Mashable has been there through it all, stepping in to provide journalists with touchstones and compass directions to help them do everything from tell more compelling tales through alternative storytelling to make the most of their Twitter accounts.
It's not enough today to have a good rolodex of sources (seriously, who even has a rolodex nowadays?) and a solid recorder, journalists need to be able to make use of every tool in their arsenal in order to stay afloat in today's almost real-time media landscape.
It's time to add another factor to the boot leather equation. Here's how:
Add Social Media Tools to Your Belt
From making use of social media tools to create and store content (ala YouTube and other video blogs) to tracking down sources (via Facebook) to publicizing stories and interacting with readers (by logging into Twitter), social media tools have opened up a whole new realm to today's journalists. Here are some great resources that can teach you everything from how to use YouTube to conduct man-on-the-street interviews to how to keep up with other journos on Twitter.
The Journalist’s Guide to YouTube
The Journalist’s Guide to Facebook
The Journalist’s Guide to User Generated Video
The Journalist’s Guide to Twitter
The Complete Guide to Video Blogging
Turn Your News Website Into a Community
Reading the news these days is becoming less and less about passive consumption and more about interacting with and commenting on what's going on in your world. Therefore, websites have to be less like art museums (hands-off) and more like those children's museums of bygone days (hands-on). Check out these great guides to making your publication's website more interactive -- from tapping into local news to riding the Google Wave.
10 Rules for Increasing Community Engagement
7 Ways to Make News Sites More Social
How Google Wave is Changing the News
How Social Media is Taking the News Local
Become a New New Journalist
If you thought Tom Wolfe was groundbreaking, take a look at what these media mavens are up to. Instead of adhering to the strict demarcations between print and online journalism (which are in the process of being blurred, but still have a ways to go), many in the profession are becoming triple threats (at least!), tackling print, broadcast and online journalism. Here's some tips on how to join their lofty ranks.
8 Must-Have Traits of Tomorrow’s Journalist
15 Twitter Users Shaping the Future of Publishing
How Programmer/Journalists Are Changing the News
10 Ways Journalism Schools Are Teaching Social Media
The Journalist’s Guide to Maximizing Personal Social Media ROI
Keep Looking Forward
While good writing and solid sourcing will always be the most vital skills a journalist can have, it's prudent to keep those fact-finding eyes trained on the horizon. Try to anticipate trends before they catch on, and embrace them. Here's a few ideas to mull over as we sally forth into 2010. I would invest in a solid pair of boots, friends, the going's not going to get any easier.
8 News Media Business Trends for 2010
10 News Media Content Trends to Watch in 2010
Is Crowdfunding the Future of Journalism?
12 Things Newspapers Should Do to Survive
[top img credit: Yan Arief]
[notebook img credit: gruntzooki]