The News About The News: 2011

MLB's Media Dress Code

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

No closed-toe shoes, no pants, no reporting.

According to ESPN W, Major League Baseball released a what not to wear list for reporters. Banned clothing includes visible undergarments, flip flops, muscle shirts, short skirts, tank tops or anything with a team logo.

It is a shame that the MLB had to take actions into its own hands. This dress code shouldn't be necessary.

If any of the banned items were worn in the office, the employee wearing said clothing would be considered unprofessional and in need of changing room. Just because journalists are on the sidelines or at a training camp doesn't mean that they can let professionalism stop at the cubicle.

Real world reporting may have a more relaxed look to it, but journalists are still on the clock. Their attire should reflect their professionalism.

Photo by Paleontour

Tabloid Journalism is Contagious

New Campaign Coverage

Presidential campaign coverage may look a little different here in 2011 and into 2012 than it has in previous elections. An article on Mashable reports that more Republican candidates are reaching out through media outlets, specifically social media, instead of appearing in public town halls and other campaigns.

The Des Moines Register shows that the appearances in Iowa by GOP candidates is low and that is affecting how local journalists can stay on top of coverage. Iowa, being the first state to caucus, is usually heavily targeted by candidates because of the implications that Iowa's vote has on the rest of the caucuses and primaries.

Kathie Obradovich, the Register's political columnist, says "It's hard to find candidates interacting with voters in a real natural way." She has been covering presidential campaigns for 15 years, and says that campaign tactics have recently changed from town hall gatherings to Twitter.

Journalists have to react to this change and take advantage of the immediacy that Twitter and other social media sites provide. Additionally, Twitter forums allow for participation and questions from readers. Obradovich, for example, has begun live tweeting campaign events.

With the changing platforms for news outlets, journalists need to make sure that they react quickly and use these platforms to their upmost potential.

article via: http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/in_iowa_covering_a_new_breed_o.php

photo courtesy of Creative Commons

Reporter Breaks Embargo with Sony

A film critic for the New Yorker, David Denby, recently broke an embargo with Sony Pictures after previewing their new movie The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Denby had agreed not to run his review until December 13 but, went back on his word and published it his magazine's December 5 issue.

While an embargo is often worth the paper it is written on, which it isn't, it comes down to honoring your word as a journalist.

I highly disagree with Denby's and the New Yorker's decision to run the review as it is a clear use of deception to gain access to journalistic information before their peers.

They site that there will be a lack of space available in the magazine due to the amount of "important" movies coming out through the end of the year.

What important movies? I'm sure they're talking about Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked or We Bought a Zoo, right?

Denby needs to face fact; he lied in order to prescreen a movie and violated an embargo in order to be first to publish.

In my eyes he has lost credibility in the journalistic world an it will be a while before he gains that trust back.

Words are not just Words

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The FBI is moving to redefine the word rape. Currently is it defined as a female forced to engage in sexual activity.

Female activists feel this is way over due because it has not been updated since 1929.

Due to this, there are many unreported cases of rape.

The FBI has moved to make the new definition "penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim."

The new definition now accepts that not only women can be raped, not always forcible, rape by relatives and now non-vaginal/ penile rape.

Also this now allows more arrests of offenders than before.

Why a Newspaper should Promote Itself

The newspaper is a business, and this must not be forgotten. Their priority, first and foremost, is to sell papers and turn a profit. If a news organization cannot do this much, then it is just a matter of time before that company done.

With this in mind it is a bit of a surprise to me that the newspaper spends so little on advertising, it is a product after all. Just like any product, people will not buy it unless they feel a need to, so why are newspaper companies holding back.

An article on Mashable points out that on average, newspapers spend less than 1 percent on advertising, which is interesting in comparison to the 14 percent Coca-cola spends. Coco-cola is on peoples minds, and in their hand because they take the time and money to promote.

Keeping this in mind, it is no wonder the print newspaper is dying. People are simply forgetting about it. If a newspaper is not willing to spend some money to promote itself then how can they expect people to be drawn to reading it.

Newspapers need to spend a little more money on their advertising in order to remind people why they are still important.

Photo Courtesy of Photo Bucket

The Dreaded Words: "Talk About"

Many of the questions reporters ask to professional athletes after a game are asked to get an answer that will make a headline.

Today's post-game interviews consist of a room full of reporters and camera men all asking different questions, one right after another, to an athlete or coach.

No conversations are held during interviews anymore because after one question is asked, the next topic is brought up by another reporter.

The lack of knowledge reporters gain from these types of interviews is small, so what happens is a quote can be taken out of context and sound negative when it was actually not.

"It's a headline-driven world, and what I said provided a headline," said Tennessee Titans quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. "That's why I'm guarded, cautious. I don't want to accidentally give bulletin-board material. If someone asks me about a player, I say, 'He's a great player.' If they ask me about a coach, I say, 'He's a great coach.'"

Other athletes have been saying the same things when it comes to interviews. They are going to be more boring and guarded with what they say in fear it will be turned around and used against them for a headline.

