And this is why we have this class and why journalists are there:From the New York times-
- QUOTATION OF THE DAY -

"We still get most of our information from investigative journalists. If you can't protect sources, there is a lot of public corruption and private malfeasance that will go undetected and unpublished."
- SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER, Democrat of Pennsylvania, on a bill to provide greater
protections to reporters.

.and from Slashdot:
| Decline In US Newspaper Readership Accelerates |
| from the stop-the-presses dept. |
| posted by timothy on Wednesday October 28, @17:44 (The Media) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/10/28/2131236/Decline-In-US-Newspaper-Readership-Acceler|
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that US [1]newspaper
circulation has hit its lowest level in seven decades, as papers across
the country lost 10.6 percent of their paying readers from April through
September, compared with a year earlier. Online, newspapers are still a
success — but only in readership, not in profit. Ads on newspaper
Internet sites sell for pennies on the dollar compared with ads in their
ink-on-paper cousins. 'Newspapers have [2]ceased to be a mass medium by
any stretch of the imagination,' says Alan D. Mutter, a former journalist
and cable television executive who now consults and writes a blog called
Reflections of a Newsosaur. According to Mutter only 13 percent of
Americans, or about 39 million, now buy a daily newspaper, down from 31
percent in 1940. 'Publishers who think their businesses are going to live
or die according to the number of bellybuttons they can deliver probably
will see their businesses die,' writes Mutter. 'The smart ones will get
busy on Plan B, assuming there is a Plan B and it's not already too
late.' Almost without exception, the papers that lost the least readers
or even gained readership are the nation's smallest daily newspapers
which [3]tend to focus almost all of their limited resources on highly
local news that is not covered by larger outside organizations and have a
lock on local ad markets."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/10/28/2131236

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102603272.html
2. http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/newspapers-mass-less-mass-medium.html
3. http://www.leader-vindicator.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20382685&BRD=2758&PAG=461&dept_id=572980&rfi=6

We have talked about citizen journalist before and thought you might like to look at this example from the CBC:
Man who shot Dziekanski video gets journalism award
Paul Pritchard says he feels guilty he didn't help immigrant Tasered by RCMP
Last Updated: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 | 9:27 AM PT Comments154Recommend123
CBC News

Paul Pritchard, right, accompanied by his lawyer, Paul Pearson, held a press conference in November 2007 to demand police release his video.Paul Pritchard, right, accompanied by his lawyer, Paul Pearson, held a press conference in November 2007 to demand police release his video. (CBC)The man who used a digital camera to record the death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport says he feels guilty he didn't try to help the Polish immigrant even though others honoured his actions Tuesday with a citizen-journalism award.

Dziekanski, 40, died Oct. 14, 2007, following several shocks from a Taser four RCMP officers used to subdue him after he caused a disturbance.

The incident might never have received much attention if Paul Pritchard had not decided to grab his digital camera and start recording the actions of the distraught Dziekanski before police arrived.

Dziekanski did not speak English and, after a long flight from Poland, had been left to wander for hours in the restricted zone of the arrivals area after being processed by immigration authorities while his mother waited for him in another part of the airport.

After the incident, Pritchard, who was on his way to his family's home in Victoria and had been waiting in the international arrivals lounge at the time, handed his video over to the RCMP to use in their investigation. The police promised it would be returned in 48 hours.

'I could have gone and talked to him.'— Paul Pritchard

But when the RCMP's public statements about the incident conflicted with what Pritchard and other witnesses said they saw, Pritchard demanded the RCMP return the video so that he could release it to the public.

When the police refused, saying releasing the video would compromise their investigation, Pritchard hired a lawyer, held a news conference and threatened to use legal action to get it back.

The release of the 10-minute video, which contradicted the police version of the incident, led to widespread public outrage around the world and diplomatic tensions between Canada and Poland. It also resulted in the deepest scrutiny of the RCMP in decades in the form of a special inquiry into the incident, led by retired British Columbia Appeal Court Justice Thomas R. Braidwood.
Citizen journalism award

On Tuesday evening in Toronto, Pritchard's work in documenting what happened and waging a legal battle against the RCMP for the release of his video was honoured by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.

The organization gave Pritchard its first-ever award for citizen journalism, which recognizes the contributions of ordinary people in the field of journalism.

After the video was made public, Paul Pritchard said he wanted to step out of the media spotlight and find a job.After the video was made public, Paul Pritchard said he wanted to step out of the media spotlight and find a job. (CBC)But Pritchard is still questioning his role in what happened and the choices he made that night.

Two years after the incident, Pritchard told CBC News he still wonders what might have happened had he decided to talk to the distraught Polish immigrant rather than videotape him in distress.

"I don't consider myself a hero, and to be honest, I'm not completely happy with the fact that I did that," said Pritchard. "Maybe instead of grabbing a camera, I could have gone and talked to him.

"If I feel I did something wrong, or feel I didn't do enough, I think the effort I put in afterwards is enough for me to live with that … I did everything I possibly could do."

Pritchard did not testify at the Braidwood inquiry. Instead, he spent the past two years travelling abroad, deliberately avoiding coverage of the incident, he said.

When Pritchard released the video, he received a payment of several thousand dollars from three television networks: CBC, CTV and Global. At the time, Pritchard said he planned to use the money for medical care for his seriously ill father, who died four months later.
Video conflicted with police statements

The 10-minute Pritchard video, shot in three segments, showed a distraught Dziekanski in the airport arrivals lounge attempting to smash a computer and some furniture while several people attempted to communicate with him before police eventually arrive.

Four RCMP officers subdue Robert Dziekanski after stunning him with a Taser on Oct. 14, 2007, at the Vancouver airport.Four RCMP officers subdue Robert Dziekanski after stunning him with a Taser on Oct. 14, 2007, at the Vancouver airport. (Paul Pritchard) Before the video was released, the RCMP repeatedly said that there were only three RCMP officers involved in the incident and that the Taser was only deployed twice after Dziekanski attacked the officers.

But the video showed four RCMP officers rushed in and confronted Dziekanski, who backed up toward a counter. Dziekanski then faced the officers with what later turned out to be a stapler in one hand.

Immediately, there was a loud crack from a Taser, followed by Dziekanski screaming and convulsing as he stumbled and fell to the floor.

Another loud crack can be heard, as an officer appears to fire the Taser at Dziekanski again. Then, as the officers kneel on top of Dziekanski and handcuff him, he continues to scream and convulse on the floor.

One officer is heard to say, "Hit him again. Hit him again," and there is another loud cracking sound.

Evidence at the inquiry revealed the Taser was eventually fired five times at Dziekanski.

After he was subdued, the RCMP left him handcuffed on the floor, where he died before medical help arrived. The official cause of death was listed as "sudden death during restraint" in the coroner's post-mortem report.

A decision by B.C.'s criminal justice branch concluded that while the officers were involved in Dziekanski's death, there was not enough evidence to support laying criminal charges

The public inquiry into the incident is expected to release its report in the new year.

*

Check out this BBC report on hyper local news at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8303381.stm
Plus the assignment this week due 10 a.m. next Tue. is a report on student hobbies. See you next week.

The story assignment for Tue. 10 a.m. Oct.21st is a review of some sort of art event or subject. For example a movie, music concert or new CD,a T.V. show,a book, an art show or live drama or dance. See you next week.

Go over the futurismic.com and scroll down to the article about new Journalism. See if you can answer the question at the end and send it to me as an e-mail for bonus points.

There has been a lot of talk about how the web is revolutionising news distribution and it is true, however there are a few down sides. This below is from slashdot:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Misadventures In Online Journalism |
| from the dewey-defeats-obama dept. |
| posted by Soulskill on Sunday October 11, @10:44 (The Media) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/10/11/1439222/Misadventures-In-Online-Journalism |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Paul Carr, writing for TechCrunch, has posted
his take on some of the flaws inherent to today's fast-paced news
ecosystem, where [0]bloggers often get little or no editorial feedback
and interesting headlines are passed around faster than ever. His article
was inspired by a recent story on ZDNet that accused Yahoo of sharing the
names and emails of 200,000 users with the Iranian government; [1]a
report that turned out to be false, yet generated a great deal of outrage
before it was disproved. Carr writes, 'Trusting the common sense of your
writers is all well and good — but when it comes to breaking news, where
journalistic adrenaline is at its highest and everyone is paranoid about
being scooped by a competitor, that common sense can too easily become
the first casualty. Journalists get caught up in the moment; we get
excited and we post stupid crap from a foreign language student blog and
call it news. And then within half a minute — bloggers being what they
are — the news gets repeated and repeated until it becomes fact. Fact
that can affect share prices or ruin lives. This is the reality of the
blogosphere, where Churchill's remark: that "a lie gets halfway around
the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on" is more
true, and more potentially damaging, than at any time in history.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/10/11/1439222

Links:
0. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/10/witn-yahoo-didnt-sentence-200000-iranians-to-death-and-other-misadventures-in-online-journalism/
1. http://government.zdnet.com/?p=5547&tag=col1%3Bpost-5547

Self explanatory, really:
| Postmortem for a Dead Newspaper |
| from the what-not-to-do dept. |
| posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday October 02, @14:00 (The Internet) |
| https://news.slashdot.org/story/09/10/02/1550248/Postmortem-for-a-Dead-Newspaper |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Techdirt points out a great [0]postmortem for the Rocky Mountain News, a
newspaper that ended up shutting down because they couldn't adapt to a
world beyond print. While long, the talk (in both video and print) is
incredibly candid coming from someone who lived through it and shares at
least some portion of the blame. "It seems like pretty much everything
was based on looking backwards, not forward. There was little effort to
figure out how to better enable a community, or any recognition that the
community of people who read the paper were the organizations true main
asset. ... The same game is playing out not just in newspapers, but in a
number of other businesses as well. Like the Rocky Mountain News, those
businesses are looking backwards and defining themselves on the wrong
terms, while newer startups don't have such legacy issues to deal with."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/10/02/1550248

Links:
0. http://techdirt.com/articles/20091001/1900266400.shtml

Here's an example of a responsible rumour predictive blog news story:September 29th, 2009
Microsoft's Courier tablet: A Franklin Covey planner on steroids?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:32 am

Categories: Channel, Code names, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Research..., Resellers, Silverlight (wpf/e), Surface, Windows 7, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Gizmodo, Courier, Tablets, Notebooks..., Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Mary Jo Foley
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Since the first video and photo leaks went public last week of Microsoft’s alleged second-generation Tablet PC, tipsters have been working overtime.

