To more accurately reflect this post’s title, Australia’s Top 100 Journalists and News Media People on Twitter, the list here has been trimmed back to who I consider to be the top 100 Australian journalists and news media people on Twitter.

News Limited
@jg_rat John Grey – editor couriermail.com.au
@jendudley Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson – Technology reporter and blogger The Courier-Mail
@lyndalcairns Lyndal Cairns – online editor couriermail.com.au
@cowspanker David Higgins – Editor news.com.au
@rodpeno Rod Peno – Social Media Producer at News Digital Media
@penbo David Penberthy – editor of The Punch, former editor of the Daily Telegraph
@colgo Paul Colgan – Managing Editor of The Punch
@diversionary Simon Wright – designer news.com.au
@aramadge Andrew Ramadge – news.com.au technology reporter
@newsbee Lanai Vasek -news.com.au business owner editor
@edmundtadros Edmund Tadros – news.com.au business editor
@mclayfield Matthew Clayfield – journalist The Australian
@sarahelks Sarah Elks – Brisbane-based journalist The Australian
@meadea Amanda Meade – Media journalist The Australian
@sally_jackson Sally Jackson – Media journalist The Australian
@joe_hildebrand Joe Hildebrand – Daily Telegraph blogger
@cate3221 Cate Swannell – Gold Coast Bulletin journalist
@rodsavage Rod Savage – AdelaideNow editor

Fairfax
@JohnBirmingham John Birmingham – blogging with Brisbane Times
@valeriekhoo Valerie Khoo – enterprise blogger
@annabelcrabb Annabel Crabb
@ashermoses Asher Moses – technology journalist
@curious_scribe Glenda Kwek – journalist and multimedia
@brontegirl Kimberley Porteous – multimedia editor
@paulwiggins Paul Wiggins – online editor
@lucasng Lucas Ng – search and analytics director fairfax digital
@kuns Mike van Niekirk – editor-in-chief online – fairfax media
@jvdouglas – IT and business journalist with BRW
@miafreedman Mia Freedman Essential Baby blog, columnist Sun-Herald and Sunday Age

ABC
@abcmarkscott Mark Scott – managing director
@mariekehardy Marieke Hardy – triple j breakfast
@myfwarhurst Myfanwy Warhurst – ABC
@kteej Kaitlyn Sawrey – triplej Hack journalist
@rosieryan Rosanna Ryan – ABC online journalist, new media tutor at QUT
@nic_macbean Nic MacBean – ABC journalist
@paulverhoeven Paul verhoeven – triplej
@awrd Andrew Davies – ABC Radio National producer (Future Tense, previously The Media Report)
@leighsales Leigh Sales – ABC Lateline presenter
@marcfennell Marc Fennell – Triple J film critic and ABC Local Radio
@kingleonard Leanord King – internet video specialist ABC news online
@garykemble Gary Kemble – ABC journalist and blogger
@dellvink Amanda Dell – 612 ABC Brisbane
@colvinius Mark Colvin – Presenter of PM, ABC Radio

Crikey
@greenj Johnathan Green – editor Crikey
@BernardKeane Bernard Keane – Crikey
@andrewjcrook Andrew Crook – politics
@firstdogonmoon – Crikey cartoonist
@margaretsimons Margaret Simons – Content Makers blog at Crikey and academic
@stilgherrian – I don’t consider myself a “journalist”, but have sometimes used “writer”

