Ivan Lajara

Ivan Lajara loves cats.

Twitter a new form of journalism?


However, he put his love aside and informed my class on Tuesday that Twitter is a journalist best tool to writing great leads. He said if a journalist can't get their point across on Twitter than they can't do it in a news article either. Twitter is opening doors for people all over the world and people are using it in new ways that no one would ever believe. Lajara, Engagement Editor, and his coworkers were the first people to do a live feed and tweet of a murder trial in New York State. They received an Associated Press award for their coverage of the trial. On another note, according to Lajara Twitter can help people "read more," on a daily basis. He has been tweeting for the last three years and reads significantly more now. Twitter shows that "anyone can write," but by tweeting "the web can either reward great journalist or punish bad ones for their work," says Lajara. By posting on the web for anyone to see we are subjecting our work to the world of the Internet, which is so vast and never-ending that we could be subjected to anyone anywhere. You have to have confidence in your work and by posting on Twitter and other social media, you can gain that confidence.

Blogging


Blogging has lots of benefits according to Lajara. You could write ten or 10,000 words and there is never a limit or minimum because you control what you do. "Pick what interest you and go from there," says Lajara. It's easier to write about the things you love at first because it gives you a jumping off point and makes you confident in your own abilities when it comes to writing. Mr. Lajara says it's important to always have a picture though because pictures attract people and links are good to because it adds to your writing. You can even link to "Storify,"a new way to make an interactive story online that includes videos, music, articles and more. The most important factor of blogging is making your blog searchable. "You should write your headlines as possible search words." If your headline is random people are never going to find it. It's the opposite of journalism according to Lajara. You have to make your headlines simple and to the point.