A Jumble of Journalism Links - What I’ve Been Reading
A lesson for the folks out there who ignore the importance of grammar – in this case the comma: http://t.co/IG0y0u9
So, an Orlando editor tells me that we should be training “content originators” who can think critically about issues and then report and write them. The next day this pops up on NYT: Washington’s New Brat Pack Masters Media about young bloggers have become part of the journalistic establishment in Washington, and destination reading for the city’s power elite.
Related to the above, “Journalism as a whole — and media as a whole — are moving to a growing reliance on freelancers,” says Rob Steiner, director of the journalism lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, Freelancers Needed More Than Ever – How Schools Can Prepare Them. Here, I would argue, we should make a distinction between “content originators” of real journalism and the growing demand for a new class of low-paid serfs to feed the superficial, SEO-driven content farms.
Speaking of content origination, recently viewed a presentation of the Asbury (New Jersey) Park Press’s DataUniverse, a portal to public government data in which the paper has assembled links to property records and taxes, government payrolls, school performance report cards, crime reports and conviction records, and much more. Apparently, some of these links get millions of page views.
Bill Keller is at it again defending the NYT mode of journalism in a disruptive age. I agree with him up to a point, but the world is changing under our feet: Traditional News Outlets — Living Among the Guerrillas. For example, how would the NYT handle a story like Why Cut Subsidies to Multinational Corporations When You Can Cut Food Stamps Instead?
Recently viewed this C-SPAN 1989 talk by the father of PR, Edward Bernays. Especially interesting is how he used the media to puncture the rumor that President Coolidge was “weaned on a pickle” – meaning he was humorless – (begins at about 7 minutes) and his discussion about promoting consuming more bacon for breakfast and smoking among women (begins about 20 minutes).
The Institute for Advertising Ethics published their Principles and Practices for Advertising Ethics. Enough said.
