This blog launched by the Society of Professional Journalists Digital Media Committee (DMC) aims to help news professionals wanting to learn more — in a hurry — about technology.

Net Worked will house informative and instructional training on how to use digital media to make your reporting more interactive. Our mission is to better prepare you for journalism in the 21st century newsroom.

Contact us via email: spj_dmc@yahoo.com

Contact us via Twitter: @spj_dmc

Topics that will consistently be covered include:

• Video/Live streaming

• Writing for the Web

• Entrepreneurialism

• Mobile devices and apps

• Graphic design

• Social Media

Digital Media Committee Members

Jennifer Peebles

Jennifer Peebles is a deputy editor at Texas Watchdog, a nonprofit online news site that launched last year, covering local and state government in the Houston area.

She previously served as the government editor of The Tennessean, where she led the team that uncovered a rash of sexual harassment in Tennessee state government, prompting state leaders to change the way harassment cases are reported. She also oversaw an investigation into the Tennessee Highway Patrol that unearthed deep-seated cronyism and a scheme in which troopers were promoted after making campaign contributions to connected politicians.

She is the 2009 winner of the Open Doors Award given by the Fort Worth Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. She is a board member of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, a a former board member of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, and is a past president of the Middle Tennessee Pro Chapter of SPJ.

Contact me

Twitter: @jpeebles (also @texaswatchdog — shared account for our site)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jennifer.peebles
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/jenniferpeebles
Delicious: jlpeebles
Digg: LostMyPen
NewsVine: http://jpeebles.newsvine.com/

Emily Sweeney

Emily Sweeney is a staff reporter at The Boston Globe. She was one of the first writers at the Globe to carry a camcorder on assignments and produce videos for the newspaper’s website. Her work has been featured on New England Cable News, The Howard Stern Show, and numerous other media outlets. Emily is a member of the Boston Globe’s Speakers Bureau and frequently gives talks at schools, universities, and industry events. She currently serves as president of the New England Pro chapter of SPJ.

Contact me

Twitter: http://twitter.com/emilysweeney
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/spikeyem
Website: http://www.emilysweeney.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/emilysweeney
SPJ Chapter Website: http://nespj.blogspot.com/

Jeff Achen

Jeff Achen is the online editor and multimedia producer for Thisweek Newspapers/Thisweeklive.com. Jeff is also a freelance videographer and photographer. His freelance work can be seen at http://www.jeffachenvideography.com and http://www.mnvideopro.com.

Jeff has reported for the Times newspaper in Thief River Falls and WDAZ Channel 8 television in Grand Forks, N. D. He’s also interned at the Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice in San Diego, an extension of his graduate studies on the role of the news media in conflict. He is a four-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, 1993-97, and served in the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Nepal as a Peace Corps Volunteer from 2002-03. He has taught basic and advanced media writing, video editing and production, and public speaking courses at the University of North Dakota.

In addition to his role as Thisweek online editor, Jeff also represents fellow Minnesota journalists as secretary of the Minnesota Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He lives in Apple Valley, Minnesota with his wife Jennifer and daughter Kaitlyn.
Contact me

Website: http://www.jeffachen.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jeffachen
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffachen

Hilary Fosdal – Chairwoman

Hilary Fosdal

Hilary Fosdal is a new media editor at the Law Bulletin Publishing Company (LBPC). Prior to joining LBPC she worked for Barrington Broadcasting Group as the interactive content manager. She managed the day-to-day online news operations of the company’s 21 television stations based in 15 markets throughout the nation, from Columbia, South Carolina to the far reaches of Marquette, MI.

She also worked for Quincy Newspapers Inc., as an assignment editor at WKOW in Madison, Wisconsin and at WXOW in La Crosse, Wisconsin as an internet director and assignment editor. Beijing, China was called home for several years while she consulted for the People’s Daily & Market Daily newspapers.

She graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a master’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communications. She also currently serves as the Society of Professional Journalists’ Chicago Headline Club secretary and webmaster.

Contact me

Blog: http://hilaryfosdal.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/hilaryfosdal
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/runningforfood
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/hilaryfosdal

Amanda Maurer

Amanda Maurer joined the Chicago Tribune in March 2008 for a trial social media project. A few months later she was brought on full-time to coordinate all social network and news initiatives for the Chicago Tribune, as well as work as the newsroom’s SEO liason. In May 2009 she joined the chicagotribune.com as an online staff producer and now divides her time between working on the Web site and forwarding the Chicago Tribune’s social media efforts.

