Megan Taylor

Interviewed NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen about ExplainThis.org, an open system for asking and answering questions that journalists can use for story ideas.

Jay Rosen's Explainthis.org Would Have Journalists Answer Users' Questions

If you listen to Rebooting the News, a podcast done by Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at NYU, and Dave Winer, often described as the father of blogging and RSS, you've heard their ongoing discussion about the importance of context and explanation in a new system for news.

Building on those ideas and several existing projects, Rosen has developed an idea that could make journalism better by allowing more people to participate in the process: ExplainThis.

Published January 8, 2010.

Publication: Poynter E-Media Tidbits, a Poynter Institute blog about the intersection of news & technology.

Skills: Reporting, Writing

Medium: Text

Interviewed six college students who are teaching themselves a combination of journalism and programming as part of a series on the "programmer/journalist" trend.

How Programmer/Journalists Craft Their Own Study Programs

Remember the sidewalk scene from "Reservoir Dogs" that showed a group of tough guys walking down the street? They're all out to do the same thing, but none of them are what you'd expect. The same seems true for aspiring programmer/journalists.

I spoke to six college students who are combining self-taught programming with elements of journalism education. Most work at their student papers, but only two are journalism majors. These students are putting what they know and love together in ways their formal education -- and in some ways the industry as a whole -- hasn't caught up with yet.

Published December 2, 2009.

Publication: PBS MediaShift, a blog that tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.

Skills: Reporting, Writing

Medium: Text

Interviewed several journalists about how they use RSS for research and reporting and wrote about tips for keeping on top of a beat using RSS.

Journalists use RSS to track rivals, news, tweets & other info

RSS is an incredibly useful way for journalists to keep track of beats by watching what is being published online, whether on news sites, blogs, Twitter, saved Google search terms, etc.

I spoke to three journalists about how they use RSS for research and reporting. They also each gave one really good tip for diving into RSS.

Published December 1, 2009.

Publication: Beatblogging.org, a blog about how journalists can use social networks and other Web tools to improve beat reporting.

Skills: Reporting, Writing

Medium: Text

I broke this story about a local park where renovations were delayed due to the discovery of heavy metals contamination.

Harris Field Contaminated

Heavy metals have been discovered at Harris Field in Bedford Park during the park’s reconstruction, the Norwood News has learned.

The Parks Department declined to answer specific questions about what heavy metals were found, the levels of contamination, or the steps taken to make the site safe. Although the agency claims proper procedures were followed, further questions were referred to its legal department and the Norwood News has filed a Freedom of Information Law request to obtain the information.

Published October 22, 2009.

Publication: Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper serving the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, North Fordham and University Heights.

Skills: Reporting, Writing

Medium: Text

How do you merge the culture of the programming environment with the culture of the newsroom? Part of a series on the "programmer/journalist" trend.

Can Programmers, Journalists Get Along in One Newsroom?

"You need to go do what you're being asked to build," he [Matt Waite] said. "Spend a night on the sports copy desk taking high school football scores and you'll get an idea of what a football score taking app should do, no matter what the editor is telling you."

Similarly, journalists would do well to sit with a programmer and watch their ideas get turned into an app.

Published October 19, 2009.

Publication: PBS MediaShift, a blog that tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.

Skills: Reporting, Writing

Medium: Text

I interviewed the three winners of the Sunlight Foundation's "Apps for America" context about how they chose to visualize data made available on the Data.gov website and what news organizations can learn from their work.

'Apps For America' Shows Innovative Ways to Display Government Data

The Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to greater government openness and transparency via the Internet, recently announced the winners of the "Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge" development contest. There is a lot to learn from the winners: Datamasher, GovPulse and ThisWeKnow.

News organizations have been putting data online for years, but not many of them have been doing it well. (Think data ghettos.) As government agencies and third parties place a high priority on sharing information that's key to public discourse, news organizations may benefit from observing how they put data online.

Published September 21, 2009.

Publication: Poynter E-Media Tidbits, a Poynter Institute blog about the intersection of news & technology.

Skills: Reporting, Writing

Medium: Text

Spoke with several programmer/journalists to determine what the ideal skillset might be for an aspiring student. Part of a series on the "programmer/journalist" trend.

In Search of the Perfect Skillset for a Programmer/Journalist

Web development is probably the biggest distinction between CAR skills and programmer/journalist skills, though there aren't any hard-and-fast distinctions. To try and further define the skillset of the programmer/journalist, I posted this question on Twitter: "What skills does a programmer/journalist need?"

Brian Boyer, a graduate of Medill's journalism for programmers master's track and now News Applications Editor at the Chicago Tribune, responded with this list:

"XHTML / CSS / JavaScript / jQuery / Python / Django / xml / regex / Postgres / PostGIS / QGIS"

Holy alphabet soup!

Published September 8, 2009.

Publication: PBS MediaShift, a blog that tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.

