How to create a Twitter Background

I spent a few hours learning how to create a Twitter background in Photoshop for my Twitter page. I don’t have much free time, and playing with technology is one way I stay sane. Plus, a very active Twitter user and my student, Paige Soucie, requested to learn. Fortunately, I ran into my friend Nancie Dodge. She shared with me her recently acquired (last night) knowledge on how to create a Twitter background in Photoshop.

I will share my notes from her quick lesson on how to create the image in Photoshop. These instructions require a very basic knowledge of Photoshop.

Examples:
@mpranikoff
@knightfdn
@adamostrow
@JLab
@fvongraf
@drcarp

Free Social Media and Other icons:
50 Social Service and Bookmarking Icons Sets for Bloggers
35 Social Media Love Icons
Free Icons
75 Beautiful Free Social Bookmarking Icon Sets

Steps: This handout is for users who know basic Photoshop.
1. Open Photoshop
2. File > New > Name Document > Preset (Web) > Select 1280 X 1024 or 1024 X 768 (Size is experimental because people have control over the size of their browser by stretching the handles in the corner).
3. Pick a color using the Paint Bucket tool. It is best to stick to a solid color because you will have to match the background color chosen in Twitter because people may stretch their browser beyond the size of your image.
4. The left-hand side is the real estate typically used for sharing information about yourself or your company. The main Twitter center area is approximately 763 pixels. Design content for outside that area. Try 160 pixels for your width of your informational sidebar on the left-hand side. That is what worked for me.
5. New Layer(s) > Create your informational sidebar (e.g., name, social media icons, URLs, picture)
6. You will find you will likely have to upload several .jpg versions of your design to Twitter because the width does not always work. I uploaded 5 different .jpgs my first time.
6. File > Save for the Web and Devices
7. Go to Twitter > Settings > Design > Change Background Image
8. Change Design Colors > Find your Web color in Photoshop (e.g., 500303)
9. Test the final design on several computers.

SYLLABI: Teaching Online Journalism and Communication

Online Journalism Review aggregated syllabi in 2004, however this list needs to be updated. In an attempt to aggregate this information, I have begun a list of syllabi dedicated to online journalism, online communication and social media. I found that results from Google do not showcase all of the best available syllabi online.

This section highlights faculty syllabi that focus on skills, theory, online communication, and journalism. The selected sites featured interactive, timely, and great resources for students, educators, journalists, and people with a desire to learn. I have also highlighted some useful features that I believe may be useful for educators.

Mindy McAdams – University of Florida
Mindy McAdams shares her syllabi focused on the teaching of multimedia, animation, and reporting for online users. Her sites are designed simply and feature possible assignment ideas and online resources for educators and students.

Dave Stanton – University of Florida
Dave Stanton has a broad background, which enables him to teach web consulting, design and XHTML/CSS. I really like that Dave gives his students video tutorials to help them process information outside of class.

Serena Carpenter – Arizona State University
My class is the foundation class for all things concerning online media. It is divided into three sections: 1) social media, 2) visual communication, and 3) Web site creation. The focus throughout the semester is on online communication. I provide ideas for class assignments as well. I also provide tutorials on my blog.

Leslie-Jean Thornton – Arizona State University
This is an online reporting course for students in a Masters program. The resources page also provides some useful tutorials.

Carol Schwalbe and Nancie Dodge – Arizona State University
The Advanced Online Media class builds upon skills taught in previous basic online media classes.

Cindy Royal – Texas State University
Cindy Royal’s site contains useful ideas to include into lectures.

Don Wittekind – University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
I am impressed by Don Wittekind’s ability to teach Flash, based on my experience from a past seminar. Don provides a list of classes that he teaches in the left-hand navigation section. He provides some lectures and handouts as well.

Ryan Thornburg – University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Ryan Thornburg shares his online reporting syllabi. His assigned readings page is interactive.

