journalism « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

journalism

Home light

The early evening light as it falls into our living room:

I do think that’s my favorite hour of the day in the house. It is full of hope and wonder, but it also has some melancholy, too. It is fleeting. And, soon, the light points out, it will be dark. So I’m always torn about it, but I do love that hour of golden light.

In the bedroom in comes in through a large laurel oak and if there is even a gentle breeze you get beautiful shadows dancing on the walls and the floor and the bed. As far as anyone can tell, that is one of the few redeemable qualities of a laurel oak.

Fall break at school, so I’m working from home. Two class preps. Emails to read and deliver. Work to dream up for student projects.

I also had to write a document on student achievements. We have impressive students. We have a lot of impressive students. And then we have some who just earn and win everything. I don’t know how they do it.

The most difficult thing, though, was trying to provide context. What’s the best way to distinguish this honor society from that one? And how do I explain this scholarship compared to another? Context is important, and it isn’t enough to say “Trust us on this, she’s an awesome person.”

Also, there was copy editing. There is always copy editing. Make your peace with it early, try to get useful at it. There is always something to read and mark up.

Things to read … because there is always something to read.

Let me guess! Because Alabama doesn’t have a rule on the books? Because Alabama doesn’t have a rule on the books, Why you may not know if your data has been hacked

What Buzzfeed, Medium and Adafruit Know About Engagement:

“When we have something that’s a hit, usually our response is not, let’s do more of those. Our response is, let’s figure why this is a hit and make variations of this. This was successful because it was tied to someone’s identity, it was successful because it had cats in it, or it was successful because it had humor, or it was successful because it tapped into nostalgia. If you’re making entertainment content, which is a big part of what we do, you look at that hit and you say, ‘Why was that successful? Can I do it again? Can I make something else that people really love and want to share?’ And you try to vary it, even though you know doing something derivative would work. Long term, you want to have a deeper understanding of how to make great things. That’s really the focus. That comes from people in a room talking and saying, ‘Oh, let’s try this, let’s try that.’ And valuing people doing new things, not just valuing people doing big things.”

Uh huh, NBC News’ Nancy Snyderman Apologizes for Violating Ebola Quarantine Guidelines

This is a great read on how the previous story came to pass, How local news site nailed NBC News top doc

Louisiana Attorney General halts Ebola waste disposal:

It was reported that six truckloads of potential Ebola contaminated material collected from the apartment where the Dallas Ebola victim became ill were brought to Port Arthur, Texas late last week to be processed at the Veolia Environmental Services incinerator.

From there the incinerated material was slated to be transported to the Chemical Waste Management hazardous material landfill in Calcasieu Parish for final disposal.

The temporary restraining order, signed by Judge Bob Downing Monday in Louisiana’s 19th Judicial District Court, requires Veolia to cease and desist any transport of the incinerator ash from the treated Ebola contaminated waste in Texas to the State of Louisiana.

This could be a big deal. Or it could be another Mobro 4000. Do you remember the 1987 garbage barge story? Last year’s 25th anniversary meant the New York Times revisited the Mobro 4000 story and concluded “little of what we thought we knew was true.”

One last game:

Yeah, that’s just the promo — the full package doesn’t seem to be on YouTube — but it is a great story.

food / Friday / journalism / links / things to read / Twitter / video — Comments Off
10
Oct 14

Meditations on food

I don’t know if you have heard about The Snappening yet, where thousands of Snapchat user accounts hacked or otherwise violated, but this could be a big story. And that led to, perhaps, the most insightful thing I said today:

Who really needs to invest greatly in PR, preventative and crisis comm: Anyone working in cloud storage.

— kenny smith (@kennysmith) October 10, 2014

I said one other good thing today:

New culinary rule: If you use the adverb "Southern" to modify "fried chicken" you can't be trusted to prepare it correctly.

— kenny smith (@kennysmith) October 10, 2014

Not to make this a culinary thing, but after several Fridays of bad examples, I am disappointed to have to say that the new cafeteria vendor has ruined fried chicken. It seemed to me that they deserved a few weeks under the Benefit of the Doubt accords, and I gave them that. There are a lot of carbs on a daily basis, and the basic foodstuffs seem to rotate on something close to a monthly schedule theme — so we’ve heard. But, and this is important, Friday is fried chicken day. And they’ve missed on all of them so far, in my humble and hungry opinion. Today I noticed the menu and knew it would be no better.

