journalism

journalism / links / photo / things to read / Tuesday / Twitter / video — Comments Off on If we ignore the weather, it will go away, right?
17
Feb 15

If we ignore the weather, it will go away, right?

This is ridiculous.

Bearing in mind that when I wrote that in the 8 o’clock hour here it was 5:41 a.m. in Anchorage. Ridiculous. And, also, quite the chilly day. Nothing to do about it but shiver. Because my offices never get warm. (Until about April.) So there I sat for most of the day, space heater six inches from skin, wrapped up in various clothing patterns, hoping for the best, or at least some temporary global warming. Even a bit of change would have been good. We’re all ready for spring, I think.

Newspaper fun today. This is, apparently, the rumor addition of the paper. Not so keen on that. Rumors are rumors, after all. That’s what Yik Yak is for. Right?

I tried Yik Yak. I lurked for a bit and then posted one or two things there and lurked for a bit more. I lurked in more than one community, as the quasi-anonymous platform (but not really) is geography based. I suppose if you have something to get off your chest it would be good for those thinking they can do so without proper retort. But that seems to the biggest extent of it. (I’ve read a few pro Yik Yak stories and they all have the same positive Yik Yak anecdote. You’d like to see more, suggesting they have more than the one, but not yet.) And that’s kind of depressing. So I deleted it.

So I’m playing with new platforms this week — watching and reading how others are experimenting. I’d like to venture out to the bleeding edge of things again. Once upon a time I got to play with stuff that was brand new and that no one had ever really tried. I can do that again. But first I have to make sure I’m caught up on what’s going on today. And so here we are.

Saw this while out to dinner this evening:

sticker

I’m not a big sticker-on-the-car guy, most messages being ephermal, but the anti-sticker sticker seems especially weird. Hey, someone made four bucks off of you! Congratulations!

I do enjoy the “0.0” sticker, and I run. Or shuffle.

Things to read … or at least shuffle through.

As I have not received my rejection notice, I suppose I am still in the running on this. That’s the way these things work, right? 100 Candidates Selected for One-Way Mission to Mars:

Over the past two years, more than 200,000 people have applied to be the first colonists on Mars (that we know of), and now the pool has been narrowed down to 100. The Dutch nonprofit Mars One intends to send just four people on a one-way mission to the red planet that’s scheduled to leave Earth in 2024. According to the Washington Post, the most recent cut was made after chief medical officer Norbert Kraft interviewed 660 candidates. Now 24 people will be selected for training by undergoing the most rigorous competition known to humankind: being a reality-show contestant.

Of course I didn’t apply, so there’s that.

That story is 289 words, in total, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find 300 words that better define our era than that little post.

Coverage does not equal care. Out of Pocket, Out of Control:

In the past five years, the average price to see a primary care doctor has risen 20 percent. For a specialist it’s gone up 29 percent, and for outpatient surgery it’s up 43 percent. And that’s just for employer-sponsored insurance; on average, those covered through the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges face even higher expenses.

No wonder 22 percent of people now say the cost of getting care has led them to delay treatment for a serious condition. That’s the highest percentage since Gallup started asking in 2001. Another poll found that as many as 16 million adults with chronic conditions have avoided the doctor because of out-of-pocket costs.

See if you can find the key here, Posting a photo is the worst way to get people to see your Facebook posts:

Data provided to Business Insider by the social-media analytics company Socialbakers shows just how badly photos perform compared with videos, links, and even simple text-only posts in terms of reach on Facebook.

What makes this data so remarkable is that it wasn’t so long ago that posting photos used to give brand page owners the best chance of their posts being seen by their fans (indeed, a Socialbakers study dated April 2014 declared “Photos Are Still King On Facebook”). Now the algorithm has changed, punishing photos, perhaps in response to page owners trying to game the system by constantly posting photos, or maybe because Facebook has been shifting its strategy ever more toward video in recent months.

The numbers keep climbing: Smartphone Penetration, Rising in All Age and Income Demos, Hits 75% of the US Mobile Market.

