That's the question posed in this Law.com article.
Author and lawyer Lawrence Savell looks at issues including defamation, copyright and trademark.
"Blog operators need to be alert for situations possibly raising liability issues. Use common sense, use appropriate disclaimers and, if you are not a lawyer, consider legal review. Check your insurance policies to determine if your risks may be covered," Savell recommends.
This person was paid for the photo he submitted - is this ethically sound?
I don't know about you but I'm paying alot of money to learn journalism and this seems like a slap in the face. I would hate to think that I can't get a job because "citizens" are keeping the world informed.
What's old news to you might be new to your readers
It is important to make Web sites easy to use for readers.
"You don't know how readers use your site," Matthew Greenberg, former executive producer of AOL and now an account supervisor at Mindshare Interactive, told students in American University's Interactive Jouranalism class on Saturday.
"You can't control how people use your content," he said. "They're going to read what they want to. They're going to go where they want to."
Making it easy to use a Web site brings readers back, he said.
Tips that Greenberg gave the budding Web journalists included:
Content can have a long shelf-life, except when it doesn't.
What's old news to you might be new to your readers.
Archival cotent can be topical.
But some content starts out old and stays that way.
"Make your Web page one-stop shopping," Greenberg said.
It is also important to tell a story without words because readers don't read entire stories.
"To assume that they are going to read the whole thing is folly," he said. "Pull in content that will expalin the story, even if the reader doesn't 'read' beyond the headline."
Videos, photos or graphics are ways to tell a story without words, he said.
But words are important.
"People scan pages," Greenberg said. "And scanning and skimming are two different things."
Skimming is quickly reading through the whole story, although not every word, he said. Scanning is quickly looking over a page and reading what catches your eye.
To hook readers, words must be focused, concise and clean, Greenberg said. But it's about more than words, it's about formatting.
Other tips included:
Don't use italics, because they are hard to read online
Stay away from foreign words
Use bold type sparingly
Use explanation points sparingly
Think about how the text is going to look once you publish it.
Finally, he said to use the whole page to tell the story.
"That's the beauty of this medium -- you have so many ways to tell your story," he said.
Talk about being honest. I thought it was very forthcoming and truthful. It was refreshing to read about somebody who is embarking on journalism as a new career but to realize that everyone has their own fears and insecurities-whether they are a veteran in the field or just starting out.
The article talks about his deep fear of-people. Or as he puts it “Of talking to them, of asking them nosy questions about their lives. He also said left to his own devices “I’d stay in my room, do nothing and never go out.
I would definitely have to agree that interviewing people and approaching them can be a difficult process-especially if you are shy. Is it possible to be a journalist and be extremely shy I wonder? Cary Tennis who wrote this article states it best “Journalism is irresistible. It is a way to participate in the world that is uniquely fascinating, lively, heroic, intense.” He also writes that he had difficulties and self-doubt through out his career and says to enter into a field or topic that you will enjoy. “One of the first things that comes to mind, if you do want to write, is to try and find a field that does not involve the partisan antagonism of politics, the private tragedies of crime or the hotly tribal warfare of culture and religion,” Tennis said.
So bottom line-enjoy what you do, try and conquer you fears-however difficult and pain-staking a process this may be, and know that everyone in some way shape or form has their own insecurities and doubts no matter how good a journalist they are. Did anybody ever see "BARBARA WALTERS SPECIAL: 30 MISTAKES IN 30 YEARS" Part 2 that aired on Friday, November 17 at 10:00 p.m.????? Walters shared her interviews with world leaders, athletes, musicians and Hollywood icons, chronicling her mistakes and their mistakes. So if Barbara can make a few mistakes here and there, I think it’s safe to say I may make a few along the way, and hey that’s o.k.
A co-worker is reading Ambient Findability by information architect Peter Moreville.
It deals with rapidly changing technology and information overload.He takes a look at information-seeking behavior and the new landscape of "ubitquitous computing."
Questions he poses:
How do you know what to trust when there is so much data available in so many forms? How does all of this influence our decisions?
