Editors' Blog | Journalism.co.uk » Mapping

App of the week for journalists – Google Latitude, for adding locations to stories

Sarah Marshall — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:45:11 +0000

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.

Similar Posts:

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – using digital tools to report elections

Rachel McAthy — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:21:59 +0000

Mashable has a very useful post which looks at how news outlets are using online tools to cover elections in the US, which offers some great ideas for journalists to take note of.

These range from hosting debates on social media platforms to produce interactive maps and “delegate trackers”.

Last year we also collected together five tools journalists might like to try when reporting election results, from visualisation tools to social publishing platforms.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

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.Similar Posts:

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – using Geocommons to map data

Rachel McAthy — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:17:11 +0000

Poynter has a detailed how-to which explains how you can use Geocommons to present data on a map. Based on the example given in Poynter’s guide, the platform seems to be particularly useful for enabling you to show information by regions when you have only more specific data, such as in this case, addresses.

The post also explains how to either produce the final map in Geocommons or modify it further in Google Fusion Tables.

Read the full post here.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

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.Similar Posts:

Ten ways journalists can use SoundCloud

Sarah Marshall — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:43:41 +0000

Audio platform SoundCloud has been around since 2007 but it is only this year that it has really taken off as a space for the spoken word as well as music.

Here are 10 ways it can be used by broadcast and digital journalists:

1. Record and share audio. You can do this from a computer or your smartphone or tablet. SoundCloud has apps for iPhone/iPad and Android but consider using one of the third-party iPhone apps that allow you to edit or trim before uploading directly to SoundCloud.

VC Audio Pro (£3.99) (a previous Journalism.co.uk app of the week) allows you to do a full multitrack edit before uploading to SoundCloud.

Try iRig Recorder (free for the basic app, £2.99 for the one with full functionality) and FiRe Studio (£2.99). Both allow you to trim and alter levels before uploading.

At Journalism.co.uk we’ve been uploading audio interviews and podcasts to our SoundCloud account, gathering over 2,800 followers and engaging with a new audience.

2. Search for sources. If you are looking for quotes or audio from a news event, search SoundCloud much in the way you would hunt down videos on YouTube. You will then be tasked with verifying the recordings, facing the same challenges as checking reports posted on Twitter and YouTube.

SoundCloud has an advanced search function which allows you to search the “spoken” category for a keyword. There is also an option of searching for content under a creative commons licence. Try searching for Japan earthquake, Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street to see the type of content available.

3. Discoverability. As with other platforms, SoundCloud hosts content that goes viral and has an embed option so you can post it to your site. Take this interview with US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. It is a message to her South Arizona constituents, her first since being shot in the head in January. It’s clocked up over 21,000 plays, and demonstrates the benefits of SoundCloud’s commenting system.

4. Create maps. You’ll need to get some help from SoundCloud, but the team can create a bespoke map to allow you to crowdsource audio or plot recordings from in-house reporters. Ben Fawkes from Soundcloud told Journalism.co.uk how you do this, explaining that all you will need to do is define a location and define a hashtag and audio will then be automatically plotted. Take a look at this example of a map created with audio from Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival.

5. Use the new HTML5 player. If you embed SoundCloud audio in blog posts you should be aware of the new HTML5 player. The standard player is Flash meaning it won’t work on iPhones and iPads. Instead, when copying the embed code click on the “customise player” and toggle through the tags to the HTML5 option.

6. Consider a customised player. There are options to customise the player, including adding photos, such as this example used on the London Literature Festival site.

7. Invite user-generated audio content. Encourage your audience to submit audio into a drop box. You can embed the SoundCloud drop box widget on your site and ask readers to upload their own audio. Here’s an example of NPR adding a widget to encourage listeners to share their summer music memories.

Another option is to consider an embeddable record button on your site. At present this will require some developer assistance but SoundCloud is now working on making an easy option so sites can add a button and encourage user-generated audio content to be submitted directly. Here is an example of a record button being used on a musician’s site. This is a different option, of a mapped audio tour guide of Dorchester, Boston, where readers can submit audio via a record button on the site.

There’s also the option of gathering audio via phone calls, as Chatter.fm has done by using Twilio technology.

