How to get hired as a digital journalist
The digital future is now
The digital media landscape has changed dramatically in the past 20 years.
When the history of this time is written, it will detail the rise of social media and internet culture, the shrinking of the world around tech brands and their products, and the boom of connectivity across borders.
And journalists (just like many others) have had to navigate the rapid technological and societal changes, and its impact on their industry.
So what skills do digital journalists have that set them apart from other journalists? What does their job involve at traditional media organisations like broadcasters or papers?
To help answer those questions, this week we're going to hear from two digital journalists - Felicity Sheppard from ABC News Digital and Stuart Layt from the Brisbane Times.
6pm: Arrive, grab a drink, socialise
6.30pm: Panel discussion
7pm: Food, another drink (but no pressure), more chats
8pm: Close
ICYMI
Two of the ABC's digital storytelling teams have claimed the overall prize at the prestigious Information is Beautiful awards for excellence across a portfolio of their stories - here's the full list of winners
It isn't all rosy in digital media, as this piece points out. Using the Deadspin saga as a launching off point, it dives into the economic realities that digital publications face
An artificial intelligence research company based in San Fran says its AI bots learned to use tools. (Honestly, this is where Skynet starts...)
FiveThirtyEight does a great job of publishing their data and code. Check out their published data repository
About last month...
Thanks to James Cridland, Andrew Davies and Nance Haxton for their time talking podcasts and emerging audio trends. Here are some of the key takeaways from the chat - and many thanks (as always) to TJ Thomson for these notes:
Google recently added podcasts into search results, which helps with discovery and potentially attracts people who might never have listened to a podcast before
We’re seeing a trend where content is being locked into a particular platform, like how you have to get both Netflix and Stan to see all the shows you want. There’s fewer people/organisations syndicating podcasts across all platforms
Australians listen to more podcasts on Spotify than many countries, which is interesting because the largest podcaster in the country (the ABC) isn’t on Spotify
90 per cent of podcasts are listened to alone; 0.02 per cent of podcasts are listened to on smart speakers (at the moment...)
There are many tools out there that can help you with podcast making, including Descript, which allows you to edit audio by editing text 🤯
Can't get enough podcasting news? You can sign up for James's Podnews newsletter here and for Nance's Streets Of Your Town newsletter here
(Also, thanks Rae for the tweet!)