Here is a story from slashdot about what is a dangerous trend in the news media.
| PC World Editor Resigns When Ordered Not to Criticize Advertisers |
| from the i-can-only-imagine dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday May 03, @14:46 (The Media) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/03/1810239 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
bricko noted a story of our modern journalism world gone so wrong it
makes me sad. "Editor-in-Chief Harry McCracken [0]quit abruptly today
because the company's new CEO, Colin Crawford, tried to kill a story
about Apple and Steve Jobs." The link discusses that the CEO was the
former head of MacWorld and would get calls from Jobs. Apparently he also
told the staff that product reviews had to be nicer to vendors who
advertise in the magazine. The sad thing is that given the economics of
publishing in this day and age, I doubt anything even comes of this even
tho it essentially confirms that PC World reviews should be thought of as
no more than press releases. I know that's how I will consider links from
them in the future. But congratulations to anyone willing to stick to
their guns on such matters.

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/05/03/1810239

Links:
0. http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/05/pc_world_editor.html

Well most people sent in their sugidama story, good start. For information on some of the issues and info about what's happening in media you should check professor of journalism, City University London's Adrian Moncks blog at http://adrianmonck.blogspot.com
Also for your information if you are interested in digital photography check out free classes at http://www.sony101.com

We talked briefly about news that doesn't get published by the mainstream press and how the internet is changing that. Here is the example that I mentioned:http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Japan+dolphin+hunt&search=Search
Check it out.

Remember that your first reseach and story are due this Sat. the 28th. You have to find out what a Sugidame is and what it is for. A picture for the story is required. Good Luck.;>} Clark

Here are some good sources for news that is not always published in the regular media.
CITIZEN MEDIA

Digital technologies in the hands of growing numbers of individuals
could be put to use covering stories that do not normally get much
attention. The University of Maryland's J-Lab: The Institute for
Interactive Journalism is honoring 10 community news projects with New
Voices grants, offering more diversity in news coverage.

Among the projects awarded:

* Vermont Climate Witness will create interactive maps to track how
residents see climate change affecting the state's economy. DETAILS:
http://www.tamarackmedia.org/vtclimatewitness/

* Northwest Community Radio Network Collaborative Newscast will air
weekly hour-long newscasts culled from public-affairs programming
produced in isolated communities in the Pacific Northwest. DETAILS:
http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/

* Saint Paul City Newsdesk will create a network of citizen journalists
to cover neighborhoods and municipal news. DETAILS:
http://www.spnn.org/

* Building Blocks will launch a news and information site informing New
York City residents about major real estate development projects
affecting their neighborhoods. DETAILS: http://www.prattcenter.net/

According to New Voices adviser Peter Levine, such participatory
journalism could contribute to active civic involvement in the United
States. "Dissatisfied with formal institutions, citizens are working
together on community problems, building new associations--and creating
their own news media," he says.

SOURCE: University of Maryland J-Lab,
http://www.j-lab.org/nv2007_release.shtml

This is a short summary, I would like you to go and read at least half of the long story about this man, a great journalist and we will talk about why he was..a great journalist. Why do you think he was?

David Halberstam, 73, Reporter and Author, Dies
By CLYDE HABERMAN
Mr. Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, wrote
more than 20 books on topics as varied as the Vietnam War
and basketball.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/arts/24halberstam.html?th&emc=th

Welcome to the 2007 Journalism class. You look here for new information about what is happening in the media world as well as for what your next week assignment is. For example here are two news items which we will discuss briefly today:- TECHNOLOGY -


Yahoo Strikes Ad Deal With More Papers
By MIGUEL HELFT
Yahoo announced a broad deal with publishers representing
264 newspapers to sell national advertising across their
Web sites.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/technology/17search.html?th&emc=th
CANADIAN NEW MEDIA AWARDS NOMINEES NAMED
There were nominees from nearly every province as the Canadian New
Media Awards were announced Monday, in categories that include video
games, culture and arts, news and individual honours.
FULL STORY:
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/04/16/tech-cnmanewmediaawards-20070416.html

How is the internet effecting print newspapers, well this is one indication: For every one percent of broadband growth, newspaper
circulation drops point zero two.

