Elana Zak

Six months after the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was shelved, a new petition strongly advocating “a free and open Internet” is making the rounds online.

The Declaration of Internet Freedom was released Monday and is a reminder that those who opposed SOPA and its sister bill, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), have not forgotten about these laws and in fact, are more than willing to fight against them.

The petition’s preamble reads:

We believe that a free and open Internet can bring about a better world. To keep the Internet free and open, we call on communities, industries and countries to recognize these principles. We believe that they will help to bring about more creativity, more innovation and more open societies.

Spearheaded by FreePress.net, the petition is not only open to feedback, but is actively seeking it. The declaration is listed on platforms such as reddit, Techdirt, Cheezburger and Github, where you can “interact” with the text and make your opinions and alterations known. continued…

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Aaron Sorkin‘s latest show, The Newsroom, aired its first episode on HBO Sunday night. If you didn’t get a chance to watch the show or don’t subscribe to HBO, you’re in luck. HBO is currently streaming the entire first episode on YouTube.

Unfortunately, it looks like this is a one-time thing as the main HBO Twitter account tweeted that it would only be airing the first episode on YouTube. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In just about a month, the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games will be upon us.

The London Games have already been touted as “the first social media Olympics,” with some even going so far as to nickname them the “socialympics.”

Social media will play a big role, with the games showing up on “dedicated portals on Google+, as well as a Twitter branded page, a one-day check-in event with Foursquare (on Olympic Day), a project with Tumblr, and another specifically with Instagram,” reports TechCrunch.

Whether you will be reporting on the games from afar or you’re one of the lucky journalists getting ready to descend on London to cover the Olympics in person, here are seven resources to look at before and during the games. continued…

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SoundCloud, a site that lets you easily record and share audio clips, is taking its game to the next level.

On Wednesday, the site announced on its blog and Tumblr that users can now “pin”, or embed, sound clips in Pinterest. This comes on the heels of the news that SoundCloud clips will be integrated into expanded tweets. That specific feature is still rolling out, however, and is not available to all users yet.

What is available immediately is the ability to pin SoundCloud audio tracks to Pinterest boards. continued…

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“Four Questions With …” is a monthly series of interviews with different social media and community editors in the news industry.

So, what is it like to be a social media or community editor? What are the job responsibilities and how does one end up landing such a gig? The goal of “Four Questions With …” is to answer some of these questions and to give insight into what is a new and constantly evolving field.

This month, we talked to Brian Ries, the social media editor at Newsweek & The Daily Beast. Unlike some other social media editors, Ries didn’t start out in journalism. He started his current job in August 2010 after working at advertising and marketing companies with a heavy social bent. He began writing for Newsweek The Daily Beast while it was one of his clients. (It merged with Newsweek later.)

Ries further caught the editors’ attention when, in July 2010, he reported a Facebook post by Sarah Palin on the Ground Zero mosque as hate speech. His resulting Tumblr post went viral and Facebook even took down Palin’s post. He ended up writing an article about it for the site.

Here are his thoughts on what skills a social media editor needs and how you can make your mark in a newsroom with an already established social media strategy. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Six innovative media ventures, ranging from a dashboard that tracks stories through social networks and across competitor sites to a mobile video aggregator of of breaking news events, have been awarded $1.37 million as winners of the Knight News Challenge: Networks.

The winners were announced Monday at the the MIT-Knight Civic Media Conference in Cambridge, Mass.

This marks the first year that the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation split its annual Knight News Challenge, which launched in 2006, into three parts. The move is a nod to the fast pace of innovation, the organization has previously stated.

The first round focused on networks, while the second deals with data. (It is accepting applications until June 21 at noon.) The third challenge’s theme has yet to be announced.

The six projects “build on existing networks, such as Ustream or Twitter, to create new ways for informing and engaging communities,” according to a press release.

Here is a list of the winners, the amount awarded and a brief description of the project, as provided in the press release. Two of the winners, Signalnoi.se and Watchup, are receiving funding through the Knight Enterprise Fund and did not reveal how much was awarded. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Congratulations are in order for 10,000 Words founder Mark S. Luckie who will be leaving The Washington Post to join Twitter as its new creative content manager for journalism.

“To say I’m thrilled is an understatement. I’ll be working to transform the way journalists report the news and connect with their audiences and really maximizing my creative skills,” Luckie posted on his Facebook page.

Luckie announced his new job on Tuesday. He later tweeted that his new role, which will be based in New York City, will include coming up with “creative ways journalists use the platform, increase engagement and elevate Twitter use in newsrooms.”

Luckie, currently a social media editor at The Washington Post, started there in October 2010. While at the WaPo, Luckie has been in charge of identifying and implementing different types of social media strategies. He helped train others at the news organization in social media best practices. He was also part of a team nominated for a 2012 Pulitzer Prize for local news reporting.

So why the switch from a more traditional newsroom to Twitter? continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

If you were on Twitter today, your feed was most likely overflowing with information from Apple’s 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference.

Known more commonly by its abbreviation, WWDC, the annual conference is Apple’s time to show off its new software and technology aimed at developers. Yet while the initial target audience may be developers, it has grown to anyone who is an Apple fan.

Any news outlet or blog worth its salt that writes about technology was covering WWDC. Since you can expect any number of write ups from these other sites on all the new features announced, I wanted to focus on how they covered the conference.

