This document provides an introduction to digital networks for journalists. It discusses how understanding networks such as RSS feeds, social media, and bookmarking can make journalists more employable in the current media landscape. It provides guidance on setting up accounts and basic uses of RSS readers, Twitter, and Delicious for organizing content. The key points are that digital networks provide efficient access to real-time information and contacts; setting up accounts in RSS, Twitter, and Delicious will help journalists stay informed; and understanding proper use of hashtags and privacy settings is important.

1. Identifying networks
City University, Magazines MA
Lab 1, September 28, 2011

2. About me
● Editor, TheMediaBriefing.com
● Professional digital journalist since 2008
● Cover the global media industry
● Primarily B2B (business-to-business) journalist
● But also music and food and... stuff
● Tweet as @psmith - please follow!
● Also on Delicious LinkedIn, Foursquare, Flickr,
Spotify, Last.fm, Amazon, Word with Friends ...
(search for patricksmithjournalist)

3. Your assignment

4. Networks
-- This is not the future of journalism - it's the present
-- Understanding this will make you a better journalist and
more employable.
-- Contacts, expertise and knowledge - in real-time
-- It doesn't matter what medium you want to work in -
this stuff will help you.
-- Most importantly....

6. What is RSS?
● Really simple syndication? It doesn't matter what you call it:
○ It's the most efficient, fastest way to get up to speed

7. Get a reader
● Google Reader (needs a Google account - you should
probably have one anyway) - Google.com/reader
● Netnewswire, Reeder, Byline - good apps for
iPad/iPhone/Mac

8. Adding sources
1. Go to Google.com/reader
2. Find a news source you're interest in
3. Find its RSS feed
4. Click "add a subscription"
5. Google reader can automatically
add feeds just from the URL
You can also sort feeds into folder to make
them easier to read.
Why not prioritise into "read now" and "read later"?

9. Questions on RSS?

11. Word of warning
Everything you say on Twitter is...
● Visible to the entire world and searchable through Google
● Can be seen by potential employers (and uni staff!)
● Could still be searchable even if you delete it.
So...
● Don't say anything you wouldn't say in public
● Don't fail the Private Eye test
● Do be polite and do avoid insults
● Do have personality but do be professional

12. Getting started on Twitter
1. Get an account at Twitter.com
2. Choose a username that's available and not embarrassing
3. Er, that's it!
Send a tweet!
Talk to someone by putting @ and their username at the start of the
tweet. e.g. "@psmith hi great lesson, nice one"
That tweet only goes to people you and @psmith are both following.
(put a full stop before the @ for it to go to your entire network.)
Direct message someone by putting D and a space before their
username e.g. "D psmith didn't really get that tip tbh, sorry, lolz"
That tweet only goes to you and the recipient.

13. ● Retweet someone (known as RT)
○ Either press the RT button (new style)
○ or manually copy and paste the tweet into the
update box with "RT theirusername" at the start (old
style)
○ Some Twitter programmes allow you to "quote
tweet"
● A useful tool is modified tweet (MT) which changes the
tweet but keeps the meaning intact (be careful not to
change too much)

14. Hashtags matter
Hashtags are the glue that holds Twitter togther. If you're interested in
#xfactor, you tag your tweets with #xfactor.
Then everyone else who's watching the show will see what you're
saying.
Hashtags can be:
● Places: countries, cities, towns, streets (#islington)
● Events: news stories (#jan25)
● Interests: games, music, food, professions etc etc... (#CityOJ)
Use search.twitter.com to see what people are saying, and join the
conversation.

15. Tweetdeck can help*
*other programmes are available, eg Hootsuite

16. Questions on Twitter?

17. Delicious bookmarks
Delicious is your personal cuttings library you can always
access. I've tagged 2k+ different things, I use it every day.
1. Go to Delicious.com and sign up
2. Find a story or web page you think might be useful to you
later on at some point
3. Add it as a bookmark
4. Tag it with key words you'll search for (spelled correctly)
Think about installing a "bookmarklet" programme that lets you
save them just by pressing CTRL+D (or Apple+D) - see the
Delicious help section for how to do it.

18. Your mission, should you choose to accept it....
● Find your Delicious network’s RSS feed - and subscribe to it in
Google Reader (and why not follow your colleague's feed)
● Find the RSS feed for items you bookmarked with a specific
tag - and auto-tweet them using Twitterfeed (you may have to
wait half an hour or so for it to check)
● Tweet a link and include a hashtag (e.g. #islington) to
bookmark and tag them (assuming you have set up Packrati.
us)
● Find the RSS feed for ‘shared items’ in Google Reader (these
are individual pieces of news where you have clicked on the
‘share’ button - it helps if you’ve done this first).
● Use Twitterfeed to automatically tweet any item you share

19. Links
● The Online Journalism assignment
● http://psmithjournalist.com/resources
● http://www.slideshare.net/patricksmithjournalist/