Journalism 392W: Writing for the Web

At the ContentNext conference in New York recently, some sports media guys were talking about the “two-screen experience,” (no kidding) and the idea that more and more sports fans will be watching the game on one big screen, with a laptop, blogging, twittering or responding in some fashion to what’s going on on the big screen. Jeesh. Too much for me, although I have to confess to having a “two-screen experience” on election night myself.

But it’s not just about watching the action, it’s about manipulating the action–and viewers have come to expect a role in the process. What does that mean for creators of works?

Here’s a recent New York Times story: “Becoming Screen Literate.” 

In fact, the movie industry is so concerned about this that someone has put the money up for a new Center for the Future for Future Storytelling at MIT.

What do you think? Is it a good thing or a bad thing that we can mashup/rewrite/change the beginning/middle/end of works?

Poynter has a piece today on the growing trend of journalists leaving television and newspaper jobs to work online.

..unless you’ve totally checked this source out!

Read this NYTimes piece on how a very savvy blogger pulled one over on the media. The next time you use a website or blog post as a source, ask yourself: how do I know these people are for real??

Your final project is an exercise not just in journalism, producing some good stories for a specific audience, but it’s also entrepreurial in nature. Here’s a story on just that topic.

Blank the  blog by Aaron Hobbs

Travel!  by Elyse Wood

Whiskey and Records by Brian Wood

I Heart Barack Obama, by Mary Leah Assad

This I Believe: Self Responsibility by Julianne Vaccaro

Money Does Buy Happiness by Michael Teneriello

Autism is Not a Burden  by Lucas Correia

The Season of Appreciation by Kaitlyn Silva

On Procrastination by Frank Godinho

I Believe in a Good Nap by Hollis Smith

 I am very proud of your work. You started a month ago with nothing but an idea, and used your journalistic and web skills to create interesting projects.

Please take a look at your fellow classmates’ work and offer comments on each site. Put on your editor’s hat and offer positive feedback as well as constructive criticism. How does the site look? Are the headlines appropriate and interesting? What could be improved on this project? Thanks, everyone.

Aaron Hobbs:  The Amethyst Initiative.

Frank Godinho: UMass Goes Green

Kaitlyn Silva: OIT Brings Technology to UMass

Rich Lombard: UMass Students and the Presidential Election

Lucas Correia: The Amethyst Initiative

Elyse Wood: Massachusetts Ballot Referendum, Question One

Brian Wood: Campus Crime at UMass

Hollis Smith: Farming in the Pioneer Valley 

Michael Teneriello: Campus Crime at UMass

Michael Messina: Campus Improvements at UMass

Here’s some interesting research on optimal line width for copy meant to be read on a monitor. The upshot: 4-5 inches wide is best.

Here’s another site. Is 60-80 characters best?

Here it the link to  Podcast Solutions, an E-book.

Please read chapters 1-4 by Monday.

OIT has two handouts you should also read. They are here.

Here’s the ITunes guide to podcasts. Please go to the ITunes store, find a journalism-style or personal journal podcast that you love, and post the link and a comment on it by 6 p.m. on Thursday. Over the weekend, please log on and try to listen to a few.

Go to Poynter.org News U and take the workshop on legal issues for bloggers. Here’s the link.

I love Wired Magazine, so I was interested to see this interview with contributing editor Jeff Howe, author of Crowdsourcing: How the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business.

FYI: Follow the above link to Amazon, where Howe converses with readers who have bought his book. You should do this when you publish your book!

In this interview, Howe talks about the pros and cons of user generated content and crowdsourcing. Newspapers, magazines and journalists ignore the trend at their peril, he says.