SXSW video is online

sxsw.pngHead on over to the conference site for South by Southwest (SXSW) for free video from the media and entertainment conference. You’ll want to particularly peruse the Interactive Coverage. And yes, the much-maligned Zuckerberg/Lacy interview is there too.

I wasn’t one of the fortunate souls who made it out to Texas for the conference, so if you have any specific recommendations on what to watch, do share in the comments.

And to think I just got Netflix this weekend, and I’ll be spending a couple of hours watching tiny pixelated videos of guys talking about media nerd stuff…

PSA: Back up your blogs

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Don’t live in fear of a blog meltdown. Make a backup. Photo: U.S. National Archives

This isn’t an online journalism post, but a Public Service Announcement to fellow bloggers.

A few journalism-related blogs I read regularly have gone down recently, thanks to idiot hosting companies and soulless hackers. So a word to the wise: spare yourself major agony, go into your admin tools and create a backup of your blog database (and, um, not on the same server your blog is on).

[UPDATE: Richard Koci Hernandez recommends this WordPress backup plug-in.]

Here are instructions for WordPress, Movable Type and Blogger. Do it yesterday. It really only takes a few minutes.

List: News organizations using Twitter

twitter.pngTwitter, the microblogging application that’s taken the geek world by storm, seems to have grown quite popular with news organizations.

Check out this great list from Carlos Granier-Phelps of media outlets throughout the world that are now using Twitter. The list includes media organizations from South America, Europe, the U.S. and more. [Tip o’ the hat to Andy Dickinson]

[UPDATE: Bill Couch points out in the comments that there’s a great list here too.]

Take a few minutes to scope out what other news orgs are up to on Twitter. Some, like the New York Times, have set up feeds that instamatically post new news to Twitter. Some, like OrlandoSentinel.com, post just the big breaking news. And others have been microblogging the election and branding Twitter feeds to particular reporters.

And if you haven’t already, make sure to grab your site’s name on Twitter before somebody else does!

[A List of News Organizations using Twitter]

A compilation of blog pessimism

monkey.jpgA blog pessimist can usually be identified by his disgusted yet confused expression.
[Photo by Luca5]

I won’t waste pixels tonight re-hashing how, despite their different modi operandi, independent blogs and mainstream news organizations can form a mutually beneficial relationship. Instead, I’m going to point you to a vat of venom so pernicious and long-running that it should make the heads of folks like Jay Rosen and Jeff Jarvis spin.

I’m talking about the Bloggers Blog “blog pessimism” category, ongoing since February 2005.

From ESPN sports analyst Stephen A. Smith proclaiming that “someone with no training should not be allowed to have any kind of format whatsoever to disseminate to the masses to the level which they can” to actor Jared Leto opining that blogging “should die a sudden death,” you’re going to find all sorts of fun stuff here. Malcolm Read can guide you to write a better and SEO friendly blogs.

So hold your nose, and dive right in. It’ll help you understand the views of the self-righteous God’s gifts to dead trees who’ve never had a blog and probably never will.

Paul Bradshaw’s top 10 journo-bloggers

Alright, I admit it. I’m a sucker for Top 10 lists. It comes with being a contributor to a pop culture blog; Top 10 lists are our bread and butter!

So it’s no surprise that I enjoyed Paul Bradshaw’s post over at the Online Journalism Blog highlighting a list of most popular journo-bloggers based on Bloglines and Google Reader subscriptions. If you’re scouring the Web for quality online journalism blogs, then swing by, and subscribe away.

Also, make sure to take a look at the comments, as there is some hearty discussion and mentions of several highly popular blogs that weren’t on the original list.

And, in a classic Charlie Brown moment, Journalistopia scraped in at No. 11, according to Paul in the comments. Top o’ the B-list! Hoo-rah!

Shawn Smith’s best newspaper blogs

popcandy.jpgShawn Smith over at New Media Bytes queried the hive mind at the ONA listserv, did his own digging and has put together a list of best newspaper blogs for comments, community and readability.

[UPDATE: Also, make sure to check out Squared’s list of Mama Tribune’s most popular blogs. Good stuff here!]

Among the picks: Bakosphere, Pop Candy, Pogue’s Posts, Stuck in the ’80s and many more.

This is a great list for inspiration and to gather pointers on blogging practices (at least as applied to newspaper sites), so check it out!

