Category: Social Media

Use the Editor’s Note to Tell Your Paper’s Story

“Story Time” by Dave Parker. Creative Commons Attribution.

Curators show who they are by exposing what they care about, what they consider worthy of other people’s attention. We use stories as currency in the attention economy: picking the best of them and passing them along.We manage a platform of stories. Yet, it seems we’re not storytellers ourselves. Or when we are, we separate… Continue reading Use the Editor’s Note to Tell Your Paper’s Story

Presenting Pearls: Stakes of Content Discovery

“Pearls” by Dr. John Supan for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Users of fast growing services face challenges discovering relevant content. To address these challenges is hard because relevance is an ever evolving concept which depends on the context. When the user has a clear goal or specific question, relevance is straight forward: that’s how we got search engines. But it is less obvious to address… Continue reading Presenting Pearls: Stakes of Content Discovery

How to Select Only What You Need and Leave the Rest

“Workers sort through dried tea. Kunming, China” by Steve Evans. Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License.

“Information Gluttony”, a previous post, provoked interesting reactions among social media enthusiasts and editors. The need to become more picky is widely felt. Jan Gordon wrote: I think this is most important for all of us, continually refining our ability to select only what we need and leave the rest. Today everyone is a publisher and… Continue reading How to Select Only What You Need and Leave the Rest

The limits of automation and the curator’s role

"Kneading Clay" by Sawyer Isabelle

Frank posted earlier about Popping the Filter Bubble, arguing that there wasn’t a real problem. Although, as he argues, the concerns about the filter bubble are framed as a conflict to sell the idea, it doesn’t mean the filter bubble is not a real and potentially problematic phenomenon. As he shows using the example of… Continue reading The limits of automation and the curator’s role

On or Off? How to Make Comments Work for You

I was prompted to think about the costs and value of comments after reading a post about the latest changes made to Gawker’s comment management system in which Nick Denton, founder of Gawker Media, laments the poor state of comments sections. Engagement is difficult to get and even more difficult to keep. Whether you get no comments at all… Continue reading On or Off? How to Make Comments Work for You

Report and Curate With the Same Passion

Detail from “Strawberry Picking” by bigbirdz. Creative Commons License BY.

Recently, I wrote about the focus on original reporting that online magazines such as Salon.com and Gawker have decided to develop. According to this article by David Skok, these changes in editorial strategies are normal and have historical precedents: TIME magazine went through a similar transformation.Skok, therefore, concludes that “the aggregators of today will be the… Continue reading Report and Curate With the Same Passion