Register Now: Webinar on Youth and Information Quality

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society and McCormick Foundation Present A Webinar on Youth and Information Quality.  

A McCormick Media Matters Webinar 

Date: April 20, 2012 
Time: 2 pm CT/ 3 pm ET 
FREE 

Register now

Learn from experts at the Berkman Center about how young people interact with digital media. If you want to learn more about news literacy and get ideas for various news literacy applications for youth, you won't want to miss this free webinar!

Program Description 

The Youth and Media Team at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society will introduce the concept of "information quality" and discuss where it comes from and why it's useful for looking at how young people interact with the Internet and digital media. Youth practices of searching for, evaluating, creating, and sharing online information will be at the center of this conversation. In many respects, such practices - and the underlying skills - form the core of “digital citizenship”.  The Internet affords young people myriad opportunities to consume and create news information and to participate in online networks, which require various types of interactions with online information. 

The webinar will start with a discussion of key insights from the Berkman report, “Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality.” The report describes the process by which youth engage with online information, including the connected phases of information seeking, evaluating, creating, and sharing. The report also considers how youths' dynamic process of information use can differ at home, among friends, or at school. After introducing these ideas, the webinar will discuss how the online news ecosystem is a rich setting for testing the potential of youth content creation. When youth create media, they often enhance their searching and evaluating skills in the process. By consuming and contributing news in new ways, youth are changing what it means to be a citizen and participant in online communities. 


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Viral Video: Careful, This Stuff's Powerful

For the past four years, the Sunshine Press, which operates the non-profit website WikiLeaks, has caused quite a stir among governments—both U.S. and international—by posting documents and information provided or “leaked” to it by anonymous sources close to those governments. As an example of just how seriously governments take WikiLeaks, a March 2008 U.S. cyber counterintelligence report posted on the site on March 15, 2010 details U.S. Intelligence’s plans to destroy WikiLeaks, citing that there is no way to determine whether sensitive or classified information is shared that might damage national security. WikiLeaks has persevered, although not without its share of censure (it’s been blocked by the governments of China, Zimbabwe, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam and Israel, for example).

But on April 5, it posted what is probably the most sensational material in its tenure: a classified 18-minute video leaked by an anonymous Pentagon source that allegedly shows the Apache helicopter killing of two Reuters employees and their rescuers outside of Baghdad in 2007, which it posted under the URL “CollateralMurder.com.” For the past three years, Reuters had unsuccessfully attempted to obtain this video and related materials from the Pentagon through the Freedom of Information Act.

WikiLeaks sent two reporters to Baghdad to research the story and interview the families of the victims and, according to founder Julian Assange, broke the code that encrypted the video. Within 24 hours of its posting, it had garnered over 1.3 million hits on YouTube. Critics of the video, including a helicopter pilot involved in the mission, state that the video is misleading in its portrayal of a malicious act rather than the result of confusion on the ground. But the mushroom effect of this video points up the immediacy of digital media and its powerful reach.

WikiLeaks is currently in the process of soliciting funds to cover the costs of releasing another video showing civilian killings in Afghanistan. The organization has operated on a budget of about $600,000 per year, and states that it has currently raised just over half of that for 2010. It claims to have thousands of pages of documents that it cannot share with the world due to limited capacity, but its method of digital sharing appears to be a cost-effective one: even $10 can cover the cost of releasing a document to 10,000 people.

As Assange puts it, “In terms of journalism efficiency, I think we discovered a lot with a small amount of resources.”

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'Be Bolder'... What Teens Want From Online News

The Newspaper Association of America Foundation and the Media Management Center have teamed up to explore the online news preferences of teens. Based on findings from previous studies of youth media patterns, researchers developed a series of prototypes of home pages and story-level pages, then tested them with 96 teens in focus groups in six cities. The result is a new report and upcoming one-hour Webinar, to take place April 23.

In a nutshell, the report recommends a bolder approach in packaging news for teens. “Given that teen responses were very similar to those of adults who are light readers, researchers recommend creating a new type of site - not just for teens, but for all people who lack experience with news and have a limited amount of time to get engaged with it.”

For more on this research, click here:
http://www.mediamanagementcenter.org/blogs/mike/2009/04/what-teens-want-from-online-news.html

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Washington State Hosts Specialized Reporting Institute on Second Life

Word was that the questions from the Avatars were tougher than those that came from the real world audience.

WSU’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication has just wrapped up a two-day, MF-funded conference for reporters on covering virtual reality, with real-life and 2nd Life speakers Helen Thomas and Bob Schieffer converging on stage at the same time. There was, as you’d expect, a good amount of new media coverage of this one as it unfolded.

To follow some of this fascinating event, visit links below.

