A recent case in England could have serious implications in the U.S. when it comes to posting online comments anonymously.

It turns out some fans upset over their football (or soccer to the American crowd) team’s management went to the Internet to anonymously voice their frustrations. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/22/news.blogging

However, a judge ordered that the owner of the Web site must reveal the identities of three people because their postings were ”reasonably be understood to allege greed, selfishness, untrustworthiness and dishonest behaviour.”

Can you imagine if “Philly fans” were upset over the Eagles’ play on the field and went after management and coaches for their decisions? Then again, they did boo “Santa Claus!?!

The question I pose is whether the case in England could have any effect here in the U.S.

A Web site out of Wilmington, N.C. has been a hot button of controversy over this type of issue. GossipReport.com (http://www.gossipreport.com/) allows anonymous users to post messages and photos. Basically, you have the option to say whatever you want about someone (within reason) and you have the anonymity of the Internet to protect you.

I know there are more Web sites out there that allow relative anonymity to its users. However, we live in a new America that allows people to express their opinions and hide behind the “firewall” of Internet immunity.

I would ask is that if you have a strong opinion to say something, you should have the same conviction to attach your name to it.

I started out my career putting together the agate page for a sports department at a midsize Midwestern daily.  I was 17. It didn’t take long to learn the value of my job.  My sports editor used to say more people would read the agate page, with its box scores and list of statistics,  than would read the stories people wrote.  That was true.

But those were abbreviated, cut to fit the space: leader lists and scores whacked off to fit the space on the newsprint that day.

That’s no longer the case. With databases, you can include everything, and they’re easier on the eyes.

But for the real scoop, I turn to to our database expert, Katie Lohrenz, who has held my hand more on many occasions as I struggled to learn layers of the new journalism.

Katie was the driving force behind two recent additions to our web site, “Varsity Kansas,” which is becoming the go-to site in our market for prep sports, and the “Daily Crime Maps.”

As we look at the third installment of Rob Curley’s seven ways to save our industry, all I can say is, go Katie:

“The idea with these database-driven sites is that we’re taking information we already collect and putting it out in a way that our readers can use the way they want to.

“As a newspaper, The Wichita Eagle has always printed a list of local crimes once a week, although it’s hard to recognize patterns when they’re presented in text. But now you can go online and see that list mapped out. I live in beat 41, and now I can see what’s going on in my neighborhood.

“My boyfriend lives in beat 17, and I can see that it’s quieter down there. I can look at a single type of crime across the whole city and start to see patterns.

Need to buy some drugs? Try cruisingdown Broadway.

“VarsityKansas does the same thing with the prep sports statistics we gather each week. I try to catch a few of my alma mater’s games each year with my dad. We’ve seen our team’s star running back accumulate some pretty amazing yardage.

“Now, I can check online and see where this kid, who has led the state in rushing, is headed as team starts to face tougher competition.

“The idea is that most news articles are written for our readership in general. But each individual reader has specific interests, and given all the information we as reporters have, they might focus on different details. I can dive straight into what’s going on within a few blocks of me, or how my friend’s students are doing this season. I decide what’s relevant to me and I come back often for updates.

“Advertisers benefit, too. If you’ve got a shop near East High and want to reach the East High community, you can target ads specifically to that school’s pages on VarsityKansas. We’ve never been able to offer that level of geosegmentation before.

These narrowly-focussed ads are cheaper, too, so it’s good option for local businesses with small budgets. I haven’t seen specific numbers, but our advertising staff still haven’t stopped gushing about how pleased they are with VK, so I’m guessing I’ve cemented my job security.

“And if putting information in the hands of the people doesn’t motivate you, I’d bet surviving the next round of layoffs does.

“Go databases!”

Thanks, Katie

For other helpful discussions on databases, see Mindy McAdams’ excellent post “What Journalists Should Know About Databases”.

Also, there’s this previous post on maps.

Don’t let the buzzwords bite you.  You know hyperlocal and have probably been doing it for years.

Howard Owens said it best.

“Hyperlocal journalism is just a fad term for what good community papers have been doing for hundreds of years. It’s a fad term for the kind of nuts-and-bolts community coverage many daily newspapers abandoned in the wake of Woodward and Bernstein.”

