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I’ve taken a break today from the hectic and all-consuming annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists to catch up on some sleep. Now that I’ve napped for a few hours and feel reasonably human again, I’ll catch up on some blogging, too. Sorry I’ve neglected CONTENTIOUS over the last week or two; things tend to be crazy when I’m on the road.

One of my duties at the SEJ conferences is to help organize a number of “Network Meal” events where journalists get together over food to chat with their colleagues and with experts about prearranged topics. There are breakfast, lunch, and dinner versions of this event. Last night I was one of the hosts of the “Beat Dinners” entitled Tools of the EJ Trade: Gadgets, Gear & Resources. Here’s a quick wrap-up of what we discussed…

My co-hosts for this dinner were radio journalist/producer Dale Willman (Field Notes Productions) and environment writer Chris Bowman (Sacramento Bee). We sat down with four other journalists and one PR person at Lucca in Pittsburgh. (Food: good. Service: slow.)

Our conversation ranged widely over several technical topics related to things technical and Luddite that make environmental journalism easier, or that open new possibilities for journalists. Here are the highlights:

• Photos as notetaking. Bowman explained how, when he goes out to cover a story, he always takes a camera (digital for him, but you could even use a throwaway film camera for this). He takes photos of his sources and of the surroundings, and anything that catches his interest – but not for publication. He uses these photos as visual notes to both jog his memory and supplement his taped or written notes. Sometimes he’ll even spy important details, context, or incongruencies in the photos that he didn’t notice when he was doing the interview or research.
• How to offer thoughtful interactivity. Willman mentioned a creative approach that San Francisco public TV station KQED is taking to online polling about the upcoming Presidential election. The station’s You Decide series of polls look deceptively easy at first. Each one starts as a simple yes/no question on some controversy that’s currently polarizing the public. When you give your simple answer, KQED then asks “Are you sure?” and then proceeds to supply the survey taker with additional information that leads them to consider the issue at a deeper level. This is an excellent model that other media organizations should emulate. This kind of interactivity is the antithesis of sound bites.
• Metadata is a journalist’s friend. I introduced my colleagues to the concept of metadata as it relates to content, especially news content (whether text, audio, video, or interactive). In a nutshell, I suggested that journalists and editors should understand what kinds of metadata their organization’s content management system allows them to specify for the news content elements they create (stories, photos, supporting documents, etc.) Don’t leave this job up to IT people or anyone who was not involved in the creation of the story. This guarantees that accurate and appropriate keywords and other identifiers will be associated with your work. That not only enhances downstream uses of existing content, but also makes it easier and faster for journalists to retrieve their own content.
• GIS as an investigative and visual tool. We didn’t get deeply into this topic, but basically it’s a good idea for journalists who cover the environment or other beats to learn how to use mapping/locator resources and tools that rely on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. These include devices such as Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and a wide range of free and commercial GIS-based resources. Basically, journalists can use GIS data to literally map out stories – which can help you spot trends, connections, or inconsistencies that might not be obvious from reading data in text form. A good book to get started is Mapping the News. (See this review.)
• Starting with graphics can help. Bowman explained how his concept for his recent series on smog didn’t really crystallize for him until he worked with a Sacramento Bee graphic artist to draft some info-graphic artwork based on his initial research and data. Seeing even a rudimentary info-graphic clarified to Bowman the core essence of the story he wished to tell, and guided the rest of his work on that project.

Well, I’ll have to continue this later because right now my buddies from the SEJ staff just arrived and it’s time to unwind. More notes from the geek dinner to come…