It has been several weeks since any new entry appeared on this site. That's certainly not due to a lack of issues and events to write about. It's more a case of my inefficiency -- and the fact that we have been busy at the University of Tennessee launching a news web site for the School, the TennesseeJournalist. It's live, and I invite you to take a look.
But for now, we'll take a break from things journalistic, and you can, in your mind's eye (and with the aid of YouTube, iPhoto, and various other devises), travel down to Blount County, Tennessee, to see what a beautiful late fall day we had on Saturday.
Enjoy.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Thursday, October 05, 2006
The Iraq war is like . . . a comma
Once again, commas are in the news. Well, make that once in a blue moon.
In a speech the other day, George W. Bush said that eventually the war in Iraq would be seen as "just a comma" in the history books. He didn't offer any explanation for what he meant, and his detractors have pounced, claiming that he is trivializing a war that he began and that has cost the lives of more than 2,500 soldiers. (Here is the Washington Post story on all of this.)
I'm not sure what he meant either, but as a card-carrying grammarian, I'm pretty sure that commas are important -- probably more important than Bush or his detractors seem to think.
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Redundancies in the air
If you're a collector in the word game (as I am), keeping your redundancy box full is a fairly easy matter. All you have to do is pay attention occasionally.
That's what I was doing when I was driving along yesterday, listening to story on National Public Radio. The story was on the opening of the new Supreme Court term.
The anchor was interviewing a law professor about the various cases the court would be hearing this year.
At one point in the interview, the anchor -- in response to something the prof had said -- cut in with "Well, that's the key central point, isn't it?"
The law professor, who may find redundancies the elixir of life, repeated the interviewer's words.
"Yes, that's the key central point," she said and continued with her comment.
I hope that both of these intelligent people have some regrets. Meanwhile, I have a new redundancy for my collection.
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
That's what I was doing when I was driving along yesterday, listening to story on National Public Radio. The story was on the opening of the new Supreme Court term.
The anchor was interviewing a law professor about the various cases the court would be hearing this year.
At one point in the interview, the anchor -- in response to something the prof had said -- cut in with "Well, that's the key central point, isn't it?"
The law professor, who may find redundancies the elixir of life, repeated the interviewer's words.
"Yes, that's the key central point," she said and continued with her comment.
I hope that both of these intelligent people have some regrets. Meanwhile, I have a new redundancy for my collection.
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Editing for the web
The web is a different medium.
Then why do we keep seeing so much shovelware -- articles that were written for print -- on news web sites.
One reason, of course, is that news organizations (particularly newspapers) do not invest in enough people who can change print stories into web-friendly packages.
Another is that editors do not understand the needs or possibilities of the web. To get my students shifted from print to the web, I have developed this example of how a print story can be turned into a web story.
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
Then why do we keep seeing so much shovelware -- articles that were written for print -- on news web sites.
One reason, of course, is that news organizations (particularly newspapers) do not invest in enough people who can change print stories into web-friendly packages.
Another is that editors do not understand the needs or possibilities of the web. To get my students shifted from print to the web, I have developed this example of how a print story can be turned into a web story.
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Today's Word on Journalism
"In order to enjoy the inestimable benefits that the liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils that it creates."
--Alexis de Tocqueville, French commentator on the American experiment, 1835
That quotation comes from Ted Pease's Today's Word on Journalism, a daily email that contains a quotation about some aspect of journalism. Ted is a professor at Utah State and has a world-class sense of humor, particularly when he directs it at himself. His email is always a delight to read. You can subscribe by sending a "subscribe" message to Ted at tpease@cc.usu.edu. (The drawing to the right is de Tocqueville, not Ted.) More quotations about journalism -- many of them coming from Ted -- can be found at this page on JPROF.
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Couric takes over
In the long history of the CBS Evening News, there had been only three permanent anchors: Douglas Edwards, Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather. Now there is a fourth. Katie Couric CBS biography) debuted as the newscast's latest anchor last night. Couric is a legitimate journalist who was part of NBC's news team covering the Pentagon and the Gulf War in 1991. For the last 15 years she has been the host of NBC's Today Show, and her work has not been considered to be on the front lines of reporting. Her main job at CBS is not to deliver the news but to deliver an audience (preferably one that is a little younger than the one CBS has). Here are a few stories and reviews of her first night: New York Times, Washington Post, NPR.
