One of my fellow former fellows asked our pcf09 Google Group about social media, singling me out near the end of her message. After I wrote this response (sent 6:33 p.m. CT), I thought “sharing is caring,” so here you go!
Whoa, I kinda feel on the spot. Well, um… I’m going to cop out and defer to some smarter people/sites/articles except to say that I think some of the most important things to understand, for this group of already amazing storytellers and journalists, are the fundamentals of what’s changed/how things continue to change in news/media/journalism and everything related to engagement. Challenge your assumptions about how things have been done and should be done and always try to step back and think outside the conventional MSM wisdom.
Sorry, this kinda turned into a brain dump:
1. I’ve been compiling a heapin-o-links. Disregard the guidelines part — it’s basically links for online engagement as it relates or can relate to journalism.
http://www.publish2.com/newsgroups/social-media-guidelines
2. Some interesting presentations here:
http://www.slideshare.net/greglinch/favorites
3. Extremely insightful discussion by two brilliant minds on this podcast with Jay Rosen and Dave Winer (I started from the beginning; almost all caught up. Only 19 episodes so far). [Gah! Forgot to mention “sources go direct” in the e-mail]
4. I’ve been slowly consuming Here Comes Everbody by Clay Shirky, another brilliant guy (see Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable). Not for lack of interest, just the opposite actually. My approach has been to read a section or chapter or two at a time, usually before bed. That let’s the ideas marinate and gives me more time to think on the details and take more away from it, versus speed-reading more for the big concepts.
http://www.shirky.com/herecomeseverybody
5. Next up on my list is What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis.
http://www.buzzmachine.com/what-would-google-do
6. One specific idea (see all related comments and posts) of “newsroom as a cafe:”
http://www.danielbachhuber.com/2009/06/12/newsroom-as-a-cafe
http://www.digidave.org/2009/02/journalism-business-idea-the-newsroom-cafe.html
http://steveouting.com/2008/02/29/why-news-companies-should-go-into-the-internet-cafe-business/
7. I want to start paying a different kind of attention to the tech industry, specifically hows and whys as opposed to “oooh, that’s a cool shiny new toy.” Journalism is becoming much more like it as the two overlap more and more.
Everyone, please share any of your favorite links, read, listens, etc.!
Best,
Greg
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