News & Current Events

[michaelflanagansf]

  I receive all sorts of information from the www and I think I am better informed than I was before it existed.
 

Me, too.

During the 80s and early 90s I was involved in an organization called 'The Documentation of AIDS Issues and Research.'  Every weekend we would go in and clip the weeks papers and file them in subject headings - insurance problems, discrimination, etc.  When I was doing this I became aware how ephemeral most information was - articles about hospitals breaking rules regarding patient confidentiality would appear and then you would hear nothing more about them.

So I felt pretty well informed back then too.  But, much like with the web, you notice that newswire articles had the nature of reporting on things and then dropping them.  So both media have the tendency to send people down blind alleys (and lead to hysteria - remember Y2K?).

[michaelflanagansf]

I think what Michael and Lyle are saying is:
"in our great leap forward, what have we left behind and is the loss worth the leap?"
I think it is a fascinating question to which I do not have a definitive answer.
(Hell, I don't seem to have a definitive answer to ANYTHING these days)
But the "leap" is inevitable so how do we cope?

Well there is certainly that.  And there is also a question about the quality of the information on the web - and the addictive and ephemeral nature of electronic media.  Have you heard of the book 'Cult of the Amateur'?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_the_Amateur

And, of course, the related article 'Is Google Making Us Stupid':

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

The 'Cult of the Amateur' website has some interesting input on 'twitter' here:

http://andrewkeen.typepad.com/the_great_seduction/2009/03/in-a-generally-critical-toronto-globe-and-mail-columnist-margaret-wente-gives-four-possible-explanations-of-why-is-it-really.html

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I liked this line in the original article:

"There's a lot I miss about print newspapers, particularly the serendipitous
magic of finding stories adjacent to the one you're reading, articles you're
deeply interested in but never would have known you were if it weren't
plopped down in front of you to pull you in through your peripheral vision.

Yes, I saw that, too.  But doesn't the same thing happen to him online?  For me,  it's just a given that when I begin reading a news journal or blog, I'm going to get distracted by an unexpected and interesting article.   

The point of the article, though, wasn't being on the net, it was using a kindle.
The other day I was looking for info on something in a book.  Flipping through the
pages I happened to notice something else that related to what I was looking for.
That would never happen on a kindle.  You don't "flip" through pages on a kindle.
You GO to this page or that page. 

[michaelflanagansf]

Steven Colbert on newspapers:

“A ‘newspaper’ is like a blog that leaves ink on your hands and covers topics other than how much you love Fall Out Boy.”

"The Newspaper Association of America or NAA is named for the noise Americans make when you ask them if they care about the thoughtful analysis of current events...NAAAAAAA"

[brokebacktom]

^^^^^^^^^^^

Good one.

[WhenPigsFly]

 For me this is not the thing that I think is/was most important about journalism - it was the depth of investigative research.  

Why is there an assumption that there'll be no "true" investigative reporting if it's done electionically?

Talking Points Memo has long been credited with bringing the DOJ's firings to light (and in the process helped bring down a NM senator).

And Arianna Huffington left little doubt this week that she's going to continue to be a ground breaker in blogosphere news when she announced that HuffPo  will now have an investigative reporting arm.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/announcing-the-launch-of-_b_180543.html

While I fully expect to see Investigative Names among those whose stories are published online, I'll also be surprised if some of the first-rate reporters she uses in this venture weren't found among the much- derided, so-called Cheetos chompers who've been turning out quality reporting for years.
 

[michaelflanagansf]

 For me this is not the thing that I think is/was most important about journalism - it was the depth of investigative research.  

Why is there an assumption that there'll be no "true" investigative reporting if it's done electionically?

I don't think I'm assuming this.  I was reflecting on what I liked about newspaper journalism in the past.  I think that there will continue to be investigative reporting online - although some of it (I'm looking at you Daily Kos) require that you have an aluminum hat at ready disposal to block out the bad rays.

Of course while I'm getting nostalgic about newspapers it's important to remember having to slog through lots of articles about home and garden shows and how to make a perfect polenta between those investigative pieces too.

[Dal]

Why is there an assumption that there'll be no "true" investigative reporting if it's done electionically?

There will be a lot less of it.  Every single publicatition has fired most of its reporters, on its way to on-line-only.  Obviously, there's no a priori reason why good reporting cannot be publiched in any medium at all;  just so happens, that economics of the news and advertising seems not to support many reporters any more.  Real reporters that is, not 'breaking news' reporters.

Talking Points & Huffington have had and will have some success.  But in the whole of the news front, how wide and deep is the quaity of coverage going to be?  There are some good places;  you have to pay, though.  And as I said, they've cut staff way back.



BTW listening to NPR just now.  Armed Serv. Comm. talling to the Pentagon spokesman re upcoming stuff in Afghanistan;  and I find they are talking about Pakistan too, as though we were at war there too indefinitely.  Everybody took it right in stride. 

