Podcast Archives – Page 43 of 45

#21 – ONA’s Joshua Hatch knows how to use data visualizations and so should you

WASHINGTON – Rethinking the approach to a story can be challenging even for the most weathered of journalists. Many of us know our medium and have not ventured too far beyond it when it comes to storytelling. Data visualizations are becoming a more popular way for journalists to do their jobs, either in finding a story in the numbers or as a supplement to a larger investigation.

Josh Hatch joined Michael and Megan for a taping on Jan. 5, 2013. (Photo by Megan Cloherty)

Since some of us are just venturing into the world of data vis, it may seem like a relatively new medium. But experts like Joshua Hatch have made a career out of specializing in data-driven reporting. Hatch is the senior editor of data and interactives at the Chronicle of Higher Education. He’s an Online News Association board member and adjunct professor of journalism at American University in Washington, D.C.

After working with data for years, Hatch understands its storytelling value. We discussed the best use of data is when it answers a question.

“You’re getting data you can then act on. So the same is true with … knowing the point spread of a game, or it might be what stock is tanking. So, I think a lot of times data is really a step towards answering questions, solving a problem, that sort of thing,” Hatch said.

“I think a lot of times data is really a step towards answering questions, solving a problem, that sort of thing.”

Hatch was kind enough to write us a how-to guide to aquainting yourself with the basics of data visualizations. For those of us who aren’t looking to become experts, he says it’s still important to understand the capabilities for story telling with data — not only to increase your knowledge base, but to better understand the challenges and lingo of the data experts in your newsroom.
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#20 – Love to hate the media? Download a daily dose of media criticism

A lot of people hate the media. That’s proved to be something of a boon for The Daily Download, the news and media-criticism website.

“We’re scum of the earth to a lot of people, so those are the people who like to read this,” joked Lauren Ashburn, the website’s founder and editor-in-chief.

Lauren Ashburn, editor-in-chief and founder of The Digital Download (Photo courtesy of Lauren Ashburn)

“We find that a lot of people in the industry who are at big jobs, they want to make sure they know what’s being said and who’s being criticized,” said Ashburn. “And so, that’s where a lot of our audience comes from. It comes from New York, Washington and L.A. But, there is a significant part of the middle of the country and regular folks who really hate media and want to weigh in on their mistakes.”

“We’re scum of the earth to a lot of people, so those are the people who like to read this.”

What has helped to drive traffic to the site — it has 700,000 unique visitors after just six months — is its ability to function as an equal opportunity offender of sorts, straddling the political fence with stories that rankle the rank and file of both the right and the left.

“One of the stories that did really well for us was by one of our columnists … David Zurawik, who’s the Baltimore Sun TV critic, and he did a piece for us talking about why Chelsea Clinton was a terrible journalist and why she was a ‘pretend’ journalist,” Ashburn said. “Matt Drudge’s site picked it up, and it just went on fire. Obviously, Drudge picked it up because he has the … right wing bent.”
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#19 – Jan Schaffer fosters innovation, media entrepreneurship

Jan Schaffer, the executive director of J-Lab, wants to help media entrepreneurs find new ways to succeed.

A Pulitzer-Prize-winning business editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, she left her daily journalism gig in 1994 to become one of the pioneers of the growing civic-journalism movement.

Jan Schaffer, executive director, J-Lab (Photo by Megan Cloherty)

In 2002, she launched J-Lab to help journalists develop new projects with innovative technologies.

“I think journalism is very much in flux,” Schaffer said. “A lot of legacy news organizations have been disrupted. But at the same time, a lot of media entrepreneurs are coming up with entirely new media products that are very exciting. They are filling the gaps that have been created by old media, where old media has pulled out of areas or pulled reporters off the streets. So, there’s a lot of innovation going on and a lot of entrepreneurship going on.”
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#18 – Kate Gardiner: Time for journalists to take back their audience

Social media is not a fad.

Kate Gardiner, a New York-based journalist and social media consultant, said journalists need to recognize that truth and continue to use social media to build communities online where they can better serve and interact with their audience.

Kate Gardiner, shown here in 2009, is the founder of Distill Media. (Photo courtesy of Insider Chicago)

But Gardiner has one caveat.

“I think that we have to start driving our audience back to our freaking websites, though,
because we have managed to put ourselves in an awkward position in terms of Facebook, where we’re paying to play with people who were our consumers in the first place. We kind of give them to them,” she said.
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#17 – Clinton Yates, Washington Post Express and Root D.C., enhances his reporting on multiple platforms

WASHINGTON – Get motivated by the change that’s happening in newsrooms, or get left behind. That was part of the conversation during our talk with Clinton Yates, local news editor for the Washington Post Express, writer for The Root DC and co-host of the 3 Wise Men podcast.

Yates talks about getting his start in the business in sports before realizing his passion for sharing his own experience in editing. (Photo by Megan Cloherty)

“Is there pressure to get along other platforms? I guess. But if you don’t feel the pressure and you’re in the business, I don’t really know what you’re there for,” Yates said in the podcast recorded on Dec. 8.

He has the mindset of a multimedia journalist but came about it in a very organic way, by taking on each platform as his career branched off to new mediums.

Read full transcript of Clinton Yates interview.

