
Our reporting is getting underway. In the meantime here are some local recycling tidbits to munch on from EcoGeek. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors pa...
Podcast: Being on social media is a question of relevancy
Robert Quigley was recently named social media editor at the Austin American-Statesman. Yes, you read that correctly: a newspaper has a social media editor. ...
One test investigation and the story so far
During the testing period of the site the investigation that has progressed furthest has been ';Help me investigate how much Good Hope Hospital makes from pa...
A case for Help Me Investigate as public commissioner’?
There';s a great post on Spinwatch which looks at the proposals to create ';news consortia'; to support local news. ";At the heart of serious reform of the m...
Clay Shirky: Every time a consumer joins the new media landscape, a producer does too
Above you';ll find Clay Shirky';s excellent TED talk about Twitter, social media and the Internet and how these technologies have forever changed media. ";As...
Tuesday Dose of social media: Trouble in citizen journalism land for Flickr
Flickr zaps photos: Bad for citizen journalism — This troubling report about a user being deleted (and all his photos) without warning isn';t good news for...
Video: Nick Booth explains Help Me Investigate at #localgovcamp
Thursday dose of Social Media: Mobile, not Internet, access exploding in poor countries
Mobile access far outpacing Internet access --; In low-income countries, Internet access grew 700% this decade, while mobile access grew 7000%. All around t...
District 6 Gigantic 3 Recycling Program Event
Via the RinconHillNeigbors blog. Make an appointment to drop off your items at the Gigantic 3 Debris Boxes - call 415-330-1300 by June 18th to set an appoin...
Should You Go To J-School?
I make every effort to be as open and available as possible. Occasionally I receive questions about how to start a nonprofit, advice on content management sy...
Spot.Us: Building a Plan to Release the Kraken!
Note: The most important link is this Google Form where we are asking YOU for feedback/ goals/ etc. As always to stay more current on Spot.Us development check...
There will always be early adopters
When you talk to news organisations about a concept like Help Me Investigate you inevitably get what I call the Digital Divide question: How do you make sure...
Is this where we want to be?
  Probably.
Citizen Journalism Networks Stepping Up Editorial Standards
A post I did for MediaShift';s IdeaLabl blog. I tend to avoid the ";professional vs. amateur journalism"; debate, saying ";I have constructive criticisms for...
A lengthy quote from Yochai Benkler
The following is from Part Two of Yochai Benkler';s excellent book The Wealth of Networks. For me it summarises beautifully the importance of projects like H...
Media reaction to Help Me Investigate
The news that Help Me Investigate was being funded by 4iP and Screen West Midlands was broken by the Media Guardian on Monday, which described it as a ";col...
On the term “citizen journalism” – from Professional Mind blower Henry Jenkins
Close followers may have picked up on the fact that I don';t like the term ";citizen journalism."; Yesterday professional mind blower Henry Jenkins put it in...
The Postal Theory of News
I bought stamps yesterday and as I left Safeway I had an epiphany which has long since passed. The following is an attempt to recapture it. Stamps are a funn...
Some typical questions?
Since putting together this idea I';ve been seeing potential investigation questions everywhere (it';s my hope that the same will happen to users). Here are ...
What’s been happening with Help Me Investigate
It';s finally been announced that my project Help Me Investigate is being funded by 4iP and Screen West Midlands. Help Me Investigate (HMI) is a pla...
Thinking Like a Designer
Last week I went to Stanford';s Innovation Journalism conference. For this conference they invited lots of media makers and paired them up around topics to h...
What Happens to Your Trash – Plastic's Future
Spot.Us is gearing up for our “Follow the Trash” pitch. As such we’ve done some pre-reporting. An interview with a plastics recycling activi...
This Week in Transparency - July 2, 2009
Here are a few of the more interesting media mentions of Sunlight and our friends and allies from the week: Last Friday evening';s June 26th program, CNN'...
Newspaper columnists ought to be the perfect bloggers. So why aren't more doing it well?
By Robert Niles: Newspaper columnists ought to be the perfect bloggers - the best write in a lively voice and forge a strong connection with their readers. T...
White House Publishes Staff Salaries
As ProPublica just pointed out on Twitter, the White House today released staff salaries, as they do each year. Since 1995, the White House has been require...
ReportingOn 2.0 Launches Next Generation of Backchannel for Your Beat
ReportingOn 2.0 is live and ready for your questions. And answers. It's still the backchannel for your beat, but it's an absolute re-imagining of the netwo...
Five ways for sports reporters to maintain a balance of power with the teams and leagues they cover
In June 2007, John McClain, who covers the NFL';s Houston Texans for the Houston Chronicle, was getting tired of a league rule that limited the Chronicle to ...
Tribune Interactive Creates Photo Galleries Using Creative Commons Images from Flickr
[UPDATE: Tribune Interactive has removed a photo in one of these galleries -- the image we used for our home page illustration -- because it appears to have ...
