Indy Media in Zimbabwe

Here's an article that I found pretty interesting: "Independent Media Still Struggling in Zimbabwe."The article discusses how Zimbabwe's new government had promised to process all media license applications, but had not issued any new licenses since the new government came into power eight months ago. Several people or organizations prepared to start publishing, but were not issued their licenses as they had expected.  Despite the fact that the government has not issued any new independent media licenses, the government has launched two more of its own newspapers.

I guess this reminded me to count my blessings - I am able to publish this blog. Anyone can start their own newspaper or Web site in the U.S., provided they have the capital and resources of course. It's truly unfortunate that there are places in the world that do not enjoy even a small amount of press freedom. After all, without the ability to inform the public about issues of importance, how can one expect injustices to change?

For more information on media in Zimbabwe, head over to this Web site. It has information about some of the country's state-run media outlets, a section offering assistance to journalists, and a history of media in Zimbabwe.

Lessons from Kate Sheppard

Today in Jeff Cohen's Independent Media class, Kate Sheppard -- an IC grad -- paid us a visit. She got her start as an intern with Grist in Seattle before eventually becoming their political reporter in Washington D.C. After being laid off, she was quickly hired by Mother Jones, a magazine known for its investigative reporting.

Here's some of the most important things I learned from her today:

• It's a good idea to specialize in something. Sheppard is an expert in environmental politics, so media outlets know that she can cover these types of stories very well. Therefore, it's a good idea to diversify your skills and breadth of knowledge beyond simply being able to write a good story.
• Sheppard said her biggest challenge in finding a career in indy media was that outlets don't have the money to pay for good reporting. She told us there's no lack of need for good writing and reporting, but many outlets simply don't have the funds to pay reporters as they should be.
• She also emphasized the importance of social networking tools, including Twitter. She said she received one job offer because of links to her writing she tweeted. Personally, I don't have a Twitter account yet, but her account of how much it helped her definitely made it sound advantageous to register for one.

Fake AP Stylebook

Here's something fun I stumbled onto today. It's called the Fake AP Stylebook and you can find it on Twitter. Basically, it's a bunch of tweets that poke fun at the Stylebook or newspapers. Here's a few of my favorite gems:

• You cannot libel the dead. You can, however, libel the undead. Vampires have professional lawyers and hypnotism, so be careful. 
• Your newsroom is alloted one usage of "Trial of the Century" every ten years. Please choose carefully.
• Always remember to close all parentheses. We're not paying to air condition the entire paragraph.

You can read a bit more about it in this Oct. 23 post on the Huffington Post. Check it out and enjoy!

How The Huffington Post Finds Headlines

What makes a great headline? Well, the Huffington Post has got a few ideas on how to choose the perfect ones. After all, a headline is a newspaper's or Web site's way of selling its product. A headline must be grabbing and informative at the same time in order to draw readers and keep them on your site.

Since September, Josh Young, the HuffPost's social media editor, has solicited better headlines from time to time through Twitter. While this way of developing new headlines isn't the best, it does make great use of the readership.

The HuffPost also applies A/B testing to some of its lead headlines. Using this method, one headline is shown to some readers, while another headline is shown to another group of people. After only a few minutes -- which is plenty of time for a high-traffic, continually-updated site like the HuffPost -- the headline that generated the most traffic becomes the headline that everyone sees when they log on to the site.

This method definitely has merit. By using A/B testing, the HuffPost can see which headline is best. Of course, this method only selects the best of two possible options, so in theory there could be several better options out there that weren't written. Still, A/B testing is a good option to crafting better headlines that seems to be working well for the HuffPost.

You can read more about this here.

An Update on Net Neutrality

In a move that could potentially have a major impact on independent media outlets online, the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously Thursday to begin drafting rules to prevent Internet providers from acting as gatekeepers. The federal government has so far taken the back seat on net neutrality issues, but with this decision, the FCC will begin a month-long process to develop statutes on what Internet Service Providers can do. Some companies, such as Google, have already spoken out in support of this. On the other hand, ISPs have argued that they should be able to regulate their ever-shrinking bandwidth, which would obviously benefit the ISPs more than their consumers. You can read The Washington Post's story about this here.

