There are some differences between working for a community news site as opposed to a metropolitan newspaper. For example, a new school playground wouldn’t make The Dallas Morning News or The New York Times front page. But it does where I work (and actually, that was a pretty fun story to write).

But data visualization can work for both small and large news outlets. There’s just a difference in the scope of data used. The Texas Tribune highlights public salaries across the state in its popular database.

How do I incorporate visualizations into my stories (when I can find an angle)?

Well, how about a story about a sex offender moving to an apartment building across the street from a local elementary school?

Or these stories looking into Revolutionary War history in the Tarrytowns area (I live in an area where they fought in the Revolutionary War now. Yes, I did get slightly weirded out when I realized that).

This past week, I created a map for the annual village-wide tag sale in Tarrytown.

Data visualizations can be used in a variety of stories. I only wish MSC’s CMS was able to embed the maps I made (I’ve asked and it doesn’t look good that it’ll happen in the future… don’t ask me why).

Matt Stiles introduced me to Google Fusion when he stopped by my Technology Reporting class last year. I used Google Fusion in the examples above. Seeing those little red dots on a map… it’s addictive.

You can too, because it’s super easy to get Google to plot your data. All you need is a spreadsheet with one column for “Location.” Put in a street address and you’re ready to go!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like you can put photos into a Google Fusion map. I tried with that sex offender story, but no luck. All I ended up with was a downloads photo full of creepy mugshots.

Tips for a Kick-ass Newsroom:

No. 1: Title name said.

This is the eleventh commandment. Thou shalt always style it “title name said,” unless the title is too ridiculous. Then, God commandth thou shalt style it “name, title, said.” Obey or someone will smite you.

No. 2: Too many exclamation points is a sign of a diseased mind.

You only get five in your whole journalism career. Use sparingly.

No. 3: Never start with a quote.

You can only start with a quote twice in your career. Once when you’re starting out. Once when the Pope says “Fuck!”  (You can also use an exclamation point here).

No. 4: Be a homeless person.

The homeless are not afraid to approach a random person for money. You should not be afraid to approach a random person for an interview. By random we mean someone who is not a friend and is not in the journalism division.

No. 5: If you can’t get someone to talk on the record, find someone else who will.

Unless we are talking Watergate, no one likes anonymous sources. You not only look lazy, but the story is less credible.

No. 6: Make sure you are about the news, not the news tools.

Bells and whistles mean nothing unless you have the reporting to back it up.

No. 7: Always consider your average physics major.

The average physics major reads our paper to get SMU news. He prefers investigative, hard news to random event coverage such as the SAE cookout.

No. 8: “Everything goes except investigative journalism.”

If you have a limited staff, cut the fluff before you cut hard news. Your readers will thank you.

No. 9: Our philosophy is: The Daily Campus is more important than school. 

If Turner dies, don’t go to class. If Dallas Hall is burning, be there. With a notebook and flip camera. You can get notes for class. You can’t get notes on breaking news.

No. 10: Kick-ass, take names, double-check the spelling.

Self-explanatory. If you don’t get it, get the fuck outta my newsroom.

NCAA qualifiers continued…

The reactions around the web have been colorful about the two football players denied admission to SMU.

• “This is an injustice.” [University Diaries]
• Hall exploring options for his future — BHS grad could play football and baseball after being denied admission to SMU [Brenham Banner-Press]
• The PonyFans Recruitment Board also has some interesting threads.

Congratulations are in order for Meadows Dean José Bowen

Dallas Historical Society announces recipients of 2010 Awards for Excellence in Community Service [Dallas Morning News]:

Jose Antonio Bowen (arts leadership): The dean of the Meadows School of the Arts since 2006, Bowen has brought bold, dynamic leadership to the school and to the arts in Dallas.

Photo Source

SMU can be pretty newsworthy. Here’s where you can catch up on the important SMU news of the day.

The Gulf Project

SMU is teaming up with “a coalition of scientists, policy experts, oil and gas engineers and state officials” in an attempt to make offshore drilling safer—thus preventing future oil spills.

Gov. Rick Perry created the task force, which the Houston Chronicle has him describing as “a Texas version of that legendary race to the moon.”

