Reportr.net

For my talk on multiplatform science reporting for the Knight science journalism symposium, I prepared a cheatsheet on how to successfully produce a multimedia story.
It goes over the need for planning, collaboration, innovation and interaction, and offers some tips on the use of video and data.
Download the cheatsheet here (PDF)

Farewell then, BBCNews.com. As from today, the BBC News website no longer exists as an autonomous, editorial unit within the BBC.
Instead the BBC has created a multimedia newsroom, integrating output across TV, radio and online.
On the BBC Editors’ Blog, Peter Horrocks explains the rationale for the decision, arguing:
We have a new system [...]

Among all the coverage of the BBC job cuts, there is also news on the issue of advertising on BBCNews.com.
Slipped into the bottom of the MediaGuardian story on the cuts is a small paragraph:
The BBC deputy director general, Mark Byford, also confirmed that the BBC Trust has given approval for advertisements on BBC.com
There was [...]

Lists are always popular online, but this one by Paul Bradshaw on how to be a journalism student is useful too.
Top of the list is “Read the news.” This echoes what we tell our students at the UBC School of Journalism. As an incentive, we test the students on their knowledge of current affairs [...]

Last week’s Future of Newspapers conference in Cardiff didn’t generate as much online coverage as similar conventions tend to do in the US. One of the few people providing updates was Paul Bradshaw via Twitter alerts. But then, there is only so much you can get into 140 words.
He did write a piece [...]

One of the pressing issues for the news industry is training. Many journalists simply do not have the skills needed in an Internet age, so the Knight Foundation is investing more than US$6 million in preparing reporters and editors for a digital world.
The money is going to the Knight Digital Media Center, [...]

A key skill for journalists in an Internet age is knowing how to evaluate online news sources. This was part of the focus of this week’s class in multiplatform journalism at the UBC School of Journalism.
There are five criteria to consider:

Authority: Who created the site, why, and what are their credentials? [...]

Here is a list of essential online tools for journalists that I’ve handed out to my multiplatform journalism students at the University of British Columbia:
RSS software
Macs:

NetNewsWire (Free and paid for version, US$29.95, available)
Shrook (free)
Windows:

FeedDemon (Paid for US$29.95)
FeedReader (Free)
Sharpreader (Free)
Online RSS feed readers

Google Reader
Netvibes
Bloglines
Personalized news pages

MyYahoo
iGoogle
Blog aggregators:

Technorati
Icerocket
BlogPulse
News alerts:

Google Alerts
Yahoo Alerts
Webpage archiving:

Furl
Web 2.0 tools:

Docs: Google Docs
Office apps: [...]

Today was the first day of our redesigned core course at the UBC School of Journalism in Vancouver. Entitled Multiplatform Journalism, it seeks to instruct the students in the key intellectual and practical skills they will need to operate as a professional journalist in a multimedia industry.
The course aims to move away from training [...]

Students heading into journalism school this autumn should get their hands on a new textbook, offered for free at the Knight Citizen News Network website.
“Journalism 2.0″ by journalist Mark Briggs from the News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington, is available as a PDF download.
It is next on my list to read, covering subjects such as [...]