What do you think of this? Net neutrality has always been an important topic for Internet users and online content producers, but now this ruling has pushed it into the forefront. Personally, I believe the Internet should remain entirely unregulated, except for things that obvious must be removed by law, like child pornography or private medical records for instance. The vast majority of content, however, should not be tampered with. The beauty of the Internet is that anyone can post to it. It's the lack of regulation that allows independent media Web sites to break news that the mainstream media won't dare to cover. I think the Net should remain an avenue for unfiltered discussion. Do you agree?

You can get the basics on net neutrality by checking out this short video. It was made by SaveTheInternet.com and it's both an informational video and a promotional video for the Web site, so take it with a grain of salt.

Blogger Responds to New FTC Rule

As I discussed before, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that bloggers who review products must disclose any ties to the manufacturer of that product because of advertising or other factors. To me, this was a good thing - it gives readers more information by holding bloggers accountable for any conflicts of interest that may arise. However, now at least one blogger has spoken out against this. Britt Aboutaleb, a blogger at Fashionista, said this is actually unfair to bloggers because print reporters are not held to the same standards. She wrote that fashion magazine are not required to publicize that certain products are chosen as features because of an advertising relationship.

While this may be true, it does not change the fact that the intention of the new rule is just and beneficial for readers, which is who writers are working for, in a sense. Furthermore, the blogger made sweeping statements that all magazines do this, which I think is just not true. This past weekend, I visited several magazine offices in New York City — including W, a high-fashion magazine, and Woman's Day, a women's magazine aimed at middle-aged mothers — and found this wasn't the case at every place. The editors at W and Woman's Day said they receive products that they or other members of their team test in order to see which would be best for their readership. At least at these two magazines, the products received are not part of a business relationship where coverage is based on advertising dollars. While I agree that magazines should disclose that they receive these products free of charge, it doesn't change that the new FTC rule was made with good intentions to help blog readers.

In short, I think the FTC should hold print publications to this standard, but that doesn't change the fact that the rule is necessary to improve the quality of the work being done on the Net as well. Would you agree? Or, do you think the FTC should have cleaned up the print industry before moving on to independent blogs or Web sites?

Lessons from Mark Finkelstein

On Tuesday, our Independent Media class was visited by Mark Finkelstein, a conservative blogger. He got his start blogging for NewsBusters, a Web site that aspires to document and expose instances of liberal bias in the media. He later started his own personal blog, called FinkelBlog, but found that his personal site did not even close to the amount of hits his work for NewsBusters did. For that reason, his last post on FinkelBlog was July 28, 2009. The personal site still exists, but he has only posted on NewsBusters since then because it generates more hits due to linking on outside sites, including the Drudge Report.

This all begs the question: What can bloggers do to generate more hits to their blogs? Can personal blogs, like Finkelblog, ever compete with larger sites, such as NewsBusters? Should bloggers abandon smaller blogs in order to get more hits on other sites? Here's a few suggestions I had for generating some more hits: Actually break news. Link to other Web sites. Encourage reader comments to keep them on your site and interested in what you have to say. Use photos, videos, charts, and the like to make your blog more visually appealing. Optimize your blogs for search engines. And, of course, update frequently. Do you have any other suggestions?

1,000 True Fans

1,000 True Fans - that's all a creator really needs, this article argues. It says that all one needs is a certain number of people who will buy anything you put out, see any show you perform and follow your work religiously. After reading the piece, I had a few thoughts: First, the basic premise of the theory is more or less correct. It is more advantageous to have a number of completely dedicated patrons than to have many minimally dedicated fans, or people who buy something you do once and then move on to something else. (The writer call these fans Lesser Fans.) Obviously, Lesser Fans can boost sales and help move a product too, but they aren't the type of fans one hopes to generate to sustain a long career.

