Three Key Points to Success as a Journalist

Katie Nowak Roberts, from the Troy Record, and Brian Fitzgerald of the Times Union, are both recent graduates of the Journalism Program at University of Albany. In what some call a shrinking field, both young reporters have overcome many challenges in the trajectory to success within their current positions. On Wednesday, April 4^th, 2012, they explained what it takes to make it to a lecture hall of journalism students from their former program.

            The first key, Fitzgerald and Roberts agreed, in building a career in journalism is to remain persistent. Roberts explained to the class that freelancing is doing work for a publication that does not necessarily employ you. “It can be anything”, she explained, writing, editing, even fact-checking, and is helpful in a journalist’s quest to get published and create a name for themselves in the business. Fitzgerald agreed, as he started off interning with the Times Union. Like freelancing, an internship does not equal guaranteed employment, however it does give a budding journalist the opportunity to begin a career reputation-wise. Through persistent work in areas that were less than desirable, both journalists were able to work their ways up to full-time positions, though, Fitzgerald joked, “I kept pestering them… to give me shot… I think they finally did because I annoyed them!”

            A second crucial factor in being a successful journalist is to develop a set of journalistic “sixth” senses. Fitzgerald and Roberts cited the need for a thick skin, an eye for details, and a nose for clues. “Sometimes you have to make that phone call you don’t want to make,” Roberts said, because like it or not, it is part of the job. She tells of a time when she had to interview the neighbors of a teenager who died, and had doors shut in her face. “I was really scared,” she recalls, but sometimes “You have to write the hard stories.”

            Fitzgerald agreed with the difficulty of personal feelings battling professionalism, and went on to discuss the fact that not only must phone calls be made, but details must be accurate and plentiful. He focuses on at least one big project at a time, at the advice of his college professor, Rosemary Armao, and tries to make it as detailed and relevant as possible. “If it can’t answer all the questions I would want answered when reading it, maybe I’ll hold off,” he said, when determining if his pieces are newsworthy. Roberts asks interviewees “Is there anything else you want me to know?”, to make sure there are no details forgotten, or story left untold.

            Thirdly, Roberts and Fitzgerald cite social media as one of the most crucial tools a young journalist can utilize in this technological era. Fitzgerald explained how he uses messages on Facebook to contact prospective interview subjects for  a piece, and Roberts, nodding her head, went on to explain she uses comments or content on Facebook pages to create questions for those interviews, or even subjects for pieces. They both use Twitter to get circulation on their pieces, and to break news live from events, as well as to follow what other reporters and media outlets are saying. “Be willing to take in new information,” said Roberts. Fitzgerald and Roberts both use the internet every morning to make sure they “didn’t miss anything over night” in the media world. They cite blogging as a key factor in all of this because hopeful journalists can create their own forum to write about whatever they wish, and become versatile, which is perfect because according to Roberts, “Being able to write anything is helpful just starting out.”

Twitter saves the day

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_nyobserver/dont-steal-computer-from-people-who-know-how-to-use-computers-part-deux

WOW! Social media doing something GOOD!

A man who left his laptop in a bar in NYC, recovers it,  essentially through twitter. Once the news of it broke via tweet, strangers to the Canadian man were on the lookout FOR him!

As the laptop owner witnessed (from another country) the “thief” using his computer for pictures, online banking, and other general uses. Using free software to track the device – – an amazing idea that would be worthy of a Mike Huber final paper on ideas – – the laptop was found. It was then hunted down by virtual strangers, who were connected to this crime solving adventure because of TWITTER. Amazing.

technology in journalism

Technological advances over the last few decades have forever changed journalism, and the entire news industry. Advantages such as speed of communication, more easily accessible information, and lower-cost ways to learning of news topics seem like technology’s impact on journalism  has been nothing but positive. Any good journalist however, will always tell both sides of the story.

The development of a website called “Twitter” in June of 2006 makes it easier than ever to get a guaranteed true quote and/or fact straight from the typing fingers of everyone from President Obama, to reality TV. star, “Snooki”. Subscribers to the free service can receive the literally latest though that crosses Snooki, or preferably Barack’s mind, seconds after said thought is formulated, and all to your mobile device. The obvious advantage journalists receive from so-called “Tweeting”, is the relief from the many hours logged making phone calls, confirming facts, asking questions, and tracking down answers. In fact, stories will now often spawn from a “tweet”, rather than the old-fashioned way, in which a “tweet” (or any quote or fact gathered) would be used as evidence or research in a writer’s preconceived story.

