The news as we know it is ending but technology might save it, Michael Wolff writes in Vanity Fair. He points to the research we’ve all seen: under 30s have no “news habit.” When they want information, they don’t browse for it on a news site–they search for it. “The news business—our crowd of overexcited …
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By the year 2011, Nielsen Co. plans to triple the size of its National People Meter (NPM) TV-ratings panel. By that same year, the company says it will have Local People Meters (LPM) in 56 markets and those sample homes will be integrated into the national sample. According to an article from Multichannel News, the …
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A new “clickmap” tool is making some ask whether video may be a bigger driver of clicks than previously thought. According to Poynter’s E-Media Tidbits, a researcher at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) has developed a new tool for tracking where Web users actually click on site pages in close to real time. In a …
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Hyperlinks aren’t just a simple way to add interactivity and context to a Web story. They could also be a way for news organizations to keep users apprised of what’s new on a story without having to update the original. Robert Niles writes in the Online Journalism Review that hyperlinks could be particularly useful in …
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Here’s another good reason to avoid using a Video News Release (VNR) without proper attribution: You could be fined! According to the Hollywood Reporter, for the first time ever, the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau is calling for a $4,000 fine against Comcast for showing a VNR without telling viewers they got paid for it. Comcast says …
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For the past several years, a trend has been developing in the production of television newscasts. Producers are being charged with the goal of “owning the first minute.” In the September 2007 issue of RTNDA’s Communicator magazine, writer Paula Pendarvis puts it this way: Today’s newscasts don’t simply start, they sell, with custom-crafted elements designed …
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Sometimes good story ideas fall in your lap (or show up in your email). The following is a post from the Criminal Justice Journalists listserv on Friday, 9/21/07: If all goes according to plan, the FBI will put out its 2006 crime stats on Monday, 9/24/07. Criminologist Richard Rosenfeld of the University of Missouri-St. Louis …
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How can you avoid being suckered by sources or stampeded by the competition? Do your own homework. That’s the advice from Stuart Taylor of the National Journal. His book about the Duke lacrosse case, “Until Proven Innocent,” says the news media blew it. “Read the damn motions,” Taylor–who is also a lawyer–told American Journalism Review: …
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Why do so many news Web sites use full-screen text instead of voiceover narration for video and slide shows? Angela Grant, multimedia producer at the San Antonio Express-News, believes “producers are afraid of using voiceovers because they are ‘like TV.’” Her rant at NewsVideographer.com is right on the money. “For god’s sake,” she writes, “don’t …
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Natural sound makes stories come alive. It lets viewers experience something close to what it was like to witness a story in person. A story without nat sound is flat and dull. Want proof? Watch this video from former TV reporter Mark Poepsel, who now teaches at the University of Arizona: