fix journalism a conversation about journalism’s future

Author: Donica Mensing | 11.22.2009

As educators struggle to cram more into the journalism curriculum, journalism history courses are easy targets for elimination or reduction. Yet Carlin Romano argues journalism history should be required of all journalism students, along with comparative journalism and philosophy of journalism courses. Despite the sure disagreement with this recommendation, I think he’s right. Here’s why:

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Author: Michael Higdon | 10.27.2009

I walked up to the imaginary doctor and interviewed him using my Evernote (btw, you need this if you’re a journalist, not just for iPhone) voice recorder. He told me Michael Jackson was in critical condition.

When I hit save on Evernote, it automatically uploaded the sound file to the web. Annie has access to my Evernote account and watched it load live, then saved it to her computer, briefly trimmed it down, uploaded it to SoundCloud.com (YouTube for audio) and Tweeted the sound clip embeded on the L.A. Times website with a nutgraf.

Total time for first breaking news report: 10 minutes

While I waited in the waiting room, the editor and I coordinated my and the L.A. Times tweets using a synced Tweetdeck (iPhone app + her desktop app). I tweeted extra details while the editor spread the word.

As people retweeted us, we retweeted them with #truth

People who lied (or abused the hash tag) were retweeted with #untruth so that people would ignore them and continue to retweet our reports.

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Author: Michael Higdon | 09.11.2009

It irks me that our industry is currently having a debate about who the customer is; readers or advertisers. The above Harvard Business blog talks about finding out how people read, something I’ve been whining about for a year now. A very anthropological, anti-focus group approach is what he suggests. I’d agree. Annie points out that [...]

Author: Michael Higdon | 09.09.2009

In imagination land, we’ll partner with Comma Coffee, a locally owned coffee shop in Carson City. We’ll go with the original idea, where Swift partners to put Nevada Appeal newspapers and a Nevada Appeal reporter in the coffee shop almost all day. We have Online Community Managers (OCMs), so let’s say it’s one of those people.

That reporter/OCM gathers news, talks to people, answers questions (even just common questions about town goings-ons), reports, moderates, etc. He/She is the community hub – the all-knowing journalist. But he/she is only the all-knowing journalist because of time spent with the community members. So really, the OCM is a facilitator between customers who buy coffee for breakfast and customers who buy at lunch.

Also, we buy one of those nice big flat screen TVs (about $1000 to $1600) and start selling advertisements on a rotating screen. As an incentive, it also includes specials in that coffee shop with nice food photography compliments of the ad staff. Nothing is better than a photo of a greasy croissant sandwich or steaming coffee when it comes to making point of purchase sales.

In addition to ads, let’s stick news headlines on that screen. Not unlike Las Vegas Sun’s billboards.

On top of that, if there’s breaking news using Twitter or Cover it Live (or other live tools) let’s put the Nevada Appeal’s Twitterfall on it too. People in the coffee shop could participate from their mobile phones or laptops and see it live.

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Author: Michael Higdon | 08.17.2009

Click the headline for archived video footage. Taken off of homepage because of autoplay.

Author: Michael Higdon | 07.08.2009

Register now for Thursday’s Webinar and learn how to manage a new generation of staffers.

The Baby Boomers Generation — also known as Gen Old — is reshaping your newsroom. How do you get the best work out of your youngest staffers?
Join me, of Fix Journalism for Managing Old Folks: Helping the Old Generation of Journalists Succeed in Your Newsroom.

This one-hour Webinar will:

• Identify who falls into this generation and understand how they have come to be defined
• Identify contributions Baby Boomers can make in the newsroom
• Describe five keys to helping Baby Boomers succeed
• Offer tips to put their talents to work for your news organization
• Explore how to turn the success of Baby Boomer staffers to your newsroom’s advantage

Sign up now for Managing Old Folks and learn how to successfully manage your staffers to create a more productive newsroom and a more satisfied work force. When Old Folks succeed, your whole newsroom benefits.

Stay tuned for our webinar next week:

Managing Women: How to Help the Women in your Newsroom Succeed.

• How to identify the women in your newsroom and how they have come to be defined
• Identify contributions women can make to your newsroom
• Describe five keys to helping women succeed
• Offer tips on how to put their talents to work for you
• Explore how to turn women’s success to your advantage

OR

Sign up for News University’s webinar: Managing Millennials: Helping the Next Generation of Journalists Succeed in Your Newsroom

Seriously?

Author: Michael Higdon | 07.08.2009

So let’s get this straight: Only teens don’t like frustrating, hard to use websites, only teens don’t like irrelevant, useless information, only teens don’t like liars and only teens want to use information they find for more than personal knowledge?

I don’t understand how the website suggestions are any different than how anyone at any age would like to read. The NAA and Northwestern did not identify how teenagers read, they identified a type of reader that happens to be slightly more common among young people.

In my research and personal usability testing, I’ve discovered two overarching type of readers: Surfers and Drillers. Underneath that, I’ve identified others. However, Innovation in Newspapers 2009 publication (PDF costs money) labeled them more clearly, so I will use theirs in the below descriptions.
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Author: Michael Higdon | 06.19.2009

Capitalize on this focusing point right this second. Do not wait for people to forget you screwed up. Move forward NOW! There are points in history where the world or a group or a culture pay attention to something and change quickly. They are called paradigm shifts. This is one of those opportunities.

Take everyone’s advice. Members have provided a lot of feedback not normally available. Do it. Then make sure there is a place for members to regularly provide feedback from today on into forever. Where the hell can we go to be heard other than when you piss us off? Nowhere. So make somewhere for us to go when we’re not pissed.

SND is no longer a society of print journalists, get over it. Many members lement that we’re no longer true to our craft. We’re not prepress people anymore. It’s odd that we can call ourselves forward thinking and still lement about that fact. It’s a tough world. I know, I just graduated and had to spend the last year ignoring print in order to ensure I could get a job. I still suck at new media, we all do. Let’s get better. Web design has just started, it’ll be like 2004! It’s like getting all your pages in color all over again. There are a limited number of web usability conventions and it’s not all that different than print.
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