For Future Journalism 225 Students

Welcome to Journalism 225.  In this class there will be some fun times, but don't let that fool you into thinking this class is easy.  This class requires work and dedication.  By now, most people in this class are journalism majors.  So you all have to know by now that journalism is not always easy.

The fun part of Journalism is that there is a variety of ways to get the readers attention: a picture, a video, a catchy headline, and more. This class is based a lot on social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and newest one for news organizations to use, Instagram.  Social media has become a big part of journalism.
In this class I would suggest you take some time out of everyday to write your blog posts.  I made the mistake of waiting to the last minute to write a few of my last assignments in this class and I needed up doing really poorly on them, when I knew this simple stuff.  I made stupid mistakes and it cost me some grades to suffer.

Pay attention in the class to.  Don't be afraid to ask questions.  If there is a technical difficulty with trying to upload something, tell the teacher right when you get into class or e-mail them.  Don't let them think you didn't even bother to do the post.

In this class the teacher will show some of your homework to the class and give feedback on it.  Don't be embarrassed.  The teacher is only trying to help you so you can do better with the next assignment or if you wanted to re-do it.  NOTE: If the teachers says you can redo any of your homework assignments, DO THEM.  Do not just shrug it off your shoulders.  Taking the teacher's feedback and then redoing your assignments can up your grade even if it is just the smallest increase.  Most teachers would not let you redo your old assignments.  Take this as a sign, redo them if the chance is handed to you.

Sources are a big part of journalism, even multimedia journalism.  Make sure you either have the name and title of your source or that the online source you are citing is creditable.  You do not want to just cite the first thing you find on the subject.  You must learn to dig for more information when research is required.

Make sure even pictures are citied.  You don't want to just use any old picture.  Somebody could find out that their picture was used and can go after you for copyrighting.  You want to learn now, that you either find a picture online make sure you give them credit or ask permission to use the photo.  Either that or you could go find one that is labeled for reuse or use a photo you took yourself.  Just don't use any photo you like online.

Make sure with whatever topic you choose to do for some of your blog posts, make it interesting.  You want to learn to grab the reader's attention.  Wording is everything. People are always on the go and most of the time they will get their news from their smartphone or tablet during their morning commute or lunch breaks. The key is to make your story interesting for people to want to read more about.  This is another reason why social media is so handy to have in

journalism.  Breaking news updates can be posted on Facebook or Twitter and can be distributed to more viewers at a faster rate; and since most people these days are on their smartphones and other technology devices, they are more likely going to read it right through there then they are with a newspaper. However, still be cautious with your writing.The good thing about multimedia journalism is that you can always go back and fix a mistake, but not always before somebody notices.  Before posting the story, reread the post and make sure everything in the story is correct and spelled right.
This class is informative if you put your mind to it.  Detail is key. With journalism entering into the social media world, everything in this class will be helpful for future jobs.

Instagram Entering the World of Journalism

As  news organization, it is already known that social media is running the show.  We have found in the past that Facebook and Twitter have been great ways to distribute the news stores to m ore viewers faster than ever before.  What about Instagram, the app that allows you to upload pictures and 30 second videos in an instant?  Would that be another beneficial tool to use in the news world?


Yes it would be a beneficial tool to implement in news organizations.  Instagram is an app that people can use to upload pictures and just recently, short videos.  Under these videos and picture a few sentences can be written describing what is going on it the post.

In my opinion news organizations should add Instagram to their social media list.  It is just another great way to grab user's and viewer's attention. Not only can you post this picture to Instagram, but Facebook just bought Instagram about two years ago and now Instagram gives the option to post a picture or video not only to its site, but to Twitter and Facebook all in one step.  This would be efficient because it would be reaching 3 different fan bases in one easy shot.

Journalists can be out in the field and snap a picture just as the news happens.  They can get a clear shot and upload it to Instagram within a few seconds; and with the teaser it should draw people in.

Guaranteed, Instagram cannot post a link for a full story, but it has enough room for a few teaser lines.  With the teasers and the picture, the viewer could then go and check out the story if they want to read the full version.

According to Pew Research, 73% of adults online use social media sites. As of September 2013, 71% of adults used Facebook,  18% use Twitter, 17% use Instagram, 21% use Pinterest, and 22% use LinkedIn. These social media sites give people the option to read the article, watch a video, and even have the option to participate in open-discussion boards.  From August of 2005-2013 the percentage of adults between the ages 18-29 went from 9% to 49%.

Graph of Social Media users- Pew Research (Note: site and data
are updated when new data is available.)

