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Journalism Next
A Practical Guide to Digital Reporting and Publishing

Fourth Edition


October 2019 | 344 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

The fourth edition of Journalism Next: A Practical Guide to Digital Reporting and Writing is updated with the latest technological innovations and media industry transformations, ensuring that Mark Briggs’ proven guide for leveraging digital technology to do better journalism keeps pace with ongoing changes in the media landscape. To keep ahead and abreast of these ever-evolving tools and techniques, Briggs offers practical and timely guidance for both the seasoned professional looking to get up to speed and the digital native looking to root their tech know-how in real journalistic principles

Learn how to effectively blog, crowdsource, use mobile applications, mine databases, and expertly capture audio and video to report with immediacy, cultivate community, and tell compelling stories. Journalism Next will improve digital literacy—fast. Briggs starts with the basics and then explores specialized skills in multimedia so you can better manage online communities and build an online audience.

Journalism Next is a quick read and roadmap you’ll reference time and time again. Dive into any chapter and start mastering a new skill right away. And for today’s journalist, who can afford to waste any time?



 
Foreword
 
Preface
 
Introduction: Journalism Is About People, Not Technology
 
UNIT 1: BASICS
 
Chapter 1 Digital Lives, Digital Journalism
Digital Information

 
What Is It? How the Internet works

 
What Is It? Syndicated content with RSS

 
What’s Next? Set up an RSS reader and subscribe to feeds

 
What Is It? FTP (file transfer protocol)

 
What’s Next? Set up an FTP Program

 
Web Design Basics

 
What Is It? How Web pages work

 
What’s Next? Build an HTML page quickly

 
What Is It? CSS (cascading style sheets)

 
What’s Next? Add CSS to HTML

 
What Is It? XML (extensible markup language)

 
What Is It? Content-management systems

 
What’s Next? Launch a WordPress site

 
What Is It? Mobile apps versus mobile Web

 
What’s Next? Make a WordPress site for mobile

 
Summary: Start to see digital opportunities

 
 
Chapter 2 The Power of Publishing: How Blogging Changed Publishing and Journalism Forever
What Is It? Why blogs are important

 
What Is It? Then came Twitter

 
What Is It? The digital firehose

 
What’s Next? Make a plan, create a blog

 
What’s Next? Make a plan, start publishing

 
What’s Next? Become a Pro on Twitter

 
Summary: Passion and purpose

 
 
Chapter 3 Crowd-Powered Collaboration
What Is It? Crowdsourcing

 
What Is It? Open-source reporting

 
What Is It? Engaged journalism

 
What Is It? Managing news as a conversation

 
What’s Next? Build and manage a community online

 
What’s Next? Keep conversations accurate and ethical

 
Summary: Collaborative publishing, social media are here to stay

 
 
Chapter 4 Going Mobile
What Is It? Mobile journalism

 
What’s Next? Making mobile journalism

 
Summary: Mobile future

 
 
UNIT 2: MULTIMEDIA
 
Chapter 5 Telling Stories With Video
What Is It? The digital video revolution

 
What’s Next? Plan your video and go

 
What’s Next? Voice in video

 
What’s Next? Gear up and get out there

 
What’s Next? Shooting good video

 
What’s Next? Editing and post-production

 
What’s Next? Publishing video online

 
Summary: Start small, but make sure you start

 
 
Chapter 6 Visual Storytelling With Photographs
What Is It? Digital photography

 
What’s Next? Shooting better photos with a digital camera

 
What’s Next? Working with digital photographs

 
What’s Next? Publish your photos online

 
Summary: Photography is a critical tool for journalists

 
 
Chapter 7 Making Audio Journalism Visible
What Is It? Audio journalism

 
What’s Next? Get started with audio

 
What’s Next? Gear up and get out there

 
What’s Next? Editing digital audio

 
What’s Next? Start podcasting

 
Summary: Audio Journalism—Part of the next big thing

 
 
UNIT 3: EDITING AND DECISION-MAKING
 
Chapter 8 Data-Driven Journalism and Digitizing Your Life
What Is It? Your digital life

 
What Is It? Data-driven journalism

 
What’s Next? Building spreadsheets, databases

 
What Is It? Map mashups

 
What’s Next? Build an interactive map with data

 
Summary: Better life, better journalism

 
 
Chapter 9 Building a Digital Audience for News
What Is It? Measuring journalism

 
What’s Next? Track all that you publish

 
What’s Next? Track your audience

 
What Is It? Search engine optimization (SEO)

 
What’s Next? Use SEO to grow your audience

 
What’s Next? Audience engagement drives distribution

 
What’s Next? Connect and engage in social media

 
Summary: Track, measure, distribute, adapt

 
 
Appendix: Suggested Web Resources
 
Index
 
About the Author

“…It covers all the areas needed for a modern multimedia journalist. Covers more than just tools. A great overall introduction to multimedia journalism.”

Brian K. Johnson
University of Illinois

"This is the best how-to guide I’ve come across that provides comprehensive information on digital media. It provides a general overview, which I like. I believe it is distinct from other books that cover digital media. Journalism Next provides a general overview of and guide to using digital media in a journalism context."

Rachael Hanel
Minnesota State University, Mankato

"Because it is written and produced both for students as a textbook and for working journalists as a reference, it takes on more of that reference appeal. It makes it easier to pick and choose different areas you want to read without feeling as if you have missed information that you need to understand. I would call it a reference book for the working journalist and those who want to be working journalists."

Suzy Smith
Ball State University

"The text is practical and comprehensive in a way that many others are not. For example, I can tell a student to read chapter 6 and then expect them to have a reasonably good chance at producing usable audio immediately. It has the feel of a field manual. Good field guide to multimedia journalism. Gets you going fast, even if you only know a little about audio, video, photo, etc."

Andrew R. Cline
Missouri State University

"Of the digital news textbooks I’ve seen, I always come back to Mark’s because he smartly covers the vital skills that journalists need in an easy-to-read manner. A handy resource for journalism students looking to learn digital skills for the first time or bolster their chops in order to land internships or first jobs."

Jon Glass
Syracuse University

"It’s the most comprehensive, one-stop guide to today’s digital media landscape, written by one of the industry’s most respected and leading-edge online journalists."

Jake Batsell
Southern Methodist University