Blogging versus Journalism

Class presentation

2004-12-05T16:28:00.000-08:00

About The Project (Blogging versus Journalism)
The project was a collected resource of newspapers from daily papers in the state, region the United States, Canada, Iraq and Russia as well as some popular national journalism and media magazines. I had also taken a look at a couple of sports fan, baseball and national sports weblogs, too. After viewing these various sites, I would offer commentary concerning the blogging and mainstream journalistic of issues in the daily mainstream media, and how it affected our thinking in my posts. I would also attempt to correlate and link newspaper articles andother pertinent information to the project's weblog postings.

Mainstream print journalism has been heavily criticized because of issues dealing with a lack of respectability, printing outdated news and stories, lacking an effort in covering a story, laziness, writing too much fluff, not having enough hard news, writing with too much bias, low pay, writing and reporting with a lack of editorial savviness, creating controversy, employee bitterness, not spending enough money for new equipment to keep itself current and competitive in the technological era, being just a rag and much more. Every day, the print media seems to be the step-child among its media counterparts and the constant butt of jokes.

The project's goal was to explain the makings of well produced and published newspapers by comparing them with others throughout the state, region, country and world. I wanted to analyze the reasons for blogging, and to investigate if there should be a set of rules for the so-called amateurs we see blogging. It was important to try to answer if the media needs professional journalists covering the story, or should they employ bloggers who fling anything out into the universe without care of its ramifications. I looked at the headlines, the rhetoric used in the stories, editorial content, writers styles and differences in reporting the news, as well as looking at what's important to one paper and not the other. Most importantly I wanted to attempt to answer, how did the journalism bloggers write the story the real journalists missed?

I wanted to comment on the audience targeted and to discuss the educational level of the audience. I wanted to comment on the above mentioned newspapers on a rotating basis, using the internet and linking material that was beneficial in stregthening the the blogging presentation. It was my goal to show the reader even though blogging is important in getting the story out to the masses, it was important to make sure the accuracy and fairness was present.

My goal was to look for specific ideas pertaining to [Blogging versus Journalism] and to get an idea of what bloggers say about their profession. I wrote five to 20 posts per week, each between 50-300 words. At least two posts were from readings from Blog and journalism sites, Blogsites, Blog Readings for course and various blogs branching out from news media sites which were at least 50-300 words. Some readers commented on the ideas and opinions expressed by myself, and offered suggestions on how to improve my project and what was presented.

At the beginning of my project I professed, "If a balance can be achieved, there is great potential for publishers to operate and maintain an Internet blogging site successfully. The vast majority of media companies have missed the boat and readers are turning to amateurs, people with a deep knowledge about a niche subject, and others with a flair for writing or have interesting stories to tell - hundreds of thousands of bloggers who have become part of the media ecosystem. If the news media chooses to ignore it, it'll lose a connection with readers on an intimate daily basis. If not careful, the mainstream media as we know it will become a bit less relevant with each passing day."

After a semester of reading and grinding different theories in my mind, I find bloggers and main stream journalists will always have a place in their respective worlds.

Citizen Journalism (alias Participatory Journalism)
In my midterm reflection I vehemently stressed bloggers weren't journalists because an editor doesn't come between the reporter and reader. Being involved in a newsroom setting with an actual editor in command is the major factor distinguishing the journalist and blogger. I went on to say, that's what I used to think until actually becoming involved with my project and going through reams of copy on the subject of blogging versus journalism.

I discovered just as traditional journalism has made a big difference in political avenues (Bernstein-Woodward etc...), so has blogging on the Internet. There have been topics covered by bloggers on the Internet which has not seen the inside of a reporter's notebook,let alone prime space in a newspaper. Bloggers go where the traditional journalist fears to tread.

I was comfortable with the traditional and mainstream journalism brothers, but there was an argument on the other side I discovered which swayed me to the other side. Bloggers post news withheld by the mainstream media about a lot of things. An example is NBA star Kobe Bryant's accuser's identity in a Colorado rape trial. One didn't find it in a newspaper or on TV. There was an agreement there would be no publication of her name or picture. But where did it appear? On the Internet and bloggers had a field day with it.

A big part of the problem arising is there are ordinary people blogging the news. People without a degree or experience in the journalism field. They are getting the story more than the mainstream or traditional journalists.

Anybody can publish anything and that's what is sticking in the throats of the mainstream journalists. Bloggers have the ability to create personal news entities. The right to publish is a part of the First Amendment and the people are taking advantage of it. When ordinary citizens contribute photos, video and news updates to mainstream news outlets, many would argue they're doing journalism. When bloggers comment on and link to news stories, is that journalism?

Usually no...but it depends. When the blogger adds personal commentary relying on original research, or if it is done by someone considered an authority on the subject, some would consider it journalism. When these people conduct a phone interview with a newsworthy subject and post it to the Weblog -- or does some research to turn up the address, phone number and e-mail of an alleged rape victim, as a number of bloggers did in July -- some would consider these acts of journalism. Audience participation will become more widespread once mobile devices such as video-enabled phones -- which allow you to transmit text, photos and video directly over the phone -- become commonplace.

Selective Journalism
Blogging is nothing but selective journalism. My theory can be proven with recent events happening in the world as of late. Bloggers aren't concerned with the entire picture, only a piece of it. They focus and hammer on a subject mercilessly until it gags the reader. Look at what's happened with the steroid and baseball issues. That's all you hear on TV and see on the web. Look at the corruption of athletes who have used the steroids. What about athletes who have had accomplishments without steroids or drugs. It used to be baseball players smoked cigarettes, drank and chased women, but did their jobs when it came to playing the game. There was no one saying Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record because he used steroids. Now, they're saying Barry Bonds' records should have an asterik because of the drug issue. That's all we hear 24/7. We forget about the rest of the world. When there's bad news or controversy, bloggers are right there to flood the Internet with bad news. And you don't hear the whole story. Just selective tidbits. While mainstream journalists tend to be fair and balanced, and have the resources to do so.

The same can be said about the Presidential elections. The mainstream media has to be fair and impartial, but if there was dirt to be had, the bloggers found it and pecked away until they were blue in the face. Never mind hammering away at the policies of war, but peck away at Vietnam War records and something that happed 40 years ago. Again, selective journalism.

Participatory Journalism Categories:
There is a lot of audience participation at mainstream news outlets like Staff Weblogs, like those written by The Dallas Morning News' editorial board. All involve reader comments in their blogs, either through e-mails or direct postings. Now, this is a great idea because it helps the paper understand the media and the audience. It develops an important rapport and helps the paper become a strong entity in the community.

Newsroom-sanctioned weblogs written by outsiders, such as ABCnews.com's give presidential candidates their own blog. MSNBC and Fox News are included with discussion forums like Blogger Cafe. Online newspapers in the United States and Europe ask high school students, parents and fans to contribute to reporting about their schools' football, wrestling and other sporting events. These things are nothing but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and don't create insight as much as anger, and seem to be designed to fuel arguments and a banter of flaming namecalling, just as Rebecca Blood frowned against people doing.

There are photos, video and reports sent in by readers. The Dallas Morning News published readers' photos in its coverage of the space shuttle tragedy. The BBC has a standing page that uses photos e-mailed in by readers around the globe. The Santa Fe New Mexican publishes photos submitted by readers. The Providence (R.I.) Journal created a slide show of 130 images sent by readers of a spring blizzard. Australia's ABC News Online published reader write-ups and photos of devastating brushfires in Canberra.

A news station in Japan aired live coverage of a massive fatal accident from a citizen-reporter with a video-enabled cell phone. The witness called-in a report from the scene. They do this in the states, too, with weather-related items and news tidbits that couldn't be covered by mainstream journalists, but are interesting and newsworthy to be reported upon. Professional journalists are stretched and sometimes need the public's help.

In some cases, publications rely on well-versed amateurs or independent writers to provide original interviews, research and reporting. In other cases, the sites primarily generate editorial digests with varying degrees of commentary (Poynter.org's e-media tidbits and Romenesko). Some of these sites do journalism only in small pieces and only resemble journalism, while for others citizen reporting is their primary purpose.

There are strictly participatory news sites, where citizen-reporters contribute a significant amount of material. South Korea's OhmyNews? is the jewel of citizen journalism. A similar citizen-reported news site called JanJan? in Japan is modeling itself after OhmyNews?. Indymedia offers first-person reporting of political news with a subjective slant.

Collaborative and contributory media sites are vital to blogging Americans. These sites include Slashdot, Kuro5hin and Metafilter, which mesh Weblogs and discussion boards together, users contribute editorial content (some of which would be appropriate for a newspaper or magazine) as well as links to news stories and ratings.

Other community sites with mechanisms for self-publishing, self-ranking and self-organization include the collaborative newspaper RedPaper??, Plastic.com and Everything2, which describes itself as "a very complex online community with a focus to write, publish and edit a quality database of information, art and humor.

When one posts at these sites he/she joins not only a team of dedicated writers but an entire micro-society and community with its own pop culture, politics, beauty and blunders. Many of the smaller sites in this category tend to quickly fall away. The Vines Network and ThemeStream??, sites featured in The New York Times two years ago, have already disappeared. You are literally entering into a new dimension. A new Twilight Zone.

Other types of this media (if you can call it that) are mailing lists (Dave Farber’s Interesting-People, Firehair's Internet Native News and Issues List), e-mail newsletters (ThirdAge??’s Health Newsletter) and other digital media.

Personal broadcasting sites also have to be brought into the picture include both video broadcast sites such as Daytonabeach-live.com and audio sites like KenRadio??.com, where operator Ken Rutkowski conducts news interviews and pulls together a daily tech news report from various media sources. Other examples of participatory journalism seem to be cropping up all the time.

Personal Musings
In the StudioITour?, my classmates liked the fact I posted hundreds of words and tried to link everything I posted. I wanted to make my posts to the point and attempt to eliminate wordiness. I attempted to mix up my posts, too. But I always tried to link one or two sites to which I talked about. My blog contained 40 or 50 newspapers and journalistic sites where my readers could themselves go to view the same links I was referring to in my postings. It gave readers the opportunity to view other newspapers and sites to learn about other areas and points of views they may be hearing about in Bemidji and the surrounding area.

Once I had success surfing and linking, and being able to have some good ideas, blogging was easy and enjoyable. It was something fun that I was not doing because it was a requirement for a class. There's a new world rising and I wanted to know more about it.

Gray Areas
I found some gray areas "in order for there to be credibility among bloggers, as opposed to the credibility journalists build for themselves by having to check...and double check every piece of information Bloggers, journalists need some rules, bloggers must try to grasp those same standards that journalists do. There is always a stigma of intellectual dishonesty in a bloggers thought or writing Show me the context, baby!, Oct. 7th.

People are going online for news sources rather than purchasing print copies of the very same sources. In "On-line advertising killing traditional journalism" October 18th, "newspapers are fighting for survival when it comes to battling the ad dollars. If people are reading on-line, that means they aren't reading a particular newspaper, which means no ad avenue...the basis of the lifeblood for every newspaper. The journalists, and newspapers, are going to have to find their niche online so they can also use online advertising to their benefit" Oct. 18th.

A newspaper in Chile allows readers to go online to select the next day's news. That way this gives people what they want to read. What an innovative idea.

In Conclusion
Blogging is the new wave of the future and it can be successful with some monitoring and having bloggers play by rules. Like I-Pods, video phones etc...blogging will be a piece of technology to help filter and make the lines of communication stronger. It will not replace the newspaper. Especially the hometown newspaper.
But we are society too busy to consistently read a paper. Everything we want, we want on a screen or pod. Speed and convenience will be the rule. We don't want to shuffle through newsprint to get the news all the time. We are heading to being a strictly electronic age of this medium. We'll subscribe to newspapers on the television. Like 24-hour newspaper on TV ~ that's how we'll get our news. We're practically there already with 24 hour sports channels, news channels and weather channels. But mainstream journalsim will survive the onslaught of comeptition spewed out by blogging and electronic journalism.

People are becoming interactive in the news. The major networks give average citizens the chance to comment on the news they are viewing every day. The mainstream journalism society is giving citizens the opportunity to send in their own news. They are offering Internet and web users a different view of the world. We are getitng a chance to see the whole picture, not just a piece of it as regulated by the mainstream.

I have attempted address and attack many subjects in this project. Personally, The most interesting subjects on my blog have been: Ethics in blogging and journalism, and the need for a code of ethics for blog journalists; Blogging and politics-role that blogs are playing in the campaign; Sports reporting and blogging; What it takes to be a blogger- ABC says it's simply a desire to write, but is that all? Conflicts between bloggers and traditional journalists, both newspaper and television (Brokaw likens blogging to "political jihad"); The media and trust and War blogging.

I attempted to tackle critical issues of credibility, and made sure posts were backed up with links to the articles or news sources focused upon. I drew on subjects talked about in class and enjoyed talking about what Rebecca Blood blood has to say on subjects.

I kept track of what journalist bloggers were thinking when it came to dealing with issues like the fact "weblogs were allowed to comment on any subject area without facing any repercussions," Used wisely, a weblog is a good tool, Oct. 4, an issue that many readers face when they are searching for alternate, but credible observations about certain topics.

There's a wealth of information on topics pertaining to the clash between bloggers and journalists. One article was "One more time: Journalism vs. Blogging which states that: The author says the difference between the two is journalism is prostitution and blogging is recreational sex. When you blog, according to the author, you do it when you want it, how you want it, and on what topic you want. You're hoping there is an audience out there to read what you get off on. Journalists have a lot of things to prove to people. There's the editor and the company management to please. You're actually writing what your editor thinks is important and do it in the format and manner inwhich he wants it. He is the most important part of the equation" Talking about blogging versus journalism.

One side claims "Blogging is not journalism" because the readers don't know who's credible and how is not, while the other side says, "with the advent of weblogging, the readers know more than the journalists." Blogging is not journalism", Oct. 7th

I tried to refute journalists who said blogging was a respectable form of public record by making it a respectable public record of their record. My links do make a strong argument. and I was fair and balanced in my critique. Selective journalism serves a purpose, but can not be compared to mainstream journalism in the same breath. In all fairness, however, blogging can be quite effective in the realm of communicating.

This semester, I took a different approach to writing. I invested a lot of time and energy into my efforts, and absorbed the knowledge I worked hard to find. My objectives were to be able to write something having some hint of structure. Something to help me in the next year as I go into the homestretch for my Masters thesis. I dove head first into my project to gather as much non-bias information as I could, and continued to reflect on the class along with the different writing assignments to show the affect it had on me being able to draw some final conclusions.

It would have been better to link sites to this wiki reflection, but I haven't found out how you can do it to make it clean. I have only talked and discussed my links. For a better understanding of what I did, and what my posts were about, it is reccommended the reader view my two blogging sites. To interact with the sites is to understand the real meaning of the [Blogging versus journalism] topic.

My background in journalism is considerable, but I have spent countless numbers of hours during the semester blogging, reading, linking and deciphering. I was leary about blogging at first, but I think (as does my wife) I'm a natural. I dillegently provided depth by giving my readers content and links -- lots of links -- relevant links. But as far as the future is concerned, I will venture into the world of wikis. I discovered while doing class assignments, this is the best scholarly educational tool for my purpose as a future teacher.

I'd like to think my background in journalism gave me the tools and knowledge to be objective, which was a sharp contrast compared to most of the daily-news blogs that we're reading in today's mainstream media world. This is an example of some of the objectivity I during the semester:

"I'm talking about name-calling and ads that impugn a candidate's motives, such as the ones implying that President Bush is lying when he says he won't institute a military draft or those that suggest Senator Kerry volunteered for Vietnam simply to pad his resume. We shouldn't confuse negativity, which is often justified and informative, with incivility, which isn't."

