News09: Get Your Student Publication Online

NEWS09: Get your student publication online

by Sarah Stokely

From print to www:How online are you?

• What university are you from? What publication• Is it print only or do you publish online too?• Who hosts your website? Uni/student union• How much control do you have over your paper's web

page?

What does you publication do online?

• Many Australian student newspapers have a bare webpage without helpful information

• What questions would a reader have who came to your site? Does your site answer these questions?o How can I contribute a story or news tip?o How can I find you on campus?o How can I contact you online (ie email, contact form,

comment on website)?

What does your website say?

• Do you encourage readers to get involved?• Do you let people contact you online (via email, web

contact form, etc)• Do you give people a reason to come back to your site?

o ie news updateso does it look like the site content changes regularly?

What should your website do?

• Do you let people know how to find:o Your print editiono Your editorial office on campuso Who's on the editorial teamo Where to send in a comment or news tip?o Where else your paper has an online presence (link to

Facebook group, Twitter account, etc)

• Look at different student newspaper websites and see if they encourage readers to contact you or get involved.

Your challenges - VSU

• Impact of VSU (Voluntary Student Unionism)o most student editors & contributors now unpaid o no handover time from one year to another- incoming

editors need to learn from scratch o Consider starting a wiki or internal web page where

you can keep useful information to help you and future editors.

• Funding for your student publication may be for a print version only

• Lack of control of your publication website (often University or Student Union)

• Poor/difficult to use Uni website• Lack of support for going online -  funding/training/tools• Uni concern about publishing online

o opening up website to comments, user generated content, etc - legal concerns, defamation etc 

o concern that website needs to uphold University's image (website as corporate marketing tool) 

•  What other challenges?

Other challenges

Yes, that's a  lot of challenges

Here, have a puppy.

Don't worry, you do have options

• You may want to start a discussion with your University and Student Union about migrating your publication to an online publication - this may take longer than you'll actually be the editor, but it's worth starting the conversation.

• If you don't want to become a web publication (or your uni doesn't want you to!), you have options:o make your print publication more online friendlyo make your current website more online friendlyo explore online options beyond your uni website

Make your print publication more online friendly

•  publish & promote contact details including email addresses in the print version

• Ensure that the relevent people have access to that email to read and respond

• Maybe one generic email for news tips - which will be seen by or circulated to the whole news team.

• Have a visible presence on online communities where your readers are (ie Facebook, MySpace, Twitter). A place to share your news stories (here's a taste of what's in the mag this month) and for readers to send you feedback and news leads.

•  

What's a short term solution to get us online?

• University websites move as slowly as glaciers.  • Establish online communities outside the university to be

able to do things quickly and to keep control yourself• Ning is a very easy way to set up an online community - it

can be private (for your editorial team) or public (for all students of your uni)

     http://www.ning.com• A Facebook group or page is another option - and lots of

students are already on there.

External hosting warning...

• Beware: Terms of service, copyright and censorship. Do you want to control your own media and copyright?

• Some companies claim copyright on media (photos! vidoes!) uploaded to their site (ie Facebook) - read the terms of service!

• Some companies make it difficult to get your data *back* from their site if you want to leave (proprietary file formats, difficult migration process). Can you back up your data and take it with you?

• Companies like YouTube (owned by Google) who host the data can decide to censor it ie if someone claims it is offensive. Try googling "YouTube censorship" or "LiveJournal breastfeeding" 

• These companies doesn't need to announce when they remove material or why

• If you publish politically sensitive material, you may want to consider hosting it yourself where you can control it.

Legal risks

• I AM NOT A LAWYER!• Educate yourself on the laws around copyright,

defamation & privacy - since you may be storing & publishing reader's personal information (a la Facebook)

• You need to be aware of the legal considerations the uni faces if moving to online student publishing

• If you are able to demonstrate knowledge about these issues, you have a better chance of the Uni supporting your move online.

What can you do now?

• Talk to your University and Student Union about expanding your current website & allowing interactive publishing (ie allowing comments, etc)

• Continue in print and web or migrate to web only? A long term decision which won't happen overnight, and involves you, the Student Union and the University. Not to mention your readers, the students.