Since Microsoft isn’t commenting at all on Courier (the official statement is “we don’t comment on rumors or speculation”), it’s tough to separate fact from fiction at this point.

But some tipsters are a little more connected than others. And one of my connected tipsters has shared some new info with me that I’m posting now, given that it seems more verifiable.

I say “verifiable” here, not in an official sense, but based on a new Courier video clip Gizmodo posted on September 29. Gizmodo’s new clip shows more details about the journaling model around which Courier’s user interface seems to revolve. From Gizmodo’s explanation:

“The (Courier) journal can actually be published online, and it’s shown here as able to be downloaded in three formats: a Courier file, Powerpoint or PDF. There’s also a library that looks a lot like Delicious Library, where things like subscriptions, notebooks and apps, are stored.”

That sure makes the Courier sound like it fits in with Microsoft’s uber-”three screens and a cloud” vision — via which devices, TVs and PCs all share common cloud-based services, storage, etc.

The Courier journaling metaphor isn’t so different from Microsoft’s OneNote note-taking app that is currently the showcase app for existing tablet PCs, my “connected” source said. He explained:

“The concept started as a software idea on how one would really build OneNote from scratch if you could for the Tablet form factor. That then morphed into building a tablet. If you look at the most successful pocket computer today - it is still the Franklin Covey Planning Products. So, the idea was how do you create a digital planner.”

My source also claimed that the operating system underneath Courier is — at least currently — Windows 7. (That’s not as crazy as it might seem, given that the OS underlying Microsoft’s Surface is Vista — and Windows 7 is touch-enabled.)

You can’t install Windows 7 apps on Courier, the source said, and that’s intentional.

The original Microsoft Tablets “failed because the applications were not tailored to a tablet form factor - that is, Word still had toolbars and menus and scollbars. So, a tablet needs to be like an iPhone - a UX that is specific for the form factor,” the source said.

My source said that Courier is an incubation project, meaning it’s further along than a Microsoft Research project, but still not in the commercialization pipeline. That said, he heard the delivery goal is mid-2010. That seems pretty darn ambitious to me, but he also said Microsoft is currently leaning toward using the Xbox model — in other words, making the device itself, and not relying on its current Tablet partners — so that could speed things up a bit.

I can’t verify any of what my source has told me. But I figured I’d put it out there, as it jibes with what Gizmodo has unearthed.

What’s your take? Is the Courier protoype we’re hearing and seeing bits and pieces about something you could see having wider appeal than the current generation of Tablets?

Popular Science in the August issue which i just received in digital form as a section of misleading or wrong Science Journalism stories and the following by Ben Goldacres in his blog Bad Science has something similar to say in more detail:Asking for it

July 4th, 2009 by Ben Goldacre in bad science | 41 Comments »

Ben Goldacre, The Guardian, Saturday 4 July 2009

There’s nothing like science for giving that objective, white-coat flavoured legitimacy to your prejudices, so it must have been a great day for Telegraph readers when they came across the headline “Women who dress provocatively more likely to be raped, claim scientists”. Ah, scientists. “Women who drink alcohol, wear short skirts and are outgoing are more likely to be raped, claim scientists at the University of Leicester.” Well there you go. Oddly, though, the title of the press release for the same research was “Promiscuous men more likely to rape”.

Normally we berate journalists for rewriting press releases. Had the Telegraph found some news?

I rang Sophia Shaw at the University of Leicester. She was surprised to have been presented as an expert scientist on the pages of the Daily Telegraph, as Sophia is an MSc student, and this is her dissertation project. It’s also not finished. “We are intending on getting it published, but my findings are very preliminary.” She was discussing her dissertation at an academic conference, when the British Psychological Society’s PR team picked it up, and put out a press release. We will discuss that later.

But first, the science. Shaw spoke to about 100 men, presenting them with various situations around being with a woman, and asking them when they would call it a night, in order to explore men’s attitudes towards coercing women into sex. “I’m very aware that there are limitations to my study. It’s self report data about sensitive issues, so that’s got its flaws, participants were answering when sober, and so on.”

But more than that, she told me, every single one of the first four statements made by the Telegraph is a flat, unambiguous, factually incorrect misrepresentation of her findings.

Women who drink alcohol, wear short skirts and are outgoing are more likely to be raped? “We found no evidence that that women who are more outgoing are more likely to be raped, this is completely inaccurate, we found no difference whatsoever. The alcohol thing is also completely wrong: if anything, we found that men reported they were willing to go further with women who are completely sober.”

And what about the Telegraph’s next claim, or rather, the Telegraph’s reassuringly distant and objective assertion that it is scientists who are now claiming that women who dress provocatively are more likely to be raped?

“We have found at the minute that people will go slightly further with women who are provocatively dressed, but this result is not statistically significant. Basically you can’t say that’s an effect, it could easily be the play of chance. I told the journalist it isn’t one of our main findings, you can’t say that. It’s not significant, which is why we’re not reporting it in our main analysis.”

So if the Telegraph are throwing blame around with rape, who do we blame for this story, and what do we do about it? On the one hand, we’re not naturally impressed with the newspaper. “When I saw the article my heart completely sank, and it made me really angry, given how sensitive this subject is. To be making claims like the Telegraph did, in my name, places all the blame on women, which is not what we were doing at all. I just felt really angry about how wrong they’d got this study.” Since I started sniffing around, and Sophia complained, the Telegraph have quietly changed the online copy of the article, although there has been no formal correction, and in any case, it remains inaccurate.

But there is a second, less obvious problem. Repeatedly, unpublished work – often of a highly speculative and eye-catching nature – is shepherded into newspapers by the press officers of the British Psychological Society, and other organisations. A rash of news coverage and popular speculation ensues, in a situation where nobody can read the academic work. I could only get to the reality of what was measured, and how, by personally tracking down and speaking to an MSc student about her dissertation on the phone. In any situation this would be ridiculous, but in a sensitive area such as rape it is blind, irresponsible, coverage-hungry foolishness.

Science Journalism update:

July 7, 2009 | 0 comments
Really Mass Media
In London last week at the World Conference of Science Journalists, Philip Hilts, the director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at M.I.T., reviewed the worldwide state of Internet and cell phone use, two of the major ways people now get news


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60-Second Science
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[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

Ever increasing numbers of people are consuming news via the internet and cell phones. In London last week at the World Conference of Science Journalists, Philip Hilts, the director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at M.I.T., reviewed the worldwide state of Internet and cell phone use:

“Internet use, it’s about 1.5 to two billion internet users, subscribers. And so there’s this discussion about, well, we have it in North America but Africa’s not got it, so we’re on two different planets and so on. That’s true, 5.6 percent in Africa now, 17 percent in Asia, but this is moving very rapidly. In Africa it’s growing 12 times right now. In Asia it’s growing almost six times right now. So the greatest growth is where we’re short in penetration.

“Cell phone use where news will be also as the smart phones get around the world and as Africa gets wired up, the cables are now going in that will be useful in Africa, they haven’t been there. 1980, we had 11,200,000 cell phone subscribers which was zero penetration. And we’re looking at 60 percent penetration now, 4.1 billion subscribers. China and India is the core of cell phone usage on Earth, and then it goes on down from there, U.S., Brazil, Japan, U.K.”