My research was about credibility in different forms of media.

"The election season brought a heightened awareness of what's fair, particularly in a close election as we are having this fall. Credibility — the trust of readers — is the most important asset."

I worked to gain trust with my readers by trying to finding sources they could [trust] before I passed information along. It's as if I was working at a newspaper again and wrote for my readers everyday. I hoped readers were asking these questions as I did along the path of my postings. Questions like: Do we trust the filtered and possibly manipulated product offered by the mass media? Do we trust the blogger that is actually in Iraq, but can write whatever they want with no reprecussive [fear] even if the facts are askew?

In blogging there is a face versus faceless aspect that was researched by myself. I think the audience will find out I have drawn some excellent and well-thought out conclusions as my project comes to an end.

An innovative way of running a newspaper

2004-12-02T09:11:00.000-08:00

The Chilean press has an innovative way of deciding what news they put in their paper. The readers decide. This idea has blogging beat because readers are reading what they want, not what is attempting to be force-fed to them.

What does it all mean

2004-12-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

What does it all mean to be able to blog words, thoughts, ideas, philosophies or other utterly nonsense. What does it mean to have the words and mind of an author. To write about every moment of the day, evening, week, year. Minute by minute we write, but we writers melt like ice cubes into the darkness and what we have written is forgotten. What does it all mean. Most remember what we write about. We're all but forgotten. What does it all mean to care about society enough to write our thoughts and opinions. But in the end, you know what? No one remembers and our verbal bashings didn't do any good. Like ice cubes, writers just melt back into society and await another fiasco to take place. But writers and bloggers didn't change anything. Did all that political blogging elect us a new president? Did it really help the old one. Die it, or does it continue, to change the face of war. The face of killing and murder of the innocent. Does it really help education. Does it keep our schools open? Does it help put money into the vaults of our univesities? Does it eliminate prejudice? Doe it do any damn good? No. When we blog, write, or paddle down the mainstream media we feel good about the cuases we fight for. We write for passion against causes of abuse, malnourishment, for quality education, for a better life, a better society...for a better mankind. In the end, we fade into black. Our words remain, but that's all theya re. Every says they understand and become ferociously hungry to do something. To fight, but in the end we tire and move on to something else. That's the way blogging is. We fight for awhile with a focus on an injustice and we move on when the landscape tires of us, or we fail to make an impact because no one hears our words.
Did we do anything about theft, hunger, corruption, world leadership, war, helping humanity heal or show compassion. No. We attack, attack attack and attack some more. Never enabling any type of healing. We're not a nation of healers. We're a nation of keeping wounds open and to allow them to fester with the sickness of infection. We see it on the news. We see it in our communities. We see it every where we look. Everywhere we turn into the media for knowledge. Do we want to do something after the knowledge.
No.
We move on ad find something else to mutilate. We blog for simplicity. We don't blog to be positive. We strive on negativity. Perhaps that's why blogging is what it is.

The beginning of "Pack" Journalism

2004-12-01T10:28:00.000-08:00

If you want to read the beginnings of "pack" journalism and what "selective" journalism is all about, read the Boys On The Bus.

Word of the year

2004-11-30T17:29:00.000-08:00

Blog was selected as the word of the year.

A night of sadness

2004-11-30T17:18:00.000-08:00

I had been in Duluth all day with health problems of my own and din't even get more bad news until i got home. My son asked if I had heard the news. "About what, I asked? "Notre Dame's football coach Ty Willingham was fired," he said. Now, we'll see if the blogging network focuses on this with its pack journalistic and selective writings. I doubt it. No one cares about a black football coach who is in one of the hottest football pressure cookers in the country. Why is it always the coache's fault. I'm tired of heraing the same verse from different writers all the time. Can't we be original and write positive things in support. This guy did a tough job. The trouble with football experts is that they don't figure that other teams get better. They don't believe in parity. They think one school with a rich football tradition should be getting the great players all the time. It's making me sick. it's making me ill to hear the same crap all the time on sports radio and the sports Internet. Pack journalism sucks. Nothing different. It's the same crap all the time. Why didn't we hear that under the circumstances Willingham did a heck of a job. No, they'll get another coach and the same thing will happen again. Tha's the trouble with sports. There's no patience anymore. it's must win all the time. It stinks.

Selective journalism continues............

2004-11-30T04:46:00.000-08:00

As I sat down with my morning coffee and surfed the net, newspapers and news channels I have taken even more notice of the selective journalism style mainstream journalism and blogging is taken a liking to. Turn on the sports net, and we see nothing but talk about the Bowl Championship Series. It happens everythime this point of the year. Who's numbe rone, who's not. Can't we get on to another subject. How about coaching firings etc.....isn't there feel-good stories in sports that are happening. Iraq, Iraq Iraq. I know it's the thing happening, but what about other things we have to focus on like the economy, drugs for seniors, medical help for the poor, job security, straightening the cost of Social Security, trubng to make educational opportunities more fair and balanced. We are harping Iraq to death. if it's not soldiers dying, it's the elections or how the religious factions are upset over the imbalance....just anything on the war. Why don't bloggers harp on the economics and how the rich keep getting richer? Why don't we talk about policitcs in the job market? Why is Christmas costing each of us on the average of around $700 when last year it was $676. What about the violence and thefts on our college campuses that cost taxpayers a ton of money and give our schools a blackeye.

Why do we always talk about educators not doing their jobs and we don't hear, or read a thing about it. We blog, blog, blog about the political races and our future leaders. We don't focus on the issues. maybe we don't know what the issues are. Maybe we're not a focuses society. We have the attention span of a puppy. The news and happenings in all of our media is boring and uninfomative. Yet, we criticize every media outlet and boast the comings of the Internet.

What it is, is selective journalism

2004-11-27T08:28:00.000-08:00

After reading websites, online newspapers and top magazines like Editor and Pubisher, Journalism Review, Editor Weblogs amongst others, I've come to te realization that blogging more than likely is only a form of journalism....selective journalism. Unlike a newspaper or the mainstream print and briadcats media who give you a rounded-picture (or attempt to), blogging gives you a piece of the story by blogging on a selective topic, whether it be sports, politics, world or national news or economics. Over the past few monhs, I have also posted articles from some online sources to show what they're meanings of the news are, as well as citizen journalism, the future of journalism as we know it and other items. When I look back at what has been posted and commented on, the thing that strikes me the most is, is that I am commenting on the impact of these articles that focus on single topics only, not a vatiety of topics. That's why bloggers are successful in what they do. They harp and focus on the subject dear to them, while the mainstream focuses on a little of everything, which means they aren't able to focuse exclusively on a subject. A paper can't contain one subject articles. That's where the special feature sections come in. So, while we tend to say blogs have the impact because they have check finders, search engines and other things where they can focus and get information on a subject, the mainsteeam goes with sources' credibility. It seems I have a better understanding on this blogging versus journalism subject.

We tend to read on the Internet one-sided stories. A part of a story writers want to focus on without giving the entire picture. I see this happening in the sports world where we want to focus on scandal and focus on a few bad apples and decisions that give athletics a blackeye. But we don't talk to the other side. We forget there are two sids to every story and this is what bloggers have gained notoriety for.

Best blogs of the year

2004-11-25T08:42:00.000-08:00

According to The Washington Post, here are the best blogs of 2004.

Thanksgiving reflection

2004-11-25T05:36:00.000-08:00

I have some things to be very thankful for this holiday. For one, my health isn't as bad as we thought. It's bad, but not totally off the wall. I'm going to be alive for awhile. How healthy I'll be in that life is another thing. I have also decided after reading books, Internet posts, stories, news blogs and other blogs that the next thing I will dabble in is wikis. It seems wikis are a lot more scholarly and more geared to the constant exchange of ideas and thoughts, and are constructed to get a more unified meaning of a subject. With a blog, you can read something but your opinion is there and no one can add or edit anything to make it more cohesive. It's like the handout we had on Performance Art. Other writers can enhance your picture by making contributions and adidng value to your original piece. After careful reflection and working on the project for the last couple of months, I think it's important for me to shelve my ego and allow the community to interject their ideas and thoughts to enhance my yearning and desire to learn. My goal since my illness has been to constanty learn, ask questions and then compute. The wiki, after reading the assigned readings and material prescribed, makes me think it's the tool for me to be able to continualy compute and evolve into the scholar I want to be.

Also, today is a time to reflect on family. It makes me that much more miss and yearmn for my Mom. Holidays were hers to provide the true substance of the meaning of family. After her death, the holidays are clouded a little with a little emptiness. My dad would rather be by himself, my son is in Florida with his family, my sister has hers in Lakeville and my brother has his family regiment in Buxton, North Dakota. I have my wife and I appreciate her very much, but one should be able to fill in the giant cavern of loneliness during the holidays. Christmas will probably be better. That's when my son and his wife will be coming home. Enough said of this sappiness.

Did anyone learn a lesson

2004-11-24T07:49:00.000-08:00

With the dark cloud of scandal over him, Dan Rather announced on Tuesday evening's news that he will step down from the anchor desk, but remain on the payroll of CBS to do special features for "60 minutes II and CBS 60 Minutes. This is kind of peculiar because Rather was involved in the scandal over President Bush's National Guard records. When the records were proven to be phony, Rather apologized to everyone but President Bush. CBS News has promised to get to the bottom of the incident, but hasn't come across with the results of their independent investigation.

In a story I read recently, Jim Geraghty wrotes: I really want to see the results of that CBS internal investigation. There's no way CBS will face the music and admit that the "60 Minutes II" story was a cheap-shot, amateur, sloppy, partisan, nasty, half-witted bit of hackery and that the guys in pajamas ran rings around them. If it was, they wouldn't be letting Rather stay on to keep doing "60 Minutes II" reports. And they wouldn't be delaying his "Evening News" departure until March.

Imagine. It was the dilligent efforts of a blogger and the blogshere that probbaly saddled Rather with his fate. The bad thing is Rather is going to be staying with the "60 Minutes" programming.

I think CBS and Rather are trying to get out of this situation graciously. Even with Rather bowing out, I still believe it's going to hurt him in the long run and put a dark cloud on his reputation as well as news-gathering capabilities. It's hard to believe the man who replaced Walter Conkrite would give so much up when he believed there was no wrong doing.

The blogsphere definitely had a hand in bringing Rather down. At one time, I believe he proclaimed himself as the "top-dog" in television news, too.

Why report was blogged

2004-11-24T07:37:00.000-08:00

From The Lost Remote: In his personal blog, NBC journalist Kevin Sites explains his reasons for reporting on the controversial Marine shooting inside a Fallouja mosque. His decision has led many to call him anti-patriotic. Sites writes, "It's time you to have the facts from me, in my own words, about what I saw - without imposing on that Marine - guilt or innocence or anything in between. I want you to read my account and make up your own minds about whether you think what I did was right or wrong." Sites' blog is not affiliated with NBC News.

I have read and watched several reports of war blogging from embedded journalists. They are important to the credibility of what's going on in the war. it truly gives us a fair and balanced look at all sides of war. Sites report isn't the only one online, either. There have been many excellent embedded reports to give readers an exact picture our invlovement. And some of these embedded journalists have given their life for us to understand the rigors of war.

Credibility

2004-11-24T07:27:00.000-08:00

As I was panning the blogsphere on the subject of credibility of online journalism. Here's one from Online Journalism.com: Via Anchorage Daily News: Middle-school teacher Josh Whicker's satirical Web log, the Hoosier Gazette, has landed Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind. in hot water. In a recent post, Whicker wrote that Hostettler was trying to change the name of Interstate 69 to Interstate 63 because of the sexual connotations of the number "69." Whicker's phony story was picked up by such blogs as Wonkette.com and SierraTimes.com, which reported the story as fact. Hostettler's office was inundated by phone calls from the media and angry constituents. Whicker says he's "thought about doing some journalism stuff, but now I don't know if anyone would hire me."

This is what happens when there aren't fact checkers. People tend to believe everything as the "gospel truth".

Someone will write about this subject

2004-11-24T07:23:00.000-08:00

Whether it's online or in a paper, this is a subject a lot of people will write about.

Rather will step down in March

2004-11-23T13:06:00.000-08:00

Did the bloggers of America help bring Dan Rather down. Are they the ones who forced him to step down. To see the light? One will never know. But it's official. Dan Rather will step down as the CBS News Anchor in March. After all the hoopla over the National Guard scandal, we can only speculate on who was responsible for Dan Rather's stepping down.

Enhancing communication

2004-11-23T13:00:00.000-08:00

In a recent issue of Editor and Publisher it said, The StarTribune in Minneapolis will use AdPay's Click and Buy Classifieds system to enhance the paper's online classifieds. Click and Buy is a newspaper-branded, Internet-hosted application that integrates with newspaper classified-ad entry and posting systems. It gives classified advertisers the ability to enhance their online classifieds with extended text, photos, and multimedia. Click and Buy also provides advertisers the option of selling merchandise for a fixed price, a negotiated price, or by an auction. Buyers can also make payments online. "We're leveraging this technology to facilitate communication between buyers and sellers," said Ken Riddick, executive director of interactive for the Star Tribune. "That's an important role for newspapers to play in online business." This does exactly what papers are expected to do if they are to survive....communicate with the people and give the readers what they want.

Numbers are questioned

2004-11-23T11:55:00.000-08:00

The New York Times is reporting the death counts form the battle in Fallujah is being overstated and inaccurate. Once again, the credibility of reporting and trying to keep things from the public is why we have a blogging versus journalism issue. This was the same thing that happened during the Vietnam War. The government gave out bad numbers (unrealistic ones) on casualties. This is why there is such a mistruct of government.

Blogging

2004-11-22T13:48:00.000-08:00

What's up with blogging? Why should you care about the blogsphere and the takeover of the mainstream media?

Newspapers will always be around

2004-11-22T13:21:00.000-08:00

According to a recent Editor and Publisher article, there'll always be newspapers.

Bringing the war to the front

2004-11-22T09:01:00.000-08:00

For some reason, newspapers have forgotten the fact there is a war going on in Iraq. In particular, Fallujah. There is a website called Fallujah in Pictures. This website proves we can't take the subject of war casually. There are a lot of things war does to people, soldiers, and they're not for the family album. The website (i have visited it) has pictures of dead citizens as well as soldiers, and there is enough blood and gore to fill a morgue 10 times over. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well this website is worth enough words to fill 100 libraries. War is not pretty and it affects everyone. There is nothing that is fair and balanced about this website. With a website like this, we will be constantly reminded war comes at an extremely high price.

Embedded journalists are a good thing

2004-11-22T08:53:00.000-08:00

The reams of blogging copy in the blogsphere lambastes the mainstream media for not telling what's going on in the ranks of the Iraq war. I don't think these people have a leg to stand on in this critque because of the fact many news organizations have embedded journalists doing the job some bloggers don't want to acknowledge. Believe it or not, there are reporters putting their lives on the line to give people back home the message from the war front. Whether or not we want to believe the facts coming out of the war zone is anotehr story. But at least give these guys some credit that they're trying to get the job done.

