Trends in Online News

Trends in Online News had three speakers; one from the Texas Tribune, one from The Austin American-Statesman and one from The New York Times. They each discussed very different parts of online journalism.

Christian McDonald from the Statesman discussed the different online programs that the website is using to keep its online users content. It uses Google Docs, UStream, Waze for traffic, QR for codes, Crank and Eye-Fi to keep photos constantly streaming.

Jacqui Maher from The New York Times spoke about how a team of cracking hackers elaborate with reporters to further enhance the Times’ website. She said how important each of their jobs is and how important knowing as much information about different types of coding will serve you as an online journalist.

“We’re a small group of hacker reporters within the newsroom,” said Maher. “You need to be able to report on the story with some degree of accuracy.”

Niran Babalola of The Texas Tribune showed students the data available on the Tribune website, which provides information like UT head coach Mack Brown’s salary at about $2.5 million per year.

Babalola emphasized the importance of spreadsheets and knowing how to create the things.