Final class project URL from students in Online Journalism 352

All of the multimedia projects created by the students of Online Journalism 352/101 are on this page:  http://www.jclass.umd.edu/652352/2013spring/0101/352mm/index.html

I hope you all enjoyed the class and my best to you in the real world.  I hope some of what we talked about helps you in your career. 

Good luck,

Rich Murphy

Uses of Social Media

I think it's interesting how the use of social media is expanding each day. At first Twitter was a place to voice your opinions. Then it turned into a way to get people to read articles. The University of Maryland police department used Twitter in a useful, informative way for students yesterday. A UMD student was found dead in her dorm room and UMPD tweeted a statement. "A female student female was found deceased earlier this afternoon in Kent Hall. No foul play or apparent suicide, more information forthcoming." Since the alerts system at the university seems to be very flawed, the UMPD twitter account is a great alternative for getting information out. With almost 3,000 followers, once the statement is posted online it can travel by word of mouth. People want information fast and it is hard to keep up at times. Instead of having to worry about false information being released, anyone can go to the the UMPD twitter account and see for themselves. It seems social media is growing each and every day. It's very hard to control or guess what is going to catch on and what isn't.

Howard Kurtz and Jason Collins

Amid all of the reactions to NBA player Jason Collins coming out as gay this week, one of the most noteworthy responses came from Howard Kurtz, the media columnist for The Daily Beast and the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources." In a column, Kurtz complained about Collins' announcement, saying that the basketball player should have also addressed the fact that had dated a woman for eight years.

"One of the reasons that Jason Collins’ coming out packed such an emotional punch is that he appeared to be telling all," Kurtz wrote.  Except that he downplayed one detail. He was engaged. To be married. To a woman."

On the surface, the column seemed fine, except for the fact that Collins specifically mentioned in his story that he was engaged to a woman, making Kurtz's column have virtually no standing. The Daily Beast was so mortified by the mistake that it retracted the column and promptly fired him.

So my question is: How do you think such an error was made? Did Kurtz even read the article?

And should Kurtz have been fired? It's tough for me to say. I think on its own, the mistake is careless and ridiculous, though I don't know if it's a fire-able offense. However,  look at Kurtz's many mistakes over the past year or so. In January 2011, he published an interview that he said was from Rep. Darrell Issa, when it fact it was an interview with the representative's spokesman. And in October 2011, he said that Rep. Nancy Pelosi made a critical comment towards President Obama that she never actually said. Considering that, I think his firing is justifiable. What do you think?

Compilation of Reactions to Collins' Coming Out

Yesterday was a landmark day in the world of sports, as Jason Collins became the first active professional male athlete to openly admit that he was gay, an announcement the world anticipated, but didn't know from whom or when it would come.  As expected, an issue as polarizing as homosexuality drew quite a reaction from athletes and celebrities alike.  Mother Jones did an awesome job pulling a huge number of these celebrity reactions together, and put them into one document, something I was hoping each news organization would do, because after the announcement, it's the reactions that make the news.  http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2013/04/awesome-tweets-jason-collins-nba-gay-athlete .

Vine shows a halftime speed-portrait

Well, it looks like Vine is starting to catch on, folks.  I suppose this is a more practical use for it.  Last night, during an NBA playoff game between the Nets and the Bulls, a speed painter put together a halftime masterpiece of Brooklyn's all-star guard, Deron Williams.  It is impressive, to say the least, that someone could put something like this together in the 15-ish minutes that he had to do so.  What's more pertinent to the class however is the fact that Vine was used.  Nobody wants to watch a 15-minute video of a guy running around and painting.  Vine took this spectacle and seriously condensed it, making it more appealing to the online audience.  Take a look: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/04/amazing-artist-speed-paints-deron-williams-portrait-at-halftime/.  I have a feeling we're gonna see a lot more of Vine in the future of journalism.
- Adam Gutekunst

Media Reaction to the First Active Gay Athlete in Pro Sports

For those who haven't heard, former Wizards center and current free agent Jason Collins came out as gay today, sparking an incredible amount of media discussion on the issue. ESPN has been covering this all day, especially on the radio, and there's an overwhelming amount of support for Collins from just about anyone.

