Instagram has become an unlikely, yet important, online tool for journalists, bloggers and citizens. Not only is it a great way to shoot stylized photos and on-the-go location shots, but it’s also a smart outlet to turn to when looking for eyewitness accounts of major news — people often turn to Instagram thanks to its quick sharing with social media networks like Twitter and Facebook.

However, these past few weeks have changed the service in a radical way, and now is the time to determine whether it’s the right tool for your photos and your personal use.

1. You Won’t See it On Twitter

This season has been a rocky one for Instagram and one of its biggest propagators, Twitter. Two weeks ago, the companies had effectively “broken up,” with Instagram no longer hosting images through Twitter’s API. Twitter snapped back, effectively distributing its own Instagram clone (with filters to boot) right in its native TwitPic system. Read more

It’s that time of year when even the most hard-hearted journalist puts off deadline for a few sugary conversation hearts of questionable grammar. If you’re lucky enough to have a sweetheart to send those “Be Mine” confections to, bundle them with our annual run down of journo-inspired Valentines cards brought to you by the 10,000 words team and our readers.

Feel free to distribute any of these, along with any from previous editions: here, here and here. And don’t forget to let us know if you have an awesome idea we didn’t include, @10000Words with the hashtag #journolove or in the comments below. Maybe we’ll use it next year!

There’s more behind the jump!
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Instagram, the wildly popular photo sharing service (which got a lengthy write-up in Saturday’s New York Times) holds a lot of potential for news organizations. This is especially true, considering the service’s rapidly growing user base and the promise of bringing Instagram to the iPhone (and iPod touch/iPad)-only app to other platforms, like Android. In that spirit, here are four ways news organizations can use Instagram.
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