From Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac" for July 8:
It was on this day in 1889 that The Wall Street Journal was founded. In 1882, three journalists who were interested in finances — Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser — founded a little company called Dow, Jones & Company.
They started hand-writing daily news bulletins, which they called "flimsies," and delivered to customers each afternoon, and the next year they titled it "Customers' Afternoon Letter." On this day in 1889, their four-page afternoon letter officially became The Wall Street Journal, which cost two cents per issue.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Ten Dumbest Grammar Mistakes
The 10 Dumbest Grammar Mistakes
Catching typos is easy thanks to spell checkers, but flagrant grammatical errors are harder to spot. If you weren't paying attention in seventh grade English class during those boring grammar lessons, it could come back to haunt you decades later. Proper grammar is essential if you want to be seen as educated and professional.
Make any one of these 10 errors, and you'll just look dumb!
Error No. 1: It's/its
Explanation: "It's" is a contraction for "it is." If you aren't sure whether to use "its" or "it's," read the sentence and substitute the words "it is." Does it make sense? Then "it's" is correct. If not, use "its."
Wrong: Your home and all it's contents are only protected if you lock it when you leave.
Right: Your home and all its contents are only protected if you lock it when you leave.
Error No. 2: They're/their/there
Explanation: "They're" means "they are." "Their" is a possessive pronoun just like "her," "his," or "our." All other uses are "there."
Wrong: There going on they're weekly lunch date to the restaurant over their.
Right: They're going on their weekly lunch date to the restaurant over there.
Error No. 3: Effect/affect
Explanation: "Affect" is a verb that means to have an influence upon. "Effect" is a noun.
Wrong: Gold prices have no affect on purchasing power.
Right: Gold prices have no effect on purchasing power.
Wrong: The earnings report is not expected to effect the stock price in the long-term.
Right: The earnings report is not expected to affect the stock price in the long-term.
Error No. 4: Lay/lie
Explanation: You lay down the newspaper on the kitchen table in the morning, but you lie down on the couch to watch TV at night. Here's a good way to tell them apart: If the subject of the sentence is acting on something, it's "lay." If the subject is lying down, then it's "lie." And that's no lie!
Wrong: I'm going to lay down for a nap.
Right: I'm going to lie down for a nap.
Error No. 5: You're/your
Explanation: "You're" is the contraction for "you are," while "your" is used in all other instances.
Wrong: Your so smart to realize that you're short skirts and flip-flops aren't appropriate attire in the office.
Right: You're so smart to realize that your short skirts and flip-flops aren't appropriate attire in the office.
Error No. 6: Loose/lose
Explanation: "Loose" means something that is wobbly or baggy. "Lose" is to misplace or not be able to find something.
Wrong: Don't loose that house key.
Right: Don't lose that house key.
Error No. 7: Then/than
Explanation: If you're making a comparison, choose "than." If you're talking about time, choose "then."
Wrong: First you write and polish your resume, than you look for a job.
Right: First you write and polish your resume, then you look for a job.
Wrong: Joyce is prettier then Sarah.
Right: Joyce is prettier than Sarah.
Error No. 8: Could of/would of/should of instead of could have/would have/should have
Explanation: It may sound like "of" when you speak and slur your words together, but it's not! The correct form is always "have."
Wrong: I could of gotten into that college if I only knew the rules of grammar.
Right: I could have gotten into that college if I only knew the rules of grammar.
Error No. 9: Different than/different from
Explanation: This one is easy. Use "different from" and don't use "different than." Period. (If you're British, you may use "different to.")
Wrong: My computer at work is different than the one I have at home.
Right: My computer at work is different from the one I have at home.
Error No. 10: i.e./e.g.
Explanation: "i.e." means "that is," while "e.g." means "for example. Both are Latin abbreviations and are always followed by a comma.
Wrong: On their first day of work, new employees are given free company goodies (i.e., T-shirts and mugs).
Right: On their first day of work, new employees are given free company goodies (e.g., T-shirts and mugs).
Catching typos is easy thanks to spell checkers, but flagrant grammatical errors are harder to spot. If you weren't paying attention in seventh grade English class during those boring grammar lessons, it could come back to haunt you decades later. Proper grammar is essential if you want to be seen as educated and professional.
Make any one of these 10 errors, and you'll just look dumb!
Error No. 1: It's/its
Explanation: "It's" is a contraction for "it is." If you aren't sure whether to use "its" or "it's," read the sentence and substitute the words "it is." Does it make sense? Then "it's" is correct. If not, use "its."