War and the Media

2004-11-22T08:40:00.000-08:00

Hundreds of thousands of citizens have seen the view from a video camera where a Marine in Fallujah shot a wounded insurgent inside a mosque and he is currently under investigation. The Television network decided to show the piece. Why? I guess because it demonstrated what goes on in battle and gives people back at home a clear idea of the rigors of war soldiers face.
On the tape, one could hear, "He's faking he's dead. He's faking he's dead." And then shot the insurgent. It's clar the soldier thought he was in danger and didn't know the guy was left there the day before by American soldiers to receive medical help. It is also not uncommon for bodies to be booby-trapped. ANother game the enemy likes to play. The Marines also have a code to follow in engaging the enemy. Something this soldier took very seriously. Can you imagine what a grenade could have done to a platoon? I don't think soldiers, or some of them, don't go in with the idea of kill.

Viewing the tape could be taken two ways. There could be the thought the Marine killed the enemy because he wanted to. The other, he was scared he may be killed. No one knows unless they are there. But the mainstream media and the blogshere could have a feld day in talking about pros and cons. And usually, the soldier will come up on the losing end because we judge from home and have no idea what war is like.

The soldier may have made a mistake, but things are throught through different under stress. The soldier was keyed on protecting himself and his unit. That's what was important.

Payback is tough

2004-11-22T08:36:00.000-08:00

You gotta love the interview Peter Jennings had with former President Bill Clinton. It was great. Here's part of it:

The network news anchors usually stay away from controversy. So, [Thursday, November 18] when Peter Jennings questioned Bill Clinton about how historians have ranked his moral authority, eyebrows went up. Here's some of what happened.

BILL CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT: They're wrong about that.

JENNINGS: After Nixon.

CLINTON: They're wrong about that. Do you know why they're wrong about it? They're wrong about it.

JENNINGS: Why, sir?

CLINTON: Because we had $100 million spent against us and all of these inspections. And in spite of it all, you don't have any example where I ever lied to the American people about my job, whether I ever let the American people down. And I had more support from the world and world leaders and people around the world when I quit than when I started. And I will go to my grave being at peace about it. And I don't really care what they think.

No matter what mainstream journalists, as well as the blogsphere writes, too) Clinton doesn't give a damn about what people think about him. It's what he thinks of himself. And right now, I think he's giving himself some high marks about his presidency as well as legacy.

Seniors not being ignored

2004-11-21T05:16:00.000-08:00

Senior citizens are no longer being ignored by the Online media.

Feel fortunate bloggers

2004-11-21T05:11:00.000-08:00

Bloggers can thank their lucky stars they don't have to worry about one of the biggest things a reporter worries about.....the Federal Shield Law. The Blogsphere could not be watched if this law were to take palce.

Just some musings

2004-11-20T11:41:00.000-08:00

Many mainstream journalists still have trouble with the notion any blogger can build a loyal audience than news establishments like the Boston, Globe, New York Times, St. Louis Distatch etc.... The establisment spends a lot of time talking about how bloggers don't have editors or fact checkers and how one can't trust the information one reads on the Internet. The Revolutionaries don't have the same skills as the big corporations, that's a big positive and not negative. Bloggers are nimble, fast, and transparent with readers, and offer a little personality and passion to the facts. The thing is they are still growing and learning to walk, but it's at a pace unseen in the other singular mediums - print, radio, television.

Eliminate the competition

2004-11-20T11:25:00.000-08:00

The New Wave ponders the question of possible acquisitions of online media by traditional media giants following last week's purchase of MarketWatch by Dow Jones. Analyzing the market trends, which have seen online advertisements grow in times of mediocre performance of the print media, it might actually be worthwhile for media giants to add online media to their assets. Adam L. Penenberg, of Wired News, argues, "even though it's beginning to feel like the internet boom days of old, you likely won't see real-world companies paying ridiculous sums to buy their way into cyberspace." The acquisition of MarketWatch by Dow Jones is explained by Jeff Jarvis, president of Advance.net, "Dow Jones has been leaving ad dollars on the table because it's a paid site. Now it could increase subscriptions and advertising revenue at the same time through MarketWatch. It works pretty well when you can have a paid site and a larger free site." According to Sam Whitmore, editor of Sam Whitmore's Media Survey, over the next 12 to 24 months you will probably see big media companies scarf up these cult destinations, where a growing number of people are going for opinions, analysis and community. "Look at what happened politically," Whitmore said, when blogs hit the big time during the presidential campaign. "The same thing will happen in business, because people know they don't need to head to branded sites for good information. Bloggers can be trusted to be independent and people will turn to self-published experts for information."

Complaints about Blogsphere

2004-11-15T10:15:00.000-08:00

Eric Engberg wrote an interesting article on bloggers, which , reverses the trend toward "blog triumphalism" . The former CBS News correspondent (now retired)'s critics towards blogs are also focused on events that occurred during the presidential election, more specifically the information obtained by exit-polls. "The bloggers, obtaining through leaks partial, in some cases suspect snippets of information from the early "cut" of data gathered by the mainstream media through exit polls, were spreading a story that the network and wire service bosses knew to be incorrect because their own experts – and their journalistic experience -- had warned them of the weaknesses in such data. He concludes by saying that: "The public is now assaulted by news and pretend-news from many directions, thanks to the now infamous "information superhighway." But the ability to transmit words, does not mean that any knowledge is being passed along. One of the verdicts rendered by election night 2004 is that, given their lack of expertise, standards and, yes, humility, the chances of the bloggers replacing mainstream journalism are about as good as the parasite replacing the dog it fastens on."

Content, not container, important

2004-11-12T13:53:00.000-08:00

The fifth Annual Online News Association Conference opened Nov. 12th in Hollywood, Calif., with a keynote address from Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley."The Internet has become our new business environment, not just another medium for distribution," Curley said, according to a transcript of his remarks. "The ubiquity of the Internet now affects a media enterprise's entire business, not just an 'online market' segment."Rapidly increasing broadband penetration is accelerating the pace of change in the media business, he said, as new technologies allow news consumers to get the information they wish when they wish in the forms they wish. "Content will be more important than its container in this next phase," Curley said. "The franchise is not the newspaper; it's not the broadcast; it's not even the Web site. The franchise is the content itself."

He imagined a hypothetical "My Personalized News" of the future, which might include: the latest headlines and photos delivered, delivered to his computer by the AP; video news and ESPN highlights delivered to his set-top box; a list of upcoming earnings reports delivered by The Wall Street Journal to his PDA; and a BusinessWeek analysis delivered as a PDF to his printer. The challenge is therefore, he said, to first "get comfortable with this ice-cold shower of 'disintermediation'" and then for companies to begin "tagging our news for delivery in discrete pieces" while keeping control of their intellectual property and earning money to support their businesses."We believe that world needs AP's primary content more than ever," Curley said, "that authoritative voice that we -- and you -- provide, precisely because there are so many new voices and free-flowing content 'atoms' out there."

There were also a series of breakout panels held during the day Friday, and the "Master of the Web Universe" challenge will take place later this afternoon, before a networking cocktail party. Saturday's agenda includes more panels and discussions, a keynote luncheon speech by Wonkette editor Ana Marie Cox, a keynote panel on "The Internet as Campaign Aid," and, finally, the Online News Association Awards Banquet.

Websites, bloggers upset British police

2004-11-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

(From Online Journalism.com)A British police union will ask the High Court next week to prevent their force from publishing officers’ photos online, BBC News reports. Officers from the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary claimed that photographs posted on the police Web site made them and their families targets of verbal and physical abuse. “I think they have an arguable case,” solicitor Eoin Fowell said. “Pictures of them on a Web site constitutes personal data under the Data Protection Act. The Police Authority has to have a good reason to use that information and the courts are increasing how seriously they take these rights.” Although more than 100 officers refused to comply, the force required each to have a photograph on the Web to improve community relations. “We know from our research that, where residents know and can clearly identify their local officer, their confidence in policing is substantially improved,” the force said.

They better toe the line

2004-11-12T13:31:00.000-08:00

Aljazeera reports of a warning sent out by the Iraqi government concerning news coverage during the current state of emergency. The government warns to "differentiate between the innocent Fallouja residents who are not targeted by military operations and terrorist groups that infiltrated the city and held its people hostage under the pretext of resistance and jihad." Compliance will be enforced with "all the legal measures to guarantee higher national interests," warns the governmental statement. The current state of emergency enhances the Prime Ministers powers and allows for the insurgency to be crushed before elections in January.

War reporting. Can we trust Iraqi reporters

2004-11-12T07:23:00.000-08:00

While most of the news about the battle for Fallujah is coming from journalists embedded with U.S. forces, newspapers and TV networks are also getting some stories and photographs from Iraqi correspondents. That gives American newspaper readers and TV viewers a fuller picture than they had during March and early April 2003, when U.S. forces invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. Almost all the Western reporters in Iraq traveled with U.S. forces, depended on those troops for protection and saw the war almost exclusively from one side of the battle lines. Also, there were almost no Iraqi correspondents providing information to the Western media about what was happening.American newspapers and TV networks have established small networks of Iraqi correspondents and in some cases are able to push the envelope a little more.

The Post published a front-page story by Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad. Headlined “In Hideout, Foreign Arabs Share Vision of ‘Martyrdom,' ” it painted a picture of what life was like for a dozen insurgents who were preparing to be attacked by U.S. forces. “We are not vicious, bloodthirsty people, but we will kill anyone who cooperates with Americans,” declared Abu Yassir, one of the men, according to Abdul-Ahad. USA TODAY and other newspapers across the country published a photograph of Iraqi fighters that was taken as they battled U.S. forces in Fallujah. It was taken by Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi freelance photographer hired by the Associated Press. He is among about half a dozen Iraqi photographers the AP has used.

“It takes ingenuity to properly cover a war,” says Roy Clark, vice president of the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists. “It can take hiring the locals. … Part of the job of the media is faithful storytelling even when we shine a light on things American forces shouldn't have done.” American media have turned to Iraqi correspondents for a broader picture of what's happening in Fallujah, but also for a very practical reason: Because of the roadside bombings and kidnappings, it's too dangerous for American reporters to travel much in Iraq. Ironically, some media executives say, the 70 or so reporters with U.S. forces in Fallujah may not be in much more danger than those in Baghdad. “In some respects, being embedded (with the U.S. military in Fallujah) may even be a bit safer” than trying to report elsewhere in Iraq, says Paul Slavin, senior vice president at ABC News. ABC reporter Nick Watt is embedded with U.S. Marines in Fallujah. The Marines he was with came under fire.

The Western media received an offer of protection from a group called the Fallujah Mujahedin Shura, on behalf of the insurgents, to any media wishing to send reporters to Fallujah. The invitation came three days after it was reported that journalists from four Arab-language TV networks had been ejected from Fallujah by insurgents for refusing to broadcast video of civilian casualties. There's no evidence any American or Western media took up the offer.

“The American military's orders are to kill or capture the insurgents. That's not a great place for us to be,” says David Verdi, executive director of news at NBC News. The network's Kevin Sites is embedded with U.S. Marines in Fallujah.“There's a good chance any reporter who did that would end up dead. It's not a good idea,” says Martin Baron, editor of The Boston Globe. That newspaper has one reporter, Anne Barnard, embedded with U.S. forces in Fallujah.

Wednesday, Barnard wrote about an incident Tuesday when the troops she was with were fired at by Iraqi soldiers who were supposed to be American allies. It could have been a case of mistaken identity, but Barnard reported that one of the U.S. soldiers thought the Iraqis acted deliberately. All five major U.S. TV news networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC — are sharing information about the threats their correspondents face in Iraq. They hold a weekly conference call that includes the security firms they've hired to help protect their crews in the country and bureau chiefs such as CNN's Jane Arraf, who is with U.S. Army forces in Fallujah.

“It's the one time we set aside our microphones and stop competing,” says John Stack, a vice president at Fox. Fox's Greg Palkot is with U.S. forces in Fallujah.Reporters' safety is a constant worry. “I don't want anyone to feel as if they're pressured by us back here to do things they shouldn't,” says Marcy McGinnis, senior vice president of news coverage at CBS. The network's Elizabeth Palmer is with U.S. Marines in Fallujah.

That feeling extends to the Iraqi translators, drivers, photographers and off-camera reporters working for CBS, McGinnis says.American media take another risk when employing Iraqi journalists. They must be confident the Iraqis are unbiased and are truthfully reporting what they've seen and heard. The credibility of a newspaper or network is at stake.The Post, Hoffman says, studied Abdul-Ahad's earlier reports for London's The Guardian. Philip Bennett, who will step up Jan. 1 to be the Post's managing editor from his current position of assistant managing editor for foreign news, met with Abdul-Ahad in England this fall. Abdul-Ahad is best known in Iraq as a photographer, but “he struck Phil as someone who's a really talented journalist,” Hoffman says.

USA TODAY has been rotating reporters in and out of Iraq. The next staff writer is due there this week. The newspaper also draws on reporting from an Iraqi correspondent, The Christian Science Monitor (which has a reporter embedded with U.S. forces in Fallujah), wire services and publications owned by Gannett, USA TODAY's parent company. Those include the Army Times and Marine Times.

Standards for journalists

2004-11-12T07:18:00.000-08:00

Here's an intersting story about the ethical behavior of journalists and what rules they should follow in order to achive the highest of ethical standards. Newspapers must always strive to retain the trust of their readers.

Let's talk ethics

2004-11-12T07:12:00.000-08:00

Slate comments on a memorandum concerning the current discussion of sources for news stories sent to the New York Times Staff by the Assistant Managing Editor Allan M. Siegal. The memorandum informs the Times staff that there is a new committee in place to find answers to problems linked with anonymous sources. In the last year and a half, The Times has deepened and widened its efforts to deserve readers' trust. He says, "Most notably, we have appointed a public editor and given serious consideration to his questions and advice; we have required that every unidentified source quoted in the paper be known by name to at least one editor; we have tried to describe our sources and their motives more candidly and usefully. We'd like to believe we have reduced our dependence on anonymous sources; certainly we have begun trying and intend to push ahead." Siegal suggests that issues of plagiarism, fact-checking and reliability of sources. Reacting to recent criticism he suggests: "Should we be responding systematically to outside critics who attack our believability for political or commercial reasons of their own? What is an effective vehicle for doing this? A column by the editor or editors on how we work?" Siegal further suggests that articles attributed to anonymous sources should be eliminated from the newspaper if possible.

Another sequel

2004-11-12T07:07:00.000-08:00

Since bloggers and the mainstream press wasn't able to bring George Bush down in the last election, film director Michael Moore is going to have another go at it with a sequel to Farenheit 9/11. What good will it do, though? Moore can't prevent Bush from winning another term since Presidents can only be elected to two terms. The man just likes stirring trouble up.

Poking fun at Bush

2004-11-12T05:05:00.000-08:00

Bloggers and journalists always poke fun at President Bush. here's another place to view and laugh at some Bushisms.

Big brother is watching you

2004-11-12T05:02:00.000-08:00

Hopefully, no one out there in the blogsphere has any enemies. But just a word of caution if you do, and you don't know it, someone is watching you.

Google is threatened

2004-11-12T04:58:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post comments on the anticipated launch of Microsoft's search engine this week. Rumors have spread that the search engine is supposed to target Google, just as Internet Explorer was developed to target Netscape. Despite Microsoft's announcement that they would "catch up, and [...] surpass" their competitors, a speaker of the Times of London, which has been given a sneak-preview of the new system, announced that it will most probably follow the "clean lines of Google." Experts predict that technically the search engine will not reach up to the standards of Google yet: "The preview that begins Thursday won't include technology to let people search their own computer desktops as well as the broader Internet. But the company has promised that desktop search functionality by the year's end," announced Associated Press Nov. 12th.

