Who We Are: Social Media Mavens: Exploring New Media Tools

On March 22, 2011, the Journalism staff attended a presentation at Tribeca Flashpoint Academy in downtown Chicago organized by the MacArthur Foundation. Featured speaker Howard Tullman, President and CEO of Tribeca, zipped through more than a hundred different applications of digital media and new technologies to the business, government and nonprofit worlds. We were thoroughly impressed by the numerous possibilities and implications for news, media and digital learning. Most of us are familiar with Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia, but here are some useful social media tools you may not have heard of. Here’s our take on how a few of these tools might come in handy for journalists and media makers:

• Instapaper.com –This tool allows you to bookmark content as you run across it for later reading. Once you bookmark your content, you can go back later and read it on your kindle, computer, iPhone, iPad and soon your iTouch. If you are researching an idea for a story, you might use Instapaper to store articles for future reading.

• Alltop.com –This site allows you to see what’s going on by aggregating headlines from websites and blogs based on topics you are interested in. Alltop’s website describes itself as “an information filter to help you find your nuggets of gold.” This is another tool that could be useful while researching a story.

• Twistori.com –This site helps you visualize Twitter. It pulls keywords from Twitter and when you click on them, you can see related tweets and pictures. Twistori could give your readers a way to visualize twitter based on common words.

• Addictomatic.com –This site gives you the latest “buzz” on a subject. You can create a page with links to article, social media, videos, Google searches and more on any topic you’re interested in. The site might be a way to give your readers background knowledge and additional reading on a subject, or a great way to research a topic.

• Kickstarter.com –Kickstarter helps fund creative projects. If a project fits its guidelines, Kickstart will provide a way for individuals to pledge to fund your project in return for rewards. This might be a great resource for journalists looking to gain funding for a new project.

• Wix.com – Wix helps you create your own website, from a template, or from scratch. If you are looking for an internet presence for your organization or your portfolio, you might use Wix to create a website .