The slideshow above was part of a presentation entitled “Blogging for Journalists” I gave at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg Florida in July 2007 for the 2007 Summer Fellowship for Young Journalists.

During the UNconference “Blogging for Journalists” during the Portland 2007 AAN Convention, I sketched two flow charts that later turned into this presentation. (Thanks to participants for the healthy discussion!)

Last week’s presentation posited the following:

1. The production process for creating online content for newspapers is, for the most part, extremely convoluted and cumbersome, inhibiting what newsroom staffers are able to accomplish online.

2. Setting up a blog is ridiculously easy. Since anyone can do it, everyone has. Many newsroom-produced blogs do not use the medium well; creating illogical editing/production workflows, or giving folks better suited to column-writing blogs of their own.

3. Let’s not waste time critiquing the flaws of existing newspaper-produced blogs. Instead, let’s consider blog software a storytelling tool - how can we employ this tool to further our journalism?

We then went around the room, positing scenarios, and brainstorming possible uses of blog software for journalism.

Is your newsroom considering starting a blog? You might find “Conversation Bullet Points for Starting a Newsroom Blog” helpful.

It’s a nerdy, populist idea: folks in the audience of a lecture often know just as much as the speaker, so why not have everyone contribute? It’s called an unconference [wiki], and the idea is to democratize the convention experience.

AAN will experiment with an UNconference by hosting a special, free-wheeling session on “Blogging for Journalists,” during the 2007 Convention in Portland, OR.

I’ll guide the session along with an outline of topics, soliciting best practices contributions from UNconference attendees, and - of course, blogging the results on the community convention blog at Portland2007.AAN.org. Later, I’ll work the results of the UNconference into a session on Blogging for Journalists I’ll be leading for the 2007 batch of Poynter College Fellows. [I was a Reading & Writing Fellow in ‘04].

Interested in attending? Pop over to the convention blog at portland2007.AAN.org, where this is cross-posted and let me know what timeframe works for you.