Does all of this information make us a more literate and informed society?
Does push-pull technology provide us targeted information or constant in-your-face annoyance?
What is the value in virtual realities?
How can we keep consuming device after device?
The book is published by our old friends at O'Reilly. I look forward to reading it.
I believe that ink-on-paper publications are doomed. They cost too much to produce and distribute. The change in the newspaper industry will be driven by two things: cost and technology.
I believe that the newspaper of the future will be an interactive publication that will be delivered for free via broadband (possibly wireless) that will feed e-tablets that will become part of people’s lives in the future. As e-tablets and wireless broadband become more common, publishers will take advantage of the technology to deliver their product.
Instead of the local newsagent throwing the paper over the fence from a car, your e-tablet will upload the latest edition of the newspaper automatically while you are sleeping.
The reader will receive a free newspaper and the publisher will enjoy a huge increase in profit because they will no longer have to pay for ink, paper, printing and distribution.
The reader of the future will be able to select whatever newspaper or magazine they want from a menu, or they will be able to subscribe to daily, weekly or monthly uploads of the files every time that the publication is published. The combination of cost and technology, spurred on by the publishers’ never-ending drive for greater profit, will sign the death warrant of the ink-on-paper publication
I believe that they will be free, because the cover price of any printed publication covers only the distribution cost and in no way reflects the actual production cost.
Remove the entire distribution cost and most of the production cost; and it will be in the interests of both publishers and advertisers to give electronic newspapers and magazines away for free to increase circulation.
As e-tablets become cheaper and cheaper, I will not be surprised if newspaper publishers begin to give them away as part of a subscription package that has a once-only up-front fee to cover the cost of the e-tablet.
I believe that change is both inevitable and desirable. And that's what motivated me to become an Interactive Journalism student.
These are some of the things you need in order to succeed in online publishing, according to the Online Journalism Review. "Don't fall into the traps that have left too many other journalists muttering that 'no one can make money online, '" writes editor Robert Niles. Lots of good, fundamental info here. (via Mediabistro)
I'm glad I opened the email that Wendell sent out the other day, because this article hit really close to home for me.
While my fear of asking questions of strangers doesn't run as deep as this guy's, I do have an extreme aversion to it. It's just who I am - I don't even really like to call and order pizza.
When Amy first sent out the class syllabus and I saw that we were going to have to interview people for an article, I got really bummed. I thought to myself - what the F am I doing in this program? Did I really think I was going to get a journalism degree without having to interview anyone?
The thing is, I do love journalism - I started reading the newspaper regularly when I was about ten years old - and I do think there's a place for me in it somewhere. I admire greatly what Kathy does - but I know I could never do it.
Maybe I'd be good at editing or something. I don't know. Hopefully I'll figure it out before we graduate...if I get that far.
Hugo's Blog on iStockphoto.com pointed out how to use that service for low-price stock images.
Poynteronline explained how to use Flickr for free-to-use photos in their E-Media Tidbits of Monday, December 11.
Our class discussion on the use of photos and videos and copyright laws in the previous class hopefully has informed everyone about the possible consequences of using copyrighted works.
The Poynter Blog, posted by Amy Gahran, shows how to search for Flickr photos that are contributed under the Creative Commons licensing scheme.
Go to the Flickr advanced search page and check the "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed photos" box and then enter your search criteria.
Read the license restrictions carefully.
Most photos require attribution. Some cannot be modified. They cannot be used for commercial purposes.
There are also some pitfalls to watch out for. Several tips for using the photos are listed in the article.
If one is careful to adhere to the Creative Commons license restrictions this would be a good source for free stock photos.
We’ve talked in class about how blogs are a good vehicle for breaking news.
But the mission of the blog I mentioned on the first day of class, apartmenttherapy.com, is “changing the world, one apartment at a time.”
“AT” has been called “quietly addicting” by The New York Times. Its founder, New York City interior designer Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan has been dubbed “part designer, part life coach.”