The end of the beginning of the beginning’s end, TV ad model: Dead:

Television as we knew it died this week at 73. Or at least the advertising model did. Boomers and Generation X won’t have to quit ad blocks cold turkey but they will note that a growing percentage of what they see will be ads for retirement villages and Cialis. The kids, which in this case means anyone under 34, are moving online and the money is going with them.

Commercials started with a 10-second spot for Bulova watches during a baseball game in 1941. The death blow came yesterday during PepsiCo’s (PEP) conference call when CEO Indra Nooyi said her company’s ad budget would stay at 5.9% of revenues but be “reallocated.” A Pepsi spokesperson tells Yahoo Finance that means “realloacted to consumer facing activities.” I read that to mean moving ads off television and into other formats.

5.9% of PepsiCo’s 2014 revenues works out to roughly $3.9 billion. They’re the company that brought us Katy Perry and Left Shark, for God’s sake. Sports was the last great hope for ads and one of its biggest backers is drawing the line. There’s nothing in Indra Nooyi’s history to suggest she’s bluffing.

But don’t take PepsiCo’s word for it. Omnicom Media (OMC) which positions some $50 billion worth of ads a year for not just Pepsi but Apple (AAPL), McDonald’s (MCD) and Starbucks (SBUX) advised its clients to shift 25% of their budgets away from TV last year.

You live in a transitional time, to be sure.

Another, sad transition:

I don’t know Larry Stogner, in fact I’ve never even been in his market to view his work, which, of a sudden, seems a shame. But it is clear what his community has meant to him and, having known people like that in a handful of local media markets, I have a good guess what he means to the community.

At some point, not too far off, we’ll see more and more farewells. It is a generational thing. And then more people will come along and be important and stay in one market for a long time and then they’ll retire to see their grandbabies or because the pension kicks in or because they want to travel or are ill. And then that’ll be the end of it. By then every TV newsroom will likely be some version of the hub-and-spoke model and the local feel will, improbably, fade away. (You’ve seen it in radio, it is happening in some aspects of the newspaper business and, already, in some smaller television markets.) We live in a transitional time.

Atlanta’s been on this tear for a while, but as you’ll see the migration isn’t limited to north Georgia. It all started when the northerners realized we’d mastered air conditioning, and they’d ruined their rivers. Mercedes-Benz’s move to Georgia is the latest in an epic and under-reported migration:

According to the latest Census figures, the South was the fastest-growing region in America over the past decade, up 14 percent. “The center of population has moved south in the most extreme way we’ve ever seen in history,” Robert Groves, director of the Census Bureau, said at a news conference in 2011.

“The hegira to the Sunbelt continues, as last year the South accounted for six of the top eight states attracting domestic migrants,” Joel Kotkin reported in The Daily Beast in 2013.

And it isn’t just millions of American citizens packing their bags and heading south. Last month, in a move that shocked residents of northern New Jersey, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz USA announced it was moving its headquarters from Montvale (just miles from where I grew up) to Sandy Springs, Ga. And it’s bringing nearly 1,000 people along with it, at an average salary of nearly $80,000 per worker.

I kid, of course. Tax incentives, infrastructure and a willing workforce are just as important as clean rivers.

This story is just getting itchier, isn’t it? To shill a mockingbird: How a manuscript’s discovery became Harper Lee’s ‘new’ novel Neely Tucker is a son of the South, a seventh-generation Mississippi boy. He’s perhaps got as good a read on this as most any outsider could.

journalism / links / Monday / photo / things to read / windshield time — 1 Comment
16
Feb 15

What is this guy hauling?

I don’t spend all of my time on the road, thank goodness, but I have enough windshield time that I see a lot of strange and boring and interesting and unusual things. I go through cities and the rural countryside and, of course, all of this is basically on the transportation corridor up from the Gulf of Mexico to points far beyond, so on any given day you can see something worth seeing in between the cars and pickups.

