Ron Nurwisah, Boy Reporter

This edition of the digest is going to be sillier than usual… but it IS Monday, so that’s ok? Right?

Spring, and love is in the air. But beware these first date faux pas young lovers. BEWARE.

Dork vs. nerd vs. dweeb finally explained using a Venn diagram.

Twitter and dating advice from @jeremywright.

An adorable gal recites pi to the 100th digit, solves Rubik’s cube while balancing books on her head. Wonder what she’s like on a first date?

What compels people to want to transform animals into mantelpiece trophies, tacky roadside totems, or even diorama specimens? On the one hand, nothing seems as ludicrous as taking an animal and transforming it into a replica of itself. Why kill it in the first place? On the other hand, few objects are as strangely alluring as Flaubert’s parrot, Goethe’s kingfisher, or Truman Capote’s rattlesnake. Or, for that matter, as out of context as, say, Fenway Partners’ upright grizzly bear in its corporate boardroom in Manhattan. - from Melissa Milgrom’s Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy

Photo from Field Museum library archive.

Update: Jeremy’s entertaining and informative presentation is available.

Karaoke-pal Jeremy Wright gave the keynote at this year’s Wordcamp on how and why social media can fail.

He’s promised to post his camel-filled slides online and I’ll update that soon. For now, here are my rough notes.

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Social media failures

Believe it or not social media can’t do everything. It often fails. Jeremy Wright outlines a few reasons why below:

Overinflated sense of self-worth

Because of hype social media practitioners feel like they’re the shit… but there is an echo-chamber effect. Not everyone is on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, etc. Not everyone cares about how good at it you are.

Spam

Comment spam, DM spam, etc. are all a pain in the ass and cheapen the value of social media. It’s very easy to be overwhelmed by it too.

Mob mentality

Social media can amplify a backlash (i.e. Motrin, Nestle).

Some people go out of their way to be “social media terrorists”

Twitter interns

Big companies try to do this on the cheap. Lame

No strategic direction, no support

The drive for followers

Some people get “follower envy” and want to accrue followers by sometimes annoying and idiotic ways (auto-follow, spamming, etc.)

@aplusk vs. @cnnbrk

The Social Media cult…

“If you don’t use Twitter, I’m sorry but you’re an idiot” - @unmarketing

The social media community can be a bit of an echo chamber. Sometimes the community aspect is great, but other times it shuts out divergent views.

Acting like we deserve it

Are we owed anything? Uhm, no. Stay humble and respectful.

Automation is EVIL

It’s deceiving. Autofollow, etc. SUCKS!

Broadcasting is NOT engagement. It’s SOCIAL media not social MEDIA.

Assholery as insight

Being a jerk doesn’t make you right…. it just makes you an asshole

Hypocrisy

Don’t be a hypocrite. People will call you out on it.

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Stay away if…

• someone is talking more than listening
• you’re being more media than social
• more tweets than eye contact
• leading with a business card…
• watch out for the word “leverage”

Tips:

• Listen more than you talk
• SOCIAL media, not social MEDIA
• Give more than you get
• Don’t paint the old as new
• Don’t steal
• Things look easier from the outside

As promised in my post about being an awesome intern, I’m giving some tips to people who are responsible for interns.

In media and publishing interns are integral and a lot of excellent places wouldn’t function without their interns. But just as it’s important for an intern to be professional and keen to work, it’s equally as important for editors and managers to treat their interns respectfully and responsibly. A few quick tips:

1) Have clear goals and expectations

What time do you want your intern to show up? What time can they leave? What kind of work do you want them to do? These are simple questions, but sometimes these aren’t communicated well to the intern. When expectations are set out clearly then both intern and editor are on the same page.

2) Always have work ready

Interns are there to learn and an unproductive intern is a waste of time and effort for the both of you. Ask yourself, is there research that needs to be done? Writing that can be started? Special projects, etc.

3) Learn how to delegate

If you’re a perfectionist or a control freak, this is going to be tough. But it’s necessary. And giving your intern a bit of trust and responsibility can really go a long way and stop you from going crazy.

4) Train them properly

Spend a bit of time at the start of the internship showing the intern how things work. This investment of time at the start will recoup itself in no time.

5) Make them feel like a part of the staff

Grab coffee with them, let them join in during meetings, introduce them to your co-workers. Your workplace can be intimidating, particularly if it’s a large office, dispelling some of their anxiety is just a nice thing to do.

It’s going to take me a few weeks to go through all of this but there’s a glut of stuff about the future of journalism right now.

Nieman lab has an extensive roundup of journalism/media related things from the SXSWi conference

I will probably be sitting around for the next two or three days trying to grok the Jay Rosen, Matt Thompson, Tristan Harris talk on context and news.

Over in the U.K. we’ve got journalism pointyheads at the Guardian’s Changing Media Summit.

I’m going to highlight this panel discussion with Wikipedia’s Jim Wales, Newser’s Michael Wolff and the BBC’s Erik Huggers.

Finally, if you haven’t read it yet, the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism released its State of the News Media report.

The two-penny summary? Ads are down, readers are a fickle, fickle bunch but hey, people are innovating…

Photo by Nina Leen from the George Eastman House collection.

