UCLA Extension New Media Reporting: Week 4 Summary

During our week 4 session we talked a little about using Twitter and Facebook to background people as a prelude to week 5's visit by Simone Wilson.

We talked about my coverage of the so-called Hollywood Boulevard rave riot and how putting together different online accounts, using YouTube video and checking Twitter reports could help you cover an event without even being there.

Students showed off their own remixes of that night's coverage, including Creative Commons-allowed photos and fresh video and some of us had never seen.

The lesson here was that linking to multiple sources and pulling video and photo from available content can give you a stronger story than if you had just "aggregated" a post based on one outlet's own take.

UCLA Extension New Media Reporting: Week 3 Summary

LA OBSERVED

We started week three by discussing our homework, analyzing three days worth of LAObserved. Perhaps students' most-uniform observation was that they felt like outsiders -- that the blog was written for an specific audience to which they did not belong and that it had a narrative that they felt they were parachuting into.

That's okay. That's what a niche blog is -- a diary of a community that speaks mainly to that community. I suggested that students join that community and read LAO everyday, as it's the virtual water cooler of Los Angeles journalism that serves as a cheat sheet for assignment editors.

Others noted that its navigational features were weak or useless. I commented that that's the case for most publications. Search features at most outlets are almost useless, and I recommended using Google.

Finally some of you noted the vertical design of LAObserved -- classic blog. What's hot is on top.

I mentioned that this is a labor of love from a top-flight local journalist, yet it is almost wholly aggregated, respectfully so.

WHERE TO FIND NEWS?

UCLA Extension New Media Reporting: Week 2 Summary

THE NEW YORK TIMES vs. GAWKER

During our second week of class we read some of your papers comparing The New York Times online to Gawker. You noted that Gawker is more vertical looking and has a breezier attitude, often preferring snark and celebrity scandal to serious news.

The New York Times, many of you observed, looks a lot like a print newspaper on a web page, and maintains a serious tone with a three- to five-column layout familiar to newspaper readers.

SPEND TIME AT LA WEEKLY

I invited class members to come shadow me at LA Weekly for an hour if they wish. (I hope my bosses are okay with that).

THE INVERTED PYRAMID vs. BLOG STYLE

We looked at an AP story about a federal crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries in California and analyzed how it was written in the inverted pyramid style, which means that the most pressing, important facts are pacted at the top of the story and lighter details are at the bottom.

We then each rewrote the piece in a more bloggy, Gawker-like style, foregoing the inverted pyramid and using snark and our voices and viewpoints more.

STARTING A NICHE BLOG

Marijuana Dispensaries in L.A. on Edge After Feds Warn That Pot's Not Legal no Matter How Medical it is

Pot shop owners in L.A. have even more to be paranoid about these days. Not only is City Hall trying to shut down more than 8 out of 10 shops in L.A., but now feds are threatening to put the medical cannabis business in California out of business for good.

Associated Press reports today that at least 16 weed retailers in California have been ordered to close their doors because of that whole issue of marijuana being illegal on a federal level and all.

UCLA Extension New Media Reporting: Week 1 Summary

During our Week 1 session we covered the following topics:

HISTORY

We discussed the history of newspapers going digital, specifically the onslaught of newspaper-based websites in the mid-1990s. Timeline histories from the Poynter Institute were discussed, specifically 1991, 1994, 1995 and 1996, which can all be accessed here.

What stood out in the timeline was that the bulk of major newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times (1996), launched in their sites in the mid-1990s.

I made the point that newspapers at the time only saw websites as mirrors of their core product, the newspaper. They were seen as ways toward "alternate delivery" of the paper that could cut print costs.

We got some laughs watching a video, "The Tablet Newspaper," that demonstrated that point. In it an editor says that new technology will provide "a bridge of familiarity" for newspaper readers as they go digital.

NEWS ORGS TRY TO MAINTAIN

I argued that this mindset remains today: That newspapers and TV news operations have not fully embraced the inevitability of online migration. As an example, I mentioned the plans by the parent company of the Los Angeles Times to create a tablet computer that would then be sold at a discount to its app subscribers as a means to keep the print-style product alive.

In broadcasting the story's the same, but via a different tact: Local news stations see online as a way to drive viewers to the telecast, not vice-versa, which one of you pointed out was the way most people see a TV news site.

The reason? They want to capture younger eyeballs they're losing during newscasts, which are still cash cows, albeit diminishing ones.

An ad in a newspaper is worth about 10 times, often more, than what it's worth online. The contrast is even larger for television. The flipside?

The DIY revolution: It often takes far fewer people to put together a digital news operation, and thus the advertising scale can actually make it profitable for some.

BLOGGERS RISE