New York Times to Scrap Print Edition?

Some thought-provoking comments by a NYT official. Will the paper eventually go to a digital only edition? What does that mean for its readers?

Sites From Dan Simon's Talk

Here are the websites Dan Simon mentioned in his talk on Tuesday. Let me know if you have questions, or can add a site to this list.

Photo web sites

www.dpreview.com
www.fredmiranda.com
http://robgalbraith.com
http://www.danheller.com/tech-intro.html
http://strobist.blogspot.com (advanced)

Video web sites

www.videomaker.com
http://www.dv.com/ (advanced)
http://www.shortcourses.com/video/

Online multimedia web sites

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/070210ruel/ http://www.sacbee.com/static/live/news/projects/theweight/ (Sacramento Bee story)
http://www.floridatoday.com/multimedia/orphanangels/day5oa/

Trail mix (my story on AMD&Art -- minor irony, the town I report on is Ernie's home town)

http://greenworks.tv/special/TrailMix/amd_art.htm

Folks Blog About Their Debt

An article in the February 18 New York Times describes how some folks, facing mountains of debt, blog about their plight as a way of moving toward fiscal sanity.

News War - PBS Special

Hey guys,

I found this (News War) as I was searching for a story for my Critical Analysis. I think it may not only be relevant to the class, but also quite interesting. It began airing last night on PBS.

Take a look.

Videographer Jailed For Refusing to Reveal Source of Raw Video

A rather chilling article from the February 6 New York Times that details what happens when a freelance journalist refuses to give the government raw video it says it needs for an investigation. This raises a couple of questions:

We know that journalists don't have an absolute privilege to refuse to testify in front of a grand jury - what makes bloggers think they do?

When does a blogger become a journalist?

Let me know what you think.

Bribes to Bloggers?

This articles comes to us courtesy of the February 4, 2007 San Jose Mercury News.

Bloggers' choice: Free agents, or infomercials?
By Scott Kirsner

Just before Christmas, dozens of influential bloggers received an e-mail from Microsoft asking them whether they were interested in receiving a laptop worth about $2,000.

The company was seeking to promote its new Vista operating system, conveniently pre-loaded on the machines, as well as the microprocessor inside, made by AMD. ``While I hope you will blog about your experience with the PC, you don't have to,'' a Microsoft employee wrote in the e-mail. ``Also, you are welcome to send the machine back to us after you are done playing with it, or you can give it away on your site, or you can keep it.''

Microsoft's publicity ploy highlighted the growing influence of blogs (as well as other forms of digital self-expression, like audio podcasts and video clips), and a choice now facing bloggers: Do they intend to be a trusted source of insight and information for their readers, or merely the Internet's version of an infomercial?

Though most bloggers don't consider themselves journalists, and lustily criticize what they see as the hidebound ``mainstream media,'' they need to consider adapting some of the ethics and disclosure practices that guide traditional print and broadcast outlets. Ultimately, cultivating those practices may enable them to develop a more transparent and accountable relationship with their readers than the mainstream media have ever had.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, about 12 million Americans maintain blogs, and some of the most popular attract millions of readers. Many blogs, though they may adopt the pose of tomato-wielding outsider, are now every bit as powerful and well-connected as their older media brethren. On the day in January when Apple unveiled its new cell phone, the tech blog Engadget, which is owned by Time Warner, delivered 10 million page views, which translates into an audience of about 5 million readers. For comparison, the monthly print circulation of Wired magazine is about 620,000. (Full disclosure: I've been a contributing writer to Wired since 1997.)

So it shouldn't be surprising that marketers and public relations firms are now trying to sway people who publish blogs, produce podcasts or post video clips on the Internet. Shortly before Microsoft and AMD doled out free laptops, a company that customizes the interior of private jets flew a Lear-load of bloggers and vloggers (video bloggers) to Washington state for wine tastings and a dinner. Last year, in an attempt to counteract negative coverage of its employee health care offerings, Wal-Mart funneled rebuttals to right-leaning bloggers -- some of whom posted the material without noting its source -- and later surreptitiously helped fund a pro-Wal-Mart blog.

And marketing firms like PayPerPost.com, ReviewMe.com and SponsoredReviews.com routinely dangle cash -- as much as $1,000 -- before bloggers willing to write about a particular product.

