I've been swamped lately with trying to keep up with paper deadlines and staying on top of my classes and dissertation proposal. But I'd be very ungrateful if I didn't post a little bit of thanks to the four guest speakers who spoke to the online journalism class I teach at the University of Missouri. They added insight and real world experience that I could never teach. I'm still baffled a bit that they agreed. One even drove all the way from Nebraska to be in class while still filing a story for ESPN on the road. But I think it shows the close community that can be fostered online among a group of like-minded individuals worried about the state of the news.

First, Dana Martin, editor of the Northwest Voice in Bakersfield, Calif. shared her insights on going from most popular blogger on the site to running the whole shooting match. The Northwest Voice is really the first citizen journalism site in the United States, and with Martin at the helm, still serves as the model for all others to follow. Martin deftly handled some tough questions from the class about running a news operation without a journalism degree, but what I think she showed the students is that enthusiasm and a belief in what you are doing may be just as important as knowing how to write an inverted pyramid story in today's world of journalism. Northwest Voice has always been smart about finding people who exemplify the community spirit that a citizen journalism site creates.

Next, Meredith Artley, executive editor of LATimes.com, gave students in class a realistic look at the journalism industry they'll face when they get their degrees. She's been working hard to bring the online and print staffs closer together in creating the best news product possible. What I appreciated most about what she said is she emphasized being able to tell a good story first. The technical PHP-coding skills come second. That's something I think our students in their rush to learn all they can about the Web need to hear.

Elizabeth Merrill, a senior writer for ESPN.com, reinforced that notion even more. Merrill, who was the Chiefs beat writer for the Kansas City Star before joining ESPN, still believes in newspapers and has found her newspaper experience pivotal to her success at ESPN. The key to online presentations, she said, is owning the story. Each element must not just repeat the others, and each has to bring something different to the ultimate story. I had the class read her piece A Town Torn Apart because I think it shows exactly what she's talking about.

Even at Yahoo! news, a good story drives the news, said Robert Padavick, our final speaker. As a senior producer, Padavick has organized projects such as Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone, and People of the Web, and even though these pieces have great video, he said he knows how important a good written story is as well. From his perspective, it seems as if Yahoo! understands its audience well. The company pulls information from hundreds of sites, including news wires and other blogs, but for its original projects it has to give audiences something they can't get anywhere else. He showed his understanding of his audience and the election season by asking the class a few direct questions about Sen. Obama and his impact on the election. I hope we gave you some good information for your blog.

In the end, I hope this blog posts helps you see the wealth of information we tried to expose students to. Teaching about the Internet will always be a challenge because it seems to constantly reinvent itself. But kindness and willingness to share are part and parcel of the online experience because we know the only way we'll get it is together. I'd encourage you to visit some of these links if you get the chance. Even as I added them to this entry, I remembered how I laughed at some, cried at others. I think they all represent good journalism in its many different forms.

I haven't felt much like writing lately because I think I'm letting this job search stuff get to me a bit. But I had to share this article because I can honestly say I'm familiar with four of the top 10, including No. 1. Computer World just released this list of the top 10 best written blogs, and one of my favorites, GeekDad, came in at No. 4. I'm not an avid reader of the No. 1 blog, Real Dan, but I've used it in my classes before. His fake Steve Jobs posts are hilarious. Vanity Fair included his input in their Oral History of the Internet too.
In addition, I have also always appreciated Roger Ebert's reviews, but have been finding him lately through Rotten Tomatoes. His blog is much more, and I enjoyed his observations on Hollywood and film enough that I might add him to the Blogroll. I won't excuse him for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, however.

Unfortunately, Computer World failed to mention my blog once again. I feel as snubbed as Tom Hanks on Oscar Night in 1998 (His role in Saving Private Ryan was his best ever IMHO.) In all seriousness, I'll probably never crack Computer World's top 10, but I'm glad for the article because it gives me something to aspire to and role models on which to base my efforts.

P.S. If you're still following ER, you're alone now. I started to watch last Thursday's episode, got bored and played video games instead. I've never been a big over-acting Abby fan.

For the last two days, I've been checking Ken Jennings' blog constantly. I want to hear his reflections on his Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader performance. I have this theory on why he didn't go for the million dollar question that must be addressed. I'm thinking the title of "winningest game show contestant" meant too much to him, but I digress.

