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Get Smart

Trace Sharp — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:05:31 +0000

Here you go:

Journalism educators, professionals and students can develop and hone their skills in audio, photo and video storytelling at a Multimedia Boot Camp taught by the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, Aug. 9-14, in Nashville, Tenn.

Tuition is $850, payable in advance. Low-cost housing at Extended Stay/Vanderbilt is available for an additional $71.40 per night. Registrations will be accepted until July 19, but will be cut off as soon as classroom capacity is reached. Applications and additional information are available at www.freedomforumdiversity.org. Questions may be directed to lead instructor Val Hoeppner at vhoeppner@freedomforum.org or 615/426-7160.

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Twitter, A Shooting And Instant Updates

Trace Sharp — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:23:32 +0000

Nashville is Talking has the story about Nashvillest c0-founder Christy Frink, who found herself in the middle of a shooting yesterday and tweeted what she observed.

About 2 hours ago on Twitter, @christyfrink found herself in the middle of breaking news as shots were fired into Nashville traffic at White Bridge Rd.

We quickly found out the shots were fired by a carry permit holder shooting at a robbery suspect as the suspect fled the scene into traffic. Thankfully no one was hurt by this guy’s actions. You can see our story tonight at 6 and 10.

Frink is an author of the blog Nashvillest. You can follow her on twitter @christyfrink. Below are her tweets

The key for journalists is this is going to continue to happen. Are we paying attention?

Grantham did. (I followed it as well and keep eagerly looking for her next update.)

UPDATED: Here’s the story on WKRN from Nashville.Similar Posts:

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The Scorched Earth Campaign

Trace Sharp — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:03:50 +0000

S-Town Mike breaks the Associated Press’ recent antics down.

Segments of the mainstream media are obviously bent on turning the demise of their industry in to a witch-hunt, conducting a scorched earth campaign that even hurts their own. Rather than being reactionary, the AP needs to pause and develop constructive strategies for adapting to the rapidly changing conditions around them.

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From Facebook to Twitter: Know Your Rights

Trace Sharp — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:33:11 +0000

Belmont University in Nashville is spotlighted by WKRN in this clip about a recent forum on knowing your rights on line and the realities of being online. Produced by Tiani Jones, the clip answers several questions and also spotlight what some colleges are teaching their students about their online presence.

H/T Paul ChenowethSimilar Posts:

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News Geeks

Trace Sharp — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:51:53 +0000

What a great idea!

Attention all news gatherers, social media purists and lovers of new media: it’s time we have a meet up using the name “Geeks” in it.

Check out Tom Chereder’s blog for the details.Similar Posts:

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First Impressions From The ONA Forum

Trace Sharp — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 12:53:42 +0000

The Online News Association’s conference on Friday at the Freedom Forum in Nashville was not only a wonderful resource regarding the future of where journalism is headed, but in many ways it was a blogger meetup.

Remember those words.

I can recall going to other journalism conferences where online endeavors were only discussed with a bit of disdain. There is nothing like seeing publishers and owners throw up a little bit in their mouths while discussing where their businesses are heading. It’s also disconcerting to see them talking about how the Internet is a trend and not thinking about that the industry has faced challenges before and survived them.

I’m going to write a few posts on the things that struck me, but the main thing that was so invigorating about the conference was seeing leaders in online journalism say the things that I’ve been thinking for a long time.

One item I will mention in this editorial, for lack of a better word, is that something that Patrick Beeson and Katie Allison Granju said in a track called “The Evolving Newsroom” brought up. I’m inclined to agree with their line of thinking regarding something Beeson said regarding protecting the “legacy” of the print product. He basically was saying that, I think, that we as an industry are so busy justifying the print product that we are not focusing on the future of news delivery.

We did on Friday which was like drinking cold water in the desert after a long, desperate journey. It was refreshing for folks like myself who are unheard evangelists in my little neck of the woods.

I live in a college town. I keep track of the people in my community on Facebook and MySpace that are affiliated with the college. The numbers are vastly larger that the subscriptions to the local papers. I would say, unscientifically of course, that the majority of subscribers to our local paper are about one/third of our newspaper subscriptions. The majority, and this is just off the top of my head. of our deadwood subscribers are older or elderly.

