Comm361-Amanda Lee

Kevin Anderson, now working for Al Jazeera Arabic in Doha, Qatar, has over a decade of journalism experience under his belt. Along with jobs at The Guardian and BBC News, Anderson has been a digital journalist since 1996 and rode the .com boom to becoming the BBC’s first online journalist outside of the UK.

Anderson’s main points:

• What tools do journalists need to know how to use?

1. Internships
2. Setting up blogs (knowing how to write, take pictures, edit video)

• The role of social media in journalism today?

The major role is “networked journalism”

1. Not enough to build a website, make sure content is available and take it to places were people are congregating online, like Facebook and Twitter.
2. Using networks to find sources and add voices to our journalism

• How do we differentiate ourselves as journalist?

If we amplify everyvoice it just becomes noise(when it comes to people trying to be their own reporters) it’s still important to make editorial choices. We just have a richer wider choice of quotes.

Kevin and his wife, Suw Charman-Anderson, have a blog called the Corante. Check out their postings.