• What else do you want to do online? What do students want?

Extend your involvement on campus

• Contact and work with your student radio station (TV/internet broadcasting?)

• Work with teachers and students in the Journalism department of your uni

• Think about other departments that may have skilled people wanting to get involved - IT, visual arts, graphic design, TV & film production courses 

•  Clubs and societies who may have skills to offer or a large potential reader base or source of stories (ie overseas students association)

Unofficial "offcampus" websites 

• PROS: o Bypass the University and Union and publish

something independent. o You control the website and can update it as often as

you want

• CONS: o You can expect problems if you use the uni name or

the name of your publication.o An unofficial website might be hard for students to find,

and you probably can't link to it from your "official" website

Suggest a compromise

• Prepare a request for your Uni/Union saying what you'd like to appear on your current website (ie - you want to publish a contact email addresses, or a contact form for people to submit story ideas, or publish a blog.

• It's highly likely the current website can't support blogs (regularly updating pages) so you may be able to convince them to let you start a separate blog (hosted elsewhere or by the Uni) for publishing an official blog of your student publication. o eg - blogs.crikey.com.au is a WordPress blog, hosted

separately from www.crikey.com.au

If you start a separate blog...

• GA separate blog or website loses the "Google juice" of your main website. How can students find you?

• Link to the blog in the main navigation bar of your publication website if possible

• Put a teaser for the blog (including links to recent posts) on your publication's main web page - you can do this automatically with a widget

• Mention relevant blog posts in your print publicationo ie at the end of a story, mention that the author blogs

also and give the URL of the blog

What is Web 2.0?• Web 2.0 is about how we use the internet to

communicate. It's about users, creators and participation. • Watch this video. Seriously, watch it:

        The Machine is Us/ing Us        http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

o by Prof Michael Wesch, Kansas State Uni http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/

Web 2.0 = conversation

• print = one way conversation• web 1.0 = online but still one way conversation• web 2.0 = millions of conversations• Jay Rosen from NYU talks about participatory media and

"the people formerly known as the audience"• don't talk to "the audience" - get involved in lots of

different conversations with individuals. 

Be good at Web 2.0

• Don't just blast out your content and ideas. That's as annoying as advertising. Converse & respond.

• Don't just use your website - comment on Facebook, other blogs & websites. 

• Link to interesting stuff created by other people, that your readers might like.

• The web is multimedia - use photos, video, audio.• Use a tool to manage updates across multiple sites at

once (ie Twitter, Facebook etc) - eg Ping  http://ping.fm/

New tools available "off campus"

• Video - YouTubeo has limits on how long your video can beo for pre-recorded video

 • For live video streaming, check out Ustream•  http://www.ustream.tv/

o You just need a video camerao You can show your Ustream on your websiteo Or people can watch your Ustream site on your own

"channel" or page on the Ustream website

Blog software is powerful

• Blogging software is publishing software - so it can be used to do a whole website if you want, not just a standalone blog

• For example, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ publishes a very busy news website using WordPress 

• Crikey publishes a whole network of blogs using WordPress: http://blogs.crikey.com.au/

• Or you can publish one individual blog: http://www.foxforcefive.com/

• Open Source blog software like WordPress or Drupal is free and supported by a community of developers

Blogs

• Blogs - a free hosted blog  means it's on someone else's website (ie if you start a blog on WordPress.com, Blogger, etc)

  • If you host it yourself:

o it's on your own websiteo you need to register a domain name and an account

with a web host, then upload blogging software.o One easy hosting option is Dreamhost, because they

can set up your blogging software for you  - check out Dreamhost Apps to see how it works

o http://dreamhostapps.com/ 

•  

• One cool tool is Cover It Live - http://www.coveritlive.com/o Great for covering live events "as they happen"o Check out the Demo on their website - it shows how

you can get it up and running in two minuteso You embed it on your website just like you'd embed a

YouTube videoo Readers can ask questions and you can answer

instantlyo Crikey used it to do their US Election night coverage    

Live Blogging

Free Image &Video resources

• Sourcing free pictures, video and music is possible through Creative Commons

• Creative Commons helps writers, musicians and multimedia producers share and build on each other's work, legally. It's an alternative to traditional copyright.

