These are slides for a full-day workshop on digital journalism for the University of Colorado.

1. Digital Journalism
Steve Buttry
University of Colorado
October 19, 2012
#cudigital

2. Read more about it
• stevebuttry.wordpress.com
• slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• @stevebuttry
• stephenbuttry@gmail.com

3. Plan for the day
1. How a digital newsroom works
2. Digital news strategy
3. Working digital-first
4. Digital tools for today’s journalists
5. Social media tools & techniques
6. Launching your career in digital
journalism

4. The Digital Newsroom

5. What’s important?
• What’s happening now?
• Engagement & collaboration
• Unique content (enterprise, analysis)
• Measuring performance
• Strong values
• Experimentation w/ tools & techniques
• Workflow: process & standards

6. What’s happening now?
• Livestreaming
• Liveblogging
• Live chats
• Alerts
• Feed tweets into site

8. Engagement & collaboration
• Join, stimulate, lead & curate the
community conversation
• Crowdsourcing stories
• Community newsrooms
• Mobile newsrooms

11. Engagement & collaboration
• Join, stimulate, lead & curate the
community conversation
• Crowdsourcing stories
• Community newsrooms
• Mobile newsrooms
• Network w/ community blogs

12. Unique content
• Commodity content has little value
(curation can add value)
• Databases (answerbases) have greater
shelf life
• Lead conversation around enterprise
• Do what you do best & link to the rest
(Jeff Jarvis)

14. Measuring performance
• Metrics have always mattered
• Understand what metrics say & what
they don’t
• Seek multiple metrics
• Learn from metrics, but they don’t
override values
• Recognize flukes & don’t overreact

16. Some values don’t change
“Seek truth & report it.”
– SPJ Code of Ethics

17. Digital-first values
• Accuracy • Watchdog role
• Truth • First Amendment
• Attribution • Timeliness &
• Transparency reflection
• Identification • Civility & respect
• Fairness • Diversity
• Community • Skepticism

18. Can we raise standards?
• Does he-said-she-said story really seek &
report truth?
• Is the “view from nowhere” honest?
• Dan Gillmor suggests replacing
“objectivity” w/ transparency, fairness,
accuracy, thoroughness

19. Digital news strategy

20. Clay Shirky:
“Nothing will work,
but everything might.”

22. John Paton:
“You don’t tinker or tweak a
broken model. You start again
anew.”

23. Digital First principles
• Digital First & print last
• Put the digital people in charge
• Engage the community
• Core competencies: Local content & local
sales
• If it’s not core: reduce it, stop it, sell it or
outsource it

24. Foundation to build on:
• Strong brands
• Local content
• Local sales force
• Journalistic integrity

25. Engagement = value
• Computers & archives for
community use
• Open news meetings
• Blog network
• Classes
• Digital audience 5x print
• From loss to profit

26. What engagement is
Community engagement = News orgs make
top priority to listen, to join, lead & enable
conversation to elevate journalism.

27. What engagement isn’t
• Promotion (though it has promotional
value)
• Distribution of content (though you
should)
• Purely a digital pursuit (it uses digital
tools along w/ traditional ones)

28. What engagement is
Community engagement = News orgs
make top priority to listen, to join,
lead & enable conversation to elevate
journalism.

29. Avenues of Engagement
• Social media • Content submissions
• Blogs • Interactive content
• Crowdsourcing • Voting, contests
• Breaking news • Comments
• Stories • Schools, groups
• Events • Feedback
• Curation • Print
• Aggregation • Face to face

33. Jim Brady:
“There's no silver bullet.
There's just shrapnel.”

36. Mobile Opportunity
• 44% of U.S. adults have smartphones
• 18% of U.S. adults have tablets (up 50%
from summer 2011 to early 2012)
Source: State of the News Media 2012

37. Mobile-first strategy
• Text alerts
• Email
• Applications (phones & tablets)
• Social media (tweets, check-ins, tips)
• Location-based news, info & commerce
• Easy-to-use mobile websites
• Device-flexible (not device-agnostic)
• Games (phones, iPads great for games)

38. Personal content
• Births • Divorce
• Youth milestones • Jobs, pets, holidays, fo
• School od, interests, health
• Graduation • Illness
• College life • Empty nesters
• Military service • Retirement
• Weddings • Reunions
• Parenthood • Obituaries

40. Life stories
• Commissioned obits (journalist tells life
story, paid by family)
• Obituary, website, booklet, video
• Not just obits:
weddings, retirements, anniversaries, mil
estones

41. Newspaper Next

43. N2 lessons for Digital First
• Jobs to be done = opportunities
• “Good enough” opens doors to new
avenues of excellence
• Potential markets exceed what you can
imagine (or what research can project)
• “Beware the sucking sound of the core”

44. Working Digital-First

45. Thinking digital-first
• Story is, as Jeff Jarvis says, a process, not a
product
• It’s great to be first w/ story or the idea, but
otherwise link
• Community = collaborators
• Lots of RTs or a prominent link are better than
front-page story
• How can you use new tools to do better
stories?

