Blog Post 2 (Aggregation) and Post 3 (Free Choice) due by 8:00 p.m. on Saturday

In Class:
-WordPress.com Tour
-How I grade blog posts
-Common types of blog posts
-Quiz 1 review
-Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons
-Writing effective headlines
-How to link

Readings for Next Week:
-Read “Why I Blog” by Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic Magazine at
-Read JournalismNext Chap 10 – Managing news as a conversation (p. 277-309)
-Read JournalismNext Chap 11 – Building a digital audience for news (p. 310-334)

Review the main concepts and bold faced terms. There will be 15 matching items with terms and definitions.

From “Out of Print” by Eric Alterman, New Yorker Magazine

There will be several True/False questions from the reading. In addition there will be two short answer questions worth four points each.

1. Why is the “Out of Print” author concerned about the demise of the newspaper? (Hint: it’s not about money or jobs?)

2. Why do some believe the demise of the newspaper and its traditional role and authority might be a good thing? (Hint: it’s not about money or jobs?)

This Daily Show video hits on a number of topics in the article. Enjoy.

From the Cyberjournalist.net’s Blogger Code of Ethics

There will be five True/False questions about this document. Consider of how it might apply to the work you do this semester.

Copyright - Grants the creator of a work the exclusive rights to use or not use the work as he/she sees fit.

Copyright law protects movies, TV shows, books, news articles, plays, Web pages, e-mails, bulletin boards, images, music lyrics, sound and video files, and postings to discussion groups. The act of publishing automatically means it is copyright protected.

For an animated, sing-along explanation of copyright, see this video from the Media Education Lab.

Fair Use – Allows others to use part of a copyrighted work in certain situations like criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, and research.

Fair use is based on the idea that there is no original thought; every idea is influence by other ideas.

Fair use is designed to so that someone can use part of the original work. For example, a music journalist who is reviewing a new album can quote the lyrics of a song without seeking permission.

In fair use cases, courts look at four factors:
1. The purpose and character of the use
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount of the portion used
4. The effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Here are some summaries of fair use cases.

For an animated, sing-along explanation of user rights, watch this video from the Media Education Lab.

Creative Commons – Allows creators to protect their work by choosing from a variety of types of licensing, rather than relying on copyright law. The licenses allow creators to maintain protection from unauthorized use, but still allow various forms of copying, sharing, and modifying.

See CreativeCommons.org for more info and to get a license for your work.

Takeaways for Journalism Students

1. Always seek to do original reporting first. Get your own quotes, take your own photos, record your own audio, shoot your own videos.

2. Credit your own work. Decide how you want others to use it.

3. Assume that anything you encounter on the Internet is copyrighted, unless it is expressly states otherwise.

4. If you need a stock photo or other kind of media, use Creative Commons work whenever possible.

4. If you are using copyrighted work, seek permission.

6. If you are using copyrighted work and you do not obtain permission, ask yourself the following questions to determine if the use is covered under fair use.
-Is my use of the work for news, commentary or criticism?
-How much of the original work am I using?
-Is my use transformative?
-What is the context of the work?
-Does my use lower the value of the work?

For readers: Headlines should be simple, literal and direct. They must motivate readers to click.

For search engines: Search engines look for keywords. If a headline contains keywords that are also repeated in the text of the article, it will show up higher in search engines.

Suggestions for writing better online headlines:

1. Be descriptive – say clearly what the story is about

2. Use keywords

3. Use conversational language

4. Avoid puns that confuse or are unclear

5. Engage readers

Go to in-class exercise below…

1. Rewrite the headline – RESCUERS AND RESCUED REUNITED

EWING — “I bet you were the one who was yelling, ‘Don’t touch anything!’” a smiling Frances Kaplan, 81, said to Ewing Police Officer Jeffrey Caldwell from her bed at the St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center yesterday.

Caldwell nodded, smiling.

It was the first time that Frances and her husband Marvin Kaplan, 80, were reunited with police officers who rescued the couple and their 54-year-old son Harris Kaplan from a burning mini- van on Jan. 18. The vehicle became entangled in electrical wires after crashing into a utility pole.

Frances, who suffered a broken hip and femur in the crash, is in rehabilitation and is recovering well, her family said.

“For someone who has been through what I have been through, I guess I am doing great,” she said yesterday during the afternoon reunion.