What drives change at todays newspapers? Well here is one thing:
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Newspaper Headlines Bow To SEO Demands |
| from the find-what-you-are-looking-for dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Saturday February 03, @00:58 (The Media) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/03/0542243 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]prostoalex writes "News.com.com [1]says the art of writing newspaper
headlines is changing due to reliance on search engines for traffic to
newspaper archives. Forget about clever puns, double entendres and witty
analogies: 'News organizations that generate revenue from advertising are
keenly aware of the problem and are using coding techniques and training
journalists to rewrite the print headlines, thinking about what the story
is about and being as clear as possible.' One big winner for now is
[2]Boston.com, The Boston Globe property, which 'had training sessions
with copy editors and the night desk for the newspaper to enforce
Web-optimized keyword-rich headlines suitable for search engine
queries.'" Update: 10/30 14:1 GMT by [3]KD : Corrected mis-attributed
ownership: boston.com is owned by the Boston Globe, not the Boston
Herald.

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=07/02/03/0542243

Links:
0. http://www.moskalyuk.com/blog
1. http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-6155739.html
2. http://www.boston.com/
3. http://slashdot.org/~kdawson/

Well thanks to the students that hung in there last term. Here is one of the student evaluations. I really like the idea of a group project and will use it next term.
Thursday 5th period, Journalism(4-H-22 11303188)

Hello, I remember that you mentioned at the end of the class you told us that we had to write 2 things that we liked about the class
and 2 things we did not like about the class.

One of the things I liked about the class is that the fact that we had homework every week. Having homework every week motivated
me, and lead me to look for new news often, and be interested in the media. I think it is a good chance to always be aware.
Another thing I liked about the class is the field trip. It was only a day to go around the Asahi Shinbun, but it was a great experience.
I never knew how the newspapers were made exactlly. Also, I did not know how hard it is to make a news paper, and that there has
to be that many people in order to make the news paper each and everyday.
I do not really have anything that I did not like about the class, but it would have been better if we had a group assignment or something
that would involve the class mates, so that we could all know each other well.
It was a fun class, although it was a really really small class.
Thank you very much for teaching us for a year.

Kaori Takahashi

Happy New Year. Hope this year is your best ever. Last year was not a safe year for journalists -2006 A DEADLY YEAR FOR JOURNALISTS
This past year was the deadliest for journalists in more than a decade,
according to media watchdog Reporters without Borders.
FULL STORY:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/12/31/reporter-deaths-2006.html

Here is some update information on quality control in journalism, note the criteria they are using to judge quality:
NEWSTRUST.NET: A NEW OUTLET FOR CITIZEN JOURNALISTS
http://beta.newstrust.net
Late last month, NewsTrust went live. This non-profit online news
rating service aims to help people identify quality journalism - or
"news you can trust." The project is led by Fabrice Florin, a former
journalist and a digital media pioneer at Apple and Macromedia. The
concept is simple -- NewsTrust members submit articles, then read
and rate them based on key journalistic principles such as fairness,
balance, evidence, context and importance. The ratings are compiled
and each article is given an overall "grade." Based on the positive
reception it has so far received, NewsTrust plans to launch its full
service in 2007.
SOURCE: NewsTrust.net
To comment on this item, visit:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/5577

PR Watch, Spin of the Day, the Weekly Spin and SourceWatch are
projects of the Center for Media & Democracy, a nonprofit
organization that offers investigative reporting on the public
relations industry. We help the public recognize manipulative and
misleading PR practices by exposing the activities of secretive,
little-known propaganda-for-hire firms that work to control
political debates and public opinion. Please send any questions or
suggestions about our publications to:
editor@prwatch.org

OK here is an Xmas bonus assignment for you. Write a news story about your favorite music. Put it directly on your blog by Xmas morning and get bonus points. All your writting, even stories I have not corrected yet should go on your blog as you will be given a blog mark over the Xmas holiday and one more check the weekend after the last class. Have a wonderful holiday and I wish you a Happy New Year. Clark

The assignment for this week is a story about something to do with Christmas. It seems to be a big holiday hit in Japan. As with last weeks story it should be sent to carsurf@yahoo.com by noon next Tue. December 19th.

