Talking Points

Information for Today’s Communications Experts

Gamesmanship Can a computer game improve the kind of citizen journalism we saw in Ferguson? https://www.yahoo.com/tech/can-a-computer-game-improve-citizen-journalism-96546515154.html

Lessons Learned Missouri professor: ‘You could teach a whole course on Ferguson’ http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/265743/missouri-professor-you-could-teach-a-whole-course-on-ferguson/

Crossing Over A journalism degree — it’s not just for media jobs anymore. http://dksheets.com/2014/08/07/7-reasons-why-your-company-should-hire-a-journalist/

Danger Ahead Is robo-journalism gaining momentum? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/11/robot-journalism-good-technology-_n_5577651.html

Campus Crackdown The University of Kansas says educators can be fired for controvercial online cmooents. Journalism professionals say it's dangerous censorship. http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/17993/

Instigator The reporter behind the NSA leak bombshell says he wanted his story to ignite a debate. Is journalism getting too obedient to people in power? http://www.dw.de/greenwald-i-wanted-a-debate-about-journalism/a-17662154

Awakening Someone at the New York Times leaked an internal report detailing the paper’s online challenges—and it’s a stunning tutorial on consumer viewing habits, what works online and what doesn’t. http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/05/the-leaked-new-york-times-innovation-report-is-one-of-the-key-documents-of-this-media-age/

Bright Ideas What should journalism look like in the 21st Century? A panel of innovative thinkers has presented ideas at Stanford University, giving us all some food for thought. http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2014/05/07/re-engineering-journalism-at-stanford/

Grounded Media coverage of this week’s severe tornados is raising questions about “drone journalism” — using the small, remote-controlled devices to shoot aerial news footage. The FAA isn’t sure that idea should take flight. http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2014/04/29/faa-looking-into-arkansas-tornado-drone-journalism-raising-first-amendment-questions/

A Man’s World Does America have a problem with female journalists? A study from the Women’s Media Center says in the nation’s top 20 TV networks, newspapers, online news sites and wire services 64% of bylines and on-camera appearances go to men. http://wmc.3cdn.net/2e85f9517dc2bf164e_htm6 2xgan.pdf

No Bark / No Bite ? Is the art of investigative journalism dying … and does America care? http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/04/11/14580/why-arent-more-people-alarmed-falling-numbers-reporters

Homegrown Evidence suggests that hyper-local news coverage isn’t working, especially online where a broad audience is necessary for making money. http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/charting-the-years-long-decline-of-local-news-reporting/2014/03/26/977bf088-b457-11e3-b899-20667de76985_story.html

Error-free An Ohio media group is determined to erase the pesky errors tarnishing its newspapers. http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2014/04/02/northeast-ohio-media-group-knows-it-has-a-typo-problem

Turnaround Has the decline in American newsrooms finally turned a corner? Pew Research says more investors are stepping up and more jobs are being created. http://www.journalism.org/packages/state-of-the-news-media-2014/

Labor Pains Fear of outsourcing jobs has videographers, editors and technicians at a local TV station launching a boycott. More> http://labortribune.com/ibew-local-4-urges-turn-off-channel-5-as-full-scale-boycott-begins/

Robo-journalism Within three minutes of a recent California earthquake hitting, the Los Angeles Times had a story written and uploaded on its website. How is that humanly possible? With the help of a story-generating robot. More > http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/03/17/quakebot_los_angeles_times_ robot_journalist_writes_article_on_la_earthquake.html

Out in the Open Efforts are underway in the state capital to revamp Missouri’s 40-year-old Sunshine Law, the tool used by media and the public to keep government honest and transparent. More >http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/let-sunshine-getting-ahold-open-records-missouri

‘This is what media should do.’ Eli Pariser, co-founder of Upworthy.com, the wildly popular site that’s generating viral content seen by millions, says today’s news media need to find better ways to engage the public. Speaking at the SXSW festival, Pariser says the job of media is to “help us understand what life for other people is like.” Read more at > http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/243157/upworthy-co-founder-at-sxsw-this-is-what-media-should-do/

On-Air Post-Dispatch editorial page editor Tony Messenger talks with Press Club board member DJ Wilson about life at STL’s paper of record, opinions on marijuana laws in the Show-Me State and more > http://kdhx.org/ondemand/podcasts/collateraldamage/tony-messenger-3

Plugged In How is it that a tiny Ohio police department few have ever heard of has an insanely popular Facebook page with more than 100,000 followers? The answer is an outspoken and charismatic police chief, who can teach us a lot about making the most of social media > http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-pros-podcast/forget-best-practices-get-100000-likes-with-your-genuine-voice/