Another option for user-generated content (UGC) is to use SoundCloud’s importer tool to allow readers/listeners (or your reporters) to submit audio via email or smartphone.

8. Prepare to add SoundCloud sharing to your news organisation’s app. SoundCloud is working on an iOS and Android sharing kit, which will mean you can submit audio to SoundCloud via your own app. You could encourage readers or reporters to submit stories/field recordings to your app and have the audio uploaded to SoundCloud so that it’s shareable, streamable and has all the relevant meta data.

9. Record a phone interview using SoundCloud. There are easier ways but this is a good option for when you need to record an interview and are armed only with a mobile phone. Make a three-way phonecall by calling this number, dial your interviewee and the SoundCloud line will then record your account. You can then upload the audio publicly or privately.

10. Get your audio transcribed. Speaker Text is a transcription company that is integrated with SoundCloud. It takes 48-72 hours to be transcribed and costs 99 cents a minute. It’s a way of making audio search engine optimised but you can also link to a certain sentence within the audio, for example referencing a quote or comment.

Related posts: News organisations are increasingly using SoundCloud, says founderSimilar Posts:

Tool of the week for journalists – Trendsmap, for tracking conversations in your area

Sarah Marshall — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:27:01 +0000

Tool of the week: Trendsmap

What is it? A tool that maps Twitter trends in real-time.

How is it of use to journalists? Reporters can follow trends based on a subject or location.

The map option (as shown in the below Trendsmap of Brighton) allows you to see what people are talking about in a particular area in real-time, making it a handy tool for local reporters.

The list view of keywords and hashtags (shown below) is also a good way of finding sources in an area and connecting with those people.

There are limitations, however. Mapping relies on tweets being geolocated and as the majority of people choose not to share their location, it greatly reduces the number of tweets picked up by the tool.

Trendsmap also has custom trends pages, such as this one for Formula One. Journalists writing about specific subjects such as sport may find these pages useful.

As well as acting as a tool to hunt for stories and trends, journalists can also use it to help them when sharing their stories via social media. For example, adding a relevant hashtag to a tweet can increase its reach as more people find it and share it.Similar Posts:

App of the week for journalists – Glympse, for sharing your location

Sarah Marshall — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:30:25 +0000

App of the week: Glympse

Operating systems: iPhone, Android, Windows, BlackBerry

Cost: Free

What is it and how is it of use to journalists? Glympse allows you to share your location privately by texting and emailing, or publicly on Facebook and Twitter.

It could be particularly handy if meeting a fellow journalist in a difficult environment, such as when covering a story like a protest or marathon, or more simply to send your whereabouts back to the newsdesk.

One advantage of this app over other location sharing options is that the person receiving your location can do so on a mobile phone or on a computer and the recipient does not need to have the app.

Glympse automatically records the time so the recipient can find out how long ago you were at that point and even track your movements.

The app has some handy features such as being able to add a message and specify your destination.

Reviews: It gets 2.5 stars in iTunes App Store, 4.5 stars in the Android Market and 2.5 stars in the BlackBerry App World.

Have you got 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.Similar Posts:

Tool of the week for journalists – ZeeMaps, for interactive maps

Sarah Marshall — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:18:27 +0000

Tool of the week: ZeeMaps

What is it? A free mapping tool that allows you to create interactive maps with videos and photos. ZeeMaps would be a great way of telling location-based visual stories such as of rioting, Occupy Wall Street protests and severe weather.

How is it of use to journalists? ZeeMaps allows you to create maps by uploading data sets or plotting the information using marker points, much as you would using the My Places option in Google Maps. You can then embed your map in a blog post or save as it as jpeg or pdf. It is free if you allow adverts, you can pay to go ad free.

Wired Digital is among the news organisations using the tool, according to a testimonial on the ZeeMaps site.

ZeeMaps takes the plotting marker points idea of Google Maps several steps further, allowing you to add photos, video and, using the wiki option, to collaborate and ask others to add information.

You can either upload data, such as from Google Docs, CSV, KML or Geo RSS feeds, or you can plot the information with markers, as you would using Google Maps, and then export the data as a CSV file.

In this example I added markers by hand to show newspaper offices, adding a photo and YouTube video for each. By setting a password I can ask others to contribute.

