The Media Hacker

The New York Times are pushing new media barriers again, this...

Thu, 17 May 2012 21:34:38 -0400

The New York Times are pushing new media barriers again, this time by using Google+ hangouts to let readers talk to a UN ambassador about foreign affairs.

On May 17, columnist Nicholas Kristof had a live video chat with UN Ambassador Susan Rice and five other reader-participants through a Google+ hangout. Google’s hangout feature is notable because it automatically detects which person is talking, and puts their video feed on the main screen.

Joining the call were a high school student, a US Army captain, a physicist, a grad student and a lawyer.

The maiden voyage was a bit rocky with choppy audio at times, but the result is really encouraging. Recording group video conversations on the cheap is still a bit of a challenge, but Google presents a solution that at least gets the job done.

Hey international news. How depressing is your coverage lately?

Mon, 14 May 2012 17:37:35 -0400

Hey international news. How depressing is your coverage lately?

Does the AP Stylebook perpetuate stigma over sexual assault?

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:31:28 -0400

The Associated Press just released an update to the AP Stylebook, which includes a note on privacy and sexual assault.

privacy

Do not identify juveniles (under 18) who are accused of crimes, even if other news media do so or police release names. Also, do not transmit images that would reveal their identity.

Do not identify, in text or through images, juveniles (under 18) who are witnesses to crimes.

Do not identify, in text or through images, persons who say they have been sexually assaulted, and use discretion in naming victims of other extremely severe abuse.

Is the Associated Press perpetuating social stigma over sexual assault by including this line?

I remember discussing this type of problem in communication law class last semester. A woman has been raped, and a suspect is brought into custody. Your editor tells you to write an article about it. Do you release the name of the suspect, and do you release the name of the victim?

Most of the class agreed not to release the victim’s name. Then our professor asked: “Would you release her name if she had simply been assaulted, or had her car stolen? Why is sexual assault different?”

I’m still not sure where I stand on this issue, but it’s interesting to see the Associated Press’s position on it.

For the record, I don’t own a paper-copy of the AP Stylebook, so I don’t know what it has traditionally said about identifying sexual assault victims.

Cleaning The Developing World With Unused Hotel Soap

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:59:23 -0400

Cleaning The Developing World With Unused Hotel Soap:

In 2009, Clean the World was born. It collects soaps and bottled goods from hotels (and charges them around 65 cents per month per room to participate) and reprocesses the soaps to be sent around the world. So far, more than 10 million bars of soap have been distributed to 48 countries, says Gomez. “That’s also 1.4 million pounds of hotel waste diverted from landfills,” he adds.

I’ve been reading some articles condemning “aid” as a developmental inhibitor for other countries. If a firm such as this gives soap away for free, it might discourage communities from investing in health and hygiene industry.

Nevertheless, I like the inventiveness of this idea. There are a lot of materials going to waste; we just have to find out how to use them sustainably.

CBS reports Joe Paterno's death too soon, throws student newspaper under the bus

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:26:52 -0500

Cult wanted. Will sacrifice. No Christians please.

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:44:00 -0500

Cult wanted. Will sacrifice. No Christians please.

The Online Public Records Accessibility standard

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:04:40 -0500

I don’t see why—in 2012—you still have to ask for public records to gain access to them.

It made sense in the old days, when you simply couldn’t access documents without asking first. They were stored in filing cabinets, and some poor clerk had to get up and retrieve them for you before you could read them.

You’d think those days would be long gone, two decades after the Internet went mainstream. But even in an age where your grandmother has her own blog, public institutions require you to send in a request so a paid staffer can retrieve your document for you.

There’s also some lingering apprehension about things being “too accessible.” People don’t want divorce papers and FBI profile available to nosy neighbors and information brokers by the mere click of a mouse.

This is silly.

If a police blotter is public enough to let anyone read it at the station, it’s public enough to put online. If you’re worried about who reads it, don’t make it all public.

I propose an Online Public Records Accessibility standard (it comes with a free catchy acronym) for public institutions to adopt. Here’s what it might look like.

Any public content committed to a fixed medium shall be accessible through a website.
People should not need to “log in” to a website to access public records.
Hyperlinks leading to public records should be styled 12 pt font or higher, and should be visible without user interaction.
Documents should be directly available for download within 3 clicks of the website’s front page.

