You be the editor
December 31, 2003
This interactive feature lets readers pick the top stories of 2003 — with a neat twist. After users rank the stories, the interactive builds their own MSNBC.com cover based on their choices.
CyberJournalist.net in the News: 2003
December 31, 2003
"Coaching Writers," book by Roy Peter Clark and Don Fry
"Few journalists have the online experience and know-how of Jonathan Dube, a
veteran of MSNBC and the publisher of a valuable Web site, CyberJournalist.net.
In his coaching and teaching, Dube identifies the new standard forms of online
journalism. Some will have little meaning to those yet inexperienced with the
Net. Over time, however, they may become as familiar to journalists as the lead
or the nut paragraph. Here is Dube’s list of forms, with brief descriptions
attached. A more extensive version, with links to examples, can be found on his
Web site:
Print Plus: Move a newspaper or wire story to the Web site. Add photo,
art, graphics, links.
Clickable Interactives: A traditional story with this important
difference: readers can click on key elements and call up supplemental material,
including audio, video or animated graphics.
Slideshows: A powerful type of photo essay. Images presented in narrative
order, like a story board, with evocative captions.
Audio stories: In addition to text journalists can provide natural sound
or dialogue or sound bites and link to them from the story. Print editors and
reporters who want to develop their audio skills can begin by listening
carefully to public radio.
Narrated slideshows: Visual images advance automatically, with matching
sound behind them.
Live chats: An interactive version of the question-and-answer format.
Requires an attentive and judicious moderator.
Dube cites several more, including the animated story, stories without words,
Weblogs, databases, community resources, text chunking and games.
Online
Journalism Review, Dec. 18, 2003, "A Look Back at 2003"
"Blogging definitely became
more popular on online news sites this year. I’ve been tracking the number of
Weblogs on news sites and during 2003 they increased from under 50 to well over
100. This is a great development, as blogging is a form that takes advantage of
the Web’s strengths: speed, short bursts of information, interactivity." –
Jonathan Dube, publisher of CyberJournalist.net
"The most important
development in online journalism in 2003 was without a doubt the Iraq war. This
is a war that in large part played out on the Internet — partly because of the
24-hour nature of the war; partly because of the incredible amount of detailed
information available; partly because of the embed program, which created a ton
of information for journalists to publish online; partly because of the
information bloggers in Iraq published; and partly because of the global nature
of the medium and the story. The coverage online was outstanding — some of the
best online journalism I’ve seen. The war was truly a watershed moment for
online journalism." — Jonathan Dube
"In the long term, I think
the most important thing for the future of online news is for sites to reach
profitability and financial stability. That, more than anything, will help
ensure the commitment to online journalism
and justify media organizations pouring more money into producing online news.
And, of course, I hope media organizations pour more money into online
journalism. I’d also like to see the end of pop-up ads!" — Jonathan Dube
Editor & Publisher, Nov. 12, 2003 "Prepare Now for Better Online Election
Coverage"
"At the
Journal-World in Lawrence, Kans., the paper’s LJWorld.com also ran a
Candidate Selector prior to last week’s election. Questions for the quiz
were taken directly from the paper’s voter’s guide. Candidates’ answers were
presented verbatim, but with no name attached and randomly sorted. Online users
selected the candidate statement that most matched their own views, then at the
end learned who said what. That approach is
probably the smartest and safest, says Jonathan Dube, managing producer for
MSNBC.com. Where you can get into trouble, he says, is in trying to paraphrase
and categorize candidate positions — a practice that’s fraught with the danger
of bias creeping in. For an example of what he’s talking about, take a look at
the
Politics Blind Quiz application of SelectSmart.com. This is a nifty
application that helps you decide who to vote for — with more sophistication
than the newspaper examples cited above, but it’s a more dangerous approach for
media outlets which tout their objectivity….
"They’ll play a huge role in the 2004
elections, says MSNBC.com’s Dube. He especially likes the way they can focus on
the intricacies of campaigns. Details that get reported in journalists’
political blogs often are not what would make it into a printed newspaper
edition or on a TV newscast. They deepen political coverage, are interesting and
often entertaining, and sometimes engage readers better than traditional
inverted-pyramid style news writing.