Another example is this one, which shows the location of electric vehicle charging points in Brighton. Rather than adding markers by hand, I uploaded a CSV file. Processing large data sets takes some time but ZeeMaps will helpfully send you an email to alert you when your map is ready.

Adding photos and videos of electric vehicle charging points may not greatly enhance this visualisation but creating a map for the UK riots, the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy the London Stock Exchange protests, or for a severe weather event would provide online readers with an interesting way of exploring such stories by location, viewing photos and watching videos attached to the marker points.Similar Posts:

Tool of the week for journalists – Batchgeo, for mapping data

Sarah Marshall — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 08:00:02 +0000

Tool of the week: Batchgeo

What is it? A free mapping tool. Simply paste data from a spreadsheet and see it plotted on a map.

How is it of use to journalists? Journalists who cannot code and have no technical knowledge have a wide range of tools available to them for plotting data and creating maps.

You can have a go yourself by copying and pasting data into Batchgeo. Here is a list of the most populous countries in 2100, based on United Nations predictions. (You can see the data displayed as a heat map and find out how to use Google Fusion Tables for mapping.)

Here is a regularly updated spreadsheet on Nato attacks in Libya.

Here is a list of Bristol City Council wifi hotspots.

Hattip: Andy Hume

Similar Posts:

Five tools to liven up local election reporting

Sarah Marshall — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:29:21 +0000

If you are reporting on the referendum on the voting system, the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies or from one of the 305 town halls across England and Northern Ireland with local elections, how are you going to present the results?

As a text only story which reports how many seats have been lost or gained by each party? Or are you going to try visualising the results? Here are five free and easy to use tools to liven up the results.

1. Many Eyes

Many Eyes is a free data visualisation tool. If you have not tried your hand at any data journalism yet, today could be the day to start.

A. Create a Many Eyes account;

B. Create your spreadsheet using Excel, Open Office (free to download) or Google Docs (free and web based);

You could follow my example by putting ward names across the top, parties down the side and the number of each ward seats won by each party. You will need to include the total in the end column.

C. Paste the data into Many Eyes, which will automatically read your pasted information;

D. Click ‘visualise’. In this example I selected the ‘bubble chart’ visualisation. Have a play with other visualisations too;

E. Copy the embed code and paste it into your story;

2. OpenHeatMap

OpenHeatMap is a way to visualise your results in a map. It is free and very easy to use. You start by creating a spreadsheet, uploading the data and you can then embed the map in your web page.

A. Go to OpenHeatMap (you don’t need a login);

B. Create a spreadsheet. The easiest was to do this is in Google Docs. You must name your columns so OpenHeatMap can understand it. Use ‘UK_council’ for the local council, ‘tab’ for the party and ‘value’ for the number of seats. In this example, the tab column indicates the party with the most seats; the value is the number of seats;

C. Click ‘share’ (to the right hand side of your Google Doc), ‘publish as a web page’ and copy the code;

D. Paste the code into OpenHeatMap and click to view the map. In this example you will see the parties as tabs along the top which you can toggle between. You can change the colour, zoom in to your county or region and alter the transparency so you can see place names;

E. Click ‘share’ and you can copy the embed code into your story.

3. Storify

Anyone can now join Storify (it used to be by invitation only). It allows you to tell a story using a combination of text, pictures, tweets, audio and video.

A. Sign up to Storify;

B. Create a story and start adding content. If you click on the Twitter icon and search (say for ‘local election Kent’) you can select appropriate tweets; if you click on the Flickr icon you can find photos (you could ask a photographer to upload some); you can also add YouTube videos and content from Facebook. When you find an item you want to include, you simply drag and drop it into your story;

C. The art of a good Storify story is to use your skills as a storyteller. The tweets and photos need to be part of a narrative. There are some fantastic examples of story ideas on Storify;

D. Click to publish;

E. Copy and paste the embed code into the story on your site.

4. AudioBoo

You can record audio (perhaps the results as they are announced or reaction interviews with councillors) and include it in your story.

The easiest way is to download the free smartphone app or you can upload your own audio via the website.

