A month hiatus from blogging: What I learned

Those of you who follow this blog more regularly may have noticed that I’ve been missing in action for the past month. While I blame this partially on my lack of Internet at my house, the intensity of my job in July and feelings reminiscent of summer vacation, I also wanted to take a break to reevaluate my media habits (Thank you, Jim McPherson).

Here’s what I learned about my media consumption in a month hiatus from blogging:

An update on this blogger and blog

This blog began nine months ago as part of an independent study I was doing at my university on the effects of the Internet on journalists and their roles.

Today, that project is long complete and I found and started a job as a reporter for the Post Co. in Eastern Idaho. I started this job this week, as you’ll note by the change in my information on the side of this blog and if you follow me on other social networks. This is also why I have not posted in about two weeks as I was graduating from college, moving from Spokane to Idaho Falls, and beginning this position.

My job entails reporting for three of the Post Co.’s newspapers – the weekly Jefferson Star and Shelley Pioneer and the daily Post Register (Note: The fact that links are missing to the other two newspapers is because they do not currently have Web sites. I’m crossing my fingers they will soon be in the works). My time is split between the three, though I will be spending more time with the Jefferson Star and also copy editing for that publication. In many respects, I’ll be a mobile journalist.

While it does not seem at the moment like I will be doing much online journalism, I hope those opportunities are forthcoming. I plan to continue to make strives in that area. I will continue keeping this blog, looking at issues of new media and the Internet, and, hopefully, providing you with useful resources and information.

State of the industry roundups

David Shedden of Poynter Institute has done some excellent tracking of conversations across the industry about a variety of useful and recent topics relating to the state of the media today. If you have missed the what’s going on in some of these areas or would like to hear more voices on them, check out his link lists:

• The Future of Micropayments
• The government’s role in the future of journalism
• Case studies in transformation (links to the status of a number of different newspapers)
• The future of non-profit journalism
  

links for 2009-05-06

• Mashable: “5 Ways Traditional Media is Going Social”
  (tags: journalism newspapers media socialmedia)
• Cyberjournalist.net: “Time spent with online newspapers rises”
  (tags: onlinejournalism newspapers readership)
• MediaShift: “Advice from the Pros to Journalism Graduates”
  (tags: journalism advice education)
• Save the Media: “Tips for journalist bloggers”
  (tags: journalism reporting blogging online)
• Online Journalism Blog: “Online audio and podcasts (Online Journalism lesson #5)”
  (tags: onlinejournalism tools video podcasts audio)
• E-Media Tidbits: “How Is Your Newsroom Using Social Media?”
  (tags: journalism socialmedia socialnetworking newsrooms)

Getting the news online: The presentation

This presentation was used at the Spokane Intercollegiate Research Conference on April 25, 2009. It came out of a paper by the same name that was done for an independent study this fall.

Presenting on the role of journalists and the emergence of the Internet at research conference

From September through December, I set out to find out what the role of journalists is with the emergence of the Internet as part of an independent study course at Whitworth University. The result was a paper of the same title as this blog. I found that while the definition of journalism remains the same, defining who a journalist is and what his or her roles are has become more complex. The emergence of the Internet has resulted in increased expectations for journalists that are still taking form across the United States.

I will be presenting my findings and the paper at the Spokane Intercollegiate Research Conference on Saturday, April 25. The conference will be held at my school, Whitworth University. I will be speaking in session 3 at the 9 to 10:15 a.m. time slot along with four other general submissions. The presentation will take place in Weyerhaeuser 204. To find out more about the other presentations at the conference, visit the conference Web page.

If you are at all interested in the topic, I encourage you to come. I can always use the support. After the presentation, I will post the PowerPoint of my presentation by Slideshare to the blog for all of those who are interested and can’t make it.

Panelists discuss the state of local media in the Inland Northwest

Spokane does not have a healthy media ecosystem but neither does anywhere else in the United States right now, local media officials said at a panel Saturday on The Changing Media Landscape in the Inland Empire.

The panel, part of the Get Lit! program, featured Luke Baumgarten of the Inlander, James McPherson of the communications department at Whitworth University, Cheryl-Anne Millsap of Spokane Metro, and John Orr of KYRS. Ryan Pitts, assistant managing editor for digital media at the Spokesman-Review, moderated. About 45 people attended the event in Auntie’s Bookstore in Spokane.

Finding a job in journalism

With college graduations quickly approaching, those getting handed their degree in journalism are in for a tough market.

An estimated 8,097 jobs have been lost to layoffs or buyouts in newspapers in 2009, according to Erica Smith’s Paper Cuts. Last year there were 15,866.

These numbers are not encouraging and make the job market tougher given the increasing number of journalism graduates. A recent Baltimore Sun article reported that journalism schools are more popular than ever with Columbia University‘s program seeing a 40 percent increase. According to the article,  Columbia graduates about 224 master’s students each year and Northwestern about 320. Those are only two programs.

So what can my peers do?

whitworthian.com gets recognition

I don’t often write about my own work on this blog, but I thought this merited a little bragging and recognition of my peers.

I’m the online editor for whitworthian.com, the daily updated online edition produced by the staff of The Whitworthian at Whitworth University. Our Web site, hosted by College Media Network, recently went through a redesign and upgrade to College Publisher 5.0.

Yesterday we found out that whitworthian.com is one of 20 finalists for an Online Pacemaker from the Associated Collegiate Press in the four-year non-daily division. In our division, we are one of five sites hosted by College Media Network and one of two on CP 5.0. Bellevue Community College’s Jibsheet and the Spokane Falls Community College’s Communicator are the only other university newspapers from the Pacific Northwest that are finalists in any division. The Flux from the University of Oregon was recognized in the magazine division.

Though we won’t find out if we will receive the actual Pacemaker until October, this is a rather large accomplishment for us.

This is only the second year we’ve had exclusive online content and updated our Web site daily with news, sports, commentary and multimedia. Previously our site was filled with content shoveled from print online and was hosted by our university.

Our newspaper itself, to my knowledge and during my time here, has never received or been a finalist for a Pacemaker, print or online.

We also received word today that our Web site as well as our print edition have been selected to receive Region 10 Mark of Excellence Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. We won’t know until late April where we placed.

These recognitions would not be possible without a supportive staff willing to work hard and experiment. So, thanks to you all.

UPDATE: In the Region 10 Mark of Excellence Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the online edition took first place and the print edition took second. For a complete list of awards, click here.

Seattle P-I says good-bye

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed its last issue today and switches to online only starting tomorrow.

Hearst Corp. announced the transition Monday after they failed to find a buyer for the 146-year-old newspaper.

The news staff will shrink from 165 to 20 to maintain SeattlePI.com.

Want to find out more? Check out some of these articles:

• “Thank you for making us who we were” – A good-bye column from managing editor David McCumber
• New York Times: “Seattle Paper Shifts Entirely to the Web“
• Editor & Publisher: “‘Seattle P-I’ to Go Web-Only After Tomorrow” – includes the editors remarks to the newsroom on Monday
• Hearst Corp.: “Seattle Post-Intelligencer to become largest daily newspaper to switch to an all-digital model” – the release
• Seattle Times: “The last deadline: Seattle’s oldest newspaper goes to press for the final time“
• Seattle Times Co.: “Questions and answers for Seattle P-I subscribers“
• Poynter: “New SeattlePI.com Strategy: ‘Experiment a Lot, Fail Fast‘”
• TIME: “The Post-Intelligencer Is Dead; Will Seattle News Live On?” – an article about plans for entrepreneurial journalism by former P-I staffers