Live, multimedia-based, interactive - the potential of publishing online digital journalism training in Mongolia Ulaan Bataar, April and May 2016 By Brian Solis and JESS3 - theconversationprism.com, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16290038
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Live, multimedia-based, interactive - the potential
of publishing onlinedigital journalism training in Mongolia
Ulaan Bataar, April and May 2016
By Brian Solis and JESS3 - theconversationprism.com, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16290038
• if you connect two search terms with OR, google will find pages that use at least one of your search terms: you end up with more search results
• this approach may be appropriate at the beginning of a research
Site:
• enter a search term and a site
• „site:“ limits the search to that website only
• the google-site-search often works better than the internal search
• you can also search for subdirectories
Fileytpe
• a lot of (lengthy) documents are stored as .pdf
• statistics and tables often come as .xls, .csv or .tsv
• pictures: jpg
• instead of „filetype“ you can just simply type „ext“ for Extension
Inurl:
• if you are looking for a specific word in the URL of a website, you can use the inurl-operator:
• inurl:mongolia
Intitle:
• looks for articles that contain the keyword in the title (blue):
Combine operators
Exclude search terms or operators
• if you tpye „-“ prior to a search term, google only looks for results without that term
• you can also use the „-“ to exclude operators: -site:infomongolia.com excludes this site from the search
• excluding terms or sites can refine your search
Keyword phrases
• if you put a keyword, multiple keywords or even a hole sentence between phrases, then Google looks for pages that contain all the words in exactly the same order you typed them
1. try several operators (e.g. filetype, site, inurl) and search for a topic you are working on at the moment: see if you can get better search results than by just typing in keywords without operators
2. find at least two datasets about mining in Mongolia
• there are two leading clients, that allow you to monitor your networks in columns. You can add streams, hashtags, lists, mentions and searches as columns and display several columns simultaneously • Tweetdeck (Twitter only) • Hootsuite (Twitter, Facebook, Google+,
2. the social graph search on Facebook (or the Intel Technique Tool)
3. Icerocket
4. Socialmention
2. see if you can spot new blogs, websites, groups or communities that write about Mongolia or mining in Mongolia
3. subscribe to these sources via RSS (see chapter 2)
4. build thematically focused lists on Twitter and Facebook, e.g. for Mongolian journalists or politicians or look for existing lists and subscribe to them
Using social networks to promote own articles
• especially Facebook is good for giving reach to articles
• check thoroughly what posts perform best and lead to most engagement (likes, shares, comments, replies, links to your website)
• each network requires its own posting style (wording, use of hashtags, mentioning people)
• before posting always think of your target group: what are they interested in, what is useful to them, what entertains them?
• on Facebook you can (but not necessarily should) write longer posts
• Twitter limits you to 140 characters
• would a publishing plan (e.g. for a week) make sense for you?
4. Fact checking and verifying
Information explodes, professional selection is needed
• there has never been so much content published than today: lots of good stuff, but also false reports
• never before has there been such an urgent need for a professional institution that filters and verifies the important things from the ocean of information:
• JOURNALISTS!
„Get it first, but first get it right“
credo of the news agency United Press International
Verification in four steps
1. Content
2. Context
3. Code
4. Contact
1. Content
• does the content seem to good to be true?
• does it seem very unlikely or sensational at first sight?
• be extra careful if a non-journalist is posting something with „breaking news“, „exclusive“ or „urgent“
• who else should know? contact them (the organization or person the „breaking news“ is about)
• is the sender the real source of the information?
1. Content• is the style and tone of the post appropriate?
• are there embarrassing spelling mistakes?
• are there other reliable sources that spread the same information?
• renowned news agencies like AP, AFP or Reuters (be very careful with state-owned news agencies like in North Korea)
• radio, tv (ditto)
• relying on other sources always maintains a risk of failure. Even good news outlets sometimes just copy. You are only 100% safe, if you check for your own
Beware of satire
• in April German journalist Jan Böhmermann wrote a satirical poem about Turkey’s president, which caused a lot of turmoil
• Kai Diekmann, publisher of Europe’s biggest tabloid paper, published a totally fake interview with Böhmermann (and picture) on Facebook
• How could one have found out that this interview was fake?
3. Code• first have a look at the website address, especially at
the top level domain (country code, .gov, .mil, .edu)
• WHOIS check, e.g. at http://www.whois.com/
• what do the metadata of the post reveal? (date, time, geolocation).
• Check an image’s EXIF data: http://regex.info/exif.cgi
• are there traces of manipulation? especially images can be easily manipulated! (wrong or missing shadows, extremely similar picture parts (might be a copy)
• ever more people are consuming news mobile (see chapter 1)
• you can create a lot of the additional multimedia value (chapter 5) with your smartphone
• there is a lot of equipment to gear up your smartphone (handles, tripods, microphones, keyboards), but even without this your smartphone is a mighty reporting tool
Mobile is social
• most users use social networks preferably via mobile apps: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
• messengers are mobile only: WhatsApp, Telegram, Snapchat
Rising star Snapchat
• Snapchat is a trending and fast-growing messenger, especially among people under 20
• snaps automatically destroy after having been watched
• Focus on the five W’s: who, what, when, where and why.
• Before writing, decide which aspects of story are most important. Emphasize these aspects.
• Be as specific as possible.
• If your lead is too broad, it won’t inform.
• Be accurate, don’t exaggerate
How to write a good lead paragraph
• Be brief. Leads are typically one sentence, often two, between 160 and 200 characters. Especially important for display on mobile devices.
• Use active sentences. Strong verbs make leads lively and interesting. Passive constructions sound dull and leave out important information, such as the person who caused the action.
• Context is key.
• Be credible. A lead paragraph is an implicit promise to readers. Deliver what you promise.
Good lead example
Social media teaser
• postings should have an own teaser
• this teaser should be different from the teaser in the preview link
• length and tone of the teaser should suit to your target group (you don’t have to write „young“ or colloquially on Facebook in principle)
• however, the teaser should point out, what makes the link interesting and worth reading or engaging
• meta tags are part of the source code. They give robots information about structure and content of a webpage:
• <title>-Tag: title of a single webpage which can be seen in a browser window or tab
• headline tags: <h1> ,<h2>, <h3> (often headline or subheading)
• Description: describes a page’s content in the source code
• URL
• Body = full text
• alt tags for images
Anatomy of a snippet
Title-Tag
Description
URL
search term is highlighted in bold
Keywords - the core ranking factor
• keywords are decisive: the more they are used in the important parts of a webpage the higher the page is ranked on a search engine result page (SERP)
• the answers to the W-questions Who, What, Where are often keywords
• persons, institutions, products, actions are often good choices for keywords
How does my target group search?
• put yourself in your reader’s place: What search terms will he or she type in the search field? • generic or specific? • singular or plural? • are there regional differences? („van“/„lorry“) • in what order will the search terms be typed?
Autocomplete function• while you are typing, Google automatically
suggests combinations of frequently searched terms
Related search terms…
• …can be found at the bottom of the search result page
Exercise 8: write a seo title and description
• take the text from exercise 7.
• define 2-3 keywords that are important for the text
• use this keywords in writing a seo-optimized title (max 60 characters) and description (max 160 characters)
Connect with me online • Homepage: www.berndoswald.de