week 7 – moving beyond the blog: podcasting, Flickr and YouTube

- What is the impact of NetVideo on politics and mainstream newspapers?
- What is the role and future of the multi-media journalist?
- Technologies: YouTube, Blip.tv, Current.tv, Flickr

Student Questions
Reminder:

Each week, I compile your questions in a post like this. Having your questions and link here is the first step towards my recording the week’s points in the spreadsheet. It is your responsibility to alert me if I erred (did not mark and extra-credit or missed your questions).

Remember: questions should be open-ended … appending “why?” doesn’t count! Think and rephrase. This will help you when you are preparing for an interview!

Post Genres:
The Analytical Post (the first step to an effective soap box blog)
The analytical post contains information from multiple sources; in the post, the author explores an idea. The author may synthesize information and develop a new frame for an idea; may criticize ideas presented in other blog posts or news articles; or may point out information that a news article or blog post failed to mention. In a “strict” analytical post, there is no call to action or intent to persuade.

This is related to, but does not fully emulate, a traditional analytical essay. (Tips for evaluating evidence.)

Examples:

• Kathy (example 1, example 2 – the last bit turns this into persuasive, almost, which is our last genre)
• Faith (almost there!)
• Social Customer Manifesto (analysis + link post)
• David Postman
• Analysis with two external sources
• Multi-sourced “news” or “analytical” … and does it matter? (google cache)
• What is this one?
• Analysis or persuasive – what do you think?
• Recap: a longer link post … and a link(s) post

If you are at a loss for a topic, find a news story related to a topic covered in the class. Use your favorite search engine to find other writers on the topic. Then write a medium-length blog post that utilizes these other articles (usually, at least three sources) and that reflects your “voice.” Come to class Thursday prepared to work on this in lab.

Politics & Social Media – examples
Newsvine – 1, 2, 3, 4
Facebook 1, 2
TH: MySpace – 1, 2, 3
TH: YouTube – 1, 2, 3

Student Readings (we’ll do this Thursday!)

• (1 – Jason) Thompson, M. (2006, March 22). Why On Demand Changes Everything. Speech.
• (2 – Sara) Yung, J. (2008, Jan 24). Newspapers Use YouTube Video Previews To Attract Readers. Online Journalism Review.

AhHa’s and the rest of the quarter:

Only five comments. :-/
We will definitely address the following question (as well as the questions about inserting an image and multimedia)

I would like to learn more corporate blogs and how they are being used to enhance business… I am curious at what sort of blogging skills companies are looking for in employees and what information I should include on my resume. Even just help with blogging lingo, key phrases or essential skills I should acquire for the “business blogging” world would be so helpful!

Lab:

(1) VoteAbsentee
Pair up and look at one another’s pages. Do the pages feel like they are part of the same site – why or why not? What recommendations do you have for how we move forward with the other three states?

(2) Peer Interaction
(1 – Nicole C) Howard, P. N. ( 2003). Digitizing the Social Contract: Producing American Political Culture in the Age of New Media. The Communication Review (6). 213-245. (pdf)
Respondents: KC, Lorin, Sara, WhitneyB

(2 – KC) Johnson, E. (2006). Polibloggers and the Politics Press In America. Reconstruction 6.4.
Respondents: Kendra, Khair, NicoleB, Sammi, WhitneyT

(3 – Whitney) Rosen, J. (2007, Nov. 14). These Beat Reporters Will Try The Social Network Way. PressThink
Also, see beatblogging.org
Respondents: Faith, Jason, Jessica, NicoleC

For Thursday:

Bring an image you’d like to add to a blog post — remember that you need to have the right to use the image! Also, bring a link to a YouTube clip that you’d like to feature in a blog post. We’ll learn how to do one of these on Thursday (and the other one next week)!