Published in Jan 2010, a George Washington University and Cision survey of journalists reports 89% use blogs and 65% use social networks to research stories.

Lee Odden at the TopRank Online Marketing Blog analyzes results of a couple of  studies measuring reporters’ use of online resources. PAOs should be aware of these techniques; and our own journalists could pick up a few tips. Here’s one example, from a local TV news reporter:

I begin every day at search engine. It doesn’t matter what story I’m working on, it always starts with a search. I work on a segment called “Good Question,” so I often type my question directly into Google, and see what comes up. When searching for local experts, I’ll often take the subject matter, tack on the word “Minneapolis” and add the word “expert.”

For example, last week I did a story on whether cursive handwriting was vanishing because of e-mail. I typed “Minneapolis handwriting expert” into Google, and found several local handwriting analysts. Next, I searched for private schools (because public schools are often challenging to get permission to shoot at) and found the school we used for our story.

For my story on whether we get enough Vitamin D in Minnesota, I searched “Vitamin D” “Minneapolis” and “expert.” If a local company showed up very high with their own expertise in those results, I would have called that company.

Read the original for more examples: From How Journalists Use Search & Social Media – Online Marketing Blog.

In the last two competitions, however, the judges toiled over keyboards and screens, squinting and crunching numbers, silently, alone – but not really alone, at least this year.

For the 2009 competition, the entire world is looking over their shoulders. No sweaty, chapel-like boardroom, no launching cardboard-mounted entries at one another with a “Can you believe this?” and no gentlemen’s agreement to leave everything said in the room. The room is as wide as the Internet.

The coordinator at the Army level, rather than making a weak attempt a password-protected virtual boardroom (as in the IMCOM case), posted everything in public HERE. All competitors can see each other’s stuff, opening the field for endless, helpless comparison. On one hand, the judges could make themselves as popular as baseball umpires. On the other, the openness also shows how good all the entries are. Open is better, in the end. Open means more exposure for the best the Army has to offer, and the product’s generally very, very good.

As in the IMCOM competition (coordinated by this writer), a few entries stand out on either end of the bell curve, but only in a few categories. The curve skews toward excellence, as should be expected, and in the fine distinctions within this crowd of entries the judges will find their real work.

Take a look at the competition page. Should next year’s competition be as open?

Capt. Emily Stehr enjoys a little downtime during her deployment to Iraq with the 2nd Stryker Calvary Regiment in Vilseck, Germany. Stehr battled with suicidal thoughts, but was able to cope after seeking assistance at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

In researching “Breaking the silence: Soldier conquers suicidal thoughts,”  Rolle did more than get her subject to talk about her feelings – Capt. Stehr was looking for a platform – she told the story of the story. 

We meet two characters, Stehr and Armed Forces Network reporter Michelle Michael. We follow (in a well-constructed narrative) the development, the obstacles, the reactions – what affected subject, reporter and audience before and after Michael helped Stehr make her story known.

The chief weakness to this strong story is, oddly, point of view. We only hear from the two subjects. It would have been interesting to hear from someone else affected by Michael’s broadcasts or Stehr’s other outreach efforts. I’d like to see quotes from a supervisor in AFN Europe describing the decision to go ahead, or someone in the medical or counseling fields commenting on the effects of Stehr’s brave act. 

But overall, the piece stands high for craft, readability, relevancy and honesty. It doesn’t sugarcoat the queasy feeling some in the military still feel about covering suicide within the ranks. It might beat the suicide prevention drum again (should we stop?), but the new point of view makes it fresh, freshness catches attention and catching attention could save lives.

BTW: this story is available on IMCOM’s new IReport page as well as Army.mil

Poewar.com: Solutions For Writers.

Tip of the hat to past colleague Gary St.Lawrence. Link found on his site.

Yesterday, Nielsen Business Media reported that Editor & Publisher was shutting down.Clearly, Nielsen concluded that the supplier community serving the newspaper industry can no longer sustain a media business that reports on the newspaper industry. When you get to the point where the suppliers have dwindled—or not enough of them believe in the value of using a third-party media source for the marketing—you’ve got a problem.And that tells us a lot about the state of the newspaper industry.

via A Death Knell for the Newspaper Business? – Tony Silber – Blogs B2B @ FolioMag.com.

A high official meets with Soldiers. It’s an extraordinary event in their lives, but it offers many cliche traps to avoid. The worst would be “The Man in the Middle,” a version of the Firing Squad in which everyone bunches together around the leader for a group portrait. Great for participants, but makes a pretty lousy news photo. Better to get out a long lens and zoom in on the reactions of one or two people, or on the emotions of the interaction between the official and the individual, if the personage gets close enough.
It takes a good eye to spot an extremely creative composition like this one – definitely front page material. It gives a sense of place, and of the importance of the individual photographed. The presence of cameras and the attentiveness of the Soldiers draw the focus to Secretary Gates. The weakness of the 3/4 rear view of Gates is overcome by the rest of the elements.

“U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates talks to soldiers deployed to field operating base Airborne in the Wardak Province, Afghanistan, after reenlisting eight soldiers, May 8, 2009. Secretary Gates visited Afghanistan and met with military and local leaders. DOD photo by Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison”

Whether you snicker or “aww” at this one depends on your level of cynicism. When you’ve done a hundred homecomings, it’s hard to stay alert for the unique moment. Great catch by Spc. Lewis.

“U.S. Army Spc. Leo Leroy gets a kiss from Regina Leroy and a bow-wow welcome from dogs Yoshi and Bruiser at a homecoming ceremony on Fort Hood, Texas, Nov. 28, 2009. Leroy, assigned to E Forward Support Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, returned after a year in Qayarrah in northern Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Sharla Lewis”

Is running a photo of a cute baby with an adorable expression a cliche? Yes. Could the lighting be better on the mother? Yes (a little). Could the crop be tighter? Yes. Would I run this picture, as-is, on the front page? Absolutely. It’s the grand opening of a child development center. What do you want – baby Maleah or a group shot at the ribbon cutting?
This picture really brings it home. Lighting and timing are perfect on the main subject.

‘Master Sergeant Adrienne Kelley drops off her daughter, Maleah, at the new child development center at Fort Stewart. Photo Credit: Jacquelene Elise Van Pool (USAG Fort Stewart).”

Red, White, and Blue, originally uploaded by The U.S. Army.

The Fort Hood story in one photo: the scope of the tragedy, who the fallen were, how the military remembers its own.

FORT HOOD, Texas- The remains of the Nov. 5 massacre victims at Fort Hood are loaded aboard an aircraft before being flown to Dover Air Force Base, Del. Twelve Soldiers and one civilian were killed Nov. 6 at the post’s Soldier Readiness Processing Center. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. John Ortiz)