Monday, January 19, 2009

Learn coding ... does it matter?

Continuing the journalists/developers train of thought ...

This blogger thinks all new journalists should learn how to code. And if you can, you'll be able to code a nice, functional and pretty map like this one on The Guardian.

If I had one piece of advice to a journalist starting out now, it would be: learn to code

Yes, it would. Seriously, if you’re doing one of those courses where they’re making you learn shorthand and so on, take some time to learn to code. MORE

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The future: journalists-slash-developers?

A good piece on interactives ventures at the nytimes.com website. The way of the future for newspapers, methinks.

The New Journalism: Goosing the Gray Lady

What are these renegade cybergeeks doing at the New York Times? Maybe saving it.
By Emily Nussbaum Published Jan 11, 2009


On the day Barack Obama was elected, a strange new feature appeared on the website of the New York Times. Called the Word Train, it asked a simple question: What one word describes your current state of mind? Readers could enter an adjective or select from a menu of options. They could specify whether they supported McCain or Obama. Below, the results appeared in six rows of adjectives, scrolling left to right, coded red or blue, descending in size of font. The larger the word, the more people felt that way. MORE