An article by Tim Keown of ESPN The Magazine discusses the new type of interviewing.

"For better or worse, the post-interview age has created a generation of athletes who are overcovered but underreported," Keown said. "In the end, perhaps this much is true: If nobody asks any questions beyond the obvious, maybe nobody needs to ask anything at all. We see more and know less."

People are gaining more information from these types of interviews, but it sometimes can be inaccurate when taken out of context.

Photo- http://arkencounter.com/blog/2010/12/08/announcement-draws-international-attention/

Plagarism Occurs More Than We Think

Angelina Jolie and the producers of her directorial debut, “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” plagiarized the work of Croatian journalist and author Josip J. Knezevic to create the film’s screenplay, Knezevic claims in a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

As the Chicago Times brings up a good point about plagarism, I think plagarism happens more than we think or want to beleive. Students, teachers, employees copy and paste everyday without citing. People, including me, don't think copying a simple sentence, picture, or short article is a big issue.

However, a simple act as we like to think, can cause huge lawsuits which can damage peoples reputation. Jolie did this same mistake. According to Chicago Times this movie will show only little clips of the movie and with rack in few cash as well.

The sad thing about this lawsuit towards Jolie is that plagarism happens very often and very frequent with famous and non-famous people. With Jolie being famous it caused more attention and more feedback on this lawsuit than anyother person.

I don't see this lawsuit ruining Jolie's future or acting career but I could see it putting a negative view on her as a person until this is all out of the media. Chicago Times article on Jolie did a fairly good job on showing Jolie as a positive role model still and not blowing the whole lawsuit out of portion.

Plagarism is something that more people should take seriously. The charges, fines, and lawsuits can become out of portion. Jolie unfortunately is in the media more than she would want because of acting in a moving which involves plagarism.

Overall, I see this article becoming less and less important to the media. Jolie will still be a successful actress and viewed in a positive manner to most people.

Videoblog #2

Over Ran With Advertisements

CNN, Mashable, National Geographic, Forbes, and many others have been dubbed distracting websites that are flooded with advertisements that hide the actual content of the sites.

This causes the website to become very busy and discourages the reader to 'find' the actual content of the site to read. Plus these advertisements could cause problems such as constant pop ups on the readers computer.

I feel a little disheartened with this situation and believe that major news sites are only focused on one thing, money. If they really cared about the reader's thirst for news, they wouldn't have so many advertisements trying to seek revenue with every click of the reader.

works cited: www.poynter.org ; www.creativecommons.org

Televisions in the Courts

The U.S. Courts are modeling themselves after Great Britain and Canadian courts: They may being broadcasting Supreme Court hearings.

Sen. Richard Grassley (R. - Iowa) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D. - Ill.) introduced of the Cameras in the Courtroom Act of 2011 have fired up a debate about the potential effects of television Supreme Court hearings.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D. – Minn.) opened the discussion by stating citizens have “the right to see how the court functions, and to see its rulings” because “democracy must be open.”

On the other side of the argument, Chief Judge Anthony Scirica of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, was reluctant to allow cameras into the federal courts. “Co-equal branches of federal government have long-respected each other’s authority to govern itself.” The Supreme Court already is “transparent,” he argued.

If cameras are allowed to capture the Supreme Court hearings, the public would have complete access to the rulings and be able to gain a better understanding of how the courts come to their final rulings. This may allow citizens to gain a greater trust in the courts.

Five Ways To Read The Paper And Keep Your Sanity Intact

Today's newspapers are filled with negative articles. Huffington Post lays out five ways to read the paper and crack a smile while reading some depressing articles.

First method is to read the headline and add naked at the end of it. This allows readers just to smile.

Second method the foreign press, which is reading the newspaper backwards. In doing this readers stay away from the more depressing articles up front in the newspapers.

The escapist method is basically taking the newspaper and turning it into modern art.

The Jon Stewart Method is pretending to write for the Daily Show. This method is to joke around with the news to lighten the mood of the article.

The last method is the hamster, which is using the newspapers as a way to catch the droppings in its cage.

These methods show that the newspaper is dieing and becoming boring. The newspaper is boring and these methods are trying to lighten the mood of the depressing news.

Warren Buffet Plans To Buy Omaha Paper

Monday, December 5, 2011

Warren Buffet Plans to Buy Omaha Paper

Sunday, December 4, 2011

For years The Omaha-World Herald has been a employee owned paper. However Omaha native and billionaire Warren Buffet and his company Berkshire Hathaway are purchasing the paper.

Buffet told his shareholders two years ago not to buy newspapers because they face a possibility of unending losses. However Buffet believes that the World-Herald is doing it's job reporting to the community. In a meeting with with the company shareholders Buffet said, "I wouldn't do this if I thought it was doomed to some sort of extinction."

Buffet is offering the World-Herald $200 million for the paper. The final decision will be made by a vote by 275 employees and retirees who own World-Herald Stock.

The World Herald is excited about this. They believe that by being locally owned they will be able to continue great journalism.