(Ed. note: No, I don’t really get the metaphor either. What are you trying to say, Rick Perry? How does a race to get a man on the moon compare to creating safer offshore drilling environments? The race to get the most oil?)

• SMU researchers to help in Gulf Project [Dallas Business Journal]
• SMU Part of Governor’s Offshore Drilling Think Tank [KERA]
• Tech to study Gulf oil spill [Lubbock Avalanche-Journal]

Video Game Sales

A study conducted by the Guildhall at SMU and EEDAR found that reviews of a game, such as one published by a newspaper, influence the sales of that game. The study found “a strong causal link between professional critic reviews and their ability to affect consumers’ actions and perceptions.”

• The Guildhall at SMU and EEDAR Study Influence of Professional Review Critics [IGN]
• Research Shows Game Reviews Influence Sales [Gaming Union]
• Study suggests review scores affect player opinion of games [Network World]
• Study: Review Scores Do Matter [IGN]

Sports

SMU denies a second NCAA qualifier [Dallas Morning News]

The first painting to get loaned to SMU from the Prado.

I used to round up links for my EIC blog (before I apparently forgot how to post to it). I figure this could be a good thing to do on this blog, since I’m still getting Google Alerts about SMU. I can’t wait for graduation and the day I can turn them off. So without further ado, here’s what you should know in recent SMU news:

Donald Andrew Bess is on trial for the murder of an SMU student in 1984:

• Dallas County death penalty trial delayed after defendant accused of killing SMU student has massive heart attack [Dallas Morning News]
• Defendant’s heart attack delays SMU murder trial [Associated Press]
• Rapist was also SMU student’s killer in ’84 slaying, two testify [Dallas Morning News]
• Dallas County prosecution rests in trial over killing of SMU student in ’84 [Dallas Morning News]

SMU Research is trying to help women practice assertiveness skills with virtual reality so that they can prevent rape (Editor’s note: But what we really need to be doing is teaching people to not rape other people. I mean, that’s the problem with our rape culture. But I digress.): Practicing assertiveness skills on virtual-reality “dates” may help women prevent sexual victimization [SMU Research]

The Meadows Museum announced a three-year partnership with the Prado Museum, which further cements the Meadows Museum’s association with Spanish Art:

• Meadows ties the knot with the Prado [Daily Campus]
• Prado and Meadows Museum announce three-year partnership [SMU Public Affairs]
• Prado and Meadows Museum Announce Three-Year Partnership [Dallas Art News]
• Prado has U.S. alliance [New York Times]

Summer Senate doled out approximately $5,400 to various organizations at their first Summer Senate meeting.

Sports News:

Conference realignment could mean a big shakeup for SMU Athletics. Right now, all we’ve got is speculation.

• How does conference movement affect SMU?_updated with Orsini statement [Dallas Morning News]
• C-USA hires consultant to assist as conference realignment unfolds [Dallas Morning News]

The NCAA sanctioned USC for a host of violations, bringing up memories of the Death Penalty and the death of SMU Football. Naturally. Sometimes I think SMU is the Jennifer Anniston to the NCAA’s sanctions’ Brad Pitt. No matter what the story, we’re going to be brought up:

• NCAA Slaps U. of Southern California With Stiff Penalties in Closely Watched Case [Chronicle of Higher Education]
• USC Football: Sanctions Worst Since SMU Death Penalty? [Bleacher Report]
• USC Trojans: They’re Different From 1980s SMU How, Exactly? [Houston Press]

Former SMU Director of Athletics Jim Copeland dies at the age of 65 from cancer: [SMU Public Affairs]

That's an epic fail.

Just because you never run corrections doesn’t mean you’re never wrong.

I was talking to Craig Flournoy, one of my journalism professors, one day last April when he said something to that effect. The Daily Campus had just run a correction recently, and he was telling me that we, the paper, were doing the right thing by publishing corrections.

And you know what? He’s absolutely right.

By their very nature, humans make a lot of mistakes. We’ve got the sheepish apology and “I’m only human” line down. You’d think journalistic institutions would realize this and admit their erroneous ways. Some do. Others don’t.