Like most people, I wasn’t able to make it to California to attend the conference so I had to rely on liveblogs for my information. It wasn’t hard to find one to watch — almost every tech site and blog I read had one. But they varied in some key ways: Mainly technique and if they were more photo or text-based.

Here’s a quick recap of my favorite liveblogs covering WWDC 2012. continued…

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It’s that time of year again where newsrooms across the country are inundated with summer interns.

The Washington Post is taking a light hearted approach to summer interns with a fun feature called “Have you seen THAT intern?” where you can turn your questionable intern experiences into a meme.

Make no mistake about it, interns are great. I’ve been an intern and remember how strange it can be to jump into an office environment where you are temporary. I have also had interns who rocked.

Unfortunately, there is always THAT intern. You know who I am talking about. And Jenna Johnson of The Washington Post definitely knows about iffy interns. She describes it ever so aptly:

With thousands of college students once again arriving in Washington for summer internships, everyone who lives here has resumed making fun of those interns. It’s just so easy to do.

Yes, it’s often cruel and unfair. And, yes, most interns are dedicated workers who contribute so much to our city. But for every handful of amazing interns, there’s THAT intern.

As in, the intern who wears flip-flops to work. Or the one who hooks up a lot. Or who is always late. Or who stands on the left.

For the past two years, Johnson has documented various types of intern blunders in a hilarious series of columns called “That Intern” on the paper’s Campus Overload blog. This year, Johnson has decided to “quasi-retire” from writing the feature but she wants readers to pick up the torch. continued…

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The physical Rolodex is a thing of the past for today’s social journalist.

The social media savvy reporter now uses a Google doc to keep track of sources’ email addresses and cell phone numbers while also putting together Twitter lists and Facebook groups for more instantaneous contact. Some may also use LinkedIn.

That’s a lot of information to keep track of and it can feel overwhelming at times.

Enter Mingly, a plug-in that collects, or aggregates, all your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Gmail contacts and neatly puts them into one simple dashboard.

“We set out to create Mingly with one goal in mind: develop a product that makes it easy to stay in touch and informed about the important relationships in our life, no matter how we’re connected,” Dana Byerlee, Mingly’s business development and marketing manager, wrote in a recent blog post. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

If you use the free version of CoveritLive to live blog news and events, you may want to stop reading now. The company has made some drastic changes to its plan models, essentially eliminating the free version of CoveritLive.

Now, the only unpaid option is just the trial mode, which includes a measly 25 clicks per month. For $10 a month, you get “Starter” access with 250 clicks and the “Lite” plan, at $49 a month, provides 2,500 clicks.

CiL is a favorite tool in many newsrooms so the price change may have negative impacts on already tight budgets. Some may not be able to afford to pay for liveblogging software and are now looking for other options. The first alternative that jumps to mind is ScribbleLive, a platform used by tons of newsrooms. It is, however, quite expensive and not that affordable.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many free alternatives to CoveritLive out there but we scoured the web to find you some options. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In the last few of weeks, two pretty big names in the news industry have used Facebook groups to crowdsource reporting.

ProPublica started a Patient Harm Community Facebook group to create a “community of people … who are interested in discussing patient harm, its causes and solutions.” Adrienne LaFrance over at Nieman Lab did a nice write up on the group and why ProPublica went that route.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

If you’re not only an expert at using Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook but can edit video with the best of them, you should take a look at The Atlantic‘s 2012-2013 social media/multimedia fellowship.

The ad was posted on The Atlantic‘s Tumblr on Friday. Unfortunately, it doesn’t include details on whether the gig is paid or not The post has been updated to say it’s a paid, year-long job based in Washington, D.C. This is a great opportunity to get some hands-on social media and video experience at a great publication.

In addition to emailing over a resume, the editors would also “love to see the following”:

• Your Twitter / Tumblr / Vimeo / YouTube / etc. pages
• Anything cool you’ve made recently
• A video someone else made that you think is great
• A blog that you think is awesome
• A meme that you think is awesome
• A GIF that you think is awesome

To apply, send your resume and a cover letter to video@theatlantic.com.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“Four Questions With …” is a monthly series of interviews with different social media and community editors in the news industry.

So, what is it like to be a social media or community editor? What are the job responsibilities and how does one end up landing such a gig? The goal of “Four Questions With …” is to answer some of these questions and to give insight into what is a new and constantly evolving field.

For the month of May, we chatted with Anjali Mullany, the social media editor at Fast Company. Previously, Mullany was social media editor at the New York Daily News. She started working with the Daily News in 2009 while a master’s student at New York University’s Studio 20, ultimately becoming the Daily News’ social media editor. In April, she left to become the social media editor at Fast Company.

Here are Mullany’s thoughts on social media, journalism and how technology is changing innovation in the field. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

When it comes to blogging platform Tumblr, Newsweek has always led the pack. The news magazine is at it again — this time posting six alternative, although ultimately rejected, versions of its mildly controversial “First Gay President” cover on its Tumblr.

The picture that made the cut for the May 21 issue shows President Barack Obama with a rainbow-hued halo above his head (shown to the right). On the bottom left are printed the words “The First Gay President.”

In the Tumblr post, Brian Ries, Newsweek‘s current social media editor, writes, “Ah, our favorite nwktumblr feature is back: the also-rans! These are the alternate versions of our ’First Gay President’ Newsweek cover that were left on the cutting room floor.”

See all six rejected covers after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.