Wrestling with Diane Arbus "She set up no lights, just pulled out her Rolleiflex, which was half as big as she was, checked the aperture and the exposure, and tested the flash. Then she asked me to lie on the bed, flat on my back on the shabby counterpane.
I did as I was told. Clutching the camera she climbed on to the bed and straddled me, moving up until she was kneeling with a knee on both sides of my chest. She held the Rolleiflex at waist height with the lens right in my face. She bent her head to look through the viewfinder on top of the camera, and waited".
posted by matteo
on Oct 8, 2005 -
25 comments
Scientific American to stop reporting science, more creationism. There's no easy way to admit this. For years, helpful letter writers told us to stick to science. They pointed out that science and politics don't mix. They said we should be more balanced in our presentation of such issues as creationism, missile defense and global warming...But spring is in the air, and all of nature is turning over a new leaf, so there's no better time to say: you were right, and we were wrong.
posted by mr.curmudgeon
on Mar 25, 2005 -
208 comments
State of the Media Report 2004 by
journalism.org, which seeks to improve news coverage in a more neutral fashion than those who cry bias from the left and right. The group offers advice for
average citizens and
others. The report focuses mainly on US media and identifies
eight trends.
The content analyses finds that
newspapers have more lifestyle news than in the past, but less government and foreign affairs, even with wars abroad. More front page articles about issues, less on crime and disasters.
Network news was heavy on foreign affairs, government, accidents, disaster, crime and health care. The
cable networks had a lot of politics and Iraq stuff, but also a lot more celebrity/entertainment/lifestyle stuff than the big four.
Local TV news treats crime as topic A.
The
magazine audience is aging, and total pages are declining, but some, like The Economist and the New Yorker, have found success in niches.
Internet journalism is "still largely material from old media rather than something original." And it's still text-y. But it is clearly the
future of journalism. But don't pronounce the dinosaurs dead yet. Radio once ruled, and in a way it still does: 94 percent still tune in to
radio news at least once a week.
posted by Slagman
on Apr 1, 2004 -
7 comments
Life Is A Magazine, Chum... Come to the Magazine! A lot of us grew up with
Life Magazine and there's a certain nostalgic/narcissistic pleasure in looking at the cover of the
week you (if you're over 30, that is) or your parents were born in. Their
wacky and
classic covers are also worth checking out, even though there are some inevitable repeats. Oh - and never forgetting their astonishing
classic photographs, of course.
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Aug 9, 2002 -
18 comments
(Note to young sportswriters: Always make your steroid question your last question.) Sports Illustrated Übercolumnist Rick Reilly asks Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa if he would be willing to undergo a test for steroids. After all, Sosa has said he would be "first in line" if baseball required tests for steroids. Reilly asks, "Well, why wait? Why not step up right now and be tested? You show everybody you're clean."
Sosa chuckles ruefully, pats Reilly on the back, and replies, "No, sir, that would weaken the player's union, and besides, your question is quite inappropriate."
Just kidding. Actually, Sosa yells and screams. His answer includes the word "motherfucker." "You're not my father," he tells Reilly.
Journalists writing to the
letters page of Jim Romenesko's Media News disagree on the appropriateness of Reilly's request.
posted by Holden
on Jul 3, 2002 -
29 comments
I mourned Sassy, too! "Darren E. Burrows is to Keanu, as Samantha Mathis is to Winona Ryder, as Joan Collins is to Elizabeth Taylor, as Jason Priestley is to johnny Depp, as Luke Perry is to James Dean, as Caludia Schiffer is to Brigette Bardot, as Bill Clinton is to JFK, as YM is to Sassy." --Christina Kelly,in her "What Now" column, Sassy, May 1992. And wouldn't you know it,
she's now the editor-in-chief of YM. (Yes, I know this post won't make sense to anyone who wasn't a teenage girl in the early '90s.)
posted by lillitot
on Mar 24, 2002 -
23 comments
Creem Magazine is back. After an 8-year hiatus, the classic rock rag that launched the career of editor/author/Springsteen-worshipper
Dave Marsh, elevated
Lester Bangs to rockcrit boddhisatva status, and introduced me to the Velvet Underground and the Stooges is online and ready to roll the presses once more. Will they give a much-needed kick in the ass to a moribund field of journalism, or are they a bunch of old hippies cynically cashing in on Cameron Crowe's
Almost Famous vibe? Don't forget to dig the
scanned covers. Boy Howdy!
posted by MrBaliHai
on Nov 29, 2001 -
10 comments
Wired No More The assimilation of Wired.com into the Lycos empire is complete. And www.wirednews.com also goes to the Lycos music front page. How long before it gets shifted to a Tripod member page?
posted by holgate
on Apr 25, 2000 -
2 comments