This is supposed to be a blog about communicating on the Internet, and just the other day I delivered an inspired lecture based on Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2008. I had charts, I had graphs, I had screen captures. OK, I cribbed most of them directly from the report, but I added animations in PowerPoint and they looked pretty cool. That's what I really should be talking about because it's good information for both novice and professional bloggers alike. Instead I'm fixated on a game show. But as my fixation has grown, I've started to realize the two topics may not be as opposite as they seem. Ken, when he decides to update, is a pretty good blogger. So in honor of his title, I present Technorati's findings from the Ken Jennings framework.

Finding 1: Why blog?
One of the things I liked immediately about Ken's blog is what he decides to blog about. Sure, he does his fair share of selling his books and his columns in game magazines, but he also has some great tidbits about his family and his life. That, I guess, would make Ken similar to most of the bloggers in the Technorati study and the other 133 million blogs the site has tracked since 2002. No, that's not a typo. There are more than 130 million blogs floating in the Internet ether, and they don't all exist for shameless self-promotion. In fact, more than 79 % of the people Technorati surveyed reported blogging just to speak their mind. Another 62 % blog to connect with like-minded people. Less than 25 % do it to make money, while only 14 % are trying to attract new clients.
The way bloggers measure success supports these findings. More than 75 % say personal satisfaction is the most important measure for them. None of the tangible mesaures, such as increased traffic, comments or clients, even broke 50 %.
This means that most people blog because they enjoy it, and the more I get into it, the more I'm realizing that. My blog is a good place to explore my thoughts and force myself to write.
I've also realized that I read others' blogs to share in their enthusiasm, not to build business contacts. I think I check Merilee's sisters' blogs more than she does because I know I can always find a humorous slice of life anecdote to brighten my day. I wish my family were more on the ball. Keep carrying the torch Jenn and Carl, and maybe we can get the rest of the family to write about more than just the Utah Jazz.

Finding 2: What to blog about?
I guess that explains why I keep coming back to Mr. Jennings. Sure we share similar backgrounds. We both attended BYU. We both love Jeopardy. We're both smart, about crap that really doesn't matter. But Ken's blog doesn't just cover his game show success. It's about his observations on life around him. In fact, if I had to count the number of different topics on his blog, I'd settle at around 5. What a convenient number because that's exactly the number of different topics the average blog in Technorati's study covers! I don't know why this finding surprised me so much. I guess the little bit of journalist left in me knows he has to keep focused. That's the part that screams at me for writing about ER on this supposedly serious, job-impressing milieu. Thanks to Technorati maybe I won't feel so guilty anymore.
If I really think about it, the blogs I like the most bounce around from topic to topic. I showed my class Boing Boing and we all had a good laugh at John Hodgson's SpamMasterpiece theater. But in trying to describe it, I couldn't because the site is such an eclectic mix of junk, and that's probably why I go back day in and day out. I'm dying to see what happens next.
Even the family blogs I like best are the ones that don't always print cute kiddie pics. They're the ones that complain about T-ball coaches, or muse about old high school cars, or share personal stories about cakewrecks or invasive surgeries.


Finding 3: How often to blog?
Despite all this newfound Technorati-inspired knowledge, there's still a lot I need to learn. I need to figure out how to keep these posts shorter (Maybe that's why I have 7 readers!) I also need to blog more frequently. The top blogs on Technorati post more than 10 new items every day. That's probably not realistic for me, but I know I could do a post a day, and if my readers are as obsessive compulsive about checking for new content as I am, they might even stick with me. At the very least, I can show them how to set up the RSS feeds so they don't actually have to visit my site to see if I've written anything new. They can get a notice right in their browser.

I think I'm going to add Ken Jennings' blog to that site right now, and I'll set my computer to loudly play "We are the Champions" when that new post comes in. If I learned anything from him or from any of the other dozen or so blogs I regularly read, new posts are like the letters I received as a missionary. They're strong connections to the places, topics and people I love best, even though I might be far away.

P.S. If you are at all curious about my theory, I've embedded the proof below. SPOILER ALERT! If you watch, you'll know how much Mr. Jennings won, but it's worth it to see his reaction at the end.

I started this last week, so I'd better continue. A quick ER pop quiz:
A new doctor joins the staff as an attending physician and the director of the ER. Is she ...

