Well this is my last required post of the year, and even though its about a year away...my subject is the 2008 elections.
I'm not really talking about the presidential voting itself, I’m more focused on how the media have covered the races and primaries and how the public is reacting. Whether is Democrats, Republicans, or a combination of the two, it seems like there is always a way for the media to make some kind of 1-on-1 matchups to size up and compare opponents.
One big matchup I’ve seen lately is Clinton vs. Obama. I suppose it makes sense since their the two Democratic frontrunners, but these two just always seem to be pitted against each other in the media no matter what they say or do. This link in particular compares the two candidates’ experience (or lack thereof) and attempts to find out which person has the better track record.
Another recent 1–on-1 media-enabled rivalry has been Giuliani vs. Romney. Now this one might be a little more founded in the media blitzes considering these guys really do have it out at some of these debates. Romney is leading the Republican polls for New Hampshire and Iowa, Guiliani is leading the national polls, and onlookers now get to see the two examined and pitted against one another almost exclusively on all media fronts. It might be good publicity for these two, but it may take a lot away from some other non-matched-up candidates like John McCain.
One site that I think best conveys my theory, but also does a decent job in correcting the error has been Real Clear Politics. They have a page on head-to-head stats that gives the polling percent for each presidential matchup, without making the battles seem like a war or words or a smear campaign. Of course they have the “big” names and battles at the top of the page, but they also make sure to include some of the lower-tier candidates and offer their polling stats as well.
All in all, it seems like even though we still have about a dozen of candidates to consider, many media outlets have already tried to make the primaries a 2 (wo)man race. This may prevent an underdog candidate from making any giant steps, but at least when the time comes to choose between two people, we’ll already be very VERY well-versed in the subject.
Well that’s all for this last post, and all for this blog. This has been Bryan Mercer from IC bringing you the best news on politics and journalism for 4 months, and who knows…maybe I’ll be back for some more updates in 2008. Til then, enjoy the winter, and maybe sling snowballs instead of mud for a change.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Poynter Pointers
Well. It's the last reading blog of the semester. I know I normally do the political post first and then the reading one, but this week the election entry will require a little bit more work, and just a bit more time. Anyway...
This week I read up on "The Big P" -or plagiarism- and checking up on sources and facts. An example of the plagiarism controversy in journalism was provided by the Poynter Institute, in which they described the actions or Mr. John Merrill. Merrill had been working for the Colombia Missourian, and allegedly "borrowed" uncredited quotes from an article in The Maneater, a student paper based out of the University of Missouri. While Merrill has argued time and time again that his use of public domain facts is legal and at worst a "unintentional technical error," the case was reviewed and his editor pulled his column after decades of employment. While it's sad to see such a decorated journalist be erased by one bad instance, it goes to show the rest of us the high standards of the writing industry that we are part of in some way, shape or form. As the Poynter article said, if the lessons on being ethical and sound are in our college journalism textbooks, we need to set the example for our colleagues and future journalists on the proper and respectful processes of news reporting and writing.
Another article I checked out was this: http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=54350.
While it isn't much of an "article" I suppose, it does have a lot of good resources for digging up facts and checking the backgrounds of people and companies. Just another good tool to check up on information and making your story the best -and errorless- it can be.
Up next... The Final Post.
This week I read up on "The Big P" -or plagiarism- and checking up on sources and facts. An example of the plagiarism controversy in journalism was provided by the Poynter Institute, in which they described the actions or Mr. John Merrill. Merrill had been working for the Colombia Missourian, and allegedly "borrowed" uncredited quotes from an article in The Maneater, a student paper based out of the University of Missouri. While Merrill has argued time and time again that his use of public domain facts is legal and at worst a "unintentional technical error," the case was reviewed and his editor pulled his column after decades of employment. While it's sad to see such a decorated journalist be erased by one bad instance, it goes to show the rest of us the high standards of the writing industry that we are part of in some way, shape or form. As the Poynter article said, if the lessons on being ethical and sound are in our college journalism textbooks, we need to set the example for our colleagues and future journalists on the proper and respectful processes of news reporting and writing.
Another article I checked out was this: http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=54350.
While it isn't much of an "article" I suppose, it does have a lot of good resources for digging up facts and checking the backgrounds of people and companies. Just another good tool to check up on information and making your story the best -and errorless- it can be.
