Tag Archives: communities

2011 Knight Batten journalism innovation awards open for entries

This year’s Knight Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism are now open for entries.

According to guidelines from organiser the J-Lab Institute for Interactive Journalism, the awards recognise “pioneering approaches to news and information” and those entering can submit “journalism content, new journalism processes or ideas, or tools or new applications that promote the information needs of communities and/or enhance digital engagement”.

The contest is open to all news efforts originating between 1 May  2010, and 6 June 2011.

The winners will be announced at the Knight-Batten Awards Symposium in September 2011, at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Last year’s grand prize was won by Sunlight Live, an offshoot of US non-profit and think tank the Sunlight Foundation, after it was used to livestream video and aggregate content around a major US healthcare summit.

10,000 Words: Newsrooms can learn from tech start-up culture

Newspapers looking to reinvent their newsroom culture could learn a few things from small, nimble tech start-ups, according to a post on tech-meets-journalism blog 10,000 Words.

Suggestions include replacing your website’s dull list of contacts with individual journalist photos and biographies and getting journalists to do more behind-the-scenes blogging about their daily work.

“In an era when we’re pushing for news transparency more than ever, creating a team page and individual biography pages should be easy to accomplish,” the site says.

“For a newspaper or other news site, the page could contain background information, areas of interest, disclosures, and ways to contact that author if you have a tip.

“There’s so much we can learn from trials and tribulations in our newsrooms that we can share with other newspaper staffs or our readers.”

See the full list of ideas here.

Lost Remote: Media brands stand to benefit from new Facebook features

Media brands stand to benefit from some of the new features being rolled out by Facebook, according to Lost Remote.

One of the most important new features is the ability for page administrators to post comments as the corresponding page brand (in our case, “Lost Remote”), not just as themselves. This certainly comes in handy when moderating a comment string and sharing the admin duties across several people. You’re communicating as a brand, not as a bunch of unrelated people. To avoid dehumanizing pages entirely, admins are displayed in the upper right of the page, which is a nice touch.

Full post on Lost Remote at this link.

Facebook fans – quantity or quality?

Should newsrooms and web journalists be cultivating as many Facebook fans as possible or concentrating on building the right kind of connections?

There are pros and cons to both, according to Journalistics. More fans equal more visitors to your site and more conversations. However, quality fans mean better conversations – potentially leading to better stories.

Full post on Journalistics at this link.

Sky News forums: what went wrong?

Suw Charman-Anderson looks at what went wrong with Sky News’ forums, which were shuttered last month. A thoughtful post on community management more generally:

If Sky News have not been paying full attention to their community, then they only have themselves to blame when things go south. You can’t just leave people to it. As human beings we are used to living within constraints, and the idea that the web is a place where they are not needed is a myth. Communities need limits, and those limits need to be communicated, discussed and thoughtfully enforced.

Full post at this link…

Comment is Free: Panel debate on web moderation for news sites

As part of its Talking Shop series, editors, moderators and Comment is Free users are debating how moderation should be handled and what could improve the quality of comments and debate on news websites. More than 500 comments on the debate so far flag some interesting suggestions from readers on how moderation should be handled – a useful read for anyone working on a moderation and interaction policy for their site.

Full debate on Guardian.co.uk at this link…

Robert Niles: ‘Communities are key in building websites’ advertiser support’

Robert Niles looks at the monetary benefits of an online community over on the Knight Digital Media Center’s OJR blog: “If a website’s editorial mission focuses on building community, as I’ve argued, so should its advertising sales strategy focus on community as well. Don’t fall into the trap of selling potential advertisers nothing more than numbers; don’t neglect to sell them on the opportunity to support the community that you are building.”

Full story at this link…