Tool of the week: Transcribe

What is it? Transcribe is a simple Chrome web app that allows you to upload audio and transcribe it without switching between an audio player and a text editing document

How is it of use to journalists? Transcribe is a favourite here at Journalism.co.uk. We may have shorthand but usually opt to record Skype and phone interviews in order to concentrate on the conversation and refer back later.

If you have ever tried to transcribe quotes or sections from an audio interview and toggled between a text-editing document and the audio player, you will love this tool as it will save you time.

This free Chrome web app allows you to upload an mp3 or wav file and transcribe within the box below the player. It has some handy shortcuts, the most useful of which is the ‘esc’ key that pauses the audio and re-starts it from a second before the point at which you stopped it.

There are also shortcuts to rewind and speed up the recording, but Mac users with function keys (F1, F2 etc) set to perform other tasks will find this less useful.

Another benefit of this tool is the ability to use it off line, when working from a train, for example.

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – use Transcribe for typing quotes from audio
• Ten free apps in the Chrome web store that journalists should know about
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – Podcasts to practise shorthand
• Tool of the week for journalists – Collaborative video editing platform Stroome
• App of the week for journalists – Showcase, for creating audio slideshows

Online noticeboard n0tice has launched a Facebook sharing app, allowing users to “amplify activity” and spread posts virally.

The Guardian set up n0tice as a platform to utilise developments in social, local and mobile. It allows hyperlocals to brand their own noticeboard and keep 85 per cent of the revenue generated by charging for small ads.

A blog post published today states that n0tice’s new Facebook app allows users to automatically post content to their Facebook activity stream.

n0tice will automatically update your Facebook page when you follow people and noticeboards, star things you find interesting, or post reports, events or offers to n0tice.  The app does not share passive actions to your Facebook page such as what you are reading on n0tice.com, only explicit actions that you trigger such as following, posting, reposting, and voting.

The n0tice app for Facebook will help spread things you are doing on n0tice further around the world and help others to discover what’s happening.

• Guardian’s n0tice launches advertising platform
• Hyperlocals can now create noticeboards using the Guardian’s n0tice
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – try creating a crowdmap with n0tice
• Guardian hyperlocal platform n0tice now open to all
• New Guardian community platform n0tice invites more users

Tool of the week: Thinglink

What is it? A tool to allow you to add rich media, such as YouTube videos, SoundCloud recordings and Wikipedia entries to photographs.

How is it of use to journalists? Take a look this poster on NME.com and you will see a fantastic example of how a photo can be annotated with rich media.

Thinglink currently allows you to link to: video (YouTube, Vimeo, Ted); music and audio (Spotify, SoundCloud and iTunes); photos (Flickr, Instagram, Imgur); live music artists (Thrillcall); social media (Facebook pages, Twitter); plus Wikipedia, any event on the Eventbrite, products on Etsy, and almost anything sold on Amazon. You can also embed images.

(The below image is a screengrab and not interactive. Follow the link to see how the photo displays video, audio and more.)

Here is a quick test I did using a Telegraph logo, adding a tweet, a link to the newspaper’s Facebook page and the Wikipedia entry for the title.

The base service is free, however upgrading to a Plus or Pro plan gives you improved statistics, more uploaded images, and the ability to turn your Thinglinked images into Facebook tabs.

This tool was recommended by Luke Lewis, editor of NME.com. To recommend a journalism tool email me using this link.

16:52 Friday 27 April 2012: Updated to correct our assertion that a paid upgrade is required to embed pictures.

• Ten ways journalists can use SoundCloud
• You can now add SoundCloud recordings to Storify
• Storify launches iPad app
• Five nifty ideas for journalists using SoundCloud
• Tool of the week for journalists: Timeline

App of the week: AnalyticsPro

Devices: iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch

Cost: £3.99

What is it? An app to track Google Analytics.

How is it of use to journalists? If you have an iOS device and regularly use Google Analytics to track visitors to your news site or blog you should get this app.

It is well worth the £3.99 fee as once you are logged into your Google account you can check stats and dig deep into the visitors, traffic sources, and content of your site.

Do you have a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week for journalists.

