Ride-Along: GoGreenNation.org

No fancy office, no bustling newsroom. No staff, no deadlines, no advertisers calling with demands. Trish Riley leads a nation from her desk overlooking the living-dining room of her 1970s cottage in North Central Gainesville. A mug filled with pens and pencils reads "Do What It Takes." A wall of sliding glass doors shines tree-filtered light onto gray concrete floors, warmed with area rugs of all sizes, patchworked throughout the cozy rooms.

This is where GoGreenNation.org first began about a year ago. It is fed and sustained by the single hand of Riley, its mastermind, and the site itself was designed and built by a hired Web designer, Alex Parkinson. It's a community-based but globally minded news aggregation site focused on environmental issues. Stories are pulled from sources such as The New York Times,The Huffington Post and Gainesville's own student-run The Fine Print.

"Part of me doesn’t feel as compelled as I once was to just report a story and put it out there," said Riley, a former travel writer, travel guide book author and freelance writer of about 2,000 stories for the Miami Herald. "I can’t write all the stories I consider to be important. I feel I can be a greater service to people by gathering that information and putting it out there."

That information is Riley's product, and the subject is something she's been writing about for over 20 years, although not always directly. Living in South Florida, she said, allowed her to take advantage of her geographical location to write much sought after travel stories and infuse them with shades of green. She would suggest visitors tour the Everglades, for example, or she would warn snorkelers not to touch the coral because doing so can kill it. Although the purpose of her writing was to attract tourists, she is wary of tourism's effects on the local environment.

This imbalance between personal beliefs and professional duties is one of the things that led Riley away from what she considers the feigned impartiality of traditional media. "The whole objectivity thing is kind of a sham," she said, citing the hypothetical example of having to get a pre-packaged, PR-ed response from the chemical company that producesBisphenol-A (also called BPA) for a story about how bad Bisphenol-A is.

GoGreenNation.org caters to a niche market and bypasses the sometimes unrealistic mission of providing balanced coverage of intrinsically one-sided stories that traditional newspapers and general news publications work to achieve. Not only is the topic and coverage narrowed to a targeted audience, but the main drive in the creation of the site was geographically narrowed to connect local community environmentalists in Gainesville and equip them with information relevant to their lifestyles or businesses, while providing networking opportunities to other like-minded local residents.

Riley first realized the need for an environmental community site during a book signing for her how-to guide, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Living," at Goering's Book Store in July of 2008. She had just moved to Gainesville because she considered it to be forward-thinking and welcoming to green ideas. Gainesville's residents do have these ideas, she discovered, and they're living green lives on their own. As she talked to people at the signing, she realized that what was missing was a unifying force between individuals that would allow for the sharing of ideas and provide a place where accurate, current environmental news could reach the people who care about it.

Thus, GoGreenNation.org was born.

Aesthetically, the site is transfixing. An artistic yet simple masthead inspires thoughts of pristine oceans and healthy forests. The prominent feature on the home page is a stream of headlines from publications all over the world, accompanied by a dek-head teaser and maybe some comments from Riley about an issue that affects Gainesville directly. Users must click the teaser, which takes you to another page from which you can access the article on its original site. On the right is a side bar with a list of local environmental events and featured links, including an icon to follow GoGreenNation.org's RSS feed. Every article is indexed in a side bar on the left with popular sections such as Business, Food and Health, and travel. A topical archive of sorts takes the form of a list at the bottom of the home page, a feature Riley's Web designer came up with that she isn't fond of, but she lacks the technical know-how to fix it herself.

"What's frustrating is I don't have Web skills," she said.

Riley has to hire people to handle the Web-based aspects of her site, and it's draining her financial resources.

"My savings have been tapped now," she said.

For all the ideals it can cater to, online media has its share of pitfalls, and a lack of "green"backs tops the list. Riley experimented with advertising, but discovered it was difficult to ensure that those who advertise with her also follow the environmentally conscious practices the site seeks to promote. It also takes time and a saleswoman's attitude, neither of which Riley has much of.

"Marketing isn't my thing," she said. "I'm so not into driving people anywhere. It's just not in me to push market. I'm not even going to hire anybody whose real drive is to market."

She has a Facebook page, which she updates when she remembers to, and a Twitter account, which tweets to her followers every time a new article is posted on the site. Although she recognizes the potential to drive up traffic and increase Web hits, Riley is reluctant to spend a lot of time on social networking sites because they come and go and change so quickly, she said.

"For me, it's got nothing to do with journalism or the importance of the information," she said.

Her stance on social media tools is "more of a personal thing than a professional thing," she said, but she knows her loyalty to her personal values is coming at a cost. She is not making any money on the site, so she plans to make it into a nonprofit with the help of a lawyer in Tampa who agreed to help her with the paperwork, who she found through the Online Media Legal Network, a program that helps online journalists find pro-bono legal help.

Eventually, Riley would like to see GoGreenNation.org expand to other cities, with former journalism colleagues -- some now laid off, and of those, some contribute articles to GoGreenNation.org -- spearheading the same community-building effort in their areas, from California to Indianapolis.

But that dream will remain far off until Riley can turn her brainchild into a profitable adolescent, especially if that means she has to change her traditional journalistic and personal standards to focus on social networking and new media tools.

