Iraq Conflict Tips & Resources
February 28, 2003
As America gears up for a possible war with Iraq, now is a good time to start familiarizing yourself with the best Iraq-related resources online. CyberJournalist.net’s guide gives you a good start. Read it now…
20 tips to improve newsroom integration
February 26, 2003
Here are tips on how to enhance working relationships between online and print newsrooms, summarized from the CONNECTIONS session, “The NEW News Team,” by moderator Bill Mitchell, online editor of The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., with the help of panelists Fred Mann, general manager of Philly.com, Kris Hey, senior producer for news at OrlandoSentinel.com, and Mark Swendra, digital media director of the Savannah (Ga.) Morning News’ SavannahNow.
Projo.com on The Station Fire
February 24, 2003
The Providence Journal’s Web site has done such a good job covering the fatal fire at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island that it’s hard to know what to single out. In addition to continually updating the site with staff-written stories on the latest developments from the moment the news first broke early Friday morning, the site has published a slew of impressive online-only features, including: A first-person account from a survivor searching for his mystery savior; an online memorial for readers to post condolences for the fire victims; five flash slide shows and video from a partner TV site; useful information such as victim and memorial details; and much, much more. As a public service, the site has not only been running a Weblog of online reaction to the fire by staff blogger Sheila Lennon, but has taken the admirable step of moving the Web log outside the site’s registration firewall.
Dirty Bombs, MSNBC.com
February 20, 2003
This interactive shows how a dirty bomb attack might happen — through animation and the narration of an expert who testified before Congress.
Top News Sites for February
February 20, 2003
Disaster Links
February 20, 2003
The shuttle crash and the recent snow storm were good reminders of how handy the Web can be when reporting on emergency situations. On such fast-moving stories, useful information can be found on scores of sites — and here’s a good start at how to find the best ones quickly.
Projo.com: Stormin’ Through
February 18, 2003
As snow blanketed the East Coast, storm coverage
blanketed East Coast news sites. One site that stood out was The
Providence Journal’s, Projo.com, which packed in comprehensive
reporting with
information on local
closings, parking bans, travel schedules and how to cope with
the snow. The site was also wonderfully interactive with its
community, publishing
a bulletin board for folks to share their snow storm
stories; a spot
Storm Blog reporting notes from around the state; and
a slide show of
reader photos. The last two features mentioned highlight two
promising approaches to covering breaking news online that are
being used increasingly — spot Weblogs, such as Florida Today’s
Columbia landing journal and Spaceflight Now’s
Mission Status Center; and reader slide shows, such as
this from the shuttle crash, these from
BBC Online and these
here and
here from The Charlotte Observer.
Dateline NBC: Michael Jackson Unmasked
February 17, 2003
Here’s a perfect use of animation online: Dateline NBC combined a series of photographs of Michael Jackson’s face through the years and morphed them together to visually show the effect of all of his plastic surgeries — in a way more powerful than any quote or video clip could.
Interactive “Matisse Picasso” exhibit
February 14, 2003
Take a narrated tour of the “Matisse Picasso” exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, courtesy of Nytimes.com.
Building Databases of Sources
February 14, 2003
Under a new program through the Associated Press Managing Editors’ (APME) National Credibility Roundtables, dozens of papers are compiling e-mail addresses of readers and sources that can be used for any number of stories and opinion reports. The 17,617-circulation Norfolk Daily News, for example, so far has 150 names and addresses in a database of people agreed to respond to e-mail inquiries at a moment’s notice. Ken Sands, managing editor for online and new media at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., instituted the idea at his paper in 1997 and has been training editors at many papers involved in the APME program. Sands says APME hopes to build the effort into a national database that newspapers can share. “There could be a national story written about an issue with comments from 50 or more cities,” he told Editor & Publisher. “It would be kind of like AP in reverse.” Boy, wouldn’t that be neat.