New Media Journalism Summary

One of the assignments for the course that is the origin of this blog was to follow four online news sites. The sites I chose are The NCPR news blog The In Box, the Huffington Post, The Onion, and the New York Times Online. Here is my analysis of these sites:

The In Box(formerly called All In), the news blog published on North Country Public Radio's website is an excellent companion to NCPR's regional coverage. NCPR is the only radio station with in-depth coverage of regional news, and The In Box gives a sort of behind-the-scenes journal written by the reporters and staff of NCPR.

The Huffington Post exemplifies new media journalism: brash, hip, user driven, and slanted. The slant in this case is to the left(or extreme left depending on your definition). The website's pages are colorful and sometimes chaotic, with links to blogs, videos, straight news articles, editorial articles, and ads. A notable and fun new media aspect is the ability to comment on the content (or comment on a comment) or if you don't have anything specific to add, you can click one of the reaction buttons to describe how an article made you feel. Of course you can also facebook like it or post it to your facebook or twitter.

I continue to be a huge fan of The Onion, which can be described as funny fake news. The jokes only work if you already follow the news and are familiar with the format of newspaper or TV news programs, so don't go to The Onion to learn what's going on, go there to laugh about it. The Website is set up well, similar to a 'real' news site with clickable headlines and ledes. Like the Huffington Post, NY Times and many others, all the pages have clickable tabs at the top which lead you to the different sections of coverage.

To get 'serious' news info The New York Times has long held the reputation as 'the paper of record' in the U.S. Much of the content in the print edition is availiable for free online, I suppose in an effort to stay relevant if not profitable. I find the print edition more organized and attractive than the website's homepage, but the coverage is still good. One advantage online news sites have is the search bar, which makes finding the articles you want much easier.

End of the Line

Yesterday I had a fun interview with a railroad enthusiast named Kenny Friedel for my regular Journalism class. I had noticed this guy's miniature railroad in his yard, like an amusement park ride. and after stopping by a couple times when he wasn't home I left a note on the door. After a few days (was about to give up) he called me back.

It was too rainy for him to run the train when I first arrived, but as we talked the weather cleared and he eventually took me for a fun ride. So I have some pics and the interview on tape, so I should be able to write-up a decent soft-news profile piece.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for a family event over the weekend. Both these courses are ending soon, so I'm rushing to get everything I need in and posted.

With Apologies to Fox News Fans

Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck

Another Informative Video

Nick Finger left me a link to this in one of his comments (did I mention I love comments?) and it is funny and true, take notes!

Daniel Shorr R.I.P.

Just home from work at the 1844 House, love the feel of evening breeze after 8 sweaty hours in the kitchen. If you've never worked a commercial kitchen, you don't know the heat.

So today is the YouTube 'global filming day' they've been promoting. It's a cool idea, eventually a documentary film is going to be made as sort of a day in the world recorded on film and put on YouTube. I've never posted to YouTube but I have a digital camcorder that's been gathering dust for a few months so it was a good reason to break it out. So I filmed myself walking Reggie, talking to my dad, doing laundry, driving to work, and then just now driving home from work. Exciting stuff, right?

So I submitted the 'Case Study' assignment to Sweeney earlier. Those in the class know that it's an analysis of the journalistic qualities of a particular blog. The blog is from 2005, kind of strange choice for a new media class. (hey anybody know where that anonymous guy is now or any current info? If he's still blogging I'll avoid that blog.)

Anyways thinking back on what I wrote, I was pretty brutal, not really giving the blogosphere in general a fair shake in terms of journalism.

Two recent news events may have put me in a not so generous mood to fellow bloggers. The Shirley Sherrod story this week really pissed me off; A blogger with an agenda(conservative) started a faux furor over quotes of Sherrod taken out of context. That's not suprising, although it does speak to the danger of considering blogging journalism. So you know the story, Obama fired her, and then apparently the next day got the whole story, and apologised.

And the other thing that may have tainted my mood when I wrote the assignment(should I post it here?) was the death of Daniel Shorr, a great and true journalist who I grew up hearing regularly on NPR. He worked almost to the end (I heard him just the other week) at the age of 93, and his life story is inspiring and worth checking out if your interested:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128730967

The difference between Shorr and many of the news bloggers I've read is that (one of the things I keep hearing from those who knew and worked with him) Dan Shorr never made the story about himself.

Humility and objectivity are qualities hard to find in the blogosphere.

Perfect Parody!

This video teaches a textbook's worth of info about the 24 Hr TV News Cycle. Watch and learn, fellow students!

It's also hella funny!


Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere

Better than Beck

Semi-Literate Former Gold Prospector Given Own Cable News Show

an idea yet to clarify

Was in Lake Placid again today, this time doing some grunt work for a film project to be shot in the Adirondacks this fall.

