Mobile platform delivery begets mobile journalism – mojo

Image by mushon via Flickr

• How to save local newspapers: Cellphones
  I’m all for mobile news-particularly as it relates to providing information in developing countries-but at this early stage I would say mobile is going to be part of a resurrection of local news providers.Uptake could be too slow to save the paper
  (tags: lojo mojo mobile local-news socialmedia)
• Question to Readers: How Do I Describe My Blog?
  Help Dave Cohn take “Journalism” out of his blog description.
  “I don’t care about that word ["Journalism"] persay. What I care about is the open and honest exchange of information, as I believe THAT’S what is needed to keep a democracy strong.”
  (tags: journalism future)
• Comments add value to newspaper Web sites
  I somewhat agree-I just can’t see chiefs of staff seeing it as anything other than a waste of time – could also be legal issues.
  “Each reporter should take responsibility for the comments on[their]stories and[.]be encouraged to actively participate[.]“
  (tags: blogging comments community newssites newspapers socialmedia journalists)
• Multimedia Journalism: Theory v. Practicality
  Training then needs implementation.
  “The best multimedia journalists are sometimes those who take it upon themselves to learn [...] The online revolution[.]will never happen unless [...] organizations make a financial commitment to training their existing staff”
  (tags: multimedia journalism online newmedia)
• Moving news video to the long tail
  Video has archive value too-don’t hide it!
  “archive video to create a long-tail business[.]Broadcasting is so accustomed to the idea of instant obsolescence (what we do today doesn’t matter tomorrow) that we miss opportunities for niche videos”
  (tags: video videojournalism online newssites)

Originally from my auto-posting daily Delicious links, I have cut this back to just a few links I have added comment to or that I think particularly useful. I have also retitled the post. This is in preparation for a blog redesign, where I no longer want posts titled “links for YYYY-MM-DD”. A live stream of Delicious links will also always be available in a sidebar widget and/or stand-alone page.

Creating a Google storm map

The Spokesman Review is doing some cool things with Google Maps.

User generated content is populating a map, so that individual stories are tied to a particular location using plain text, images and video.

This could be compared to Every Block, but for breaking news/continuing stories on a particular event, rather than data.

The potential for storm stories, either by user submitted photos, or using information as it comes in from police, makes it a great tool for 1) rolling updates of affected areas and, 2) a continuing story of what people are experiencing on the ground.

And they’re sending it in to you, talking about it, interacting with it.

Often we may write, “The Smith, Jones, and Harry street bridges in Doe Shire have been washed away by flood waters,” but people could have no idea where those are.

In some instances online sites have been giving a link to a Google map of a street location mentioned in a crime story, for instance.

Expand that to include multiple locations and you have big-picture view, that everyone can see.

Spokesmanreview.com: Storm Stories

Colin Mulvaney works at the Spokesman Review, and for more pearls of online wisdom, see his blog, Mastering Multimedia.