Rebecca Norris Online

As Mark Briggs, author of “Journalism Next” put it, “Now that news is a conversation, one of the greatest challenges facing journalists is how to manage, and leverage, that conversation.”

Managing and leveraging the conversation about news has become more and more relevant on the internet. News outlets utilize comment areas on all of their posts so as to create an area to begin the conversation and see where it goes from there.

In order to keep the conversation going in these comment areas, it is essential to follow Mandy Jenkins’ “rules of engagement.”

• Answer all questions.
• Address criticism without spats.
• Publicly or privately respond.
• Share Good Responses.
• Publicly correct yourself.
• Always acknowledge new tips.

When it comes down to it, all of the rules seem logical to follow. However I must question the validity of the option of publicly or privately responding. If an author only privately responds to user comments, then wouldn’t there be minimal interaction and furthermore, less of an incentive to leave a comment in the first place if the author doesn’t care enough to respond?

All in all, conversation via comment areas is essential and can shed light onto new ideas on specific matters. However, in my opinion it needs to be regulated so as to show progress and create a beneficial effect on the community of viewers and commenters.

Clay Shirky, an American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies once said “There is no such thing as information overload, only filter failure.”

Throughout chapter nine of Mark Briggs book, “Journalsim Next,” he delves into methods that can be used to digitize your life, and eventually concludes with ways to digitize your journalism.

With an abundance of information jam-packed into a mere thirty-some pages, I found that some of the material resonated more than others; David Allen and cloud sourcing for example.

David Allen is the mastermind behind the hit book “Getting Things Done.” His core principles were to identify, capture and organize information. Although he didn’t use the concepts in adherence with the internet, folks quickly realized the full potential of his methods when paired with digital technology. By using technology as a means to identify, capture and organize information, consumers are aided in streamlining their personal and professional lives. This concept put in action can be seen in sites like Evernote and Google Docs; which ultimately allow consumers to execute a number of tasks within one browsing tab. What’s fantastic about sites like Evernote and Google Docs is that they are equipped with cloud computing. In other words, these sites make it possible to access your information in any situation where an internet connection is available–some site even have functions to allow access to documents sans wifi.

As a college student who receives around 50 emails a day, I was especially drawn to Briggs section on organizing your inbox. He went into depth about one of Allen’s key components to getting things done–“Inbox Zero”– and that is to spend no more than two minutes per email and to have an empty inbox once you complete an email session. Although I am proud to be able to resonate with his ideas on organization through creating new folders within your email system, I find it very difficult to maintain organization with responding to emails unless I keep the most important messages in my inbox so that I am able to mark them as unread and see them regularly when I sign in. Therefore, when it comes to emails–and honestly probably a lot of things in life–it’s really a personal preference when it comes down to the details of getting everything done.

Lastly, I especially liked the Newsroom Innovator on Ryan Pitts, the Senior Editor for Digital News. He pointed out that his favorite part of digital journalism is that he gets to build something that not only shows the big picture but is also able to connect with people on more personal levels. He went on to explain the benefits of digital journalsim and how each page invites exploration, with links to related pages.

I suppose I never truly thought of the internet as exploration–but when it comes down to it that’s what we’re all doing as we click from page to page viewing the expanse of the World Wide Web.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of learning a little bit more about photography and how it has the ability to enhance every piece of jounralism.

Alexis and Evan visited with Professor Miller’s COMM 361 class to provide a little depth into the realm of visual storytelling.

Alexis, who has a photo journalism background and used to cover politics, explained that the main goal in photogrpahing events is to “find something that doesn’t look staged and break away from the pack of other photographers.”

When asking the class who wants to work in multimedia and photography, there may have been one or two hands in the air. At this point we learned that all of Alexis and Evan’s bosses are writers and therefore still benefit from knowing about this field.

The fact of the matter is that we live in an age where reading more than fifty words becomes a struggle, therefore when multimedia is integrated effetively, the entire piece becomes more desirable to the audience.

After Alexis and Evan left, Miller’s TA took over and told the class a bit more about photography and multimedia. He hit home when sharing iPhone aps with the class that are better than Instagram–can you believe it? Students now know about an array of aps where you can change colors and exposure on a curve, make photos look non-pixelated and more. In an era where folks want their stories to be told through perfect pictures, we couldn’t be happier that none of these aps cost more than $4.99.

