Wednesday « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Wednesday

Stuff, which is better than things

Every productive thing I did today was about work and class. And since I don’t want to bog you down with those details today, because you’ve had your own already, I’ll just share the leftover things that haven’t made it here this week.

I forgot to link to my football scribblings again this week. My friends at The War Eagle Reader made a post out of my tweets from the Arkansas game, similar to what you saw here on Saturday.

And then on Monday half of my Q&A ran on al.com:

Alabama question 1: … What can the Tide show against Tennessee to put restless fans at ease heading into a bye week?

As for Tennessee, that breaks one of two ways and Alabama can’t win it psychologically either way. Option one: Alabama dominates and we all realize, “Oh, UT is the worst team in the world since San Jose State. This proves nothing.” Option two: Alabama and Tennessee find themselves in the traditional knife fight-rivalry model and we say “Oh, they can’t even separate from a terrible Tennessee, who might need an overtime against San Jose State.”

Sometimes the third Saturday in October comes along at exactly the wrong time.

Especially since this game is played on the fourth Saturday. No one got this joke. Subtle humor was lost on this crowd. Today they ran the second half:

(S)haky as the defense is, there isn’t another team on the schedule where Auburn is going to have to score 50 to guarantee a win. This is the logical conclusion of what I was wondering aloud late in the fourth quarter at Jordan-Hare: Has there ever been a game when you could score 50 and STILL lose to Auburn? This has never happened in any modern context.

The Arkansas game, odd as it sounds considering they gave up 43 (and 330 yards and four scores to the number two quarterback), is thus far the most complete game of the season. It wasn’t complete, but the most complete so far. Blocked punt results in a touchdown. Two big kickoff returns, including a 99-yarder, turn into scores. The kicking game was solid. The offense was terrifying. The defense ultimately sealed the deal with turnovers. It’d be nice to see that for four quarters, but you have to think of that as an unexpected surprise if it ever does appear. And since that isn’t going to happen with any kind of regularity you have to readjust to the new reality: The Arkansas game is the new complete when you dress it up in orange and blue.

The formulation is simple. If Auburn scores points — and you’ve never, even in 2004, been so confident of Auburn’s ability to produce on any given drive — they win games. I’ll take Auburn over LSU, but with the caveat that it can’t be a one score game late, because there is one-sixteenth of Les Miles’ soul that he can sell for another bizarre finish.

Meanwhile, LSU’s Les Miles is thinking of invisible players to try to stop Auburn’s Cameron Newton. I wrote about that very thing three weeks ago. Nice to know coaches are reading your scribblings.

I added a new page to the War Eagle Moments blog. That one came from friends in Washington D.C. this weekend. Since it is football season and some of you are the Auburn traffic I get this time of year, feel free to check out that photo blog which exists simply to brighten your day.

This evening I visited Walmart. The entire trip, to a slowly remodeling, but working store, was to look for a picture frame. They did not have one I liked. But, at this price, I took two of everything on the shelf:

Finally, the update from yesterday’s Alaska journalism story. No charges for anyone.

And, apropos of nothing, this story features an Alabama lawmaker who was smart enough to physically threaten a television reporter while his camera was running.

Just makes you proud.

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13
Oct 10

The unrecorded beauty of the season

Fall is the most stubborn season to capture, no matter the medium. A photograph won’t do, because there’s never a wide enough lens or a narrow enough aperture. There’s no video that really brings home the feeling or the sound of the leaves. No device gives you the feel of the breeze, or the smell in the air.

But the leaves are finally letting go, at least some on some of the ornamental trees, like this one in Hoover. I was picking up photo displays for our department’s Wall of Fame when I found that tree. Also ordered the plaques today, too.

It was a good day, but it could always be better. I’d like to get more work done, but I managed a lot of reading and organizing and printing of things. The inboxes are mostly full. There’s some writing to do, yet. I’ve planned out my tomorrow. I’ve caught up on the news of the day.

And it was a beautiful day. Really, my only complaint is not having a tool in my backpack that adequately expresses autumn. And, also, I didn’t take enough pictures or scan anything today. Next week, then.

