mark jones · Storify

Ten ideas from News:Rewired that got me thinking

mark jones — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 16:36:36 GMT

The News:Rewired conference on July 13th in London pulled together a large number of journalists to talk about current issues in journalism, particularly data, mobile and social. Enough ideas to make your head spin. Here are ten I'm still thinking about.

Storified by mark jones · Sat, Jul 14 2012 09:36:36

1, New formats are getting really, really sticky
Stand-out stat of the day came from Hannah Waldram of the Guardian. Contributors to the Guardian's celeberated crowd-sourcing projects visit thirty times as many pages as the average visitor. More details on her conference post.

All Guardian community projects came up by LISTENING to the readers. Hannah Waldram, Guardian at #newsrw
— Jan Kampmann · Fri, Jul 13 2012 06:28:48

I was also struck by a comment from Ben Shneider of Coveritlive, who said the average duration of a visit to a Coveritlive blog is 36 minutes -- longer than the average sessions on Facebook outside Singapore according to this Experian Hitwise study from last year.

2. You need a 'disruption layer' in your organisation

Keynote speaker Cory Haik of the Washington Post outlined WaPo's recent innovations but was most interesting on the skill-set she looks for in new staff. She is looking for people to become 'the disruption layer' of the organisation.

My story about @coryhaik keynote at #newsrw: "Washington Post web team a ‘disruption layer’ in the newsroom" http://silvr.me/OCUGtM
— Craig Silverman · Fri, Jul 13 2012 09:08:56

3. Strategy is dead

I liked the no-nonsense approach of Martin Fewell, Deputy Editor Channel 4 News, who, citing Saatchi and Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts on the end of the 'Big Idea', said news organisations didn't need grand plans, they just needed to give journalists new tools and let them learn by trial and error.

yay “@martinfewell: As referred to at #newsrw "Marketing is dead" says Saatchi & Saatchi CEO | The Drum http://po.st/nxeSpT via @po_st”
— Priya Ramani · Fri, Jul 13 2012 07:29:14

Doesn't the logic of the Kevin Roberts argument deliver a Cory Haik-style disruptive layer at every level of the organisation? In which case what would be left to disrupt?

4. The 'drop-in engagement clinic'
The Guardian is big on social media and something of a leader in crowd-sourced projects. But even they are facing challenges in getting journalists to engage with readers. One idea is to embed community managers within desks.

But what caught my ear was Joanna Gearey's 'drop-in engagement clinics' aimed at helping journalists who know they ought to be getting more involved but don't know how to start.

.@joannageary emphasises newsrooms might be good at advocacy but bad at structural support for staff. Spot on. #newrw
— Claire Wardle · Fri, Jul 13 2012 03:26:34

5. Journalists now need to create an audience for their content

Raju Narisetti, Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal's Digital network, said the role of a journalist now extends to ensuring there's an audience for their output.

#newsrw @rajunarisetti says in 2012 it's part of journo's job to bring people to their articles - not depend on marketing etc to do so
— Elaine O'Connor · Fri, Jul 13 2012 02:25:18

Distribution and marketing used to be the responsibility of the business side. Now it's more complicated. The distinctions between content and commerce are getting increasingly blurred..

6. If you want community engagement then be flexible about 'content'

Luke Lewis of NME.com presented a series of success stories in getting music fans to engage. The things that really work had initially taken staff by surprise.

#newsrw @lukelewis 'Positivity works on Facebook'. 'Happy birthday Jack White' image got 40,000 shares on NME Facebook page. HUGE.
— Richard Moynihan · Fri, Jul 13 2012 03:58:07

{ content is bling } "You can get a week's content out of asking a simple question on social media" ht @lukelewis #newsrw
— raul penaranda · Fri, Jul 13 2012 04:00:03

Great presentation at #newsrw from @LukeLewis - "'NME readers react' in headlines always tend to make for popular stories."”
— David Moynihan · Fri, Jul 13 2012 04:10:06

The NME doesn't share much of its long-form print content online. It uses highly conversational content on the web not only as a form of marketing but also as the source for editorial ideas.

