How to Find User-Generated Content

Some of the takeaways from this year's Online News Association conference include this gem (above) on how the New York Times' Jen Preston mines user-generated content (UGC).

UCLA Extension New Media Reporting 2012 Week 9 Summary

During our Week 9 session we debated the viability of news organizations' online paywalls. Some of you liked the idea that journalists should be paid more directly for the good work they do, but others saw the advantage in seeking out wider audiences via free delivery.

Ultimately, I argued, it would be hard to plug all the holes in such a porous, aggregated news world anyway, noting that it's quite easy to get past the Los Angeles Times' and New York Times' paywalls and, even if you couldn't, subscriber-bloggers would simply repeat their info.

Not that this is ideal. It's just the world we're working in.

We looked at how advertising is affecting the business, including a recent Pew study showing that traditional print news outlets were losing $10 in print advertising for every $1 in online ads they gained.

But, I noted, online readership is king -- online ad revenue was projected to be passing up print dollars this year -- and the production costs of getting eyeballs to see your news are much less than those of putting out a daily newspaper.

LA Weekly competes in a daily news market and comes up with a near-the-top readership ranking with only a handful of people. Paper, ink, delivery and production can take up as much as 65 percent of the costs of a traditional print operation. Add to that the idea that most news sites are much more niche-oriented and audience-specific. You probably wouldn't start an operation today that covers City Hall and sports, celebrities and recipes. It wouldn't make sense. You would focus. So if you doing an online-operation, you're starting with far fewer costs. At the same time, the readership potential is larger:

One in four Americans gets their news from a mobile device. And that number appears to be growing.

Putting up a wall could hinder your ability to reach the masses and make that smaller ad dollar more effective.

Not only that, but knowing your customer can mean bigger ad revenues. To cast a wide net like a traditional newspaper and hope that some of its many customers are, say, going to buy a watch soon is ineffective in today's environment. If you get to know your readers a little, that can be valuable.

One writer (previously noted) argues that paywalls punish those you need most -- your loyal reader. The casual reader should pay, not your regular, the argument goes: You want your regular customers to spend some time so you get to figure out what they're into.

We talked about how the iPad, for example, is showing that open access to your news can pay off in the form of previously slow nighttime readership (people like to cozy up with their iPads and seem to check news more frequently after work, leading to boosts in readers for late posts).

Finally, I encouraged everyone to promote themselves. It can be a third of the work these days. Don't be shy. Establish websites that reflect you as a news brand and present your best work.

Tools For News Bloggers

Here's a pretty good list of "22 tools and apps every journalism student should know about." Make that every journalist should know about. Check it out.

UCLA New Media Reporting 2012: Week 8 Summary

During Week 8 we took a look at the art of getting readers to interact with us, mainly through Twitter and Facebook. It's not so easy but, as you'll see in a post below, getting folks to spend time with your content is crucial to the future of digital journalism.

Most of you in the class, however, are naturals at interacting through social media and had no problem getting friends and family to comment on your work. Sometimes all it took was an introduction in the form of a question (such as, "Do you agree with this?") to get people to weigh in on a Facebook posting.

We took a quick look at how to use Scribd to embed documents. I think it's a pretty cool way to lead readers to your source material. It helps you gain cred.

We talked a little bit more about doing lists. They're important because they're accessible and can multiply pageviews. But I noted that they don't always have to be tabloidy. I highlighted my colleague Simone Wilson's recent post on legislation being rammed through the California legislature -- and I pointed out that even the mighty Gawker was doing them.

We then got into longform journalism, and the idea that not all digital reporting has to focus on short, snarky writing. In fact, the online revolution has really opened up the prospects for longform storytelling because there are no space constraints. The limits are imposed, rather, by how much interest you can drum up in readers.

But many journalists and even publications such as Vanity Fair have tapped into the potential, using Amazon's Kindle Singles to expand magazine-size articles into short books that can be sold online. Self publishing is the rage. It's not always profitable, but it's a new opportunity for digital journalists.

We worked on a live news post based on an LAPD press release and discovered that it's not always easy to inject voice into a story and still be timely. But it can be done.

The assignment was to read this excerpt of Chris Anderson's book Free and argue for or against charging readers for news (a.k.a. instituting the kind of paywalls used by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street journal). Five paragraphs were requested.

Why Journalism Should Care About Quality Time

If newspapers and other outlets are to make a successful transition to digital, they need to think more about getting readers, viewers and listeners to spend more time with them, according to this argument:

 ... Getting to know your readers and their interests better can also help a newspaper or any other media entity target advertising better. One of the reasons why advertisers are so enamored of Facebook and other social networks is that they can target specific niche groups or demographics or locations within the broader market, like expectant mothers or high-spending seniors. What do newspapers know about their readers? In most cases, very little, other than the vague generalities that phone surveys produce.

The idea here is also to create a "reverse paywall" where readers want to pay for extras. Yeah?

Video News Blogging

The Wall Street Journal recently announced a section dedicated solely to video captured by it's reporters. I'm not sure raw video will propel traffic, but it's an interesting move. Check it out.