—Reported by Steve Mirsky

Here's a little extra plus for you. Take a look over these stories and try and think of a story you could write similar to one of them, about something that you find and research. Bonus points. See you all on Tue. (The two of you that did not get this as a forwarded e-mail should check with your classmates to see the html version)
Clark Richardson,1-10-22 #708
Uenosakuragi, Taito-ku
Tokyo-to 110-0002
Japan
Phone-only 03-5685-1503 International-81-3-5685-1503; Chiba - 1941 Yamada, Ohara, Isumi-shi, Chiba,298-0025 Japan. Phone & Fax 0470-66-0858
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clarkr/
"Where is paradise?"- "It is behind the green Sugidama
"And remember, no matter where you go, there you are."
-Confucius



Begin forwarded message:

From: AlterNet Headlines
Date: July 4, 2009 6:48:15 PM JST
To: carsurf@dragon.email.ne.jp
Subject: What's Behind Palin's Resignation? | Will Jackson's Kids Suffer the Same Fate? | Pollan: Our Food System Is Collapsing
Reply-To: alternet@mail.democracyinaction.org


Headlines Newsletter
July 4th, 2009
All stories, blogs, and video »




Will the Tragedy of Michael Jackson's Life Be Inherited By His Kids?
By Patricia J. Williams, The Nation
Jackson's fame and fortune ensured he had few barriers whatever fancy seized him -- including his made-to-order kids. Read more »




Sarah Palin Resigns: Is She Fleeing Scandal?
By Tana Ganeva, AlterNet
What is behind Palin's resignation from office? Read more »



Michael Pollan: We Are Headed Toward a Breakdown in Our Food System
By David Beers, The Tyee
Pollan gives a glimpse at the current state of food politics inside the White House and within his own home. Read more »



This July 4th, Rebel and Agitate for Change
By Jim Hightower, AlterNet
Agitators created America, and it's their feisty spirit and outright rebelliousness that we celebrate on our national holiday. Read more »



Rolling Stone Expose Declares Goldman Sachs Behind Every Market Crash Since 1920s
By Daniel Tencer, Raw Story
Matt Taibbi explains how the company created market bubbles and then profited from the crash that followed. Read more »



"Deliver Us From Evil": The Amorality of the Catholic Church
By Greta Christina, Greta Christina's Blog
The basic hierarchy and theology of the Catholic Church is a recipe for the abuse of power. Read more »



Breadline USA: Why People Are Going Hungry in the Land of Plenty
By Sasha Abramsky, PoliPoint Press
America's poor are being priced out of a market flush with excess eatables. It's an abomination we can fix. Read more »



Summer Blockbusters: Why Do We Insist on Watching Really Bad Movies?
By Sameer Pandya, Miller-McCune.com
Maybe they are more like summer flings -- despite all the signs that should stay far away, you fall intensely anyway. Read more »

PEEK and Video: The hottest buzz and videos on the web


Michelle Malkin Freaks Out Because the Government Might Help Poor People a Tiny Bit
By D. Aristophanes, Sadly, No!
The horror! Read more »



Jon Stewart: Mark Sanford, Shut the F**ck Up
By Staff, AlterNet
Why does Sanford insist on treating us like his own private confessional?Read more »



Nazi Groups Look for New Recruits at Tea Parties
By BarbinMD, Daily Kos
Gee, what a surprise. Read more »



Cheney Orchestrated Public Response to Plame Leak
By Melissa McEwan, Shakesville
Former Bush administration officials say documents detailing Cheney's involvement must remain secret. The Obama administration agrees! Hopey changey! Read more »





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CHECK THIS OUT> http://artspacetokyo.com/blog/archives/half_a_century_of_nuclear_explosions/

Well everyone else is talking about is so,I guess, so should we, or So should we all, may be better
| Ad Networks the Laggards In Jackson Traffic Spike |
| from the what-else-is-new dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 29, @11:02 (The Internet) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/29/1343225 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]miller60 writes "Advertising networks are being cited as the [1]major
bottlenecks in performance woes experienced by major news sites during
the [2]crush of Internet traffic Thursday as news broke about the death
of pop star Michael Jackson. An analysis by Keynote found that many news
sites delivered their own content promptly, only to find their page
delivery delayed by slow-loading ads. The inclusion of third-party
content on high-traffic pages is a growing challenge for site operators.
It's not just ads, as social media widgets are also seeing wider usage on
commercial sites. How best to balance the content vs. performance
tradeoffs?"

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/06/29/1343225

Links:
0. http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/
1. http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/06/29/keynote-ad-networks-failed-not-news-sites/
2. http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/06/26/1221214/News-Sites-Slammed-By-Michael-Jackson-Traffic

When information continues to blink and wink by it is important to catch the attention of your watchers and readers. Selling important news sometimes reduces you to a pimp, but if that is your job..to sell really important news you had better know about headlines and sell lines just like the business guys do: Check it out: >http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/25/10-common-mistakes-in-logo-design/

Logo designe= HEADLINES!

And more....
| Print Subscribers Cry Foul Over WP's Online-Only Story |
| from the wonder-how-they-feel-about-online-coupons dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday June 22, @17:24 (The Media) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/22/2119228 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Hugh Pickens writes "The decision by the Washington Post to publish an
article exclusively online has [1]angered many readers who still pay for
the print edition of the newspaper and highlighted the thorny issues
newspaper editors still face in serving both print and online audiences.
[2]The 7,000 word story about the slaying in 2006 of Robert Wone, a young
lawyer who was found stabbed to death in a luxurious townhouse in the
Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington where a 'polyamorous family' of
three men lived, is the sort of long-form reporting that newspaper
editors say still justifies print in the digital age and many editors
agree that print is still the place to publish deep investigative
reporting, in part to give certain readers a reason to keep paying for
news. 'If you're doing long form, you should do it in print,' said
newspaper consultant Mark Potts. 'This just felt like a nice two-part
series that they didn't have the room to put in the paper, so they just
threw it on the Web.' Editors at The Post say they considered publishing
the article in print, but they concluded it was too long at a time when
the paper, like most others, was in dire financial straits and trying to
scale back newsprint costs. 'Newspapers are going broke in part because
news can be read, free of charge, on the Internet,' wrote one reader in a
letter to the editor. 'As a nearly lifelong reader of The Post, I could
not read this article in the paper I pay for and subscribe to; instead I
came on it accidentally while scrolling online for business reasons.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/06/22/2119228

Links:
0. http://hughpickens.com/
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/business/media/22post.html
2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR2009053102510.html

GETTING THE FACTS RIGHT IS NOT EASY: (and if you don't, don't do it)
Home taping didn’t kill music

June 5th, 2009 by Ben Goldacre in bad science | 94 Comments »

Ben Goldacreimage
The Guardian
Saturday 6th June 2009

You are killing our creative industries. “Downloading costs billions” said the Sun. “MORE than seven million Brits use illegal downloading sites that cost the economy billions of pounds, Government advisors said today. Researchers found more than a million people using a download site in ONE day and estimated that in a year they would use £120bn worth of material.”

That’s about a tenth of our GDP. No wonder the Daily Mail were worried too: “The network had 1.3 million users sharing files online at midday on a weekday. If each of those downloaded just one file per day, this would amount to 4.73 billion items being consumed for free every year.”

Now I am always suspicious of this industry, because they have produced a lot of dodgy figures over the years. I also doubt that every download is lost revenue since, for example, people who download more also buy more music. I’d like more details.

So where do these notions of so many billions in lost revenue come from? I found the original report. It was written by some academics you can hire in a unit at UCL called CIBER, the Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research (which “seeks to inform by countering idle speculation and uninformed opinion with the facts”). The report was commissioned by a government body called SABIP, the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property Policy.

On the billions lost it says: “Estimates as to the overall lost revenues if we include all creative industries whose products can be copied digitally, or counterfeited, reach £10 billion (IP Rights, 2004), conservatively, as our figure is from 2004, and a loss of 4,000 jobs.”

What is the origin of this conservative figure? I hunted down the full CIBER documents, found the references section, and followed the web link, which led to a 2004 press release from a private legal firm called Rouse who specialise in intellectual property law. This press release was not about the £10bn figure. It was, in fact, a one page document, which simply welcomed the government setting up an intellectual property theft strategy. In a short section headed “background”, among five other points, it says: “Rights owners have estimated that last year alone counterfeiting and piracy cost the UK economy £10 billion and 4,000 jobs.” An industry estimate, as an aside, in a press release. Genius.

But what about all these other figures in the media coverage? Lots of it revolved around the figure of 4.73 billion items downloaded each year, worth £120 billion. This means each downloaded item, software, movie, mp3, ebook, is worth about £25. Now before we go anywhere, this already seems rather high. I am not an economist, and I don’t know about their methods, but to me, for example, an appropriate comparator for someone who downloads a film to watch it once might be the rental value, not the sale value. And someone downloading a £1,000 professional 3D animation software package to fiddle about with at home may not use it more than three times. I’m just saying.

In any case, that’s £175 a week or £8,750 a year potentially not being spent by millions of people. Is this really lost revenue for the economy, as reported in the press? Plenty will have been schoolkids, or students, and even if not, that’s still about a third of the average UK wage. Before tax. Oh but the figures were wrong: it was actually 473 million items and £12 billion (so the item value was still £25) but the wrong figures were in the original executive summary, and the press release. They changed them quietly, after the errors were pointed out by a BBC journalist. I can find no public correction.

I asked what steps they took to notify journalists of their error, which exaggerated their findings by a factor of ten and were widely reported in news outlets around the world. SABIP refused to answer my questions in emails, insisted on a phone call (always a warning sign), told me that they had taken steps but wouldn’t say what, explained something about how they couldn’t be held responsible for lazy journalism, then, bizarrely, after ten minutes, tried to tell me retrospectively that the whole call was actually off the record, that I wasn’t allowed to use the information in my piece, but that they had answered my questions, and so they didn’t need to answer on the record, but I wasn’t allowed to use the answers, and I couldn’t say they hadn’t answered, I just couldn’t say what the answers were. Then the PR man from SABIP demanded that I acknowledge, in our phone call, formally, for reasons I still don’t fully understand, that he had been helpful.