The issue of blog disclosure -- making it clear to readers where financial relationships exist, and when a substantial freebie has been accepted -- has been igniting debate on the Internet for several years, as well as generating recent coverage in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

Earlier last week, at the Always On Media Conference in New York, bloggers Jeff Jarvis and David Weinberger sparred with the chief executive of PayPerPost, Ted Murphy, about the company's tactics. ``It's a corrosive influence,'' Weinberger said of the practice of paying bloggers to review products. ``It makes the conversation less trustworthy.''

Public conversation
As both a blogger and journalist, I like to think that I am completely incorruptible, and zealous about expressing my true opinions or producing fair reporting, even if I've just been handed a free T-shirt by an interview subject (always uncomfortable) or schmoozed by a company's PR rep at a conference where I was paid to speak. But as a reader, I like to know about factors that may have had an impact on what I'm reading: Is the travel writer who is telling me about a fabulous new Fijian resort someone who was given a weeklong stay for free?

Newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets have developed ethical standards to try to ensure that journalists produce work that is as free as possible from improper influence. Blogs, podcasts and online video shows haven't been around as long. But as they've been evolving, they've been engaged in a very public conversation with their readers, listeners and viewers about what those policies and divisions should be. If most news organizations have come up with their guidelines in the confines of their newsrooms or boardrooms, bloggers and other online publishers are doing it in an open-air amphitheater.

When bloggers began receiving the laptops from Microsoft and AMD, blogger Amit Agarwal compiled a list of 25 people, including himself, who'd received one of the computers. Agarwal said he planned to keep it, as did about half of the other bloggers named. The debate on Agarwal's site erupted within hours after he posted the list. ``You just compromised your integrity. Congratulations!'' wrote one reader. Another reader defended Agarwal: ``Amit is not biased in my view, with or without the laptop!''

When blogger Brandon LeBlanc wrote that he was planning to keep the laptop he received from Microsoft, he noted that he doesn't make money from his blog. (LeBlanc earns a living as a tech support contractor.) That was fine with several readers, one of whom wrote, ``Don't return it. You've earned the laptop!'' But in his very first posting about his ``new laptop,'' LeBlanc failed to mention that it was a freebie, prompting one reader to declare simply, ``Blog: compromised.''

Over time, I expect readers will grow suspicious of bloggers who never disembark from the gravy train. All that free stuff can begin to strain the perception of bloggers as free agents operating outside the establishment.

In October, the Washington Post reported that the blog ``Wal-Marting Across America,'' which had chronicled a couple's RV trip across the country and focused on their rosy conversations with Wal-Mart employees and customers, had actually been funded by an advocacy group created and financially supported by the giant retailer. The bloggers neglected to mention that their travel expenses were being paid by the Wal-Mart group until after the Post's story appeared.

One of the site's bloggers was James Thresher, a photographer who worked full-time for the Post and who eventually repaid his share of the trip expenses. This came less than a year after some political bloggers posted material sent to them by a Wal-Mart PR representative -- often word for word -- without mentioning its origins.

Disclosing entanglements
Author David Weinberger, who maintains the technology and business blog Journal of the Hyperlinked Organization, has a disclosure statement linked prominently from his front page that details his work as a marketing consultant. ``When you think that your entanglement with a company might affect what you're writing, you should disclose that entanglement,'' Weinberger says, ``and the entanglement might be that you consult with them, or you've been using their product for 15 years, or you went to school with one of their product managers. If that's affecting your judgment, you should mention it.'' (Among the companies for which Weinberger has consulted are Microsoft and Edelman, a public relations agency that represents both Microsoft and Wal-Mart.)

One of the earliest reported attempts to pay bloggers in exchange for coverage occurred in 2004 when a Vancouver software company called Marqui doled out $800 a month to bloggers who agreed to repeatedly mention its company name.

Today, there are at least three marketing services that offer to pay bloggers money for writing posts about specific products: PayPerPost, ReviewMe and Sponsored Reviews. All of them now make it mandatory for bloggers to disclose the arrangement -- a policy that, in some cases, is the result of pressure from high-profile bloggers who decried paid postings that were not disclosed as a ``cancer'' that damaged the reputation of all bloggers.

Many of those now pioneering the emerging forms of podcasts and video dispatches concede that they are still engaged in exploring questions of ethics and disclosure. ``I went to school for computer science,'' says John Furrier, CEO of the Menlo Park company PodTech, which produces audio and video programming. ``I'm trying to deploy social media in a new way.''