"Dube, who in addition to his day
job at MSNBC.com operates online-news industry resource
Cyberjournalist.net, also suggests that blogs used in political reporting
are great for smaller news organizations with modest staffs. A couple of
reporters with duties other than covering politics can submit short items to a
political-news blog, which doesn’t take as much time yet looks substantial. One
small-paper editor told Dube recently that the blog format makes it easier to
compete with larger news outfits with far greater resources. It looks like the
small paper is doing more.
"Of course, large news organizations also will deploy blogs. MSNBC.com has been
experimenting with "embedded" correspondents who tag along day to day with the
presidential candidates — filing TV reports for MSNBC cable, and maintaining
blogs about life and news on the campaign trail."
? Steve Outing
The Commercial Appeal, Oct. 17, 2003 "Our daily Web"
"Candy store for newshounds and blog freaks: www.cyberjournalist.net"
? Jon W. Sparks
APME Update, Oct. 10, 2003, "Blogging
Isabel"
Hard news blogging has been around for awhile. The Charlotte Observer produced a
real-time, online column during Hurricane Bonnie in 1998. (Much of this history
is recounted on the excellent Cyberjournalist.net site, produced by Jon Dube.
Dube, now at MSNBC.com participated in that 1998 coverage when he was in
Charlotte.) Dube’s site
chronicled some of the blogs that covered the recent Hurricane Isabel. Included
in that list is WVEC.com in Virginia, which posted reports and photos that were
sent in by readers. What a great example of using readers as sources!
? Ken Sands
Information Today, Oct. 2003, ‘The Write Cyber-Stuff’
If your need for good news sources goes beyond regularly clicking the TV remote
to the E! Entertainment Network (the only place J.Lo may be able to currently
get a look at her ex-fiance), Marylaine Block, academic librarian and e-zine
creator, recommends CyberJournalist.net (CyberSkeptic’s Guide, October’ 2003, p.
4). Published and written by award-winning journalist and MSNBC producer
Jonathan Dube, the site offers info pros a current-awareness tool and can also
help users improve their Internet research skills, Web sites, and even their
writing.
At CyberJournalist.net, you can get good, current background
information–everything from 3-D maps of Iraq to an expert explanation of corked
baseball bats. Dube keeps users up-to-date on new search engines and search
features on popular sites. By providing articles such as "Tips for Making PDFs
More User-Friendly" and "Top 10 Web Design Mistakes," Dube shows librarians how
to improve their own sites. Noting that a librarian’s reputation depends on how
information is selected, analyzed, organized, annotated, and presented, Block
suggests that "our most essential skill may, in fact, be writing." Again,
CyberJournalist.net offers frequent tips on writing for the online environment.
No wonder Block checks this site out every week for Dube’s latest news and tips. ? Lauree Padgett
The New York Times, Sept. 29, 2003, "The Role of the Delete Key in Blog"
"One venue for sampling this medium is Cyberjournalist.net, a Web site with
a list of more than 200 Web logs by journalists, whether linked to official news
Web sites or produced on personal Web pages. The site is published by Jonathan
Dube, a managing producer at MSNBC.com and one of the first journalists to use
an online journal. In 1998, when Mr. Dube was a reporter for The Charlotte
Observer, he and reporters used a primitive form of a blog to publish updates
and commentary in a hurricane.
"While many of the blogs on Mr. Dube’s list are written by opinion journalists,
who are accustomed to writing commentary without concern about objectivity,
others are produced by reporters, who are professionally bound to avoid taking
sides…
"Mr. Dube is organizing a discussion with journalists about blogging best
practices for a conference of the Online News Association in Chicago next
month….
? Michael Falcone
Nieman Reports, Sept. 23, 2003, "Weblogs: A Road back to Basics"
"The most comprehensive list of blogs produced by journalists is maintained
by Jonathan Dube, a senior producer at MSNBC.com and the publisher (with the
American Press Institute) of CyberJournalist.net."
– Bill Mitchell, editor, Poynter Online
Poynter Online, Sept. 18, 2003, "Blogging Bonnie"
Like many journalists on the East Coast, we’ve been scrambling at Poynter
this week to come up with ways to cover Hurricane Isabel. Jonathan
Dube, managing producer at MSNBC.com and creator of CyberJournalist.net,
reminded me this morning of his experience covering Hurricane Bonnie in North
Carolina in August 1998. Jon’s a web reporting pioneer, a print dog who learned
new tricks about online reporting at Columbia University’s Graduate School of
Journalism. He soon put them to use at the Charlotte Observer and now
does the same at MSNBC.com.