Skills: Reporting, Writing

Medium: Text

Researched and interviewed journalists regarding computer-assisted reporting and the evolution of the programmer/journalist. Part of a series on the "programmer/journalist" trend.

How Computer-Assisted Reporters Evolved into Programmer/Journalists

I see a very clear progression from CAR to the programmer/journalist trend via the web. CAR is meant to be invisible. You analyze a database as part of the reporting process, but you don't want to clog up a story with too many numbers. The ability to add details online has changed this process. Data has become a part of the story. And that's the key connection between CAR and programming in journalism: data.

Matthew Waite, the developer behind PolitiFact, told me his evolution from computer-assisted reporter to programmer/journalist was "the natural evolution of someone who just keeps going with CAR skills."

Published August 7, 2009.

Publication: PBS MediaShift, a blog that tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.

Skills: Writing, Blogging, Reporting

Medium: Text

After the Associated Press released a controversial statement about a "news registry" that would help the organization track use of its content, I did some research to find out exactly how it would work.

How AP's News Registry Will (and Won't) Work

The Associated Press's announcement of a news registry to "track and tag all AP content" to "assure compliance with terms of use" has stirred a lot of discussion. From techies to journalists, it's unclear how the registry will work, whether it will do what AP claims, and how it will fit in with copyright law and the culture of the Web.

The news registry was announced as part of the AP's initiative to "protect news content from misappropriation online." Bloggers worried that AP was after them, spurred by AP CEO Tom Curley's statement to The New York Times that the registry would be used to regulate even the use of a headline and a link to an article. Others at the AP, however, have said that the news organization has no problem with people quoting its content in the course of blogging.

Published August 7, 2009.

Publication: Poynter E-Media Tidbits, a Poynter Institute blog about the intersection of news & technology.

Skills: Writing, Blogging, Reporting

Medium: Text

NYPD Buys Guns, but Residents Doubt Effects

Nearly 20 other Bronx locals who were asked about the program agreed with A.J. that gun crime would not be significantly affected by programs like the gun buy-back event, which coincided with 13 shooting incidents in the borough that weekend.

Published in the May 14, 2009 edition of the Norwood News.

Skills: Writing, Blogging, Reporting

Medium: Text

Next week I will be speaking to the students of the West Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative about online journalism and the future of news.

The West Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative is a weekly program offered to sophomores, juniors or seniors from Bronx high schools.

Students will learn the fundamentals of writing, reporting, and photojournalism through classroom instruction but, more importantly, through hands-on reporting in their own neighborhoods. We will take them on field trips - including the newsroom of a daily newspaper. They will learn about community activism and civic responsibility, how their neighborhoods work (or don't), who has power, who doesn't and why.

I'm nervous, because I'm really horrible at public speaking. But also because I have no idea what these kids know.

What's the level of computer/Internet proficiency? Do they have access to computers at home? Do they read news online, have blogs, read blogs?

James Fergusson, the program coordinator and Editor of the Mount Hope Monitor, has told me that they have not discussed online journalism in class.

I got some great advice from Mindy McAdams, who told me not to assume that the kids are technologically ignorant. Even if they don't have computers at home, the public libraries offer free access.

She also suggested that I show "Not Just a Number" and "The Mac" as examples of stories told by people about their own communities.

I can probably spend a few minutes at first figuring out what they know without looking like a total hack. The problem is how to adjust what I want to say to their level. After beating college reporters over the head with the "good news" for two semesters, I'm not sure how to condense the message to half an hour.

Any advice? What should these high-schoolers know about online journalism? What do I tell them about the future of news?

Interviewed Andrei Scheinkman and Derek Willis of the New York Times about Represent, and wrote about how they built the application and what its implications are for journalism as part of a series on innovative journalism projects.

Represent Helps New Yorkers Track Their Politicos

Represent is a look at the future of online journalism -- focused, local and geographically relevant. It's a different way to group and browse information based on an individual's political districts.

Published: March 18, 2009

Publication: PBS MediaShift, a blog that tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.

Skills: Writing, Blogging, Interviewing

Medium: Text

So I made some resolutions in January, and two months into the new year I guess it's about time to see how I've been doing.

One of the things I wanted to work on was posting to my blog more often. I did well in January, with 24 posts. But not so much this month, with one week left and only seven posts. Clearly, I'm going to have to work on plan to find, think or do more interesting things to write about.

As for learning Javascript...I've written a few simple scripts for pop-up windows and the like at work, but I haven't been making progress with my Lynda.com videos. I'm thinking about finding a text resource; the Lynda.com videos go really slowly for me.

I have been making some progress on PHP, mostly through more advanced manipulations of WordPress. Haven't started any formal learning though. Should wait until I'm done with Javascript.

Although I have not been writing for BrightHub once a week, and I've been neglecting NewsVideographer as well, I have been writing a whole lot for my Innovation Spotlight series at MediaShift. I had so many projects for January and February that I wrote mini-spotlights on the off-weeks. I'm looking for new projects now though...

