Here’s an interesting new thread to track in which jornalist Mark Briggs will lay out reporting tools and tricks in a blog called Journalism 2.0, hosted on the J-Learning site. The latter site provides tutorials on web design and the presentation of stories and information. In his Journalism 2.0 blog it looks like Briggs will focus on personal tools. The installment that caught my eye was on digital recorders — how to suck interviews into your computer to eliminate the search for tapes and create podcastable materials. Briggs cited an Online Journalism Review article with some basics.

That is a work in progress and seems focused on tools and techniques. The Committee of Concerned Journalists has created an A-Z Tool Index that is a bit of an overlap with what Briggs is doing but which also provides writing and reporting guidelines: Here’s a snippet to give you a flavor of the topics:

* Help with Federal FOIA (Freedom of Information Act requests)
* Interpretative Investigative Reporting
* Original Investigative Reporting
* Recognizing A Source’s Biases and Agendas
* Reporting on Investigations
* Reporting Tips from Pulitzer Winners

In any language tools are king, as evidenced by this Poynter commentary that leads ultimately to a presentation, in Spanish, by Jeordon Legon, a Yahoo editor who oversees content such as “Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone.”

Media consildation watch: Two FCC commissioners will hold a public hearing in Oakland Friday. Details in a SF Chronicle article. Meanwhile, Paid Content steered me to this snippet from the trade pub Broadcasting and Cable that says:

“Disney isn’t asking the FCC to loosen any of its ownership rules, saying it already has more than enough stations and is looking to using other platforms for content delivery … What is definitely in play is owning more multiple stations in markets and owning a station and newspaper in the same market.”