It looks like an extreme form of what we should all be doing.

7. Twitter as a network of specialists holding organisations to account
This one came from Faisal Islam, Channel 4 Economics Correspondent. He marvels at the depth of expertise on Twitter and how it is chipping away at the ability of organisations to mask their activities through complexity.

More difficult for corporations, politicians to lie consistently if Twitter allows people to call them to account: @faisalislam #newsrw
— Rohan Jayasekera · Fri, Jul 13 2012 04:26:20

Tweet styles in Sport

mark jones — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 12:28:02 GMT

In preparing for a talk to Reuters sports staff on the use of Twitter I started to think about how many different types of tweet are used by journalists. I'm sure there are more but I got to more than a dozen quite quickly (although they obviously overlap a lot.)

Storified by mark jones · Tue, Jul 03 2012 05:28:02

Content sharing

1. Interesting stories on the Web

#Chelsea staff damage the Champions League trophy. Oh dear #CFC http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2161317/Chelsea-break-Champions-League-trophy.html
— Patrick Johnston · Tue, Jun 19 2012 02:22:36

2. Multimedia

Bayern players, look away now: We are ready for FP1 in #Monaco. The #C31 runs with congrats for #ChelseaFC http://pic.twitter.com/z9lDuUG7 · Alan Baldwin

3. Retweeting

English football needs to decide whether it wants the best league in the world or the best national side. It's not possible to have both.
— Andy Burnham · Mon, Jun 25 2012 02:50:57

This one was retweeted by @mark_meadows but default retweets don't show the name of the retweeter in Storify.

4. Material that doesn't justify full story

Hearing that FIA might be taking a close look at the Red Bull floor after race. Rumours in paddock of possible protest by others. We'll see.
— Alan Baldwin · Sun, May 27 2012 03:23:07

Spoke to Bernie yesterday about possible Mexican GP. Said talks ongoing, nothing agreed.
— Alan Baldwin · Fri, Jun 01 2012 09:53:53

5. Commentary

Not surprised by Redknapp exit, those in know told me so. My prediction might be a surprise - he will never work as a manager again
— Mark Meadows · Thu, Jun 14 2012 02:08:45

6. Live tweeting

Ezcellent offside call denies Italy a goal.
— ReutersLvivEuro · Sun, Jun 24 2012 14:08:38

7. Stats tweets

Astonishing stat. RT @GlennMoore7: England have gone out on pens six of the last ten tournaments they have qualified for."
— Simon Evans · Sun, Jun 24 2012 14:36:36

8. Quote tweets

Blatter tells FIFA Congress: "we are on the right track, we are taking big steps to reform"
— Mike Collett Reuters · Fri, May 25 2012 01:43:53

Conversational

#1book140 -- the non-linear book club

mark jones — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 21:20:57 GMT

I have trouble finishing novels. Actually I have trouble getting past the first chapter. So when I saw a tweet mentioning a Twitter-based book club that had more than 100,000 followers I thought I'd see if it could help.

Storified by mark jones · Mon, Jun 25 2012 14:20:57

The #1book140 club is run by Jeff Howe, a journalism professor at Northeastern University and author of 'Crowdsourcing - How the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business'. That was one book I had managed to finish. It was based on a piece he'd written for Wired in 2004.

Despite following the 1book140 account on Twitter I had managed to completely miss the several rounds of discussion running up to the selection of June's book of the month. It seems Jeff kicked off a discussion on Twitter and The Atlantic around what literary genre the group wanted to tackle, then asked for nominations, then shortlisted them, and then put it to the vote.

June 1book140 Shortlist: Whodunits
— · Wed, Jun 06 2012 23:00:34

It's a close race between Eco and Hammett, #1book140. Vote now! http://bit.ly/Jj58sU (I voted for Eco. Hist Fic & Whodunnit in one serving)
— Jeff Howe · Mon, May 21 2012 21:36:04

Books With 140 Characters - NYTimes.com

May 18, 2012 ... All of this is courtesy of 1book140, a Twitter book club I started last May in ... Books are procured — more often tha...

Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose' narrowly pipped Dashiell Hammett's Maltese Falcon.

Entertainment - Jeff Howe - June 1book140 Reading Schedule: 'The ...

5 days ago ... Read along with us as we tackle Umberto Eco's classic novel. ... In June 2006 he published "The Rise of Crowdso...

The prologue

I have a poor record of completing novels -- perhaps one in three. If I'm not hooked within the first 20 pages or so I give up. And things got off to a bad start for me. The prologue is terribly long-winded. Eco is Italian and my hang-up about style being lost in translation seemed to be borne out by the torturous intro. This is the danger zone for me. I consulted the twitterstream.

The Prologue was a bit dense for my taste, hopefully it picks up during First Day. Anyone else find that? #1b140_1
— Courtney Sawicki · Sun, Jun 03 2012 07:24:52

Agree completely but by end of part 1 reads easily MT@d0rkyc0rky: Prologue a bit dense for my taste, hopefully it picks up... #1b140_1
— Margaret Chisolm · Sun, Jun 03 2012 09:28:44

That was oddly reassuring. Others were struggling but were battling on regardless. This felt a bit like peer pressure -- a Weight Watchers for reluctant readers.

Day 1

The book is set over seven days. Day 1 was the longest section.

One of the challenges with The Name of the Rose is that there is an enormous amount of unfamiliar religious jargon, a lot of latin quotes, and a mass of historical context for the various battles between different branches of christianity. Looking up the likes of 'curias', 'Aedificium','rubricators' was slowing me down.

I was amused to see a suggestion that some sport could be had from this.

The Name of the Rose drinking game: imbibe a modest glass of wine every time you come upon the word "marginalia." #1b140_1
— Serena Donadoni · Sat, Jun 02 2012 09:42:28

Getting into the substance of the book I started to worry about etiquette. Was this a Twitter thing so I should live tweet my reactions? Or was it a book club thing so I should wait until the end of the section for more in-depth discussion? Throwing caution to the winds I proudly tweeted a literary connection I'd made.

Just started Umberto Eco's 'Name of the Rose'. Something of Sherlock Holmes in Brother William's deductions re the runaway horse #1b140_1
— mark jones · Mon, Jun 04 2012 07:05:12

@MarkJones My thought exactly. Its very Holmes-esque with the "Watson" aspect as well #1b140_1
— Courtney Sawicki · Mon, Jun 04 2012 18:45:26

Aha! Someone on the same wavelength. I wondered what others were saying and looked back at the comments tagged for the first section.

The Future of Sharing #smwsharing

mark jones — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:56:04 GMT

A summary of the panel discussion on 'The Future of Sharing' hosted by Beyond at the Design Council on Feb 16th as part of London Social Media Week.

Storified by mark jones · Thu, Feb 16 2012 14:56:04

Great session on #smwsharing @ #smwldn. People want 1 channel to share everything but dislikes dominance of 1 provider. http://pic.twitter.com/J4a4p2k6 · Cecilia Liao

Participants:

Gordon MacMillan, Social Media Editor, Brand Republic Group, Haymarket Media @gordonmacmillan (Moderator)
Trevor Johnson, Strategy & Planning, Facebook @uktrevor

Allister Frost, Marketing Manager, Microsoft UK @allisterf
Ash Choudhury, Head of Digital Marketing UK, Nokia
Mark Jones, Financial Communities Editor, Reuters @markjones

Full video of event

Beyond has commissioned a survey of more than 2000 social media users in the US and UK to assess the key trends in 'sharing'. The 'Future of Sharing' panel debate was loosely structured around the questions asked in the survey.

Is frictionless sharing here to stay?

What the survey said: "Some 67% of social media users have allowed an app to post to their profile, listened to a song that was automatically shared to their profile, or read an article that was automatically shared to their profile."

Background: when Facebook launched frictionless sharing last July it prompted controversy. Two good pieces set out the arguments: readwriteweb (pros and cons) and O'Reilly Radar (pro).

