Brings up a clearn interface with your follows and their pix, with a green 'you follow' flash and a red 'they follow you' one, so non-reciprocals are clear. As are those who follow you but you don’t follow back. There’s a button to unfolow/follow on each entry.
Wasn’t working when I tried it, but here’s a quote from TechCrunch they use on their home page: "ManageFlitter is easily the best... It's a must-use." - TechCrunch
They say: “SocialToo helps you manage Twitter and Facebook and unclutters your stream and Social Graph so you can focus on what's most important - relationships!”
Hopefully, as you take a look around the site and flip through the accompanying textbook, things are making some sort of sense.
The About the Course section should give you some pointers as to how things are organised, and what to expect.
You'll find info here on how to keep in touch: through Twitter, the blog, Facebook, email bulletins and on your mobile.
The Masterclasses section is also worth an early look. That's the place where we try to tackle new developments in multimedia journalism, and deal with the looming question of employment.
You'll find a new section there from September 24 which is about getting your first job in journalism. If you've only just started your course you might think it's a bit early for that. But it's not. There is loads you can do to make yourself truly employable. You could start today. Even if it is Fresher's Week.
If after all that you haven't found the information you need, then please get in touch. Use one of the Add New Comment buttons you'll see on any page of the site. It's worth it because, unlike with your ISP or mobile phone provider, your call actually is important to us.
Your questions, comments, observations and moans will help us to make MMJ what it is intended to be: a really valuable guide to multimedia journalism, and a community of mutually supportive journalists, industry figures and journalism students.
September 2010 Masterclass 13: Careers in journalism, an overview and update What's right for you: consumer magazines, business mags, TV, radio, local papers, hyperlocal, or self-employment?
We're all multimedia journalists now, but the simple truth is that the people handing out the jobs are still - predominantly - operating in one of the traditional media categories. We'll look at how to pick the area that best suits you, and how to demonstrate in your application, and at interview, how good you'll be at enhancing the multimedia capabilities of anyone who gives you a job.
We'll also cover working as a freelance, and the opportunities that developments in hyperlocal are opening up.
Going live from: September 24
October 2010 Masterclass 14: iPhone for Journalists Smartphones are a highly convenient way for the multimedia journalist to publish instantly
We'll look at how to turn your iPhone into a fully-enabled multimedia reporting device, so you can file text, stills, video and audio instantly to a custom-made blog, to a mobile-enabled multimedia site, and any combination you like of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and a huge range of other platforms.
We're concentrating on the iPhone, but what we cover is also applicable to other smartphones.
Going live: October 16
Masterclass 15: It's the law, so why don't we follow it? Media law textbooks are very clear about the letter of the law, but what journalists do often differs from it in practice
If you wonder why what is written and broadcast seems out of step with what the law says journalists should do, this Masterclass is for you. A legal expert explains how, and why, the law is interpreted in real journalistic life.
Going live: October 30
November 2010 Masterclass 16: How to pass the NCTJ's new Newswriting Diploma exam A guide to what examiners are looking for, and a sure-fire approach to the exam
We'll cover the golden rules you need to follow to convince NCTJ markers that you are a safe pair of hands, hear from those with enviable records in getting student journalists through the exam, and offer a step-by-step approach to the exam that will maximise your marks.
Going live: November 13 Masterclass 17: A new struture for online, multimedia story-telling Has the traditional inverted triangle/pyramid had it's day?
With multimedia content, combining material from other sources and linking, the simple story structure journalists have been taught for generations needs some refining. We'll look at some models for adapting structure that are being devleoped by a range of multimedia practitioners and assess their value.
Going live: November 27
December 2010 Masterclass 18: HTML, what you need to know You don't have to be an expert coder, but you do need the understand the basics
An introduction to what html is, what it does, and how. We'll conduct a seminar in basic, essential html with demonstrations of how you are likely to need to use it.
Going live: December 11 January 2011 Masterclass 19: Long-form journalism, topic areas and beat blogs How to make your website a valuable resource and attract loyal users.
We've concentrated a good deal in these masterclasses on how to reach out to new audiences with the effective use of a wide range of social media. The goal was always to draw readers who appreciate what you are doing back to your branded website and print publication.
Now we look at how to make that website as effective as it can be at turning casual visitors into committed and regular consumers of our content.
Going live: January 22 February 2011 Masterclass 20: NCTJ Multimedia Portfolio What the examiners are looking for in your multi-platform news and features
Going live: February 12
Masterclass 21: Curating user-generated content How to cover a major story by blending your own material with that from other professional and citizen journalists
Going live: February 26
March 2011 Masterclass 20: Hyperlocal reporting and geotagging Industry experts with the latest guidance
Going live: March 12
Masterclass 21: Travel writing An experienced travel writer on how to do it right
Going live: March 26
April 2011 Masterclass 22: Email bulletins How to turn an RSS feed into a bulletin, and add your Twitter feed to it
You don't have to create each email bulletin from scratch anymore. We look at how the process can be automated, and how a bulletin can be linked with blogs, Twitter and other social networks to form a coherent broadcasting and marketing strategy.
Going live: April 9
Masterclass 23: Social media update What platforms you should be using now – and how
Going live: April 23
May 2011 Masterclass 24: Features writing Analysing how the very best features writers do it
Going live: May 7
Masterclass 25: The jobs market Industry experts on where the opportunities lie right now
I subscribed to The Times because I get the paper every day anyway and wanted to see what the added online access and Times+ offering would do for me.
