Por conta própria | On your own

You can be a journalist without a job at a mainstream news organization

That headline seems obvious, no?

Then why is it that when journalists see layoffs, buyouts, and newspaper companies in trouble, they sigh and say “Should I stop wasting my time and start applying to advertising agencies?”

Really?

“You can be a journalist without a job at a mainstream news organization”, Ryan Sholin

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If you have the skills, people will call

Yes, it is a tough time for journalism graduates — or anyone looking for a journalism job — but there are jobs available for people with desirable skills.

Recent journalism graduate Kyle Hansen just accepted a job at the Las Vegas Sun. More noteworthy, is that in this terrible time for journalism companies and the economy, he had interviews in five different states with newspapers. Five different states.

What skills does Hansen have that most recent journalism graduates don’t? Well, for starters, he blogs. It doesn’t have to be the best or most popular blog, but having a blog shows potential employers that Hansen is willing to try out new tools and that he has an understanding of the power of blogging.

“If you have the skills, people will call” , Journalism Iconoclast

O que é que sabem fazer? A sério. Quais são as vossas competências? Porque é  que querem ser jornalistas (ou outra coisa qualquer) ? Eu ando a fazer estas questões a mim mesmo há já algum tempo, e há umas que vão tendo respostas mais concretas. Mas o que vejo é que muita gente não sabe que jornalismo é acima de tudo uma actividade. Não se diz que se gosta de correr, corre-se e pronto. Os profissionais estão cada vez mais por conta própria, e isso não é necessariamente mau. Façam um bom trabalho e mostrem-no. Com sorte, alguém há-de reparar.

What do you know to do? Really. What are your skills? Why do you want to be a journalist  (or anything else)? I’ve been asking myself these same questions for quite some time now, and there are a few which are getting some concrete answers. But what i’m watching is that there’s a whole lot of people that doesn’t know that journalism is an activity. You can’t say  you like to run, you just run. Professionals are more and more on their own, and that may not be a bad thing. Do the best work you can and show it. With luck, someone will notice.

Every single one of my interviews was a direct result of my experience blogging or editing video. Of course, another key is who you know. Two of the three places I was considering were places that I knew people working there. One of the others was a place that someone I knew recommended.

Kyle Hansen

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Obrigado.

Revistas grátis | Free Magazines

Mygazines is a place to browse, share, archive and customize unlimited magazine articles uploaded by you, the Mygazines community.

We at Mygazines take great pride in providing a platform for people and businesses to share their publications in an interactive and fun format.

Mygazines is not just for magazines – you can upload your catalogues and product brochures too! So don’t hesitate – start sharing your publications – it’s free!

Via StartUpMeme

Um recurso interessante para quem não se importa de ler revistas no computador

An interesting resource for those who don’t mind reading magazines on screen

Este post não é sobre videos de sexo grátis Perdidos do Cristiano Ronaldo no iPhone | This post is not about Cristiano Ronaldo Lost free sex videos in iPhone

SE(x)O

Escrever para a web implica usar algumas regras diferentes do que para o papel. Tanto a organização conceptual como gráfica da informação têm que ser feitas de forma diferente, recorrendo a links para dados externos complementares, abrindo espaços entre ideias para uma leitura mais fácil, simplificando a corrente de ideias mas mantendo todo o seu potencial informativo para o leitor. Mas outros valores se impõem na captura de público para os sites informativos. O SEO tem influência para dar mais ou menos visitas a um dado artigo. Utilizando as palavras certas podemos exponenciar o número de leituras de um determinado artigo, e assim as empresas podem reclamar junto dos anunciantes uma audiência inflacionada, graças à utilização de termos de grande procura no Google mas que não estão relacionados com o conteúdo do artigo. Charlie Brooker explica isto muito bem neste texto, e o assunto acaba por ter relevância já que a utilização de imagens e certas expressões nas capas dos jornais sempre condicionou a nossa atenção e interesse na hora da compra, mas na web os mecanismos de busca  tornam a notoriedade e a relevância de certos textos  num resultado artificial. A utilização do social bookmarking para a credibilização de conteúdos ajuda a separar o trigo do joio mas muitas vezes nem sempre os melhores conteúdos chegam à maioria dos utilizadores. A questão ética que se levanta é se deverá um jornalista utilizar elementos com alto valor de SEO para compôr o título e as primeiras frases de um artigo. Eu acho que é tudo uma questão de bom senso, já que quando nos enganam na web, normalmente não voltamos aos sítios. Por isso, a todos que vieram cá parar por causa de videos de sexo grátis Perdidos do Cristiano Ronaldo no iPhone, as minhas desculpas. Mais uma vez, não tratem os vossos leitores como idiotas. As consequências são imediatas.