Knight Rewards On-the-Spot Competitors at MIT Meetup
Last Thursday, I returned to Moscow from the Future of News and Civic Media Conference in Cambridge, Mass. Organized by the MIT Center of Future Civic Media ...
Links on Twitter: NPR crowdsources with Flickr, charging for WSJ’s iPhone app, linguistic analysis of retweets
Why NPR turned its camera on the audience at a Senate hearing, and how its own crowd is writing the caption http:/ / tr.im/ qudz » What happens when the bank ...
Why Automated Tweeting Is a Bad Idea
Earlier today, The Wall Street Journal posted this bit of breaking news on Twitter: WSJ, via Twitter Posted July 1 by The Wall Street Journal via Twit...
Not my bank, not my problem
But this is his bank, so it is his problem. Sen. Daniel Inouye pressured the Treasury Department and the FDIC to approve a bailout contract with Central Paci...
EveryBlock Source Code Released
Today's a big day for us at EveryBlock. We're making our source code available. Over the past two years, EveryBlock has been funded by a grant from the Knig...
ScandaLand: Who Is Currently Involved In A Congressional Scandal
Are you a lawmaker in Washington wondering whether you are involved in a scandal or under investigation? Well, we';ve made a very simple game for you to play...
Printcasting, a 2008 Knight News Challenge Winner, Goes National
Dan Pacheco, creator of Printcasting and winner of $837,000 from the 2008 Knight News Challenge, announced last week that the project is going national with...
When the league owns the network " and pays the journalists: A new set of ethical questions arise
With no live programming in the morning, MLB Network had to scramble to assemble its crew after the bombshell broke Feb. 7: Sports Illustrated';s Selena Robe...
Was the NYT wrong to conceal David Rohde’s kidnapping? Yes.
It';s been more than a week since New York Times reporter David Rohde escaped from his captors in Pakistan, so maybe now is a good time to try and look dispa...
Links on Twitter: “Politics of Class Online, lessons for hyperlocal news sites, optimism from Jack Shafer
";The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online"; http:/ / tr.im/ qlWL Facebook, MySpace and privileged spaces online, by @zephoria » Instructive failure: Five l...
New Data Released on Latest Supreme Court Term
For any court, but especially the U.S. Supreme Court, no decision truly stands alone. Each helps to weave a tapestry of legal context that informs our unders...
A free-lance prototype: multimedia and entrepreneurial
By David Westphal: The University of Virginia prepared Jason Motlagh very well for his career has a free-lance foreign correspondent.When he applied to take ...
Discussion Draft Follow-up
After yesterday';s discussion about discussion drafts, the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions released a draft of their version of the public option ...
Watching Government Opacity Melt Away, “Right before our Eyes!”
Vivek Kundra, federal CIO, and Macon Phillips, White House new media director, unveiled Office of Management and Budget';s IT dashboard this morning at the P...
5 Tips for Building a Successful Hyperlocal Site
The official burial for MyTopiaCafe.com will be on July 1, 2009. That's the day the hyperlocal site for the Daytona Beach News-Journal will be defunct, dead,...
A legal primer: No consistent winner in the turf wars between sports leagues and news organizations
[This is part two of our series on the changing relationships between sports leagues and news organizations. See the whole series here. —Josh] Before divin...
Backbars: How ambient visual data can make news sites user-friendly
Eliazar Parra Cardenas'; new project Backbars doesn';t add any new information to a site. Its aim is to make it easier for your brain to make sense of the in...
Links on Twitter: AOL’s niche strategy, citizen journalism tools and tricks, NYT and Flickr screensaver
AOL';s strategy: leanly staffed news sites focused on lucrative niches (Daily Finance, PoliticsDaily, etc.) http:/ / tr.im/ q9ga » In a study of U.S. bloggers...
Another Budget Game
I like to think that Gotham Gazette's Balance! inspired the folks over at the Washington Post to create an even better budget game of their own but I am open...
CRP Analysis of Cap and Trade Vote
As always, the Center for Responsive Politics ferrets out the story behind the story when it comes to big votes in Congress. Lindsay Renick Mayer at CRP’s ...
Senate Finance Committee Health Care Influence Cluster: The Democrats
Last week, I took a look at the circle of former staffers turned health care lobbyists that surround Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus. The Senate Fi...
Increasing Legislative Transparency: Read the Bill and Beyond
On Friday, the House of Representatives passed the cap and trade bill after an incredibly messy process left little time for congressmen and the public to di...
Mashable Publishes Ultimate Twitter Guide Book
Mashable has published one of the best all-around guides to Twitter. If there ever was a reason to publish a printed book about a rapidly developing technolo...
Announcing: ReportingOn 2.0 is live
ReportingOn 2.0 is live and ready for your questions. And answers. It';s still the backchannel for your beat, but it';s an absolute re-imagining of the netw...
Five Keys to Authenticity
A few days ago at the annual APSE convention, I led two sessions on Networked Journalism.  On the way down to Pittsburgh from Rochester in the car, I tried ...