@stephenmayne Stephen Mayne – Crikey founder, now @mayneReport
@aapbrisbane Angelina Harper-Erini – AAP Brisbane deputy bureau chief
@migueldsouza Miguel D Souza – AAP
@renailemay Renai Lemay – editor ZDnet.com.au
@hughjm Hugh Martin – GM APN Online @wazl Warren Lee – CEO APN Online
@theburgerman John Bergin – Deputy Director of Digital News, Sky News Australia
@owenjay Owen Jacques – Daily Mercury, Mackay, business, resources, council journalist
@newsed Simon Holt – group news editor Cumberland and Courier newspaper groups
@harleyd Harley Dennett – news editor, Sydney Star Observer
@thetowncrier Jason Whittaker – managing editor at Trader Business Media – ACP magazines
@genrobey Genevieve Robey – editor Wotnews
@natecochrane Nate Cochrane – Editor in Chief of ITNews, former IT editor of the Age.
@danwarne Dan Warne – online editor apcmag.com, freelance SMH
@bruff Nick Broughall – gizmodo journalist
@riskybusiness Patrick Gray – podcaster and ZDnet.au journalist
@tara_g Tara Grimshaw – video journalist
@cameronreilly Cameron Reilly – ceo the podcast network
@derekbarry Derek Barry – journalist
@mumbrella Tim Burrowes – media and marketing journalist
@duncanriley Duncan Riley – editor the Inquisitr
@grahamy Graham Young – chief editor Online Opinion
@bronwen Bronwen Clune ceo and founder of norg media
@rod3000 Rod McGuinnes – managing editor new matilda
@charispalmer Charis Palmer – Editor Online Banking Review
@jenniferESt Jen Storey- writer for Online Banking Review
@jcmc Jessica Crouch – Editor, president of @synmedia
@mjcp Matthew JC Powell – Editor of MacTheMag and writes for crn.com.au
@dr_nic Nic Healey – Managing Editor at Future Publishing
@gusworldau Angus Kidman – IT journalist
@alexkidman Alex Kidman – IT journalist
@ssharwood Simon Sharwood – freelance tech writer
@bengrubb Ben Grubb – TechWiredAu, freelance for news.com.au
@pocketmojo Anthony Caruana – freelance tech journo – The Age, Macworld, APC, PC Update
@markhjones Mark Jones – australian financial review, freelance tech writer
@seamus Seamus Byrne – Former Editor at Gizmodo AU, now Midnight Update
@cammo Cameron Laird – photographer freelances for News Ltd – The Courier Mail
@muzaloid Murray Cox – freelance photojournalist
@yaboo007 Joseph Sirucka – photographer for Fairfax
@girlclumsy Natalie Bochenski – 4BC Brisbane
@rodsavage Rod Savage – online journalist
@julie_posetti Julie Posetti – journalism at University of Canberra
@sraquinn Stephen Quinn – Deakin university journalism academic, specialises in mobile journalism, or mojo.
@themediapod Ross Monaghan – Deakin University lecturer
@sdbrook Stephen Brook – Australian working in London for the Media Guardian
@mediamum Jo White – grad student and TA at SJMC Uni of Colorado at Boulder
@hamishreporter Hamish Macdonald – presenter and correspondent Aljazeera English
@photo_journ John Le Fevre – Freelance photo-journalist – currently based in Bangkok
@ashbetteridge Ashlee Betteridge – Former Village Voice (Sydney) journalist, now living in Indonesia working at the Jakarta Globe English daily
@niltiac Caitlin Fitzsimmons – in London

MediaShift . Digging Deeper::Your Guide to Citizen Journalism | PBS

Low on speed, high on cost | Australian IT

“Markets with healthy levels of competition have led the introduction of innovative services and appealing pricing packages,” the report said.

I expect broadband prices in Australia will drop when Telstra is finally opened up to widespread competition, and so I impatiently wait.

An excellent site for Australians looking to compare broadband packages, as well as quality of service (they list over 6,000 plans and 250 providers), is broadband CHOICE.

For Windows users there’s Windows Movie Maker, while I’ve found iMovie for the Mac is an ample resource for those quick edits and exports.

If you don’t have any video software that you can use on your hard drive, or are up for a little experimentation, there are a lot of online editing solutions.  I would recommend not trying them on dialup (as I have to at home).

Mashable has put together a very comprehensive resource.

Video Toolbox: 150+ Online Video Tools and Resources

There’s more information there than anyone can reasonably be expected to digest, and the following are just the categories under which they list resources:

• Live Video Communications
• Online Video How-to
• Online Video Editors
• Online Video Converters
• Video sharing
• Video hosting
• Video organization and management
• Vidcasts & vlogging
• Video mashups
• Mobile video apps
• Video search
• Online video downloading services
• Miscellaneous tools
• Online TV

They also have other posts in the series, with the Online Photography Toolbox, Blogging Toolbox, and Online Productivity Toolbox.