One point that may come as a concern and has some employees skeptical is that Buffet may try to influence the news coverage, especially that about Berkshire Hathaway. With this as a concern the World-Herald is confident that he will not try to influence what is in the paper.

The New Town Hall

Michele Bachmann speaking to voters in Indianola, Iowa this past summer.

Social media has set a very different tone in the world, impacting numerous things- one of them being presidential campaigns. The Columbia Journalism Review reports that journalists, especially Iowan journalists in the caucus state, are being challenged by less and less personal access to candidates and are dealing with campaigns releasing the same amount of information to everyone. In past years, candidates held town forums, where local journalists and townspeople could go and listen to their arguments and policies concerning the presidency. Now, with the popularity of Twitter, news and announcements are so instantaneous that candidates have apparently felt little need to build grassroots campaigns from the ground up in Iowa.

One tricky side effect sneaking up on journalists is the retweet. Such widespread campaigning with little variety from state to state leads to retweets of candidates, or even competitors. Other uses of Twitter include livetweeting candidate's speeches during the event.

Twitter has definitely made an impact in the political bubble. Journalists need to be much more aware if what they are covering is real news or not. Losing personal addresses from candidates to voters should not fade away because of what technology has brought, but should instead be enhanced by the new technology.

Photo credit/Kate Hayden

MuckRack.com

Saturday, December 3, 2011

"Thousands of journalists are using Twitter to research stories, break news, find sources, and keep tabs on their beat...Don't be left out of the conversation."

This is the tagline for the website muckrack.com, a site founded by Gregory Galant in 2009.

By developing this website, Galant hoped to answer the question, "What if you could get tomorrow's newspaper today?"

This website tracks thousand of professional journalists on Twitter and other social media sites and shows what news topics are trending.

This is a very useful tool for media professionals, particularly those in public relations.

The website filters and analyzes how journalists are covering the news in real-time and emails users when journalists tweet about relevant terms.

So for example on Dec. 3, the top topics most tweeted about by journalists were the death of news sportswriter Allen Wilson, the New York Times' interview with Sandusky, and Herman Cain.

For each topic, it gives a little paragraph description and than the tweets by journalists about the topic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-5HDZUrh54

You Are What You Read

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

"'Facebook Friend #384' read 'My Parents Turned Down Harry Potter Role: Daniel Radcliffe' on Washington Post Social Reader"

"'Facebook Friend #1276' read 'The World Mourns the Death of Dippin' Dots' on Yahoo!"

You may have seen similar postings to these popping up on your Facebook News Feed over the past couple of months. And, if you have lots of current events gurus as friends, you might be getting a little annoyed at seeing everything they read.

However, according to Facebook, this "frictionless sharing" is helping news organizations reach many new readers.

Jeff Sonderman from Poynter.com shares some lessons that Facebook and news organizations have learned since implementing these news apps in September.

First, early statistics show that these "frictionless sharing" apps have increased traffic to news sites from Facebook referrals. Yahoo News has 10 million app users on Facebook and its referrals from the social media site have increased 600 percent. The Washington Post and The Guardian are also seeing strong success with 3.5 and 4 million monthly users respectively.

Second, the struggle with finding young readers may be decreasing. According to Facebook, 83 percent of Social Reader users are 35 years or younger. This is good news to news organizations as they are appealing to a wider range of people.

Last, while no one seems to know Facebook's tricky algorithm for deciding which stories appear in one's News Feed, one thing is for certain: the open graph apps appear heavily within the News Feed, meaning that your friend's reading habits are consistently available.

Despite some criticism and leeriness over the inclusion of news reading on Facebook, I think that this is a great thing for news organizations as it is pulling in a wide variety of people to their website. Whether they read just one article or are drawn to the entire website, people that were getting no news before are receiving news via their social media habits.

We gain opinions and reccommendations from those in our sphere of influence and this is another way to help us decide what to read or what we may find interesting.

Or, you could just judge your friends on their own reading habits. As they (don't) say, you are what you read!

Pulitzers to be All Digital

The Pulitzer Prize Board has announced it is requiring all submissions to be digital starting in 2012.

According to a press release from the Pulitzer Board they have also made changes to their Breaking News category.

They are focusing more on the real-time reporting of breaking news, which appears to deal with how a journalist uses social media to report a story.

It is nice to see the Pulitzer Board call attention to the proper, accurate and timely use of social mediums in reporting

Hopefully the Pulitzer Board's redefining of "Breaking News" affects more than just those submitting for a Pulitzer Prize.

It is really easy to hold the elite to this new standard but, it will show its true worth if everyone begins to adhere to it.

Photo courtesy of PhotoBucket

Unethical Journalist is Arrested

Another person who participated in the News of the World's phone-hacking scandals, Bethany Usher, was recently arrested for participation in the phone hacking.

She was the the 17th person to be arrested since 'Operation Weeting'--the investigation into phone hacking--was set up this past January.

After the recent closing of the News of the World magazinr many people were made aware of the tragic murder of Milly Dowler, as well as the unethical way in which all journalists involved in the phone hackings operated.