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
The iconic image
Few of us get to leave the impression that Joe Rosenthal did.
Rosenthal was the 33-year-old Associated Press photographer who took the picture of Marines raising the flag during the fierce battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific in 1945.
That image struck an instant chord with viewers, and it has been stuck in our consciousness ever since. It has been reproduced millions of times in many forums and is the basis for the giant Marine memorial that overlooks the nation's capital.
Rosenthal was an excellent photographer during his entire career -- not just a guy with a camera at the right place and time. He died on Sunday at the age of 94.
(Check out what the San Francisco Chronicle, the newspaper where he worked for many years, had to say about him; also take a look at the retrospective at Poynter.)
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
Rosenthal was the 33-year-old Associated Press photographer who took the picture of Marines raising the flag during the fierce battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific in 1945.
That image struck an instant chord with viewers, and it has been stuck in our consciousness ever since. It has been reproduced millions of times in many forums and is the basis for the giant Marine memorial that overlooks the nation's capital.
Rosenthal was an excellent photographer during his entire career -- not just a guy with a camera at the right place and time. He died on Sunday at the age of 94.
(Check out what the San Francisco Chronicle, the newspaper where he worked for many years, had to say about him; also take a look at the retrospective at Poynter.)
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
News orgs discover web's immediacy
A couple of stories from Romenesko’s blog on today show that big time news organizations are discovering the immediacy of the web.
One comes from Westworld, which reports that when the Denver Post stumbled onto a scoop last month about beer magnate Peter Coors being arrested for drunk driving, the Post nailed the story and then put it on the organization’s web site – despite some grousing from the traditionalists. These folks thought a story like that should be saved for print first, which was several hours away. The paper’s managing editor said the web would be “our breaking news platform.”
Then there is the story about CBS streaming its nightly news program simultaneously with its over-the-air broadcast. This, apparently, has come about only after painstaking negotiations with affiliates.
One is tempted to ask: “Where have these folks been for the last 10 years or so?”
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
One comes from Westworld, which reports that when the Denver Post stumbled onto a scoop last month about beer magnate Peter Coors being arrested for drunk driving, the Post nailed the story and then put it on the organization’s web site – despite some grousing from the traditionalists. These folks thought a story like that should be saved for print first, which was several hours away. The paper’s managing editor said the web would be “our breaking news platform.”
Then there is the story about CBS streaming its nightly news program simultaneously with its over-the-air broadcast. This, apparently, has come about only after painstaking negotiations with affiliates.
One is tempted to ask: “Where have these folks been for the last 10 years or so?”
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Seeing and believing
This week's incidents of photo-doctoring of pictures from Lebanon that have been published by some news organizations have provoked a good deal of outrage and hand-wringing.
So they should.
Changing a photograph in a way that alters its meaning -- even if only incidentally -- is not a good thing for journalists or journalism. We have been reading about this sort of thing far too much these days, and unfortunately, we will probably continue to hear about such behavior.
But in an article in Slate ("Don't Believe What You See in the Papers"), Jim Lewis has some valuable perspective on how we view photography. A photograph has power because we believe it; we think that if we had been standing beside the photographer when it was taken, we would have seen the same thing. That's not true, and Lewis does a good job of reminding us of that fact.
Lewis also links to a "rogue's gallery" of digital manipulation put together by Dartmouth's Haney Farid that reminds us that this sort of thing happens on a regular basis.
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
So they should.
Changing a photograph in a way that alters its meaning -- even if only incidentally -- is not a good thing for journalists or journalism. We have been reading about this sort of thing far too much these days, and unfortunately, we will probably continue to hear about such behavior.
But in an article in Slate ("Don't Believe What You See in the Papers"), Jim Lewis has some valuable perspective on how we view photography. A photograph has power because we believe it; we think that if we had been standing beside the photographer when it was taken, we would have seen the same thing. That's not true, and Lewis does a good job of reminding us of that fact.
Lewis also links to a "rogue's gallery" of digital manipulation put together by Dartmouth's Haney Farid that reminds us that this sort of thing happens on a regular basis.