Fans of HGTV’s Mission: Organization can still catch him sometimes in reruns of the earlier episodes, riding to the rescue on his motor scooter. He is also a commentator on the network’s Small Space, Big Style.
Maxwell believes in analyzing how your home should workfor you and how you can realistically achieve it. It's not merely about organizing or decorating.
Maxwell’s book, the eponymous Apartment Therapy, is the showcase for this ideology, carried out in The Eight-Step Cure.
The Web site has a special Cure blog with reader photos and comments.
Maxwell and his wife Sara Kate, a food writer, also blogged on AT the renovation of their 250 square foot West Village rental apartment in tandem with SKGR’s pregnancy this year. Title: The 9 Month Cure, complete with reader comments thoroughly analyzing MGR and SKGR's financial and family life.
AT shows me that there are real people like me who make things work in tight space with little cash, multiple kitties and no car to go to malls for shopping for the place (but good street pickings).
I've had the opportunity to look into other people's homes with the photos they submit and see how they organized, arranged, how they did things.
To start, there was one site only, for New York City.
The first contests were held. Then a new "sister" site: The Kitchen.
In time the Open Threads and other features with comments often got tense.
And things are now much more entrepeneurial, with sites in LA, San Francisco, and Chicago. T-shirts. More sites are planned.
The increasing volume of posts makes it hard to find specific subtopics under topical threads in the blog format. Many wonder if a forum-style format with user registration would serve the site better than the Open Threads.
AT's growing and changing so fast.
How is multimedia success impacting the core readers? What new markets and niches are still unplowed ground?
Nothing ever stays the same, even in a virtual neighborhood of friends and family. Maybe the expansion and branding will make this community last.
I really hope so -- I love what Maxwell has done for us! And I love looking at those photos and videos!
(Interview with Maxwell: http://www.podcasts2.com/podcasts/060330Ryan.mp3 -- from the WrittenVoices.com site)
For anyone interested in taking a quick crash course or two to supplement this program, you might try News University.
It's a Poynter Institute for Media Studies project, funded by the Knight Foundation, that offers interactive courses for journalists. You have to register for the site, but most of the courses are free and can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours.
Here are a few good classes:
Anatomy of a Newspaper: explores every department of the newspaper, plus gets you acquainted with newsroom vocabulary
Get Me Rewrite: tips on how to improve your writing and rework awkward phrases
What might most interest people in this program is the 2-part Online Project Development that takes you through the multimedia production process using online projects that were finalists for the Online Journalism Awards.
I took a peak at iStockphoto.com recently and discovered that it’s quite the tool. There are a couple of things that I liked:
1 – Quick registration process 2 – Easy-to-use search function
Joining is free and the registration process only requires submitting a unique name and your e-mail address. Agree to their terms and conditions, and then click Sign Up. You’re in.
Searching is simple. To determine how much time a typical user might need to spend searching, I punched in a few random words—apple, door, phone, koala bear, mango.
The results displayed a second later, organized in groups of 10 to 20, with crisp, neat titles beneath them.
Purchasing and uploading photos To purchase a photo, you must purchase a credit package. Each credit costs $1.00, and packages start at $10.00.
You can purchase a photo for one credit, lots of them, and there is a “free image of the week” section where you can actually download more than one royalty-free image.
If you are a photographer, you can upload a photo, which they will sell for you. There is an approval process that you must follow if you do submit one.
Throw away the clip art cds As I got ready to log off, I noticed a banner on the site indicating that their repository has over 1,299,057 photos--I guess we won’t be reaching for the clip art cds any more.
I meant to post this up on the blog last week, as it certainly applies to everything we have been talking about in class. On December 4th, Washington Post Staff Writer Frank Ahrens wrote an article about the Fort Myers News-Press, and how they have been taking steps to become "hyper-local."
They are forgoing the traditional reporters and replacing them with mobile journalists, or what they dub, "mojos." These next generation journalists work out in the field seeking out the latest news and processing the information via a slew of techincal gadgets in the comfort of the front seat of their car.
