The Power of Planning a Survey – A Follow-Up to Yesterday’s “Idea Post”
Yesterday I wrote a post about how reporters could use SurveyMonkey to get a better sense of their readers or expert sources.
What readers of this blog didn’t know was that I was actively using this method with the beat bloggers themselves.
I sent out a simple three question survey to the 12 beat bloggers. It was not meant to get any statistical data, only to engage them with the idea of creating surveys and at the very least, let them see it in action.
The biggest response right now was to the tune of: "I’m crunched because of the end of the year." Totally reasonable.
But one of the beat bloggers posed a good question: "Exactly how does this create a networked effect?"
To which I answer: Alone SurveyMonkey doesn’t create a networked effect at all. But in conjunction with other tools, anything is possible. So let’s go through a mock example. Remember, this is not a prescription for SurveyMonkey – it’s just a description of one way to think outside the box with it.
Let’s imagine I already have a Google Group of 25 sources related to my beat. First – I ask them all to send me, in private, one question that they would like to have the group answer. Let’s pretend I get 10 responses and only seven of the proposed questions are good.
I already have seven questions which I know are of interest to experts in my beat. Then I add another 3-5 questions and I send my survey to the entire group.
Now imagine 20 of my 25 sources respond. That might not be statistically significant, but if the questions are asked right, I’ll also have some anecdotal answers. When the dust settles, I reveal the results to the entire group, keeping anyone anonymous if that was deemed absolutely necessary.
At that point, I’ve only polled my expert sources. If I asked the right questions about a timely news event – I could get a blog post out of it. And that is just the start. Next, I could take that same survey (partly constructed by my expert sources) and open it up to the larger audience. Now in addition to great anecdotal material from my expert sources, I could accumulate statistically significant evidence from my larger reader base, who also feels like part of the larger social network (albeit, loosely).
Idea of the Day: Survey Trusted Sources
Participation counts – says Ryan Sholin, who follows it up with…
- Start blogging here: wordpress.com
- Start sharing your photos here: flickr.com
- Start sharing your bookmarks here: del.icio.us
- Start developing a social network here: facebook.com
Ryan is spot on, and of course, there are other ways to start participating.
Another reoccurring theme here at beat blogging will be tools. And while I will always stress that people are more important than technology – it never hurts to know what other tools are out there.
In the comments Zac Echola writers
"There’s great conversations out there and it’s most rewarding when we see those conversations turn into actions at papers.
Simply put, if you’re not engaging people, what are you doing,
exactly? You need to be a participant to fully understand the value of
the Web and to understand your audience."
A lot can be said about "understanding your audience." You can spend years getting a sense of them. But why not just ask them directly?
Online polls, if directed at a highly concentrated group that a reporter trusts, can be highly effective. Again: It doesn’t feel like "reporting," but I would argue it is: You are gathering information. While shoe-leather reporting requires having your senses alert and knowing where to be, sending out an online poll is all about asking the right questions to the right people.
Recently I came across SurveyMonkey. It’s not the first online poll creator I’ve seen – but I found it a pleasure to work with. It’s incredibly fast. Building a survey takes minutes if you already know what you want to ask. It’s free and flexible: You can ask open ended questions, multiple choice questions, pull down questions, etc. It does the statistical analysis for you and you can either direct people to the survey via email or on your blog.
I think creating simple polls is an incredibly effective way to engage your sources. It’s an easy way to get concrete data as well as anecdotal — as long as you ask the right questions.
It isn’t exactly creating a "social network," but it is one way to engage lots of sources at once. Perhaps there is a way to think creatively about doing an online survey so that the sources, as well as the reporter, are able to learn about the group. I could see SurveyMonkey combined with a GoogleGroup to be a highly effective combination.
Next “Lessons From Reporters” – You Tell Me Who I should Talk To
As we move into the next phase we are going to continue to rely on the words of advice from other journalists/bloggers.
Don’t forget to see the wrap-up of what we learned the first two weeks.
And now I’m looking for your help.
There is a lot out there. If know of a journalist who is engaging in this type of reporting – let me know by leaving a comment below.
OR
Here are the leads I have so far on who I’m going to look into next. It’s a big list. Let me know if there is something that particularly catches your eye and you want me to pay particular attention to.
NewMediaBytes has a fantastic list of the "Best Newspaper blogs for comments, community and readability."
Not all of them deserve our attention – but when I scroll through the list and I hear about
- Spokesman-Review’s News is a Conversation: Written by the editor of the The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash.,
this blog discusses why and how stories are chosen for publication
and
-
Atlanta-Journal Constitution’s Get Schooled: This blog’s community is very active. One reason may be because the
writer invites readers to comment through the use of leading questions
and updates.