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
An expensive comma
Sometimes punctuation can be expensive.
That was certainly the case for Rogers Communications of Canada, which recently found that its misreading of a contract -- not recognizing the meaning of the placement of a comma in a particular sentence of a contract -- will cost the company a couple of million dollars. All this is according an article in the Toronto Globe and Mail.
Rogers had a contract to put cable lines across thousands of untility polls in the Maritimes. Rogers thought the agreement was good for at least five years because of the sentence that the agreement "shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successfive year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party."
The contract was with Aliant, Inc. More than a year ago, Aliant informed Rogers that it was giving notice that it was scrapping the contract based on that sentence. Rogers argued that its understanding was that the contract, which was still in its first five-year period, could not be disgarded so easily.
But the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission disagreed.
The comma, the commission said, gave Aliant the right to cancel the contract during the first five years with only a year's notice. Alient will do so, and renotiating the contract will cost Rogers about $2 million.
A high price to pay for overlooking a comma.
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
That was certainly the case for Rogers Communications of Canada, which recently found that its misreading of a contract -- not recognizing the meaning of the placement of a comma in a particular sentence of a contract -- will cost the company a couple of million dollars. All this is according an article in the Toronto Globe and Mail.
Rogers had a contract to put cable lines across thousands of untility polls in the Maritimes. Rogers thought the agreement was good for at least five years because of the sentence that the agreement "shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successfive year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party."
The contract was with Aliant, Inc. More than a year ago, Aliant informed Rogers that it was giving notice that it was scrapping the contract based on that sentence. Rogers argued that its understanding was that the contract, which was still in its first five-year period, could not be disgarded so easily.
But the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission disagreed.
The comma, the commission said, gave Aliant the right to cancel the contract during the first five years with only a year's notice. Alient will do so, and renotiating the contract will cost Rogers about $2 million.
A high price to pay for overlooking a comma.
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Plagiarism: Unconscious and unintentional?
Writing is one of the most conscious and intentional acts a human can undertake. Constructing a phrase or sentence is a high-level mental activity (akin, I tell my students, to doing a complex math problem).
That's why Kaavya Viswanathan's excuse – or, at least, explanation – for the plagiarism in her novel How Opal Mehta Go Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life sounds so odd.
She admitted the plagiarism but said, in typical 21st century fashion, it was "unconscious and unintentional," according to a New York Times report. It's as if she wants us to believe that she was writing in her sleep.
This piece is not meant to beat up on Ms. Viswanathan. She is only 19 years old and what she has been through during the past two weeks has undoubtedly destroyed a major part of her life's plan. She had gotten a novel published early in life and had a contract for another. Now, all that is gone.
While the plagiarism is maddening, one can feel sorry for her personally. Plagiarism is theft, and she did it and got caught – in a very public way. Her career as a writer is likely over. Little, Brown, her publisher, has announced that it will not be publishing the second novel.
It will take time and effort for her to move away from all of this.
She could start by giving up the "unconscious and unintentional" excuse. She may not have understood the seriousness of what she was doing when she did it, but the fact remains that she did it. Her acts were both conscious and intentional.
Writing is like that.
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
That's why Kaavya Viswanathan's excuse – or, at least, explanation – for the plagiarism in her novel How Opal Mehta Go Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life sounds so odd.
She admitted the plagiarism but said, in typical 21st century fashion, it was "unconscious and unintentional," according to a New York Times report. It's as if she wants us to believe that she was writing in her sleep.
This piece is not meant to beat up on Ms. Viswanathan. She is only 19 years old and what she has been through during the past two weeks has undoubtedly destroyed a major part of her life's plan. She had gotten a novel published early in life and had a contract for another. Now, all that is gone.
While the plagiarism is maddening, one can feel sorry for her personally. Plagiarism is theft, and she did it and got caught – in a very public way. Her career as a writer is likely over. Little, Brown, her publisher, has announced that it will not be publishing the second novel.
It will take time and effort for her to move away from all of this.
She could start by giving up the "unconscious and unintentional" excuse. She may not have understood the seriousness of what she was doing when she did it, but the fact remains that she did it. Her acts were both conscious and intentional.
Writing is like that.
Read more about journalism and issues facing the profession at JPROF.com.
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