As shown in this graph, over 8 years the percentages have increased.  People are always on the go.  Many use their mobile devices (cell phones, tablets, etc) to catch up on the news happening around the world. Facebook and Twitter being the top ways social media that people check.  Instagram is starting to climb that ladder as well.

There is one question that many journalists have come in contact with as social media sites have developed: How are journalism professionals going to bring the traditional journalistic values into the constantly changing social media world?  It won't be easy, but it will be worth it. Facebook and Twitter has been shown to be beneficial to other organizations.  Instagram, through it is only used for pictures and short videos, can be vital to the journalistic field.


According to Sabel Harris, an author for TrackMavin, videos weren't always a part of Instagram.  On June 20, 2013 video was introduced to Instagram and within 24 hours gained some popularity with 5,000 videos uploaded.  However, they can only load 30 second videos; which would be good  for news.  And as of October of 2013, Instagram only being 3 years old, had over 150 million users, 16 billion photos shared, and one billion likes happening per day.

In my own experience, the only issue I have found with Instagram is the videos.  Being a journalist, videos usually need context and to be edited to look more professional.  I found it hard with videoing in Instagram to make it look more professional.  When taking a video with a cell phone outside of the Instagram app can be a little bit of a pain.  The video has to be edited into a square to fit Instagram.  However, I believe that journalists should just use videos on Instagram more for a breaking news story rather than something that has to be edited and modified to fit Instagram and still follow the rules and professionalism of journalists.

Instagram does have a web profile.  This was made for people to view their profile, but nothing can be posted through the web. It is just a mobile app.  While this may be good for journalists in the field, it doesn't seem necessary to have a web profile if there isn't an option to post from there.  However, the web-profile can be beneficial.


 According to Ryan Lytle on "10,000 words, Where Journalism and Technology Meet,"

"When Journalists or news organizations have shared Instagram photos to Facebook or Twitter for example, web users have only been able to see just that one image-so if a user wanted to see a full gallery of images , he or she would need a mobile device to see more. Leading users to exploring more content can lead to three desired outcomes: likes, comments, and shares.  News organizations are in Instagram to build communities and then to engage in these communities."

This would give users the opportunity to interact with a some platforms;which could lead to greater opportunities to new audience exposures.  Not only can journalists get a picture on the spot and tease their viewers, journalists can also use Instagram as an opportunity for crowd-sourcing.  If a Journalists isn't at the scene to get a good photo, but somebody of the public did, they could hash tag the news organization so they could get information on the public's view.
This Video below explains that especially in times of tragedy, people post more pictures.  For example, this video talks about Hurricane Sandy.  So many pictures flooded in of the storm and of the damages the storm had caused, this is a type of crowd-sourcing; and out of the many pictures there were only very few that were fake.  This is where the skepticism comes in.  We would have to be able to decipher whether or not the picture is reliable or not. Once that is established then pictures can show the story.

As a person who works with a news paper and from my own experience with using Instagram for news stories, Instagram can work out to be a beneficial way to distribute news to more viewers. Photos can tell a story. Although, Instagram is not where stories or links can be posted, it can be a good place for a teaser. People who don't use Facebook and Twitter as often as Instagram, it can open the floor for crowd-sourcing and open sourcing. Journalists will have to judge whether or not the picture is accurate, but it is a good way to get the people's point of view when a journalist isn't on scene. Instagram should be implemented into this news organization.

Jail N' Bail 15 Second Video

The 8th Annual Jail N' Bail occurred on April, 23rd, 2014.  Students yelled and begged for money from their peers to make their bail.Beta Mu Sigma and the Southern Police department put this event together every year for the past 8 years to raise money towards the Special Olympics.

The weather may have not been the best, but everybody seemed to be in high spirits. A few days in advanced students could purchase a warrant from a Beta brother, the police station, or the office of Student Life for $5.  Louis Fournier, a psychology major and a  senior at Southern, watched amusingly at the people being sentenced for ridiculous charges. 

"I have to say, every year this event is a blast.  I have never gotten arrested by anybody, and I wouldn't want to in this cold.  But the Beta Brothers and the police officers do an awesome job every year," Fournier said. "I hope they continue to do this event. It is for a good cause."

The event was held from 8 a.m to 5 p.m.  People took pictures of the people in jail and some even donated.  The Beta brother took turns yelling through a megaphone "Put your friends in jail.  Come warrants are only $5."

Later, after the event Mike Sampson, a Beta brother said, "This year we had another successful year.  We raised a little bit over $8,000.  This is a fun event.  I enjoy being a part of the Beta Fraternity and being able to be a part of this great cause."

