journalism Archives - Page 4 of 8

Conveying the war in human terms

The Net provides an alternative channel for finding out what’s happening in Serbia This column appeared in the June 1999 issue of The American Journalism Review. Within a week of the first NATO bomb dropping on Serbia, the conflict in Kosovo had been dubbed the first Internet war. While that overstates the case, it’s not far from the truth. Night after night the network news has offered a narrow prism of views along with those ubiquitous aerial photos of NATO’s bombing campaign. The Internet, conversely, has provided an alternative channel that offered deeper coverage, more interactivity and, most significantly, greater diversity of voices and viewpoints. Internet users have tapped into the war in a number of ways:

Ethics debate: It’s time to move on

Electronic commerce is here to stay – deal with it This column appeared March 12, 1999, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site. The following column is based on remarks made by the author at the Online Journalism Conference held March 10, 1999, in Berkeley, co-sponsored by Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley and the Annenberg School for Communication at USC. Lasica appeared on the panel “Reestablishing Credibility.” Last year I appeared at this conference as a panelist addressing online ethics, so it was a little ironic that at the time I was employed by Microsoft.

Online news sites making wider use of audio

Handful of news publications begin to take advantage of audio content This column appeared in the March 1999 issue of The American Journalism Review. We usually think of the Web as a visual medium, but sometimes we overlook the other senses. Far too few online news sites take advantage of live audio and sound clips, lumping them in with the multimedia bells and whistles of animation, video and other razzle-dazzle effects that bring modems to a wheezing standstill. It’s no surprise to see CNN Interactive and MSNBC making wide use of audio. But it’s heartening to see small and mid-size newspapers plunging in, too. Among the early adopters are three papers in the Midwest.

Attracting young talent to your online news staff

Step #1: Start with your newsroom’s corporate culture This column appeared in the May 1999 issue of The American Journalism Review. Web journalists today face a choice: work at the online division of an old media company, like Tampa Bay Online or Time Digital, or dive headlong into a new media company that exists only in cyberspace. More and more, they’re choosing the latter. Consider Janelle Brown. When she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1995, she knew she wanted to be a journalist, but the traditional route of ladder-climbing at a newsroom didn’t appeal to her. “The idea of working at some really dry or dull newspaper didn’t interest me,” she says. “Old media seemed so hierarchical,

Seven more sites for freelancers

And a new service matches online editors with content talent This column appeared Feb. 3, 1999, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site. Second of two parts. See Part 1. These may well be the glory days for freelance writing on the Web, with dozens of sites paying rates that compare favorably to print publications. For both veteran journalists and aspiring writers, the Internet has opened up potentially lucrative new markets. A new online service devoted to just that notion will debut later this month. Content Exchange, created by Editor & Publisher columnist Steve Outing and freelance writer Amy Gahran, will bring together those who create content for online media and those who buy content.

Golden days for Web freelancing

Seven sites worth writing for This column appeared Jan. 26, 1999, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site. First of two parts. See Part 2. The Web has opened up new landscapes for writers. Where major newspapers like the Miami Herald pay all of $200 for an off-lead, front-page travel story including photos — I got the check Friday and spent it Saturday — online publications sometimes pay considerably more. While Salon and Slate remain cyberspace’s best-known outposts of original content created by staffers and freelance writers, the Web today is flush with a host of online publications offering quality non-fiction. Indeed, this might be the best of times for freelance writers with some online

Drudge and Flynt: Two of a kind

Can the mainstream media resist being dragged through the mud? This column appeared Jan. 7, 1999, in the Online Journalism Review. Here’s the version on the OJR site. Drudge has taken his articles down, but you can still read them here. To track how the Clinton paternity story infiltrated the media, see A cybersleaze timeline: Anatomy of a smear. Matt Drudge and Larry Flynt — who would have thought them soulmates? Drudge, the enfant terrible of online journalism, has been ratcheting up the hysteria volume this week over his latest “world exclusive”: that Bill Clinton may have a 13-year-old son, the result of a tryst with an African American prostitute who’s seeking to prove paternity through DNA testing. Flynt, publisher

Examples of Drudge Report dispatches

The following dispatches from the Drudge Report are being reprinted under the fair use doctrine for educational purposes in cooperation with the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California. WHITE HOUSE DNA CHASE: TEEN DOING ‘WELL’ AFTER NEWS OF ‘NO MATCH’ **Exclusive** He had been told all of his life by his mother that Bill Clinton was his father, but late this week, 13-year old Danny Williams of Arkansas learned the truth: He is not.

Newsweek arrives on the Web

Editor and General Manager Michael Rogers discusses Newsweek’s online strategy This column appeared in the January 1999 issue of The American Journalism Review. Newsweek has joined the future. Newsweek.com arrived on the Web Oct. 4, 1998, and unlike the first wave of mainstream media news sites that reinvented themselves every five minutes, these folks don’t seem to have an identity crisis. The streamlined site has a spare, minimalist look, featuring all the content of the print magazine alongside a handful of daily features and breaking news provided by others. With a 10-person editorial staff, the Web site has both a modest agenda and realistic goals. In short, Newsweek.com doesn’t pretend to be all things to all Webheads.

Online news sites embrace personalization

Online news publications should take advantage of personalization’s promise This column appeared in the December 1998 issue of The American Journalism Review. Should online news publications personalize their content? To date, they’ve shown a remarkable indifference to one of the fundamental hallmarks of new media. While mass media like newspapers, magazine and TV newscasts bring the same information to large numbers of news consumers, the Internet makes it possible for news transactions to be micro-targeted to individuals. Since 1996, Web portal sites such as My Yahoo, My Excite and My Netscape have grown in popularity, with users able to select favorite news topics, stocks, TV listings, sports teams, horoscopes, and other interests, plus handy reminders of friends’ birthdays or relatives’