The Popularity of Lists

I've spoken a lot about the popularity of lists. They're accessible to the casual leader and, if done right, they can multiply your pageviews if you brake them up into multiple pages.

I was surprised to see the mighty Washington Post today run a list! Check it out.

Chris Anderson's 'Free'

Here's a link to a free excerpt of Free.

Embedding a Document

Here's an example of embedding a document, using Scribd.


104329119 LAPD Terror Policy

On Gawker And Nick Denton

Another good read, this one about Nick Denton and Gawker.

The Transition to Online

I just wanted to note this great piece in the New York Times a few years back about the dot-com boom in digital journalism.

New Media Reporting Summer 2012 Week 7 Summary

During week 7 we finally demonstrated how to post a YouTube video on a blog (rocket science, this), and we went over creating and embedding a Google map again. (For examples scroll down through this blog).

Our students did a great job of creating and posting original video. I think the exercise supports why I believe that video is most often a supplementary part of modern digital journalism. If you're stealing time from work reading news, watching a lot of long and heavily produced video is a risk for your average viewer.

Also, uploading and editing video longer than 30 seconds can be a chore for both you and your bandwidth. Try breaking up videos into segments, posting multiple clips and narrating your way from asset to asset.

We looked at Google Analytics and broke down both traffic sources (incoming websites and referrals) and search engine keywords that were sending readers our way. We found out that Facebook and Twitter sharing, as well as sites such as Reddit and StumbleUpon, were taking up an increasing share of the referral pie.

Search and SEO is still king, but less so. (Also, Google has been discounting SEO keywords to give less weight to so-called "content farms" and those trying to game it with less-than optimal news content, which I think is a good thing for our business. You can read more about that here).

We talked about how Google+ might not be the best place to find your friends, but it is a good place to post your content. Google search gives news found on Google+ a little more weight. (Some news organizations are experimenting with Google+ Hangouts -- live video chats with reporters -- but we don't get it, yet).

Finally we talked about "live tweeting." If you're at a breaking news event, why should you give away the milk via Twitter when readers should be buying the cow by reading your whole story when you post it?

I think live tweeting is good for you. It establishes you as a news authority and source, even if you're giving up scoops, angles and details to the competition. In the long run it will reward you with both credibility and followers. And it helps you organize the roadside markers of a story, even photos that you've tweeted. You can use those to help you construct a final take. Finally, in most cases you'd never be able to write a complete story as fast as you'd be able to tweet developments. Give people some news. They'll come back for the narrative.

Our homework was to write a post, aggregated is okay, post it to Facebook and/or Twitter AND get someone to comment on it (either directly on your blog or on Facebook). Not as easy as it sounds!

Who to Follow on Twitter

Here's a selective list of Twitter users to follow, in no particular order, if you're looking for news.

JOURNALISTS AND OUTLETS

Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times police reporter.
Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times police reporter.
Robert Lopez, Los Angeles Times police reporter.
Kevin Roderick, publisher of LA Observed.
Claudia Peschiutta, reporter, KNX 1070 Newsradio.
KNX 1070 Newsradio.
California Watch.
LAist.
LA Now, Los Angeles Times' local news blog.
Kimi Yoshino, Los Angeles Times assignment editor.
David Begnaud, KTLA News reporter.
Rina911, KPCC crime reporter.
89.3 KPCC.
L.A. Daily News.
CBS 2 KCAL9 Breaking.
ABC7 Eyewitness News.
KTLA News Desk.
myFOX Los Angeles.
Bobby DeCastro, Fox 11 morning news.
TMZ.
Harvey Levin.
STRINGERinLA.
NBC Los Angeles.
tvtoni.
Los Angeles News.
Angie Crouch, NBC Los Angeles.
Simone Wilson, LA Weekly.
Jill Stewart, LA Weekly.
Gene Maddaus, LA Weekly.
Sarah Fenske, LA Weekly.
LA Weekly.
The Informer (LAWeeklyNews).

POLICE AND FIRE AND MORE

LAFD Conversation.
LASD Tony (sheriff's press info).
Mike Parker (sheriff's press info).
LAPD Communications.
LAPD HQ.
Cal Fire News.
USGS Earthquake CA.

SCANNERS

LA County Fire.com.
Venice 311.
Weho Daily.
LAScanner.
BHScanner.
Hollywood 311.
Koreatown311.
sgvscanner.
Culvercity311.

UCLA Extension New Media Reporting Summer 2012: Week 6 Summary

During Week 6 we talked a little more about voice. We used an example of a story in the New York Times about how Mitt Romney said he never paid less than 13 percent of his annual income in taxes and wondered how it might have been written with more attitude. We looked at how Gawker treated the same story.

We moved on to crime reporting in the digital era. Being on the cop beat isn't for everyone who wants to get into digital journalism, but just as with print, it's a good basis for figuring out the elements of our profession.

As you figured out with your Week 5 assignment, dealing with cops isn't always fun, but it's good exercise for reporting. But in this new era we can also get crime information from Nixle, police Twitter accounts, eyewitness Twitter accounts (who sometimes post usable photos from the scene of an incident), and police Facebook pages.