I said in my resolutions post that I would produce one multimedia or web development project each month. I haven't really kept up with that, mostly because every time I turn around, I get in my own way. Right now I'm dealing with some PostgreSQL issues on my Mac. However, I did edit this video for Quinn and Co., Public Relations.

My last resolution was about getting involved in my community. I got in touch with the West Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative a few weeks ago and I will be helping them out with a new Web site and hopefully a guest lecture.

Washington Post's 'Web Ninjas' Build Map-Timeline Combo

TimeSpace, a Washington Post project, is a coverage mapping framework that displays content from multiple sources in space (via a map) and time (via a timeline).

Skills: Writing, Blogging, Interviewing

Medium: Text

This morning I discovered the Times Labs blog, where the Times Online is writing about innovation in online journalism and sharing experiences.

It was through this blog that I found out about the Digging into Data Challenge.

DIDC was announced by agencies in the U.S. UK and Canada to search for ways to use the huge amounts of data that have become available to the public.

The idea behind the Digging into Data Challenge is to answer the question "what do you do with a million books?" Or a million pages of newspaper? Or a million photographs of artwork? That is, how does the notion of scale affect humanities and social science research? Now that scholars have access to huge repositories of digitized data -- far more than they could read in a lifetime -- what does that mean for research?

Applicants have to form teams from two out of the three countries. A list of data repositories is provided, although it doesn't look like you'd have to use those specific datasets.

DIDC is being sponsored by "the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) from the United Kingdom, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) from the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF) from the United States, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) from Canada."

Submit a "Letter of Intent" by March 15, 2009, final applications are due July 15, 2009. Winners will be announced in December, and will receive grants to build their projects.

BronxRhymes Uses Locality, Maps to Track History of Hip-Hop

BronxRhymes is an attempt to raise awareness of the history of hip-hop in the Bronx, the northwestern borough of New York City where the musical style is thought to have originated.

Skills: Writing, Interviewing

Medium: Text

Today I found out that the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) holds a monthly multimedia contest (and has since 2006).

Over the last year, multimedia storytelling at newspapers has dramatically increased. Software programs like SoundSlides and Audacity have helped simplify the production of audio slideshows for online. Web-based video journalism is also gaining momentum. Many photojournalists are being asked (or told) to add video to their storytelling arsenals. In the midst of all this change, it became clear to many that a contest was needed to showcase this new work being produced by NPPA members. More importantly, I believe this multimedia contest will become a great learning tool for our members. Being able to see and judge everyone else’s entries will hopefully spur innovation and inspiration.

The contest is only for NPPA members, a tradition of industry associations that I'm getting really tired of. I know you want to recruit members and you need people to pay dues, but in the tradition of free web tools, I'll bet you make more friends by providing services first.

Luckily, you don't ahve to be a member to see the list of winners. There were a lot of projects that I haven't seen, which makes this a good resources for rounding up examples. I usually keep track of multimedia projects via Multimedia Shooter and Interactive Narratives, among other sites.

I was very surprised to see that Zach Wise's Thirst in the Mojave got second place for its category. It's definitely one of the best examples of multimedia storytelling I've seen recently.

Go check out January's winners, and if you're a NPPA member, don't forget to submit your projects for February.

Hat tip to Innovative Interactivity for writing about the contest.

ProPublica Puts Spotlight on Tracking TARP Money

ProPublica's Show Me the TARP Money is a simple map and chart reflecting the recipients of money provided through TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), a federal program that authorizes the U.S. government to buy assets from struggling financial institutions in an effort to remedy the subprime mortgage crisis.

Skills: Writing, Interviews

Medium: Text

Innovation in Inauguration Coverage

This week, instead of focusing on one innovative journalism project, I'd like to highlight some of the many projects that came up covering Barack Obama's inauguration.

Skills: Writing

Medium: Text

Working on my New Year's Resolutions, I've been looking into several Bronx and NYC blogs.

The Bronx News Network recently posted a deadline extension for applications to something called the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative.

Whaaaat?!

The editors and reporters of the Norwood News and the Mount Hope Monitor are running a youth journalism program for Bronx high school students who are sophomores, juniors or seniors. - Bronx News Network

From the Norwood News site:

Students will learn the fundamentals of writing, reporting, and photojournalism through classroom instruction but, more importantly, through hands-on reporting in their own neighborhoods. We will take them on field trips - including the newsroom of a daily newspaper. They will learn about community activism and civic responsibility, how their neighborhoods work (or don't), who has power, who doesn't and why.

Best of all, student work will be published in a special youth supplement called Bronx Youth Heard, which will appear in the Norwood News, Mount Hope Monitor, and Highbridge Horizon, another community newspaper the west Bronx, giving Bronx youth a powerful voice in their own communities.

I was looking for ways to get involved in my community - and I may have found one. I'm planning to call the editors on Monday and see if I can be of use to them. Their site doesn't mention teaching Web skills, so maybe that's something I can contribute.