Understanding news as it changes to survive: Quotes from the ONA conference

photo by Allyson Beutke DeVito
Quotes and paraphrase on the future of journalism from those in the know:

In news, blogging saves good information otherwise gone, thrown out, wasted. -- Tammi Marcoullier of Publish2

In blogging, the metaphor of a talk show host is more accurate than that of reporter. -- Rex Hammock of Rexblog

"In journalism there are no rules, just guidelines. The same is true of blogging." -- Michael Silence of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Bloggers "have to have a stomach for this. You have to have thick skin." And you have to be consistent with that. - Christian Grantham of Nashville is Talking

"Have an email subscribe on your blog. Not RSS, email." Interested readers get immediate updates. -- Tammi Marcoullier of Publish2

"The comment is the currency of the conversation when you go online." -- Rex Hammock of rexblog.com

Blogging is like jazz. Bloggers have to be able to think and write at the same time. There is a lyrical nature to good blogging. -- Rex Hammock of rexblog.com

Produce content for print. Produce content for the web. That content cannot mirror one another. Not the same audience. It's a totally different audience. -- Val Hoeppner of Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University

In-depth online coverage of a major murder story bought credibility for the Indianapolis Star within the Black community there. The paper was not always welcome in that community before. -- Val Hoeppner of Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University

"People are no longer willing to wait for that thud on the door (newspaper) at 6 a.m. We want news on demand." -- Val Hoeppner of Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University

"When the fire burns out and the earth before you is scorched, that's when new life begins." -- Janet Coats of the Tampa Tribune on upheavals in news and newspapers

We aren't killing print, but "journalism is far too important for us to sacrifice it to a format." Evolve to stay viable. -- Janet Coats of the Tampa Tribune on upheavals in news and newspapers

"Understanding the audience doesn't mean pandering to it." -- Janet Coats, Tampa Tribune, keynote speaker.

A "curated aggregation of links" can be great journalism. See examples of link journalism at Publish2 -- Tammi Marcoullier of Publish 2

Speakers were part of the program at the Online News Association conference in Nashville Jan. 30. These quotes are derived from my impressions as Tweeted live. See quotes and comments from other journalists and academics in attendance by searching Twitter.com for #onanash .

Journalism has a future: What it means, how it works

Journalism HAS a future. 

I'm in Nashville today at the Online News Association conference by that name. I believe it.

Follow along as a multitude of journalists and academics offer constant updates via Twitter. 

The hashtag search is #onanash

The conference is at the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. 

 

Learning, the hard way

All sorts of lessons we learn as children are useful the rest of our lives:  Fire is hot. Water is wet. If you fall down, get back up again.  

My baby niece got a new life lesson last weekend: know with whom you are dealing.

Baby niece is nine months old and learning the fun of interacting. If you smile, people smile back. If you wave at people, they generally wave back. And, her newest interaction: If you offer someone a bite of your food, they say "thank you." 

Most adults are kind enough to understand that a baby doesn't actually want to give away her food. So they courteously let her keep her cracker while offering the desired comment. 

A dog, however, won't extend a baby that sort of courtesy. 

A dog will take your food if you offer it. A dog will not say thank you -- at least not in the traditional sense.

Life lesson: It's best to know with whom you are dealing -- something we could all stand to remember now and then.  

Live Blogging: Journalism conference as a participant observer

Journalism students will be working in a converged media world. How will they learn to do that when technology and opportunities change every six months? A conference group hosted by the Tennessee School of Journalism and Electronic Media is discussing that right now.

The inaugural ICONN conference (Inter-Collegiate Online News Network) brought together professionals, students and faculty to discuss opportunities for collaborative connectivity.

Collaborative connectivity was the theme behind the scenes, too. As panels discussed and students listened and took notes, participants from many universities used wireless connections to report from the scene.