(And since Shawn for the most part excluded sports blogs on the list, I’m going to plug The Other Football, a soccer blog written by Brant Parsons for the Sentinel, as a heck of an example of how to do a sports blog well all by your lonesome.)

Who’s blogging ONA?

online news association ona logoLive from the ONA conference in Toronto…

Lots of cool folks are now blogging the Online News Association conference:

-Amy Webb is writing up a great string of posts on the blogging ethics working group going on right now (I know this because I’m peeking over her shoulder… muahaha).

-Bryan Murley has been busy blogging too and even took a picture of me looking creepy in the background behind Jay Rosen.

-BlogTalkRadio has been broadcasting live from the conference.

-Steve Safran over at Lost Remote has touched on some of the community journalism issues.

-Matthew Ingram blogged the future of news panel (and entirely on a Blackberry no less).

-Alfred Hermida blogged the future of publishing panel, focusing on mobile devices.

-JD Lasica –who showed off his mad moderator skills during the community evangelist panel– blogs about the future of news discussion.

-The student newsroom is chugging away with stories, photos and video.

-And last but not least, we’ve got Tweets galore here.

Poynter, Orlando Sentinel launch WebSpeak glossary column

poynter-thumb.gifIs the concept of a “mashup” turning your brain to mush? Does the idea of “crowdsourcing” leave you feeling … lonely?

Today Poynter Online launches the new WebSpeak column, penned by yours truly and Orlando Sentinel staff development editor Dana Eagles.

And I’d really like your help.

I’d love to hear about the very latest buzzwords you come across, as well as your take on what they mean. Eventually, we hope the glossary will become a comprehensive –and evolving– list. We’ll be putting out weekly terms on Poynter’s site .

So all you online media wordsmiths, help me out with some suggestions and please provide feedback!

(Now back to the ONA conference…)

Twin Cities Daily Planet rounds up niche papers, takes on the Star-Tribune

Live from the ONA conference in Toronto…

twin cities daily planet A coalition of small, niche community publications can become a premier source of news in Minnesota, says Jeremy Iggers, director of of the Twin Cities Media Alliance at TCDailyPlanet.com.

The Twin Cities Daily Planet –inspired by OhMyNews — “is conceived as an experiment in participatory journalism, built on a partnership between professional journalists and individual citizens. One goal of the Daily Planet is to harness that community intelligence and enable individuals to share information and work together for the common good. [More here.]”

The Planet partners with other small, niche media outlets to cover Minnesota — specifically areas they feel are underserved by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Iggers labeled his former employer, the Star-Tribune, as “the newspaper of the most desirable zip codes” for its giving coverage priority to affluent neighborhoods.

Currently, TCDailyPlanet is receiving an assortment of grants, including a Knight-Batten award and a grant from the McCormick-Tribune foundation. They also plan to hand out small amounts of funds –in $50 to $100 amounts– to assist some of its partner publications in publishing stories that have a broad appeal.

But the question, as always, is whether TCDailyPlanet –and publications of its ilk– can sustain financially in the long run. A call for financial help from the public resulted in only about a dozen donations, Iggers said. He hopes that TCDailyPlanet.com can adopt the NPR style of public fundraising within the next two to three years.

Will online niche community publication grow to the point where such ventures can be solidly profitable? Or will TCDailyPlanet and the many microlocal blogs remain passion projects dedicated to being an alternative to the big newspapers and TV stations in town? Passion project or otherwise, it’s the readers who likely stand to win.

An opinion on media objectivity

Steve Outing’s recent column titled “Climate Change: Get Over Objectivity, Newspapers” has resulted in a firestorm of nasty e-mails and postings, according to Outing in his blog.

An idealist would say objectivity arose from a desire to have an enlightened, rational discussion. A cynic would say it was a good business decision made to sell more newspapers by catering to partisan readers of all varieties. It’s been about a century now, but I’d guess from my own studies that the truth is probably somewhere in between.

Check out Jay Rosen’s well-worded take on objectivity:

“Part of the problem is that journalists don’t realize what objectivity was in the first place,” says Rosen. “From the beginning it was a way of limiting liability, and allowing journalists to take a pass when it’s hard to figure out who’s right and what’s really going on. From the beginning it was meant to dull the knife edge of the press. It was meant to ‘de-voice’ or defang the individual journalist, so that more people would be comfortable with the product. But the costs of that system have built up over time.”