• Analytics to help news sites understand the mobile audience
• App of the week for journalists – Flud, an RSS and news reader
• Tool of the week for journalists – TwentyFeet, analytics for your site and social networks
• App of the week for journalists – Astrid Tasks, a task manager for Android
• App of the week for journalists: Viddy, like Instagram for video

Tool of the week: Google Follow Your World

What is it? Add a location and Google will notify you every time a new satellite image is added for that location.

How is it of use to journalists? Mark a location and each time Google updates the satellite and aerial imagery in your area of interest, you will be notified.

Think of it as like Google Alerts for mapping information.

Consider the possibilities for digital journalism in having images showing the changes to the Olympics site, an area of coastal erosion or the development (or lack of change) within the Government enterprise zones.

It is a tool that requires patience as it may take months or even years for Google to update the aerial imagery for your area of interest.

• Tool of the week for journalists: Data.gov.uk’s map-based search
• Tool of the week for journalists – Trendsmap, for tracking conversations in your area
• TechCrunch: Fwix launches new location-based search portal
• Interactive maps of tornado damage
• The Guardian publishes first ‘geolocated’ article

The Financial Times has reported that the BBC has officially partnered with AudioBoo to post sound clips from programmes onto its website.

BBC journalists have been using AudioBoo since shortly after its launch in 2009 and the Radio 4 Today programme has providing catch-up audio for some time, getting around 20,000 listens to the 24 “boos” it posts each week, the FT states.

According to the article, the deal will “result in a series of branded BBC channels using AudioBoo, which the BBC hopes will broaden its audience reach worldwide”.

The FT states:

The decision to back such a small home-grown technology company is also a big step for the BBC, which has until now limited its official media partnerships to larger companies, such as Facebook and Twitter.

AudioBoo allows users to record and share up to three minutes of audio using the iPhone app or website. It also offers paid subscriptions for those who want to record and share longer interviews and sounds.

After launching in 2009, London-based AudioBoo gathered a loyal following of journalists and well-known personalities such as Stephen Fry who gave the platform an early boost.

AudioBoo founder and CEO Mark Rock told the FT that the BBC deal “took 18 months and 38 meetings to complete, because it was the first time a large media outlet had given official sanction to his business”.

• Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – use iPhone Audioboo app to catch short audio clips
• How to record audio interviews using Facebook’s new video option
• Audio reporting tool Audioboo experiments with paid-for account for ITV
• App of the week for journalists – TinyVox, for recording and sharing audio notes
• App of the week for journalists: SkyRecorder, for recording Skype calls on iPhone/iPad

App of the week: Signal

Operating systems: Apple (iPhone 3GS+, iPod touch, iPad2+). An Android version is in the pipeline.

Cost: Free

Release: The app will launch in Lebanon this month, and will be available in the UK within two months.

What is it and how is it of use to journalists? Inspired by the Arab Spring, Signal is an app that assists and encourages citizen journalism by allowing users to create “mini stories” by capturing real-world events using cameras and geolocation.

The user community vote for these mini-stories to derive the top ones. The final result is an app that shows you the top stories of any country of the world, created and voted by the users in a decentralised, crowdsourced manner.

At the moment, content creation is limited to photographs, but creator Mark Malkoun will be adding video in a future release. An Android version of the app is also in the pipeline.

Malkoun, a Lebanese entrepreneur, told Journalism.co.uk:

Signal will provide journalists with an image-rich, organised platform that will give them new ideas and stories.

Because the mini stories are filtered by importance using votes, it will help journalists understand which stories are interesting to readers prior to writing an article.

Communication tools will be available in order to verify the story.

Follow @Signal_app on Twitter for updates.

• Channel 4 News to launch iPhone and iPad app
• Leading African news agency continues its expansion
• Economist launches app into Android Market
• Mashable: CoverItLive to integrate Twitter
• Android app update allows users to purchase Kindle newspapers

The Independent has announced that it has added music service Spotify’s new play button to its site which “means we can add a new angle to our music journalism”.

Writing in a blog post, Jack Riley, head of digital audience and content development for the Independent and i, explains that any website can add the new button which allows readers to stream music without leaving the host site.