But right now, the site is successful given its limited resources. Riley recently co-directed the First Annual Gainesville Environmental Film and Arts Festival, which was in collaboration with GoGreenNation.org. She admits she was so overwhelmed with festival-related tasks that promoting her site fell by the wayside. But the festival embodied the greater mission of GoGreenNation.org: to build a community of concerned citizens with a heart and a sharp, informed mind for all things green.

Blog 7

Funny how at this point in time when everything is so up-to-the-minute, we have little notion of what comes after that minute. Even among the speculation of talking heads, real future solutions to current problems rarely emerge through this constant babble of the here-and-now. Maybe such a lack of foresight is subconscious, maybe it's out of fear, or maybe it's simply because this case -- the case of the future of journalism -- has us stumped. The industry and its mimickers have been analyzed to death (the literal death of many print papers), with nothing to show for it.

Should we look to J-schools for the solution? After all, "children" are the future. Certainly teaching the next generation of journalists the right things will ensure that a more effective and better prepared work force will come out of every graduating class. But the definitions of what makes a good grad are ambiguous. One thing remains: Despite the notion that niche is more marketable, a good journalist can think critically about the connections between subjects. Every expert and his or her mother has a blog these days, so the need is for those who can offer an objective, analytical perspective and use the connectedness of the Internet to put it all together.

It seems like the relationship between workplace preparedness, the availability of jobs and job seekers, and journalism school training methods share a weird, inverse relationship. Often the most qualified professors got their qualifications in a very different media climate, which is not to say they're not keeping up with modern trends, but they are learning right alongside their students in the hustle of changing media. On a side-note, today's journalism students have developed an unhealthy dependence to Google, a counter-productive sin I myself am guilty of. In order to tailor training to fit the new way of doing things -- Google and every other new "tool" included -- with the expectation that the training is to prepare students for journalism jobs, there have to be journalism jobs out there to attract the graduates. This Advanced Editing class is a disturbing indication of what kind of talent the industry is losing to law school. In order for that to happen, the industry as a whole has to figure out the big question: How can journalists make money while information remains free?

There are micro-examples of success, strangely concentrated in the Seattle area, but unless outsourcing local news to hyper-local startups is the secret to national success, it's hard to see how that can be a sustainable model everywhere. Citizen journalists, who embody the conflict between information by the masses vs. information for the masses, work against any efforts to compensate trained professionals for work that most in the business would prefer to classify as more than a hobby or a post-retirement venture. While some outsiders see it as a way to get more information from niche areas, they, as does much of modern society, undervalue the work that goes in to creating an accurate piece of news. Traditional-leaning veteran journalists blow off citizen journalists as children playing dress-up.

This same group in question, the past-time press, is the sparkle in Charlie Beckett's eye. Father Beckett preaches the digital gospel with hope and optimism, which can often be considered naiveté and idealism. But he balances out what he calls the "fortresses" of old journalism, stuck in the ways of the past. Somewhere there in the middle lies the solution.

Or what if the solution is outside of journalism entirely? What if it's...government? Now, get that pesky "S" word out of your head. This is not a health care debate just yet. Government funding of the press has been proven successful, not only currently with the BBC, but in our own American history. A postal subsidy wouldn't quite do it these days, but something equally hands-off could keep that distance between the co-dependent entities and ensure the objectivity of the press and prevent a government grip on content.

Maybe the solution is outside of everything. It might even have to be a model that doesn't exist or that has never existed in history. If the technology that's causing this crisis in funding came from innovation and doing something that has never been done before, we're going to have to start thinking way out of the box (or the "fortress," if you will) that our ancestors spent the last 150 years constructing.

The Mark McGwire of Book Reports

Networked Journalists are an idealistic bunch. In a world that is sprinting to keep up with itself, only to get caught in the untied shoelaces of pavement-pounding traditional media, there is a population of new-minded, forward thinking journalists who see endless opportunity in technology. They have mastered the art of storytelling, they've been around long enough to remember life before the Internet, but they maintain an optimism and excitement that is bound to catch on. They are the Charlie Becketts of the journalism world. This movement will grow, and as we remember the good old days of Linotypes and afternoon papers, the hope that this rocket ship will soar to new heights instead of crashing and becoming smoldering ruins of a coherent society will keep us afloat until the former becomes the reality and the latter seems like an off-the-wall conspiracy theory.

It seems as though we have reached the final frontier of newspapers, but these changes are nothing new. Even the Golden Age of journalism in the 1970s and 80s would have been unrecognizable to William Bradford, John Peter Zenger or Benjamin Franklin: the founding fathers of American journalism. The nuts and bolts will stay the same, but the tools and the hands that use them will be constantly changing throughout time. To expect a static industry from a profession that bases its substance on what's new is a little hypocritical, dontcha think?

There are some logistical hurdles of figuring out exactly how to use new media -- for example how to "friend" someone, how to use a hash tag and what's the best way to start a blog; all things that can be taught to the older generations, albeit with a certain level of frustration, but also these are things that the younger generation is growing up with. These skills will become as basic on a resume as "knows how to read."

Just as basic literacy molded our society into a thinking, innovating one long before asnwering questions of civil rights or health care reform. In SuperMedia, Charlie Beckett refers to the new stage in accepting and making the most of what Networked Journalism has to offer as "Media literacy."

