Lijam Blog

Images are just as powerful and sometimes more powerful than words when telling stories.

Imagine  a  writer trying explain a tragic accident.  Now  imagine the writer has a picture of a shoe a that flew off the foot of a passenger in the accident. This image will immensely emphasize the extent to which people were injured.

A certain artistic sense of concept is necessary to use photography effectively. One must understand what will draw emotion from the audience, and what will further convey the message the article is trying to send.

Information as gone mobile. Briggs explains how news broke in Manchester when a soccer star crashed his car. The incident was captured on a camera phone.

News worthy incidents happen often, and in this age of technology is can always be captured. And sometimes not so newsworthy incidents can be made into news worthy incidents by the same means.

An example of this was the Michael Phelps incident, when he was pictured on a camera phone smoking marijuana. The picture was made public and instant new reaction and criticism came for the Olympic swimmer.

Ch.4

Chapter 4 is about micro blogging. Micro blogging refers to method of information sharing in which the sender delivers short quicks pieces of information to get his/her word out fast.

This is effective in today’s fast paced world.

In an earlier post I wrote about the importance of getting information to the masses as fast as possible. It is also to make sure the consumers actually receive the message. Often, even if a news story is sent out with immediacy, it is not guaranteed the consumer will read it in its entirety. Micro blogging allows  consumers to both get the message with immediacy, while also not putting pressure on the consumer to have to read a long article.

Twitter is a great example of micro blogging. Many famous people use twitter to make brief statements or announcements. These short snippets of information can be digested in a matter of seconds, and often the news comes straight from the horses mouth.

News sites are becoming much more collaborative much like blogs are. Many sites from CNN.com to ESPN.com allow readers to comment on articles the sites have posted. ESPN.com actually has its own blogging site where accomplished sports writers contribute and even celebrities like Lil’ Wayne have articles.

Lil Wayne

Involving readers in the process is a highly useful way of information sharing. Not only to consumers get good news from reliable news sources, they also can gauge the opinions of the general public on the given topic. At the same time these consumer can feel as if they are involved in the process of spreading news.

Ch. 2 blogging
Every college journalist should have a blog according to Briggs. Blogs allow writers to express their views and get their name out to potential consumers. Forming relationships with readers is vital in becoming a successful journalist.
In my experience blogs can be good and bad. A good blog establishes credibility by being unbiased and factual. Even biased blogs, that are factual have credibility. On the other hand blogs that lack fact based reasoning or make erratic statements lose credibility and tend to not succeed. Because bloggers are free to say what they want a lot of blogs may take this approach. http://marketingroi.wordpress.com/2007/06/26/what-makes-a-blog-credible/
Furthermore blogs allow the writer to express his/her character and opinions, unlike writing a news story which must be unbiased. One of my favorite blogs, which is undoubtedly biased, yet highly entertaining is barstoolsports. This blog site comments on the athletic world in a humerous manner, and provides pictures and clips with commentary of many random incidents just for the purpose of entertainment.

Blogs have to abilityto be more entertaining than news stories.

Chapter 1 talks about internet fundamentals, and gets into how the internet works. In this chapter he emphasizes the importance of this knowledge in hopes of being and effective journalist.
In this new age of competitive journalism print media and writing skills will not suffice. Information simply will not get out fast enough. WebPages, blogs, and social media sites are much faster forms of information spreading.
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