Zombie Journalism » ugc

How to build, manage and customize a Crowdmap

Mandy — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 17:20:13 +0000

So you’ve got a great idea for a user-contributed map you need to launch RIGHT NOW. Ushahidi’s Crowdmap makes it pretty easy, and hopefully this post makes it even easier. All examples shown are from TBD’s Crowdmap for D.C.’s election.

First of all, if you’re mapping a crisis, Crowdmap recommends checking our their Emergency Response Strategy [...]

Quickly create a collaborative map with Crowdmap

Mandy — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:40:14 +0000

Every election since I started my professional career has led the news organization I was working for at the time to say, “We really should have a map of election problems.” Then we’d build some UGC map held together by virtual duct tape. Sound familiar?

User-populated maps have come a long way in the past few years [...]

TBD experiments in community engagement: Week 1

Mandy — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:18:36 +0000

TBD.com came out of the gates with a few community engagement experiments you might find helpful at your own news orgs. [...]

Online news is always TBD

Mandy — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:50:44 +0000

Allbritton's Washington, D.C. metro site will be named TBD - and I think it's perfect. News at the start of the reporting process is "to be determined" - and that's exactly where readers should come in. [...]

Weather coverage made easy

Mandy — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:30:23 +0000

When it comes to weather coverage, sometimes all we need to do is give readers the latest information. We at Cincinnati.Com used Wordpress to get the weather updates out in a simple, quick way during this month's snow storms. [...]

Don’t make promises about UGC you can’t keep

Mandy — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:42:59 +0000

While the Communications Decency Act of 1996 grants media sites immunity from legal liability for user-generated content. The Barnes v. Yahoo defamation case revealed a possible loophole in that immunity that can occur if you promise to remove content - and don't follow through. [...]

Journalists should fight for the rights of bloggers

Mandy — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:17:18 +0000

Changes to the federal shield bill to exclude unpaid journalists and bloggers seems to go against the entire premise for the law in the first place - and we should all be upset about it. We need all the watchdogs we can get. [...]

Submit a post

Mandy — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:16:28 +0000

Help me test out a plugin that allows for user submissions to this blog. [...]