"Media literacy, in the deeper sense that I will have tried to outline here is about helping to build that connectivity. That is why I repeat that Networked Journalism will not emerge without a real understanding of its implications and potential. It is not just another label for New Media. It will require investment, imagination, and innovation." (p. 168)

Indeed, the learning curve is erratic and uneven across generations and classes. But what many analyses of new media fail to explore is its impact worldwide. For some reason, maybe because we made Google, we think we'll be the only ones to consult about any ethical questions or any major developments in the new media arena. Who would have thought a blogger in Africa could have his voice heard to correct the often faulty coverage of a place that is notoriously difficult to understand and even harder to objectively write about from a Western perspective? Doesn't he deserve a say in how Networked Journalism depicts the "plight" of Africa? While Africa still lacks even the most basic press structure, the continent's widespread corruption keeps journalists from reporting fairly about their own governments. But would every place on Earth benefit from a free and robust media? Does the West need to bring "democracy" of the press to places where it has not developed naturally already? Beware of this "exceptionalism," says Beckett. A free press has long been an indicator of a successful state, and we should not hold Africa to any less of a standard.

Throughout the book, Beckett writes extensively about the effects Networked Journalism can have on politics and vice versa. The two systems have lived co-dependently since the beginning of time. Over the years, the two have taken turns becoming warped by the influence of the other, but it might be safe to say that Networked Journalism has the power to make the playing field as even as it can be. Politicians are held more accountable than they ever have been, but at the same time they have had unprecedented access to the public and the spotlight. They have embraced this information generation, even if it could be the source of their downfall one day. Becketts repeated references back to politics, in Africa and in Europe as well, also underline the importance of making sure journalists use these new resources to make the media more reliable instead of diluting the good journalism so much that its watchdog function is forgotten in the wake of the information overload.

One "natural" development that traditional media have resisted unsuccessfully is the citizen journalist. Universal publication forums has driven untrained reporters to test out life as a journalist. Now that news organizations are taking all the cheap help they can get, (and if they weren't included in the recent New York Times article about unpaid internships, they certainly should have been), regular Joe Schmoe the plumber can contribute to the national news media. In some cases, this works, such as in Northfield, Minn., where a gaggle of local residents has created its own witty news site with hyperlocal coverage.

All of this together: new media time-saving, truth-finding gadgets vs. old media phone calls and by-hand records searches; global communication vs. local concentration; everyone can be a journalist vs. the press-pass elite; journalism as a public service vs. reporting as a trade; it all has come down to this moment in history when not only individual news organizations, but an entire population of people has to face the fact that Networked Journalism is the only way to continue the mission of providing fast, accurate news that can change policies, change minds and change lives. It's not something to be feared, but it's not something to foolishly accept without some sense of skepticism. Charlie Beckett's idealism may seem a little illogical. For example, you can't turn every story into a mediation session between two dissenting groups. But his insight into what comes after the final frontier is an exceptional reminder of the resilience of journalism, wherever it's practiced around the globe.

Sources Referenced:

Beckett, Charlie. SuperMedia. Blackwell Publishing: United Kingdom, 2008.

Tripp, Bernell. "Intro & Colonial Press." History of Journalism class PowerPoint Lecture Outlines. Accessed via e-Learning on April 13, 2010.

www.slate.com/id/2221856/?from=rss&obref=obinsite

locallygrownnorthfield.org/

Jimmy's World case study

If this story weren't completely made up, it would be considered an extreme example of a bogus trend story. Not only would this case be way out of the norm, getting statistics on drug abusing children--which is what you would need to even begin to correlate Jimmy's case with a growing trend--would be nearly impossible. Even if she were to just write a depressing feature about a child heroin addict, the looming need to take a social commentary to the next level by elevating it to trend status would have accounted for the interviews with social workers and DEA agents, fishing for that one quote that would hint at the idea it could be a growing "epidemic."

Not only do copy editors have to be on the lookout for bogus trends, but they also need to watch out for, well--bogus. The signs that this story was fabricated should have never bypassed the copy desk. It shouldn't have even gotten there. Her managing editor, who should have had some sort of involvement in the development of the story, especially given its controversial nature, should have put the brakes on this way before it got to print. The copy should have been analyzed, not just for facts but for the potential shock factor of such a disturbing image. This is no snake in the toilet feature. This story is a big deal, and it should have been given more attention before ever getting to the copy desk.

But since it did wind up in the copy editor's hands, that places him or her in the key position. The role of copy editors is more than grammar and adding up the numbers. Especially in an era of increasing competition to get the good story first, reporters will be more inclined to fake it, and the Internet makes it even easier. Janet Cooke at least based her work of fiction on what she personally heard from real people, but she could have easily done the same from information she stumbled upon on the Internet.

Wordled Speeches Case Study

Wordle is interesting to look at, but more importantly it boils down the content of a story or a speech to get to the essence of what it's about. I know I've heard commentary after some State of the Union speeches about how many times the president used certain words, and that gives the viewer/reader a better idea of the president's priorities. Personally, it's an artistic way to look at what's important to me or what's on my mind most of the time. I did a similar text analysis through a facebook application that shows the most used words in your statuses. "Rays" was number one for me, which kind of makes sense because two seasons ago, when they went to the World Series, I had a Rays related status for about a month or more leading up to the big event. It was still surprising, though.

To be honest, though, I don't really see a long-term or daily use for text analysis in journalism. It has all the markings of a fad technology that's cool for the moment, but will soon fade away. Maybe someone could come up with a use for it, but whatever results will not be simple text analysis. It will have to have a greater purpose other than entertainment. You'd have to get past the mildly interested "huh" reaction and go for the "wow."

