MetaFilter posts tagged with Journalism

Human Relations in the new millenium

minimii — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 08:20:17 -0800

If you're going to kill off an entire section of a newspaper and fire all of the staffers who work there, it's probably a good idea to get the Twitter password first. The free market has spoken, and it apparently says that Republicans don't like sports. The spin from The Unification Church (and its adherents in the comments). The Moonies are not alone: Many other papers have shrunk the size of the newsprint, cut staff and sections in an effort to lower costs. The ongoing question is what newspapers will look like in five years. One take:Nonprofit, primarily local news and information, and mostly online with strong Sunday paper editions. Another, more practical approach, perhaps: Bookies.

"Jesus Day" in Baghdad

ibmcginty — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:39:20 -0800

"Jesus Day" in Baghdad.

Inconceivable!

bardic — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:34:15 -0800

WANTED: EDITOR OF A SUCCESSFUL LIB-LEANING BLOG AND NEWS ORGANIZATION LOOKS TO HIRE A PUBLISHER. Say what you will about the relative merits of Talking Points Memo or whether or not it's the triumphant example of why we don't need "real" newspapers or journalists any longer (previously on Mefi [1] [2]), but it does seem we've turned a corner (or perhaps jumped the shark?) when editors hire publishers instead of the other way around.

Draw it as you see it.

adamvasco — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:36:17 -0800

Joe Sacco is a political journalist. His medium is the comic. He gave a talk last march at the Walker Art Centre where he also answers questions. Talk starts 07.50 after introductions. (wiki previous 1, II ) For those like myself who until recently were not aware of Joe Sacco; Here is an interview from a few years back and here an interview published last weekend.

A Tale of Two Cities

HumanComplex — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:54:09 -0800

Crime: A Tale of Two Cities. When "The Wire" gained popularity in Great Britain, we were contacted by a London-based journalist who proposed a job swap. Mark Hughes, a crime reporter with The Independent, a national newspaper in the United Kingdom, wanted to come to Baltimore to see if the city’s police officers, drug dealers, prosecutors and politicians bore any resemblance to those on show. We agreed to complete the exchange by sending our police reporter, Justin Fenton, to London to compare crime trends. Articles from The Independent: Mark Hughes in Baltimore: Just minutes after I arrived, I was at the scene of a shooting ... 189 homicides this year – this is The Wire, only real The trials of 'Baltimore's Boris'' Wire' star joins real fight against crime Justin Fenton in London: The sound of fireworks reminds me of home 'Disputes are pettier than in Baltimore' Britain's use of DNA is light years ahead Keeping children out of the gangs' clutches Readers from both sides of the pond react to the story.

Satire as Journalism

filthy light thief — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:51:40 -0800

Satire has long been part of discourse, with written records going back to the Ramesside Period of Ancient Egypt, and two primary classifications of satire originate with the Roman satirists Horace and Juvenal. Other notable historic figures have also been authors of significant satire, but not always with much appreciation. News satire furthers the awkward stance with public, as the public may read satire as an outrageous truth, and be angered instead of amused. The Daily Show, and Jon Stewart in specific, ranks well in the fractured world of current news programming, and the show was noted in the New York Times as "a genuine cultural and political force" (previously), but you don't have take their word for it. Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism studied the content of The Daily Show for an entire year (2007), providing interesting (if slightly dated) details on the show. That year included their much-viewed coverage fo the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. And in poll results published July 24, 2009, Jon Stewart was voted America's most trusted newscaster, apparently filling the position previously held by Walter Cronkite. But is it because Stewart is one of the few journalists willing to ask the hard questions or has America been won over by "cheap laughs"?

The Price of Sex: Women Speak

autoclavicle — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:56:41 -0800

The Price of Sex: Women Speak Since the collapse of communism in 1989, millions of former Soviet bloc residents have migrated abroad, looking for opportunities. These waves of migration breathed life into one of the oldest yet darkest criminal enterprises--the trafficking of human beings into sexual slavery. Hundreds of thousands of Eastern European women have been sold into prostitution. Photojournalist Mimi Chakarova, a Bulgarian who immigrated to the United States in 1990, has documented their journeys from villages in Moldova to the streets of Turkey and nightclubs in Dubai--where prostitution is an equation of supply, demand and desperation.

