Get Your Own Google Alerts

For those who do not have these, Google alerts are a neat way of staying in touch with specific content posted on the Internet. You register for a Google alert using specific keywords and then any time those keywords are posted online, you are sent a link in an email. Check out two Google alerts I received over the weekend for Hinterland Who’s Who (in this case, they were blog postings):

• Remembering Hinterland: By Bundy(Bundy)
  If you’re Canadian and over the age of 30, chances are at some point growing up you’ve seen the Hinterland Who’s Who commercials on TV from the Canadian Wildlife Service and Environment Canada. These informative vignettes first appeared …
  Bundy’s Blog – http://bundysblog.blogspot.com/
• I saw you on TV!: By Mongoose(Mongoose)
  I knew right away that it was a red-breasted nuthatch, because it looked and moved exactly like the red-breasted nuthatch in the Hinterland Who’s Who vignette. Well, I suppose that’s a big “duh,” but then, people in real life are …
  Trucks and the City – http://trucksandthecity.blogspot.com/

To get your own Google alerts:

1. go to www.google.com/alerts,
2. enter your search term in the box provided (don’t forget to add quotation marks around a specifc phrase, such as “Hinterland Who’s Who”),
3. set the type of search you’d like Google to make,
4. the frequency of alerts and
5. your email.
6. Start again if you’d like more than one alert!

And you’re all set! Enjoy this easy way of staying in touch with the buzz online.

Sustainable Scientist Blog

Here’s a blog that is not just colourful and interesting, but well written, researched and uses great graphics. The Sustainable Scientist is written by Jenifer McIntyre, a PhD student at the U. of Washington, a NOAA star recipient and a great writer (who knew someone could be so left and right brained at the same time?)

Check out her most recent entry: http://sustainablescientist.blogspot.com/

New children’s book

Dragonfly Media Publishing is proud to announce the publication of its first kids’ book, Claire’s Bear, written by Todd Hunter and illustrated with gorgeous, vivid paintings by Kindrie Grove. Get it for the child in your life this Christmas!

Web 2.0 presentation

Learn the difference between know control and no control, web 1.0 and web 2.0, the Streisand Effect and the Digg Effect, and more in this robust powerpoint presentation I and my coworker developed. I’m looking in to adding narration to allow further explanation.

Social Media Marketing and Web 2.0

Comment if you have any questions – I’d be happy to answer them!

Eye-tracking tips

When you’re working on a web redesign, it’s imperative to know certain behavioural trends, such as how a user’s eye moves across the page. I am currently part of the redesign team for The Canadian Wildlife Federation (to be implemented in the new year) and eye tracking was an important part of our site analysis and wireframing. Seth Godin highlights some good eye tracking rules in his blog.

Here are some excerpts from his list relating to content developers:

• Headings draw the eye.
• Large blocks of text are avoided.
• Lists hold reader attention longer.
• One-column formats perform better in eye-fixation than multi-column formats.
• Shorter paragraphs perform better than long ones.
• Show numbers as numerals.
• Text attracts attention before graphics.
• Type size influences viewing behavior.
• Users only look at a sub headline if it interests them.
• Users spend a lot of time looking at buttons and menus (so make them clear!)

The future of magazines online

This is an old article about the craft of repurposing magazine content for an online medium, called (creatively enough) “The Online Edition” by Zoe Szuch. Although published in 2006, I felt it was still relevent with respect to the pros and cons of online journalism (and features yours truly). Let me know what you think.

Phoenix feathers

It’s been awhile. I won’t make excuses other than to say, yeah, it happens. I’m sorry.

So why the rise from the ashes? I attended a Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada conference today on Social Media Marketing + Web 2.0 by Mitch Joel. It was invigorating. It was empowering. It was an excellent reminder why blogs, podcasts and other social online tools are so important: It’s not only the reality in which we live, it’s also the future.

In the past, I’ve struggled against traditional media folk who like to believe that anything outside of print is supplemental, second-class, the poor cousin. For awhile I’ll admit that I started to cave: “Okay, okay – enough of the beating. I’ll believe whatever you tell me as long as you get off my back.” But what I forgot is that people tend to fight hardest when they know they’re dying. And that world – not print media but the old-school dinos in which inhabit it – is dying. A slow, painful death, but an end to their existence none the same.

I’ll probably blog a lot more about Mitch, “The Tall Bald Guy,” as he calls himself because I want to share this sense of empowerment with every other web journalist, every other online content developer, every other interactive marketer who struggles against those who will not either give up the ghost or recognize they are becoming ghosts themselves. These are my phoenix feathers, and they are strong.