Our audience will eventually die out, I’m afraid. People don’t want to say it, but they will in hushed tones when they think no one is listening. However, those 13,000 users of MySpace and Facebook also want news. They are just finding it in different places that their grandparents did.

And that’s our challenge. That, my friends, is what this conference was about on many levels.

The challenges of remaining relevant and being leaders in our industry where an invisible tsunami is happening. We just need to clean up the debris and rebuild. It really is as simple as that.

The conference was a good one on a personal level because I’ve often thought about how we can protect the legacy of our product while embracing new formats of news delivery. It can be done.

The newspaper I work at was started in 1884. I do believe that smaller papers are going to weather the recent storm much better than larger affiliates.

Why?

Because we are the only game in town when it comes to local news and that’s our edge. We’ve survived wars, depressions, recessions and much more. The legacy has remained. The obstacle those people who disdain online news creates is not allowing the evolution of the news industry to take an organic route of revision.

The one thing that certain journalists are doing right now is realizing that they must brand themselves, which I will write about later, and embrace new tools available to them.

And also remember I mentioned blogger meet-up. I met people on Friday that I’ve “known” for years. I just physically met them the first time on Friday, including Ken Marrero, Michael Silence, Jack Lail and Granju. We already knew each other though through that crazy medium that many in the journalism world don’t want to talk about.

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Partnering Up

Trace Sharp — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:21:36 +0000

Knoxify makes the announcement of three city blogs who are joining together in Tennessee.

We have partnered with Chattarati, a Chattanooga blog with a touch of narcissism, and the Nashvillest, a Music City blog, to bring you the latest news and opinions from Middle and Southeast Tennessee.

I have to agree with Knoxville’s Michael Silence on this one.

To the best of my knowlege, this is the first time we’ve seen “city blogs” team up.

Personally, I think it’s very, very smart.Similar Posts:

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One More Day To Register For ONA Conference

Trace Sharp — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:58:42 +0000

Several bigwigs in online news journalism will be holding a seminar in Nashville on Friday at Vanderbilt.

Jack Lail, Christian Grantham, Michael Silence, Katie Allison Granju, Rex Hammock, Tammi Marcoullier, John Carney, Mike Sechrist, Patrick Beeson and others will be talking about the future of journalism.

The keynote speaker will be Janet Coats, who is the executive editor for Media General’s Tampa Tribune.

You have one more day to register.

Hope to see you there!Similar Posts:

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Community Blogs May be the Newspapers of the Future

Trace Sharp — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:44:13 +0000

By Kathy Tyson

Nashville. The appeal of bright lights, big city brought my family here more than five years ago, but instead of moving into the metro area we opted for a neighboring town. Homes were more affordable and we could get an acre or two to stretch our legs, get a dog, and plant a garden.

What I didn’t expect was the absence of a dedicated news source for my community of 25,000. Sure there was one daily paper for the entire county, but it focused on the bigger town up the road. Sure there was an army of media elite next door in the big city … newspapers, radio, and TV, but they also focused on Nashville.

Smyrna and LaVergne were the red-headed stepchildren of news coverage – we were the bump in the road between Nashville and Murfreesboro. With a gaping information vacuum for Northeast Rutherford County, a friend of mine started a web log called This is Smyrna (http://thisissmyrnatn.blogspot.com/). Her site traffic was strong and she pulled in a lot of comments and news suggestions from people living in the community. Through word-of-mouth – and the internet – This is Smyrna was growing into a great source for local information.

Following her lead, I started This is LaVergne (www.thisislavergne.com) on February 2, 2006 for my new hometown. I expected the city to be ecstatic about our site because I envisioned a partnership between us – a forum for citizen comments and a way for the city to promote their events. However, what should have been an asset to the town was viewed by some in the local government as a threat. There would be no welcoming rainbows and unicorns from our local government; instead, there would be a fight.

