I just found out about a pretty significant journalism fellowship from Stanford University’s Center for the Study of the North American West: $3,500-$7,000 plus two weeks’ access to the Center’s facilities and resources.
And guess what? Citizen journalists are welcome to apply for it!…
(NOTE: I originally published this article in Spring 2000 in my former venture Content Exchange, which is now defunct. But it’s still useful information, so I’ve decided to republish it.)
Good writing is good writing no matter where you find it. However, each medium has its own unique considerations. One of the key points to consider about the text on your web site is microcontent.
Microcontent is all the short bits of text that help guide the user or provide an “at-a-glance” overview of what a given page is about. The basic categories of microcontent are…
Usually, I advise people that when writing headlines or titles for online content, it helps to not be too “cute” or “cryptic.” This is because headlines are often viewed out of context online (in search engine results or feed readers, etc.). They generally need to speak for themselves.
That said, I love a good pun. And sometimes, depending on the author, topic, and target audience, a good pun is just what’s needed. This morning, my friend and fellow blogger Koan Bremner pulled off a magnificently punnish headline: “Ctrl-Alt-Delete.”
Now that might not sound like much of a pun – you need to read the article to see why it works so well. Normally I would consider that a problem, too.
However, here’s why I think it’s a great headline, even though it’s geeky and superficially cryptic – and what other bloggers can learn from this example…
Well, I think I’ve gotten off to a very good start in this my new contract gig as editor of Poynter’s group weblog E-Media Tidbits. This is a great team of people.
If you’re interested at what’s been going on over at that weblog for news pros lately, here’s a quick rundown of recent postings…
My friend, colleague, and fellow blogger Dave Taylor wrote on March 7 about how he’s finally “succumbed” and created a link blog: Dave Taylor’s blog clippings
…A link blog is a way to use a weblog to share interesting links. There are lots of different ways to do it…
UPDATE MARCH 13: Well, it happens to every blogger sometime. Yesterday, when I posted this article (originally titled “Alexa’s ‘reach’ stats: More like ’stretch,’” I got something pretty significant wrong. I was misinterpreting what the Alexa graphs actually communicate. Mea culpa, and apologies to Alexa and my readers. If you read the article below, don’t miss the comments thread, where a couple of my readers kindly clarified my error. Well, fortunately I view mistakes as an important part of learning. 
Here is the original article…
We have more ways to access information than ever before. Each point of access applies its own filter.
This means it’s more important than ever to be conscious of filters, especially as applied to any type of “news.” It’s no longer safe or smart to make wholesale assumptions about any class or genre of news filtering — from professional news organizations, to citizen journalism, to PR, to peer-reviewed journals, to personal blogs.
We all have holes in our nets…
A lot of interesting new work has come my way recently.
Along with my normal mix of editorial, writing, and consulting/training projects, I’ve just been awarded one new blogging gig of which I’m particularly proud. I’ve been named editor of the Poynter Institute’s group weblog, E-Media Tidbits….
On Monday, March 13, the BBC Radio 4 program Women’s Hour will be covering the topic of women in podcasting. It’ll be a panel discussion, with audio clips from various shows hosted or co-hosted by women.
Here’s the Women’s Hour web site. They archive their shows in streaming format. After this episode is archived online, I’ll post a link.
If you’re interested in this topic…
Recently, Tom Foremski at Silicon Valley Watcher made an astute observation about conversational media. In “Welcome to the Conversation Age! All conversations may be monitored,” he wrote: “Conversation Overload is tough because we don’t want it to seem as if we are ignoring someone but there is not enough time in the world to keep up with all the conversations.”
Oh, yeah — Tom nailed that one! Given the nature of my work as a conversational media consultant, I wrestle with conversation overload daily. Here’s what I commented on Tom’s article…
(Read the full article at The Right Conversation…)
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