Mitch ended his nine-hour presentation with the following Youtube video – an excellent example of the online community at its best.

Word of the day: Convergence

So what does it mean? Dictionary.com cites it as “the degree or point at which lines or objects, etc., converge.” (Don’t you love it when references reuse the word in the definition?) Let’s swap the word ‘converge’ in that definition with the word ‘merge.’ So, let’s loosely define convergence as the blending of existing forms.

For our paradigm, convergence refers to the union of two or more forms or platforms of media to create a more wholistic package. Invariably, 99 percent of the time that includes online platforms. One of the best concepts to come out of journalism powwows these days has been the notion of being “platform agnostic.” That means the story is delivered to the public in whatever format is best for that story, be it print, TV, podcast, radio, web or a combination thereof.

Why is making good on this theory so terrifying to the Canadian media? Other countries’ institutions are navigating their way through this merger (take a look at the U.K.’s The Guardian), but the Canadian media is having a rough time.

Since it’s already been said (and I know I’m going against the common journalistic trend of just re-saying it), let’s take a look at what the Online Journalism Review has to say on the topic: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/business/1078349998.php

Respect for the written word

As the furor of elections have come and gone I have been reminded once again of the importance of the written word and the responsibility of reporters.

If a person chooses to exercise his/her democratic right and vote (and the question is really, why wouldn’t you? But we’ll get back to that…) then they listen to the news, try to catch the debates and read the profiles printed on the various candidates. Democracy and reporting go hand in hand. If it is so vitally important that the reporter not cave to his/her biases or the biases of the publication and “report” only half the story, why is this the common practice? Because the full truth often just doesn’t sell.

A perfect example of this is Ignatieff’s statement on Israel and Lebanon. He spoke to both sides of the argument but depending on which news source you listened to, you would have to believed he’s either a Nazi or a bleeding heart. Why can’t we portray the middle ground? Another example is the constant portrayal of women politicians as inept, as seen in the reporting on our current Minister of the Environment Rona Ambrose. We hear more about how she looks on camera than her policies, more on what she’s not doing because of her ignorance due to inexperience than what she is doing. Would the reporting still be the same if this minister was male? Now, citizens with sense are able to absorb the different news casts and see the biases for what they are but that inevitably leads to distrust of the media. You begin to learn that you can no longer believe what you are being told by the press. The adage of “don’t believe all you hear” has turned into “don’t believe anything you hear.” This is a sad state of affairs.

Politicians and publishers alike scratch their heads when they think about the diving numbers in voter turn out and I put this question to the press: If we hadn’t lost the trust of our readers through twisting the truth, would people be more apt to trust the reports on politicians and vote? I leave the answer to your conscience.

 What we do is vitally important to our country. Like doctors being sent out into the world, journalists should swear an oath to portray the truth, to not give in to sensationalism, to give the trust back to the people.

And so I beseech you fellow journalists to really think about what you write, understand the outcome of your words. Give context to the quote. Describe the entire situation without biased adjectives. Remember that our job is to report the facts and let the readers determine what they believe. Maybe if we can earn the trust of our readers once again, we can learn to trust our governments a bit more, too.

Dot com journalism

It’s a brave new world out there for online journalists. While the print world is slowly dying, the web world continues to grow exponentially.

As we all know, I recently lost my permanent position at a print magazine. It was scary and sad and I felt as though I’d lost my footing on my well-planned life path. So I ostriched myself for a few weeks, burying my head deeply in the ineffective passive processes of finding another job. Everyone kept saying that with the digital background I had gained I would have no problem finding work. But I kept thinking how can that be true if the permanent position I just lost was based in e-publishing, and I lost it because that company didn’t value it enough?

After a few weeks I could hardly stand the inactive search method so finally raised my head, shook off the sands of ineptitude and went to work looking for a job. I couldn’t believe how many online opportunities were out there: editing for the government, NGOs, online publications…the list literally goes on. I was even head-hunted by GeoSign, a large e-publishing firm out of the GTA. Reorganizing my values, I decided to take a part-time position with Hinterland Who’s Who, a joint educational website on Canada’s wildlife by the Canadian Wildlife Federation and Environment Canada’s Canadian Wildlife Service, and will continue to freelance write, edit and publish part-time.

The point of this entry, other than to share my good news, is this: There is no need to fear, my fellow e-publishing friends! If you can bend to the winds of change, you can get good (and lots of) work in online publishing! This is a valuable line of work. Businesses are desperate for experienced online writers, editors and publishers. We are in the dot com of online journalism and trends show there is no impending crash on the horizon.