CoTweet-Get the news out first 12/28/2009
 CoTweet is a must have for all news stations. It's "how business does Twitter." CoTweet enables companies to engage with the public on the latest news and marketing strategies. CoTweet allows multiple people to communicate through corporate Twitter accounts. You can also incorporate "cotags" at the end of the message, to let viewers know the person behind the tweet. At KOMU, our assignment desk and web producers help manage our brand's CoTweet account. Every reporter at the station is responsible for Tweeting the latest news released on their story throughout the day. They do one of two things: They tweet the news from their personal account with the KOMU tag so the assignment desk will receive it, or they sign in to CoTweet themselves and tweet the information to all of our viewers at once from KOMU. It's a great tool in getting the latest breaking news out to all of our audiences at once. Even when reporters aren't on the scene of a breaking story, we are able to follow government officials, etc. and can immediately post their Tweets as a first look at what's going on until we're able to verify the news ourselves. It's a world wide web source of connections and information. A must-have for the corporate world. Even more recent is the new "GeoTag." Now, when you post a tweet, you can give your viewers the option to see where exactly you are located, down to the building you're in. For reporters on location, this can be a great tool in verifying your location in a breaking news story. It's still too soon to tell how much of an impact this could have. Add Comment The Business of Journalism 12/21/2009
The business of journalism is a challenging one. Change is constant, making it that more imperative that journalists and media professionals keep up with the times. If your media outlet falls behind, so will its ratings. KTVI-Fox 2 Web Producer Jill Hampton says everything’s going digital for the web. That’s why it’s so important for reporters and anchors alike to have more skills than just writing and speaking to video. "They are now having to write for online print and do it before anything goes on air,” says Hampton. This information comes too late for some who have already received the boot or are taking furloughs due to the economy. Many local television stations across the country have made their mark on getting the news to the public on air the fastest. Now, it’s a matter of who has it up on the web first. People can’t turn on the TV to find local news running 24/7, but “they can go to the Internet, listen to their pod casts and read content blogs, ” Hampton explains. As journalists, we have to constantly find new ways of delivering our content, or the so-called citizen journalists will get there before we do. Not only do we have to be the watchdogs of our community but we also have to watch out for ourselves. The Year of Social Networking 12/20/2009
 Facebook, Twitter (CoTweet), Myspace, YouTube, Linkedin, Ning, Naymz, Xanga and Delicious. These are only some of the world's largest social media sites. While for their original purposes of bringing people together, connecting and socializing online, these sites have, for many members, become their News sources. In many cases, breaking news is found faster on Facebook and Twitter rather than local news pages and national sites like FOX and CNN. We have the technologies to post anything online in a seconds time on our iPhones and Blackberries. Whatever we think, see and hear can be shared with the world in just one click. When Michael Jackson died, who broke the news first? TMZ. When News organizations take public opinion polls, where do they tell you to comment? Facebook and Twitter. Now, instead of interviewing celebrities and government officials, entertainment stations now look for their sources' status updates and simply post them on air and online. No further interviews needed, right? Even retailers and businesses in the food industry are taking their PR online. Why mail coupons when Papa Johns can post its specials in a free Tweet? It's been a year for a wide variety of connections, friend requests, sales and breaking news. The question is whether there'll be a point when it gets to be too much. At what point will we decide we want accuracy over immediacy? Or will enough of us care? Compared to my last HFR, this one only took about a week to put together. I compared a recent murder case, the murder of 9-year old Elizabeth Olten and a case very much alike back in 2000. David Dewey, 15, was convicted of second degree murder for the death of his 12-year old neighbor, Sheena McDonald. Not only were the ages of the offenders the same-more than half a dozen other factors were echoed in each case. Even more twists and turns are found in my web story here. I'd like to thank Boone County Prosecutor, Dan Knight for his time and knowledge of these cases. It truly made a difference in my understanding and in the story. Meet the KOMU 8 Team 12/11/2009
This is a 4 month long project I've worked on for our komu.com site. It's a Meet the Team page that includes our reporters, producers, directors and other staff. I never knew how hard it would be just getting everyone in front of the camera. A team of 2 colleagues and myself took photos of everyone, gathered their bios and researched different social networking sites that would be most compatible. We found Flickr to be easily accessible and updateable. Check it out! Lesson Learned: Use a Back Up 12/10/2009
After three months working on an investigative story, the air date was finally just a week away. It was to air the Monday after Thanksgiving. I came into the station the night before to do some last minute tweaking to find 75% of my content erased! All the emotion and fantastic sound-bites from the first couple of visits gone. I was mortified. I'd always heard of others backing up their work on external hard drives, but never having reason to need one myself (until now), I always put off buying one. What should have been my most intricate story yet was now composed of a few pieces here and there of the last few months and a make-up day's worth of sound-bites, with far less emotion. It came together, I'll always question whether it came together as well as I'd wanted it to. If only I'd used a back up. |