I wish I’d known about her blog before now, because I think it’s going to be essential reading.

A recent eyetracker study has shown what web designers might already know – less information and more white space on a web page results in better recall and comprehension.

Featured findings:

1. Rewrite + reformat = remember
2. Precise and relevant editing = successful design
3. Photos edited for relevance = photos viewed

Read the study here and see images of the eyetracker ‘hotspot’ results.

If you had to decide between content or visual aesthetics, it’s quite clear that content is king. No matter how good your site looks, if the content can’t keep people, visitors won’t stay beyond the “oo, that’s pretty” phase. But too much content, and more importantly cluttering the screen with it, can lose people as well.

Basically, as LostRemote says, “Give your audience the essentials, give a clean presentation and they will remember the information. Time to clear out the clutter from your sites.”

A personal experience of this for me was a news site where I was looking for video content. I was convinced I had looked carefully for any links to their video, and finally in frustration emailed the site asking for direction. The video content link ended up being on the front page of the website, but below the fold (scrolling). Had the page been better designed I should have seen it easily. Finding information on a news portal shouldn’t be like a choose-your-own-adventure book.

From the study:

Rewrite + reformat = remember

Changing the story presentation to text with:

# bulleted items

# subheadlines

# tighter writing

increased comprehension by 12 percent, with readers of the reformatted text indicating that they were more satisfied with the experience.

“Assume people will only read the first few words of a line, so bulleted lists are always good, as is bolding or creating links from important, information-bearing words.“

Precise and relevant editing = successful design

On home pages and story level pages, eye patterns indicated that text that isn’t precise and images that aren’t information-bearing don’t get looks, amounting to wasted space.

# replace useless graphics with useful ones or with white space.

Following on from the last post…on the Reporters Sans Frontieres (reporters without borders) website there is a story, and a 30 page report in the form of a PDF document on the US Army’s firing on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, April 8, 2003.

For all my Singaporean journalism friends, there’s also a little bit on Predators of Press Freedom, of which your Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong is listed as one!

I’ve just spent…who knows how much time…cleaning my keyboard. Yes, that’s right, I took off every key on the keyboard, cleaned them to remove any of those sweat&dirt-smudge buildups, and put them back on.

Slightly obsessive compuslive, I realise, but I noticed some ‘dust’ under the keys and what I noticed was fairly significant. Once I had finished popping off the keys and chasing them across the floor, the piles of hair, dead skin cells, bits of food and unidentified objects was quite impressive, I really should have taken a picture of it.

The fun part is when I tell you that this is a second hand keyboard from the newspaper where I did work experience in Jan/Feb, where it spent an unknown number of years collecting lunch scraps, hairs and trace elements of all the nasty things people touch… and not just any nasty people, but journalists… I shudder at the thought. haha, no offence Charlesworth! :)

Today I went and sat in the courts to get my journalism story that I have to write by next Monday. Great action! Not really, but the drug-addled defendant had an amusing ramble about ‘thanks for letting me off lightly’ while the judge was trying to explain his probation and community service order to him.

Actually, I’ve noticed in my court visits the judges are quite sympathetic to offenders when sentencing them, commenting that the harshest sentence would likely do more harm than good… kudos to you Judges who are looking for the best in people.

I’m actually going to write something related to media as well!! go figure.

I love The Australian’s ‘Editor’ section on the weekend, which covers editorial pieces from all over the globe and editorial cartoons (from Israel, Canada, Jordan and France last week). Although I don’t think they put any of this stuff specifically up on their website, so no direct link for you.

Another good part of the site is a whole raft of links for those interested in international news. Some of the links don’t work (like Kuwait Times) but it doesn’t take too much to figure it out. My link there is the ‘fixed’ one.

Anyway, enough of that, there was actually some stuff written in last week’s Editor that I was interested in talking about some-some. I’ll put that in a new post.