Wrong: Your home and all it's contents are only protected if you lock it when you leave.
Right: Your home and all its contents are only protected if you lock it when you leave.
Error No. 2: They're/their/there
Explanation: "They're" means "they are." "Their" is a possessive pronoun just like "her," "his," or "our." All other uses are "there."
Wrong: There going on they're weekly lunch date to the restaurant over their.
Right: They're going on their weekly lunch date to the restaurant over there.
Error No. 3: Effect/affect
Explanation: "Affect" is a verb that means to have an influence upon. "Effect" is a noun.
Wrong: Gold prices have no affect on purchasing power.
Right: Gold prices have no effect on purchasing power.
Wrong: The earnings report is not expected to effect the stock price in the long-term.
Right: The earnings report is not expected to affect the stock price in the long-term.
Error No. 4: Lay/lie
Explanation: You lay down the newspaper on the kitchen table in the morning, but you lie down on the couch to watch TV at night. Here's a good way to tell them apart: If the subject of the sentence is acting on something, it's "lay." If the subject is lying down, then it's "lie." And that's no lie!
Wrong: I'm going to lay down for a nap.
Right: I'm going to lie down for a nap.
Error No. 5: You're/your
Explanation: "You're" is the contraction for "you are," while "your" is used in all other instances.
Wrong: Your so smart to realize that you're short skirts and flip-flops aren't appropriate attire in the office.
Right: You're so smart to realize that your short skirts and flip-flops aren't appropriate attire in the office.
Error No. 6: Loose/lose
Explanation: "Loose" means something that is wobbly or baggy. "Lose" is to misplace or not be able to find something.
Wrong: Don't loose that house key.
Right: Don't lose that house key.
Error No. 7: Then/than
Explanation: If you're making a comparison, choose "than." If you're talking about time, choose "then."
Wrong: First you write and polish your resume, than you look for a job.
Right: First you write and polish your resume, then you look for a job.
Wrong: Joyce is prettier then Sarah.
Right: Joyce is prettier than Sarah.
Error No. 8: Could of/would of/should of instead of could have/would have/should have
Explanation: It may sound like "of" when you speak and slur your words together, but it's not! The correct form is always "have."
Wrong: I could of gotten into that college if I only knew the rules of grammar.
Right: I could have gotten into that college if I only knew the rules of grammar.
Error No. 9: Different than/different from
Explanation: This one is easy. Use "different from" and don't use "different than." Period. (If you're British, you may use "different to.")
Wrong: My computer at work is different than the one I have at home.
Right: My computer at work is different from the one I have at home.
Error No. 10: i.e./e.g.
Explanation: "i.e." means "that is," while "e.g." means "for example. Both are Latin abbreviations and are always followed by a comma.
Wrong: On their first day of work, new employees are given free company goodies (i.e., T-shirts and mugs).
Right: On their first day of work, new employees are given free company goodies (e.g., T-shirts and mugs).
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Start Your Own Local Church Magazine
Here is a creative, entrepreneurial approach to starting a new local magazine. This is an excerpt--to read the entire article, click here.
Former Hippie Breaks New Ground as he Helps Modern Americans Come to Grips with Popular Culture
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
NASHVILLE, TN (ANS) -- Joel Freeman, Ph.D is a man of many talents and wears many different entrepreneurial hats.
He left home when he was seventeen, a self-described "long-haired Hippie, dope-smoking fool, traveling about six-thousand miles in North America, living off the road."
But you wouldn't know that from his current appearance or groundbreaking projects to help people across America think about Christianity in new and creative ways.
He's been chaplain for 19 years for an NBA team the Washington Bullets, now called the Washington Wizards, has written seven books that are now in twenty-eight languages, he and his wife Shirley have four children ages 22 to 29, and they live in Maryland. He has some of the most creative book titles of any author in America today.
I caught up with him earlier this year at the NRB convention in Nashville TN, where we discussed several of his ongoing projects.
One of four projects he's working on right now for this year is a magazine called 'Every Day Matters', featuring Christian surgeon Dr. Ben Carson on the front cover.
"Well it's a different kind of a model -- a lot of magazines are folding up shop and going to the Internet; this is a different model. Basically in our local church I wanted to have something that would be of benefit to entrepreneurs in the local church and at the same time would be a help to strengthen the personal evangelism muscles of people within the congregation. So what we did was sold ads and we developed forty 'felt needs' ranging from financial, to health, to spiritual, to moral, to relational -- all kinds of different felt needs. We narrowed it down to some basic ones. We did an interview with Ben Carson. Then we have one about men and their emotions, raising kids without raising your voice, tips to help you care for aging parents."
