{"id":20334,"date":"2020-03-23T14:33:38","date_gmt":"2020-03-23T14:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/media.am\/?p=20334"},"modified":"2020-03-23T14:33:38","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T14:33:38","slug":"quarantine-newsrooms-some-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/critique\/2020\/03\/23\/20334\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsrooms during Quarantine: Hacks to optimize Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since quarantine, for obvious or unknown reasons, can last for quite a long time, at least longer that any legitimate or non-legitimate government can plan, journalists should try to regulate their work distantly, whenever possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, some newsrooms still resist the situation, getting together every morning. However, the quarantine may start knocking on every door.<\/span><\/p>\n

In some cases it\u2019s not that hard for editorial offices because many journalists already have flexible working hours. However, this is a rather stressful change in many cases.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stress happens mainly in big editorial offices covering several areas. Or when editors are used to \u201clooking into the bright eyes\u201d of journalists while giving them tasks.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a need for psychological assistance in the second case. As for the first case, we could try applying a number of tools that will allow organizing the work of the team scattered across the city. We will talk only about the free tools. Therefore,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

General communication<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When the goal is to split the employees into several groups, there could be a number of solutions. The most accessible, simple and chaotic way is creating a group or several groups in the Facebook messenger. This will work because it\u2019s a usual platform for the majority. The problem is the lack of privacy \u2013 anyone can write anything.<\/span><\/p>\n

WhatsApp and Telegram are more effective. The Telegram software is much more user-friendly than WhatsApp.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Video calls<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Regular video calls are essential so that the team members don\u2019t forget each other\u2019s faces. Here, the main restriction is about the quantity of people that can simultaneously get in touch. In case of Facebook, only 8 participants can see each other. WhatsApp allows 16 participants, Google Hangout \u2013 25 participants, Skype \u2013 50 participants, Microsoft Team \u2013 50 participants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, the most accessible version is Zoom that offers video calls for up to 100 people free of charge. However, there is a time limit \u2013 a call can last no longer than 40 minutes. But you can switch off, connect again and have another group call for 100 people.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Organizing the work<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you want to switch from ordinary chats to a more organized work, splitting people into groups in a separate space based on topics, tasks, departments, Slack<\/a> platform will be of great use.<\/p>\n

Organizing tasks will be easier through Trello<\/a> platform.<\/p>\n

Google Drive and Microsoft Teams are mainly used for document circulation. Both have document management systems, shared calendars, file archives.<\/p>\n

Since reporters in Armenia mainly use Gmail, it will be a lot easier to take advantage of Google Drive. There is a possibility to download numerous additional tools<\/a> to work with different-format files, including audio files, pdf and more.<\/p>\n

\n

Transmitting sensitive information<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you have to communicate with secret sources or transmit sensitive info, you\u2019d better use Signal<\/a> messenger or Protonmail.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Both can encrypt communication and make it inaccessible in case of cyberattacks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, you can choose from a variety of options \u2013 these are just the most accessible ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

Samvel Martirosyan<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since quarantine, for obvious or unknown reasons, can last for quite a long time, at least longer that any legitimate or non-legitimate government can plan, journalists should try to regulate their work distantly, whenever possible. Of course, some newsrooms still resist the situation, getting together every morning. However, the quarantine may start knocking on every Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":20330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critique","author_posts-samvel-martirosyan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20335,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20334\/revisions\/20335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/media.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}