Palin Speech Case Study

The ease with which any given human reporter can objectively cover a story fits on a scale from "piece of cake," such as a bit about the weather, to "teeth-grinding tough" like one about a White Supremacist rally on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Many times, speeches fall closer to the latter because by their nature they are meant to impart something new, important or controversial, and depending on the speaker and the purpose of the speech, they are often open to interpretation. In some ways, speeches are an easy write. After all, you just put down what the speaker said and leave it up to the reader to decide how to feel about it.

But especially with politicians, bias often appears in deciding which parts of the speech the reporter chooses to highlight, and what other details about the event he or she finds appropriate to include. A common practice of political mudslinging is to take a quote out of context and infuse it with some sort of alternate meaning that serves the opposition's agenda. Journalists are guilty of contributing to that, too, which is why editors serve as balance checkers. They can help eliminate biases, keep quotes in context and fact check background information.

Grammatically, editors make sure tenses don't confuse meaning. Present becomes past and future becomes conditional. The editor has to make sure he or she doesn't change around the tenses and give something the wrong meaning. In cases where the editor takes the transcript and makes a story out of it, the responsibility is slightly greater because it's about an even the editor didn't attend. He or she is forced to stick to the information and not try to make it an event story.

In the Palin speech, the editor had to make sure the reporter got to the meat of the story, which was that Palin was resigning. Most of the speech included a repertoire of her administration's accomplishments, which is another potential trap, but the editor had to make sure the story stuck to the point. Every politician has an agenda to serve, so the editor also had to know some background about Sarah Palin, including the fact that many expect her to run for president in 2012, which was relevant to the speech and should have been mentioned for context without presuming that was why she resigned. The editor also made it slightly more palatable to readers who might not know very much about politics or about Sarah Palin. Also, AP Style and grammar were checked, of course.

I think the editor made it better, which is no surprise because it usually doesn't hurt to have your work checked, especially if there's the chance for bias and misreported speech.

Blog 6

One of the reasons many young people list as to why they don't enjoy the company of the elderly is that they're always complaining about "hooligans" running the streets and "modern gadgets" such as computers and calculators complicating a formerly simple existence. Somewhere around the age of 65, the capacity and/or desire to keep up with such a rapidly changing world slackens while disdain for all things new--rather "not like they used to be"--increases at the same rate.

At the ripe age of 22, I've aged prematurely. I find myself reminiscing about the golden age of journalism, when newsrooms were flourishing and a press pass was the highest badge of honor outside of the military. Muckracker Mark Sullivan's 1938 lament over the gone glory days rings eerily true in a world he wouldn't even recognize were he alive today. Granted, it's hard to for me to reminisce about a time I was not alive to see, so perhaps my longing for "pure" journalism is really an uneasiness spawned from my ignorance of its opposite: today's wired media.

So as I stew in my unearned hopelessness, it's refreshing to know that not every online news upstarter is an optimistic, technology-embracing, 40-something Seattle hipster with retro black-rimmed glasses. Enter: Kery Murakami, dubbed "the reluctant news entrepreneur." Nothing but a true journalist's spirit could drive someone to essentially produce a one-man "paper" like Murakami is doing. He puts in all if not more of the shoe leather, the sleepless weeks and the more-than-occasional cuss word than your stereotypical fedora-topped reporter from back in the day. However, he recognizes that it's not the format that defines this industry, it's the purpose.

No matter how much drive you have, something green and papery has to give you the fuel you need to establish yourself as an online presence and stay that way without going bankrupt. According to Tom Mangan, it's all about audience. Finding and catering to a specific audiencecan mean the difference between a low-traffic hobby and a high-traffic, full-time blogging career. Tracking your success is even easier now with ://Urlfan.com, which ranks Web sites based on their popularity in the blogosphere.

This kind of calculated attention to detail, combined with a commitment to developing online media to include audience participation was underlined in a reporters conference, ironically held on the Google campus, our friendly search-engine-turned-world-dominator that could easily be said to be our generation's trademark. It's also vastly responsible for any feelings of information overload so nicely put into parabola to relate information intake to level of confusion.

But we can't put all the blame on Google. After all, it could secede and form its own country someday, and we already know they have global surveillance taken care of (i.e. Google Earth), and given the chance they'd make the coolest, most user friendly WMD's ever. No, the media must own up to its own role in this chaos. Whether it's treating an empty hot air balloon as if it were a Martian space craft, or saturating our minds with polls, statistics and rankings, the modern press could be its own worst enemy. And when all else fails, just make it all free!

Blog 5

Where is the logic in cutting local news resources first from the newspaper's budget? Not only has it become clear that smaller, more specific niche markets are all the rage in online and print media, but local news is by far the most practical way to maintain a local readership.

Curiously enough, as newspapers cut local coverage, they also eliminated foreign and even out-of-town bureaus in favor of wire news--a valuable resource for papers that also shares some of the blame for turning national and international coverage into a commodity. Most mid-sized city papers have pulled their state capitol correspondents. Elizabeth Becker of the New York Times is part of the rare species of foreign correspondents. She spoke to Norm Lewis' Problems and Ethics in Journalism class on Thursday, and even within her expansive international focus, she said the most effective way to illustrate a broad concept is to focus on one locality that is greatly affected by an international issue.

