These are slides for a workshop on working and thinking Digital First for the Excellence in Journalism conference.

1. Digital First Journos:
How we think and work
Steve Buttry
Excellence in Journalism
August 25, 2013
#eij13

2. Read more about it
• stevebuttry.wordpress.com
• slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• @stevebuttry
• stephenbuttry@gmail.com

3. Digital-first journos think …
1. Story is a process, not a product
2. Like to be first, but link when we’re not
3. Community = collaborators
4. When we hear great quote or learn
interesting fact, think, “I better tweet
that.”
5. More excited by RTs, likes, shares, pins
& links than by front-page or lead play

4. Digital-first journalists …
6. Obstacles = war stories, not excuses
7. New gadget or social platform = tool
for better journalism
8. When news breaks, thinks of terms to
search for on Twitter
9. Journalism future is bright & boundless
10. Defies prediction (& lists), thinks of
new ideas, issues & solutions

5. Digital-first culture
• Experimental
• Willing to risk and learn from failure
• Accountable (correct & acknowledge
errors)
• Always on the learning curve
• Seeking & trying new tools & techniques

6. • Accuracy
• Truth
• Attribution
• Transparency
• Identification
• Fairness
• Community
• Watchdog role
• First Amendment
• Timeliness &
reflection
• Civility & respect
• Diversity
• Skepticism
Digital-first values

7. Working Digital First
• Create content for digital platforms (web,
email, SMS, social, mobile)
• Produce print & broadcast products from
content on digital platforms
• Live coverage of events
• Breaking news coverage
• Engage community

8. Beat reporter
• Beatblog
• Liveblog meetings, events
• Tweet/alert/liveblog breaking news
• Live chat on continuing stories
• Data visualization
• Curate community conversation
• Show your work (links, including
competition)

9. Beat reporter questions
• How to crowdsource story?
• What terms, hashtags should you search
(routinely & for each story)?
• Regular/special hashtags to use?
• People to follow? New FB pages/groups?
• Other social media to search (YouTube,
Flickr, Foursquare, Google+ …)?

10. Gathering news on the beat
• Video
• Links
• Databases
• Monitor officials, agencies, sources on
Twitter, Facebook, G+, YouTube, etc.
• Source documents to upload
• Map, timeline

11. Newsroom leaders
• Monitor social media as well as wires,
scanners, etc.
• Staff questions guide digital journalism
(data, Twitter search, hashtags,
crowdsourcing)
• Urgency for breaking news, live coverage
• Edit digital content for print

12. Newsroom leaders
• Listen, join & lead community
conversation (blog, social media, chats)
• Lead staff in trying new tools &
techniques
• Digital focus to daily meetings
• Post daily news budgets online

13. Read more about it
• stevebuttry.wordpress.com
• slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• @stevebuttry
• stephenbuttry@gmail.com