Protip: There is no other fried chicken. Any attempt at making fried chicken in any way not like a grandparent does is an abject failure and poultry abuse.

I apologize for that outburst.

OK, one more food related note, Five Dairy Queen locations in Alabama fall victim to data breach. Thankfully I am not impacted. Hopefully it doesn’t effect you. I couldn’t even tell you the last time I dined at Dairy Queen. I recall the last time I ate at a restaurant that used to be a Dairy Queen. It is a barbecue place now, most remarkable for the way they cut their fries.

That former Dairy Queen is the same place where once, many years ago now, the young lady working said that they had no ice cream for their blizzards. This was in the middle of a hot summer afternoon. I always thought she should have locked the door and called it a day. No one is going for the chicken fingers in July, right?

Back to the point, with every passing data breach story I read I am more and more convinced we’ll be returning to a more cash-based exchange, soon. Customers assume a lot of risk, and they assume those retailers have their networks under control, and, sadly, that isn’t hasn’t always proved to be the case.

Sorry for all of this food talk. In a few minutes we are going to a dinner party. I’m taking my appetite.

Things to read … to whet your appetite.

Couldn’t hurt, but it isn’t a 100 percent requirement, Should all journalists be on Twitter? Think of it this way: there are plenty of community papers out there with a minimal online component, if that. They still cover their market. They are still journalists. Now, you’ll find that some topics demand Twitter or other online tools, of course. Others, the online tools could serve as a great compliment. This is the point the piece tries to dance around in a snarky fashion.

To everything there is a season, Facebook is over for teens – and Instagram and Twitter are the most popular social networks among American children

Anyone surprised? Smile! Marketing Firms Are Mining Your Selfies

This is fun, Save Local History with New Wikipedia Map:

Have you ever wondered which buildings near you are listed on the National Register of Historic Places? If you’ve ever tried to look this up, you probably had trouble finding what you were looking for because until the summer of 2014, there really was no user-friendly way to browse map-integrated National Register listings. Now, thanks to the Wikipedia Summer of Monuments campaign, there is a free, simple, and interactive map that shows all places listed on the National Register.

Ummm … oops? Police sorry for telling wrong family of death:

An Alaska couple knocked on the door of their son’s long-time girlfriend Thursday, intending to inform her that he’d been killed in a car accident.

Karen and Jay Priest instead were stunned when the son, 29-year-old Justin Priest, answered the door. They had mistakenly been told by Juneau police that he’d been killed in the crash.

Karen Priest said her husband started sobbing, and she was in shock.

Told some students this was a big story. I don’t think they believed me, at first. Pastor Juan McFarland of Shiloh Baptist church a trending subject of world’s conversations and media attention

And, finally, the link of moral indignation. School Has Child Sign ‘Safety Contract’:

“They told me she drew something that resembled a gun,” said Rebecca. “According to them she pointed a crayon at another student and said, ‘pew pew,” said Rebecca.

She said her child was given a questionnaire to evaluate her for suicidal thoughts.

“[They] Asked her if she was depressed now,” said Rebecca.

Without her permission, Rebecca said her child was given the Mobile County Public School Safety Contract to sign stating she wouldn’t kill herself or others.

“While I was in the lobby waiting they had my 5-year-old sign a contract about suicide and homicide,” said Rebecca.

It takes a village. And that’s part of the problem, wouldn’t you agree?

Honestly, this is just about the stupidest thing you could conceive. And it is happening here, which is mind-boggling.

It was a good run, but common sense appears to be losing out.

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9
Oct 14

Things that remain

This was on the dessert stand in the cafeteria at lunch:

I did not eat any of them, nor did I even try to use my standard rationale: I ran five miles this morning. I can eat a cake. I think it was something about the message. Why does one eat love? How does one eat faith? You could go the metaphorical route, aim for the biblical teaching or, like me, just be a little weirded out by pink icing.

If you stare at those for a second you realize someone wrote all of those out by hand. That’s another thing. How do you expect me to eat that? You wrote faith on a cake square and now I devour it in two bites?

And what of the hope? 1 Corinthians is hardly complete without it.

Man, this is a great diet plan I’ve discovered, huh?

So, yeah, five miles. I can do six miles, no problem. (I do not know what is happening … ) I once knocked out eight miles around the neighborhood, with a fair bit of walking in it. But, still, eight miles. Here’s the problem: I need something to ward off the boredom. Around mile six I’m just ready to move on. Any tips?