I asked Furrier about the sometimes-hazy distinction on his site between sponsors and content. Seagate and Cisco are major sponsors, and video coverage of those companies has been featured prominently on the site, including a tour of Seagate's booth at the recent Consumer Electronics Show. Furrier noted that interviews with executives from such large Silicon Valley companies are newsworthy and points out that the PodTech site also scored a sit-down with Bill Gates earlier this month (Microsoft is not a sponsor).

Establishing credibility
But Furrier acknowledged that drawing lines between what's paid for and what's not is a continuing process for the company. ``Credibility is the ultimate key to success, and we're trying to establish that,'' he says. For some readers, it may be enough when PodTech's star interviewer, Robert Scoble, cheerfully declares, ``Seagate is the only sponsor of my ScobleShow, so consider that I've been paid for telling you about Seagate stuff.''

I believe we will soon see a bifurcation in the blogosphere, with trusted bloggers letting readers know about connections that may influence what they write. Blogs where payment for reviews seems to dominate -- or where every third posting is about wonderful free dinners and gifts lavished upon the blogger -- will be regarded much more skeptically. How many more people have relied on Julia Child for cooking advice (who never endorsed a product), rather than Ron Popeil, star of late-night infomercials for the Showtime Rotisserie Oven?

``If your blog is remotely influential, people will attempt to influence you,'' writes blogger, author and entrepreneur Seth Godin via e-mail. ``The more often a blogger accepts the temptations, the less influential her blog will become.''

The blog world also is self-policing, with every reader and fellow blogger a potential ombudsman. ``If you try to be secretive or sneaky or tricky by integrating marketing messages, you will get nailed and you'll get embarrassed,'' says David Pescovitz, an editor of BoingBoing, one of the Web's most popular blogs, and a researcher at Palo Alto's Institute for the Future.

Bloggers may not need a uniform code of ethics. But they will surely benefit by being clear about the principles that guide them and by responding to their audience's concerns. That sort of openness can be a model for any media, new or old.

SCOTT KIRSNER edits the blog CinemaTech (http://cinematech.blogspot.com) and is the author of the book ``The Future of Web Video.'' He wrote this article for Perspective.

The Blur Takes His Act to Oregon

Being recruited for Division I athletics can be either a dirty game or the experience of a lifetime. Talmadge Jackson, an 18-year-old Chaparral High School Football star, has experienced this first hand.

By this time next week, Jackson will officially be signed to play Division I football at the University of Oregon. He'll be done with the overzealous recruiters and overvauled comebines and ready for college. Talmadge is looking forward to campus life and being apart of the Oregon program.

Known as “The Blur” or simply "Tal", Jackson has already been immortalized with a highlight reel on Youtube, reminiscent of Reggie Bush’s now famous highlight tape. Reggie Bush's tape has become a popular pick on Youtube and with success at the next level Jackson's tape will be sought after in the same way.

This was a great experience for the humble star, who realized he had Pac-10 potential when his coach Tom Leach arrived at Chaparral. Prior to Leach's arrival at Chaparral, Jackson's top two suitors were Colorado St. and UTEP.

Tal is ready to work hard at Oregon. He expects to play as a true freshman and is ready to enroll in classes as soon as possible and is thinking about majoring in business or sports management. He wants to earn a starting spot in the defensive backfield, but he knows that will take a lot of hard work.

Although he’s nicknamed “The Blur,” his time in the 40-yard dash was a 4.5 which isn't considered very fast. While the combine aspect of recruiting can be frustrating, it wasn't Tal's least favorite part of recruiting. His least favorite part was the over aggressive coaches who would even show up at his school. He blames being overlooked by closer Pac-10 schools on coming from an area not known for producing football stars.

Thanks to Coach Leach, he said, Jackson was able to score a scholarship to Oregon over smaller schools who were recruiting him like UTEP and Colorado St.

Jackson was very about the college coaching carousel and the big money in Division I sports. Even though millions of dollars are involved, he feels like the experience alone is worth it. Tal believes that if you do your job on the field, the money will come.

As for his coach, Mike Bellotti, Jackson believes that Bellotti is committed to the program and the university and doesn’t see him leaving. As a true freshman, Jackson is ready to take the Pac-10 by storm next year. He hopes to take out his opponents, especially USC and UCLA, in a blur.