Gannett is also incorporating searchable databases allowing the reader to do their own investigations. It is "crowdsourcing" techniques like this that are making it easier for citizens to uncover a scandal in the government or an inconsistancy in a company's business practices.
In his blog, he adds some additional changes that didn't make it into his article, but are just as innovative, intriguing and...a bit frightening:
Like some other Gannett papers, the News-Press has "citizen members" of the editorial board. These Regular Joes apply for a one-year term on the paper's editorial board. They do not write editorials, but they influence the paper's stand on issues and they vote on endorsements. The News-Press has three, one of which is a former inmate, four times imprisoned, once for manslaughter. The paper knew this when it appointed him to the board. Now, that's diversity.
Check out either of these articles to read more about the different things Gannett is experimenting with in their papers, making them more geared towards our fast paced lifestyles that come with rapidly changing technology. Ahrens wonders, however, if they are actually becoming to customized for the citizens.
Regardless of whether or not this is true, I think that once you grant the reader the power and the convenience of interactivity, it will be nearly impossible to back away from these new standards. The information flood gates are now open...for good.
While driving through the Court House area in Arlington, Va, during lunch today, I saw a reporter and camera man at the Taco Bell waving down cars that were pulling out of the drive thru.
Of course, my immediate reaction was to stop and join them, and conduct my own interview on the E. coli outbreak that recently took place at some of the Taco Bells in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
It was exciting to see them out there doing their jobs. They were both carrying equipment, moving with both purpose and confidence. I was happy for them, and I hope they got a good story.
I am sure, among other things, that they were trying find out how concerned customers might (or might not) be about the quality of the food, considering the recent incident.
As I came to a stop at the next light signal, though, I couldn't help thinking: instead of standing at the exit, why not the entrance of the drive thru? I mean, come on, don't interview folks about the green onions after they have purchased the burrito meal.
Tom Glocer, CEO of Reuters, posts on his blog a recent speech on trust in the age of citizen journalism. It is relevant for our upcoming discussion Saturday.
This is Paul Leavitt, my USA TODAY colleague and a star of one of the stories in our textbook (check out page 43, in the chapter on interviewing). Paul had no idea his exploits had been immortalized. But when I asked him about it, the story -- as Paul remembers it-- was even better than what was in the book.
Paul said he was frustrated that one of his reporters was unable to get an id on an arrested suspect for a small, three-paragraph, back of the book story. Despite the relative insignificance of the matter, he telephoned one of his own sources to find out why the police weren't giving up the name. "Oh, I don't know what the problem is, Paul," the source said. "I have been too busy with these meetings about the pope's visit."
Moral: It always pays to do the scutwork, no matter how lowly!
Click on the second link, and you'll go to a series of screens where you enter the title of the poll, the questions, etc. At the end, you click "finish" and there's your code!
The National Press Club sent out an email earlier this week advertising a class on "blogging basics" next week. Before mid-afternoon, the Dec. 12 class was fully booked; another has been laid on for Jan. 9. A sign of how many people in the biz are scrambling to keep their resumes up with the fast-changing times. -kathy k
The article mentions that some newspaper staffers have been "blogging so madly that they began to slack on their other responsibilities."
The thing I'm finding with blogs is that I don't want to read most of them. I suppose my standards for wanting to read a blog are the same as for any other writing. Is it informing me? Is it interesting? Is it well-written? Is it funny?
On a side note there was this article in the New York Times recently about a man up in New Brunswick, Canada who was given journalistic credentials by the courts even though he only writes a blog. You may need Times Select membership to read the article. (Yeah, I subscribe to Times Select...you got a problem with it???)
Following up on Kathy's posts (Part I and Part II), the American Journalism Review looks at blogging and the issues it has raised for newspapers.
There are news-driven blogs, but other newspapers appear to have gone overboard. Is it really necessary to have bowling or fly-fishing blogs?
Spokesmanreview.com is a good example of blogging gone wild. They list 33 staff blogs in their "Blog Central" and links to more than I cared to count in a section called Inland Northwest Bloggers. One of those local blogs is The Unbearable Bobness of Being by Bob Salsbury (right) who enjoys carving evil little trolls out of bars of soap.
