Kinsey Wilson, executive editor of USA Today, considers the Web site:
… as a medium standing on its own. Thus as a unique and complete platform to distribute news, which features an array of functionality and technology unavailable to print.
“We publish a newspaper, we have mobile platforms, we’re on the web. We’re a diverse media company” …
Compare two presentations that honor the victims at Virginia Tech:
From The Roanoke Times: Individual profiles linked at bottom; individual bios open in a new window.
From The New York Times: Pure Flash, even though some aspects look like Lightbox — but it’s a pure SWF embedded in the page with a database back-end. Links open a new window to individual bios and individual guestbooks.
It feels insensitive to analyze these packages, and yet, journalists had to conceive, design and build them, or else we wouldn’t have them at all. The concept of this style of presentation is not radically new, but the execution requires careful advance planning — before you start building the FLA.
Compare also the design of the two sites’ profile pages (these are just HTML): Here is the NYT page and the Roanoke page for the same student. Compare information, presentation, and links to related information.
Note that the NYT has stripped all advertising from its profile pages.
Profiles about numerous people are created for journalism Web sites (apart from long-form feature profile stories). This is a format for which an organization could create a template.
Someone in my del.icio.us network posted a link to Wufoo, a new survey-building tool. When I saw that there is a free version, I thought I’d check it out. If you can’t see it below, your Web browser does not support the “iframe” tag. No worries — use this link instead.
Update (April 29): The survey is finished. To see the questions I asked, look here.
There are ONLY eight (8) questions! Come on, help me out!
… we have to be careful not to lump all the bad stuff with all the terrific stuff. The biggest problem with TV news is there’s too little of the good stuff out there, not that great storytelling can’t be done on television.
I have to agree with that: Great storytelling CAN be done on television.
And thanks (again) to Regina, I found this: Advice from the Best. The best TV photographers, that is. Read it, and you’ll probably think (like I did), “This really ISN’T rocket science!”
Plus: Angela Grant introduced us to this site, Make Internet TV, which — in spite of its horrifying name (No! DON’T make the Internet be TV!!!) — is full of great tips and advice!
From a fascinating post on the popular (and excellent) flash photography blog, Strobist:
While Guðleifsdóttir’s experience is certainly the most famous Cinderella Story of the Flickr world to date, it is by no means unique. The explosion of digital photography — and legions of talented new photographers — is combining with the leveled playing field of ubiquitous access to photographs via sites like Flickr. Professional photo buyers are combing through thousands of photos in search of new photographers like you.
Yet another sign of how out-of-touch some journalism teachers and professors are: Do aspiring young journalists need hardcopy of their clips today? (Do they even need clips at all?) Maybe the old-style packet of a printed résumé and photocopied clips is outmoded.
Meranda Watling has been the education reporter at the Journal & Courier, in Lafayette, Indiana, for three months (almost four). It’s her first job out of college. She wrote:
I learned this relatively early in my job search from an editor who was impressed with my resume, mostly by my demonstrated new-media experience. But she raised one extremely valid point about my package. In her words, “Why is this carbon-based?” Good question. Why was I, of all people, applying on paper?!
As soon as she said it, I knew she was right. It was the catalyst I needed to organize my professional work online. The next week, I registered a domain, started my blog, uploaded my resume and posted my clips online in one central location.
Don’t think you don’t need clips at all — I hear from enough editors at U.S. newspapers that there are still two things they need to see before you even get a phone call, and those are: (1) news story clips, at least from the student newspaper; and (2) an internship.
Increasingly, however, they want to see your URL.
So let’s have a quick chat about what you should have on your professional Web site.
A résumé — designed well for the Web page it’s on (example). Don’t forget to feature all of your internships prominently on your résumé!
A link to a PDF of your résumé for anyone who might need to print it (such as the human resources office). See the example at No. 1 above.
Links to your clips: Try a list of linked headlines, each one followed by the title of the publication AND the date of publication. If all clips come from one publication, then you can put that in the heading. Here’s a good example (although it’s lacking dates).
Examples of your audio, photo, video, and/or design work — like this or this.
A brief, well-written bio that summarizes your individuality. I suggest a 150-word limit. Here’s a good one at a lean 99 words.
And finally, of course, a home page that makes all the relevant bits easy to find (and that does not link to any embarrassing photos of you). Like this or this or this. Don’t forget to include functional contact information.
So, get cracking. You can buy hosting and a domain name at any number of sites, such as Dreamhost or Bluehost (read comparisons here and here). A Wikipedia article explains Web hosting pretty well.
Be sure to proofread as well as spellcheck every single word on your Web site very, very carefully.
Addenda (April 21): All the links in items 1-6 go to sites by graduates (or almost graduates) of the journalism program at the University of Florida (naturally). Also, I’ve used Dreamhost for about six years; I host all my Web sites there, and I love the service.
For speakers of British (not American) English: A résumé is a CV. Clips are cuttings. (Thanks, Andrew.)
But wait, there’s more!Lucas Grindley, content manager for HeraldTribune.com, left a comment on this post telling you what you should NOT include! “The Herald-Tribune is the third-largest newspaper in the New York Times Co. and the largest newspaper in the New York Times Regional Media Group” (source). So listen up.
The incredibly talented Laith Bahrani (he of considerable fame for the JCB Song, about which a complete cult has developed) is now featured on MediaStorm with his latest music video (hmm, a bit of a departure for MediaStorm, eh?) — Creep, by Radiohead! WOW!
Don’t click unless you are an animation fan.
Special treat for Flash Timeline animators: The Timeline is shown in the final frames of the video! (More than 1 million keyframes!)
Please excuse the interruption. We will return to our regular journalism-focused subject matter tomorrow.