I personally respect Collins' decision, but I'm a little torn on how I feel about the reaction from the media. The word "support" is being used a lot, and it almost seems to be implying that Collins should be getting sympathy for coming out. This was breaking news, and it doesn't seem as though media personnel were diligent enough in figuring out how they wanted to word their analysis.

Another potential issue is the fact that Collins isn't currently on an NBA roster, and if he doesn't get signed this offseason, there may be some speculation that has something to do with this announcement. Collins has actually been a pretty bad player for most of his career, so if he does get signed, people may assume it's solely because he came out.

FTW!

A little over a week ago, USA TODAY Sports created a new site called For the Win (FTW) that is aimed at covering the quirkier side of sports; the smaller stories that have a popular culture twist.  The site features shorter, more blog-gish post.  For example, there is a story about Michael Jordan's weekend wedding, a Chewbacca baseball jersey and a 500-yard, two-minute long golf drive.  Check it out: http://ftw.usatoday.com/ .

- Adam Gutekunst

A Mockery of Mock Drafts

If you're a football fan, you understand how tantalizing the mock draft can be.  The ultimate example of false hope, the mock draft has fans' stomachs in a knot as they anticipate the future of their squad.  The problem with mock drafts, is that there's hundreds of them.  Usually, I don't pay much attention to Bleacher Report, but recently they put together a cool summary of the NFL draft.  They juxtaposed the actual picks made in the draft's first round with the mock picks of some of the league's respected analysts.  Enjoy:  http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1483161-2013-nfl-draft-comparing-mock-drafts-from-around-the-web/page/2

- Adam Gutekunst

Churnalism. Come again?

Much attention has been given to the idea of computer-generated stories and whether or not these stories will supplant stories written by journalists. Technological advancements are now challenging the editing profession. The Sunlight Foundation recently unveiled a tool that detects open-source plagiarism, which scans text and compares it with press releases and Wikipedia entries. It's called Churnalism. 

Sites like turnitin.com have been used in the academic arena for some time, but Churnalism might be the first site designed primarily for journalists. If the site locates similar language, a user will receive notification of a detected "churn" that will allow him or her to be able to examine both sources in a juxtaposition. 

While I think that the tool can be extremely useful, I find myself hesitant to embrace the site.

"Discover the journalism you can trust and what you should question" - the site's tagline - concerns me. I might be an old-school reporter, but I think that if newsrooms make a major transition to use these sorts of sites, then the work of a journalist will slowly become obsolete.

Two years at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism have taught me that at the very heart of a journalists' role is to question everything. If we suddenly put all of our faith into a site so that it can tell us what to question, then what are we really doing?

Then again, I bet someone like me was questioning Spell Check when it first arrived on the scene, wondering if it would make journalists lazy by placing complete trust in a proofreading application.

The Power of Social Media

Earlier today, the Associated Press Twitter account was hacked. Typically Twitter hacking of large organizations are meant to be funny, but this one actually had some impact. The hacker tweeted that there had been two explosions at the White House. The biggest effect of this was actually felt in the stock market, as stocks briefly plummeted. The Dow Jones Industrial average fell more than 150 points before it quickly recovered.

If anyone doubted the impact of Twitter before, it would be hard to continue to make that argument now. This event shows just how seriously people take tweets from news organizations and other companies. Although there isn't typically a face attached to tweets that come from media companies, people still consider them as fact until they are told otherwise.

Another issue that stems from this is how easy it is for Twitter accounts to get hacked. Twitter clearly has drastic effects on people, and you'd think these accounts would be a little more secure. Twitter hackings seem to happen far too often.