This weeks story -due on Tue. noon at carsurf@yahoo.com is a story about the story behind the story=what were the causes and effects? See you next Thur. Clark

---------------------------------------------+
| Reuters and Yahoo! Enlist Camera Phones |
| from the photoshoppers-holiday dept. |
| posted by kdawson on Monday December 04, @18:06 (The Media) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/04/2147259 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

[0]eldavojohn writes "In a huge advancement of citizen journalism,
Reuters and Yahoo! are [1]asking average people to be journalists with
their cell phones. I hope participants don't run the risks others have
for [2]photographing the police. You can expect to see these new photos
being used at Yahoo! and Reuters.com starting tomorrow." From the
article: "'People don't say, "I want to see user-generated content,"'
said Lloyd Braun, who runs Yahoo's media group. 'They want to see
[3]Michael Richards in the club. If that happens to be from a cellphone,
they are happy with a cellphone. If it's from a professional
photographer, they are happy for that, too.' Users will not be paid for
images displayed on the Yahoo and Reuters sites. But people whose photos
or videos are selected for distribution to Reuters clients will receive a
payment."

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/12/04/2147259

Links:
0. http://www.foundmagazine.com/
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/technology/04yahoo.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin
2. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/30/0557216&tid=158
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Richards#Laugh_Factory_Incident

THIS IS THE FINAL NOTICE THAT WE HAVE A TOUR OF ASHAI NEWSPAPER PLANT ON MONDAY DECEMBER 4TH! WE WILL MEET IN FRONT OF THE ASAHI SHIMBUN BUILDING IN TSKIJI AT 12:50 AS WE HAVE TO BE EARLY FOR THE TOUR WHICH STARTS AT ONE O'CLOCK. YOU WILL PASS THE COURSE IF YOU ATTEND THIS TOUR AND PROBABLY FAIL IT IF YOU DON'T. HOPE TO SEE YOU ON MONDAY.

Now here is a very interesting story from Japan published in the U.S.:
| The Dark Side of the PlayStation 3 Launch |
| from the nothing-nice-to-say dept. |
| posted by Zonk on Sunday November 12, @00:24 (PlayStation (Games)|
| http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/12/0338204 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

An anonymous reader writes "Kotaku is running an article prompted by an
email from a foreign student in Japan. The reader unveils the sad reality
of the modern gaming industry. Japanese businessmen made ample use of
[0]homeless people and Chinese nationals to obtain PS3s for re-sale.
There was also a large amount of pushing and shoving, some fights, and
almost no police presence at the most crowded stores." From the article:
"Based on my observations of the first twenty PS3s sold at Bic Camera,
they were all purchased by Chinese nationals, none of whom bought any
software. After making their purchase, television crews asked for
interviews but all were declined. These temporary owners of PS3s would
then make their way down the street where their bosses waited. After
several minutes, a dozen PS3s were rounded up, as their Japanese business
manager paid out cash to those who waited in line for them. I witnessed a
homeless-looking Chinese man, in his sixties or seventies get paid 20,000
yen for his services and was then sent away." Update: 11/12 05:40 GMT by
[1]Z : You're right. Sony only shares a portion of the blame here.
Offsides on my part.