Dowler disappeared in February of 2002, but her remains were not found until September of that year largely due to a belief that she was still alive. It was believed that she was alive because of the News of the World's hacking into her phone's voicemail, publishing the messages, and deleting them afterwards.

It was great to hear that her killer had been brought to justice, but, it is also good to know that those journalists who behaved so unethically are also being held accountable. I fully support 'Operation Weeting' and its efforts to remedy the phone hackings.

Paying for Information

Recently, Nick Davies of The Guardian admitted to paying child prostitutes for information for one of his articles.

Davies claimed in a testimony before a U.K. Parlimentary committee, "I [paid them] for two reasons – first that I thought it was better for them to earn the money by talking to me than by allowing somebody to sexually abuse them; second that it seemed fair to them, if i was depriving them of ‘working time,’ that I should compensate them for their loss."

Even though Davies is writing on a very touchy topic is it ethical in any way to pay your sources for their time? If Davies hadn't paid the children to talk, would any of them spoken out to a reporter? Or would Davies's article consisted of facts, not first-hand stories, about the horrors of child prostitution?

A newspaper or reporter paying sources for information is known as checkbook journalism. According to the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the practice of checkbook journalism is unethical, wrong, and should not be used in any situation.

No News is Better Than Fox News

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Citizens who read no news are more informed than those who view Fox News.

The Huffington Post reported on poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University. The results revealed that Fox viewers aren't informed about the government stability in the Middle East.

Also, the University of Maryland conducted a study last year "found that Fox News viewers were more likely to believe false information about politics".

The function of the media is to be a watchdog, inform the public, and remain objective. Clearly, Fox News is can't juggle all of these functions.

Fox drops its first ball with not informing the public on current events. Perhaps too much time is devoted to other programming, such as political analysis, because a majority of viewers couldn't answer questions about political unrest in Egypt and Syria.

Remaining objective is another short fall for Fox. Viewers need to rewire their brains after Fox exposure because they are more likely to believe false political information.

Although Fairleigh Dickinson's pollsters point out that this poll had less to do with political biases and agendas and more to do with quality of programming.

Misinformation is dangerous. It makes the reader seem ignorant and the reporter mediocre.

Photo by sousa919

The Rack is Back

Monday, November 28, 2011

For a long time citizens were not able to purchase news papers from news racks at Raleigh-Druham International Airport. After taking legal action for six years they are now back in the airpot and people are now able to buy the New York Times, USA Today, and News and Observer.

These newspapers sued the airport after they only allowed papers to be sold in the airport stores back in 2004. In 2008 U.S. Judge Terrance Boyle ruled the band of news stands unconstitutional. In an article with Poynter Institute Boyle said the ban on news stands will take away informed citizenry which is the heart of our democracy.

The airpot tried to appeal the judges ruling but were unsuccessful. The reason the airport wanted to ban the news boxes was because they thought that it would create competition for the airport shops, cause more traffic, and even pose a security risk.

The newspaper companies now have to pay a rent of $12.50 to have their boxes there. Airport representative Jim Tatum says that everyone has come to an agreement that will work out for everyone and make them happy.

Vlog 2 NATN Newspaper Advertising

Keeping the Old and Ignoring the New?

News websites have been making an interesting discovery when it comes to their website's news. They are seeing that there is remarkable strong traffic towards older stories than their newer stories...this is bringing up the question: Is it really important for News to be new News?

What appears to be happening is that one person would read a weird story and it would automatically link the story that they had read to his or her facebook wall. This could lead to his or her friend's reading it and then it would be automatically linked to their facebook wall as well. Leading in an unending cycle of sharing this media. It is very unlikely that the readers know that this story is an older one, or perhaps they really don't care. After all some people tend to generally look at it this way,a good story is a good story as long as it's new to you.

I believe that this is an interesting story and it does show some of the things that I agree with. I don't mind if a story is perhaps even a few years old when I read it. As long as I haven't read it before and it perks up my attention, I have no issue with reading it. Its more for amusement and the 'Wow' factor really.

works sited: creativecommons.org ; poynter.org

What Does Christmas Mean?

Black Friday draws huge crowds, greedy people, and bargain shoppers. According to Amazon, online sales in 2010 were raised only 9 percent and this year a whole 26 percent online sales were raised.

People are becoming more reliable on online purchases because it’s fast,easy, and convenient. Online sales have steadily increases and will continue to grow if stores continue to have bargains online as well as in the store.

Dale Hudson, Nevada Reporter, stated that 50 million people flocked in and out of stores on Black Friday in Nevada. Top four stores that received the most sale increase from most to least was Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, Apple.

Is standing in line for 5 hours waiting to get in the store, waiting to check out for 2 hours, and losing 8 hours of sleep really worth it? Most people would said yes according to Hudson’s report on Black Friday. People live to save $2 dollars on almost all purchases anymore. A sense of accomplishment comes from Black Friday.

We should forget the presents, stop with the greed, and drop the Santa image. We should all stop and think what Christmas really means. Does Christmas mean spending $5,000 and being greedy towards others? People go overboard on Christmas shopping and overboard on greed.