I start to think that each of these, although they might not be doing beat blogging in full, each hold small lessons for us. If you want me to look into them. Just comment.
Also: Thanks to David Mastio from BlogNetNews who writes:
Here are a few examples of editorial pages that have been doing something like beatblogging before beatblogging was a term
- Dallas Morning News — I’m told the blog is regularly used to discuss issues with locals that end up as editorials.
- Editorial page editor of the Des Moines Register – who prints parts of the editorials that will run the next day, opening the
possibility that readers can get their views in before the editorials
are published. - Seattle Post-Intelligencer runs a virtual editorial board blog
inviting readers to share their thoughts before editorials are
published. - Kansas City unfettered letters – a new way to do letters to the editor.
OR: If you want me to look into any of the tools from this great list – I’ll gladly look into those too.
So if you want to guide me towards anything interesting – now is your chance (I’ll continue to track these and other leads in the new year).
David Crumm – Using Beat Blogging to Cover Religion
I first met David Crumm on Assignment Zero. As a religion reporter for the Detroit
Free Press for 25+ years, he came into the experiment with 30 or more
sources that joined our project right away. He was one of the more
successful editors in Assignment Zero who, despite technical glitches,
kept his sources motivated by finding a common ground. Every week he
emailed everyone and explained how they could contribute.
In a recent phone conversation Crumm told me that AZ was a rich
experience for him and his sources as well. At the time Crumm was still working
for the Detroit Free Press and working on a side blog Spirit Scholars. Since the project, however, Crumm has left the DFP and is now working on his own religion website, Read the Spirit.
The new site is also about creating a community of readers who engage with content, which Crumm believes is "the future of our enterprise." So
this installment of Lessons from Reporters is all about Crumm – our
honorary religion beat blogger.
Lessons from the Last Two Weeks and What’s Next for BeatBlogging
We are slowly approaching the next phase of the Beat Blogging project. After the holidays our reporters will have to engage their sources. The first thing they’ll have to think about (and what I hope benefits from some radical transparency) is the pitch they’ll make to their sources to join their network.
After that – the project will rest on the ability of our reporters to manage people. We will continue to highlight tools that will help our beat bloggers, but as David Crumm, a longtime reporter for the Detroit Free Press (and subject of the next post) told me recently "Our instinct is that it’s not about the technology side at all. People are willing to use anything, they’ll crawl across the virtual desert if it’s the right content. So as you are having people work in this arena, remind them it’s about the voices and the content – don’t waste time on anything that overly distracts you from that."
Indeed – it is the content. Or, as I often refer to it – the community. How you build that community is less important than your ability to engage and manage it.
Now, for the purposes of creating a Cliff’s Notes for Beat Blogging: Let’s look at the last two weeks of posts. The most valuable group being the lessons from Reporters a category of posts that I hope to build into a resource as (or more) valuable than the 64 interviews I did in preparation for the Networked Journalism Summit. So if you are a reporter out there doing something similar, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Lessons From Reporters Thus Far
The News Organization: VentureBeat
The reporter: Eric Eldon
Highlights from the blog post: "If they are on a crappy forum list, that’s where
you have to be. You can’t think like a
reporter, you have to think like
you are part of the community. You are not cut off from the rest of the world."
Lesson: Go where the community is: In the beginning this might mean a simple email list-serv: Everyone is already on email – if you can manage them there, that’s a good place to start.
MORE AFTER THE BREAK
His Outboard Brain: Is Your Chance to Shape News
Alexis Madrigal at Wired News, an honorary beat blogger (not an empty title, we really are thinking about starting an affiliate program and Alexis has always been at the top of that list if we do), is starting his own network today.
Using three simple tools: Twitter, a shared Google Reader and Facebook.
"The idea is that if you can see what blog posts I’m sharing or
Twitters I’m twittering, you’ll be able to chime in with suggestions,
new ideas, and story angles that will help deliver the kind of news
you’re interested in reading.
- My Twitter Account:
I’m making a good faith attempt to twitter each story and blog post
when I start working on it. Follow me to receive 140 characters or less
on the moment’s business.- My Google Reader Shared Items:
Here’s where you can see what blogs I’m drawing from. Let me know if
you want to get added to my blogroll. If you see a shared item that you
like, don’t hesitate to write or Twitter. There’s an RSS feed too.Fledgling Wired Science Facebook Page:
We haven’t really launched our page yet, but we’ve got a little
something up. Come become a collaborator and fan, or at least befriend
us."
