Learning from prize-winning journalism: how to cover a breaking news story

Learning from prize-winning journalism: how to cover a breaking news story

In Poynter's e-book, "Secrets of Prize-Winning Journalism," we highlight and examine 10 award-winning works from 2013 through interviews with their creators.

These works are inspiring. They're also instructive. Starting with the "secrets" shared with us by their creators, we've extracted some great lessons about how to learn to do better journalism, and paired them with questions to ask in your own newsroom.

http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/newsgathering-storytelling/234291/learning-from-prize-winning-journalism-how-to-cover-a-breaking-news-story/

10 Key Skills For Digital Journalists To Hone In 2014

10 Key Skills For Digital Journalists To Hone In 2014

With ever-evolving opportunities to discover and share stories on digital platforms, the need to keep digital skills up-to-date is vital for journalists.

In order to give journalists an idea of some of the main skills to be working on, we sourced ideas from the Journalism.co.uk newsroom and our Twitter community to compile a list of 10 key areas to consider.

We hope that the mix of skills, techniques and qualities listed below would help journalists to stay ahead of the game in terms of digital innovation, be able to harness the latest tools and techniques most effectively and create the best quality content for their audience.

http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/10-key-skills-for-digital-journalists-to-hone-in-2014/s2/a555503/

Vice News wants to take documentary-style storytelling to hot spots around the globe

Vice News wants to take documentary-style storytelling to hot spots around the globe

If there's a mantra for the team behind Vice News, it might be: Go where the story takes you. The soon-to-launch news channel from Vice is designed for the type of journalist who wants to strap a camera to her back and jump head first into a conflict zone. That's already taken Vice reporters to places like Sudan, Syria, and the Central African Republic, to report on violence inside the country's borders. When Vice News goes live this month, look for a lot more of that.

http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/01/vice-news-wants-to-take-documentary-style-storytelling-to-hot-spots-around-the-globe/

Do Citizen Journalists Need a Code of Ethics?

Do Citizen Journalists Need a Code of Ethics?

"A blog is not writing. It is graffiti with punctuation." This now famous and quite wonderfully dismissive line is delivered in the movie Contagion by Elliot Gould's character to Jude Law's character. In fact, according to a posting by blogger Tim Baran, graffiti may actually be more long-lasting than a blog, which is estimated to have a "shelf-life" of relevancy of a mere 12 hours. That's for a good blog, and even the worst graffiti takes longer than that to erase.

http://nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/23477-do-citizen-journalists-need-a-code-of-ethics.html

Expectations for digital journalists

Expectations for digital journalists.

For all the gloom and doom you hear about the future of the news business, new opportunities seem to pop up all the time. Take the job Holly Edgell has at WCPO, the Scripps-owned television station in Cincinnati, Ohio. She's the "community editor" for WCPO-Digital, a new position that puts her in charge of social media strategy and hyper-local digital news. She's also been charged with fostering the integration of web and TV content.

http://www.advancingthestory.com/2014/01/06/expectations-for-digital-journalists/

Mobile Journalism

Mobile Journalism

This is a collection of mobile resources from Mike Reilley and the Poynter Institute's Regina McCombs, Dave Stanton and Damon Kiesow, as well as many others. A list of mobile reporting tools appears at the end of this page. Most apps are tailored to the iPhone but have versions available for many other smart phones, too.

http://www.journaliststoolbox.org/archive/2014/01/mobile-journalism.html

First-Ever Guide to Online Media Ethics

First-Ever Guide to Online Media Ethics

I'm not sure about "first-ever" since news organizations worldwide have for several years been incorporating online media ethics into their codes, guidelines for good journalistic practice, or whatever they call their respective operating rules.

But I was delighted to receive it this week and thumb through its well thought out sections on news judgment and conflicts, transparency, sourcing ethics, knowing your audience, plagiarism, when problems arise, photos and art, and social media.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/magda-abufadil/first-ever-guide-to-onlin_b_4542245.html

To Follow: 20 Citizen Journalists Covering Human Rights in 2013

To Follow: 20 Citizen Journalists Covering Human Rights in 2013

The Human Rights Channel works to amplify videos that document human rights issues around the world. But how do we find those videos? One way is with help from our partners at Storyful, who find and verify social media when news breaks. Another important source is our Twitter feed. We follow dozens of community media outlets, activists, and human rights workers filming, sharing, and reporting news from their own communities, and we recommend you do too. We wanted to share some of the best citizen reporting on human rights issues.

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2014/01/to-follow-20-citizen-journalists-covering-human-rights-in-2013/

Campaigns battle citizen journalists

Campaigns battle citizen journalists

Journalists claims to have standards, but the political operative is hard-pressed to see what those standards might be. The only real standard seems to be to wallow in scandal and controversy. The slightest bobble, misstatement or evidence of human failing by a politician is pounced upon by the journalist with the same glee as a cat pouncing on a mouse.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/campaigns-battle-citizen-journalists-101703.html

2013: A year in Twitter journalism

2013: A year in Twitter journalism

From Edward Snowden's big reveal to the Boston bombings, social media has become an established part of how news spreads and increasingly how it is sourced. In Twitter's S-1 filing prior to its IPO, the company listed a risk factor that "influential users, such as world leaders, government officials, celebrities, athletes, journalists, sports teams, media outlets and brands or certain age demographics conclude that an alternative product or service is more relevant" (emphasis added). We've seen no sign of that happening.

http://muckrack.com/daily/2013/12/30/2013-a-year-in-twitter-journalism/

Blood Photography Anyone? – by Greg Marinovich

Blood Photography Anyone? – by Greg Marinovich

I heard of yet another death of a journalist in Syria's civil war recently, via a tweet featuring a surreal image: a pair of bloodied cameras on a rough wood table, along with pita bread, a plastic water bottle-top and a container of what might be hummus.

This symbolic image of a war photographer's death was perhaps inspired by memories of photographs from previous eras, such as the fallen soldier's helmet atop his rifle marking a grave in an otherwise unremarkable field in an unexceptional corner of a remote land.

http://thephotobrigade.com/2013/12/blood-photography-anyone-by-greg-marinovich/