photos

When reporters are in the field with their smartphones and they have a story to tell where both photo and location are vital, a stream of Flickr photos imported into a Google Map will do the trick.

In light of Los Angeles’ recent Carmageddon, above is a geotagged Flickr map of the empty 405 highway.

For example, if you have a reporter covering a huge parade, a bike tour, travelling along the coastline, taking a wine tour across the country, or you want to collect reader photos from a highway closure — really, the use cases are endless — an easy way to get interactive, live content from the field is through a Flickr map. And, you can accomplish it all from email, with no extra apps or training required. Read more

When you’re an independent journalist, it can be difficult to raise funding for purchasing equipment, covering travel, and pursuing your stories. Crowdfunding is a popular method of fund raising, and services like Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and ChipIn can make the process easy. There’s now a new crowdfunding platform on the Internet — Emphas.is — and it’s specifically for photojournalists.

The project acceptance process on Emphas.is is very similar to other crowdfunding services. Photojournalists must draft a compelling proposal including a detailed budget, and a team of advisors reviews the proposal for acceptance onto the site. Contributions start at $10, and like Kickstarter, projects must be fully funded by the proposal’s deadline in order to receive funding.

Emphas.is has an interesting model that builds on the traditional notion of crowdfunding. If you fund up to 50% of any given project, you can acquire first publication rights. The site has already funded six projects, raising just over $75,000. Emphas.is has forged partnerships with Reporters without Borders and World Escapade Travel Insurance, and the British Journal of Photography (among others).

The site is still fairly new, and there are several interesting photojournalism projects available for funding. The specific niche that Emphas.is serves can help projects stand out from other crowdfunding platforms, especially with the possibility of acquiring first publication rights. Take a look at the projects over at Emphas.is and help fund the next great photojournalism project!

Listen up journalists! Do you need a crash course on the current digital landscape of the journalism world but don’t have the time for trial and error? Looking for industry best practices on how to use social media in your research or for your organization’s website? Mediabistro has you covered with their online Journalism and Technology Boot Camp course. Here’s the information:

WHEN: 8 weeks, May 24 – July 19
Online Chats: Tuesdays, 8-9 p.m. ET

WHERE: Online. Click here to register.

LEVEL: Intermediate/Advanced

In this class, we’ll explore the many interactive digital tools available to today’s journalist. Through weekly assignments, you’ll gain hands-on experience building maps, photo galleries, slideshows, and timelines, and learn how to use live-blogging and curation tools to take advantage of social media and real-time reporting.

In order to maximize the technology available, you have to know what tools are out there and when and how to use them. We’ll discuss innovative examples of journalism and technology to determine the best practices for developing your own tools and storytelling techniques. Students can opt to post stories and packages to their own blog or website, or contribute to a private class blog.

In this class, you will learn:

• How and when to use interactive online tools to enhance your reporting
• How to present and curate information using maps, video, photo galleries, slideshows, and timelines
• What role social media should play in your research, reporting, and promotion
• How to use a Content Management System and the basics of site management
• What you need to know about Flash as a journalist

By the end of this class, you will have:
A portfolio of interactive components to support your reporting including a map, video clip, photo gallery or slideshow, timeline, live-blog transcript, and curated social news package. You’ll also gain familiarity working with a Content Management System.

Click here to register today! As an added bonus for our faithful 10,000 Words reader, use the promotional code WORDS50 to get a $50 discount!

The Online News Association, an organization dedicated to journalism innovation online, is currently accepting applications for their 2011 MJ Bear Fellowship Program for early-career digital journalists. The fellowship is named in honor of ONA founding board member Mary Jane “MJ” Bear, whose career included roles at Microsoft’s MSN portals, MSN International, NPR, and American University.

According to ONA, the MJ Bear Fellowships will help identify and celebrate young digital journalists working independently or for a company or organization who have demonstrated that they deserve support for their efforts and/or vision, either through professional experimentation, research, or other projects. This is the inaugural year for the fellowships, and the search committee will select three journalists (two in the US or Canada or one internationally). Selected fellows will receive a personal ONA mentor for six months, a full year’s membership with ONA, and registration, travel, accomodations and recognition at the 2011 Online News Association Conference & Awards Banquet (ONA11) in Boston, Sept. 22-24.

Eligible journalists must be age 23-30 (as of Sept. 22, 2011), fluent in English, and must not be full-time students. The deadline to apply for the MJ Bear Fellowship is Monday, May 30, 2011, 11:59 p.m. ET. For more information about the MJ Bear Fellowships, please visit the Fellowship’s website.

Fellows will be announced in July 2011.

Two years ago, Washington Post reporter Theresa Vargas and photographer Michael S. Williamson hit the road. In a summer-long series of “Half a Tank: Along Recession Road” blog posts, the two drove more than 20,000 miles and visited 30 states to see for themselves how Americans were faring in the recession.

Now, Williamson is doing it again — but as a one-man band. And this time, he’s armed with an iPhone and Intersect.

Williamson generously agreed to chat with me in the wee hours before we covered the Three Mile Island vigil in Middletown, Pa. Here are just a few of his thoughts — and audio snippets — from our 45-minute conversation.

The iPhone

“I’m filing rather live,” Williamson said. “‘Half a Tank’ two years ago — the earliest it ever ran was the next day. But usually it was two days later. … And the hours — it was the most brutal stretch of road travel I have ever done. We worked until midnight every night, and then we filed until six in the morning.

“It was very rewarding,” Williamson said. “But it killed us. And so when I proposed going back, I said, ‘I can’t do it like that.’”

Instead, Williamson proposed to cover the entire trip — which would be accomplished throughout the year rather than in one long stretch — with his iPhone.

How the project originated:

Using the iPhone has completely changed the way Williamson shoots and approaches this project. After he said the iPhone photos’ quality is good enough to run five columns in print, I asked if he was concerned that there’s almost an indiscernible difference in quality between a traditional DSLR camera and a camera phone.

Read more