Some great coverage can be found at:
http://nwn.blogs.com
http://eurekadejavu.blogspot.com/2009/04/launch-of-journalistic-experiment.html

Live photo stream at:
http://www.koinup.com/sim/WSU+II

Twitter round up at:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22virtual+journalism+summit%22

A humorous read at:
http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2009/04/virtual-journalism-heavyweights-gather-in-virtual-journalism-summit.html

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Knight Funds Facebook News Apps

The Knight Foundation’s grant to News Cloud to develop Facebook applications has just launched. The goal was to see how social networking sites can be used to spread news, particularly among young people.

One is general news, provided by the University of Minnesota Daily newspaper; the other is concerned solely with environmental news, provided by www.grist.org. A University of Minnesota researcher will study the effects of each of these apps.

The links are:
http://apps.facebook.com/mndaily

http://apps.facebook.com/hotdish

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Newspapers and the Unthinkable

Check out a fascinating piece by Clay Shirky (a media consultant and adjunct professor at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program) on newspapers and the Internet at http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/.

Coming out a week after the infamous "10 Major Papers That May Fold or Go Digital Next" piece on Wall St. 24/7, this thoughtful item harkens back to the mid-‘90s warnings of New Directions for News head Jean Gaddy Wilson and provides some much-needed context on what’s happened since. It manages to connect the enormous societal transformation that took place with the advent of printing (“we’re collectively living through 1500”) to the approaches that newspapers took to the Internet throughout the 1990s (“they were, at base, all the same plan: ‘Here’s how we’re going to preserve the old forms of organization in a world of cheap perfect copies!’”). It concludes:

“For the next few decades, journalism will be made up of overlapping special cases. Many of these models will rely on amateurs as researchers and writers. Many of these models will rely on sponsorship or grants or endowments instead of revenues. Many of these models will rely on excitable 14 year olds distributing the results. Many of these models will fail. No one experiment is going to replace what we are now losing with the demise of news on paper, but over time, the collection of new experiments that do work might give us the journalism we need.”

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Ethnic Media Initiative Underway in Chicago

Community Media Workshop, with support from McCormick, has boosted its media directory contacts for the area’s burgeoning ethnic media sector (see the directory at http://www.newstips.org/cart/index.php). Next up is a two-year grant from the Foundation for a CMW initiative aimed at boosting editorial content and online presence of the sector. For starters, check out Steve Franklin's newly created blog that covers the local ethnic media scene at:
http://chicagoistheworld.org/?cat=11

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We Media Hits Miami

The same day that staffers at the Rocky Mountain News learned that their paper was to be shuttered last week, a conference was taking place in Miami celebrating bright new innovations in the online media world.

We Media, which occurred February 24-26, brought together some 200 digital media executives, experts and entrepreneurs for panels, speeches, awards and networking. Highlights included a talk by expert pollster John Zogby; an interview of Rev. Lennox Yearwood, President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucusl; and University of Miami President Donna Shalala by U of Miami School of Communications Dean Sam Grogg and a talk on the future of media by Knight Foundation CEO Alberto Ibarguen.

Awards included the Pitch It awards - where new media innovators 'pitched' their concepts to a panel of judges to vie for start-up funding and the MF-sponsored Game Changes awards to innovators whose work inspires involvement and action through media.

For a roundup of coverage on the We Media conference, click here:
http://wemedia.com/2009/02/27/roundup-of-we-media-coverage

To see a Poynter item on Alberto Ibarguen's comments on the future of news as well as broader messages from We Media, click here:
http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=131&aid=159170

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Knight Foundation Co-Sponsors 'Twitter' Awards

KF + Sawhorse honor 26 leading Twitterers. For more:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003941037

Note to self: Story has 142 characters, including URL. Need to rewrite!

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Dollars for Ideas

Here at MF we get dozens of ideas for digital media news start-ups annually. Unfortunately, there's not enough support to seed all these ideas or projects, and our work is generally focused in other strategic journalism areas.

But we're happy to point out MF grantee J-Lab's New Voices grants program, that funds the launch of participatory community news ventures. The guidelines are pretty broad and innovation is encouraged.

If you want to start a new Web site or online community, check out their guidelines - they're accepting proposals through Feb. 12, 2009 - for more details at: www.j-newvoices.org/apply/V09.

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Online Time Makes Teens Lazy - Or Just Smarter?

The most extensive U.S. study on teens and use of digital media finds
that America's youth develop important social and technical skills
online, often in ways adults do not understand or value. "It might
surprise parents to learn that it is not a waste of time for their teens
to hang out online," said Mizuko Ito, University of California, Irvine
researcher and the report's lead author.

Released this week at the American Anthropological Association's annual
meeting, the extensive study was funded by the John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation's digital media and learning initiative. The
$50-million initiative is exploring how digital media is changing how
young people learn, play, socialize and participate in civic life.

"There are myths about kids spending time online - that it is dangerous or
making them lazy," said Ito. "But we found that spending time online is
essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills
they need to be competent citizens in the digital age."