A. Create an AudioBoo account;

B. Download the Android or iPhone app;

C. Record your short interview. You may decide to include a photo too;

D. Login to the audioboo website and click ‘embed’;

E. Paste the embed code into your story.

Listen!

5. Qik

Qik is a free and allows you to live stream video. Why not broadcast the results as they happen?

A. Create a Qik account;

B. Download the app (iPhone, Android, Blackberry – a full list of supported phones is here);

C. The video will be automatically posted live to your Qik profile but you’ll need to add the code to your website before you record (you can also live stream to your Facebook page, Twitter account and YouTube channel).

D. To do this go to ‘My Live Channel’ (under your name). Click on it to get your embed code for your live channel.

E. Paste your embed code in your website or blog, where you want the live player to be.

How did you get on with the five tools? Let us know so that we can see your election stories.Similar Posts:

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – Google Fusion Tables

Rachel McAthy — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 09:31:20 +0000

This ‘how to’ post on Poynter offers a step-by-step guide on how to visualise data, in this case using Google Fusion Tables, to create heat maps. Tipster: Rachel McAthy.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.Similar Posts:

Beet.TV: Mapping platform Ushahidi shifting focus to revenue

Rachel McAthy — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:07:46 +0000

Open source mapping platform Ushahidi is now offering a customising service to users of its platform, in an attempt to earn its own income from the technology.

The platform, which maps reports on an event or occurance geographically, will still be free to download and run.

Speaking in a video interview with Beet.TV, executive director of Ushahidi Ory Okolloh discussed the next stage of development for the site.

Our focus up to this point has been just on getting the code out there and refining the tool. We’re now starting to work on sustainability and ways we don’t have to rely so much on foundations, but generating our own income.

The tool will always be free but now we do customisations for a fee.

Ushahidi has also recently launched a tool to help with translations of reports, a video plugin for those unable to report in other ways and there is a “revamped” iPhone app coming out soon, she added.

The idea is to just keep going and to keep always being on the edge of innovation.

Similar Posts:

Guardian experiments with Crowdmap for Pope’s visit

Laura Oliver — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 12:52:33 +0000

Following BBC London’s use of open source mapping technology Crowdmap to cover the London Underground strikes earlier this month, the Guardian is using the tool to record reports of the Pope’s visit to the UK.

The map blends text, image and video reports from the Guardian’s own team with those submitted by readers and papal bystanders. There’s a certain tongue-in-cheek element to it as well, with categories for popemobile sightings and miracles alongside reports on protests and official news.

Explains the Guardian’s Paul Lewis in a blog post:

You can send anything, but we’re particularly interested in incidents, events and insights from people who find themselves at the right place at the right time, spotting something that the papal entourage of global media miss. It is important that you tell us where you are when you send your dispatch.

The majority of the updates plotted so far are from the Guardian, but it will be interesting to see how tools like this take off and how they might be further integrated into live reporting.Similar Posts:

#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – using OpenHeatMap for visualisations

Laura Oliver — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:00:22 +0000

Mapping: Great video from OpenHeatMap’s Pete Warden on how to use the tool to create visualisations of geographic data – mainly US and maps of the world available – but worth playing with. Tipster: Laura Oliver.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.Similar Posts:

Crisis-mapping platform Ushahidi launches new simple service

Rachel McAthy — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:40:20 +0000

Open source crisis-mapping platform Ushahidi has launched a new service for the less technically minded user.

Crowdmap enables anyone to rapidly deploy the platform on a subdomain without the need for any installation.

Testing the platform yesterday Curt Hopkins from ReadWriteWeb.com came into some difficulties, but the company say these have now been ironed out. Hopkins added that if the problems are sorted, the platform has significant potential for supporting blogging in difficult situations.

Crowdmap, if it works without inducing aneurysms, may have the potential that blogging did in areas of conflict and high censorship: anyone with basic tech access and determination should be able to download, launch and run a Crowdmap deployment.

See his full post here…Similar Posts:

News Designs: How to use maps in print

Laura Oliver — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:41:33 +0000

Some great advice here from News Designs on what works best for maps and infographics in newspaper print editions. The post covers:

Typography;
Colour;
Connecting to the headline;
The use of photography;
Interpretation.

Full post on News Designs at this link…Similar Posts: