Online Journalism Story Ideas Feb12 2008[1]

Get Up Off Of Your Ideas University of North Texas Department of Journalism Online Journalism 3340 February 12, 2008

Today’s Lineup
Hot news
Generating Story Ideas
Your Blog Entries

What Makes a Good Story?
Good reporters
Undying curiosity
Tenacity
Bold
Good listener
Quick thinker
Persuasive
What Else?

Where Do You Begin?
Who is your audience?
Print/Broadcast audience differs from web audience
Local, Regional, National … Global
‘ Insatiable desire for information’
What can I add to create a rich, informative online experience?
“ ...we needed ….to make a special editorial emphasis that goes beyond what the print journal does or what the newswires do. It is a different audience. It is a complementary audience, but it is not the same as print, and we try to meet those information needs.”
- Rich Jaroslovsky,
Man. Ed., WSJ.com

Where Do You Begin? Traditional Sources
Sources/individuals
Newspapers
Local and community
Television News
Wire Services
Observation
Covering a meeting, events
Press conferences
Documents
Police reports, court filings, press releases

Where Do You Begin? Today: It’s a Two-Way Street Feedback pages Readers suggestions to editors, specific reporters Message boards ( NOLA.com ) Readers post comments everyone can read Chat Rooms A dialogue among readers Online polls ( cnn.com , foxnews.com , Boston Globe ) Instant non-scientific reaction to stories, subjects E-mail Reporters/Editors contact info published

Where Do You Begin? New Reservoirs of Ideas Groups (Yahoo!, Google, others) Formerly ‘Usenet’ – broad range of subjects Blogs ( USAToday , NYPost , Millions of them Search engines Find sources, studies, special interests MySpace, Facebook, YouTube! Personal webpages … from human interest to the absurd Tech Sites CNet , Mobile News , TechWeb

Trash Into Treasure
It’s boring
Who cares?
It’s obscure
It’s pointless
It’s ridiculous
It’s a cliche
Interviewee boring
The story has already been done
Nobody wants to read this
Nobody will understand it

CrowdSourcing – “We Media”
Coined by Jeff Howe, 2006, Wired News article
In his words:
“ crowdsourcing represents the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call.
“ This can take the form of peer-production (when the job is performed collaboratively), but is also often undertaken by sole individuals. The crucial prerequisite is the use of the open call format and the large network of potential laborers .”
Source: Journalism 2.0 – How to Survive and Thrive – Chapter 4: ‘New Reporting Methods”

Crowdsourcing cont.
Ability to gather vast amount of information from a large group
“ Harnessing the power of community on a continuing basis to improve the information base”
Beyond a grassroots concept, but as much a journalism tool as a corporate tool
Wikipedia , iStockPhoto , YouTube.com

CrowdSourcing
Why?
Gathering information quickly from multiple
Engaging method to involve readers/viewers/customers
Educating a community of users who have access to a greater variety information to make more informed decisions

Crowdsourcing cont.
It’s for real
Gannett Corporation – “Information Centers”
Prioritize local news over national news;
Publish more user-generated content; become 24-7 news operations, in which the newspapers do less and the websites do much more;
Use crowdsourcing methods to put readers to work as watchdogs, whistle-blowers and researchers in large, investigative features.

Real Examples
Cincinnati Enquirer – Voter Issues – Nov 2006
A Gannett newspapers
Newspaper invited readers to submit information about voter irregularities
Newspaper posted them on a Google Map
BlackAmericaWeb.com – 2008 Election
Partnership with NAACP National Voter Fund
Voters call in to report problems
Interactive map showing call volumes
Tom Joyner Morning Show driving listeners to submit comments to the website or a phone line

Real Examples
The Spokesman-Review
Create reader networks
E-mail databases sorted by beat:
Education, Police, Specific cities
Correspond with sources
Seek/verify information
Gather reader opinion
Why?
Ken Sands – created the ‘networks’
Interaction occurs before publication – during information gathering process
Proactively contacting people you get a wider reaction than waiting for them to call you

Story Mapping Source: http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=17432

‘ Story Tree’ Source: http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=52&aid=17432

Once You Have An Idea, Now What?
Key questions to ask yourself
Why is this news?
i) Timeliness? Trend? Celebrity? Human Interest?
What’s the ‘so what’?
Who wants to read the story?
Why is it important?
Can I localize it?
Can I make it into a regional? National story?

Now What…..
Once I have an idea, what’s next?
Who are my sources?
Where do I find them?
How much research do I have to do to better understand the background of the story, the person I’m going to interview?
Newspaper/magazine articles/archives
Documents – reports, public filings
Other individuals

Now What…..
d) What questions do I need to ask?
Assess for each source: You may need sets of questions for each source, depending on the story
Constantly remind yourself: “What’s this story about? What’s the ‘so what’”?
e) Evaluate what graphic/interactive elements you need to bring the story alive
Photos
Charts
Maps
Audio and/or video

Online Journalism Story Ideas Feb12 2008[1]

by Neil Foote on Mar 09, 2008

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