Hurricane Ike Media Review: Judging Criteria
September 15, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m going to be writing reviews of the local and national media’s response to Hurricane Ike this past weekend.
What I’ll focus on:
- Update frequency
- Web site usability
- User generated content solicitation and usage
- Multi-media coverage
- Distribution of content outside the “walled garden”
- Innovation, or lack thereof in coverage
Where I’m coming from:
- I have family who lives in a Houston suburb
- I am familiar with the Houston television market having visited several of the TV studios and spoken with employees there in the past
- I live in the Washington DC area, so do not have access to live television or radio coverage from Houston unless streaming media is available
- I work in social media for a major media company
- My background is in journalism, information distribution, and online community building
If you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments section of any post. Notice someone doing something that I’ve missed? Let me know and I’ll be sure to update posts or continue the series as necessary.
Each of the media outlets I’ll profile and review this week are major operations with large audiences. I don’t want to be too critical of efforts or insinuate that there is any one “right” way of doing things online because there isn’t. What I’m measuring them against are what I consider to be the current “best practices” in online media distribution.
Also understand that each of these companies have very different technical and infrastructure components which I’ll address where possible.
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This post is part of the Hurrricane Ike Media Review series by Jonathan Coffman. I welcome your comments below.
Jonathan’s Twitter Updates for 2008-04-14
April 14, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
- Drinking with Mickey Mouse, what’s wrong with this picture? #
- Changed into my night clothes, going out with some friends to mingle #
- Headed to bed, good night Twitterville #
- Good morning Twitterville, getting dressed for NAB Show this morning #
- At the State of the Industry Address at NAB #
- Oh come on, Youtube is more than just funny videos, give them some credit #
- President of NAB says he wants radios in every portable music player…. #
- I don’t want a radio in my iPod and Steve Jobs knows that thank you. #
- NAB is spending $1 billion on DTV transition, estimates 640 touches to each citizen #
- He said DTV is coming to iPods, but I’m not sure I believe him #
- The NAB policies on XM/Sirius and whitespace is rediculous #
- Charles Osgood is about to take the stage. Quite the legend. #
- Why did the NAB invite a celebrity to give us a political speech on the war? #
- I think thats very innapropriate of them #
- Just had lunch with a venture capitalist interested in my wares. Good times! #
- The lunch speaker was Bob Barker, how exciting. #
What Radio Stations Can Do NOW To Gain Listenership
March 21, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
I’ll start by saying that radio is not my native tongue. I’ve done some editing and producing work for a local NPR affiliate but not much else. That doesn’t mean that my comments should be discounted, just that some of these may already be out there and I’m just not aware of it yet.
Here are some ideas on how radio can gain listenership NOW.
- Less crazy-talking DJs, more content (be it music, news, or other)
- More local and hyper-local content. Broadcast from places where your listeners are. It’s not that difficult to stream back to the station via microwave, satellite, or web. Join the rest of the world in the trenches.
- Stream your content on the web, all of it. I may be able to have headphones connected to my laptop at work easier than I can have a radio sitting on my desk.
- Indie Radio. Need I say more? No offense to Cumulus, etc, but geez, a little local ownership every once in a while never hurt anyone too badly.
- Discussion boards and blogs on your site, your listeners are likely all interested in some of the same things, so play to hose interests and let them talk amongst themselves. You may be surprised at how articulate they really are.
What ideas do YOU have? Share them in the comments.
Convergence of the Future
March 19, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
News makers keep talking about backpack journalists and having reporters be good at everything. Now we all know that’s just not possible, but it hasn’t stopped the visionaries from proclaiming convergence journalism the future of news.
Convergence of the media is already happening of course, and convergence is the future. No longer is a television station just a television station. Or a radio station, just a radio station. I’ve been interviewing with news organizations trying to find a full-time gig after graduation and I recently met with a newspaper editor from a small-market.
He said something to the effect that “I’m not just running a newspaper, I’m also a TV station, Radio station, podcaster, blogger, information resource, and that’s on top of the seven printed products my newsroom produces”. This is what convergence is, its one media taking on and challenging the other media forms.
