Article Archive
Readers' Blog
Ethics
Events Calendar
Making Money
Reporting
Video Production
Writing
Log-In
Register
About OJR
Privacy Policy
OJR by E-mail
Article Feed Blog Feed
January 2006
An insider's perspective: Blogging the USC football team
2006-01-03By Caitlin Donovan: Graduate student Alexis Jones has taken upon herself a task many long-time journalists shrink away from: reporting on her friends. In Jones' case, her friends are on the USC football team.
Jones, 22, helped co-create Inside USC, a blog profiling the USC football team, in October after hearing a former Trojan team member comment on the romantic actions of USC quarterback Matt Leinart at a party.
"It really spurred me [to start the blog]," said Jones, who attends USC's Annenberg School for Communication. "Who’s to stop me from influencing people with the truth?" she continued, noting how fed up she was with gossip she was hearing about the team.
The idea of starting a blog had formulated in Jones’ mind before the former Trojan made his remarks about Leinart, though.
"[A professor] started talking about all this blogging. ... I had never done formal reporting, but why wait until I get an internship at Fox?" Jones said as she explained her long-time obsession with sports, especially football.
She combined her desire to be a journalist and future sports broadcaster with the technological desires of site editor Nathan Gotsch, graduate of the USC School of Cinema-Television and an "integral part of [the blog]."
"I would love for this to not just be an editorial site," Jones noted as she expressed her desire for the blog to become the "hub site" for all things related to Trojan football. The site now receives 200 or more hits a day and is steadily growing, according to Jones.
Jones views her relationship with the team members as a testament to her journalistic integrity and said she does not see it as a problem because "the guys support me as a reporter." She said she would never use her friendship to divulge a secret just for the opportunity to have a big story.
When interviewing the players, Jones mentioned how she transitions to reporter mode by saying, "OK, now I’m Alexis, the reporter." She said this way the players know they are on record.
"This is the beginnings of my career," she noted, re-iterating how the blog will establish how future audiences will think of her. "I don’t ever want ulterior motives. A person’s integrity always has to come before a story." She does not want her blog to be looked at as anything less than factual and of the highest standards.
"I want to be able to sleep at night," she added.
According to Jones, blogging "provides opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise exist" and "levels the playing field for the average person."
"People are too impatient to wait 24 hours for a newspaper ... or the 6 o’clock news. [Blogging] is a revolution of the media, and it is exciting to be a part of something that’s never been done before," Jones said. "All of a sudden everyday people have a voice."
Nominations open for 2006 Bloggies
2006-01-06By Robert Niles: Entries are now open for the 2006 Bloggies, the sixth annual Weblog awards, to be handed out at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas on March 13.
Bloggers can enter their site, and nominate other favorite blogs, at http://2006.bloggies.com/. The deadline is 10 p.m. Eastern Time on Jan. 10. A panel of judges will pick the finalists from among the most-nominated blogs and websites.
A second round of voting will be open to the public from Jan. 20 - 31, when readers may vote for winners from among the finalists in each of the 30 categories.
New publishing schedule for OJR.org
2006-01-09By Robert Niles: Happy new year and welcome back to OJR!
I wanted to note that we'll be tweaking our publishing schedule slightly with this new semester. We'll be posting new feature articles to the site early Monday mornings, with a second article each week around noon on Thursdays. (Los Angeles time in both cases.)
If you've subscribed to our e-mail newsletter, you'll be getting those story links in your in box on Monday and Friday mornings. And if you've not yet subscribed, why not try it? Our newsletter's a great way to be notified whenever we have new feature articles on the site.
'Rotors' spin a revolution in online media
2006-01-12By Robert Niles: CitJ? Grassroots reporting? I've ranted about the vocabulary of online journalism before. Today, Jon Garfunkel proposes a new term for independent online journalists: "Reporters Without Editors," or "Rotors" for short.
"Why rotors?" Garfunkel writes. "Rotors don't spin-- they cause revolutions!"
That's one entry in the vocabulary list Garfunkel offers today on his website. Some might find the definitions real groaners, but the first definition offered for "Reuters" did make me laugh out loud.