We talk a lot about convergence these days, but it is still a work in
progress. Jon’s online reporting from the Bonnie-battered Carolina Coast offers
inspiration and practical approaches for anyone trying to reach an audience
across multiple platforms. Jon provided the following account for my textbook. I
think it’s worth reprinting and rereading.
When Hurricane Bonnie hit the Carolinas’ coast in August 1998,
the Charlotte Observer sent a team of photographers and reporters –
including me — to cover the preparations and damage. No other news organization
in the country devoted the resources we did to covering the storm, and it would
have been a shame to use only the information we gathered for the newspaper.
After all, by the time the next morning’s paper went to press much of the
information would be useless.So several times each day reporters filed dispatches (one of
which follows, and includes links to storm photos), and they were posted to the
website along with information gathered by Charlotte-based reporters working the
phones. (See
archived version of hurricane coverage Weblog)We updated the Web every half-hour all week and broke previous records for
pageviews. Our website also provided an outlet for many fine photos which never
made the print edition and gave readers up-to-date county damage assessments,
insurance contacts, useful weather links, and the ability to print out a
storm-tracking chart, (see
archived version of coverage)From the reporting end of things, everything went smoothly –
well, as smoothly as possible when you’re trapped on an island facing 100-mph
winds!I didn’t have to do any extra work for the website that I
wouldn’t have had to do anyway. I took breaks from my reporting every few hours
to write up my notes and file via modem, but I would have done that even if we
weren’t putting the information on the Web, for two reasons: first, so that the
editors in Charlotte were kept up-to-date on the rapidly developing situation,
and second, because at any moment we could have lost electricity and telephone
connections on the island and thus the ability to communicate.Just about the only effect our website had on my work was that
it kept a lot of it from going to waste. Writing and reporting that didn’t make
the print edition because of space limitations found a home on the website. And
there was the added benefit of knowing that my reporting would be published
quickly and have an immediate impact.We did not use audio or video, and that is the next step for
many news organizations. For television stations audio and video come naturally,
and many, such as MSNBC and CNN, are already incorporating such features into
their Web stories. For newspapers to go down that road would require major
training and equipment purchases.All of the work — from reporting to writing to editing — was
done by the newsroom’s reporters, photographers, and editors, with the same
focus on quality as if we were putting it in the newspaper (albeit with
never-ending deadlines). The only difference was that once the copy was ready,
instead of giving it to layout we gave it to the Charlotte.com producers to
upload. The producers also played a big role in creating a great site with
useful links.In my mind, this worked far better than it would have if we
had separate reporters for the website, simply because the reporters already
covering the story were the ones most knowledgeable about the subject. It’s also
exciting as a reporter, because it negates some of the frustration newspaper
folk feel about TV always getting the story out first.
– Chip Scanlan
Online Journalism Review, Sept. 17, 2003, "News sites loosen linking
policies"
Jonathan Dube, the publisher of CyberJournalist.net, says that linking
policies will vary depending on a site’s mission — but he doesn’t view
restrictions in terms of traffic.
"I think the key issue in deciding whether to link to other sites is not about
traffic, but about what purpose it serves and how trustworthy the information
is," Dube said via e-mail. "As a news source that people turn to for reliable
information, news sites should maintain the same editorial standards for
anything they put online, whether original articles or links to outside sites –
doing so is essential for news sites to maintain their credibility, and thus
their value, to users."
Dube noted that Slate’s "In Today’s Papers" feature, which links to various top
newspapers online, has been a traffic generator for Slate. Indeed, pioneering
online-only sites such as CNET’s News.com and Slate — as well as newspaper
sites such as the Providence (R.I.) Journal’s Projo.com — have been more open
about linking to outside sites from the start. ? Mark Glaser
The Globe and Mail, Aug. 11, 2003, "Love, hate and newspapers"
Another interesting issue concerns Google’s cached pages. Long a useful tool for
people who want to see a page that has been removed from a server, Google’s
cache is posing legal and financial problems, says CyberJournalist.net, a
service of The Media Centre of the American Press Institute, an independent,
not-for-profit educational organization. ?