Right now, newspapers are grappling with blogs. Should they be edited? Should they be opened to readers or just for staff? Should non-staff blogs be held to the same standards as staff blogs?
While there is a rush now by newspapers to set up blogs, the real test will come when the first libel suit is filed.
But in the meantime, Dallas Morning News Editorial Page Editor Keven Ann Willey gave AJR 10 blogging tips including: Go for the quick hit, light touch, witty aside. Attitude required. Don't write anything you wouldn't want your mother to read. Her full list is in the AJR link.
Does anyone really read the advertisements on news Web sites?
I don't, but someone must since many forecasters such as UBS, Fitch and Credit Suisse are predicting flat spending in tradional media advertising and double-digit increase in Internet advertising, according to the New York Times.
I guess the media shouldn't really be alarmed if they are still getting the revenue, just in a different category. But since most newspapers' news hole is based on advertising space, will that lead to smaller daily editions with more new content being produced for the Web?
I hope not. I guess I'm old fashioned and still like to hold my newspaper in my hands. The Web should be a place to get breaking news out or to update stories, but I still believe in the printed word.
In this interview with Mark Cuban, billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, he discusses how he would improve today's sports sections.
Among his suggestions, he would "create gossip columnists for sports, but call them that rather than trying to pass them off as anything other than gossip columnists."
He thinks that readers want to read longer stories about their local teams. Short stories are perfect for online, but "sports sections is where you can go into the nuances of every game at a level the online sites don't."
"It's your job to find things your customers love and can't live without, but they don't know it yet. You never told anyone you needed a cellphone. Until they bought one, you had no idea. Give customers things they had no idea they wanted and couldn't live without."
He would also "do some negative advertising and create discussion and controversy."
My sources tell me he'll be at the Wizards game tonight, probably courtside cheering on his Mavericks. If I wasn't so damn busy blogging...
Since this class began, I've found myself reading news items, particularly how the articles are structured, more critically than in the past, I think, which is a good thing.
The main news section on AOL.com today had this main headline referring to the release of video showing terrorism suspect Jose Padilla:
"'Dirty Bomber' Seen on Video"
I suspect that they used the phrase "dirty bomber" because that's the context for which most people who know him. I also suspect that they used the quote marks to denote that it's what someone, at some point, called him. But is it a good idea to use this phrase in a headline, especially if he's never been tried for being a dirty bomber or, for that matter, is he any longer even being suspected as being a dirty bomber (at least officially)?
There is an interesting article today in washingtonpost.com about Gannett's push toward hyper-local news, emphasis on the web first, and use of "mojos", "crowdsourcing" and other buzz-words we've covered in class.
The article also covers some ethical issues about reporters and "mojos" being used to pitch their news articles to possible sponsors (advertisers).
My thoughts about this article:
If I become a "mojo" I have to buy a bigger car. Typing on a laptop from the cockpit of a Mazda Miata "ain't gonna work".
I'm not sure I like the idea of becoming a marketer for my own news articles. Isn't that what free-lancers do?
I like the idea of expert "crowdsourcing". Using the experience of reader experts makes sense, as long as there is someone to evaluate their competency as "experts".
What do you guys think (especially lurking Gannetters)?
Well, my earlier message of "will be completed shortly" has turned into almost eight hours. Boy the stress of working. Anyway.
When I read this article my first reaction was I'll be d...... I hate being in my car for extended periods of time unless I'm driving to a vacation spot. That being said, I probably wouldn't make a good mobile journalist (mojo).
I would prefer to get an assignment, go to it and return to the office to prepare it. Perhaps I'm old fashioned and don't fully understand the inner workings of a newsroom. I can only speak for what I know, I hate being a car for long periods of time. It's not like arriving early to school and studying for a few extra minutes.
I understand why this shift has occurred but having all of the latest and greatest technology has to cost more than someone having office space. Technology is not cheap and what about repairs to this equipment. What backup system is in place to keep mojos prepared? Not to mention the cost of gas.
