College student newspapers are going “digital first”: New philosophy and workflow

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Mu Lin

If you are involved in college or high school student newspapers, you may want to know how some schools are pioneering a “digital first” strategy, as well as the new philosophy and workflow that come with the new strategy. The three prongs of “going digital” are print, web and mobile – you’ll need all three formats to make for a successful “digital first” strategy. Continue reading →

Posted in College media going digital | 8 Comments

A Twitter writing guide for journalists: Adapting conventional news writing for the digital age

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Mu Lin

Guidelines for print news writing and web writing have been well established; however, guidelines for journalistic Twitter writing have not been fully explored. I developed some writing guidelines for a live-tweeting assignment in a digital journalism class, and these guidelines are everything that is taught in traditional journalism classes.

News tweeting needs to follow a journalistic writing style

When a reporter is assigned to live tweet an event and to feed tweets to the news media’s Twitter account, he or she should write tweets in a way different from the (casual and cursory) writing style of his or her personal Twitter account. Continue reading →

Posted in Mobile news reporting, Writing for the web | 15 Comments

5 tips and a special workflow for effective web writing: Anatomy of a functional blog post

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Mu Lin

Writing for the web requires some techniques and a special workflow that are not common in traditional print writing. Here are some tips that can optimize print materials for on-screen reading.

These are the guidelines that I teach in media writing classes and use in my own blog writings; I want to use a (partial) blog post to show how these tips work – read on for explanations of each tip: Continue reading →

Posted in Writing for the web | 4 Comments

Mixture of photo and video lends well to mobile news gathering

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Mu Lin

A mixture of photo and video will work well for mobile news gathering or digital storytelling in general – a photo slideshow doesn’t have to be all-photo, and a video doesn’t have to be all-video. Continue reading →

Posted in Mobile news reporting | 1 Comment

What to teach in an intro digital journalism class: web writing, mobile, data, multimedia storytelling

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Mu Lin

Don’t expect to teach everything in one class – focus on a few components and leave some topics to advanced digital journalism classes. Continue reading →

Posted in Digital journalism education | 2 Comments

J-students should finish basic journalism courses before taking digital/multimedia journalism

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Mu Lin

One cannot become a good digital journalist without solid training in traditional journalism. Before taking a digital journalism class, students (at least) should have taken courses in news writing/reporting and basic video production. Continue reading →

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Writing for the web is different: Headline needs to work out of context

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Mu Lin

A headline needs to be self-explanatory so that readers can “get the point” without reading the article or synopsis. This guideline is especially important if the article will be posted or shared on the web. Continue reading →

Posted in Writing for the web | 1 Comment

How to effectively use Storify as a news reporting tool: An experiment in my digital journalism class

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Mu Lin

For effective use of Storify as a tool for news reporting or digital storytelling, some basic journalistic and web-writing guidelines should be employed.

Below is screenshot of a sample Storify news story I discussed with students in my digital journalism class. This story can use some improvements – in its current form, it is basically a chronological compilation of tweets. Use your mouse to scroll down on the screenshot for a quick look of the story; if the screenshot is not displayed properly on your computer, view it in a separate page: Continue reading →

Posted in Mobile news reporting, Writing for the web | 11 Comments

A survey of master’s programs in digital journalism in U.S.

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Mu Lin

Graduate programs in digital or multimedia journalism – those with the word “digital” or “multimedia” in the program’s name – are usually designed for working professionals and have a curriculum focus on digital skill training. But down the road, we ought to remove the word “digital/multimedia” from a program’s name.

The programs are designed for working professionals

Let’s look at program descriptions of a few programs and see whom these programs are designed for: Continue reading →

Posted in Digital journalism education | 6 Comments

Teaching mobile journalism: An experiment in my digital journalism class

Posted on December 27, 2012 by Mu Lin

Mobile journalism, or mobile news gathering, is defined by new modes of delivery, not by the (professional) production equipments. With everyday digital gadgets and free or cheap computer programs, anyone can produce quality contents – but you may need to learn some basic journalism skills. Continue reading →

Posted in Mobile news reporting | Leave a comment