Skip to content

Washington Post launches iPhone app with annual fee

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Most people in the media are covering this story from an angle that discusses the paper’s money making strategy. However, there is another story here. Will this create a whole new audience of readers who prefer the paper in an online mobile format? It will be interesting to see what papers follow the WaPo’s mobile content model.

Here’s a link to the story on PaidContent.org

Filed in mobile, news, newspapers, social media, tools | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Web Style Guide 3 is full of great information

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

We are in the process of creating a style guide for GJmole. I strongly suggest that all of the writers, editors and admins take a look at the Web Style Guide 3 site for  some information that could really help us clean up the look and content of GJmole.

Filed in education, social media, style | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Statistical proof that people actually use social media to gather news

Monday, March 1, 2010

Mashable.com has a great article today which reports on a Pew Internet study on how Americans gather news.

You can read Mashable’s analysis of the Pew Internet analysis – or you can read the study for yourself here.

Filed in blogs, news, social media | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Slate introduces ‘The Slatest’ way of viewing news stories as social network

Saturday, February 27, 2010

We have talked in class about how the most popular method of news gathering is simply to repeat news from other sources. Ironically, that is what we are doing here with this story.

The Slatest is a new feature from Slate.com that allows you to see how all news stories are linked.

Filed in news, social media, tools, widgets | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Photoshop Elements links

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Here are a few web resources you can use to learn more about Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Photoshop Elements User – this guy is an excellent teacher of Photoshop Elements. He has compiled a few videos about Elements 8, but his past videos are also very relevant as Adobe rarely changes how their standard tools work.

YouTube Search for Elements 8 – The result of a Google search for Elements 8 videos on YouTube. There is some amazing stuff here.

Excellent little Photoshop Layers activity – Although this exercise is not centered around photography, it will give you a good insight into how Layers work.

A nice explanation of levels – Levels is a great way to adjust the brightness and contrast in your images much like you would adjust your bass, tenor and midrange with an old stereo system.

Adobe Effects, Filters, Styles and Artwork tools – How to use the creative tools and features in Elements.

Adobe’s Video Tutorials – A list of Adobe-approved tutorial videos.

Filed in handouts, photoshop | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Final project checklist and grading system

Monday, February 22, 2010

spring06

Final Assignment Checklist
Your final grade will be compiled based on the following criteria:

1. Attendance – Show up

2. Participate – Post content often, participate in discussions, ask if you have questions or problems.
3. Turn in 10 projects from the following categories. No more than 2 items for any given category (Editors, Admins need only turn in 8 as their work on the project as a whole will count as 2)
  • Breaking news
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Feature
  • Op-ed
  • Review
  • Photo (with short description)
  • Podcast
  • YouTube video
  • Design/Art
  • Business
  • Other approved departments

Hopefully, everyone posts more than 10 items. I only expect you to hand in the 10 you want graded on.

There will be a written portion of the final as well. Expect to write a few pages about what you have learned, your prediction of the future of news reporting and what role the Internet will play in the future of news gathering.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Creative Commons License photo credit: redgoober4life

Filed in assignments, education | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

One man’s view of the future of news

Monday, February 22, 2010

iPod touch apps: The New York Times
Creative Commons License photo credit: ilamont.com

An interesting article about Nick Bilton – the man in charge of designing New York Times for the web.

Filed in blogs, news, social media | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Do the elements of news change priority in an online world?

Monday, February 22, 2010
Why Aren't You Blogging?

photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Depending on the source, there are 5-20 elements of news discussed in courses and textbooks about news.

Timeliness, relevance, prominence, conflict, proximity, oddity, consequence, human interest… Some sources even add elements such as drama and sex.

These are elements that determine the newsworthiness of a story. Some of these elements are found in almost every news story, others are found in very few news story, but their existence automatically defines an item as newsworthy.

The elements of news also change according to the given publication or news outlet.

Perhaps a discussion is warranted on whether or not the value of these items changes in an online news source. If so, how?

If we were to list standards of almost all news sources such as accuracy, relevance, immediacy, and interestingness (not a real word, deal with it), how would these items rank in value to a newspaper vs. cable news and cable news vs. online news?

Creative Commons License photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Filed in blogs, news, social media | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Houston 8 roundtable discussion on social media news gathering

Monday, February 22, 2010

In a search for material to use for a discussion about news gathering in the social media, I ran across this gem.

Filed in facebook, news, social media, twitter, youtube | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Student Suspended for Facebook Page Can Sue – NYTimes.com

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

A student who was suspended for creating a Facebook group criticizing a teacher is being permitted to sue the principle. I know that this story may be interesting to some Mesa State students.

Student Suspended for Facebook Page Can Sue

Filed in facebook, news, social media | Tagged , , | Comments (0)