Discuss this story at:
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=06/11/12/0338204

Links:
0. http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/top/foreigners-and-fights-ps3-jpn-launchs-dark-side-214130.php
1. http://slashdot.org/~Zonk/

I would like to talk some more about censorship and it's effects on freedom of the press and ultimatly our freedom, so look at this from the BBC:
'Enemies of the internet' named
A list of 13 "enemies of the internet" has been released by human rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
For the first time, Egypt has been added to the list while Nepal, Libya and the Maldives have all been removed.

The list consists of countries that RSF believes are suppressing freedom of expression on the internet.

The civil liberties pressure group has organised a 24-hour protest, inviting web users to vote for the worst offending countries.

Visitors to the RSF website are also invited to leave a voice message for Yahoo's co-founder Jerry Yang, expressing their views on the firm's involvement in China.

RSF has been outspoken in its condemnation of Yahoo. The search engine has been criticised along with other companies for helping the Chinese authorities block access to some online material.

Improvements


THE 13 COUNTRIES BLACKLISTED
Belarus
Burma
China
Cuba
Egypt
Iran
North Korea
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Tunisia
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
The blacklist is published annually but it is the first time RSF has organised an online protest to accompany the list.

"We wanted to mobilise net users so that when we lobby certain countries we can say that the concerns are not just ours but those of thousands of internet users around the world," said a spokesman for RSF.

Many of those on the internet blacklist are countries that are regularly criticised by human rights groups, such as China and Burma.

Egypt is a new entrant and has been shortlisted for its attitude to bloggers rather than specific web censorship, said RSF.

"Three bloggers have been arrested and detained this year for speaking out in favour of democratic reform. This is an appeal to the Egyptian government to change its position," said the RSF spokesman.

"The fact that this year we have removed three countries from the list is encouraging. It shows that the situation can change for the better," he added.

On a visit to Libya, Reporters Without Borders found that the Libyan internet was no longer censored although it still considers President Maummar Gaddafi to be a "predator of press freedom".

Your next assignment is due on the last class of Nov. as we have two off Thursdays. You have to give me a video newscast on a news item that you select. We have looked at how this is done in the last two classes and we will review that in next weeks class. I also want you to look at this article from the New York Times on the bad and the good future on Newspapers:

November 4, 2006
What’s Online
Reading Between the Lines

By DAN MITCHELL
THIS week brought another spate of bad news for newspapers. Daily circulation is down an average of 2.8 percent over the last six months, continuing a slide that started at least a decade ago. Layoffs and labor strife continued across the country, from Philadelphia to Oakland, Calif.

There’s no question the newspaper industry is “under siege,” as a MediaNews Group publisher told his employees in a memo warning of layoffs at his San Francisco Bay Area newspapers

(eastbayexpress.com). But how bad are things, really?

For starters, those circulation figures may not be as dire as they sound. A “significant portion” of the drop “results directly from the industry’s long-term, and arguably long-overdue, initiative to eliminate inefficient vanity and promotional circulation,” writes Allen Mutter on his blog, Confessions of a Newsosaur (newsosaur.blogspot.com).

That means newspaper companies are cutting out discounted subscriptions, free papers at hotels and delivery to far-flung locales, none of them particularly appealing to advertisers and increasingly seen as not worth the cost.

Just as the lackluster circulation numbers were being dissected, the Newspaper Association of America released the results of a study it commissioned showing that when Internet readership is counted, the newspaper audience is actually way up — nearly 8 percent over all from February 2005 to March 2006 (naa.org).

But the study does not mention that newspapers still haven’t figured out how to make a healthy profit from Internet readership. Cluttered, hard-to-navigate newspaper sites proliferate. And many sites force readers to register, which Internet types say is counterproductive, when those readers can so easily go elsewhere for their news. In terms of the content itself, Louis Hau of Forbes.com thinks he has the answer: Look to New York City’s dueling tabloids, The Post and The Daily News. Even as most other papers had circulation declines, both tabloids picked up readers. The gains, Mr. Hau said, can be attributed to the fact that both papers “emphasize local coverage,” “offer stories you can’t get anywhere else,” “keep it short,” and present the news with “attitude” and “a point of view.”