Teaching Online Journalism

I was recently reminded that not every person who uses a computer every day understands the instruction “Minimize that window.”

I watched someone hesitate for a really long time after I said that. Eventually I realized that I had to tell him how to do it, and even what it meant.

Now, don’t get all highfalutin and nasty-mouthed over this — reach down deep and summon up some compassion. There are people among us who have been getting along just fine (until now) without this basic knowledge of how to control their computer screens. It’s a bit hard to comprehend, I will admit. And I’m tempted to scream and tear my hair, yes — I’ll admit that too. (”How in the world can you possibly NOT KNOW what ‘minimize the window’ means? Have you been IN A CAVE for the past FIVE YEARS?!?”)

And as my last sheepish admission for today, I will confess that I do agree with Paul Conley on this:

Nearly everyone who works in Web-only or Web-first journalism came from a print background. And for years they toiled in places where the online world was treated with disdain. Then, as Web journalism took off, the online staff found themselves in an all-new form of hell. Every day was filled with the whining, complaining and resentments of the print staff. I assure you — the Web journalists who have managed to escape that scene are not eager to start hiring the same moaning characters they left behind. The big secret of Web journalism is that it’s fun. And we don’t want anyone to spoil that.

However, I don’t want to be part of a society that takes its old people and sickly babies out to the desert and leaves them to die. It might be good for the financial bottom line, but it’s certainly not good for our karma.

So I was thinking about the basics, and how not knowing them would really get in your way if you were trying to update your technology skills (and save yourself from being left in the desert to die). It would be like trying to run the 100-meter dash in flip-flops. I know, it seems like a person would have to be a complete idiot to do that, but let’s assume that it’s because he doesn’t know how to get more suitable shoes, okay?

I suggest we look around the newsroom and start noticing how people manage their files. How they open programs. Whether they use intelligent file names and have a usable folder system on their hard drive.

If they’re using Windows, do they know the proper way to eject a USB device? I have noticed that very few people in newsrooms do. It’s a wonder they haven’t lost more crucial data than they have, yanking their thumb drives out without ejecting them. (I killed a whole hard drive that way once.)

I think it’s a big red warning flag when someone has about 10 million icons on the desktop. That is almost certainly a person with a computer literacy problem.

These folks need our help. Maybe a remedial brown-bag lunch?

And don’t think it’s only the older people — I’ve seen 19-year-olds who can’t find a file 10 seconds after closing it.

Student and journalist Jared Silfies dumped out his backpack and showed us the things he carries for mobile reporting.

I love his photo! I would enjoy seeing more like it. What do you say — can you post a picture for us, and give us a gear list? Just post it to Flickr if you don’t have a blog (yet). Then you can paste the link into your comment below. Here is Jared’s photo on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaredsilfies/2425813749/

What, you don’t have a blog OR a Flickr account? Are you a real journalist?

You don’t have to link every item. We know how to Google. It would be really cool, though, if you would provide the specific make and model of anything you’ve found that’s super-helpful in your work.

Update (8:39 a.m.): If you post a picture on Flickr, tag it with these two (2) tags — backpack and mojo. If you do, we will be able to generate a “cluster” of all the photos.

With 75 percent of all adult Americans using a mobile phone or PDA, journalists need to start thinking about what people do with those gadgets — and how it relates to distributing the products of journalism.

In addition to making voice phone calls, mobile users are texting, e-mailing, sending instant messages; taking pictures; looking for maps or directions; recording or watching video; listening to music; playing games.

Look: 19 percent of them today are accessing news, weather, sports, and other information via their mobile devices; 10 percent are watching videos; 41 percent have used the Internet on their mobile.

These numbers are only going to grow larger.

The study (PDF file), conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, surveyed more than 2,000 American adults (age 18 and older) in late 2007. The median age of respondents was 37.

Last week I asked a class of about 50 college students about their own cell phone use. I found out that fewer than 10 have the Internet on their phone, but there’s a simple reason for that: They are still on the family plan. Their parents have told them it’s too expensive to add the Internet subscription to their group-price phone service plan. I think when these students go out on their own and buy their own phone service, many more of them will have the mobile Internet. They already text continually — they are already habituated to frequent cell phone use.

They told me that most of their phones have cameras built in, but the picture quality is very poor — so they don’t take a lot of pictures with their phones. (Do you think that would change if the quality improved? I do.)

For the 10 mobile activities Pew asked about, 96 percent of respondents ages 18 to 29 had done at least one of the activities. The median for that age group was 4 out of 10 activities. Looking at each of the older age groups (on page 4), you see both numbers drop. That’s a clear sign that coming generations are going to be doing more stuff with their mobile phones.

