Another 11 Sites Journalists Should Know
Publishing stories, polling thousands of people and building networks once required vast resources and a large, skilled team. Now any journalist with some basic Web tools can quickly do all of those things, reaching a global audience with little more than a laptop.
The key is understanding the available tools. My previous post listed the first 11 sites in a three-part workshop (held recently as part of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s January Academy) about essential sites for journalists. All 33 sites are bookmarked on this Delicious.com bookmarks page.
The first group of sites focused on finding, managing and organizing info. This second group of sites, below, is all about blogging, publishing, storing and sharing information. Below each site’s description, I’ve noted a couple of related sites you might also find useful.
12. Posterous
A brilliantly simple tool for blogging by e-mail. Some journalists use it to streamline their work by sending a single e-mail and having Posterous post the material (text, pictures, video, audio, whatever) simultaneously to a blog and to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. Posterous also enables group blogging and crowdsourcing – some publications have used it to publish moderated e-mail (text and photo) contributions from readers.
ALSO TRY: soup.io, ping.fm
13. Tumblr
An elegant microblogging tool. Accessible to anyone who has never blogged or published before. Numerous available themes so you can present yourself in a professional way without knowing anything about HTML. Easy to use and well-designed.
ALSO TRY: blogger.com, wordpress.com
14. Google Docs
For many wired journalists, Google Docs has replaced Microsoft Word, because it enables you to easily access and edit your documents from anywhere. You can type and then instantly publish your documents as Web pages if you want to, for live coverage. You can also use Docs to organize data and info about sources into neat lists and spreadsheets. Read this post for more about how Docs can be useful for journalists.
ALSO TRY: docs.zoho.com, officelive.com, ommwriter.com, darkcopy.com
15. Google Forms
Create instant surveys and polls. Automate information collection. Create a simple link that you then e-mail to people or post to a Web page or to Twitter or Facebook to invite and tabulate responses automatically. To show you how this works (and how it can be used) here’s a sample 3-question survey you can take that was created in two minutes using Google Forms. [URL: docs.google.com/forms]
ALSO TRY: polldaddy.com, polleverywhere.com, doodle.com
16. ZeeMaps
Build maps to supplement stories or to add geographic info to blog posts. Supplements Google Maps.
ALSO TRY: umapper.com, communitywalk.com
17. drop.io
Create a collaborative workpace to share and publish materials. Read this post for more detail.
ALSO TRY: dropbox.com, skydrive.com, glidedigital.com
18. Google Moderator
Collect ideas and questions. Enable voting and moderation. [URL: google.com/moderator]
ALSO TRY: allourideas.org, Wridea.com, kindlingapp.com
19. SeeClickFix
Track local issues and community complaints. Embed local reports.
ALSO TRY: outside.in, fwix.com
20. bit.ly
Shorten URLs and monitor responses and references to your stories.
ALSO TRY: fur.ly, cl1p.net, snipurl.com
21. Ning
Create and participate in niche social networks about subjects or communities of interest. One group worth joining if you’re interested in keeping up with digital journalism is called Wired Journalists.
ALSO TRY: grou.ps, groups.google.com
22. FriendFeed
Monitor people and subjects you’re interested in, keep track of RSS feeds (blog posts, photos, videos, news, etc), and publish updates to your network. (Recently bought by Facebook).
ALSO TRY: digg.com, linkedin.com, analytics.google.com
Here’s a printable PDF of the handout for this workshop:
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Great post, thank you. I signed up to your rss feed!