Appssavvy pitches new educational application

By: Allison McNeal

An Internet advertising company, Appsavvy, is trying to pave a new way of online marketing towards young adults and college students.

Appssavvy, which sells advertisements for applications on social networks and other Web sites, recently partnered up with NBC to produce a new learning application called iCue.

iCue, short for the immerce of complete understanding and excel, is designed to help teachers and students interact with materials on American history, governement, and English.

This application will show video features from monumental historical events and have well-known journalists report the stories.

Online newspapers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times have also agreed to allow access to some articles under the iCue site.

Even though these newspaper companies are coming on board, Adam Jones, chief financial officer for NBC news, said that he knows many students do not watch or read standard news. Instead, they are watching programs like Jon Stewart or "The Colbert Report".

He is hopeful that this site will help turn things around.

"We’ve always talked about trying to find new ways to reach our future audience," he said.

With the collaboration of NBC and Appssavvy, these programs are also looking to place their advertisements on social networks like Facebook.

The advertisements would be placed on applications instead of on a running banner across the top of a page because users tend to ignore the display ads. With embedding the advertisment in an application, individuals are more likely to click on the product to find out more information.

One possible snag this application could face may be the redesign of Facebook's layout, which could cause some confusion.

Since the redesign, many of the applications are hidden instead of being located directly on an individual's profile page, which could hurt Appssavvy's ads.

Another factor that is hurting online advertisement is the economy.

Even though Internet advertising is fairly cheap, The New York Times reported that TNS Media Intelligence has been measuring Internet ads and "spending on Internet ads increased only 8 percent [in 2002] and a decrease from an 18 percent growth rate in the same period last year."

Even though the economy is influencing online advertisements, Scott Kurnit, the founder of About.com, said that ads will still prosper and become more effective than television ads.

With the development of iCue, the collaboration between NBC, Appssavvy, The New York Times, and The Washington Post shows how different forms of media can interact with one another to try and impliment a new online application.

Will different forms of the media all start to collaborate on online projects in the future? Will individuals embrace the merge of different companies?

These question can only be answered after many organizations start to pair up and get feedback on how the audience views their product.

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Yahoo pipes does the searching for its users

By: Kathryn Lisk

As the Internet continues to grow, sorting through information has become more difficult than ever. Simply using Google and a few key words rarely provides sufficient information to anyone.

Yahoo now has a tool that allows Internet users to constantly track what is being published on any given topic. According to Poynter Online,  Yahoo pipes allows its users to "gather, filter and display any collection of online content." 

While a tool like this would be beneficial to anyone with very specific interests in the media, it is also helpful for journalists with a beat. It allows reporters to spend less time on Internet search engines and more time out of the office talking with their sources.

This also may be the program Brian uses which constantly gathers stories about journalism, which are then posted on our blog cite. Having this resource available has been very helpful in finding news-related stories to post about.

My only concern with Yahoo pipes is that it provides users with a tunnel vision keeping them away from important news. Now that readers have direct access to news specifically filtered for their interests, they won't even browse through other news stories and will be less informed.

 However, it may also bring more people to the news world. People may find newspapers overwhelming and avoid the industry entirely. Yahoo pipes would at least give these uninformed individuals with some news. 

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Journalists to blame for decline of newspapers

By Austin Bates

I hadn't considered this before, but at least one person, Jeff Jarvis, thinks that journalists can be held responsible for the continuing decline of the newspaper industry. While his article is well-thought out as well as thought provoking, I have mixed feelings on the issue.

On one hand I tend to think of and see journalists as being just another batch of workers at just another for-profit company, their decisions counting for little in the day to day operations of the business itself.

On the other hand, I tend to think of journalists as almost artists, working in a trade-craft that is one part pure skill and aptitude, and one part desk job, but one where what you do counts, and your name appears on everything you do and say. In this view, journalists are the guts of newspapers, and editors are just their mentors and guides, and the people who run the newspaper at the top are just the ones held responsible for writing the checks and dealing with the "business stuff".