Besides the LAPD's blog and YouTube page there's a lot of crime info out there. The L.A. Sheriff's Department uses Twitter and Nixle extensively.

We talked a little about the new rules of online reporting: Break news if you can. If you can "be there," at a press conference or at the scene of a crime, you've got a huge advantage. But your next chance at gaining eyeballs and a competitive edge is to forward already broken news by picking up the phone or mining social media for new information that will add a new chapter to the story. Finally, you can take the Gawker route and simply add your spin, your voice, and your ranting to an existing story. The every popular list (5 ways to beat a parking ticket) falls into that last category.

We attempted a live demo of recording a quick video, uploading it to YouTube and embedding it in a post. Slow upload times meant that we'll have to try again during Week 7.

Finally we did a demo on creating a custom Google Map and embedding it in a post.

The assignment was to create an original YouTube video and embed it in a post with a few grafs explaining what it's about.

How Can Social Media Help You Cover Protests?

The Poynter Institute asks that question of Los Angeles Times' reporter Kate Linthicum, who talks about how she used Twitter to help her get a handle on the Occupy movement.

Here are the New Media Reporting news blogs for summer, 2012:

Russell Allyn
Ruth Boyle
Theresa Cheng
Maria Colias
Collette DeBenedetto
Claire Doran
Donald Hughes
Alice Marsh-Elmer
Marisa Mostek
Lyndsey Nolan
Renae Punzalan
Rebecca Robledo
Claudia Silva
Daina Solomon
Mikaela Wolf

UCLA Extension New Media Reporting Summer 2012: Week 5 Summary

During Week 5 we talked about digging into Facebook and Twitter to find out about subjects in the news.

In cases, for example, where someone dies, we can sometimes add the term "RIP" to their name and find pages dedicated to them, with photos, commentary and family history.

I used the case of a young man killed in a stabbing recently in Santa Monica. We used Facebook to discover a little about him, including that he and the suspect knew each other and went to high school together.

I got into aggregation more. I wanted to make the point that journalism has a history of aggregation. In Washington when the New York Times gets a huge scoop on the president, for example, often other outlets follow, crediting the paper. Contemporary aggregation is no less legitimate. In fact, with the ability to link, it's more so, as we're driving traffic to the source.

In local television news, outlets have long used a form of shadow aggregation: One station will jump on breaking news, City News Service, a pay-service wire, will pick it up, and the competition will break into programming to announce that "wire services are reporting" that a major event just happened. Yep.

But you can do better: One way is take a story that's already been developed and move it forward. Sometimes a phone call or two can "advance" the story, or give it an exclusive spin or scoop. Even though say, the Los Angeles Times discovered some news, you can be first to discover a new development. You still need to link to the originator, however.

In fact, if all you have is one source for your story, and it's another outlet and its well-done reporting, it's often the rule that you should just do a few grafs and then let readers find out more by jumping to the original via your embedded link.

Unless you have fresh info, expertise or a unique perspective on a story, a la Gawker, that's the way to go.

UCLA Extension New Media Reporting Summer 2012: Week 3 Summary

During Week 3 we looked at how we can use Twitter to do reporting.

What is reporting? It's researching the facts of a story. While traditionally it involves interviews and digging for documents, the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Google can be used to source information.

ZabaSearch, Facebook, law enforcement inmate information sites and other databases can be used to background people as well.

Where do we get photos, video and audio? For photos, I search for Creative Commons images on Flickr and Wikipedia. For video, YouTube is king, but you can also find video (and photos, for that matter) that are perfectly okay to use on Twitter.

We talked about making sure to link to aggregated sources.

Using "block quotes" allows you to break up your copy so that it's not a boring block of words.

On deadline? Learn to type on your computer during phone interviews so you can quickly copy and paste info into your story.

Online interviewing is okay as a last result, but the biggest drawback is that it's hard to ask follow-up questions or pin someone down on a key point.

UCLA Extension New Media Reporting Summer 2012: Week 2 Summary

During Week 2 we talked about why chronological blogging works.

We compared the traditional dry, "pyramid" style of newspapering to the modern, more conversational style of blog writing.

The pyramid style has its roots in using the teletype machine to transmit information in a brief and compact manner. Additionally, newsprint space and being fair and balanced were paramount issues.

Today the unlimited space of blogs, along with the myriad of competition, mean that dry, compact, fair, balanced information is taking a backseat to attitude, opinion, voice and snark.

It doesn't mean that we should be unfair. But it does mean that one blog post can tell one side of a story, and another can tell another side of it.

We talked a little about why using keywords, including proper names and places, are so important to headlines. They attract Google.

Where do we find news these days? Everywhere, but especially on Twitter, Facebook and other sites.

We compared the New York Times to Gawker. Different, yes, but Gawker points to that voice-heavy, aggregated future.

UCLA Extension New Media Reporting Summer 2012: Week 1 Summary

[Some of this content has been duplicated from New Media Reporting Fall 2011].


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, most interestingly, include 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 and the dominance of digital news.

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