• Barack Obama just made the White House website Creative Commons! http://www.whitehouse.gov/

• Watch this video: Creative Commons - A Shared Culture http://creativecommons.org/videos/a-shared-culture

Find and share free, legal content

• Find out how to access content - and share it - using Creative Commons instead of traditional copyright

• Here are two sources of loads of sharable media:

• WikiMedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

• Flickr Commons: http://www.flickr.com/commons

Get on Facebook!• students are already there• a way to promote your magazine and get reader feedback

and news tips• Make sure videoes and blog posts autopost to your

Facebook Page• Have someone in charge of updating/responding to the

page - roster it if needed to spread the load• Keep it alive! Change the status update message a few

times a week, or send out a message to your group/fans    

Be useful on Facebook!

• Don't just use it as a way to advertise. • Be useful and interesting• Use it as a way to communicate with your readers and

make them interested in you and your publication.• How?• Break news & give teasers from your print edition• Publish video & photos• It's not all about you. Link to other interesting content! • Give readers fun and easy ways to get involved

o competitionso submit photos/videos

Facebook - Group or Page?

• Facebook Groups and Facebook pages can do different things.

• Check out which one suits what you want to do with your Facebook.

• For a blog post about the pros and cons of Facebook Groups versus Pages for student publications, see:

    The Student Leader Think Tank:    http://www.theslblog.org/2008/12/facebook-page-o.html

Twitter? Ya rly.

• Twitter.com - it's a short message, microblogging platform• 140 character limit• You can post messages (tweets) and "follow" other

people to read their tweets.• You can update by web, SMS or Twitter tools like Twhirl

or Tweet Deck• If you are selective about your Twitter community, it's a

powerful resource and you'll have experts at your fingertips. 

Journalists use Twitter

• It's already being used by professional journalists, editors and publications

• News broken there included the Mumbai terrorist attacks• You can break news and get news tips• Promote new content you've put online• Get feedback & let readers contribute to stories.

How can you use Twitter?

• Jay Rosen - teaches Journalism at NYU• "It's a handbuilt tipster network. The people I follow bring

essential things to my attention and keep me current."• "Twitter keeps me in touch with people who are friends of my

ideas. I know about their projects and current obsessions; they know about mine."

• check out his Twitter stream: @jayrosen_nyu

Join networks of student editors

• Contact other student publications & editors - share ideas, potentially share resources

• Join or set up online communities for student editors eg CoPress.org

• Start a local community for Australian editors using Ning, Facebook, Google Groups,Yahoo Groups, etc

• The NUS conference (week of 6-11 July 2009) will include 1 day devoted to student media. Contact them to find out more & get involved.

Brainstorm time!

• What can you do to use the internet more as a way to publish and publicise your paper, but also to get news leads and talk to your readers?

• What are you already doing at your uni - and what other unis are doing?

• Where do students from your uni hang out online? How can you connect with them?

• Are there any online communities for student editors - start one!

• Exchange contact details - start building that network!

Useful resources for online publishers

• Tools for Citizen Journalism -  a wiki http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tools_for_citizen_journalism• Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents by Reporters

without Bordershttp://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542

o  includes advice on how to start a blog, get it picked up by search engines, ethical guidelines and recommendations for the best tool to use

o information on how to blog anonymously and technical ways to get around censorship

Australian Resources

• The Writers Guide to making a digital living http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/writersguide

• Arts Law Centre of Australia Online - Legal issues for bloggers: http://www.artslaw.com.au/legalinformation/LegalIssuesForBloggers.asp

Useful people to contact

• CoPress.org - contact Daniel Bachhuber [email protected]

• NUS - http://unistudent.com.au/home/    Email: [email protected]• Creative Commons Australia

    http://www.creativecommons.org.au 

Contact me!

Sarah Stokely• Email: [email protected]• Blog: www.foxforcefive.com• Twitter: @stokely