Google Search Tips on YouTube

Google posts some great instructional tools on its YouTube channel. I use this simple training video to help students better understand the different ways they can use Google search.

The first few tips are fairly basic, but later it shows how to use a timeline search for a research paper on green energy. It points out some great alternative techniques for expediting a general search. It's worth watching for a couple of minutes.

ConvoTrack Tool

I really like the new ConvoTrack tool, which allows users to track how a Web site is being mentioned in social network media such as Twitter, Reddit or Digg. It's really helpful to see how people are referring to a specific site and in what context. It's definitely worth bookmarking.

Beyond the Game Web Site: New Content

We just finished posting several new packages to the Beyond the Game Web site at Columbia College Chicago.

Packages include a stories on the closing of Driscoll Catholic High School; a feature on Chicago Slaughter player Chris Pisani, who overcame a hit-and-run accident to play pro football; a look at the economic impact on the American Le Mans Series auto racing circuit; a story and photo/audio slideshow on the Chicago Fire's crazy Section 8 fans and more.

The Advanced Sports Reporting students used Dreamweaver, raw HTML code, PhotoShop, SoundSlides, FinalCut Pro and Avid to produce the various packages.

The site also includes several broadcast packages on the Beyond the Game TV page.

You also can visit the Beyond the Game page on Facebook.

Journalists and Wikipedia

I've talked with students a lot about their use of Wikipedia. I've had some concerns with using the online encyclopedia as users can post any information they like to the entries. Media often cite Wikipedia as a source, yet have they fact-checked the information?

Sure enough, a college student in Ireland posted a fake quote to an entry about French composer Maurice Jarre as part of "an experiment." Sure enough, several UK media took the bait and published the fake quote as part of Jarre's obituary.

Steve Walling has built a great slideshow instructing journalists on how to use Wikipedia. I really like this piece of advice he offers: "WikiPedia should be the first place you look for information, not the last ... it should help you form questions for your story, not give you the answers."

Wikipedia for Journalists & Bloggers

View more presentations from StevenWalling.

The Masters New Media

When you think of The Masters, you think of Wood, Nicklaus and Palmer. Augusta National. Amen Corner. The rites of spring.

But over the years, The Masters has done a great job of weaving new media into the fabric of its event. It was among the first sports events of any kind to have a live scoreboard, launching one in 1996.

Since 2008, The Masters Web site is leverageing IBM's Many Eyes software to give you new ways to follow the event:

1) Data visualizations that allow you to track scores by hole, participants by country and follow eagles, birdies and bogeys, year-by-year, since 1946. The latter is a great fact-checking tool for any golf writer. The statistics are presented as charts and graphics to help readers understand the information.

2) Word trees and tag clouds, which have been popular on the Web the past year or so.

The site also has a blog, Twitter feed, Facebook fan page and a leaderboard widget that you can imbed on your blog.

Check them out at The Masters Web site.

Rocky Mountain News Obituary

The Rocky Mountain News closed its doors Friday, after nearly 150 years of publishing. Scripps was unable to sell the tabloid paper in Denver in a one-month deadline the corporation had set.

Online producers built this 20-minute video about the closing of the paper. It tells the story of what a newspaper means in a community, and to the people who produce it.

It asks a tough question: Can newspaper business models survive in the current economy? And why can't they at least function in some capacity, such as a smaller staff producing an online product? That's a model the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is considering, rather than closing its doors. Note: ABC News has an excellent online and video package on the current state of the newspaper industry.

The News' closing leaves the Post as Denver's only daily newspaper, with the Camera nearby in Boulder.

Juxtapose this story with an earlier blog post about how the San Francisco Examiner viewed Web publishing way back in 1981, when print still ruled the media industry. A lot has changed.


Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

A Touch of Class

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published this inspiring story from a recent high school basketball game. At a time when all we read about are stories on steroids, contract disputes and players gone bad, it's nice to read a piece like this.

It's a great story about sportsmanship and class. And it's another example of how sports can frame life in a way that everyone can relate to.

Look for these kinds of stories when you're reporting and covering your beats. Too often, they're missed.

Facebook Content: Who Owns What?

Update: Facebook has done an "about face" on its content policy since this was first posted. However, I'm leaving this entry posted because of the issue it addressed at the time.

CBS 2 Chicago interviewed some of our Columbia College Chicago Advanced Sports Reporting students on Monday night about the new Facebook content policy.

The policy change has some members nervous because they believe it would allow Facebook to use their content however it wants, even if the member deletes the material or cancels an account. Facebook has said otherwise, but I'm curious how it will actually use the content.

My concern is Facebook's perceived rights to sell content to third parties: My name, age, e-mail address, mailing address and other content that e-marketers would love to get their hands on.

As for what I post to Facebook, not much will change. Outside of my 8th-grade yearbook photo, there's not any incriminating information there. I joined a few humor groups and I'm a fan of a few TV shows and products. That's about as exciting as it gets.

As I've often warned students, friends and colleagues, don't post anything to a social networking site that you wouldn't want your boss, family member or parents to see. Common sense trumps all here.

It amazes me how many people post drunken pictures of themselves, disclose personal information and other material to these sites, and expect no consequences. Job placement firms and hiring managers say they comb these sites often, looking for information about potential job candidates.

Your posts are part of the portrait you paint of yourself. And the audience can be anyone -- a friend, potential employer, etc.

Just be careful what paint brush you use.

Taking Gooooooooaaaaaal! to Another Level

The Guardian newspaper has developed a great resource for Premier League soccer fans. And yes, there are a lot of soccer fans. And they're rabid.

The Guardian's Chalkboards tool is somewhat similar to ESPN’s GameCast, but takes interactivity several steps further.

The database-driven tool allows users to tailor what statistics they want from a specific team and organizes the data into an informational graphic. Users can track a specific player's shots on goal, successful goals, etc., then e-mail the graphics with other fans or imbed them in their blogs. This could be a great resource for settling bar bets.

I took the site for a spin, tracking passing by Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo in two 2008 matches against Newcastle United. Look at how much more active he was at home as compared to the road.

There are some problems with the site. It offers imbedded code to post your charts into a blog, but they sometimes don't work. That's why I had to link to the Ronaldo chart rather than imbed it into this blog.

Also, the database downloads are somewhat slow, but the reward is worth it once you've created the chart. You have to be a little patient with the tool as it processes requests. I expect this will improve in weeks to come.

Over the years, I have seen NBA and MLB scouts use similar software packages in charting shots, pitches, etc. for their reports. But this is the first time I’ve seen a publication offer an online, interactive tool that is this sophisticated.

It's worth checking out, even if you're not a soccer nut.

Footnote: The Poynter Institute recently wrote a great piece about this tool as well.

A-Rod Comes Clean ...

Because he really had no other choice, Alex Rodriguez admitted to ESPN's Peter Gammons that he used steroids. Too little, too late. A-Rod took a beating in the media over the weekend, including this headline in the New York Post.

Interesting, too, that he came to ESPN and not Sports Illustrated, which broke the story. A-Rod was well-coached for this interview, knowing exactly when to turn on the emotion. It will be interesting to see how he handles the New York and national media once Spring Training begins.