Chapter 9 of Mark Briggs‘ Journalism Next is called “Data-Driven Journalism and Digitizing Your Life”.

This chapter is about the importance of data and proof in any news story.

One thing Briggs emphasizes is the importance of using tools to help your career as a journalist. He says that there is normally minimal risk to trying a new device online, as many of them have free trials or are very inexpensive (Briggs, 244).

One interesting things Briggs says is that technology is

“kind of like driving a car: no matter how cool the car or how many gizmos it has, it’s still the driver who makes the decisions that matter.”

Here are a few things you can do to help you get more organized and catch up with the digital world:

• Create folders in your email and organize emails. This will help you get the information you need quickly and with ease.
• Make a list of things you need to get done.
• Keep a calendar and write any events or plans you have in it.
• Keep folders of photos on your computer or a hard drive. Make sure these are well-organized by the events.

Some office suites Briggs recommends are Google, Office Live, and Zoho.

These can help keep you organized and up to date on your “to do” lists.

Chapter 8 of Mark Briggs‘ handbook, Journalism Next, explains how important video can be to the success of a blog.

He explains how journalists can use different devices to capture moments and show their audience good footage of an event.

It is best if the video is short enough for people to want to watch. Most viral videos are no longer than about a minute long.

Lastly, Briggs says that perfection in a video is not necessary. As long as a video gets up on a blog site before other news sources get to it, it may be more popular or gain the views. Videos are a great way to gain exposure and if you are in the right place at the right time, it could just help boost your career.

There have been reports saying that the new Apple iPad has a glitch- overheating.

People have claimed it is uncomfortable to use for long periods of time and becomes too hot to hold.

Apple has not stated what they will do about the problem, but hopefully the glitch will be worked out quickly!

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=215855715337938591067.0004babeb9bc6e50e06e2&msa=0&ll=38.830933,-77.303796&spn=0.010481,0.019076

This is a map of my school.

Chapter 11 speaks of the importance of building a digital audience for news.

It is important for a journalist to track everything they post, so they can see who is reading their blog, how many people view it, and what sites it may be going on.

Briggs also makes sure to mention that it is important to look at as many other news stories that may be related to their own that could help add to news stories. Keep up with the news so you’re not the last person to hear about it.

Another tip was to track audience members search history so that the blogger can more easily write posts that relate to their target audience.

Lastly, search engine optimization is a crucial part of blogging. By making your blog appear higher up on search results, more people will go to your page and view the content.

Chapter 10 of Mark Briggs’ Journalism Next book talks about the importance of connecting with the audience and making news seem like a conversation with the viewer.

Some ways of doing this include:

• Using language that is simple and would flow well in a normal conversation
• Replying to comments on a blog page
• Talking about things that are relevant to the audience
• Conversing through social network sites

Briggs also stresses the importance for bloggers to create a community as well as get involved in the community around their home. It is very important to know people for sources and to help network.

Lastly, be careful to take off offensive or distasteful comments on your site. Although the blogger is not the author, the audience can still view the comments and may sometimes find them offensive enough to stop returning to the site.

Jim Romenesko shared an article about the New York Times talking about their future in the print industry.

The New York Times acknowledges that they will have to make cutbacks and people may be losing jobs or pay. They also offer hope, however, in saying that they still have a readership and are negotiating to make sure their staff is safe from unemployment.

• With iPhones and other music devices coming out, the radio is becoming less and less popular.
• The audience for digital media is at its peak during work hours.
• You can listen to the radio online, on your phone and through many other media outlets. People can listen to what they want, when they want it, and do not have to wait and listen to so many commercials. Listening to the radio has become more convenient.
• Each successful company has different things that make them unique and stand out from their competitors.
• The iPad is the one place for news media where weekend traffic is higher than weekday traffic and night traffic is higher than morning traffic. This is because the iPad is made for leisure and people generally use it for entertainment.
• Now that National Public Radio is online, they have to take photos to supplement their content. They also now do videos and animation for their website.
• Immediacy is an important aspect of the radio and other media.
• Admit your mistake if you make one in social media.
• Social media is a very personal medium. Connecting with the audience is a very important thing and this is a great tool to help facilitate that.
• Media companies make mistakes every day because they are run by people and people are not perfect. Some mistakes can be a violation of trust from their audiences, however, so companies have to be careful to be correct as much as possible. Make sure you know your sources to ensure accuracy.

Joel talked about blogging and other forms of news. Some of his tips and ideas presented include:

• The web rewards niche. Make your blog about something in specific, rather than generalizing.
• If people search for specific things, they may come across your website and use it regularly for news.
• The Argo Mission was intended to strengthen local journalism, build an online audience, develop common technology platform, find models for repeatability and sustainability, and broaden digital skills and interest in multi-platform reporting.
• Smart aggregation is to follow a certain group of people on Twitter and find your audience.
• Community is very important in blogging. People can give you their opinions as well as share valuable information to you and your other readers. They can also converse with one another and the curator of the blog, which makes it a more personal experience.

This is a slideshow of the Blake Shelton concert that was at the Patriot Center on Saturday.

Aram Zucker-Schraff from the Office of Student Media talked about search engine optimization.

This is the act of getting your articles to the top of Google and other search engines.

Title, description, and keywords are all the most important things for search engine optimization.

The description tag is a summary of what your site/article is about. On WordPress you would use the excerpt box. Make sure you put keywords that people will search in this box. The keywords tab also helps people view your site when searching for specific phrases. Talk about events, locations, products, people, companies, and yourself in these keywords.

Pick niche keywords to get more web traffic. Be specific in your selection of keywords.

Link to and from your website. This helps . Link events to homepages, locations, about, and more. Link related content. This can help increase your web traffic because people who look at the blogs you site may end up looking at your site as well.

If you’re talking about a person, link to their Twitter, Linked-In, or other sites about them. If you are talking about a company link to their product page.

Link with transparency and common sense. Make sure everything you link is related to your blog somehow and use the correct words to link the sites.

PageRank is used by Google to determine relevance of your site to certain terms. The more people that look at your site or link to your site, the higher your page is rated.

“.edu” sites get a higher rank from PageRank.

If someone links to your site, you will get a higher ranking on PageRank. The higher the page rank of the site that links to yours, the higher up you will be on the search engine.

Ask friends to link to specific articles on your site. You can also use Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, etc. to link to your articles and boost your ranking. Do not use sites that say they will help your ranking. List your sites on Googleplus to significantly raise your site search-ability. Google will penalize you for trying to cheat the system.

Google Webmaster tools, Google AdWords, Google Analytics, Website Grader are all important sites to see what search engines think about your website.

Be consistent in tagging your posts.