Check out The Blur in action.

Open Source Reporting site

Here's a new site that tracks developments in open source reporting. Worth checking out - they're not doing actual reporting projects yet, just scoping what's happening with other reporters.

Can You Hear Me Now?

SEPTA needs 23 million in upgrades.

By Colleen Wolfe

Although SEPTA Police may make commuters feel as ease, can they actually make a difference if there is a potential safety threat?

The answer literally lies in the hands of 50 people/organizations for the entire underground transportation system in the city of Philadelphia.

If you don’t know what why this is happening, chances are, you are not alone. There has been a problem, which is nothing new, between the communication of SEPTA police officers and the law enforcement above ground.

This block in communication is due to SEPTA’s outdated radio system. SEPTA police are currently using radios with a 400 megahertz bandwidth, which is not compatible with the rest of the Philadelphia Police radio systems, using 800 megahertz bandwidth.

In order for the SEPTA police to report criminal activity or intent, they now must go through one of the 50 walkie-talkies distributed to local firehouses and police stations throughout the city.

But these 50 walkie-talkies are no solution to a serious and pricey problem. The city has requested a reported twenty-three million dollars from the Department of Homeland Security for the installation of cable or fiber optics in SEPTA’s 27 miles of underground transportation.

With the potential threat of something more catastrophic than a purse snatching, communication between law enforcement should be a top priority in both Philadelphia and the United States; now we just have to convince that to the people in Homeland Security.

(Picture compliments of subwaynut.com)

Links:
Frankford Terminal Blog
Radio Connection Really Hertz

Posting Audio to Your Blog

Hi everyone,

I was having some trouble posting audio to my blog and thought maybe you had some problems too. I posted an audio clip from the Internet using ODEO; they explain how to do it in their FAQ's, and it's as simple as this:

Link to Audio on the web:

* Log into studio.odeo.com
* Look for the pink "My Audio" box on the upper right hand side on the page.
* Click on "Link to Audio"
* You will be taken to the "Add an mp3 from the web" page, here:
http://www.odeo.com/create/audio_link
* Give your audio a title in the first box, and paste or type the URL of the mp3 you wish to link to in the second box.
* Submit and Save.
* After you submit the audio, you will find it in your "My Podcasts" page. (This link to this page is located in the pink
"My Audio" Box.)

(After completing these steps, they give you a code to copy and paste on your blog at the bottom of the page)

**Hope this helps!
-Colleen

Underscoring the Importance of Blogging

Here's a great article from mediachannel.org, a site which keeps an eye on the news media using a decidedly progressive approach.

The article underscores the temerity of the mainstream media, and gives credence to the notion that blogging may be what saves journalism.

Below is a recent email from CBS reporter Lara Logan to family and friends in which she asks for help in passing along a version of events in Iraq's Green Zone deemed too graphic by CBS for its audience. CBS posted Logan's video to its website, but did not run it on air.

Conservative bloggers have called Logan a dupe, claiming she was simply doing the dirty work for an al-Qaeda operative. The video resembles video distributed by a terrorist group called The Islamic State of Iraq.

CBS says it doesn't identify the person who supplies a piece of video when revealing that person's identity would endanger the person's life.

The controversy underscores the fact that the mainstream media are not giving us an honest portrayal of the war:


From: lara logan, cbs news baghdad
Subject: help

The story below only appeared on our CBS website and was not aired on CBS. It is a story that is largely being ignored, even though this is taking place every single day in central Baghdad, two blocks from where our office is located.

Our crew had to be pulled out because we got a call saying they were about to be killed, and on their way out, a civilian man was shot dead in front of them as they ran.

I would be very grateful if any of you have a chance to watch this story and pass the link on to as many people you know as possible. It should be seen. And people should know about this.

If anyone has time to send a comment to CBS – about the story – not about my request, then that would help highlight that people are interested and this is not too gruesome to air, but rather too important to ignore.

Many, many thanks. Lara.

Watch the video that did air on CBS. What's your reaction?

Groups for Final Project - Please Read!

What follows are the groups for the final project. Remember that your final presentations on the "Future of Newspapers" will be delivered during our last class session, which I believe is Thursday, March 16. I'm working on moving the presentations to a more presentation-friendly room - more on that later.