Jail N' Bail

Southern Connecticut State University held their 8th annual Jail N' Bail event on April 23, 2014. The Fraternity Beta Mu Sigma and Southern police hold this event in the academic quad for people to see as they pass by on their way to and from class. This event is to help raise money for the Special Olympics.

Police officers don't just go searching for the people who have warrants, they have helped make this whole event possible every year.  They call other police stations to come help out as well as Southern's finest.  They help run this event as well at the fraternity. Warrants for people's arrest are only $5. Students could purchase the warrants from a Beta brother, from the Southern police station, or even from the office of Student Life, said Mike Sampson, a member of Beta Mu Sigma

photo credit: Jenna Wilson
Student at SCSU

Students lined up to put their friends, and even teachers in jail. "By the end of the day we raised a little more than $8,000," said Sampson.

In the past years,  this event has won awards, which include the largest charitable donation award. It started in 2007 and has been going on ever since.  It has been a big hit with the students, faculty, and police officers.  It is not only for a good cause, it is fun.

"I love going to this event every year.  It is fun to watch people ask for donations while locked up in jail.  I love to take pictures of the people's reactions. Everybody is a good sport.  I mean, what is a better excuse for missing class? It is for a good cause," said Jenna Wilson, a student at Southern who stopped by the event after class to take some pictures of the event.


The cold weather didn't stop this event from being successful.  As the day went on the jail started to fill.  The air may have been cold, but the smiles on everyone's face made the event worth while.

"People were yelling as I walked by on my way to class," Said Patrick Burton, a  Engineering major at Southern.  "It was for a good cause.  So I gave somebody in the jail $5 towards their bail," he said.

5 Shot Sequence

Nicole Labrecque, a History Major at Southern takes a break from studying to sit down and play her piano.

Breaking News Can be Messy

Breaking news is quick, on-the-spot information to inform the public about a situation or event that is unfolding. However, with breaking news comes errors.  As the story develops, events leading up to and after the incident tend to change and become more developed.
Breaking news is messy. Plain and simple. In this video below shows the breaking news coverage over the radio of President John F. Kennedy's Assassination.  As you watch it, you will see all the mistakes made during the rush of this breaking news story.


When there is a rush of information coming in there is a chance that the information can be wrong. Take the Sandy Hook Coverage for example. When the news first came out, the name of the gunman was wrong, the mother's occupation was wrong, and so was the details about the children who got killed was incorrect.  At first glance, it seemed as if the information that was given was correct.  A police officer found an Id and automatically thought that was the name of the shooter. It is understandable considering the evidence is right there on the floor.  However, that Id ended giving false information. The mother of the shooter didn't work at the school. Throughout the article above Andrew Beaujon, a reporter on the media on poynter.com and a previous managing editor of the Washington City Paper, writes about the issues with the breaking news reports from Sandy Hook.

Should breaking news be held back long enough to find out some solid details?  If so, how long is a reporter supposed to wait?  And if there is waiting, would be still be considered breaking news? Is there a certain All these questions should be taken into consideration when covering a story that is unfolding in front of your eyes.

Breaking news updates are great to have to keep the public updated while things are unfolding.  However, people should take it into account that the details can change in a story and the breaking news version isn't always the right version.
Social media gives journalists the ability to upload breaking news at a quicker pace. Breaking news mistakes have been happening throughout the decades.  Even though with Twitter and Facebook distribute the breaking news at a faster speed, doesn't necessarily mean that it is not appropriate to use in the journalism field.

Mathew Ingram a senior reporter for GigaOm.com, a blog that is one of the top leading technology blog in the United States, brings to light that critics have come down on the inaccuracy that social media has had on journalism. Critics are implying that social media is not an appropriate forum for journalism. However, Ingram thinks differently.  He believes that "this is the way journalism works now, and we better get used to it."

Southern's Crime Rate Increase. Raise a Voice Against Viloence

Crime has always been a fascination to some people to learn about.  However, would you want to hear that it is happening close by?  Data charts and information can be very useful when it comes to crime rare in a town.  Southern Connecticut State University is located in New Haven.  According to Business Insider, New Haven is rated the fourth most dangerous city in the United States.

According to Southern 's Uniform Campus Crime and Fire Safety Manual drug abuse and violations have gone top from 2010-2012.  Not only did drug related crime increased, but also sexual offenses and burglary increased. Does this mean Southern is unsafe? Southern Police officers have done their part in keeping the students safe.  Students that attend Southern know of the dangers that happen close to or on campus.


