In fourth grade, I had a brilliant idea that would completely revolutionize the future of elementary education. Okay, maybe not, but it was awesome! I decided to reinvent the “hand raise” using an ice-fishing flag and some suction cups.
This invention would solve a serious problem. Teachers wanted to encourage class participation, but young students struggled to withstand the dreaded wait required to ask their questions. Thousands of critical questions would remain unasked because of a simple, physical limitation.
My solution… the “Easy Raise.”
That’s right, the Easy Raise was an attention-getting device that could rise for hours without wavering. More importantly, this brilliant piece of innovation was going to win me the fourth grade inventor’s fair.
The revolutionary "Easy Raise" in action
Long story short… I lost! To what? The most ridiculous invention of all time.
I lost to a doggie backpack that allowed every dog to wear its poop. Not only that, but the same invention had won the previous year. How can you win an inventor’s fair using last year’s invention!? The future of education had lost to a poop pack.
It took me a few months to get over the loss. Then, three years later, I watched the Tonight Show with Jay Leno as five elementary students presented their winning inventions from the national inventors fair. Care to guess the winner?! It was the Easy Raise! Some dude, three years later, came up with the exact same concept and won it all.
I discovered something important as a young inventor. I was in the process of building something great, but I failed to understand its significance and find a way to make it work. I continued using the Easy Raise for the rest of the school year and quickly became my teacher’s new favorite student to answer questions. However, one more year of fine-tuning and my purple “participant” ribbon would have been gold.
What’s the point?
I feel like I’m performing at the fourth grade inventor’s fair once again. I recently started a company, Ewen Media, and have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. The panel, which is pretty much everyone, would rightfully assume that I am crazy and consider it time to move on. However, just like the Easy Raise, I think there’s something to it, which means this is no time to quit and join team “poop pack” before next year’s fair.
The most innovative ideas are usually met with the most resistance. Think about it. It’s hard to be inventive when there is another trusted alternative that has shown promise in the past. In today’s environment, re-inventing the “poop pack” isn’t going to cut it and it’s time to start moving toward true innovation. Most importantly, it’s time for the entrepreneurs to believe in their ideas strongly enough to carry them through.
I firmly believe that passion is the single greatest asset for any young journalist.
My generation is going to redefine the future of journalism. We are all applicants at the fourth grade inventor’s fair and presenting ideas to a panel of experienced professionals. Many of the ideas sound pretty terrible, but some of them will work and someone will succeed. So, the question is, will it be you or the poop pack?
A couple weeks ago, David Brauer (@dbrauer) and Taylor Carik (@_taylor_) hosted the Other Future of News conference, a response to Minnesota Public Radio’s Future of News event in mid-November. The conference was divided into three sessions, including organizational change, tech tools and content. I’ve included a couple highlights from the first session and will upload more videos later this week.
New brands for old organizations
Star Tribune reporter Michael Rand (@RandBall) discussed the organization’s decision to create Game Face MN, a niche site for prep sports coverage. The site currently has user-generated content, social media components and assorted multimedia content. The idea behind the site, according to Rand, was to create a separate online community that would be appealing to advertisers. The site utilizes social networks through Facebook connect and Twitter integration, and allows more users to interact with the content because it’s a smaller community than StarTribune.com.
This concept seems like a promising approach to future coverage and has significantly more advertising potential. It would be interesting to evaluate the strength of the Game Face brand, in comparison to the Star Tribune’s, and monitor the site’s effectiveness in engaging new users. In addition, the next logical step would appear to be full Facebook integration to appeal to younger audiences, such as Facebook applications or Facebook Connect. The University of Minnesota’s Christine Greenhow considered this option in more detail in the next presentation.
Integrating news with social networks:
University of Minnesota researcher Dr. Christine Greenhow (@chrisgreenhow) suggested the use of Facebook applications as a new way for news organizations to connect with younger consumers. The University of Minnesota’s site, Hot Dish, was built entirely within Facebook and included information on environmental science. The site included incentives for engagement and interactivity through the use of an “action team.” Users were encouraged to comment and receive challenge points for redeemable prizes. Most importantly, the study said the application allowed them to interact because they were already used to sharing and commenting in the Facebook environment.
“Building a niche application around an issue, like politics, environmental science, entertainment or health, could be a real opportunity, perhaps, for the future of news media.” – Christine Greenhow
According to the study, the creation of the action team was extremely effective in creating a highly engaged segment of active participants. Most interesting, many of these challenges continued offline, such as signing a petition, contacting a congressman or visiting a specific location, that could not be completed online. The application showed the potential to connect with a highly engaged segment of the population through a reward-based system. In addition, incorporating news content onto a Facebook page appeared to be a way to “fish where the fish are” rather than waiting for them to swim to you.
Interesting findings:
60 percent of the articles were read
Two-thirds of the site’s content was user generated
Only 10 percent of referred friends signed up
Here’s a link to Greenhow’s full presentation from the Other Future of News conference:
Although Greenhow did not specifically mention the MN Daily application during the presentation, the University of Minnesota’s school newspaper also partnered with News Cloud and launched a similar application. Those findings, also prepared by Greenhow, re-affirmed that users felt more comfortable expressing their opinions within the Facebook application compared to a mainstream news site. Therefore, increasing interactivity may be significantly more effective within the Facebook framework or through the implementation of Facebook connect. The study also suggested that student interest in the University of Minnesota community also increased through the use of the application, primarily related to information on local issues and education.
New roles for journalists
Tom Elko (@tomelko), news director at Bring Me The News, discussed three emerging roles for journalists at the Other Future of News.
1) Journalists reporting for corporations
2) Journalists working as programmers
3) Journalists serving as news curators
First, he suggested the potential evolution of reporting positions to fill gaps within large corporations. For example, this could include large corporations, such as 3M, wanting journalists to report directly to investors on events in China or other corporations hiring reporters to uncover new trends and competition. Second, Elko suggested the emerging role of journalists as programmers. Journalists could use their storytelling backgrounds to program new technologies and help bring those technologies to the news room. Lastly, he stressed the importance of future journalists serving as news curators to gather information, which Elko does at Bring Me The News.
Other #OFON presentations on organizational change included:
1) “Changing the AP” – Dave Pyle, Associated Press
2) “Social media in big organizations” – Amy Nelson (@AmyPioneerPress), Pioneer Press
3) “Who cares about Google? / Why sideways traffic is problematic” – Jim Bernard (@bernardjim), Marketwatch
4) “Changing a non-metro paper” – Jim Santori (@JPSantori), Mankato Free Press
5) “Going rogue after radio!” – T.D. Mischke, City Pages
