Hurricane Ike Media Review: KHOU.com
September 15, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
Among the Houston based local media scene, KHOU is a solid contender and very popular station. Like the other local network affiliates they had “wall to wall” coverage on-air and online. Their broadcast transmission was also being streamed live online.
I do want to preface each of these reviews with the web technology or content management system (CMS) these media outlets are using.
The CMS decision a media outlet chooses (often a business decision more than a content decision unfortunatey) has a great effect on what they’re able to do without trying extra hard and breaking out of the confines of the particular system they’re using.
KHOU.com is a Belo station, using a custom built CMS common to Belo owned television stations.
KHOU unfortunately had one of the least informative web sites of the Houston market. Their site was predominently weather based, very important information during a hurricane no doubt! However, after the storm passed through their area it seems no changes were made.
What I’m seeing across most of the media web sites in Houston is that shortly after 11 am Saturday morning they switched gears from weather related focuses to breaking news mode, presenting information on recovery and rebuilding.
As of Sunday afternoon KHOU was still predominantly showing weather information on their web site, with news updates further down the page.
The Good:
- Weather maps and information very clear and easy to read, constantly updated
- A Blog with updates being sent very quickly. They were writing short, concise updates quite often. This is what emergency based news should be. The screenshot below shows the blog at one point Sunday afternoon.
The Bad
- Very little user interaction, comments were open on the blog but the barrier to entry was too high. The blog was not linked prominently on the homepage and it took me several minutes to find.
- KHOU was taking advantage of a PHPbb discussion board. These boards were getting fairly consistent traffic and served their purpose of creating conversations. One problem I encountered was that the boards required registration, however the links to the registration form was buried at the bottom of the page. Also, the system would let me get so far as to hit Submit for a comment before giving me an error saying I had to be registered.
- User generated content was minimal and hard to find throughout the site. There were solicitations to send in photos and videos on the KHOU homepage, however it was not
- The station’s official Twitter stream was a purely one-way road, the opposite of the spirit of Twitter and online conversation. KHOU was simply automatically piping in the latest headline from their site. They did not have any profile information entered, and had no avatar (profile image)
Overall, it’s unfortunate that that user experience around Hurricane Ike on this particular web site was so poor.
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This post is part of the Hurrricane Ike Media Review series by Jonathan Coffman. I welcome your comments below.
Houston Chronicle Excels in Hurricane Ike Coverage
September 13, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
As someone who not only is interested in news and journalism, but who also works in social media for a living I constantly see television stations and newspapers who either don’t take advantage of advances in technology or completely ignore the true value in the power of people.
This morning as I think about my family who lives in Missouri City, Texas (a Houston suburb) I scoured the web to find the best and most complete coverage and information about Hurricane Ike.
First I turned to MyFoxHouston.com, the Fox TV affiliate for Houston. They have a a special live-chat, live-broadcast, maps, video, and audio going full force on a micro-site called MyFoxHoustonLive.com. This I feel was overkill, it’s too much to process at once. Yes they are using technology to extend their coverage beyond “wall to wall” - which I commend them for - but the page was cluttered, it was hard to focus on anything, and in general there was just too much going on.
I then tried the other TV networks, both national and local. Of course the national networks have information but still lack the “instant” updates that I wanted.
My next link was the Houston Chronicle (to be honest, they were actually the first place I looked yesterday afternoon for updated maps and evacuation information). Chron.com may not have the fancy cameras and satellites that the TV stations have, but what they do feature are blogs. Live blogs. This is my favorite format for live and constantly updated information. Blogs let the user read as much or as little as they want, and in chronological order.
Not only are there two blogs updating every few minutes (one focuses on the science, the other on news and information) but the Chronicle was also smart enough to start a Twitter feed of constantly updated informaiton, and also began pulling public “tweets” into their site.
To me, this shows absolute respect for their users both locally and nationally. and THAT’s the key to success in the news business - giving the customer what they want, when they want it, while maintaining your ethical standards.
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This post is part of the Hurrricane Ike Media Review series by Jonathan Coffman. I welcome your comments below.
Time For A Comeback (I’m renewed, refreshed, and ready to blog)
September 1, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
It’s been way too long since I last posted to my blog here. For that, I apollogize. It seems (and I plan to analyze this a little more later this week) that the more I Twitter and micro-blog, the more my full blog suffers. I’ve effectually decided to put my site and blog on hold, because of the immense value I get out of Twitter.
We live in such a crazy world don’t we!? My lack of blogging on my blog-proper isn’t for lack of topics and interest, live has just been crazy after moving to a new state, taking on a new job (which I love) and all of the associated things needing my attention.
In the time since I last blogged, a lot has changed in technology and social media. I’m here to help guide you through that. Come back soon, to read what I have to say and be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed, or Feedburner Emails there in the sidebar of the blog.
PS: I recorded a little welcome back video today with my Flip camera.
links for 2008-06-05
June 5, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
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Wow, this new camcorder is pretty awesome!
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This looks interesting. Maybe I’ll attend.
How I Exercise My Mind
April 23, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
Because I’m constantly connected to real people as well as the Internet it can be difficult sometimes to keep your mind sharp and on focus. I’m not perfect in that regard, that’s for sure. But I do try to keep a fairly clean calendar with important events and conversations.
In addition to my email and calendar practices I also do some other things to try to stay ahead of my mind. For instance, I regularly check my RSS reader to stay current on news and information in topic areas that I’m interested in.
But staying sharp isn’t just staying organized, I also try to get out and walk or run several times a week. I’m not always successful but I do certainly feel a lot better about my workload, stress, and well being after being physically active.