Jack Kapica
Online Journalism Review, July 22, 2003, "Are
Online Search Tools Lulling Journalists Into Laziness?"
The very exercise of this article proved to be salient for Meyer, as he noted
the efficiency of using e-mail to get him questions that might not have reached
him by phone. But he also had the chance to ruminate over answers, taking away
spontaneity and a quick follow-up question possible during a phone conversation.
Jonathan Dube, proprietor of CyberJournalist.net and senior producer at
MSNBC.com, wrote
a
column devoted to e-mail interview techniques for Poynter. The impetus of
his column was a hoax perpetrated on a ComputerWorld reporter who believed an
e-mail from someone purporting to be a terrorist hacker.
"E-mail interviews can be a great time saver," Dube told me, ironically, via
e-mail. "But relying on them too much has disadvantages, the biggest being you
don’t know who is replying and you don’t have the chance to quickly pepper the
source with follow-up questions…Yet journalists keep making the same mistakes
of not verifying information over and over again." That fact led Dube to start a
page on
"Cyber Slip-Ups," though they are geared more toward Web site administration
mishaps. ? Mark Glaser
Ex Libris, July 19, 2003, "Great
Journalism Sites"
"CyberJournalist.net,
http://www.cyberjournalist.net/,
from the Media Center of the American Press Institute, combines a blog (links to
useful web sites, articles, interviews, upcoming conferences, and such), with a
Great Work Gallery, Tips & Tools, and a terrific Resource List.
"The Great Work Gallery illustrates how photos, documents, maps, audio and
video combine with traditional journalistic texts to illuminate both subject and
readers; anyone who wants to do online storytelling will learn a lot here. Among
the great works are a documentary on the life of Strom Thurmond, an interactive
guide to the Tour de France, and panoramic photos of Iraq.
"The Tips & Tools section includes links to such things as "Finding John Doe"
(a backgrounder on public records searching), an Affirmative Action
backgrounder, "How To Avoid Misquoting Google," "Tracking Iraq’s Historic
Treasures," and "A High Tech Way of Estimating Crowd Sizes" (weren’t you always
just a bit suspicious of those numbers in news reports?). Anybody who teaches
information literacy should take a look at the Cyber Slip-Ups section, which has
good tips on how to verify information, and plenty of funny stories about
embarrassing goofs by reporters who should have known you can’t believe
everything you read on the internet." — Mary Laine
ResourceShelf.com, June 18, 2003, "Using Google To Search for Popularity"
"Using Google to measure the popularity of X (very popular with reporters)
have been mentioned on ResourceShelf and in many other sources. Jonathan Dube’s
recent Poynter.Org article offers an excellent overview. The accuracy,
validity, and meaning of utilizing Google (or any web engine) as a popularity
measuring tool by simply searching the amount of hits the term/phrase returns is
also questionable. However, this is not the focus of the post. So, why this
posting? Well, it seems that when many people use this technique also don’t
understand how Google works and forget to place phrases in quotation marks….
"Google’s database is distributed on thousands of computers around the globe.
Running the identical search at different times and from different locations
will return different numbers. These numbers are just ESTIMATES. This was also
pointed out by Dube in a follow-up story…." — Gary Price
Online Journalism Review, May 29, 2003, "FCC Rule Change Could Be a Boon
for Online Media"
"The most interesting aspect of the rule changes could be an increase in
converged newsrooms that share resources to create stronger Web presences.
Jonathan Dube, publisher of
CyberJournalist.net and senior producer at
MSNBC.com, sees this as the main impact online. "We may see more local sites
like tbo.com, the excellent Media General site in Tampa that serves as the
online home for both the Tampa Tribune and WFLA," he told me. "If that happens,
we’d see more robust local news sites — with better ability to package
newspaper and video content — but we might also see fewer local news sites and
thus less competition." — Mark Glaser
American Journalism Review, May 2003, "Online Advances"
An extensive catalog of multimedia packages, journalists’ diaries and complete
coverage pages is available at
www.cyberjournalist.net. — Barb Palser
Poynter.org, May 1, 2003, "Point-Counterpoint:
Reporter Blogging"
"Should staff reporters at news organizations be restricted by their employers
from publishing personal weblogs on their own time? The debate rages (much of it
on Poynter’s Online-News
discussion list) following the Hartford Courant’s decision to demand
that a staffer kill his personal blog. Cyberjournalist.net’s Jon Dube got
two participants in that discussion to argue their respective cases online.