"I mean, I suppose it is to be suspected.  We are a college campus in one of the most dangerous cities in the United States.  So to not expect it would be naive," said Pat Burton, a freshman and engineering major at Southern.

The Southern police are required by state law to inform students and families of the crime rate.  They don't try and cover up or sugar coat anything that happens near or on campus; especially for families with children thinking of applying to Southern.

"We send out an e-mail every time a crime happens around campus. We want to keep them as safe as possible.  Some students have taken their own course of action and carry around pepper spray and things such as that to keep themselves safe," said Chief Joseph M. Dooley.

Southern offers an alternative option for students to have when they feel unsafe  "One of the things campus police do is have an escort service. All  a student would have to do is call our number 392-5275 with your name, location and destination and as long as the student is on camp grounds somewhere, a police officer will come and pick them up," Said Dooley.

Campus police also hold a program called R.A.D (Rape Aggression Defense), which is a program for women to teach them basic self defense moves if they ever find themselves in a bad situation.  However, it is not a Martial Arts class.  It is just a basic hands-on self defense class for women who wan to know how to protect themselves.  To learn more about the other services Southern campus police provide go to this website.

What more could the police do?  They can be found driving around campus at night making sure students aren't getting into mischief and are safe. However, what else can they do to get these crime rates down? There is only so much that can be done. If students have suggestions they should go to the police station and talk with one of the officers.  Don't be afraid to raise a voice against violence. Southern Campus Police are here to keep the students safe.

Students and Stress- How do They Deal?

Instagram has gotten more and more popular. Being able to post picture updates right from your smart phone is easy as snap, teaser, post! News organizations are staring to join the crowds. For example, the Washington post has an Instagram. They post pictures and video clips of compelling news stories they are covering or have covered recently. I think that New organizations should have an Instagram; same as any other social media site out there now. It is a better way to reach a larger demographic. The Washington Post currently has 85,557 followers. I think they are reaching a larger demographic for sure. They would get more people to read their news articles. According to this article ever since technology has become more advanced and journalism is changing rapidly many news organizations have jumped on the scene and started to use a number of different social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, Instagram, Youtube and so many more.

 My job was to post Instagram photos on our Journalism site. Any topic we wanted to do as long as it included Southern students or staff.  The topic i chose was Students and Stress- How do they deal?  Walking around campus and asking students I got a range of interesting and fun answers.


Nicole Larbecque, a junior at Southern, and a History Major said, " Stress? What's that? I don't stress easily, but when that does happenI like to take a nap. Naps let me get away from it all. And plus, I like dreaming." Mark Saravia, a Geography major and a junior at Southern said, "When it comes to stress with college I just stop everything, go for a walk and listen to my music until I calm down."

Attention all Journalists, Listen to what Students Want to See

The job this week was to go around and ask a minimum of ten students at Southern Connecticut State University how they would like to see the school news being distributed and what content they wanted to read about. Whether it is through a newspaper, a web site or blog (online news), radio show or mobile access. With technology's growth in the past few years, one may guess as to how most college students would want to read the campus news. A series of questions follow, trying to collect enough information to really find out what exactly would students want to have on campus for news.
For this assignment, the easiest thing to do was make a survey 2 different ways. One way was putting the questions up on to a survey site called Survey Monkey.

After making the survey online, it is a good idea to put the survey out there. I linked it to my Facebook so all the Southern Students I already had as friends could see it and, hopefully take the time to fill it out.  Linking the survey to social media sites is a good way to get it out there for people to see.  The other way to get a survey out to the people is actually printing out a paper survey.
I printed out several copies of the survey and handed them to random students and asked for them to take a few minutes out of their day to answer the six questions.   This way, more of a variety of students were able to participate in taking this survey.
This is the link to take this survey, Whoo Gives a Hoot. Twelve people responded.  The results were somewhat expected.  Websites and word of mouth are the two most popular ways to get the news around Southern's campus. The two news distributors that Southern actually has, the newspaper and the radio, are the least popular to the college student.

In "Journalism Next," Mark Briggs said that a good way to approach mobile multimedia reporting is to concentrate on the elements of the story independently.

Since technology is so advanced, students were asked if the news around campus kept up with technology, would they be more inclined to read the news about things happening on campus.  The majority of the students who took the survey said that they would be more likely to read the news; but what type of news do they want to read about?

