Wordblog

A very good question is asked by Lost Remote. Why don’t more journalists use news readers? I would never have come across this posting if my daily routine did not start with making a mug of tea, perching it on my desk and opening NewsGator.

Lost Remote explains: “Reporters and producers can widen their perspective beyond the AP, Reuters, and their local newspapers by taping into alternative publications, niche websites, and yes, blogs. Newsreaders help you scan more content tailored to your needs more quickly than visiting individual websites.”

This afternoon I will be meeting a new group of students for the first time and, as always, their initial task will be subscribe to a newsreader and populate it with feeds.

For those who don’t understand newsreaders, they depend upon the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds provided by news organisations, businesses, PR people and bloggers to provide lists of the latest additions to their sites. Once those of interest are feeding the newsreader it is very easy see what is new. It is difficult to understand how any journalist can operate without this service.

I use NewsGator because I like the ability to have the feeds download to my computer which makes browsing faster even than broadband. But when I am away from my own desk I can look at the same feeds on the web.

For students, I recommend Rojo which is entirely web-based, has some advantages and fits their needs better.