As we look at Rob Curley’s seven ways to help our industry succeed, let’s get all hyper about local news.

Hyperlocal goes beyond showing up for a school board meeting and going through daily police reports.  It can be about putting the school board minutes and every police report, as well as starting on-line forums and bulletin boards for those in our community who are presently underserved.

Despite the gloom and doom – read no immediate profits – the users and readers and viewers and people who make up our audience are saying this is what they want.

People can now get their news closest to the source.  Where I work, no one could beat us when it came to covering the story of the BTK serial killer or the tornado in Greensburg, KS.  Those were stories happening locally, drawing so much interest nationwide, that people were coming to Kansas.com to find out what we knew.

Those newsrooms not jumping on this, may find themselves beaten by one of those employees they’ve been laying off in recent years.

Debbie Galant, former New Jersey section columnist did just that when her job ended.  She teamed with Liz George to start Baristanet and deliver local news.

Check out Gatehouse Media, where Owens works, and its “Wicked Local” sites.

Or what the Washington Post is doing to reach out

Ryan Sholin offers some innovative tips for how information can be delivered within the structure of current newsrooms on a variety of different platforms.

Hyperlocal is the next step in the evolution of the civic, or community, journalism,  movement of the 1990s.

Now we have the technology to cover our communities ways never before possible.

I have returned to the world of online journalism after an much-anticipated event. More on that later…

While I was gone, it looks like MSNBC picked up Newsvine. The site (http://www.newsvine.com/) allows people to submit articles and commentaries. Charlie Tillinghast, president of MSNBC Interactive News, said it plans to incorporate some of the Web site’s social and community aspects into MSNBC.com.

On its web site, Newsvine’s mission is “to bring together big and little media in a way which respects established journalism and empowers the individual at the same time.”

It will be interesting to see whether Newsvine can retain its unique personality as a Web site for the community at large or will it be absorbed into the mainstream of a larger news organization.

Speaking of the community, allow me to mention the newest member of my community: Micah Raiden Wallace was born Oct. 2. Raiden is the Japanese god of thunder and one of my favorite character in the Mortal Kombat video game.

Sorry about the self-promotion, but hey, if you don’t like it, get your own blog. ;()

I started my career as a sport writer, then moved to news.  It broke many an editor’s rule of “you need a hard news background first.”  It also made me able to file faster than most hard-news reporters, three decades later..

Many major sporting events take place at night, ending just a few minutes before deadline. I learned how to start writing a story during the game itself, so I could finish and file in time to make first edition.  For one big college basketball game on the West Coast, the press of the Missouri daily I worked for literally sat idle, waiting for the plate with my story to arrive before it began its nightly run.

Some 30 years later, filing breaking news on deadline, was a big leap backwards for me.

In this first analysis of Rob Curley’s seven ways to revitalize our industry, breaking news is one aspect that the news organization I work for, Kansas.com, has done particularly well.  When I write this blog, I use personal stories and examples of where I work, not because they necessarily illustrate the best work I’ve seen (although we do a damn good job on many projects), but it’s also familiar.  I don’t know the inside scoop at the New York Times, or Washington Post, but I know what’s going on in my own corner of the world.

I know, for example, that some local television people pay close attention to our breaking news.  These days, we’re regularly beating what used to be known as the medium of immediacy.  Newspapers are back in the game of delivering news first.  But we’re doing it with just a handful of people who regularly file breaking news stories: the cops reporters, me on the courts beat, the business team. Just think what we could do if everyone in the newsroom got involved.

Here’s what I do:

In addition to remembering the sports days – some of which involved reading dictation over a telephone – I tend to look at my job more like a wire service reporter.  File a lead, then add information as I get it and keep filing.  Put new information at the top and rewrite the headline to reflect the changes.

That’s what I’m doing this week during a local capital murder trial – still in jury selection.  Here’s an example of a news update, which also has a link to the story running in that morning’s paper.  That daily story was the culmination of similar updates, with a new lead and added quotes.

I see news updates as writing my story publicly.  They serve as an outline, a way to organize my notes and quotes on the fly.  At the end of the day, writing the final version becomes quicker and more effective.  It’s as if I’m putting my rough draft out there for the world to see. Sometimes, a comment from a reader will lead me to a new source or bit of information.  If I don’t quite get something right, someone points that out, too.