@allisterf makes good point on sharing. Balance between opt-in and ease of use has not been found yet. One size does not fit all #smwsharing
— Imagination Labs · Thu, Feb 16 2012 02:11:40

Lot of scepticism about frictionless sharing here at #smwlondon and rightly so. Consumer value needs to be the priority #smwsharing
— Matt Mint · Thu, Feb 16 2012 02:04:52

Straw poll at #smwsharing to see who wants "more frictionless sharing" online in future. Many dozens of early adopters here. Five hands up.
— Robin Morley · Thu, Feb 16 2012 02:00:32

frictionless sharing success = opt-in + user control #SMWsharing #smwldn
— ChrisB Banter · Thu, Feb 16 2012 02:13:42

Is grouping your friends and selectively sharing content (i.e. the Google+ model) the way of the future or is this too difficult to maintain?

What the Survey said: Only 40% of survey respondents had created sub-groups. But 62% said the concept appealed to them, suggesting it will become more popular.

Relationships move and shift with time and this could make Google+ or friend categorisation outdate quickly. #smwsharing
— Croud · Thu, Feb 16 2012 02:06:09

Microsoft's Frost calls for more AI to manage the nuanced way our relationships and motivations for sharing change over time #smwsharing
— Robin Morley · Thu, Feb 16 2012 02:09:04

Does anyone else find that grouping online friends is just too much effort? Sharing is not meant to be a long process #smwsharing
— Victoria Redfern · Thu, Feb 16 2012 02:03:41

future of 'friend' mgt is the G+ circles approach but... users find hassle to manage, too much time, no to 1 platform #SMWsharing #smwldn
— ChrisB Banter · Thu, Feb 16 2012 02:11:25

Future of sharing = future of stalking? "I know what you watched/bought/ate last night" #SMWsharing
— Roxanne Persaud · Thu, Feb 16 2012 02:21:16

Hey, fellow trashy tv watchers! How do you feel about all of your friends knowing you're watching Fat Pets in real time? #smwsharing
— Claire Coady · Thu, Feb 16 2012 02:21:36

What does sharing mean for marketing tactics?

What the survey said: People are more willing to share content if there are incentives. Some 60% of social media users say they would opt to post about a product or service if they were offered a discount or deal.

American Express 'share your love' campaign is example of powerful social incentive - FB Trevor Johnson @ImaginationLabs #smwsharing
— Alex Trickett · Thu, Feb 16 2012 02:34:49

NewsRewired highlights

mark jones — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 05:17:22 GMT

This is a selection of the most interesting things I heard during journalism.co.uk's News:Rewired event at the Thomson Reuters Building in Canary Wharf on May 27th.

Storified by mark jones · Thu, Oct 27 2011 01:32:45

Inevitably, much of the discussion hinged around Twitter and I've relied heavily on other people's tweets to illustrate the conversation (hence the use of @storify for this post).

News:rewired - noise to signal 27/5/11 · flickr.com

'Data journalism': too little information or too little expertise?

Heather Brooke (@newsbrooke), the freedom of information journalist involved in the MPs' expenses scandal, gave the keynote and raised an issue that hadn't really sunk in before now -- the major difference in information availability between the US and UK.

She gave some excruciating details of how her attempts to get information on official expenses were first blocked by officials and then met with indifference from newspaper editors.

House of Commens said giving info MP expenses violates privacy laws. the public trying to find out how MPs spent public money. #newsrw
— fstoner · Fri, May 27 2011 02:32:15

'Data journalism' is a term that is meaningless in her native US where prodigious volumes of official data are made freely available.

Great point by @newsbrook: a lot of what we call "data journalism" in UK is just "journalism" in US, where data is more available. #newsrw
— martinstabe · Fri, May 27 2011 02:33:04

In a later session, Kevin Anderson, another US journalist based in the UK. made the same point:

Access to data is most socialist thing we have in U.S. - @globalkev #newsrw
— alertnetastrid · Fri, May 27 2011 03:29:43

Earlier this month it was reported that there are five times the number of PR professionals in the States as there are journalists and Brooke thought that the enormous increase in PR power was working against pressure for official data to be opened up.