Freeman is particularly concerned about what he calls "The New Bullies" and the phenomenon of cyber bullying and online harassment with young people use the anonymity of the Internet to harm each other.
"It's just a real interesting article about how to protect our children and how to make our kids aware of this particular aspect of life, the reality of it, and how many kids get impacted by it, with some good tips and tools. But I wanted to have something kind of like Jesus with the woman at the well -- they didn't immediately start talking about him being the Messiah, he didn't rip off his toga and his t-shirt says 'I'm the Messiah,'" said Freeman.
"Instead they start talking about water -- something that she was familiar with -- and then they moved from the natural to the spiritual. So the purpose of the magazine is to print up 25,000 copies, anyone listening to my voice right now if you're part of the local church and are thinking of a unique outreach tool, basically what we do is we provide the disc with all of the graphics for $750. For some just to do the cover would cost $1,500 to $2,500 from a graphic standpoint. So we're giving a gift to a local church with a license for about fifteen miles around the church and then someone adopts it -- they sell the ads locally and then print it locally so they have control of the cost and everything else. It's not me trying to make money off the situation. No salaries are given or taken in this whole situation and then what happens is ultimately the local church has 25,000 copies of a magazine and they put it at the back of the church every service and people grab ten, twenty, thirty of them.They adopt a grocery store, keep it stacked with the magazines..."
Freeman said he thought of it as a way to get people talking about spiritual matters.
"It's a conversation starter to get people talking and then ultimately seeing how the Holy Spirit opens up the opportunity to share their faith," he said.
The website for the new magazine is www.outreachmag.com
Former Hippie Breaks New Ground as he Helps Modern Americans Come to Grips with Popular Culture
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
NASHVILLE, TN (ANS) -- Joel Freeman, Ph.D is a man of many talents and wears many different entrepreneurial hats.
He left home when he was seventeen, a self-described "long-haired Hippie, dope-smoking fool, traveling about six-thousand miles in North America, living off the road."
But you wouldn't know that from his current appearance or groundbreaking projects to help people across America think about Christianity in new and creative ways.
He's been chaplain for 19 years for an NBA team the Washington Bullets, now called the Washington Wizards, has written seven books that are now in twenty-eight languages, he and his wife Shirley have four children ages 22 to 29, and they live in Maryland. He has some of the most creative book titles of any author in America today.
I caught up with him earlier this year at the NRB convention in Nashville TN, where we discussed several of his ongoing projects.
One of four projects he's working on right now for this year is a magazine called 'Every Day Matters', featuring Christian surgeon Dr. Ben Carson on the front cover.
"Well it's a different kind of a model -- a lot of magazines are folding up shop and going to the Internet; this is a different model. Basically in our local church I wanted to have something that would be of benefit to entrepreneurs in the local church and at the same time would be a help to strengthen the personal evangelism muscles of people within the congregation. So what we did was sold ads and we developed forty 'felt needs' ranging from financial, to health, to spiritual, to moral, to relational -- all kinds of different felt needs. We narrowed it down to some basic ones. We did an interview with Ben Carson. Then we have one about men and their emotions, raising kids without raising your voice, tips to help you care for aging parents."
Freeman is particularly concerned about what he calls "The New Bullies" and the phenomenon of cyber bullying and online harassment with young people use the anonymity of the Internet to harm each other.
"It's just a real interesting article about how to protect our children and how to make our kids aware of this particular aspect of life, the reality of it, and how many kids get impacted by it, with some good tips and tools. But I wanted to have something kind of like Jesus with the woman at the well -- they didn't immediately start talking about him being the Messiah, he didn't rip off his toga and his t-shirt says 'I'm the Messiah,'" said Freeman.
"Instead they start talking about water -- something that she was familiar with -- and then they moved from the natural to the spiritual. So the purpose of the magazine is to print up 25,000 copies, anyone listening to my voice right now if you're part of the local church and are thinking of a unique outreach tool, basically what we do is we provide the disc with all of the graphics for $750. For some just to do the cover would cost $1,500 to $2,500 from a graphic standpoint. So we're giving a gift to a local church with a license for about fifteen miles around the church and then someone adopts it -- they sell the ads locally and then print it locally so they have control of the cost and everything else. It's not me trying to make money off the situation. No salaries are given or taken in this whole situation and then what happens is ultimately the local church has 25,000 copies of a magazine and they put it at the back of the church every service and people grab ten, twenty, thirty of them.They adopt a grocery store, keep it stacked with the magazines..."
