Newhouse School of Communications

April 21, 2009

New media expert/blogger Ryan Sholin spoke recently to Newhouse students about the future of news and how it will be delivered. Professors Jon Glass and Vin Crosbie hosted two Sholin sessions, on new media business and web journalism and innovation.

Sholin is GateHouse Media’s director of Community Site Publishing. He is also a Knight News Challenge winner for developing ReportingOn.org, a website he designed to create a simple way for journalists to update their peers on the stories they're working on. Sholin is now working on an updated version of the original ReportingOn.org.





Click on the links below to view video segments of Sholin's class presentations:

New Media Business

Part 1
Sholin tells how he got started in the online news industry, and talks about the current state of the newspaper industry.

Part 2
Sholin discusses new ways of funding journalism. He talks about “crowd funding” and how to utilize it through non-traditional media outlets.

Part 3
Sholin explains “printcasting,” a method in which non-media outlets can publish content with ads.

Part 4
Sholin covers the non-profit model for news organizations and free/open source tools.

Part 5
Sholin discusses the value of niche and “hyper-local” news and reporting, and how to keep it funded.

Part 6
Sholin continues on niche and “hyperlocal” news and reporting. He also gives his opinion on who should cover national and international news.

Part 7
Sholin examines AnnArbor.com, and news aggregation tools and techniques.  


Web Journalism and Innovation

Part 1
Sholin explains the value of podcasts as explainers, specifically crisisofcredit.com, thru untraditional media outlets.  Also, he explains how a freelance journalist can make money from untraditional media be making podcasts/videos/graphics etc. through “journalism micro-credit.”

Part 2
Sholin on how data visualization is being used in traditional and non-traditional outlets and its journalistic value.

Part 3
Sholin on how news organizations are using Twitter now.

Part 4
Sholin discusses objectivity in the news media, and using and optimizing comments on news media Web sites.

Part 5
Sholin on finding a job, and ways to keep up with the overwhelming blogosphere.

Part 6
Sholin continues the discussion on different ways to keep up on the blogosphere. He also talks about whether a media job seeker should try to be an expert on one field/skills, or develop a broad based working knowledge.  To end with, he discusses the Las Vegas Sun and its new media endeavors.

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