Advanced Web Journalism - The module blog assessment

You have to do a module blog as one of the assessments for AWJ. I'd like you to put two different things on your blogs. First, I'd like you to track new stories about the way the net is changing journalism, stories about the potential of online journalism and multimedia reporting and storytelling. 

The idea is for you to identify some key sources for that kind of news, read them regularly and each week write something about what'd you'd found out that week. 

You could write about all sorts of things: 

• Key trends and big ongoing stories (e.g. Google and its influence/plans)
• New products and ideas (e.g. the iPad and the various magazines being planned for it)
• Useful bits of research or analysis on the net and journalism
• Interesting sites you find that show the possibilities of online journalism

This is not really about writing a lot - unless you want to. The posts you write can be short - perhaps just a link, a quote and a sentence or two from you. The real aim of the assessment is to get you to develop the habits that will help you when you start working in the real world. Journalism is changing and the journalists who are successful in the future will be those who are on top of the way things are changing, who can spot new ideas and opportunities. 

Here are some of the sources I use for tracking this kind of news. So here are some links you might find useful: 

• The New York Times, its Technology section and its Bits blog
• The Guardian, its Technology section, its Media section
• The Nieman Journalism Lab
• The Media Shift Idea Lab
• Wired
• Online Journalism Blog
• Journalism.co.uk
• Mashable
• Adam Westbrook
• Jay Rosen
• 10,000 Words
• Nicholas Carr 
• GigaOm
• Techdirt
• Techmeme
• Mediagazer

There are lots of other ways to track this kind of news - we'll look at some of them in class. We'll probably look at how to use Twitter to keep tabs on tech trends and new links. We may also look at tools like Netvibes and Delicious. 

So, to recap, one thing you have to do on the module blog is short updates on new developments in online journalism and new media...

Along with that, it would be good if you could do something similar with a field of your own choosing - music, fashion, politics - whatever. Pick an area you want to write about or work in in future and start tracking new stories, trends and ideas and log what you find on your blog... Again, this isn't about writing a lot - it's about using your blog to track and quickly comment on new ideas... 

Towards the end of the module I will also get you to write some evaluations of your individual and group assessment work... We can talk about that closer to the time. The deadline for finishing all this will be Wednesday May 4th.