Heather Brooke-Takeover of PR in public bodies by controlling outflow of info now dominant feature of many governments @newsbrooke #newsrw
— alertnetastrid · Fri, May 27 2011 02:29:08

The thrust of her comments was that journalists needed to lobby harder to free up data.

"Journalists need to liberate information out of the cold dead hand of government." Heather Brooke #newsrw #freedomofinformation
— MaleenaPone · Fri, May 27 2011 02:52:44

Journos also need to know stats to be able to discern when a politician is telling the truth or not. #newsrw
— OrangeBlossomer · Fri, May 27 2011 02:52:56

Some journalists, however, are swimming in data. I think of my colleagues in financial journalism at Reuters with their access to myriad sources of market data. For them Heather's second conclusion is more relevant -- we've all got to get a lot handier with Excel. More on Heather's keynote from @psmith.

From broadcast mode to network node?

Neal Mann of Sky News (@fieldproducer) did a fine job in explaining how everything he does in the networked world of Twitter is analogous and complementary to what he does in his conventional journalism.

News:rewired - noise to signal 27/5/11 · flickr.com

He came up with the killer quote of the day:

.@fieldproducer says "“If Reuters is the best newswire, then Twitter is Reuters on Acid, Crack and Cocaine” #newsrw
— newsrewired · Fri, May 27 2011 03:17:36

Twitter and the killing of Bin Laden

mark jones — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:28:29 GMT

This is a note on 10 ways in which Twitter was used during the coverage of the killing of Bin Laden based on conversations with Myra MacDonald of the 'Pakistan Now or Never' blog. It was presented to attendees of the Thomson Reuters Foundation EditorialTraining Week on May 16th, 2011.

Storified by mark jones · Wed, Apr 04 2012 17:28:29

1. Eyewitness news reporting
A local resident found himself inadvertently live tweeting the storming of the compound

Sohaib Athar's Twitter

Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).

Sohaib Athar's Twitter

A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S

Sohaib Athar's Twitter

m0hcin all silent after the blast, but a friend heard it 6 km away too... the helicopter is gone too.

For a detailed analysis of how ReallyVirtual's tweet got picked up and amplified around Twitter see this Poynter analysis.

2. Official announcements
Officials used Twitter to announce that there'd be an unusually late public statement by Obama

Dan Pfeiffer's Twitter

POTUS to address the nation tonight at 10:30 PM Eastern Time

The White House's Twitter

RT @pfeiffer44: POTUS to address the nation tonight at 10:30 PM Eastern Time // Watch live: http://wh.gov/live

Barack Obama's Twitter

About to address the nation. Watch live: http://wh.gov/live.

3. Collective problem-solving
The announcement of the Obama statement prompted feverish speculation as to what was going on. Amid the Twitter brain-storming the name of Bin Laden surfaced. The following exchange between Michael Cohen of the American Security Project and Forbes blogger Elmira Bayrasli is one of several documented by SocialFlow:

Michael Cohen's Twitter

Seriously, anyone have any idea why Obama is speaking at 10:30? Anyone?

Elmira Bayrasli's Twitter

Was wondering if the rumors were true. RT @speechboy71: Seriously, anyone have any idea why Obama is speaking at 10:30? Anyone?

Michael Cohen's Twitter

endeavoringE What rumors?

Elmira Bayrasli's Twitter

speechboy71 That he's speaking tonight.

Michael Cohen's Twitter

a) Qaddafi giving up or b) Bin Laden dead. Those are my best guesses. Likelier a than b I think

Michael Cohen's Twitter

I'm saying OBL is dead - I want to be the first on Twitter to engage in complete speculation that might be correct

4. The viral nature of tweeting
Amid all the speculation, a thinly sourced tweet from Donald Rumsfeld's former chief of staff had just enough plausibility to go viral despite his limited following of a thousand or so.

Keith Urbahn's Twitter

So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn.

Within a minute there were 80 reactions to the tweet, including from Brian Stelter -- a New York Times writer with 50,000 followers.

OBL - socialflow · giladlotan