The Majority of the students said that they would like to see more events posted and put in the news.  Music and entertainment was the next big category students would like to read about in the news around campus. There was only one a few that actually suggested other topics; technology and opinion columns.
What if the news was made mobile?  What if an app was made? Would college students actually download the app and read/watch the news more often?  Students said yes, as long as the notifications didn't get annoying like some other phone apps.
Students for the most part, thought the idea of a phone app of some sort would become popular among the campus.  Most students don't keep up with the news on campus, unless heard by word of mouth.  If an e-mail comes their way, most just ignore and delete them.  Hopefully, with the ideas and data the students have given us something can be changed to get them more interested in campus news.

Jobs in the Journalism World

Have you ever had somebody come up to you and say, " What are you doing? That career is not one you should be going into?"  Yeah, same here.  However, one may not realize the many opportunities journalism has to offer. With multimedia journalism expanding rapidly, more job field have been created.

In the book, "Journalism Next," by Mark Briggs, Briggs says, "New technology is continually being developed to make your journalism more meaningful to your audience. Why waste time longing for the old days, before the audience had so many claims on its attention? Better to spend the time exploring new opportunities--and you can do that by making sure you spend as little time as possible on mundane tasks such as e-mail and note taking."

A job like web production is a job where journalists have to have good editorial judgement and the ability to keep the website up-to-date, engaging and fresh.  For this job a journalists needs to be a detail-oriented person who can work closely with other people. For example, people in the editorial and sales departments. 

This job has a good amount of responsibilities: A journalist who is looking to work in web production has to know how to to upload editorial content; which includes stories, blogs, art and multimedia.  They will be able to edit and upload photos for galleries, and know how to design, manage and deliver e-mail HTML newsletters.

Qualifications that a journalist needs for web production are as follows: Must have experience with online publishing tools like Dreamweaver and Photoshop. One must know HTML, CSS, and HTML tables that are used in newsletters and eblast; and they must know standard internet protocols such as FTP (file transfer protocol.)

These qualifications mean that a journalist needs to know how to create, write, and keep an up-to-date website and/or blog. A journalist needs to know how to keep the reader engaged and know how to judge the content of the story.  A journalist must know their way around all different kinds of editing programs like Photoshop and Dreamweaver.
In the book, "Web Production for Writers and Journalists," Jason Whittaker, talks about useful and significant web production can be. On page two he says:

"The Web holds the promise of publishing and communication on a potentially global scale to anyone with access to a computer and online connection. Producing a website can be pleasurable in itself, developing technical,writing and design skills that culminate in well-crafted pages...At the same time, these skills--writing about interests and passions, creating graphics and laying out pages, programming scripts and interactive elements -are becoming more than ever at the start of a new century. Web production and management is becoming a career for more and more people rather than a hobby. As such,web producers need to understand the principles of how sites can work effectively and what abilities they need to develop for this new medium, both on a technical level and to communicate proficiently. "

I would want somebody with these skills to work at my news organization. Having a journalist know their way around a website and blog would be a good asset to a successful news organization.  Having a blog and/or a news website gives the organization a way to expand and get more viewers to read the articles that a new organization provides. I would want a person that has really good judgement on the story content as well as editorial judgement.

As of right now, I do not have all of the qualifications to qualify for this sort of job.  To be able to obtain a job like this I would need to take more journalism classes that revolve around multimedia journalism.  I would need to learn the skills to be able to editorially judge the content that is put in each story/blog post.  I would need to know my way around HTML, and learn the program eblast.  Knowing all this information would do wonders for a news organization.  It would give them the edge they need to receive more viewers and readers.
Technology is growing and growing and along with that journalism is changing to fit the means of these changes. 

Digital News Media Tools

As most people know, journalism has been changing as technology has changed.  Most newspapers have a website and some have even more. For this post I chose Hartford Courant. The Hartford Courant is the biggest paper in Connecticut and is the oldest in the nation.
When thinking about it, one wouldn't think that The Hartford Courant isn't terribly old, but in fact it is the oldest paper in the nation.  It originated in 1764 as a weekly paper printed by a man named Thomas Green; who, then eventually sold it to his assistant, Ebenezer Watson.  If you want to know anymore about the Courant's history click on this link.

Snow Storm coming our way.

The Hartford Courant is very structured in its online set-up.  They have the updated news on the top; which in the past few days a lot of it has been about the up-coming snow storm. They are a very up-to-date website.  The journalists that are in charge of their website do a good job of keeping every thing new.

latest news 

On the left side of the latest news, there is a strip of their latest news.  This enables the reader to look at other news articles that the Courant has written in the past few weeks with ease.