My co-worker Adam McDowell has decided to try out the caveman diet and blog about it.

He will not be chasing down woolly mammoths and grappling with sabretooth tigers. They’re not very common in downtown Toronto. I blame climate change.

From his caveman blog:

Starting Wednesday I’m undertaking a one-month experiment in adding aspects of a paleolithic man’s daily round into my 21st-century urban existence. I want to see how far I can travel in the footsteps of our Stone Age hunter-gatherer ancestors — at least in terms of the way I eat and keep fit — while making a living as a writer for theNational Post, a daily Canadian newspaper based in Toronto.

Photo from Adam’s caveman blog.

Earlier this week I read this synopsis of a Columbia Journalism Review study on magazines and their online presence. It doesn’t look good.

Magazine publishers and editors know that the web is important. They’re losing readers and attention to blogs, social media and probably even chatroulette. But instead of getting smart, adapting, changing and putting out a great product online most magazines limp along and still don’t get it. A few reasons why:

1) They’re still not finding the right people

Most websites were staffed by people who primarily worked on the print editions, and less than a quarter of staff  [ed. I think she means a third, here] were hired with web experience (29 per cent).

Hiring people with web experience probably isn’t the easiest thing to do. Many publishing and journalism programs aren’t too sure how to teach these skills and they change so fast that what you learn might be out of  date by the time you graduate.

But not hiring dedicated web staff is just foolish. Downloading extra web responsibilities to staffers who can’t dedicate their attention to it, or see it as a second priority, because undoubtedly the print product always comes first, will mean an inferior product.

2) More traffic equals more revenue

The study points out that most sites are still making cash off ads so it’s pretty easy to see why the sites with more traffic are the ones that are likely profitable.

And if advertising (and traffic) is the lifeblood of your site it makes these next facts particularly gobsmacking.

Roughly half of magazines surveyed use metrics to guide content decisions (47 per cent), but only 8 per cent closely monitor and rely on them.

Less than half use traffic statistics (43 per cent), and those that do so regularly for content decisions are significantly more likely to be profitable.

Eight per cent! If magazines paid this little attention to print circulation and market patterns they’d be out of business a long time ago. This isn’t an inability to adapt, this is just neglect pure and simple.

Update: Here’s Wired’s presentation at SXSW on their iPad app prototype. Mediaite rounds up some reactions to it too.

Wired rocks audience at SXSW with iPad demo from Mangrove on Vimeo.

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UBC journalism professor Alfred Hermida pointed me to Bonnier and BERG’s amazing  concept video of how the iPad (or other tablet devices) could work.

The Guardian’s Mercedes Bunz also pulls together a few more.

I thought I’d round-up the ones that have been floating around the internet for the last few months and give my brief take on some of them. I’ve focused on magazines and included a few more general demo videos. But the possibilities for things such as gaming, social networking, etc. are mindboggling.

Bonnier, BERG’s Mags+

Apple’s iPad commercial

Adobe and Wired

(more…)

In the last few months I came to the realization that I’ve gone from being a veteran intern to the guy who’s actually in charge of working with them. I’ve also talked to a number of my friends in media and publishing who are in similar situations.

So while these things are still fresh in my mind, I’m going to write a few quick hints and tips for those who are interning. These aren’t hard rules, internships can vary greatly from place to place, but follow most of these and you can make the most of even a bad internship.

1) Don’t say no to work

Yes, I know it’s an unpaid internship. Yes, I know you came to learn about how a newspaper, magazine or publishing house works and it looks oh, so glamourous on TV and in the movies, but most of the time it isn’t.

There’s stuff that needs to get done, listings need to be typed up and checked, packages need to be mailed out, mailing lists needs to be updated. Suck it up and do it. And when you’re done ask for more. Don’t huff, don’t roll your eyes and complain. Almost every editor and writer would’ve had to do this at some time and they’ll tell you that they remember the interns who don’t want to work or think it’s beneath them.

2) Do your work fast, do it well

Internships are tryouts. Do your best work at everything, even if it’s something as tiny as checking facts or writing a 200-word sidebar, or mailing out packages. We notice stand-out work. Do it fast. There’s always more work around the corner. Do both of these things and we’ll love you forever.

3) Think, think, think

Dissect the publication you’re working at. Look at what they do and if you think you’ve got a better idea, don’t be afraid to mention it. Many times, publications get in a rut because of familiarity AND because tired editors just don’t have time to do things a different way. Showing that you’re thinking critically about a publication gets noticed.

4) Look at the competition

Read other papers, other magazines and blogs. See what great ideas other places have? Is there any way you can ‘steal’ some of these ideas? Showing initiative and interest is appreciated. There’s tons to read and check out and having a keen pair of eyes scouring for good stuff is always appreciated in any newsroom.

5) Don’t be afraid to ask questions

Don’t know how to do something? Ask for help. Editors often forget that interns don’t actually know how to work on the obscure content management system in the newsroom or the arcana that is the office media list. Forgive our addled brains.

Sometimes we’re also really shitty at giving directions, so it never hurts to ask for direction.

In a few days, for the sake of fairness, I’ll post rules for editors who are managing interns