Entries from July 2011

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Using Posterous as a first-year student journalism teaching tool

It may be only July, but online journalism lecturers are eagerly preparing for the next intake of wide-eyed undergraduates in October. There has been a lot of change on the online journalism course at UCA in Farnham. For example, we’ve started using a group news site based on WordPress for first year students in semester […]

Monday, July 18th, 2011

Missing the News of the World? Metro offers a handy daily substitute

If anyone’s getting withdrawal symptoms from the lack of their News of the World fix on Sundays, take heart. There’s a daily dose of trashy inanity readily available in your inbox or local bus. As a selection of headlines from last week’s Metro shows, even the middle market media are trying gallantly to fill the […]

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

That “racy police blog” – where, exactly, is it online?

There’s been a mini media storm over the Hong Kong policewoman whose “racy” pictures of her colleagues pointing guns at each other and larking about, student ball-style, in a Kowloon cop-shop were splashed over the Hong Kong press, and then everywhere else. But have a look at the coverage – like here, on the BBC […]

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

Mail Online embraces the grocer’s apostrophe* – well, its one of those Lindsay Lohan storie’s

More evidence of the shocking moral and ethical decline of the national tabloid press – now the Mail Online has let its standards slip and has embraced the grocer’s apostrophe*. Apparently, Lindsay Lohan had her sights set on the Black Swan role that did for Natalie Portman. The Mail expresses surprise that “Lohan still thinks […]

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

#NOTW scandal: Don’t confuse the ethics of tabloid journalism with its legality

The News of the World phone hacking scandal won’t go away, so let’s add some verbiage to it. Specifically – what’s the difference between scum-sucking, immoral, intrusive, vile tabloid (or other) journalism and illegal practices? Fleet Street Blues posted an excellent dissection of the nuances of journalistic morality last week (I wish I’d written it). […]

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

SEO Week: “Be clever, sneaky and cheat” to beat the opposition

When it comes to news, there are so many sources – the BBC, national news web sites, and stories from all around the world. How do you compete when you’re doing the same story? That’s what SEO – search engine optimisation – is all about. It also helps to be a bit sneaky… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkbqEqohavg Keywords […]

Monday, July 4th, 2011

SEO Week: How to generate traffic through user-generated content

All sites need a constant supply or new, original, keyword-rich content. How can you achieve this without spending money? In a talk to UCA journalism students, Chris Marling explains how user-generated content drove traffic to Broadband Genie last year. How do you get unique content on your site for free? Customer reviews All you need do […]

Friday, July 1st, 2011

SEO Week: How to get top ranking on Google

In the fourth of a series of videos on SEO and content strategy, Broadband Genie editor Chris Marling talks to UCA journalism students about how the broadband comparison site pushed a news story to the top of Google’s search results, and used a well-tagged image to draw 1,500 visitors to the site in one month. […]