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?