Some new words

2004-11-12T04:54:00.000-08:00

Reuters Reuters released an article on the introduction of new words into the American English language since the 2004 presidential election. "According to the study released on Wednesday by Global Language Monitor, a non-profit group which ranks word usage, the November 2 election popularised a number of political words and phrases once used mainly by political insiders. Among the most-used words of the campaign were red and blue states, signifying Republican and Democratic strongholds; flip-flopping, a term used by Republicans to denigrate the politics of Democrat John Kerry; moral values, a reason cited by voters for their electoral choices; and liberal, used in a pejorative sense. "

We all will be judged in the end

2004-11-12T04:50:00.000-08:00

We all need to keep in mind that whether we are bloggers, journalists or both, our readers, viewers or users will judge the rest by what we do.

Taking some heat

2004-11-11T13:17:00.000-08:00

The Fourth Estate is taking a lot of heat for the way it's covering the news and doinf business.

Loyal newspaper readers go online

2004-11-11T13:13:00.000-08:00

According to the Editor and Publisher magazine, Among so-called "loyal" newspaper readers -- those who read a newspaper at least three times a week, including Sundays -- 72% go online daily while only 42% read the newspaper daily, according to a new study commissioned by the Internet company Yahoo! The study took place in two parts, both a quantitative segment that surveyed 1,182 people 18 and older in six cities across the country and a qualitative portion that consisted of observational interviews with 22 18- to 49-year-olds in the San Francisco and New York areas while they read the newspaper and went online in their natural environments. The quantitative survey was conducted by Ipsos and the qualitative research was conducted by Faulkner Focus.

Among the study's other findings:
• 59% of "newspaper loyalists" read news online at least daily. Only 18% read their local newspaper online at least daily.
• 83% read the front section regularly, and 75% read the metro section regularly. But fewer than 50% regular read the following sections: sports, coupons, lifestyle, editorial/commentary, food/dining, TV listings, politics, travel, home, jobs/employment, classifieds, real estate, fashion, and auto/transportation.
• 69% report that they go online for local information, like weather and local news.

Maybe journalists should create their own sites

2004-11-11T11:59:00.000-08:00

Via Poynter Online: The cases of John Martinkus and Adam Nagourney illustrate the importance of journalists setting up their own Web sites, writes Sree Sreenivasan, a professor of new media at Columbia University. Martinkus was captured by Iraqi insurgents and later released, reportedly after the kidnappers were able to establish through a Google search that he was a journalist, not a CIA operative. Nagourney, a political reporter with The New York Times, is the victim of a fake blog, which declares that it is his personal diary. According to Sreenivasan, “As a journalist, our identities and our bylines are our most valuable assets. Why leave it to others to define who you are?” He went on to provide several resources for journalists seeking to establish their own Web sites or domain names.

Working together

2004-11-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

A journalist wrote a story (column)and readers responded with blogs, emails and the traditional letters to the editor. But this is a classic case of writing community journalism and getting the response one wishes every story would get.

Just what we need more Anti-Bush sentiment

2004-11-10T14:01:00.000-08:00

Aljezeera's come out with an article that Western Europe is anti-American. Just more fodder for the blogger and Internet blogges, and other skeptics to hammer the president. Can't we all just get along. It's titing to be reading all theis anti-American crap!

Future of digital media is bright, too

2004-11-10T13:53:00.000-08:00

Coronate.com features an interview with Jeff Jarvis, president and creative director at Advance.net, Editor, Buzzmachine.com, on the future of digital media. Jarvis sees the future of the media as highly influenced by the demand of the consumers controlling media and its content, creating news easily with cheap blogging software, and distributing ads in their blogs. Not only does this reversed roll of demander and supplier of news put into question the expenditure of traditional media, it also reinforces the notion of user-generated contents. Jarvis suggests that the marketplace will no longer be centralized, but rather decentralized and highly specialized at once. There are lessons to be learned of this prediction for both sides: "Big media has to learn to be more honest -- that is, to level with its public, to reveal its prejudices and process as citizen journalists do. [And in return,] bloggers would benefit from learning how to write better headlines and leads and nut graphs," says Jeff Jarvis

Readership polls released

2004-11-10T13:49:00.000-08:00

Newspapers are trying to entice young people to read the papers. It's an issue that's important especially since blogging technology and the Internet is making the nespaper seem obsolete.

An article of interest (FYI)

2004-11-10T13:46:00.000-08:00

While coverage of the American Society of Newspaper Editor's annual newsroom census last week focused on the slight gains for racial and ethnic minorities, widely overlooked were similar small advances for women. Perhaps that's because women, overall, are still caught in a "crawl toward the goal post of equity," according to one leading commentator.

Michele Weldon, assistant professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and second vice president of the Journalism and Women Symposium, has analyzed the latest ASNE numbers for the Web site Women's E-news.

After a two-year decline, women's overall newsroom share rose from 37.05% to 37.23%, but some specific numbers are worse, she points out. Only 34.2% of supervisors are women. "How can that not affect decisions made about what stories to cover and how?" Weldon asks.

Only 26.2% of photographers are women.

Higher shares were reported for reporters (39.6%) and copy/layout (41.4%) but in both cases, gains were miniscule.

For women in journalism, Weldon writes, "something goes awry between studying for journalism and working in it. Women represent more than 70% of students in journalism schools or at universities with journalism or communications programs. In the newsroom, however that percentage has been cut in half...

"Women have needs for information on issues, from public policy to health care, that differ from those of male readers. To respond, we need to race toward parity in employing and promoting women at our country's newspapers so ambition can meet opportunity half way."

Newspaper asks J-Students to make suggestions

2004-11-10T13:35:00.000-08:00

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has just launched a Web site and weekly tab following input from Medill students. These initiatives are just the latest real-world newspaper products to come out of the Medill Media Management Project Class in Northwestern's graduate journalism program. Every year for the better part of two decades, some 15 to 20 students spend the spring quarter essentially acting as a newspaper industry consultant firm. For many years, the students worked exclusively with The Times in Munster, Ind., then owned by Howard Publications. Among other projects, the class developed a pre-Web online service and revamped the Saturday paper. Nowadays, program leaders Rich Gordon, chairman of the Newspapers & New Media program, and part-time faculty member Cynthia Linton go looking for a client newspaper — or, just as often, the papers come looking for them. Martin Kaiser, senior vice president and editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, attended the students' presentation in 2002 — and hired the class the next year to figure out how to attract younger readers. "I was really impressed by them," he says. "I thought, boy, getting some smart young people up here and having them in the newsroom and the company would be very good for us. For a long time, I guess they were frustrated because we did nothing [with their ideas]."The students suggested a Web site, a standalone tab and a weekly section inside the Journal Sentinel for adults aged 25 to 34. After sitting on the plan for a while, the paper on Oct. 28 launched a Web site and tab called MKE, named after Milwaukee's airport code.

Great blogging article

2004-11-10T09:55:00.000-08:00

An excellent article was written by Foreign Policy's Daniel W. Drezner , and Henry Farrell about the influence of blogs in politics. Although the article focuses on its influence on Western (mainly US) politics, it also mentions how blogs can sometimes affect politics in countries where there is limited possibility for political expression. "Web of Influence" reports on how weblogs transformed themselves from an isolated phenomenon to a primordial communication tool.

Cell phones gobble-up the news

2004-11-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

Lucas van Grinsven reports for Reuters that twice in a month, De Telegraaf, the biggest Dutch newspaper had published front-page pictures shot by amateur photographers using their mobile phones, thus confirming the trend of "using cell phones to snap the news". "Passerby Aron Boskma took a picture with his cell phone at the scene of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh's murder in Amsterdam. News photographers arrived only after the body had been covered. "This picture was the story. There was a discussion if we should use it, but everyone who would have had this picture would have published it," Telegraaf pictures editor Peter Schoonen said. Nordic newspapers have also published photographs taken with mobile phones with built-in cameras. "We offer these pictures if we don't have them ourselves, and only if it's really big news," said ANP(Dutch news agency) pictures editor Leo Blom, adding he too would have distributed the Van Gogh picture to the Dutch media if only it had been offered to him. In Japan, where many people own a camera-equipped cell phone, it has become common to sell pictures to television stations and other media outlets. Chief executive of the world's biggest mobile phone maker Nokia, Jorma Ollila, said at a conference Wednesday that 200 million camera phones are expected to be sold to consumers this year alone. "

Google the next Netscape

2004-11-10T09:34:00.000-08:00

Microsoft might be king of the software world, but it's having to play catch up in the increasingly important world of Internet and desktop search, chasing the substantial leads of Google, Yahoo and others. Various media outlets today reveal that Microsoft will unveil its search tool tomorrow. While the company has been mum on specifics, it appears that Google -- which beat Gates & Co. out of the gates last month when it unveiled its Desktop Search tool -- can breathe easy, for now. Microsoft's search engine appears half baked, according to the Associated Press: "The preview that begins Thursday won't include technology to let people search their own computer desktops as well as the broader Internet. But the company has promised that desktop search functionality by year's end." The AP noted that "Microsoft has long offered a search engine on its MSN Web site, but the technology behind it has been powered by subsidiaries of Yahoo Inc. Earlier this year, the Redmond-based software giant conceded that it had missed a large market opportunity by not developing its own search technology, and announced plans to launch its own search engine."

MORE GOOGLE NEWS
"Sergey Brim, founder of Google, the world's number one search engine denied the accusation of censorship towards the Abu Ghraib photos in collaboration with the Bush administration. According to a November 8th article on El Pais, if you typed "Abu Ghraib", "Lynndie England" or "Charles Graner" on Google's photo search, the pictures did not appear on the result page, whereas they did if you searched them on Yahoo! or Alta Vista. Sergey Brim retorted that technical problems were at fault for the incident."

ADD THIS GOOGLE
Still a very good article from Adam, L. Penenberg, Wired, about Google news and the newspaper industry. The quote is a bit long (sorry for the copyright), just because the paper is more than interesting and prospective: "Google has a problem that is nearly as complex as its algorithms. It can't make money from Google News. So while other online publishers like Yahoo News and MSNBC earn tens of millions of dollars in revenue each year and continue to grow, Google News remains in beta mode -- three years after it launched -- long after most of the bugs have been excised. The reason: The minute Google News runs paid advertising of any sort it could face a torrent of cease-and-desist letters from the legal departments of newspapers, which would argue that "fair use" doesn't cover lifting headlines and lead paragraphs verbatim from their articles. Other publishers might simply block users originating from Google News, effectively snuffing it out." "What is fair use of a copyright work? According to New York University, where I teach, it covers comment, criticism, news reporting, research, scholarship and teaching, with several factors considered, including how much material is involved as a percentage of the entire work and whether use is of a commercial nature or strictly for nonprofit, educational purposes.

... And it's not only in lawsuit-crazy America that Google's aggregate news model faces an uncertain legal future. Earlier this year, a court in Hamburg, Germany, ruled against Google's German news service when it found that thumbnail images were protected under German copyright law and could not be reproduced without permission. (Google has appealed.) A few weeks ago, half a world away, Chinese publishers Sing Tao electronic news service, Ming Pao newspaper and Radio Television Hong Kong, a government-owned radio station, greeted the launch of Google's Hong Kong news with a spate of letters alleging copyright infringement."

Freedom of Press on the line

2004-11-10T09:29:00.000-08:00

Every year, or day for that metter, we see freedom of speech and the press under turmoil and scrutiny in other countries. But it's happening in the United States, and that could mean trouble for bloggers and the mainstream reporters. Their soon may not be the freedom of speech guaranteed by the constitution if the courts have something to say about it.

Journalists captured

2004-11-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

See, what happens to journalists a country doesn't like. And then Aljezeera reporters think they are safe from being fired on. They're upset because their journalists were fired upon in Fallujah. Geez, this is war, baby.

Hard to believe

2004-11-10T09:04:00.000-08:00

For the past few months, I have been monitoring Aljezeera newspaper. I happen to come across their code of ethics, but I believe this is ony for sure. With the amount of contact they have with terrorists, and seem to be the only one's who received tapes with terroristic messages to show the world, I believe that this organization doesn't promote fair and bisased reporting. I think they find it difficult to side with fair and balanced journalism. You can see it in their reporting. Terrorists seem to love this one-sidedness. Where does Osama Bin Laden send his material to be broadcast....Aljezeera.

There's a problem

2004-11-10T07:55:00.000-08:00

Any journalist worth his or her salt would have a problem with a spoof site. Especially in this day and age with the competiton between mainstream journalism and blogging. Evidently, the New York Times doesn't have an ethical standard. One would have thought it would have learned this lesson long ago.

Dead or live? Which is it?

2004-11-10T06:18:00.000-08:00

When it comes to whether or not Arafat is dead or alive, bloggers and the mainstream journalists should just wait until the guy is dead to officially know what's going on. Over the past few days, we've been inundated with death reports Arafat is dead. Then we're told he's a live and in a coma. When the guy is dead, we won't believe it. We'll be thinking he's on life-supporting equipment in the hospital. Come on let's make sure and give accurate information. Bloggers and journalists really are in left field somewhere on this issue. It's a case of putting information out there just to keep the story alive and couldn't from the furthest be about Arafat.

Angry fathers

2004-11-10T05:51:00.000-08:00

I'm not the only one struggling to learn technology. Fathers around the world are angry at Verizon for castizing them during a commercial for not knowing anything about computer technology and the Internet. Just think if these fathers could blog! Those fathers would be able to stuff it in the company's ear and say, "Can you hear me now!"

Good news for blogging and the Internet

2004-11-10T05:26:00.000-08:00

According to a report conducted by Deutsche Bank's Paul Ginocchio, "High-quality circulation continues to erode rapidly, though not as badly as anticipated, reports Editor & Publisher's Jennifer Saba. "In a follow-up to his analysis over the summer, Ginocchio found that for the six-month period ending September 2004, more-than-50%-paid circulation for the industry declined 4.9%, versus 4.7% in March 2004 and 3.3% in September 2003.The "other paid" category, which represents employee, educational, and third-party copies, is rising fast. It now represents 10.3% of all circulation, as opposed to 4.8% two years ago." In "Circulation Uncensored II," Ginocchio examined 57 of the largest U.S. newspapers and broke out the numbers by category according to ABC reports. The study shows that while overall circulation is decreasing only slightly, it's being propped up by lesser quality circ, considered in the industry to be less-than-50% paid. Three companies in particular are vulnerable to this trend and may not see the typical 2% to 4% ad rate increase in 2005. Knight Ridder, Tribune, and Dow Jones "struggle the most with the highest-paid category of circulation, with declines much greater than the 57-paper average," the report said. The companies that faired the best: E.W. Scripps, with a decline of 1.3%, Media General, with a drop of 1.6%, and McClatchy, with a decrease of 0.9%."

Anyone can be an online publisher

2004-11-09T16:11:00.000-08:00

Anyone can be a publisher online. Now a new study shows that promise is being fulfilled. Fifty-three million Americans -- nearly half of all adult U.S. Internet users -- have created content online by posting to Websites, blogging or sharing files, according to findings by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. And while Weblogs are still a very small -- but growing -- proportion of online content, they're showing a remarkable ability to foster online community.

With all the buzz about Weblogs these days, some might be surprised by how small a role Weblogs have played in online content creation. Only two percent of Internet users in this survey reported writing a weblog or online diary. And of those, only about 10 percent update their Weblogs daily, while most update their blogs once a week or less often.