This theory easily applies to the coverage of local news, and it seems to have just dawned on newspapers that hyperlocal coverage does not have to be relegated to high school sports stories and lost cat ads. It's a way of satisfying the news needs of a specific region or group of people while contributing to the overarching goal of complete coverage.

Bloggers were two steps ahead. They now set the standard for local coverage, and papers like the Seattle Times, the Miami Herald and the Chicago Tribune are figuring out ways to incorporate blogs, social media and citizen journalism into their news reach.

The debate over whether journalism is trade or art, learned or innate, product or service has become moot in the face of financial struggles and an overabundance of outlets. But that doesn't keep those who have given their lives to the industry from casting a leery eye at the carpet store owner who just feels like becoming a journalist one day. Are drive and curiosity more important than knowing about inverted pyramid and nut graphs? Can citizen journalists be trained in five steps? Does spelling matter? Should we simply turn the other cheek when we see a question lead or unnecessary use of exclamation points?

These issues may arise mainly when the news organization is structured in a wiki or semi-wiki--meaning user generated but approved by an editor, such as triblocal.com--format. However, as the Seattle hyperlocal blog community proves, many "citizen" journalists are actually professionals in disguise. Whether they wrote for their college newspaper or they have 30 years experience in the field, many local bloggers have attained the same level of professionalism as any AP Stylebook-beating print copy editor. They see blogs as a viable option not only for creating a cheap and reliable source for neighborhood residents, but also for creating civic engagement on a micro scale, which could lead to important changes and increase government accountability. Some sites spark this engagement with an unconventionally wry tone and an emphasis on opinion, while others aim to be the anti-media by vowing to circumvent the traditional relationship newspapers have with the government in the name of protecting "constitutional freedoms."

On a side not, one of my complaints in a previous blog was that there is an absence of consolidators, or directory sites that aggregate and organize the plethora of useful Web sites out there. KCNN.org has filled that void, at least in regards to hyperlocal news sites. Hopefully more will follow and the great abyss will become more accessible and user friendly.

Case Study Trend Stories

It seems to me that trend stories in mainstream, well-respected newspapers may be on the rise. Based on anecdotal evidence and a few outdated statistics, the bomb-dropping boom in baseless, exaggerated stories could be a result of the economic downturn. Reporters strapped for cash and story ideas are turning to alarmist trends like sexting or quirky quips about guys with cats, in the hopes that subtle phrasing and some seemingly authoritative sources can salvage that "brilliant" story idea they pitched to their editor. Who cares if there's not really a trend here. I've done too much work to give up on it now, right?

A recent survey conducted by the National Alliance of Trendiness reports that 95 percent of journalists have to turn in stories on deadline, meaning this increase in trends could be indirectly correlated to stress and high-intensity work situations. Smoking and high fiber diets could also contribute to the problem.

Blog 4

The apparent theme of this blog and of life in general these days, according to Captain Obvious, is that the Internet in all its vastness is no longer a hobby or a mindless distraction. It has become as much a part of American life as cheap beer and taxes. For some, the virtual appendage attaches easy. But for those who weren't born with WiFi built into their brains and USB plugs on each finger tip, the flood of information can be overwhelming to the point of capitulation.

So for an industry like journalism to not only accept but embrace the second-to-second changes of Internet communication is rather remarkable, given its reputation of being staunchly built on staunchness and a deep respect for not just the history of its craft, but for the tradition it represents. (Try to imagine Ben Bradlee saying "Send it live now, get it right later.") It may be this tradition that's not only keeping newspapers alive, but it's helping them thrive. Something about unfolding those off-white broadsheets, stained with morning coffee, drives 104 million people to read print news every day. But the Newspaper Association of America also points out that news is in transition mode, and many good things are coming out of it. One of the many challenges of online news is to create something that hasn't been done a million times before. Through niche markets, multimedia innovations, need-filling information tools and experiments with different business models (non-profits) and platforms (iPhone Apps), new news--onlinenews--is chipping away at a thick layer of Web redundancy and marrying tradition with innovation.

The result is a better connected, more credible and useful Internet and more up-to-date news than ever before. Gathering, distributing and reading the news is like wading in a collective, global stream of consciousness and sifting through to find what's relevant to the reader and what's useful to the reporter. But the problem still remains: Who has the time to find all these things, much less use them on a regular basis? Perhaps the next step toward perfect usability is an online directory of Web sites, organized by use, region or topic. Something like that might already exist.

Among the societal and technological changes wrought by the Internet explosion, one new use has not become standard, but taking advantage of it can push you above the crowd in the job search: online and multimedia resumes. The job market is unfortunately far from standardized. Every employer wants to feel special with a tailor-made cover letter and a specialized resume these days, and good luck figuring out exactly what employers want.

The debate over best methods to wooing a potential employer has gone on for millennia: One page or two? Graphics or streamlined? Narrative or to-the-point? Professional or laid-back? Some people are scrapping it all and taking their "personal portrait" to a whole new level. Interactive Web resumes are colorful, informative and loaded with character and charisma, as opposed to the Times New Roman fact sheet of olde. People are taking to heart the idea of not just showcasing accomplishments, but making a memorable mark that will burn a personalized brand onto the minds of recruiters.

Also, online resumes allow for one-click tours of your entire online presence, which could give an employer an even better picture of your networking abilities, work style and hobbies or interests. Applicants can link to their blogs (a great way to demonstrate writing abilities), Facebook (as long as you're careful about questionable content) and LinkedIn, a site that is quickly becoming the first stop for employers.