J.D. Lasica
argues the let-them-blog stance, while
Eric Meyer says
editors have the right to squash personal blogs by the journalists they employ."
– Steve Outing
The Sacramento Bee, April 10, 2003, "Want alternative news on Iraq war?"
"A big help to journalists covering the war is CyberJournalist.net, which
maintains, among other things, the Great Iraq Conflict Coverage Gallery (www.cyberjournalist.net/features/iraqcoverage.html).
The gallery features links to some of the best online war coverage, including
war blogs, video and still images, special reports and interactive graphics. If
you are interested in how reporters work, the site is also full of links and
resources that, while intended for working journalists, can be viewed by
anybody." — David Hoye
Poynter.org, April 8, 2003, "AOL’s War News: Not Bad"
Jon Dube at Cyberjournalist.net has some
kind words for AOL
and its coverage of the war in Iraq. Among the very cool ideas (available only
to America Online subscribers): AOL members are uploading photos of and letters
from soldiers abroad; and AOL News has a feature called "U.S. Forces Alerts,"
which enables AOL members to receive war news alerts whenever particular
military units they care about are covered in the news. These are available for
76 specific units across all four U.S. military branches and are delivered
either via e-mail or to cell phones or pagers. — Steve Outing
Time Magazine, April 7, 2003, "Best Of The
War Blogs"
Want to find some war blogs on your own? There is no central index, but one
site usually leads to others.
Cyberjournalist.net has loads of links to
reports from writers embedded with the troops (at cyberjournalist.net/features/iraqcoverage.html).
– Anita Hamilton
The Washington Post, March 28, 2003, "Blogging the War: A Guide"
"CyberJournalist.net
War Blog: A blog of war-related news from CyberJournalist.net,
part of the nonprofit American Press Institute’s Media Center." — Cynthia L.
Webb
New Zealand Herald, March 28, 2003
For a blog about blogs check out www.cyberjournalist.net/ weblogblog.htm.
The Guardian, March 27, 2003, "The sites you need to see "
"As the war continues, the web can only become more useful as an information
resource and an archive of events, as well as providing a forum for the debate
over the rights and wrongs. If you want to know more, Cyberjournalist.net has an
extensive list of links to more warblogs, reporters’ journals or other
Iraq coverage online." — Jane Perrone
The Oregonian, March 27, 2003, "Blah, blah, blogs"
CyberJournalist.Net War Blog: The American Press Institute’s blog is directed at
electronic journalists but contains lots of interesting tips such as where to
find an interactive map of Baghdad.
www.cyberjournalist.net/features/iraqwarblog.html
Bangkok Post, March 26, 2003, "Internet Site of the Week"
There is only one news story this week. Mostly, the Iraqi conflict is not about
IT, but in our little window on the web here, we can at least point you to some
more web-based coverage of the war in Iraq by introducing the “Great Iraq
Conflict Coverage Gallery” at Cyberjournalist.net -
www.cyberjournalist.net/features/iraqcoverage.html#embeds - which
features links to weblogs from several “embedded journalists”.
This site, hosted by the Media Centre of the American Press Institute, features
links with succinct summaries to over 20 weblogs posted by news reporters who
are covering the war as “embedded journalists,” travelling with the coalition
forces as they move towards Baghdad.
Never before in history has there been such coverage of a major conflict, on
television, on radio and now also on the Internet, and the resources that are
provided here by such news-gathering authorities as CNN, PBS, the BBC, NBC, ABC
and the Christian Science Monitor are extensive indeed.
In addition to the weblogs and diaries, there are links to many other
war-related resources, including some excellent maps and graphics presentations
about Iraq from the BBC and CNN, as well as links to the major news sites’
coverage of the conflict.
For those with broadband access, there are video and audio links as well. - Tony
Waltham
Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2003, "’Blogger’ Tries to
Make Name…"
"The Agonist has definitely been drawing attention of late," says Jonathan Dube,
a senior producer at MSNBC.com who has been tracking journalists’ war blogs for
CyberJournalist.net, a service that studies the Internet’s effect on journalism.