And, as the Times is bravely experimenting with paywalls, and I have a paywall around my MMJ project, I wanted to see what could I learn, and to find out what the user experience was like.
So? Well, here’s the key thing.
These days I do as much work as I can on my iPhone. It seems to me pretty obvious that mobile is the way things are going, partly because it makes working so surreptitious you can do it on a mobile device without others suspecting you’re slaving away when you should be relaxing.
So when I find a site that doesn’t have a mobile phone version, I’m frustrated.
And the Times doesn’t have a mobile phone version. So, despite being a subscriber, I can’t see it on my iPhone. That’s such a major miss that it’s really unforgivable. Other sites I use all the time, such as the Evening Standard, Sky, and the BBC, offer me a mobile-enabled version of their content, yet my paid-for Times does not.
It’s banking on me paying for an iPad version. I might, one day, but for now newspaper iPad apps just look like the last refuge of the dead-tree journalist.
Then there are the simple functionality issues. Times search was always lousy, but that wasn’t a problem when you could search on Google instead. Now that’s not so easy. So it can be impossible to find items you know are there. Recently I needed to research what a Times columnist, Frank Skinner, had been writing about, yet the Times search didn’t seem to recognise Skinner as a contributor to the paper.
I’ve just repeated the exercise, and the first item that comes up for him is dated September 2008:
What I need are his columns, presented with the newest at the top.
If I change the default filter on results from ‘most relevant’ to ‘latest’ I get this: letters mentioning the man:
What about Times+? I get it that creating a rewards-fuelled community around a news title makes sense.
But the offerings are – with some exceptions – paltry. A free glass of champagne here, priority booking there. What I really want is to be able to read the Sunday Times Culture section on my iPhone, and then click to buy some of the books I find well-reviewed there at a really competitive price. Which means matching Amazon. But I can’t. I can go to the Times bookshop and get a smidgeon shaved off, but nothing like the discounts on new bestseller hardbacks Amazon offers.
Times+ needs to have offers that place it among the very best, but it doesn't.
An exclusive £28.50 brunch menu at the Royal Albert Hall? Pass. Try to win tickets to see the Steve Miller Band? Umm, nah.
But it’s not all bad. I can watch the new Oliver Stone movie for free on line, for example. Thing is, I haven’t been tempted by any of the other Times+ offers. Tell a lie, I bought a case of wine. But I could do that without being a subscriber. What about a Twitter-based wine tasting, as Slate hosted a little while ago?
What about any ideas that exploit the opportunities that the web, mobile, and social media offer old media? [sound of tumbleweed tumbling]
So, I have to say:
Usability: Fail
Functionality: Fail
Community: Doctor, I think I have a pulse, but it's awfully faint.
Masterclass 13: Careers in journalism, an overview and update
What's right for you: consumer magazines, business mags, TV, radio, local papers, hyperlocal, or self-employment?
We're all multimedia journalists now, but the simple truth is that the people handing out the jobs are still - predominantly - operating in one of the traditional media categories. We'll look at how to pick the area that best suits you, and how to demonstrate in your application, and at interview, how good you'll be at enhancing the multimedia capabilities of anyone who gives you a job.
We'll also cover working as a freelance, and the opportunities that developments in hyperlocal are opening up.
Going live: September 20
Masterclass 14: How to pass the NCTJ Newswriting Diploma exam
A guide to what examiners are looking for, and a sure-fire approach to the exam
We'll cover the golden rules you need to follow to convince NCTJ markers that you are a safe pair of hands, hear from those with enviable records in getting student journalists through the exam, and offer a step-by-step approach to the exam that will maximise your marks.
Going live: September 24
October 2010
Masterclass 15: iPhone for Journalists
Smartphones are a highly convenient way for the multimedia journalist to publish instantly
We'll look at how to turn your iPhone into a fully-enabled multimedia reporting device, so you can file text, stills, video and audio instantly to a custom-made blog, to a mobile-enabled multimedia site, and any combination you like of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and a huge range of other platforms.
We're concentrating on the iPhone, but what we cover is also applicable to other smartphones.
Going live: October 16
Masterclass 16: A new struture for online, multimedia story-telling
Has the traditional inverted triangle/pyramid had it's day?
With multimedia content, combining material from other sources and linking, the simple story structure journalists have been taught for generations needs some refining.
Going live: October 30
November 2010
Masterclass 17: Topic areas and beat blogs
How to make your website a valuable resource and attract loyal users.
We've concentrated a good deal in these masterclasses on how to reach out to new audiences with the effective use of a wide range of social media. The goal was always to draw readers who appreciate what you are doing back to your branded website and print publication.
Now we look at how to make that website as effective as it can be at turning casual visitors into committed and regular consumers of our content.
Going live: November 13
Masterclass 18: NCTJ Multimedia Portfolio
What the examiners are looking for in your multi-platform news and features
Going live: November 27
December 2010
Masterclass 19: Curating user-generated content
How to cover a major story by blending your own material with that from other professional and citizen journalists
Masterclass 20: Hyperlocal reporting and geotagging
Industry experts with the latest guidance
January 2011
Masterclass 21: Travel writing
An experienced travel writer on how to do it right
Masterclass 22: Email bulletins
How to turn an RSS feed into a bulletin, and add your Twitter feed to it
February 2011
Masterclass 23: Social media update
What platforms you should be using now – and how
Masterclass 24: Features writing
Analysing how the very best features writers do it
March 2011
Masterclass 25: The jobs market
Industry experts on where the opportunities lie right now
