26 April 2009
Editing live comments
30/04/09 14:09 Filed in: Social
networking practice
Occasionally you see something that reminds you of
why what you’re doing is exciting. Yes, this
computery social media stuff is all very good, but
it’s also radical, new and engaging. When
you’re in it every day it’s easy to lose
sight of that.
Which is why I’m so pleased to have read Joanna Geary’s account of editing a live feed on the Times website. Watching blog comments arriving as a news event unfolds is exciting enough - goodness knows I was excited enough when the key player in my Tweeting the Law entry decided to comment in person, magnify that about a squillion times and you begin to understand how it must feel when something really important is happening.
It must also be chilling, though. You decide as editor who’s going to get through. You decide who gets a say and who doesn’t. When blogging goes truly mainstream so that everyone feels it’s natural to comment, you’re effectively rationing democracy.That sounds melodramatic, mostly because it is - but it’s also true.
Geary’s piece is a rivetingly well-written account of how it feels to be part of that process. Highly recommended.
Which is why I’m so pleased to have read Joanna Geary’s account of editing a live feed on the Times website. Watching blog comments arriving as a news event unfolds is exciting enough - goodness knows I was excited enough when the key player in my Tweeting the Law entry decided to comment in person, magnify that about a squillion times and you begin to understand how it must feel when something really important is happening.
It must also be chilling, though. You decide as editor who’s going to get through. You decide who gets a say and who doesn’t. When blogging goes truly mainstream so that everyone feels it’s natural to comment, you’re effectively rationing democracy.That sounds melodramatic, mostly because it is - but it’s also true.
Geary’s piece is a rivetingly well-written account of how it feels to be part of that process. Highly recommended.
0 Comments
Twitter headlines - que?
29/04/09 11:47 Filed in: Social
networking practice
I love this Copyblogger blog post. I love it more
than I ought to. It’s all about getting the
right headline for your Twitter post. Here it is.
It’s all about Twitter and getting a good headline. People read headlines before the read the articles that underpin them. I understand this stuff, I’ve been a journalist for 20 years.
What Brian at Copyblogger has missed, though, is that a Tweet isn’t, and doesn’t have, a headline. This is actually a problem for him because his whole post is based on the idea that people use Tweets to get others to look at their content. OK, sometimes this is true. Today alone I’ve Tweeted about the Raconteur supplement I edited which is in today’s Times and of course many readers will be coming to this blog entry through my Tweeting it or Facebooking it. But many Tweets are different. They are ends in themselves. This never, ever happens with headlines - they are always an invitation, never ever are they content in their own right, even when they end up being better than the article itself.
So yes, some of the Copyblogger stuff makes sense - be succinct, invite people into your world, write clearly. But don’t approach Twitter like headline writing. It is - or should be - a completely different thing.
It’s all about Twitter and getting a good headline. People read headlines before the read the articles that underpin them. I understand this stuff, I’ve been a journalist for 20 years.
What Brian at Copyblogger has missed, though, is that a Tweet isn’t, and doesn’t have, a headline. This is actually a problem for him because his whole post is based on the idea that people use Tweets to get others to look at their content. OK, sometimes this is true. Today alone I’ve Tweeted about the Raconteur supplement I edited which is in today’s Times and of course many readers will be coming to this blog entry through my Tweeting it or Facebooking it. But many Tweets are different. They are ends in themselves. This never, ever happens with headlines - they are always an invitation, never ever are they content in their own right, even when they end up being better than the article itself.
So yes, some of the Copyblogger stuff makes sense - be succinct, invite people into your world, write clearly. But don’t approach Twitter like headline writing. It is - or should be - a completely different thing.
CCJacquismith
28/04/09 17:30 Filed in: Social
networking trends
The UK Government may just have finally flipped. It
is considering setting up a private company to run
some sort of super-database that will track all of
everybody’s emails. No, I mean all of them.
The civil liberty implications are one thing. The logistics are another. It’s now 5.34pm UK time and I got back from my meetings today at about 12.30, had a sandwich, chatted to my wife and sauntered into the home office at about 1.15.
Since that time I have sent 26 mails. Averaging that out, that’s going to mount up to about 40-50 a day when I’m around full time. Add Tweets, Facebook updates, blog entries and you’re going to be pushing 60-70.
Multiply that by the 35 million or so working people in the UK and you have a recipe for chaos.
There’s a movement to point out the error of this idea. You can become involved by clicking this link to ccJacquismith and reading about a day on which everyone who agrees will copy the Government on everything they send, to illustrate the point. I urge you to have a look.
The civil liberty implications are one thing. The logistics are another. It’s now 5.34pm UK time and I got back from my meetings today at about 12.30, had a sandwich, chatted to my wife and sauntered into the home office at about 1.15.
Since that time I have sent 26 mails. Averaging that out, that’s going to mount up to about 40-50 a day when I’m around full time. Add Tweets, Facebook updates, blog entries and you’re going to be pushing 60-70.
Multiply that by the 35 million or so working people in the UK and you have a recipe for chaos.
There’s a movement to point out the error of this idea. You can become involved by clicking this link to ccJacquismith and reading about a day on which everyone who agrees will copy the Government on everything they send, to illustrate the point. I urge you to have a look.
Tweeting the law
27/04/09 11:13 Filed in: Social
networking practice
A magistrate is in trouble for Tweeting about his
cases - I was annoyed at first as he was within the
law, but then I thought about it... Read
More...