The United States FBI is trying to figure out how they were hacked by a group called Anonymous. The fifteen minute phone call was recorded by the hackers and released to the public.

CNN Money recently published a list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For”.

Google takes the cake being listed number 1 company to work for, however the site does not explain in great detail why these companies are so great.

There are also lists categorized by the largest companies as well as top paying and the best perks.

Each year I look forward to the new Super Bowl advertisements on TV. In fact, they are probably my favorite part about the day (other than the feast of wonderful foods).

Hulu has compiled all of the best advertisements of the game into one convenient section. They even have funny ads from years past documented on their site!

My favorite was the Sketchers ad with the French Bulldog.

Enjoy!

This is just a fun little story I found about a student trying to find love and begin his career of filmmaking 🙂

Read Luke Kelly’s story here!

Read my @Storify story: “Modern Family is Coming to a Close” http://sfy.co/XY6 #storify

Joel Achenbach was the very first blogger for The Washington Post.

He wrote an article about the future of journalism and online journalism. He believes that although print writing may be dying down a little, online journaling is going to be very popular because of its immediacy.

He explains that although much of the news in the print papers is old upon arrival, that online news is new and fresh. It can be uploaded instantaneously, which makes it a very valuable form of news.

He later goes on to talk about the importance of getting news out, even if it is not popular or good news. Achenbach says that readers need to be informed about what is going on in the world and that online journalism is the best tool to do this.

Achenbach writes that

“There’s a favorite saying in the news biz: “Nothin’ but readers.” Meaning: That’s a story that readers are going to devour. A water-cooler story. We used to discern such articles through gut instinct. The best editors had a “golden gut” for news.”

He is making the point that people will read what they find interesting and the headlines that catch their attention.

As a blogger, you need to find creative ways to make yourself stand out and make people want to read what you have to say.

One really interesting thing about this article on The Washington Post‘s website was that Achenbach sectioned off different points with asterisks to make his story easier to follow. When blogging, it may not be a bad idea to have similar ways to make the portions of a blog easier to focus on.

He ends with a note saying

“Here’s a proposition: News outlets will never get anywhere if they’re obsessed with chasing readers. They can, however, collaborate with them. And therein lies a hopeful future for the business.”

Achenbach realizes that by trying hard to gain an audience, he may not be getting his best points across and that he should write in a way that tells a story and reports on a topic, rather than finding the less important stories that viewers may just find fun reads.

In conclusion, if you write about things of importance or that mean something to you, you will be more successful than trying to make everyone happy.

“Blogs have forever changed the way that information is shared in our society. They’re fast. They’re interactive” (Briggs, 42).

The second chapter of the Journalism Next book is all about blogging.

Mark Briggs recommends every college journalist start a blog, as it is great practice for the real world of journalism.

He says creating a blog is a great tool to:

• Learn a new content-management system
• Build an audience for your writing
• Report and cultivate a collaborative community once you have an audience

Blogs are great tools for anyone to share their opinion with the world. They help show different perspectives, share ideas and quickly give out information instantaneously.

There are blogs on any subject matter you may be interested in. Go to Technorati.com to see the top 100 blogs.

There are different terms that bloggers use in their writings. Here are a few of the most common words that Mark Briggs found important:

• Post: an entry on a blog.
• Permalink: a link available to view a specific post by itself. Comments are also available for viewing on this page.
• Trackback: a function that allows bloggers to see when someone has reposted their material through a link.
• Blogroll: links the blogger posts to the side of their site. They help the reader see what sites the blogger may enjoy going to and find other useful websites.
• Vlog: a video blog with room for commentary.
• Moblog: blogging from a mobile device.

To begin creating a blog, Briggs recommends using a site like WordPress or Blogger. He says they are both fairly simple websites that offer tutorials on how to start your blog.

The next step for a new blogger is to come up with a creative name for their site. When doing this, the user will have to come up with a domain name for their blog as well as a title to go at the top of their page.

Finally, to finish the setup of a blog, you must choose a theme that is visually appealing and goes along with the type of blog you are creating. There are simple themes already set up or you can customize your page.

Mark Briggs then goes on to talk about gaining an audience for your blog. He says that it is imperative that a blogger “knows what readers want and can clearly and effectively communicate an idea, news or analysis quickly” (Briggs, 55).

Content and immediacy are key for a successful blog.

Here are a few tips Briggs gives when beginning your writing as a blogger (these can be found in more detail on page 60 of his Journalism Next book):

• Organize your ideas
• Be direct
• Be the authority, with a personality
• Make your posts scanable
• Link, summarize, and analyze
• Be specific with headlines
• Have a good attitude
• Use photos and screenshots

Mark Briggs also emphasizes the importance of posting daily to keep the audience coming back to your site.

He also says it is important for the content on your blog to relate to the audience, meaning you will have to investigate what is going on in the community. Nothing makes a person want to keep reading more than a story that they can easily relate to.

Lastly, to gain a larger audience, make sure to comment to other people’s blogs, signing off with your blog name. People who read the comments may be interested enough to go see what your blog is about. Link other blogs to your own posts; you never know if the author will repay the favor.

Happy blogging!

In the first chapter of Journalism Next by Mark Briggs, the author talks about many of the very basics in using computers. He goes on to write about how these tools can help journalists in their careers.

Briggs explains how using RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feeds can help people easily keep up with news they are interested in. He explains the difference between different possible RSS feeds and which ones may be right for you.

In a sentence, Briggs describes an RSS feed as “a convenient, one-stop information shop tailored to your needs and interests” (Briggs, 15).

Some good RSS feed sites he recommends are:

• Netvibes
• PageFlakes
• Google Reader
• Yahoo

If you would like to be able to read your RSS feeds without internet connection, however, he recommends downloading NewsGator’s NetNewsWire for Macs or FeedDemon for Windows computers. These sites make it easy to read your content anywhere, anytime.

He also gives new RSS users a few tips including:

• Making different folders for different subjects
• Subscribing to things that may help with your particular beat
• If you want to be able to access feeds from different computers, do not use the downloadable RSS feeds, rather use the websites

Briggs then goes on to talk about the use of html and gives examples of simple html codes.  To learn more about html, you can go to:

• www.j-learning.org
• http://webdesign.about.com
• www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide
• www.webmonkey.com/tutorial/tag/web_basics

To finish out the chapter, Briggs gave a checklist for people to remember when learning about or starting to use the web. These can be found on page 39 of the Journalism Next book.

1. Check your browser to make sure you have an up-to-date version.
2. Download a new browser. Briggs recommends using Firefox, Google Chrome, or Opera.
3. Create an RSS feed. You can start off subscribing to 10 feeds, then add more as you learn how it works.
4. Subscribe to news alerts. You can do this on Google or Yahoo and add it to your RSS reader.
5. Create a Web page. This is easiest when using the tutorials listed above.

Click on the image to see a bigger picture!