AMY GAHRAN: The Right Conversation

Journalists: How to Feed the Blogging Beast

There's more than one way for journalists to tame a blogging beast. (Photo: Herschel Rubinstein, via Flickr)

(NOTE: Here's something I posted recently to the Society of Environmental Journalists' members-only e-mail list -- but I think journalists on any beat could use this information. By the way, I've added a special offer to SEJ's current endowment challenge: Any person or organization who donates $1000 or more to SEJ through May 31 gets two free hours of online/conversational media consulting or research from me. That's a $250 value. You can donate today.)

I work with a lot of news organizations, where there's now another "beast" to feed. Many reporters are being asked or required to blog. A lot of these reporters aren't happy about it, because (at least at first) they see this as an increase in their daily story load.

But it doesn't have to be so beastly, if you're smart about it.

Here's a tip: If you're a reporter who also blogs, don't use your blog to post stories. Instead, use it to post complementary content around your stories.

Specifically, here's what you can do...

Running a Group Conference Blog: What I'm Learning

This Tuesday I'm flying to Burlington, VT for my annual brain food festival -- the conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ). I've been working with this group since 1990, and I have a lot of friends there, so this event is always a blast.

This year, I set up an unofficial SEJ2006 group weblog. It's "unofficial" because it's a strictly volunteer, independent effort by people who are either SEJ members, attending the conference (speakers, exhibitors, others, etc.) or who are working on the conference (staff, etc.). I did this mainly because it was more efficient to just set it up by myself, on my own, than to have to deal with any organization to get it done.

To be quite honest, this blog has been consuming much of my time this week. More than I'd intended -- but this is an experimental project, and experiments always entail unforeseen resource demands as well as results. It's OK, I've been learning a ton of useful stuff from this effort.

So if you're considering setting up a blog in support of your conference, benefit from my experience. Here's what I've learned, so far...

How to Foster News Conversations

(NOTE: I'm cross-posting this from Poynter's E-Media Tidbits, another blog that I edit.)

Today in Editor & Publisher online, Steve Outing (former E-Media Tidbits editor and current contributor to e-Media Tidbits) just published an excellent article: How to Make Your Web Site More Conversational.

This is a must-read piece. Outing outlines several specific tips and strategies for fostering constructive, vibrant online conversations about the news. (Disclosure: I'm quoted in this article, but that's not why I'm recommending it. Steve really did a great job with this one.)

Why bother fostering online conversations about the news? Outing indicates that doing so is no longer a luxury: "The Internet enables the conversation, and 21st-century news consumers are becoming used to the idea that their voices now can be spread far and wide -- just like the voices of professional journalists."

To that I'd add: Failing to deliver what your  audience or community has come to commonly expect is always bad for business.

In my opinion, the main reason why news organizations should foster strong online conversations boils down to money...

Stanford Journalism Fellowship: Citizen Journalists Welcome to Apply

I just found out about a pretty significant journalism fellowship from Stanford University's Center for the Study of the North American West: $3,500-$7,000  plus two weeks' access to the Center's facilities and resources.

The Western Enterprise Fellowship is for "research toward an article, series of articles or broadcast segment on a topic of particular significance to the United States west of the Mississippi, western Canada, or northern Mexico.  Research areas can range widely, and may be related to the demographics, culture, politics, economy, or environment of the region."

Now, the info page for that fellowship also goes on to say, "Since the fellowship is to disseminate new perspectives on these issues to the wider public, fellows must enter the program with an assignment letter from a news organization that commits to publishing or broadcasting the work within twelve months of the fellowship’s completion."

I thought that sounded rather exclusive, so I inquired further...

(Read the full article at I, Reporter. I also published a related article on this topic today at Poynter's E-Media Tidbits.)