When readers would ask questions or comment about concerns, the city viewed it as an attack on their ability to govern. About a year after the site opened – and after we’d received several comments belittling the site – one writer suggested that police salaries should be increased because corruption often comes hand in hand with low police pay.
http://thisislavergne.wordpress.com/2007/04/23/no-jail-in-la-vergne-are-we-less-safe/ This caused quite a stir from one fuming reader, but others came to our defense,

If you want real action, stop griping on this site and write them [city officials] directly. That, they pay attention to…. Otherwise, out of sight, out of mind.

Good to know that the leaders of the La Vergne are only interested in the concerns that come through proper channels and can’t be bothered with a website created by concerned residents for fear of encountering occasional “controversy” of “bitchiness”.

After some very angry comments made against the site, our writers, and readers, we discovered that the attacks were coming from one person using several aliases (and whose IP address was listed as the city’s). The goal was to discredit our site, but the plan backfired because it was the controversy that greatly boosted our readership. After months more of trolling, an actual threat was made against me, so I went to one of our elected officials who with the mayor finally put a stop to it.

To this day, we don’t have what can be described as a good relationship with the city officially. Unofficially, I’ve been contacted by numerous city workers who’ve expressed gratitude and relief that there is a forum for the community. We give credit was credit is due when a city worker has gone above and beyond the call of duty. We attend city events and take photos. We write restaurant reviews and tell about new businesses that have opened.

The impact on the community is measurable. One reader suggested two years ago that the city buy a foreclosure in a huge subdivision that’s earned a bad reputation. He brought to public attention the idea to convert a house into a police substation and city offices – bring the city to the people for bill payments and police protection. While no house was purchased, the city did move a trailer into a park and now the police have a 24-hour presence in the troubled subdivision.

Although we can’t give ourselves credit because it may have been something in the works before it was publicly stated on our site, we can say we were quite vocal in our support of the idea and applauded the chief of police for his dogged pursuit of making it happen.

Meanwhile, we’ve grown to 10 volunteer writers and each has a distinct personality with views that appeal to a broad range of readers. We link to all the public schools that local students attend as well as other local web sites. In addition, I give periodic updates on the local housing market, including an annual neighborhood breakdown of real estate activity. Although they are linked, the community site and my business blog are in tandem because This is LaVergne was not developed to promote my availability as a real estate agent, but to provide a source of news and information for the residents of our town.

The print media might be disappearing from big towns, but in some small towns across America we can say, “Been there, done that.” We are used to it and have already found a way to communicate. Whether government or local officials like us or not, we are here to stay. Current major media should pay attention – community blogging may be the next wave news reporting.

Kathy Tyson is a Realtor specializing in residential real estate in Middle Tennessee. She was previously a communications manager for the National Association of State Treasurers, helped to establish the College Savings Plans Network whose membership gained tax exemption from Congress for state 529 college savings plans, and is an author of three books that can be found if you search her name at Lulu.com. When not selling real estate, Kathy uses her B.S. in Journalism and Broadcasting from Murray State University writing for Shak & Jill (www.shakandjill.com) and Banks.com (www.banks.com/blogs/realestate).

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Recession Vs. Depression In A Journalist’s World

Trace Sharp — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:08:45 +0000

Katherine Coble, who is a powerhouse blogger from Nashville, writes today of the changing landscape of the world of journalism and publishing.

She’s one of the sharpest minds around when it comes to breaking it down. She writes this morning of the local alternative in her community dropping the books section from their pages. She also talks about reinvention of reporters (and in the world of transparency, mentions yours truly.)

Here’s what she says:

Oh yeah. I need to add something. I’ve got great respect for the reporters and editors who saw their jobs in jeopardy years ago and decided to embrace the internet instead of dismissing it snidely (a la The Scene.) I’m talking about people like Newscoma, Jack Lail, Brittney Gilbert, James Lileks and a bunch of other people I’m forgetting.

They all saw their world ending and didn’t know what to do about it. But they’ve all made the best of a bad situation by making the Internet their own. That’s far cooler than many newsprint folks did.

Lovely words and I want to publicly thank her. But that’s not the point of her post. She tackles the differences between the words depression and recession in respect to the world of journalism.

Check out her commentary.Similar Posts:

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