Freeman said he thought of it as a way to get people talking about spiritual matters.
"It's a conversation starter to get people talking and then ultimately seeing how the Holy Spirit opens up the opportunity to share their faith," he said.
The website for the new magazine is www.outreachmag.com
Monday, June 22, 2009
Building a Digital Audience for News
From Journalism 2.0
Building a digital audience for news
Posted: 22 Jun 2009 07:24 AM PDT
(NOTE: The following series of posts is an excerpt from my upcoming book, Journalism Next, which will be published by CQPress and is due out in the fall.)
Can marketing and analytics save journalism? Not on their own, of course. But we live in a world where the amount of content produced has increased exponentially, yet we still each have just two eyes, two ears and one mouth. So journalism needs to find new benefits from new marketing strategies and measurement tactics.
This type of marketing is not advertising, or slogans, or logos. And this type of measurement isn’t counting bylines for a performance review. Digital publishers need to establish effective publishing goals and be consistent in their pursuit of those goals. Quality content published in some significant quantity and engineered to be easily found in search engines is a recipe for a successful digital publishing business.
“When a person conducts a search, you are competing against nine other results on that first result page,” Monica Wright wrote on the Search Engine Journal Web site. “Your title tag and description are your first impression to attract potential audience. You can capture new online readership by setting yourself apart with useful and engaging tags.
“But above all - good writing still prevails. Quality, relevant, in-depth content will not only attract the bots, but will capture new audience as well.”
In order to build your audience online, you need to analyze what you publish, what your readers like and don’t like, and then do more of what they like. You also need to make sure that your content, especially that which your current readers have shown interest in, can be found by new audiences through search and shared through social media tools.
As newsrooms have taken on publishing new forms of content – blogs, video, breaking news updates - to new platforms - email, mobile, Twitter – new structures need to be put in place. Management guru Peter Drucker said years ago that “what gets measured gets managed.” In recent years, many have improved on that quote and say “what gets measured gets done.”
So newsrooms now track and measure everything they do. At the News-Sentinel in Knoxville, for example, there is a detailed chart with everyone’s name listed down the left-most column and a long list of skills listed across the top. When someone can prove to a manager that he or she has mastered a new skill, the proper box is checked or, in some cases, a smiley face sticker is used to represent the progress.
Tom Chester, news operations manager at the News-Sentinel, begins each weekday with a stand-up meeting in the newsroom. The first item on the agenda is a detailed report of content published and traffic generated the previous day. “We track updates on all platforms: web, mobile, email,” Chester said. “We started with almost nothing and now we’re up to about 500 updates per week.”
If newsroom leaders had simply announced at a staff meeting the need to learn new skills and publish more frequently to more platforms, little progress would have been made. Instead, the formerly print-centric newsroom – which has also published 3,000 videos since 2006 – has the structure in place to measure and manage the new content, the newsroom was able to show significant progress and build upon its successes.
Developing a culture and processes to track and measure your work product is essential to competing in this data-driven world. Traditional journalists may cringe at the idea that their artful storytelling or their dogged investigations can be reduced to a “work product,” but nearly all digital publishers are building their business on the inventory of content produced, either by journalists or other writers, bloggers or photographers. So producing that product on a regular schedule is vital to a functioning business.
And without the business, there are no paychecks. This reality applies to mainstream news companies and independent journalism startups.
Track. Measure. Adapt. It’s the way the Web works.
Building a digital audience for news
Posted: 22 Jun 2009 07:24 AM PDT
(NOTE: The following series of posts is an excerpt from my upcoming book, Journalism Next, which will be published by CQPress and is due out in the fall.)
Can marketing and analytics save journalism? Not on their own, of course. But we live in a world where the amount of content produced has increased exponentially, yet we still each have just two eyes, two ears and one mouth. So journalism needs to find new benefits from new marketing strategies and measurement tactics.
This type of marketing is not advertising, or slogans, or logos. And this type of measurement isn’t counting bylines for a performance review. Digital publishers need to establish effective publishing goals and be consistent in their pursuit of those goals. Quality content published in some significant quantity and engineered to be easily found in search engines is a recipe for a successful digital publishing business.