Writing for the web implies using a different set of rules than for print. Both the conceptual and graphic organization of the information has to be done in a rather different way, using links for external complementary data, making space between ideas for easier reading, simplifying the stream of ideas while keeping all of it’s informational potential for the reader. But other values rise when it comes to capturing the audience for news websites. SEO has a great influence to bring more or less visits to a given article. Using the right words we can increase the number of readings of a certain article, and then the news companies can claim to the advertisers an inflated audience, thanks to the use of popular Google keywords, but that aren’t even closely related to the article’s content. Charlie Brooker explains this situation quite well and this issue becomes of most relevance if we think that the presence of certain images and words in the frontpages has always conditioned our attention and interest in the moment of buying a newspaper, but on the web the search mechanisms made the relevance and visibility of some texts something totally artificial. The use of social bookmarking to credibilize content helps to separate the good from the bad, but often the best contents don’t reach the majority of the users. The ethical question raised here is should a journalist use highly valued SEO contents to compose the title and the first paragraph of an article? I believe it’s all a matter of common sense, since when we get fooled by a website we never go back there again. So, to all of you who ended up here because of Cristiano Ronaldo Lost free sex videos in iPhone, my sincere apologies. Once again, do not treat your readers like idiots. The backlash will be immediate.

And wait, it gets worse. These phrases don’t just get lobbed in willy-nilly. No. A lot of care and attention goes into their placement. Apparently the average reader quickly scans each page in an “F-pattern”: reading along the top first, then glancing halfway along the line below, before skimming their eye downward along the left-hand side. If there’s nothing of interest within that golden “F” zone, he or she will quickly clear off elsewhere.

Which means your modern journalist is expected not only to shoehorn all manner of hot phraseology into their copy, but to try and position it all in precisely the right place. That’s an alarming quantity of unnecessary shit to hold in your head while trying to write a piece about the unions. Sorry, SEXUAL unions. Mainly, though, it’s just plain undignified: turning the journalist into the equivalent of a reality TV wannabe who turns up to the auditions in a gaudy fluorescent thong in a desperate bid to be noticed.

Online POKER marketing could spell the NAKED end of VIAGRA journalism as we LOHAN know it

Smashing Magazine : Concurso | Contest

Write a Guest Post and Win Apple MacBook Air

As you may know, we are looking for motivated, talented and professional writers and authors. And we are paying each author $100-300 per post — depending on the quality of the delivered article. If you think that you are one of them contact us — we want you, we need you, we can’t live without you and we would really be happy to have you in our Smashing team.

And to spark your interest for writing we’ve decided to announce a guest author contest — write a small guest article for Smashing Magazine and win one of dozens of attractive prizes waiting for you.

What are we looking for?

The main idea behind the contest is not to get as many guest articles as possible, but to find talented guest authors who will want to work with us after the contest and get properly paid for their work. If you would like to write for us beyond the contest — drop us a line, we’ll figure something out.

A Smashing Magazine é uma das minhas edições online favoritas. Para além de ter artigos interessantes estão sempre a mostrar recursos grátis para designers e programadores. Geeks visuais no fundo. Eles estão a promover um concurso para contribuidores de conteúdos, que para além de ter um MacBook Air à cabeça da lista de prémios, serve também para recrutar futuros colaboradores. Por isso se acham que têm as palavras para isso, vejam o regulamento aqui.

Smashing Magazine is one of my favorite online editions. Besides always having interesting articles, they’re always showing free resources for designers and coders. Visual geeks to tell you the truth. They are running a contest for guest contributors, that besides having a MacBook Air at the top of the prize list, it  also  is a chance to recruit future writers for the magazine. So if you think you have the words for it , check out how you can participate at this link here.

Porque é que nos preocupamos? | Why do we care?

Porque é o nosso ganha-pão. Não acham estranho que tanta gente, desde académicos, estudantes, desempregados, profissionais, discuta tanto algo que lhes escapa completamente do controle? Alguma vez viram um blog de um administrador de jornal a falar de uma forma positiva sobre o futuro dos jornais (positiva no sentido de estar a procurar soluções)? Se sim, mandem o link. Todos nós sabemos que a evolução dos média é essencial para a nossa sobrevivência. Mas não é só isso. Tem a ver com o equilíbrio social, tem a ver com a preservação cultural, tem a ver com olhar o mundo da forma mais clara possível como comunidade, como indivíduo, como cidadão. Por isso é que nos preocupamos. Mark Hamilton neste post mais longo do que lhe é habitual (obrigado Mark) demonstra que uma reinvenção é necessária, mas que não está a acontecer à velocidade desejada. As notícias são pessimistas, mas são muitos que procuram as soluções: o Mark (que é professor e sabe quais são as suas responsabilidades), o Ryan Sholin, Paul Bradshaw, eu, e toda a gente de quem eu falo neste blog. Estamos fartos de queixinhas, queremos soluções. Porque nos preocupamos.

