Catholic Media Journal » Blogs

Twitter, Blogging, and Connecting

Jim Coyle — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:38:53 +0000

One of the great things about Twitter is that many people share links to their own work, interesting things they’ve found related to work, or lots of times – just plain fun. One of the latest links I followed led me to Save the Media, a blog by Gina Chen, a Franciscan University of Steubenville journalism grad. As part of her introduction she writes:

I’ve been a newspaper journalist for 20 years, and I’m worried — but excited — about the future of the industry I love. I believe new media can help journalism evolve, so it can continue to be a watchdog of Democracy. But journalists have to be open to change and trying new technology.

Check out Gina’s blog, and be sure to follow the links that interest you.

Yes, Twitter can be a distraction. But it’s also a great resource for journalists. Best of all, it can be a way to keep in touch with friends and colleagues – just be sure it’s not the only way. Stay up to date with Gina by following her on Twitter. She’s bloggingmom67.

And of course, follow me too. I’m iJimC.

Jim Coyle

Journalist at Work

Jim Coyle — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:43:00 +0000

After Pope Benedict’s April 17, 2008 address to Catholic University leaders, National Catholic Register’s Tim Drake returned from the Catholic University of America campus to the Media Center where I saw him doing a phone interview with Fr. Terence Henry, TOR, president of Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Later in the evening, Tim posted his first YouTube video on his Pope2008.com blog.

And of course Fr. Henry was also interviewed on the CUA campus by our Franciscan University student media crew following Pope Benedict’s talk. The crew is blogging when they can (which is not too often because we’re keeping them busy).

Jim Coyle

We all arrive in Washington, DC

Jim Coyle — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:46:02 +0000

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Washington today, and so did our Franciscan University of Steubenville Media crew. There are 12 of us, and after a late departure from Steubenville – I had to switch to another rental van because of mechanical difficulties – we arrived at the site of our first video story: The John Paul II Cultural Center near the Basicilla Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. We jumped out of the vans, got our video equipment unpacked and recorded wonderful interviews with the leaders of the John Paul II Cultural Center, and were taken on a guided tour of the path and stops Pope Benedict will take Thursday evening when he leads an Interfaith Dialogue with many religious leaders. The Center is truly an amazing place.

As we videotaped our footage, a crew from Cox Communications, owners of the NBC affiliate TV station in Steubenville, videotaped us and recorded interviews with the students. Their story appeared on the 11:00 news in Steubenville tonight, although I couldn’t view it online.

Members of the team will be blogging about our project this week at Franciscan Papal Initiative, so check there for some of our experiences. We won’t have regular Internet access, but through the students’ gadgets I hope we can post from the midst of Pope Benedict’s visit to the USA.

News About…Us

Jim Coyle — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:30:59 +0000

The National Catholic Register’s website posted some comments by Fr. Owen Kerns, LC, Publisher of the Register, about some of the New Media work they’re doing – and mentioned some things we did in our Church & Media class last week in connection with Tim Drake’s Pope2008.com blog:

But here’s the most unusual attention [we've received about the blog]: Professor Jim Coyle at Franciscan University of Steubenville has been teaching a course on the use of new media in Catholic communications. He assigned students a paper on Pope2008.com’s blog coverage. Then he interviewed Tim, with the students present, and made the interview available as a podcast on his Catholic Media Journal website.

You can read the whole post here, or in the Register’s next issue.

It’s great exploring and experiencing New Media. We can all have a voice in the new media space – and there are many voices calling for our attention. There’s so much we can learn and share, but we have to stay alert as we seek the Truth.

Jim Coyle

Blogging the Papal Visit

Jim Coyle — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:11:01 +0000

As you scroll down this page, along the right side you’ll find feeds for 2 blogs devoted to Pope Benedict XVI’s April 15-20 visit to the United States. With the Pope’s visit several weeks away, bloggers are already sharing stories and information about the event. We’re reading about some of the behind-the-scenes preparations, seeing historic video footage of Pope John Paul II’s 1979 visit to Catholic University of America, and finding links to some of the stories already being published in the regular media. Through these and other blogs, we’re already able to get a personal sense of involvement in Pope Benedict’s visit.

The first blog is Pope2008.com written by Tim Drake, an active Catholic author and journalist who blogged during World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, sharing stories through words and pictures. The next blog is from members of the Communications staff of the USCCB – the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops – who are key planners for logistics and media relations for the U.S. Papal Visit. Right below that blog is a feed showing the most recent stories from the Papal Visit 2008 website.

These are RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds and will be showing the most recent posts and stories from their sources. Click on a post’s title or the name of the source to go directly to the website.

We’ll be adding more as time goes on, so be sure to check them out.

Catholics Alive and Well in the Blogosphere

Jim Coyle — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:09:00 +0000

As I’m writing this, the Catholic Blog Directory shows there are 1,281 Catholic Blogs. (I haven’t counted them myself.) Technorati today identifies 3,759 “blogs about Catholic” (as I was writing this sentence, 4 more “Catholic blogs” were added to the list). On February 11, Anne Helmond mentioned in The Blogherald that Technorati reported tracking 112.8 million blogs while wondered about blog counting itself:

I don’t think the blogosphere is quite mature yet. Technorati currently states it is tracking over 112.8 million blogs, a number which obviously does not include all the 72.82 million Chinese blogs as counted by The China Internet Network Information Center. Blog statistics often concern the English language blogosphere but we should not forget about the millions of other blogs that are not always included in estimations.

How do you find the Right Blog for You? Talk to your friends about blogs they read. Check Catholic websites for mentions of blogs. Search online. Find out what Catholic blogs are popular, as shown by blog awards results. Googling for Catholic Blogs, you might have discovered that nominations are open for the 2008 Catholic Blog Awards – the 5th year of the awards. The two-week nomination period ends Friday, February 29, and voting will be open March 3-17, 2008. All the details are available online, along with a kind of “History of Catholic Blogging” reflected in the lists of each year’s winners – which goes all the way back to 2004.

However you find them, it’s important to read the blogs, and read about the blogger. Find what you like, what engages you, what you get passionate about. Haven’t found that yet? Keep looking…or better yet, think about adding your voice to the online conversation by posting comments on the blogs – or starting your own.