The iPad Won't Save the News Industry

If you haven't heard of the iPad, you most likely have no contact with society and live in a cave.

The New York Times has found it important enough to write 80 stories containing the word "iPad", and the Washington Post wrote a triumphant 23 stories containing the word "iPad."

It has been beyond news worthy, not only because it is a revolutionary piece of technology, but because it is supposed to save the news industry. It, however, will not according to Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do?

"Editors and publishers and advertisers want to regain control of the media experience that the Internet took away from them," Jarvis said. "In their minds, this iPad is the magic pill that will make all of this Internet crap go away. Surely, it won't."

Time magazine is charging $5 a month fee for their paid application for the iPad.

"Mag iPad prices are delusional: In no form, even engraved in gold, is Time is worth $5/issue," Jarvis said. "If Time's iPhone app is free & iPhone apps work on iPad, why would I pay $5 for an iPhone app? Naked newsmakers?"

The news industry surely needs help, but the iPad s not the answer.

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Digital Media: Is it Green?

At first it seems like common sense that because it reduces paper involved in media consumption, digital media presents a more environmentally friendly option. However MediaShift writer Don Carli shows in a recent arcticle how growing research and awareness has proved this idea to be a large misconception. While reducing paper consumption provides a popular and easy way to address the problem and certainly can have an impact, the industry needs to look at the facts and find a suitable balance between the use of paper and digital media.

The main problem concerning the massive consumption of digital media remains the mass amounts of energy required by data centers, computers and cellular networks. According to the U.S. Department of Energy data centers use more than 60 billion kilowatt hours-per-year, equal to the amount of electricity of 559,608 houses use in one year. A large portion of this energy comes from mountaintop-removal coal mining, a huge contributor to deforestation. Currently, data centers are connected to 600 square miles of deforestation caused by mountaintop-removal coal mining.

In addition to problems caused by direct energy consumption used to power digital media, massive amounts of energy are used to produce the technology that enable digital media. According to MIT researcher Timothy Gutowski, every one kilogram of plastic or metal part made for technologies such as cell phones, computers, or iPods requires as much energy as running a flat screen TV for one to 10 hours. Also, according to Greenpeace, e-waste caused by people throwing away cell phones, computers and iPods accumulates to around 20 to 50 million tons of trash yearly.

Certainly, there are many sides to this issue, however, I see very little the media can do about this issue. While Carli proposes that data centers could make a greater effort to run on sustainable biofuels, I do not think the responsibility lies within media industries alone. Rather, this issue points to a greater need for the government and all industries within the private sector to place a greater focus on developing sustainable energy alternatives. However, I do agree that as individuals, we need to be more responsible with our technological devices by using and updating them in a manner that will decrease the need for a new computer/iPod/smartphone every few years.

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Google Wave

Technology is evolving everyday and that is why the way reporters gather information has to evolve as well. A plausible way to do this is to use Google Wave. It is a blog site that many of the top and most current reporters use and is a great way of scoring information.

Wave helps build relationships between reporters and common people and allows everyone, through blog, to keep up with the most current information. It allows reporters to find people who are highly educated on the exact topics they are researching and it is a blog site so it is much more effective than tweeting to get information due to the depth of the others responses.

Being apart of a blog on Wave is much different than the traditional one-on-one interview system of old. The blogs allow credible sources to post what they know quickly and efficiently and that allows other reporters to feed off what they find out. This helps shape the posts of the other sources you are receiving and helps form a new and efficient way to get credible sources.

Many criticize Wave because anyone can post and the inaccuracy of normal people may not hold up to that of professional reporters. No one knows if Wave will stand the test of time but it is a new and efficient way of getting sources and information.