I suppose that neither of these views is wrong or right. In the end, the truth is probably a little closer to both.

One memorable series of statements from Jarvis is this:

It is our fault that we did not see the change coming soon enough and ready our craft for the transition. It is our fault that we did not see and exploit — hell, we resisted — all the opportunities new media and new relationships with the public presented. It is our fault that we did not give adequate stewardship to journalism and left the business to the business people. It is our fault that we lost readers and squandered trust. It is our fault that we sat back and expected to be supported in the manner to which we had become accustomed by some unknown princely patron. Responsibility and blame are indeed ours.

I can't disagree with any particular part of that. Journalists, in being the front-line workers most exposed to the realities of the "craft", do have some responsibility for constantly adapting and molding it to what the future will demand. Their work at least partly determines whether a paper will just survive or thrive. Like the American voter, journalists have to do something if they want to see a change for the better.

By far, one of the biggest criticisms have been that the newspaper industry (and thus, part of journalism) had failed to embrace the budding technologies of the Internet. At a time when everything else is connected, some papers still have yet to become integrated with the World Wide Web. Journalists, if they have failed to try out new things or go out on a limb and attempt to use the new frontier, should be held somewhat responsible for this failure of the papers.

In the end, I think everyone is to blame for the decline of the newspapers, and of journalism it seems. The newspaper execs and editors are responsible for their lack of pushing or requiring the new frontiers, and journalists are responsible for not experimenting and moving out of their comfort zones to seek new ways of reporting. So now that the blame has been cast about, what are they, we, going to do about it?

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Slowly Fading

By Kellie Green

While going through some sources online and trying to decided what to write about, I began to think about how I only search online for ideas about the news. Why is that?

One of things that I noticed, is that almost every newspaper and even news channel has their own website. It is just easier for people to go online, then to watch TV or pick up a newspaper.

It is easier now for newspapers to have websites because most people use the Internet more and more each day. Instead of having to go to pick up The Des Moines Register or The New York Times, you can just go to their website.

What really got me interested in this topic is that I was reading an article found on Google News. The article was about a man that is the descendant of George Washington.

The article had referenced that historians couldn't get much information about the descendants of President George Washington till the Internet came around. They were able to get more resources and information with the internet then they could without it.

This made me really see how dependent our society is on the Internet. We use it for everything and things like newspapers, TV and radio are slowly fading away. Will Internet take over everything? It's a question a lot of people ask everyday.

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Newspaper commercials in the next Super Bowl?

by Peter Merchlewitz

Can you recall the last time you saw an advertisement for a newspaper? Perhaps at a baseball game or maybe on the side of a bus? Truth of the matter is that we rarely ever see ads for newspapers anymore, and it might be hurting sales of newspaper companies. eat sleep publish brings up the interesting fact that the only time when newspapers actually advertise, it actually makes news.

Think about it. Each day, how do you receive the news? Internet? Podcast?

I doubt that there is any product in the entire world that can "sell itself." Everyday, companies everywhere pour millions and millions of dollars into ads so that they can maintain or increase sales. *cough* Super Bowl ads *cough*

And is there really a problem with people trying to sell you something? Actually some people believe that advertising newspapers is an affront to the whole industry.

Let's image that you were at the Iowa State Fair and one of the food vendors was selling deep fried praying mantis. It might not sound very appetizing, but you buy one anyway and as it turns out, they're very tasty? Would you be mad at the vendor for getting your money or would you be glad for finding a new tasty treat?

So how would that be any different for a newspaper company advertising their product, thus giving you good news?

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Risky Business

By: Alex Jones

Journalists are always being put in dangerous situations. Seeking out the most current news can often leave them in foreign countries in times of war.

Two American journalists have recently gone missing while vacationing in Lebanon. Working for Amman-based paper the Jordan Times, the journalists have not been heard from since October 1. 

