Online Journalism 1

The Citizen Media Law Project has a searchable database with hundreds of cases in the courts defining the rights of citizen journalists, and the professional journalists who work with them. Pick one case, link to it, and in 100 words or so describe what issues were involved in the case, and if possible, the outcome of the case.

Online J Ethics

lourutigliano — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:47:54 +0000

Steve Jobs article pt1

Class Links

lourutigliano — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:48:10 +0000

City Financial Crisis

Disconnected

Brooklyn Blog

Bay Ridge Talk

Blogging Ethics Code?

NY Times Ethics Code

Washington Post Blog Guidelines

New Voices

lourutigliano — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:05:56 +0000

Let’s say you’re inspired by your professor’s ramblings (it’s been known to happen..) to start your own community weblog. You’ll probably need a grant or two, and the primary benefactors of this work are the Knight Foundation, which started the New Voices grant program in 2005, as well as the $5 million annual Knight News Challenge. Take a look at the former winners of the New Voices grants – some are based in Chicago – and see what “beat” they’ve selected, how they write their blog posts, how they use photo and video, and how they try to encourage audience participation. Pick one of the grantees from2005, 2006, or 2007,
(most likely the 2008 winners haven’t launched their sites yet) and briefly (100 words max) tell us what you think works or doesn’t work about the grantee you select, and link to their website or the specific part of their website you discuss.

Reporter’s Notebook

lourutigliano — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:02:02 +0000

Next week we’ll start working on the class project in and out of class, but before we do we have an old-school analog exercise that will help make you better bloggers, reporters, and writers. First, read this article which proposes that the key to generating story ideas is to constantly observe and engage the world around you. Then try it out, and post five examples of things you saw, overheard, discussed, and/or people, places, and things that interested you over the weekend. Think about the news that Forbes ranked Chicago as the “most stressful city” this week – have you seen anything that supports or refutes that (aside from this assignment)? With the Cubs potentially clinching this weekend, what are Chicagoans doing or saying in reaction? Notice anything in your neighborhood that reflects the presidential campaign?

Post your five in the comments, and add a paragraph that responds to this article – did you find this exercise difficult? Did it help you come up with story ideas, or an idea for your beat for the class project? Did it make you notice or pay attention to your surroundings more than usual? What was the best advice in the article?

The Online Media Ecosystem

lourutigliano — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:18:38 +0000

A recent post on a blog known for tracking layoffs in the news business raises the question of what might happen if the local daily newspaper in a city went out of business. It’s an interesting thought exercise but the post also gives a useful snapshot of the wide variety of journalism occurring every day in cities across the country, from the mainstream news organizations to blogs, listservs, even Yelp – what he calls the “media landscape” and “media ecosystem.” Read this post and the comments that follow, and then tell us what you think – would a city miss the local paper and why/why not? With all the new opportunities emerging online, where else might you want to work as a journalist? As a solo blogger? Running a community-driven website? If you hope to work for a traditional news outlet that’s ok too! Any in particular? What “beat” would you want to cover? Travel? Food? Culture? Politics?