No great stories to tell for the day, though. I visited the world’s largest Target today — and I don’t feel any different. Bought two shadowboxes. I had lunch at Beef O’Brady’s, a place of which I’d never heard. But I saw the sign and a cheeseburger sounded good. The Urban Spoon app on the iPhone convinced me it was worth a try. And the sandwich was tasty.

Not a lot for the site, either, but there are three more entries in the World’s Fair section. You can see those in the entry below. For now I’ll leave you with three examples of the victory of youth, sportsmanship and humility. You might think all of those as cheesy constructs, but those links are worthy of your attention.

And now I must turn my attention elsewhere. But I’ll be back here tomorrow, with more tales old and new, no doubt. See you then. And enjoy your local version of fall. Soak it in, in person, before it disappears.

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6
Oct 10

Wednesdays go so fast

Early morning at the gym where I did as little as possible to justify the trip. Some days you don’t have it for the weights. And those are the days that are hard to push through. So I only did four short groups.

Spent the late morning talking to newspaper executives. One gentleman was from North Carolina and we chatted about Appalachia State football at great length. App State recently put a beating on Samford, so there was that. There’s talk that the Mountaineers are once again considering moving up to DI ball — the newspaper guy thought not. I told him a story about a Samford-App State game a few years back, it was a nice chat.

Later I called another newspaper company. The person that answered told me the person I wanted no longer worked for the company. That’s never awkward. Played phone tag with the new person I wanted for much of the day before we finally caught up with one another.

Swapped out some computers. Talked a little football with the IT guys.

Critiqued the Crimson. Nice paper this week, with only a few real layout problems to fix. They had a little coverage of the gambling indictments from earlier this week. There have been a few bike thefts. And there’s an advance on the Marine Corps band playing on campus this weekend.

You can see more here.

I ran into one of my students who is working on a video assignment for another class. “These cameras are amazing,” he said. We shoot in high-def. We love telling that to high school recruits, too.

Spent the evening studying. Reading for researching media effects, where I have now filled an entire three-ring binder with assignments. Much of it is on the limited capacity model, so I wonder, ironically, how much of it I’ve retained.

I also have to review and critique an article for class tomorrow. The article I have was co-authored by one of the founding members of our department. No pressure there. The article was about Applachian ticks. Well, it just used the ticks and a new fictional disease to prove a point about visual story telling toward exemplification theory, which is one of Dolf Zillman’s main areas of research. I actually wrote part of the Wikipedia entry for it last year.

And that accounts for most of my day.

Journalism and Internet links: Oh Leonard. Spread it around a bit more:

I remain convinced that, with exceptions, citizen journalism is to journalism as pornography is to a Martin Scorsese film; while they may employ similar tools — i.e., camera, lighting — they aspire to different results.

Leonard Pitts, who I’ve admired for a long time, picked James O’Keefe and tried to paint everyone with that brush — a traditional journalism technique, generalize everything through one anecdote. He helpfully forgets every problem traditional journalists have ever been caught in and actually gets a few of the details wrong in his own column. Several people helpfully point that out in the (incredibly binary) comments.

The problem here, then, is one of identifying credibility. Traditional journalists proudly carry the mantle of the masthead they broadcast for, or the mic flag from which they broadcast. In most cases that’s something an audience can expect to rally around. The real uphill battle, and the real danger in an online context, is establishing, maintaining and spreading a similar credibility in an environment where developing an official looking platform isn’t especially difficult. That’s something I’d like to study in the near future, actually.

For example, which one has more credibility at this point? The Daily Beast or Newsweek? What about if they combined? The sites are looking a lot alike these days … But what about someone who produces a similar looking page, puts out some slick content, satire or outright libel? How will we discern between online offerings? Media literacy is a critical function and an important area to study.

Hey, did you see CBS’ Les Moonves: “(T)hey have to come to us for our content.” I read that on Mark Coddington’s, not CBS.com site, which helpfully proves the point that we’ll be able to find content elsewhere.

In online news, I’m making it a regular habit to visit bamafactcheck.com for the latest dose of truthiness. In case you were wondering, that’s a site run by traditional-style journalists, like our friends at The Anniston Star and other media across the state.