That wasn’t so hard, was it?

What would you add to such a standard? Do you think we need one?

My landlady and the one percent

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:29:57 -0500

“The one percent,” she told me while fighting back tears, “they make all the rules.”

There’s a story behind every housing ad on craigslist. I saw one by a 42 year-old man who had a room to rent. “Just me and my 9 year-old girl,” it said. “Available immediately.” Or the one by the single 39 year-old woman whose ad included the question “Are you single?”

The one I answered looked innocent enough, apart from the price. It was close to buses and shops, which is all I really look for when browsing these ads.

Yet here I was, sitting opposite the landlady in my abode-to-be. She was crying.

Jane hasn’t worked since her car accident two years ago. She has trouble remembering things, and needs to remind herself of appointments. I already knew that—this was my second trip to see the room this week.

“I feel so useless,” she said with infinite sadness in her voice.

She rents out the rooms in her green three-story house simply to earn a living. Her mother’s house went into foreclosure recently (hence all the items in the dining room) and now she’s fighting tooth and nail to keep her home intact.

“The one percent,” she told me while fighting back tears, “they make all the rules.”

Never before had I heard the popular phrase ‘one percent’ used with such trembling anger.

I’m used to hearing it from White middle-class 20-somethings as they sip their lattes at Starbucks. Or from Facebook-friends who tirelessly post news and blog posts about the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Watching Jane dry her tears, I realized one thing. None of us know what ‘the one percent’ really means.

Only people like Jane know.

anotherfob: Lemon aid So bad I just can’t help but share...

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:23:39 -0500

anotherfob:

Lemon aid

So bad I just can’t help but share it.

No, I will not send you a list of my interview questions

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:50:00 -0500

Cross-posted from my Public Relations class.

Hi, my name is Daniel and I am a tired, under-trained, over-worked reporter who is prone to making mistakes.

At least, that’s how Greg Miller of Marketcon PR describes my noble profession in a blog post on Ragan.com.

Journalism is hard work, Miller says, and reporters sometimes make mistakes when dealing with PR reps. He mentions one example:

For example, one of our clients was quoted in a press release put out by one of his clients. He later saw himself named “managing director” of his client in a news story based on the client’s press release.

As a PR professional, you’ll want to minimize these sorts of mistakes as much as possible. And Miller’s “5 ways to prevent reporter screw ups” are—at face value—pretty good suggestions to follow.

But one of Miller’s recommendations struck a nerve with me, because it is a constant source of conflict between reporters like myself and the PR reps we deal with. Miller writes:

Ask the reporter for written questions before the interview, and respond with specific comments and information by email. That way, even if you do the interview, the core information is in writing.

Go ahead, ask me. I’ll just say “no.”

Journalism students are taught never to provide lists of questions before an interview, because it gives the interviewee time to prepare talking points rather than real answers. At the very least it is considered a last resort. But that hasn’t stopped countless media representatives from asking me for written questions during my short career as a reporter.

I wanted to mention Miller’s post because part of Media Relations is about maintaining a good relationship with reporters. If you start asking for written questions without giving any sort of explanation, you might risk losing contacts in the process.

Instead, act like a human being and tell the reporter you’re nervous about reporting mistakes. Tell him or her a horror-story if you have one, and ask if there’s any way you can both work together to make sure there are no goof-ups.

By doing this, not only are you building rapport with the reporter, but you are showing that you trust the person, and investing in his or her career as well.

Can journalists put a "Donate" button in a story?

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:40:03 -0400

Yesterday a professor asked me if we could add a “Donate” button at the bottom of an upcoming article on LUTE Times, a classroom blog.

The article is about an organization, and the button would presumably take you to a page where you could fill in your credit card information and give them money.

“No way,” I said. “That would be advocacy.”

My professor wasn’t buying it, and challenged me to defend my claim. “Journalism has changed,” she told me. “It’s not all ‘here are the facts ma’am’ anymore.” At the very least she said we could put a link to their website in the story.

That I would be fine with.

What do you think? Would a “Donate” button comromise objectivity? Is it different in nature from a link to a website? What would you have done?

PR lessons from Steve

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:32:34 -0400

Cross-posted from my ‘PR Principles and Practices’ class.