Two-fisted journalism

Methylviolet — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:11:32 -0800

A fist fight in the Washington Post newsroom inspires this reaction from MeFi f a v o r ite Gene Weingarten: Hooray.

From Der Spiegel: Should U.S. Newspapers Get State Aid?

jason's_planet — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:05:08 -0800

The Downie/Schudson Report, as it's widely called, is cautiously optimistic that journalism will survive, but doesn't beat around the bush. It urges a number of fairly radical, controversial suggestions on how to reinvent the news media without killing "accountability journalism," that critical, dirt-digging, power-questioning but expensive journalism America is famous for.

Fox "upset-the-White-House-won't-call-it" News

ADoubtfulTrout — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:34:57 -0800

Fox News's bent on the news is well known, but recently the White House has begun actively excluding the network, including skipping Fox's Chris Wallace on a recent round of Sunday morning news shows. “We simply decided to stop abiding by the fiction ... that Fox is a traditional news organization.” says White House Depty Communications Director Pfeiffer (as has Press Secretary Gibbs and others). The responses range from concern about an attempt to control the media to a feeling that it's about time. Is it just about Fox's anti-Obama pundits, or is it also about Fox's consistent errors and misinformed viewership? Or is the White House attempting containment so that Fox's ratings-gold style and ideas don't take over the rest of the press?

How To Save Media

reenum — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:56:09 -0800

How To Save Media Jason Ponti from Technology Review offers some suggestions as to how traditional print publishers might save themselves from becoming irrelevant.

"He was wearing his gun . . . going off on a screaming tirade, throwing his arms everywhere".

IvoShandor — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:38:17 -0800

When Northern Illinois University entered the national spotlight it was for tragic reasons. One of the university's public faces during the tragedy was University Police Department Chief Donald Grady. Now, the university is conducting a performance review of the chief after he spent three hours berating, yelling at, and trying to bribe a student journalist with a job at the university in exchange for favorable coverage. Grady is no stranger to controversy. Always seen as tough, he's been to Iraq, he even has a small Facebook fan club. He's always had a tenuous relationship with the local media and other local police departments. He's a life-long police officer who has left other jobs in controversy. Even while first responders were praised for their reaction to the NIU shooting some of Grady's decisions were criticized. This summer, NIU hired former Chicago police officer and Colorado State University police chief Dexter Yarbrough. Yarbrough resigned the CSU position after making controversial comments about the nature of the Chicago PD and under the cloud of a sexual harassment scandal. in March 2009. After he came to NIU, questions were raised about his hiring. In July, just days after he was hired, Yarbrough resigned his new patrol position at NIU. The Northern Star, NIU's student newspaper called for Grady's resignation in a strongly worded editorial October 8, which suggested the Yarbrough scandal pierced Grady's "seemingly impenetrable armor" and was "the fatal blow to Grady’s psyche".

The blue state Sarah Palin

IvoShandor — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:01:56 -0800

Michelle Cottle takes a look at the rise of Betsy "Death Panels" McCaughey - No Exit: The never-ending lunacy of Betsy McCaughey: Since her earliest days in the spotlight, McCaughey has presented herself as a just-the-facts-please, above-the-fray political outsider. In reality, she has proved devastatingly adept at manipulating charts and stats to suit her ideological (and personal) ambitions. No stranger to falsehoods Elizabeth "Betsy" McCaughey, played a pivotal role in the takedown of the Clinton health care reform plan in 1994, on the very same pages that Cottle's piece appeared on October 5. The assertions she made in that '94 piece were shown to have been heavily influenced by Big Tobacco in a recent Rolling Stone piece (excerpt only), and were debunked far too late by James Fallows. McCaughey responded to those accusations by attacking Rolling Stone for accepting tobacco advertisements. The RS journalist responded in kind, pointing out, among other items, a thank-you letter to The Tobacco Institute for their help in getting the Pataki/McCaughey ticket elected in New York's 1994 gubernatorial race. (Previously)

Eric Schmidt on journalism and the future of newspapers

reenum — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:20:05 -0800

Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave a talk at the Newspaper Association of America convention on April 9, 2009 in San Diego. He speaks about how Google and newspapers might co-exist in the future. Here is a transcript of Schmidt's April talk. Schmidt also spoke at length with Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land recently about Google's responsibility to newspapers.