I think it’s okay to be confused and disappointed by this. Like I said: as far as I’m concerned, everything from this industry is false, until proven otherwise.

10 Ways Journalism Schools Are Teaching Social Media
June 19th, 2009 | by Vadim Lavrusik

Vadim Lavrusik is a new media student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is @lavrusik on Twitter and blogs at lavrusik.com.

With news organizations beginning to create special positions to manage the use of social media tools, such as the recently appointed social editor at The New York Times, journalism schools are starting to recognize the need to integrate social media into their curricula. That doesn’t mean having a class on Facebook or Twitter, which many college students already know inside and out, but instead means that professors are delving into how these tools can be applied to enrich the craft of reporting and producing the news and ultimately telling the story in the best possible way.

And though many professors are still experimenting and learning how these tools can be used, below are the 10 ways journalism schools are currently teaching students to use social media. Please share in the comments others that you have found to be important and effective as well.


1. Promoting Content
Social media tools are bringing readers to news sites and in many cases are increasing their Web-traffic. This isn’t just through the news organizations’ own social media accounts, but those of their writers that tweet, post, share and send links to their organization’s content. Each writer has a social network, and using social media tools to promote and distribute content increases the potential readership of the article being shared.

Sree Sreenivasan, dean of student affairs at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, said this is one of the most basic and yet very important social media uses for journalists. Sreenivasan, who is teaching a social media skills course in the fall, said it is a way for journalists to engage their audience and point them to the information that you are gathering.


2. Interviewing
Though they are often frowned upon, email interviews have become regularly used by news reporters. But the same concept can be achieved through a Facebook message or chat, Google Talk, a short exchange via Seesmic, or one of the most useful apps in a journalist’s arsenal: Skype.

Paul Jones, a clinical associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, teaches journalism students how to use technologies like Skype for conducting interviews. “The thing you use for play is also the thing you use for work,” Jones said of the tool. A student can conduct and record the interview on Skype and later embed it within an online post.

Jones said that using services like Skype allows journalists to interview international sources quite easily – and affordably, not to mention that it adds a visual element to the text of the story.

3. News Gathering and Research
The power of real-time search is providing journalists with up-to-the-second information on the latest developments of any news, trends and happenings, worldwide.

Jeff Jarvis, a professor and director of interactive media at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism, said it’s important for students to know how to use real-time searches to gather information and keep up on what is breaking. This includes, but is not limited to, using search on Twitter, FriendFeed, OneRiot, Tweetmeme, Scoopler, and SearchMerge.


Sreenivasan said searches on social media sites can point journalists to supplementary information for their reporting. These sites can also help in the process of crowdsourced news gathering.

4. Crowdsourcing and Building a Source List
It’s amazing how many websites don’t include their staff’s contact information, and the WhitePages really no longer cut it. Luckily, because of the nature of social media in networking, most people post their contact info on their profiles. Social media tools are becoming vital in building source lists. One can track now fairly easily down a source on Facebook or Twitter and send them a message. (Of course, picking up the phone too still can’t hurt.)

Students are also being taught the power crowdsourcing using social media. A journalist can tweet a question involving their reporting or announce that they are looking for a source via their FriendFeed and get some remarkable responses. Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, earlier this month posted a FriendFeed request to his more than 2,000 subscribers to help him determine why he was receiving conflicting traffic figures for different URL shorteners, for example. He received dozens of responses to his question.


Jones from the University of North Carolina teaches his students the importance of not only finding sources using Twitter and Facebook, but keeping them. One of the important factors in getting responses is doing the same when others ask questions — you have to be an active member of the social network if you expect your peers to help you ask for help.

5. Publishing with Social Tools
There are many social media tools that journalists can use to publish information, and this variety is something that journalism professors are encouraging students to explore. Publishing via social media tools can be as simple as updating readers or “followers” on Twitter during a breaking news event or building an entire news site focused around Facebook connectivity and conversations about local news – something Northwestern University students created with “NewsMixer” as a project at the Medill School of Journalism last year.


Paul Bradshaw, senior lecturer of online journalism and magazines at Birmingham City University, said the most basic tools that students should know how to use are Wordpress for blogging and site building, Twitter for live updates, Facebook for posting articles or videos, Delicious for bookmarking, Flickr for photos or videos, and YouTube for video. All of these can be used from the field with a smart phone or laptop.

Jarvis also noted the importance of using these mediums to meet the audience where they exist: social networks. “We used to always have the audience come to us, but that’s not the cast anymore,” Jarvis told me.

According to Jones, it is important for students to practice publishing information on these networks to learn how social media works and how it can be applied. He’s teaching a class on vernacular video and virtual communities in the fall, in which all of the course material come from videos, as well as student assignments and responses.

6. Blog and Website Integration
Because so many news sites are incorporating live blogging into their daily dose of content and conversation with readers, Katy Culver, a faculty member in the journalism school at University of Wisconsin at Madison, had her students learn how to use CoveritLive, which can be embedded within a site.

Culver had her students use CoveritLive to cover a lecture on journalism ethics that had limited seating. She said the conversation on the live blog was quite fascinating and informative with students linking to content that the lecturers were discussing. She said using live blogging is a great tool for readers to get a chance to ask questions of an expert, reporter, or editor at a news organization. Tools like CoveritLive also include integration with Twitter, Qik for live video, or YouTube pre-recorded videos.


Jarvis from CUNY, who had his students use BlogTalkRadio to host live audio broadcasts, said it’s about hosting a conversation with the readers and using it within content creates an interactive experience.

This is also why it is important for students to learn how to integrate social media tools into websites. Jones had his students build a Ning social network that integrated various social tools, for example.

7. Building Community and Rich Content
Sure a journalist can use social media tools to have a conversation with their audience, but what’s the point? The greater goal is to build a community through engagement. Crowdsourcing, live blogging, tweeting — it’s about building a network around issues that matter to the community. In a way, social networks are the new editorial page, rich with opinions and ideas.

Jarvis said building community can be done by joining groups on social networks (though always be careful that you’re not somehow taking sides). Ultimately, he said, social media should help journalists do their job and be integrated into their reporting, but not take it over. Content is still king.

Jones emphasized the importance of creating rich content. “A tweet shouldn’t just be ‘I am eating a sandwich,’” he said. It should include a link with details that are useful to someone reading it. And retweets, he said makes the original tweet more rich and gives it credibility because someone else thought it was useful to share with their network. In a way, it is like the Associated Press wire picking up your story, Jones said.

8. Personal Brand
Students can’t stay in school forever — eventually they need to get jobs. Social networks can be used to build a personal brand that can help students land a reporting gig after college. But Jones emphasized this applies to students only, which is what he teaches.

He believes that a journalist is representing their organization and not their name, and that applies to their use of social media. Often times, he said, a journalists’ followers are following them because the news organization they represent has credibility, not necessarily them.

9. Ethics: Remember, You’re Still a Journalist
Sreenivasan from Columbia said there are no hard and fast rules for ethics and social media yet. But told me that what a person posts or shares or produces on social media reflects on the person’s judgment and students should be cautious. He used the example of broadcasting your affiliations on Facebook through notifications on your wall.


In some cases, a journalist may actually be joining an advocacy group as a way to gain sources, but their social network could interpret that they support the group or are involved in some way, he said. Keep in mind the horror stories of people not getting jobs because of their social media profiles and the things they put on them — remember that employers no longer just look at your resume. Also, take a look a Leah Betancourt’s post on How Social Media is Radically Changing the Newsroom.

10. Experiment, Experiment, Experiment
Sreenivasan, Culver, Jarvis and Jones all pointed to the importance of students experimenting with social media tools. For example, if Flickr isn’t meeting your needs, try another tool that suits your use better. Sreenivasan pointed out that we are all still learning the best practices of social media. Journalism students experimenting with these tools can learn how to apply them once they join the workforce.

Here are a few tips from Bradshaw for how teachers can encourage social media experimentation:

- Use the tools themselves to teach the class. Use them in any setting possible.
- Do it publicly and socially. For example, Bradshaw paired students up with “Twentors” to help students that were new to Twitter.
- Less talk, more action. Put the students out there and get them using the tools one by one.

Great source of info. and a question, how many deaths in Iraq since 2003? That is a very difficult question as it is open ended with no terms defined. So how many Americans have been killed, civilians and soldiers? How many allied troops and civilians have died? And the hardest one of all how many insurgents have died and how many Iraqi civilians have died? Compare these figures to the ones you get from here and tell me which place you'd like to live:
Interactive Map: New York City Homicides
This map compiles data on the latest major crimes, including murders, in the five boroughs.
http://projects.nytimes.com/crime/homicides/map?hp?th&emc=th
Related Article
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/nyregion/19murder.html
I really love the New York Times for this. See you Monday
Looked at most of your blogs this weekend just for fun and some are looking really good!

