Thursday, April 25, 2013

23 awesome gifs some redditors want you to stop using

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

DFM chat on verifying social media information

Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon, Eastern Time. 

Today we're revisiting verifying information from social media, whether it's tweets, Facebook post, photos, etc.

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

How to collectively create a mobile cloud-based newsroom B-roll library with Dropbox

So you've (hopefully) got a bunch of reporters with iPhones and want to easily punch up your videos with B-roll, intro files, closing credits, etc. But you don't have the time or are unable to do it because you're at the scene.
Someone in your newsroom probably has done this already. So why not share it?
The answer typically is that the workflow hasn't been worked out properly.
Enter the cloud.
If you all use Dropbox and share a folder, you can all share all your B-roll videos so that you can make your own clip in iMovie (or whatever video software you prefer), fast and professionally.

Here's how to do that:

WHAT YOU NEED:
* A bunch of reporters with iPhones/iPads (2 or above)
* Dropbox (free) and iMovie ($4.99).

SET UP:
* Have a master account (like your paper's brand) and share a folder with everyone in the group.
Create sub-folders within it for each reporter/videographer.


On your device, allow Dropbox to upload items from your camera. To do this, go to Settings, Camera Upload, and set it to On.


This will upload your photos and videos to your Camera Uploads folder in Dropbox.Only you can access this folder.

Note that in the shared folder, outside of the sub-folders, I put an intro file. That way everyone can access it remotely.

EXECUTION:
* To get a file from Dropbox to your camera roll, all you need to do is make the file a favorite, and then download it. If you don't favorite the file, Dropbox won't let you download movies.

So on my phone, I went to Dropbox, added the intro file to my favorites and save the intro to my camera roll, so I now have it for all my videos.

On iMovie, add your intro, your video and boom, you're done. Here's a quick example for didactic purposes:

* To add a B-roll file to the shared folder, simply shoot the video and save it to your camera roll.
Boot up your Dropbox app and move the video from your personal Camera Roll to the shared folder.



That way, everyone can use it. If they're short, you can upload them with cellular service, otherwise you'll have to find a wireless spot.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

DFM chat on sharing social media images and information during breaking news situations

Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon, Eastern Time. 

Today we're talking about telling the ethical and journalistic responsibilities of gathering and sharing information and images via social media during breaking news situations like the Boston Marathon explosions.

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Boston Marathon explosion: Timeline of events

A timeline of the events Monday at the 117th Boston Marathon, including start and finish times, and details of the explosion near the finish line. Created by Digital First Media Data Team.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

DFM chat on telling a story without writing a story

Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon, Eastern Time.

Today we're talking about telling a story without writing a story.

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

4 things to do in a newsroom

(that can get you fired probably, but whatevs).

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

DFM chat on how to make Twitter valuable for your journalism

Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon, Eastern Time.

Today we're talking about using how to make Twitter valuable for your journalism and how to make it fit into your workload.

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

The problem with Twitter is you, not Twitter


Don't shoot the messenger.
The Washington Post Wonkblog's editor, Ezra Klein, posted a provocative post about 'The problem with Twitter' on Monday, citing the platform's "unusually addictive" nature as a reason for experiencing "poisonous information anxiety" — what others have referred to as Fear Of Missing Out.

Let me address some good points he makes and some suggestions to improve his experience.



* First, it's worth noting he concedes this:  
"The problem isn’t Twitter, exactly. Twitter, like so much else, is excellent when consumed in moderation." (emphasis mine)
 So right there you have a potential solution to this "problem." The aformentioned "poisonous information anxiety" Klein cites is because, as he states, "I can’t save Twitter for later, and thus there’s always a pressure to check Twitter now." This is true, if that's how you use Twitter - and it's understandable if you end up in that pattern. Worse, he adds, "the daily signal-to-noise ratio isn’t that high, at least for me."

PRO-TIP: That's what the unfollow button is for.

But wait! Klein goes further after this is suggested to him (multiple times):

"Perhaps this is just my failing, but I don't feel like the unfollow button is much of an option. There's a kind of social etiquette to follows in journalism, and people get really, really offended if you try to unfollow them. It's not worth the bother. Now, lists could, in theory, help with this, but in truth, I would ideally like to be able to dip into the content of a wide variety of Twitter feeds in some more manageable fashion. "
For the record, there's no "kind of social etiquette to follows in journalism" that I've ever heard of. But here's a tip if you do that: Don't follow your main stream. If you feel compelled to follow people for some weird etiquette thingy, use lists. Even better, you don't have to follow people you put on lists, but they'll  get a notification that you've added them to one. So they'll be happy, and you don't have to put up with stuff like this:



* "I need to figure out a better, more contained, way to use (Twitter)." You can use Muckrack if you want an excellent journalim feed. Or you can head over to paper.li and create whatever you want as a feed, be it a hashtag, news about a particular topic, your own feed or lists or cats if that's what you're into to (because, who isn't?). Or use Flipboard or make your own "Magazine." Or make a Rebelmouse page where you can feed your favorites. Or, I don't know, how about these 20 other alternatives to filter out your stuff exactly how you want it? Puzzling point, Klein knows these.

So I guess the main thing to do is to figure out what you need and want from a platform and maybe don't have a trolling headline if you don't want a strong reaction (like having a headline saying "the problem with Twitter" and then saying "the problem isn't Twitter.").