Because it’s our living. Don’t you think it’s odd that so many people , from academics, students, unemployed, professionals, discuss so much something that is out of their hands? Have you ever read a blog from a newspaper administrator talking in a positive way about the future of newspapers (positive in a way that it is looking for solutions) ? If you did, send me the link. We all know that media evolution is essential to our survival. But it is only about that. It has to do with social balance, it has to do with cultural preservation, it has to do with looking at the world in the clearest possible way as a community, an individual, as citizens. That’s why we care. Mark Hamilton in this longer than usual post (thanks Mark) shows the need for a reinvention, but that is not happening at the desired rate. The news are pessimistic, but there are many out there that are looking to solve this: Mark (who is a teacher and understands his responsibilities) , Ryan Sholin, Paul Bradshaw, me, and everyone else that i talk about or make reference in this blog. We’re tired of whiners, we want solutions. Because we care.

I’m always wary of anyone who points with any certain to the future of media. And I have no greater insight into this mess, and the ways out of it, than anyone else. But there are some things that I feel relatively certain about, at least at the moment. (My conclusions are, as always, subject to change.)

Here’s what I’m thinking: driven by a recession that has accelerated its decline, the metro daily will be forced into a new, as yet unknown, form that will redefine newspapers not only in the U.S. but in Canada and, likely, other countries.

We’re only halfway through the year, and those tracking such things in the U.S. put the number of journalists who have been laid-off or bought out at over 6,000. We’ve seen a number of newspapers slash sections, cap the number of pages, increase ad-to-editorial ratios. The American recession is, in large part, driving this bus, but it slid behind the wheel at a time when the public’s changing habits, the disruption of the internet and other factors had already started to snip through the brake linings.

When I was the editor of a smallish newspaper, I went through a recession or two. The strategy was straight-forward: hang on, cut what costs you could — and some that you really couldn’t — and then rebuild when things improved. But by the time this current crisis (and that’s not too strong a word) plays out, I can’t see the rebuilding happening to any great degree.

Watching the reinvention, Mark Hamilton

O que é preciso para arranjar emprego como jornalista? | What does it take to get a job as a journalist?

Uma boa forma de se verificar a saúde e cultura empresarial de um país é através das páginas dos classificados.Especialmente quando nos debruçamos  sobre algumas áreas específicas. Como aqui falamos de jornalismo, já podem adivinhar o que vem a seguir. A profissão de jornalista tem sido das que mais alterações sofreu nos últimos anos a nível de capacidades dos profissionais. Se as competências básicas se mantém inalteradas e omnipresentes na profissão, a sua aplicação tem mudado imenso: a tecnologia evoluiu e forçou a evolução da construção de conteúdos informativos. Mas o trabalho continua a ser responder às questões que aprendemos logo na primeira aula de jornalismo: o quê, quem, onde, como, quando e porquê. Por isso este post vai comparar os anúncios que a Mindy MacAdams viu para jornalistas nos Estados Unidos e outros que eu escolhi de um popular site de empregos na área de comunicação em Portugal. O objectivo é comparar as competências exigidas aos jornalistas  e as condições oferecidas nestas duas realidades, e aferir das necessidades das empresas de comunicação portuguesas. Para juntar à festa, um inquérito que mostra quais são as capacidades exigidas aos jornalistas online da Carolina do Norte. Os resultados são muito interessantes. Como isto vai ocupar algum espaço,  saltem para a parte que interessa aqui.

A good way to check the business culture and health of a country is by reading the classified ads. Especially in some specific jobs. Since the main subject around here is journalism, you might guess what is coming next. Journalism as a profession  has suffered many changes in the recent years, regarding required abilities. If the basic competences are unchanged and ever present in the job, it’s application has changed greatly: the technology evolved and forced the evolution in the construction of news contents. But the job is still answering to the questions that we learned in our very first journalism class: what, who, where, how, when, why. So this post will compare the ads for journalists that Mindy MacAdams saw for positions in US newspapers, and a few that i chose from a popular portuguese media jobs website. The goal is to compare  the skills a journalist must have and the conditions offered in these two realities, and assess the needs of the news companies in Portugal. To make it evem more interesting, there’s a survey that shows which are the most required skills preferred for online journalists in North Carolina. The results are quite interesting. Since this will take some room, jump to what matters here.