2011 May — AEJMC Hot Topics

Reporting with Twitter

May 31, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

Teemu Henriksson on EditorsWebBlog.com, May 30 - Different opinions on Twitter have been coming out of the New York Times recently. First, Bill Keller, the executive editor of the paper, criticised Twitter and social media in general as promoting short-term thinking, not suitable for a profound discussion. His view was met by a wave of negative reactions, also from his own staff.

Last Friday, NYT journalist Brian Stelter posted an account of his ways of reporting from the tornado-stricken Joplin, Missouri. Twitter is the star of his description – deprived of mobile and Internet coverage, Stelter used Twitter to post updates and photographs from location. “Looking back, I think my best reporting was on Twitter,” he wrote.

For many commentators, Stelter’s account highlighted how journalists using Twitter are able to report in ways that are not possible through traditional methods. GigaOM’sMatthew Ingram noted that the Times has seemed to take a more open view of the Internet lately, and wondered whether Stelter’s example would encourage the newspaper to experiment more with the web as a journalistic tool. Read full article

Filed Under: News Tagged With: NYT, reporting, Twitter

Huffington Post Sets Up Shop in Canada

May 27, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

By Susan Krashinsky on the Globe and Mail, May 26 – The Huffington Post has launched its Canadian edition, the latest U.S. digital media company to use Canada as an international testing ground.

The news aggregation company Huffington Post Canada took the wraps off a new homepage dedicated to Canadian news and politics, with contributions from prominent Canadians such as David Suzuki and Elizabeth May.

Plans for the launch emerged in April, when the publication began hiring in Toronto. It’s the first step in a series of new editions planned for international markets. The HuffPo, as it is often called, will launch a U.K. version on July 7 and has hired 130 journalists there in the past few months. Founder Arianna Huffington will travel to Brazil at the beginning of September to finalize plans for a Brazilian edition as well. Read full article

Filed Under: News

YouTube Sells More Ads to Show Before Videos

May 26, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

From Stuart Elliott on Media Decoder Blog, May 23 – In the early days of online video, commercials that appeared before viewers could watch clips, known as preroll, got “thumbs down” from most computer users. That attitude seems to have softened more recently, a change of heart that Web giants have noticed.

Case in point, the YouTube unit of Google, which for some time has exposed visitors to youtube.com to commercials that start to play as soon as the Web site opens in their browsers.

On Monday, many visitors saw a commercial for “Kung Fu Panda 2” on the top part of the YouTube home page, a k a the masthead.

Now, YouTube is expanding opportunities for advertisers with what the company is calling First Watch. The name tells the story: an advertiser can buy a preroll spot on most people’s first view of a YouTube video each day. Read full article

Filed Under: News

Book Review – The New York Times Reader: Science & Technology

May 20, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

The New York Times Reader: Science & Technology. Holly Stocking, ed. (2011). Washington, DC: CQ Press/Sage. pp. 258.

Many newspaper-writing anthologies read like yesterday’s news—a dated pile of clippings with little attention paid to whether the subject matter has much enduring appeal or value. The New York Times Reader series generally avoids this pitfall by selecting subjects that retain their appeal, and presenting them in some of the best journalistic English anywhere. The range of subject matter is impressive, and a reminder of just how often today’s news has a basis in natural sciences, from the effects of cell phones on the brain, to shrinking ice caps and disappearing bats, the prospective nature of life on planets yet to be discovered, and the nature of societies among animals.

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Filed Under: Educator Winter 2010, Reviews Tagged With: aejmc educator, Holly Stocking, New York Times, science, Technology

Book Review – Refiguring Mass Communication: A History

May 20, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

Refiguring Mass Communication: A History. Peter Simonson (2010). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. pp. 261.

Journalism teachers are naturally intrigued by the relationship between periods in history, which logically follows the evolution of economics, technology, and sociological developments. What author Peter Simonson does in his Refiguring Mass Communication: A History suggests that not only do these relationships transcend those traditional avenues, but he also reclaims the strength, potential, and promise of both the practical and aesthetic purposes of mass communication.

And he does it by telling great stories and showing connections between them.

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Filed Under: Educator Winter 2010, Reviews Tagged With: aejmc educator, History, Mass Communication, Peter Simonson

Book Review – Battling Nell: The Life of Southern Journalist Cornelia Battle Lewis

May 20, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

Battling Nell: The Life of Southern Journalist Cornelia Battle Lewis, 1893-1956. Alexander S. Leidholdt (2009).Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. pp. 331.

In the 1920s, Cornelia Battle Lewis wrote strident columns for the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer attacking the Ku Klux Klan, defending Communist-backed strikers at a regional textile mill, and supporting Al Smith’s candidacy for president despite his Catholicism. By the time she died suddenly in 1956, Lewis was still writing strident columns for the News and Observer, Raleigh’s leading newspaper, but these warned of the menace of Communism and urged defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s mandate to de-segregate schools. She even denounced her former self.

Book Review[s] – The Mind of a Journalist & Telling Our Stories

May 20, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

The Mind of a Journalist: How Reporters View Themselves, Their World, and Their Craft. Jim Willis (2010).Los Angeles: Sage Publications. pp. 264.

Telling Our Stories: The Days of the Baltimore Sun. May 2010, http:// wbng.org/stories/ (accessed July 22, 2010).

Two recent works, a book and a Web site, may be useful supplementary texts for educators looking to explore the values, worldview, and socialization of journalists.

The Mind of a Journalist is a slim textbook that features interviews with a dozen journalists on the attraction of journalism and the values that shape the craft, along with topical issues such as anonymous sources, the journalist as a celebrity, and the influence of religious faith on reporting.

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Filed Under: Educator Winter 2010, Reviews Tagged With: aejmc educator, Baltimore Sun, Jim Willis, reporters, society

Book Review[s] – The Art of Access & Free For All

May 20, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

The Art of Access: Strategies for Acquiring Public Records. David Cuillier and Charles N. Davis (2010). Washington: CQ Press. pp. 236.

Free For All: The Internet’s Transformation of Journalism. Elliot King (2010). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. pp. 328.

If data-driven reporting is a hallmark of the information society, then Cuillier and Davis’ 236-page tome has burst upon that society as a sort of elixir: What spinach is to Popeye, this book would be to public affairs journalists.

“[Y]ou could produce 10 years’ worth of [document-driven reporting] projects from this one book” (p. xxv), the authors boast in the preface. It is not a vain boast. Story ideas ooze from the nine chapters, marshalling a superlative guide to producing record-driven local and hyper-local stories.

Book Review[s] – The Culture of Efficiency & Putting the Public Back in Public Relations

May 20, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

The Culture of Efficiency: Technology in Everyday Life. Sharon Kleinman, ed. (2009). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. pp. 390.

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations. Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge (2009). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. pp. 314.

From old technologies to new social media tools, scholars and practitioners alike are looking for answers of how best to incorporate both old and new technology tools into both businesses and everyday life. These books explore the ever-changing world of technology through the lens of communication.