“When a person conducts a search, you are competing against nine other results on that first result page,” Monica Wright wrote on the Search Engine Journal Web site. “Your title tag and description are your first impression to attract potential audience. You can capture new online readership by setting yourself apart with useful and engaging tags.
“But above all - good writing still prevails. Quality, relevant, in-depth content will not only attract the bots, but will capture new audience as well.”
In order to build your audience online, you need to analyze what you publish, what your readers like and don’t like, and then do more of what they like. You also need to make sure that your content, especially that which your current readers have shown interest in, can be found by new audiences through search and shared through social media tools.
As newsrooms have taken on publishing new forms of content – blogs, video, breaking news updates - to new platforms - email, mobile, Twitter – new structures need to be put in place. Management guru Peter Drucker said years ago that “what gets measured gets managed.” In recent years, many have improved on that quote and say “what gets measured gets done.”
So newsrooms now track and measure everything they do. At the News-Sentinel in Knoxville, for example, there is a detailed chart with everyone’s name listed down the left-most column and a long list of skills listed across the top. When someone can prove to a manager that he or she has mastered a new skill, the proper box is checked or, in some cases, a smiley face sticker is used to represent the progress.
Tom Chester, news operations manager at the News-Sentinel, begins each weekday with a stand-up meeting in the newsroom. The first item on the agenda is a detailed report of content published and traffic generated the previous day. “We track updates on all platforms: web, mobile, email,” Chester said. “We started with almost nothing and now we’re up to about 500 updates per week.”
If newsroom leaders had simply announced at a staff meeting the need to learn new skills and publish more frequently to more platforms, little progress would have been made. Instead, the formerly print-centric newsroom – which has also published 3,000 videos since 2006 – has the structure in place to measure and manage the new content, the newsroom was able to show significant progress and build upon its successes.
Developing a culture and processes to track and measure your work product is essential to competing in this data-driven world. Traditional journalists may cringe at the idea that their artful storytelling or their dogged investigations can be reduced to a “work product,” but nearly all digital publishers are building their business on the inventory of content produced, either by journalists or other writers, bloggers or photographers. So producing that product on a regular schedule is vital to a functioning business.
And without the business, there are no paychecks. This reality applies to mainstream news companies and independent journalism startups.
Track. Measure. Adapt. It’s the way the Web works.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Is Amazon Taking Over the Book Business?
From Time magazine--a very sobering look. This is an excerpt. To read the entire article click here.
Is Amazon Taking Over the Book Business?
By Lev Grossman and Andrea Sachs Monday, Jun. 22, 2009
Cayla Kluver was 14 when she wrote her first novel. It's a fantasy novel called Legacy, and it's about a certain Princess Alera of Hytanica who's being forced to marry the handsome but obnoxious Lord Steldor when she's really interested in the handsome but mysterious Narian, who hails from Hytanica's bitter enemy, Cokyri.
When she was 15, Kluver and her mom, who live in Wisconsin, formed their own publishing company to publish Legacy. Sales were modest, but the book attracted some rave reader reviews on Amazon.com At 16, when most authors are years away from getting their first big break, Kluver is getting her second: this August, Amazon is going to relaunch Legacy on a grand scale.
The whole story is practically a fantasy: Amazon plucked Kluver out of obscurity to be the first author in its Amazon Encore program, which takes worthy but overlooked books and republishes them for a wider audience. But there's something odd about it too. If Amazon is a bookstore, it's supposed to be buying from publishers, not competing with them. Right?
(See the 50 best websites of 2008.)
Except it isn't just a bookstore. As numerous publishing journalists and bloggers have pointed out, Amazon has diversified itself so comprehensively over the past five years that it's hard to say exactly what it is anymore. Amazon has a presence in almost every niche of the book industry. It runs a print-on-demand service (BookSurge) and a self-publishing service (CreateSpace). It sells e-books and an e-device to read them on (the Kindle, a new version of which, the DX, went on sale June 10). In 2008 alone, Amazon acquired Audible.com a leading audiobooks company; AbeBooks, a major online used-book retailer; and Shelfari, a Facebook-like social network for readers. In April of this year, it snapped up Lexcycle, which makes an e-reading app for the iPhone called Stanza. And now there's Amazon Encore, which makes Amazon a print publisher too.
No question, Amazon is the most forward-thinking company in the book business. If there's a Steve Jobs of books, it's Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos. His vision is defining the way books will be bought and sold and written and read in the digital world — which is to say, the world. The question is whether there will be room in it for anyone besides Amazon.
