Identifying networks

City University, Magazines MALab 1, September 28, 2011

About me

● Editor, TheMediaBriefing.com● Professional digital journalist since 2008● Cover the global media industry● Primarily B2B (business-to-business) journalist● But also music and food and... stuff

● Tweet as @psmith - please follow!

● Also on Delicious LinkedIn, Foursquare, Flickr, Spotify, Last.fm, Amazon, Word with Friends ... (search for patricksmithjournalist)

Your assignment

Networks

-- This is not the future of journalism - it's the present

-- Understanding this will make you a better journalist and more employable.

-- Contacts, expertise and knowledge - in real-time

-- It doesn't matter what medium you want to work in - this stuff will help you.

-- Most importantly....

What is RSS?● Really simple syndication? It doesn't matter what you call it:

○ It's the most efficient, fastest way to get up to speed

Get a reader

● Google Reader (needs a Google account - you should probably have one anyway) - Google.com/reader

● Netnewswire, Reeder, Byline - good apps for iPad/iPhone/Mac

Adding sources

1. Go to Google.com/reader2. Find a news source you're interest in3. Find its RSS feed4. Click "add a subscription"5. Google reader can automatically

add feeds just from the URL

You can also sort feeds into folder to makethem easier to read.

Why not prioritise into "read now" and "read later"?

Questions on RSS?

Word of warning

Everything you say on Twitter is...

● Visible to the entire world and searchable through Google● Can be seen by potential employers (and uni staff!)● Could still be searchable even if you delete it.

So...

● Don't say anything you wouldn't say in public● Don't fail the Private Eye test● Do be polite and do avoid insults● Do have personality but do be professional

Getting started on Twitter1. Get an account at Twitter.com2. Choose a username that's available and not embarrassing3. Er, that's it!

Send a tweet!

Talk to someone by putting @ and their username at the start of the tweet. e.g. "@psmith hi great lesson, nice one"

That tweet only goes to people you and @psmith are both following. (put a full stop before the @ for it to go to your entire network.)

Direct message someone by putting D and a space before their username e.g. "D psmith didn't really get that tip tbh, sorry, lolz"

That tweet only goes to you and the recipient.

● Retweet someone (known as RT)

○ Either press the RT button (new style)○ or manually copy and paste the tweet into the

update box with "RT theirusername" at the start (old style)

○ Some Twitter programmes allow you to "quote tweet"

● A useful tool is modified tweet (MT) which changes the tweet but keeps the meaning intact (be careful not to change too much)

Hashtags matter

Hashtags are the glue that holds Twitter togther. If you're interested in #xfactor, you tag your tweets with #xfactor.

Then everyone else who's watching the show will see what you're saying.

Hashtags can be:● Places: countries, cities, towns, streets (#islington)● Events: news stories (#jan25)● Interests: games, music, food, professions etc etc... (#CityOJ)

Use search.twitter.com to see what people are saying, and join the conversation.

Tweetdeck can help*

*other programmes are available, eg Hootsuite

Questions on Twitter?

Delicious bookmarks

Delicious is your personal cuttings library you can always access. I've tagged 2k+ different things, I use it every day.

1. Go to Delicious.com and sign up2. Find a story or web page you think might be useful to you

later on at some point3. Add it as a bookmark4. Tag it with key words you'll search for (spelled correctly)

Think about installing a "bookmarklet" programme that lets you save them just by pressing CTRL+D (or Apple+D) - see the Delicious help section for how to do it.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it....

● Find your Delicious network’s RSS feed - and subscribe to it in Google Reader (and why not follow your colleague's feed)

● Find the RSS feed for items you bookmarked with a specific tag - and auto-tweet them using Twitterfeed (you may have to wait half an hour or so for it to check)

● Tweet a link and include a hashtag (e.g. #islington) to bookmark and tag them (assuming you have set up Packrati.us)

● Find the RSS feed for ‘shared items’ in Google Reader (these are individual pieces of news where you have clicked on the ‘share’ button - it helps if you’ve done this first).

● Use Twitterfeed to automatically tweet any item you share

Links

● The Online Journalism assignment

● http://psmithjournalist.com/resources

● http://www.slideshare.net/patricksmithjournalist/