The family was traveling back from a trip to the grocery store at the time of the
accident. Marvin was at the wheel, driving along Lower Ferry Road, when he was tem- porarily blinded by sun glare and lost control of the van.

“It was so fast,” he said. “We just heard the crash and I knew I had to get her out.”
Marvin said his wife knew immediately that her hip was broken. As soon as he got out of his car, he said he saw police officers and heard sirens coming to the scene.

“They were right on top of it, thank God,” he said.

Caldwell was quickly joined by Detective Michael Pellegrino and Officer Fred Dow, and together the trio worked to pull Frances and son Harris from the wreckage. Moments after the family was safely out of their minivan, it erupted into a cloud of smoke and flames.
As the group talked about the experience yesterday, they all seemed to understand just how close they came to death…

2. Rewrite the headline — ROBLES IS MAN WITH PLAN

CHERRY HILL – I shook hands Monday night with Anthony Robles, his smile as wide as if he never had a worry and his grip as powerful as if he forges iron with his bare hands.

His story is even more gripping.

There would be a short line behind Robles of those willing to trade places with him at birth. Certainly, no one was smiling when he was born without a right leg.

Or, when he ditched his anchor of a prosthetic leg as a 7-year-old growing up in Arizona, opting to maneuver through childhood and life on crutches.

Or, when he developed a crunching grip used to squeeze opponents into submission on the wrestling mat and a powerful left leg that hoisted him to the top of the podium at the NCAA Championships last March.

“I always believed there was a purpose in my life,” Robles said. “It was a matter of finding what the plan was.”

Robles, 23, didn’t let life take him on a ride of pity, rather he steered his own purposeful path which started as a 90-pound freshman, who he said was the worst of all high school wrestlers in his hometown of Mesa.

That path led to being the best, winning the 125-pound collegiate national wrestling title while finishing his senior season at Arizona State perfect.

“I wasn’t in my sport for attention,” he said smiling again. “I just love wrestling.”

The national attention wasn’t there in high school when he was hopping around the track on one leg carrying a 20-pound sandbag at practice even though his coach Bob Williams said he didn’t have to do it.

Because he wouldn’t allow anyone to tell him what he couldn’t do in life, the spotlight shined on him again Monday night at the Philadelphia Sports Writers 108th annual dinner where Robles was honored as the Most Courageous Athlete.

3. Rewrite the headline — DON’T BET AGAINST THE SPITTIN PRINCESS

LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — People use all sorts of ways to try to predict the winner of the Super Bowl: comparing regular season records, judging who looked stronger in the post-season run-up to the big game, or watching the betting lines from Las Vegas oddsmakers.

But the closest thing to a sure thing may come from a camel in New Jersey.

Princess, the star of New Jersey’s Popcorn Park Zoo, has correctly picked the winner of five of the last six Super Bowls. She went 14 and 6 predicting regular season and playoff games this year, and has a lifetime record of 88-51.

Her pick this year: The New York Giants.

The Bactrian camel’s prognostication skills flow from her love of graham crackers. Zoo general manager John Bergmann places a cracker and writes the name of the competing teams on each hand. Whichever hand Princess nibbles from is her pick. On Wednesday, she made her pick with no hesitation at all, predicting bad news for Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, even though the Las Vegas oddsmakers have New England favored by about 3 points.

Her only miscue in the big game was picking the Indianapolis Colts over the New Orleans Saints two years ago, indicating that even camels know it’s generally risky to go against Peyton Manning.

“It started out when a local radio station was looking to have some fun, so they asked Princess who was going to win a particular game each week, and it just took off from there,” Bergmann said. “Now we have guys calling up on Sunday morning wanting to know who Princess has picked that week. One guy even asked if she does lottery numbers.”

Her best season was 2008, when she got 17 out of 22 games right, including correctly picking the Pittsburgh Steelers to win the Super Bowl.

Princess doesn’t do point spreads. But she has nearly mastered the art of picking straight-up winners.

The cunning camel was once the personal pet of heiress Doris Duke, the only child of tobacco and electric energy tycoon James Buchanan Duke.

Doris Duke raised Princess and her sister Babe from youngsters, Bergmann said.

The pair of camels had their own barn, and spent summers at Duke’s Rhode Island estate. During bad weather, they were put up in the solarium.

After Duke’s death in 1993, the camels stayed on her estate in Hillsborough. Babe died several years ago, leaving just Princess.

