1.
Feature writing and advanced editing
Leveraging new and social media
Sanjana Hattotuwa
TEDGlobal Fellow 2010
Editor, Groundviews (www.groundviews.org)

2.
what is social media?
• Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform
broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues
(many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and
information, transforming people from content consumers into content
producers. (Wikipedia)

3.
what is new media?
• New media is a term meant to encompass the emergence of digital,
computerized, or networked information and communication technologies.
• New media is not television programs, feature films, magazines, books, or
paper-based publications. (Wikipedia)
• But increasingly, old media is leveraging the web, Internet and mobiles in
generating and disseminating news and information.

4.
new media and foundations
• Blogs
• Social networks (Twitter, Facebook)
• Google Maps and mashups
• Mobiles: SMS, mobile photography and video
• VoIP: Skype, Google Chat
• And making this all possible is ADSL + 3G wireless broadband

5.
what’s new
• Ubiquity of two way communications
• Addressable peoples, even those who IDPs or refugees
• Both news generation and dissemination leverages new media
• Disintermediated models vs. traditional media model
• Citizens as producers
• Low resolution content broadcast on high definition media

6.
enduring challenges
• Impartial, accurate coverage still vital, increasingly hard to ascertain
• Torrent of information. Trickle of knowledge.
• Veracity / Verifiability hard to determine
• Post-disaster communications can be unreliable and difficult. Eye-witness
accounts are partial, subjective.
• New media / technology illiteracy even amongst journalists
• Apathy and animosity against citizen journalism
• Licensing and attribution of online content

7.
What is out there?

8.
bearing witness: Groundviews
www.groundviews.org

9.
online video: Vikalpa YouTube Channel
www.youtube.com/vikalpasl

10.
alternative politics in Sinhala: Vikalpa
www.vikalpa.org

11.
news from provinces: Perambara
www.perambara.org

12.
kottu: blog aggregation
www.kottu.org

13.
sinhala bloggers union: Sinhala blog aggregation
www.sinhalabloggers.com

14.
sinhala bloggers union: Sinhala blog aggregation
www.sinhalabloggers.com

15.
twitter: new perspectives
www.twitter.com

16.
flickr content on sri lanka
www.flickr.com

17.
social networking: facebook reach with $0

18.
social networking: facebook reach with $0
Avg. FB account: 100 friends
Groundviews FB page has 1,557 fans
Updates featured on 155,700 FB accounts. Instantly.

19.
readership and reach: web media
From 19 – 27 May 2010, Groundviews ran a special edition on the end of war in Sri Lanka.
Over this week alone, the site received over forty thousand readers and exclusively
featured over eighty-thousand words of original content, one video premiere, over
a dozen photos, generating over one hundred and fifty thousand words of
commentary. Tens of thousands more have read and commented on this content since.

20.
social networking: facebook

21.
podcasts: apple iTunes

22.
Tools for feature writing and editing

23.
pronunciation from google dictionary
http://www.google.com/dictionary

24.
online word processing
http://writer.bighugelabs.com

25.
google docs
http://docs.google.com

26.
microsoft office online
http://office.live.com

27.
zoho writer
http://writer.zoho.com

28.
plagiarism check
http://www.dustball.com/cs/plagiarism.checker

29.
google translate
http://translate.google.com

30.
visualisations
http://www.wordle.net
http://www.groundviews.org/2010/01/15/visualising-mahinda-chintanaya-2010-the-presidents-election-manifesto

31.
Managing content: Pushing out

32.
essential email: Gmail

33.
wordpress.com: blogging

34.
wordpress.com: blogging
http://si.wordpress.com

35.
wordpress.com: blogging
http://ta.wordpress.com

36.
wordpress.com: blogging via phone
http://en.support.wordpress.com/post-by-voice

37.
ustream.tv: broadcasting via a PC

38.
bambuser.com: mobile phone broadcasting

39.
drop.io: reports through audio

40.
transferring large files
https://www.wetransfer.com

41.
Managing content: Pulling in

42.
google search: Updates from social media

43.
google news: thousands of sources

44.
google reader: a web based RSS reader

45.
key points: recap
• New technologies potentially give voice to all citizens
• Be sceptical of new information, but use new media to push and pull content
• Develop media literacy to embrace new technologies

46.
Thank you