New-Wave News
I'm having one of those moments where I need to blog as a way to organize my thoughts. Longtime readers know that much of what I write here is less than perf...
New at IdeaLab: An interview with Baghdad Brian
Over at IdeaLab, I';ve interviewed Baghdad Brian, who I met in October 2007 at the first Networked Journalism summit Jeff Jarvis threw at CUNY.  At the time...
Time Hack: Monitor News Sites with iMacros Firefox Plugin
My colleague Mario Starks recently pointed me to a rockin'; new Firefox plugin called iMacros, which lets you automatically run a whole host of repetitive ta...
Highlights from four days with my head in a blender full of wildly intelligent people
What follows is intended as a brief personal braindump from the four days I spent in Cambridge, Ma. last week, most of it deeply entrenched in the guts of #K...
All good things must come to end
I';m sad to report that funding for BeatBlogging.Org will run out on Sept. 1 of this year. Being the editor of BeatBlogging.Org has been a great ride. I';ve ...
On reinvesting profits
Microsoft gets a lot of grief for many of the things that it does, but we should at least give Microsoft credit for being willing to reinvest profits into re...
5 Must-Read Online Media Books
As I stared at my bookshelf this evening, I got to thinking about the books I most often recommend to online journalism colleagues and workshop participants....
Beware of that crazy Internet (and bad advice from professors)
";When I was in college, a professor said, ';Beware of the Internet.'; Everyone and anyone is a ';journalist'; or ';writer'; because of it. Six years later, ...
Why We Link: Your answers to why news organizations should tie the Web together
Last week, I asked for some on tips on why news organizations should link to external sources. I wanted your best reasons, and you happily provided them.  S...
What would you like to see in a new journalism podcast?
I have been discussing the idea of starting a new journalism podcast with some people and would appreciate your feedback. This podcast would be different fro...
Upcoming proof of my physical existence: Boston and Pittsburgh
I';ll be showing up in person in at least two different places outside the lush springtime confines of Western New York over the next few weeks, believe it o...
At IdeaLab: Paul Bradshaw on crowdsourcing investigative journalism
Over at IdeaLab, I';ve been way past deadline for a post, after (again) making all sorts of promises about helping out more over there.  Until now. After p...
What’s the most important reason news organizations should link out to the wider Web?
Hey RSS readers, click on through to answer the question if you don';t mind. Trying to gather some ideas for a post I';m working on. Thank you! Previously ...
Dean Singleton on the plight of the major metro
[UPDATE: Predictably, this was the wrong day to bring this up.] I get the feeling people think of MediaNews* CEO (and AP chairman) Dean Singleton as some sor...
Thoughts on charging for news (and succeeding)
A group of newspaper execs met this week to discuss the best ways to collude; I mean ";support and preserve the traditions of newsgathering that will serve...
Recommended social media guidelines for reporters
Be honest. Be yourself. Assume that everything you say is public, even if you say it privately. If it';s not clear to you what';s public and what';s private,...
The timing of local news cycles
Howard Weaver writes a sweet, short paean to the dailiness of the newspaper: I’ve been arguing for years that newspapers " yes, printed, daily newspapers...
Job application for CEO of Tribune
Dear Sam Zell, I recently noticed that your company has filled for bankruptcy protection. I think I can help. Can I turn things around? No, but I think I can...
Wikipedia-ing the News gets mentioned on US Senate floor
OK, the mention wasn';t directly referencing my fellowship project, but Marissa Mayer reiterated her recommendation that news stories become much more like W...
Martin Langeveld’s notes on the future of context
Last week, I had a tremendous conversation with some of the smartest folks working in the news industry about, er, ";the future of context."; Despite the lof...
So, you have a blog. Now what? Vol. 3: quantity matters
Quality always matters, but with blogging so does quantity. The more often you blog, the more traffic you';ll get. It';s that simple. Someone who blogs a few...
Update on my Gannett CEO bid
Well, I haven';t heard from Gannett yet about my application to become their new brand/ wealth/ good will destroying CEO. So, I can only assume that either my ...
While I was out
Wow. My poor neglected blog has one post from the month of April. If you';ve been wondering where I was, wonder no more. I';ve been launching Columbia Tomorr...
News orgs have forgotten that people really love photos
15 billion photos have now been uploaded to Facebook: The latest numbers the company has shared with us include 15 billion photos uploaded in total, an avera...
Layoffs at IDG
I'm hearing word that there have been a number of layoffs today at IDG.I don't have an exact number. Nor do I have any official confirmation from the company...
The Nanny Diary
I've been running an ad in recent weeks for a live-in nanny for my toddler. It's a part-time gig in exchange for room, board and a small stipend. And it seem...
Job application for CEO of Gannett
To whomever it may concern, I';m writing to apply for the position of CEO of Gannett. I think I can do the job cheaper, quicker and better-ish than your curr...
