12 Digital Tools for Journalists – A share from the SPJ Convention

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Megan Fromm, JEA Professional Support Director, attended the Society of Professional Journalist’s Excellence in Journalism Convention a few weeks ago and came back with a great list of digital tools. She attended a presentation led by representatives from the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism where they shared the following digital tools for journalists. It’s a great list and definitely worth clicking through the links to find out more about each of the items.

  1. Research: Internet public library—ask a librarian and find data
  2. Notetaking: Dragon Dictation—converts phone into a recorder, dictates messages, as you dictate, words are turned into text that you can email
  3. Curated social media: Banjo–curates social media and news feeds into one place
  4. Newsgathering: Storycheck—mobile app for androids—good for young reporters and walks through stories to see what’s missing, etc. story reference list, questions you might ask, resources, etc.
  5. Monitoring: HootSuite–social media dashboard
  6. Audio editing: SoundCloud and TwistedWave audio editor ($10)
  7. Crowdsourcing: Google forms (found in the Google drive. Use this for easy surveys and forms)
  8. Photo/video: Procam 8 for iOS. $3.99 on iTunes. Seamless movement from still to video
  9. Datamining: Data.gov
  10. Video editing: Videolicious—Make easy short videos with your phone. There’s a Poynter demo, too
  11. Mapping: Mapalist—Create and manage customized Google lists
  12. TwitterTweet Archivist is a fee service that archives tweets/provides analytics

Aaron Manfull

Aaron is in his 26th year of advising student media. He is currently the Director of Student Media at Francis Howell North High School in St. Charles, Missouri. He is the Journalism Education Association Digital Media Chair and co-Director of Media Now. He is the 2023 JEA Teacher Inspiration Award Winner and is a former Dow Jones News Fund National Journalism Teacher of the Year. He is one of the authors of the textbook "Student Journalism and Media Literacy." You can find him on X and Instagram @manfull. He's a proud father. A transplanted Iowan. And an avid Hawkeye Fan.

Aaron Manfull has 862 posts and counting. See all posts by Aaron Manfull

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