As the barriers between real life and virtual life slowly melt away, the Internet

is proving to be an essential tool in the working world, especially for journalists.

Blog 3

There are only so many ways to say the same thing. Eat through a box of candy hearts and you'll find that love, the most expressed emotion, has a terminal list of articulations. That's the nature of language, especially common, everyday English, which is a only laymen's sample of the hundreds of thousands of words to choose from. Language exists to communicate. "Communication" comes from the Latin word communis, or "common," according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. Journalism also exists to communicate news and ideas to "common" people.

But what happens when journalists choose some of the more obscure words, uncommon to most readers? Some say communication gets interrupted by the hubris of a linguistically erudite writer when he or she either fails to or refuses to "dumb down" a term. Others say it is yet another part of the public service aspect of journalism, one that educates as well as informs. But, since most people don't keep a pocket dictionary handy except when traveling in a foreign country, most likely a confounded reader will simply skip over the word and risk losing the full meaning of the message. That is unless he or she is reading the New York Times online. The ability to highlight any word in an article to get its definition presents the new risk of catching nervous click syndrome, but offers readers the chance to expand their vocabulary to include words such as "interlocutor" and "apotheosis."

Perhaps the difference is in the publication. Readers expect a certain level of vocabulary from an internationally respected newspaper such as the New York Times. But, as one commentator pointed out, USA Today is generally thought of as a more mainstream paper, and its language follows as such. Like most issues in journalism, it all depends on the audience, so the occasional (aka not a paragraph full) SAT vocabulary word has a place somewhere. Plus, if a less-known can further specify a thought or an image, why not use it? Clarity doesn't just refer to making things easy to understand.

Just as many words can say the same thing, many people have been saying the same thing about the future of journalism and its current "predicament."

Leonard Downie Jr.'s Report on "The Reconstruction of American Journalism" reiterates many of the same points that have defined the swirl of worry surrounding the journalism industry. As someone who has been in newspapers since the '60s, Downie was part of the industry in its prime and he helped define the press as a trusted establishment in its golden years in the '70s. His tone denotes a mix of pride, authority, confusion and idealism.

It's the latter that might cause some to question his analysis of the current media and his suggestions for reform. His concept of online media is too closely related to the conventional functionalities of a newspaper, writes Martin C. Langeveld, observing that simply the networked nature of the Web distinguishes the two forms. He also gives a more concrete example of how young people and students can begin to make changes in the industry in a journalist's version of Teach for America in which college graduates could get a one year fellowship at a news organization.

Journalism students and professors, writes Alan Rusbridger of the U.K.'s The Guardian, should be the main sources of innovation and should focus less on preparing for "jobs that won't exist," which presumably refers to newspapers or traditional broadcasting.

Along the same lines, Jan Schaffer says the fundamentals of the news process that defined shoe-leather journalism for the greater part of the 20th century could be so outdated that they're partially to blame for the current crisis. He emphasizes the importance of audience. Commentors on on Schaffer's article suggested the wagging finger should be turned around and that maybe "who or what was to blame for the crisis in journalism" is..."journalists." Reader involvement is crucial, yet overlooked, Schaffer writes. But if the only authority of a reader lay only in the fact that he is a reader, is that enough to base an industry on? I use a computer, and although I have no clue of the inner workings of this mysterious machine, would I have the right to tell Dell how its engineers should wire and construct its products?

The main concern of Downie's report is about "independent reporting," which many say is vital for local (and hyper-local) coverage. Among the increasing partisanship of the press, reverting back to the old days when papers were controlled by political parties, writes Paul Starr, the local bureau fades and hopes for a free, unbiased non-profit financial model are dashed.

Financing is really at the heart of the issue because so much information allows for exploitation of articles to such a degree that the idea of controlling the flow sounds almost dictatorial. But as more and more channels open up with new Web sites almost every day, not to mention the exponentially expanding network of social media outlets, something has to change about how information is shared and sold. (By the way, I have never even heard of 90 percent of the sites webbed into Fred Cavazza's image.) It's hard to imagine that "common sense" journalists should be expected to keep up with this roiling mountain of technological development. If there's a place for social media aides in the news room, great. If not, let's just stick to what we know and report the news like journalists have been doing since Ben Franklin's time. I wonder what he'd say if he was asked to tweet for twenty minutes.

Ride-Along

I'm interested in doing my ride-along with Patch.com, a news Web site focused on communities in coastal New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. From it's base in New York City, Patch.com has satellites in 32 communities, and it is quickly growing. Five more areas will soon be added.

It's run by professional journalists, but citizen involvement is encouraged and people can nominate their community to be added to the Patch list.

The Patch home page is rather bland and boring, but each community page looks like a well put together newspaper's Web version, complete with pictures, videos and interactive features. It has the standard sections, from business to restaurant reviews, and even a "lost and found" page. Community members can post events and suggest stories. Each community page is linked to Twitter and RSS feed.

See Patch.com for yourself.

Case Study 3

Skepticism is an essential quality for journalists and editors. Despite the general mistrust of the media by the public, when it comes time to get some lime light, people will make up anything to get in the paper. But with this skepticism must come the recognition that more times than not, truth is stranger than fiction, so just because it sounds a little loco doesn't mean it's out of the realm of possibility. It's an editor's responsibility to make sure a story meets the criterion for validity, and there are some things that can't be overlooked just because a story garners a giggle. Every single story must have two or more credible sources, just as every main player in a story should be identified if possible. No level of entertainment value can overrule that.

