Weekly Roundup: Street Journalism, Journalists vs. PR and FedEx's Good PR Move

Following is a roundup of 10 interesting PR- and media-related stories found online last week:

Street Journalism: Moving Experience is a project proposing a new way of reporting arts and culture. The venture is being spearheaded by three Los Angeles-based journalists as part of their USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellowship program. The goal is to encourage journalists to eschew cars and use other forms of transportation -- buses, bikes and walking -- to find stories. "Moving at a slower pace, whether it was by foot or public buses, allowed journalists to discover hidden stories locked away on the seasoned sidewalks or storefronts, many of which go unnoticed if traveling by car." (Urban Times)

Journalists vs. PR Pros in 2012: Journalists and PR professionals have a love/hate relationship. This writer has spent time on both sides and sees similarities. "In the past, there has been a very distinct line between the two, but that is all about to change." Here's a look at how this relationship is about to change, thanks in part to journalists' circumstances, PR pros heading toward retirement and journalists stealing some PR thunder, among other things. (Jason Kintzler)

FedEx Turns a Bad Video Into Good PR: During the holidays, a video of a FedEx deliveryman tossing a computer monitor over a gate onto the recipient's lawn made the rounds online. While this wasn't a PR or social media crisis, it turned into one once the video was posted on YouTube. FedEx didn't ignore the video or the crisis. Instead, the company posted its own video response and blog post. "The lesson? Always answer with a real apology. Not a 'I’m sorry, but…' apology, but a real one. And answer it on the same social network where the crisis is happening." (Spin Sucks)

Ten Things Journalists Can Do to Reinvent Journalism: This digital journalist revisits an old blog post he wrote in 2008 about 10 things journalists could do to reinvent journalism. "So, I just re-read it, and I found, not surprising, given nearly four more years of experience, I don’t agree with everything it says." He offers this new, updated list of 10 things journalists can do to reinvent their industry. Among his suggestions are: start your own online news site, connect to the community you serve and be transparent. (Howard Owens)

Ten Ways for Journalists Not to Look Stupid on the Job: Journalists are always under public scrutiny, which is why their mistakes have an audience. Among the 10 ways journalists can protect their jobs and integrity are to never assume, ask a source to explain things you don't understand, do your homework, know who you're talking to and always carry a pencil. (Stuff Journalists Like)

Five Factors That Drive News Decisions: Journalists don't have trouble finding potential news stories, but finding stories they can actually report on is a bit difficult. "That’s because every news organization has constraints on which stories their reporters can cover and how they can cover them." The five factors that drive news decisions for newsrooms are: 1) time, 2) speed, 3) space, 4) profit and 5) bias. (Mr. Media Training)

Which News Organizations Get the Most Engagement on Google+?: News organizations have been on Google+ for a few months now, so here's a look at which of them are getting the most user activity and engagement (i.e., +1's, shares and comments per post). The New York Times, Mashable and The Next Web lead the way. (Adam Sherk)

Seven Mistakes to Stop Making in Your PR Pitches: Public relations professionals send out many pitches every day, so it's no surprise when mistakes are made. It's just a shame when those mistakes are easily avoidable. Here are the seven biggest mistakes PR pros make when pitching: 1) forgetting to follow up, 2) pitching at the wrong time, 3) depending solely on press releases, 4) not doing research about a reporter, 5) not doing background research on your industry, 6) making careless mistakes and 7) not personalizing your pitch. (HubSpot)

Brevity in PR Will Get You Noticed: PR is "The land of content and the home of the brevity." PR pros need to be brief, descriptive and to the point -- or they'll be forgotten. Here's a look at how to be succinct using Twitter, media email pitches, news releases and blog posts. (PRBreakfastClub)

Nineteen Free E-Books on Journalism: If you have an e-reader and are interested in knowing more about the field of journalism, here's a list 19 free e-books on the industry that you might want to consider downloading. This rundown is especially pertinent if you got a Kindle or another type of e-reader during the holidays. (Online Journalism Blog)