Mindy McAdams [ Part 2 ]

 Blogs & content management systems  Applying journalism values to new media  Visual journalism online  Audience engagement & participation

 A content management system, or CMS, includes a database that contains all the content of a single website  Text is actually in the database  Other materials (such as images and videos) are represented in the database by hyperlinks  The CMS makes it easy to search, update, and associate all items on the website

 Most reporters in any kind of newsroom (broadcast or print) in the Americas and Europe write directly into a CMS  Their editors edit the text in the CMS  Headlines and photo captions are written in the CMS  Related items (such as audio, photos and videos) are linked to one another in the CMS

 Content that is typed into, or uploaded to, the CMS is already Web-ready  The HTML and other Web code is already in place  Design is separated from content  A variety of searches are built in  Content can be labeled – by topic, content type, etc. – making it easy to find  Date of publication, reporter/author, and other details become part of the database

 Many news organizations have paid huge sums of money to have a custom CMS created just for them  Commercial CMS software is available … but it is also expensive  However, there is an open-source solution that is free … and also excellent!

 WordPress.com: Free blogs for anyone, hosted at the domain   WordPress.org: If you have an account at a Web hosting service, you can install the free WordPress system at your own domain 

 WordPress started as a platform for blogging  Most blogging systems include tools that are similar to a newsroom CMS  If students use a blogging system, they will learn many of the day-to-day production skills for the Web:  Write and connect hyperlinks  Add photos  Assign categories, keywords or tags to content

Top: Atlanta Journal-Constitution Middle: The Washington Post Bottom: Dallas Morning News

 Not a copy of text from the newspaper  Not purely opinion  Take the audience “behind the scenes”  Explain how things work  Example: Why journalists are unable to get more information about a current story  Provide a sense of partnership with the audience  Open the door for two-way communication

 The blog speaks to a clearly defined audience because it has a clearly defined subject area  New posts are added fairly often  Comments are welcomed and frequently replied to  Each post offers value — something original, something fresh  It reveals the blogger’s personality

1. No plagiarism 2. Disclose, disclose, disclose 3. No gifts or money for coverage 4. Check it out, then tell the truth 5. Be honest Source: “What are the ethics of online journalism?” by Robert Niles, in The Online Journalism Review, Jan. 14, 2007

 No copying words without clear attribution  No copying photos, or other images, without explicit permission  No use of other people’s work unless they work for your organization and have been paid by your organization  All creators own their own work

 Example: “The gunman was a former employee of the victim, The New York Times reported today.”The New York Times reported  When a link goes directly to the original source, that’s a good and proper link  A link can send the reader to another site for more information  However, a link from a copied photo to the original is NOT SUFFICIENT

 Never hide anything from the readers or viewers  If there is a connection between the reporter and the story – say that, in the story  If there is a connection between the news organization and anything in the story – say that, in the story  Another word for this: Transparency

 Do not accept any form of payment from any source for any story  Return money or items given to you by politicians, companies, etc.  If you can’t return them, donate them to charity  If you accept gifts or money from sources, you are not a journalist – you are just giving them advertising

 Don’t believe anything you hear or read until you have checked it thoroughly  One source is never enough  Even if another news organization has published the information, don’t repeat it until you have checked it  Seek out solid facts – not opinion  Find evidence – not rumors  Speak directly to any person involved

 The only thing that elevates a journalist above other information sources is truth  Without honesty, a journalist does not have anything special to offer to the public  Accuracy with facts has always been a vital part of journalism  This honesty must be extended to every aspect of journalism work

 Corrections  Update the original material  Keep it at the same URL  Include an explanatory note if necessary  Speed vs. accuracy  Unedited (or lightly edited) materials  For example, journalists’ blogs  If errors are reported, they must be corrected

 A lighter tone, a more informal voice  Especially in journalists’ blogs  Transparency: More honest than “objectivity”  Showing “the other side”: Are there only two sides?  Admit that the journalist has a position  We can strive to be fair, even if humans cannot truly be free of biases

“Staff members who write blogs should generally avoid topics they cover professionally; failure to do so would invite a confusion of roles. No personal Web activity should imply the participation or endorsement of the Times Company or any of its units.” The New York Times Company Policy on Ethics in Journalism (B5.128)

 Authentication or verification  Example: Is this a faked video or photo?  Example: Is this person who he says he is?  Anonymity and pseudonyms  Use of real names is not the norm online  Moderating comments  Time needed to moderate is prohibitive  Let the users moderate themselves: Report abuses with one click

 Linking is a very good way to allow the public to judge for themselves  Example: Link to government documents, or transcripts from a courtroom trial  When linked material might offend  Example: Photos of violence or injuries, as in an earthquake or a war  Provide a buffer in between the link and the linked material

 Online journalism ethics are not different from traditional journalism ethics  Some new situations arise online because it is:  Easier to commit plagiarism  Easier to make errors because of speed to publish (easier to correct errors too)  Easier to make false visual images  Easier to hide behind anonymity

MADE WITH CAMERAS  Still photos  Video INFORMATION GRAPHICS  Maps  Diagrams  Charts  Timelines  Animations  Interactives  Data visualizations

 Big challenge: What about artistic skill?  Charts (bar, pie, flow, etc.) can be created automatically with Google Spreadsheets  Maps can be created with Google Maps  Non-artists can learn how to make simple information graphics

 Great photojournalism is about stories  It’s never about the camera  Inexpensive cameras can capture great shots  Expensive cameras don’t guarantee good photos  It’s about catching the right moment—and freezing it  Knowing “where to stand, and when to press the button”

 Lens: Photojournalism blog, New York Times   The Big Picture, from the Boston Globe   MSNBC’s The Week in Pictures 

 Far beyond “Letters to the Editor” and radio call-in chats  Examples include:  Eyewitness reports from disaster zones  Adding information to shared online maps  Video uploads showing violence, etc.  Corrections and added information  Questions that inspire further reporting

added to a map  Videos can be streamed online immediately, unedited  Text, photos, video can be uploaded  Text messages can be

 DEFINITION: Using a large group of untrained volunteers to accomplish a large task – by breaking the task into small pieces  Not limited to journalism  Some examples use maps  Motivation: People need some reason to participate (but not necessarily payment)

NASA invites people to help map the surface of Mars

 Disasters: Reports from many locations where people need help  Huge collections of data (such as NASA’s Mars photos) that need thousands of eyes but not high expertise

A crowd of snoops What: All expense claims Who: 646 Members of Parliament, Britain (MPs) Time span: Five years (2004–2008) Total documents: 2 million

How do the reporters at one newspaper sort through 2 million electronic documents?

They don’t.

They crowdsource the work.

The Guardian: “Investigate your MP’s expenses” 2009

Simon Willison, a 28-year-old programmer who works for The Guardian, worked hard to make it easy for people to join in and evaluate the documents quickly. Result: 170,000 documents were reviewed in the first 80 hours after the site went online. Making it fun

 Citizens taking part in the process of producing journalism  Collecting  Analyzing  Disseminating  Finding, fact-checking, sharing: News and information

 Entries, or posts, are much shorter than typical blog posts  Some Internet sites & apps are designed specifically to enable micro-blogging  Twitter (can be used for live-blogging)  Facebook  Tumblr

Covered in this session:  Blogs & content management systems  Applying journalism values to new media  Visual journalism online  Audience engagement & participation

Mindy McAdams [ Part 2 ]