My Nintendo DS also helps to keep me on top of my game, I enjoy taking a quick break now and again to play some Brain Age, or Big Brain Academy. The DS is the first video game system that I’ve purchased in quite a while (although the Wii is awful fun to play if someone else has the equipment).
Ok so this post actually ended up being shorter than you might think, what things to do you do in order to stay sharp and focused?
The Twitter Song by Alana Taylor
April 15, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
I was sent a link to this YouTube video earlier this week and just the opportunity to watch it. It’s a great example of how a fanatical user base can benefit your company and your content. The video is reporting over 1,200 views, and it didn’t cost Twitter anything.
When you engage your community and provide value people notice, and in an increasingly wired (wireless) world individual users have a voice. Now the decision becomes, do you want to use their voices as an asset in your business or push them elsewhere.
I’d argue that a healthy medium is probably best, although an engaged community based web site where
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. #
Jonathan’s Twitter Updates for 2008-04-12
April 12, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
- Yeah yeah, no one likes to talk food on Twitter, but I had some great sushi tonight #
- Good Morning Twitterville, lots of prep work today before I head out of town early tomorrow morning. #
- wow, I made it to RSS Reader Zero just now, granted I now have 30ish tabs in my browser to read #
- @bbum have you been reading the TSA’s official blog? There are some very smart people commenting, not so much on the TSA end though #
- Uploading video into a new YouTube account, my previous one refuses to cooperate, and Google support is no help #
- Darnit, I’ve got a "B" boarding pass for my Southwest Airlines flight tomorrow, never waited this long to checkin before #
- Doing some writing that fell through the cracks, should be done shortly. #
- Deleting videos off my Flip Video camera and finishing up packing for Las Vegas #
- Want to track my flight to NAB tomorrow? http://tinyurl.com/6kquzs #
Jonathan’s Twitter Updates for 2008-04-10
April 10, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
- Looking over some NAB materials and hounding on my development team to get Contributr back online in time for the conference season #
- Trying to figure out what the heck my Contributr developers have been doing for the last several weeks, not being micromanaged, nor working. #
- Wow that last Tweet was a Twoosh! (The sentence was 140 characters by complete accident) #
- @rosshill Nice find! reTweeting: Restaurant that uses Tumbler as their web site: http://blackbirdbuvette.com/ #
- @rosshill I like all of the Twitter interface changes I’ve found so far today, let’s hope it doesn’t get ‘cluttered’ #
- Why didn’t anyone tell me Flickr released video today? I must be out of the loop this week. #
- It’s not as exciting as you might think but here’s a tag-cloud generated from my Tweets http://tinyurl.com/6o63pw #
- @coreygreenberg You’re using AMP? I don’t run into people who have tried, much less use Adobe Media Player. #
- @CreativeSage Are you campaigning against RickRolling?
# - @efortiz Yeah, it’s a decent enough app, I talked to some of the original devs from AMP last year and it’s "heart" isn’t in the right place. #
- @CreativeSage oic, I haven’t watched the episode yet, it’s on the list though. #
- Retweeting: ijustine: Wanting to hit all the btchr’s complaining about flickr video: http://tinyurl.com/6xbelc #
- @acafourek what hardware do you have again? I don’t think my old PowerBook could handle all that #
- @acafourek that’s a nice setup, I’m looking at MBP’s pretty seriously right now, I get this thing maxed out all the time #
- @britter @chrisbrogan I’m going to have to have my parents Tivo it or something for next time I visit them. I keep hearing good things a … #
- @gerik do you love your Flip video? I got one a couple weeks ago, but NAB next week will be my first big test of it #
- I got my new business cards in today-they match my online branding, Convergence Journalism and New Media Specialist, including my twitter@ #
- Good morning Twitterville, it’s raining really hard this morning #
- @thewebcoach, have direct mail campaigns for social networking sites been effective for you? #
- @conniereece I’m still making up my mind on Everyone being w/ other tabs but I think it’s more Usable now, I see myself clicking on it more. #
- Contributr.net is back online, sans our beautiful new design, the design is done, the coding for it is not #
- Anyone out there who follows me or not from Vermont? @ or DM me please! #
- @awest FlipVideo has a lot of amazing potential to be used lots of ways, it one of my favorite gadgets right now. #
- @digitalmlewis The people behind Kickapps are very good people, I’ve met with them, and it’s a great product #
- I’m meeting with the startup incubator interested in Contributr here in a couple hours, wish me luck! #
- @misslacey123 ugh? #
- @singlegalDC Thanks! Been a while since we’ve talked, everything going well? #
- @leeodden Congrats on 1,000 after 1,400. That’s a much higher conversion rate than I have with my 316/3370 ratio. UR a good value!
# - Headed home from my meeting with the startup people, I’ve got some "next steps" to get started on, first thing, my patents and ownership … #
My Ideal Job
April 4, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
By way of looking introspectively at my self and my ambitions I have a pretty good idea of my ideal job is at this point. I’ve known for quite some time that being in the service of the public and working toward a greater good is in my blood. My mother was a teacher and my dad is a businessman. Between the two of them I acquired a passion for serving the public, and a business savvy entrepreneurial drive.
I’ve been on the path of working in the field of journalism for about 8 years now. Journalism attracted me in part because of the immense power of the press and how good journalism can be a cause for change. In addition, there are all kinds of cool toys that people in the news and information business can play with!
So that brings me to the ultimate point of this post, my ideal job:
- Serves the public interest, educating and informing them.
- Is collaborative with other smart people.
- Allows for the intelligent expression and discussion of ideas and suggestions.
- Brings people (both internally and externally) to have better, more efficient communication.
- Allows people to discuss and achieve.
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OtherProfiles