To see the report, click here

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Web 2.0 Arrives at Committee to Protect Journalists

MF-funded Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) unveiled its new Web site this week, with some new bells, whistles and tools that will enable it to reach more people with timely information about defending journalists. Check it out here: www.cpj.org.

You'll notice some a new blog, RSS feeds and some foreign language pages. Key tools for a group working to protect international journalists.

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Your Vote Counts

Voting is en vogue these days. The impressive public interest in the national elections should lead to a record turnout in the general election and, as we know, participation is a key indicator in measuring the health of a democracy.
Now we have another way for you to express your opinion. The We Media Game Changers is a new MF-sponsored awards program that seeks to recognize people, groups, ideas and projects using media to connect people and create change. You can rate and review the 35 finalist nominees at: http://gamechangers.wemedia.com/.
The nominees range from digital projects at mainstream news organizations to blogs to funders of new media innovation. And in this race, your vote will count: The Community Choice winner, selected from online ratings, will be showcased at the We Media conference in Miami in February 2009. That's incentive enough to use media to inspire change!

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A Real World Wide Web...of International Journalists

Journalists and trainers from all across the globe can now connect more fluidly and effectively through the newly re-vamped IJNet.org online portal, run by MF grantee the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). IJNet has been the most popular portal for training opportunities for journalists worldwide since its inception in 1998, according to ICFJ. More than 18,000 people from 100 countries subscribe to its weekly bulletin.

The site's makeover means it's now Web 2.0 and features social networking tools for journalists to communicate, discussion forums, news on world journalism activities and more. True to its global roots, users can access materials in Arabic, English, Persian, Portuguese and Spanish, according to ICFJ.

Check it out now and create your own profile at: www.IJNet.org

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A Few Great Ideas

When J-Lab put out the call for innovative digital news and information projects from women entrepreneurs, they didn't know the onslaught of quality projects they'd receive. Nearly 200 women submitted ideas for microgrants to launch or expand new digital projects as part of the inaugural McCormick-funded New Media Women Entrepreneurs initiative. A few months later, J-Lab has selected three proposals to receive $10,000 grants to launch their projects:

• Echo, a system of public storytelling installations in Atlanta. Led by Lila King and Karyn Lu, movers behind CNN’s user-generated site iReport.com.
• Latina Voices, a news site for and by Latinas. Led by Teresa Puente, a journalism professor at Columbia College Chicago and member of the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board.
• Northwest Navy News, a networking site for Puget Sound’s military community. Led by Elaine Helm Norton, new media editor at The Daily Herald in Everett, Wash., and a former military beat reporter.

The NMWE project is addressing opportunity and innovation, recruitment and retention for women in journalism by spotlighting their ingenuity and entrepreneurial abilities. Pilot projects will show what can be done. Research will tell what more to do. A summit in 2009 will showcase women’s creative ideas.

Learn more at www.newmediawomen.org.

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Digital Diversity Wins Honors

Bringing together a diverse set of community news voices online in a visually-appealing, organized way ain't easy. Or cheap.

But the Twin Cities Media Alliance, a McCormick-funded nonprofit in Minnesota, shows you can bring together the work of more than 50 community ethnic media news outlets, dozens of citizen journalists and others, along with some great multimedia and blogs, to serve a local audience. It recently won the 2008 Page One (first place) award for Best Independent Web Site from the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). The judges cited the great design of the Web site, along with "local content that is relevant...sleek and colorful design."

You can check it out yourself at: www.tcdailyplanet.net.

The site was re-designed in 2008 with local designers with the help of McCormick funding. Given the profusion of hyperlocal and citizen journalism Web sites, perhaps the Daily Planet will influence others seeking to make their sites more interactive and useful to their audience.

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Knight Foundation Announces Top News Challenge Proposals

The Knight Foundation has just released a list of the finalists' proposals for the second year of the Knight News Challenge. These projects aim at – in Knight words - informing, empowering and engaging citizens and helping them in the decision-making process of their neighborhoods, communities and countries. The 17 projects chosen for funding, not named in the list, will be released May 14, 2008 at the E&P Interactive Media Conference in Las Vegas. To see the other top proposals click here: Top Proposals 2008.

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We Need Great Ideas, You Need Funding

The McCormick Tribune Foundation is looking for some creative women digital media entrepreneurs for a new project - and you, or your associates, may be just the one with the golden idea that gets funded.

In the words of our grantee J-Lab, "Calling all creative new media women. J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism is seeking to fund three women-led start-ups that will generate new ideas in the world of news and information and model a spirit of journalistic entrepreneurship." So what's the deal? J-Lab is seeking three great new digital media projects founded by women to receive $10,000 seed grants to launch their ideas and blog about it for the next year. These grants are part of a new initiative that will "address issues of opportunity and innovation, recruitment and retention for women in journalism."

The deadline to apply is May 1. For application materials, and to learn more about the McCormick Tribune New Media Entrepreneurs initiative, visit the project's Web site at http://www.newmediawomen.org/.

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