Moor named AME at Orlando Sentinel
2006-01-12By Robert Niles: The Orlando Sentinel today promoted OrlandoSentinel.com editor Anthony Moor as Associate Managing Editor/Online for the newspaper. The move makes Moor a direct report to Sentinel editor Charlotte H. Hall on website editorial content.
In October, Moor was elected to the board of the Online News Association. He also has served as a judge for the Online Journalism Awards and has written for OJR.
Assigning website editors AME status within the newsroom appears to be gaining popularity within the Tribune Co. In October, the Los Angeles Times, another Tribune paper, appointed Joel Sappell Assistant Managing Editor and Executive Editor, Interactive, where he oversees editorial content on latimes.com.
Yahoo hires sports editor from LA Times
2006-01-13By Robert Niles: Ever since Yahoo News moved its editorial operations to Santa Monica, the company's been on a hiring tear through newsrooms across Southern California. Yahoo's picked off staffers from latimes.com and this week snagged what might be its most prominent hire from The Times yet.
Dave Morgan, the number two editor in the paper's sports department, will be the new Executive Editor at Yahoo Sports, in a move announced yesterday by The Times. (You can read the memo on the unofficial internal communication blog of The Times' newsroom -- Kevin Roderick's LAObserved.)
Award a style point to Times Sports Editor Bill Dwyre for tweaking Morgan's new employer, in final line of his memo:
"And remember, if he changes his phone numbers, you can always Google him."
Technorati, International Herald-Tribune sign deal
2006-01-14By Scott Gordon: Blog search firm Technorati will soon begin providing its services to the International Herald-Tribune, Technorati CEO David Sifry said Thursday. No specifics yet, but the result of the deal will likely resemble the integrated blog-roundup features that Technorati runs for other publication client, including Washingtonpost.com and Newsweek.
PBS.org to launch first blog, Media Shift
2006-01-16By Robert Niles: PBS.org will launch its first blog this week, Media Shift. The blog, which will be written by former OJR columnist Mark Glaser, will look at the effects of new forms of digital media, especially Web-based publishing, upon U.S. society and culture.
The new blog is slated to debut Wednesday, Jan. 18.
Your site's fate, in a blink of an eye
2006-01-17By Robert Niles: You've got one-twentieth of a second to grab a first-time visitor to your website, according to a new study published in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology.
BBC News reports that conclusions drawn about the aesthetic appeal of websites by users who looked at those sites for just 50 milliseconds closely matched those drawn by other users who looked at the sites for longer periods.
"Unless the first impression is favourable, visitors will be out of your site before they even know that you might be offering more than your competitors," lead researcher Gitte Lindgaard of Canada's Carleton University, told the BBC.
No pressure there....
Newswriting.com boasts new look, new content
2006-01-19By Abe Rosenberg: I hope you’ll take a moment to visit the newly revised and updated Newswriting.com. As you may know, I created the site in 2001 to help broadcast journalists improve their writing and storytelling skills. Newswriting.com became a quick favorite for many people who enjoyed learning from the Writing Tools and laughing at the Groaners.
After a little time off, Newswriting.com has returned with a new look and a broader mission. In addition to all the original popular features, the site now features a Front Page column that focuses on the challenges of news coverage in a rapidly changing environment: Who’s doing great work? Who’s doing questionable work? Which changes are good for us? Which ones endanger our profession?
The current Front Page column offers three recent examples of what a simple name change can do: Infinity’s decision to become CBS Radio, WIBA-FM’s decision to sell its newsroom’s naming rights to a bank, and ABC’s reborn Nightline, where everything has changed, except the name!
I hope you’ll find the new Newswriting.com useful and fun, and I hope you’ll get in touch to offer comments, suggestions, opinions, or to propose new topics or a guest column. I also hope you’ll spread the word. Also, please feel free to link to the site.
ESPN.com redesign requires a quick finger
2006-01-19By Robert Niles: ESPN.com has launched a new design for its homepage. There's much to like in the new look, which dumps the vertical left navigation rail, thereby allowing larger headline links. The site's softened its color palette significantly, as well. (You can compare with the old look via Archive.org.)
