As go-to sources for innovative content, amateur bloggers have been teaching mainstream media professionals some new tricks. Once considered the sideshow of journalism, blogging has taken the center ring. Even traditional media outlets have joined the fray, bolstering blogging’s reputation. But for amateur bloggers not writing for a trusted brand, establishing a trustworthy reputation remains important. For Justin Carder of Capitol Hill Seattle, consistency is key: “You do the same good stuff day in and day out for long enough, and you become trustworthy. It’s a function of effort as much as anything.”

In addition, here are five tips for gaining your audience’s trust, and writing like a pro—even if you aren’t one:

1. State your credentials: When positioning yourself as a blogger, you must inform your audience of your qualifications. Credentials inspire confidence, and the term does not exclusively apply to professional degrees. For instance, if a blogger is an experienced ballet instructor and writes about ballet’s emotional benefits, her opinion has merit, even though she is not a licensed behavioral professional.

2. Write what you know: When you write about subjects you have in-depth knowledge about, your insights are richer and more authentic than when writing about a topic requiring extensive research. “Because I care about what I write, I can help my audience by making useful suggestions, interesting observations or just making them chuckle a little at what happens to me,” explains Candy Martin, author of the Seattle P-I reader blog Mother of Style.

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The 2009 UW POCKETMEDIA FILM FESTIVAL: “What do U do at the UW?”

A competition of videos shot on cameras that fit in your pocket! The competition runs from April 17 to May 29, 2009. It’s free and open to all UW faculty, staff, students and alumni. Winners will be screened in a final celebration in June, 2009 (date TBD), at the University of Washington.

Posted by Hanson Hosein

Last week, I confirmed with Pure Digital that it was going to release a new camera this week (and they promised to send me one).

The details are now out: the Flip Video Mino.

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Here’s an interesting video on a good Flip production workflow, including the use of a teleprompter program on your laptop. From Al’s Morning Meeting on Poynter.

Posted by Hanson

Two weeks ago when David Pogue published a review of the Flip Camera in the Technology section, I contacted him to tell him about our class project and I mentioned our general experience with the Flip. I invited him to take a look to our blog citing that we had produced some videos documenting the experience with the Flip.

The email has paid off. David Pogue blogged about one of Kirk’s most controversial videos (comparison btw HD and the Flip) and Kirk is getting a ton of hits on his blog. Congrats Kirk!

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A word of caution for Terrie (and anyone else trying to update the Flip’s firmware). Make sure you update the firmware ONCE and on the same computer. Otherwise the camera will think you’re trying to cheat it and when you export your edit to Quicktime, you will get the following:

Adri

So the boys are on their way to New Orleans and they took the Flips! (Kirk can’t live without it). I sure hope they took lots of batteries with them, given they are driving 3,000 miles just to get to New Orleans (they cannot stop at Costco to buy in bulk).

Check their daily posts at independentamericafilm.com

Today’s technology section of the New York Times led with a review of or dear (for some) little Flip camera. David Pogue discovered some of its great advantages (plug & play video) and some of its hurdles (yeah, Codecs and the darn button that won’t turn on). I emailed him our class project so hopefully he’ll take a look at our journey with the Flip since he probably didn’t go as far as Brian did — taking apart the camera to explore the mic — and Kirk’s how-to videos are great resource for Flip fans all over. And most of all, I hope he enjoys our five shorts documenting how technology is making the media flip.

Click here to read the full article

Posted by Adri