Unlearn what you know

Three misconceptions about the audience are leading journalists to produce vapid journalism for the Web, says Robert Niles in the Online Journalism Review. Do you think today’s audience suffers from too-short attention spans, can’t handle details and hates numbers? Wrong, wrong, wrong, says Niles.
Attention spans are not the issue. Competition for time is. People will [...]

Convergence controversy

The FCC is once again talking about changing the rules that prevent companies from owning a TV station and a newspaper in the same town. But, according to the New York Times, the rule change might actually force some companies to sell off a TV station or newspaper in the same town. Here’s [...]

Understanding “net neutrality”

What happens if the big Internet service providers (ISPs) decided to make some online content more readily available than other content? And what if the easy access is provided just to content produced by companies that pay the ISPs for the privelege? Sounds a little scary, right?
Well, that’s the controversy behind the issue [...]

The new “News at Seven”

In our textbook, “Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World,” we describe a virtual newscast being developed by Northwestern University’s InfoLab (www.newsatseven.com). Now, a new customizable version of News at Seven is live on the site, albeit in a Beta launch.
Previously, the site displayed a virtual newscast in which the stories [...]

Future of news jobs

A conference today at the University of Maryland underlined what we’ve been saying about the importance of learning new ways of thinking if you want to be in the news business. Ed Foster-Simeon, deputy managing editor at USA Today, put it bluntly: “The people who are most successful are comfortable with change.” And [...]

Online = big picture + small detail

Here’s an update on some of the online innovation we’ve seen coming out of the CA fire coverage. 
Mark Glaser’s MediaShift blog, which is hosted by PBS, has pulled together an online guide for people tracking fire coverage.
We’d like to create a comprehensive resource guide, listing all the places you can find coverage of the fires, with [...]

Webcast producing

Anyone who produces Webcasts or streams newscasts online might want to take a look at what ABC News is doing with its afternoon Webcast, called “World News.”  According to an article in the New York Times:
“It is intended in part for people who view Web pages on iPods and cellphones and ABC executives say they [...]

Multimedia can add diversity

“Multimedia has the power to reach a more diverse audience.  Mastering these new communications tools is how African Americans can ensure they will continue to have a voice in government and advance their own personal power.”
Speaking to an audience at Virginia Commonwealth University on October 10, the executive editor for Black Enterprise magazine, Derek Dingle, said [...]

Not your father’s newsroom

“We’re in the most exciting, amazing time in the history of journalism,” says Chet Rhodes, Deputy Multimedia Editor/Breaking News at washingtonpost.com. Rhodes spoke October 8 before a crowd of students and faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University. He says in the future, newspapers or newscasts will be just one of several types [...]

Curley on winning the news wars

Rob Curley is the outspoken, pull-no-punches vice president of product development for Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive.  At the Society of Professional Journalists Convention on October 4, Curley offered a list of what it will take newspapers (though this applies to TV stations as well) to “win” in the multimedia world.

Own breaking news. 
Offer hyper-local content.  Curley says this means covering [...]