It's clear from this and other studies that creating or reading Weblogs is still only a very small part of how people use the Internet. Still, this survey was conducted between March 12 and May 20, 2003. Other surveys by Pew, including one in early 2004, show that between two and seven-percent of Internet users publish a blog, indicating that the use of Weblogs is indeed growing.

But while only a small number of Net users write blogs, a slightly larger number of Net users -- 11 percent -- say they visit blogs written by others. And of these readers, a third report posting to or commenting on the blog entries that they have read -- an encouraging sign for Weblogs' ability to foster online community.

Imagine 30 percent of newspaper readers responding to articles they've read. No other media form in history has created so much feedback and interactivity with its audience.

How Content Is Created

Here's a closer look at how all the content is being created online. Fourty-four percent of the nation’s adult Internet users (those 18 and over) have done at least one of the following:

• 21% of Internet users say they have posted photographs to Web sites.
• 20% say they have allowed others to download music or video files from their computers.
• 17% have posted written material on Web sites.
• 13% maintain their own Web sites.
• 10% have posted comments to an online newsgroup. A small fraction of them have posted files to a newsgroup such as video, audio, or photo files.
• 8% have contributed material to Web sites run by their businesses.
• 7% have contributed material to Web sites run by organizations to which they belong such as church or professional groups.
• 7% have Web cams running on their computers that allow other Internet users to see live pictures of them and their surroundings.
• 6% have posted artwork on Web sites.
• 5% have contributed audio files to Web sites.
• 4% have contributed material to Web sites created for their families.
• 3% have contributed video files to Web sites.
• 2% maintain Web diaries or Web blogs

Help needed to support imprisoned cyberjournalists

2004-11-09T16:00:00.000-08:00

Reporters Without Borders, the international organization that seeks to protect press freedom globally, has called on media outlets to sponsor one of more than 130 journalists jailed worldwide. On Nov. 24 (Jailed Journalists' Support Day) and May 3 (World Press Freedom Day) of each year, all media sponsors are asked to call attention to the imprisoned journalists they have adopted by writing about them and in doing so, to ensure that their suffering is not forgotten. No financial contributions are required of sponsors or their media organizations. Several sponsored journalists recently freed in part due to the efforts of their sponsors include Moroccan journalist Ali Lmrabet, Chinese journalist Du Daobin and Cuban journalist Bernardo Arevalo Padron.

The next wave

2004-11-09T13:03:00.000-08:00

Blogging is getting easier all the time and the new tools of the technology makes it real easy to become a publisher of an online newspaper or a regular contributor.

Blogging is just typing, not journalism

2004-11-09T07:40:00.000-08:00

That's what a CBS News reporter said about blogging, especially with this just finished Election. He said it seemed bloggers wrote as if they were writing for a school newspaper, with the chatter they created likened to one using a CB radio.

Another musing on online journalism's future

2004-11-09T07:22:00.000-08:00

The evidence suggests that the Internet is clearly in journalism's future. But it is less clear that it will be its only future. While most Americans are now online, and getting news, as of this year, the Web appears to complement traditional media for most of these people rather than replace it. The Internet is attracting young people. It offers the potential of a global audience, the potential of new jobs and new types of journalists. What is most intriguing is the evidence that television rather than print is suffering most. This is surprising because, at this point, the Web is still largely a text-based medium. One might have thought that the print media would thus be hurt by the greater convenience that the Web offers, in much the same way that cable seems to have eroded the appeal of network television. This is not the case.

What this means down the road is harder to figure. The future according to online professionals is an age in which the distinctions between media blur. Online, The Washington Post will not be a newspaper company but a text, picture and video news provider. CBS News will not be a broadcaster. It, too, will be a text, audio and video news organization. Nor will news just be consumed on computers, television or in print. News will be made to fit computers, PDAs, phones and perhaps more. Before too long, people riding the subway home from work may turn on their phones and watch a network anchor delivers the news, not because the anchor happens to be on but because he or she is "on," on demand.

The Internet is a continuous and on-demand medium. It's like cable, but it is updated only when there is something to update, and users do not have to sit through the stories they don't care about. As they can in newspapers, online users can search out what they want, but they also can access background material and previously published stories. Unlike any other single medium, they can read the news, watch video, listen to audio, read long transcripts, access original documents, or link to outside sites for more detail. The Internet offers the strengths of all media--the immediacy of cable, the skillful storytelling of network, the depth and deliberation of newspapers, plus more, all in one place. That, at least, is the potential.

It likely will depend on the economics to see it fulfilled. And it may depend on a few large organizations capturing large portions of that audience for that to happen. Thus there would be two Internets, in a sense. There would be the big media, the handful of places where large audiences assemble, and where huge multi-platform news organizations would deliver news on demand worldwide in sophisticated ways, perhaps better than they do now. And then there would be the open Internet - the water cooler, bloggers and clamoring citizens, off in their niches, in chat rooms and grass roots organizations, creating movements and confounding the establishment. And the Internet would be home to both. As of now, the signs are pointing in that direction.

Researching online journalism's future

2004-11-09T07:10:00.000-08:00

The future for web journalism is brightening up, with several studies revealing an upswing in internet usage and revenues.The New York Times has gone from making a US$7.5 million loss on its web site in 2001 to an US$8 million profit in 2002. Asia Times Online's readers have risen from 26,000 per day in January to 65,000 in April this year. Slate magazine, despite still not making much profit, has more than 5 million unique readers - more than any traditional newspaper in the United States (US). In March this year, the San Francisco Chronicle's web site recorded its highest-ever profit. The Washington Post's site non-classified advertising was also up 80 per cent by the end of 2001.

In the UK, FT.com has seen its subscriber base rise from 17,000 last July to 53,000 in April, while the site's regular readership has risen to 3.5 million.Several recent surveys by online research group emarketer have also shown that, in the US, the web has overtaken traditional media in popularity with younger news consumers.According to John Berthelsen, writing for Asia Times Online, the growth of broadband connections and advances in technology that enable more interactive and 'embedded' advertising are responsible for this growth. He offers the new Porsche advert as an example: "By clicking on www.porschecayenne.com, the reader can zoom on to a test track with full-dimension sound. Travel advertisers can give virtual tours of resorts and show off hotel rooms... nor can television match this kind of advertising, which can be viewed at the viewer's leisure.

"Web news viewers are more affluent, more adventurous, better-educated and younger than newspaper readers," he says. "While studies primarily deal with the US, their implications are, if anything, even more encouraging for Asia. For instance, their figures for the growing ubiquity of high-speed broadband connections, crucial to fast delivery of attractive advertising, show that Asia is growing faster than any other region."Europe's online readers are growing rapidly, too. According to emarketer, there will be more than 190 million Internet users across the continent this year. Mr Berthelsen writes: "After the bubble years in which internet publications burned through a phenomenal amount of other people's money, web journalism is starting to take off. It may hold ominous implications for newspapers globally, but it could well save journalism itself."

An International point of view

2004-11-08T14:27:00.000-08:00

Via Google News: The International Journalists’ Network reports that journalists at a seminar in Nigeria are discussing how journalism can escape government repression. Editor-in-chief of Nigerian Web site GleanerNews.com, Tony Iyare, discussed his views on the current state of editing in a technologically advanced age. Iyare refered to online journalism as an “open guerilla press.” He also commented, "[Online publications] must have editors and reporters that are committed to giving their time and resources to doing a blow-by-blow account of the goings-on in their social place.” The seminar was organized by the Media-Mentors

A sudden change of policy

2004-11-08T14:21:00.000-08:00

That's what the New York Times did in its Nov. 8th edition. In a surprising move, The New York Times' editorial page came out for sending many more troops to Iraq. The Times, which before last week's election had been critical of many aspects of the occupation, said (in what could be an influential call) that "right now, what Amreica needs is to get more combat boots on the ground in Iraq." That's a lot of crap. No wonder why people have a dislike and distrust of the mainstream journalists. It changes its mind like the weather. A real flip-flopper.

While admitting that no amount of soldiers "can guarantee achievement of the ambitious political and military goals President Bush announced last week for Iraq" -- and noting that the "overall situation is grim" -- the paper nevertheless declared that the president "must face up to the compelling needs to increase" troop strength. "That would require," the editorial continued, "a minimum of two additional combat divisions, or nearly 40,000 more American troops."

The Times stressed with forces stretched thin, military personnel are too worried about their own security to carry out the many challenges facing them, from rebuilding to preparing for elections. The editorial did not address the question of why so many Iraqis actually want fewer, not more, U.S. troops in their country. The editorial sketched a positive scenario in which a larger troop presence allowed the Americans, among other things, to carry out fewer air strikes and commit fewer prison abuses, adding: "With more backup and relief available, there might be fewer scenes of stressed and frightened patrols kicking in doors and conducting humiliating household searches." Where would these new troops come from? "That can be accomplished through a significant further increase in recruitment quotas," the Times said. The paper thinks this will not be hard to manage, "especially if the prospective recruits know they will not be sent into a situation where too few troops must handle too many tasks."

The Internet of bloggers will have a field day with this.

No sense of humor

2004-11-08T11:51:00.000-08:00

Buddha don't have more sense of humor than Jesus or Mahomet! The Sri Lankan Daily News reveals that "Colombo Chief Magistrate Ms. Sarojini Kusala Weerawardena sentenced Gamini Ranawaka of Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo, who was charged with superimposing the Buddha's image on women's clothing through the Internet, to two years rigorous imprisonment, suspended for five years. The Judge also imposed a fine of Rs.1,500 on the accused. The accused earlier pleaded guilty to the charges. Sentencing the accused, the Judge observed that the offence he had committed was very serious... The Judge also directed the CID to destroy the offensive pictures from the Internet." I tried to find these pictures but the search was unsuccessful. If anyone knows the URL address, don't hesitate to post a comment!

Trust will always be the issue

2004-11-08T11:40:00.000-08:00

As this article states. The success of online journalism, or any journalism for that matter, won't be about the journalism itself, but the credibility it will have with readers. Many believe the Internet is full of viruses. It's no secret it's a valuable tool and is rich in information, but a lot of misinformation is attained on the Internet, too.

A workable meaning for online journalism

2004-11-08T11:37:00.000-08:00

Open publishing means that the process of creating news is transparent to the readers. They can contribute a story and see it instantly appear in the pool of stories publicly available. Those stories are filtered as little as possible to help the readers find the stories they want. Readers can see editorial decisions being made by others. They can see how to get involved and help make editorial decisions. If they can think of a better way for the software to help shape editorial decisions, they can copy the software because it is free and change it and start their own site. If they want to redistribute the news, they can, preferably on an open publishing site. Some even believe that the future of journalism is murky and that means everyone will be publishing online.

Freedom of speech online

2004-11-08T08:21:00.000-08:00

Freedom of speech online may soon be decided as a court case asks the quwstion, "Can you go online and say anything you want"?

The Future of Blogging

2004-11-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

Professor Orihuela provides a very interesting and valuable paper on the new universe of communication created by independent individuals around the world, who by way of a precise social and cultural need have chosen to become the new, unique, trusted and most-up-to-date sources of critical information available. Bloggers, webloggers and the universe they create is a phenomenon of such importance for our immediate future, hardly anyone is grasping its implications fully.In this attempt at providing some differing viewpoints on the topic I take what I would consider an established assessment on the blog universe and the new media to launch some critical comments and to open up some new questions to reflect upon.

Professor Orihuela writes in his Introduction:

"The digital age arrives with a set of big communication challenges for traditional mainstream media: new relations with audiences (Interactivity), new languages (Multimedia) and a new grammar (Hypertext). But this media revolution not only changes the communication landscape for the usual players, most importantly, it opens the mass communication system to a wide range of new players."

The word mass in not anymore in sync with the times we are in.
The global communication system is NOT a mass communication system; it is a network. The difference between the two is very deep and fully acknowledging and understanding such difference empowers the individual in taking on with high self-esteem and confidence her role of twenty-first century Communication Agent.

"As far as enterprises, institutions, administrations, organizations, groups, families and individuals starts their own web presence, they become "media" by their own, they also become "sources" for traditional media, and in many cases, they produce strong "media criticism": opinion about how issues are covered and delivering of alternative coverage."

It is not a matter of Web presence. It is a matter of electronic interconnectedness. Don't need to have a Web site in the traditional sense. It can all happen through email. Through a newsletter. Discussion group.

Individuals, institutions, organizations don't make up for the creation of new similar media entities. While most of the institutions and companies are attempting to force their traditional information-communication-commerce paradigm onto the network, individuals ONLY are reaping the true benefits of real-time networked communications. Though this may gradually change, as companies and organizations will more likely reflect the clustering and like-minded aggregation of professionals working at the same goal, today it is the individual who is creating the new media, not the company Web site.

"The blogging phenomena represents the ultimate challenge for the old communication system because it integrates both: the new features of the digital world and a wide democratization in the access to media with a universal scope.

A recent article by Noah Shachtman at Wired News "Blogs Make the Headlines" bring back the always polemics relations between weblogs and Journalism. And once again the Poynter debate "Are Weblogs Journalism?" has to be quoted because of its clarity: "Wrong Question". Blogs could be many things, and even Journalism, but they are not Journalism for the sake of being blogs.

On the other hand, when mainstream media start blogging with their own columnist or hiring famous bloggers (which is recently the case of the Argentine newspaper Clarín) the debate that arises in the blogosphere becomes: "Is that blogging?". When the powerful tool of the media revolution is used by media, then is the blogosphere community who turns to the defensive.

While both debates were taking place, Google bought Pyra Labs, and the surprised blogosphere together with mainstream media seems to arrive late to understand what Google saw first: neither traditional media alone, nor just para-media blogging, the issue is now "Where is the knowledge?" . Google could become a global news agency and a global news media, joining the power of its database with the human knowledge of thousands of bloggers, from then on, also a global niche advertising channel.

The Iraq war was the first big test to check the relations between traditional media coverage and weblogs, and also to evaluate the media power of blogs. Even when the last Pew Report, The Internet and the Iraq war, reveals a limited influence of warblogging as news source, a trend emerges: blogs are catching the interest of young Internet users:

There has been much early discussion about the role of blogs or Web diaries in shaping opinion about the war and allowing Internet users to gain new perspectives and sources of information about the war. Our first soundings on the subject show that blogs are gaining a following among a small number of Internet users, but they are not yet a source of news and commentary for the majority of Internet users."

Many Internet users do not yet realize that blog ARE ALREADY part of the mainstream news. The circle has already been closed. Conceptually and technologically. Let me explain myself better. With the introduction of RSS technology many quality informative blogs have not only become the official news sources for many newsreader users, but most importantly they are now automatically crawled and indexed by major news syndicators as Syndic8, Moreover, and many others. This means that selected blog news, which include individuals and non-traditional journalists are already picked up regularly by news aggregators and syndicators and re-distributed over the main news channels utilized by established traditional companies and organizations.

"Some 4% of online Americans report going to blogs for information and opinions. The overall number of blog users is so small that it is not possible to draw statistically meaningful conclusions about who uses blogs."

The data is available for all who have enough curiosity to search for it. According to Jupiter Research and other analysts there are more than 500,000 people who maintain a weblog today.
If each one was so miserable to have only one hundred readers (I for nothing I have more than 1000 different blog readers each day, so that gives you some reference) that would make already for 50 million readers. While I am not promoting the soundness of my statistical approach, I just wanted to give some alternative way of looking at this.

"The early data suggest that the most active Internet users, especially those with broadband connections are the most likely to have found blogs they like."