Alfredo A. Marin-Carle – Ball State University
The New Media Journalism concentrates on web design. The reference section offers a list of useful sites for people teaching such courses.

Tracy Rutledge – University of Tennessee at Martin
Intro to Multimedia focuses on creating multimedia websites. She provides some tutorials as well.

Donica Mensing – University of Nevada-Reno
Donica Mensing shares her syllabus for her online reporting course, which covers multimedia reporting, social media and HTML/CSS. She provides helpful videos as well.

Laura Ruel – University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Laure Ruel teaches design and multimedia storytelling. She has a great downloads section that features storyboarding and usability execises.

Chris Harvey – University of Maryland
I like that this instructor’s Online Journalism class schedule is interactive and detailed.

Sean Mussenden – University of Maryland
His Online Journalism course has screencast tutorials teaching others how to use WordPress.

Gaurav Mishra -  Georgetown University
The Social Media in Business, Development and Government course concentrates on social media literacy.

Henry Jenkins – Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program
The New Media Literacies course site shares resources related to online participation and communication.

Alice J. Robinson – Arizona State University
The Digital Cultures and Social Media course is a doctoral seminar. There is a list of thought-provoking pieces on her schedule and on her Delicious page.

Corinne Weisgerber – St. Edward’s University
The Social Media for Public Relations class offers useful material for anyone teaching social media including how to reach online users.

David Carlson – University of Florida
He teaches an Applied Interactive Newspaper course and an online communication class. I like that student projects are shared.

Tim McGuire – Arizona State University
The Business and Future of Journalism class encourages students to reflect on the journalism industry by having them write about business models. Tim also provides links to suggested readings.

Siva Vaidhyanathan – University of Virgina
This Introduction to Digital Media instructor encourages students to take a critical look at new media and its impact on culture. The reading list is a useful resource.

Jeffrey Michael Heer – Stanford University
Research Topics in Human-Computer Interaction is a graduate-level course focused on HCI. He also includes links to student articles.

Vin Crosbie – Syracuse University
The course examines how new media differs from traditional media. Crosbie provides a list of books that may be useful for other instructors.

To add your course to the list, email me or provide your syllabus in the comments section including background information related to the course. I hope that these examples are useful for educators designing their classes for future semesters and for those looking for resources to learn more about the online media environment.

Bringing structure to the grading of blog posts

Every semester I struggle with the grading of my students’ blog posts. For most of my students in my Online Media class, it is the first time that they have blogged.

It takes awhile for students to adjust to online communication and how the blogosphere plays a part. I just finished grading their first two posts in my class. Based on my experience, I felt compelled to create a rubric for grading blogs in future classes. I would appreciate any suggestions. Feel free to apply it to your class. Here is the PDF of the grading rubric for blog posts.

*Hat tip to Dale Cressman for the idea.

Look who’s back

It is a new semester. I have decided to rejoin the social media sphere (at least on a professional level) again. I am teaching online media this semester. If you would like to view my syllabus, please do. I break the semester into three parts: social media, visual communication and site creation. Feedback is always welcomed.

Also, Dave Stanton shared his syllabus with me. It is definitely worth a visit.

Visual Toolkit of Freebies – Step by step instructions

I spent the day working on my visual toolkit. I am in awe of how much easier it is today to share and embed beautiful elements on your Web site. I believe that anyone can use and follow this handout. Have fun!

*Thanks to @chrishogg for the tip on Scribd

Some newspaper bloggers don’t get blogging

Recent research conducted by Larry Daily, Lori Demo, and Mary Spillman in the Newspaper Research Journal shows that professional journalism newspaper political bloggers rarely post and do little to interact with their readers. The study showed that a quarter of bloggers did not post within the sampled week and the median number of posts were four for that time period.

The results also show that the political bloggers did little to engage their readers. The purpose of the comment is to build community, however 80% of the blog authors in the study did not post one comment, and the average number of comments received readers was one a day. In the blogging world, bloggers typically respond to their readers via comments or email.

