On the first day of the ONA conference, after my previous post, the battery of my laptop ran out and I didn't bring the charger. On the second day of the conference, showing up a bit late and therefore in a bit of a hurry, I managed to spill coke on the entire contents of my conference bag, including my passport, my purse, my favourite cardigan and my mobile phone, so I spent the better part of the afternoon trying to save my belongings (my mobile phone is still hovering between life and death, a very uneasy feeling). Oh, and the wireless connection only worked in some conference rooms. Hence, no more liveblogging from ONA, but if you want to know more about some of the content mentioned and discussed at the conference, read the conference blog or look at the links to the ONA 2005 Awards of Excellence in online journalism, and the list of all the finalist. Lot's of great source material for teaching online communication and possible best practices. The awards, by the way, were presented at the conference banquet which gave it a very nice air of exitement and "content" - we should do more awards in the humanities-flavoured conferences, I usually attend...

Thinking back, to be honest, one of the best sessions, I went to at the conference, was the international panel, with participants from Deutsche Welle, Brazilan UOL, Spanish El Mundo and English BBC. Now, here are some online news sites that are trying to push the borders in terms of producing directed content for the web. One thing that really intrigued me - and also scared me a bit - was that Guido Baumhauer of Deutsche Welle was the ONLY person at the entire conference who (from what I heard) mentioned mobile media as part of the site's "news outreach". Listening to Alberto Cairo from El Mundo talking about infographics, I was pretty proud that there is actually an entire chapter of our Danish anthology, Digital Worlds, which deals with Elmundo's use of infographics (an analysis of their coverage about 9/11, written by Anders Fagerjord), and this was written back in 2003. I still think what they do are bloody brilliant.

What surprised me the most about the conference was all the buzz about blogs. I did not talk to a lot of participants, but several of journalists I talked to were considering how to use and include blogs on their websites of their papers. And it came up again and again in the panel discussions - clearly also because of some more or less implicit concern that the bloggers are "stealing" the scene from the "real" journalists and blogs are hence also needed on the news websites to "spice them up" and signal a certain degree of hipness. Then, surprisingly, at the final discussion at the conference, the blogger behind www.paidcontent.org was called upon to comment on a post he had written about the lack of passion of the conference, and there was no doubt that this blogger has earned a lot of respect in the present community of journalists. So while fearing the change of times, it appeared that all seem to recognise that the line between being a journalist and a professional blogger is becoming somewhat blurred. I might have gotten it wrong, not quite catching on to all the nuances in the war of opinions which was obviously being fought out between panelists and the question-asking members of the audience, but in the end most seemed to agree that we are all "citizen journalist", whatever that means. .

Well, I'm all for involving "citizens" in as many ways as possible online, but at the end of the day, dear journalists, I want to read what the trained reporters, the researchers and well-informed local activists have to say about events like Katrina, the Tsunami and the war in Iraq and I do not want to read about how scared my neighbour on holiday was, when he woke up. I'm already becoming somewhat tired of all the touchy-feely "reality" reports from eye-witnesses that seem about to become as standard a feature of "big disaster" coverage as the live tv-broadcasts. Citizen journalists, be it bloggers, activists, independent reporters or Mr. Smith with a mobcam in his hand, are not the major threat to the world of news, though the content they contribute can certainly be a very interesting supplement to the news produced by the media themselves. The major threat (in my humble opinion as an academic, who is a sucker for quality content on the web) is the conservatism and lack of boldness of traditional media when moving into the new media scene. What I don't get is that if all the big players on, for instance the US newsscene, are so afraid of the bloggers and corporations like Yahoo and Google stealing away the text-based (cum video)online newsscene, why don't they use some more of their money to hire dedicated webjournalists and programmers who can produce unique, interactive news and commentary for the web combined with the solidity of documenting and reporting, that I still believe trained journalists' are the best at doing? Perhaps, I just went to the wrong sessions and it was actually discussed in some dark corner of the conference, but I'm thinking newsgames, infographics and flash-timelines produced by professionals. I'm thinking well-developed news content for my mobile, podcasts on the fly. I'm thinking tagging and sharing. Now there lies the future for me, not in the massive presence of weblogs, which - in the end - are bound to cancel each other out, simply because of the sheer amount of them.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 22:05 (3) comments