Twitter: making fact-checking and quote gathering things of the past? That may, ironically, be the downside as well. With celebrities and public figures essentially text-messaging their followers whenever they eat lunch, it increases the difficulty, for a writer, of “breaking” a story. When Paris Hilton, world-famous “It” Girl, tweeted last month about being arrested for drug possession, it certainly took the wind out of any tracking reporter’s sails.

Thanks to this new-fangled internet we have, information of any sort is globally available. A subscriber to The New York Post can now save themselves a dollar a day, and just read their news online. Heightening the positive aspects of reading a paper online, is the added bonus of up-to the-minute ever-changing news, which a printed newspaper, ancient at three hours old, does not accommodate. With online devices such as Facebook and Twitter instigating peoples’ increasing need to know everything about everyone at every moment, what right-minded person is about to shell out money for “old news”?

This wonder that is known as online journalism is killing the physical need for magazines and newspapers; however it is also killing journalism itself. With circulation rates drastically down, and publishers with journalists looking for paychecks, advertisers swoop in to save the day. Simply logging onto NYPost.com shoves an ad, a third the size of the page, at the reader. With flashing text the advertiser lures a viewer’s eye to the right. When companies are essentially paying for the publication to stay in “print” (so to speak), it comes as no surprise that they want to be seen, and they do want to be seen. The problem presented with advertisers who want to be seen is the methods they will utilize. Articles by a popular author or with a major subject are where the advertisers want to be placed- but what happens if they don’t like what they see? For examples a religious affiliation will not want to be advertised next to a column promoting abortion; advertisers not only do not wish to be seen in a certain way, but want to be seen in areas with readers who will pay attention (like posting the religious ad to a pro-life article).  Now the publication, desperate for funding, will bend to the advertiser’s will. Advertisements now control journalism because they can. Articles we read online for free are being paid for by people who are paid to make sure they get our money in the end.

Newer and advancing technology certainly allows for easier transport of communication, information, and thought exchange. There are better-than-ever techniques for storing and saving pieces and information that make it capable of lasting forever. The benefit of technology in journalism is lost on those who are unwilling, or simply unable to learn. From writers who are set in their ways, to journalists who simply were dealt the misfortune of not having the “knack”, resisters of technology are getting left in the dust by flash drives, megabytes, pdf files, and every other terrifying creation. Of course emailing is easy, and hard drives are safe, but how can we learn the latest and greatest technology when something new will make it whatever you read this online article on, into a fossil by tomorrow?

Farmville-sitting

Originally I had an idea involving a Twitter/Foursquare hybrid that would change the way we flash mob and crowd source at the same time. While I think there could be some way to make that work, it is admittedly pretty redundant, since Twitter and Foursquare, obviously, already exist. I would like to point out however, that that would have been the app of the moment last night, May 1, 2011. As the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death spread, largely through twitter and facebook, before hitting TV, Brian Williams, of NBC, announced there were people rushing around in the street walking up to strangers to tell them the news. The Twitter-Foursquare device would have been perfect for the crowd that Williams said gathered outside the White House last night. When the President announced his abrupt television appearance, via Twitter, I read the text message and was confused..10:48 p.m. The impact of social media on our lives was impressive last night, as thousands of people knew what was going on, before any anchor step in front of a camera. Donald Rumsfeld’s Chief of Staff, Keith Urbhan, tweeted “So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn”. According to an article by The New York Times, Mr. Urbahn is credited with “officially” breaking the news. In that same article we are told that before Obama had even finished writing his speech, twelve facebook posts per second were Bin Laden related, The New York Post’s page said “We Got Him!”, and the Huffington Post wrote simply on their homepage “Dead”. Watch your back, Brian Williams; social media is after your job.

            So, after dismissing the Twitter/Foursquare lovechild idea, there were still two more lurking in my mind. One is a fairly reasonable idea, which I classify as such as it is something I know I would use if it already existed. The other is a fairly whimsical idea, which I classify as such as it is something I would probably laugh if people actually used if it already existed; the issue with that is, people almost definitely would use it. I will start with that one…

            When people in our spend-happy society go somewhere, they hire people. People are paid to watch their house, feed their pets, care for their kids, water their plants… What about all those poor crops that die? Yes, I am referring to Farmville, the facebook game that has taken the online world by storm, and sucked hundreds of thousands of hours of life people will never get back. Facebook gaming has rapidly progressed from a hobby to an obsession in our culture; users spend countless hours of time and energy harvesting virtual tomatoes, and shooting up cyber mobsters. The most astonishing aspect of all this is that these people also spend real money on these fake worlds.  My main thought is, if you are one of those people who have already spent all this time and money on building the perfect facebook zoo, are you really going to let a vacation, or any facebook hiatus bring down your virtual empire?