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Opinion On Date Rape Causes Uproar

American University in Washington D.C. has proudly distributed it's campus newspaper, The Eagle, for over eighty-five years; claiming that the paper is "American University's Independent Student Voice Since 1925". Recently, the paper ignited student voices when it published a piece by staff journalist, Alex Knepper

Knepper, a 20 year old Political Science major, published an opinion column entitled "Dealing with AU's anti-sex brigade." In the article, Knepper exclaimed his disgust for what he described as the campus' "insular, solipsistic view of human sexuality." His comments were in response to student opinions about a Facebook note made by a potential student government body representative. The post contained what campus group Queers and Allies called "sexist, homophobic and explicitly trans-phobic and intersex-phobic remarks". They found the candidates comments disturbing, and voiced concern about his ability to lead the student government. Though the candidate claimed that the post was misinterpreted, the concerns were voiced not only by members of the group, but by others on campus as well.

Knepper's article described the note only briefly before labeling all who were concerned about the comments, "a sniveling bunch of emotional cripples." He continues on to elaborate on his opinions about the current state of Feminism and Gay Activists before claiming the statement below, which caused an uproar of protest from the student body.

"Let’s get this straight: any woman who heads to an EI party as an anonymous onlooker, drinks five cups of the jungle juice, and walks back to a boy’s room with him is indicating that she wants sex, OK? To cry “date rape” after you sober up the next morning and regret the incident is the equivalent of pulling a gun to someone’s head and then later claiming that you didn’t ever actually intend to pull the trigger."

The article was read and approved by a student editor, and published in the newspaper on March 28th. In response, the editor received over 75 pieces of mail and numerous comments protesting the opinion column. Someone on campus went as far as collecting the newspaper from various locations, and dropping it in front of The Eagle publishing office with a note proclaiming that the campus had "No room for rape apologists".

The editor of the paper has responded by stating that she chose to publish the piece to "foster an interesting discussion." She also responded in a letter to the student body explaining that the decision to publish the opinionated column does not mean that the paper itself is inline with the journalists views, but they are also not in the business of censorship. "As an editor, I would not feel right to fire or censor a writer who has offended people, because I believe that he has raised questions that warrant discussion."

She has a point; opinions are opinions, and not everyone is going to agree. Freedom of speech is something that is cherished by all facets of society and especially by journalists. The truth should be free and clear to the public.

But how much truth is in that very opinionated statement Knepper made? When rape, especially acquaintance rape, (which accounts for 77% of sexual assault crimes according to the National Center for Victims of Crime), is such a he said-she said crime, to have even one person believe that the victim was asking for it has the potential to cause more harm than good. How are victims supposed to feel if they know even one person believes that they put themselves in a bad position on purpose? Acquaintance rape is also only reported 2% of the time; articles like this could decrease that percentage that even more on a large campus, where the majority of these crimes occur.

Moving back to the freedom of speech discussion, does publishing an opinion like this, simply to encourage interesting discussion, stay inline with the Society of Professional Journalists 2nd point of ethics - that journalists should try to minimize harm? I, for one, do not believe it does. Knepper's opinion is a common one, which is why acquaintance rape remains a largely unreported crime. Victims suffer in silence, rarely get counseling, and have disastrous and troubled relationships following such assaults. How many journalists have published articles regarding surviving sexual assault, the importance of reporting the crime, and, above all, a person's right to refuse sexual contact, no matter what the circumstance.

By Tuesday, a group of students delivered a message to The Eagle demanding that they fire Knepper, and issue an apology for the insensitive comments. What will ultimately happen remains to be seen. In my opinion, Mr. Knepper should remember his comments regarding submission and acquaintance rape being an "incoherant concept" should he ever find himself at a party, under the influence of too much alcohol, and being led back to a strangers room for who knows what.

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Meet the Magazine of the Future

VIVmag released several videos of their new iPad application last week. The completely digital magazine was featured in The New York Times as a "taste of digital reading's future," but according to Sarah Perez many still had doubts of its cost.

Since VIVmag is already an online magazine, it was not hard for them to make the switch to video rather than just photos. Creating this digital content costs about as much as making a print issue, and the magazine has created reusable templates to speed up the process.

This video shows how VIVmag will create their interactive story

VIV Mag Interactive Feature Spread - iPad Demo from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

Zinio, the magazine's distributor, will also be creating an iPad application for publishers that do not want to make their own. Through this app readers will be able to easily find and subscribe to different magazines through an online "newsstand".

VIVmag has definitely found a great way to keep readers interested with a flashy app, but will users pay for content like this?