Back in the early days of my Journalism School experience they taught about how the Internet wasn’t the end-all of media, much to the contrary each individual media had its own benefits. Well, yes that’s true in part, each form of media (broadcast, print, online, social, etc) does have distinct advantages and disadvantages, but that’s the great thing about the Internet, it allows each of those media to succeed and distribute their product in an open-market of consumers and viewers.
The Internet brings all of those competing old-media technologies and pardon the cliche, it creates synergies between them. No longer is a newspaper just a newspaper, but instead its a radio station, tv station, web site, and a community in and of itself.
This is the Real future of convergence journalism, a combined news product that reaches all people equally and in multiple formats. We’re already doing this in many cases but news makers haven’t taken it far enough yet.
Convergence journalism to me is all about taking advantage of the things that make a particular medium what it is. Television is immensely visual for instance, but a 30 minute newscast can’t begin to touch the detail a 1,500 word article in a major newspaper can. The power of the Internet changes all that.
The power of the Internet creates an open marketplace of ideas from which news consumers can ingest and even create their own news and information resources. One of the goals for my Contributr project is just that, make the communication between the public and a news organization easy for both parties so that both are more likely to interact and create even better news for the communities (and the world) that they serve.
If you’re interested in hearing more of my ideas on the future of journalism and the things that can be right now, subscribe to my RSS feed right here and always get the latest blog posts.
As always, comments are always open on this blog (although the first time you post I may have to approve it to make sure you’re not a spam robot) so join the conversation!
links for 2008-02-26
February 26, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
Gannett Interviews
February 16, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
Earlier in the week I attended two interview sessions with recruiting representatives from the Gannett company. I feel like they went really well and I must say that it’s comforting to know that ‘my job’ actually does exist now, when I began studying social and new media with a journalism concentration it was a little worrisome for my family not knowing whether or not I could get a job.
In speaking with the people from Gannett it’s pretty clear that they need people with skill sets similar to mine and the demand will only go up. Looking at the signup list for interviews from that day, there were fewer than 5 convergence journalism people, the rest were traditional media folk from television or newspaper.
It’s always nice to know that what you’ve worked so hard to achieve, an understanding and working professional knowledge of a field, may actually pay off in the form of a full-time position somewhere.
Of course it’s not wait and see if they call time, and hopefully they will. From the conversations I had with the recruiters it sounds like there are openings out there, and future openings that I would be qualified for and interested in.
Wish me luck and if you have any advice for me as I continue down the journey of my job search please let me know.
Make it a wonderful day and enjoy your weekend!
Public Radio
January 23, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
My time Columbia, Missouri gave me the opportunity to work with KBIA-FM the NPR affiliate station for central Missouri. This nationally recognized and award winning news organization took me in and provided me with the tools and experience needed to produce long and short form radio pieces, further enhancing my multi-media and convergence journalism skills.
Here are some radio packages I did for KBIA (Flash, and MP3 Versions Available, also visit my Podcast page to subscribe):
- Meningitis Long Form (MP3)
- Meningitis Short Form (MP3)
- Home School Short Form (MP3)
- Islamic School Short Form (MP3)
- I also produced a 6 week series of ‘Coffee Chats’ with local and regional politicians where I sat down and discussed issues of importance in n informal setting prior to the 2006 election cycle.
Journalism
January 19, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
First we had newspapers, then radio and television, and now the Internet, cell phones, and more. The practice of journalism has evolved for a long time and will continue to change. In recent years however, the way journalists and news media present facts and information has changed dramatically. Journalists and the business behind the news can no longer sleep heavily and depend on slow growth and profits.
The constant invention and expansion of news delivery formats has increased the demand for journalists, producers, and sales people to exert more time and energy in forging new relationships and connections with more people and businesses.
As news and information is further commoditized it becomes more important for a journalistic entity to expand it’s reach and stretch it’s resources.
Here are some journalism pieces that I either wrote or edited for various news organizations. All links open in a new window
WDAF-TV 4 (Fox Affiliate)
Special Projects:
Kelsey Smith, 18, was ubducted from a Target parking lot. I generated original and online exclusive content including live-streaming from SkyFox helicopter, live-chats taking questions from viewers, and moderating hundreds of blogs and discussion board posts.
Planned, Designed, and Implemented Afternoon Web Update. This is a brief that is posted every-day from 3PM till 5PM with ‘everything you need to know for the drive home’.
