Tag Archives: social media

New online audio startup Broadcastr bets on location

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Developers in Brooklyn, New York are working on a platform that allows people to upload audio stories and geolocates them on a world map.

Broadcastr, which the developers describe as ‘a social media platform for location-based stories’, launched recently in beta.

The service is similar to the UK-based audio platform AudioBoo in terms of geolocation, but it is different in that Broadcastr’s site is entirely based on a world map.

The beta site already includes eyewitness reports from the Brisbane floods, and the site is working with Human Rights Watch in Egypt to encourage audio uploads.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk, spokesperson Kate Petty said that in cases where a country’s internet is blocked, Broadcastr could set up a voicemail service for witnesses to leave messages via a phone rather than uploading them directly to the website. Petty likened the facility to a similar response from Twitter’s when the internet was blocked during anti-government protests in Egypt.

Asked if broadcasters can use the audio reports, she explained that the contributor keeps the copyright but said the site makes it clear to those uploading audio that they are offering it up to an open community.

Petty added that it would take at least six months before the full site could be released. Free iPhone and Android apps will also be available.

Co-founder and president of Broadcastr (and former snowboarder) Scott Lindenbaum acknowledged they are not alone in developing audio-based social media applications. “The start-up space is competitive, like snowboarding, and you want to be successful, but it’s also about seeing what’s possible, and advancing the community as a whole.”

Andy Hunter, co-founder and CEO added: “Just like Facebook proved that our friends are important, Broadcastr will prove that our neighbourhoods are important.”

Petty was unable to reveal the cost of creating the startup, but said it is currently funded by developers’ friends and family.

Mashable: Facebook brings its Comments plugin to outside publishers

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Mashable reports on Facebook’s updated Comments plugin and its use by publisher partners, including the Economist.

Facebook released Tuesday its updated Comments plugin, which includes a robust set of new features. The social networking site also announced that a slew of publisher partners will now integrate the plugin as their commenting platform of choice.

See the full post on Mashable at this link

BetaTales: The digital makeover for journalists

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BetaTales suggests a seven-step plan for print journalists wanting to move into digital media, including getting to grips with social networks, online journalism, photo editing and making short video clips.

Step 3: Learn basic photo editing

In big print organizations specialists often take care of the photo editing. So far, at least.  Hardly any web site editorial organization can afford that luxury. Instead it is expected that all journalists know how to crop and photo shop an image. And I tell you: There are hardly any journalists under the age of 30 that do not know photo shopping today at some level.

Full post on the seven-step plan at this link

On the Media: Andy Carvin and Twitter’s ‘new kind of journalism’

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NPR’s On The Media show has Andy Carvin discussing how a ‘new kind of journalism’ has been created by social media reports from the Arab world. Carvin has been vetting sources and trying to verify individual tweets from the Middle East and North Africa since the recent uprisings began.

Listen using the embedded player below.

Full post on On The Media at this link

Facebook fans – quantity or quality?

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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.

Mashable launches new personalised news service

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Technology site Mashable has launched a new personalised news service: Mashable Follow.

Mashable founder Pete Cashmore says the move is part of a shift away from a “purely editor-driven news site” to becoming a “true news community that seeks to engage our readers in the news process”.

Beyond personalization, we believe that curation is the next great wave in news, and empowering our community to choose the news of the day is the ultimate aim of the Follow project.

Full story on Mashable at this link.

Jon Snow to look at social media in Bob Friend memorial lecture

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Channel Four presenter Jon Snow will look at social media’s impact on journalism when he gives the annual Bob Friend Memorial Lecture later this month.

Held at Kent University on February 25, the talk will be entitled ‘From film to Twitter – the media revolution: is the golden age of journalism come or gone?’

BBC general director Mark Thompson gave last year’s lecture, which he used to defend the corporation’s decision to axe two digital stations and cut the size of its website.

The event was established in 2009 in memory of Sky News reporter Bob Friend.

Data Miner: Social searching – who has the story?

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There is a lot of so-called ‘noise’ on social media networks. A lot of stuff in general. But it is, at times, a great place to find leads or information about stories.

In part two of a series on “social searching”, Nicola Hughes of Data Miner UK has posted a useful guide to some of the tools you can use to cut through all the noise and find what you are looking for, including Topsy, Kurrently, socialmention, and Twitter’s advanced search options.

When you’re chasing something specific then go to Twitter’s advanced search. I’m not sure why it’s not in a more convenient place on the Twitter site itself. This gives you loads more options especially location, people and even language. By far and away the best resource for big breaking events.

See the full post on Data Miner UK at this link.

See part one – Social searching: what’s out there? – at this link

Knight Center: What the Waco Tribune-Herald has learned from its premium content model

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Four months ago, the Waco Tribune-Herald launched a premium content payment model, keeping breaking news, obituaries and other sections free but introducing levies on more in-depth work.

Knight Digital Media Center blogger Michele McLellan has posted an interview with Tribune-Herald editor Carlos Sanchez, and although he can’t divulge the numbers it sheds some light on how communities may respond to such a model.

Q. How do you decide what content is for online subscribers only?

Our strategy from the beginning was to keep things as simple as possible. Generally, if it’s a wire story that is available at other websites, it’s free; if it is something locally produced, it’s behind a pay wall.

There are broad exceptions: staff written blogs, breaking news and, most important, obituaries (are free). Our thinking behind the blogs was that our reporters could offer more of a social media feel, with links to content behind the pay wall. Ideally, it would replicate the kind of banter that we hear every day in a newsroom in which the story behind the story becomes just as fascinating as the story itself.