A back row seat offered a great vantage point for a participant-observer. On laptops, Blackberries, iPhones, etc., participants were communicating through:

• Twitter

• Publish2

• blogs from every imaginable CMS

• JProf

Participants used the hashtag #ICONN as a searchable term to make the content easy to find. They Googled speaker bios during sessions, blogged on their own sites and published updates to students back home. The communication was live, constant and interactive.

ICONN will use a content management system (CMS) called Ochs, developed at Tennessee for a student news site using Django, to connect student journalists from around the country.

How exactly will that happen? That's the subject of the next session.

Ample Customer Parking: Batman Signage in a University World

When we pulled into the parking lot at the car dealership we had to laugh. Directly in front of our car was a large sign that read, “Ample Customer Parking.” The same message sat squarely in front of every parking spot. “Ample Customer Parking” – repeated 50 times – all over the lot.

“It’s the Bat Cave!” we said. Because in the 1960s live-action television version of Batman, every item carried a carefully concise label: the Bat pole, the Bat computer, the Bat chemical analyzer, Batmobile parking. Pretty funny.

We didn’t think much more about all those signs.

Until, that is, we got the survey. Our salesman told us we’d be getting a customer satisfaction packet -- that his dealership prided itself on extremely high customer satisfaction ratings. He’d really appreciate it, he said, if we’d take the time to fill out the survey and send it back.

You guessed it. On that survey was the question, “Did your dealership provide ample customer parking?”.

Of course it did. The signs told us so. We laughed, but it was also true.

Would the parking have been ample without those signs? Probably. Would we have thought about it as much when we filled out that survey? Probably not.

We can take a lesson from Batman and from the car dealership. Communicate frequently. Make the message redundant. Keep the signs up. That way, there’s no mistaking.

Ample customer parking? Yeah, we got that.

In search of Bubba

A battle has been raging in my community newspaper on the relative merits of being a northerner in this southern-Appalachian town.

Northern transplants, say some local folk, are loud, abrasive and constantly trying to change the status quo to match the way things were "back home."

The northern natives respond that they, at least, are forthright and forward thinking. They're willing to speak their mind right to someone's face.

To some of those northern writers, the ones who feel being here is forced exile, the local folks must come across as just a bunch of Bubbas. But I don't think they've ever actually met Bubba. He's a more well-rounded fellow than they might expect.

Bubba is a staple of southern music and books. He can be found in person in small towns throughout the South. Most southerners know Bubba -- or his cousin, or his neighbor.

In country music lore, Bubba is every man. In Mark Chesnutt's song, Bubba Shot the Jukebox, he has a quick temper and carries a gun.

Bubba shot the jukebox last night. He said it played a sad song and made him cry. He went to his truck and got a .45...

In Shenandoah's account, If Bubba Can Dance, Bubba is the lowest common denominator -- a basis for comparison.

He saw it on TV and ordered that video. He learned every step at home and never told a soul. When I saw him out there the very first time, I knew. If Bubba can dance, I can, too.

But let's not limit him to those roles. Bubba is Forrest Gump's best friend. He must be an athlete, too, because he has played in the NFL, NBA, the MLB and the PGA. Carson McCullers wrote about him. So did Pat Conroy. Bubba even has his own entry in Wikipedia. Some claim he lived in the White House during most of the 1990s, although it's hard to imagine Bubba as presidential material, or as an Oxford scholar like Bill Clinton.

But according to southern sociologist, John Shelton Reed, the idea of Bubba as an intellectual isn't that far fetched. In his 1996 book, 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the South, Reed says that Bubba is an equal-opportunity name.

"Bubbas actually come from all classes and all levels of sophistication," he said. "We know one who teaches classics. No lie."

But, he says, that's just a man named Bubba. The term, as it's used these days, isn't usually meant kindly.

"Bubba as a label, rather than a common name, became a near synonym for 'good old boy' during the 1992 (presidential) campaign," Reed says. "... Unlike 'good old boy,' however, Bubba was never used admiringly."

Somehow I think this is the Bubba most naysayers have in mind when they use that term. Personally, I wouldn't mind being thought of as a Bubba -- or maybe as his little sister.