The two journalists were in a part of Lebanese that was known for having violent acts against Americans. These violent acts were supposed to be even more prevalent during the first part of October. 

Taylor Luck one of the reporter's gone missing has not used his credit card since October 1. This seems like a grim reminder of how dangerous the journalism profession can be. Sometimes risking your life for the opportunity to report the most newsworthy story.  

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The blame game

By: Callie McBroom

There is a new debate about which bloggers and journalists have taken sides against their peers. The debate deals with who is to blame for the failing newspaper industry. On one side, the key players--Roy Greenslade, Paul Farhi, and Adrian Monck say that it is not the journalists' fault. And, Jeff Jarvis takes them on by asserting that it is the journalists' fault.

Jarvis says journalists failed to see, and even resisted, changes and opportunities presented to them. They also got too comfortable in their positions. Jarvis argues that the internet can allow newspapers to change the relationship newspapers have with the public.

The other side blames the shifting revolution in technology and recent hard economic times. They say readers have abandoned them. All are forces completely out of journalists' control they believe. “Journalists and journalism are the victims, not the cause, of the industry’s shaken state,” says Farhi.

No matter what side you are on, however, the situation is what it is. Even with changes in technology and hard times ahead of them, newspapers will have to stop passing the blame and make some real changes if they are going to save their own skins.

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Debate Number 2

By: Sarah Harl

Tonight was the second of the presidential debates, and it cannot be escaped. The debates, presidential and vice-presidential can be found on almost every news channel and on some of the major network channels.

This is a place to applaud journalists and network news channels alike. There are many issues in the country that voters should be informed about before they make their decisions at the poll in November, and the fact that news coverage of the debate is almost inescapable will hopefully mean that voters are more informed than ever in light of this important election.

The debates thus far have been covered with little political bias, which is refreshing and should be commended by journalists. It will do more to encourage voter turnout and enthusiasm if journalists continue to cover just the facts and let voters make up their own minds.

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War coverage

By: Jessica Hamell

Why can't the news show the full view of what the war is like? The soldiers come home with a wide aray of mental and physical problems but we seldom hear about them. You don't see the pictures in the news or really stories that put you in the shoes of the soldiers.

Is there an unwritten law that tells how much a news source can publish about a touchy subject?
On the Iraq War news from yahoo site some of the headlines were:
"Iraqi insurgents forced underground", "Bush reshuffles war zone troops", "U.S. and Iraqi Officials Try to Reassure Citizen Patrols About Transfer",
"Bush eases back on Iraq troop withdrawals as Palin son heads out" and "Iraq's Sadr extends militia truce".

None of them go into too much depth. I know that seeing things like that would probably stir up a lot of controversy but in some cases it would be good. We saw it on 9/11 and that made us stronger as a country. Maybe if we showed just a little it would bring more support for our troops who are over seas fighting for our country.

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The "Millennial" Factor

By: Kelsey Knutson

A recent article in USA Today talked about how young voters have been energized by the Obama campaign. These young voters are considered the Millennial generation which are classified as "optimistic problem solvers" who promote change.

However, do young people turn out to vote? 

According to the USA Today article, a USA TODAY/MTV/Gallup Poll of registered voters 18 to 29 years old showed that Sen. Barack Obama is leading over Sen. John McCain by 61%-32%. 

Young voters claim they can relate more to Obama than to McCain. This Millennial generation, which represent voters from ages 18-29, want to see change and they (as a general group) don't see that happening with McCain in office. 

"Sen. Obama clearly has some advantages with young voters," according to political director for the McCain campaign, Michael DuHaime. 

Should Obama start writing his inaugural address because polls show that young voters SHOULD turn out this election season? 

History shows us that there is generally a poor voter turnout among today's youth for many reasons. Some include the unfamiliarity with the voting system, the fact that young people (primarily students) move around a lot, and many of them forget to reregister to vote. 

