1. ProPublica’s news applications style guide

Similar to The Associated Press’s general style guide, the news apps style guide from ProPublica outlines best practices around everything from bylines to hovers to meta tags.

The best part? It’s on Github, meaning you can fork it and push your revisions back to master. continued…

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1. Display section header as you scroll

This is something I haven’t seen in this style before. For the more extensive, long form articles on Engadget that are broken up by section headers, the title of the header remains at the top of the window as you scroll through. This visual indicator helps those of us with short attention spans to keep track of where we are in a story and remember the the theme for that section. It also helps us feel like we’re being productive — recognition that we’re making progress as we read.

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In terms of incorporating into an everyday work tool, I’m not referring to using it as a device for reading content, sending emails, or communicating through social media channels. I’m talking about using it in the field – whether that’s shooting video, taking photos, writing pieces on the go or using the technology for interviews. This last point is something that I’ve never used the iPad for because I often use a voice recorder or take hand notes.

So I did some digging, and asked for some suggestions, and these are five apps (listed in alphabetical order) that I think are great for handling interviews.

1. Dragon Dictation

 I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the accuracy and speed of Dragon Dictation, which transcribes voice recordings into text. According to a description of the app, “it’s up to five times faster than typing on the keyboard,” and I can note that it is pretty accurate in picking up my voice and translating that to copy. This information can then be sent via text message, email, social media platforms, and much more. The only downside of this app is that you need a Wi-Fi connection in order to do any transcribing. On the positive side, this app is free to download.

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The larger aim is that a thorough understanding of the Twitter community – placed at least in the back of one’s head – could help one from being heavily influenced by that scary hive-mind (if it’s true), and regardless, put into perspective the general sentiments that may soak in when one repeatedly scans TweetDeck.

Understanding the community in any medium you regularly use, not just Twitter, is a good practice. There is always a filter bubble wherever we engage online—we tend to regularly admit that, and some of us take steps to pop it by whom we follow and what we search for. The recent findings I’ve compiled about Twitter, however, seem of a particular importance, for they shed some light on what may be a wider filter bubble (“filter fish tank”?) of what is increasingly many journalists’ anchor.

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The page on which they are chronicled, after all, is a timeline of sorts, tracking whatever tweets you decide to attach a star. It’s essentially curation, even if often unused. It’s another platform to reach folks — particularly the most curious — and convey information, hopefully all while keeping an experience fluid.

I don’t know anyone who regularly checks a Twitter user’s favorites, of course. But favorites are there, and you have to expect it happens. At bare minimum, it’s fun to go poking around on your follower’s favorites and see how they’re using them.

So that’s what I did: poked around, but on the favorites pages of some journalism organizations I follow. The result? Usually some laughs (which isn’t necessarily bad).

Below are some examples of what I saw, some of which are kind of funny. The conclusion? Many a time, at least to the average user who stumbles upon them, a journalism organization’s usage of the “favorite” is rare and/or obscure.

The New York Times (@nytimes)

Kudos for favorite-ing that last one?

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I’m guessing some organizations aren’t putting as much stock in it due to resources and actually having people in house who can ensure products work on multiple platforms. But perhaps some organizations just don’t understand the growth in users adopting tablets and smartphones to get the news.

A study released earlier this week by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, which surveyed 9,513 U.S. adults, shows a clear picture of the growth of mobile usage.

Here are five stats that I believe news organizations will find intriguing:

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Why #mobile for #newschallenge? There are 6B mobile devices worldwide & they’re much more than just phones kng.ht/QyoJTK

— Knight Foundation (@knightfdn) August 15, 2012

Shortly after recently announcing the theme of  this year’s third News Challenge installment  – “mobile” — the Knight Foundation tweeted an impressive stat backing up reasoning for its choice: there are 6 billion mobile devices worldwide.

Billion. With a “B.”

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(Note: I didn’t say GIFs about journalism, like these news cats. Hopefully you’ve already seen those.)

