Count your blessings

Check out this story in the Los Angeles Times - http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lacc28-2010jan28,0,6301622.story - and think about how the Doane administration, generally speaking, keeps its hands off Doane College media. In 11 years as an adviser here, I've never faced censorship from the administration. That makes me count my blessings. The only down side - we don't have stories about the administration censoring the Doane media to fill our print and Web pages or our airtime on radio and TV. I'll make that trade off anytime.

Shoot the Sandhill Cranes - with cameras, of course

Photogs, here's your chance to enjoy a three-day Photography Symposium with some of the biggest names in Nebraska photography, including National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore and wildlife photographer Michael Forsberg. 
The two-day seminar, called Photograph Nebraska: Hastings 2010, will be at the Lochland Country Club Feb. 26-28 and will feature photo critiques, wildlife blind tours and a documentary about the sandhill cranes.
The seminar also features photographer J. Michael McBride and Doane adjunct professor Randy Hampton, former photo editor of the Lincoln Journal Star.
The registration fee is $200. For more information, check out the Photograph Nebraska Web site or see the brochure on the bulletin board near Gaylord 130.

iPad - iBoon or iFlop for College Media

As we all know, the iPad was unveiled yesterday by Apple. Will it be the death of the student newspaper on college campuses as we know it? This observer, www.collegemediainnovation.org/blog/2010/01/the-ipad-and-college-media-first-impressions/, doubts it will replace the college newspaper.

How to Write a Blog

OK, let's get to the nitty gritty - creating a blog.

You must plan it. Multiplatform students should check out this description on beginning a blog. Beat Reporting students, your blogs will be published on The Doaneline.

Determine your blog's purpose, its goal. For Beat Reporters, your blog should complement the stories you write on your beat. Multiplatform students have more leeway about what they want to blog about.

You should make your blog different from the coverage we're already doing.

To help you create a plan, ask yourself:

• What will you name your blog?
• What is a good catch phrase, a good short description, of your blog? How would you explain it, in a few words, to your friends.
• What will you write about?

To build an audience for your blog:

• Post good posts regularly, preferably five times a week. Regularly schedule time to blog. For beat reporters, use the blog as a notebook, compiling your notes and story ideas and getting comments from readers/viewers. Let them help you focus on what stories they want to see.
• Write effective headlines
• Get involved in the community

To get involved, try:

• Putting the reader first
• Organize your thoughts. Everything you write should refer to the purpose of your post.
• Be to the point. Use short sentences, grafs and words. Include readers. Don't be a "know it all."
• Develop a conversational style of writing. Give your blog a distinctive voice. Try writing as if you're dashing off an e-mail to a friend. You can use first person. You can use humor. You can experiment. But try to make it conversational
• Use lots of bullets, bold text, subheads, quotes, etc.
• Use links effectively, summarize and analyze. But don't use too many links. Avoid obvious links and those to well-known Web sites. Also, avoid paid sites. Include only links that have value to your readers. 
• Be specific with headlines
• Use photos or screenshots

Here are a few examples of news blogs:

A sports blog

An editor's blog

An education reporter's blog

An entertainment blog

An anchorman's blog

If you get comments, great! That's the idea. But remember that you can delete any comment. It's your blog, after all. Just don't delete comments simply because you disagree with them. Read your comments often and respond to them occasionally, just not all the time.

I know this is longer than most blog posts would be. Sorry about that. But I hope it was helpful. Let me know.

Why write a blog?

I noticed a lot of apprehension from students when I informed them they will have to write a blog for Beat Reporting and Multiplatform Journalism. Here's hoping we can alleviate some of those fears with this and following posts.

OK, here goes - and please feel free to join the conversation. After all, that's the strength of blogs. Done well, they help develop a community of readers/viewers/consumers. Those people can help you test ideas, get feedback that you can use to help you report your beat and publish in a timely manner. And as we all know, timeliness is an element of news. This building community is the primary reason I want students at Doane College to blog.

For Multiplatform students, a secondary benefit is learning a content-management system.

A good blog is a conversation, not much different from writing e-mail or even chatting. In the past, news organizations printed or broadcast information and expected their consumers to ingest it all but not interact with the news. Blogs allow that interaction.

They also provide background, context, expertise and interact with people.

Good blogs include other information you find online and link to stories and blogs. They usually are fast, frequently updated, include relevant links, share photos and contain a place for people to post their opinions and information.

To become a blogger, I suggest you:

• Read blogs.
• Scan the top 100 blogs at technorati.com
• Find blogs that cover a beat similar to yours (for Beat Reporting students) or that you want to cover someday (Multiplatform Journalism students).

Notice the post you like the most. Think of how you could fashion your blog using some of the elements you see. Note how frequently bloggers post.

Then, read the next post, which will give more practical advice regarding how to actually do this stuff.