But one innovative feature of ESPN's new home page drove me nuts: The story package links under "Spotlight," under the main package in the left column, rotate from sport to sport. That left me playing the journalistic equivalent of "Whack A Mole," trying to skim the package summaries fast enough to click through before the links rotated to the next sports'. ESPN does provide a moving circle graphic which lets you know visually how much time you have until the next rotation. But that just makes the reader feel like a game show contestant playing the lightning round.
WaPo shows that managing discussion isn't easy
2006-01-20By Robert Niles: The mess at the Washington Post over reader comments on the Post's editors' blog ought to remind all online publishers that managing reader interactivity is not easy.
The mess started when ombudsman Deborah Howell wrote, in her Jan. 15 column about the U.S. government scandal revolving around lobbyist Jack Abramoff, that "a number of Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Sen. Byron Dorgan (N.D.), have gotten Abramoff campaign money."
That wasn't true. All of Abramoff's direct contributions went to Republicans. And readers used the comment function on the Post editors' blog to point that out. Howell later clarified her remarks, writing that "a better way to have said it would be that Abramoff 'directed' contributions to both parties."
But the avalanche of responses against Howell's column prompted the Post to shut down the comments function on the editor's blog. (Comments remain enabled on the Post's many other blogs.) Washingpost.com Executive Editor Jim Brady wrote that "a significant number of folks who have posted in this blog have refused to follow" rules against "personal attacks, the use of profanity and hate speech" in justifying the decision. But some bloggers disputed whether the comments went over the line.
Managing a discussion community requires much more than turning on a comment function and hoping for the best. The uproar over Howell's error exposes the deep anger felt by many Americans toward its current government leadership and what those Americans perceive to be the press's failure to cover the government with appropriate skepticism.
Yes, readers who become abusive or profane ought to be cut off. But those who do not ought to be heard, and not cut off with the others.
People need to vent. The Post, and other online news outlets, would do better to let them vent, then to engage those readers to discover the source of their anger and frustration -- not to shut off their medium for speaking.
LATimes.com retooling its editorial staff
2006-01-23By Robert Niles: Kevin Roderick's LAObserved has posted a Los Angeles Times internal memo detailing the latest changes at LATimes.com. Executive Editor Joel Sappell sent the message to the Times editorial staff, looking for transfers to staff new editorial positions on the website.
An excerpt:
"Moving forward, the job of our web reporters will be not only to write and update stories but also to think creatively every day about the extras we can give online visitors so they stick around our site longer. These reporters will be on the front lines of our effort to create closer ties between the web and the paper. They'll be placed back in the newsroom, in specific sections-Metro, National, Foreign, Business and Features. During big stories or high-priority projects, they'll also be asked to dive into other areas."
Sappell's also looking for a "supervisor of our retooled web-news operation," reporting to him.
OJR's Sarah Colombo examined the ongoing changes at the Times website is a feature last year.
Blog Safer protects free speech through anonymity
2006-01-24By Janine Kahn: Nonprofit organization Spirit of America recently launched Blog Safer, a wiki that hosts a series of updatable tips sheets on how to blog anonymously in countries that do not tolerate free speech.
The guides come in English, Chinese, Arabic and Persian -- targeting countries like Iran, Zimbabwe, China and Saudi Arabia -- places where bloggers have been subject to filtering, interrogation, torture and even imprisonment. Each guide has a specific audience in mind and outlines the steps a blogger can take to avoid identification and possible arrest.
The wiki format allows international bloggers to edit the guides to reflect a more accurate picture of the situation in their countries. Bloggers are invited to translate the guides to other languages in order to expand the project's audience.
Google News out of beta -- finally
2006-01-24By Robert Niles: After almost three and a half years, Google News officially has emerged from beta-testing mode.
Krishna Bharat announced the move on Google's Blog.
The latest enhancement is a personalized news recommendation engine, which uses Google's personalized search technology to suggest news stories based, in part, on other stories that a reader has clicked on.
Bharat writes:
"All of this is done automatically using algorithms. For example, we might recommend news stories to you that many other users have read, especially when you and they have read similar stories in the past. We've also added a section to show you the most popular stories in the Google News edition you are viewing (e.g., U.S.). Now you can see the top stories being published by editors across the web, as well as other stories popular with readers, plus topics that you track or are interested in -- all on one page."
