10 March 09 - Final Project-social Media

Final Project / Social Media JOUR 3340 - Online Journalism March 10, 2009

Today’s Class Website of the Day Final Project Discussion News websites & Social media

Final Project  Your final project is designed to: 1) Take our class

readings, discussions and analysis and put them into practice; 2) Tap into your skill as a journalist and novice at understanding how the internet works, particularly how content can be presented on the Internet; and 3) Allow you to further develop your website/blog so that you can continue to maintain it beyond this class.

 Your final grade for this project will be based on

your thoroughness in reporting and writing; use of interactivity (e.g. use of related links, photos, slideshows, audio and video), your creativity and your 10-minute in-class presentation. You are not expected or required to hire a web designer or a programmer. All the tools you need are readily available for free on the web,

Final Project cont. Here’s the assignment:  Create a one-page description and outline

of a blog you will create. DUE, March 26th.

In this description, please give me a brief

story description, the potential sources and anticipated interactive elements. This story may be focused campus-related issues, local or regional. Avoid issues that require any personal information. You must avoid subjects that rely on friends and/or families serving as your primary sources. The blog must include at least a Home

Page, About, News, Links as its basic

Final Project cont.  FINAL PROJECTS ARE DUE: CLASSTIME,

Thursday, April 30th. Presentations will begin that date based on names randomly identified during the April 28th class.

The basic content requirements are:  One (1) 500-word written news or feature story with a photo slide show consisting of at least 15 photos you have taken.  Four (4) 150-word written stories that may be originally written and/or rewritten stories from existing news websites. You must include a link to the original story. These briefs could include additional background to your main story, information about people/places/things discussed in your story or related research about your story.

 You may substitute the one (1) 500-word story

with a new story with one story that must be at least 90 seconds and no more than three (3) minutes. If you choose to do a video

Final Project Cont. You will be expected to post the

video on your blog as well as the related script. If you are planning to do an audio/ slide show package, you must submit a 250-word summary. The slide show should last between 3 and 5 minutes and must include detailed captions to each of the photos.     You are free to use whatever free online tools and/or software currently

available and accessible through the University of North Texas computers. E.g. audacity.com; soundslides.com, youtube.com, swivel.com, etc.     There will be designated LAB times to allow you to work on the project throughout the week, but we must coordinate those with other classes requiring the same equipment (cameras, digital recorders, edit time on computers, sound booth.). Please complete the Registration Card so

Sample Final Projects http://splitendz.wordpress.com http://firstinmyfamily.wordpress.com/ http://mainstreeteconomy.wordpress.com/ http://tedemrich.wordpress.com/ http://subweapon.com http://sawadeeka.wordpress.com/ http://extrasmall.wordpress.com/

Social Media & News Should newspapers engage in social

networks? Why? Reach younger readers Build community Ability for one-to-one as well as one-to-many Generate a dialogue with readers Get readers talking to each other – within the

umbrella of your brand Develop a sense of ‘belonging’ Drive additional traffic

Social Media & News Why not? Fragmentation of audience Loss of control of ‘filtered’ content Dilution of brand Inability to manage the conversation Danger of inaccurate, rumor-based content

Where Newspapers Rank?

http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?cc=US& #1: Google #2: Yahoo! #3: Facebook #15: CNN.com #23: ESPN.com #24: Weather.com #26: nytimes.com

Newspaper Trends/Social Media The number of papers who opened up

stories to user comments also more than doubled in the last year to 75 percent in 2007 versus just 33 percent the year before. Newspapers are still a little slow on other ordinary aspects of social media. For example, just 10 percent of

newspapers had social networking tools, such as user profiles and the ability to “friend” other users, built into their sites in 2008.  Only five percent of newspapers had such features in 2007. It is surprising that this http://www.bivings.com/thelab/presentations/2008study.pdf number isn’t higher and demonstrates

Newspaper Trends/Social Media

http://www.bivings.com/thelab/presentations/2008study.pdf

Newspaper Trends/Social Media  Ten percent of newspapers had social

networking tools, such as user profiles and the ability to “friend” other users, built into their sites in 2008.  This compares to five percent of sites that included

this feature in 2007. It is surprising that this number isn’t higher.

 Seventy six percent of newspapers offered a

Most Popular view of content in some form (Most Emailed, Most Blogged, Most Commented, etc.).  This compares to 51 percent in 2007 and 33 percent in 2006.  Integration with external social bookmarking sites like Digg and del.icio.us has increased dramatically the last few years.   Ninety-two percent of newspapers now include

http://www.bivings.com/thelab/presentations/2008study.pdf

this option compared to only seven percent in 2006.