Moderated and participated in FOX sponsored chat and blog sessions on a daily basis.
Planned, designed, programmed, and prepared for launch a special pets related micro-site.
General Assignment:
- New KCMO HR Director Missing
- Kansas City Kansas Man Fights For Custody
- Child Sent to Hospital For Tick Bite
- Woman Jogger Nearly Abducted in Lenexa
- Ruling Opens Doors For Executions to Resume
KOMU-TV 8 (NBC Affiliate)
Special Projects:
Planned, Designed, and Coordinated a community site for viewer interaction based on the open source Drupal project.
Moderate and Post blogs and news updates to legacy discussion board system.
Airline Passenger Harassed for Using iPhone in ‘airplane’ Mode
October 15, 2007 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
ATA Airlines detains passenger for using iPhone in ‘airplane mode’ | One More Thing - CNET News.com
The alleged curse of the iPhone isn’t going anywhere people, and I’m not sure why I haven’t seen reports of other so called smartphones being banned on airplanes despite having their radios turned off. Now, we all know by now that there is no technical reason that cell-phones should be banned from use during flight, the science just plain says that the wireless signals do not interfere. So putting that aside, the FAA still has a ban on cell-use during flights, however as phones like the iPhone become even more popular, it’s going to be extremely important that people be able to use them with the radio turned off.
These multifunctional devices provide a sort of security blanket to its users (if I’m uncomfortable, I’ll often take out my iPhone and refresh the weather widget, but you didn’t hear it from me!). I, like this gentleman was asked to turn my iPhone completely off during my recent trip to Chicago for Adobe MAX 2007.
I hate to see short-sided legislation and the FAA and the FCC getting their paws into things where they don’t belong, but I must admit, I’m tempted to approve of them legislating the use of portable electronics during flight if their radio transmitters and receivers are turned off in some sort of ‘airplane’ mode.
Despite my inability to hide my own usage of my iPhone during flight (I was just trying to write some emails, to be be sent after landing), I was watching iJustine’s lifecast a few weeks ago and not only was she texting while her flight was taking off using her iPhone, but she continued to broadcast her video stream to the world from inside her purse, her camera sitting on the seatback tray pointed toward her texting on her iPhone. All this data coming and going from iJustine, and none of the multiple security screenings (yes, we her lifecast users got x-rayed), nor the flight attendants caught on and told her to stop being The Internet while flying.
Unified Reporting?
October 10, 2007 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
I’m currently working on a project that pulls together the news resources of three very different newsrooms. All in the name of total 2008 election coverage. This all sounds great, and it’ll out alright, but until we get to the point of having a soft-launch I’m not going to be happy!
Among everything else that I have going on right now, this one is a serious time drain. Getting three separate newsrooms to agree on anything you’d think would be the hard part…. oh no…. our current problem is that no one is willing to voice an opinion, what happened last time we tried to do this is that no one said anything until the project launched, then they all had their opinions and didn’t like what they saw.
Here’s what we’re working with:
-A newspaper who has internal strife and management issues. They are worried about their print product, and their web product. They’ve declared themselves a ‘web first’ newsroom, do they know what that even means? My Magic 8-ball says “signs point to no”. There are serious cultural issues at work here, none of which will be fixed by the time we have to launch our election site. (did I mention this small-town newspaper has over 200 reporters, mostly college students working for free?)
-A radio station that is a very solid news organization and an NPR affiliate, of the newsrooms, these people are the most willing to try. They may not have a ton of staff like the newspaper or TV station, but they have heart. I’m not so much worried about this newsroom, they know how to crank out content.
-A TV station with management who doesn’t support the online product. Now this is the newsroom I’m most familiar with, and also the 2nd most worrisome of the organizations involved. They have no money, essentially one paid staffer who’s in charge of new-media operations, and they’re not willing to expend any more resources on the election coverage. In just those three sentences, there are at least 5 deadly mistakes being made. This is what I’ve been trying to brainstorm on ways to fix, I’ll be blogging in the coming days (hopefully) more about this newsroom and the challenges they face.
So essentially, I’ve got three newsrooms, who honestly don’t know how to treat the web right, all trying to develop a web exclusive huge conglomerate of convergence journalism goodness.
Think on that for a while, because I’ve got to go to work!
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