200 Transformational Moments

In a recent article at Poynter Online, Bill Mitchell writes about "200 Moments that Transformed Journalism," as compiled by David Shedden, Poynter Library director.

Shedden selected 200 moments that occurred in the years 2000 through 2009, using the New Media Timeline; a resource he created and has maintained to track the evolution of news since the invention of the Internet in 1969.

As Mitchell said in his article, "there's often no way to tell, in the moment, whether any given development signals a passing fancy, a seed of destruction or a glimpse of tomorrow. But there's nothing like a little hindsight to provide some context."

"Not all of Shedden's 200 moments are as consequential as his first entry for the year 2000 -- the acquisition of the Time Warner media empire by that once feisty startup known as America Online."

It's an interesting list and I have to agree with Mitchell. Some selections, "seemed to have little to do with the news at the time," but you be the judge. Take a look and see what you think. At the very least, it will provide some interesting conversation around the office water cooler!

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Halt Opinion-Hurling Journalism

Today's Poynter Online, features an article about a speech given recently by Pulitzer Prize winner Ellen Goodman. It took place at Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism, in celebration of the winners and finalists for the J. Anthony Lukas book prizes.

In her speech, Goodman commended the writers for
their "work against the very strong tide of the times, against food fight journalism. We live in an era of opinion hurling, where there are villains and heroes. Everything is required to be far more simplistic than the problems we face."

I say, "Bravo!" to Ms. Goodman. In this age of "Faux" News and others, I find her perspective very refreshing.

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8 Ways for Journalists to be in Business

Recently on the site Poynter Online, Steve Myers wrote a post dealing with ways that a Journalist can be more like a businessperson. He said that being a entrepreneurial journalist is more than a check and a good idea.

1.) Unfortunately, cash does make a difference. Assuming invoices are paid on time, your income statement will show how much cash a business will have.

2.)Watch for the quickness in paychecks. Focus is mainly on the contracts but actually it should be more on the paycheck. You must make sure you are paid as fast as possible.

3.) Complementing Revenue streams. There needs to be a well balance of multiple ways that revenue is created and a variety of options.

4.) Knowledgeable in pro and cons of Revenues. Advertisement is crucial but risky. You will not receive payment till after you provide your service.

5.) Be open. Don't limit yourself to what your core is. Branch out and do a variety in the field.

6.) Increase advertising with certain networks. Google is great for your ads. They are able to pinpoint your to those who would care about it.

7.) Never stress over the site. Meet your goals and target audience. If the hyper local site is outside the area, you are not reaching your target audience.

8.) Page views are unequal. The further you get with the site the more opportunities that are given. Let ones that register and subscribe receive more access than those of visiting the site.

While this is mostly on business, i still think that it is good for a journalist to keep in mind.

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Poynter Points to FCC to Stop Media Crisis

Remarks at today's FCC workshop should be of interest to fellow BNR students.

In remarks made in her testimony at today's FCC workshop, Karen Dunlap, President of Poynter Institute said that cross-ownership of media wasn't the immediate crisis. Whearas she urged the FCC to keep watch to insure that relaxing cross-ownership rules wouldn't affect independent, local and community provided news, she urged them to consider a wider issue.

She is concerned about the media transformation, anyone can have a megaphone now. She quotes Michael Smith, executive director of Northwestern University's Media Management Center. Who said to a group at the Newspaper Association of America meeting that "an eight-year old –- let's say an affluent eight-year-old -- has more publishing power in her bedroom today than publishers in 1999."

The FCC is concerned about owners of mass media and the power they hold; but mass media now shares the stage with the masses. And the FCC should also be concerned about that; because "Almost anyone can post almost anything to friends, a community or the world. Drawing an audience, of course, is another matter, as is the matter of producing news and information that is of value to society. The megaphone simply speaks to the means of commanding attention, of gaining influence."

She also discussed declining audiences of all traditional news media, people are selective in where they are getting thier news. She mentions the decline and loss of jobs in the newspaper industry, newsrooms, news magazines and the loss of ad revenue. "The decline was greater for journalists of color." according to Dunlap.

Dunlap told the FCC, "The problems that I have outlined are a threat to an informed democracy. We are seeing the deterioration of informed civic discourse as we drown in information, opinions, debates, half-truths and lies."

She encourges the FCC to consider their role in insuring an informed population.

She urged the FCC to:
1. Assist local communities to make sure daily, local, national and international news gets to them - using public funding, government, foundations and citizen contributions.
2. Promote diversity in the field of journalism.
3. Take a stand against hate speech and raise the "level of exchanges to stop the civic discourse."