However, if this young generation can "pull it together" and mobilize an entire group of people to get out and vote, then this generation can compete with the "baby boomer" generation and change the outcome of this election. 

It's one thing to say you want change and another thing to help make a change. We all must vote. 

(USA Today article, Energized by Obama, voters uder 30 show signs of shifting the electorate, by Susan Page. October 6, 2008.)

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War coverage

By: Lexie Hagerty

American Journalism Review wrote a story about Kathy Gannon, correspondent for the associated press, and her thoughts about the amount of media coverage the war in Afghanistan is getting. Let's just say, her comments are not good!

She argues that more soldiers have been dying in Afghanistan than in Iraq. However, the media seems to see Iraq as the bigger threat.

Gannon believes that history is repeating itself. Some of the same issues that happened in Afghanistan before 9/11 are happening again, and the U.S. is oblivious to it.

Roy Gutman, foreign editor for McClatchy, calls the media's absence from Afghanistan prior to 9/11 "one of the great lapses in the modern history of the profession."

Gannon proposes that there should be more coverage, if not full time coverage, on Afghanistan and I agree.

Afghanistan is one of the regions that spawned the 9/11 attacks. When the attacks occurred, no one seemed to know what was going on or what events had led up to it.

I do not want a crisis like 9/11 to happen again, and I think that the U.S. should take a little more interest in the region that could possibly surprise us again.

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How to make $30,000 a year

By: Sara Crouse

Catching up on the latest blogs isn’t hard to do. Simply go to www.google.com and look under more, and there will be a blog hyperlink listed for you. Click.

Blogs are becoming a main source of information and news for many tech-savvy web browsers. Blogs seem to provide a different look at the daily news, and a look that many appreciate. Bloggers takes sides and gives us the news from their angle. A blogger’s voice is very distinct compared to the usual mono-tone or slightly yelling voice of a news anchor.

In a world where one if pressed for time, why not read a blog that curtails news to an opinion we identify with? One can filter news to their tastes and not have to take the time to sort out the stories. Seems like a pretty good deal.

However, what if we start to rely heavily on blogs for our main source of news? Bloggers aren’t required to publish honest or accurate information. Blogs are online journals, not an online newspaper with credible stories. Blogs could potentially be providing us with misleading information.

There are people in our world though who are actually making a living off the explosion of blogs. It takes a little more time these days to write a sophisticated blog, unlike the early days of the Drudge Report. Full time bloggers generally make around $30,000 a year, while those bloggers who specialize in a topic can make up to $75,000 a year.

Should bloggers be held to the same criteria as journalists? Are their roles primarily the same? It’s a tough question to answer, and one that will have to be answered in the upcoming years.

For now though, enjoy the emergence of so many unique ideas and opinions expressed through blogs. Just be sure to read the paper too.

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It's a bigger world out there

By: Taylor Browning

With the economic crisis taking up the headlines, it is easy to understand where our nation's focus is at. I feel however, that the media needs to start emphasizing how all this downfall will affect everyone in the long run, across the world.

Other countries obvious have their hands and fair share of stocks in our economy, but they need to start worrying about their own. While we watch the Dow drop by the hundreds, other countries are struggling with their own economy.

The United States has started a whirlwind in the global economy, and Europe and Iceland are starting to feel the effects.

I feel to inform our people, we need to be hearing about how not only our economy is affected by our government's spending in our downfalling economy, but how our economy is affecting everyone else globally.

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Reporters doing a great job

By: Shauna Agan

Last Tuesday I attended the play “Frost Nixon” at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the history behind this play, “Frost Nixon” is about David Frost and the interviews he conducted with Richard Nixon after the Watergate Scandal and after Nixon resigned from presidency.

Many reporters during this time period were racking their brains trying to find a way to get Nixon to sit down and do even one interview with them. Much to the American people’s surprise, Frost was the one Nixon finally agreed to sit down with.