Today I passed this guy:

truck

I couldn’t figure out what we’re staring at there and it will probably forever remain a mystery. Safe to say I don’t see anything like that on a daily basis, but maybe you do. This could be a load of something very normal and boring. Medical devices for giants, perhaps. I wanted them, at first, to be rocket cones, but they are just a casing. And they had a fair amount of flexibility to them if they caught some wind. That would seem to be something you’d consider when designing giant rocket cone parts.

I suppose they could be for some high-end, new age silo project, or the cap of an intricate fallout shelter plan. I tried a few Google searches, but came up empty. Where would you even begin? Maybe they will be industrial strength floor protectors, or a new feature in a Katy Perry show. I’ve no idea.

Anyone?

Things to read … because if you didn’t read this stuff, you might not have any idea, either.

There’s some interesting data in this Wall Street Journal story. The Picture Gets Fuzzy at Viacom shares with us that in 2000, shortly after Stewart sat down at “The Daily Show,” the average age of viewers was 29. Now, it’s 45.

So, yes, this is an unsettled time for the Viacom property. But this is also one of those times when change is good. I imagine Comedy Central tilts young again, very soon. Either that or they’ll break with television wisdom in the most unconventional of ways. In either respect, the Daily Show run was a great success with Jon Stewart, if for nothing more than what that statistic implies. And that might be one we seldom, if ever, see again.

Google and Mattel pull the View-Master into virtual reality:

When it launches, kids will be able to explore various 3D scenes, including the streets of Paris and Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay and the solar system. While some scenes like the Golden Gate Bridge include actual images from the area, others like the dinosaur and solar system scene are enhanced with CGI technology to show, for example, what it’s like to fly through the galaxy. There’s also the option of buying additional reels (four for $15) for other immersive experiences.

I don’t spend an awful lot of time thinking about View-Master (but I should). This makes a lot of sense though, doesn’t it?

There’s a common element to all of this high-touch tech. How One College Is Using Tech to Grow Sports Beyond Football:

When the Ole Miss Rebels return to their 26-year-old ballpark in Oxford, Mississippi, this afternoon, the Southeastern Conference college baseball club and its fans will be sharing space with a decidedly modern technology: mobile tracking beacons.

The small devices are becoming ubiquitous in major league facilities, but the University of Mississippi’s athletics department — which has built up its marketing team significantly in the past few years — is the first SEC school employing them, not only to streamline foot traffic but to enhance its rewards program and spur interest in less-popular sports at a school where football dominates.

[…]

For this season, Swayze Field has 21 beacons placed strategically at all entrances and exits, concession stands, merch stores and restrooms. The system, operated by Spark Compass, a mobile marketing platform from Total Communicator Solutions, will help track fan movement at the games, showing how long people stay to watch the action and where lines are forming.

“The seating area is critical…. It gives us the most accurate dwell time,” said Mr. Thompson, a primary catalyst in upgrading the three-year old Rebel Rewards program from one involving staff scanning tickets to a mobile system that produces foot traffic heat maps and other data in real-time.

How are you using this to better serve your customers? That should be the first, middle and last question you ask. Chuck Martin, one of those good Twitter follow types, spends a lot of time thinking about beacons and was just recently writing about this.

Journalism links:

How to make news more reusable
NPR’s Generation Listen
Inside The New York Times Instagram strategy
New rules governing drone journalism are on the way — and there’s reason to be optimistic
How AP is adapting live video for digital

There are five links there, and I’d like to put their principles into a classroom. Wouldn’t that be a fun curriculum.

Maybe, if we could Instagram photos, and then tailor video footage and audio from a drone, someone could finally tell us what that truck up there is hauling.

Friday / friends / journalism / photo / Samford / Twitter — Comments Off on No helicopters were shot down during this presentation
13
Feb 15

No helicopters were shot down during this presentation

No kidding:

After about three hours of sleep last night — working and reworking slides takes time — I made it over to the Alabama Press Association’s convention in plenty of time to get set up for my opening morning session. We got through the technical difficulties, the APA folks were great, and then a few people strolled in. I knew one or two. I met two or three others. I figured that it would be a light crowd. Early morning, a topic like “Vetting User Generated Content” and other options meant I might not be the biggest draw.