46. Working digital-first
• Create content for digital platforms (web,
email, SMS, social, mobile)
• Produce print & broadcast products from
content on digital platforms
• Live coverage of events
• Breaking news coverage
• Engage community

47. Court reporter
• Live-tweet from courtroom (narrative,
not a transcript)
• Feed tweets into liveblog
• Big development: Text news alert to
editor
• Write summary or analysis story for web
& print

50. Why to liveblog
• Immediacy
• News value
• Storytelling
• Traffic
• Community engagement, loyalty
• Interactivity
• Saving time

51. Liveblog formats
• Update (time-stamp, reverse-chron) in
blog or story template
• Use CoverItLive
• Use ScribbleLive
• Live-tweet (on Twitter or feeding blog)
• Video stream (w/liveblog)
• Raw, edited or moderated

52. Tips, techniques
• Short, frequent takes
• Space isn’t an issue; engagement is
• Liveblog becomes notebook
• Consider links, polls, photos, audio, video
• Promote live & replays
• Tweet links to liveblog & replay
• OK to step away for question, video, etc.

53. Liveblog & print story
• Liveblog is notebook: cut, paste & edit
• Note when you know you’ve written
good lead or passage for story
• Does summary (w/ web plug) work for
print?
• Plug “complete coverage” in liveblog

54. Liveblogging issues
• Accuracy (stress verification, ask
questions, seek links & documentation,
correct quickly and candidly)
• Rough copy
• Sports credentials
• Multi-tasking
• Learning curve

55. Court reporter, no trial
• Traditional rounds: lawyers, judges,
clerks, filings
• Add #DigitalFirst rounds: monitor tweets,
search Twitter, Facebook groups & pages
• Tweet/alert/blog big filings
• Video clips in interviews
• Scan or download docs if not online

56. Beat reporter
• Beatblog
• Liveblog meetings, events
• Tweet/alert/liveblog breaking news
• Live chat on continuing stories
• Data visualization
• Curate community conversation

57. Beat reporter questions
• How to crowdsource story?
• What terms, hashtags should you search
(routinely & for each story)?
• Regular/special hashtags to use?
• People to follow? New FB pages/groups?
• Other social media to search (YouTube,
Flickr, Foursquare, Google+ …)?

58. Visual journalist
• Shoot first w/ smartphone & post
• Shoot w/ camera for slideshow & print
• Shoot video
• Record ambient sound, interviews
• If disaster, shoot some after shots for
before/after

59. Digital Journalism
Tools & Techniques
Steve Buttry
University of Texas-Arlington Shorthorn
August 14, 2012
#utashorthorn

60. Text
• Stories • Quizzes
• Lists • Chats
• Headlines • Tweets
• Captions • FB updates
• Liveblog • Text on video
• Comments • Text in graphics
• Polls • Links

61. Audio
• Podcast
• Audio clips
• Audio w/ slides
• Soundtrack on video
• Google voice

62. Visuals
• Photos • Maps
• Slideshows • Instagram
• Videos • Flickr
• Animations • YouTube
• Graphics • Facebook
• Data visualizations • Pinterest
• Screenshots • Twitter

63. Data
• Think of answerbases, not databases
• Data personalizes story for readers
• Data gives lasting value to reporting
• Caspio is plug & play database tool
• DataViz & Visual.ly
• Google Fusion maps
• Google Docs & Forms

64. Factors in blogging success
• Idea • Links
• Format • Voice
• Headline • Writing
• Visuals • Conversation

65. Possible formats
• Brief • Promotion
• Video (w/ intro) • Chart/graph/map
• Photo gallery • Q&A
• List • Narrative
• Review • Poll
• News story • Curation

66. The blogging conversation
• Crowdsource (specific questions: “Do you
know anyone who …?” “Did you see …?”
“Has this ever happened to you?”)
• Consider ending post w/ question
• Stimulate/continue conversation in social
media
• Engage with comments

67. Keys to SEO
• Relevance
• Keywords in headline (what would you
search for?)
• Keywords in story (best in 1st paragraph)
• Understand how people are searching
• Relevant links

68. Reporting with
social media

70. Great for promotion, but also …
• Great for reporting
• Find story ideas
• Crowdsource
• Join the conversation (reply, retweet, ask
questions)
• FB algorithm change hurts news brands

71. • Many more users • Great for breaking
• Much info private news
• Tougher to search • Great real-time
• Not as immediate search
(less frequent • Engagement not as
updates) intrusive
• Engage, don’t • Hashtags help w/
intrude search, conversation