Additionally, the Internet has helped put this concept into practice. The writer of the article touched on this somewhat by discussing how someone can put out a new song on their Web site, post a new update to their blog or put up a new gallery of their work online in order to please True Fans who crave new content constantly. The writer, however, missed small simple ways that a producer could appease their legion of loyal fans with new technology online. Simply posting a Twitter update or new Facebook status can get fans talking. Or, better yet, actually communicating with a fan by posting on a fan's Facebook page or sending them a personal Tweet can really make that fan's day, which would influence them to buy your product when it is released later.

For bloggers, this means they should update their page at least on a daily basis. By continually updating a page every day or several times a day, a blogger can drive traffic to their page and give True Fans the new content they are craving. This practice will then spur fans to remain loyal to a blog, thereby helping to increase ad revenue to keep the blog afloat. Furthermore, a blogger should respond to comments if it's possible to do so. Of course, in the case of a story that generates hundreds of comments, it would be impossible to respond to them all. For a blogger just starting out, however, it could help to turn a Lesser Fan into a True Fan by responding to their personal comment.

NY Times Cuts 100 Jobs

In more depressing news for a journalism major, it was reported yesterday that the New York Times will be cutting 100 positions before the end of the year. That represents about 8 percent of the newsroom. The Times had already slashed a similar amount of jobs in 2008, and issued a 5 percent pay cut for the beginning of this year. Additionally, its budget for freelancers was trimmed considerably as well.

This all contributes to the general sense that newspapers are dying and journalism is shifting onto the Net, where independent sites can provide similar (or even superior) coverage for a fraction of the cost of a major operation like the Times. Layoffs like these are disheartening for someone like me, who likes having the physical print product to take with me and read over lunch, on the bus or elsewhere without being tied down by a computer. Newspapers need to find a way to turn around this terrible trend.

Facebook Asks, "Where do you Live?"

While browsing CNN, I came across this article, which discusses the perils of Facebook asking the seemingly simple question, "Where do you live?" While for many of us the answer is easy — just name a city and everyone probably knows exactly where you're talking about — for others the answer is less obvious. For instance, while Facebook considers Tibet's capital, Lhasa, to be part of China, most who live there reject China's power over them. Jerusalem, which we all know is a hotly contested area between Palestine and Israel, is only listed as part of Israel on Facebook. Cases like these are not unheard of throughout a world where countries like Pakistan, Israel, India, China and others have gone to war over disputed regions.

Without reading this piece on CNN, this entire issue never would have crossed my mind. Living comfortably in the United States, it's easy to forget that there are places in world where something as simple as your hometown is up for debate. Now, Facebook is forced to addressed this issue to make its content acceptable to people from all parts of the world. that mainstream media wouldn't dare to touch, much less dive into wholeheartedly. It shows that the media — mainstream and independent outlets alike — must adjust its coverage to include all factions of its audience, even when dealing with something as conventionally simple as the question of where one calls home.

FTC to Change Advertising Rules for Bloggers

A New York Times article that appeared earlier tonight reported that the Federal Trade Commission announced it would be revising rules about endorsements and testimonials that have been on the books since 1980. Beginning December 1, bloggers who review products must disclose any connection with the product their reviewing, including free giveaways or payment from an advertiser, which occurs more frequently. Celebrities must also disclose their ties to companies if they promote a product on a talk show or Web site.

The new rules are no surprise - they've been under consideration since November. This change means that the previously uninhibited flow of free stuff to bloggers may come to an end. Furthermore, as reporter Tim Arango suggests, this move hints that the government might attempt to regulate the Internet in the same way it regulates other forms of media, like television or newspapers.

In my opinion, I view this move as a good thing. Bloggers need to be held accountable for their potential conflicts of interest in the same way as television or print reporters. Hopefully it doesn't mean that more regulations are on the way for the Net, but this change, as its stands, is a positive one and will help readers to get the facts, rather than misinformation bloggers could have been paid to provide from advertisers.