My friend Bob Davis, who is the editor of the Anniston Star, came up to talk for a few moments. When he sat down a nice APA member was ready to introduce me and the room was full. Just look at Bob’s photo above.

So I spoke and talked and then spoke and talked. I told a few jokes. I live-tweeted my own speech — actually I scheduled some topical tweets last night and guessed on the times and it all worked out to the amazement of a few people. I only made one Brian Williams joke (and one David Carr reference). It all seemed well-received. I got some nice questions. I was hoping for a bit more back-and-forth, I thought it might be nice to hear from others about what their outlets are doing with UGC, but that didn’t happen. But there were nods and compliments.

My slides:

I stayed after my session to hear some of our students who were leading a panel session on their journalism. Here’s managing editor Halley Smith, editor-in-chief Sydney Cromwell and news editor Emily Featherston (l-r):

Crimson

I took notes:

Then I hustled back to campus and grabbed a bit of lunch. I had some class prep. I had a class. After class I helped a student worked through some story ideas. And then I hoped in the car and put the sun behind me:

Mirror

East it was, then, to Atlanta. Almost made it there before dark, but for the ubiquitous traffic and an unfortunate accident I passed along the way. Made it there in time, though. There was a concert. A terrific show.

And I’ll put stuff here about that tomorrow.

Auburn / journalism / links / memories / things to read / Thursday / Twitter — Comments Off on A thousand words, and none about sleep
12
Feb 15

A thousand words, and none about sleep

Another long day and late night. And it will continue on well into tomorrow.

I am writing an amazing presentation and slideshow, or at least one that will, hopefully, be helpful. I get to address the Alabama Press Association’s winter convention tomorrow and I’d like to at least make a good use of their valuable time.

I only have one Brian Williams joke in the entire thing. And, now, sadly, a David Carr observation. I just happened to be online when that started to unfold, just in from dinner, and it was strangely handled, which would amuse Carr. I found a recent video of him and he was just a shell of himself; the guy must have been going through something terrible.

You’ll see this again this weekend:

It has been a quarter of a century, by the way.

I was once told by a professor, in the 90s, that Michael Jordan no longer had any marketing star power. Pretty laughable in retrospect. But, here again, no one ages in an age when everything is available for recall and repeat.

Things to read … because they’re better than my sports tweets.

From the If You’re Not Doing Anything Wrong You Have Nothing To Worry About Dept, Government wonders: What’s in your old emails?

If you’ve been remiss in cleaning out your email in-box, here’s some incentive: The federal government can read any emails that are more than six months old without a warrant.

Little known to most Americans, ambiguous language in a communications law passed in 1986 extends Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure only to electronic communications sent or received fewer than 180 days ago.

The language, known as the “180-day rule,” allows government officials to treat any emails, text messages or documents stored on remote servers – popularly known as the cloud – as “abandoned” and therefore accessible using administrative subpoena power, a tactic that critics say circumvents due process.

As you rush to purge your Gmail and Dropbox accounts, however, be forewarned that even deleted files still could be fair game as long as copies exist on a third-party server somewhere.

There’s nothing especially new in that excerpt, but it remains spooky. If you’re snooping around for intel on bad guys or crimes, the contemporaneous information would seem to be more valuable. So what makes this so important?

This is pretty great, Telling stories in 3-D in an immersive, interactive and integrative way:

Professions like architecture and the gaming industry have integrated 3-D technologies into their day-to-day workflow. But journalism hasn’t been as fast to integrate. To demonstrate 3-D capabilities in journalism, we’ve been working on a story about a young fashion designer who draws inspiration from a University of Missouri 175th anniversary exhibit of historic costumes. This story also forms a good backdrop to illustrate a near-term future scenario where 3-D content can be an integral part of the stories we consume and share.

