You already know that prospective employers are looking for journalists with social media skills. The Statesman-Journal in Salem, Oregon, certainly is. Executive Editor Bill Church recently advertised an opening for a “talented reporter with high digital IQ.” If you’re talented, aggressive, responsible, innovative, socially adept, digitally awesome and perpetually energized, you’ll fit in just fine at …
Continue reading ‘Tweeting a job application’ »
For all the emphasis on multimedia and technology in today’s newsrooms, the basics are just as important as ever. That’s what journalism professor Laura Smith concluded after spending a month this summer working at KXAN-TV in Austin, Texas. In a recent issue of Static, a newsletter for journalism educators, Smith listed these basics: News judgment–a …
Continue reading ‘More skills journalists need’ »
Jason Lamb is a Murrow Award-winning TV news writer from Anchorage, AK. Earlier this week, he shared how meticulous logging of video is one of the building blocks of effective storytelling. Lamb says another key component is taking time to determine a story’s focus. “Beyond just the story ‘subject,’ a focus tells you what person, …
Continue reading ‘How to write a compelling TV news story’ »
The Murrow Award for writing “demonstrates excellence in writing that conveys the feeling and significance of events to the listener or viewer.” That’s the goal of great storytelling, isn’t it? To help make the news matter. Last year’s national winner in the small market category was Jason Lamb of KTUU in Anchorage, AK. In this …
Continue reading ‘Log your way to better broadcast writing’ »
Some critics would have you believe there’s very little point in getting a college degree in journalism. Writing in The Nation, Michael Tracy asserts that a journalism degree is unnecessary because you can get a job in the news business without one. What’s worse, Tracy says, is that “it’s actually bad for the craft.” In …
Continue reading ‘What’s the point of journalism school?’ »
The annual survey of journalism and mass communications graduates finds that most grads are using the Web skills they’ve learned in school and wishing they had more. The majority of 2010 bachelor’s degree recipients said they had the skill when they completed their studies to write for the Web, edit for the Web, use still photography …
Continue reading ‘Journalism grads wish they had more Web skills’ »
Sometimes the best advice is the simplest. At a recent conference of public radio news directors, NPR investigative reporter Daniel Zwerdling put it simply. “Read the whole report,” he said, quoting the legendary journalist I. F. (Izzy) Stone. The executive summary doesn’t cut it. Reading just the introduction and conclusion isn’t much better. “Read the …
Continue reading ‘Read the whole report’ »
The latest RTDNA/Hofstra survey finds that more than two thirds of TV newsrooms have a Facebook page and more than a third describe themselves as “constantly” using Twitter. As we did last year, we asked what stations were doing with social media, and there’s been a change in the last year. Although this open-ended response is …
Continue reading ‘What next for TV and social media?’ »
Information travels so fast these days that it’s hard to keep track of where it came from. Technology makes plagiarism and deception a snap. Online text can be copied and pasted in seconds, photos can be manipulated and no one may be the wiser. But thanks to technology, problems are also easier to detect. If …
Continue reading ‘Digital verification tools’ »