Things to read … because you can always find helpful tips if you read enough.

I’m a big fan of making sure students never ask a rhetorical question in their copy. There are times it works. Too often, though, it leads to things like this non sequitur, “Are you a Red Bull Drinker? Do you want to be?” Red Bull Settlement: How to claim your piece of $13 million

There’s a great line in this story, which is always a difficult one to tell, Jury hears emotional testimony from Leonard’s father during sentencing hearing:

Wright, who wore clothes he borrowed from Leonard, pleaded with the court to spare his son, who is facing the death penalty for fatally shooting three people and wounding three others during a party at the former University Heights apartment complex on June 9, 2012.

The dad is in and out of prison, he tells the judge and jury he was never really in his son’s life. He’s actually been hauled to this hearing from his prison sentence. And he’s had to borrow his son’s clothes. The reporter told me he’d noticed that the tie was familiar. He’d seen the defendant, and now his father, wear it. That’s the sort of reporting you can’t get over the phone or in a rewrite. Message: Go to the place you’re writing about.

The trend continues, Marketwatch editor: Most stories will now be less than 400 words:

We need to reshape how markets and financial stories are told to better reflect how they are consumed. What do I mean by that? Like most news sites, MarketWatch still leans too heavily on the 750-word story — a legacy of print newspapers that has outlived its usefulness. We want to go shorter – and longer.

The majority of our stories will soon be under 400 words — breaking everything down into short bursts of news and insight that cut straight to what is most important to readers, without all the empty calories and filler journalists love to stuff in the sausage . We will also do longer, deep dives on important stories that warrant such treatment. This is the way the digital news is going: tall and venti, no more grande.

Let’s play ‘Can you find all the snippy bits?’ The “priesthood” is real and we do not need another one.

Perhaps you’ve seen a list like this before. This one has alternatives! And, yes, it has a gif, but it is from “Princess Bride,” so it gets a pass. So many qualifiers! 5 weak words copywriters and bloggers should avoid (and what to use instead).

Mobile news consumption hits the tipping point:

Now that mobile traffic is at or near 50% at many newspapers, editors and publishers need to put ever more of their thinking – and resources – into optimizing products, content and advertising for not only smartphones and tablets but also for such emerging devices as smart watches, smart televisions and whatever smart stuff comes next. As discussed below, mobile publishing is as distinct from web publishing as web publishing is from web printing.

And it is happening fast, too, as expected. (For a few years now I’ve noted that the mobile move was one thing that was outpacing the web’s legendary rapid adaptability.)

Well now, CDC Director on Ebola: ‘The Only Thing Like This Has Been AIDS’.

And, to end on a happy note, this is a video package worth watching:

I had to look four different places to find an embeddable version of that story, but it was worth it.

journalism / links / Samford / things to read / Wednesday — Comments Off
8
Oct 14

Oh, this is awkward, but deliberately so

In class today we talked about different story forms. I got to discuss the circle lead, one of the best tricks in a writer’s quiver. I’d use them all the time if I could, but if you don’t get it just right that arrow in your quiver becomes a whacky splinter, spinning out of control.

They have to be done well. There is an art to them. You see these often — the ending in some way refers back to the beginning, with a phrase or a callback so that your news story comes full circle — and some are definitely better than others.

(Watch, I’ll do a bad one below.)

There was a story in the Crimson about another awareness month — October is just full of them for some reason. Only in this particular one, nothing seems to be happening. But you are aware! There is a feature on Yik Yak. Our features editor interviewed the CEO. Turns out they know some of the same people. There was also a column comparing cats and engagement rings.

You can find them all, and more, on the site, which is due a relaunch here in the next few weeks. Looking forward to that.

Things to read … because I always look forward to reading.

We saw this in recruitment two years ago, but now it is “official.” Not sure if that’s because an investment firm did some research or that the research got written about in a paper, Teens are officially over Facebook

Somehow, I doubt this particular gentleman’s unfortunate story is far from over, Ebola patient in Dallas hospital dies

Meanwhile, Conn. Health Commissioner Granted Quarantine Power

And locally, CDC Sets Up Mock Ebola Ward Set Up In Alabama:

Time to put on the protective suits. The students use a buddy system to check each other as they pull on each piece of gear – boots, a jumpsuit, surgical gloves, head covering, facemask, apron. Heather Bedlion is a registered nurse and has worked in a disaster zone, but she’s never put on this amount of protection.