"The most powerful woman in Boston" leaves the Globe
Boston Globe Globe editorial page editor Renee Loth, who has been with the paper for 24 years, says "I was once described in a magazine profile ...
The good news is they're paying more than HuffPost
ChicagoReader.com The Chicago Tribune is paying its Chicago Now bloggers $5 per 1,000 hits. Michael Miner is told that the operation has 65 bloggers and last...
WP ombud: "This comes pretty close to a PR disaster"
WP Ombudsman's Blog Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander says reaction to the story about the Post's off-the-record salons "was immediate and ranged from anger to...
"Kurtz knows the minefield upon which he ventures" with First Lady/reporters story
True/ Slant It's fair for a media writer like Howard Kurtz to point out the sudden presence of female faces of color among the press in the White House, says ...
Colbert, Stewart praised for "impressive" foreign coverage
GlobalPost.com "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" had plenty of laughs in their reports from Iran and Iraq, says Thomas Mucha, "but they also produced...
WP: Newsroom didn't know about fliers promoting salons for lobbyists
Politico.com | WP | Hillman Foundation A Washington Post spokeswoman says a flier promoting $25,000 to $250,000 WP-sponsored sessions with "those...
When Boston magazine gets thin, the owner "figures the editor is an idiot"
Boston Globe A dozen "idiot" editors came and went between 1975 and 2000. Owner Herb Lipson -- he's the guy who fired several Boston mag staffers, then enjoy...
Ex-LATer Frantz now writes "for an audience of one"
NPR.org Former LAT and NYT investigative journalist Doug Frantz now works for Sen. John Kerry on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his first report...
WP offers lobbyists access to "those powerful few" -- for $25,000 and up
Politico.com Mike Allen reports the Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off the record, non-confrontational access t...
"No one noted all the white chicks covering Laura Bush"
Washington Post That's what the Post's Robin Givhan tells Howard Kurtz, who points out that five reporters who cover Michelle Obama are African American wome...
Murdoch denies that he's plotting to acquire NYT
TheStreet.com Rupert Murdoch says Michael Wolff's claim that he's planned out a Times deal in detail is "nonsense." "I don't think it's for sale ...
"I don't mind getting in fights," says Wolff
Women's Wear Daily "Do I like it? Well, sometimes I like it. You get in fights because there's something to fight about," Michael Wolff tells Irin Carmon. La...
Rohde: "I cemented my position as the worst newly wed husband ever"
NYTimes.com David Rohde is low-key by nature, and he was in character as he spoke briefly in the Times newsroom on Wednesday, reports Clyde Haberman. He didn...
MediaNews: No bankruptcy, no management change
MediaNews releaseJuly 1, 2009DENVER, CO ... A media report on Wednesday, citing rumors from unnamed sources, reports that MediaNews Group has proposed a refi...
Gannett to cut 1,400 jobs, or 3% of its work force
Associated Press Newspaper division chief Bob Dickey informed Gannett staffers of the layoffs in a letter Wednesday. He says "there have been so...
Additional items for July 1, 2009
> Corn on blogging, paying for news and the Beatles > Rohde gets a "looooong loud ovation" from NYTers > Strib wants out of machinists union's pension plan >...
Group launches nonprofit Investigative News Network
WatchdogsatPocantico.com | Content BridgesThe Investigative News Network's mission is very simple, says the group's declaration: it's "to aid and abet, in ev...
ABC News boss: "What can we provide that others can't?"
Politico.comDavid Westin says TV news shops have had a strategy of covering the same news that everyone else does but trying to do it better. "That strategy ...
Politico's a credible version of what the world will be
Vanity Fair How Michael Wolff sees it: "Obsessives everywhere in their particular narrow-focused areas of interest, flashing ever more informatio...
Pew: 64% say Jackson's death got too much coverage
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press Pew found that about two-thirds of the public believe news outlets gave too much attention to Michael Jackson'...
Story on today's MediaNews lender call uses the b-word
Westword | MinnPost.com A Debtwire piece reports: "MediaNews has scheduled a July 1 lender call to provide an update on the progress of the negotiations. ......
Ingram: It was wrong for NYT to conceal Rohde's kidnapping
Nieman Journalism Lab Did staying quiet about David Rohde's kidnapping save his life, as many people have suggested? "There's no evidence whatsoever to suppo...
Judge tells Philly papers' creditors to share info about secret recording
Philadelphia Daily News A judge ordered lawyers to give up their July 4 weekend, if necessary, to share notes, documents and any other information related to...
Curley: "I feel like I've died and gone to journalism heaven"
Mediabistro.com Fast Company "I love it here. I love our newspaper," says Rob Curley, who heads the Las Vegas Sun's new-media division. "Maybe th...
Indy Star guild rejects contract that calls for a 12% pay cut
Indianapolis Star The vote was 97-9. The Indianapolis Newspaper Guild says on its website: "Because this was not a last, final offer the union bargaining tea...
More crowdsourcing from the Guardian and NYT - this time on Iran
