Ten things every journalist should know in 2009
1. How to use Twitter to build communities, cover your beat, instigate and engage in conversations.
2. How to use RSS feeds to gather news and manage them using filtering techniques (basic or advanced).
3. That there is a difference between link journalism and ‘cut and paste’ journalism (aka plagiarism).
4. That your readers are smarter than you think. In fact, many are smarter than you – they know more than you do.
5. That churnalism is much easier to spot online. If you do this regularly, your readers are already on to you – merely re-writing press releases without bringing anything to the table no longer cuts it.
6. Google is your friend. But if you are not using advanced search techniques, you really have no idea what it is capable of.
7. You do not have to own, or even host, the technology to innovate in journalism and engage your readers. There is a plethora of free or cheap tools available online, so there is no excuse for not experimenting with them.
8. Multimedia for multimedia’s sake rarely works, and is often embarrassing. If you are going to do it, either do it well enough so it works as a standalone item or do it to complement your written coverage – for example, add a link to the full sound file of your interview with someone in your article, or a link to the video of someone’s entire speech at an event. The latter will enhance the transparency of your journalism too. Great tips and resources here and some useful tips on doing video on a budget.
9. How to write search engine friendly journalism. Old school thinking about headline writing, story structure etc no longer applies online and there is also more to learn about tagging, linking and categorisation. Sub-editors (if you still have them), editors and reporters all need to know how to do this stuff.
10. Learn more about privacy. You can find a lot of information about people online, especially via social networking sites, but think carefully about the consequences. And bear in mind that it cuts both ways, if you do not do it carefully, your online research could compromise your sources.
Similar posts:
- #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – top ten SEO tips for start-ups
- BBC launches Democracy Live with ’speech-to-text’ search
- Milwaukee Sentinel Journal shows off its video production
- Ta-da! Insite goes live – a brand new online research website
- OJR: Using Google Trends to fine-tune your news website
Working in journalism and want to boost your digital skills? Questions about starting a news business online that you've been too afraid to ask?
January 13th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
[...] other tips from John in his post: Ten things every journalist should know in 2009 Share this [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 12:50 am
[...] more on the new skills, this UK generated list of Ten Things Every Journalist Should Know in 2009, complete with links to more material, is a good start for thinking and [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 1:40 am
[...] in Journalism, Research, ToolsTags: innovation, links, lists, newspapers, rss, search engines 10 things, with links to how to use them. Examples: 2. How to use RSS feeds to gather news and manage them [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 3:18 am
In relation to 7) Wordpress is your friend. I can’t stress this enough. You can look extremely professional and do pretty much anything you might want to for free, or less than a hundred quid anyway.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:50 am
[...] Thompson i Journalism.co.uk postet i går en tipunkters oversikt over verktøy og kunnskap journalister bør ha om nettet i [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
10 Essential Things For Journalism This Year…
John Thompson over on journalism.co.uk has posted 10 things every journalist should know in 2009.And he’s right on every one of them…….
January 14th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
[...] Ten things every journalist should know in 2009, Journalism.co.uk [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Great list – I’ve one to add:
Paper is lovely, wonderful, friendly and fun, but get online, try the new stuff, and pay attention to where the Web is going.
January 14th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
[...] sich Journalisten spätestens jetzt auskennen sollten. Reporter des Senders France 24 (Keystone) Ten things every journalist should know in 2009: Die britische Seite Journalism.co.uk hat zehn Dinge gesammelt, die man als Journalist 2009 einfach [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
These are great – thanks. A positive and useful take on modern journalism.
January 14th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
[...] / pr-szakembereknek: http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/01/13/ten-things-every-journalist-should-know-in-2009/ « előző | Bükkösy Ádám — 2009. 01. 14. [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
10 choses que devraient connaitre tout journaliste en 2009…
twitter, rss, lien et copier coller, churnalisme, outils en ligne, etc…….
January 14th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
There’s one other item they should know about: HARO — Help A Reporter Out.
http://www.helpareporter.com/press/
No, I’m not paid to talk about it… nor does Shankman even know who I am. (I follow him on Twitter, but he does not follow me) But seriously awesome tool — HARO connects reporter to source. Even if I can’t help, it’s fun to see what’s being written about — and a few make me keep an eye out for their results!
January 14th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
[...] in 2009 Jump to Comments John Thompson on Journalism.co.uk has posted an interesting list of 10 Things Every Journalist Should Know in 2009 and I hope I take advantage of them to increase my knowledge of and skill in online [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
[...] Ten things every journalist should know in 2009 | Journalism.co.uk Editors’ Blog. [...]
January 15th, 2009 at 12:06 am
[...] PARA LER: Ten things every journalist should know in 2009. [...]
January 15th, 2009 at 10:43 am
[...] naar: John Thomspon in Journalism.com. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Tele2 – The beatboxin’ dogAls het maar om [...]
January 15th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
[...] Ten things every journalist should know in 2009 | Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog (tags: Medien) [...]
January 15th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
That so reminds me of the beginning days of Blogging.
Social Networks
RSS
SEO
Linking
Socializing
…..
January 16th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
[...] Inch Nails – make money by giving Journalists should be able to handle these Technologies at the latest in [...]
January 16th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
[...] Read more here [link] Tags:future_of_journalism, hackademic, Journalism, journalism_education, web2.0 [...]
January 16th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
[...] every journalist should know Posted on January 16, 2009 by Deborah Potter Only ten? John Thompson has posted a terrific list that goes beyond the obvious (learn Twitter, RSS and search techniques) [...]
January 17th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
[...] Ten things every journalist should know in 2009 | Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog: What struck me about this list is that any modern journalist should been across this knowledge well before now. Knowing that your readers are smarter than you on specific topics? Knowing how to use Google’s advanced search? How to use RSS feeds? Are working journalists really this far behind the pace? [...]