News reporting is "footwork" no matter how you slice it. Reporting from behind the desk or in the car, ethical and standardization guidelines should be strictly followed. The reputation of the Fort Myers News-Press is on the line if mojos work requires constant updating because of incorrect information or improper grammar. I'm sure readers would wonder about the accuracy of other articles on the site.
By the way, Michael also has a post on this titled "Article on "Mojos" and Hyper-Local News"
Well, I don’t know if Amy was referring to me when she said “some gritted their teeth” and talked to strange shoppers. I didn’t grit my teeth (I do that when I’m asleep).
I didn’t get lost. I've been shopping this territory for 25 years. I scored myself a Perry Ellis scarf and a gold necklace. These portable purchases helped spark up the reportorial vest and allowed me to appear like I could credibly discuss shopping for clothes and accessories.
I hit the craft fair, the library book sale, the flea market, and the bakery. I got myself invited to a Christmas party, and I ran into my boy kitty’s former foster parents and loved on the pets up for adoption at the Humane Society’s adoption RV.
I also hit a bit of a crunch on my writing time after all of that Holiday Shopping Fun In My Neighborhood.
What I really hit on was the market for local data that Mike Mills told us about. My real interest in this tax-free bit is in the tax policy angle. How sound is this policy? What is the impact on the services that are funded by sales taxes? Isn’t it just a political ploy? Or is there a loss-leader effect of sorts where shoppers snap up taxed items they wouldn’t ordinarily buy?
The time crunch didn't allow for my usual over-exhaustive research in which I'd be waist-deep in the tax code and reading about local business models. But I would like to hear more angles on tax-free days, and I haven't seen much discussion in local popular press, so far.
What is the impact on the business owner? Linda at the consignment store sells only clothes, shoes, and accessories, but what about the merchants who have other products as well? How much do they gain in having to reset their computers to tax some things and not others? Why doesn't anyone report on the small business owner's side of tax-free days?
And, as a media person, I have an important question: why didn’t people know they could’ve bought (some) stuff on Seventh and Eighth Streets tax-free? I’m sure it was in the Hill Rag and The Voice of The Hill. “What about Shop Capitol Hill First”? (Although, I haven’t seen that slogan around lately…)
I had a good time and spent some money in my 'hood, but I'd like to see some analysis done and reported on. And if this IS sound tax policy (I doubt it), I'd like my friends and neighbors to shop the Hill first.
Well, my day at the dog park was interesting. I, too, was unprepared for the crunch to write a good, compelling story by 5 p.m.! I learned you can not take notes, hold a tape recorder and tour a facility with barking dogs in one swell swoop. If I was a guy I would’ve had a shirt pocket for my tape recorder, but what’s a women to do?
I met dogs, lots of dogs. Big dogs, little dogs, cute dogs and big, 120 pound ugly dogs (the Rottweiler).
It was not a kennel, or animal hospital, it’s was a doggy daycare center. Imagine that. The dogs in regular daycare don’t participate in the Saturday Indoor Dog Park activities because 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. is their nap time. They come in the morning, play with their doggy friends, then eat before they are put down for their nap. Afterwards they get ready for afternoon activities. We’re still talking about dogs! It was fun. I learned a lot and may have become somewhat of a dog lover. Some, I’m sure are treated better then, say, us poor college students. Oh, it cost dog owners $33.00 a day for regular dog daycare.
I covered the Humanities Council's Community Heritage Preservation Symposium on Saturday at McKinley High School.
Man did I feel green handling that assignment. It was a great experience for me not having done anything like it before and I fell into the role pretty quickly talking with people during breaks and trying to get background information from the participants.
If I had all the time in the world my final copy would have looked a lot different. But it was a lot of fun, even trying to get in a decent story by deadline.
Sounds like Michael et al had a pretty cool experience, and I agree with Milo that Kathy's blog was a great read on our site. You guys should check out Jeremy's blog of the event as well.
