Give the 'Net credit

Mayomo is a site I’d like to see succeed. Maps are powerful information sources. They add needed context and help to build community. But they need a chief mapmaker to fulfill their mission, and so far, Mayomo isn’t providing it.

I’m glad I attended “New Media Theory: How Far Have We Traveled?” conference because all of the presentations energized my research. I gained some valuable new directions and ideas. The most valuable insight, however, did not come from other academics but from the students who attended the conference. Not all journalism comes from legacy media. I preach that to my online journalism class all the time, but sometimes, in my zeal to help the traditional media make the transition, I forget.

With its NBA Playoff Predictor Web site, ESPN has once again demonstrated how a few bells and whistles can create a community. Part of the reason I’m sharing my image in the hopes of connecting with other Utah Jazz fans. I’m certain I’m not the only one who has done this. If you have, leave me a comment and let me know how many times it took you to run the simulator to get the Jazz as the NBA champions.

Can news organizations use links to real people, either through Twitter or e-mail, to improve their credibility? My newswriting class makes me believe it’s possible. I’d like to see a news organization try my in-class experiment and add identifiers to all the sources quoted in the stories because I really think it could enhance their relationship with their audiences and their credibility.

hat’s admirable because it shows that someone who initially said she hated technology seems to understand it better than many media organizations. She’s not just posting information. She’s truly interacting with people online. She’s not just reading their comments. She’s calling them to action, and she’s using their collective knowledge to make things better.

After listening to Brian Ibbott’s Coverville for a couple of weeks now, I’m starting to get it. In fact, I think Coverville should be required listeners for all American Idol wannabes. I’m continually astounded how much I enjoy listening to covers of songs I wouldn’t have listened to originally. After Coverville’s BeeGees Cover Story, I nearly bought the band’s early albums from iTunes. I also couldn’t get Eldissa’s cover of Stayin’ Alive out of my head.

News organizations should have learned long ago that people will pay for interactivity. Games like World of Warcraft have clearly established that fact. Instead, they were reprinting rumors and innuendo from sources like TMZ and lost sight of the mission of journalism.

After playing with Windows 7 and Snow Leopard for the past week and setting aside my Mac preference, I have to say they both impressed me. In fact, both operating systems demonstrate that sometimes it’s better to do more with less. Interactive Web designers could learn a lesson from the OS on which their Web sites operate.

This is what multimedia journalism needs to do, and now is the time for it. In that final, students gave presentations on the process behind their stories. Over and over again, they mentioned that people just don’t know what’s going on around them. Many of their projects started out as diatribes but ended up as simple educational pieces. This is what good journalism does, I emphasized. It informs people, and sometimes, simply informing them will make people start caring.

Actually, the additional content isn’t bad, but why do I need to hold up my magazine to get it. Why wouldn’t I just sit at my computer and call up Esquire’s Web site? If I have to get on the computer anyway, why do I need the magazine?