There’s another factor too — the phones will definitely get better at doing all this stuff.

Some of my students said they couldn’t imagine watching video on their tiny cell phone screen. But hey, think about the iPhone. Spokesman-Review journalist Colin Mulvany looked at the usage stats for his newspaper’s Web site recently and discovered that in one month, 2,300 people had accessed the site using an iPhone. So you’re not impressed by 2,300? Well, three months earlier, Colin found, it was about 1,000 people. You see what I’m saying?

Zac Echola, a young wired journalist, is already using his phone the way older folks use a printed newspaper. He’s that guy in the deli who’s staring at his tiny screen while he chews on a cheeseburger:

When I’m at lunch, I can pull down any news I’m subscribed to via RSS. On a mobile device. Text, pictures and video come together on my phone. I can do the same on the bus … or on the crapper. And I’m engaging with the news. I’m sharing it …

Mobile news distribution can be a better strategy in developing countries than pouring resources into a traditional Web site. Why? Because the growth of mobile phone use — especially for text messaging (SMS) — is astronomical in developing countries, while Internet penetration continues to be low and slow.

A recent post at ReadWriteWeb asks whether “it’s time to declare the mobile Web, except for the iPhone, dead.” (The question was inspired by one mobile apps startup company, Mowser, shutting down.) A large number of comments on the post vigorously disagreed, however; one well-informed comment offers a wholly different perspective:

What we know now is that given the right browser that mobile web usage takes off. And every phone manufacturer is working to copy the iPhone experience.

If you’re an online designer, check out the book about Mobile Web Design.

And here’s something cool for anyone who already has the Internet on his/her phone: Skweezer. This awesome little site automagically converts any URL you give it into a mobile-friendly version — for your tiniest screen.

Found randomly, read with pleasure:

It’s time for a new plan. What about allowing subscription cell phone updates for our best apps, or a choice for ad-supported and free? What about harvesting user information and allowing for targeted, premium advertising (the Facebook model)? What about sponsorship?

The journalists who are doing this kind of work are spilling over with ideas. We’re passionate. We love what we do and we want to keep doing it. And I honestly believe that if we started thinking about this, from Project Day 1, we’d come up with something that could work.

(From Matt Wynn, the data editor at the Springfield [Mo.] News-Leader.)

I had nine newspaper reporters and one designer in an audio training session today. They were real troupers! I was impressed by their good attitude and enthusiasm. I think a lot of journalists are stepping up and getting ready for our future.

I’m inspired by posts like this one and this other one from Ron Sylvester, who tells us that after his first year as a print guy turned self-taught multimedia guy, it’s getting easier. A lot easier! (You go, Ron!)

I’m also in love with a new blog called Paula’s Adventures in Multimedia. Paula is a journalist somewhere, I don’t know where, but she’s taking us along for the ride while she and her colleagues learn to make slideshows and do podcasts and shoot video — and it’s really fun!

I’ll be in the Orlando Sentinel newsroom today, doing a bit of basic training (blogging; audio) for a variety of reporters.

See the outline.

Many people have commented on the actions of Mayhill Fowler, who went to a fund-raising dinner for Barack Obama and later wrote about remarks Obama made there. (Today Jeff Jarvis commented on Michael Tomasky commenting about Jay Rosen commenting on the matter.) Much of the fuss revolves around questions about who is a journalist, when is someone a journalist and when is she not, and whether national political figures should have an expectation of privacy at a small private dinner (snort).

I’d like to mention that in Zimbabwe, one week ago, a woman named Margaret Ann Kriel was reportedly arrested in Bulawayo (the second largest city in the country) “on allegations of practicing journalism without accreditation” (source: AllAfrica.com, April 15).

I would like us all to think about Kriel’s case whenever we are inclined to rail on about bloggers doing — or not doing — journalism.

Kriel was not formally charged, according to the report, but she had to pay bail (Z$100 million, or about US$3,300) and “surrender her travel documents.” To practice journalism without accreditation in Zimbabwe violates a national law known as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), amended in 2007.

The Zimbabwe court heard evidence that between Feb. 14 and April 10, Kriel and two other people “carried out interviews at various places in the city and surrounding areas” with two politicians (David Coltart of MDC-Mutambara and Thokozani Khupe of MDC-Tsvangirai) and with “members of the public.”

There’s a dangerous activity — one I would call journalism.

“The state will seek to prove that they carried out these activities pretending to be accredited journalists when they were not” (same source).

This is where journalist accreditation leads.

Naming who is a journalist — and who is not — is a dangerous, dangerous course to follow — and one I hope will never be pursued in my own country.