• MapQuest is no substitute for good (ADC is my choice) mapbooks.
I got lost both going to the event and coming home. Hey, I might never have had the opportunity to see, or smell, the D.C. wastewater treatment facility otherwise.
• The truism “The early bird gets the worm” still works.
Two fledgling web journalists (Ken C. and myself) scooped Channel 4 by being there when the incoming police chief, who will make history as the first permanent female D.C chief of police, walked in the door unannounced.
The Channel 4 videographer arrived after the chief-to-be left, so he settled for a brief interview of Enrique Rivera, the coordinator of the event.(Sorry, couldn't find a link to their broadcast on Ch. 4's web site)
I learned two things here as well:
1. Know your subject. Without some help from one of the police officers I wouldn’t have had a clue about her as news of her appointment by Mayor-elect Fenty broke while I was in rural Louisiana (Third World and Proud of It!) far from Wi-Fi or newspaper stands (For more on the Louisiana escapade see my next post on this blog).
2. Keep your voice recorder handy. I wish that I had turned on my voice recorder while Ken and I had her all to ourselves instead of later, when she made her presentation (my notes of the interview with her are barely decipherable).
And, sorry if this is not PC or I’m showing my MCP tendencies but, I might have been flustered by the fact that she’s not bad looking.
• Some knowledge of the language helps if you’re covering a foreign-language event. Especially when the pocket-sized translation receiver you are given is chopping out every fifth word that is being said. At times I just took off the earpiece and mentally tuned into the Spanish, even though I am not fluent.
• Once you get over your innate fear of approaching strangers, most of them are very helpful. All of the police officers present were more than happy to talk about their community-policing efforts, the Mount Pleasant riots, etc., and are very proud of their roots “Soy Puerto Riqueño” (I’m Puerto Rican) – note tiny Puerto Rican flag on the butt of officer’s holstered automatic pistol.
All-in-all, great fun – except for the 5 pm deadline.
I seem to have cluttered up our blog with entries I was supposed to post elsewhere...I had an assignment to blog a DNC event Saturday and assumed I should to this on the class blog.
This just proves how far I have to go to become a truly interactive journalist: It never, ever would have occurred to me to launch my very own blog!
Ignore those entries about Howard Dean! My apologies!!
Can voters get more than a few weeks to pick the next presidential nominees?
That's essentially what's on the agenda at this afternoon's meeting of the national Democratic party's rules committee.
Party officials are talking about creating incentives for states to hold presidential primary elections and caucuses later in the calendar year. The plan would give states that hold their elections in April or later extra delegates at the 2008 Democratic presidential nominating convention.
Right now, a number of big states are talking about holding presidential eliminations sooner rather than later, so that their voters get a chance to have a say in picking the nominees.
"In California, by the time we get to the primary, there's nothing much going on," says Alice Huffman, one of the state's a national committee members. California held its 2004 primary in June, long after Sen. John Kerry wrapped up the party's presidential nomination.
The idea behind the Democrats' incentive system -- which the rules committee voted Saturday to recommend to the full national committee -- is to end a vicious cycle that is basically shrinking the process of selecting presidential nominees down to a few frantic weeks in the winter.
I remember being in Michigan during the 2004 presidential campaign and watching Democratic candidates essentially abandon the state -- the first state in the primary process with a significant industrial base and a significant black population -- because momentum for John Kerry was building so rapidly that Howard Dean decided to make a last stand in Wisconsin.
As a result, the Democratic presidential contest was wrapped up without the candidates ever being forced to debate the problems of Michigan, a state that has suffered huge losses of manufacturing jobs because of outsourcing.
Just got a download from Ben Self, the party's tech director.
In Montana, he said, the party made 10,000 calls into the state to find out who Tester's supporters were and used their consumer marketing criteria to extrapolate "what a Tester supporter looked like." That enabled them to identify the additional supporters they contacted in the Senate campaign.
Self also showed off the Democrats' "party builder," a new online tool that Dean believes is helping the party build support among younger voters.