Case Study 2

One morning at the end of my eighth grade year, not but six months after Sept. 11, 2001, my homeroom class began the day by murmuring some words about "to the republic...yada, yada, yada..." with nary a hand on the heart. That is, except for that of a substitute teacher who was in charge of our class that day. When we were done, she made us stand up and do it again, this time the right way, saying all the words out loud. "Your generation has not seen a war like generations before you have," she said. We didn't understand how important our freedom was, even after it was attacked within our very borders.

And this war is no different. Most people know of someone who is in Iraq or they've had a neighbor who knows someone who died over there, but for the most part we live our lives in ignorant bliss. However, I don't think that's license to display graphic photos of dead bodies to the whole world. Not just for the fact that it is unprofessional and sensational, but because it's disrespectful to the people who are pictured, whether they're American soldiers or bodies of the enemy. There are better ways to express to readers the tragic loss of life and the intense suffering that is happening in the Middle East. It's easier and more shocking to show a picture, but we're not in the business of easy.

Blog 2

Technological changes are taking place at a race-horse rate these days, requiring users to keep an exhaustive pace to keep up with seemingly small, but apparently important modifications, additions and upgrades to new tools and those already in use. For example, for many young people it's nearly impossible to think of the world "B.F." -- Before Facebook. Really the fertile womb of the Internet gave birth to what is now a fixed part of pop culture only six years ago, almost to the day, according to Facebook's own profile page. Yet in those six years, Facebook has matured out of its basic infancy and into an all-purpose social center, complete with its own marketplace.

The same evolution is happening right now with Twitter. According to its Web site, Twitter began "as a side project in March of 2006," yet it has already changed the way people read, communicate and even think. Like most online communication tools, it has found a place in journalism, and as the new "Lists" feature indicates, it will only find ways to become more useful and more involved in the news making process. If it's not already the case, checking Twitter will be as routine as checking e-mail for reporters, and it will be even more useful now that the lists can start the very process that is the purpose of news gathering, which is to "organize the flow of information."

The Internet is a living thing, at least in the minds of its users, and every tweet is like a cyber heartbeat. But, as Craig Kanalley points out, there is still the human element. "Humans--not bots--create the ecosystem," he says, referring to Twitter Lists. Everything on the internet started with a human at some point, which is why the same errors persist, no matter what form they come in. Whether on the screen or on an ancient scroll, errors require correction. Many times these days, those corrections aren't coming from within the newsroom, rather from the readers themselves. It's just a shame they're not all as courteous or as accurate as 19-year-old Daniel Lippman, fact checker extraordinaire.

And not every error is as innocuous as mistaken hip-hop lyrics, although that slip-up highlights the underrated omniscience required of copy editors. Every paper is like an episode of Jeopardy; you never know when there will be a "Miley Cyrus Hits" category. Some errors, however, can seriously affect peoples' lives for the worse, such as the British tabloid that accused a man of bringing two girls to his home to have sex with them. There's no doubt the error should be publicly corrected and apologized for, but do you repeat the entire allegation in the published correction? For clarity, yes. It wouldn't help to have the correction lead to more confusion.

Even if all the facts are right, some supermarket tabloids, which often get lumped in with "the media," find a way to twist the truth into something it's not by manipulating the wording of headlines. For example, "Thousands die after swine flu vaccination" heads a story about how older people have heart attacks and pregnant women have miscarriages, as if it that is a surprise. While "real" journalists condemn it, spin happens in even the most trustworthy of places. Not only can a copy editor at a respectable newspaper be tempted to embellish a boring story with a glitzy headline, the government itself is guilty of spin. It is notorious for using spin as a PR tool in an effort to make it seem like everything is under control. After Katrina, the primary damage control was to protect the image of the government.

Sorting out truth from spin is yet another bullet added to the list of responsibilities of a copy editor. As mentioned before, though, changing technology will keep that list forever growing. Now, just as a copy editor should always check any phone number about to be published in the paper, Web editors have to worry about hyperlinks. Beyond making sure the hyperlink actually links to the intended Web site, the decision of whether to include a hyperlink and to which site must come first. Does it add important information to the story? Is it linking to a reliable source? Does the source have to match our journalistic values? Will I be breaking copyright laws? (There is a handy online slider to answer that question).

There are many uses of hyperlinks, but perhaps the most useful kind is one that gives the reader information that is not common knowledge that will add to the background of a story. For example, in the conference on linking ethics from Poynter Online, Robert Cox mentioned "Dennis Ryerson's experience with Romenesko." In all likelihood, not many people are aware of what he's referring to. Those who do can skip over the hyperlink. Those who don't get an outside example of the topic at hand and can therefore make a more informed opinion on the subject.

However, while some online publications choose to link, and therefore must tussle with all the questions that follow, it is by no means the responsibility of a journalist to provide links, especially under the rationale that if the reader can find it easily, we should provide it as a service. The job of a journalist is so tell the reader something new, something they won't find on their own.

Robert Cox also mentioned a theory one might call "the Golden Rule of linking." The more you link to reliable sources, the more information you have on your page and the more other publications will want to link to you.