Overall, learning more about the way that multimedia compliments a written piece was interesting because it prompted us to think beyond the written words and how to actually convey our story through images.

Today’s day and age is defined not only by the internet, but by the concept of crowdsourcing, or as Mark Briggs refers to it in his book Journalism Next, crowd-powered collaboration.

“Crowdsourcing harnesses the sustained power of communitiy to improve a service or information base,” wrote Briggs.

Upon reading his definitions, I immediately though of Wikipedia. Although it is not acceptable to be used as a credible source in college, it is a great place to start in the research process. It provides users with information that is updated daily.

Crowdsourcing isn’t only applicable to wikipedia, but also to the blogosphere, as well as many other platforms. The more people that are involved, the more information you are able to receive.

Nowadays you can see croudsourcing almost anywhere on the internet. News sites during a storm will ask people to upload photos from a storm which allows other users to see where the storm hit the hardest, people use sites like Ask.Com where anyone can provide answers.

All in all, I think that croudsourcing is a tremendous innovation that has already proven to be extremely beneficial. Though, like all innovations, it could still be refined–like eliminating the possibillity of faulty information on Wikipedia.

I thought that Chapter 3 of Briggs’ book explained croudsourcing very well.

FAIRFAX—Jonathan Martin, a senior political reporter at Politico, joined students participating from George Mason University Video Studio along with Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-Span networks and students from the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars, and Purdue University.

Martin provided insight into his career and his work on the 2012 presidential campaign.

“President Obama is a historical political figure in this country, the first African American president,” said Martin in response to how we’ve gotten to this point in American politics. “I think he has harnessed something very important… the coalition of the ascendant; that is young voters, minorities, women, highly educated Americans—and he’s put together a real majority in this country with that coalition. And that’s what got him elected in 2008 and re-elected despite a tough election, a touch economy rather, in 2012. And that is why President Obama is now a two-term president.”

To keep it fair and eliminate bias, Martin went on to explain where the Republicans stand within current American politics.

“As for the Republicans, I think they still have not figured out a way to put the party back together after the end of the Bush years,” Martin said. “They had two nominees, John McCain and Mitt Romney, over the course of the last two election cycles, who were basically transitional figures, Steve, who both generationally, but also politically represented something of a middle ground between impressionism and whatever’s next in the party. And my sense for what’s next is sort of a younger 40-something brand of conservatism. It’s not something that’s watered down, but it’s something that’s more accessible.”

Martin’s views on the election inspired me to stay more up-to-date with the politics of America. To witness someone speak with such precision and from an expert standpoint prompted me to brainstorm about how to become an expert of my field.

FAIRFAX–Kevin Sites, also known as the “‘granddaddy’ of backpack journalism” by the trade press, spent his Tuesday afternoon telling Mason students about his experiences covering global wars.

“We’re going to talk a little bit about backpack journalsim,” said Sites. “But more interesting and perhaps more importantly about the consequences of being a journalist.”

Throughout his lecture, he explained his reactions to three instances that have ultimately changed his life. From not offering comfort to a dying man, witnessing another’s execution and not paying enough attention to a man who spoke a language he couldn’t understand, Sites illustrated the aftermath of being a journalist of war and possible examples of post-traumatic stress disorder.

His story captivated an overcapacity room in Innovation Hall and left students wondering about their roles as journalists. By sharing his eye-opening stories about moral dilemmas that journalists face, I believe that members of the audience left the room thinking a bit differently about the jobs they’re pursuing.

Sites visited with Professor Beth Jannery’s COMM 303 class twice on Tuesday. Jannery was gracious enough to open the event to all students of the department.

Over the past few weeks George Mason Students have been bundled up from head to toe as they face the wintry weather that January has to offer in Northern Virginia. With extreme lows in the teens it has become difficult to not hit the snooze button and avoid facing what feels like Antarctica in order to trek across campus to class.

Lucky for us, mother nature had a good day and granted us temperatures nearing the 70’s on this lovely Tuesday. Walking across campus bare-armed with the sun beating down made waking up at 7:30 in the morning all the more worthwhile. Now that the day is coming to a close and thunderstorms are in tomorrow’s forecast, there’s only one thing to do: go on a run as this unseasonably warm day bids us farewell.