72. Personal vs. professional use
• Separate accounts OK but not necessary
• Always behave professionally, even on
private accounts
• Be personable on pro accounts
• Presume future bosses will see all posts
• Don’t bore pro audience

73. Options for journalists:
• Use personal FB account, all or most
public
• Journalist page
• Personal account, enable subscriptions
(decide which updates are public)

74. • Connect w/ sources (balance,
disclosure?)
• Check pages of agencies, people on beat
• Crowdsourcing (ask on their pages as
well as yours)
• Look for people in the news
• Ask for permission to use photos

75. Why use Twitter?
• It can save you time
• It extends your reach
• It’s an engaging, conversational tool
• It’s great for connecting with people who
experience stories you write about

85. Bookmark this page
https://twitter.com/#!/search-advanced

86. Vetting tweeps, verifying info
• Check full Twitter stream, profile
• Connect on phone, in person
• Check location (not 100% reliable)
• Others verifying? Clusters, not echos
• Photos?
• Other sources, other tweeps
• Ask, “How do you know that?”

87. Say what you don’t know

89. More on verification
Craig Silverman tips:
http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/eight_sim
ple_rules_for_doing_a.php
Mandy Jenkins tips:
http://zombiejournalism.com/2011/09/b-s-
detection-for-journalists/

90. Routine Twitter use
• Follow people interested in your
topic(replies, retweets, check
followers)
• Join topical conversation
• Master Twitter search (advanced)
• Find & promote topical #hashtags
• Use Twitter routinely on your beat

91. Crowdsource

92. Crowdsource

93. • Growing swiftly
• Users share (pin, re-pin) visual content
• 80% of users are women
• Heavy use for food, fashion, travel
• Embeddable
• How might you use?

94. • Effective curation of Sikh temple
shooting
• Obama answered questions
• Search at searchreddit.com

96. • Do agencies on beat post photos?
• Search for keywords, photos
• Invite people to contribute photos on
news stories
• Connect w/ people posting photos
• Seek permission (check conditions)
• Give credit

97. • Do agencies, people on beat use?
• Watch for public videos getting attention
(will often see links, mentions on Twitter)
• Embed in stories, blogs

98. • “Mayor” is great source about an org or
venue (employee or customer)
• See who has checked in for event or
breaking news story
• Tips might provide questions for stories
• Break story w/ Foursquare “shout”

99. • Connect with sources
• Find new sources through
connections, groups
• Discussions help find experts
• Check updates, slides, travel
• Search by location & keyword

100. • Important for search
• Interview by video Hangouts
• Find sources
• Follow sources in Circles
• Follow beat topics in Sparks

101. Niche tools

102. Social fame is fleeting

103. Launching your career
in digital journalism

105. Your job search is a story
• Research online. Thoroughly
• Work your connections
• Nail the face-to-face interview
• Be resourceful
• Try multiple approaches
• Never say no for someone else

106. Build your digital profile
• Google yourself. What do you find?
• Google+ profile
• LinkedIn profile
• Twitter, Facebook Timeline (movie)
• About.me, Intersect
• Blog (when did you last post?)
• Personal site (“about me” or portfolio)

107. Build your experience
• Student publications
• Internships
• Blog
• Social media
• Freelancing (stringer or one-shot)
• Part-time jobs
• Professional convention coverage

108. Network
• Connect digitally w/ people you admire
• Especially on Twitter
• #wjchat, #spjchat, #dfmchat, etc.
• Follow up (Twitter, email, handwritten)
• Comment on blogs
• IRL

109. Expand your search
“Every company is a media company now.”
-- Jay Rosen

110. Show, don’t tell
• Hyperlink résumé (but make sure it reads
well w/o links)
• Don’t send hard copy by U.S. mail unless
asked
• Video as part of résumé
(you, Xtranormal, Search Stories, FB
Timeline)
• Pitch through social media
• Use new tools

111. Do your reporting
• What does the job require?
• Who does similar work? What are their
strengths? What are yours?
• What strengths should you highlight?
• What are you doing to address
weaknesses?
• Research people you interview with

112. Little things are big things
• Customize your résumé
• Spell the prospective boss’s name right
• Take initiative (can you schedule your
own interview?)
• Include Twitter username on résumé

113. Interviews count, too
• Prepare thoroughly
• Listen effectively
• Answer honestly
• Ask tough questions
• Don’t fake: “I don’t know” beats BS
• Follow up

114. Follow up
• Thank interviewer(s): email, card, tweet
• Elaborate on answers (send link to story
you mentioned, etc.)
• Send link(s) to notable new work
• Send links (not just yours) they might like
• Persistence is a job skill
• Don’t overdo it

115. Read more
• @stevebuttry
• #cudigital
• stevebuttry.wordpress.com (“career
advice” category)
• Check links in today’s blog post
• slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• stephenbuttry@gmail.com

117. In job-hunting …
Don’t let obstacles
become excuses