Newseum opens its doors

The national museum of journalism, the Newseum, opens its doors today in Washington DC -- and I'm extremely excited.

The Newseum, "where the news comes to life," is the most interactive museum in the world according to its Web site. Visitors can star in their own TV newscast in addition to learning about the impact new technology is having on the business, and the challenges journalists faced covering 9/11. There is also a Great Hall of News with live breaking news from around the world.It only makes sense for the landmark, pictured above, to be in a city with such a rich journalism history where journalism royalty like Woodward and Bernstein reined. The building is located on Pennsylvania Avenue and has a balcony that allows visitors to get a panoramic view of DC. From the picture, I see that the first amendment is printed on the outside of the building -- pretty awesome.

According to this New York Times review, the museum can be seen from the capital building.

It's all pretty symbolic if you think about it -- journalism is constantly overlooking the capital.

It probably is just me and my nerdy love for journalism -- and Washington DC -- but I think this is one of the coolest museums ever created.

The museum is free today. Here is ticket information for all other visits.

Spreading 'trust'worthy news

I begin the day with the following four tabs on my Firefox browser: G-mail, Google Reader, The New York Times, and MSNBC. (After reading my G-mail there often is a fifth tab: Facebook.)

While these all lead to important and interesting stories, I need more variety in my daily news intake. Sometimes I'm linked to other news Web sites through E-mail but for the most part I'm in a rut and it's time for me to expand my news sources.

That's why, NewsTrust may become my new best friend. The site, which prides itself on being "Your Guide to Good Journalism," allows readers to submit and rate the top stories of the day from all over the web. While it's similar to Digg, the rating system is more complex and NewsTrust bases the top stories on quality, not just popularity. According to the site:

NewsTrust reviewers evaluate each article against core journalistic principles such as fairness, evidence, sourcing and context.

In addition, reviewers can write comments about the story and explain why they gave it a certain rating. They can also link to similar stories that were done better or that provide context to their ratings.

What's even more interesting about the rating system is that the site takes into account the person doing the rating. In order to comment on a story, you have to register for the site and provide certain information like occupation and political views (not all this has to be made public in your site profile). The more information a person provides, the more "transparent" NewsTrust finds them and this influences their overall rating of a story. Additionally, the more stories a person rates, the more they are trusted.

I like that the site is broken down into different sections like World, Politics, and Health in addition to a more general Today's Top Pick on the homepage. It looks like there also is a weekly topic for readers/submitters to focus on if they like.

Overall, the site is very user-friendly and easy to figure out. My only complaint is it runs a bit slow sometimes.

While I admit I'm still a bit intimidated to start submitting my own stories, I'm starting to make more comments and I find critiquing other articles is a good way for me to work on my journalism skills.

Plus I now have something more diverse to read with my cup of morning coffee.

A political/journalism hybrid

Politics and journalism are merging in an all new way on Politicker.com -- creating jobs and changing reporting.

Politicker is a hub of political Web sites -- one for each state. Currently, 11 state Web sites are and all 50 should be up by the end of 2009. Jared Kushner, the publisher of the site, told the New York Times:

Each site will serve as an intensely local source for political articles, speculation and scandal. (Full article here).

Politicker is directed towards political-junkies and its slogan is "Inside Politics for Political Insiders." It was created based on the New Jersey political Web site, PoliticsNJ.com, which has now become a part of Politicker as PolitickerNJ.

The most interesting part about Politicker is the opportunities it currently has and will continue to have for young journalist. These days, the sites managing editor, James Pindell, sends recent graduates out to a state capital with "little more than a laptop and a BlackBerry" and has them create the state site.

According to the Times article, once all 50 state sites are up, each site will have one or two reporters, an editor and several bloggers employed to keep it running.

In addition:

The editors — who will remain anonymous, and will include lawyers, lobbyists and former officeholders — are the “secret sauce.”

Kushner told the Times that the sites themselves would not have any political affiliation, but then why will they have these connections? While I understand the necessity of having insiders working for the site in order to get inside information, it seems like a basic conflict of interest. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

In general I think it's a very smart idea to have this political hub. If it is successful, it will not only be an extremely useful tool for journalists but it will also be a great opportunity for journalists who want to write about politics.

Welcome to the neighborhood

9Neighbors is a site where Boston area residents can share stories, images and videos from other media outlets as well as their own blogs and Flickr accounts.

Members can create profiles, upload images, make friends with other people in their neighborhood and follow a friend, which means they can see what someone finds interesting on the site.

The site launched Sept. 28, 2007 and Rick Burnes, the creator, describes it as the "new local news filtering service" on the site's blog, The 9th Neighbor. 9Neighbors is part of Faneuil Media, which builds online news services.

The 9th Neighbor blog gives information on the internal workings of the site and also directs readers to certain projects. For example, this March 1 post links to a Google map mash-up of potholes in the area. What makes this even more interesting and entertaining is that readers can contribute to the map, adding pothole locations, pictures and descriptions. A simple idea but one that could be useful for drivers, bikers and pedestrians.

Apparently the top stream on 9Neighbors is the MBTA, but I can't figure out for sure if it is the top stream of the day, week or just in general.

I think it is a day-to-day thing and with today being St. Patrick's Day this makes sense as the holiday causes havoc on all lines, especially those that lead drunk college students back to their campuses.

In general the 9Neighbors site does still seem a bit bare. However it has potential because it combines a variety of new technologies like social networking and blogging with the basic desire to know what is going on in your backyard.

A brief FYI

I read about this on Journerdism and thought it was pretty cool.

Alltop is a Web site that compiles several sites and blogs about a certain topic into one web page. It basically is a summary of the top stories of the day for that particular subject -- sort of like a RSS feed without a subscription.

It's a great resource tool and covers a large range of topics from celebrities to non-profit organizations to extreme sports. There's also one for journalism.

I think one of Alltop's greatest assets is it leads you to Web sites and blogs you may not have heard about otherwise.

I recommend checking it out.