Right place, right time

desjardins — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:53:19 -0800

Photographer captures citizens' arrest of alleged purse-snatcher (video, slight graphic violence)

Welcome to the jungle

pjenks — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 07:51:38 -0800

One hamburger sent a 23 year-old woman into a coma for nine weeks. When she awoke, she could no longer walk. A lengthy expose in the NYTimes follows the secretive chain of events bringing E. coli into her life. Contemporary carnivores read at your own risk... The author, a modern-day Upton Sinclair, seems to have been on the food beat as of late.

Crime Time

dances_with_sneetches — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:28:03 -0800

The 2009 anthology of The Best American Crime Reporting is out. Each year this series collects examples of exceptional and diverse true crime journalism. Many of the entries are available in their online magazines. Starting with "Dan P. Lee, Body Snatchers - Philadelphia magazine" (part of the story previously discussed here), a ghoulish tale of stolen corpses and the market behind him. Continuing with the sad life of a spree killer: Mark Boal, Everyone Will Remember Me as Some Sort of Monster - Rolling Stone A pathological spree of consumerism is recounted in Sabrina Rubin Erdely's, The Fabulous Fraudulent Life of Jocelyn and Ed - Rolling Stone. A surgeon recalls The Day Kennedy Died - Michael J. Mooney, D Magazine. Charles Bowden writes about drug wars in Mexico's Red Days - GQ magazine A hate crime or not a hate crime? R. Scott Moxley, Hate and Death - OC Weekly. A hedge fund trader is found floating face down in his swimming pool in Stephen Rodrick, Dead Man's Float - New York magazine. Hanna Rosin's, American Murder Mystery previously discussed here - The Atlantic. Not generally available, but in The New Yorker archives for subscribers, Calvin Trillin, The Color of Blood - The New Yorker John Colapinto, Stop, Thief! - The New Yorker David Grann, True Crime - New Yorker (recommended) Alec Wilkinson, Non-Lethal Force - The New Yorker And finally, only available in the book: Matt McAllester, Tribal Wars - Details Mark Arax, The Zankou Chicken Murders - Los Angeles magazine L. Jon Wertheim, Breaking the Bank - Sports Illustrated Enjoy.

John McPhee

Joe Beese — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:37:02 -0800

John McPhee writes about basketball, headmasters, oranges, tennis, hybrid airships, nuclear weapons, bark canoes, Alaska, the Swiss Army, the merchant marines, dissident Soviet artists, shad, long-distance trucking, and - Pulitzer Prize-winningly - geology (282kb PDF). He discusses his work here. Previously in the blue: his writings on the Army Corps of Engineers' history of attempts to control the Mississippi River and the aftermath of Los Angeles area wildfires.

Tehran Bureau

homunculus — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:03:36 -0800

Tehran Bureau, the independent Iran news website which became indispensable during the post-election protests in June, has found a new home at PBS's Frontline, which is taking them under its wing by financing and hosting the Web site and providing editorial support. [Via]

Modern journalism: Only rich kids need apply.

shetterly — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:23:27 -0800

The Costs of Becoming a Journalist: "Journalists born since 1970 predominantly come from middle class to upper middle class backgrounds. And Journalism ranks third in the list of the most socially exclusive professions, just behind doctors and lawyers." One reason: "a prerequisite for entrance into a career in journalism is at least one internship experience, and ... many, if not most, are unpaid." For some of the problems with unpaid internship: Take This Internship and Shove It

The Terrorist Within

reenum — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:32:10 -0800

The Terrorist Within is an in-depth look at the story of Ahmed Ressam. There's an interesting look at the lives of Ressam and other would-be jihadis and the way the authorities dealt with the information obtained about Ressam's activities.