For the Independent this means we can add a new angle to our music journalism; as well as adding streamable albums to our album reviews (see Alabama Shakes here), we can embed setlists into our live reviews (Kylie) and singles into our weekly charts. We’ll also be using the player to illustrate features; this piece from Nick Hasted on jazz’s influence on pop music (via Radiohead) is a great example of how the player can really add something to the reading experience.

You can see all of the tracks we’ve used the play button on this page which also explains how the button works. We’re tweeting articles featuring the new functionality with the hashtag #listenwithspotify and results for that hashtag from us are displayed on that page.

• Music news site SoundGenerator.com sold
• News sites can remove YouTube logo for embedded video
• Wired.com: Crowdfunding a story you can’t sell
• Google turns up to social sharing party with +1
• Google +1 button is coming to AdWords – but how useful is it?

Tool of the week: Muck Rack

What is it? A site that aggregates Twitter and social media feeds for thousands of professional journalists.

How is it of use to journalists? Journalists often break or share vital information first through social media. Muck Rack allows you to monitor trending topics among journalists in real-time. Its aim, according to Muck Rack’s creators, is to deliver “tomorrow’s newspaper to you today”.

Launched in 2009, Muck Rack now draws content from thousands of journalists who use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other sources to break news on a daily basis.

Built around a central directory of verified professionals, Muck Rack now boasts an extensive directory of top journalists from around the world which can be searched by name, publication or even beat.

Professionals only need a valid Twitter account to apply for verification, although the process is heavily vetted to ensure certain standards are met such as relevance of tweets or posts and consistent activity.

The site also emails out a daily analysis of what journalists are saying called the Muck Rack Daily, which is pored over by its editorial team.

Muck Rack dovetails well with previous Journalism.co.uk tool of the week Press Pass, which organises journalists by beat, media outlet or region.

• Tool of the week for journalists – WhenToTweet
• Tool of the week for journalists: Press Pass, to search for journalists on Twitter
• Tool of the week for journalists: Geofeedia, to locate real-time photos, videos and tweets
• Tool of the week for journalists – TimeKiwi, to create social media timelines
• Media Release: Journalists rate social media as a professional tool

Tool of the week: freeDive

What is it? A wizard to turn a Google spreadsheet into a searchable, embeddable interactive

How is it of use to journalists? This is a fantastic tool from the Knight Digital Media Center, based at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

freeDive is a wizard that allows you to take a Google spreadsheet, turn it into an interactive database, embed it into a news story and let readers to explore the data.

A word of warning: the embed code created is mainly JavaScript which some platforms restrict.

WordPress users can download a plugin such as Artiss Code Embed which works with WordPress security settings, allowing you to embed JavaScript.

The tool generates a simple embed code and also has an option to allow you to download the HTML, upload it onto your server and use an iframe.

Here is one we made earlier. This searchable database shows the ABC-audited web traffic figures for regional news groups.

• Tool of the week for journalists: Tableau Public, for data visualisations
• Tool of the week for journalists: Timeline
• Simple ways to embed a tweet in a news story
• Tool of the week for journalists – ProPublica’s TimelineSetter
• Five tools to liven up local election reporting

App of the week: Greplin

Phones: iPhone

Cost: Free

What is it? An app that allows you to search personal files, calendars, tweets and more.

How is it of use to journalists? Greplin is a fantastic tool which allows you to search your accounts, including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Yahoo Mail, Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox and LinkedIn.

It’s available via a browser but has an iPhone app which is likely to become one of your most used apps if you use several of the above accounts.

The app will allow you to enter a keyword and find any reference to that word in your personal files.

Mac users are likely to find it almost as useful as Apple’s Spotlight for searching your own documents, tweets and emails.

Greplin users have the option to pay for a premium service and add more accounts, including Delicious. For anyone who uses the bookmarking tool this can be an attractive option as you can easily find articles you bookmarked in relation to a keyword.

• Tool of the week for journalists – Greplin, to search your private files and profiles
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – reporting tools shared at #jiconf
• Tool of the week for journalists – Facebook Search
• App of the week for journalists: TweetCaster, a Twitter app with souped-up search
• Tool of the week for journalists – DocumentCloud, to analyse documents as data

Tool of the week: Data.gov.uk’s map-based search

What is it? An option of searching for data sets by geographical location

How is it of use to journalists? Since the launch of Data.gov.uk just over two years ago, and the promotion of open government data, the site has become a go to place for many journalists in search of a data set.