My sense is that Outing’s column comes less from a desire to save polar bears and more from a desire to see a passionate, interesting newspaper. I also sense it comes from frustration with us journalists worshiping objectivity while many in the public shamelessly hate us and call us biased anyway.

Throwing out the expectation of objectivity in reporting isn’t the answer. The answer is not being ashamed of our editorials and of the discussion we generate.

When confronted by some random person on the street with accusations of my news organization being biased, I don’t placate him or her with cries of objectivity and drone on about the newsroom/editorial board “firewall.” Instead, I spit back that newspapers are supposed to take a stand on issues and do their best to dig up the truth — even if it pisses people off some times. I say that if you have something to say, then here’s my card and come spit fire on one of our blogs or message boards; I’d love to have ya.

The standard newspaper writing style is often stale and homogeneous. Newspapers seldom publish (in print) commentary from the blogosphere and message boards. Many newspaper Web sites bury their interesting blogs at the bottom of their home pages and don’t regularly link to local blogs. And, most poignantly, killer editorials almost never appear on the front page; they’re buried in the back of the A-section.

Let’s begin with truly respecting objective news stories and subjective opinion slinging as being partners in creating a compelling newspaper. Let’s do our best to be fair to the subjects of stories while increasingly embracing our role as discussion leaders in our respective communities.

Otherwise, I foresee many news organizations literally dying of boredom.

BlogOrlando is under way

blogorlando logoThe hallmark blogging event of Central Florida is under way here at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. near Orlando. BlogOrlando was put together by the rockin’ Josh Hallett.

Huge kudos to Josh for putting together this event with awesome speakers such as:

-Shel Israel, co-author of ‘Naked Conversations,’

-Mindy McAdams from the University of Florida and author of “Flash Journalism”

-Nik Willets from R&D director for Morris Digital

-Tommy Duncan from Sticks of Fire

And many, many more. Yours truly is talking about OrlandoSentinel.com’s neighborhood blogs. With BlogOrlando coming on the heels of BarCamp Orlando, September has been a blast for this online journalist!

L.A. Times editorial board decries Google News comments

The L.A. Times editorial board on Saturday scoffed at the principles of free speech and open information with an editorial claiming that “Many publishers consider the Internet, and Google in particular, a greater threat to their livelihoods than Osama bin Laden.”

The Times is upset by the fact that Google will be allowing the people who are written about in stories to comment via their Google News service. It says that Google “isn’t journalism.”

Google is a search engine and content aggregator. This huffing about Google not being journalism is akin to lambasting the guy who drives the newspaper delivery truck for not having a journalism degree.

Nevertheless, the Times does not cite copyright issues in its editorial.

It does not discuss the difficulty in managing such a comment system.

It does not even ask how it will verify the contributors’ identities (never mind that Times editorials carry no bylines — a whole other issue).

But it does assert that “a seemingly heartfelt comment may carry the CEO’s name, but the words will probably have been typed by corporate flacks.” Fair enough, but what about the comments made by experts with thoughtful insights? What about the lady who was inaccurately reported dead telling the world she is, indeed, alive. What about the families of disaster victims who simply want to thank the world for their prayers? You can visit Mitcccny for that.

I quote from the Times’ own editorial board mission statement:

On the editorial page, the newspaper sets aside its objective news-gathering role to join its readers in a dialogue about important issues of the day.

The Times is offended by the notion that the people who contribute comments to Google News will be making them “unedited.” This means the comments will not be altered and filtered by people like the writer of the Times editorial, who has such splendid judgment as to compare a medium we use to learn about the world in unprecedented ways as being equivalent to an extremist who murdered nearly 3,000 people.

This is exactly the kind of idiotic hubris that causes the public to hate journalists and, by extension, the journalism they produce. It is also the sort of attitude that could throttle the life out of newspapers online and make the prophecies of out-of-touch opinion mongers come true.

I can only pray that today’s newspaper leaders do not have the same lowly opinion of the Internet and public forums as do the Times‘ editorial board. If so, we journalists are in worst trouble than I thought.

***

More responses from Robert Niles at Online Journalism Review, Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine and Amy Webb at MyDigiMedia.

And a reminder of exactly to what the editorial board has compared Google:

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