The Wifi system at the Hilton Hotel is up and running on my vaio, so now Im able to blog directly from the conference discussions. Now in the middle of an interesting panel on why journalists and newspapers should blog. People are debating how to manage comments, how personal voices can be, how to become visual. It seems like there is a growing awareness that a good blog is one which actually seeks to engage its readers (ie are not just "reporting", but making dialogue), if the blogger wants to have a) readers and b)quality comments.
Tidbits from the ongoing discussion: "Bloggers are smart people and ask questions you as reporter have forgotten to ask because they are so obvious to you". "Vary the voices you quote". "Make shawowlinks to crawl the google-ranking", "Make blog about local blogs - help create local digital community". "How to self-select your blog-community? - make events where you get people, you'd like to blog, to show up". Is this a breaking news blog or a commentary-blog - make sure which genre you belong to?
The conservative newspaper stance on the journalist's subjective opinion in blog: “would you say this on air in unlimited time?” (- otherwise, don’t blog it!)

One of the panelists suggests that people should always have a rss-feed and think of your blog-title as a "headline" which through the rss-fead can attract readers. This confirms my growing suspicion that the entire rss-fead thing is going to make blogs be much more like "news", in the way we think about them and write them. More on that later.

The book editor: Good blogs are about Sincerity and articulateness. Blogs are "talkradio timeshared in print"

Blogs mentioned in the talk:
Microsoft Watch
Movies and More
Blogger King
Businessweek Blog
Huckleberries Online
CBS online new
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:12 (0) comments

So there is actually some research on which gender uses the blog the most (if any of the two..): Herring et al,Women and Children Last: The Discursive Construction of Weblogs. And Herring on weblogs: Bridging the Gap: A Genre Analysis of Weblogs

Miller's genre analysis of the blog, including discussion of the public/private issue.

Trammel's weblog bibliography: Kairosnews/A Weblog Webliography

Torill's list of weblog litt: http://tilsett.hivolda.no/tm/draftbibliography.htm
# posted by Lisbeth at: 23:31 (0) comments

While I'm on the subject of Online News (see previous post), yesterday was the first time, I saw CNN use photos from Flickr live in a study reportage on the effects of the Wilma Hurricane. The reporter was simply standing in the studio, pointing to pictures from Flick projected on a big screen behind her in an attempt to describe the most recent damages. Unfortunately the mobcam had problems capturing the tv screen so I have no proof ;)...

Flickr: Photos tagged with wilma.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 21:34 (0) comments

I'm having trouble getting "BlogThis" to work, which means (I can see) that I blog less, because I hate having to spend extra time logging into Blogger and copy/pasting urls if I want to publish. Just havent got time for that. There is a BlogThis function in the google toolbar, but for some reason, when posting through this, posts dont get posted to the blog, they just go into Blogger, and I have to log-on and ask to publish anyway :(. Bugger. Probably something to do with some general javascript problems I have, but havent had time to sort it out.

Anyway, been afk on a fall break last week with friend. We went to Savannah, and had some interesting "experiences" there, I want to write about at some point. Photos in BlogAtlanta.

Right now I'm in for a couple of days of heavy writing and then thursday I'm off to New York where I (on the spur of the moment, since it's only a 2 hour flight from Atlanta) are attending the Online News Associations (ONA) conference. They discuss blogs, and multimedia design, and citizen journalism and a lot of other interesting stuff, and Im quite exited about interacting with a bunch of new media journalists, an interesting change of conference crowd.

