What's this all about, then?

Last Updated on Sunday, April 18 2010 02:02 Written by Pierce Presley Monday, February 01 2010 15:04

Welcome to Journalism Fast Forward. This site aims to give traditionally trained journalists new media skills that they haven't acquired through journalism school or on-the-job training. I hope it's also the culmination of my journey toward a master's degree in journalism and an online portfolio of my explanatory journalism skills. That's transparency.

 

I'm going to try and start at the very beginning, from which browser to use and how to navigate the social media labyrinth. Hopefully we'll get all the way to very advanced topics like data analysis and display, along with some side trips.

I'm not, however, going to reinvent the wheel. Nor will I get you from Internet newbie to a full-on hacker-slash-journalist extraordinaire in six weeks working only ten minutes a day. So the articles will focus on the basics and point you toward deeper instruction. There are a lot of solid tutorials out there that I would be negligent not to tell you about.

I'm also going to try to demonstrate new media as much as possible. You know, show, don't tell. As much as I like those tutorials spread around the Internet, all too many of them are text-only, and while I'm lucky enough to be able to get a lot from reading, I know that many people need to see something in action or hear someone explain it to really understand what's going on.

I realize that many journalists don't have a training budget, either because they're on their own or because their employer cut it to shreds, so I'm going to concentrate on free and open source software, low-cost software and hardware alternatives, and getting the most bang out of every lonely buck you've got.

Finally, I'm going to ask you to participate. Whether you're a newbie or you have all this stuff down pat, I want to hear from you. This site has a wiki (a user-editable website) where I'm keeping notes toward all the things I want to do here. But I don't want you to just read it. I want you to help write it and help improve the site, up to and including this introduction. If there's anything you don't understand, think I've explained badly or wish I would cover, add it to the wiki (please add only, except for minor edits, and strike out ; I'd like everyone to readily see your contribution). This includes "published" articles (one of the great things about the Web is that it offers a solution to the writer's dilemma: you can always go back and take another stab at it, everything is a work in progress). There are also forums for more message-based interaction and comments so you can respond to individual articles.

Thank you, and away we go!

— Pierce