In an old post (but worth the read), Scott Rosenberg of MediaBugs.org highlights one of the reasons why corrections are important, focusing on two New York Times corrections of Voxox (originally reported as “Vovox”) and the College of William & Mary (originally printed as “William and Mary College”):

the importance of correcting them lies not in some earth-shattering import to the facts themselves but rather in the bond of trust that is established when a publication is seen to care enough to correct them — and, inversely, the loss of trust that occurs when the publication doesn’t bother.

Remember that, for Joe at Voxox or Sue at William & Mary, the misspelled name isn’t just a tiny fact in a sea of information; it represents that person’s point of maximum contact with the publication. Each time these people think of that newspaper or magazine they’re going to remember, These are the folks who couldn’t even get my name right. Multiply that by all the careless errors that get made in the course of normal journalism and you can get some insight into why public trust in the media has been on a downhill curve for so many years.

Issuing a correction is painful and gives me a queasy stomach. I absolutely hate doing it. Because as a journalist, I’m supposed to get the facts straight. The paper is supposed to get the facts straight. We’re the first draft of history!

Running a correction is something of a Catch-22: Either we admit that we were wrong or we don’t. Admitting mistakes shows our readers that we make mistakes and aren’t fully accurate. Not admitting mistakes shows that a) we’re too stupid to know we made a mistake, b) we don’t care about making mistakes, or c) we don’t want to make ourselves look bad. The only way out of these situations is to admit wrongdoing. To do so otherwise is a disservice to journalism.

The 2009 State of the Media report by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism shows that fewer and fewer Americans trust the media because we’re less accurate. We can’t just pretend the mistake never happened. Why not? Because our readers know if we get something wrong. There’s always going to be at least one guy who reads a story and notices that something’s wrong. And that one guy will inevitably tell someone else about the error. It spreads like a virus. They know we got something wrong, so why should they trust us?

Then there’s the other side of errors: spreading misinformation. Just ask Mark Twain, who is probably one of the most quoted people who ever lived. Or Marie Antoinette, who never did actually say, “Let them eat cake.” If we don’t correct our wrongs, some people might not realize we were wrong. This, I believe, is the single most important reason why we should correct mistakes. Not everyone is a fact-checker. It’s why birthers believe that Obama is not an American citizen (that, and a healthy dose of conspiracy theory). News outlets are supposed to be credible (because we’re all about facts), which means a lot of people take our information and assume its true. Even sometimes when it’s not.

If we don’t correct the information when we know it’s wrong, we’re lying to our readers. We’re intentionally saying the facts don’t matter. And in journalism, that’s akin to blasphemy.

College Media Matters | Student journalist? Casual observer of student media? Then this blog is worth a look. Recently they examined SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan’s stint at her college newspaper.

Dallas Dirt | Perhaps you don’t live in Dallas at all. Perhaps you do. But this blog is great at featuring historic homes and other architectural porn. Just ignore the realtor-esque sales pitches.

Frontburner | Another blog from D Magazine. This one’s great for Dallas news. If you live in Dallas, then you should be reading it.

Hipster Puppies | A novel and hilarious concept.

Hyperbole and a Half | A very witty blog featuring hand-drawn images created by using the Mac equivalent of MS Paint. If you’re not laughing up a gut while reading the fish story, then I really don’t see how you could ever have a sense of humor.

Letterheady | I love stationery. Therefore all of this letterhead fascinates me. Want to see what Harry Houdini used as his letterhead? It’s on there. So is Tesla’s. And DC Comics. And a host of others.

Unfair Park | Another fantastic Dallas news blog.

Overheard in the Newsroom | Quote-worthy moments from newsrooms across the country. My favorite? “Editor: “Multiple exclamation points are a sign of a diseased mind.”

In the Pink | Funny. Snarky. Liberal. Newsy. Blog. About. Everything.

The Board of Directors of Student Media Company voted yesterday to continue the suspension of Friday print editions of the paper for the Spring 2010 semester. While we had hoped that we would be able to bring Friday editions back to the newsstands next spring, the economy’s downturn still affects us. Declining advertising revenues have made producing a Friday print edition of The Daily Campus financially unviable.