The success of GIF-infused content in actual news content has some media circles buzzing around a longtime internet graphic capability: “Is this an overlooked tool, or just a fad?, “Are we Buzzfeedifying maintsream news orgs, or is that a silly question now?”, and “should journalists embrace them, or are they somehow detrimental to the craft?”

They aren’t all simple questions, and I don’t have answers. (I actually posed questions here, too.) But I can comfortably say there are indeed reasons the animated GIF can work well to tell a story online.

Likewise, there are reasons it may not.

Putting other debates aside, here are five simpler questions for journalists to consider on a case-by-case basis before using an animated GIF to help digitally tell your story. continued…

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With so many eyes looking for every kind of athletic news tidbit (or the opposite, avoiding spoilers), now’s a natural time for trying a new approach and seeing what works.

(Note: Lauren Rabaino also has a nice round-up of neat news projects.)

Here are a few Olympics items that caught my eye, along with some obvious pros, and then, additionally, questions to consider. continued…

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News tweeting’s permanent battlefield fixtures – tweet volume, frequency and serendipity – can always provide challenge. The combo deals a particular blow, however, when your latest tweet contains your big, hot breaking story.

What’s the best way to get followers to notice and click your link when big news hits? Should you break out the “BREAKING”? Should you stick with just “Breaking”? Or should you drop the chyron-bred word and bank on content sparking the spread?

Here are five distinct ways newsrooms on Twitter highlight breaking news, along with some questions to consider before adopting (or adapting) a new strategy for your own. continued…

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1. The Guardian: Was an Olympic record set today?

This painfully simple — but absolutely brilliant — app from The Guardian tells you whether an Olympic record was set today. You get a big “YES” or “NO” and you can scroll through past days to see whether one was set and the results for it. Simple. But useful. And a lot of fun. I also love the typography and the fact that it’s a standalone app with its own, easy-to-remember URL: wasanolympicrecordsettoday.com continued…

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Even though important work still takes place and is worth reporting as it happens in the summer months, it’s a good idea to have some story ideas in your back pocket to get you through the news drought. Think of it as insurance against being the reporter handed the next weather story. The editor will hesitate if you can say, “Oh, well actually I was working on (or planning to work on) that story about X-awesome-idea…”

So as you craft your summer story budget, here are five places to watch for tips and good story examples that may inspire your own pieces:
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So now you know where to build, but what do you include? This “what” is often the difference between creating an online portfolio and wanting to create one, but not having the initiative to figure out what it should be. Taking time to form a rough sketch of what you hope to accomplish and how you want to display it helps immensely in deciding which of those portfolio platforms works best for you and how much work you want to do to build and maintain it over time.

What does belong on your online portfolio? Joe Grimm of Ask The Recruiter posed this question to Marc Samson, co-founder of Pressfolios, recently in an online chat. From their discussion and my own experience, here are five things your online portfolio should include:
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When a potential employer Googles your name, you want your website — complete with all your best articles, social media profiles, videos and other work — to be the first thing that shows up.

An online portfolio is the new first impression and you want yours to be a strong one.

This doesn’t mean you have to b a web designer or someone who can code in their sleep. Luckily, more and more sites are popping up that make collecting your clips in one place and creating an online portfolio as easy as 1-2-3.

Here are five sites to visit if you are in the market to create your own online portfolio. They all offer the ability to create a customizable URL, are free (unless you choose the paid version), and don’t require you to know any code. The most work you’ll have to do is click the mouse or trackpad. continued…

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Or, as the company said in its official announcement, Interest Lists “turn Facebook into your own personalized newspaper, with special sections—or feeds—for topics that matter to you.”

One group of people using the service immediately is journalists. Vadim Lavrusik, Facebook’s journalist program manager, has even curated a list of “How Writers Are Using Interest Lists.” To search for other lists, visit the Add Interests page.

While it’s early days yet for Interest Lists, here are five possible ways journalists can use the new service. continued…

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