It combines elements of party organization and facebook and is publicly available at www.democrats.org/partybuilder. Dean says that it's "going to transform how we do politics."
There's an intriguing paradox in the presentation that's being delivered right now to members of the Democratic National Committee, meeting at Washington, DC's Omni Shoreham Hotel:
On the one hand, party strategists such as DNC technology director Ben Self are celebrating the computer and web-based technologies that enabled them to "micro-target" Democratic voters. On the other, successful congressional candidate Nancy Boyda is hailing the use of old fashioned, people to people tactics: like providing lunch for volunteers and buying 16 page newspaper inserts to advertise her views. Dead tree publications! Who knew??
What really seems to be going on is that politicos are figuring out ways to use high technology to make people-to-people contact. Self says that the DNC's microtargeting campaign identified "hundreds" of Democratic voters in Montana's Beaverhead County, a county where there are NO majority Democratic precincts. Statewide, Self estimates the program added more than 15,000 names to Democratic contact lists. Montana Sen.-elect Jon Tester's margin of victory over Republican incumbent Conrad Burns? 2,847.
I'm at the Democratic Executive Committee's executive meeting now and it's a showcase for Howard Dean's strategy of taking the campaign where Democrats have seldom gone before.
As Democratic chairman, Dean pressed to put precious campaign resources in some unlikely places -- a strategy that brought him into conflict with some other party leaders who thought the money should be concentrated in swing congressional districts and Senate seats.
Two candidates who won House districts where Democrats weren't given much of a chance enthusiastically endorsed the Dean strategy: newly elected House members Tim Walz of Minnesota and Nancy Boyd of Kansas.
"Thank you for a vision that I know has been somewhat controversial," said Tim Walz, a newly elected House member from Minnesota. "It was a great use of resources."
To get an idea of what a risky investment it might have seemed to some party strategists, consider this: Walz, a high school geography teacher with no previous political experience, knocked off an entrenched Republican incumbent, Gil Gutknecht. And he's says he's just the second Democrat elected from the district since 1893.
Boyda, who lost her congressional race in 2004 but was successful in this year's comeback bid, credited early help from the Democratic National Committee. She said a committee staff member began working on her campaign full time in August, 2005.
Another interesting note: Boyda says she refused to "go negative" in her ad campaign and -- in sharp contrast with the popular, TV driven sound-bite strategies -- relied on bulky newspaper inserts to get her campaign message across. She believes voters are ready for meatier, more content-rich campaigns. "I think we have reached a tipping point," she says.
It occurred to me that my last post didn't back up my title. I confess I was writing while at work, waiting for a story to be edited. Then had to bolt to meet a friend for dinner before finishing my thought.
One would think I'd have oceans of time to write and think extracurricularly this week with my boys and girls, aka the US Congress, out of town. But noooo! This being the holiday season, our papers are HUGE (more money for me, or more accurately, our shareholders!). Therefore, the editors are squeezing vast quantities of blood out of us turnips....
But I digress....
The point I want to make about the internet is this: While I am enthusiastic about its possibilities, I am also skeptical of my webbies' overenthusiasm. Not only do unedited streams of information pose many possibilities for mischief (some of which I alluded to in my earlier post), but they threaten to fall of their own weight.
Take our own situation as an example: As an interactive journalism student, I now regularly have to check: 1) my AU email account; 2) a blackboard account, and 3) a blog. This in addition to my work email account and a Yahoo account that I had to set up for reasons I won't bore you with here. Plus all the other reading I do as a semi-competent citizen of the world. And every now and then I like to sneak in an actual novel.
How many average people, who aren't information queers, who have lives to live and kids to raise, meals to prepare and jobs to do, have time for all this??
This is why I think there will ALWAYS be a place for gatekeepers in journalism, whether it be the dead-tree variety or the kind consumed in electrons. People want a place they can go for RELIABLE and CONCISE summaries of what's going on in their world. The internet will give them more choices, for which I say, bravo. But gatekeeping will remain a steady and necessary and honorable profession. That's my crotchety MSM prediction.
