developmentofonline.pdf

socialmedia.pdf

socialmedia2.pdf

What is the story?

why tell it now?

how am i going to tell it?

How can I tell it online (photo, links? sound? extra material ….interviews or chronology or history?)

Want to know more about…..

Read the extra material 

The Guardian on Perez Hilton – celebrity blogger 

2, Why tell it now?

3, How am I going to do it?

RSS is short for Real Simple Syndication and uses a simple web communication language called XML

RSS “pushes” a feed of a blog post or podcast episode to the subscriber and then “pulls” the subscriber back to the blog site.

RSS allows you to subscribe to hundreds of news websites and have new information sent to you throughout the day.

More info -BBC Description
Time magazine story on RSS
BLOGLINES

www.bloglines.com

We’ll spend half an hour during class on Monday resolving any blog problems you have so make notes of what you need to know and we’ll sort it out then.

Also, don’t forget those three ideas we’ll be discussing.

In the lecture part of the morning we’ll be looking at the growth of social media so check out these blogs and social sites if you have a chance before Monday

Digg.com
Gawker.com
Micropersuasion.com
Searchblog – http://battellemedia.com/
Blogging4Business.info
Buzz Machine.com
Paid Content.org
MySpace.com
YouTube.com

Assignments

Written Assignment – Personal Publishing has changed the way magazines approach journalism . Discuss. 1000 words. Date due: 15/1/07

Portfolio Assignment – Two online magazine reported stories on the theme Capturing Cardiff – 500 words each. Date due: 11/12/06

1, The Development of Online Journalism – From Netscape to Netscape

We’ll look at how the first decade of online journalism has changed the frontiers of what we perceive as news coverage.

We’ll talk about changes in reporting and research that have taken place, how small market publications now have a global reach and how the daily news cycle has been ratcheted up to hyperspeed.

We’ll look at the fundamentals behind this evolution and revolution – the technology. This will include an critique of what a web page does and how hyperlinks, digital photos, streaming video and audio inform our understanding of today’s world.

We’ll end by touching on the power of the personal – how online journalism has become an enabling vehicle for different voices and we’ll ask how a professional journalist can evaluate these voices?

Required reading for this seminar is:

News and the Net: Gunter, Chapters 1 and 8
Hall, Jim (2001) Online Journalism: A Critical Primer. London: Pluto Press, Ch 1
Kevin Kawamoto Digital Journalism: Emerging Media and the Changing Horizons of Journalism– Chapters 1 and 2

2, Practical Seminar
Setting Up Your Own Blog, Finding Your Personal Beat and Making your first Assignment.

3, Understanding Social Media
From Matt Drudge to CBS, blogging – the ultimate in personal journalism – has changed not just the amount of information we can access but the way the world is reported.

We’ll look at how blogging has developed, how technology helped it thrive and how it has blurred the normal journalistic judgements and conventions of what is news.

We’ll show how it has been embraced by major news organizations and we’ll ask if blogging is here to stay or whether it is just another Internet flash in the pan?

We’ll look at how RSS technology could radically change how news publications present and deliver news and we’ll ask if news reporting can ever again be seen as a closed shop for professional journalists?

Finally we’ll consider how blogging and audience participation will soon become part of the reporting process for so-called professional journalists.

Required reading:

Time Magazine – Taming the World Wide Web
Time Magazine – RSS

Digg.com
Gawker.com
Micropersuasion.com
Searchblog – http://battellemedia.com/
Blogging4Business.info
Buzz Machine.com
Paid Content.org
MySpace.com
YouTube.com

4, Putting Together an Online Magazine

What stories work online for a magazine and how do we write differently for the web.
We’ll consider how to write headlines that will attract search engines, we’ll look at the role of mixed media in online magazines and we’ll assign an online magazine story for each student to research, report and write for publication.

5, A Short History of the Internet – From Al Gore to Gawker

The backstory to what we now take for granted – from the Pentagon giving birth to the Internet to France’s Minitel revolution to the messageboard model that would make Amazon and eBay their millions.

6, Practical Seminar – skills in harnessing online publishing.
How to podcast, understanding a wiki, using RSS syndication – these are all core skills you will need as a journalist or professional communicator.

7, Mainstream Media and the Internet

This lecture will consider the media business and how the mainstream media has been both energized and hamstrung by the Internet.

We’ll consider the dramatic shift in emphasis from print to online in the thinking of major news organizations and we’ll evaluate why that change has occurred. We’ll revisit the Dot-Com boom and bust and consider the lessons learned by the media.

Does online mean the death of print? We’ll discuss the fears and the realities and we’ll show how mainstream media is continually having to adapt to a changing technological landscape and an increasingly demanding audience.

Required reading:

News and the Net – Gunter Chapter 3
We the Media – Dan Gillmor
Pavlik, John V. (2001) Journalism and New Media. New York: Columbia University Press – Chapter 9
Kawamoto – Chapter 3

Suggested reading: James Ledbetter – Starving to Death on $200 Million a Year. Public Affairs.

8, Practical Seminar

One-on-one editing and advice on story research and composition. We’ll hone your ideas, make you think of new avenues of reporting and fine-tune the online stories you are already working on.

9, Participation, Consumer Power and Democracy

Everyone is a publisher nowadays. We’ll look at how consumer-produced online media is changing the world of politics, business, and advocacy.

We’ll look at the growth of listserves, vote swapping, environmental grassroots building and personal meeting boards.

Today, consumers get to review books on Amazon, rate films and music on both mainstream and fan web sites, they get to influence elections and board meetings and they rapidly adapt their editorial empowerment to new technology.

We’ll show how while this grassroots consumer power first took off in the developed world it has really come into its own in the new virgin media landscapes of the developing world.

Required reading:

Treehugger.com
RAN.org
Friends of the Earth Blog
Scoopt.com

Hall, Jim (2001) Online Journalism: A Critical Primer. London: Pluto Press – Chapter 4
Kawamoto – Chapter 7

10, Reading Week

11, The Wrap Up
We’ll review the stories you’ve written for the online magazine and evaluate what you’ve learned from maintaining your own blog.