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Student Columnist Under Fire

Alex Knepper, sophomore at American University, wrote an article on the way women will attend a "frat party" and then in the end should not be saying anything about rape. He says that the women are indicating that they want sex if they attend and get drunk.

Many people have critized the article and are wanting the staff of the school paper to fire the student who wrote the article. The staff and editors are standing behind the student. While they do not nessarily agree with the article, they are against censoring the article. Many students seemed appauld by the column and the decision to publish it.

A group of students are delivering a list of demands to the staff and asking that the editors actually fire Knepper and make him apoligize. They will make fliers, signs and other means to show support against the article.

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Is Media Spin Wearing Thin?

Matt Lauer of NBC's "Today Show" sat down with President Obama at The White House yesterday for a wide-ranging interview.

Video of the interview was shown on this morning's "Today Show."

When asked about the political polarization of America, President Obama indicated the media is partly to blame and here's what he had to say:

Frankly, it gets spun up in part because of how the media covers politics, in the 24/7 news cycle, cable chatter and talk radio and the Internet and the blogs, all of which try to feed the most extreme sides of any issue instead of trying to narrow differences and solve problems.

I absolutely agree with President Obama! I think there is much more "sensationalism" in the news than true "journalism." I think the media puts too much spin on stories and doesn't delve deep enough for the truth; the important truth. I think they too often go for the wild and outragous to sell newspapers, magazines, etc. and don't report on the most important, meaningful issues affecting our country today. There's too much high drama reported in the news!

How about you? Do you think the media's spin is wearing thin?

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The Digital Age

Almost everywhere we go at any time you might find someone using a social networking site. Either in a computer lab or on their phone social networking is huge. What happens then when a government shuts down media and no longer allows news correspondence into the country to cover protests and violence? Well, we turn to social networking as a way to gather and disseminate information.

In Tehran, where violence and protests have been going on since June, local citizens have been using networks such as twitter and facebook in order to post live video and other information onto the web. The local government in Tehran has closed down all access from outside correspondence and have even kept local media personel contained in their news stations.
When there is a big clash between amatuer journalists and professional journalists this is a big case for why amateur journalism can be a good thing. How else would the world get video information? They wouldn't because they aren't locals with video cameras posting videos on the internet.

News nowadays should be an equal give and take between local non news affiliated citizens and news reporters. Locals are probobly more likely to open up to someone they know who has a video camera than a news reporter who wants to interview them. Also, by locals using social networking sites to display information there is non to little editing taking place from time of creation until posting. By not going through traditional means to display the news there is also not a bias as to what is shown and what wouldn't be shown. As we know reporting is supposed to show an unbiased side of an event, however we know that some news stations do edit their media for content and to maintain time limits. When locals film things such as what is happening in Tehran we see hard unedited footage of the life as a person living in these troubled areas.

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Google...not a Media Company?

Although Google continues to reinforce that they are not a media company, last week they seemed to postion themselves with newspapers and television news shows. In David Carr's article in The New York Times, he calls this "the greatest fight over freedom of expression in years."

Last week Google announce that its division would be exiting China and moving to Hong Kong. China has strict senorship laws that are enforced by their govenment.

It will be interesting to watch as the future reveils itself, as conutries like, Austria, Itlay, and South Korea would like Google to monitor their access to some degree also. By walking away from China, and the vast opportunities there, it will be hard to see them standing for other restrictions.

How forgetful we can be when it comes to our right for the freesdom of expression and free press as residents of the United States.

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Beating out the Competition

Are you using Twitter to its fullest potential?

According to Mashable's Jennifer Van Grove, there are five major ways Twitter is beating out other social media sites.

One way Twitter is becoming more accessible to users and non-users is with its new feature @anywhere. @anywhere will soon be made available to all website owners and publishers. The feature allows anyone to tweet about something directly from any website they are on.

Twitter users also have been using it to get news exactly when they want it. This is causing a competition between Twitter and television. Companies have been taking advantage of Twitter to air spoiler alerts. Whether this is a smart move or not, users are able to find out news and facts before they could find them out from television.