Black Friday is becoming a holiday that destroys the image of Christmas. Should standing in line for over and hour and becoming greedy really what Christmas should be all about? No! We should all take the time to be with family, do a kind act, and donate to the Salvation Army or charity.

Lying A$$ Bit?h

Faulty Study Left Uncorrected

Sunday, November 27, 2011

It's hard to admit you made a mistake. Daniel Klein, an economics professor at George Mason University, can tell you that, but he can also tell you how to move past it. Klein wrote an opinion column over a year ago saying that liberals score much lower than conservatives on a test over basic economics, according to his newest study. He published his column in the Wall Street Journal, which headlined: "Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader? Self-indentified liberals and Democrats do badly on questions of basic economics".
Klein later took a second look at his data and concluded that his questions were loaded, or followed what he termed the "myside bias"- human's tendency to judge an argument based off of how closely it fits to their standard political views. Klein recently recanted his earlier findings and published the new results- but not in the Wall Street Journal. The Columbia Journalism Review emailed Klein asking why the new column appeared in the Atlantic instead of WSJ, and he responded that they had "declined the idea of a follow-up".

But shouldn't that be considered irresponsible journalism? The well-respected journal now has full knowledge that it ran an erroneous article, and the author is stepping up of his own free will to correct his past mistake. For the Wall Street Journal to decline the corrections is a loss of responsibility to their readers, some of which will never see the corrections simply because they don't read the Atlantic. The editors need to swallow their pride and put their reader's needs first.

Photo credit/creativecommons.org

Reporting Mortgage Fraud

A local Las Vegas television station tackles mortgage fraud in the area.

There are many ways that television stations try to improve their ratings like Poynter stats, topless reporting to voice analysis, but KLAS is covering mortgage fraud in the city.

In the article, link here, journalist found that the mortgage crisis was the worst of all the reporting.

The journalist investigated the Clark County property records and found that the foreclosure papers were being robo signed or signing with a single notary.

In doing this many residents of the area that did this have problems with their titles when fore closing.

Journalist that bring this information to the people is a great way to bring up the ratings because the residence can trust the information that is being past on.

This is a great example of how journalism can help the viewers out by informing them on what is going on in the community and what they can do to fix the problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=har6vZgb_sI

Social Media and Female Harassment

For years women have had to overcome certain hurdles. With the growing integration of social media in the world of journalism, female journalists have a new hurdle to leap over.

An article on Poynter discusses the increases harassment women have seen through social media outlets. Sexual comments and sometimes worse are being thrown around. This usually occurs when a woman reports on mainly male field of interest like politics or sports. Apparently men feel the need to rudely assert their dominance.

This issue doesn't disappear after shutting down the computer. These online posts, sometimes lead to off-line fears.

So, basically, all women journalists must immediately get off Facebook and Twitter, lock themselves in their room and pray for safety. No.

There are some precautionary measure that can be taken, as mentioned in the article on Poynter.

One women keeps personal information that she puts online to a minimum. Also, she waits until she leaves a location to check in on Foursquare, never tweets about the hotels she stays in. It is also very common to have a professional Facebook page.

Women must take control of the situation, and let all viewers know they need and want to be taken seriously. Clearly people are going to do what they want and that may be to harass women, but hopefully this doesn't scare the world of female journalists offline.

Photo Courtesy of Photo Bucket

Reporter Goes Topless for Story

While covering a story about a naked drunk driver involved in a high speed chase, WOIO reporter Paul Orlousky appears topless while recreating the drivers stunt.

Orlousky, a reporter for WOIO Action News in Cleveland, Ohio, went to the courthouse to try and get some answers from the woman who was arrested for drunk driving while wearing nothing but a thong.

At first Orlousky was confronted by the woman's lawyer who ended up swatting the video camera with her file folder.

Then after an attempt to get something from the drunk driver herself, Orlousky went topless.

In the video it shows Orlousky sitting in the car wondering why the woman would be almost completely naked while driving. The camera then zooms out to reveal he himself has no shirt on.

This could be an attempt to get more ratings for his station, or Orlousky thought humor was the best way to connect with the audience during this segment.

Many people commented on an article by Andrew Gauthier at TVSpy at mediabistro.com, showing their negative feelings toward the topless story, calling Orlousky biased and unprofessional.

Whatever the reason for Orlousky taking his shirt off was, it did bring in some additional viewers to the station to see this topless reporter in action.

Online Buzz for TV Shows

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

A study by Optimedia US concludes that a television show's advance buzz doesn't predict its rating performance.

This study focused on five new shows: X-Factor, Playboy Club, New Girl, Whitney, and Charlie's Angels. The study measured Tweets, Facebook likes, Google searches, and Klout scores before the show premiered.

An increase in social media buzz reflects the network's marketing efforts and doesn't reflect how many people will actually tune in to watch.

Ad executives conclude that online buzz isn't a good predictor of which shows will be popular but measures how engaged people will be when watching shows.

