How do you get to it? Well… just go to this class website and your phone’s website will find the mobile version for you. Cool, eh?

Feel free to check out the blog post on my nerd blog.

http://social-media-optimization.com/category/brand-marketing/

http://www.reportr.net/

http://www.cyberjournalist.net/

http://www.newstechzilla.com/

And here are some links from Jen:
Americans spending more time following the news
Journalists have donated almost half a million dollars to politicians in this election cycle
A new way Huffington Post is encouraging reader use
Journalism shouldn’t be afraid of web metrics
Archive of the Block by Block conference from over the weekend (#bxb2010 on Twitter)

A suburb of Austin, Texas is using social media and applications to keep its residents informed and connected. The city government posted signs with barcodes that can be read on mobile phones. The barcodes then give residents information on historical sites around the city. The city also uses an application that allows people to report street and water issues (both via text and pictures). The catch? The town’s population is only about 5,500 people. It’s on the cutting edge for government use of technology within cities, yet it’s a smaller town.

(Jen here: These are often called QR codes. I have one on my nerd blog.)

Mashable is tracking 10 emerging social platforms and more than a few are extremely intriguing. SCVNGR is a location based game that awards points to users for checking in from specific places with the idea being that businesses pay SCVNGR to award more points for checking in from their location, therefore driving up traffic. Help A Reporter Out is another interesting idea that connects reporters with potential sources through a web interface. It’s almost like a facebook for journalists and experts to connect. NewsBasis does virtually the same thing but instead of connecting journalists with individuals, it connects them with companies.

Skype in the news room: This article reminds me of a question I’ve had for years now. Given the popularity of conferencing programs like Skype and the amount of resources now available for collaboration, why haven’t more media organizations considered moving their operations into home offices? Obviously television studios and actual printing press locations will still have their use, but for news operations, is there still a pressing need for media companies to pour so much capital into real estate and facilities? If Skype is good enough to actually “change the way we do business,” according to the NBC News reporter quoted in the article, why aren’t organizations looking at the broader advantages it might offer? To paraphrase it this way: Is office space truly necessary in today’s media environment?

Jen’s extras:
The Future of Social Media in Journalism
NPR’s Argo Project Goes Public
Washington Post Puts Hashtags to Work on 9/11
Local East Village Launches
What to do with Web Metrics

Soul Pancake: The brainchild of Rainn Wilson (Dwight from the Office). Its a website that acts like a forum and brain dump for users. Not necessarily a news forum, but a great place to get ideas about what people are talking about — uncensored, unfiltered, and raw (or so they claim). Plus, what a fun name.

New York Times Online Blogs: A list of blogs, by the king of newspapers — though very simple in nature, I absolutey love this page. I read more of these posts, then follow their links than I do actually stories from NYT. My personal favorite are the family/life blogs. Im the child of divorce, a millennial, and a higher education student — all hot topics this summer on these blogs.

Reporters Desktop: Got this bad boy from Mark Horvit last semester. Just wanted to pass it along as a nice bookmark for fellow reporters.

Mashable: I follow them on twitter. Great source for breaking web news, providing analysis of trends, reviewing new Web sites and services, and offering social media resources and guides. (And here’s their twitter list directory: http://mashable.com/twitterlists/)

—————–
Some news from the ‘net that I think you should know from the last couple of weeks:
Twitter breaks the news during a hostage situation
A tweet gone bad
Meet the tech pioneers of 2011
News stories on Facebook Search
Apple’s message: local news should follow its viewers
A cool new nerd blog from Propublica
A true sign of how journalism is changing
A news station is not liable for “cyber libel”

Here are some fantastic thoughts on this topic:
Steve Yelvington: Nine years of insanity, and journalism shares the blame
Ted Koppel: Nines years after 9/11, let’s stop playing into bin Laden’s hands
Dan Gilmour: When a Fringe Figure Becomes the News
Slate: Quranamok
Nicholas Kristof: Is This America?

The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism looked at how the media changed five years post-9/11/01. The stats are old, but the information shows the shift in focus in the national media even back in 2006: How 9/11 Changed the Evening News
Speaking of PEJ, I’d recommend reading its State of the News Media 2010

100 Great WordPress Themes, www.pingable.com

100 Free WordPress Themes, Smashing Magazine, May 18, 2009

10 Steps to the Perfect Portfolio Site, Smashing Magazine, February 26, 2009.

Why you need a portfolio site, wpjourno.com, July 4, 2010

Site examples:

Ryan Chartrand
Matt Flener (same template, different look)
Lauren Rabaino
Martin Gee (using Mobile Me account)
Brett Roegiers
Erica Smith
Will Sullivan (RJI Fellow @ Mizzou this year)
Rachel Yoens

Our class hashtag is mentioned in this blog post!

Using Social Media to Recruit Viewers Graeme Newell, 602communications.com, August 18, 2009

Spreading the Brand Message One Community at a Time Richard Buck, MarketingProfs.com, January 9, 2007 (you will need to register for free)

Personal Branding Blog (it’s worth reading and following some ideas and discussions there)

CNN’s Election Center: She liked the simplicity of the site and the depth of knowledge you can gain here

Erica really like to keep track of sites that watch over stories that fact check reporting. She share Medialens as an example that examines reports.

She also shared FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting). She showed this specific article showing how video shot in Seattle of police brutality but the newsroom didn’t offer any perspective into a possible deeper problem.

Other fact checking and informative sites I like online is FactChecker.org – which looks at policy campaigns that are true or false, SPJ’s Journalism Toolbox and Journalism That Matters.