Iran election: faces of the dead and detained | World news | guardian.co.uk via kwout They';re at it again. Following the very domestic issue of MPs'; expen...
MJ OD
When Michael Jackson died, I wondered how quickly the conversation about him would fade online and how long it would persist on TV ";news."; Well, it didn';t...
BBC Free: Help us persuade the BBC to open their RSS feeds up
The internet blows my mind. Ryan Carson opened my eyes to the power of it a few months ago. We can sit down and create a blog or web application and have it...
Newspapers: turn off your RSS feeds
The latest subscriber figures (see table below, and first published in my blog's newspapers category) show that, apart from a couple of exceptions, it's time...
Google on Google
At the Aspen Ideas Festival, I got up to a mic to ask Eric Schmidt a question. No, it wasn';t, ";what would Google do?"; I wanted his reaction to a notion I'...
The need for " and risks of " government transparency
At yesterday';s Personal Democracy Forum --; where I was in the unfortunate position of speaking inbetween two of my favorite geniuses, danah boyd and David ...
China blinks
I said in What Would Google Do? --; and argued the point in a talk at Google in Washington --; that Google and other technology companies have more influence...
News Superstars Give Reporting Tips at New YouTube Site
YouTube launches YouTube Reporters'; Center, a new video site where news superstars like Katie Couric provide reporting tips for citizen journalists. Here a...
Enough to Go Around
I';m late getting to the Milbank v. Pitney dust-up, largely because I find it so unremarkable. But I';ve decided to mention it because, contrary to the headl...
Help us help hyperlocal news
For CUNY';s New Business Models for News Project, we would be very grateful if local blogs and sites filled out a survey to give us data in our analysis and ...
First, kill the lawyers " before they kill the news
Following the frighteningly dangerous thinking of Judge Richard Posner --; proposing rewriting copyright law to outlaw linking to and summarizing (aka talkin...
St Petersburg Times: cautiously embracing the web, assiduously reporting Scientology
With its recent in-depth coverage of the Church of Scientology, Florida's St Petersburg Times demonstrates some interesting and sometimes imaginative ways of...
The King of Twitter
Reporters have been calling today looking into the importance of Twitter and social media in the two big stories of the month: Iran and Michael Jackson. Have...
Daily express website relaunching
Express.co.uk is about to undergo a redesign. I broke the news here, and there's a good review of the new look (still currently in beta) at econsultancy.
Posner’s dangerous thinking
Mike Masnick on techdirt points us to some dangerous and incomplete thinking from Judge Richard Posner on his blog. At the bottom, Posner writes: Expanding c...
Beta-think: Live work
Salesforce.com';s Marc Benioff says the future of computing will be like Twitter --; that is, live, not batched. “Any concept of batch or delay in developm...
One Could Wish
So I was watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann on Tuesday evening; the show included the following segment. Two lines spoken at about 4:30 minutes prompt t...
Even “heavy newspaper readers spend a quarter of their media time online
Some research from The Media Audit makes a pretty strong point about how quickly media consumers'; behaviour is changing: ";The Internet now represents 32.5%...
ABCe: please sort out your terrible website (again)
In March, I appealed to the Audit Bureau of Circulations to sort out its terrible ABCe website. It's had a redesign. Here's a list of its latest problems.
J-Tweeters: Are they journalists or tweeters? Does it matter?
I follow the BBC World, the Guardian and the New York Times through my Twitter account, among other news services, but I get more news and information from t...
Spoiling the paid party (again)
Paid Content reports today that The New York Times Companies'; Martin Nisenholtz is talking about charging for the paper';s mobile app. On the face of it, t...
Telegraph plans to expand MPs database site in build up to election (Q&A)
I asked Tim Rowell, Digital Publisher at Telegraph.co.uk 3 questions about how they dealt with the MPs expenses story online. The main headline is that the...
Drowning upstream
Here';s what I think is a pretty solid business tip: I wouldn';t back or bet on a company and industry that';s described this way in today';s New York Times ...
Densmore, Others Unveil CircLabs; Aim to Sustain Journalism
Martin Langeveld, Jeff Vander Clute, Joe Bergeron, and Bill Densmore unveil CircLabs Inc., a concept to help sustain journalism. They will be exploring paid-...
Only six months to live! Big surprise for me...
Well, I think I've held out longer than most...  seven years in Internet time is pretty long! Since April 2002, this blog has been hosted on the "radio.webl...
MPs expenses data: now it’s The Telegraph’s turn
The Telegraph have finally published their MPs'; expenses data online - and it';s worth the wait. Here are some initial thoughts and reactions: Firstly, the...
Excellent Journalism: Neda and New York Times' The Lede
I am now sure that no one understands the power of this new digital era better than Robert Mackey, head writer of The Lede blog at the New York Times. Watch ...
State coverage as a worthy charity
There';s nothing unsexier in journalism than covering state government. ";Trenton bureau"; just doesn';t have the same ring as ";Paris bureau,"; does it? Do ...
Oh, to be the Economist