Amanda graduated from Columbia College Chicago in May 2008.

Contact me

http://www.acmaurer.com/
http://twitter.com/acmaurer
http://www.facebook.com/amanda.maurer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/acmaurer

Rebecca Aguilar

Rebecca Aguilar is a freelance multimedia reporter in Dallas.  For 28 years, she has been a television news reporter.  More than two years ago she turned her focus to multimedia.   She is currently working on her certification in Multimedia Development.   She writes online stories and produces digital slideshow, and video packages.  She’s contributed work to pegasusnews.com and latinalista.net.

Rebecca worked for 14 years at the Fox affiliate in Dallas, Texas.  Prior to landing in Dallas she worked at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles,  KPNX-TV in Phoenix,  KENS-TV in San Antonio, KRIS-TV in Corpus Christi, WLS-TV in Chicago, and WDHO-TV (now WNWO-TV) in Toledo.   She’s a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), The Women’s Media Center, Online News Association, Lone Star Emmy Chapter, and former member of IRE.  Rebecca conducts workshops and panels for many of these organizations including the Texas Association of Broadcasters.

So far, Rebecca has 47 awards and nominations for her work.  This includes 2007 NAHJ Broadcast Journalist of the Year Award, and the 2005 Texas AP Television Reporter of the Year Award and 7 Emmy Awards.

When Rebecca is not reporting, she is teaching other reporters how to improve their skills.  She’s also teaching print reporters and photographers how to write and produce video packages and use their own voice as voice over.   And she’s teaching non-media types not to fear the media or social networks. Not only does she do this in English, but Spanish too.  Rebecca is bilingual thanks to her wonderful parents.

Contact me

http://www.linkedin.com/in/reporterrebeccaaguilar
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=1370331892&ref=profile
http://twitter.com/RebeccaAguilar
aguilar.thereporter@yahoo.com

Daniel Axelrod – Vice-Chairman

Daniel Axelrod spent five years as a full-time newspaper reporter, most recently with The Times-Tribune in Scranton, PA, before moving into public relations in April 2009. A native of Rocky Point, NY, he holds a bachelor’s degree in history and communications from SUNY Cortland and a journalism master’s degree from Syracuse University.

From 2004 to 2009, Daniel won 12 newspaper journalism awards from state press associations in New York, New England and Pennsylvania. His stories have examined the rising number of opiate addicts in Northeast Pennsylvania, investigated development in the Poconos and spotlighted the effects from years of under-funding schools in Plymouth, MA.

Daniel is president of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Keystone Pro Chapter, which covers most of Pennsylvania, and vice-chairman of SPJ’s national Digital Media Committee. In his spare time, he enjoys freelancing and adjunct teaching writing and communications courses at local colleges. In May 2010, Daniel served as a fellow in The Knight Digital Media Center’s Multimedia Reporting and Convergence Workshop at UC Berkeley. 

Contact me

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/danaxelrod

Email: deaxelrod@msn.com

Jessica Durkin

Jessica Durkin is a Knight Media Policy Fellow with the New America Foundation, a Washington, DC-based, nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute. She also serves as Region 3 director for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, for which she represents Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, DC.

Jessica is the founder of www.inothernews.us, a directory of online, independent news start-ups across the United States. Her interests lie in media reform and examining local news alternatives to traditional media. She comes from a print journalism background, and her professional newspaper career began when Maine’s largest newspaper, the Portland Press-Herald, awarded her a minority internship in the summer of 2004.

From there, Jessica was hired by the Norwich Bulletin, a former Gannett paper in eastern Connecticut, where she initially covered the two largest Indian casinos in the world, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, and the tribes that ran them. She later covered several municipalities in the paper’s territory, and she was on a team of reporters who chronicled the first execution of a Connecticut death row inmate in 45 years. In 2007, Jessica was hired by The Times-Tribune in  Scranton, Penn, where she worked on a regional beat and served as a night police reporter until 2009.

A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, Jessica holds a bachelor’s degree in communications-journalism from Cal Poly Pomona in Southern California. She is currently a candidate for a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree from the University of Pittsburgh. 

Contact me

http://hainna.typepad.com/about.html
http://www.inothernews.us
e-mail: jessdrkn@gmail.com