South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive, the year's most anticipated tech conference, is just around the corner - kicking off on Friday, Mar. 12 in Austin, Texas. Many of today's biggest web and mobile apps were launched during SXSW, including Twitter (2007) and Foursquare (2009). There's a lot of speculation about what this year's big hit will be.

Many of journalism's innovators and big-thinkers will be speaking at the conference this year, including Jeff Jarvis, Ana Marie Cox, Adrian Holovaty, David Cohn, and Jay Rosen. We scoured the schedule and compiled a list of journalism-related presentations, to help those of you who may be attending:

Saturday, Mar. 13

9:30 a.m. Community Funded Reporting

The news industry is dying but in its wake are new business models to support investigative journalism. One of these is "community funded reporting" which is being pioneered by Spot.us but is happening around the country by various individuals. What is it? How does it work? What are its pitfalls? Where does it surpass the traditional advertising model? This will be a conversation that explores the changing media landscape and how the web can rise to the challenge of supporting our communities and their information needs.

Presenters: David Cohn, Spot.Us. Lyn Headly, Rapid News Awards.

11 a.m. Citizen Journalism Brigade - Making Your Voice Matter

The future of Journalism lies in your hands. Citizen journalists from coast to coast are launching websites so THEY can write about their interests. But does it work? Can you make money? Where is it going and will it be around in a few years?

Presenters: Colin Alsheimer, LevelTen Interactive. Rondo Estrello, In-This-Economy.com.

11 a.m. Are Content Farms Good or Evil? Yes.

Our multiple choice quiz for today: Demand Media, AOL's Seed.com and other "content farms" are: (a) a natural and essential outgrowth of our new media ecosystem. (b) a fine way for new writers to actually get paid (if not very well) for their work instead of providing for free to others who make all the money. (c) worrisome given that the content the create is often mediocre, and therefore can semi-pollute search results. (d) cynical verging on evil. The answer is all of the above, in varying degrees.

Presenter: Dan Gillmor, Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University

11 a.m. iPad: New Opportunities for Content Creators

With the launch of the iPad, Apple is creating a third category of mobile devices positioned between smartphones and laptop computers. Utilizing the successful iPhone operating system coupled with a tablet form factor, the iPad has the ability to deliver content in a variety of formats - from native apps to web sites to eBooks and more. Hear from experts in the interactive, book publishing, periodicals, and video gaming industries about the impact of the iPad in regards to content packaging and distribution.

Presenters: Raven Zachary, small society. Bill Jensen, Village Voice Media. Shervin Pishevar, SGN. Jason Grigsby, Cloud Four.

3:30 p.m. Media Armageddon: What Happens When the New York Times Dies

We've entered The Last Days of Media. Traditional publishers' economics can't stand up against the overwhelming volume of new content and ad inventory being manufactured by the likes of blogs, Facebook, Myspace, Craigslist et al. What will New York City and the nation look like without the New York Times?

Presenters: Greg Beato, Reason Magazine. Markos Moulitsas, Daily Kos. Amy Langfield, NewYorkology LLC. David Carr, New York Times. Henry Copeland, Blogads.com.

Sunday, Mar. 14

9:30 a.m. Process Journalism: Getting it First, While Getting it Right

Iterative journalism, process journalism, wiki journalism -- call it what you want -- the 'first draft' of history is rapidly changing with digital reporting and immediate delivery. In this panel, we'll investigate technological tools, best practices from bloggers to NYTimes.com, transparency and ethical challenges faced report accurate news in the social media age.

Presenters: Moka Pantages, Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Monica Guzman, Seattlepi.com. Robert Mackey, The New York Times. Will Sullivan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Charles Latibeaudiere, TMZ. Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo.

11 a.m. Monkeys with Internet Access: Sharing, Human Nature, and Digital Data

Presenter: Clay Shirky, ITP/NYU.

11 a.m. Influence and Innovate: Transforming Media Education

The future of media relies heavily on the mindset of those willing to study and enter the field. Professionals, professors and students will discuss transforming the goals of communication education to develop graduates, not only comfortable and fluent with online media, but who can also innovate and influence the profession.

Presenters: Cindy Royal, Texas State University. Tyson Evans, New York Times.