The post-WWII history of hypertext leads to an interesting perspective on the mentality behind the Internet, which is something foreshadowed by a scientist named Vanevar Bush. The Internet has become the manifestation of all mankind's communication desires. "I need to send this message right away" turned into e-mail. "Where can I find the answer to that random question" birthed Google. "I wish I knew what she was thinking all the time" spawned Twitter, and so on. Linking is the great connector. The need for extra information will continue to push technology further until our thoughts themselves can control our computers, or vice versa.

It's the vice versa that is terrifying the journalistic community. Tom Gitten's article on the woes of the written word provide a depressing reminder of how far the Internet has pushed news to adapt at the cost of jobs and institutions once valued as gold. The possibility of government subsidies to help the industry make it through a down economy is one that is not discussed in the public arena very much, perhaps because it is unlikely to succeed, no matter how hard the Federal Trade Commission tries.

Protocols

There are a few times in my life when I wished I had a nice, clean list of detailed protocols laid out for me in black and white. Unfortunately, nerve-wracking uncertainty usually pushes out any semblance of security.

So I am completely in favor of protocols in the newsroom. Not only do they save time by avoiding unnecessary phone calls and hand-wringing, but they create a sense of order and fluidity in a business that's infamously chaotic.

Also, coming from the point of view of a green journalist who lacks the self-assuredness of a veteran, I'm sometimes gripped with the need for external affirmation. It's wrong until someone else says it's right. That's slowly fading as I gain experience and confidence, but one slip-up and it's back to kindergarten. Along the same lines, for anyone who is new to a news organization, every day that goes by with fewer questions asked than the day before is a small victory. Protocols help with the transition process for new employees. When I had an internship at a magazine a few years ago, the first thing they handed me was a list of their style and production protocols. Needless to say, that paper was a wrinkly mess by the end of the summer, since magazines diverge greatly from typical AP style, and most even have trademark style elements specific to that magazine.

But even further down the road, protocols are something to look to when you encounter a new problem or a sticky situation that you're not sure of. There may be something to be said for figuring it out yourself, but to me protocols seem like a safe bet all around.

Blog 1

More than a profession or even a calling, I consider journalism to be a breed. While as unique as snowflakes and as stubbornly individual as teenagers in the throes of self-discovery, all journalists have certain traits and skills that make them almost genetically predestined for the field. Following that same consistency, journalism and the ubiquitous "media" have stayed within a fairly specific definition of the job and its role in society throughout most of the 20th century.

Journalism requires a specific kind of thinking and it conforms to a time-tested set of standards. Certain questions must be answered and structures must be followed. In the days of olde, editors filled the space between the reporter and the reader, making sure the puzzle of words and facts blends together to form a coherent, informative and captivating piece of writing. But beyond meeting presentational criterion and checking all the facts, even the most well-edited story is deeply and critically analyzed to assure accuracy and truth, keeping in mind that the two terms can't be used interchangeably. Truth is the reality that lives behind and between the facts. It's seeing the big picture and capturing the tiny details. It's also something that's not very well defined in the minds of the average reader.

The truth to most of the world is a matter of belief and credibility, which is why there are still masses of Americans who believe Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen or that the recent health care bill will kill off Nana to save money, among other myths and misinformation. To his credit, Joe the Plumber doesn't have either the time or the resources to sift through 48 claims against the health care bill in that chain e-mail Nana sent him. So it's up to journalists to let him know that only four of the 48 were true.

Twenty years ago, these myths might have been discussed among neighbors or around the water cooler if they couldn't find a place in printed publication, but the average citizen had no personal means of mass communication. The defining development of the late 20th and early 21st century has been the ability of the individual to connect with anyone at any time with any message. Funny how these days many people don't know their neighbors, yet they talk regularly with what Amy Gahran calls a "personal posse" of Twitter followers, and they network with hundreds of Facebook "friends" from all over the world.

The catalyst, of course, was the introduction of the internet, a tool many people underestimated back in the days of AOL and chat rooms. Oh, how primitive life was before Google. For journalism, the internet shortened deadlines -- rather, it replaced them with one universal deadline: NOW -- and created a constant stream of unedited information. All this information is now searchable, and instead of "papers sold," a publication's worth is measured in "hits" and "posts."

Writing has changed to adapt to a new way of finding this information and reading it, in some cases sacrificing creativity for searchability. Headlines should be "abstracted sentences," writes Jim Stovall.

"That is, they must contain a subject and a verb and be as specific as possible. No puns, no play-on-words. Use alliteration only when it makes sense." He also advises using only one direct quotation per story when writing for the Web, which in my opinion essentially takes away the very voice of the public that news tries so desperately to capture.

The name of the game now is brevity. Enter: Twitter, the not-so-inner monologue of modern society. For journalists, the benefits are obvious. It is the ultimate networking mechanism, and it condenses the public consciousness into convenient 140-character squirts. It even offers the chance for collaboration in a way that would make traditional newsies cringe at the thought of fraternizing with the enemy. It's called "networked link journalism," pioneered by four journalists in Washington during a big breaking news story, according to the blog Publishing 2.0. This kind of endeavor is rife with techno-jargon like "hashtag" and "widgets."

Only recently out of its infancy, Twitter has become a fixture in today's media and in the everyday life of people all over the world. It even received international attention when it played a role in covering protests in Iran when journalists were prohibited from entering the country. It even allows for the customization of news to fit the reader with Twitter Time.es, a concept only dreamed of before.

Somehow in condensing information, the world of mass communication today has expanded to a realm that is quickly expanding beyond the comfortable control of the traditional news media.

Testing testing blah blah blah.