It is those with most curiosity, interest and a will to communicate and inform that have first found out about blogs.
Broadband or narrowband do not have anything to do with your ability to open up, to search, listen, discover where the pioneers, meme-generators are going.

"In addition, blogs seem to be catching on with younger Internet users - those under age 30 - at a greater pace than with older Internet users."

In my noosphere, and in my list of bloggers I refer or look up to, there is no one that is younger than 35. I am 45. Sure enough teenagers are discovering blogs at faster pace than my age group is doing, but much of the critical content moving through blogs is not generated by them. (Teenagers are just playing with the tool to develop the skills they will need to use later, once they understand where they are going and what they want in their life.)

"Pluralistic views, not necessarily more balanced, but more transparent and out of the mainstream, turn blogs in the favourite source and tool for the anti-war movement."

Blogs is the natural counterbalancing component of our cyberworld to carry ANY independent idea, concept or news item not covered by the mainstream mass media.

"One of the most important effects of Iraq war coverage to the debate old media vs. new media is that old media discovered the emergency of blogs as non conventional sources, not only for news and views, but also for media coverage criticism.
Experiences like Technorati's Current Events in the Blogosphere show an interesting trend and strategic function for blogs: the blogosphere becomes a system for media control and balance."

"Once calm returns, maybe we will see that blogs are becoming a very valuable source for the media, a sort of early alert system to detect news, trends, and opinion states. And media could transform some of their columnists into bloggers and also integrate famous bloggers in the staff."

Calm maybe gone for a while.

SARS, and other mainstream media controlled stories will continue to provide valuable fuel to the blogosphere to provide alternative and independent views unfiltered by direct economic interests. With much greater immediacy, efficacy and reach.
Traditional media do not need to integrate great bloggers into their staff, nor great bloggers need to sell themselves out for supporting a news publishing system that unless changes its assumptions, maybe a mined field for any free writer around.

Bloggers exist for the very reason why they do not have a space inside the mainstream media. For the mainstream media to co-opt bloggers to serve its interests (which are rarely the ones of the bloggers - especially if it is true that relationship between bloggin and independent, activists and socially involved individuals) it maybe too much of a stretch. While there maybe some interesting exceptions to this, I believe this is a tough marriage and one that beats the original purpose of independent media blogging. In my view blogging for mainstream media would be just like infiltrating the blogosphere with co-opted and paid-by-other-interests writers. Just not the same thing.

Trust is important

2004-11-08T07:24:00.000-08:00

If we can't trust news organizations to put out the correct information, how are we to believe what we read? Even the bloggers who mishandled and printed bad information about the exit polls on election day did a lot to set credibility on the Internet back.

One thing that has bothered me about the coverage of the early exit poll snafu on Nov. 2nd was the notion that bloggers were the problem. "Bloggers Said to Blame for Bad Poll Info," read the headline over the AP story in the New York Times, consistently echoing the line from those close to the exit poll process:

Joe Lenski, whose Edison Research conducted the NEP exit poll, said: "The basic issue here is the leaking of this information without any sophisticated understanding or analysis."
CBS News Polling Director Kathy Frankovic said: "I think people believed [the leaked polls], and it's particularly the case with Internet bloggers."
Former CBS News Executive Political Director Martin Plissner wrote: "The problem is not that the exit polls were wrong...the problem was that in the age of the Internet the exit polls were being seen by thousands of people who didn't know how to read them."
The New York Sun headline said it all: "Bloggers Botch Election Call; Networks Cautious, Steady."

Bringing America Together

2004-11-08T07:15:00.000-08:00

How can we all come together after the election and unite in order to help America if the media isn't going to take the lead. The, we wonder why mainstream journalists are upset at the bloggers and the Internet who are spreading unity and not division. Some of the Democtartic papers aren't saying let's support Bush in the next for years. They are stressing survival in the next four years. Geez, we have to practice what we preach and try to be good sports after this election. Some people only believe what they read in the paper. They certainly won't help America unite if some of the sore losers are practicing division.

Bloggers outduel TV network giants

2004-11-06T10:29:00.000-08:00

The most heated media-debate in U.S. post-election discussions is that of an agreement among the large media cooperations (CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Fox, and the Associated Press) not to release the exit-polls to the public in order to prevent false predictions for the presidential elections. The bloggers (Slate, Drudge, Zogby, The Command Post), trying to counter this attempt, have ignored the agreement and published leaked exit-poll data prematurely. Debates now circle around the issue. Pressetext.austria has published a commentary on the role of blogs during the U.S. elections. A study of the IT-company Cnet shows that betting bureaus have predicted the outcome of the American elections with much higher probabilities than the blogs, which the media had set their hopes on. In the blogging sector the victory of Kerry was even illustrated with data and links to other websites, which turned out to be irrelevant. Pressetext.austria concludes that this faulty prediction shows the subjective character of blogs: "finally it became clear that Blogs only reflect amateur interpretations [...] and do not have the same status as politics journals and news magazines". The Boston Globe explains the position of the Bloggers further: "Some of [the blogs] cautioned readers not to make too much of the information. The Command Post delivered the news under the headline "Grain of Salt." Drudge removed the numbers almost as quickly as they were posted. And Slate warned: "these early exit poll numbers do not divine the name of the winner." Jack Shafer, editor of Slate, defends his position as follows: "Publishing the exit-poll numbers may look like a college prank, but our intent was loftier. We wanted to expose the hypocrisy of networks that simultaneously embargoed the exit-poll data and broadcast its essence. Slate believed that readers should be trusted with the secrets of the journalistic temple, especially if newscasters were going to pantomime from them so cavalierly [...] The good thing about today's uproar [concerning inaccurate poll information] is that it's accelerating the much-needed demystification of exit polls. Readers and viewers are asking the news organizations (CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Fox, and the Associated Press) that own the outfit that produces the exit-poll data, the National Election Pool, questions about how the polls are conducted, how they're used, how accurate they are, and the need for keeping them officially secret on election night even though newscasters blithely lift from them". According to the New York Times, the new $10 million polling system has been developed specifically for the purpose of the 2004 elections. The National Election Pool, which owns the system does not take responsibility for the faulty results published on the blogs, they informed the media they had contracted and say they cannot be held responsible for leaked data.

Bill's reflective midterm

2004-11-06T09:15:00.000-08:00

I am seeking the maximum amount of points with my reflection....100 points.

Everyone knows what audience participation means, but when does that translate into journalism and blogging journalism.

I used to think independent bloggers weren't journalists because no editor comes between the author and reader. I think being actually involved in a newsroom setting with an actual editor in command is the major factor that distinguishes between a journalist and blogger (amateur journalist).

That's what I used to think until actually becoming involved with my project and going through reams of copy on the subject of blogging versus journalism. Just as traditional journalism has made a big difference in political avenues (Bernstein-Woodward etc...), so has blogging on the Internet. There have been topics covered by bloggers on the Internet which has not seen the inside of a reporter's notebook, let alone prime space in a newspaper. Bloggers go where the traditional journalist fears to tread.

I have blogged almost 70,000 words in little over a month and have viewed almost 300 web and blogging sites in search of trying to settle the argument between journalists and bloggers. Just when I started to feel comfortable with the traditional and mainstream journalism brothers, there would be something on the otherside of the coin I would find to sway a little to the blogging side of the ledger.

Bloggers post news withheld by the mainstream media about a lot of things. One good example is professional basketball star Kobe Bryant's accuser's identity. You didn't find it in a newspaper or on TV. There was an agreement there would be no publication of her name or picture. But where did it appear? On the Internet and bloggers had a field day with it.

A big part of the problem that arises is the fact that there are ordinary people blogging the news. People, for the most part, without a degree or no experience in the journalism field. And, yet, they are getting the story more than the mainstream, or traditional journalists. Anybody can publish anything online and that's what is sticking in the throats of the mainstream journalists. For the first time, people at the edges of the network have the ability to create their own news entities.

When ordinary citizens contribute photos, video and news updates to mainstream news outlets, many would argue they're doing journalism. But when bloggers comment on and link to news stories, is that journalism? Usually no -- but it depends. When the blogger adds personal commentary that relies on original research, or if it is done by someone considered an authority on the subject, some would consider it journalism.

When a blogger conducts a phone interview with a newsworthy subject and posts it to his Weblog -- or does some research to turn up the address, phone number and e-mail of an alleged rape victim, as a number of bloggers did in July -- some would consider those acts of journalism, too.The same questions are raised when news organizations open up the channels of interactivity with their audiences. Voting in an online poll surely isn't journalism, but giving a first-hand report of one's travels in a foreign country may -- or may not be.

Whatever measuring stick one uses.......a strict definition that says journalism must involve original reporting and an editorial filter, or a broader one that considers travelogues, op-ed commentary and analysis journalism.......it's certain that audience participation in the news equation is on the upswing.And it's likely that forms of audience participation will become more widespread once mobile devices such as video-enabled phones -- which allow you to transmit text, photos and video directly over the phone -- become commonplace.

It seems participatopry journalism falls into these sections:
Audience participation at mainstream news outlets like Staff Weblogs, such as those written by The Dallas Morning News' editorial board. All involve reader comments in their blogs, either through e-mails or direct postings. Newsroom-sanctioned Weblogs written by outsiders, such as ABCnews.com's The Note giving presidential candidates their own blog. MSNBC and Fox News. Also included are the discussion forums like blogger cafe. We also can't forget articles written by readers. Many online newspapers in the United States and Europe ask high school students, parents and fans to contribute to reporting about their schools' football, wrestling and other sporting events.

Then there are photos, video and reports sent in by readers. The Dallas Morning News published readers' photos in its coverage of the space shuttle tragedy. The BBC has a standing page that uses photos e-mailed in by readers around the globe. The Santa Fe New Mexican publishes photos submitted by readers. The Providence (R.I.) Journal created a slide show of 130 images sent by readers of a spring blizzard. Australia's ABC News Online published reader write-ups and photos of devastating brushfires in Canberra. A news station in Japan recently aired live coverage of a massive fatal accident from a citizen-reporter with a video-enabled cell phone. The witness also called in a report from the scene.

The New York Times on the Web and Tribune Interactive, ask readers to review everything from travel destinations to restaurants.

The second is independent news and information Web sites.These are from individual Weblogs (Soundbitten) to niche-news publications geared to community or city news (Gawker, Benicia News, OpinionPleasanton), consumer news (ThemeParkInsider, The Car Place, Consumer World), politics (Workingforchange.com, Drudge Report) or a niche topic (Biased BBC, Gizmodo). In some cases, publications rely on well-versed amateurs or independent writers to provide original interviews, research and reporting. In other cases, the sites primarily generate editorial digests with varying degrees of commentary (Poynter.org's e-media tidbits and Romenesko). Some of these sites do journalism only in small pieces or resemblance, while for others citizen reporting is their primary purpose.

There are strictly participatory news sites, where citizen-reporters contribute a significant amount of material. South Korea's OhmyNews is the crown jewel of this breed. A similar citizen-reported news site called JanJan in Japan is modeling itself after OhmyNews. Indymedia offers first-person reporting of political news with a subjective slant.

We also can't forget Collaborative and contributory media sites. These sites include Slashdot, Kuro5hin and Metafilter, which mesh Weblogs and discussion boards together, users contribute editorial content (some of which would be appropriate for a newspaper or magazine) as well as links to news stories and ratings. Other community sites with mechanisms for self-publishing, self-ranking and self-organization include the collaborative newspaper RedPaper, Plastic.com and Everything2, which describes itself as "a very complex online community with a focus to write, publish and edit a quality database of information, art and humor. When you make an account here you join not only a team of dedicated writers but an entire micro-society and community with its own pop culture, politics, beauty and blunders." Many of the smaller sites in this category tend to quickly fall away. The Vines Network and ThemeStream, sites featured in The New York Times two years ago, have already disappeared.

Other kinds of this thin media are mailing lists (Dave Farber’s Interesting-People, Firehair's Internet Native News and Issues List), e-mail newsletters (ThirdAge’s Health Newsletter) and other digital media. Personal broadcasting sites also have to be brought into the picture. These include both video broadcast sites such as Daytonabeach-live.com and audio sites like KenRadio.com, where operator Ken Rutkowski conducts news interviews and pulls together a daily tech news report from various media sources. Other examples of participatory journalism seem to be cropping up all the time. And some of the categories listed above overlap with one another.

In the Studio I Tour my classmates took of my project, they seemed to like the fact I have posted so many words and tried to link everything I have talked about. I am trying to make my posts more to the point and attempt to eliminate wordiness. I have attempted to mix up my posts, too. Some are short. Some are long. but I do try to link one or two sites to which I have talked about. My classmates are also surprised I have been able to maintain my other blog, too. The thing is that I don't think I am doing something so great. i am working hard, but that's required to make my project good. It is easy to lose yourself for two to three hours at a time. I was very skeptical about this class in the beginning, but once I had success surfing and linking and being able to have some good ideas, it was easy and enjoyable. I feel it's somehting fun I am doing and not doing it because it's the requirement for a class. I am drawing some strong conclusions when it comes to blogging and journalism. I can see blogging as the new wave of the future and it can be successful with some monitoring and having bloggers play by some rules. I can also see it being the media people turn, too, becaue newspapers will die out. No one will have time to by a newspaper subscription and sit down to read it. We are becoming a society too busy to read something like a papoer. Everything we want, we ant to be able to read on a screen. We want to be able to dial up and read what we want. We don't want to shuffle through newsprint to get the news. We are heading to a strictly electronic age of this medium. We'll subscribe to newspapers on the television. Like a 24-hour newspaper on TV. That's how we'll get our news. We're practically there already with 24 hour sports channels, news channels and weather channels.

Once a person gets past the intimidation factor, I think they are home free and really ready to be the citizen journalist that is making a solid contribution to the web.People are becoming interactive in the news. All the major networks givew average citizens the chance to comment on the news they are viewing evry day. They are giving them the opportunity to send in their own news. They are offering Internet and web users a different view of the world. We are getitng a chance to see the whole picture, not just a piece of it as regulated by the mainstream. We are being able to understand, digest and spew our thoughts and show the traditional mainstream there's more than just one side to a story.

Overall Perspective:

I have tried to address and attack quite a few subjects, most interesting I think, on my bnlog. The list of some are: Ethics in blogging and journalism, and the need for a code of ethics for blog journalists; Blogging and politics-role that blogs are playing in the campaign; Sports reporting and blogging; What it takes to be a blogger- ABC says it's simply a desire to write, but is that all? Conflicts between bloggers and traditional journalists, both newspaper and television (Brokaw likens blogging to "political jihad"); The media and trust and War blogging.

I have also attempted to tackle the critical issue of credibility. I have done this, as well as making sure all my posts are backed up with links to the articles or news sources I am focusing on. I also attempt to draw the classroom experience on sunbjects we talk about in the class, and I enjoy talking about what Rebecca Blood blood has to say on subjects.

I enjoy keeping track of what journalist bloggers are thinking when it comes to dealing with issues like the fact that "weblogs are allowed to comment on any subject area without facing any repercussions," Used wisely, a weblog is a good tool, October 4)], an issue that many readers face when they are searching for alternate, but credible observations about certain topics.

There's a wealth of information on topics pertaining to the clash between bloggers and journalists. One article was "One more time: Journalism vs. Blogging" which states that:

"the author says the difference between the two is journalism is prostitution and blogging is recreational sex. When you blog, according to the author, you do it when you want it, how you want it, and on what topic you want. You're hoping their is an audience out there to read what you get off on. Journalists have a lot of things to prove to people. There's the editor and the company management to please. You're actually writing what your editor thinks is important and do it in the format and manner inwhich he wants it. He is the most important part of the equation" [(Talking about blogging versus journalism, October 5th)].

