THE BLOGGING JOURNALIST

Google's Plan to help You Find Local News

On February 6, 2008, Andre Rohe and Rohit Ananthakrishna, software engineers at Google News, announced:

Today we're releasing a new feature to find your local news by simply typing in a city name or zip code."

" While we’re not the first news site to aggregate local news, we’re doing it a bit differently -- we're able to create a local section for any city, state or country in the world and include thousands of sources. We’re not simply looking at the byline or the source, but instead we analyze every word in every story to understand what location the news is about and where the source is located.

This spells serious competition for Topix. If you want to read more, see "All News is Local."

Technorati Tags: Google,Local News,Topix,The Blogging Journalist

CUNY's Networked Journalism Summit

Back on October 14, 2007, BuzzMachine Editor Jeff Jarvis posted "Networked Journalism Summit follow up," It's about the Networked Journalism Summit held at CUNY (City University of New York) on Wednesday (October 10, 2007)(thanks to the MacArthur Foundation). Jarvis says "it went off well."  I recommend the post.

The Michigan Messenger Debuts

 The Conservative Media (TCM) reported September 10, 2007, that, "A new venture was launched in Michigan [USA] today..."

 According to TCM, "The online newspaper/blog the Michigan Messenger was launched today, and it’s a collaboration of professional bloggers and journalists across Michigan with the goal of breaking news and influencing the conversations about issues that face our state."

To read more, see "New progressive online newspaper and blog launched."

Technorati tags: The Conservative Media, Michigan Messenger

A Few Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Job Descriptions

Rob Curley, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive's vice president for product development, revealed in an August 1, 2007, post: "I’m always surprised at how the questions and phone calls I get kind of come in waves of specific topics.

"The topic that it seems I’m getting asked the most about right now is “will I share our job descriptions?” he wrote. 

I think the request for the descriptions are a good indicator of what some news outlets may be looking for in the future. To read more, see "A few job descriptions for a newspaper’s new-media team." 

Technorati tags: Rob Curley, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, Job Descriptions for New Media Team

Will Use of Widgets Enhance 'Citizen Networks'?

"Just as Web blogs and blogging gave rise to citizen journalism, widgets [link added] will give rise to citizen publishers, citizen syndicators and, most important, citizen networks," contends Online Spin's Dave Morgan in a July 5, 2006 post.

To read why he thinks so, please see "Widgets And The Notion Of Citizen Networks."

Recommended: 'Community Journalism Evolves'

Blogger Denise Civiletti, "co-publisher of Times/Review Newspapers, a four-paper group of award-winning newspapers on eastern Long Island, New York,"  says "the troubles newspapers are facing today, from Main Street to Wall Street, are old news."

To read why, see her March 1, 2007, post headlined "Community journalism evolves."

Mindy McAdams' Most Visited Posts For January 2007

Mindy McAdams, proprietor of "Teaching Online Journalism" and an online journalism professor at the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida, today put up a list of "most visited posts" on her blog from Jan. 1 through Jan. 31, [2007], according to Google Analytics."

In first place is " Getting (and keeping) a job in journalism

If you are interested in reading the other posts that made the list, please see "MVPs for January."

Toledo Free Press: 'More Ohioans Take To The Blogs'

The 52nd edition of Blog it! Toledo!," a Toledo Free Press feature, offers another list of new blogs in the Toledo, Ohio area, in its February 2, 2007 online edition. 

Lisa Renee Ward, "a life long resident of the Toledo area who blogs at Glass City Jungle and Liberal Common Sense, compiled the list.

Ward has been writing the weekly feature since February 8, 2006. It takes a lot of effort to do what she's done. Congratulations to her for a good job of tracking new blogs for and by folks in the Toledo area.

To read the latest posting, please see "More Ohioans take to the blogs.

By the way, I have long been fond of bloggers in Ohio, especially political bloggers, regardless of their political persuasion. They do it with conviction.

The Citizen Journalism 2007 Conference

A Citizen Journalism 2007 conference took place in Birmingham, England on January 26,2007. For coverage, see the Citizen Journalism 2007 blog.

Paul Bradshaw, a "lecturer, freelance journalist and designer" in Birmingham , England, has a January 27, 2007, post  in the Online Journalism blog on the conference. In it, he reports on an address by Michael Hill, head of multimedia at Trinity Mirror LLC, in which he says this is a "'garlic bread moment' for the local press - the realisation that new media and citizen journalism 'is the future.'"

To read Bradshaw's entire post, see "Trinity Mirror head speaks of "garlic bread moment" Trinity publishes about 240 publications among them the  Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, People, Sunday Mail and Daily Record.(Source: Wikipedia).

Town And Neighborhood-Specific Forums

The New York Times noted in a January 14, 2007, post that, "Across the United States, citizen bloggers and deep-pocketed entrepreneurs are creating town-specific, and even neighborhood-specific, Web sites where the public can read and contribute items too small or too fleeting for weekly newspapers."

To read about it, see "Anytown, Online." May require registration.

The 8th International Symposium on Online Journalism Set For March 30-31

Professor Rosental Calmon Alves, Knight Chair in Journalism & UNESCO Chair in Communication at the University of Texas at Austin, wants you to mark your calendar  for the 8th International Symposium on Online Journalism." It is  scheduled for March 30-31, 2007.

A Call for Papers can be found here. The deadline for papers is January 25, 2007. 

Valleywag Crowns 'Media Winners And Losers' In iPhone Coverage

Valleywag has crowned the "Media winners and losers in the frenzy to report Apple, Inc.'s widely reported unveiling its iPhone at Macworld Expo on January 9, 2007.

Jeff Jarvis: 'We Are In The Age Of News Served Raw'

On January 7, 2007, Jeff Jarvis, proprietor of Buzzmachine and an associate professor at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism, had an Op-Ed article in Newsday headlined "In news, the more access, the better."

Jarvis wrote:

We are in the age of news served raw. And it doesn't get much rawer than the cell-phone video of Saddam Hussein's execution that made its way to the Internet only hours after the deed was done.

Even as news organizations deliberated about whether and what to show of the execution, the entire event appeared on YouTube, available for anyone who cared or dared to watch.

"Get ready for more of the same," Jarvis warned.

Jarvis: Size Doesn't Matter Anymore In Media

BuzzMachine editor Jeff Jarvis continues his argument that, "No, size does not matter, not in media, not anymore."

"I know that’s counterintuitive and counter everything we’ve assumed about mass media," he contends in a December 27, 2006, post. "But today what matters is reaching the right people by the right means. That has always been the case. Only now, thanks to connected, collaborative media, it’s finally possible."

His argument makes sense to me. To read more, please see "Size doesn’t matter: The distributed media economy."