Rachel Wood Speaks

JournalismNext by Mark Briggs

This chapter is about building a digital audience for news. The importance of this is that your contribution to news actually gets out there. Briggs provides some helpful points to gain an audience and keep it.

Firstly, he stresses the importance of analyzing what you publish, and listen to what your readers want. If you have a comment box, take advantage of it. Don’t let it sit there unused. Read what your followers have posted and take it seriously.

Secondly, it is vital that the content your readers are interested in can be found in search engines and through social tools. If your writing can’t be found through these outlets, then the only way people can be turned on to it is through others. That’s hardly ever enough to rely on.

Briggs says that it is good for online journalists to know how search engines work. The results on the first page of a search are the most credible stories. They are the stories endorsed by the most other sites, and the most credible at that.

Having these sites link to your site is a great way to get your foot in the door for having more people find your link.

Picture from Healthy Influence

JournalismNext by Mark Briggs

In this chapter, Briggs discusses the pros and cons with news as a conversation. First order of business, he dives into the idea of comment boxes on news stories.

He makes the point that people have always commented on stories in their free time, but that the technological comment boxed has caused much more controversy than expected.

People often take advantage of their opportunity to get their opinion out into the public. They say what they want, even if it is hurtful or blatantly mean. This means that it takes more employees and more time to monitor these comments to make sure nothing offensive stays up.

On the other hand, one of the important pros of news as a conversation is that things are now spread more quickly through word of mouth. This includes blog posts, buzz, microblogging, and much more.

All of these ways of communicating the news are important because it takes us less time to find out what is going on in the world. We no longer have to wait a day until the paper arrives on our doorstep.

Photo from Shutterstock

by Mark Briggs

Chapter six highlights the importance of photography in journalism. Page 142 begins with a quote from journalist Matt Thompson saying, “Are we using 1,000 words where a picture should be?”

Briggs discusses the convenient aspects of different kinds of cameras. Digital cameras, for instance, allow the user to scroll back and look at the pictures they have taken. This makes the possibility of getting an aesthetically pleasing picture more likely.

He shares that why DSLR cameras produce good quality videos, they are harder to manage. Point and shoot cameras can fit into pockets and computer bags.

Picture: 450D

Briggs shares secrets of how to capture better photos. This includes avoiding certain lighting, filling the frame, and having a steady hand. He even teaches the most effective way to crop a picture to make it easy on the eyes.

Chapter five of JournalismNext discusses the importance of smartphones in online and offline journalism. I have always know that my phone can do tricks, but it is key to know how those tricks can be used for my career. Briggs referred to the smartphone as a “Swiss Army Knife,” on pg. 123.

This rings true. Smartphones can not only take videos and pictures at any moment, but those can be immediately uploaded to the internet when service is available. This makes reporting that much faster.

Briggs described the difference between “gearheads” and “light packers.” Gearheads bring loads of fancy equipment with them to do their reporting. This is similar to the amount of luggage that Brad Kalbfeld brought into our class. It really showed us how much less journalists have to carry around these days.

From the other end of the spectrum, the light packers were those who carried smartphones. Sure, those people most likely can’t produce work that appears to have more quality than the gearheads, but their free arms and quick set-up allows them to catch more footage quicker.

This chapter highlighted the different positive outcomes from microblogging services like Twitter. Firstly, Briggs tells us that Twitter can be used to put out links to recently written material. Another important thing that it does is allow the public to feel connected to the journalist without a one-on-one communication.

Another important aspect of microblogging that Briggs outlines is the flexibility of Twitter. It can be built upon and adapted by other social mediums to get the news out (such as Storify).

Twitter can also be one of the fastest ways to share breaking news with the public. As long as it takes a television broadcast to air, microblogging can get the news out instantly. Being on Twitter and following people on Twitter can help people know what’s going on in the world.

JournalismNext by Mark Briggs

Chapter three was good because it showed me the difference between crowd-source reporting and open-source reporting. It taught me the importance in the two.

Crowd-sourcing can help solve communal issues. However, it is vital to know when it can be applied and when it will fail. Especially in journalism, people need to know what their target audience is, or the crowd-source will fail.

Open-sourcing is what I prefer, because (as Briggs states) it breaks down the wall between journalists and the public community. It makes them more accessible. Granted, people won’t always want to reach out to them, but it is nice to know that it’s an option.

My recap on the intro, chapters 1 and 2:

This book is really putting things into perspective for me. I have had my reservations about diving into the field of journalism at this point in time because of (what seems to be) the downfall of newspapers. Briggs, however, is re-boosting my enthusiasm.

He discusses how newspapers had their struggles when phones came into play, but things quickly turned around. These new technologies ended up helping the industry, rather than the expected hindering. This information can give the current age, of so many new technologies, an optimistic outlook on what journalism and the media will be in the future.

Briggs also stresses that we need our young generation to grab the new technologies and take over. The older generation is so used to the traditional ways of newsgathering and reporting. College students, and those fresh into the working world, are starting with a clean slate. They have the opportunity to grasp this new age with a contemporary feel.

Chapter one came close to overwhelming me with all of the information. On the other hand, I’m glad someone is finally taking the time to explain all of these web-based techniques. It made me realize that I don’t know as much about the web as I’d like to. I had planned to borrow this book from a friend, but now that I see there’s so much it can teach me, I think I can make the investment.

When it came to chapter two, I was happy to learn the benefits of using a blog. Briggs talked about how when the internet first started to develop, people wanted their own websites. Unfortunately, many of those people would focus more on the aesthetics of the site, rather than what the site contained. This all changed when there was a medium that created the web-page for you. Blogs allow people to focus on what’s important – the content.

Thank you, Briggs, for all of the important information that you have crammed into my assigned first two chapters. I sense that it will come in handy.