Is Amazon Taking Over the Book Business?
By Lev Grossman and Andrea Sachs Monday, Jun. 22, 2009
Cayla Kluver was 14 when she wrote her first novel. It's a fantasy novel called Legacy, and it's about a certain Princess Alera of Hytanica who's being forced to marry the handsome but obnoxious Lord Steldor when she's really interested in the handsome but mysterious Narian, who hails from Hytanica's bitter enemy, Cokyri.
When she was 15, Kluver and her mom, who live in Wisconsin, formed their own publishing company to publish Legacy. Sales were modest, but the book attracted some rave reader reviews on Amazon.com At 16, when most authors are years away from getting their first big break, Kluver is getting her second: this August, Amazon is going to relaunch Legacy on a grand scale.
The whole story is practically a fantasy: Amazon plucked Kluver out of obscurity to be the first author in its Amazon Encore program, which takes worthy but overlooked books and republishes them for a wider audience. But there's something odd about it too. If Amazon is a bookstore, it's supposed to be buying from publishers, not competing with them. Right?
(See the 50 best websites of 2008.)
Except it isn't just a bookstore. As numerous publishing journalists and bloggers have pointed out, Amazon has diversified itself so comprehensively over the past five years that it's hard to say exactly what it is anymore. Amazon has a presence in almost every niche of the book industry. It runs a print-on-demand service (BookSurge) and a self-publishing service (CreateSpace). It sells e-books and an e-device to read them on (the Kindle, a new version of which, the DX, went on sale June 10). In 2008 alone, Amazon acquired Audible.com a leading audiobooks company; AbeBooks, a major online used-book retailer; and Shelfari, a Facebook-like social network for readers. In April of this year, it snapped up Lexcycle, which makes an e-reading app for the iPhone called Stanza. And now there's Amazon Encore, which makes Amazon a print publisher too.
No question, Amazon is the most forward-thinking company in the book business. If there's a Steve Jobs of books, it's Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos. His vision is defining the way books will be bought and sold and written and read in the digital world — which is to say, the world. The question is whether there will be room in it for anyone besides Amazon.
Friday, June 12, 2009
The People Formerly Known as Sources
From Mark Briggs and Journalism 2.0:
The people formerly known as sources
Posted: 12 Jun 2009 09:10 AM PDT
Earlier this week, a report of “man overboard” from a Seattle-based ferry put the local Coast Guard station into immediate action. As boats and helicopters were being launched, real-time updates were being posted to Twitter. By the Coast Guard.
This full disintermediation, when the audience can get the news and information directly from the source, is only going to increase. For journalists, an official source using Twitter is a double-edge sword: the news organization doesn’t have to wait for press releases, but the information is not necessarily unbiased nor objective. Dale Steinke, who runs the web site for King 5 News, said his team was closely watching the Coast Guard’s Twitter stream (@uscgd13) but didn’t broadcast or publish anything directly from it. (And King 5, of course, was posting updates to its own Twitter feed: @king5seattle.)
“Our newsroom treated Twitter like a scanner for purposes of our on-air and online coverage, following tweets from the U.S. Coast Guard (@uscgd13) and the Washington State DOT (@wsdot), which we verified independently before publishing,” Steinke told me via email. “We DM’d them for updates and we put callouts to our followers for anyone who was on the ferry. We also found a photo @JohnLivengood took on the ferry and we asked for permission to use it on air and online. In the meantime, we retweeted the link to it, http://yfrog.com/0kdnkj.”
Brian Forth, a friend of mine who runs a Web site building company, was one of the people who were following the developing story on Twitter and blogged about it the next day.
During the next 15 minutes, I learned that the Coast Guard had scrambled a helicopter from Port Angeles as well as a boat from Station Seattle to assist in the search. Eventually, the tweet “@All the Coast Guard is standing down from the search” was posted after learning the report came from someone that thought they saw someone in the water. Better safe than sorry, I guess.
So, what’s the point? The point is that there is a lot that could’ve happened. The fact that users were connected meant the Coast Guard could’ve asked for help, and King 5 could determine if it was worth sending a crew to report, etc.
The Coast Guard, it turns out, has an ambitious social media strategy. We often talk about the “people formerly known as the audience” (via Jay Rosen) who are now participating in reporting the news. Increasingly, journalists need to consider how to deal with “people formerly known as sources,” too.