A. Impossibly mean and demanding because she has a tragedy in her personal life she's not ready to share.
B. Too nice and understanding to the doctors who have already put in countless hours in the bowels of County General.
C. A normal person who balances criticism and praise.

You didn't have to see last night's episode to know the answer is A because that's what ALL directors of the ER have been like with the exception of Drs. Green and Kovach's short shifts, but look what happened to them.
Boy, can't the writers come up with a bit different character. I'm sure Angela Bassett is a great actress, but I'm just as sick of getting yelled at as Dr. Morris was in last night's episode. It was good to see him getting something more meaty to say than a dumb joke. Archie, I think, was one of the best ER characters because he wasn't so perfectly good, perfectly evil or even perfectly capable. I'm not sure I like him so much now that he's a good doctor.

Oh well, enough ER. I still hate it. The best thing I saw last night was a bunch of new SNL clips online. I realized Tina Fey filmed another Sarah Palin impersonation last weekend when Anne Hathway was the guest host, so I had to catch that one. It was pretty good - not as funny as the fake Katie Couric interview, but it had its moments. "Oh we're not going to do the talent portion?"

The clip that almost made me soil myself was the Lawrence Welk sketch I've embedded below. Maybe you have to have my family's history with that show to appreciate it. Merilee didn't even know who Lawrence Welk was. I sure did because my dad used to stop everything Saturday nights and force us all to watch that silly variety show. To make it bearable, my brother Scott used to encourage us all to put the chair's arm protectors on our heads and croon like the Lennon Sisters. Then he'd make off-color jokes about Bobby and Sissy.

Well, SNL caught all that flavor and, thanks to Kristen Wiig, added a bit more. I don't want to spoil it. Just watch, but make sure you are close to the restroom.

I probably should be more worried about NBC than I am, but I'm just happy someone noticed my little blog. I received a message the other day through Flickr that someone wanted to post my photo of Tina Fey posing as Sarah Palin on NowPublic. The photo is really just a screen capture from the SNL sketch. That's why I'm a little worried, but as I told NowPublic, what could NBC possibly take from me?

The reason I'm most excited, however, is I learned about a new site that's doing a lot of what I'm trying to preach in my research and in my classes. I probably should have known about NowPublic before. Time magazine named NowPublic one of its top 50 Web sites in 2007. It's a world-wide citizen journalism venture based in Vancouver, B.C. and like NewsVine or Digg, it allows users to flag stories from the traditional media, blogs, or even Flickr accounts, they think are important.

What I think makes NowPublic different and what I appreciate about the site based on my brief experience, is the site seems to have a commitment to big J journalism. First off, NowPublic didn't have to ask for permission to use my photo. It's on Flickr, and I'm smart enough to know that everything on Flickr is fair game. Just ask the poor girl whose pictures became part of a Virgin Mobile ad campaign. The Creative Commons License only requires sites to give the author credit.

Second, and more importantly, NowPublic seems like it has found a way to convey the importance of factual reporting and dedication to hard work and fact-finding to the average person without the conceipt normally espoused by the professional journalist. I really like this page, that features the site's editors top tips. I love how they start with "Reporting is an adventure," and end with tips on interviewing. I think I'm going to have my students in online journalism click on the "If You Are Totally Stuck for a Story, Take a Walk" link because it's such good advice for anyone.

In addition to the conversational nature of the site's journalism "training", its stated mission makes me want to contribute:

At NowPublic, we have a very simple definition of news: "News is new information on current events." In our experience that's what people look for when they're looking for news - whether they're buying a paper or searching the web. Your news will likely fit into one of three kinds of story:

1. Your eyewitness account: Original, relevant information about a current event that you have actually witnessed, documented, or researched;
2. New information: bits of information you have collected, arranged, tied together and put into a context in relation to a current event;
3. Commentary: your advice or analysis directly related to a current event.

Students struggle so much with defining news. They seem to watch to attach value judgments, such as what's important or what promotes democracy, to it, when really I think news is a lot closer to what NowPublic has described. I'm going to keep my eye on NowPublic, not just because the site asked to use my picture. I'm watching it because I'm hopeful the site can fulfill its mission of making the news more accessible to us all.

CROSS POSTED on The Cyberbrains