"Since the war has started it’s been one of the Weblogs most linked-to from
other Webloggers, which is one of the best ways to gauge a site’s relative
popularity in the weblog community." — Ian McDonald
Online Journalism Review, March 24, 2003, "Why the Internet
Rules (and Annoys) with War Coverage"
"Cyberjournalist.net’s Jonathan Dube provides
a great listing of weblogs from embedded journalists as well as top sites’
in-depth news packages." — Mark Glaser
The Washington Post, March 23, 2003, "Operation Commentary
Storm "
"The American Press Institute’s Media Center (www.cyberjournalist.net) includes
its own war blog, encapsulating coverage of the fighting from many sources." –
Leslie Walker
Internet Magazine, March 19, 2003, "’Site of the Week"
"Now that US and British forces have stormed into Iraq, more people than ever
are watching the news online. And, whether for or against armed conflict,
everyone’s question is the same - how do I find out what is REALLY going on?
"This is where Cyberjournalist.net jumps into the spotlight. This site (created
by the non-profit American Press Institute) is a fantastic gateway to some of
the most innovative, journalism on the Web. It boasts the Internet’s most
comprehensive list of J-blogs (personal weblogs written by professional
journalists). And it will direct you to some of the more original multimedia
offerings from many major news organisations.
"Visit the special "Great Iraq Online Coverage Gallery" to read personal J-blogs
from reporters embedded in Iraq, working for publications with a wide range of
political agendas. Bulletins from Seattle Post-Intelligencer journalists
on-board aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, musings from CNN’s Kevin Sites,
and question and answer sessions with Christian Science Monitor’s online
producer, Ben Arnoldy - they’re all here.
"The gallery also links to great journalism that exploits the immediacy and
multimedia potential of the Internet - an interactive map of Iraq from Newsweek,
official weblogs published by BBC reporters, audio reports by the Jerusalem
Post, a map of military deployments from CNN, Canadian cartoons….
"Essentially a text-based portal to news sites around the world,
Cyberjournalist.net is admittedly dull design-wise. It is also overly reliant on
US news sources. But, during a war in which many mainstream media appear to be
unquestioningly gung-ho about military action, and "alternative" websites seem
to limit their coverage to anti-war protests - it pulls up an interesting
selection of stories, and a nice opportunity to make up your own mind." –
Heather Walmsley
MSNBC Weblog Central, March 20, 2003, "Blogging the War"
Jonathan Dube of CyberJournalist.net has amassed quite
a comprehensive index of online Iraq coverage, as well as a
war blog of his own. One of the links Dube lists is
Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, a Weblog by Seattle Post Intelligencer
reporter M.L. Lyke describing what she and photographer Grant M. Haller hear and
do as ?embedded? reporters with U.S. forces." — Will Femia
The (Allentown, Penn.) Morning Call, March 7, 2003
J-Blogs: The American Press Institute maintains a list of journalism blogs by
major news organizations and independents. — By Tim Blangger
Columbia Journalism Review, January/February, 2003, "Newspapers Online"
?Newspapers are no longer willing to just write the Web site off as a
money-losing proposition,? says Jonathan Dube, a weekend producer for MSNBC who
also runs Cyberjournalist.net. ?We already see much less free information.?
Poynter.org, Feb. 12, 2003, "You Won’t Read This In Print "
"This is just a sampling — to give you an idea of some of the quality columns
and weblogs that are running on newspaper websites. (For a fairly comprehensive
list, see
Jonathan Dube’s links to online-exclusive weblogs/columns on
Cyberjournalist.net.)" — Steve Outing
Poynter.org, Feb. 5, 2003, "The Weblog: Tough to Beat on Breaking News "
"As Jon Dube pointed out in
an item on his Cyberjournalist site, the Landing Journal helped Florida
Today get ‘the news out fast and (provide) readers an easy way to see the
latest news without having to comb through long articles and figure out what’s
been added since they last read it.’" — Bill Mitchell
Online Journalism Review, Feb. 4, 2003, "Shuttle Fallout"
"The coverage of the coverage at Lost Remote, Jim Romenesko’s Media News,
Jonathan Dube’s Cyberjournalist.net and the Washington Post’s double-punch of
Media Notes and Filter gave me a more complete picture of the media’s
performance under pressure….Jonathan Dube gave a
helpful roundup of screen shots of top news sites." — Mark Glaser
OnlineJournalism.com, Feb. 4, 2003, "Net response to Columbia tragedy"
"CyberJournalist.net’s Jonathan Dube quickly posted a feature analyzing online
coverage, including screen shots from national, Texas and Florida news sources.