            My idea, I admit, takes some advantage of people willing to lay down cash for imaginary  cows and chickens. When you go away on vacation, or just when you know you can’t focus on “Your Name – Ville” (i.e. finals week, etc), why not pay a “babysitter” to water your electric crops, feed your virtual fish, and collect rent from your pixilated citizens? In my business plan customers can purchase “packages” of time in which we take care of all of their facebook gaming adventures. The revenue is simple, and obvious, in this case – it is coming from the Farmville-obsessed. Advertising would be free, because part of the contract is that the facebook user will have posts essentially advertising their use of the business. They will be similar to when the user plays the game, and the game generates automatic wall posts stating achievements, or begging for game gifts.

 I am admittedly not a tech-savvy person whatsoever, so I would need to hire someone immediately, to work out the aspect of privacy issues. This system would have to be set up to allow my business/site/person to get on John Smith’s facebook to keep their games going, while not being able to view any of their information, or change any settings whatsoever.

            Given this tricky privacy issue, it might be beneficial to eventually work out a deal with facebook, where they can set us up in their system to do this. Also, a deal with Crowdstar and Zynga might eventually be possible. These are some of the gaming groups that support Farmville, and Sorority Life, etc. They may be able to allow us access to facebook user’s games, without actually parading all over their facebook page. In retrospect, gaming sites will probably not be pleased at someone else making money off of their games, but at that point, we can also offer to sell package selections through the actual game. For example, buying “X” amount of days through Zynga and you also will get Farmville coins, or some other game bonus. Eventually,  if the plan REALLY takes off, time packages can be sold within vacation packages. That way, you can just tack on “One Week of Fishville Care” when you pay for your hotel and flight, so it will just seem like part of the vacation expense, and not so much a silly extracurricular expenditure.

Jerk move? Check.

Money maker? Double Check.

May 1, 2011

Originally I had an idea involving a Twitter/Foursquare hybrid that would change the way we flash mob and crowd source at the same time. While I think there could be some way to make that work, it is admittedly pretty redundant, since Twitter and Foursquare, obviously, already exist. I would like to point out however, that that would have been the app of the moment last night, May 1, 2011. As the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death spread, largely through twitter and facebook, before hitting TV, Brian Williams, of NBC, announced there were people rushing around in the street walking up to strangers to tell them the news. The Twitter-Foursquare device would have been perfect for the crowd that Williams said gathered outside the White House last night. When the President announced his abrupt television appearance, via Twitter, I read the text message and was confused..10:48 p.m. The impact of social media on our lives was impressive last night, as thousands of people knew what was going on, before any anchor step in front of a camera. Donald Rumsfeld’s Chief of Staff, Keith Urbhan, tweeted “So I’m told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn”. According to an article by The New York Times, Mr. Urbahn is credited with “officially” breaking the news. In that same article we are told that before Obama had even finished writing his speech, twelve facebook posts per second were Bin Laden related, The New York Post’s page said “We Got Him!”, and the Huffington Post wrote simply on their homepage “Dead”. Watch your back, Brian Williams; social media is after your job.

Crowdsourcing

Outsourcing is when a job s sent to a foreign area to be performed at a high efficiency at a lower cost. Crowdsourcing, the term coined in by Jeff Howe in 2006, as paraphrased, is using several members of the population to freely do the work, formerly done by a paid employee; Outsourcing the job to a crowd, essentially. With mind-control devices sucking hours of our time, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, crowds of people can now virtually gather to make a point. Technology grows as it becomes more available, affordable, and easy to use, and the same goes for crowd sourcing. As Howe explains, people formerly needed to be physically together to form a crowd, thus make an impact. However, crowdsourcing replaces the need for physical interaction with cyber connections, thus allowing the breaking of physical constraints and enhancing impact, by creating work-wide participation.