When Princess’ caretaker was about to retire, the estate offered Princess to Popcorn Park Zoo, which took her in. The zoo cares for abandoned and abused animals.

James Foust, author of the textbook Online Journalism, writes that “links are second only to text in their ability to convey information and meaning to the user.”

But anyone can create a web page with a list of links.

As a journalist, you are looking for the best, most useful, most accurate, and most essential links that provide:

* source of your information
* background
* additional information on your story
* alternate point of view
* or further exploration

And there are proper ways to format your hyperlinks.

1. Pick a word or phrase to highlight. The link text should summarize what is at the other end of the link. The user should know where they are going and what they will find.

2. Avoid “click here” or other unnecessary words or phrases.

DON’T: Read this article about how Rutgers-Camden students are mobilizing against merger plan.
DO: Rutgers-Camden students are mobilizing against the merger plan.

Here are instructions for how to create a link using WordPress.com

News aggregation is a term used to describe human or computer generated collection and republishing of online information.

Purpose:
-Active way for reporters to do research on a subject. Learn what others are writing about and saying then share it.
-Provides a service to your audience. You do the work of finding and organizing the best information on your topic.
-Links out from your publication to others (which helps generate authority and traffic for your publication).

Post requirements:
-Write a post that pulls together and organizes online information that is useful for your reader.
-Your post should include at least 5 hyperlinks.
-Upload a photo to add some artwork to the post. Take your own photo, follow fair use guidelines, or use Creative Commons image. Give photo credit in the caption.

Examples:

Curbed daily round-up of real estate headlines

TechnicallyPhilly on Curbed blog coming to Philly

Post 3 (Free Choice)

Create a blog post of your choosing.

Each post will be assessed on:

• Posted by 8 p.m. deadline. Zero points if late.
• Writing is compelling, free of spelling or grammatical errors.
• Post is scanning-friendly. It features shorter sentences (or mix of long and short), paragraphs, lists, and headings.
• Headlines are descriptive, compelling, and use key words.
• Post is related to beat topic and provides useful information to the reader.
• When required, post contains original reporting, writing, and media (photo, audio, video, graphics).
• Key facts and information are attributed to sources, with hyperlinks if possible.
• Proper permissions and credit for content created by others.
• Posts are tagged with five user-friendly key words.
• Specific requirements of assigned posts are met.

1. Do a blog stroll
Create a list of interesting links to other Web sites and blogs related to your topic. See TechnicallyPhilly’s Comcast roundup

2. Round up of news or opinion
Pick one newsworthy subject and write a paragraph about it. Link to key sources and other places to get more information. See Blinq’s Let the public vote on a Rowan-Rutger’s merger

3. Write up a short piece of news
Write a short news or informational post and add links to key web resources. See PhillyClout’s Museum of the American Revolution Comes to Philly

4. Upcoming events
Create information on an upcoming event(s) related to your subject. Link to the information. See uwishunu’s recommendations for Black History Month

5. Be a guide or offer advice
What do your readers want to know about? Where should they go? What should they do? You can tell them. See Jersey Shore Fishing’s Mackerel turning on

6. Take a photo
Take a photo (or a series of photos) related to your topic. Post them. Add a bit of text or captions. See T Magazine on Tumblr

7. Record some audio
Create an audio segment related to your topic. See the PhillyFoodGuys podcasts

8. Shoot some video
Post a video clip that is relevant to your subject. See Gothamist’s videos of Occupy clashes with police

9. Do a quick Q & A
Call or email a relevant source. Transcribe the interview. Edit it for grammar and errors. See Phawker’s She’ll Be Riding Six White Horses

10. Make a list
Make a list of things related to your subject. Things to do. Things to think about. Things that are funny. Things that are new. See NPR’s 10 Reasons Why We Love Making Lists

Reading:
-Read JournalismNext – Forward (p.xiv to xix)
-Read JournalismNext – Intro (p. 1-8)
-Read JournalismNext Chapter 1 – We are all Web workers now (p. 9-22) but skip
section on Web design (p. 23-39)
-Read JournalismNext Chapter 2 – Advanced blogging (p. 40-67)
-Read “Out of Print” by Eric Alterman, New Yorker Magazine
-Read the Cyberjournalist.net’s Blogger Code of Ethics

How Penn State student website evolved from ‘online coffee house’ to breaking news by Daniel Victor (Poynter.com)

Takeaways?