"
– Melissa Milios & Peter Sanders
MediaChannel.org, Feb. 3, 2003, "Online Media Did Well"
"While most of us were mesmerized by the endless and repetitive TV coverage of
the disaster ("If you are just joining us, let us recap."), online was the place
to be…. Cyberjournalist.net explained: "Online news sites reacted rapidly and
robustly to the space shuttle Columbia’s crash on Feb. 1. Nearly every major
site blew out the top of their site, devoting the top screen — or more — to
the story. Several chose layouts they rarely use, to create additional dramatic
impact. Most of the sites surveyed also posted original material online, in
addition to wire reports, and put together slide shows of the tragic images.
"One particularly interesting approach came from Florida Today, which posted
continual updates to its "Columbia landing journal," a temporary Weblog of the
failed landing and aftermath,,,, The journal nicely complemented the site’s
comprehensive coverage, including its exclusive close-up video of the Columbia
launch, showing debris possibly hitting the wing. Spaceflight Now’s site also
ran Weblog-like updates as news broke, in a feature called "Mission Status
Center."
– Danny
Schechter
Poynter.org, Feb. 3, 2003, "Covering the Shuttle Disaster"
"Jon Dube, who runs
Cyberjournalist.net, worked hard
to pull together a
terrific collection items about the online coverage." — Sree Sreenivasan
Jim Flowers’ Radio Weblog, Feb. 2, 2003, "Front Page Images"
"CyberJournalist.net has put
together
a gallery of cover snapshots from a sampling of sites and analyzed them.
It is a rather impressive collection of front page images from around the
country. Well worth the look." — Jim Flowers
MSNBC.com’s Weblog Central, Jan. 28, 2003, "Welcome to the
Party"
Via Jonathan Dube?s
Cyberjournalist.net, ?Pulitzer Prize-winning Miami Herald columnist Dave
Barry has started a Weblog at
davebarry.blogspot.com, packed with tidbits of Barry-esque humor.? — Will
Femia
New Media Musings, Jan. 21, 2003, "Salon
on the brink…"
"Really good stuff from
CyberJournalist.net lately, including these new items today:
Salon,
in a last-ditch effort to stay alive, is expected to announce this week that it
will require all readers to either buy a subscription for full access to stories
or agree to click through several screens of advertising to gain limited access,
the
Los Angeles Times reports. "There’s no free lunch on the Web anymore," Salon
founder David Talbot says. "There’s no viable media without developing a base of
revenue." Sad to say, it’s unlikely the new strategy will save Salon.
Glenn Reynolds,
a law professor who quickly became one of the more well-known bloggers as the
author of Instapundit.com, has started writing
a separate Weblog for MSNBC.com,
joining the news site’s expanding group of bloggers. "Several times a week, I’ll
be writing in this space with observations on various happenings in law,
politics, music, and technology," he wrote in his first post." - J.D. Lasica
Poynter Online, Jan. 6, 2003, "Inspiration
for Convergence Journalism"
"If you’re looking for ideas to break out of the day-to-day hustle of
online-news shovelware, I suggest looking to an excellent resource for
multimedia convergence journalism. You’ll find links to excellent work on
American Press Institute’s CyberJournalist.net, including links to the Christian
Science Monitor’s ‘Amtrak: All Aboard?’, WashingtonPost.com’s ‘Rebuilding a
Fortress, Rebuilding a Life,’ and Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.com’s ‘AIDS in
the Caribbean.’ — Martha Stone
American Journalism Review, Jan. 2003, "Every Last Word"
"More and more, the exchanges that precede news stories are making it onto
the Web…. Readers aren’t the only ones who benefit from this type of
transparency, says Jonathan Dube, publisher of
CyberJournalist.net. Dube considers
the U.S. Department of Defense’s Web site (defenselink.mil)
a "journalist’s gold mine" of speeches, briefings–and transcripts of every
media interview given by top DoD officials. The site is a prime venue for what
he calls interview voyeurism–journalists can not only spy on the techniques of
their colleagues, but pluck quotes for their own stories since the interviews
are public record." — Barb Palser
Top searches of 2003
December 30, 2003
Another new year-end tradition made possible by the ‘Net is year-end search summaries. Yahoo and Lycos have posted excellent summaries of the top searches of 2003. In addition to overall searches, they’ve broken down the searches by category — everything from the Top Jennifer Searches to the Top Iraq-related searches.