It's not difficult to be viewing two schools of on the blogging vs. journalism topic:
"one side claims that "Blogging is not journalism" because the readers don't know who's credible and how is not, while
the other side says, "with the advent of weblogging, the readers know more than the journalists."
Blogging is not journalism", October 7th

In my research I have found some gray areas, too, in the sense that "in order for there to be credibility among bloggers, as opposed to the credibility that journalists build for themselves by having to check...and double check every piece of information Bloggers, journalists need some sort of rules, bloggers must try to adhere to the very same standards that journalists do. There is always a stigma of intellectual dishonesty in a bloggers thought or writing Show me the context, baby!, October 7th.

People are also going online for their news sources rather than purchasing print copies of the very same sources. In "On-line advertising killing traditional journalism" October 18th, "newspapers are fighting for survival when it comes to battling the ad dollars. If people are reading on-line, that means they aren't reading a particular newspaper, which means no ad avenue...the basis of the lifeblood for every newspaper. The journalists, and newspapers, are going to have to find their niche online so they can also use online advertising to their benefit" October 18th.

The bottomline I am trying to do is refuting the journalists who say blogging isn't a respectable form of public record by making it a respectable public record of their record. But I think I could use more links to strengthen my commentaries even more.

Important technology

2004-11-04T06:23:00.000-08:00

Blogging is driven by personal brand: authority and trust. This cannot be manufactured, and cannot be imparted to newbies just by affixing a media brand to them…. It lets people openly discuss plans and goals. Engender a community of involved and smart users – they will provide better support than just anyone an, and they will do it for free.

Jay Rosen continues his excellent ongoing series of postings analyzing the challenges and opportunities for news media in light of recent events over on Press Think (Are We Headed for an Opposition Press?). However, I disagree with some of the dichotomies with which Rosen sketches the possible future:

Whatever happens with the news networks, which is only part of the picture, what's more plausible to you: the "cultural divides that have increasingly defined American politics" will increasingly come to define mainstream American media, or... Big Media will successfully hold itself back from politics, and the major news sources will remain in the "nonaligned" movement?
In politics we have opposition parties. Those in each party express one position when it is their party in charge, and castigate the same position when it is championed by the other party in charge. How expected. And how sad. Is this the future we want the press to adopt?

Why not a press that is the permanent party of skepticism and contingent thinking? How about a press, not without bias, certainly, but with a commitment to exposing the facts and a humble recognition of the possibility for error? Why not a press firmly on the side of transparency? Such a position is hardly apolitical. In fact, it is radically engaged with and opposed to "politics" as well as the "view from nowhere."

This expansion of the political into "news" and commentary coincides with greater transparency for the big news combines, which are more successfully scrutinized than they have ever been. Various layers of protection once kept journalists from the knowledge the public had of their mistakes. That layer seems gone now.
Layers of protection? Only if you consider the Maginot Line a success. Lack of transparency was a false protection. Embracing transparency is the only defense.
In Bushworld, all is different. There is no fourth estate; an invalid theory, says Bush. The press is not a watchdog for the public, but another interest group that wants something. (Or it's an arm of our opponents's operation.) But the press is weak, and almost passe, in the Administrations view. There is no need to deal with it most of the time. It can be denied access with impunity. It can be attacked for bias relentlessly, which charges up Bush supporters. It can be fed gruel in plush surroundings and will come back the next day. The Bush crowd has completely changed the game on journalists, knowing that journalists are unlikely to respond with action nearly as bold.
Well, yeah. Big Media is an interest group and frequently acts like one. One can hardly blame Bush for taking advantage of the obviousness weaknesses of the press. It was bound to happen.
Washington journalism likes to imagine itself the Administration's great adversary, but most of the time it relies on access journalism-- not the adversarial kind. "Sources make news" is the first tenet in that system, and that gives sources power. But access journalism makes less and less sense when there is no access, and sources rarely deviate from the party line. The White House press corps has always been based on access, so much so that the alternatives to it have almost been forgotten. I think there will be pressure to abandon the whole dream of press access under Bush, and re-position some forces accordingly.
Exactly. And I hope there is such pressure, though I don't hold out much hope. Non-access-based journalism is a lot more work, and you don't get invited to nearly as many cocktail parties.
I expect some news organizations to begin dealing with these pressures by essentially giving in on several counts-- for example, that newsrooms are populated by liberals and conservative voices are too few. Or some sort of concession like that. Coming to terms with "liberal bias" could be seen as a way of recognizing the reality of the election and responding to continued anger at the press. The most likely place for those efforts to begin is with the supposed finding that "moral values" (read religion) were the top concern of voters, and yet this is not a strength of the liberal, secular press, therefore we need to change-- something like that. After the Republican sweep, I expect some major initiatives on the bias front.
Sigh. Of course, if this is the "solution" then the media has asked the wrong question. It isn't about the "bias." It is about the transparency. It is about the conversation with readers. It is about the links to other sources.
Keep your eye on Sinclair Broadcasting, in my view a new kind of media company-- a political empire with television stations. It was built to prosper in the conditions I have described. It already has a self-conscious political identity. It is already steeped in culture war. And it admires and imitates the Bush method of changing the world, but keeping the same language for the new situation.
I've said it before, I'll say it again. Sinclair is the result of our current broadcast regulatory scheme that turns broadcasters into gatekeepers. Change the regulation to reduce gatekeeping and you solve the Sinclair problem. Unfortunately, too many entrenched interests, including politicians and, more importantly, other broadcasters, like gatekeepers. Yeah, I'd like to see the solutions that Big Media proposes to the gatekeeper problem. That'll happen. Sure.

The press must change, and it won't be easy. Opening up formerly closed processes hardly ever is. Mistakes will be made, complaints will be ubiquitous. The challenges are clear, the opportunities many. Personally, I'm mildly optimistic about this whole thing.

Reflecting on the Election

2004-11-04T03:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I wondered what paradigms would be blown out in this election season. The one I was most interested in was the get out the vote ("GOTV") program— in particular whether paid organizers with 527 organizations would outperform passionate volunteers loyal to their candidate. It now appears we have the answer. The President's volunteer program of grassroots activists trounced the 527 organizations like Americans Coming Together. I think the problem and the frustrations for the Kerry campaign was that, while the Democrats made some inroads with volunteer GOTV, they relied heavily on independent groups headed by former high level party members and funded by Democratic contributors.

Unfortunately, with the passage of the McCain-Feingold (Amazing Feingold's name was Goldfein at one time and his parents owned a furniture by the bridge in Superior, Wisconsin a little DYK) campaign finance reforms, these independent 527 organizations are not allowed to coordinate their activities with the Democratic party. To do so would be illegal. While the Democrats could figure out what was going on based on bravado and press statements, the Democratic Party could not see the raw data from the 527s. These groups
were left on their own to get out the vote for John Kerry.

On the other hand, the Bush campaign used a massive army of loyal volunteers to drive up turnout and get out the vote. While the volunteers were, obviously, not paid, they were fiercely loyal to the President. According to all of the polls no matter how divergent in their horse race numbers, Republicans were, in this election cycle, more supportive of their candidate than at any other time in the modern history of polling. As a result, the volunteers outmaneuvered, outmanned, and outgunned the 527 machine. Bush/Cheney campaign staff say that this year's GOTV program was the biggest, most organized, and most effective grassroots movement in the history of Presidential politics. It will most likely turn into the must duplicate GOTV model for both parties.Another paradigm that stands is the law of political inertia. For almost week, the media and many liberal bloggers and organizations became convinced that a swarm of younger voters and first time voters would create a tidal wave of support for John Kerry. Joe Scarborough and I disagreed with that theory. Voters sided with political physics -- voters at rest stay at rest and active voters stay active. The law of political inertia operated just like Newton's law of inertia. The 527 organizations spent a lot of energy trying to energize new, younger voters. It seems more efficient and effective to energize already active voters. It takes too much time, talent, and treasure in a campaign season to spend too much time on new voters. While talent was readily available,the 527's lacked the time and allocated their treasure poorly in efforts to turn out the new, young voters.

Candidates should use a type of "follow the leader" rule. If every other candidate is doing something, there is probably a good reason and my candidate should also be doing it. This year treated political junkies to lots of stories on the end of political consultants, the rise of the Internet political movement, the ability to fire up new voters, and the need for new theories of campaign management. Despite all of this excitement, all of the old rules tended to hold. Prolific internet fundraisers and "movement" Democrats like the DailyKos were not even able to elect their "top 15" list of candidates through aggressive Internet organization and mobilization. They came close, but like the Yankees this year, could not close the deal. The danger now will be an aggressive retreat from new technology. It would make sense that all sides should try to use new technology in existing paradigms instead of creating new paradigms to fit the technology. Much like the crash of the dot com companies that existed solely for the sake of existing, this political season was all about the crash of dot com campaigning.

I really believe this election saw extremely few paradigm shifts. About the only one of note is that political professionals may soon be reaching the end of their ability to conduct useful, meaningful polls and exit polls. The data from the 2004 general election jumped all over the field. If pollsters stayed with traditional models instead of buying into the new voter hype, their track record this year would have been much better.

A fragmented world

2004-11-03T05:51:00.000-08:00

Participatory journalism seems to be back in fashion after many years of an exile imposed by powerful media corporations. It's a tremendous comeback, given its potential impact on the meaning of democracy. For some 2500 years now, political scientists have found it hard to converge on a crisp definition of democracy, even though they agree on several universally acceptable connotations of the term. Perhaps the most central of these connotations is citizen-participation in politics. This is the context that participatory journalism frames. Participatory journalism is a campaign tool of the autonomous individual, helping the fragmented, de-unionized consumer navigate the postmodern global media. Coming to technology, the United States Supreme Court, no less, has pronounced the Internet as an electronic soapbox. A study on the state of American journalism finds a crisis in credibility and a fragmentation that offers challenges, but the report's lead author sees a potentially brighter forecast for the news organizations than even a decade ago.

Fragmentation has fractured audiences among onetime news media leaders, with the circulation of daily newspapers falling 11 percent since 1990 and TV ratings for evening news and late local news dropping double digits since the 1990s. Growth has occurred in other places, however, particularly among cable and Internet outlets. Today, the study said, too many outlets are chasing a shrinking or at best flat audience with more resources going toward the dissemination of news than collecting or carefully analyzing it. Personnel cutbacks have left their mark on newsgathering, the study said.

The problem is it's "fragmentation and convergence at the same time," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project For Excellence in Journalism, which conducted the study. He said trust in all forms of journalism has declined for about a generation. But it's harder for the media to recover because audience fragmentation has led to cutbacks in the newsroom, which has contributed to more of the same kind of journalistic problems that caused trust to fall in the first place.

"The State of the American News Media, which is being released today by a Washington, D.C.-based group is affiliated with the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York City and funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, is scheduled to be done annually. The full study can be found at www.stateofthenewsmedia.org beginning at 9 a.m. today.

Rosenstiel reckons that in today's world, it's harder than ever to figure out where consumers get their news, since they move through so many different types of media in the course of a day. But fragmented audience has meant that media companies face a more difficult economic model than ever before. For traditional media companies that have a presence on the Web -- particularly ones that don't charge for content -- much of the content comes from the traditional side.

"That is the single most important question that we face as a society about journalism," Rosenstiel said. "If the audience is moving online, will the Web pay for the kind of journalism that we've been accustomed to? Right now, it doesn't."

This question of how a media company will pay for its newsgathering and content hasn't been answered yet, Rosenstiel said. But he suggest that perhaps the CNN model -- where the brand is not only on cable TV but also in airports, radio, the Internet and elsewhere -- might be a sign of the future. "There, you have a news organization that is not in any one business, it's in all the businesses," Rosenstiel said.

I think I am less worried that Americans are less interested in journalism, but I'm not sure how the journalism will be financially structured. Whether the new technology will have the economic might to maintain the quality of that content, I just don't think we know yet. There is reason for hope on at least one front. In the 1980s and early 1990s, much hand wringing was done in the newspaper industry over the fact that young people didn't read anymore. The gloom and doom scenario forecast the death of newspapers by now. But, instead, the opposite has happened, thanks to the Internet.

Through the articles I have read thus far, I have concluded that, it's not so bleak. People do read. Online is largely a medium for reading right now, and young people are going there and getting news.

More about participatory journalism

2004-11-02T06:56:00.000-08:00

Participatory journalism, or citizen journalism -- the idea of people in the community actually gathering and porting information to other people -- is a new and evolving concept that increasingly is becoming more common with the rise of the Internet and, in particular, the rise of tools like weblogs. A small California newspaper has undertaken a first-of-its-kind experiment in participatory journalism in which nearly all the content published in a regularly updated online edition and a weekly print edition is submitted by community members. It's all free. Following in the footsteps of past community journalism projects that sought to give individuals a voice in local news, as well as the growing trend in news-like blogs, The Northwest Voice is giving residents of Bakersfield's northwest neighborhoods near-total control of content.

Get out to vote

2004-11-02T05:55:00.001-08:00

This election is different. And you really feel that this country is engaged. Whether or not people actually vote? Well, we'll have to wait to see what the turnout is.But the issues are so big ever since 9/11. We're at war. This could not be a bigger choice. And you've got to admit that these candidates could not be more different philosophically and you cannot be undecided. Think about people who would like to vote in Iraq and are being shot out on the streets because they, as yet, have not figured out to game a January election that will be safe.

I get so sick and tired of hearing people talking about two Americas. I'm not talking about health care and all that, I'm just talking about a divided America. I'll tell you, there is one America. I've made people angry this entire campaign, whether it was going after John Kerry's speech or George Bush's performance in the debate. But I can tell you, regardless of whoever wins Tuesday, America will be strong Wednesday morning.Anybody that's been watching this damn election has to know that both of these gentlemen have been through a brutalizing process. Regardless of what happens, we move forward. I do not believe we live in two Americas.

John Kerry is not going to take us out of Iraq the next day, he better not. John Kerry is not going to raise taxes 100 percent. George Bush is not going to move us sharply to the right or the left. We've had Michael Moore on the left -- and we've had others on the right that have made a lot of money by trying to scare Americans in the middle. People have used division as a marketing tool to sell books, to sell movies, to sell hate speech.But we've got two responsible men running for president of the United States. And this is a celebration. This is why I love America so much.

Osama's Problem

2004-11-01T09:12:00.000-08:00

Is the Clear Channel Satellite Netowrk the New Sinclair? Apparently, it is. Stolen Honor, the documentary slamming John Kerry's war record in Vietnam, is being broadcast on some Clear Channel stations. What Walter Cronkite said about Bid laden's tape: The right side of the internet tends to think Osama raising his head after so long is helpful to Bush. While some on the left disagree, many on both sides are focusing on Walter Cronkite's statement last night on Larry King. According to Ann Althouse, blogging at Instapundit, Cronkite said, "In fact, I'm a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up Bin Laden to this thing."

Even the comic strip is moving online

2004-11-01T03:17:00.000-08:00

Forget the newspaper. Even Blondie and Dagwood know where their future is as they're moving their home online. A lot of the comic strips are moving because that's where their future is, which means the Internet and bloggers are having an even bigger impact on the Internet than in newspapers.

To view all the news on the net

2004-10-31T13:09:00.000-08:00

MSNBC has a nifty little site that has all the top news of the day on its Internet site. To see what the top news is on all the sites around the country visit MSNBC.