This article addressed similar issues we discussed from the speeches of McChesney and Nichols and emphasizes the amount of concern there must be out there, particularly by academics. I hope the FCC can take some action that doesn't trample on First Amendment rights and yet makes sure we can sustain journalistic integrity within the newsrooms. And I hope they can save jobs and make sure that local communities continue to have news service.

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Media Reporting Finalists Announced

According to an article on Poynter Online, Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications has selected finalists in seven categories in the fourth annual Mirror Awards. The competition received nearly 200 entries.

"Those of us who served as judges were impressed by the depth and variety of entries," says Joel Kaplan, associate dean in the Newhouse School, a member of the Mirror Awards Advisory Committee and a first tier judge. “While traditional journalism outlets like Vanity Fair and The New York Times continue to hold a mirror to their media colleagues, they have been joined by such content providers as 5280 magazine in Denver, Politco.com, Philadelphia Magazine and Financial Times.”

Finalists in the following categories are chosen by a group of journalists and journalism educators:

• Best Single Article—Traditional Media
  
• Best Single Article—Digital Media
  
• Best Profile—Traditional Media
  
• Best Profile—Digital Media
  
• Best Commentary—Traditional Media
  
• Best Commentary—Digital Media
  
• Best In-depth Piece—Traditional Media

The winners will celebrate at a luncheon and ceremony on Thursday, June 10, from 11:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at The Plaza Hotel, Fifth Avenue at Central Park South, New York City, with Katie Couric serving as emcee and Lorraine E. Branham, dean of the Newshouse School, serving as event host.

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AP Stylebook Changes

There's a fun article at Poynter Online which is very timely for us "BNR" students. It talks about recent changes made to the AP Stylebook at the American Copy Editors Society (ACES) conference last Friday afternoon.

When the AP Stylebook announced via Twitter that it was changing the style for "Web site" to "website," some users let out shouts of praise: "Finally!" "Yes!" "Yeeha!"

The reactions aren't surprising given how many people have asked AP to change the style from two words to one word, arguing "Web site" is an antiquated way of writing it.

The 2010 AP Stylebook comes out next month.

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'Web site' Will Officailly Become 'Website'

AP Stylebook announced that in its 2010 edition "Web site" will now be one word "website". This announcement has met approval and rejection. For many up-and-coming journalist, the change is welcomed due to the much more common use of "website" in the English language.

Many editors believe that the change will cause great confusion and disrupt work in the newsroom. This may be true considering that "Web site" is might not be the only thing being changed in the 2010 Stylebook.

According to Poynter Online, AP Stylebook asked its users via Twitter to recommend any words they felt needed to be changed. A lot of users voted for words with capital letters and hyphens to go lowercase and 86 the hyphens.

It's just a sign of the times.

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What are Topic Pages You Ask?

In searching for a topic for my Beginning Newswriting Class at Simpson College regarding journalism in the news I came across article by Maurreen Skowran called, "How Topic Pages can give Readers a Bird's-Eye View of the News" on PoynterOnline. The words "topic pages" caught my eye, but then I wondered what topic pages were

Basically what topic pages are is summaries of new stories. This always people to get caught up on the news quicker.

In a study commisioned by the Associated Press in 2008 showed that adults between the ages of 18 and 24 experiance "new fatigue" because we are continually supplied updates but lack the meat of the story.

Topic pages include summaries to stories, but also include links that the original story might not have.

But will they work? In December and January of this past year Google did an experiment with the help of The New York Times and The Washington Post called the "Living Stories." In this experiment each topic had a summary that was approximately five paragraphs long. The ending result showed that 75 percent preferred the "Living Stories" over regular online news stories.

This is a wonderful idea! Who has time these days to read the paper from front to back anymore. We want the information that we feel we need and we want it as quick as possible, easy to read, and links to answer any new questions we might have.

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Will Newspapers Last 10 More Years?

Is newspaper extinction really 10 years away? The way technology changes on a daily basis, I personally don't think it will take 10 years. Do you?

According to James Tyree, CEO Mesirow Financial Inc., who led lasts October's buyout of the Chicago Sun-Times' publisher, "Newspapers have got a good strong 10 years."

C'mon, Mr. Tyree! Do they really have that long? Can they survive for a whole decade in this 24-hour news cycle, gotta have it now, world we live in?

In this article, which I found on Poynter Online, Tyree goes on to say, "By then you'll have to evolve into something else -- maybe five years evolve into something else -- or you'll just be out of business."

I think newspapers are on their way to being history in far less than 10 years.

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