I have sent everyone an e-mail from Altnet, however Amano-san's continues to bounce with both wanna-be-ey-dwct@yahoo.co.jp and wanna_be_ey_dwct@yahoo.co.jp. There are more to follow. See you all Monday at 12:45 at the Oedo Line Tsukeji station, don't be late.

Every thing helps the newspapers dilemma:
| A.P. To Distribute Nonprofits' Investigative Journalism |
| from the live-to-pry-another-day dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Saturday June 13, @18:32 (The Media) |
| http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/13/2050210 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

The NY Times is reporting on the Associated Press's decision to
[0]distribute the investigative journalism of four nonprofit groups. This
ought to benefit both struggling newspapers, which have cut investigative
staff, and the nonprofits where, we can hope, many of those laid-off
journalists are plying their trade. It's refreshing to see this kind of
forward thinking coming out of an organization [1]not normally known for
its progressiveness. "Starting on July 1, the A.P. will deliver work by
the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at
American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and
ProPublica to the 1,500 American newspapers that are A.P. members, which
will be free to publish the material. The A.P. called the arrangement a
six-month experiment that could later be broadened to include other
investigative nonprofits, and to serve its nonmember clients, which
include broadcast and Internet outlets."

Discuss this story at:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/06/13/2050210

Links:
0. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/business/media/13press.html?_r=2&ref=media
1. http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/08/121210&tid=217

You don't have to complete your video project until the 17th but the Obituaries are due this coming Tue. by 10:30 a.m. See you all on Wed. Clark

1!Photo Journalism covers a very wide field, all we can see, the visual. The journalists job is to take these picture and then as well tell the story that can't be seen. Difficult?, Yes, but somebody has to do the hard jobs:http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/05/29/arts/salgado-slideshow_index.html
Check this guy out, he is important!
May 31, 2009
ART
Back to Nature, in Pictures and Action

By JORI FINKEL
Los Angeles

SEBASTIÃO SALGADO sounds as if he’s slightly allergic to Los Angeles. It’s not just that this celebrated Brazilian photojournalist has been sniffling since he arrived in the city, explaining: “I was born in a tropical ecosystem. I’m not used to these plants.” It’s also that he peppers his description of the city with words like strange and crazy, noting that he was mesmerized by the sight of the endless stream of automobile traffic as his plane made its descent.

The urban sprawl of Los Angeles is, in any case, a far cry from the remote, sparsely populated jungle and desert locations where he has been traveling for his epic, ecological work in progress “Genesis.” Famous for putting a human face on economic and political oppression in developing countries, Mr. Salgado is photographing the most pristine vestiges of nature he can find: pockets of the planet unspoiled by modern development. He has visited the seminomadic Zo’e tribe in the heart of the Brazilian rain forest and weathered desolate stretches of the Sahara. Next up: two months in the Brooks mountain range of Alaska on the trail of caribous and Dall sheep.

But this brand of environmentalism is costly enough to send him back to major cities for support. That’s what brought him here for a three-day whirlwind of talks, meetings and parties. One night he gave a slide show featuring new work from “Genesis” to a sold-out crowd at the Hammer Museum. The next evening he was a guest of honor at a fund-raiser at the Peter Fetterman gallery in Santa Monica, where some of his new work appears in his show “Africa,” through Sept. 30. After that it was off to San Francisco for a benefit dinner given by Marsha Williams before returning to Paris, which he considers home along with Vitória, Brazil.

It might sound like a punishing schedule, but the 65-year-old photographer says he doesn’t mind and doesn’t lose focus on work even when flocked by art collectors and celebrity backers. Sitting down at the Peter Fetterman gallery, with his image of zebras in Namibia hanging overhead, Mr. Salgado compared his time away from nature to the potentially disruptive moment when he has to change the film in his camera, when he likes to close his eyes and sing so as not to lose concentration.

“I came here for special things, but my head is there, my body is there,” he said with an intent expression and a gentle Portuguese accent. “I might be sleeping in a hotel room in Los Angeles, but in my mind I am always editing pictures.”

For “Genesis,” an eight-year project now more than half completed, he is piecing together a visual story about the effects of modern development on the environment. Yet rather than document the effects of, say, pollution or global warming directly, he is photographing natural subjects that he believes have somehow “escaped or recovered from” such changes: landscapes, seascapes, animals and indigenous tribes that represent an earlier, purer — “pristine” is a favorite word — state of nature.

In this way “Genesis” is a grand, romantic back-to-nature project, combining elements of both the literary pastoral and the sublime. Mr. Salgado also describes it as a return to childhood, as he was raised on a farm in the Rio Doce Valley of southeastern Brazil — then about 60 percent rain forest — that suffered from terrible erosion and deforestation. Years later, in 1998, he and his wife, Lélia, founded the Instituto Terra on 1,500 acres of this land to undertake an ambitious reforestation project. His wife, who also designs his books and exhibitions, is the institute’s president; he is vice president and the institute’s most famous spokesman. Or, as Ian Parker wrote in The New Yorker, Mr. Salgado is more than a photojournalist, “much the way Bono is something more than a pop star.”

In short, while the Instituto Terra is the locally rooted arm of his environmental activism, “Genesis” is its globally minded, photo-driven counterpart. Since undertaking the series in 2004, he has visited some 20 different sites across 5 continents.

He began with a shoot in the Galápagos Islands that paid homage to Darwin’s studies there. (Mr. Salgado says his title, “Genesis,” is not meant to be religious.) “Darwin spent 37 to 40 days there,” he said. “I got to spend about three months there, which was fabulous.” He was thrilled to see for himself evidence of natural selection in species like the cormorant, a bird that lost its ability to fly after a history of foraging for food underwater, not by air.

Last fall he spent two months in Ethiopia, hiking some 500 miles (with 18 pack donkeys and their owners) from Lalibela into Simien National Park to shoot the mountains, indigenous tribes and rare species like a very hairy baboon known as the Gelada. “I was traveling in this area in the same way people did 3,000 to 5,000 years ago,” he said.

Well, almost the same way. He did carry a satellite phone, which made him the point person for receiving news of the United States election in November. “When we found out that Obama won, everyone driving these donkeys, everyone was jumping up and down,” he said. He called Mr. Obama’s election “a victory for the planet.”

He is cautiously optimistic about his own environmental work. “I’m 100 percent sure that alone my photographs would not do anything. But as part of a larger movement, I hope to make a difference,” he said. “It isn’t true that the planet is lost. We must work hard to preserve it.”

His earlier projects were also driven by a sense of urgency. Before becoming a photographer he did doctoral work in agricultural economics at the University of Paris and served as an economist for the International Coffee Organization in London. You can see this training in the scope and complexity of his photography.

“Workers,” a seven-year project completed in 1992, featured images of laborers from 26 countries, including his acclaimed pictures of the Serra Pelada miners in Brazil. “Migrations,” a six-year project spanning some 40 countries that was completed in 1999, focused on migrants, refuges and other displaced populations that are financially and often physically vulnerable. (Both series became coffee-table books.)

A Getty Museum curator, Brett Abbott, who is including “Migrations” in his 2010 exhibition survey of narrative photojournalism, called this “epic approach” one of the Mr. Salgado’s hallmarks: “Of all the photographers I’m looking at, he’s probably taken on the biggest conceptual frameworks. He’s always looking at global problems.”

In this way “Genesis” represents less of a departure than it might at first seem. Even though he recently switched to a digital camera for large-format printing, his pictures have a consistent sensibility. He still generates contact sheets. He still likes to backlight his subjects, emphasizing — or romanticizing, his critics say — their forms. He still works in black and white. And his work still culminates in photo essays that, through a network of smaller stories, reveal something about an entire species. His fundamental subject is social systems, and now ecosystems.

His longtime gallerist, Peter Fetterman, also sees a strong through line in his career. While initially surprised by the turn to lush landscapes (“When I first saw the contact sheets, I thought maybe I was in the wrong studio, or the Ansel Adams archive”), he called Mr. Salgado’s empathy for subjects an overarching trait. “Other photojournalists go in and out for a day,” Mr. Fetterman said. “Sebastião goes and lives with his subjects for weeks before he even takes a picture.”

Mr. Salgado also emphasizes the continuities between his various projects. “There is no difference photographing a pelican or an albatross and photographing a human being,” he said. “You must pay attention to them, spend time with them, respect their territory.” Even landscapes, he said, have their own personality and reward a certain amount of patience.

His goal for “Genesis” is to produce a total of 32 visual essays, which he hopes to display in major public parks as well as at various museums starting in 2012. “It’s my dream to show the work in Central Park, not in some building but outside among the trees,” he said.

So far financial support from the project has come from gallery sales and reproduction deals with magazines like Paris Match in France and Visão in Portugal. Two Bay Area foundations — Susie Tompkins Buell’s and the Christensen Fund — have lent support. Eventually, to raise money for printing, he plans to issue a limited edition of 20 platinum photographs, a first for Mr. Salgado, who is known for rather democratically printing as many pictures as there are orders.

That’s just one of the elements that makes “Genesis” seem like a legacy project: a veteran photojournalist’s carefully planned and well-meaning contribution to his children, grandchildren and the world at large. But he said he did not think it would not be his last. While admitting that he might not attempt another 500-mile hike over the Simien Mountains, he said he had no plans to retire any time soon.

