Journalism Online and Blogging and Social Networking OH MY!

Quick reflections on the state of journalism online that I've picked up over the past few days.

First on a News Weekly that GETS IT. And by gets it I mean a local paper that is capitalizing on the opportunities the web has to offer -- not running away from it. Seven Days, our local alternative weekly has relaunched their site this week. They are incorporating some great social media tools -- but they have also created a user interface that makes sense for the WEB -- not a "let's make it look like a newspaper online". Check it out! While it is a little too "Myspacian" for me, I can see where they are taking it and I am sure it will evolve to be less busy over time. The Top 10 is nice as is the integrated RSS -- and if you click you'll see some tag clouds going on.

Second, on an interesting "experiment". Hmmm...check out BeatBlogging.org, a collaboration of 13 different news organizations...

Beatblogging.org is a collaboration between 13 news organizations from around the country and NewAssignment.Net, to figure out how journalists can use social networks to improve beat reporting.

Um...seems to me they should check out this other item that is posted at another blog I follow called Invisible Inkling on how a group of school students has created a news blog for a local community and are beating the pants off of the news folks.

And then there is this new gem "instant journalist" highlighted by the folks over at commoncraft.

Those media beat blogging journalists better "figure it out" fast. Perhaps they should look at Seven Days too!