It sounds like he is going about it in the right way – starting small and simple. His call for sources allows people to join whatever means of communication suits them best. They are already there, so it’s not a hassle for them (go where the people are). In the end, it doesn’t matter what technology you use – it’s about how you use it to motivate and engage people. Good luck to Alexis!!!!!
We will be following Alexis and learning from/with him.
A Posse to Improve Interviews: Tools for Microblogging
Yesterday I sent an email to Craig Newmark, of Craigslist fame, to see if I could interview him. I was a bit surprised when he suggested “sometime after 4pm,” which was only 30 minutes away.
Think Quick David!
One of the first things I did was send out a twitter message: “Interviewing Craig Newmark (craigslist) in 30 minutes. Anyone got any questions for him?”
I received five responses, including two from Ryan Budke and Ryan Sholin who opened up entirely new angles towards the interview (thanks!).
This morning Amy Gahran had a post on Poynter with advice (from J.D. Lasica) for any beat blogger:
“A beat reporter could enlist a dozen or two dozen passionate, driven
readers to serve as a kind of Twitter posse. Whenever she was about to
tackle a big story or difficult interview, the reporter could begin a
mobile dialogue with her posse members, who could pose questions, much
like the ‘backchannel’ IRC feed at conferences such as AlwaysOn or
Supernova. …We’ll see how it plays out. Wired News may start
experimenting with this in limited fashion early next year.”
I have my ups and downs with Twitter. For one – it requires a certain level of phone or PDA. I integrated Twitter into my Gchat, so I can only use Twitter when I’m at my computer. Much like Facebook, Twitter is often assumed to be the only option out there – and while it has the most market penetration (and probably has the most “sources” on it) – there are others.
If you are brand new to micro-blogging: An Overview
POWNCE
If you don’t care whether or not your microblog lands on phones, there is also Pownce, which allows you to send links, documents, or events. What’s also nice about Pownce you can select who you send your micro-blog post too. So you have have groups of sources on different subjects. Right now, however, the community on Pownce is younger and more artsy. I would recommend Pownce to our Wired beat blogger who is covering music (LOTS of music sharing happens on Pownce), but I wouldn’t recommend it to Ed Silverman who covers pharmaceuticals.
Jaiku
I have not used Jaiku myself, but I do get the sense that it is the second most popular micro-blogging format for geeks (behind Twitter). Perhaps that’s why Google recently bought Jaiku – and perhaps we can expect more from them.
Bid Me
Bid Me, made by Connectme360, is an easy way to manage sources or writers by microblogging (texting) requests. Example: I need someone to write 500 words on X.” The request goes out to 15-20 people (whoever is part of the network) and they have the option to respond “I’ll take it” or “No thanks.” The first person who responds postively and gets your approval gets the gig. If you are second, a “sorry, this has already been assigned” is sent back. This could also be used to find sources: “I need somebody who can talk to me about X by 3pm.”
(NOTE: This project is still in alpha testing, but if you are interested, I believe they are looking for testers).
SugarCandy
SugarCandy is licensed to individual organizations instead of running all users off of one site, so they customize it for each user.
(UPDATE) Tumblr
I can’t believe I left Tumblr out (Thanks Amy). I’m not 100 percent sure – but I believe this was the first Microblogging platform.
More alternatives that we don’t know enough about.
Upoc -From the looks of it Upoc appears to be marketed towards younger people
Mozeo
and Zemble.
Related
ReportingTwitter – another angle to the love affair between journalists and Twitter.
Social Networking Via Wordpress, Moveable Type and (gasp) in Person!
Gigaom has a good introduction to a proposal from Chris Messina to turn Wordpress into an open social network he calls DiSo. He calls the project that he is working on with Steve Ivy and Will Norris a network built “inside-out.”
“For starters, “citizen centric web services” will arguably be better
for people over the long term. We’re in the toddler days of that
situation now, but think about passports and credit cards:
- your passport provides proof of provenance and allows you
to leave home without permanently give up your port of origin
(equivalent: logging in to Facebook with your MySpace account to “poke”
a friend — why do you need a full Facebook account for that if you’re
only “visiting”?);
Not a bad analogy to living on the Web. This comes at the same time that Moveable Type (used by some of our Beat Bloggers) makes an announcement to go open source. This means more functionality and tools, but it also means the road is wide open about how Moveable Type and Wordpress can develop.
It’s all a bit tech-oriented right now. Just like Google’s Open-Social, if you aren’t a programmer then this won’t effect you for about a year. But it’s another mark on the wall of turning the infrastructure of the web into a social network itself. Which means learning the tricks of the trade now, while third-party sites like Facebook and MySpace or Multiply (Read/Write Web’s review of Multiply) run the show, will be a boon to journalists who are on their own in the future.