Every show on television has a Twitter and Facebook. Many shows actually post their hashtag in the lower right hand corner of the television screen while the show is on so as to increase the online buzz.

The most affective way to promote a TV show with social media cites is to get viewers to Tweet or post a status on Facebook about the show while it is on. This will get more people to tune in if they see people they know and are following commenting on the show.

Citizen Journalism Provides Answers

Monday, November 21, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktIJzeH8PBs&feature=player_embedded

Police arrest journalists covering Occupiers

When journalists go to work in the U.S., every day they know they might inadvertantly annoy or anger those who hold public office or employment. However, this is America- we hold expectations that journalists have the right to freely gather and distribute information to the general public. Lately, in the name of "protection", as New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg charactized it, journalists have been dealing with serious obstacles.

According to the First Amendment Center, on November 15 over a dozen journalists were arrested while covering the overnight raid of Occupy Wall Street's encampment, and many more were kept at a distance from the developing story. Julie Walker, a freelance radio journalist working for National Public Radio, was arrested for disorderly conduct while walking a few blocks north of Zucotti Park. She said the officer grabbed her arm twice, took her recorder and arrested her after she asked to know his name and badge number.

Why is the police force wasting time trying to block journalists from accessing an event of national interest? American foreign correspondents risk their lives travelling to many brutal dictatorships to cover protests, yet here in the American democracy journalists are arrested for their own "protection". City officials are protecting no one but themselves. It is a journalist's right to put themselves at risk for a story, and they are not in need of officials helicoptering over them. The American public deserves to know the story.

Scooping Where You Sleep

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Twitter is the ultimate instant news source.

Reporters have the ability to tweet from anywhere with cell reception or Internet access, and most put this on-the-go capability to use every day.

An article from Poynter. reported that because journalists were tweeting and updating statuses about being arrested at Occupy Wall Street. While this use of social media is effective, some critics argue that the arrested journalists actually scooped their own newsrooms.

Although an official statement was released by the journalists' newsroom denying that the employees' tweets scooped employers, there is an idea that other news sources could become obsolete.

The biggest (actually, shortest) obstacle for Twitter's takeover of breaking news is 140 characters long. Limited to 140 characters, Twitter is heavy with headlines but short on content.

For a quick news fix, Twitter should be the go-to; however, other media, such as print and online newspapers, television, and radio, are better equipped for whole articles and in-depth pieces.

Photo by Creative Commons

The News About The News: Too Much Bieber Fever

The News About The News: Too Much Bieber Fever

The Internet is Not Permanent

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

There has been recent concern about the speed of the internet, the promise of access to a vast amount of information, and a reliance on the internet and computers, and, that if these needs and expectations continue to increase there is a large possibility the the world system will crash.

In a recent article published by The New York Times, the founders of the company known as Arista Networks, discussed their uneasiness with the quick expansion of technology and speed of technology. The article discussed that people are now able to pour civilization online in the forms of Facebook posts, video chats, music, and so much more; and now just about all of this information is available via phone, tablets, etc. With so much information, business, and news conducted using the listed networks in the article, there is great danger in the loss of it all.

There have already been numerous recent occurances of networks shutting down for several hours to repair their networks--it has happened on too many occasions to count at Simpson College. One of the founders stated that Americans, as well as many others, think of the internet as a permanent thing that will always be there, simply because we rely so heavily on it; but, he makes it clear that the internet is not a certain resource. Furthermore, there is the risk of halting commerce, destroying financial records or enabling hostile attacks because nearly everything is conducted online.

I found this article extremely alarming because as we speak, I am using the internet to complete this blog. So much of the world's information and communication with one another, and other countries, is conducted through the internet. And, with the move of news from print to the internet, it is alarming to think that all communication with other countries, as well as being able to receive could come to a complete standstill from the crash of networks worldwide.

Premature Tweeting

A recent article posted to Poynter.org brought to light that some news corporations are getting upset with journalists who use social media to report news to early.

The article focused on Brian Stelter's criticism of the Associate Press' guideline requiring its journalists not to break news before it reports it.

Stelter makes the point that the journalists shouldn't have to wait for their respective news outlets to publish news in order to report on it.

He criticizes that the wire should react faster and I couldn't agree more.

The news should be reported swiftly and accurately. If both these terms can be met there is no reason not to publish.

What appears to be the biggest concern with journalist publishing news before their employers is that it undermines the employer.

Big news argues that the journalists they employ are serving to promote their own brand instead of the companies.

However, they wouldn't have this problem if the news organization worked to publish quicker.

It would give the journalist a better chance to link to news sources and increase visitors to their websites and other pages.

Sandusky Who?

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Last week, dozens of Facebook status' clogged up my newsfeed spouting opinions on the Penn State scandal. "JoePa" was flowing off the tongues of people who had never watched a college football game before in their life.

As the indictment news of multiple Penn State employees was revealed, media outlets went wild and the stories poured out- Joe Paterno involved in sex scandal. Joe Paterno to retire at the end of the season. Joe Paterno fired.