At the bottom of the page there is an option to read "More News."  Clicking on that will send you to another page.  This one has their breaking news coverage of all different media advisories (brief breaking news clips.).
Their website format and layout does not change from day to day.  The stories will be changed and updated.  However, the layout of the website stays the same.  This makes it easy for the "regulars" who read the Courant.

As technology has changed, so has the way the Courant likes to keep their readers updated. The organization started off being a paper, and then started by posting their stories online.  If that isn't enough, the social media sites have taken their publicity to a whole new level.

Not only did they have a newspaper and a website, but The Courant also has a Twitter and a Facebook; which are other way to reach out to their readers with news updates.  The Courant has four different ways to be read.  Viewers/readers have the ability to read it by print, their online website, Facebook, Twitter , and even an app for smartphones.

Their Facebook and Twitter accounts are just as updated as their main website. Every few hours another post or tweet has been created.
Facebook and Twitter are integrated into the main website at the top of the page. They have some of their tweets shown on the website after the breaking news.
If that is not enough to spread the news, the app makes it portable. The app is for people who are always on the go.  They can just take out their smartphones or tablets and read.

The Courant has really leaped in to the digital media tools and they are using them to their full effects.  Using all these tools just makes their viewers grow. For instance, their Facebook Page has 20,273 likes and their the Courant's Twitter has 28.1K followers.

In "Journalism Next," by Mark Briggs, Briggs talks about how important social media has become in today's world; especially in journalism.
"The rate of growth makes it obvious how important these concepts and tools are for online communities today," said Briggs.

Briggs talks about how it all began as comments on news stories and blog posts blossomed into a full social networking tool for news organizations with full participation in this new world of journalism.
These tools are a great way to connect with the readers more and build a better, stronger relationship between the journalist and the reader. News is not just reporting events to the public anymore.  It's a conversation.

Scavenger Hunt

Tweets can be just for fun, but others can actually be creditable.  However, what makes a tweet creditable?

When trying to find a Tweet about the Winter Olympics it was a struggle trying to find somebody close to home, talking about the Olympics.  Most people I found were just watching it because they had nothing else to do.  So most of this tweets are obviously not creditable sources to use in a story.

The only tweet I found close to actually talking about the Olympics was this one:

Opening Ceremonies!!! 😊💕👏 #Olympics #Sochi2014 🎿🏂 (@ Hotel Shukis) http://t.co/12hG967PhH

— Stephanie Shukis (@whimsies08) February 8, 2014

This tweet is just talking about the opening of the Olympics. The link that is posted to this is creditable. So I would believe this to be a decent source and would think about using it as a creditable source. The next one is about the snow storm that is hitting Connecticut this upcoming week. There has been talk about a big storm in the area. This tweet I found has a link to News 8 showing what the upcoming storm is supposed to look like.

“@8NEWS: Brace yourself, #RVA; more snow is on the way Wednesday! #8NewsWx http://t.co/K1FuOlQbDr pic.twitter.com/Z3qIOMtAUs”😎😎😎😎💃

— Ashley❄️ (@_ashleydynamite) February 11, 2014

Journalistic Standards and Policies when Blogging

When being an online journalist or blogger there are elements that you have to make sure you have and then there are some questions that you have to consider: Do you have the time to always be updating the blog?  Are you citing creditable sources?  Do you know enough about multimedia to be able to do everything that is required to run a successful blog?
Being a blogger or an online journalist, one has to keep the blog and updated as much as possible.  Not only that, but having other social media sites to spread the news more rapidly, could really help with increasing the viewers. A Blogger needs to know how to use the multimedia tools and sources that are creditable enough that people know what you are reporting is the truth.  Sometimes journalists use a term called open-sourcing. Open-sourcing is when a journalists opens up the idea of a story to a group of people to get their input on what is going on.
The video below, Gabrielle Coleman, talks about open-sourcing:
With technology advancing at a fast pace, and journalists and bloggers are trying to keep up with the changes. One must wonder whether journalists and bloggers should consider getting the public involved in helping with the news.
With all this new technology being developed it gives anybody who is anybody the ability to put things on the internet.  In Nieman Reports, David Turner, talks about the difficulties of what is found on the internet. In this article, there is questions about whether or not a YouTube video is real or fake, or if a post on Twitter or Facebook could be truth or false.
Some news organizations have their own online website, apps for smartphones, and social media sites like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, pod-casts, and blogs, streaming their news faster to their viewers.
Open-sourcing is when journalists open the news up to the public.  The public then has the opportunity to send in pictures and comments about what happened. Is this a reliable way to get more news?