What if You Had Digg Powered by Journalists? Or a Journalist Powered by Diggers?
I have always been a proponent of social bookmarking for journalists. When Digg was a young community, I used it as a resource for finding new story ideas. As I explained to Greg J. Smith recently, social bookmarking is a way to find experts in specific fields: "I am friends with Roy Schestowitz.
Roy is an open source maniac….If I want to know what’s
going on in the OS world, I look at Roy’s page. If I want to know about the environment – I turn to either Aidenag, SocialPyramid or Tomboy501. If I want to know about science, I turn to Hanksname."
Having sources who you rely on as "news-recommenders," never hurt. There is editorial value in serving up the best links, but a good link-blogger will tell you – it takes time and effort. Just ask Romenesko. But with social bookmarking you can mimic Eyebeam Reblog, and get great links form a volunteer effort. That’s what Digg is – a space where volunteers find links in their expertise area and share them.
This is all related to a new phenomena that could become more common for the networked journalist: Sharing links and information with journalists in other news organizations.
Why don’t reporters who are on the same beat share more information?
This was one of the motivating factors behind Scott Karp’s new social bookmarking tool: It’s made by journalists for journalists. Publish2.com is in private beta right now, but Scott says any journalist can register.
Publish2.com is set up so that you could use it as a regular social bookmarking tool (think Del.icio.us) or as a way to network with other journalists interested in the same topic.
Beat bloggers who work for a national news organization might not want to tap into this second aspect. Sharing too much information might feel like losing a scoop. But for beat bloggers for local newspapers, it makes perfect sense. If I’m reporting on education in Dallas, why not share the sources (national or local) that I have with an education reporter who covers the topic from Florida?
The beat blogging project is about networking between journalist and sources. Publish2 has found another angle of networking that will benefit journalism – networking between beat reporters. Through tagging, a group of journalists can agree to show each other all their stories – allowing them all to know what sources the others have.
If they are in communication they can really drill down: Imagine our education reporters decide to use "standardized test" as a tag.
Publish2.com is riding the wave in-between Digg and Deli.ico.us according to Scott karp. While Digg has become more of a social networking site, with bookmarking functionality, Del.icio.us is a bookmarking site that can establish a social network of sorts. Publish2, he hopes, can be used personally as a bookmarking tool, but could also be used to aid journalists to find and work with each other.
Think of it as a Poynter 2.0: There is a core niche of journalism, but it is a space to connect to other people and share important ideas and information with them. It could have a tangible benefit to their work.
Newsnight Builds A Facebook Group: Lessons Learned
Facebook has, without a doubt, become the network of networks. Whenever BeatBlogging is described, journalists all eventually come to the same catch-phrase: Oh, you are building Facebook groups for reporters.” Our last post was an interview with a reporter from VentureBeat who has had success with Facebook as an individual – but what about reporter who want to build groups on Facebook?
Each of the 13 Beat Bloggers are deciding for themselves how they will build their networks and only a few have decided to use Facebook (and nothing is set in stone). But before they do, we should critically examine Facebook. In my opinion, if you really want a living and breathing social network, Facebook isn’t necessarily the best tool. The groups function doesn’t allow you to use the API’s, which makes the individual networking so functional. Without these – Facebook groups consists of a wall to blast shouts, a forum, and a section for links. Great for planning a birthday party, but that won’t help you too much if you want to cover Proctor&Gamble.
Below is an interview with Paul Mason, a correspondent for the BBC’s Newsnight show. Mason has recently
created two Facebook groups: Get Yourself On Newsnight and Feral Beasts Of The Media. Combined
Mason has attracted over 1,500 people to the groups.
How did this start? I understand it was very natural – nothing was forced.
Tony
Blair made a speech describing the media as “feral beasts.” One of my
mates who works for Sky News immediately changed her status on Facebook
to “is a Feral Beast.” After thinking about this for ten minutes I set
up FBOM as a group on Facebook. Lots of other parts of the UK
journalism subculture responded to this: about three days later I was
on my mobile in the middle of the street in London and a man came up to
me and pinned a badge on me saying “Feral Beast” without exchanging a
word or interrupting my conversation. Later I found out he was a tech
journalist who I vaguely knew who had the badges made. Others
commissioned t-shirts. Anyway 1,331 people have joined FBOM including a
lot of journalists whose work I admire. After this me and my editor
said, why don’t we do a FB group directly related to the programme so
we just set up Get Yourself On Newsnight.
Why Facebook? Were other options looked at?
