Tech tools

On Jan. 22 I'm attending the event below, which applies to all reporters, not just health reporters. I'm interested in how these tools can help me as a journalist, but also as a job hunter. I already regularly use Twitter, Facebook and a blog, and wonder what are the best ways to use them to their full advantage. Through my job search I'm open to remaining a journalist, probably online, but also see these online tools as things to use in my next job, whether it be in communications or elsewhere.

***** Thursday, January 22: TECH TOOLS FOR HEALTH REPORTERS

Tech Tools for Health Reporters: How blogs, Twitter, social networking, and more can improve your skills

Where: San Francisco Business Times
275 Battery St., Suite 940, San Francisco
6 8 pm
Light refreshments will be served
This event is free; please RSVP

Event details:
Whether you're a staff reporter or freelancer, you've undoubtedly heard that to survive in the media in the future, you'll need to blog, podcast, and Twitter. A few writers have become conversant in online technologies and are using them to the benefit of their careers. Many of the rest of us, though, may have experimented with a blog or used Facebook to find sources for a story, but are still waiting to see how the digital revolution is really going to help our work lives.

We'll explore this question with a panel of folks who are using online technology or helping others to do so.

Amy Tenderich, author, Diabetes Mine blog, and a San Francisco-based writer and consultant diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2003. She's using the blog as an outlet for what she's learned about the disease and a way to help others. Her blog is chockfull of information, colorful and graphic-laden and includes advertising. We'll learn more about how she developed the blog and how it fits into her career goals as a writer.

Jerry Monti, technology training instructor for UC Berkeley's Knight Digital Media Center, will discuss how journalists can and should be using online technology to further their work.

Moderator: Jan Greene is a longtime healthcare freelancer who has been waiting for her blog (http://www.healthplanconsumer.com/) to catch fire and ignite her career. Jan, based in Alameda, has a daily newspaper background and writes for healthcare-related trade and consumer magazines and newspapers.

for more information, please contact: Colleen ParettyChair, Bay Area AHCJ chaptercparetty@pobox.com or Bay.Area.AHCJ@gmail.com

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Another informational interview

Again, my calls for help continue. In discussions with others who are out of work and newspaper union people who have seen many newsroom employees be laid off, I've raised the issue of how to prepare for a career change from newspapers to any number of other jobs that are hiring. For example, I've been applying for positions in corporate communications, online writing and other areas where writing and editing are needed. But, as I've noted in this blog before, I've run into many brick walls and have been told that I just don't have the specific experience (such as Web writing) in the area they're hiring in.

So I've started doing many things to get around that, including informational interviews. As most people probably know, these interviews don't necessarily lead to a job, but give the job seeker a chance to explore the working world by talking to someone who is either in a position to hire or can tell you more about what they do and possibly introduce you to someone who can maybe hire you somewhere down the road. It's a great way to learn about a job. For instance, I was at AT&T Park a month or so ago, and met a marketing official there, and also talked to another marketing person there, and learned a lot about the job, even there were no immediate openings.

Lately I've been searching to talk with someone about how a former newspaper editor/reporter can break into online writing or corporate communications without having any experience in that field. Through the newspaper union in San Jose, I've found a former colleague at the Contra Costa Times, who is now in corporate communications in the Bay Area. We plan to meet next week over coffee, and I really want to pick his brain for tips on overcoming the "no experience" replies. It should be an interesting talk, and I'll update the blog after the meeting.-