The story was appealing for multiple reasons. The historic costume collection features pieces from prominent university leaders whose names are associated with some of the landmark buildings on campus. The three-dimensional nature of these dresses and richness of detail present interesting workflow challenges to produce 3-D content for storytelling. Moreover, the viewers who see this exhibit in person are not allowed to touch them, given their age and fragility. This provides an interesting opportunity for 3-D technologies to present an engaging story allowing the viewers to interact with virtual representations of these historic costumes. We were also keen to use off-the-shelf hardware and software technologies that are affordable for any news organization.

I like that last point a lot.

She’s a 4-foot-11 college senior with a constant smile. She’s also a lot tougher than you or me. Auburn gymnast Bri Guy inspires Tigers with incredible recovery from two torn Achilles tendons:

Guy was actually dealing with an injury few trainers ever see. Gymnasts are prone to tearing one Achilles tendon; tearing both at the same time is a little like a trainer’s version of seeing a unicorn.

“I have never heard of it,” Auburn trainer Janet Taylor said. “The doctors that we worked with hadn’t heard of it, either.”

A single Achilles tear takes roughly six months to resume normal activity. A gymnast usually takes six to eight months to return to action. Doctors figured tearing both should take even longer.

“I don’t think they had any idea of me doing anything remotely close to what I’m doing right now,” Guy said. “They thought, ‘it’s February, maybe she’ll start doing one or two events’ not ‘she’s going full speed on three events, trying to do a fourth.'”

We were there when it happened. It was a loud and boisterous meet. She was taking the floor, the last routine and her team was very possibly going to get an upset win. It looked like she felt the tendons go and she did what she could, but she landed on her head.

She was still. The place got very quiet very fast. She protected her head and neck somehow and by the time they carted her off she had that beautiful smile on her face again. It was great to see it on her face again last weekend and she continues working on her comeback. Can’t wait to see her do that fourth event, the floor, again.

journalism / links / Samford / things to read / Tuesday / video — Comments Off on Things to read
10
Feb 15

Things to read

Seems we’re behind on interesting links lately. Let’s just smear a bunch of them all over the place now.

First, a great handful of journalism items:

AP’s ‘robot journalists’ are writing their own stories now
Why Journalism Professors Should Teach Accuracy Checklists
Meet the first two African American women in White House press corps
NBC’s Brian Williams recants Iraq story after soldiers protest
Controversy grows over Brian Williams’ Iraq apology

Brian Williams has to go. Hey, most of us without head trauma would probably remember the simple act of being in a helicopter knocked out of the sky.

Also, the last two ‘graphs in the Stars and Stripes story linked above:

O’Keeffe said the incident has bothered him since he and others first saw the original report after returning to Kuwait.

“Over the years it faded,” he said, “and then to see it last week it was — I can’t believe he is still telling this false narrative.”

That word “still.” Also there were reportedly years of warnings, or pleadings.

One more journalism tidbit: Wait, You Want Me to Fit a Drone into My Journalism Toolkit!?

Yes. And bring me one as well. You can even have the Millennium Falcon one for yourself:

Here’s some nice news about our program: Journalism program earns honors in national ranking:

Samford University’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) has earned impressive honors in a new ranking of national journalism education programs. Samford debuted at number 43 out of the 187 programs ranked by the College Factual website.

The site, which provides rankings and other customized information to help students find the college most likely to lead to their future success, also revealed that Samford’s journalism program is:

• A top-25 “major value” in journalism education nationally.
• The top journalism program in Alabama.
• One of the top journalism programs among U.S. private universities.
• One of the top journalism programs in the South

Great students, great alumni, hardworking faculty, big rankings.

Other local news:

Baptist minister explains why she will be performing the first same-sex marriage ceremony in Huntsville
Unitarian, pagan and other ministers officiate gay weddings; one Methodist pastor dances
Grandfather visiting Alabama from India stopped by police while taking walk, left partly paralyzed
Enterprise student submits winning design to NASA
Alabama Psychiatric Services close across state

And a few tech links to call it a day:

Millennials Spend More Time With Mobile, Impacts TV Time
The homepage is alive — here are 64 ideas for what it could become
The long-lost Apollo 11 artifacts discovered in Neil Armstrong’s closet

That last one is interesting, but read your Hansen and it will make perfect sense.

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