“I don’t know any photographer who stopped working because he turned 70,” he said, adding that as a breed they tend to live a long time. He mentioned Henri Cartier-Bresson, who died at the age of 95, and Manuel Álvarez Bravo, who lived until 100.

“I was in Mexico City for Álvarez Bravo’s 100th-birthday celebration,” Mr. Salgado said. “He was sick, with his feet inside a tub of hot water, but he still had his camera. So he was photographing his feet.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 31, 2009
An article on Sunday about the photographer Sebastião Salgado refers to a benefit dinner thrown by actor Robin Williams. It was actually hosted by Marsha Williams, from whom the actor is currently separated.


Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

READ THIS! A great and funny into to leads:
A Word to My PR Homies: On Writing a Lede
June 1, 2009 · 16 Comments

Hey, holmes!

It’s Monday! I hope you wonderful PR folks are at your desks and beaming with delight. Ok, I hope you’re grimacing through the pain. “Beaming with delight” would mean you’ve been playing Hoover the SnowBlower with a piece of straw and an eight ball, and this is NOT what we do on a Monday. Not on a Monday morning, at least.

Hokay. So.

I’m sleeping right now, but if I were awake, I’d be seeing your press releases trickling steadily into my inbox like obedient school children. By the time I rise, I will probably have more than 100 new messages from you guys. That’s what Mondays are for me. I wish to goodness y’all would throw me a bone on a Sunday sometimes, but that’s another post for another day.

Today, I want to tell you how learning a little journo trick can make your press release easier for us to read and thus more likely to receive press coverage.

It’s called the lede.

The lede is the first sentence of a news article, and it’s what we’re now going to call the first sentence of your press release. In fact, it’s the first paragraph of the release, too, because (IMPORTANT) the first paragraph of your press release should be one sentence.

Back in J school, we were coached to and even competed to write the shortest, most informative ledes possible. The lede must contain the who, what, how, where, and why (or whichever of those elements is most important or interesting) and must do so within about 25 words.

What this boot camp-like J school training means for you, the PR pro, is that you have 25 words to 1) tell me about the product/client, 2) convince me it’s newsworthy, and 3) show me you care about my time and know how to do your job.

As a journalist, when I encounter a press release, I instinctively begin to read it as though it’s a news article. I don’t read the salutation. Unless I know you personally (and sometimes, even if I do) , I don’t read any introductory information or questions about my personal well-being. I go straight for the jugular because I have eight hours to find, research, write, edit, fact-check, and illustrate three stories.

Here’s the first paragraph of a typical press release:

“[Redacted], Calif. (May 29, 2009) – [Redacted], Inc., a leader in next-generation office productivity solutions, today announced [Redacted] for Android, the first complete office productivity suite offering for Android-based mobile devices. A demo can be seen at the upcoming COMPUTEX trade show taking place June 2-6 in Taipei, Taiwan where [Redacted] will be showing its mobile office product line-up with ARM.”

Taipei? I appreciate the location-based info, but this is a press release, in English, sent from the Valley, to a journalist for an English-speaking-country-based blog.

Also, I don’t need to know about next-generation office productivity solutions or the like. Between repetition and buzz words, this lede is sinking fast! Let’s fix it up!

Ok. Forget what the CEO thinks is cool and important. Pretend you don’t give a crap about the product. Pretend you’re some retarded, hungover hipster. Now, look at your release. What about this news item really grabs you as interesting?

Well, after going over the [Redacted] release, I can tell you it’s pretty groovy to get a Microsoft file to work and be editable on a Google OS. And it’s rad to have an MS Office-like group of apps like available on a mobile phone.

Here are the things I don’t care about (for the purposes of lede-reading): The date. The place (unless it’s a conference I’m attending; see conference mailing list for my contact info). The company or product names (Unless it’s Google, MS, Intel, IBM, etc., it’s true! Work with me here!). The company or product marketing-speak taglines.

All I care about is what it does and why it’s different from every dad-blamed product like it.

Let’s get down to the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, why, how – the “how” is silent) for this release. A company I don’t care about (let’s be realistic) is giving Android device-users the ability to access MS Office files from their phones. The apps can even handle PowerPoint presentations. That is god-awesome.

Hokay. So.

Here’s the new lede:

Starting today, Android device users can access and edit Microsoft Office documents and files anytime, anywhere.

Sixteen bloody words, and you’ve got a journalist’s interest. Your no-name company slips down a couple ‘graphs as you allow the name-dropped companies to grab my attention. You told me it’s launching today, which means if I hustle, I might break the news first. And you told me the soul of the news itself: I can edit the docs on a phone. Rad.

If you feel a bit saucy, try a dash:

Starting today, Android device users can access and edit Microsoft Office documents and files – even PowerPoint presentations – from their mobiles.

Oh my god, the app practically walks on water when you put it like that! And in just 20 words!

Word to My PR Homies #2: Learn to write a hot lede.

Ledes in your releases will do wonders. Go ahead. Ask me how I know.

Only about 25% of readers who skim the first ‘graph of a news article will read it to the end. That was a 2001-era J school stat, so it’s probably totally screwed by now. As journalists, we have an attention problem because our readers do. Like you, we’re writing for an audience that doesn’t care and that has no time to read. Like us, they’re just out there, scanning for information that’s relevant to them.

A good, interesting, short, informative, exciting lede will help us figure out if and why we should read your release and cover it. You can do it!

I love you guys! Have an awesome rest of the day, and I truly look forward to reading the items you’re sending me today! Without you, I could never do my job. =)

Again which media is important? Who should you ask?How American Homeless Stay Wired |
| from the works-best-in-san-francisco dept. |
| posted by timothy on Saturday May 30, @19:12 (The Internet) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/30/2241228 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]theodp writes "San Franciscan Charles Pitts has accounts on
[1]Facebook, [2]MySpace and [3]Twitter. He runs a Yahoo forum, reads news
online and keeps in touch with friends via email. Nothing unusual, right?
Except Pitts has been homeless for two years and manages this digital
lifestyle from his residence under a highway bridge. Thanks to cheap
computers, free Internet access and sheer determination, the WSJ reports
that [4]being homeless isn't stopping some from staying wired. 'You don't
need a TV. You don't need a radio. You don't even need a newspaper,' says
Pitts. 'But you need the Internet.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=09/05/30/2241228

Links:
0. mailto:theodp@aol.com
1. http://www.facebook.com/people/Charles-Pitts/1340377541
2. http://www.myspace.com/poetcharles
3. http://twitter.com/poetcharles
4. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124363359881267523.html

For those that missed it, the Asahi Newspaper tour is taking place on Monday June 22nd. You should be at the main entrance to the Asahi building by 12:30 as we have to be at the tour area by 12:45. For those of you with other classes at that time, I will give you an absence form to give to your class teacher and you will not be marked absent. Hope to see you all there.

Hi I see that the sports stories are already coming for this weeks assignment which is actually not due until deadline of 10 a.m. Tue..
This is a new twist on Journalism school requirements from Tech Review the MIT mag:Thursday, May 21, 2009
U. of Missouri hopes to teach some iJournalism
By Associated Press

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- Gadgets such as the Apple iPhone and the iPod Touch are mainstays on college campuses -- largely for the devices' ability to help students escape the pressures of the classroom.

Now the nation's oldest journalism school is asking students to buy those or similar devices. Not to listen to shoe-gazing indie rock, or watch clips from "The Daily Show," but to download classroom lectures or confirm facts on the Web while reporting from the scene of a plane crash or town council meeting.

The new rule for incoming freshmen at the University of Missouri School of Journalism appears to mark one of the first times an American university is requiring undergraduates to buy devices like the iPhone. The policy has spurred a debate about the limits and possibilities of technology as well as corporate influence in academia.

Skeptics say the school is getting too cozy with Apple Inc., though administrators point out that they earn no financial benefit from the new policy. The university gets a 10 percent discount on Apple computers it buys, but other vendors such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. offer the same deal.

"It's like asking an engineer to buy a calculator," said Brian Brooks, associate dean for undergraduate studies. "We are doing this requirement solely to benefit our students' learning."

A description about the program on the school's Web site notes that "at least 50 colleges and universities nationwide make use of iPods in their programs." But it's not clear that any of those schools make it mandatory -- and at student expense. Private colleges such as Duke and Abilene Christian have given the devices out for free.

Brooks points out that an estimated 85 percent to 90 percent of the university's 30,200 undergraduates already own portable music players, with 85 percent of those devices being iPods.

Even so, graduating senior Maureen Scarpelli -- an admitted Apple disciple -- questions the school's endorsement of a particular product.

After similar complaints, the school clarified that it is requiring any Web-enabled, audio-video player like the iPhone or the iPod Touch, which is like an iPhone without the phone. So portable devices such as a Microsoft Zune or smart phones such as BlackBerrys can be acceptable. Just not preferred.

"There are alternatives to the iPod Touch, but none that we consider equally capable," the online program description concludes.

Among the uses envisioned by Brooks and other professors: students listening to lectures while at the gym or walking to class; using wireless Internet access to verify information while reporting stories; and watching instructional videos that otherwise would take up valuable classroom time.