Up next... The Final Post.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Readings...13?
I think thats how many we're up to. Well, this week's reading is fairly short...so maybe this post will be too. I read an article from the Poynter Institute's website on the development and implementation of Soundslides. Soundslides is a program developed by Joe Weiss as a simple yet effective way to make audio slideshows on your computer. Weiss said that both features and hard news stories could be told through these slideshows, and as long as timing and quality are used correctly, the finished project rivals its video counterpart. It's takes a little while to learn the program inside and out, but for both journalists and photographers, Soundslides could prove to be a great new tool.
As a TV guy, I personally side with the video side of things, but I'm open to new stuff and I think I'll try out Soundslides for my final project this year.
As a TV guy, I personally side with the video side of things, but I'm open to new stuff and I think I'll try out Soundslides for my final project this year.
When Hillary Attacks
Hillary...mean? No way!! Well...maybe. Barak Obama and his campaign team have launched a new website that outlines all of Hillary's attacks against the young Senator and his plight to the White House. Check it out here.
Today alone has about 10 different entries from various newspaper articles and public records that document Hillary and her condescending nature to Obama. Here are a few examples:
ATTACK:
Clinton Campaign Manager Patti Solis Doyle Attacked Obama TV Ad Discussing Health Struggle of Obama's Mother. "I am writing concerning a false advertisement you are currently airing..." [Letter from Patti Solis Doyle, 11/30/07]
ATTACK:
New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, which is now attacking Senator Barack Obama on a daily basis." [New York Times, 11/30/07]
ATTACK:
Boston Globe: "Clinton yesterday launched one of her most pointed attacks yet against chief rival Barack Obama" [Boston Globe, 11/29/07]
The list goes on, and there are plenty of links to connect you to the full article of what exactly Clinton said and where she said it. The site was popular enough to make the top of FoxNews.com's political page, and is still gaining notoriety about a month before the first Democratic primary.
Now this site might be a little over the top in terms of Obama trying to get pity, or make Clinton out to be a monster, but Hillary better watch what she says. As this site gets bigger, her words will be examined more and more, and the effects could prove to be dramatic.
Today alone has about 10 different entries from various newspaper articles and public records that document Hillary and her condescending nature to Obama. Here are a few examples:
ATTACK:
Clinton Campaign Manager Patti Solis Doyle Attacked Obama TV Ad Discussing Health Struggle of Obama's Mother. "I am writing concerning a false advertisement you are currently airing..." [Letter from Patti Solis Doyle, 11/30/07]
ATTACK:
New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, which is now attacking Senator Barack Obama on a daily basis." [New York Times, 11/30/07]
ATTACK:
Boston Globe: "Clinton yesterday launched one of her most pointed attacks yet against chief rival Barack Obama" [Boston Globe, 11/29/07]
The list goes on, and there are plenty of links to connect you to the full article of what exactly Clinton said and where she said it. The site was popular enough to make the top of FoxNews.com's political page, and is still gaining notoriety about a month before the first Democratic primary.
Now this site might be a little over the top in terms of Obama trying to get pity, or make Clinton out to be a monster, but Hillary better watch what she says. As this site gets bigger, her words will be examined more and more, and the effects could prove to be dramatic.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Journalism Ethics
Well I'm taking a class on this next semester, so I suppose all the readings here are going to be good preparation. There's a wide array of readings for this week actually, so I'll list them here and give a few comments on each.
Textbook: I read chapter 23 which deals with ethics. I highlights and describes some of the needs for ethical journalism, as well as some problems that may arise for the modern reporter. The needs include responsibility, Freedom of the Press, independence, sincerety/truthfulness/accuracy, impartiality, fair play, and decency. There is also a few universal tools that journalists use such as the Potter Box to determine where to draw the line for situations, values, and loyalties. Some of the ethical problems for reporters were deceit, conflicts of interest, friendship, payola, freebies, ad pressure, invasion of privacy, plagiarism, and withholding information. The last one was a very interesting read, as many different historical dillemas have yielded many different results.
