WiredPen

Coming to a political convention near you: an Associated Press blog, featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Walter R. Mears and political reporter Nancy Benac. According to AP, the service — Blog@ap.org — will provide commentary and news tidbits. Mears won his Pulitzer for reporting on the 1976 presidential election. Benac has covered Washington, DC for more than 20 years.

In other technology news, AP announced that it has chosen RetrievalWare (Convera Corp.) “to categorize, search and distribute its multimedia news content.” as part of a major technology initiative.

Link:
Editor & Publisher (28 June 04)

Got my first “comment spam” Friday … from a Steven Fergusson (ip 207.21.148.174) … who felt the need to inform everyone that ” Today is my Birthday :-)… ” and associate it with the A different tune post from October 2003.

This is like writing graffiti on a bathroom wall, only it is a lot easier to clean up. I don’t “get” physical world graffiti any more that I “get” comment spam. Bye bye Mr. Fergusson.
 
 

It seems logical to me that blogging is a tool that could be used to improve writing in the classroom. And I tried it spring quarter with not enough thought, perhaps, because the results were uneven.

I’ve been looking around the net for ideas on how to integrate blogs into the classroom, because I want to use them with my first undergraduate class in spring 2005.

I found this article in First Monday that explores the use of “blogs” in the classroom — as a tool to enhance literacy. The author also notes that statistics suggest as much as 40% of those using this technology are under 20. That sounds good for my spring demographic.
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We had an anthropologist from the University of California Irvine — Bonnie A. Nardi — up for a lecture at the end of Spring Quarter. She had done some research with a small cohort of bloggers, seeking to understand why people blog.

Most of these folks were writing personal journals. A few were writing subject-oriented blogs.

She didn’t find a clear-cut answer to the question. But her research made me wonder, not for the first time: is this a technology or a medium?
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Through serendipity (aka surfing), I changed upon this excellent essay by Seattle Journalist David Neiwert. He thoughtfully sums my frustrations with what passes for political reporting.

I believe mainstream media are failing in their role to help citizens navigate the waters of civic affairs. Rather than provide clear charts and information about competing craft so people can make informed choices, media spend their time and energy focused on the superficial: the color of this boat, the paper on which that map is printed.

Neiwert’s essay jibes nicely with Robert Jensen’s talk at UW on media, war and politics.

In civil rights story that seems better reported abroad than at home, New York City’s proposal to ban photos in the subway is still moving forward, if Sunday’s photographer protest is an indication.

Under the proposed ban, photographers must obtain a permit to take still or video pictures on subways. In a NY Times article which ran when I was in NYC for WWW2004, officials said that tourists would not be exempt from paying fines under the proposal released 20 May.
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The latest Pew Research Center report suggests that both audiences and the news that they consume have become more politicized.

In concert with that trend, consumption of news from all major sources (local TV, network evening news and news magazines, newspaper and magazines) continues a steady downward march. Only 82% reported getting “any news yesterday” (online news not included) — down from 90% 10 years ago.

Good news for digital media: online news consumption has increased dramatically, from 13% saying that they get online news three or more days a week in 1998 to 29% in 2004. This could be a factor in the move towards online news sites profitability. I’ll look at the online news audience separately.

Americans are skeptical (cynical?); more than half (53%) agree with the statement: “I often don’t trust what news organizations are saying.”

Other report highlights include:
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Blogads ran a survey 17-19 May 2004, trying to get some data on blog readers. More than 17,000 people completed the survey; results are now online.

These self-reported data suffer the same weaknesses as early Georgia Tech surveys of WWW users. With that as a caveat, however, the data are interesting — whether viewed in the aggregate or by demographic (women, men, various political party affiliations).

A key question was “why do you read blogs?”
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Giving credence to the adage that great minds think alike, Time and Newsweek editors picked the same image of former President Reagan for their commemorative issues this week. Digital media students might be more interested in the dramatic difference in flesh tone (Newsweek’s image gives Reagan a “tan” appearance while the Time image appears “ruddy”). Editors insist that the image was not altered.

Links: NYT (8 June - requires registration) [Thanks to Newsroom-L]

I can tell by looking at my posting rate for June that I’m in crunch mode as Spring Quarter ends this week. This past Saturday, I led an Introduction to FlashMX2004 workshop. Graduation for Communication students is Thursday at the Hub.

And Friday we have the last Digital Media Working Group presentation of the year, Blogging for the Rest of Us featuring Bonnie A. Nardi, UCal-Irvine.