Digital media workshop with Steve Buttry

My education this year has been on two fronts: the formal course of study in Library and Information Science through Cuesta College online and independent training in social media tools for journalism.

Thursday morning offered in-person training by Steve Buttry with Digital First Media.

Buttry is director of community engagement and social media for Digital First Media. DFM provides management services for the Lake County Record-Bee’s parent company, MediaNews Group.

During his talk on Thursday at the Record-Bee, Buttry presented a wide overview of social media including Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Pinterest and Klout.

Buttry referred to recent blogs and offered examples of good work by fellow journalists:

• Buttry’s recent blog about advanced search in Twitter incorporates a readers’s poll to pick the next subject about Twitter to blog about.
• Ivan Lajara reveals: “I am the one behind News Cat Gifs!” He explains some of the things he did to help the project go viral.
• Buttry emphasizes the impact of first-person narrative when citing this narrative by Jeff Edelstein about falling asleep while driving with his son in the car
• Howard Owens compiled a list in February 2008: “Ten things journalists can do to reinvent journalism.”
• While searching for Owens’ archived piece, I also found this updated list: “Ten things journalists can do to reinvent journalism, the new list,” published Jan. 8, 2012.

Buttry’s presentation for Record-Bee newsroom staff has been curated with Storify. His “Buttry Diary” blog is an ongoing valuable resource for training in digital journalism.