Tag Archives: CNN

Blog post = one line (13 words) gets 5 comments

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I have my suspicions that the love of commenting on blogs is more ardently felt on the US side of the Atlantic than here in the UK.

I’m offering this little example up as evidence. A one line – 13 words – post on Lostremote that has so far led to five comments.

It’s not extraordinary, I happily admit that. But it is interesting that the few words: CNN’s Jeffery Toobin did a live shot from a Maui hotel via Skype have generated such interest.

I’m sure it’s probably not even the best example of brevity generating a response (if anyone can offer links to sharper examples, I’d be extremely grateful) what is interesting though is whether more of a story can be built from the comments to the one line post.

Cory Bergman, who posted the one line, seems to hope so. The fifth comment is from him in response to the other four asking for more information.

DNA 2008: CNN says no ‘mojos’ for five years

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Laurel Chamberlain, director of digital media for news at Turner Media, told delegates at DNA 2008 that CNN would not be adapting its journalists or content for mobile phones in the near future.

Chamberlain, who was speaking in a panel discussion on the business of mobile news, said there was currently no need to use specially trained mobile journalists or alter content for mobile.

“There are always ways of looking at how we can condense what we put onto mobile, but at this stage I don’t think it’s necessary,” Chamberlain said.

“If people only want to read the first paragraph of a story that’s fine by me, but so far we’ve found they’re reading five or six pages of one story.”

In the UK the Manchester Evening News has been experimenting with mobile journalism, giving reporters Vodafone handsets to file news copy and pictures on the fly.

Reuters has also been conducting its own ‘mojo’ trials since last summer with reporters equipped with lightweight Nokia kits producing multimedia coverage from the US Presidential primaries and the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

But Chamberlain said such experiments were not being carried out at CNN: “I don’t think special mobile journalists are coming soon for CNN, maybe in another five years when we are only thinking about the mobile space.”

Local newspapers must ‘own’ local news, says Curley

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In a recent blog post, the Washington Post’s Rob Curley applauds the Las Vegas Sun newspaper for its coverage of a fire at the Monte Carlo hotel, Las Vegas. Curley heaps praise on the layered and multimedia approach the paper took in its reporting, as well as the speed with which it was produced.

This is his breakdown of how the news was reported by the Sun:

1. Began with a live blog, regularly updated by the newsroom staff.

2. Addition of photos – the newspaper also set up a way for users to submit their own images through Flickr.

3. Overview of the situation and context e.g. history of the Monte Carlo hotel.

4. Addition of videos – all put up, as Curley points out, while the building was still burning.

“To me, this was a nearly textbook example of how a local newspaper should cover a big breaking news story in its community in the iPhone era,” Curley writes.

His advice to other newspaper newsrooms: be prepared for breaking news.

  • Ask what the contingency plan is for a sudden surge in traffic coming to your site – can it cope?
  • Have breaking news page templates to hand – something that Curley used in his time with the Naples Daily News and the Lawrence Journal-World.
  • Offer real time coverage to beat rival media.
  • Don’t just treat the story in print – this will be after the event has happened and too late.

Why bother? Because, says Curley, local news organisations should use their proximity to events to beat off the competition and serve their audience best.

A comment on this article from Saturday’s print edition of the newspaper, which was used to complement the web coverage, neatly sums up Curley’s argument: “I couldn’t have got that from CNN or any other news station. I was hooked from the start.”

Death of Chinese ‘citizen journalist’ sparks online outrage

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A Chinese man, who used his mobile phone to film a confrontation between the authorities and protesting villagers in the country’s central Hubei province, was beaten to death by city officials, according to a report by CNN on Friday.

The death of Wei Wenhua, a 41-year-old construction company executive, has been widely condemned across online forums and news sites in China, the article states.

“Wei is the first ‘citizen journalist’ to die in China because of what he was trying to film,” a statement from press freedom campaign group Reporters Without Borders said.

“He was beaten to death for doing something which is becoming more and more common and which was a way to expose law-enforcement officers who keep on overstepping their limits.”

CNN’s missed opportunity with Bin Laden tape

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When CNN lost out to Reuters on new video footage of Osama Bin Laden, CNN revealed the reason why: their contract with the news provider had been ended a week before.

But it would seem someone missed a trick, as the European web trawler who found the Bin Laden footage tried to submit it to CNN via their I-Report feature, which asks users to submit their own video news stories.

Despite contacting the cable channel through their website – the only available method being web e-mail forms – the video’s seller never received a response.

He even posted it to Twitter before trying to sell it on.

It begs the question of how many other exclusives have been lost through a lack of web-savvyness?

There’s more on this at Inside Cable News.