[Editors] MIT Editors' Club, May Minutes

[Elizabeth Thomson]

MIT EDITORS' CLUB

*Meeting Notes from May 16, 2005*

*ONE WORD*

Given that we *are* a group of writers/communicators, it should come 
as no surprise that a single word led to a lengthy discussion at last 
week's meeting.

It all began when I mentioned how stories that run in MIT newsletters 
and other communications are often re-purposed as MIT home page 
Spotlights, press releases, items in the MIT Research Digest, Tech 
Talk stories, and more. A dear colleague raised her hand. Apparently 
I'd touched on a pet peeve: "I can't stand the word 're-purpose.' 
It's right up there with facilitate."

Which led to a fun discussion of alternatives for poor, slighted 
"re-purpose." Among them: recycle, leverage, re-use. In context with 
my original use of the word, someone suggested that I could have 
simply referred to the 9 lives of a news story.

But I digress (big time).

My main point was that the News Office ALWAYS loves to see work from 
your newsletters, web pages, etc. (or story ideas!) that we can then 
potentially turn around for use in Tech Talk and other venues (like 
press releases).

Here's a wonderful example: at the last Editors' Club meeting, I 
mentioned that the News Office was looking for stories on MIT energy 
research for the issue of the paper that coincided with the Energy 
Forum. Judy Daniels, a new member of our club from architecture and 
planning (welcome, Judy!), mentioned that a current MIT exhibit of 
her photos included some shots of the MIT Nuclear Reactor. Would 
*that* count?

Of course! To see for yourself, check out page 4 of the May 3 issue of TT.

*PODCASTING*

Lisa Damtoft, the News Office webmaster, briefed us on the two-day 
PodCast Academy at BU she recently attended. (You can hear sessions 
from the conference--as PodCasts!--by going to 
http://www.bu.edu/com/podcast/.)

Among her comments:

--Tony Kahn, the journalist who produces a podcast for WGBH, 
mentioned a real difference in the audience listening to podcast. 
According to Lisa, he said that there's much more of a one on one 
relationship between audience member and podcaster, as opposed to 
just listening to a program on the radio. He said that he gets MUCH 
more feedback on podcasts than he does from the actual radio program.

--Podcasts can from one minute to an hour or more in length.

--Lisa was surprised to find that 90-95 percent of podcast listeners 
are male. (A female Editor piped up: "they have more time.")

By early summer, the News Office hopes to introduce a weekly podcast 
summarizing MIT News. Lisa, working with Chris Sherrill of Donor 
Relations, says that creating a podcast is "surprisingly easy." The 
main tools include a clip-on mike and software to do the audio part 
(which is available free off the web). For now, Lisa and Chris are 
taking turns as narrator for the podcast.

Eventually, she says, they'd like to include short interviews with 
MIT researchers in the podcasts, but that's still a ways off.

The News Office is currently working toward an audio podcast, but 
video podcasts are also available (though they're more expensive to 
create). To check out a cool video podcast produced here at MIT by 
Academic Media Production Services, go to Zig-Zag at 
http://web.mit.edu/zigzag/. (Editorial comment: It's a lot of fun.)

*NEXT MEETING*

The next meeting of MIT Editors' Club is Wednesday, June 21, from 
12-1 in the News Office.

Elizabeth

-- 
=================================
Elizabeth A. Thomson
Assistant Director, Science & Engineering News
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
News Office, Room 11-400
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
617-258-5402 (ph); 617-258-8762 (fax)
<thomson at mit.edu>

<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www>
=================================