You couldn’t shake a stick at the Internet yesterday without learning that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had passed away. Along with the iPhone and the iPad, Jobs leaves behind important lessons for PR professionals.

In his blog entry on Ragan’s PR Daily, Geoff Livingston notes:

The one thing to add beyond technological and business insights is respect for the incredible marketing machine Jobs built. From packaging and storefront design to masterful multichannel product launches and tense excitement by tightly managed PR, Apple demonstrated best practices in many areas of marketing.

Maybe you’ve seen the pictures of customers lining up for blocks and blocks outside the Apple store, waiting for days to get the new iPhone. They got to that point by realizing that PR is a planned, strategic and continuous process.

For example, Livingston highlights Apple’s use of events—one of the PR tactics we’ve read about. Rather than launch new products at annual conferences like CES, Apple began to hold its own tightly orchestrated launch events, which have since become a media sensation. To see why, take a minute to watch Jobs announce the first iPhone.

Along with each launch event, Apple would trigger a clockwork of press releases, paid advertisements and customized websites which converge into “a seamless multi-channel, multi-touch approach that demonstrates one of the very best integrated and repeatable marketing formulas the world has seen,” Livingston writes.

This is the definition of strategic communication.

But even Jobs made some fantastic PR mistakes, which Livingston ought to have mentioned. When Apple released the iPhone 4, people started complaining about poor signal quality. Having failed to anticipate the issue, the PR department found itself in a crisis management situation.

In a hilariously bad move, the PR department released a statement essentially telling customer: You’re holding it wrong. That didn’t go too well for some reason.

I encourage PR students to study Apple’s PR successes and failures alike. They are all as brilliant as the company’s late patriarch.

"In this tragic moment, when words seem so inadequate to express the shock people feel, the first..."

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:37:00 -0400

“In this tragic moment, when words seem so inadequate to express the shock people feel, the first thing that comes to mind is this: We are all Americans!”

- Jean-Marie Colombani, Le Monde, Sept. 12, 2001

NYTimes Op-Ed page hacked! srsly!

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 15:38:56 -0400

NYTimes Op-Ed page hacked! srsly!:

WHAT’S up, Times readers? Normally right now you’d be nodding off over a very thoughtful prescription for offering Qaddafi an honorable exile at a plastic surgery teaching hospital. But not today, people! Because I deleted that snoozer when I hacked my way in here.

Steve Bodow (Daily Show) and the New York Times poke fun at Anonymous and LulzSec. This is a must-read.

sasquatchmedia: grovesprof: Summing up the debt-ceiling...

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:23:36 -0400

sasquatchmedia:

grovesprof:

Summing up the debt-ceiling debacle: Great word cloud from Pew Research Center and the Washington Post, based on a survey of 1,001 U.S. adults (July 28-31, 2011).

For real …

Worth a thousand words.

Attack on Norway: We face evil with compassion (PLU International Voices)

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 17:05:59 -0400

Attack on Norway: We face evil with compassion (PLU International Voices):

Since I came to PLU, many have asked me to describe what Norwegians are like. Today, I am proud to give you my answer.

When news came in about the bombing and massacre in Norway on July 22, it looked for a while as if things just kept getting worse. First came the report that at least 80* youths had been shot dead on the island of Utøya. Then came the heart-wrenching TV pictures and the graphic stories describing a 90-minute long nightmare.

Reporters called victims' cellphones while they hid from Utøya gunman

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 00:58:00 -0400

While victims tried to quietly hide from a gunman during last Friday’s massacre in Norway, their cellphones started going off. Reporters were looking for a quote.

Tore Christensen, 25, told Nettavisen.no he could hear the gunman shoot someone only 2-4 yards away from his hiding-place inside a café building. Shortly thereafter, a news reporter called his cellphone.

Luckily, the phone was set to be silent.

“I can understand that family members who may not think clearly tried to call, but I had higher hopes for the professional responsibility of the press,” he told Nettavisen.

A 32-year-old man is charged with killing at least 73 people at a youth camp on the Utøya island in Norway.

“Quite a few people I talked to afterwards had received a call from one or other form of media… I really hope none were revealed while being called by the press,” Christensen told Nettavisen.

—-

I became totally speechless when I read this story today. Is this normal? Do editors tell their staff to call hostages who are being held captive, to ask for an interview?