11 a.m. Online News of Tomorrow

Whether newspapers are dead or not, the media is innovating online. Rather than debate journalism's future, let's look at where we're headed, and what the online news sources of tomorrow might look like. This panel will survey some of the most exciting experiments and propose some interesting new directions.

Presenters: Adrian Holovaty, EveryBlock. Andrew Huff, Gapers Block. Brad Flora, Windy Citizen. Jeff Jarvis, Buzzmachine/CUNY. Jeremy Zilar, New York Times

Monday, Mar. 15

9:30 a.m. Future of Context: Getting the Bigger Picture Online

Conventional wisdom calls us attention-deprived, constantly seeking the next scrap of info. But Google reveals our true desire: Context. (Wikipedia entries, This American Life's financial crisis explainer, Gizmodo's definitive guide to smartphones, etc.) We'll explore how journalism and media must adapt to meet our insatiable hunger for the bigger picture.

Presenters: Jay Rosen, New York University. Matt Thompson, NPR. Staci D Kramer, ContentNext Media /paidContent. Tristan Harris, Apture.

1:10 p.m. Hyperlocal Focus: Growing A Vibrant Community Media Ecosystem

Filmmakers, videobloggers, podcasters, pirate & low-power radio jocks and public access TV producers are all creating content in your local community, but they often don't collaborate or even talk to each other, despite using the same tools and sometimes even seeking the same audiences. A 15 year-old videoblogger and a 50 year-old technical director at a local network TV affiliate may have a lot to learn from each other, but in what context would they ever meet? How can you engage local content creators and build a vibrant media community? This session is about how to create (and utilize) healthy, sustainable user-generated media scenes in local communities, using community media centers, creative salons, non-profit media arts foundations, citizen journalism organizations and grass roots organizing principals.

Presenter: Bill Simmon, VCAM.

Tuesday, Mar. 16

3:30 p.m. How to Save Journalism

Much has been said about the death of journalism, but little has been offered in way of solutions. This panel will focus on solutions instead of problems, consensus viewpoints from both old and new media, and offer new insights into the operational structure of journalism and media for the 21st century.

Presenters: Drew Curtis, Fark.com. Jeff Webber, USAToday.com. Kelly McBride, The Poynter Institute. Matthew Palevsky, The Huffington Post.

5:40 p.m. The Effects of Twitter on News

Presenters: James Cox, Smokeclouds. Brian Stelter, New York Times. Ana Marie Cox, GQ Magazine.

The results are in. News21 has released the alumni report update for its 2009 fellows.

Of the 94 fellows that completed the program, 52 (55.3 percent) are working full time.  This includes three freelancers/independent journalists who report full-time work. Of the 52 full-time workers, 87 percent report working for media companies or in communications jobs.

Twelve (12.7 percent) are working part time, 22 (23.4 percent) are still in school, seven (7.4 percent) are still looking for work and one is not currently seeking employment.

Compared to the Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Graduates by Lee Becker, with the most recent study in 2008, News21 students have had more success in finding full time jobs than other journalism graduates.

For the comparison between the two studies to be accurate, only News21 students who have graduated (76 students) are included.

Here are the results.

The Becker Survey shows that 60.4 percent of journalism graduates have found full time employment, while News21 results show that 68.4 percent of graduates found full time employment.

Of those surveyed by Lee Becker, only 50 percent are working in communications jobs, while 86 percent of News21 graduates are in communications jobs.

As one can see, News21 graduates perform significantly better than the national average when it comes to employment, especially in communications jobs.

For the past decade, the Knight Foundation has been a supporter of the American Society of News Editors' High School Journalism initiative. This week brings the announcement that the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation will help to support this project well into the next decade.

A $4.6 million grant from the Reynolds Foundation will fund five years of Reynolds High School Journalism Institutes for educators, extending the training that Reynolds has supported since 2007. From the news release:

During the two weeks of training, 175 competitively selected journalism advisers are steeped in journalistic practices and responsibilities, ethical decision-making and news media freedom issues, plus learn to maximize online and digital platforms and integrate new technologies. In the past three years, 434 teachers were accepted to the Institute. Of this group, 232 (54 percent) taught at schools where young people of color were in the majority, and 86 (20 percent) identified themselves as people of color.