The authors offered some advice on areas of reflection for newsrooms:

• Placing comments on a separate page increases page views, but hinders conversation
• Ask your blogger whether they are truly committed to increasing civic conversation
• Few comments means that the blogger may not understand the culture of blogosphere

Twitter intertwined with social media

Twitter is a micro-blogging tool that acts like a human search engine. Twitter can be used to monitor people or topics in real time, which is a useful reporting tool. I have recently joined the twitosphere and love it. You can follow me tweets, which are 140 character posts by clicking “follow” on my page. I will break down the twitter terminology in a future post for you.

Here are some highlights of the recent Pew/Internet Report on Twitter.

• 11% of online adults use Twitter
• Users skew younger, median age 31
• Twitter is intertwined with use of blogs and social network sites
• Twitter users consume blog content; 21% read someone else’s blog “yesterday” and 29% have created a blog

MediaPost broke down the report as well.

Encourage students to comment

My students started their own blogs. This is a typical assignment I have them do every semester in my Online Media class, however this is the first semester I required them to comment on other blogger’s blogs related to their topic. So far, I have found it a valuable addition to their blogging assignment because through their comments they are driving traffic to their site and exchanging comments with other fellow bloggers, which builds community. This comment assignments helps them more quickly understand the blogosphere and the norms of the blogging community.

Comments assignment
You must comment on other blogs related to your blog topic. Comments must add value to the post and invite reflection/conversation. Comments should not just say  “good job” or “nice post.” Comments must be on recent posts within a one month period. On the date of when each blog post is due, you must email me: 1) the blog post URL and 2) your actual comment.

Live blogging in the classroom

The director of new media for the Detroit News, Mark Hinojosa, spoke to my Online Media class yesterday about journalism business models and how to craft content with readers in mind. To make the speaker’s lecture more interactive, my students live blogged the speaker using Cover It Live, a simple free tool for people can use to share live commentary of an event.

The students can share their name, comment, and an URL. From my end as the administrator, I can select comments and share photos, video, and polls. I embedded the live blog on the Online Media class blog. The conversation that evolved consisted of students sharing information and commentary related to the topic of the moment while Mark Hinojosa was speaking. I thought that it was a great experiment to get students engaged, share their knowledge on the topic, and to encourage them to think critically about what the speaker was saying.

I have a handout on how to create a live blog using Cover It Live on my teaching page.

Journalism should reflect more than the usual suspects

As a teacher, I challenge my students to go beyond event-based reporting. I push my students to focus on an issue, get great visuals and sound, seek out an unofficial person to represent an issue, and encourage them to incorporate useful information in their stories. This process truly challenges student to go beyond the university’s events calendar, press releases and stories found in local publications. Researchers estimate that 25% to 80% of traditional news media stories contain information from public relations officials or press releases. Research has not only demonstrated that a significant portion of information stems from press releases, but news stories also tend to be identical in the framing and the wording of press releases.

I have been pushing the incorporation of the previously mentioned components for years, but I was struck by this post by Jack Lail is managing editor/multimedia for The Knoxville News-Sentinel. Lail argues that journalists should include information in their stories that is value to readers.

“If you don’t think your business is being useful to your users/readers/viewers, then I would suggest your journalism is failing.”

I believe that many successful bloggers use their blogs for this purpose. I love to learn, and I encourage my students to construct content that provides useful information in both their blogs and in their stories, and I encourage you to push your students to go beyond including the usual suspects in their stories as well.

Glen Terrence Cameron, Lynne M. Sallot, and Patricia A. Curtin, “Public Relations and the Production of News: A Critical Review and a Theoretical Framework,” in Communication Yearbook 20, ed. B. R. Burleson (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1997), 111-55.

Lynda Lee Kaid, “Newspaper Treatment of a Candidate’s News Releases,” Journalism Quarterly 53 (1976): 135-57

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