September 12, 2002

11:12 AM

I guess the media does have some good qualities after all. Yesterday was 9/11. Much of the media spend the day remembering what took place a year ago. A local pop radio station here in Pittsburgh B94 did something a little different. Yes they did the remembering but they also did something that went along the lines of "going about our business". They organized a little something called Operation Jumpstart Pittsburgh. They collected faxed and emailed resumes and hooked people up with companies that were hiring on the spot. It's nice to see the media doing something constructive for a change. I just wonder if anyone else might have some information about things that media outlets in other cities might have done like this.
posted by whirlwind29 (5 comments total)

Whoa, that radio station's website is harsh on the eyes...
posted by FiveFrozenFish at 11:24 AM on September 12, 2002

Nice post. Don't know of anything like this that happened in San Diego but I generally avoid TV and radio news for all the usual reasons. More projects like this would probably bring me back into the fold.
posted by keithl at 11:28 AM on September 12, 2002

Off topic: I know I've said this before, on a different thread, but "the media" is not a monolithic force. "Media" is a plural noun. B94 is part of the media. So is CNN, Fox News, the New York Times, Yahoo, the Nation, the National Review, the Telegraph, Drudge Report, Asahi Shimbun, Newsmax, Reuters, NPR, and yes, even Metafilter.

What I'm trying to get at is that ascribing a particular quality or viewpoint to "the media" strikes me as overly simplistic. When I see a comment like It's nice to see the media doing something constructive for a change , to me it seems way too reductionist and smacks of preconceived notions.

[/soapbox]
posted by Vidiot at 12:31 PM on September 12, 2002

Good qualities after all? Yeah, I guess that bit where they warn me of rainstorms, tell me what the city council and federal government are doing with my money, and let me know (because nobody else will) that the grocery store on the way home had two armed robberies in the last week -- nah, that stuff doesn't count.

Yes, Wednesday was a day devoted mainly to glurge, but presumptively they thought, lowest-common-denominator, that was all they could get away with, lest their mailroom be inundated. Such is life.

And constructive it may be, but job fairs are a dime a dozen around Chicago; some of them sponsored by "the meja". It's just a little unusual for a radio station to do it. So, pulling hail mary to get back on topic, it's a man bites dog story, is all.
posted by dhartung at 12:40 PM on September 12, 2002

whirlwind29, maybe you are thinking of Civic Journalism. Here is a list of examples.
posted by todd at 5:40 PM on September 12, 2002