New York Magazine: I read an online article about the changing patterns of news delivery and technology. The author argued that newsrooms were putting almost all of their newspaper content online- both in printed and news package form- and rivaling the content of television news networks. The article says that the focus of these newspaper sites (NYT and WP in particular) are still to find the news, but the on-air reporting guidelines are so much more linient that reporters have much more freedom and can create a news package with much more depth than a network presentation. I'm not sure if these online video offerings wil lever eclipse the television broadcasts as our main news venues, but there is definitley a growing following of these sources.
tojou.blogspot.com: Yep, I'm blogging about a blog. This specific entry discusses another article written by a reporter about a veteran TV reporter. I think that makes this...a 4th person account. Anyway, here's some of the strong points. The veteran reporter has covered stories for over 3 decades, and still has the drive to find unique stories and specific information that makes his work enjoyable to the audience. His tools for doing this great work include preparation, curiosity, details, and awareness. They use a good "State fair" example to highlight the importance of finding a good story, and not just the 'ho-hum' report on what happened at an event. This comes in handy when on the scene doing a report. You never know what you'll run into, and you always need to be ready to cover the biggest, most unique, or rarest story that arises.
www.cjr.org: The title of this article is "What Journalism Can't Do." It said nothing about not being able to make me millions of dollars, so that was a good first step. It did discuss though, the "psychic numbing" that effects people when faced with an uncountable number of deaths or tragic events. It relates to a person feeling devastated for one person's death or tribulations, but being able to be less affected (or connected to) a widespread problem. The professor who did this study suggests that journalism cannot do much to rouse up the public and solicit action in these large-scale situations, it can only inform and hope that legal and institutional mechanisms can enforce laws and solve problems. The article closes by saying that "Journalism can make a difference, but it cannot make all the difference." Fair enough.
cyberjournalist.net: Well the title of the site pretty much says it all. This article was basically a rundown of all the different tools that make online journalism unique and handy. It apparently was the first document of hits kind to do just a comprehensive storytelling analysis, and the suggestions it gives are used by both independent and network websites. The site lists these facets to assist in online reporting: Use print to explain, use multimedia to show, and use interactives to demonstrate and engage. Here is the breakdown of some information that can be layered on an online news article.
Print (the raw story)
Clickable Interactives (highlight specifics)
Slideshows (presenting multiple images)
Audio Stories (powerful descriptions)
Narrated Slideshows
Live Chats (Q&A sessions)
Quizzes and Surveys (public opinion on topic)
Animated Stories (visual aid without photos or video)
Interactive Webcasts & Streams
Multimedia Interactives (hybrids)
Well that about covers it. This week's readings furthered my knowledge on ethics, technology, and the different techniques and processes to create a good story in print, on air, and online. This will probably prove to be good help for me at NewsWatch, and maybe even for the final too.
Textbook: I read chapter 23 which deals with ethics. I highlights and describes some of the needs for ethical journalism, as well as some problems that may arise for the modern reporter. The needs include responsibility, Freedom of the Press, independence, sincerety/truthfulness/accuracy, impartiality, fair play, and decency. There is also a few universal tools that journalists use such as the Potter Box to determine where to draw the line for situations, values, and loyalties. Some of the ethical problems for reporters were deceit, conflicts of interest, friendship, payola, freebies, ad pressure, invasion of privacy, plagiarism, and withholding information. The last one was a very interesting read, as many different historical dillemas have yielded many different results.
New York Magazine: I read an online article about the changing patterns of news delivery and technology. The author argued that newsrooms were putting almost all of their newspaper content online- both in printed and news package form- and rivaling the content of television news networks. The article says that the focus of these newspaper sites (NYT and WP in particular) are still to find the news, but the on-air reporting guidelines are so much more linient that reporters have much more freedom and can create a news package with much more depth than a network presentation. I'm not sure if these online video offerings wil lever eclipse the television broadcasts as our main news venues, but there is definitley a growing following of these sources.
tojou.blogspot.com: Yep, I'm blogging about a blog. This specific entry discusses another article written by a reporter about a veteran TV reporter. I think that makes this...a 4th person account. Anyway, here's some of the strong points. The veteran reporter has covered stories for over 3 decades, and still has the drive to find unique stories and specific information that makes his work enjoyable to the audience. His tools for doing this great work include preparation, curiosity, details, and awareness. They use a good "State fair" example to highlight the importance of finding a good story, and not just the 'ho-hum' report on what happened at an event. This comes in handy when on the scene doing a report. You never know what you'll run into, and you always need to be ready to cover the biggest, most unique, or rarest story that arises.
