Here’s a post that will fill you in on the audio slideshow phenomenon. The rise of the genre is due in part to Soundslides, the easy software that enables creation of slideshows without a lot of complicated Flash programming. I think it’s a tremendous form for storytelling.
Columbia is one of the nation’s premier journalism schools, so when they make a pronouncement, people elsewhere sit up and listen. Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia J-school, has a provocative idea: Journalism schools, he says, should help take up the slack caused by the decline of the news-media business. Lemann says J-schools can incubate new forms of Web storytelling because they are insulated from the ups and downs of the market and have lots of students who are eager to try new things. Sounds good to me, though I’d be skeptical of the notion that J-schools can ever “replace” the kind of reporting that should be done by highly experienced professionals. Take a look at Columbia’s online projects and see what you think. I think it’s a pretty impressive portfolio.
Jim Romenesko (Credit: Portfolio.com)
Yeah, I know, the world is full of bloggers, and many of those bloggers are full of you-know-what. But if you rely on just one person to know what is happening in the news media business, you should rely on Jim Romenesko. Romenesko writes for the Poynter Institute, a journalism training organization in St. Petersburg, Fla. (Romenesko lives in the Chicago area.) Go to www.poynter.org and click on “Romenesko.” By the way, Romenesko got his start in Wisconsin: He went to school at Marquette, worked for The Milwaukee Journal and then was an editor at Milwaukee Magazine before he discovered blogging and all sorts of weird stuff. Caution: Sometimes people leak memos or rumors to Romenesko just to gauge public reaction, so some of the stuff he writes about doesn’t come to pass. But that’s not much different from the role print reporters often have. By the way, you can get Romenesko on Twitter. He tweets maybe a dozen times a day, usually with something interesting. If you’re concerned about the future of the media business, Romenesko is a good daily briefing for you.
We all know that the “watchdog” role — keeping citizens informed and keeping government accountable — is the most important thing the news media do. We know, too, that reporters are having trouble filling that role as the news business disintegrates and newsrooms are decimated by layoffs. Does that mean that government should step in and help pay for the watchdogs? Two prominent voices are saying yes. Leonard Downie is the former executive editor at The Washington Post. Michael Schudson is a Columbia University journalism professor and media historian. Their report in the Columbia Journalism Review suggests, for example, that the Federal Communications Commission could collect fees on phone usage, then funnel the money to local journalism councils that would underwrite reporting projects.
Yow … why does this make me feel a little creeped out? The government paying for its own watchdogs? Yet, as the authors point out, some of the best journalism in the country is being done at National Public Radio, which has been receiving federal money for decades (although the majority of its budget comes from private foundations and listener donations).
How do you feel about this? Is it a great thing? Is it a necessary evil? Is it something worse?
Everyone’s in a lather about the possibility of a tablet computer and related software and services from Apple. Will this change the world? Will it be to the news business what the iPod and iTunes were to the music business? Or will it be like the Segway, which was supposed to shake the universe but instead ended up with a supporting role in “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”? Gee, I don’t know. But it’s kind of fun to watch the feeding frenzy every time a crumb of speculation is tossed out. What do you think?
Here’s an issue that plagues online news sites: The Internet tends to attract narcissistic fools who love to rant and rave in the “comment” section of news stories. Are they scaring away the rational, thoughtful people? Probably. What to do about it? The New York Times (which has a large staff dedicated to Internet news) edits the comments and presents the dozen or so most interesting on each story (though you can still read the unfiltered ones, if you like). The Cleveland Plain Dealer is trying to rein in the racism, sexism and other incivility on its site. John Kroll, an old newspaper friend of mine (we were best men at each other’s weddings some 20 years ago) is in charge of the effort. Read about it here and let me know what you think. Be nice, now!
As we move into audio, I want to make sure we can post our Webhawk News audio stories to our blogs. Here’s a test: Media Notes 12-31-2008
Washington Post-Newsweek Interactive is moving its operations from Arlington, Va., to the Post newsroom in downtown D.C. Newspapers have a history of locating their Web operations down some dark hallway — but the Post, which employs a couple hundred people in its online outpost, did so in a big way. The move makes sense to me. Great news minds — and the Post has lots of them — work better when they all percolate together in one place.
The newspaper business has not yet hit bottom, according to this article. The question now is, will the newspaper business eventually stabilize at a lower level of revenue and profit — or is it simply doomed?
This is Mr. Jones’ news video. We’ll critique it Wednesday in class. What do you think?