When newspaper people in the U.S. aren';t wishing they were the Wall Street Journal --; ";well, they can charge"; --; they aspire to be The Economist. Dream...
Michael Jackson poster inside!
 A woman called on Monday to say we had too much Michael Jackson in the paper.I protested: "But he was only on the front page once."She said: "See what I'...
Twittering pizza
You know I am a fan of Twitter. It allows us to extend and improve the journalism we do and is another good way to talk with people.I have one more reason: M...
Malcolm Gladwell takes apart Chris Anderson's "Free"
Pondering the narrow topics John McPhee has explored in his career, a critic once wrote, “One day John McPhee is going to bite of less than he can chew. ...
Using courtesy titles
Sue Polinsky wrote a blog post that turned into a newspaper story which turned into another blog post. (Glad to help, Sue!) She passed along a question fro...
Bringing race into the story. Or not.
Some readers criticized us for inserting race into this story about the makeup of the city's boards and commissions and for NOT including race in this one ab...
Over Michael Jackson
I admit that I'm over Michael Jackson. Already.I switch the station when the tributes come on, and that means a lot of switching. My habit of watching the mo...
One of our proudest alum moments
Ben Feller, a former N&R reporter, who now covers the Obama administration, made some news himself yesterday.He dunked press secretary Robert Gibbs in the du...
One interpretation of transparency in government
Transparency: The full, accurate, and timely disclosure of information.Transparency was a topic at the the forum on Local Government Leadership Wednesday n...
Publishing the love letters
Reader Bob asked me this question: "If you were the The State, would you have any qualms about publishing the e-mail love letters?"read more
Local Government Leadership
Action Greensboro's panel discussion on Local Government Leadership has sold out!Seriously. More than 250 people told the civic group that they planned to at...
Newspapers started small, cheap and with different standards
There are those in our industry who seem to assume that newspapers emerged in 1835 in full flower, that many of the elements of the newspaper world that were...
Twittering the news, part II
I wrote my newspaper column yesterday about Twitter. In the 24 hours since publication I got 7 new followers!Given that we have 175,000 or so newspaper reade...
Twittering the news
My newspaper column: If you followed the news out of Iran last week, you likely heard reports coming from the social networking site Twitter.Twitter became ...
Writing without links
I am writing my Sunday newspaper column about Twitter, and I think I've forgotten how to write without being able to link.read more
More mush, fewer facts
Jeff Jarvis reminds us today that UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently described the internet era as “more tumultuous than any previous economic or soci...
Cleaning up comments
We disabled comments on the breaking news story last night about the Red Mike's arrest. We didn't have a mug shot of the perp, but some commenters quickly b...
Do you keep Burckley on?
Idle thoughts on a gray day or, my impression of Larry King:If you were running for City Council and Bill Burckley were your political counselor, would you d...
Come on, professor
In a valentine to Twitter on the TED blog, NYU Prof. Clay Shirky declares that social media (especially Twitter) have exposed developments following the Iran...
Reliving or remembering 1979
Greensboro City Council will be asked tonight to issue a statement of regret about the 1979 Klan-Nazi shootings.Here we go again.read more
On language
Mike Clark, who writes a column on grammar and English usage for us, is linked on the English language blog of St. Francis Xavier College of South London . I...
"Gone Tomorrow" in Greensboro
It's always exciting when Greensboro is mentioned in a book of fiction. It's especially exciting when that book is high on the bestseller list.Lee Child 's ...
Welcome the Crime Scene
The Crime Scene. That's the name of the newest member of the blog family here.Ryan Seals and Dioni Wise are its hosts.We are providing this blog as an addit...
Lost your television picture?
To all the people who suddenly find themselves without a television picture  because the digital TV conversion caught them by surprise, breathe easy.Ther...
Meeting a killer
This story by a Miami Herald reporter who interviewed James von Brunn in 1994 reminded me of the time I had the killer of Nan Schiffman sitting in my office...
Andy of Greensboro?
Is this an insult to Greensboro?“But what is the real reason to live in Greensboro? That is easy – it is all the people who live here. Although the thir...
Learning through social media
Bill Mitchell at the Poynter Institute was kind enough to ask me about social networking and its relationship to our journalism. The peg was the release of ...
News by the pound
The morning radio DJs were talking about the future of newspapers, and one of them had done his mathematical homework. "Today's paper cost 3 cents a page," ...
Not with a blog but a twitter
I'm posting much less often here than I did while working fulltime in journalism.For starters, I know less about what's going on. I'm less engaged in the cut...
Graduation Day photos
As I wrote earlier, we photo staffed every public high school graduation ceremony in Guilford County. (Two to go tonight.)Early results: More than 5,500 pag...
Edelman's Steve Rubel Switches from Blog to Lifestream

