Getting Digital

After a session with Andy Dickinson, aimed at familiarising budding journalists with the ins and outs of digital journalism, I feel enlightened. I was most certainly trapped in a bubble, completely isolated from the digital world and its amazing capabilities. At points I felt like I was a new addition to the Magic Circle. I'd thought I was pretty up to date, having a facebook and twitter account and with my feable attempt at maintaining a blog, and felt quite a pro when operating google to search for information. But was I wrong, I knew nothing. I was starting to understand how my grandma had felt when we packed her off to complete an I.T course at a college near us. We were discussing websites which were completely foreign to me, that seem to perform tasks which my head can't even begin to understand.

Theres ifttt, a website which, in a nutshell operates using the rule, 'if this happens, then do that'. So you can manage your account, allowing you to get RSS feeds (another term which was previously alien to me) fed into your twitter feed, for example. It allows you to make something happen at a particular time each day and is a great way of linking your various social networking accounts and keeping everything up to date with minimal effort.

Great for finding information relating to specific topics, are delicious and trunk.ly. These are also good for bookmarking and allow you to store all your favourite websites and articles under one roof. Very handy as these can be accessed from any computer simply by logging in to either of these websites.

The final, and my favourite new discovery, is Google reader. I created a Google account in preparation for the lesson, having no idea how it would really benefit me, but it's brilliant. It allows you to store all your most visited websites or just any that you wish to revisit, all in one place. It's like having your own personal internet. You can manage the sites by creating folders, such as news, fashion etc and can 'star' or 'tag' them, allowing you to easily pick out sites and their relevance or importance to you. By using a site such as twitterfeed, you can then select particular sites, either by the fact that they are starred or share a particular tag, and then share them with the public via your social networking sites and blogs etc.

It's a lot to take in, but it's really fascinating, and although I'm not 100% at ease with putting myself out there on the internet (it's always made me feel uncomfortable), I have developed a much better understanding of what it is all about and of its benefits, especially to myself as a trainee journalist. So overall it has been a very beneficial session and has taught me a great deal. I feel less trapped in my bubble and more prepared to enter the digital world.