Happened out of nowhere, glad it did. Tim Brearton, the guy I worked for at the LPFF called me up to tell me bout it, I called the Production Coordinator in charge, and was there this morning at 9.

Should I blog my day to day stuff like this? Or should I focus on unique thoughts or observations?

Or something else entirely, an idea yet to clarify.

Dreams/Nightmares

Continuing the subject of dreams, I have a good one.

My earliest memory is of a dream, I kid you not. I know because it takes place in a room of a house that I have no other memories of, that my family moved out of when I was like 2. I revisited the house when I was older and recognized the room from the dream.

Anyways, it's night-time and I'm sitting up in my crib (I clearly see the bars). There was this big rug in the shape of a teddy bear, or a panda bear, black and white. The rug hung on the wall. In my dream it got down from the wall, walked over, glancing at me, then passed to my left, maybe out the window that was there. That's all it was, but the memory is burned into my mind really clearly.

To this day I am creeped out by giant teddy bears, seriously.

Chelsea told me a crazy dream, anyone else got one?

Inception

Hi all, I'm back from three days in Burlington. In addition to hanging with my brother which is always fun, I made some cool new friends including a fire dancer (see photo)and a photo-shy girl with an awesome pug (see photo).

I also hopped on over to Saranac Lake to visit Matt Burnett and see the completed installation at the 74/44 Gallery. It looks great and occupies the space really successfully. It turns out that the work I had made for the art machine was a tad too large to fit in the boxes they use for it. I was bummed but Matt gave me a bunch of the boxes so I can get them included in the machine for the next scheduled gallery walk.

I've been told that my blog posts are not long or deep enough; Well, while in Burlington I had a chance to see the film Inception, which itself is very long and very deep. It's Ocean's 11 of the mind! If you've seen it, how much (if any) do you think took place in the "real world"? Why didn't a certain character with a dead father recognize those who had manipulated his dreams once he awoke? Have you ever had a "waking dream" where you were aware you were dreaming and could do what you wanted? Tell me a some crazy dreams you've had and what(if anything) you think they meant.

Article Assignment

Hi, here's one I wrote during the LPFF a few weeks ago.

6/11/10 Lake Placid, NY

A small but enthusiastic croud turned out for the late night screening of an independant documentary at the Palace Theatre in Lake Placid. The film was Skatopia:48 Acres of Anarchy, and it chronicled a year in the life of a self-proclaimed cult-leader and his quest to build the ultimate no-rules skateboarding utopia on his property in rural Ohio. The film was part of the Lake Placid Film Forum and was advertised in skate parks and hipster hang-outs throughout the region. Based on the audience's appearance and enthusiasm the target audience was definitely reached. Applause erupted at the title and end credits, and spontanious laughter, cheers and jeers accomponied every scene. The bone crunching skateboard wipe-outs were especially well recieved, eliciting sympathetic and loud cries of fau-pain from the croud.

It was almost 2AM when the end-credits rolled, but remarkably almost all of the the audience stayed for the after-show question and answer session with the film's directors, Colin Powers and Laurie House. The audience questions ranged from "What's next for you?"(Answer: "A year of sleep") to "How do I get to Skatopia?". To that question, which elicited much laughter, the filmakers proceeded to give very precise directions and a web address, and several audience members promptly got out their cell phones or PDAs to jot down the info. On this rainy summer evening in Lake Placid, a small film appeared to have made a large impression on this group.

The Onion is Awesome

Hey journalism students, watch this and LOL.


Girl Raised From Birth By Wolf Blitzer Taken Into Protective Custody

If that doesn't heres the link, one of my favorite sites.

http://www.theonion.com/video/girl-raised-from-birth-by-wolf-blitzer-taken-into,17714/

Art Machine

So the other week when I helped Burnett&Fuller with their installation Matt showed me this really cool invention of his: An old-fashioned cigarette machine they've filled with little boxes of art from regional artists! So you put in a dollar, and then choose your brand (they all look the same), and see what's in the little box you get.

Anyway I want in, so I'm going through my photos and designs to pick out what pieces would look best really small and severely cropped. A pack of cigarettes is exactly 3.25 X 2.25 inches. Should I make my pieces a little smaller like 3.24 2.24 to allow for the I dunno width of the paper of the box? Seriously I have no manufacturing XP:(

Diana said It should be new art created for that size... I'll see what I can do.

Objectivity

Interesting discussion going on in my other class regarding media objectivity vs bias.

Basically, my feeling is that although objective journalism is ideal, it shouldn't be legislated. Part of being an informed citizen is to know when to read between the lines and check your facts on other sources. I think this should be emphasized early in schools, like in civics classes. What do you think?

