Web Journalist Blog

Brad Frost (“web designer, speaker, writer, consultant, musician, and artist in beautiful Pittsburgh, PA”) gave an amazing talk I shared last year, but I just realized I never posted it here for me to remember and refer to. (If you haven’t noticed, this blog is for me… a collection of reminders, inspiration, random thoughts and occasional rants.)

So, see this. It’s AWESOME. So f*cking good.

2013/4 Brad Frost from CreativeMornings/PGH on Vimeo.

Paper is bullshit.
Jargon is bullshit.
Sensationalism is bullshit.
Opportunism is bullshit.
QR Codes are bullshit.
Disruptions are bullshit.
Cruft is bullshit.
Spam is bullshit.
Anti-patterns are bullshit.
Advertising is bullshit.

The talk was part of a series put on by CreativeMornings/Pittsburgh. See more of their videos here: https://vimeo.com/cmpittsburgh/videos.

CreativeMornings talks are happening in many cities, including international. Go to one near you: http://creativemornings.com/

I was fortunate to join Jon Bruner and Jenn Webb, co-hosts of the Radar Podcast for a roundtable discussion with Mark Trammell (of Sonos, previously of Obama HQ and Twitter) and Rebekah Monson (of the University of Miami) during NewsFoo last month.

An old friend and Seattle Times colleague Thaddeus Hanscom sent me a link to this video. And he added: “Watch that. Replace ‘poet’ with ‘journalist.'”

I want you to do the same.

I hope you feel what I felt.

I’ve been preaching this for several years now, but here is a screen-by-screen walkthrough on how you can find possible sources through Foursquare.

First, an obvious but necessary PSA: Just because it is on social media, it does not make it a fact. These are tips, not facts. In fact, I checked in from my USC office 20 miles away from the Los Angeles International Airport.

Step 1:
Search for the location. (NOTE: Your location doesn’t matter. You can check in from anywhere.)

Step 2:
Check in… after finding the location you are looking for. (NOTE: For transparency, I recommend you add that you are checking in to look for sources. (Here’s my note/tweet):

Step 3:
After checking in, go back to your home screen and select your recent check in.

Step 4:
From your check in, click on the location you just check in on

Step 5:
Click on the thumbnails of people who are there with you

Step 6:
Select someone who has checked in that location, noting their relevant times.

Step 7:
On their profile, you learn more about where they are from, their bio and, more importantly, how to get a hold of them through social networks (in red box).

Step 8:
Reach out and start your reporting.

Person’s Twitter account:

An Instagram the person tweeted while on the plane, watching the breaking news coverage.

NOTE: While their profiles are set to public, as a courtesy, I tried to blur out and anonymize people’s identities.

I converted a recent lightning talk about the Power of Code to a post for Poynter.

Read it here: http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/digital-strategies/224337/what-journalists-need-to-know-about-the-power-of-code/

“Don’t let anything poison your individuality. Be away. Break away. Look in not outward.” — Rodney Mullen

I need to remember these words when I am feeling down… alone… struggling to find my place.

Sometimes I doubt myself… my abilities… my impact. I worry that the ‘train’ is leaving without me.

I have looked at others and tried to measure up. But those standards aren’t mine. Never were.

I have to remember to keep my head down… keep working… build my own trains.

// Another post for me.

I organized and hosted a forum exploring Google Glass and Journalism/Storytelling. It was held on USC Annenberg on Aug. 27, 2013.

Below is the video of the event:

For more on my experiences with Google Glass + Journalism, go here: http://glassjournalism.tumblr.com/

I was fortunate to be on a lively panel for this year’s Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Conference in D.C.

The session was titled “Why all your students must be programmers,” but I named it The #AEJMCBattleRoyale.

Organized and moderated by Medill’s Jeremy Gilbert, the panelists included:

• Brian Boyer, news applications editor, National Public Radio
• Michelle Minkoff, interactive producer, The Associated Press
• Jennifer George-Palilonis, Ball State
• Yuri Victor, director of user experience, Washington Post
• Matt Waite, Nebraska at Lincoln

and me.

Here is a G+ Hangout of the talk… as expected, strong language was used and knowledge was dropped.

Here are the latest #AEJMCBattleRoyale tweets:

Tweets about “#AEJMCBattleRoyale”

I joined a the PBS podcast to talk about Glass + Journalism.

For those interested, I am maintaining a Tumblr about my Glass journalism experience here: http://glassjournalism.tumblr.com/

My latest tweets via the @GlassJournalism Twitter account:
Tweets by @GlassJournalism

Since writing a how to post on uploading a custom video into Vine, based on Chris Medina’s video walkthrough, lots of folks have been asking me for a similar trick for Instagram’s new feature.

Well thanks to BritAlb, who added this in the comments, we have a link to a post by Austin Tompkins that claims to have figured it out. I have not tried it yet.

BUT, it is only for Android devices.

I did another Web search and found this post by Nathaniel Akin on techenvy.com. This post is also just for Android devices.

Again, I have not confirmed if their process works, since I am iOS / iPhone.

On my end, using the iExplorer, I was able to find the location where all the Instagram video files are located:

iExplorer –> iPhone –> Apps –> Instagram –> Library –> Application Support –> Instagram –> Videos

I did the swap out test from the Vine hack and it didn’t take. I’ve done other experiments and they have also failed.

One thing I found interesting is that when I replaced the video with one of mine or another Instagram video, it would disappear from the app. When I restore it back to the original video it came back into the app.

In other words:

• OG Instragram video –> externally edited video overwrites OG Instragram video –> video disappears from app.
• Externally edited video –> A different OG Instragram video overwrites externally edited video –> video disappears from app.
• Different OG Instragram video –> the ORIGINAL OG Instagram video overwrites different OG Instragram video –> video returns back to the app.

What this tells me is that there is some meta data tying it all together. I think the key is also the teaser image.

I’m about to board a plane, but I wanted to share this with others in hopes we can figure this out together!

We’re making progress.