January 18th, 2009 at 1:09 am
[...] Seems like there are a lot of “What Journalists Should Do in 2009″ posts, here’s a good one by Journalism.co.uk that sums up all the things journalists should [...]
January 18th, 2009 at 6:35 am
[...] un comentario » A través de Journalism.co.uk, el listado de las diez cosas que todo periodista debería saber en el 2009 llega cuando recién comienza el año para hacer un llamado de atención a todos aquellos que, por [...]
January 18th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
[...] top ten list, this time of things journalists should know going into 2009. It’s from http://www.journalism.co.uk and there’s nothing here I wouldn’t also recommend a journalist getting their head [...]
January 18th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
[...] 23. 10 coisas que todos os jornalistas devem ficar a saber em 2009. [...]
January 20th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
[...] só como as notícias correm: a listinha abaixo saiu no journalism.co.uk, no dia 13. Daí, o Diógenes Fischer (@diogenesfischer) e a Carol Mazzonetto comentaram no tuíter [...]
January 20th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
[...] A couple of days ago, I posted a link on my Facebook page to an article titled “Ten things every journalist should know in 2009.” Almost immediately, several newspaper types in my Facebook network started to post comments about [...]
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:44 pm
[...] all journalists of course are au fiat with online techniques, as a recent information post from http://www.journalism.co.uk highlights, giving the media hints and tips on techniques they need to [...]
January 23rd, 2009 at 7:03 pm
[...] "Journalism.co.uk": Ten things every journalist should know in [...]
January 28th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
[...] should know in 2009: These come from Journalism.co.uk (via Mark Hamilton at Notes from a Teacher) A sampling: Every journalist should know how to use Twitter to build community and cover their beats…. As I’ve written before, new media tools alone won’t cure what ails journalism, but [...]
January 29th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
[...] Ten things every journalist should know (from Journalism.co.uk) — Advice for using Twitter, RSS feeds, how to effectively use search engines, and find information on social networking sites. [...]
January 30th, 2009 at 9:26 am
[...] Top tips for journalists Web-phobic journalist, or know one that needs to get online? Send them our Ten Things for 2009 – a guide to what every journalist needs to be doing. Tipster: Judith Townend. To submit a tip to [...]
February 4th, 2009 at 5:13 am
[...] leave a comment » Ten things every journalist should know in 2009 | Journalism.co.uk Editors’ Blog. [...]
February 5th, 2009 at 2:20 am
[...] 1. 10 things every journalist should know in 2009 [...]
February 7th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
[...] 10 cosas que todo periodista debería saber en 2009. [...]
February 7th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Diez cosas que deben conocer los periodistas en 2009 [EN]…
Decálogo sobre las nuevas aptitudes y conocimientos que deben adquirir los periodistas en este 2009, si quieren seguir en la ‘onda’. El primero de ellos: saber usar Twitter….
February 8th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
[...] bjuder på en lista med tio saker som varje journalist bör veta 2009. En mycket bra sådan, som jag (Sofia) kommer att [...]
February 11th, 2009 at 4:25 am
[...] it’s in that spirit that I checked out a post entitled “Ten Things Every Journalist Should Know In 2009” on [...]
February 21st, 2009 at 11:29 am
[...] Journalism.co.uk: Ten things every journalist should know in 2009 [...]
March 5th, 2009 at 3:25 am
Agreed. While its sad that the art form is dying, at least there is a small glimmer of hope in some of these suggestions.
March 24th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
[...] informal watchdog. And it’s beginning to be recognised that the papers can’t get away with this sort of thing forever: an active community of critical readers online means that [...]
March 26th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
[...] du usikker på hva som kreves av dagens journalister, ta en titt på denne bloggartikkelen: “Ten things every journalist should know in 2009″, og lær deg innholdet utenat. Da burde du være nogenlunde [...]
April 16th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
[...] guide, “Ten things every journalist should know” is a show and tell of new media resources and would work well for those starting out in the [...]
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:48 am
[...] John Thompson writes, there is no longer any excuse for not having these skills: the technology is available [...]
May 1st, 2009 at 3:35 am
Get over twitter, it’s a narcissistic, useless “social” application that only has a 40% retention rate for users anyway. My god, apparently all it takes to be a “journalist” is to be able to open a blog and talk about how important twitter is…
May 7th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
[...] you were to think off the top of your head the top ten things every journalist should know I think they would be very different from the ten that journalism.co.uk are offering. I guess it is [...]
June 17th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
[...] you think, doesn’t it? Journalism.co.uk recently put Twitter at the top of their list of Things What Journalizers Need To Be Good With in 2009 because of the way in which it allows you to enter into a discussion with your readers. Similarly, [...]
June 19th, 2009 at 5:19 am
[...] Para no aburrirlos, la lista completa (nota en inglés) la podes encontrar a través de este enlace. [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 4:08 am
The introduction of web 2.0 has changed the face of journalism, not to mention the impact and pressures of the economy. The article is great in the sense that it highlights how journalists need to adapt to the changing landscape – but it’s critical – when they’re joining the conversation, be sure to engage. I’ve noticed with Twitter, they set it up and continue to use Twitter as a platform to push their messages out. Bad mistake. You will quickly lose your followers and be un-interesting if all you’re doing is pushing out your latest article, news program, etc. The whole point is to participate and engage with your readers. This is a great way to build relationships and loyalty. Another think and I think @deljones of USA Today does a great job is actively poll your users and integrate that into your piece. A lot of times I see journalists jumping on the latest bandwagon and just reiterating things we already know. Take the next step (be innovative) and bring something vastly different that takes us to a new level of learning.
Cindy Kim