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I, for one, would like to be the first to welcome our new online content overlords. Googlezon: paranoid Orwellian fantasy or coming soon to a computer near you? The Museum of Media History (really just some Poynter Institute chums) unleashes a frightening vision of the media in 2014, where the New York Times "has become a print only newsletter for the elite and elderly" as the Google-Amazon conglomerate unites, crushes all competition, then proceeds to spoon-feed consumers "EPIC" customized media pablum for all eternity. (Insert malevolent laugh here.) W hen the Dec. 26 tsunami hit, bloggers went into action. It was a case study in new media's effectiveness as a serious news outlet. Blogs were updating on holidays (while newspapers weren't publishing or had been destroyed) and reporting 'round the clock when time differences made traditional dispatches difficult. As the tragedy unfolds, blogs continue to hold their own against traditional media, providing information, helping locate victims and collecting aid donations. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter was suspended and later had to resign from his job after management took issue with the way he slagged staff and story assigments on an anonymous personal blog. Note to self: ex-nay on the CanWest eferencesray. Got life insurance? You might want to get on that. In 2004, a record number of journalists were killed: 120 in total, at least 50 in Iraq alone. From junkie to journalist. The New York Times gives a shout out to 2004's most erudite essays. E nglish pedants unite! 2004's banned list of over-used words in the media includes "pockets of resistance" (White House code for "country-wide revolt"), "blog" and "carb." Do not pass Go. Canada's Access to Information gatekeepers are "amberlighting" FOI requests from journalists and politicians. Watchdog Alisdair Roberts calls them on it (scroll down.) "Blink" and you may miss it. Malcom Gladwell's new book takes a micro look at the sociology of "rapid cognition" — those blink of an eye conclusions. Whereas "The Tipping Point" was concerned with grand themes, with figuring out the rules by which social change happens," Gladwell explains, "Blink ... is concerned with the smallest components of our everyday lives — with the content and origin of those instantaneous impressions and conclusions that bubble up whenever we meet a new person, or confront a complex situation, or have to make a decision under conditions of stress. I think its time we paid more attention to those fleeting moments." Bush: "the most media-averse president in recent memory." 2004: the most dangerous year for journalists in recent memory. So sayeth the L.A. Times. Hell hath no fury like a travel writer scorned. And scorned. And scorned again. And ... hell, just send the kill fee already! Gun-toting and Canada-baiting. Just two of the many God-given rights Fox News has fought broadcast on our airwaves. Press freedoms trump police investigations. An Ontario Supreme Court judge rules RCMP must disclose reasons for last year's raid on Ottawa Citizen reporter Juliet O'Neill's home and office (formerly Press Gallery's office too.) Hollinger's investigation into the Conrad Black and Co.'s divide and plunder management practices that stripped the company of $500k, raises another quandry for shareholders. Is it better to be shaken down by execs or lawyers? Think of them as hometown blogs. New "micro-local" participatory news sites that rely on the community to write their community news are popping up across Smallville U.S.A. In researching Canadian press blogs, Ryerson Review of Journalism student Samantha Israel decides it's time for a blog of one's own and Blog on Blog is born. Elizabeth Nickson is the latest plagiarist to depart from the Post's stable of journalism professionals. But whereas her colleague Brad Evenson was fired earlier this year for inventing people to illustrate his health stories (real people — very hard to find on deadline) Nickson has taken laziness to new lows. She copied (oh, all right, allegedly failed to attribute) passages re-hashing celebrity hi-jinks. One of the best examples of democratic, participatory journalism the Web has seen in a while — think of Sorry Everybody as (49 per cent of) Americans' personal editorial page — or simply a blog apologia. The copyright provisions in a new CanWest writers' contract has sent some Canadian freelance journos into a state of shock, insisting on believing it's "a hoax, a joke, or simply spurious." Alright, so it's not print journalism, but The Daily Show was the only thing that kept Press Gallery from wrist-slitting during U.S. election night coverage. Gird up for another four years of Amerikan Christian-fascism with regular doses of Jon Stewart's blog bile and a bookshelf full of apocalyptic literature. Any other journos hoarding Valium in anticipation of the most harrowing U.S. presidential election night ever? There's plenty of fear and loathing on the 2004 campaign trail. Already, with the cold sweats... Ever read a National Post editorial (no, really, play along) shake your head and mutter to yourself: what were they thinking? Read behind the scenes on the Post's editoral board blog. Oh and what exactly are they thinking? This week: Pamela Anderson and bunny rabbit vandals. Sigh. Want more? Browse the archives. Access
Codes: L.A.
Times Jerusalem
Post Web site: Guardian
UK Web site: * Links may degenerate over time. |
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COMING
SOON:
Ego
And Ink:
The
Corporation:
Kill
Duck Before Serving: The
Natashas
Saturday
Night
Martha
Gellhorn: A Life
Personal History
The
Road to Hell
High
and Mighty
The
Professor
The
Devil and the
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Perfect Storm
Choosing Naia
The
Tipping Point
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News Bites: A journalist is a reporter out of a job. –Mark Twain Never believe in mirrors or newspapers. –Tom Stoppard Every journalist has a novel inside, which is an excellent place for it. –Russell Lynesc Facing the press is more difficult than bathing a leper. –Mother Teresa The day you write to please everyone you no longer are in journalism. You are in show business. –Frank Miller Jr. The guiding ideological principles of most American newsrooms are entropy, chaos, procrastination and lunch. –Renee Loth, Boston Globe Journalism is literature in a hurry. –Matthew Arnold Being
a reporter is as much a diagnosis as a job description. It
is hard news that catches readers. Features hold them. It is part of the social mission of every great newspaper to provide a refuge and a home for the largest possible number of salaried eccentrics. –Lord Thomson, The Times of London Advertising may be described as the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it. –Stephen Leacock Editing is the same as quarrelling with writers - same thing exactly. –Harold Ross, The New Yorker The modern editor of a newspaper does not care for facts. The editor wants novelty. The editor has no objection to facts, if they are also novel. But he would prefer a novelty that is not a fact to a fact that is not a novelty. –William Randolph Hearst The great art of running a newspaper is the art of guessing where hell is liable to break loose next. –Joseph B. McCullagh
News of the Weird: Think of Fark.com as a newswire full of nothing but BC-ODD- skeds. An archive of reportage on human foibles. What do humans do when they realize the "harsh ennui" of life? They commit weird news en masse – and achieve immortality in Chuck Shepard's News of the Weird. The Darwin Awards are the Oscars of devolution. Of necessity, bestowed posthumously. The oddly-named Bondage File (Maugham perhaps?) boasts foolish, not fetish news. Honest. Wherever there are incidents of weeping statues, pet miracles or human stupidity, The Obscure Store is there to record them. Where else could you put "Canabalistic alien bat boy kills again!" on the front page in 72-point type, but The Weekly World News?
Canadian J-Blogs: David
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