C'mon guys lets get some comments goin.

Predators

I saw the new 'Predators' movie, and was pleasantly surprised.

The film is an old-school action horror nothing more nothing less. It's rated R, like action movies used to be, to start. The cat and mouse between the humans and predators keeps you interested, and the final confrontation/comeuppance is very satisfying, and the movie isn't overdone with CGI.

The main guy is Adrian Brody, who's doing action movies I guess now. His eyes always look sad, not his fault, but once you get over that he's pretty badass.

Take My Survey!

Quick, fun, anonymous!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FSBSXGV

Media Critique

Assignment: Compare coverage of a news story in different media.

I've chosen the story about the 10 Russian 'spies' uncovered last week. This story isn't as juicy as others I could choose, but since it began last week and seemingly came to an end today I thought it would be a good example.

Any kind of coverage of this story from beginning to end contained some version of the phrase 'throwback to the cold war'(The Daily Show had a funny segment built on this; nostalgia for the simpler times of nuclear terror)

If this story had broke 'back then' it would definitely have been THE story, whether or not it 'mattered'. In this case, it appears no damage was done, no one was in danger, and the sleeper agents were sane Russians as opposed to religious zealots. This lack of 'scare factor', I think, made this story sort of an aside in most venues.

On MSNBC the spy story was part of the 'headline' summaries but mostly absent from the main programs like Hardball or Countdown which focus on political debate. The international relations angle got some coverage, always in terms of 'Obama admin wants better relations with the Kremlin, how will this affect that?'

The Kremlin apparently shared the desire for a swift amicable end because this week it was announced that the 10 agents would be part of a prisoner exchange. This developement was covered with similar tepid coverage on all media I saw. The NY Times has an article today with the facts in traditional inverted pyramid style, along with the 'cold war throwback' sentiment. Actually, the article about today's exchange will be in tomorrow's NY Times; I read it online. Feel free to spend 4$ to buy it tomorrow, a definite weakness of the medium.

Online publications and blogs are similar to TV coverage in that this story is not 'big news'. In fact, I had to search several popular blogs for any coverage. What I found was riddled with typos, a weakness of that medium. There were a couple new angles online, such as 'what happens to the spy's US children?'

I am currently unable to find much info on OUR agents that we exchanged for, what their story is, that would be interesting.

Catharsis

I find something strangely cathartic about lawn mowing. The blades slicing, the smell, it's very satisfying. I do my apartment, my parents home, the restaurant and Walker's home. I have also agreed to mow the lawn of a hospice patient at the request of my father, Hospice director.

Oil Spill

Yep so the oil spill rages on. Pisses me off.

Scorcher

Man, what a scorcher! I mowed the lawn at the restaurant today, must have lost a gallon of sweat.

The fourth was fun, I went to Burlington and hung with my brother, Nick. We saw some badass fireworks, all the better.

Hope to write about the news tomorrow.

USA! USA! USA!

Happy birthday America! You've aged well, mostly.

God bless the imperfect union!

Old & New

Hey alright looks like the weather finally cleared up, always puts me in a better mood.

Yesterday was rough; Had major writer's block over an assignment for my other journalism class. It's traditional old media journalism-kind of cool to be taking both old and new media journalism, good call Dr Sweeney!

The assignment was a news story based on a previous assignment (class started a few weeks before this one) for which I interviewed my dad about his work for Hospice. The interview was fun, and I really wanted to write a good newsy story with selected quotes. As I am sometimes prone to do, I over-thought the whole thing and agonized over every sentence. Since I read and follow the news, I know how articles like that are supposed to sound, so that was added pressure. Anyways it got done-submitted at like 11:30.

Dunno what my plans are yet for the fourth, but I'd like to go somewhere with a kickass fireworks show, as in not around here.

Pandora's Box

Pandora radio is the shit, I've got it on now and like all day as I'm at my comp or just around the apt, which has been too much lately on account of the rain mostly.

From a design point of view Pandora is sublimely simple, and is uncanny at predicting what music I like. Well to start they draw from your facebook favs (if you let it) so they play artists that are on there and also stuff that you might like. It's probably an algorithm like netflix has (people who liked THIS also like THIS; I don't think that computers can listen to music and know what is similer yet). And like netflix you train it, by voting up or down for whatever's playing. BTW if you vote down it skips the track, another correct design choice that seems obvious but many others would have you click skip after you vote no.

Typing an artists name and voting yes or no are the main way you influence what plays. No specific tracks can be requested and no creating playlists, AND no repeating or skipping backwards, at least not with the free version I have. At some point it dosn't let you vote and skip anymore unless you subscribe; clever.