Breaking news has revived an old friend that had been lingering for a while: the inverted pyramid. While we were all studying narrative writing and ways to tell stories, the readers moved to the web, where they want news and want it fast.  Read the headline, maybe the lead, and move on. Attention deficit is the order of the day.

For most of us, that’s an easy, quick way to file breaking news.  At the end of the day, we can pull out the anecdotes, add quotes and story details and fashion a better print story, which also ends up on the web: our final draft.

I’ve become a breaking news junkie.  I file early and often. I’ve called the desk with updates as a heated legislative debate neared 3 a.m.

Because unlike those days gone by as a sports writer, there’s no press run on the web.

Mark Memmott said he became top blogger for USA TODAY and got an assignment to Afghanistan, simply because “I was the 48-year-old guy willing to give it a try.”

Mark and I are the same age and share the enthusiasm for the digital future.  His comments came in the session “Adapting Now to the Digital Future” at the SPJ National Convention this past weekend..

Other reporters asked Mark: Doesn’t carrying around that equipment inhibit you?  A little, he said, but learning to gather video and audio also improved his reporting skills.

“Having to do that made me much more aware of the sights and sounds and smells,” he said. “I found it deepened my reporting and, in the end, it was a better experience for the reader.”

Joining the panel: Jody Brannon, senior editor of MSN.com, and Chet Rhodes, who provides video training for WashingtonPost.com.

Jody said the keys driving to MSN’s audience are bright headlines and tight, concise writing.

Among her advice on attracting views:

• Visuals are key
• Headlines are imperative:  five times as many people will read the head as read the body of the story.
• “Boring is well … boring.”

The real fun of the new on-line reporting community is not limiting yourself, she said.  You don’t always have to have video.  Sometimes good writing is all you need. But keep the tools available, know how to use them and, most importantly, when to use them.

“Be a producer,” she said. “Find the best way to tell a story.”

Chet said the Washington Post has three levels of video: reporters should know how to do at least the first two.

Tier 1:  A simple clip that tells a story or adds depth to a story. Rhodes said this is a favorite example by reporter Kevin Sullivan.

Tier 2: An interview with B-roll to illustrate it.

Tier 3:  A full documentary style video.  This is mostly left to the videography staff.

Chet trains some 140 reporters on multimedia each month – not just in the on-line department but throughout the newsroom.

“We need to change our whole newsroom from a newspaper to a news enterprise,” he said.

Great advice all newsrooms need to be following.

SOCIAL NETWORKING TO BECOME A BETTER JOURNALIST

Wrapping up some impressing on-line training, Amy Gahran of Boulder, Colo., and Barb Iverson of Chicago presented Sunday’s “Web Productivity and Tech Tools Workout,” which provided a real exercise in Web 2.0.

I love the online presenters, because they come with their own web and links pages:

Included is a discussion of social networking and how it can help make us all better journalists.

And start using search feeds to help dig up info on your daily beat.

If  you’re looking for more apps and widgets, check out Amy and Barb’s links list.

Some of them may even help you better manage life.

Rob Curley, a fellow self-proclaimed “nerd” from Kansas, wrote an excellent article in The Journalist about how news organizations can survive the tech race.

“I’ve come to believe there are basically two types of newspaper publishers: those who think the most important part of the word newspaper is ‘news’ and those who think the most important part of that word is ‘paper,’ ” Curley writes.  “If you work for a publisher or a company that thinks ‘paper’ is the most important part of that word, then my suggestion would be to get your resume ready.”

Looking around at individuals within those companies, about half the people I work with fall into the “news” category. The other half still clings to “paper” as everything.  I think most newsrooms are that way.

Over the next several days, I’m going to blog about Curley’s “seven basic things we can do to succeed in our industry.”  We’ll talk about each step and how we as individual journalists can learn what we need to do to steer our organizations in the right direction.

I’m hoping this will stir some response in terms of comments here and discussion on other blogs.  Let’s follow Curley’s step No. 7, making this a dialogue, not a monologue.

Because saving journalism is up to all of us.