This is also the case with newsrooms. Tweets are an instant broadcast of news, whereas news that is produced via newspapers and newscasts take time to produce and broadcast. However, since tweets can be produced instantly, tweeters they don't go through the process of fact checking as thoroughly.

A third way Twitter is dominating competitive media sites is by offering multiple languages. Twitter is now available in French, Spanish, and Italian. By offering other languages, it gives non-English speaking users a chance to join the Twitter phenomenon.

A last way Twitter is rising above its competition is by appealing to celebrities, media organizations, and sports teams. Statistics have found that those who have a distinctive use for Twitter, tweet a lot more than those who use it for fun. By appealing to users with a specific purpose for tweeting, Twitter can continue to appeal to other users without ever losing popularity among the avid tweeters.

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"Morning Joe" an Eye Opener in the AM

"Morning Joe", hosted by Joe Scarborough, former Republican member of the House of Representatives, has pushed ahead of CNN's "American Morning" according to recent ratings.

According to an article by David Hinkley of the New York Daily News, Scarborough's radio show is also beating out Glenn Beck on WOR (710 AM), 10 a.m.-noon and has been for months.

Of course, Scarborough can't make a dent in Fox's one million viewers, but Scarborough is appealing not only because he is more of a moderate Republican, but issues are discussed respectfully, without the inflammatory rhetoric. In Scarborough's own words, "His goal from the start, he says, was to show a conversation, "not people standing up waving their arms and shouting."

Typically, MSNBC features all Democratic views; but Scarborough provides the balance, a window into the other side that is palatable, entertaining and even educational. Joe's cohost is Mika Brzezinski and her father, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor and a foreign policy expert, is a frequent guest and offers insightful observations into foreign affairs.

"Our goal is to present hard news and conversations on policy in a civilized manner," says the conservative Scarborough. ". He admits there are more liberal guests than conservatives because he wants to present both sides, not just have someone who agrees with him.

Tired of your friends at Fox. Have your morning cup with Joe.

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More Options at Starbucks

New Yorkers now have even more decisions to make in the morning at their local Starbucks. Not only do they need to select the coffee and breakfast of their choice, but now which newspaper they want to read. For the past 10 years, The New York Times has been the only newspaper sold at Starbucks. The Wall Street Journal will now be available in 450 stores in New New York City, select areas of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

The Journal is optimistic about their new relationship with Starbucks. "This allows us to expand that sampling environment, making sure that more people are aware of all that is within The Wall Street Journal," said Lynne Brennen, senior VP-circulation for the Journal. "It's a huge opportunity for single copy, of course, but I actually see it rippling through home-delivery subscriptions and subscriptions to WSJ.com."

Starbucks and The Journal have not commented on what the future may hold for additional distribution opportunities.

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iPad Journalism

The recent unveiling of the iPad by Apple has generated a lot of buzz - especially among journalists. Journalists are trying to find a way to make the iPad benefit the industry. Magazine editors like the iPad because it caters to their needs of designing. Several people agree that the iPad can change journalism because of its "immersive potential, its platform for rich multimedia, its ability to deliver information based on where it is in the world."

According to graphic designer Joe Zeff, newspaper editors should approach the iPad because of its graphic elements and how people will interact with it.

Poynter Online Managing Editor Steve Myers says that people don't want to read long stories even if the graphics are "stunning."

I would agree with Myers. It sounds like the iPad offers another platform of media. Most people who would be interested in getting apps probably have subscriptions to newspapers. Therefore, newspaper companies would just be giving readers another way to access information.

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Your Morning News...Fresh or Stale?

Today our news comes from a vast number of directions and alarmingly fast. Journalists and newspapers are constantly challenged with selling what is elsewhere available for free. How we receive our information and news is widely available to everyone and journalists, once again, are struggling to sell the news--at least to people under the age of fifty-five. Editors and news directors feel the angst of the growing and continued population of the Internet. They now see the huge threat the Web represents to the way they distribute their product.

The days of getting your news and information from the newspaper are long gone. More often than not, by the time a story has been printed on the front page of your paper, it has been blasted online for many hours. It is often old news at that point. Many papers and journalists, while slow to this conclusion, have learned that they not only need to report the news but to offer other layers. These layers are often opinions, analysis, points of view, and interpretation. Is it finally time to sell something more than just the news?