www.cjr.org: The title of this article is "What Journalism Can't Do." It said nothing about not being able to make me millions of dollars, so that was a good first step. It did discuss though, the "psychic numbing" that effects people when faced with an uncountable number of deaths or tragic events. It relates to a person feeling devastated for one person's death or tribulations, but being able to be less affected (or connected to) a widespread problem. The professor who did this study suggests that journalism cannot do much to rouse up the public and solicit action in these large-scale situations, it can only inform and hope that legal and institutional mechanisms can enforce laws and solve problems. The article closes by saying that "Journalism can make a difference, but it cannot make all the difference." Fair enough.
cyberjournalist.net: Well the title of the site pretty much says it all. This article was basically a rundown of all the different tools that make online journalism unique and handy. It apparently was the first document of hits kind to do just a comprehensive storytelling analysis, and the suggestions it gives are used by both independent and network websites. The site lists these facets to assist in online reporting: Use print to explain, use multimedia to show, and use interactives to demonstrate and engage. Here is the breakdown of some information that can be layered on an online news article.
Print (the raw story)
Clickable Interactives (highlight specifics)
Slideshows (presenting multiple images)
Audio Stories (powerful descriptions)
Narrated Slideshows
Live Chats (Q&A sessions)
Quizzes and Surveys (public opinion on topic)
Animated Stories (visual aid without photos or video)
Interactive Webcasts & Streams
Multimedia Interactives (hybrids)
Well that about covers it. This week's readings furthered my knowledge on ethics, technology, and the different techniques and processes to create a good story in print, on air, and online. This will probably prove to be good help for me at NewsWatch, and maybe even for the final too.
CNN meets YouTube
Never thought you'd hear that one...but it's happening. The CNN-YouTube Debate is happening this Wednesday is St. Petersburg, Florida, and it's gonna be something new and exciting for both the Republicans involved, and the nation as a whole.
Sources have said that the questions submitted will cover many wide ranges, and be funny, poignant, tough, and anywhere in between. The questions have all been submitted by YouTube users, and selected to show the candidates' many differences in opinion and policy. The exceptional part of the debate is that the YouTube users will be displayed on a large screen for the candidates to see, so public participation will be one of the driving forces at this event.
This process is not only a huge step for technology, but also it is very big for presidential elections. With the population able to contribute so greatly in such a widely broadcasted hearing, candidates will be paying much more attention to their constituents then that have in the past. No one may know what questions to expect, but the viewers and participants can all be sure that this will be a debate that will be historically remembered, and electronically innovative.
Sources have said that the questions submitted will cover many wide ranges, and be funny, poignant, tough, and anywhere in between. The questions have all been submitted by YouTube users, and selected to show the candidates' many differences in opinion and policy. The exceptional part of the debate is that the YouTube users will be displayed on a large screen for the candidates to see, so public participation will be one of the driving forces at this event.
This process is not only a huge step for technology, but also it is very big for presidential elections. With the population able to contribute so greatly in such a widely broadcasted hearing, candidates will be paying much more attention to their constituents then that have in the past. No one may know what questions to expect, but the viewers and participants can all be sure that this will be a debate that will be historically remembered, and electronically innovative.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Readings 11
Actually, just one reading this week. Chapter 19 in the text book, to be exact. And this chapter focus on my bread-and-butter, Television and Radio writing. Now, I'm a journalism major and not a TV/R guy, but broadcast is my thing and from my work at ICTV, I know a thing or two about the subject. With that in mind, I'll probably add my two cents here and there from NewsWatch producing on the commentary and insight that the book provides.
They say that a half-hour news program only covers the same number of words as one-half of a newspaper's front page. This may be true, but since each story only gets about 30 seconds devoted to it, the content is much more diverse. There are many things to consider when making a story for TV/Radio* rather than just a printed copy. (*Note: I'm a TV guy, so from here on out I'll probably just say TV instead of TV/Radio.)