The people formerly known as sources
Posted: 12 Jun 2009 09:10 AM PDT
Earlier this week, a report of “man overboard” from a Seattle-based ferry put the local Coast Guard station into immediate action. As boats and helicopters were being launched, real-time updates were being posted to Twitter. By the Coast Guard.
This full disintermediation, when the audience can get the news and information directly from the source, is only going to increase. For journalists, an official source using Twitter is a double-edge sword: the news organization doesn’t have to wait for press releases, but the information is not necessarily unbiased nor objective. Dale Steinke, who runs the web site for King 5 News, said his team was closely watching the Coast Guard’s Twitter stream (@uscgd13) but didn’t broadcast or publish anything directly from it. (And King 5, of course, was posting updates to its own Twitter feed: @king5seattle.)
“Our newsroom treated Twitter like a scanner for purposes of our on-air and online coverage, following tweets from the U.S. Coast Guard (@uscgd13) and the Washington State DOT (@wsdot), which we verified independently before publishing,” Steinke told me via email. “We DM’d them for updates and we put callouts to our followers for anyone who was on the ferry. We also found a photo @JohnLivengood took on the ferry and we asked for permission to use it on air and online. In the meantime, we retweeted the link to it, http://yfrog.com/0kdnkj.”
Brian Forth, a friend of mine who runs a Web site building company, was one of the people who were following the developing story on Twitter and blogged about it the next day.
During the next 15 minutes, I learned that the Coast Guard had scrambled a helicopter from Port Angeles as well as a boat from Station Seattle to assist in the search. Eventually, the tweet “@All the Coast Guard is standing down from the search” was posted after learning the report came from someone that thought they saw someone in the water. Better safe than sorry, I guess.
So, what’s the point? The point is that there is a lot that could’ve happened. The fact that users were connected meant the Coast Guard could’ve asked for help, and King 5 could determine if it was worth sending a crew to report, etc.
The Coast Guard, it turns out, has an ambitious social media strategy. We often talk about the “people formerly known as the audience” (via Jay Rosen) who are now participating in reporting the news. Increasingly, journalists need to consider how to deal with “people formerly known as sources,” too.
Books (on paper) -- The Perfect Technology
Here are words a book publisher loves to hear! Read the original by clicking here.
The Perfect Technology
by Tim Challies
About a year ago I wrote a review of Amazon’s Kindle reading device. At the time, I loved it. That was then.
A couple of months ago I traded my Kindle to a friend for a stack of old-fashioned ink-on-paper commentaries. This is now. I think I made a good trade. He is enjoying the Kindle and I am enjoying the commentaries. Win-win.
Something changed between then and now—I came to see that all of the things that frustrated me about the Kindle were things that made it not like a book. It’s book-like qualities were it’s best qualities; it’s non-book-like qualities were the ones that got to me. All of the things that annoyed me were the things that made the experience more like operating a computer and less like reading a book.
Pages took too long to turn; I could not splash yellow highlighter on the pages; I could not skim through the book looking quickly for a word or phrase or note; I could not scrawl notes in the margins. Sure, there were a few advantages—the notes I did take (saved in a text file on the Kindle) could be exported to my computer simply by plugging in a USB cable; books were less expensive and instantly added to my collection; hundreds of classics were available for free.
But overall, the Kindle experience paled in comparison to the happy, familiar, comforting experience of sitting down with a book. Everything I wanted the Kindle to do, a book could do better.
Books are the perfect technology. I’m convinced of it. This is why the Kindle experience failed me—it was an attempt to make the book better. And this is impossible to do. There is no technology more perfectly suited to its purpose than this one. In comparison to the book, any e-reader falters and fails.
Consider: I can take a book from my shelf—I have 1,000 or 1,500 within six feet of me, and it is immediately on and ready to go. There is no waiting for it to boot up and no questions about its compatibility or obsolescence. I open the book and it immediately does what it was created to do, without first needing an 8-hour charge of its battery.
I can store within that book a full history of my interaction with it not fearing that this will be lost when a hard drive crashes or when my hardware becomes obsolete. I can see every note, every highlight I’ve ever done. I can see how I interacted with that book—the parts of the book that brought me delight and the parts that brought me to despair. The pages turn instantly and are numbered for easy reference.
When I have completed the book, I can put it back on my shelf or I can lend it to another person so he, too, can read it and, if he so desires, see how I have interacted with it. Despite being printed on dead trees, there is a living quality to books that is lost on e-readers.
