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The title of this chapter is Building an Audience Online. This concept is very important because social media is taking over America.

In an article in E-Turbo New entitled Social media tipped to become a legitimate business force talks about the effect of Twitter and Facebook.

Social media is not the only online format that is effective now-a-days. Newspapers, magazines and journals are all going online.

Why Online?

• The trees
• We can archive content online
• Searching content is fast
• Online you can usually leave a comment for the post author
• The instant-ness
• You get to tell your story (The way you want)
• Online is cheaper
• The reach

With all these reasons listed why not use a media that will be around for many years?

The title of this chapter is Managing News as a Conversation.

This is very important because if an audience feels like they are being lectured or talked at, they stop paying attention. Notice how I said talked at. There is a difference between bein talked to and being talked at.

Lets take for instance Rush Limbaugh; he is the type of person who likes to here himself talk. So when Limbaugh talks he may be talking at you because he just wants you to believe in what he says, no questions asked.

Our president, Barack Obama, takes a different approach. He talks to the people so that we can understand him by using word lie we and us.

Ultimately you have to know your audience and know how to talk to them. If you are writing to an educative audience, you may not want to use slang or hip words. Not saying that educated people aren’t down with the times but your best bet would be to use the language that caters to them.

So the main thing is:

• Write like you’re talking to your friends
• Know your audience
• Stay relevant
  

Chapter three is entitled crowd-powered collaboration. I know, when you hear those words, a big question mark pops up in your head.

Briggs goes over three concepts in the beginning of the chapter:

Crowdsourcing: When the Internet allows communities to come together and provide value for a website.

Open-source reporting: Using transparency in reporting in order to provide or possibly benefits form your audience.

Pro-am journalism: Allows the audience to publish directly to the same platform or website as professional journalists.

The power of the crowd is very important. Let’s think about it in sports terms. Why do you think a team like the Utah Jazz own the NBA’s best record for home wins for four seasons straight? The crowd.

The crowd can affect the momentum of any game and it is the same with journalism. If your audience bashes your paper every week, good luck. Word of mouth travels fast.

The moral of the story is, know your audience and if you are a crowd-powered medium, sift through the junk and find people who will benifit you in the future.

Scott Brown’s campaign was not a typical Republican campaign. “Just me and my truck,” was the slogan that won one of the most Democratic states, Massachusetts, to vote foe a Republican senator.

Chris Cillizza, a political reporter for the Washington Post, joined students participating from the George Mason University Video Studio along with Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-SPAN networks. Students from the University of Denver and Pace University also participated.

The distance learning course, which is produces by C-SPAN, is a unique opportunity for students to interview guests via video conference. The course airs on C-SPAN3 on Fridays at 5p.m. and also streams online at (http://www.c-span.org/Distance_Learning/).

Cillizza talked about the necessary elements a candidate must have to win an election.

• Must have a consistent message (from beginning to end)
• Must raise money
• Must identify their voters and swing voters
• Must define your opponent

Brown had all these elements and then some. His Truck Ad fit to the voters he needed and painted him as a caring man, not a Republican or Democrat.

This chapter is about data, data and more data.

“There’s no such thing as information overload, only filter failure,” Briggs said.

Personal Productivity Tools are very important in any profession. Briggs describes a list of the top ten productivity basics.

1. Text Expansion
2. Keyboard Shortcuts
3. Inbox Zero
4. Quick Searches (Local)
5. Quick Searches (Web)
6. Timers and Working in Dashes
7. Ubiquitous Capture
8. Remind your Future Self
9. Ninja-like Search Skills
10. Doable to-do Lists

Data driven journalism is important for accuracy and information. Also, accuracy brings creditability and creditability brings readers. We all WANT readers.

This chapter is about the power of a picture. Everyone has heard the saying a picture is worth a thousand words. This reins so true, even in 2010.

When we see pictures like this one of Obama, we see imagery at it’s best. The best pictures evoke feelings and emotions. Just the four letters H-O-P-E changed Obama’s image from a politition to a human being who cares.

Copyright is one thing about pictures that is very important to remember.

The rules are simple:

• Don’t Steal
• If you want to use something that isn’t yours, ask first
• Use good judgment

Digital cameras can range from great like the Canon EOS Rebel T1i to the good old disposable Kodak Fun Saver.

Depending on your budget and skills, you must pick the best camera for you.

The next important thing about visual storytelling is editing pictures. Briggs gives a list of popular online tools for editing.

• Picasa
• Flickr
• Photobucket
• Photoshop
• Picnik

Going Mobile. Mobile journalism is highlighted in this chapter. Briggs talks about how journalists carry less and less equipment to cover an event on location.

Streaming video has become a someone addiction of our year. YouTube is a place where you can watchfunny videos and even broadcast yourself. Now-a-days you can view videos on your smart phone. I own a Palm Pixi it is AMAZING!

Since many of us have smart phones and laptops with built in cameras, capturing a story is becoming easier day by day.

This chapter is called Microblogging: Write Small, Think Big. He defines microblogging as a mini-blog about what your doing right now.

Twitter is a great example of this. In 140 characters, you express how you are feeling at the moment. It is a quick, simple and efficient way to make a statement.

The benefits of microblogging are how we receive information; instantaneously. Sometime before we watch a breaking news story on ABC, it is broken on  Twitter or Facebook.

Ultimately, we want our information fast, without waiting. Maybe that’s why we are called the Microwave Generation.

This chapter is entitled Advance Blogging. The chapter talks about the difference between a good blog, like TrueHoop (ESPN’s basketball blog) v.s. a bad blog like The Jackbox blog (a MySpace site supposedly run by that strange ping-pong-ball-headed mascot that has about the same amount of intellect as a Big Mac has nutritional value.)

One thing I found interesting in this chapter was the idea of creating an audience for you blog.

“All writing is more fun when you know who your writing to,” Briggs said.

This is so true because if you know your audience, you’re halfway there.

The biggest thing that can make or break a blog is organization. How you organize your ideas, pictures and links is very important to the success of a blog. No one wants to read a blog that’s all over the place.

In this chapter, Briggs talks about the great revolution of the internet. He breaks it down from big web pages like Yahoo and Google to small aspects of the internet like Bits and Bytes.

Briggs then goes on about RSS feeds. I never knew much about these until I took this class but now it seems really simple.   There are also a number of web-based feed readers available like My Yahoo and Google Reader which are the most popular.

One interesting thing I learned about was HTML. It can help you in many ways like if you want to add a link to one of your favorite restaurants like this: Cheesecake Factory.

Lastly Briggs talked about the benefits of knowing the components of the web. He called then digital opportunities. I agree that the more you know about the internet, the better your chances are to get that dream job you’ve always wanted.