Media plays big role in election

2004-10-31T07:49:00.000-08:00

Newspapermen say they can't remember an election when the media has played a big role. But they forget that bloggers would get the job done if they didn't. Bloggers have been making the traditional journalists work twice as hard, so it shouldn't be any surprise that the media is working hard. if not, they won't sell papers and everyone will be on the Internet reading and seeing what's going on.

What a slam

2004-10-31T07:43:00.000-08:00

The newspaper editor in Busdh's hometown has endorsed John Kerry. Talk about a slam against the president. Geez, I wonder what Bush's parents think about that. I guess, it's the freedom of the speech, though. It didn't take a blogger to tell Mr. Bush he wasn't liked in his hometown.

What kind of reaction

2004-10-31T07:38:00.000-08:00

With the media's reporting and airing the Osama Bin Laden tape, it will be interesting to see how this will influence the election if it does at all. Many believe on the Sunday talk shows that it won't. But you have to admit that it was a pretty good move for Bin Laden to put it out on the airwaves. That was the whole idea as he is trying to disrupt the election anyw ay he can. But putting it out over the satellite, Internet and whatever else he was able to do to get it out there to the people was very creative.

Blogs are "The New Tool of The Century"

2004-10-31T07:16:00.000-08:00

Web logs, or "blogs," can be the most tedious of cyberfare — often no more than online diaries of people whose lives weren't nearly as interesting as they thought. But as the blogging fraternity exploded in the past several years its membership diversified to include respected businesses and a range of opinions gaining prominence in the media world.An eclectic mix of voices now dot a blogging universe that tackles subjects ranging from politics to literature to pop culture. Blogs are being used as a new millennium version of protest, a cyber soapbox gaining a loyal following in a world no longer anxious to stage sit-ins. And businesses are using them as a resourceful way to speak to customers. For the bloggers themselves, a simple passion for writing has turned many into semi-celebrities, a new brand of writers and entrepreneurs using cheap Web space to forge unusual careers. But can they expect to carve out a living solely on their blogs?

Fairness is a question

2004-10-31T04:03:00.000-08:00

We're so worried about why young people, or anyone for that matter isn't reading a newspaper, but a couple of articles recently published explain all of that. It seems some of the newspapers are filtering stories to the liberal candidates before they are known to anyone else. That isn't fair, but gives the bloggers and Internet networks plenty of ammo in saying that American readers of the traditional media are not getting the story and are being spoon-fed to how much they want you to know. Little by little we are being told what to read, when to read it, how much to know and how much is enough. This is what is getting the amateur journalists upset and they have a right to their anger because of stunts the New York Times pulls.A lot of people thought bin Laden was dead. He’s alive now, and we know it for sure.

The tape shows us that Bin Laden's well enough to do this tape. Some people may find problems with his left arm, but he’s alive and we have not caught him. He escaped at Tora Bora, and he’s still a free man.His tape raises the issue of 9/11 again in very vivid terms. He’s talking about Manhattan, about the people killed, about that terrible day for Americans. This turn of events is a plus for the president because it raises Bush’s concern, one he’s raised throughout the campaign—which is terrorism, and how we fight it. It shifts attention away dramatically from the war in Iraq (which hurts the president, based upon all the assessments so far).Bush’s handling of 9/11 was universally applauded. He's not as successful with the waging and justifying of the war in Iraq.It’s a stupid show in a sense: If you read it literally, he’s calling for the defeat of President Bush, but he's not doing John Kerry a favor. Anyone with a brain in this planet knows that’s a way for President Bush to get support in this country. It’s impossible for us to know if he’s being ironic, clever, shrewd or stupid. In the cold war, Kruschev very much liked John F. Kennedy. He said to Kennedy, “I was rooting for you in the campaign against Nixon, but I did you a favor of never saying so.” The tape also makes fun of the president for being an "inherited monarch." He’s saying the Middle East is run by sons of kings, and by generals and their sons. He says it’s easy for him to deal with Bush because he’s dealt with those monarchs.It’s a trashing of a president. He's treating Bush as one of the “idiot sons of a monarchy” who got their job because of heredity. The tape is also an appeal to the Arab community in the world, using our pro-Israeli alliance and using our support for at-times corrupt dictatorships in the world. We’re talking about a shrewd politician, he knows the sensitive points in the history of the Arab-America relationship and he’s playing on Arab sensitivities very brilliantly. But remember, bin Laden tried to kill 50,000 people on 9/11. He killed only about a tenth that number—thanks to the bravery of our men and women, our firefighters. He’s playing some sick game with the American people. That won’t work with the American people, not any of this will.

Making a point

2004-10-31T03:55:00.000-08:00

Osama Bin Laden is doing what the traditional media can't do, use the Internet and blogging network to get his message across that President Bush or John Kerry won't be able able to stop the terrorism until the United States absolves itself of all contact, including giving aid, to the Arab nations. He doesn't give interviews and can't be fouind. But Bin Laden shows what can be done when someone just has the means to transmit over the Internet as well as being able to get the message for broadcast to the traditional media. He proves that when you want to get a message out bad enough, you can and don't need the help of the broadcast networks to do so. That's the entire point of using the Internet and blogging. Getting your message out there to an audience that wants it.

Chance to be citizen reporter

2004-10-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

MSNBC is giving "Average Joes" the opportunity to be reporters on Tuesday, Nov. 2nd....Election Day. They're asking citizens to send information including pictures and reorts to them. This is the perfect opportunity to see a major news organization take advantage of the bloggers and Internet reporters around the country. it also gives citizens the chance to see what traditional journalists put up with when going after a story.

Crazy about blogging

2004-10-30T14:04:00.000-07:00

It seems I get into a lot of Rah! Rah!- type blogging sites where everyone talks about the positive virtues of blogging and reporting the news. very rarely do I find sites discuss the negative aspects. Everyone has their own meanings on what blogging is all about or what it should be. A new technology that seems to have quite a few takers can't bve all wrong..,.or all right. As I venture into the world of blogs, though, I am finding the new technology interesting, refreshing and very consuming. One can spend hours on a computer and not realize it. The minutes fly by. I am becoming more and more convinced that the class I most feared becaue of a lack of technological know-how can be one of the most interesting.

Google called a "Parasite"

2004-10-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

Internet search firms are 'parasites' that will eventually kill growth in the online publishing industry, according to http://www.anm.co.uk Associated New Media managing director Andrew Hart. Speaking at the http://www.ukaop.org.uk Association of Online Publishers (AOP) conference in London last week, Mr Hart told delegates that the internet is a truly global community and the first information democracy. The web provides billions of pages of information, instantaneous breaking news, and a free, fast competitive marketplace. "Everyone from billion dollar conglomerates to penniless bloggers all have the freedom to publish and exchange information and ideas." said Mr Hart."And from the user point of view, search is the start of online journey. It's as if all the knowledge in the world is just one click away."But he said that search has now become a tool that can be exploited, with specialist agencies paid big bucks by big business to improve their position in search results."This kind of complex distortion is only made available to the big players and will make business in the long term impossible for small firms," said Mr Hart."Spend on search is the fastest growing sector in online advertising spend, so money is flowing to just a handful of online web search brands - and to those with only the biggest marketing budgets."

War bloggers

2004-10-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

Web logs are feeding the public's increasing appetite for news and information about the war with Iraq, with a new breed known as 'war blogs' operating from within the war arena. One of the most popular web logs since the start of the war is dear_raed.blogspot.com, apparently written by an Iraqi man based in Baghdad under the pseudonym Salam Pax. His site until recently provided a first-hand account of events in Iraq. "There are no waving masses of people welcoming the Americans, nor are they surrendering by the thousands. People are doing what all of us are, sitting in their homes and hoping that a bomb doesn't fall on them," Salam wrote March 23, 2003. His first entry was recorded in September last year (2003) during the build-up to war and was last updated on Monday (24 March 2003). At that point, he described how internet access had temporarily been lost in the capital. As there have been no further updates since then, it would appear that he has again lost his online access.The increasing popularity of war blogs lies in their distinctiveness from the traditional media. War bloggers are not obliged to record the opinion representative of their country, and are not edited in any way.Some media outlets have been less than impressed by their correspondents' use of blogs, though.CNN told their correspondent Kevin Sites to end his personal log of the war this week (24 March 2003) after he posted audio reports, photographs and accounts of his experiences in Iraq. The BBC has been more lenient, allowing reporters such as Stuart Hughes to write personal war blogs. It has also gone live with its own blog where correspondents are free to contribute their personal accounts. "The BBC has cashed in on the blogging trend by running what is essentially a political diary alongside its news site and calling it a web log," said e-publishing course director at London's City University, Neil Thurman."Blogs are unique as they offer a diversity of voices and opinions and war blogs seem more immediate and real to readers than traditional news sites."Soldiers from the war zone are also setting up war blogs to communicate with their families and relay the events in Iraq to their own countries. "Not only reporters, but people on the battle front can communicate with the world," said Jeff Jarvis, the president of Advance Publications Inc.'s Internet Operations.

Bloggers wouldn't have that problem

2004-10-28T07:44:00.000-07:00

A story in one of the Chicago papers had to be physically pulkled from the section of the newspaper after a vulgar word was printed describing a woman's body part. The editor demanded the action be taken and the section was pulled. Had the word been printed in a section of the Internet edition, all that had to be done was to push a button and the word would have been eliminated. Not only was the task a manual one for the paper, but it wasted time in employee salaries and also in wasted newsprint that will now be thrown into the recycle bin.

What is online journalism all about

2004-10-28T07:11:00.000-07:00

What is online journalism all about. Here are some top sites that detail some of the important contributions in online journalism over the past five years. More and more people are also turning to the Internet and the web for their news. News organizations are finally starting to realize that online technology can save money, but at the same time they have to define the audience for which they want to reach out, too, which is difficult because everyone's tastes for news is different. Some want hard news, others are happy with the gossip types. Knowing the audience will be the key. Right now, this is where the Internet and bloggers have the upperhand. Readers are going to the bloggers who have the most impact on them. MSNBC is one of the nation's top Internet news sites, because they deliver the style and type of news readers want. Another very good reason for the Internet's success is that online journalism allows a reporter to do much more than a newspaper can. A newspaper's blood is built around column inches, while the Internet can be indefinite in being able to put a story, including important links. A newspaper story can only be told in a limited amount of space, the same with a feature, and can not answer the questions readers have while reading it or after finishing with it. An Internet story can answer almost every question a reader can ask, plus offer a multitude of graphs or pictures to illustrate the story without the fear of cost or using too much newspaper ink. Another factor in blogging versus journalism is the way the stories are being reported. Bloggers seem to have a no-fear style of being challenge, while traditional journalists fear being booted out of the "good old boy" society because they wrote something that didn't flow with the rest of the mainstream. Journalists will have to repoort all the news if their field desires to remain competitive with the blogging society.

Perfect Red Sox blogging network

2004-10-28T06:56:00.000-07:00

This isn't for me, but for the ideal Red Sox fan and blogger who will be celebrating for the next 86 years, because that will be how long it takes to get to the next World Series. Yes, the Red Sox eliminated the Cardinals, 3-0, and won the series with a 4-0 sweep last night. Oh, boy! I haven't seen such a sad series in a long time. I'm glad it's over and the seaosn is finished.

Trust is low

2004-10-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

With the CBS scandal, as well as voices telling Americans the media is too this or that, it's not surprising trust in the media is at an all-time low. Which means, readers may be looking at the Internet and blogging for their news they can rust. With this question of trust, is it any surprise that our young people don't want to pick up a nespaper to read it. Afterall, how can we get them to read if they don't believe in what they're reading?

Anyone can write online

2004-10-27T08:35:00.000-07:00

More and more of the Average Joes are becoming budding journalists.Where will online journalism be in five or 10 years? In the hands of more and more regular folks, who may not even think of themselves as journalists.The Internet seems to be the ideal of Everyman as publisher — ordinary citizens who take back journalism from the professional class. As the Web matures, we're starting to see a flourishing of community journalism, a tool that has both distant roots and a promising future. The news consumer is turning into a news provider. "t's not that these news consumers will compete with the New York Times, but the consumer becomes part of the process of telling stories in a way that enriches the public discourse.Through the Net, readers have been interacting with writers and editors. But in the next stage of Web journalism, citizens actually are becoming writers and editors. We've already seen the glimmerings of this trend with magazines (special-interest electronic magazines) and with individuals' own Web pages in online communities such as GeoCities or Tripod. Most of these enterprises have been lone wolf affairs. Enlisting people with shared interests to connect with each other and the outside world in new and powerful ways seems to be the thing that attracts people. It's not clear whether this kind of community publishing will take place through online communities like GeoCities, online city guides like AOL's Digital Cities or online newspapers. But online papers are missing a good bet if they overlook this rich source of community content.According to reports, MIT's Media Lab isn't waiting around to see who'll pick up the ball. Its News in the Future program has set up community publishing projects among seniors groups in the United States and Finland, in a high school outside Atlanta and in several villages in Thailand. "We're getting both youngsters and 60-, 70- and 80-year-olds to publish online newspapers, and the results are absolutely extraordinary. They're publishing some of the best stuff on the Web. One of the projects, Silver Stringers, began in mid-1996 with 10 volunteers from a seniors center in Melrose, Massachusetts. They agreed to participate in a community-oriented approach to news. MIT supplied three computers, a laptop, a digital camera, a scanner, a color printer and software to produce an online publication. None of the seniors had been on the Net before. "Most of us did not even have a computer when we first started," recalls Virginia Hanley, 72, a founding editor. In the early days, those who couldn't type were encouraged to write in longhand, and we found volunteers to transcribe those stories onto the computer," adds Jim Driscoll, 74, an editor. At the outset, MIT advisers helped edit articles and insert photos. In time, the seniors took over those tasks. The result was the Melrose Mirror, a monthly online newspaper that runs features, recipes, essays and news. Today, a handful of editors meets weekly to kick around story ideas and edit copy, while about 20 staffers contribute stories, reviews, photos and poems.The Web publication draws readers from around the world, but its most loyal readers are current and former residents of Melrose. Says Driscoll, "The most popular articles seem to be stories describing experiences during the Great Depression and World War II" — material that most professional journalists wouldn't define as news.

"We don't see this replacing newspapers," says Kay McCarte, 69, one of the editors. "But it lets us be involved in the creative process. It gives us a voice."Jack Driscoll, the Media Lab's editor in residence (and Jim's brother), says online news organizations should follow suit and put Web publishing tools in the hands of community groups. "We're empowering readers to become journalists," he says. "They've got talent, and they've got things to say. It's amazing to watch them develop their own sets of publishing values."This is where we're heading: news not as a commodity dispensed by a professional class, but as a service in which the consumer is engaged as an active participant. In the future, journalism will become a catalyst for creating communities of interest and for building links and relationships between news providers and consumers. That's a win for everyone.

Let's build a bomb

2004-10-27T08:27:00.000-07:00

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission removed its massive public reading room from the Internet Monday after nuclear safety activists and media organizations found several documents on it containing sensitive information they said could help terrorists.The information included floor plans for nuclear laboratories at several universities, specifying the types and locations of nuclear materials they use.The NRC said the removal of the online document library is temporary and that documents will be posted again after they are scrubbed of sensitive information.Critics said the action was too late -- coming three weeks after the problem was first publicized -- and too drastic, involving the removal of thousands of non-sensitive documents. All you have to do is to look on the Internet, follow the blog's instructions and you can build your bomb. You'd never find a sensitive issue like that in the Bemidji pioneer or Washington Post.