            Crowdsourcing is so brilliant when it comes to utilizing social media because of cost efficiency, first and foremost. Secondly, the number of people who are not “connected” in an online outlet grows smaller every day – centurions are now counted amongst the tweeters. In the midst of difficult economic times, available jobs are receding, especially for journalists. Spreading your ideas and information through a fast and inexpensive outlet can be key to survival in a harsh economic climate, when an article is impossible to sell. Utilizing the stalker feature the internet has adapted, where your Facebook is linked to your email is linked to your Twitter is linked to your cell phone is linked to your DNA strand, it only takes a few clicks for the piece written in your parents basement to become the next hash tag.

            A bad name is lent to crowdsourcing when it is utilized for mundane, even idiotic, online tasks, such as the facebook group proclaiming Justin Bieber a cross dresser who deserves to be murdered. This group boasts over 64,000 members, though it is not more than a few weeks old. While we benefit from crowdsourcing in many ways, i.e. the affordable/speed/efficiency aspects, the negativity may also lie in those same qualities. When those benefits work too well, the less intelligent and/or more frivolous among internet users are bound to figure it out. It seems worldwide hysteria is the only reasonable way to celebrate Oprah’s birthday, Twilight facebook groups, and negativity towards bowl-cut pop stars. This is not to say crowdsourcing must always be serious; there is nothing wrong with a “Hey Jude” sing-along, or a Broadway-esque proposal in the park, however frivolities can be easily taken too far when social media is involved. Where opinion is involved, problems will always arise, thus crowdsourcing, a continuously efficient tool, may not always remain a sapient one.

            Fountain Day’s cancellation was a blow to the SUNY Albany campus, when students were seemingly punished for crimes the vast majority of them did not commit. The free video-sharing website YouTube came into play when a middle-aged student of questionable character chained himself to the dried up fountain, and proceeded to scream obscenities. Self-advertising, the student managed to get his YouTube channel mentioned in the Times Union article about his antics. He may have been acting like a fool, but he was certainly working crowdsourcing; the internet exploded with articles, student-posted video clips, mentions in celebrity blogs, and even a facebook group denouncing him. Throughout the jeers and cheers, curiosity peaked within viewers, and the student’s YouTube video hits went from the low hundreds, to 47,000 – 112,000 views per clip. The irony of his overnight social media success was that it was a perfect example of a negative use of crowdsourcing; the protest, though widely covered, did not reinstate Fountain Day.

It is shocking that an entire campus of angry, tech-savvy students with facebook at their fingertips did not do more than a lone (embarrassing) protester. Given that a revolution can be started by a tweet, the student population surely could have at least attempted to trend #FountainDay.  Another negative form of protest came when students spray-painted messages that could have been spread via internet. The few facebook groups and events that did spring into existence were largely ignored by a student population that must have been too angry to read a newsfeed. The campus needed a leader, and not one who eats tampons on YouTube, to strongly start an intelligent protest, rather than a few half-hearted facebook attempts, and some random graffiti. If nothing else was achieved, an online petition would have at least saved them four dollars on purple spray paint.

                   

            While crowdsourcing can be affective, it remains true that physical crowds are also imposing. Would a solution to lackluster protesting result in a blend of the two? For example utilizing a device such as Foursquare, which allows users to “check in” wherever they go, to organize a flash mob. People emerging from the woodwork to dance to “Thriller” can be stunning, so why not appear by surprise to protest a dry fountain, or SUNY budget cuts? A location-based app could mix with a Twitter-esque messaging system to create a whole new tool, used solely for the purpose of flash mob-crowdsourcing hybrids, and other similar social media adventures.

“New” 9/11 footage

A few weeks ago, an article ran through the feed on yahoo news about newly released 9/11 footage, from a helicopter over the water, and then closer to the towers.

The social media aspect of this that I observed, was the fact that people were leaving hundreds of comments a minute.
People from all over the country, and world, were holding an intensly heated debate via comment section!

It seemed crazy at first that it was even a debate at all – – shouldn’t it all have been “what a tragedy…stupid terrorists…USA forever”?
Following some of the comments, I cam across a fact that I have never been exposed to, since I was only 12 at the time of the attacks, and was hardly well-informed.

I had no idea people thought/think it was inside job!

Scorpio669 said in one comment :
“Those who, for whatever reason on God’s earth, believe the government’s version of the events of that day 100% (and who go into attack mode when even a simple question is raised about it); and those of us who want an actual criminal investigation of the biggest crime in American history.”

WOW! This is like a conspiracy theory can of worms to me! This however is not the point of the story…

Through another social media outlet, youtube.com , I did some “research” and was impressed by the multimillions of views on some of the conspiracy theory videos, that show me that if it weren’t for youtube.com, and yahoo news, and other social media outlets, this idea would have almost certainly never surfaced in my world.

