Many J-Schools Don’t Utilize Their Facebook Pages

April 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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MediaShift recently posted an article about how many journalism schools don’t keep up with their Facebook pages. They mention that the schools miss the opportunity to reach out to perspective students and to engage the current ones.

The post said that some schools keep up with their pages and offer new information, photos and answer questions, but many of the schools listed in the article aren’t utilizing the pages enough to have a real conversation with their fans. Some neglected pages have too much spam or unanswered questions from fans. The article mentions that schools can have a hard time determining how to manage the pages, who will monitor them and what they will be used for. You can read the post here.

 

What do you think?

Should journalism schools keep up with their Facebook pages more or does it even matter?

 

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How Social Media Can Enhance Quality Journalism

April 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Mashable posted an article today about how social media can enhance quality journalism. Vadim Lavrusik says that although gossip stories and fluff pieces are read online at a high rate, the most shared articles are the ones about hard news. When online users share hard news stories with their friends and followers, it creates referrals for that story that would not have been there before if someone was just searching on Google.

The article goes into topics such as social search, social media optimization and social content. Towards the end, Lavrusik has this to say about social media enhancing journalism:

Journalists have always “curated” content by grabbing pieces of information and contextualizing it into a story. The difference is that social media now provides efficiency in getting that information, often through first-hand sources who are micropublishing to their social profiles.

You can read the full article here.

Do you think social media is enhancing  journalism? Why or why not?

 

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Facebook More Beneficial for Journalists Than Twitter

April 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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An article was just published on Inside Facebook comparing the benefits of Twitter and Facebook for journalists. Last week Facebook set up a page that helps journalists learn how to use the Facebook platform to promote their work. Since then, there’s been a discussion online about which platform is the most useful for journalists.

The Inside Facebook article says that promoting articles on Twitter is fast and easy, but that it doesn’t offer the same interaction that Facebook does. The article says that interacting with photos, videos and polls on Facebook eventually builds a stronger audience, even if it takes journalists a longer time to set up the post.

What do you think?

Which platform is best for journalists?

 

 

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New Facebook Fanpage Just for Journalists

April 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Facebook has added a new fanpage specifically for journalists. The page launched on April 5 and was set up as to assist reporters in using Facebook as a resource for their reporting.

A poll on the page suggests that many journalists are looking to learn how other journalists are already using Facebook as a tool. The page already has several video interviews with journalists to get their take on how Facebook can help the journalism field. The videos include interviews with NPR, WSJ and CNET reporters, as well as Arianna Huffington and Nicholas Kristof.

You can read more about the fanpage here or view the page here.

Do you think Facebook can be used as an effective journalism tool? Leave your comment below.

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AOL Fires Movie Freelance Writers, Asks Them To Write for Free

April 6, 2011 By 3 Comments
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AOL sent out an email to its movie writers today informing them that they will  no longer be paid. The email goes on to encourage those same freelance writers to continue working for free.

What do you think about AOL and its current handling of writers/managers? Post a comment below.

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iPad Users Find Content from ‘The Daily’ Lacking

March 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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A study published by media research company knowDigital says that real iPad users find the content of The Daily to be lacking when compared to alternative sources of news available for free.

The report found that the people studied fell into two groups, ones who were tech savvy and very interested in the news and those who were less technological and less interested in news.

The report said that:

“iPad users in both camps were generally unwilling to commit to purchasing subscriptions to The Daily for a number of reasons, including some based on their specific perceptions of The Daily and some based on the idea of paying for an app on a recurring charge basis.”

Your can read the full report here.

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Trying to Make Money with Newspapers

March 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Ken Doctor wrote this article about the economics of the newspaper industry and the discussion of what business model will work for the industry. He says that newspapers were covering a lot stories of their own demise until they realized that may not have been a smart move.

After speaking with some people in the industry, he found that although newspaper companies may not know what the next step is, they know that following the same path they’ve been on in the past is not the way to go. Venturing out into uncharted territories means trying things like paywall content, digital readers, etc.

“It has been 20 quarters since the U.S. newspaper industry experienced a quarter’s performance that was better than that same quarter a year earlier. It was way back in the second quarter of 2006 that the industry last experienced growth.”

Read the article here

 

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Google Is Not the Source of Journalism’s Problems

March 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Peter Barron, Google executive and former BBC journalist,  said in a recent post that journalism’s woes were not due to Google and its news page. He says that the problems facing journalism would exist whether or not Google existed and says that Google isn’t stealing advertising away from journalism. You can read his blog post here.

 

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Is Self-Publishing Just a Stepping Stone?

March 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Recently Amanda Hocking, the self-publisher who sold millions of copies of her books through Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites, signed a deal with St. Martins for her next series of books (you can read the short NYT article about it here). The bigger story in this though is whether or not self-publishing is just astepping stone to signing book deals with major media companies, or is self-publishing a viable alternative to the big companies?

Hocking said she’ll benefit from the deal by not having to manage herself (hiring an editor, running the business aspect of things) and be able to focus on her writing. She’s probably right, and only she knows what she can handle. But for all those out there trying to get their work published, do you think self-publishing is the way to go, are traditional publishers still necessary, or like Hocking is a mix of both the best avenue?

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USA Today Revamps Strategy to Keep Pace with Internet

March 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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In an AP story published earlier today, Michael Liedtke wrote that USA Today is revamping its paper to try to keep pace with the Internet. Although this is nowhere near a new idea in the newspaper industry, USA Today has taken multiple steps in the last few years to innovate the paper and boost earnings.

One thing Liedtke’s story says is that the content of the paper will focus on topics that attract more advertising such as tech reviews, financial advice, travel and lifestyle tips, and sports features. USA Today’s published believes the changes will increase revenue.

Do you think this is a good idea? How will changes in content like this impact the journalism community overall (if at all)? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Read the full story

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