Yahoo’s top news searches were:
- Cloning
- Hurricane Isabel
- Saddam Hussein
- Laci Peterson
- Affirmative Action
- Elizabeth Smart
- Jessica Lynch
- Iraq War
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Rush Limbaugh
And here is Lycos’ top 10 news stories of 2003:
- Iraq War
- Kobe Bryant
- Space Shuttle Columbia
- Federal Do-Not-Call List
- SARS
- Michael Jackson arrest
- MS Blaster/Lovsan Computer Virus
- First Human Clone
- Super Bowl XXXVII
- Laci Peterson
Amazing how different the lists are, eh?
Most e-mailed articles of 2003
December 29, 2003
The New York Times has mined its 2003 e-mail data to create a smart series of slideshows showing the Most E-Mailed Articles of 2003. Iraq and Jayson Blair were among the popular stories, not surprising, but so were from tales of sushi memos and yarns about talking fish.
And the Times was kind enough to waive the usual charge for archived articles and let users read these treats for free.
The slideshows include: Most E-Mailed News Articles; Most E-Mailed Opinion Articles; Most E-Mailed Magazine Articles; Other Fare From the Top 100.
It was disappointing that the slideshows only included a small selection of the top stories in each category. It would have been nice to see a full list of the top 10 or top 100 e-mailed stories as well.
Still, it’s a great idea and expect other sites to imitate it in the future.
Parody site dupes the pros
December 29, 2003
Two nationally syndicated radio sports shows and The San Diego Union-Tribune got duped by a parody site. They ran stories about a fictional Jason Smith, a 5-foot-6, 128-pound honor student from Yorktown High School in “Muncey,” (not Muncie) Ind., being signed by Purdue to play basketball. Problem is, they got the story from www.hoosiergazette.com, a site which carries this disclaimer on its home page: “Indiana’s first source for inaccurate news and commentary since 2003.”
The Union-Tribune gets an extra black mark for not even citing the bogus Web site, but instead listed the credit on the story as “Union-Tribune News Services.”
Here’s what the paper’s reader representative had to say about this.
Top news sites for November
December 24, 2003
Here are the Top 20 Online Current Events & Global News Destinations for November from Nielsen//NetRatings.
History of Flight special packages
December 24, 2003
Several sites recently produced impressive packages timed with the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk.
The New York Times
MSNBC.com
DiscoveryChannel.com
El Mundo
What’s on the horizon
December 24, 2003
OJR’s Mark Glaser and online news leaders look back at the year that was, and predict what’s coming in 2004: Be prepared for a continuation of the explosion in blogging; the Net to play a strong role in politics; and an increase in the important of participatory journalism and RSS feeds.
Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003
December 23, 2003
Why do some sites change URLs when they archive content? Why do others fail to date stories? Jacob Nielsen’s annual list of Top Ten Web Design Mistakes points out some fairly obvious mistakes that are still all too common — and is worth reading, as always (He’s written more than 1,000 Web usability guidelines!). “Sites are getting better at using minimalist design, maintaining archives, and offering comprehensive services,” he says. “However, these advances entail their own usability problems, as several prominent mistakes from 2003 show.”
Media Notes Extra
December 22, 2003
As if Howard Kurtz doesn’t work hard enough already… now he’s blogging! That’s on top of his regular pieces for The Washington Post, his appearances on CNN, his daily Media Notes column on washingtonpost.com, his live chats with readers on the Web site every week…
Media Notes Extra, the new blog, “occasional updates as media and political developments warrant, or when I am suitably inspired, or just sitting around with nothing better to do,” Kurtz says.
“You’ll still get your daily dose in the morning (though the time may vary a bit), and then we’ll stack some new material on top of that (which you can whiz by if it doesn’t grab you). All in an effort to keep up with the relentless 24/7 cycle. And if it doesn’t work, we reserve the right to bag the idea. So I’ll be interested in your feedback.”