My Interesting Reads (weekly bookmarks)

• The Mouse that Roars: Why RebelMouse May Just Make Twitter Work for the Rest of Us | Social Media Today
  Why RebelMouse May Just Make Twitter Work for the Rest of Us http://t.co/Baeb6gBJ @teamreboot: We’re the public de-nerdifier for Twitter.
  
  

  • The Ann Arbor Precedent | American Journalism Review
    Three years ago, Ann Arbor lost its Newhouse-owned paper and went all digital, and AJR says the results weren't good: http://t.co/K8zsY83w
     

   Cultural Fluidity - Weekly Newspaper Editors
  

  • "This study examines how British weekly newspaper editors, an understudied group with long-standing ties to ³hyperlocal´ communities, regard the challenges of building, transforming, andmanaging knowledge in the midst of sweeping media change. Drawing on literature from mediasociology and knowledge management, it suggests that these veteran editors are profoundlyuncertain about how to translate what they believe about journalism, and know about creating it,into successful delivery of new products to new audiences"
    tags: singer weekly newspaper editors

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Mocking up photos, and mocking readers

These are some the points commenters found objectionable about about The Sun's Naked Intern photoshoot

She was female
She was an intern
She was asked to make an impossible choice
The Sun did not ask a Page 3 girl to do it (Seriously. I guess Page 3 girls must just wander around the editorial floor at all times, filing their News in Briefs)
The subsequent statement about 'no cover up'
The paper then printed the actual photo

Most of these are good points. But, personally, the element I found most objectionable wasn't that the question had been asked, it's the fact that the whole tawdry affair - made, no doubt, with sniggers and self-congratulatory noises - puts fresh tarnish on the profession of Journalism.

Every time Fleet Street Muppets pull a stunt that shows they view their readers as fools - 'hand over your money, folks, we've been having a high old time getting our staff to take their clothes off' - it erodes what we're supposed to be about. 
You might think the customers being mocked are Sun readers and so don't count. I'm not interested in news brand snobbery; I'm interested in the editorial decision.
And it's not about high-mindedness or having an over-inflated view of a newspaper's role; I am very aware that an incorrect fact in the splash might merit a complaint, but printing yesterday's Crossword is an Unforgivable Blunder for which the editor should be sacked.
 
But - and the Leveson Inquiry underlined this for me - the Press is a collective, as far as the public consciousness goes. 

The repercussions of phone hacking outrages perpetrated by national tabloid journalists are still being felt at a local level; after all, most people will judge us all by the standards of conduct they saw displayed on the BBC's Leveson reports month after month

Photos of a prince displaying his innate good breeding to the world aside, I wish Thursday's The Sun front page had been a banner headline of a bit.ly link to the TMZ.com story. It would have made the point a lot more eloquently. 
As it was, it just reinforced the idea that, for newspapers, the joke's on the reader. 
The Sun published the Harry photo today - for me, any moral stance in that decision was eclipsed by the earlier lack of judgement.

Related articles

• Ignoring Harry photos 'perverse'
• The Sun defies Palace and publishes naked photos of Prince Harry
• Naked Harry scandal a watershed moment for UK press

Brevity is the soul of... any story

(Photo credit: ciboulette)

While reading this article on the importance of story-telling, and why people need to avoid the trap of thinking Facebook is about link-pimping, the last paragraph caught my attention:

'"The best stories represent a simplicity of purpose and tap into the audience’s imagination so that they willingly go along for the journey. And the shortest ones can sometimes be the best. Ernest Hemingway famously wrote the six-word story: For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”  

I hadn't come across that line before and I was quite floored by Papa's brilliance... until the internet disabused me. 
Abashed by the fact I'd never heard of something he'd 'famously' written I googled the line. 
Alas, it is thought to be an apocryphal story, without basis in fact - the origins are discussed here.  
Still, if there's a more compelling argument for cutting out the verbiage in a 600 word article, I've yet to come across it. 
On a not-unrelated note, I think Hemingway would have liked Twitter. 

11 thoughts about tolerance. (And why it's over-rated)

I'm starting to think social media has made me a less-than-tolerant communicator when it comes to certain issues. This is why: 

1. I assume everyone has already seen whatever Twitter is buzzing about and so knows what I'm talking about.

2. "Because it's wrong" is not a comprehensive and thorough enough explanation of why I detest MSM plundering Facebook photos SO MUCH. 