Clyde Bentley was one of nine journalism professors who voted against the new policy (with 40 in support) at a recent faculty meeting. His primary concern was saddling students with an additional expense. He also questioned whether students who rely on portable devices to listen to Vampire Weekend or watch "The Colbert Report" will embrace the journalism school's intended uses.

"I had a student say that he used his iPod to get away from me," Bentley said, recalling previous attempts to offer podcasts of his lectures.

Brooks pointed out that by requiring portable electronic devices, the university can include those costs in financial aid packages. And the $229 student price of an iPod Touch is comparable to two or three textbooks, he said.

Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California, calls the new Missouri requirement "not only reasonable but admirable." He likened the debate to discussions several years ago over whether colleges should ask incoming students to buy PCs or laptop computers -- by now a largely moot point.

"Schools are usually far behind their students in embracing new technology. And faculty are usually behind the schools," Cole said.

"It really shows how both journalism and education are changing in transformational ways," he added. "The biggest effect the Internet will have is not how we play or communicate, but how we learn."

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

Check out the new photojournalism blog at the New York Times:http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/?th&emc=th

This is not only a heads up for journalists, it is a warning to everyone who relies on Wikipedia for research purposes.
Student's Wikipedia hoax dupes newspapers: report
ABC - May 7, 2009, 6:01 am
An Irish student's fake quote on the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia has been used in newspaper obituaries around the world, the Irish Times reported on Wednesday.

The quote was attributed to French composer Maurice Jarre, who died in March.

Shane Fitzgerald, 22, a final-year student studying sociology and economics at University College Dublin, told the newspaper he placed the quote on the website as an experiment when doing research on globalisation.

He quoted Oscar-winning composer Jarre as saying, "One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life.

"When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head, that only I can hear."

The quote was posted on Wikipedia shortly after Jarre's death and later appeared in obituaries in major British, Indian and Australian newspapers.

Mr Fitzgerald told the newspaper he picked Wikipedia because it was something a lot of journalists look at and it can be edited by anyone.

While he was wary about the ethical implications of using someone's death as a social experiment, he had carefully generated the quote so as not to distort or taint Jarre's life, he said.

Mr Fitzgerald said he was shocked by the result of his experiment.

"I didn't expect it to go that far. I expected it to be in blogs and sites, but on mainstream quality papers? I was very surprised about," he said.

He said the hoax remained undiscovered for weeks until he emailed the newspapers that had been deceived to tell them that they had published an inaccurate quote.

The Irish Times said that despite some newspapers removing the quote from their websites or carrying a correction and the fact that it had been dropped by Wikipedia, it remained intact on dozens of blogs, websites and newspapers.

-*AFP*

Will paper papers disappear? We have discussed this in class and this is a step in that direction, however the cost is a little steep.
Kindle DX e-book reader aims to deliver newspapers
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 6, 2009 | 12:54 PM ET Comments29Recommend14
CBC News
Amazon.com's Kindle DX reader, with a larger screen than earlier Kindles, is made to read publications such as newspapers or textbooks. (Amazon)
Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. unveiled a new e-book reader with a larger screen on Wednesday, one the company says will make it easier to read newspapers, magazines, and large PDF documents.

Like the previous electronic book readers Amazon has introduced, the Kindle DX allows users to download books and periodicals directly to the device.

But its larger screen — which stretches 24.6 centimetres (9.7 inches) diagonally — is two and a half times the size of the widest Kindle display.

The device is available for pre-order in the U.S. for $489 US. As with the original Kindle and a second, wider-screen version called Kindle 2 introduced earlier this year, the new Kindle DX is unavailable in Canada.

Among the features of the device are an auto-rotating screen that turns the image as the device is turned, allowing users to view full-length maps, graphs or web pages more easily. It also features a built-in PDF document reader.

Those features appear to expand the marketing strategy of the Kindle beyond books and periodicals and more towards both textbooks and business communications.

Your assignment for Journalism is to find and write a story about something happening over Golden Week and it is due May 12th by 10 a.m. sharp. Today is World Press Freedom Day and here is an article about it:

Rwanda: World Press Freedom Day, a Day for Self Introspection

Gloria I. Anyango 3 May 2009
Email|Print|Comment
Share:

Kigali — Every day, as they tirelessly investigate and report sensitive and sometimes disturbing truths, journalists find themselves in undesirable positions.

Faced with conflicting loyalties, they can't help but get caught up in the fury of those that they directly or indirectly expose.


As a result, some of them always lead a life on the run as they protect their lives from threatening situations. This constant open exposure to danger and uncertainties called for a day that brings to remembrance the fact that journalists deserve the freedom to bring to the public independent news and information without worries of harassment.

The World Press Freedom Day, was declared on May 3rd by the United Nations General Assembly. This day was to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression as stated under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In the case of Rwanda, press freedom is present according to Article 34 of the 2003 Rwandan Constitution which states that, "Freedom of the press and freedom of information are recognised and guaranteed by the State."

The article further states, "Freedom of speech and freedom of information shall not prejudice public order and good morals, the right of every citizen to honour, good reputation and the privacy of personal and family life. It is also guaranteed so long as it does not prejudice the protection of the youth and minors."

However, in Rwanda's case the conditions for exercising these freedoms are determined by law. As a result the Media High Council, an independent media regulatory body was established.

According to Patrice Mulama, the Executive Secretary of the Media High Council, given the context of Rwanda and its history as well as the good legislation and constitution, the media is free.

"Rwandan media today is becoming free day by day," Mulama said, " every country and society has its own set of laws that determine press freedom. This all depends on the context of a given country and in our own context, the press is free."

However as the media develops step by step towards one that practices ethically and professionally, statistics show that close to 20 percent of journalists in Rwanda have a degree or diploma in Journalism and communication studies. This according to Mulama, is too small a number to have a completely professional press.

"Due to this, what has resulted are challenges of journalists; who are self-censored, who lack values that guide and protect them from endangering themselves by going overboard both in ethics and the law as well as who do not have respect for the standards of professional and ethical practice," he said.

Twenty-six year old journalist Maurice Munyentwali, who has worked for Radio Salus for 3 years and is also a correspondent for 'Grand Lac Hebdo'- a newspaper written in French is in agreement with the above.

"Rwandan journalists do not know how to fully utilize the freedom that they have,' Munyentwali said.

This he explained is probably due to the closed culture that Rwandans have and also attributed it to the country's history of genocide. As compared to the western media that took 400 years to achieve its freedom, Munyentwali says the context of the two is currently different.

"Our level of dealing with issues is different from the western media because of our history," he said. This he mainly attributed to the fact that unlike African states that constantly face wars and conflicts, the West does not.

"That's why the state has a duty to protect the public and its citizens through the Press Law from hate media that promotes and creates conflict and divisionism, just like it was prior to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi," Munyentwali emphasized.

Twenty- five year old Gilbert Ndikubwayezu, is a print journalist who is addicted to media and journalism practices.

He worked in a newsroom in Toronto Canada and has a taste of the kind of media freedom they experience. He describes his experience in Canada and compares it to that of Rwanda.

"Rwanda and Canada are two different contexts where the views that people have of the media is different. My three-month while here showed me that journalists are not the only people who need to know and exercise press freedom, but also the citizens in general must have an understanding of what a free society is and what freedom of expression means," Ndikubwayezu said.

He further said that the State must present to guarantee that both sides enjoy their full freedom of expression and that both countries have their own levels of press freedom.

In his own view he expressed that every country is on a continuous struggle to achieve the highest level of free media exercise standard.

Relevant Links
Central Africa
Rwanda
Press and Media
"To the best of my knowledge, no single country has ever achieved total press freedom. I take it as a continuous struggle, and I believe my country is on the same track," he said. He further underscored the fact that the Media as a whole plays a crucial role in the country's development.

"Press freedom must put journalists in an environment that allows them to report what they discover as good for the benefit of the society. Reporters must use this press freedom to unveil factually what they find as mistakes and errors in the functioning of the system, so as to play their role as watchdogs, who help in the country's development," he said.

Do you Twitter? The really short shot, in many cases can be a good thing, however, there is a down side, and that is the depth side, it sometimes can be way to shallow;
CASE IN POINT:
| Twitter Considered Harmful To Swine-Flu Panic |
| from the you-have-the-flu-swine dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Tuesday April 28, @02:36 (Social Networks) |
| http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/28/000200 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]judgecorp writes "Twitter is being criticized for [1]spreading panic
about swine flu. This is not just knee-jerk Luddism 2.0: it's argued that
Twitter's structure encourages ill-informed repetition, with little room
for context, while older Web media use their power for good — for
instance Google's [2]Flu Trends page (which we [3]discussed last winter),
and the introduction of a Google [4]swine flu map." On a related note,
reader [5]NewtonsLaw suggests that it might be a good idea,
epidemiologically speaking, to [6]catch the flu now vs. later.
Source for this and many geeky, nerdy and techie storied is slashdot.com, check it out if your are interested in cutting edge internet, coding, and other tech issues.

