Blogs > Life, I wrote.

Life Editor Ivan Lajara talks about living in the Hudson Valley, language, the Web, cats and even politics. But he shouldn't.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

DFM chat on adding value to social media


Context is your friend.
Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon, Eastern Time. 

Today we're talking about moving beyond social media reaction stories: How to add value to social media reporting, and why.
The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

Read more »

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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

DFM chat on mobile journalism

Monitoring your live videos is kind-of important.
Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon, Eastern Time. 

Today we're talking what steps (and equipment, apps, etc) are needed to change the journalist's workflow into a mobile-first one. And why.

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

Read more »

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Friday, May 3, 2013

The Mayor's apology, annotated

Feel free to add a comment if you think I should add a note to a different section or if the current notes should be annotated with additional details.

Correction: Town of Ulster Supervisor James Quigley informs me he is very much the Town of Ulster supervisor. A previous version of one of the annotations had it as a former supervisor.

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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

DFM chat on the lessons of the Oakland Tribune's 'Hotspot' project

Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at 1 p.m., Eastern Time., 10 a.m. Pacific Time.

Today we have a special chat. It will feature Oakland Tribune Violence Reporting Fellow Scott Johnson and will be moderated by Martin J. Reynoldssenior editor of the Community Engagement Bay Area News Group.

http://oaklandhotspot.tumblr.com/
Explains Reynolds, "The discussion will focus on the month-long Hotspot project, that has Johnson living in one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods of East Oakland, Calif. 

"Johnson is chronicling his experience via tumblr on a blog that is also embedded in an article page on Bay Area News Group websites. In this crime hotspot, he's discovering a community far more nuanced and dynamic than what our own headlines portray. 

"The chat will focus on Scott's work and some interesting revelations about the approach to crime coverage." (emphasis mine)

Among the topics to be covered:


1) How does prolific crime coverage impact a community's perception of itself?
2)  How does the decrease of non-crime neighborhood coverage impact how we are seen by the community?
3) Are journalists really in-tune with how jilted certain communities are with how they're portrayed in the media?

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.
Read more »

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Thursday, April 25, 2013

23 awesome gifs some redditors want you to stop using

A reddit group in the category that mixes animated gifs and sounds, the originally named subreddit Gifsound, wants you to stop using some gifs the community considers over-used.
But they're still awesome.

Here is the current list, which I am trying to back-source as I write this, which will be the actual point of a follow up post about tracking gifs down (otherwise I'd feel guilty).

Update: IT IS HARD! If you want to chime in with some information before I finish backtracking, be my guest).
The overused gifs are:

1. Honey Boo Boo and mom 
Better than the "sketti" gifs, I guess.



(via Tumblr, traced back to at least last year, when the show was peaking)
2. Sax playing walrus 
The gif mashup 'Mythbusters' walrus gif was posted on Imgur at least 2 years ago.
Also, Walruses cannot play saxophones. MYTH BUSTED!














(via Photobucket, with 4Gifs.com watermark) 

3. Colbert dancing behind man in suit.

The man in suit is Barney Frank, then a Congressman, appearing on "The Colbert Report"'s in November 2005 after Colbert's second "Better Know A District" segment, originally airing Oct. 25, 2005.














(via Imgur)
4. Colbert techno/rave dance
Many a dubstep track has been mashed with this.












(via Imgur)
5. Bane dancing
(via Imgur, with senorgif.com watermark) The Batman would not nod at this.



6. Neil Patrick Harris and Elmo
 Yes that's NPH with Elmo. True story.












(via Imgur, from Sesame Street.)

7. Fresh Prince Will Smith dancing in bedroom with drummer






















(via Imgur)
8. Preacher turns into a jet












(via Imgur)
9. Camping WASP family wearing Snuggies.















(via Imgur)
10. Spider-man dancing

60's Spider-man would probably say some nasty things about this.