Every key expense is covered by the grant, including transportation, housing, meals, continuing education credits and instructional materials. This removes financial barriers for the majority of teachers who otherwise could not afford to pay for this kind of specialized training or who work in disadvantaged school districts.

“We couldn’t be more pleased to see this important program further supported and expanded,” said Jessica Goldfin, Journalism Program Associate at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. “These journalism educators have the opportunity to impact hundreds of students, not only improving how these kids view journalism, news and the First Amendment but also helping to spark a lifelong appetite for quality journalism.”

As an added bonus, this news gives us the opportunity to throw in a plug for the stellar (and growing, see traffic graph at right) HSJ.org, a fantastic resource for high school journalists and their educators.

When the Berlin Wall fell, optimists happily predicted “the end of history.” The post-Cold War world would see unparalleled freedom, with a wave of media development unrivaled in human history. Well, it didn’t happen that way. The world remains an erratic, unsure place, by both press freedom and media development measures. 2009 sometimes looks suspiciously like 1989.

 The world needs new media development leaders. Knight Foundation’s biggest international grantee, the International Center for Journalists, is becoming just that. ICFJ’s president, Joyce Barnathan, is the chair of the Global Forum for Media Development, with 500 members in 100 countries.

ICFJ runs the Knight Journalism Fellows Program. Its tightly target approach is attracting many new partners. Gates Foundation funds Knight fellows, $4 million so far. Other funders support $3 million in Knight fellows.

What makes the Knight Fellows so important? They do more than just train journalists. They accomplish specific things: producing high-impact stories, or new investigative reporting organizations, or new journalism schools or new freedom of information centers.

How does ICFJ know where to work? An international group of advisors identifies the world’s best media projects, ones that will create lasting, visible change, and matches fellows from anywhere in the world to those specific opportunities.

A little money can go a long way. $200,000 for a training fellow for one year in Kenya equaled $7.5 million in new government spending on health care because the stories done moved the community to action. In Indonesia, great reporting helped stop the dumping of medical waste. In Uganda, it saved lives with better vaccinations, in Bangladesh, it helped save more lives with cleaner water.

Why care about all this outside America? Because the modern world is turning into one very big city. Bad health reporting on one side of the planet can lead to a killer flu coming right into this room. Journalism in a connected world matters. Here’s the press release announcing $6 million over three years to extend the Knight International Journalism Fellows. And here’s where you can suggest a project or apply for a fellowship.

-- Eric Newton is the vice president of the journalism program at Knight Foundation.

The International Center for Journalists celebrated 25 years of advancing quality journalism worldwide -- through the training of more than 60,000 journalists --  at its Awards Dinner last week in Washington, DC.

Highlights:

The New York Times' David Rohde spoke of the Taliban's strongholds in Pakistan and Afghanistan and what this means for U.S. policy. 

Knight International Journalism Award recipient Chouchou Namegabe said sexual violence against women in the Congo is getting worse and called for action.

Founders Award winner Seymour Hersh discussed why it is more important than ever to do investigative reporting.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulated ICFJ on its 25th Anniversary in a video address.

Find out how the world's most promising media projects are taken on by Knight International Journalism Fellows

-- Eric Newton is the Knight Foundation's vice president/journalism program.

Jose Zamora is a Journalism Program Associate at Knight Foundation

Local media is the focus of the journalism conference circuit. Estimates claim $100 billion in local-ad revenue could support local news and information projects, if it could only be successfully tapped. This follows the Knight Commission for the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy recommendation for innovation: its report says journalism does not need saving so much as it needs creating.

So what’s an entrepreneur to do? First, you need a business model. Looking for just such a holy grail, the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism created the New Business Models for News Project. The project researched the best practices in the business of online journalism and released four business models that can be used by anyone in any community.

The four business models were presented and discussed last Wednesday at the New Business Models for (Local) News Conference and Hypercamp at CUNY. You can download the models at newsinnovation.com.

Ideas and experiments are springing up weekly. If you are interested in learning more about new business models for news you might also want to take a loot at:

Ideas for Micropayments

Journalism Online, LLC.