Here goes:

Team 1: Katie Bradley, Maura Cullen, Gwenna Johnson, Jennifer Kramer, Kyle Michael

Team 2: Gracyn Tighe, Manna Pourrezaei, Selina Poiesz, Jaclyn Lewin, Colleen Wolfe

Team 3: Erica Lester, Jennifer Rivera, James Mason, Nadeem Fernand, Melissa Reese

PLEASE make sure that you make contact with each other (you can snag emails using Drexel search) outside of class during week 5, in order to start the ball rolling. Remember also that each group will submit a short report describing their strategies and tactics. Consult the syllabus for more information.

Critical Analysis

Selina Poiesz

COM 300: Critical Analysis Mini-Project

January 30, 2007

I compared two articles on Mexican President Felipe Calderone’s new agenda to crack down on drug trafficking. One was from the January 30, print edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the other was from the Christian Science Monitor online from January 22.

Both leads were only one sentence, but with different approaches. The Inquirer took more of a hard news(ish) approach, while the Christian Science Monitor painted a descriptive picture. A descriptive online lead is generally discouraged, but this one was executed well.

The online article was longer then the one in print and could have been shortened. I started to lose interest about half way through.

I found it interesting that the online article had 15 sources, while the print edition had nine. The Christian Science Monitor did go more in depth into problems in the local communities over drugs and how Calderone is doing things differently from past leaders. Some of its sources included drugs experts, army generals, a national security expert in Mexico City and a Mexican citizen from Patzcuaro. The Inquirer cited the Los Angeles Times, a Mexican historian, a Mexican newspaper poll and a law professor among others. Both newspapers cited “analysts.”

The two articles seemed pretty objective. The print one might have glorified Calderone’s work, if only slightly. It also spent a good amount of space describing the United State’s response to the problem and what officials are doing that might not help the drug situation. On the other hand, the Christian Science Monitor showed a more well-rounded view of the entire problem.

Overall, both were well written, though maybe not for their selected audiences. I would have switched the two articles to the opposite medium. I do not know if the Christian Science Monitor simply pasted a copy of its print article online, but the online story would have been more effective in print. The Inquirer story was fine as it was, but of the two, would have made the better online article.

Comparison of Articles

Gwenna Johnson
Ron Bishop
On-Line Journalism
1 February 2007

Comparing CNN.com to The Philadelphia Inquirer

On Wednesday, January 31st, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced that he would be running as a presidential candidate for the 2008 election. Biden hopes to “ride his foreign policy expertise into contention for the Democratic nomination” (Philadelphia A1). Shortly after announcing his presidential candidacy, Biden made an insulting remark about Barack Obama, a fellow Democratic candidate. Biden described Obama as “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and brigha nd clean and a nice-looking guy” (Philadelphia A1). Obama among other African Americans, were irritated by Biden’s comment. Both CNN.com and The Philadelphia Inquirer covered the story with a few minor differences in their articles.
People visiting the CNN.com website can find a story entitled, “Biden’s Description of Obama Draws Scrutiny” (CNN.com). The article contains Biden’s statement, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man." Shortly after, Biden apologized for insulting Obama, stating that he had not intended to be offensive. By the tone of the article, the reader assumes that Obama did not take offense to the statement, claiming that Biden "’didn't intend to offend’anyone” (CNN.com). Readers can also access a sound-clip of Biden’s statement and an online video of Obama’s reaction by clicking on a link.
The Philadelphia Inquirer ran the story, “Biden has to do some early explaining” (Philadelphia A1). The newspaper included the same quotes that were found online but also provided some background information on Biden, such as his position as the Chairman of the Senate of Foreign Affairs. The Philadelphia Inquirer shared information that Biden explained himself on the Daily Show on Wednesday afternoon. The newspaper shared more information about Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton’s responses to Biden’s comments. Jackson referred to Biden’s comments as, “’blabbering bluster’” (Philadelphia A1). The biggest difference between the two articles is the inclusion of Al Sharpton’s comments in The Philadelphia Inquirer. When Biden called Sharpton to apologize for his comments, Sharpton replied, “’I told him I take a bath everyday. I told him I took one before I came to see him in his office in Washington last week’” (Philadelphia A7). Through its interviews, The Philadelphia Inquirer presented an angrier reaction to Biden’s remarks.