This is one in an occasional series on MediaShift where I discuss issues in-depth with thought leaders in online media. The format has...

Newspapers Try Again with Local Blog Networks

Recently, those who visited the front page of the Miami Herald's website began seeing a sidebar ...

links for 2009-06-30
Michael Nielsen » Is scientific publishing about to be disrupted? A must read on innovation, citing the troubles of the newspaper industry: "The last people...
Brave Citizen Journalists Provide New Images of Iranian Life

Like many people, I have been watching this so-called "Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, [Insert New Media Application] Revolution" unfold in Ir...

Essential reading online for journalism students
This blog is among a comprehensive list of the 100 best blogs for journalism students. The list covers everything from general blogs on journalism such as Po...
links for 2009-06-29
50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine Everything a journalism student needs to know to improve th...
Open notebook: Following stimulus contracts
Recovery.gov might not be useful yet for ";following every penny"; of stimulus spending, but with a telephone, Google, USASpending.gov and some luck it might...
Zombie Bloggers Create Communal Horror Stories

On June 13, bloggers around the world imagined they were under attack by the living dead, writing short horror narratives for the annual <...

Michael Jackson's death makes journalists of all of us
Michael Jackson via last.fm The Iranian protests and the death of Michael Jackson signal a shift in the flow of news and the role of the audience. In bot...
4 Minute Roundup: Michael Jackson's Death Rocks Web; Guardian Crowdsources

Here's the latest 4MR audio report from MediaShift. In this week's edition, I look at the way Michael Jackson's death yesterday played out...

How Will Iranian Protests Change Twitter?

There's been much ado about Twitter's role in the political protests in Iran, and for good reason. With the Iranian government expelling ...

Your Guide to Iran Election News Online

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From time to time, I'll give an overview of one broad MediaShift topic, annotated with online resources and ">...

The FOIA Process: Still as Archaic as Snail Mail
There are very few occasions in the Sunlight offices for us to use the fax machine, so we were somewhat out of practice when we learned that we had to use it...
The Time is Right for Direct-To-Fan Marketing of Music

As the music industry continues to evolve and search for a sustainable and profitable business model, the direct-to-fan (D2F) approach is ...

Will Digg Users Bury New Digg Ads System?

Since its launch in late 2004, Digg has tried its hand with several outside advertising networks, going fro...

Some stimulus recipients to report in Excel?
Just reading the new guidance from Office of Management and Budget for recipients funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to report information...
Innovative funding model to improve global news reporting
A documentary on the global traffic in e-waste produced by students at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism airs on Frontline/ World’s season finale on Jun...
Is FOIA any better under Obama? An anecdote today, data later
Newsweek';s Michael Isikoff report on the Obama administration';s mixed record on transparency got me to thinking about our own experience with FOIA requests...
Rules of Engagement for Journalists on Twitter

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Twitter's role in the Iranian election aftermath leaves no doubt about its power as a global, r">...

Why Digital Britain report should back hyperlocal news sites
Image via Wikipedia The proposal to take money from the BBC licence fee to partly ITV regional news services was one of the headlines of theUK government'...
Why is American University Becoming Center for New Journalism?

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I visited ...

Campaign Software Makers All About Disclosure, Except their Own
NGP Software, a leading provider of software for electronically disclosing campaign contributions to the Federal Election Commission, is striving to keep its...
Grassley feted by alternative med lobbyist
A self-proclaimed lobbyist for an alternative health organization--;who left a prominent conservative group more than a decade ago under a cloud of financial...
How Twitter creates social bonds with the Iranian protesters
Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr Social media is clearly playing a crucial role as a communication and networking platform in the protests in Iran over th...
4 Minute Roundup: Special Iran Election Edition

Here's the latest 4MR audio report from MediaShift. In this week's special edition, I look at the way that social media have played a vita...

5 Ways a Community Manager Can Help Your Media Outlet

Recently, the New York Times appointed its first ever community manager, ...

