Amy's Journalism Tech Tips
Digital Amy's Journalism Tech Tip 47: iPad Tools for Journalists Part 2
Here is this week's tip - enjoy!
Digits ($0.99)
PageCapture ($1.99)
DocsToGo ($9.99)
Screen Capture (neat technique to use on the iPad)
Last week my tip focused on some basic applications for journalists and journalism educators to use on the iPad. This week I will focus on some applications for the advanced user of the iPad. As journalists and journalism educators, working with math can be a hard task - especially if it entails doing percentage differences, ranks, rates, etc. for a news story. Surprisingly, the iPad does not have calculator - imagine that! However, there is an app called Digits that is a calculator that can do basic and advanced calculations on the tablet. The great thing about it though is that it has a virtual calculator tape (like a physical calculator would have). It will track the calculations you make, allow you to add comments next to calculations, flag a figure, and best of all - email the calculator tape to show all the calculations you make. When working on a news story that entails some math, it makes doing the calculations on the fly via the iPad much easier!
DocsToGo is an application that allows the user to work with MS Office documents from the tablet - such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It's easy to import and save documents as well as email the file. The application is expensive at $9.99, but if you are working with these kind of documents often, it's a helpful application to have without having to deal with the hassle of converting file formats from one device to another.
Finally, there are two tips about capturing images on your iPad. Of course there is no camera on the current iPad (maybe in the future). If you need to take a screen shot of something on your iPad such as using an application or zooming in on a particular piece of content -- to take the screen shot you can hold down the Home button and the Power button at the same time - it will automatically take a screen shot and save the image in your Photos area. However, if you need to take a screen capture of a full website page, not just what is viewable in your iPad screen, PageCapture is a handy application. It takes the screen capture of the full web page and you can email it or put in your Photos area of your iPad. These are just a few tips journalists and journalism educators may find helpful for using the iPad when working on a news story, grading students' work or teaching journalism students what applications to use to help in their newsgathering work.
Digital Amy's Journalism Tech Tip 46: iPad Tools for Journalists
Here is this week's tip - enjoy!
iAnnotate PDF ($9.99, expensive)
The tablet. The tablet is having an impact on the journalism industry today in many ways. This is apparent by the number of articles written about it daily in the press. My tech tip is not going to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the tablet in terms of news presentation, revenue models for the industry or its impact on changing reading habits. My tip focuses on some of the practical apps that are out there for journalists and journalism educators to use daily.
When it comes to storyboarding ideas for a news story, Popplet Lite is a good (and free) app that is simple to install and easy to use in creating a mind map as an idea is developed. If you are looking to take notes while using the iPad, SoundPaper is a good app for note taking and it records audio at the same time. If you are sitting in a meeting and want to capture the discussion as you take your notes, the app does a good job of picking up the audio far away and nearby. When your note taking is all done, you can email the file and audio, make it a pdf and share it on another computer using a unique URL. When it comes to editing text, iAnnotate PDF (expensive at $9.99) is an app that takes pdfs and makes them editable for marking up. For journalists who want to review and edit their story or for a journalism instructor grading students' work, this is a nice tool that easily allows for marking up the text, including strikethroughs, adding comments, and highlighting. The file can then be emailed or stored for a later time. These are just a few handy apps out there right now for the iPad. Next week's tech tip - more iPad app suggestions for the advanced user. Stay tuned!
Digital Amy's Journalism Tech Tip 45: Helpful HTML5 Resources
Digital Amy's Journalism Tech Tip 44: Summer Readings
Here is this week's tip - enjoy!
Cognitive Surplus, Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age by Clay Shirky
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
The Digital Journalist's Handbook by Mark S. Luckie
It's been quite a while since I have been able to post my tech tips because I was away for several weeks attending an international conference but I am happy to be back! Every summer I try to make a concerted effort to catch up on reading, especially books. My favorite books to read cover the topics of journalism, technology and anything having to do with digital life and media. Here are a few that I am now reading. Enjoy this brief list of summer readings - stay tuned for more from the digital amy library!
Digital Amy's Journalism Tech Tip 43: Collaborative Storytelling
Here is this week's tip - enjoy!
Collaborative storytelling. When we think about this concept we may just think about it only via the converged news organization. However, inspiration and ideas can be gained from the documentary film industry. Recently, I was reading a journal article entitled,"Documentary and Collaboration: Placing the Camera in the Community," by Elizabeth Coffman that appeared in the Journal of Film and Video in Spring 2009. The article covered collaborative documentary work and presents case studies of filmmakers who are collaborating with their community in a non-traditional way to produce films. The filmmakers/groups mentioned in the article include Kartemquin (based out of Chicago), East Austin Stories (based out of Austin), and Video/Action (based out of DC). Each group focuses on telling unique stories in their local communities through collaborative storytelling. The collaborative storytelling in each of these cases is achieved through the involvement/participation of the community, educators, and students at the local university along with the filmmaker in the filmmaking process. Each group has examples of their work on their website (see list above) and they can serve as inspiration for journalism students and journalists when thinking about the storytelling process and the collaboration that is possible within the local community.
Digital Amy's Journalism Tech Tip 42: Top Five at ISOJ
Here is this week's tip - enjoy!
I just returned from Austin, Texas where I had the opportunity to attend and participate (as symposium research chair) in the 11th International Symposium on Online Journalism. Each year, the symposium supercedes the previous year in terms of panelists, discussions, and ideas presented. This year was no different! The two-day event included a great list of speakers from around the world sharing their insights and ideas about where the journalism industry is and where it is heading. Revisiting my notes from the event, here are my top five items I took away from the ISOJ:
1. There is no room left for taking the safe route. Journalists and news organizations need to experiment and take risks - the current landscape is open to innovation and creativity. The public is waiting.
2. Think about the pixel. Digital platforms have transformed the way we interact and use devices in our daily lives - just look at the mobile device or laptop. Journalists and news organizations need to start thinking carefully about interaction design when they are developing their news platforms and storytelling process - whether for the mobile device, tablet or the next technological innovation. There is no "one size fits all" option of interaction design for all news platforms. We have go to beyond the traditional forms and look at the power of the pixel and all its potential.
3. More on Mobile. The mobile device is changing communication, interaction and information processes around the globe. We need to think differently about the mobile device and its potential as another unique platform for storytelling.
4. Scale and adaptability. The journalism industry needs to consider that the decisions they take now -- may need to change tomorrow or months from now. Successful news organizations and journalists scale their efforts and adapt to the landscape. Creation of new innovations need to be flexible to withstand technological, economic, and operational changes.
5. Dissect and dismantle. Innovation and failure arise from the process of breaking something apart or dissecting its components and reassembling it. We are not doing enough of this in the journalism industry now - and if we don't try we will never know if we are on the verge of the next best or worst thing for 21st century journalism.
Digital Amy's Journalism Tech Tip 41 - Search Patterns
http://searchpatterns.org/library.php
When I was at the SXSW conference in Austin in March, I attended an interesting session led by Peter Morville about the concept of search patterns and the user's interactions when looking for information on the Web (related to a book he recently released). During his presentation, he shared a link of a library of search patterns he and his co-author created to document how a user searches for information on the Web via specific design and behavior patterns.
I thought it was a very useful resource - not just for those working in design and information architecture but in journalism too - as we write stories for a variety of platforms, we must also think about how the public finds the story and searches for the information on the Web (via the computer, mobile device, tablet, etc).
Morville's search patterns library provides a helpful resource for journalists, journalism students and journalism educators to understand another crucial component to the storytelling experience - interaction design.