Advice from a mobile journalist on equipment, Facebook Instant Articles debut and more in this week's Digital Media Mash Up, produced by the Center for International Media Assistance.
Mobile journalism kit advice from RTÉ's Glen Mulcahy
Once only common on Reddit, Ask Me Anythings (AMAs) are fast becoming a feature on Twitter's new livestream video app Periscope.
Glen Mulcahy, innovation lead at Irish broadcaster RTÉ, took questions on the topic of mobile journalism yesterday. Here is some of the advice he offered on the best techniques and tools to use. (Journalism.co.uk, 5/13)
Facebook’s Instant Articles are live: Either a shrewd mobile move by publishers — or feeding the Borg
I hesitate to roll one more boulder up Thinkpiece Mountain today, but the long-rumored publishing-natively-to-Facebook deal has finally arrived. Nine publishers — The New York Times, National Geographic, BuzzFeed, NBC News, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel, and Bild — are involved, and top editors at many of them are in this Facebook promotional video for what it’s calling Instant Articles. (Joshua Benton, Nieman Journalism Lab, 5/13)
When metrics drive newsroom culture
As analytics have entered newsrooms the digital world has divided into two camps. There are those that think attention paid to metrics creates a world where Kim Kardashian beats out more important subjects, like the Syrian conflict. Advocates of data-driven decision making, however, argue that metrics shift the power balance to a more democratic system where readers matter more than editors. (Columbia Journalism Review, 5/11)
Turning data into civic tools: Journalists, coders, students collaborate in Portland
Call it “Mission Improbable.”
Assign teams of journalists, digital developers, designers, civic leaders and students – most never having worked together — to produce data-driven tools and stories tackling some of the toughest issues facing Portland and Oregon. And get it done in 72 hours. (PBS MediaShift, 5/11)
On UK elections, the talk on Twitter is largely negative
Today, United Kingdom residents head to the polls in a very close race in which the U.K.’s power players will be determined, with smaller parties expected to make big gains.
But what, if anything, about the election could be gleaned from Twitter? A new Pew Research Center analysis of the months leading up to election day finds that four of the six parties received more negative commentary than positive. Just one party studied – the Greens – enjoyed mostly positive comments, according to an analysis of more than 13 million English-language tweets between March 30 and May 3. The balance of sentiment only changed slightly in the final full week leading up to the election. (Pew Research Center, 5/7)
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Main image CC-licensed by Flickr via Kirill Kniazev.
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