I’ll admit I’ve never given Web comments serious thought. As a news consumer, I tend to gloss over them by accident, mostly, while trying to find the end of whatever story I’m reading. And as a writer, my inclination is to internalize the positive ones, ignore the mean-spirited ones and openly assess the validity of the constructive criticisms, discerning how the person’s view might improve my reporting and/or writing skills.

But I was struck by the impact of comments Thursday morning when I was directed toward a piece by a Waco Tribune-Herald reporter. For my non-Texan friends, Waco is the biggest city near (south of) West, where the horrific fertilizer plant explosion on April 17 left 15 dead, many of whom were volunteer firefighters.

The Tribune-Herald story describes the intimate details of the “blunt force trauma” incurred by each of the victims, including graphic, downright disturbing particulars of individual causes of death and other vivid information about the deceased.

The comments were ruthless, and perhaps rightfully so. West and the surrounding areas (including Waco) are relatively small and very close-knit, especially considering their recent circumstances. At last check, there were around 450 comments (a lot for a local daily) lambasting the paper — and the writer — for disclosing such gruesome information about people esteemed in their community, and beyond, as heroes. By my count, there was not a single comment in favor of the story, its contents or the journalist who produced it.

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If you see something, share something. That’s the motto and logic behind a new video sharing app called ifussss. Say it with me now: EYE- FUSS. 

While Twitter and Facebook already have us all gathering images and looping videos, ifuss is targeted to news organizations. Co-founder Edward Brooks explains:

Right now, it’s a ton of effort. Users are looking for good content, they’re interested in things happening in their area. If you know a story’s already broke, you can go to Facebook or YouTube, but even if you find the content, you don’t know if you can use it, if it’s been used before — the whole process in the middle is difficult. 

The concept is the same as, say, Instagram. You see traffic on a bridge, for example. You shoot and upload it to the ifussss network. It’s automatically geo, time, and hash tagged. News editors can search and monitor the ifussss newsroom platform and, this is where it gets interesting, buy the content. 

They still haven’t worked out the kinks on pricing, but it’s going to be a “very low cost” price, says Brooks. ifussss collects that revenue and pays a percentage to the citizen journalists who took the video in the first place. 

Brooks mentions that a contact of his in a local New York City newsroom says they had five or six people combing through user-generated video after Hurricane Sandy. 

It would make that process much easier. We’re not asking you to change that behavior, but now the archive is there, it’s verified content, and ready to use. 

There’s been much discussion around Twitter’s Vine and Instagram video, but both of the behometh’s continue to tell us that they aren’t a media company. ifussss could fill in that gap. The big question is: will newsrooms pay for user generated video content? Brooks thinks they should. 

While journos don’t have to live in the Bay Area to pitch to San Francisco, all pitches must resonate with the readers who do. The mag definitely doesn’t scrimp on diversity; recent freelance stories covered everything from prison tech incubators to halal slaughterhouses.

Jon Steinberg, an ASME winner for his work at New York magazine, and now editor-in-chief at San Francisco, says the mag’s big-picture mission has remained the same over the years. “It’s big-city journalism on a number of levels. We have in-depth feature reporting on civic issues, social justice, politics and personalities in power positions. Then, we cover the service side: how to live the good life in a vibrant, exciting, constantly changing city. Then there’s our food, style and cultural coverage.”

For pitching etiquette and editors’ contact info, read How To Pitch: San Francisco.

– Sherry Yuan

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Live streaming video is nothing new, but I find myself watching more and more of them as more and more news organizations utilize them to cover events from all over the globe. I was caught between two thoughts. The first being that the more mobile our news gets, the more important live-streams become as we cover breaking news. The second was that some of the live-streams I was watching were sort of boring and ‘buggy.’

I’m sort of allergic to anything involving more than one wire so I contacted Steve Durham, who’s worked with video and streaming for as long as it’s been possible to hook up a camera to the internet. He shared some crucial insights to remember if you want to start streaming the news, whether it’s a coup from across the globe or your town’s Labor Day parade. 

1) Moderation is Key

As for my complaint that some of the live-streams I perused were boring, Durham notes that it’s sort of the nature of the beast. The stream will only ever “be as interesting as the events themselves” he notes. A lot of the streams I was watching, like Vice’s coverage of protests in NYC after the Zimmerman verdict had live comment feeds next to the video, and they were full of spammers. Isn’t there a way to stop that? Not really, according to Durham: “someone should have been moderating those,” he says. It’s really as simple as that. If you’re streaming an event with comments running on your site, someone needs to be a dedicated moderator for the event. You either invest in that manpower, or don’t. 

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iOS 7 running on an iPhone 5

Somehow, Apple causes a frenzy every time the company introduces a new product, and its newest mobile operating system, iOS 7, is no exception to the rule.

Earlier this month, Apple announced the forthcoming iOS 7 at its developers conference in San Francisco. The new system has a pretty striking visual. I didn’t think Apple products could look cleaner or simpler, but enough about its aesthetic.

Here are some conclusions I think journalists can draw from iOS 7’s features and functionality:

Reporters are even better equipped to make their iPhones a “one stop shop” 

Gone are the days when writers had to lug around reporter’s notebooks, laptops and tape recorders. At a moment’s notice, you might have to get up and go with only your iPhone in your bag.

Some pretty fascinating experiments have been done on reporting solely with an iPhone in the past, and 10,000 Words’ Lauren Rabaino wrote a piece on the concept a couple years back. It doesn’t seem possible, but now iReporting (to use a CNN-coined phrase) will be a more streamlined process thanks to iOS 7. Read more