In the days when the latest news was available to anyone who chatted in the street or at church or the supermarket provided mostly opinion--the something extra above just the news. The growth of cities and the development of weekly papers encouraged the development of the sale of news and mass production. This has lasted more than a hundred years.

If journalism is to move past just selling widely available, cheap, staler-than your morning coffee news--they must choose to impart of a ear piercing word--wisdom. Mainstream journalists are making a big mistake if they continue to believe that their ability to collect and organize information will continue to make them indispensable.

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Welcome to the New Sports Illustrated

The up and coming iPad has been all the rage lately. This revolutionary piece of technology that will be released April 3rd is expected to change media. The popular sports magazine, Sports Illustrated, is taking it one step further though.

On December 2nd, The Wonder Factory collaborated with Time, Inc. and sent a demo to YouTube of what Sports Illustrated is expected to be like on the iPad. Terry McDonnell, editor of the magazine, narrates the video.

The video starts out with a normal cover of the magazine on the iPad, but soon enough football player Tim Tebow comes to life and the cover is now a clip of his previous game.

The inside cover is not only a table of contents for the rest of the magazine, but also a score board of games being played and new breaking news stories.

One of the most interesting aspects of Sports Illustrated on the iPad is that you can rearrange the contents to whatever order you like.

Another feature of the magazine is that instead of having one picture on a page, by touching the picture, you get access to hundreds more related pictures. By circling the picture with your finger, you can send that picture to a friend.

Even the advertising is more dynamic. It is no longer just an ad, but now an actual video commercial.

You can even check up on and rearrange your fantasy league.

Probably the most talked about feature, is the fact that the Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Edition is no longer just pictures, but videos.

And as if all of this wasn't enough, Sports Illustrated is working on games that can be played while watching games.

Sports Illustrated is just one of the many magazines to be working with the iPad, but they seems to be leading the way.

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Further Thoughts on Twitter

In a recent Beginning Newswriting and Reporting class discussion, our professor urged the class to remain faithful Twitter users, as familiarity with the program will be a necessary skill for those of us entering a journalism/communication field. Then, searching for a blog topic I came across an article on MediaShift, written by media consultant Ian Capstick. This article, entitled "PR Pros Use Twitter to Reinvigorate Brands, Engage in Conversation," offered excellent advice on using Twitter and social media that greatly added to my understanding of the class discussion.

For starters, Twitter offers a new platform for businesses to communicate with their audiences. The article focused mainly on the ways in which the hospitality industry uses the tool specifically, Fairmount Hotels and Resorts. The company, which operates hotels and resorts across the globe started using Twitter to communicate deals and savings to interested audiences, with each individual property maintaining its own account. Since using Twitter, the company has seen higher occupancy rates after posting "online only discounts."

"I really found the genuine ability to connect with people valuable," said Brian Simpson, Fairmount's director of social hospitality.

It has been shown that Twitter has provided an excellent platform for reaching audiences for some companies, but has failed to do so for others. According to Maggie Fox, CEO of the Social Media Group, who has acted as Ford's social media consultant, tweeting consistently remains the most important and crucial aspect of using Twitter as a profitable business tool. Under this model, the number of tweets a company offers a day does not play as large a role, as long as tweets are coming consistently. We have discussed this in class and it seems only common sense that professionals would offer this advice.

However, for some companies, even consistent tweeting has not worked. In this case, Twitter simply may not be a viable communication platform. Another PR professional mentioned in the article, Steve Rubel, advises that the most important aspect for companies interested in utilizing Twitter or social media is analyzing the audience to understand what platform will deliver the message best. "Too many people start with the tools first. Thats like buying paint before you have a floor plan," said Rubel.

I strongly agree with Rubel on this point, as I have seen numerous student organizations on campus set up Twitter accounts, despite the fact that a majority of Simpson students do not utilize the platform. While I certainly am not criticizing student groups for using Twitter, in fact, I encourage it, I question whether or not it truly works as a communication tool with students at this point in time. Despite this, I hope to see students continually develop their use of Twitter and encourage anyone interested in further information to read this article and research further.