Journalists and bloggers must have good judgement when it comes to open-sourcing.
In the link above, there is an article about open-sourcing; and it this article it states: Readers who care about issues should be given the opportunities to become directly involved in the process of gathering, processing, synthesizing and publicizing news.  Not only that, but the purpose of our journalism here is to challenge, to provoke, and to demand answers from entrenched powers, and as long as this is done in a productive and documentary manner, this is something that the public should be involved in as well.

However, by letting the public be apart of the involvement, journalists and bloggers need to use their skills and judgement to make sure the information they are getting from the public is accurate and true.  It is journalist's responsibility is to weed out the bad information and leave in the good.

That is the trouble with open-sourcing, it is not one-hundred percent reliable and that becomes trouble for journalists and bloggers. However, open-sourcing can be important because unlike the experimental crowd-sourcing. According to "Journalism Next," a book by Mark Briggs, open-sourcing is where a reporter is asking more specific questions that are asked to the public for more information.
Briggs says that, "Whether or not people respond, opening the process helps journalists increase their credibility and social capital."  This is basically saying that open-sourcing can be helpful when it comes to distributing accurate information.  It gives the freedom to the public to participate in the new way of journalism.

Policy 

If I was a part of a online news site, I would make sure there were a set policy when it comes to open-sourcing.  

There is a part of me that wouldn't want to include the public in the news stories that we cover.  However, the other part if me says, that it would get us more viewers and the public participation would keep them interested. 

If I had to choose, I would include open-sourcing on the site.  I would want to do that mainly to keep the viewers interested in the news we provide.

However, there would be a policy:

1. Not every story should be open to the public. To figure out which stories should and shouldn't be open to open-sourcing, should depend on the amount of information we already have on the event.  If one of our journalists has a good amount of information on the event, there is really no need to open the story to open-sourcing. 

2. If a story just doesn't seem to have the "oomph" we are looking for, that could be a reason to open to the public to see what they have to send in and say about it.

3. If the story includes the public I would want a few journalists to look the comments over and decide as a whole whether the information sent it is trustworthy enough to put in the story.  If there is any doubt, a journalist should find out more information, by seeing what other people wrote to compare.  If there is any contact information left, they should follow-up with that person.

4. If any information that is doubtful, then don't use it for the story.

Open-sourcing is not always necessary in a news story.  It would be nice to get the public involved in some of the news, but not everything should be open to the public. 

I would not use the information from the public to be the main source of a news story.  I don't think it should be used as the most reliable source, because if for some reason something in there is false and it wasn't caught by one of the journalists then some may start to believe that what we are reporting can't be reliable.

This is another video on open-sourcing by the Corbett Report:
This video talks about the history of journalism and how in the beginning of time journalism wasn't really a thing.  The only people to read and write were scribes who would write everything out long hand and the process was a lot longer.  This was not considered journalism, it isn't logical to write a newspaper out long hand. This video goes on through some of the history and how far journalism has come; from scribes, to town criers, to reporters, newspapers, and websites.  This video talks about what a journalist is and what they are thought to do. What some people see as a journalist now could be different from what others will see as a journalist 10-15 years down the road.

Teasers

New Business software, The FeedVisor, making its way up the line; gauging demands and competition http://t.co/ourQJnY35Q
— Kate Burton (@Kate_TruthBTold) February 27, 2014

Man accused of running down police officer; office severely injured. http://t.co/Yg5J3t2qFU
— Kate Burton (@Kate_TruthBTold) February 27, 2014

Nationally ranked dancer talks about her love of Irish dancing. http://t.co/PMbaHG2Vqs
— Kate Burton (@Kate_TruthBTold) February 27, 2014

Drunken Sailor sentenced to be hanged for the murder of a Police officer. http://t.co/Ka0spsPH0z
— Kate Burton (@Kate_TruthBTold) February 27, 2014

Twitter Talk-How Social Media is Changing Journalism

There has been talk about journalism changing as technology is continuing to grow.  Journalists have more ways to distribute news to the public at a faster speed.  Breaking news updates can be sent in an instant through Twitter updates and photos from Instagram;  Even breaking news clips right onto their news website.
Social media sites are popping up with new ways to feature news and pass news along to more people around the world.  New sites are getting blogs and Twitters to be able to post things up faster than ever. However, is social media killing the traditional ways of journalism? Is journalism fading out completely due to media?

Twitter Talk  

Journalism has changed along with social media. As social media sites grew, journalism's online usage grew.  I believe that with everything else in this world: things change with time.

With the outbreak of soical media in the past decade with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat, and blogging have made journalism faster paced in practically every way.