Frost was a British reporter with a playboy reputation. Nixon believed that if Frost was the interviewer, he would not be faced with difficult questions and the American people would love him again.

The play “Frost Nixon” showed the interviews between these two gentlemen and the media process that was put into preparing for these interviews. It allowed the audience to see the staff on both sides of the interview preparing for the questions and determining strategies for the interviews.

Rather than asking the easy questions Nixon had hoped for, Frost’s staff decided that Frost would jump right into the interview with challenging questions about the Watergate Scandal.

The strategy used goes against everything we have learned in class about interviewing, and at first, the strategy backfired against Frost and his co-workers.

There were a series of four interviews conducted, and during the last interview, Frost finally got Nixon to answer to the American people. Nixon was forced to answer questions about Watergate. He was forced to admit that he was wrong during the cover-up.

This play was a great production about the media coverage during this important historical event. It did an excellent job of showing the audience, especially those individuals like myself who were not alive during the events of Watergate, what really happened.

Before going to “Frost Nixon”, I had knowledge about the scandal behind Watergate, but little knowledge about the media coverage of Watergate. I knew that two reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, broke the Watergate Scandal, but the aftermath is often times not told.

The whole scandal goes to show how important media coverage is. Reporters are the ones who found out about Watergate, and an interviewer was the one who forced Nixon to apologize.

Regardless of what anyone says, media is significantly important, especially in politics. Media forces individuals to be honest with the public.

Although media cannot discover every detail behind every scandal, the media is doing a great job of making people tell the truth to the public.

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Search still going strong

By: Kayla Miller

A week ago today, a 19-year-old lady was involved in a hit-and-run accident leaving her in a coma.

Again, this hits home. The young woman, Allison Manning, is from Indianola, IA and the accident had occured on Highway 65/69. Very close to home, just like the Indianola man, Jim Brown, that I had blogged about previously. Once the reader catches an article that may deal with people you know, you can't stop reading. Though the first article about made me cry tears of joy, this one had me about cry tears of sorrow.

Even though this accident may be old news, it is important to the community to find the person that had fled the scene. Journalists know what's important to us, and writes about it. Until the person that has caused Manning's coma is caught, this article will probably still be floating around in the local newspapers.

Journalists provide the correct information in case anyone has information about the accident, too. They list phone numbers of the police and Polk County Crimestoppers, making the article become helpful to the readers.

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The world of comedy

by; Sarah Keller

As an art major I am always looking for more creative ways of getting news, or to view others opinions on subject matters. That is why I like to go on to slate.com and look at the cartoons that are on the web site. They show a large variety of cartoons daily.

As I mentioned in my blog last week, comic strips are a good way to quickly tell a reader things that are happening in the world, while giving the news a funnier, more bias spin. They can cover things from the election and the Wall Street issues to same sex marriage, or full on comic stories in any one day.

I could see myself doing a job like this for a living because it would allow me to draw, and use humor, all while telling the news, which are my favorite things to do.

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The importance of reporting basics

By, Sarah keller

I decided to look at videos on youtube to see if I could find anything news worthy, when I came across “Anchor vs Reporter”, after watching this video I laughed a lot, when I was finally done laughing I decided that maybe it could be something that I could blog about.

This video was about a news anchor, who was interviewing a man and woman at an apartment. The anchor cut the questioning off too soon, the camera then shot back to an anchor on the set of the news station, and that anchor told the other one that he should have continued to interview the people at the apartment. The two anchors started arguing on air about how to do each others jobs, the on set anchor told the other one that he did not want to teach him how do his job, while the on the scene anchor told the other one that he used to be his boss.

After listening to the two argue it made me think about the chapter of “reporting basics” from the Harrower text, and if the on the scene anchor would have followed some simple reporting rules, he could have avoided the confrontation all together.