The futurity of science journalism?

albrecht — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:04:34 -0800

In response to the declining quantity and quality of science journalism in U.S., a group of 35 universities have created their own online wire service called Futurity.org to distribute research results directly to news sites like Yahoo and Google News. The hope is that this new model of science journalism can avoid the budgetary and "equal time" issues that newspapers face, which have contributed to Americans being less informed about science issues than people in other Western countries.

Journalism - ethics + activism = propaganda

IvoShandor — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:21:42 -0800

Mark Bowden tells us "The Story Behind the Story" in the October issue of The Atlantic: "With journalists being laid off in droves, ideologues have stepped forward to provide the “reporting” that feeds the 24-hour news cycle. The collapse of journalism means that the quest for information has been superseded by the quest for ammunition. A case-study of our post-journalistic age." Related, from The Atlantic archives: The Massless Media by William Powers, January/February 2005. The recent stories about ACORN have similar implications.

Long Form Journalism on Secret London, Murder Ballads, and other topics of interest

filthy light thief — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:17:36 -0800

What do Cliff Edwards (1928), Lloyd Price (circa 1959), The Rulers (1967), R.L. Burnside (late 1980s/ early 1990s), Grateful Dead (live in 1993), and Nick Cave (live in 1996) have in common? If nothing else, they all sang some variation of the crime of Lee Shelton, also known as Stack O'Lee, Stagolee, Stack-a-Lee , Stackerlee, Stagger Lee and other names, with as many variations in the details of that fateful night. Join MeFite Paul Slade with his journalistic narrations of murder ballads, tales of Secret London (previously), and other works of long-form journalism (which may or may not be ideal for the web, previously). [via mefi projects; more clips and bits inside] Of the three murder ballads currently covered on PlanetSlade, Stagger Lee is the most commonly covered, with some counts tallying tributes by more than 400 different artists. The version of Stagger Lee by Lloyd Price (then and now) is apparently the most common version to start from, with covers by Ike and Tina, Isley Brothers, Wilson Picket, Bob Lumen, Tommy Quickly (wiki), and Huey Lewis And The News, P.J. Proby (wiki), amongst others. Burnside's version, from the 2001 compilation of of tunes and interviews, recorded between 1986 and 1993, called Well...Well...Well (perhaps named for his filler phrase), was covered by Samuel L. Jackson in Black Snake Moan. More fun with Stack-o-Lee: how to play a version by Mississippi John Hurt. Yet another version was performed by The Rulers, entitled Wrong Emboyo, from 1967 on a Jamaican single on the Sir JJ label, UK single (Rio R 132) with Why Don't You Change on the b-side, 1967, produced by JJ Johnson. This song was covered by The Clash on their 1979 album London Calling, with the song re-titled as "Wrong 'em Boyo." Versions of this song have also been titled "Wrong Embryo." For further deconstruction of the song, check The Stagger Lee Files (moving from geocities, which was covered previously). Frankie and Johnny may be behind Stack-o-Lee/ Stagger Lee in the count of covers (wikipedia states "at least 265 versions") but the tale that started before Allen Britt was dead lives on, from the movie of the same name featuring Elvis and Donna Douglas to Lindsay Lohan as Lola Johnson from A Prairie Home Companion (the movie), as well as Johnny Cash (once or twice), Chet Atkins, Dr. John, and more, with 10 versions of the lyrics at Bluegrass Messengers. Going way back, here is Frank Crumit's version from 1927. Knoxville Girl is the story that goes beyond the shores of the United States, and before there were states to unite, though it has found a home in relatively modern country music. Hear "a confession sung in the first person" from Arthur Tanner and His Corn Shuckers, recorded in 1927; The Louvin Brothers in years past, and recently performed by Charlie Louvin and friends (along with further write-up on the ballad and the performers). Also: Wilburn Brothers, Jim and Jesse in 1976, and Nick Cave.

mapping the recession

kliuless — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 06:00:37 -0800

Recession Road Trip
Similar to Andrew Sullivan's Views From Your Recession & Sickbed, Christina Davidson has been touring across the country collecting and documenting individuals' tales of how the recession is affecting them, such as in Full Grown Boy Lost, in Las Vegas.