(via Imgur)
11. Dancing two-man zebra














'

(via Imgur)

12. Obama and Romney headbanging
















(via Imgur)
13. Patrick on a pony ride













(via Tumblr)
14. Colin Mochrie raptor dance














(via Imgur)


15. Cartoon bird & raccoon Snoop dance















(via Imgur)
16. Dr. Who in the rain
















(via Imgur)
17. Obi-Wan blue screen drive















(via Tumblr)

18. Miguel playing guitar
Can be mashed with any Mumford & Sons song.















(via Imgur).
19. Middle-aged man and woman disco dancing



















(via Imgur)
20. Ned Flanders freaking out
(This one goes back to at least 2011 as well), mashed most time with Daft Punk's "Technologic."















(via chongas.com)

21. Older man moving eyebrows














(via Imgur)
22. Chubby shirtless boy dancing













(via Imgur, with 4gifs.com watermark)
23. Batman and Robin head nod.

At least they're not running away from things.




















(via tumblr)


All the way to the end?
Good!
Now, play this as you scroll back up.



UPDATE:
THIS:






































This post is also a test to see if or when this post gets ripped off somewhere else. And, yes, I'm channelling my inner Buzzfeed, but I'm trying to see how hard it would be to have one of its posts sourced all the way to the original, which might be time-prohibitive or impossible.

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

DFM chat on verifying social media information

Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon, Eastern Time. 

Today we're revisiting verifying information from social media, whether it's tweets, Facebook post, photos, etc.

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.

Read more »

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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

How to collectively create a mobile cloud-based newsroom B-roll library with Dropbox

So you've (hopefully) got a bunch of reporters with iPhones and want to easily punch up your videos with B-roll, intro files, closing credits, etc. But you don't have the time or are unable to do it because you're at the scene.
Someone in your newsroom probably has done this already. So why not share it?
The answer typically is that the workflow hasn't been worked out properly.
Enter the cloud.
If you all use Dropbox and share a folder, you can all share all your B-roll videos so that you can make your own clip in iMovie (or whatever video software you prefer), fast and professionally.

Here's how to do that:

WHAT YOU NEED:
* A bunch of reporters with iPhones/iPads (2 or above)
* Dropbox (free) and iMovie ($4.99).

SET UP:
* Have a master account (like your paper's brand) and share a folder with everyone in the group.
Create sub-folders within it for each reporter/videographer.


On your device, allow Dropbox to upload items from your camera. To do this, go to Settings, Camera Upload, and set it to On.


This will upload your photos and videos to your Camera Uploads folder in Dropbox.Only you can access this folder.

Note that in the shared folder, outside of the sub-folders, I put an intro file. That way everyone can access it remotely.

EXECUTION:
* To get a file from Dropbox to your camera roll, all you need to do is make the file a favorite, and then download it. If you don't favorite the file, Dropbox won't let you download movies.

So on my phone, I went to Dropbox, added the intro file to my favorites and save the intro to my camera roll, so I now have it for all my videos.

On iMovie, add your intro, your video and boom, you're done. Here's a quick example for didactic purposes:
video

* To add a B-roll file to the shared folder, simply shoot the video and save it to your camera roll.
Boot up your Dropbox app and move the video from your personal Camera Roll to the shared folder.



That way, everyone can use it. If they're short, you can upload them with cellular service, otherwise you'll have to find a wireless spot.

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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

DFM chat on sharing social media images and information during breaking news situations

Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon, Eastern Time. 

Today we're talking about telling the ethical and journalistic responsibilities of gathering and sharing information and images via social media during breaking news situations like the Boston Marathon explosions.

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.
Read more »

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Monday, April 15, 2013

Boston Marathon explosion: Timeline of events

A timeline of the events Monday at the 117th Boston Marathon, including start and finish times, and details of the explosion near the finish line. Created by Digital First Media Data Team.

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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

DFM chat on telling a story without writing a story

Journalists, members of Digital First Media and pretty much everyone else who wants to - are going to be taking part on the weekly Twitter chat at noon, Eastern Time.

Today we're talking about telling a story without writing a story.

The live feed is posted below. But you can also follow the chat here or here or also here. And you can also check out past chats over here.

If you want to chime in, post a comment in the container or a tweet with the hashtag "#dfmchat" so it can automatically appear below.
Read more »

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