First off he should have remembered to not interrupt; he interrupted the person being interviewed by saying that they were out of time, which leads me to my next tip to “budget your time” (page 77 of Harrower), if he would have budgeted his time he could have avoided the argument altogether. The anchor should have stayed flexible, asked follow- up questions, and should have not forgotten that he was in charge (when the other anchor started scolding him).

If only the anchor had remembered the basic tips that every good reporter should know maybe he would have had a much better and smoother interview, no wonder he is no longer the other reporters boss.

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It's finally happening!

By: Katie Anthony

It's been seemingly obvious that since 9/11 news has become increasingly negative. Ever since my previous blog posting over this same topic, it seems that one would have to search for hours to find anything positive about what has recently been going on in the world today.

I, for one, have had more than my fair share of negative news. Thankfully again, I'm not the only one.

Yair Lapid, (noted as the Israeli man-of-all-media by Poynter's Online Alan Abbey) has taken it upon himself to start a column entitled "The News You Want."

Lapid wrote an article called "One Good Person." The article consisted of asking random people what something was that he or she did that was good for his or her community. The story ran, and regretfully, Lapid's community did not have positive feedback.

His community argued that this story was not relevant to his specific area of expertise purely because the article he wrote threw a positive spin on things versus a negative. The Israeli feeling about news according to Lapid is "was is more interesting than peace."

Considering the amount of conflict across the world today, I think it's past time to hear about peace.

I'd just like to take a minute to thank Mr. Lapid because reading his article gave me hope that, while there are negative attributes in society today that may seem to overpower the positive, they don't ALWAYS have to overpower the positive.

So, I'll hold on to my hope that, little by little, the media will start having some positive reports to match their negative ones.

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Crime time

By: Katie Schaefer

Police have discovered that in the school years of 2005-06, there were over 400 fights in the Des Moines school districts. When I read about this I was shocked.

School districts need to get grant money so they can have better security matters and try to cut down on the incidents. To be able to get the grants it has to look like there are a lot of fights going on. Cops right down everything they can about incidents so they can get a lot of grant money.

The Des Moines police department reported 415 fights and assaults and got a grant for $250,000. The more that you report the more money you are going to get. But it's not all about the money. Kids need to be able to go to school and feel safe.

Still, even if 200 of the 400 are actual fist fights that's still a lot of crime going on. We need to come up with a way for kids to go to school and not get in fights. Schools are made for learning, not for fighting.

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News- As valid as High School Gossip

By: Christina Woldt

Most people have the radar for what is valid news and what is not, but what about others who cannot make this distinction? Celebrity news is all over and insights much gossip that many times proves to be false. When this gossip travels from celebrity to politician, is when the media needs to do a little bit of homework. 

We are at a time where we need our voters to be informed about each political candidate, the problem arises when that information gets overloaded with gossip and here say. I wouldn't consider Barack Obama and Sarah Palin to be celebrities but many think I am wrong. Palin and Obama are seen on the cover of  People Magazine as much as famous actor and actress "celebrities" are. 

 

These political candidates are important but it concerns me that their lives are getting plastered over gossip magazines. Websites like Wikipedia, TMZ, and various news blogs that roam our web aren't an innocent party either. This is where the news vs. false news battle really ensues. When doing a google search for Sarah Palin, the search results are flooded with blogs and opinion editorials about her. There are informational and valid sources along with the gossip but in a time like this, shouldn't we have filters? 

 

When searching the web I came upon a story from  The Los Angeles Times about a blog called, "Blue Tidal Wave", a liberal blog. The blog reported that the CBS News was not releasing information about an embarrassing Palin videotape in order to secure the McCain/Palin Campaign. The article hit the "Top Topics" over all topics on the blog site. Many of this blogs readers know that this blog has a political agenda and bias, but, what about those who don't? 

The LA Times had to prove the blog article to be untrue and clean up the mess that this blog could have or did leave. It shouldn't take a valid news source, like the LA Times to reflect on a meaningless blog. 

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