I saw an article on poynter.org today that was talking about how journalists need to be taught a lot differently than they used to. It's not just about a notebook and a pen anymore, it's about all of the software programs that keep coming out. Journalists need to be taught about Blogger, Dreamweaver, and Flash. Blogger (what I'm obviously doing now) lets journalists use the website to type down their thoughts, stories, etc. Dreamweaver is a program that helps design websites, and Flash is the program that a lot of people use to create animation and interactive stuff on websites.

This makes me think about the journalists that have been around forever. They are kind of being pushed under the covers with all of the young, educated, Internet-savy journalists today. But, I also believe that not every student just out of college has as much experience with these programs as employers would like. For an example, I'm a junior and I've never used Dreamweaver, or Flash. I'm efficient with anything associated with Microsoft Office, and ok with Photoshop, but there are so many programs that I've never heard of, let alone be efficient in all of them. This might also prove my point in why I don't want to be a journalist, but it's almost impossible to learn all of these programs.

Journalism programs today need to try to make an emphasis on all of these new programs coming out, and keep up to date. If a journalist wants to be educated in the field, they are going to have to go above and beyond the pen and paper.

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=138410

Facebook Groups

You can now get all then news you want on Facebook. You can become a fan of organizations like The New York Times and even Poynter.org! This is a very smart technique of all of these big news companies that are trying to get the attention of the younger demographic. I'm sure this was a long process that they had, but I'm sure they took into consideration that:

1) Almost every college student has Facebook.

2) Almost every college student checks their Facebook once, twice, multiple times a day.

3) It's like hitting up two websites in one.

This is also a good way to get breaking news out to Facebook users. I also think this is a good way to get older people (out of college) to keep joining Facebook. It's not just a social website anymore, it's becoming a news website like no other.

I checked out The New York Times fan website on Facebook, and it's actually pretty cool. They have links to the actual NYTimes.com, which has the full story, not just the short one. There are videos, quizes, and a wall to post comments. While I was snooping on the "wall", I noticed that The New York Times Facebook group is worldwide. There was a comment from someone in England saying that he checks the NYT Facebook group everyday. It's so cool how a Facebook Organization/Group can reach so many people!

http://www.facebook.com/nytimes?ref=mf

I've been watching the news about New York Governor Spitzer being under fire for being involved with a prostitution ring. After a couple of days, he and his family decided that he should resign. He has paid up to $80,000 to this girl over the course of a few years. Everything about this story has been all over the internet and in the newspapers.

Just today, I was reading an article about "Kristin", the prostitute, being upset about all of the pictures that have been in the tabloids, newspapers, online, etc. They are going to try to put together a case due to it being a violation of federal law to post these photos. So they say. I'm not up to date on all of the laws, but I wasn't aware that you had to have permission from the person to post the pictures. She had most of these available on Myspace, so isn't that enough? She had them online herself, isn't that permission?

Just an end note, she must have been making a lot of money out of this whole ordeal with the Governor. In one of the photos she was on a really nice boat, and if I remember right, those aren't very cheap. All I have to say is that she's going to be one of the most requested prostitutes for the next few months, or even years, now that her name has been put out worldwide.

Favre in the newsroom?

There was an interesting article on Poynter.org this week about the retirement of Brett Favre. The writer related Favre's on the field ethic to something related in the newsroom. This was a pretty cool approach that was made.

The first approach that the writer made was that Favre loved his job. If you love your job, you're going to want to come to work everyday and do a good job at it. The second point, "leave it all on the field," If you give it all at work, and not have to carry it all home with you, the workers are, once again, likely to do a better job (although, I think this probably wouldn't work as well with journalism due to them always having their eye out on news). Another point I found interesting was to take risks. If you're fearing that you're leaving some juicy information out of the story, it's likely not a very good one. Take the chances.

The best point yet, he consulted with his coaches and gave them credit. If the workers would listen to the editors, the editors are more than likely to give more credit where it's owed. All of the points made in the article are pretty interesting, and are worth reading. The writer made 11 different points and related football back to journalism very well.

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=139070