Disclaimer: I wrote it. And I added a reference to Evita.

The DC suspended the Friday print product at the end of Spring 2009. It was a sad day for me, and I hope the rest of the staff (but truth be told, I can’t quite remember how everyone reacted). We’d been hanging onto the “daily” in our name by publishing four times a week. Then we were down to three.

Would we have to change our name back to the Semi-Weekly Campus? For a while, it seemed plausible to me.

Well, we’re continuing the three-day print schedule. The economy just isn’t in the right place. It’s a shame considering that most college newspapers are fairing pretty well compared to our professional counterparts. After all, our niche has already been established. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Fall 2010 is the magic semester where we can bring Friday issues back.

The good news: our new Web site. The Internet may have caused all the “Print is Dead!” hullabaloo, but we can publish on the Web for free and as often as we’d like.

Now if only we could figure out how to monetize it.

I’m a little speechless.

College Publisher just sent back their version of the mockup we sent them for our new Web site. What you see to the right is a small snapshot of the awesomeness.

We had a couple of goals (well, I did) when this redesign started:

1. It had to be user-friendly
2. It had to be pretty and simple in its design
3. It had to feature our social media prominently
4. We had to get rid of the mash-up of newspapers in the background of our nameplate on the Web site. And the blue background.

I’d say we sufficiently accomplished those goals. I know College Publisher may not be thought of as the best college newspaper CMS, but they’ve been pretty awesome so far with our redesign. We don’t have super tech-savvy staffers (myself included; I couldn’t code to save my life unless it’s basic HTML), so it’s not much of an issue.

Plus, CP will allow us to have a mobile site (they just released it). SMU students are smartphone addicts, and I’m thrilled we’ll be able to accommodate them.

Expect the new site to launch over Winter Break.

Twitter | I’ve waxed lyrical about this micro-blogging/social network/whatever site before. If you’re asking why you should join Twitter, I really can’t say. What I can say is that if you join and start doing it, then you’ll understand. Twitter is a great way to spread information around (not just tell the world you ate the best PB&J sandwich in your life). So join, find some followers, and join in the conversation.

Every Saturday Morning | We’ve all heard from pro-lifers about the evils of abortion. But what about the clinic escorts? They wake up early every Saturday morning to lend support to those seeking abortions (for whatever reason) and to help protect women’s reproductive rights. See what’s it’s like on the other side of the protest. Maybe they’ll change your mind about a few things.

Jezebel | You say feminist like it’s a bad thing. This blog bills itself as Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women. Without Airbrushing., but don’t let that fool you. It also deals with such -ism issues as sexism, reproductive rights and sizism. Jezebel promotes the modern feminist idea that women are people and deserve to be treated as such. Come for the content, but stay for the comments. Jezzies (the commenters) aren’t afraid of a good debate or snarky comment. Also, don’t be surprised to see some men included in the regular commenters. I love this blog because it’s insightful. It makes me think, which I feel is never a bad thing.

The Daily Campus | Because, well, I work there.

Spotted: DC Summer Interns | Need a good laugh? Then you’ll enjoy the antics storied in this blog. My favorite entry so far details three interns talking about the birther issue on the metro:

Intern #1 (boy): “Geez, have you guys been getting bombarded by birther phone calls? They put me on phones for an hour yesterday and that was all I heard about.”

Intern #2 (boy): “I dunno—they don’t let me near the phone. Is your boss for it or against it?”

Intern #1: “Against what?”

Intern #2: “The birther issue. My boss is strictly conservative—so he’s pro-life.”

Intern #1: “Oh yeah—mine’s the same way. Totally supports Roe v. Wade.”

Intern #3 (girl): “Yeah, our office has had a lot of visits from the Pink Ladies. I think my boss is in favor of the birther issue too.”

FMyLife | You think your day was bad? Czech out some of these stories. If you’ve ever seen anyone on Facebook or Twitter use “FML,” you know they’re a fan of this Web site.

F*** Yeah! Ryan Gosling | Genius. Absolutely genius.

Mashable | Looking for news about Facebook or Twitter? This news site provides great coverage of anything social networking.