A new kind of news?

Today a new website called MinnPost launched. Their tagline is "a thoughtful approach to news", and the writers are mostly former Star Tribune and Pioneer Press reporters. They have implied that they want to be "deeper" than print newspapers have become, and more accurate than blogs. It will be interesting to see what the site becomes - right now there aren't a lot of stories posted.

I found one interesting section in the editor's note on the page: "MinnPost.com will publish Current Posts, which have the informality of blogs but are always based on original reporting by our journalists." I wonder why they don't just say that they are blog posts? That is what those sections look like to me. It seems like they are blogging, but are trying to shy away from the term by calling it something else.

A similar website started up a couple weeks ago by the former editor of the Citypages called The Daily Mole. However, it is much more like a blog and seems to have a more humorous/ weirder approach to news.

Does this mean something new for news journalists? Is it the beginning of the end for the old-fashioned print newspaper? I'd like to hear your opinion on these new sites if you get a chance to visit them!

Link to MPR story about MinnPost.

p.s.. the lower image is from one of my favorite movies - does anyone know what movie it is? :)

Blog Action Day

According to the Star Tribune, today is the first ever Blog Action Day, where over 15,000 bloggers are all blogging about the environment. Interesting idea. It goes back to that question though -- can blogging can be a useful form of activism, or would people do more good if they got away from the computer and volunteered in person? It says at the website http://blogactionday.org/ that they will be picking a new theme each year, and that major companies like Google and Wells Fargo are supporting it. I think you can also have your blog listed on their site if you participate.

If the environment is a theme you like, maybe you can join the movement by posting about it today.

Week Three Class Recap

Ok, this is coming a little late, but here is a list of some of the sites we discussed at the beginning of class this week:

Microblogging: Very short blog posts or "status updates". We looked at Twittervision which "geolocates" people with Twitter accounts.
Photoblogging: Photobloggers often use a site like Flickr to share their photos online, or to incorporate photos into a special type of blog. Here is a directory of photoblogs.
Moblogging is creating blog posts "on the go" using your mobile phone's text and photo messaging service.
Liveblogging is when bloggers cover sporting events, political conventions, conferences etc. in real time.
A Tumblelog is a "stream of consciousness blog" with no set theme, such as this one.
Vloggers or Videobloggers use a video service like YouTube to create video posts. A famous example was the online video diary of lonelygirl15, who turned out to be a paid actress.
Podcasts are syndicated audio files that you subscribe to and that can played back on computers and personal audio devices, like iPods.
RSS & AJAX are web standards used to publish feeds of frequently updated content like blog posts and podcasts, so they can be subscribed to.

The videos we watched in class were:
Andrew Keen on CNN
and
Blog the Vote on PBS/ NOW

Using the html editor in blogger

If you want to make a hyperlink in your post, highlight the word you want to make into the link. Then click on the icon on the toolbar that looks like a green ball with a figure eight near the top. Enter the URL for the website you want the word to point to.

If you want to add a picture to a post, click on the icon in the task bar that is a blue square with a tiny mountain scene.

If you know HTML, you can also do these tasks by using the Edit HTML tab at the top of the edit window.

Oh, and once you publish a post, you can always go back and edit it by clicking on the pencil icon.

Make sense? :)

Blogs - the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Hi class,

If you are having any trouble with your blog or RSS Reader, post a comment here or email me.

Also, you do not have to use your real name on your blog and you don't have to share it with the class. I do think we would all benefit from seeing each others' blogs, but if you don't feel comfortable with that, just tell me and I will only view your blog myself and not post it here.

In class we looked at select blogs from Technorati's list of the top 100 most popular blogs.

Here are some other ways to find blogs:
http://technorati.com/ (I like to search a keyword and then click on the "blogs" tab)
Minnesota blog directory
Blogs at the U of MN

OR.. just go to the website of your favorite newspaper - many columnists have blogs.