Wait, legendary coach Paterno sexually abused multiple boys in the showers at Penn State? Not the case, but if you would have been watching ESPN or any other station covering the scandal last week, it would be easy to think just that.

In the seemingly nonstop coverage of the scandal, Paterno was at the helm. The actual villian here, Jerry Sandusky, was given an almost-free pass from the media.

Sandusky, former coach for the Nittany Lions, was the one who abused those eight boys over multiple years. Mike McQueary, assistant coach, was the one who witnessed Sandusky molesting a young boy in the Penn State showers. Paterno is the one who is getting all the blame.

Now, understand this, I am in absolutely NO way trivializing what happened here or saying that Paterno was in the right by not making sure that Sandusky was punished for his inexcusable actions. In my opinion, all three of these men should be fired and held accountable for their actions, but I don't believe that the media coverage is providing fair coverage.

I would be willing to bet that a significant amount of people thought that Paterno was the alleged assaulter.

If Paterno was not the legendary coach that he is, and was let's say someone like Iowa State's Gene Chizik, would we be getting this same sort of coverage? Would we be hearing more about the president of the college also being fired along with the coach? I'd like to think so.

We, and the media, need to remember that this is bigger than football and bigger than Paterno, no matter how prolific he may be.

Political Figures Reporting the News

Recently, NBC News hired Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, as a full time correspondent who will be reporting "feel-good features."

Hiring this highly-politicized character seems to be a publicity stunt and an attempt to boost ratings. Many journalists find it ironic Clinton is being hired to report the news when she has showed the press the cold shoulder in the past, refusing to ever be interviewed.

Clinton has no reporting experience and this makes NBC's hiring of her look like an attempt to captivate audiences with the use of famous figures, not professionals, as their reporters.

Additionally, some question whether Clinton can be seen as a trustworthy news reporter. Since both of her parents are active political figures, how can she be seen to present the news without biases? Won't people always associate her views with those of her parents?

Even though Clinton cannot escape being linked to her political family members, her starting role as "journalist" will keep her away from hard-news and politics. Clinton will be covering the fluff stories.

Clinton is not the first person from a political family to enter the world of journalism. In 2009, Jenna Bush Hager, George W. Bush's daughter was hired to NBC as a reporter. Is getting these political figures worth potentially harming the credibility of the station? Or do these women have the potential to break away from their parents' legacies and create their own?

Twitter Engagement

Monday, November 14, 2011

Journalists and news organizations primarily use Twitter to broadcast links, and they rarely ask for audience input or retweet others.

A study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism focused on tweets by top newspapers, broadcasters, websites, and individual journalists.

The key finding is that news organizations use Twitter in limited ways. The main use being linking to their own material.

Ninety-three percent of tweets by news organizations link to their own articles while just two percent asked for audience input, and just one percent where retweets.

Individual journalists had about the same percentage of links and retweets.

Fox News had the most audience interaction on Twitter with 21 percent of tweets seeking feedback and 44 percent retweets.

Fox also increased its followers the most rapidly, maybe because of their Twitter interaction approach.

The New York Times had the least amount of audience interaction on Twitter.

Amazon's Kindle Fire Takes Over Android

As Christmas approaches everyone will be wanting the new Kindle Fire. Before even hitting the market, Amazon's Kindle Fire has captured the hearts of tech enthusiasts and the minds of software developers in a way that no Android tablet before it could.

Android Tablets have been pushed off the market by Kindle Fire in North America and now soon in Europe and Asia. Kindle Fire offers a feature for apps that tops off the Android. Kindle Fire apps need to be submitted to Amazon, not to Google, so if this trajectory continues, Google will lose control of its own mobile device.

As this new Kindle Fire sky rockets the market, people are always still concerned about the cost. When you purchase the Kindle Fire you will have no worries about the cost because Kindle Fire is only $199 and is the number one reason developers say it matters.

However, the Kindle Fire still has some concerns to its product. The Kindle Fire does not have GPS, high end perks, and is a little harder to operate than the Android Tablet. Overall though, the Kindle Fire will establish all the Android camps and take over the Google technology.

Kindle Fire will be at the top of most people's Christmas list. With the Christmas days approaching fastly, make that persons wish come true and go out and buy the best tablet in the world today.

A Biased Bruise or a Truthful Trauma?

Bias and truth are in the eye of the beholder. Just ask Michele Bachmann.

According to an article by The Huffington Post, Bachmann's campaign team can prove CBS bias against the presidential hopeful. An email from a CBS employee was mistakenly sent to a member of her campaign team.

CBS pointed to Bachmann's low 4% in response to Bachmann's campaign team's accusations of bias. If a candidate is sitting at 4%, a debate moderator wouldn't need to ask the candidate many questions.

This follows the role of agenda setting. Americans haven't made Bachmann a priority, so the media has no reason to report on her.

What the campaign team calls 'bias' is 'truth'. They can't contest the 4% from CBS's cited poll, so the team calls any negative news 'biased'. What is their truth?