The site now has a map tool which allows you to search for data by location, potentially useful for journalists working on local news sites, newspapers and radio stations.

The map-based search allows you to draw a search area, submit the area and find data relating to that location.

Not tried your hand at data journalism? This guide written for Journalism.co.uk by Simon Rogers, editor of the Guardian’s Datablog tells you how to get a grip with data journalism.

• Journalism.co.uk also offers a one or two-day course in data journalism, led by Kevin Anderson. The next introduction to data journalism courses are being held on 9 May or 28 May. The intermediate data journalism course will be on 29 May. Those looking to expand their skills quickly can book on both courses, turning it into a two-day course and saving £50 on the course fees.

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – try this tutorial on using Google Fusion Tables
• #jpod – Open data and journalism: How and why journalists should be digging for stories
• #followjourn – @smfrogers Simon Rogers/data journalist
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – data opportunities for journalists
• TechCrunch: Fwix launches new location-based search portal

Tool of the week: Cuttings.me

What is it? An easy to use portfolio tool created by a freelance journalist for freelance journalists.

How is it of use to journalists? Cuttings.me was built by freelance journalist Nicholas Holmes who wanted a way of presenting links to his best work.

Launched in October, Cuttings.me now has thousands of links and is being used by journalists from the BBC to the New York Times to Al Jazeera. You can see Nicholas Holmes’ portfolio at Cuttings.me/nicholasholmes.

Last week it was been adapted and redesigned with the help of feedback from other users.

As of this today, Cuttings.me has a “multimedia clippings” feature, which opens up Cuttings.me for broadcast journalists too.

Another feature released today is RSS, allowing anyone who wants to subscribe to a feed of your best work to have an easy way of doing so.

RSS was “one of the most-requested features since the redesigned site launched late last year”, according to Holmes, who is is tourism Editor at AFP/Relaxnews and a freelance contributor to other publications including the Independent.

It’s quite a major upgrade and means users will be able to activate a personal RSS feed of their work, allowing them to easily export their cuttings to sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn to ensure all of their contacts are kept up-to-date, whenever they add a new piece to their Cuttings.me page.

A short video on how to get started with Cuttings.me is below.

• Cuttings.me, a new portfolio platform for freelance journalists
• Accessinterviews.com provides online interview archive
• Innovations in Journalism – share your links. Wait, isn’t that Del.icio.us? No, it’s more social – it’s Mento
• The top 10 most-read stories on Journalism.co.uk, 22-28 October
• Innovations in Journalism – AccessInterviews.com

App of the week:Google Latitude

Phones: iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Symbian

Cost: Free

What is it? An app, web app, website and mobile site that allows you to add your location to a Google Map.

How is it of use to journalists? This was tip picked up from Paul Gallagher, head of online content at the Manchester Evening News.

During a session on mobile reporting at news:rewired, a conference about the latest trends in digital journalism, Gallagher explained how the MEN online newsdesk has encouraged reporters to use Google Latitude to add locations two paricular stories.

When Manchester City and Manchester United faced each other at Wembley in the FA Cup final in 2011, MEN sent reporters on the fan buses and created atmosphere by reporters geotagging locations as they travelled, using Google Latitude on a mobile phone.

MEN also used Google Latitude when reporting on roadworks, liveblogging a slow journey.

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – a mobile media toolkit for smartphone reporting
• #Tip: Follow Sky News reporter in using Bambuser to livestream video
• DNA 2008: CNN says no ‘mojos’ for five years
• TheGame: How World Cup journalism works
• Twitter’s Local Trends

Poynter has a post listing cheap and useful tools that can help entrepreneurial journalists be more efficient.

It recommends Evernote, Google Docs, tools for handling invoices, Dropbox and other file transfer tools, plus back-up solutions.

The full post is at this link.

Tipster: Sarah Marshall

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – who journalists should follow on Twitter
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to deal with email overload
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to scrape web pages
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – try ScraperWiki’s new screencasts
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to set up a recording studio