Though the words in each may be the same, there is more to a book than its words. A book is an experience, and the experience includes the media through which we consume those words. Reading a book printed on paper, reading a book on a reading device and listening to a recording of a book are, at least in some way, different experiences.
Since the launch and overwhelming success of the Kindle, much ink has been spilled (scratch that and replace it with “many pixels have been lit”) discussing the future of the book. For the first time, people are now turning in large numbers to a device that allows them to read books on a gizmo that is not made of dead trees (though, ironically, the manuals telling how to use said device are still printed on dead trees).
With the iPod and iPhone becoming increasingly positioned as reading devices, the chorus swells. There are hundreds of books and articles struggling to understand what it means for the word to transition from print to bits, from paper to screens. The consequences, I am convinced, are profound and I think we are prone to underestimate them.
As for me? Well, I am sure I’ll take another stab at an e-reader at some point in the future; it’s probably inevitable. But I would be awfully surprised if I ever allow such a device to become a substitute for all the ink and paper surrounding me on all sides here in my office.
Unless the e-book can become more perfect than an already perfect technology, I’m going to stick with paper.
The Perfect Technology
by Tim Challies
About a year ago I wrote a review of Amazon’s Kindle reading device. At the time, I loved it. That was then.
A couple of months ago I traded my Kindle to a friend for a stack of old-fashioned ink-on-paper commentaries. This is now. I think I made a good trade. He is enjoying the Kindle and I am enjoying the commentaries. Win-win.
Something changed between then and now—I came to see that all of the things that frustrated me about the Kindle were things that made it not like a book. It’s book-like qualities were it’s best qualities; it’s non-book-like qualities were the ones that got to me. All of the things that annoyed me were the things that made the experience more like operating a computer and less like reading a book.
Pages took too long to turn; I could not splash yellow highlighter on the pages; I could not skim through the book looking quickly for a word or phrase or note; I could not scrawl notes in the margins. Sure, there were a few advantages—the notes I did take (saved in a text file on the Kindle) could be exported to my computer simply by plugging in a USB cable; books were less expensive and instantly added to my collection; hundreds of classics were available for free.
But overall, the Kindle experience paled in comparison to the happy, familiar, comforting experience of sitting down with a book. Everything I wanted the Kindle to do, a book could do better.
Books are the perfect technology. I’m convinced of it. This is why the Kindle experience failed me—it was an attempt to make the book better. And this is impossible to do. There is no technology more perfectly suited to its purpose than this one. In comparison to the book, any e-reader falters and fails.
Consider: I can take a book from my shelf—I have 1,000 or 1,500 within six feet of me, and it is immediately on and ready to go. There is no waiting for it to boot up and no questions about its compatibility or obsolescence. I open the book and it immediately does what it was created to do, without first needing an 8-hour charge of its battery.
I can store within that book a full history of my interaction with it not fearing that this will be lost when a hard drive crashes or when my hardware becomes obsolete. I can see every note, every highlight I’ve ever done. I can see how I interacted with that book—the parts of the book that brought me delight and the parts that brought me to despair. The pages turn instantly and are numbered for easy reference.
When I have completed the book, I can put it back on my shelf or I can lend it to another person so he, too, can read it and, if he so desires, see how I have interacted with it. Despite being printed on dead trees, there is a living quality to books that is lost on e-readers.
Though the words in each may be the same, there is more to a book than its words. A book is an experience, and the experience includes the media through which we consume those words. Reading a book printed on paper, reading a book on a reading device and listening to a recording of a book are, at least in some way, different experiences.
Since the launch and overwhelming success of the Kindle, much ink has been spilled (scratch that and replace it with “many pixels have been lit”) discussing the future of the book. For the first time, people are now turning in large numbers to a device that allows them to read books on a gizmo that is not made of dead trees (though, ironically, the manuals telling how to use said device are still printed on dead trees).
With the iPod and iPhone becoming increasingly positioned as reading devices, the chorus swells. There are hundreds of books and articles struggling to understand what it means for the word to transition from print to bits, from paper to screens. The consequences, I am convinced, are profound and I think we are prone to underestimate them.
As for me? Well, I am sure I’ll take another stab at an e-reader at some point in the future; it’s probably inevitable. But I would be awfully surprised if I ever allow such a device to become a substitute for all the ink and paper surrounding me on all sides here in my office.
Unless the e-book can become more perfect than an already perfect technology, I’m going to stick with paper.
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