LBCC Students Share Tales of Journalism

About a half dozen students from Linn-Benton Community College ventured to the SPJ conference -- "Building a Better Journalist" -- last weekend at the University of Oregon.

What did they think? In addition to picking up various tips from the pros on reporting, interviewing and writing, they were inspired to do better journalism.

As they discovered, despite some recent media woes, this is an exciting time to be a journalist with opportunities opening up all around them, especially on the Internet.

But don't just take my word for it. Check out blogs by Lydia Elliott and Max Brown. To find out what other young journalists are thinking, take a look at their newspaper, The Commuter, and its lively blog list. Finally, students in LBCC's news reporting class have been experimenting this term with some blogs of their own.

All of them reflect the enthusiasm that's motivating our next generation of journalists.

-rp-

Better Headlines for the Search Engine Era

When it comes to getting your news story seen and read, writing a clever, enticing and informative headline still makes all the difference, whether your story is on the front page of the newspaper or vying for space on Google News.

A panel of journalism and online experts discussed the difference between "traditional" journalism and online news Saturday at the University of Oregon as part of a day-long conference, "Building a Better Journalist," organized by the Oregon and Southwest Washington Chapter of SPJ.

"News Google Can Use" featured Rachel Anderson of Anvil Media in Portland; Rob Smith, editor of the Portland Business Journal; and UO journalism professor John Russial.

While print publications can still attract "eyeballs" with clever headlines along with attractive photos and graphics, online journalists have to keep search engines foremost in their thinking. More specifically, headlines and story content must focus on nouns -- the traditional people, places and things -- that are going to land content at the top of the Google search list.

So, for example, a vague headline that proclaims "Candidate's supporters crash opponent's visit" doesn't stand a chance of being noticed against one that lets readers know "Merkley supporters crash Smith's Oregon campaign visit."

"You just need to think about it from a different perspective," said Anderson, who gave session attendees a crash course on search engine optimization, including emphasizing keywords in headlines as well as stories.

Why does it matter? Because online you need eyeballs to drive revenue, and the higher your content rates on various search engine lists the more likely readers are to click through and see ads that accompany the story.

Russial, who teaches editing and headline writing, reminded the audience that coming up with quality headlines that attract readers hasn't changed with the advent of the Internet. "Writing headlines is not trivial. You have to put some thought into it."

In many instances, he added, straight-forward "search engine headlines" are better simply because they tell the news. That should be a good reminder for all journalists, regardless of their medium.

Overall, about 100 people attended the conference, including journalism professionals and students from around the region.

Sign Up for Great Journalism Seminar

Don't miss a great opportunity to learn about journalism and hang out with the pros next Saturday, Oct. 25, at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

The Society of Professional Journalists is hosting "Building a Better Journalist," which will feature keynote speaker Stephen Engelberg, managing editor of the non-profit investigative newsroom ProPublica, and Les Zaitz, one of Oregon's top investigative reporters. Other topics include blogging, covering politics, interviewing, and reporting for multimedia.

The gathering begins with registration at 8 a.m. at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication, and concludes with a social hour at 5:30 p.m. Some of the state's top journalists will be leading the various sessions. Best of all, students pay only $10!

For more information or to sign up, see spjoregon.org.

-rp-

(Photo credit: "Reporter Notebook Prototype" by ShutterCat7, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Who needs a TV anyway...

This week my Media & Society class discussed the continuing monopolization of the media, network broadcasting and cable TV in particular. Thinking about the "next generation" of media consumers, we got to talking about hulu.com.

If you haven't checked it out, take a look. Besides online feeds of popular shows such as "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," consumers will find a variety of other programs, both old and new. The other night it ran a live feed of the debate between Sens. McCain and Obama. Movies also are part of the mix.

A recent BusinessWeek article noted that hulu.com already is exceeding 100 million video streams a month, second only to YouTube. While consumers have to "endure" a few commercials -- far fewer than usual -- at least they can choose the pitch they'd like to see, including a movie trailer.

-rp-

(Photo credit: "hulu.com" by alexanderwrege, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Tape Recording Interviews and Oregon Law

One of the first questions student journalists ask each term is whether they can or should use a tape recorder or digital recording device when they go on interviews. Yes, I always tell them, but be careful.

First, you can't always count on your batteries or the quality of the recording, which means you should always take notes as well. Second, you may not always have time to listen to the transcript, so it's good to become a faster note-taker.

Most important, get permission from the speaker if he/she is not in a public setting where they may expect that somebody in the audience is recording their remarks. The same goes for telephone interviews. In Oregon, reporters, and anybody else for that matter, must get the permission of the person at the other end of the line before recording the conversation.

For a copy of the Oregon law, see the useful state-by-state guide provided by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

At her "Teaching Online Journalism" Web site, Mindy McAdams has a useful guide for reporters on recording telephone calls. It includes a list of new gadgets you can get to enhance the quality of recordings so they too can be posted.

-rp-

(Photo credit: "Talking on Phone" by rd76pag, courtesy of Flickr.com.)

From the Mouths of Babes...

Kudos to Corvallis Gazette-Times reporter Theresa Hogue for another great blog post!

She found the inspiration for today's gem in a CNN iReport that quizzed kindergartners about the presidency and the campaign between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama.

It just goes to show, maybe we did learn everything we need to know in kindergarten.

-rp-

(Photo credit: "ST/BORF" by ND or not ND, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Debate: Are Blogs Good for Democracy?

I'm looking forward to reading a series of blogs posted this morning on the topic "Are Blogs Good for Democracy?" They were generated from a meeting between Arianna Huffington and the Yale Political Union.

The meeting focused on the question, "Resolved: Blogs Are Good for Democracy." According to the link in the Huffington Post, the guest speaker suggested blogs do indeed support democracy because they challenge the conventional wisdom.

After a "spirited debate," the question was approved by a vote of 33-22.

The Post article includes links to blog posts by four of the Yale students. I was alerted to the story by a post on the Social Media blog.

-rp-

(Photo credit: Arianna Huffington by eyeliam, courtesy of Flickr.com)

LB Students Launch Their Blogs - Cool!

ALBANY, Ore. -- Students in Rob Priewe's News Reporting and Writing class at Linn-Benton Community College embarked on a bold new adventure this week, creating blogs that they will use during the term to share their thoughts about journalism, writing, current events and ... whatever.

It's the first time LBCC journalism students have used blogs as part of their curriculum, Priewe noted after class Friday.

"I'm excited to see where this experiment takes us," he said.

Student blogs come on the heels of the student newspaper, The Commuter, launching a new Web site over the summer. Both projects fit into the larger goal of better preparing young journalists for careers in the fast-changing media, Priewe said.

He's got 12 students in his News Reporting class, which meets three times a week on the Albany campus. While the students are very familiar with MySpace, Facebook and other aspects of the Internet, most of them are new to blogging.

That didn't deter them, however, from jumping right into it with their first posts. Some of the students commented on their first week of classes, while another offered an opinion about whiny sports fans. One student even had a comment quickly turn up from afar, making the students even more curious about the medium.

"We're still working on some of the ground rules," Priewe noted. For now, the mantra is simply "don't post anything you wouldn't want your mother to read."

Check out the "JN216 Blogs" to the right, and you can see for yourself what the students come up with.

(Photo credit: "STS115: Moments into the Launch of Atlantis" by mocr, courtesy of Flickr.com)

-rp-