I’ve had trouble convincing some of my friends to try Twitter; most of the non-media types aren’t on it. Every time I do have that conversation, though, I come back to the same argument. It’s not Facebook. Its power lies not in socialising with friends, but as a tool for connecting with individuals in a specific area of interest, and sharing content and news in a timely manner within that network.

Lately, Twitter has been less useful than itwas, and I’ve been checking it less and posting a hell of a lot less. It only dawned on me the other day that I wasn’t heeding my own advice. I was following too many people form too many different areas.

I’ve culled my list of over 100 people I was following back to 47. For me, around 50 is the magic number. It’s enough to dip in and out of whenever I want, and to be able to catch up with the flow of information without feeling overwhelmed. Selective following is also the key to getting the most utility out of Twitter: in my own culling process, I stopped following plenty of people I know personally and who are pretty interesting. But those people often used Twitter amongst friends for social reasons, or for a completely different network than my own. For social interactions, Facebook is a much better platform. Personally, I use Twitter for following the thoughts of those people in media on the subject of media, so I also unfollowed plenty of journalists and so on who Tweet their personal business more than anything else.

The tool I used for this whole process was ManageFlitter.com. It’s an excellent free service that will show you which people you follow are not following you, who’s inactive, talkative, shares links, etc.

If you’ve been less in love with Twitter recently than you were before, try a little spring clean. It really does change the entire feeling of your stream.

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I recently found myself doing an interview on short notice for a client, so I decided to do it from home for convenience. The day of the interview, I came across two problems:

• My phone adapter for recording does not fit anywhere on my cordless home phone, and the iPhone doesn’t record calls.
• I was calling a UK mobile, which would cost about €20/hour on my landline rates.

Erp. I wasn’t used to this. I had a paid office phone to use until now. The solution, I decided, was simply the too-little-used wonder that is Skype. No problem! Headset in, number prepped. Now, where was the record call option? Oh. It doesn’t exist. What now?

Well, there are a myriad of different options available to fix this gaping hole in Skype’s functionality, but for those in the same boat as I, needing a very quick fix, check out the wonderful Pamela for Skype. A program that runs alongside Skype, it automatically (or manually, if you prefer) records both sides of the conversation flawlessly in MP3 format. You can append notes etc, and, best of all, the free trial doesn’t have the silly recording limitations of 2 or 15 minutes that its other counterparts have on their trial versions (crucially, you must have the 30-day trial of the Professional version for this to be the case).

Cracking application which saved my skin. I now have a better-than-phone quality recording of my hour long interview, it cost about half of what I would have paid with regular landlines, and I may well use part of the paycheque from this job to buy the €20 license for this piece of kit.

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Today is the final day for applications for the first round this year in the Simon Cumbers Media Challenge Fund. Last year, Trinity News was the first student publication to apply for funding from the fund, which they used to send three student journalists to Delhi, India and produce a special supplement on educational development. They also blogged from Delhi for the short time they were there.

Student media should take advantage of opportunities like this. Not only are we the most in need of additional funds, it’s also an excellent experience. Further, the media fund themselves are quite keen to have student involvement. Now, since the deadline is today, I probably should have written up this post a month ago. But, if you’re in a college publication (or any other, for that matter) their website might be worth checking out. The other deadline for applications this year is Wednesday September 30th.

-END-

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A good while ago, I put up a request on Twitter for some good books or other resources on Irish law as it applies to media. All that I had read and learned was largely from a UK perspective, and I felt it was part of my media education that was sorely lacking. While most people got back to me saying, essentially, that it’s something learned on the job and I shouldn’t bother with it, Neil Cullen gave me a short list of recommended reading from his university journalism course, including Journalists and the Law.

This book is a perfect introduction to law from a journalist’s perspective. It assumes no prior knowledge whatsoever, and is written in a casual and conversational tone that doesn’t turn off those of us not fluent in legalise. At the same time, it has enough depth to ensure that the reader is getting some genuine value out of it. And, lest we forget, the author, Yvonne Murphy, knows what she is talking about- a former journalist, she is now a judge of the District Court.

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