Some journalist's tweets show that all journalists should take advantage of the new technology.

Some Twitter names I follow:

1. Journalistics (@journalistics): tweets a lot about Journalism; whether it has to do with multimedia, or just new things happening around the world.  The tweet  below links an article about keeping up with social media sites can be beneficial to journalists.

Twitter’s changing its DM policy, some journalists are ready to take advantage: http://t.co/ZSKe6uSUCu (Nieman). Good idea for journalists?
— Journalistics (@journalistics) October 16, 2013

Here is another article from Journalistics on Snapchatting; and how it is making it's way into the the Journalism world.

2. Future Journalism (@The_FJP) Re-tweeted a post from Nieman Lab (@NiemanLab) which linked an article about the New York Times and what they learned about having one of the web's largest Twitter accounts.

What has the social media team at @nytimes learned running one of the web’s biggest Twitter accounts? Lessons here: http://t.co/0z6k9pLnsd
— Nieman Lab (@NiemanLab) January 6, 2014

A few other Twitter accounts I follow for Journalism insight:
- Patricia Kitchen (@patriciakitchen)
-Mashable (@mashable)
-Journalism.co.uk (@journalismnews)

Since journalism has been introduced to  multimedia, it has come a long way.  With Twitter, apps for smartphones, journalists can upload instant clips to viewers getting out the information faster then they could before.
Another part of this multimedia journalism is blogging. Many news sites are now posting blogs to report stories as well.  The New York Times has a page where you can search different blogs.  Blogs open up more opportunities for news stories as well as websites, Twitter, and Facebook.

According to Mark Briggs in his book "Journalism Next," to be a successful blogger one should:

Journalism Next By: Mark Briggs

• Read and comment on other blogs to get a feel of how other write 
• link other blogs to posts
• Promote the latest news 
• use links to other sources/articles 
• Be direct 
• Be the authority with personality 
• organization is key 
• post daily and put readers first 
• make it scanable

some others may include:

1. summarize and analyze
2. specific headlines 
3. use photos and screen shots to make blog more appealing to viewers 
4. Post early and post often

If theses things are followed there is a good chance viewers will increase and you will be viewed as a good blogger/journalist. 

Here is another outlook on multimedia Journalism .This article from Monmouth University "The Outlook" a student-run Newspaper, looks at the many changes Journalism has changed since social media has exploded into this generation; and if it it is helping, or actually hurting the journalism world. The media is partly to blame that people are straying from the traditional ways of journalism. However, one may ask the question, "is traditional ways of journalism enough anymore?" Can it really be determined if it is running or  helping journalism as a whole? Journalism is a growing field and will continue to grow as multimedia grows. 

break

Sailor Sentenced to Be Hanged

NEW YORK – A drunken sailor was given the death sentence this morning for the murder of New York City policeman George T. Gillespie and will be hanged on Friday November 21, 1851.

Witnesses say on the morning of July 10, Joseph Clark was seen taking part in a drunken feud on Oliver Street. Soon after, Gillespie arrived at the scene to break up the fight.

After the police arrived most of the sailors left, but Clark and John D. Brown remained. When Gillespie tried to get the two men to go home, Clark came up and struck the police officer on the head with a violent blow.

Continuous strikes

After Gillespie fell to the curb, Clark continued to strike the police officer a further three times.

Gillespie was taken to hospital where he died the same night from a fractured skull.

Judge J. Mitchell said “The deadly assault which you put upon him was not only unprovoked by him, but was conducted by you with a cruelty beyond measure revolting…”

Clark insisted he had not meant to kill Gillespie, despite the continuous blows to his head.

The prisoner showed no remorse for his sentence, likening it to eating a bad breakfast.

The only words Clark said, “I did not intend to kill the man, that is all I have to say.” 

Goals:

I have a couple goals that I want to achieve during this semester in Journalism 225-Multimedia Journalism:

1. I want to explore the many things that can be done with blogs.
2. To learn how to make my writing more interesting to online viewers 
3. I took this class to get more experience with blogging and the fast pace world of online news media like this video shows
4. I am hoping to better myself as a journalist major.
5. I do want to achieve an A in this class like most students want as well. 
6. I want to achieve the confidence needed to start a blog that everybody wants to read without others saying that journalism is a "waste of time" and "such a hard career to get into."
7. I am looking forward to learning all the new ways journalists circulate the news. Here is an article that shows a few things to consider when being a journalist who blogs.
8. I am looking to refresh and learn more on HTML

These are some of my main goals that I want to achieve throughout this semester in this Journalism class.