3. I feel uncomfortable if people I know personally have egg avatars. I also make this plain until they upload a photo in self-defence.

4. I forget Scribd is not a verb, and that using it does not auto-translate into "handy way to share and embed a pdf accompanying an article".

5. My heart may sink at Powerpoint but should remember any involuntary groan of anguish I emit when confronted by another sodding Prezi will cause the speaker to react negatively.

6. I work on the basis that linking to a source for more information has permeated Real World consciousness. And I get cross when that assumption is confounded yet again.

7. I assume general understanding that correct attribution of Flickr or Instagram photos to rightful, consenting owners is a basic principle of use. This should not be a water-on-stone issue.

8. Talking about adopting an Agile ethos may cause others to believe I want them to run around at speed. I should check for blank or anxious expressions before continuing the conversation.

9. Tweeting to colleagues sat 10 feet across the office is no substitute for a conversation - but it is often faster, more effective and easier.

10. I believe there is a special circle of Hell for people who copy others' thoughts on Twitter and pass them off as their own. By incredible coincidence, several people all thought of this bon mot on Saturday, for example...

I remember back at nine o'clock when this were all fields.

— ade (@ade) July 27, 201

11*. I don't understand why the internet seems to demand lists are made in 10s regardless of whether it's required or not. *frowns at Huffington Post and Mashable*

* See? I also have zero patience with anyone who would admit to doing something "because the internet demanded it".
My tolerance levels are not what they were. And, to be honest, that's fine by me.

Flickr photo courtesy of jcoolmoonster

A bit of MSM and hyperlocal co-operation goes a long way

I came across an exchange between the Daily Post and Wrexham.com on Twitter today that made me happy. 
It makes far more sense for MSM and hyperlocals to support each other to get information out; the alternative is to pretend the other doesn't exist or - worse - denigrate the 'rival' source. The former is a MSM habit, the latter (in my experience) an indie one. 

As far as I'm concerned, the main competition anyone trying to connect with content consumers faces is audience disconnect, distrust and apathy, not other information sources (whether those information sources are the BBC or the eyewitness tweeting). 

Yes, I edit the Daily Post (the exchange below had nothing to do with me though) and I know we won't be unique in having candid, supportive conversations with other news organisations without getting precious. 

But, as I say, it made me happy to see mainstream and indie teaming up to make sure a story was accurately and swiftly updated. And so I thought it was worth saving the moment here.  
The Daily Post current version of the story is here and Wrexham.com's is here. 

Related articles

• Local newspapers' crisis: yes, hyperlocal sites can work in big cities too

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• Hyperlocal Voices: Zoe Jewell and Tim Dickens, Brixton Blog

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• Hyperinterest journalism offers hope to dying hyperlocals

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• Media Analysis: The future of journalism is bright as hacks go hyperlocal

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Industry disruption and journalism - an enthusiast's perspective

Brian Storm, founder of Mediastorm, says to photographers: "Don't just take someone's picture - give them a voice..."

But this EJC video interview, hosted on Vimeo in HD, has a message that has relevance far beyond photographers - I think it's essential viewing for anyone working in a newsroom right now. 

He says: "The tools are so great and the distribution is there for everybody... that's been disruptive... but it has also created enormous opportunities".

Opportunities don't come along that often - I worked as a journalist for around 12 years before email came along, and then the internet - the pace of acceleration since then has been astonishing and exhilerating. 

Mediastorm is amazing; I remember watching a package they created (for the Washington Post, I think?) a few years ago, on US soldiers and their families before and after a tour of duty in Iraq - it was haunting and disturbing and compelling. It was also a piece of digital storytelling that didn't require any text beyond context-setting captions.

For me the best thing about Storm's video interview is his enthusiasm - the fact that he loves the innovation sparked by disruption shines through. 

It's five minutes of inspiration I'd recommend watching

Brian Storm - 'Discusses Storytelling and Journalism' from European Journalism Centre on Vimeo.

Related articles

• Get a Start in Digital Storytelling

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• Making a Movie Using Your Android Phone

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• Morning Advantage: Disruptive Innovation Made Easy

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• Technology Innovation: Disrupt - or Be Disrupted

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• Disruption rather than invention leads to the greatest innovations

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Journalism work experience debate (Storify)

I followed a good debate on Twitter today, when some valuable points were made regarding the pros and cons of doing unpaid work experience, and so I thought it was worth capturing the discussion via Storify.