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Checkbook Journalism

ABC News was accused and admitted to paying Casey Anthony, who is on trial for the murder of her daughter, $200,000 for exclusive rights to photos and home video for television broadcast while covering the trial. The Society of Professional Journalists calls this "checkbook journalism", and it is becoming popular among major broadcast networks.

According to the SPJ, "checkbook journalism" is unethical. Paying a source for any reason gives the public rights to doubt the credibility of the news outlet. Not to mention the fact, if sources believe money is involved, they could embellish and exaggerate the story in order to get paid a larger amount. It is also not fair to other news organizations to pay for exclusive interviews.

ABC News is not the only major news network to be accused of "checkbook journalism." Other culprits that have been called out by the SPJ include: CBS, CNN and NBC.

Why do these organizations do this? Surly, none of the major broadcast networks would take money from sources because it would create a conflict of interest, which is one of the Seven Deadly Sins of Journalism. So isn't paying a source doing the same thing, but in reverse?

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Work of the Sob Sisters

Long narratives about disfiguring aiments, and fatal illnesses particularly involving young children pull at the heart strings. The lessons of redemption and spiritual stamina strongly tug at the emotional connection of the reader.

Today, like long ago, stories are manipulating emotions more than they are providing information. A study of trends in Pulitzer Prize-winning feature stories found that a significant amount of the winning stories were about illness or a death by murder.

Appetites for emotinal stories are growing. During a time of anxiety and recession, readers often find these tales comforting. Unlike its macho past, newspapers and journalism today is built on the emotional connection. In a competitive media market you have to deliver something "different". The need to find positive meaning in suffering and the redemption to over come is so strong that journalists tend to go overboard.

Matthew T. Felling, media director at the Center for Media and Public Affairs, attributes the trend to a "weep creep" from television to print. The "sob stories" have become a standard and have conditioned news consumers to look for them in every news product.

Does this emotional connection attract the otherwise less interested reader? Newspapers and other media outlets alike are taking the "shock jock" approach in order to maintain profit margins and business models.

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Advertising on the Front Page?

Page designers, editors and even reporters are grudgingly gaining acceptance of page-one advertisements. For years unfashionable, advertisements are slowly making their way to the front page.

In the past, they snaked across the bottom of the page as a column strip or they have graced the page in right-corner boxes. Increasing in size, changing in color and shape, they are slowly creeping to a front page near you.

Many journalists believe this tragic, distasteful event violates the true meaning of news and journalism. Their is a fine line and a sacred wall between news and business. Many feel they scramble to flow and order of the page. In an ear of decreasing newsholes, journalists feel they eat up space otherwise devoted to stories.

The San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and many other Gannett papers have published front page advertisements for years. Page-one ads net premium prices and drive revenue. Somes papers such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe have dabbled in ads on section fronts but have kept page one off-limits. Some of the larger papers which debut front page ads feel that this is just an evolution of multimedia news.

As more and more papers dive into this taboo trend, the designers are working to minimize how distracting they may appear. Opinions about page-one advertising continue to surface at a constant pace. Some believe that if the ads are guided by taste, they are acceptable. While others feel this is a sign of painful ecomonic times for newspapers.

As long as newspapers continue to deliver the latest relevant news, and put better stories on the top of the front page, who cares what you put in an ad at the bottom of the page?

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A Journalists Worst Nightmare

Writers block.

It's happened to almost everyone at some point in their lives, and Jeremy Porter and I seem to be having the same problem right now. Luckily he has a few suggestions for what to do if you have no idea what to write, or have so many ideas that you have no idea where to start.

Here are a few of the strategies he suggests:

• If you don't have any idea what to write about, ask your friends or readers for suggestions. They're your main audience after all and will more than likely be glad to help.

• Keep a list of ideas at the ready. This can be especially helpful when you need to meet a deadline.

• It may be helpful to have a few ideas in draft form. If you don't feel motivated to finish it now, you might be able to use it later.

Try a few of these out next time you're struggling for subject matter.

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