"Script Kiddies" Hack Fox News Account, Tweet Obama's Death

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 18:53:00 -0400

"Script Kiddies" Hack Fox News Account, Tweet Obama's Death:

Early this morning, six tweets went out over one of the Twitter accounts managed by Fox News, @foxnewspolitics, which described in graphic and convincing detail how the president had been shot and killed while campaigning in Iowa. […]

It wasn’t until around noon — ten hours after the messages had been posted — that someone with access to the Twitter account, which has more than 38,000 followers, logged in and deleted them. […]

A representative from Script Kiddies, a hacking collective that is hoping to gain attention for itself and join forces with Anonymous, the group responsible for a number of widely-publicized hacks in recent months, […]

Hackers—for lack of a better word—are officially not cool anymore.

Making An Example Of Someone: Norwegian paper loses libel suit.

Tue, 31 May 2011 10:34:00 -0400

When I see newspapers latch onto a person at the beginning of a story, and drag them through paragraphs and paragraphs of social commentary as a plot device, I start to get uncomfortable.

I remember hearing about it on the news: Ali Farah had been assaulted in Oslo’s Sofienberg Park, but two paramedics refused to give him a ride to the hospital. As the ambulance drove away, the man was still bleeding on the ground. Witnesses couldn’t believe their eyes.

The media quickly cried “racism” because the man was of Middle-Eastern descent. A witness had heard the paramedics yell “you damn pig” when the man wet his pants.

News channel TV2 wrote Tuesday:

The media (had) referred to several prominent politicians and commentators who believed racial motives were behind the ambulance workers’ decision not to take Farah.

After a few days of this, paramedic Erik Schjenken appeared with a picture in the papers, denying claims of racism. In 2010 he sued Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet for what he called “a hate campaign.”

Yesterday, he won the lawsuit, TV2 reports.

District Court Judge Thorleif Waaler points out that the press’s job is to inform, reveal unacceptable conditions, and also to take a stand on various issues.

- In a case like this it is clear that the press should have taken into account that there was another weak party in the picture, namely the two ambulance men, who because of their confidentiality had no opportunity to defend himself, the verdict reads.

Dagbladet’s Editor-in-Chief claims the court only considered editorial pieces, and “turned a blind eye” to any other articles. He said the paper may appeal the decision.

“This sentence is quite impossible to relate to for the Norwegian press,” Helle told Dagbladet. “It must be allowed (for us) to promote critical comments about others.”

I have to admit, this is a tricky one for me. There was no way the media could avoid covering the racism angle. Listening to the “911 tapes,” you can hear a witness jump to the racism conclusion right away. It’s an important topic in Oslo.

On the other hand, even though I think Schjenken should’ve never be let near the driver’s seat of an ambulance, I’m not without sympathy for him. I’m starting to get more apprehensive about using human beings as characters to cover a social issue.

I employ the word using intentionally.

There’s a difference between covering an individual’s actions at an event, and covering a larger social issue. When I see newspapers latch onto a person at the beginning of a story, and drag them through paragraphs and paragraphs of social commentary as a plot device, I start to get uncomfortable.

There’s still such a thing as minimization of harm. People should be held accountable when they make a mistake, but at the same time, be allowed to make mistakes.

A college newspaper goes online ...again.

Sun, 22 May 2011 18:28:00 -0400

About a week ago, I was hired as Web Editor by our college newspaper. I kind of see myself as FEMA, coming into town after a particularly bad hurricane, to rebuild.

The Mooring Mast has been trying to “go online” ever since I came to PLU, and it has been an absolute disaster. I’ve learned two things from this whole process:

Surprisingly enough, college students are not professionally trained business negotiators.
Website providers (including WordPress and SquareSpace) have no clue how to talk to college students.

After trying to get something going with at least five different contractors, students and faculty finally gave up and decided to invest in-house. They devoted one fifth of their entire budget to hiring Lace Smith as part-time web developer for student media.

So my job for the next few months will be to haul out the debris of failed past attempts, and work with Editor-in-Chief Heather Perry to get this rag into the 21st century.

Heather sent me and Lace a Word-document with a list of requests for the new site, and I decided to draw a mockup so we could have something to look at. It’ll be interesting to see if the finished product resembles the first draft.