Facebook fighting crime

The infamous Kegs & Eggs incident has been cited on every local news outlet lately, and has been staining U Albany’s name with images of drunken wrecklessness and delinquent students.

On the radio station Fly 92.3, the Thursday morning show had Christy, a guest from the Times Union, on air to speak about the event (I was unable to catch the last name, because I was on the Northway, on my way to school, and I could not write or record anything while driving).

Christy, the blogger, talked about how the students who particiapted in the infamous riots were  unwise to forget about this new age of digital recording, and social media that we live in, as almost every single person was caught on a digital camera, or camera phone. She went on to say that the quality of the recordings, while not professional, is still good enough to get clear images of faces.

The Times Union explains it in this article, where Albany Police essentially warn suspects that they would be stupid to not turn themselves in, before someone who can identify them does.

Assisting the police in identifying those who will not turn themselves in was the most interesting thing I got from the on-air segment featuring this story. They were discussing the new feature that Facebook has introduced, for those camera owners with trigger fingers:

Now, when you upload an album to the website, it will electronically search your pictures for familiar faces, and pre-tag your friends in them, based on similarities it finds in facial features from other tags of them. From my experience of it so far, it’s pretty damn accurate, too.

As we head into the future, Facebook will finally make up for all the years of aid it has provided to creeps and stalkers, by turning it’s act around, and helping the good guys for a change. Social media fights crime.

In the thick of it

I feel like I’ve been incredibly immersed in social media this week… first there was this weekend, when I was awake and online, and saw the news break of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan via yahoo and facebook.

And yesterday I witnessed a video go viral. This never happens to me, I am usually the one finding out about a viral video days, or even weeks, after its debut, left searching youtube for it after everyone else has already LOL’d it several thousand times.

This is especially frustrating when it comes to videos that go viral that have a ring of offense to them – – remember that Jessie girl a few months ago? The tween who recorded videos slandering…well, pretty much everyone, and then cried when people got mad at her for it? Her videos were ripped down so fast it made the internet spin. I’ll bring that up again when i discuss cyber-bullying. Point being, narcissists on the internet, with loads of free time, and access to technology ARE going to act like idiots, and give us all a reason to despise social media’s existence. These are the circumstances surrounding the latest youtube scandal – a user who went by the name TamTamPamela and spent her countless narcissistic hours self-recording to spread the word of her personal lord and savior.

Jesus Christ.

The viral video in question featured TamTamPamela grinning from ear to ear as she shook a proverbial finger at Japan’s “atheists” and chanted “told ya so, told ya so!” as she praised God for punishing them with the natural disasters. Accordin to her, the prayers of Lent were heard by God, and he went ahead and took it out on Japan.

The video, which is no longer viewable on her page (but I will repost here) has since been revealed as the work of a troll, however I don’t think that really makes it better…..

The video in an article on Gawker

Thank you, TamTamPamela, and all you other idiots in the world, who literally just love to hear yourselves speak, for ruining social media for the rest of us.

#Japan

Japan was struck by an earthquake of an 8.9-magnitude barely two hours ago – and followed by a tsunami shortly after.

I got in a few minutes ago and innocently logged on to check my yahoo! email. At the top of the screen, in a flashing yellow bar, distracting from articles on Charlie Sheen’s latest adventures, were the words: “BREAKING NEWS: 8.9 EARTHQUAKE SHAKES JAPAN”.

It’s astonishing that a two minute email-check has brought me BREAKING NEWS from thousands of miles away. Literally two hours ago this occured, and here I sit watching 2 different video clips (in addition to live online coverage), reading seven different articles, twelve different facebook statuses, and thousands of tweets about it already…..

A tsunami warning has been issued to Russia, Marcus Island and the Northern Marianas, by The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.

A tsunami watch has been issued for Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and the U.S. state of Hawaii.

Already eight out of the ten current twitter trends relate to this event, that happened aroun midnight our time. One of the remaining trends (out of the ten) is a promotion.

#prayforjapan, #tsunami, #watchingCNN, Sendai, Hurricane Katrina, Tokyo Disneylany, Guam, and Hawaii. In the time it took to type that list, 60 new tweets popped up on my feed, and the last trending topic became about Japan (#California …. which according to the LA Times, is safe from tsunami warnings)

Now if only Alec Baldwin were tweeting, the telethon would already be half organized….