It sounds like protocol will mean everything.

Predictable, perhaps unavoidable, and sad, Turkey Refusing to Fight ISIS Right on Its Border

Don’t forget about these folks, South, North Korea ships fire shots at disputed sea border

And, here at home, Jimmy Carter unhappy with Obama’s policies in Middle East:

Carter said it was hard to figure out exactly what President Obama’s policy is in the Middle East.

“It changes from time to time,” Carter said. “I noticed that two of his secretaries of defense, after they got out of office, were very critical of the lack of positive action on the part of the president.”

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was the most recent to criticize Obama, in remarks he made to USA Today while promoting his new book, “Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace.”

Carter acknowledged that the ISIS situation is complicated and he thinks the United States waited too long to respond.

“First of all, we waited too long. We let the Islamic state build up its money, capability and strength and weapons while it was still in Syria,” he said. “Then when [ISIS] moved into Iraq, the Sunni Muslims didn’t object to their being there and about a third of the territory in Iraq was abandoned.”

Carter is just stating facts, and the facts as he sees them. He’s always just a moment or two away from returning to that most annoying of political institutions, the critical ex-president.

Long has there been a tradition of great men — and even the lesser men that have held the office — of retiring and holding their tongues. Some people just can’t help themselves, though. Jimmy Carter can be one of those guys. Harry Truman was the same. And that’s, perhaps, the most Trumanesque thing he can muster. We’d perhaps all be better off if he simply returned to the great post-presidency work he’s done. That’s the strongest arrow in his quiver.

(See?)

I do not know what is happening. / journalism / links / running / Samford / things to read / Tuesday — Comments Off
7
Oct 14

On betterment

Time to get better. Got in a nice little run this morning, because, I’d decided, the offseason was over. I hadn’t done anything in a week, hadn’t run in 10 days, so a 5K seemed a good place to start. The offseason was over. Let the sweating and straining and suffering and self-improvement begin.

Meanwhile, the Ironman world championships are about to take place in Hawai’i, which means there are way to many profiles of struggle and triumph and achievement and sheer cardiovascular stubbornness floating around. I might share one or two. Here’s a man more than twice my age who’s probably six or eight times in better shape: No Such Thing as “Aging Up”:

Scott had chest pain during a bike ride a decade ago, and did what any triathlete would do. He rode his bike to his doctor’s office. After an examination, his suspicions of cardiac disease confirmed, the doctor wanted Scott to head to the hospital for a cardiac cath. Scott agreed and started to put his helmet back on to ride his bike to the hospital. The doctor would have none of it and Scott was transported in the usual fashion. After a stent placement and recovery, he went on to set the Kona age group records for the next age group (75-79) as well.

Now, Scott, 83, is a 14-time IRONMAN World Championship finisher and course record holder in three age groups.

A multiple of six or eight might not be enough, actually.

Things to read … because I’m not a 14-time Ironman.

Just the Facts? This Dossier Goes Further

Tracking consumers across platforms is key to mobile ad revenue

Twitter Sues the Government for Violating Its First Amendment Rights

10-Step guide to auditing your school’s compliance with the Clery Act

‘A Terrible Slaughter Is Coming’

We were in the mountains of eastern Tennessee when this story broke in 2012, in a place where the cell service wasn’t good, so we were driving and looking for bars and hoping these rumors wouldn’t pan out. Sadly, horribly, they did. Desmonte Leonard found guilty of capital murder in shooting deaths of three people

I assume that this is one of those things that gives some measure of completion to the people who were directly touched. If that really happens or not, I don’t know. This must surely be better than learning of the time they had to delay a hearing because they left this guy at the jail. Or the day we learned that he was caught up in some story about having sex with a corrections officer. Or when he was on the run. I remember we sat at home the night the police sat for hours outside a residential home in Montgomery, thinking they had the guy cornered in an attic. He was nowhere near there.

Here’s a reaction story. Student reactions are always the weirdest and the best, Law enforcement, AU students react to Leonard verdict.

Newspaper night tonight. This is a feisty bunch. They are funny and they know their stuff. And they get done early. We’ve had staffs that worked way into the wee hours of the morning, into a time when the hours were distressingly no longer wee. This crowd is done by midnight, usually. And their work is pretty good, too. It makes the critiques, which we do on Wednesdays, fun. But it also makes it hard to find things to pick on them about.

It is a nice problem to have. Now I get to start challenging them to do bigger things. Time to get better.