On the ONA website, you can learn that the "Creative Reporter [a zine?] pays citizen journalists" and that you can actually now get a job as "Blog Producer" with CNN. And if you want you can download a podcast which guides you through the streets of NY from a journalist's perspective. Nice. I get the feeling these guys have a pretty good feel of what's happening and possible at the moment. Perhaps this time, I will get the chance to liveblog without hickups.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 21:07 (0) comments

It's somewhat amusing to be sitting in the US, while Media DK goes crazy over the birth of the Crown Prince & Prince's son. I like the CNN version of the story - after having read several Danish papers, I'm not sure they are getting all the facts about the birth right (in Danish papers, f.i., Frederik has insisted that he would NOT tell whether he cut the umbilical cord, according to CNN he cut it etc...//what's with that cord anyway?//), but in contrast to Danish newspapers who take it as a given that all Danes know everything about the Royal Family, the CNN article has got some interesting facts about the Danish Monarchy that even I had forgotten...;).
update: reliable sources tell me that it is actually an AP (Associated Press) story, not CNN. Just for the record!
# posted by Lisbeth at: 17:11 (0) comments

The iLOveyOu* blog that I just came across via Bloggers recently updated blogroll is...well...fascinating, both aesthetically and content-wise. Pretty complicated design by the young girl that's writing it (at least I think that's a young girl judging from the content), and the use of graphics in the blog is..hmm..so different from everything I would ever do, but interesting because it clearly shows how a younger generation of blog-users might be integrating visual and textual communication effortlessly, without even thinking about it.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 17:59 (2) comments

On the popular Danish portal Jubii, they are also offering free blogs now: JubiiBlog. They have an interesting thing going with a "representative" mood of all the blogs displayed on the frontpage. You can set your blog to one of four moods (happy, romantic, sad, angry) and the stats of the day are then displayed in the collected blog moodometer...
# posted by Lisbeth at: 00:34 (0) comments

Olia LialinaMy boyfriend came back from the war just came up, have wanted to check that out for a long time.
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:31 (0) comments

Kate O'Riordan has just given an interesting paper on the effects of the "false" websites in relation to the film Godsend. Here is the Godsend Institute website and the petition against the institute (also made by the film company)Stop the Godsend Institute!.

Man in audience says Donnie Darko was one of the first films to use the web to extend the world of the film.

(the wireless seems to be working today!)
# posted by Lisbeth at: 16:23 (0) comments

At the AoIR conference 6.0, evening in my hotel room, it is the only place that (at a price) has a completely reliable network connection. They have set up wireless for the conference, but it is (still) somewhat unstable. The conference this time seems somewhat predominantly American in attendance, which I guess is not too surprising considered the venue (Chicago), but it is the first time while I've been at this conference, that trusty Scandinavians like Anders Fagerjord (who had to cancel), Jill and Torill arent here, also the first time, TL isnt here, Daniel Pargman, Stine Gotved and more. Also not a lot of games people. Pia (my research assistant and master thesis student whom Im presenting with) and I are the only people from ITU here which is a bit puzzling(last year in England we were something like 10-11 ITU people), but I know it has a lot to do with the fact that both the DIGRA and DAC conference also takes place this year, and people cant afford to travel and find time for so many conferences - we are all getting older, with more busy lives etc etc. Gitte Stald and Klaus Bruhn Jensen from KUA is also here, and the four of us are as far as I know the only Danes present at the conference this year. Where are the people from the Århus Internet Research Center, I wonder?
These personal "bitchings" over and done with, I'd like to add that this first day and the mobile internet workshop I took part in yesterday, has generated some interesting discussions, heard a few good papers and got a lot of useful references jotted down, + good comments to think with after my "moblogs as communication form vs weblog" presentation yesterday, so it still definitely makes sense (to me) to be here...
There are photos in the Atlanta moblog (link in the right menu).
# posted by Lisbeth at: 05:48 (1) comments

Funky - at the Barnes & Noble website, they currently have a real cook speaking to you "in front of" the website, recommending his book, it's a real man speaking in real-time. Guess we'll see much more of that in the future!
# posted by Lisbeth at: 23:45 (0) comments

Obviously, there are blogs about almost everything. But it is the first time, I have personally come across weather blogs (as part of the wunderground.com website)...Perhaps something for those of you who can't watch the weather channel ;).
# posted by Lisbeth at: 00:25 (2) comments