How journalism school graduates are finding jobs
Image by Giorgio____ via Flickr Given the tidal wave of bad news about the journalism industry, a story with the headline, ";Surprise! J-school grads are ...
10 Steps to Saving Newspapers

Being in the hospital on an I.V. for a number of days put me in touch with the sufferi...

Some Optimism for the Future of Science Journalism
And especially for international collaboration
Facebook's "Click Through Activism": Illusory Participation?
If you are on Facebook, you have probably grown annoyed by the many causes and appeals that show up in your Notifications on a daily, if not, hourly basi...
Colbert: Is It Time to Care About Soccer?
The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30cIs it Time to Care About Soccer?www.colbertnation.comColbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorJeff Goldblum ...
NSF “Underwriting Coverage…
And other controversies from the World Conference of Science Journalists
Health Wealth
Press misses a tipping point in the financing of global health projects
Study: Do the Terms "Global Warming" versus "Climate Change" Matter to Public Perceptions?
In the latest issue of the journal Public Understanding of Science, Lorraine Whitmarsh from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the UK, pub...
Nature on the Future of Science Journalism
Timed with the World Federation of Science Journalists meeting in London, Nature magazine has put together a selection of recent articles focusing on journal...
Silence is the Enemy: Sexually Violent Video Games
[Contributed by guest blogger, Katherine Broendel] The last time I posted, I wrote about the effects pornography and violent pornography may have on viewe...
Wesleyan University's Gary Yohe:On Carbon Costs, Media, and Not ‘Looking Silly'
View larger image Wesleyan';s Gary Yohe: Coverage Better...But Still ';Spotty'; Economist Gary Yohe is no newcomer to the costs and benefits of combatin...
Notable ... and Quotable
Encounter a catchy or ";keeper"; quotation about climate change and climate change communications over the preceding few weeks? Let us know, and we';ll incl...
Tonight @ UW-Madison: What's Next for Science Communication?
I am in beautiful Madison, Wisconsin today to give this lecture at 7pm on campus. The talk is free and open to the public. Read the comments on this post...
Reprimanded Psychiatrist? Bad Advice?
Give that documentary a Peabody!
Climate Change, Crop Catastrophe
California papers ignore the agricultural consequences of climate change
Science: Not a Crisis in Journalism but an Opportunity
In the lead editorial at Science last week, Harvard University's Cristine Russell discusses the many emerging possibilities in science journalism. It's a mis...
Food Inc Whets the Appetite of Film Critics...Will It Do the Same for the Public?
Framing food problems as a matter of public accountability and sinister corporate control. As I wrote earlier this week, the new documentary Food Inc. h...
US Ethnic Media: Overlooked In Science Journalism
Newspapers--and their localized science and environmental coverage--might be in decline across the U.S., but new ethnic media outlets, many of them in langua...
PDF Version of Nature Biotech Article: "Science Communication Re-Considered"
MIT Knight Science Journalism Tracker has posted a PDF version of the Nature Biotechnology article. Previously, the article has only been available to rea...
UW-Madison Lecture: What's Next for Science Communication?
Next week on Thursday, June 25 I will be visiting one of my favorite cities Madison, Wisconsin to give a lecture titled "What's Next for Science Communic...
National Academies to Host Seminar on Science Communication
Readers in the DC area will definitely want to check out the upcoming event on June 23 at the National Academies. Details are posted below. I hope to be able...
Polls and Surveys Grab Media Headlines;But Beware Polling Pitfalls on Climate Change
Public opinion polls and surveys are attention getters, headline grabbers. Reporters and editors love them. Sometimes they should learn to hate them ... or a...
Museums Moving to Fill GapOn Climate Information, Education
View larger image Questions ... and answers ... on causes and impacts of climate change: no longer primarily the domain of mainstream news organizations. ...
A Word is a Word is a Word?Not When it Comes to ... Pick the ‘Right' Word
Praise, scorn, and even some good-natured (?) ridicule are greeting a consulting firm';s advice to ";climate solutions advocates"; on how to better package t...
Gene Randall “Reporting, Inc.
Will journalists’ flight toward PR mean the end of reportorial integrity?
Revkin and Olson on Framing and Climate Communication
Over at the NY Times' Dot Earth, Andrew Revkin has started a conversation with readers on the merits of framing as applied to climate change communication. R...
Food Inc: Will It Connect the Dots on Food System Problems?
Over the past decade, issues such as fast food and obesity, organics and pesticides, genetic engineering, and factory farming have each captured their sh...
Talking Shop: Karen Ravn
The Los Angeles Times freelancer discusses her recent piece on medical dishonesty
Nature Biotech: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugy of Blogs
I am back from an excellent science journalism conference in Denmark and will have more to say on the meeting which highlighted several issues that speak...
Pregnancy Pounds
A bun in the oven doesn’t mean you should fill up on rolls
Earth 2100 Sizzles
ABC News’s two-hour special finally out of the frying pan, into the fire