One more time: It is not the readers' fault
2006-01-25By Robert Niles: Perhaps my previous post on the subject was too gentle. So let me try again, more clearly this time.
The blow-up on the Washington Post website was not the fault of its readers. It was the fault of the Washington Post.
It was the Post's fault for publishing an erroneous report. It was the Post's fault for not moving immediately to correct it, once readers pointed it out. It was the Post's fault for disrespecting its readers but shutting down all the blog's comments, instead of pruning ones containing obscenities and threats. And if the Post couldn't handle the volume of pruning that needed to be done, it was the Post's fault for not having a better comment management system in place.
So let's quit blaming the readers. (And let's especially quit looking at these sorts of incidents as right vs. left. In journalism, we ought to deal with correct vs. incorrect. If that means we consistently offend some political group if it is consistently wrong, then tough.)
The proper thing for any news publisher to do in this sort of case is *not* to get defensive. Own up to the mistakes and work to do better next time, instead. Post ombudsman Deborah Howell wrote some encouraging words to that effect in her latest column. Watch OJR tomorrow for an article with additional suggestions on how news websites ought to better manage readers comments, too.
Is there enough good content to go around?
2006-01-26By Robert Niles: The LA Times' Michael Hiltzik suggests today that the recently announced merger of the UPN and WB broadcast television networks shows "there simply isn't enough compelling entertainment material to go around."
(Hiltzik's column appeared in today's LA Times, and in another sign that Hiltzik is one of the more Web-savvy journalists in the newspaper world, he's also posted it to his blog, where you don't need to register with latimes.com to read it.)
He continues:
"As for the Internet, as a breeding ground of new entertainment talent, so far it's largely barren. Companies from iFilm to Amazon.com have tried to make a commercial mark with Web-only film clips, but it wouldn't be surprising to learn that the most popular downloaded moving pictures on the Web (outside of pornography) are snippets from 'The Daily Show' or 'Saturday Night Live.'"
Harsh words, but I'd suggest taking a step or two to the side and looking from a different angle. No, there's not enough *mass market* entertainment to support a sixth broadcast network, or even to densely populate another mass-market Web video portal.
But services like iTunes, and iFilm, can operate as both mass marketplaces and niche delivery systems. Look beneath the "top downloads" lists on such services and one can find compelling entertainment that appeals only to limited audiences. Music fans can find podcasts of genres rarely heard in most broadcast radio markets. Film fans can find intriguing student and independent work that would never find its way on screens in the average American city. But the limited appeal of such work, even when of top quality, assures that it rarely will show up on "top download" lists.
The Internet's never going to generate enough mass market entertainment talent to support new mass market networks and studios because the Internet's greatest strength is as an *alternative* to the mass market. This is where artists can go to distribute works that won't generate enough money or buzz to get a major studio or network deal.
I'm awaiting the day that a "Freeks and Geeks" -- any top-quality, quirky, low-rated broadcast TV show -- gets the ax, but instead of shutting production, its producers start selling new episodes for a buck each on the Web.
Most TV shows fail miserably. But the lure of hitting it big keeps thousands of artists working on pilots every year. Perhaps, with the demise of one more network raising those odds, a few more professional artists might instead try to bypass the networks and reach out to their potential audience directly, via the Internet.
Blogs beating NY Times in online bet
2006-01-31By Robert Niles: Jason Kottke does the math a year early to see who's winning the long bet between Dave Winer of Scripting News and Martin Nisenholtz of the New York Times over which will be more popular online in 2007: The NYTimes.com or blogs?
The actual bet is: "In a Google search of five keywords or phrases representing the top five news stories of 2007, weblogs will rank higher than the New York Times' Web site."
According to Kottke's analysis, which tracked eight top-story search terms for 2005, blogs appeared higher in Google than the NYTimes.com for six of the eight terms. But when expanded to all citizen's media versus affiliated media, the results flipped. News sites of offline media organizations appeared higher in the search results six of the eight times.
For more detail, see kottke.org