Besides the legendary reunion of Woodward and Bernstein , the SPJ Convention had a wealth of multimedia and tech workshops.  It may take me a few days to catch up with all of it, but I plan to share as much information as possible.
To me, the real emphasis throughout the weekend in D.C. was that you couldn’t beat a strong writing background.  This is encouraging to those of us who’ve built our careers on words, pounding keyboards and scribbling in notebooks, entering an era where visual storytelling is dominant.
“Let this equipment, the pens we us to write on paper and the pens we use to capture video and audio, let those things help us to tell the story,” said John Strauss, senior reporter and editor for IndyStar.com, in his session on backpack journalism.
The talk was the same whether it was coming from Strauss, preaching to gospel of multimedia in a workshop, or talking with award-winning investigative television reporter Hagit Limor (WCPO-TV, Cincinnati) and news director Vince Duffy  (Michigan Public Radio) setting around a table in the hotel lounge late at night. Limor and Duffy’s advice to a young broadcast journalist was the same:  it’s all about the writing.
If we remember that we’re still telling stories, no matter what form we use, it’s the start to breaking through our imagined barriers about new technology and what will be required of us as our industry changes.
“Keep it simple; let people tell their stories,” Strauss said.
Of course, I liked Strauss because we’re of similar minds that we shouldn’t let equipment, or lack thereof, get in the way of telling a good story.  Strauss works his stories with a point-and-shoot camera, the Canon Powershot S-5 (under $300)

For more,  read Strauss’ notes, links and examples from his workshop.

Now I can hear some teeth gnashing from those on the visual and photo side, concerned that quality is being ignored in all of this talk about sending reporters out into the field with point-and-shoot cameras.
Rest assured.
“Defend quality,” Strauss said.  Tell editors you need the time to learn the tools and how to do it right.  Maybe start on features or evergreen stories that don’t pressure for deadlines and move to hard news and daily rigors only when you’re ready.
Also the SPJ Convention offered not just one, but two workshops throughout the weekend on teaching those who weren’t reared on photography the basics of that point-and-shoot camera.
New York Times photographer David Handschuh ran “Photo 101 for Reporters, Editors (and other non-photo people) on Thursday.  Chip Somodeville, staff photographer for Getty Images led Saturday’s “From Word-herders to Shutter-bugs: Photography for Writers.”
“Your two most important tools,” Somodeville said, “are you left foot and your right foot.”
Use them, he said, to move around, get the right angles, the right light and the right framework for your photos.

I know. I know.  I’ve really blown this blog thing lately.  But coming to D.C. to the SPJ National Conference has fired me up again.

There’s some multimedia training going on, but it’s also great to talk to journalists around the country, who all seem to have the same enthusiasm for new ways of storytelling, while experiencing the same struggles and frustrations.

More about those later.

Thursday, I attended a solid workshop on “Working with a Videographer” featuring Gannett News Service journalists Ledge King and Maria Fowler. Ledge is a national education reporter; Maria is a multimedia journalist.  While they work as a team, they tailored their program with the understanding that many of us working for daily.coms are going solo.  Their training covered the basics and also had some helpful tips to those of us who have been learning for a while.

Among the tips I found most helpful involved working on projects.

Ledge said he did his print-style reporting first, doing the longer, more detailed interviews traditionally, with notebook and pen in hand.  That way, he gets a better grasp of the story, and he doesn’t end up wading through hours of video footage in editing.  Then he and Maria go back to just shoot for video.  They do shorter interviews, about 10 minutes, collect their b-rolls and other images and put it all together.  They believe videos should be able to stand alone.

Maria also recommended newcomers try what she called the “one-take” videos.  This works best on an explanatory piece, where you have a source who can also demonstrate a process.  Shoot it in one take, slowly zooming to detail and back out to the person talking.

Repeat, slowly.

“The key to making this look professional is moving the camera slowly and keeping your zooming slow and deliberate,” she said. “I wouldn’t kick anyone out of the room for bringing this kind of video to me.”

UPDATE: Here’s a good example of a one-take video from WashingtonPost.com and reporter Rick Atkinson.

The session did was it aimed to do:  making multimedia seem less intimidating.

Later today:  “Be All That You Can Be: The Backpack Journalist” by John Strauss, news and multimedia editor of IndyStar.com in Indianapolis.