Yates grew up in the District, an experience that shaped his voice as a reporter. Having personally experienced the transitions of the city in the past few decades, Yates entered the world of journalism with a confidence normally found in beat-weary 30-year reporting veterans.

Knowing the city’s evolution informs Yates’ reporting and gives him perspective he says he would never ignore.

“If you don’t remember what it is that you know, there’s no real point in reporting. At least not to me. It’s not just to me about walking into a room, hearing what someone says and writing it down. It’s a lot more than that … Especially, if you’re going to be reporting in your home town. That’s the whole advantage that you have being from here. You know things that have happened before you walked into the room,” he said.
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#16 – Jim Brady talks digital first, sustainability and fearless journalism

Journalism’s demise is greatly exaggerated.

At least, that’s how it looks from where Jim Brady, the editor-in-chief of Digital First Media, is standing.

“I was just saying to somebody in New York yesterday, there isn’t one person sitting in this newsroom in Thunderdome that thinks journalism is dead,” Brady said, referring to Digital First’s shared-services team based in New York City.

Jim Brady, editor-in-chief at Digital First Media, talks about Project Thunderdome on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Megan Cloherty)

“Not one,” he said. “Everyone of them knows it’s going to make it. They don’t know exactly what it’s going to be and how it’s going to get there, but none of them are sitting there gloom and doom.”

As one of the pioneers of new media, first at WashingtonPost.com and then TBD.com, Brady has heard all the negativity about journalism’s future.

“I’ve been to too many conferences where the tagline of the conference should be just ‘We’re all going to die,’” he joked.

“I’ve been to too many conferences where the tagline of the conference should be just ‘We’re all going to die.’”

But with his current venture, Project Thunderdome, which launched last July, Brady is helping to build a different type of newsroom — one that can thrive in the digital environment.
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#15 – Can digital novels teach print journalism how to thrive online?

One of the questions we ask ourselves at It’s All Journalism is this:

“Is there a future for print publications online?”

Jenny 8. Lee (photo from Plympton.com)

For novels, there may be an answer in Plympton — a literary studio devoted to serialized fiction online.

“We think there’s a very exciting possibility in digital publishing to bring a story that is ongoing and growing and can be delivered to your e-reader,” said Plympton co-founder and former New York Times reporter Jenny 8. Lee (@jenny8lee).

Priced starting at 99 cents installments come out every couple weeks or weekly and range from several thousand words to 25,000 words.

#14 – Lisa Skube & Emily Harris, Journalism Accelerator

Part of our mission statement is to create a dialogue between journalists so that they can better understand the disruption that’s occurring in our industry right now and come up with ways to be more successful.

Our approach is to interview working journalists about how they do their jobs and hear what lessons they’ve learned. Our goal is to help journalists do what they do best, i.e., report the news in a new, digital world.

Emily Harris, Journalism Accelerator’s editorial director and Lisa Skube, founder and program director

We are not alone on our road of discovery. Others share our mission.

A forum about innovation in journalism beyond the usual suspects, that’s how Journalism Accelerator defines itself. The JA creates conversation among communities in search of new, sustainable models for journalism. The startup hosts online discussions, curates resources that offer practical application, connects people, and tracks ideas and emerging practices in the field. Everything is done with an eye to helping publishers thrive at this time of massive disruption in the industry.

Bonus Podcast – Alexander Howard, O’Reilly Media

When I edited my interview with Alexander Howard of O’Reilly Media, I cut out part of our discussion about the role emergency alerts and big data played during Hurricane Sandy.

Alexander Howard, O’Reilly Media

You can read Howard’s coverage here.

Listening back to the podcast interview later on, I thought Howard had some interesting things to say and that this excerpt could stand on its own.

Please enjoy this bonus podcast. Consider it a “dvd extra.”

— Michael O’Connell

#13 – Alexander Howard, O’Reilly Media

Alexander Howard has a big brain, at least when it comes to things like big data, open government and all things digital.

As the Government 2.0 correspondent for O’Reilly Media, he spends a lot of time exercising his gray matter, pondering the way technology is changing society, government and journalism. The subjects of his reports run the gamut from cybersecurity and mobility to the growth of startups in realms undreamt of just a decade ago.

Alexander Howard is the Government 2.0 Washington correspondent for O’Reilly Media.

“There are some truly fascinating trends, I think, that are occurring, really anyplace where someone has a connected smartphone in their hands now,” Howard told It’s All Journalism Producer Michael O’Connell. “And I’ve been trying to chronicle that as best I can all said for almost three years at O’Reilly and for years before that as well.”

Howard not only covers the digital world, he spends a lot of time there as well, on Facebook, Twitter (@digiphile), Google+ and his blog, digiphile.wordpress.com.

“You can’t say ‘This is who I am,’ because who you are and what you do and how you’re thought of and the value that your work is given and the reputation you have is being created by all the people around it,” Howard said. “You can add your voice to it.”

This accessibility paid off in story ideas, corrections, connections and a first hand look at how people interact in the digital universe.

“The decision I made a number of years ago is to proactively put myself out on a lot of these networks, because I made the call, and I think it was an accurate one, that people would be searching for it on Google and all these networks and that it really behooved me to make myself findable and my work findable.”