Pentagon: We have been successful in Iraq.  We are being attacked only 10 to 18 times a day now.
Congressman:   Now that we've been successful in Iraq, would you say that Afghanistan is the front line in out War Against Terror?
Pentagon: Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Congressman:   Oh yes, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Pentagon:  Yes, we consider Afghanistan and Pakistan the current front line of our War Againt Terror.

Am I the only one who find this very, very deeply disturbing, for all sorts of reasons?  For instance, I had really thought the war unlimited in time or space or goal would disappear, as of 1/20.  Guess not, though. 

And BTW, where are the reporters?  USA going straight to hell; nobody to cover it.

[WhenPigsFly]

Speaking of investigative reporters: Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and blogger/reporter Glenn Greenwald were presented with the first Izzy Award for independent media on Tuesday by Ithaca College's Park Center for Independent Media. 

I.F. Stone's son, Jeremy, presented the awards, and gave a glowing tribute to his iconic father who spent many years reporting via a self-published weekly newsletter.   http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/04/01-15

[WhenPigsFly]

  Every single publicatition has fired most of its reporters, on its way to on-line-only. 

 

Do you have names of papers?

There are some good places;  you have to pay, though.

Explain, please.

[michaelflanagansf]

In your lifetime 'High Fidelity' by Nick Hornby may become a historical novel.

Virgin Megastores in US to close
By James Quinn, Wall Street Correspondent
Last Updated: 4:13PM GMT 16 Mar 2009

The shops – including its well-known flagship on Times Square – are to be shuttered as a result of increasing rents and falling sales of CD’s and DVD’s as more consumers buy online.

Virgin, which opened its first store on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard in December 1992, became known in the ‘States for championing certain artists by staging in-store events which attracted fans.

continues:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/5001101/Virgin-Megastores-in-US-to-close.html

I worked at record stores from 1977 through 1984.  I've known a number of incredible people (as well as incredibly strange people) who worked in them - people with encyclopedic memories and the ability to make weird intuitive leaps that could connect the most unexpected types of sounds.

To the degree that this is ending (and I don't mean to overstate it - there are still independents like Amoeba Music and Other Music in large cities) I will very much miss it.  I already miss the classical music stores that have left San Francisco - if I want to go to a good classical store now I have to cross the bay and go to Berkeley (which may eventually be come the cultural equivalent of a hippie Amish village).

[Dal]

  Every single publicatition has fired most of its reporters, on its way to on-line-only. 
 

Do you have names of papers?

NY and LA Times, and Wash. Post have liad off of their newsrooms.  That's offhand - the weekly mags etc also have had to do it.  In the US, that is -- not sure about the UK. 

There are some good places;  you have to pay, though.

Explain, please.

NY and LA times run free on line.  Christian Sci. Monitor will rum free, weekly, starting in a coupla weeks.  Al Jazeera is free.  But Economist, RGE Monitor, Amer Conservative, Wall St Journal and hosts of others give you  a little free access, to see if you like it;  then you have to subscribe for $$. 

In your lifetime 'High Fidelity' by Nick Hornby may become a historical novel. [etc -- snipped for brevity]

Wahh!  Tower closed, and now HRM.  There is nothing like spending lazy time in a record store -- the Internet offers no substitute, that I can see.  I found so many of my favorite records just by chance, going thru the racks of LPs (yes, I am old), and then CDs.  And you're right, Michael -- some people that work in such stores know everything about their chosen genre.  Everything!  I hope, I hope I hope the tiny stores will stick around.  There's a gospel store here -- amazing stuff.

[WhenPigsFly]

  Every single publicatition has fired most of its reporters, on its way to on-line-only. 
 

Do you have names of papers?

NY and LA Times, and Wash. Post have liad off of their newsrooms.  That's offhand - the weekly mags etc also have had to do it.  In the US, that is -- not sure about the UK. 
 

Whew!  When you said "Every single publication has fired most of its reporters..." I thought YOU had a scoop!

[jack]

in the internet's defense, in the early days of napster, i had a field day searching exotic recordings and artists, and even going into some posters' shared files folders and perusing their collections.  far more varied than any record store i had ever visited.

[michaelflanagansf]

in the internet's defense, in the early days of napster, i had a field day searching exotic recordings and artists, and even going into some posters' shared files folders and perusing their collections.  far more varied than any record store i had ever visited.

You had to look around to find good record stores.  That was half the fun.  I went to Los Angeles in the 80s and looked through tower, went to small independent electronic music store in Philadelphia in the 90s, and Wax Trax in Chicago and Rough Trade in San Francisco and London in the 80s and 90s.  It was incredible - and it was also social - I met friends that I still have from this time.