RSS, also known as Really Simple Syndication, is a system used by news sites and weblogs for distributing content, often formatted in a summary form with a link back to the full item on the originating web site.
It is a very useful tool for journalists, as it allows you to effectively aggregate news sources on your computer desktop, without having to visit a number of sites first.
Using an RSS reader program, you simply add the feeds you want (as simple as adding an URL to your bookmarks folder in a browser). If you have subscribed to a news feed, for example, you will then receive a list of headlines and story summaries and you can simply click through to any stories that interest you.
"Thanks to saturation spamming and viruses that spoof email addresses, it has become harder as an online publisher to distribute information effectively via email, as over-zealous spam filters increasingly block legitimate messages," said journalism.co.uk publisher John Thompson.
"Web users, especially journalists, are being overwhelmed by the number of emails they receive. RSS really is the future for online content delivery; you just get what you want, when you want it without spam or unwanted advertising messages."
The new service complements an existing news feed on journalism.co.uk. To subscribe to the jobs RSS feed, simply add http://www.journalism.co.uk/jobs.xml to your RSS reader.
More RSS stories from dotJournalism:
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story918.shtml
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story879.shtml
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story785.shtml
http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story579.shtml
More about RSS:
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=32&aid=78383
• To start using RSS, download one of the following programmes and then subscribe to XML feeds from your favourite news sites.
RSS programme for PCs:
http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/index.asp
RSS programmes for Macs:
http://ranchero.com/netnewswire
http://www.newsfirerss.com/
dotJournalism news RSS feed:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/dotjournalism
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