The afternoon is over and evening has come....and many of you have missed the deadline for this weeks assignment which is to send me an e-mail giving me some information on your back ground and why you are interested in the Journalism class. (To actually view the web sites, highlight and copy and then paste the Web address {URL} into the address strip at the top of your browser.
NEXT; A long article on The New Journalism which we will discuss in the next class. TRY AND READ IT...I would recommend that you read it on line at :http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/arts/design/26kenn.html?_r=1&th&emc=th< as you will then be able to see the pictures as well. And along with this you might like to view the new video of Bob Dylan song which is a free download to view on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VNB56I/ref=s9_sims_gw_s1_p15_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1J2QS9KDD1J49Z4VXGFA&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938131&pf_rd_i=507846April 26, 2009
ART
Stubbornly Practicing His Principles of Photography

By RANDY KENNEDY
“LISTEN, do I have time to feed my pig?” the photographer Danny Lyon asked, picking up the telephone one morning at his home in rural New Mexico. “It will only take about 10 minutes. I’ll call you back,” he said, adding: “That way I can start the day with a clean conscience.”

Among a group of revolutionaries whose work rose to prominence in the late 1960s and ’70s and transformed the nature of documentary photography — a group that includes friends and colleagues of Mr. Lyon’s like Mary Ellen Mark and Larry Clark — the idea of conscience has been imbedded more deeply in Mr. Lyon’s photographs than in those of all but a few of his contemporaries.

At a time when picture magazines were still a holy grail for young photographers, Mr. Lyon, self-taught, began his career as the first staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. A week after hitchhiking south in 1962 at the age of 20 he was in jail with other protesters in Albany, Ga., next to the cell of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And Mr. Lyon’s first book, the classic “Bikeriders,” made after spending more than two years as a member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang, was not just a pioneering example of New Journalism but, as he later described it, an attempt “to destroy Life magazine” and what he saw as its anodyne vision of American life.

His newest book, “Memories of Myself,” published this month by Phaidon Press, seems on its face to be the kind of comfortable, coffee-table retrospective that a revered 67-year-old artist receives at this point in his life. It is a selection of self-assigned — and largely unpublished — photo essays that he made while wandering from Chicago to Galveston, Tex., to Brooklyn to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, over almost four decades. But even this book is a product of political calculus, as Mr. Lyon described it. He has been traveling for many years to photograph a remote, impoverished region of China with a book in mind but with little idea of who would be interested in it.

“It’s not always easy to get these things published,” he said. “I’m pretty uncompromising and not very commercial.” So when Phaidon approached him a few years ago with the idea of a career survey, he offered a deal. “I basically said, ‘If you do the China book, you can do the retrospective.’ ” (Phaidon, which does not comment on its negotiations with authors, would say only that it plans to publish two books by Mr. Lyon, in addition to “Memories of Myself,” calling him a “great photographer.”)

It is the kind of bargain Mr. Lyon has been striking his whole life, especially during years when he was supporting a family of four while insisting on making the kind of work he wanted to make, a stubborn vision that has probably contributed to his photographs and independent films not being better known. Even now, with his work in important museum collections around the country, a survivor’s hustle remains and sometimes still comes in handy: a few weeks ago, at his dentist’s office in Albuquerque, he traded a nice print for a root canal. “The market has taken a body blow, and I needed the dental work,” he explained, adding, “I was so happy to do it.”

Like Mr. Clark, who blurred the line between observer and participant and wanted to confront middle-class viewers with the American underclass, Mr. Lyon has made a peripatetic attempt to photograph people who are generally unseen or unwanted, even hated, and he has never been able to approach it with a journalist’s distance. When he began his motorcycle work in the mid-1960s while at the University of Chicago, he writes in the new book, “I was a bike rider, a photographer and a history student, probably in that order.”

When he became involved in what many critics consider his most powerful work, “Conversations With the Dead,” based on more than a year photographing inside the Texas prison system in the late 1960s, he developed deep bonds with several inmates, including one who had been convicted of rape. Another, James Ray Renton, a talented escape artist who was later convicted of killing an Arkansas police officer, became an unlikely friend and devoted correspondent for more than 30 years. (In “Like a Thief’s Dream,” Mr. Lyon’s book about their relationship, he describes testifying as a character witness for Mr. Renton at his murder trial in 1979 and, in addition to his testimony, offering Mr. Renton some marijuana during a courtroom recess. Mr. Renton declined.)

“To some, he’s idealizing people who really are not good people at all — they’re just criminals,” said Larry McMurtry, who was teaching at Rice University in Houston in the 1960s and befriended Mr. Lyon while he was there working on the prison book. “But to Danny maybe they’re good people who just never had a chance.”

“He hasn’t really changed his principles any at all since he was young, when I first met him,” Mr. McMurtry added. “He’s an idealist, to a large extent.”

In a long, animated, tangent-filled telephone interview after he went to feed his pig (which turned out to be not his but a neighbor’s, borrowed to entertain Mr. Lyon’s visiting granddaughter), Mr. Lyon more or less agreed with Mr. McMurtry and asked: “Is there something wrong with me because of that? I don’t know.”

Raised in Kew Gardens, Queens, where his father, Ernst, an immigrant from Germany, was a doctor (one of his patients in New York was Alfred Stieglitz), Mr. Lyon ached to flee the conformity of an upper-middle-class life. He discovered “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” at a formative age and was fired by the intensity of James Agee’s prose even more than by Walker Evans’s pictures.

“Agee was a stone realist, and that had a huge impact on me,” he said. One of the new book’s more lyrical essays is a series of portraits Mr. Lyon took after driving to Knoxville, Tenn., in the late 1960s simply because he wanted to see Agee’s birthplace.

But a more important influence on Mr. Lyon’s work was Hugh Edwards, a pioneering but still underappreciated curator at the Art Institute of Chicago who gave Robert Frank — later to be a mentor and friend of Mr. Lyon’s — his first solo museum show and guided the careers of many young photographers. Mr. Edwards was an intensely private man, but Mr. Lyon once managed to tape record a late-night conversation with him. A partial transcript included in the new book, forming an intermission between photo essays, at times casts an interesting light on the tension between art and ideology in photography, a tension that exists in much of Mr. Lyon’s work.

“People who purvey ideas in pictures are nothing anymore than propagandists of one kind or another,” Edwards told him in the 1972 conversation. “A great picture is something that awakens a very different reaction from each person who looks at it.”

Mr. Lyon, who has been awarded two Guggenheim fellowships, one for his film work, has called his work advocacy journalism and does not deny that it purveys ideas — if only the idea that everyone should be more aware of the pain and struggle around them in a consumerist, media-saturated world that tends to encourage isolation and apathy. “I think I try to hide it,” he said of his worldview in his work. “But I’m a highly politicized person, and it’s in my blood.”

“If I work in China, it’s because I want to humanize the Chinese, whom we tend to demonize,” he said, adding with an emphatic laugh, “I’m trying to pump up the humanity.”

But Mr. Lyon’s approach has never been straightforward, and he said he felt a greater affinity with intensely personal photographers like Mr. Clark than he did with, for example, war photographers or photographers like Eugene Richards, a fellow former member of the Magnum collective whose searing work has focused on mental institutions, emergency rooms, wrenching poverty, AIDS and drug abuse.

“I wanted to change history and preserve humanity,” he writes in the new book’s introduction. “But in the process I changed myself and preserved my own.”

The essays in Mr. Lyon’s new book are often accompanied by diary entries or transcripts of taped interviews from the periods in which he was working, lending a Beat-inflected, often darkly funny sense of verité that can make the photos feel less documentary and more impressionistic.

Passages written in Galveston in 1967, where he spent time photographing transvestites, can sound like something from Denis Johnson’s ragged short stories. One follows an existential discussion at a bar called the Gizmo: “Joe had been arguing with the bar’s owner, Dixie, about whether or not he would ever break into the place and steal her money. It seems he did try, but was not able to get inside. Joe was extremely hurt that Dixie, an old friend, would think Joe would steal from her. Dixie was hurt that they’d ruined her door trying to break in.”

Though Mr. Lyon’s drive has diminished little throughout his career, he said it has finally begun to slow. He fishes quite a bit these days, in the Chama Valley in New Mexico and in Maine, where he has a cabin. He still turns down nearly every paying assignment that comes his way, though few do anymore because he makes himself hard to find. An Italian shoe company, he said, once paid someone $1,000 to track him down in New Mexico to see if he would do a fashion shoot, to which he agreed mostly because of the company’s tenacity. He paces himself more between the jobs he assigns himself.

“I think it is a kind of performance on my part,” he said of shooting. “It’s more like athleticism or something. I wouldn’t go near a war. But I function like that, and then when I do it, it’s very intense for me.”

He said he is quite happy with the new book, which he labored over despite its beginning as a kind of barter piece, adding, “There were a lot of sleepless nights over this.” As always, he said, he wished he could excise at least one photo the second it became too late. This particular one, taken around the demolition-derby scene in upstate New York, seems like a decent shot, a skinny, mulletted kid being hugged by a girl next to a gaping car hood, the kid seeming not to hug the girl back, maybe because his hands were greasy.

“I hated that guy,” Mr. Lyon said. “That guy was so creepy. I didn’t like him. I didn’t like his car.”

He laughed. “You put a camera in my hand, I want to get close to people,” he said. “Not just physically close, emotionally close, all of it. It’s part of the process.

“It’s a very weird thing being a photographer.”