Village Soup.com an internet-age business model to transform the
traditional community newspaper business.

Printcasting, a new revenue model for "people-powered magazines."

Spot.us,  a new crowd-funding model for paying for investigative reporting.

Minnpost, is a new hybrid non-profit model  that is supported by ads, memberships and foundation support. You can also look at the Voice of San Diego.

Other non-profit experiments include St. Louis Beacon and Gotham Gazette (in NY).

News 21 and the Chauncey Bailey project pioneered public-private experiments in investigative reporting.

Other university-based news models include the investigative reporting projects at Boston University, UC Berkeley, Brandeis and Northeastern.

Other nonprofits that are doing well include Pro Publica in NY,
Center for Investigative Reporting in SF, Center for Public Integrity in DC.

These are only a few of the models that individuals, organizations and universities have been using to figure out a new way to sustain journalism.

If you think none of these projects are the right digital innovations to provide quality news and information to communities, come up with one of your own, and enter the Knight News Challenge at newschallenge.org

 From Marly Falcon, Knight Foundation contributing blogger:

People are easily lured in by the sweetness, beauty, smell and sometimes even intoxication of certain plants. What if plants have their own hidden agenda that we didn’t know about?

            Michael Pollan, Knight Chair in Science and Technology Reporting, is featured in a two-hour long documentary based on his best selling book The Botany of Desire. Pollan explores the natural history of four plants: the potato, the apple, the tulip and marijuana. The well-reviewed film examines the mystery between humans and plants and how they each use each other to get what they want.

            The documentary, which  airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. on PBS, begins in Pollan’s garden and then travels to the potato fields of Peru and Idaho, the apple orchards of Kazakhstan, the tulip markets of Amsterdam and finally, medical marijuana grow rooms of the United States. See a clip here.

From Eric Newton, VP/Journalism, Knight Foundation:

What's cool about News 21 -- the investigative reporting project now in its fourth year at top U.S. journalism schools -- is not just that the students are producing Changing America stories worthy of being used by the nation's largest newspaper group.  It's that they are also inventing new digital storytelling methods while doing so, including a new kind of video player, talking bar charts, moving infographics -- and then sharing what they have learned.  These students are showing that advancing journalism excellence is as challenging a pursuit as any other. They are learning to connect the data and events of today's news to the issues and ideas modern people need to understand to run their communities and their lives.  On the agenda for the future of the project, headquartered at Arizona State: adding web pages  to universities set up their own future of news projects, and to help news managers use the content and technology developed by the students -- and tracking where all the alumni have ended up.

Marly Falcon is a contributing blogger at Knight Foundation

Journalists are anxious to shift from print-only responsibilities in the newsroom to multimedia responsibilities, according to the survey  “Life beyond print: Newspaper journalists’ digital appetite”. The survey is part of a report issued by the Media Management Center.

Out of almost 3,800 journalists in print, online or hybrid jobs at 79 U.S. newspapers surveyed, most were found to be involved in digital activities within their personal lives and wanting the same digital involvement at the workplace.

The typical newspaper newsroom in 2009, according to Life beyond print, has six types of journalists ranging from the “Digitals” who spend a great deal of time online, to the “Turn Back the Clock” type, who wish print was still the ultimate ruler. As the chart shows, there also is the extreme “Major Shift” group, which would give five times its effort to online if it could. And the "Moderately More" group, which would like its digital and print efforts to be equal within the newsroom.

I've written before about News21, the Knight-funded initiative pulling together students from university newsrooms all across the country to produce innovative multimedia journalism.

The project was intended partly to produce work that can be syndicated in other newsrooms, and it is. In fact, it's being syndicated to affiliates of one of the largest media organizations in the country, Gannett. From the News21 blog:

The first of our weekly packages has moved on the wires of the nation’s largest media company, Gannett. Nineteen Gannett TV stations and more than 90 newspapers received a budget advisory on a package of education stories Friday. By mid-December, about a dozen News21 packages will be released to Gannett’s ContentOne and members who subscribe to this wire service. Next up is a collection of immigration stories.

Also, the project won several awards in the National Press Photographers Association's monthly multimedia contest in September. Congrats to the News21 team!