1. Timeliness: Many papers come out once a week, or report on events happening within the month or future things, but TV is so immediate that CNN and other news networks can air a story as they happen, and not just report on a past event. This also means that if one story is covered for one day (like when the actress who played the Yellow Power Ranger died on September 10, 2001) and something happens the next day, TV stations will quickly pick up the "new news" and leave the rest for the back pages of papers and online sites. Even if something older is covered on TV, writers wil ltry to add and update or sence of urgency to keep the viewer thinking that its still important content.
2. Information: Not really that big to TV people, since like I said earlier not much time is devoted to each story. For long-report TV shows like 60 Minutes and 20/20, in-depth and investigative info is good, but for normal "readers" (30-second stories) the "big news" of the story is much more important that the background.
3. Audio or Visual Impact. This is a big one, especially for me at NewsWatch 16. What it comes down to is that you dont want to sit there and read the newspaper to the viewer, you want to offer something more, like footage of new construction, or a taped quote from a local politician. Sure, you can say what they said, or describe what something looks like, but so can newspapers. With so much technology available to TV/R newsrooms, they need to take advantage of it to captivate their audiences.
4. People. Kinda goes with number 3, but it's a little more specific. Instead of just reporting on an event, or accident, or decision, try and find a person (or "face") to follow throughout the ordeal. This gives the viewer someone to identify with, and gives you something to film, interview and add depth to any story.
The chapter also goes over some smaller things that are important to TVR news production. One example is reading what you write, which reinforces the conversational style of the boradcast. Since anchors will be reading the stories out loud, its good practice to...practice so that the tone of the anchor will be informative, not confused. It's also good to add pronounciations of long or diffucult words, and lead-ins & wrap-ups to give a little background to reports.
A lot of the scripting techniques are complicated, but if you use a program like ENPS then the formatting is built-in. Working at ICTV has definately futhered my knowledge on a lot of topics that are covered in the book, and often I felt like while I was reading, I was listening to my producers from freshman year tell me about how to prepare my stories. Well now I'M the producer, so hopefully I don't mess any of these techniques up.
They say that a half-hour news program only covers the same number of words as one-half of a newspaper's front page. This may be true, but since each story only gets about 30 seconds devoted to it, the content is much more diverse. There are many things to consider when making a story for TV/Radio* rather than just a printed copy. (*Note: I'm a TV guy, so from here on out I'll probably just say TV instead of TV/Radio.)
1. Timeliness: Many papers come out once a week, or report on events happening within the month or future things, but TV is so immediate that CNN and other news networks can air a story as they happen, and not just report on a past event. This also means that if one story is covered for one day (like when the actress who played the Yellow Power Ranger died on September 10, 2001) and something happens the next day, TV stations will quickly pick up the "new news" and leave the rest for the back pages of papers and online sites. Even if something older is covered on TV, writers wil ltry to add and update or sence of urgency to keep the viewer thinking that its still important content.
2. Information: Not really that big to TV people, since like I said earlier not much time is devoted to each story. For long-report TV shows like 60 Minutes and 20/20, in-depth and investigative info is good, but for normal "readers" (30-second stories) the "big news" of the story is much more important that the background.
3. Audio or Visual Impact. This is a big one, especially for me at NewsWatch 16. What it comes down to is that you dont want to sit there and read the newspaper to the viewer, you want to offer something more, like footage of new construction, or a taped quote from a local politician. Sure, you can say what they said, or describe what something looks like, but so can newspapers. With so much technology available to TV/R newsrooms, they need to take advantage of it to captivate their audiences.
4. People. Kinda goes with number 3, but it's a little more specific. Instead of just reporting on an event, or accident, or decision, try and find a person (or "face") to follow throughout the ordeal. This gives the viewer someone to identify with, and gives you something to film, interview and add depth to any story.
The chapter also goes over some smaller things that are important to TVR news production. One example is reading what you write, which reinforces the conversational style of the boradcast. Since anchors will be reading the stories out loud, its good practice to...practice so that the tone of the anchor will be informative, not confused. It's also good to add pronounciations of long or diffucult words, and lead-ins & wrap-ups to give a little background to reports.
A lot of the scripting techniques are complicated, but if you use a program like ENPS then the formatting is built-in. Working at ICTV has definately futhered my knowledge on a lot of topics that are covered in the book, and often I felt like while I was reading, I was listening to my producers from freshman year tell me about how to prepare my stories. Well now I'M the producer, so hopefully I don't mess any of these techniques up.
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