Panel: Mimi Onuoha, Research Fellow, Data & Society, Tow Society for Digital Journalism, Katerina Stravroula, freelance journalist and radio producer based in Athen and Tobias Dorfer MO: Co-author of Tow report on the subject and before you read any further, you probably need to open this http://towcenter.org/research/guide-to-crowdsourcing/ Broadly defined by the Tow report as ‘The act... Continue Reading →
Audience engagement and newsroom attitudes
Several years ago, when the words ‘content is king’ was everywhere, I remember Joanna Geary observing 'collaboration is queen’. I loved that. I’ve been thinking about Jo’s twist on King Content because the phrase ‘audience engagement’ is so prevalent right now, and I think that if collaboration is queen bee then being part of the... Continue Reading →
Dealing with witnesses: Why the Eyewitness Media Hub’s guidelines are so important for journalism
A while ago I was asked to join a group of journalists assembled with the aim of providing some input into Eyewitness Media Hub's principles for journalists working with UGC* - user generated content (or 'other people's words and images', as non-journalists might say). It was a privilege to be involved in the discussions and workshop... Continue Reading →
A short guide to longform
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/178691173 It sounds like one of the speakers to hear this year was Aron Philhofer at #hhldn this week, when he levelled some zingers at mainstream media for complacency about their future. I wasn’t there, but Richard Kendall very thoughtfully grabbed a lot of the tweets around his talk into a Storify and it makes... Continue Reading →
A bit of MSM and hyperlocal co-operation goes a long way
I came across an exchange between the Daily Post and Wrexham.com on Twitter today that made me happy. It makes far more sense for MSM and hyperlocals to support each other to get information out; the alternative is to pretend the other doesn't exist or - worse - denigrate the 'rival' source. The former is a... Continue Reading →
Disruption isn’t an inconvenience, it’s a lifebuoy
From a link tweeted by Kevin Anderson this morning I wound up at a new-to-me blog by John L Robinson called Media, Disrupted.Sometimes it feels like I work in Sesame Street - Journalism today is brought to you by the letters D and C... Disruption, Data, Distribution, and Curation, Collaboration, Content - so a blog... Continue Reading →
New online storytelling tools: Curating/collaborating with Pearltrees
Pearltrees could be an interesting take on curated and collaborative storytelling. I discovered the site via Mo Krochmal, who hade made a paella tree using the Flash tool, and I liked the idea so much I wanted to try it out.Basically, Pearltrees allows users to collaborate on just about anything that exists online. I've found... Continue Reading →
This is not a blog post… this is a confession
This was quite a taxing post to write. It took me a while to work through my thoughts and I suspect it might irritate some as, essentially, it advocates allowing the people we interview to see and change copy before it's finished. So, before I get to the point, here's a story. As a trainee... Continue Reading →
Storybird: A collaborative storytelling tool for… journalists (and why not?)
I don't know if I'm late to the party with this but I've just discovered Storybird and, let me tell you, it's an amazing website. So brilliantly simple, effective (and free - essential for me to try something for the first time) and engaging - I think it has great opportunities for journalists who want... Continue Reading →
Google Wave, transparency* and engagement
I've been using Google Wave for about a week now and every time I log on I discover something new. I've read a few gripes about things being broken, or it being too confusing, or too quiet, but for me the biggest problem is having time to play around with it enough to learn everything... Continue Reading →
Alison Gow | Building the New 