Photo by Gage Skidmore

Student Victory in Court of Appeals

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Last Wednesday the Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that school districts can not discipline newspaper advisers for allowing students to run material in student publications that the administration does not approve of. According to the First Amendment Center, the Allamakee School District reprimanded adviser Ben Lange after students at Waukon High School published material in the school paper's April Fool's Day edition that the principal found offensive. Find the case, Lange vs. Diercks and Allamakee School District, here.

The case is being hailed among students and journalism instructors as an acknowledgement of student rights, feared by some to have been taken away in 1988 after the Supreme Court ruled in Hazelwood School District vs. Kulhmeier that administrations had the right to censor student publications.

What does this case really grant students? Admittedly, some of the content that Waukon High School's newspaper the Tribe-une can be considered in poor taste- for instance, the students included a derogatory name for a rival high school and a parody cartoon of a biology teacher caught running a meth lab. But the students involved in the scandal are going to learn a lot about the journalism world.

First, edit your content- just because you have the right to say it, doesn't mean you always should. Making sure you can stand by what you write without holding regrets is a valuable skill in journalism. Basically, if you're going to get in trouble for it, make sure it's good. But also, students do have rights. Critically assessing every situation, both in the classroom and out, is a good way to monitor when your rights are being violated. Students should want to know when boundaries are stepped on and how they can fight back.

Students, stand by your words. And if someone is getting punished for that, then there's a problem.

Photo credit/NCinDC,creativecommons.org

Social Media Information in Newspapers

The Monitor of McAllen, Texas, is now printing the Twitter usernames of its reporters by their articles so that readers can follow them on Twitter.

At the end of each story in the paper, it lists how to get a hold of the reporter by facebook, phone, and e-mail.

According to an article on Poynter.org, the goal of adding social media information to the articles is to get more readers to follow, friend or like the reporters on Facebook and Twitter.

Executive Editor Steve Fagan says he is "encouraging reporters to show a little more personality through the social networks than they do normally in print or even online reporting, to make our people a little more human."

Fagan wants his reporters to engage their followers and friends on Twitter and Facebook and by adding some more personality on these sites, they have a better chance of being liked and therefore being read in the newspaper.

Reporters are also allowed to show more opinion on the social media sites than in an article. By being more personable they are more likely to connect with their readers.

"I've been 40 years in the business," Fagan said. "We (newspaper journalists) have gone out of our way to be invisible people, keeping ourselves out of it. When you're doing social media, it's not really possible to keep yourself out of it."

Google and Twitter to the Rescue!

After the allegations of Herman Cain's sexual harassment, people started to view Cain in a new light.

Theres one thing that can truly hurt a presidential candidate when he or she is in the process of running, and that thing is scandal.

It is then when people really start questioning, "Is this guy the guy we really want running our country?"

But good news is, Herman Cain has found a way to fight these allegations head on. By using social media and a popular search engine as his aid. Cain is using keyword Google and Twitter search ads, such as: "Cain Sharon Bialek", which leads to an option of Cain's website CainTruth, which was a paid attempt to bi pass the scandal. The campaign had also bought a promoted Tweet when anybody searched "Herman Cain" on Twitter.

I believe that Cain has made a pretty smart attempt on continuing his campaign and trying to get away from these allegations.

Works cited: www.poynter.org
www.creativecommons.org

Who Is It?

Many people around the world today are victims of identity theft, but the mayor of West Valley City, UT was not a victim; he was instead a thief.

Poynter describes Mike Winder as not stealing a person's identity, but making a fake name up to boast about himself in the Deseret News.

Is making up a fake name the same as stealing some one's identity though?

I believe that it is the same because it provides the readers with opinions of a person that are assumed to be true. I also believe that the newspaper is at fault for not verifying the credibility of their sources.

All media needs to be sure to check their sources because they could lose credibility from their consumers.

Richard Burwash, the so-called writer, submitted four articles to the Deseret News boasting about Mike Winder, when in all reality Winder was being arrogant.

In doing this, Winder hurt his image as a person and also as mayor for the city.

Did the newspaper rush the article to be printed? Did the mayor pay someone off to keep this under the table? Is this a case of identity theft?

All these questions should be sought by a journalist to find the answer, because I believe this is wrong. What do you think?

Who Is It

Freelance Mayor

For a long time the citizens of West Valley City had been reading articles about their town in the Desert News written by a freelance journalist named Richard Burwash. Little did they know who exactly Richard Burwash was.

It turned out that the mayor of the city, Mike Winder, had been using the pen name to write positive stories about his town. Winder was tired of reading negative articles in the paper about his town so he decided to start writing freelance stories about what positive things were going on in his town.

In an article with the Associated Press Winder said that 56 percent of the coverage of West Valley was about crime.

Winder submitted all of his articles through Desert Connect which is a website for freelancers to give their stories to submit their stories to Desert News and other news networks.

Winder decided to tell the truth about his pen name because he is looking at running for the Mayor of Salt Lake City.

"I would rather disclose it on my own terms then a political enemy," said Winders

Sources:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/52893782-90/winder-deseret-news-articles.html.csp

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