Have you tried examining your Tweet Reach lately? I like it (because it gives me healthy numbers). Though I’ve no idea the methodology they use, over the course of my last 50 tweets I’ve apparently reached more than 40,000 people and made something like 52,000 impressions. Even if you divide that by some number of skepticism the returns aren’t bad. Since it is apparently basing this on the most recent tweets your numbers will fluctuate, but still. If it is correct it goes a fair way to answering the question of the power of that tool’s reach. Check it out.

And be sure to check out the 1939 World’s Fair post, below. That’s ready for your perusal. And now I must return to studying, because that is what I do.

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29
Sep 10

The longest Wednesday since the last long Wednesday

Judging by my notes that makes this title apply all the way back to, possibly, last week.

So if this is brief, or rambling, or long, I apologize.

Hit the gym this morning, but only slightly. I complained yesterday about my hip feeling weird. It is better today, but I’m now old and wise enough to realize I shouldn’t overdue it. So I didn’t pose as hard in front of the mirror in the weight room.

The best newspaper I saw today was from Germany. The big story, internationally, was from North Korea, and Die Welt used a still from Team America as their lead art. Genius.

Working on the Samford Wall of Fame this morning. We’re inducting two new members at homecoming in November. One of the displays needed a little minor repair and the two new displays had to be ordered. So that was part of the morning.

After lunch it was back to the joys of recruiting. I have a database of students. I’m writing a great letter. That isn’t hard, though, our department really sells itself.

We critiqued the paper this afternoon, too. The editor-in-chief and the managing editor sit down and we find all the problems with the paper. There were a few typos that should have been avoided and two or three design flaws, but the paper is good. The writing is improving, the leads are stronger, the story selection is on the upswing. Now we just need to get the story count up, get a bit more multimedia and … well there will always be something I can urge them toward.

They like it, though, and that’s great. That’s why their paper is improving so quickly. You can see the stories here. The new site should launch soon, too.

Called my grandmother on the way home. She is awesome. She told me about her new personal records she’s setting on her Wii and the grief she gives telemarketers. I think she writes jokes for those people and just waits for them to call.

Most recently someone called and asked her to take a political survey.

“Who’ll I vote for? Put ’em all in a bag, I don’t know who’d fall out first.”

I’m not sure whether falling out first is desirable or a sign of a poor candidate. Either way, I like it.

Journalism links: What companies are featured most in tech stories? It isn’t Microsoft.

Kansas slashes journo education funding. Students are less than pleased.

Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift was on the Samford campus last week. She makes an assumption here and a generalization there, but she gave the university a nice little mention here.

The FTC is still looking to “save” journalism. Still a lot of bad ideas in there.

The saddest story you’ll read today, and one to add to the the-things-we-do-have-consequences lecture.

And, finally, I think they need a rewrite:

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22
Sep 10

Memorial Computer Wasteland Emporium

This reminds me of the Bessemer City Councilwoman who foolishly thought she could claim an endorsement from the local football coach — as if no one would follow up on that. Except that lady, in her brilliant moment of mayoral campaigning, managed to Photoshop a picture of herself with the coach at a golf tournament. Of course the coach had made no such endorsement. And, also, the councilwoman’s campaign made a poor Photoshop effort. You can still see the coach’s wife’s hair in the image.

But this is completely real, of course. This young man traveled north and secured the endorsement of our most famous Founding Father. There’s no Photoshopping here. He has another poster standing beside the famous Rocky statue in Philadelphia. With endorsements like those he has to be a campaign favorite.

I love SGA posters. There’s another guy who is using a Forrest Gump theme. The young ladies all have cute designs and slogans, most that rhyme. There’s another campaign who has pressed Ron Burgundy into service. These are amusing popularity contests.

We critiqued the Crimson for about two hours today. They didn’t want me looking over their shoulder last night, and I was happy to oblige them, so we went over it line by line today. For only being three issues into their run the finished product was encouraging.

I picked a lot of minor details and a few obvious things that shouldn’t have escaped their attention. There’s no such thing as a perfect newspaper, but I’m pleased with this issue and still think they hold a great deal of potential. They had coverage of the gubernatorial debate and a Pulitzer winner. There’s also a story on record student enrollment and on Eleanor Clift’s visit.

Clift has covered a lot of great stories, but her own tale is a good one. She was a 1970s newsroom hire when you didn’t see a lot of female reporters. Someone assigned her to cover a darkhorse presidential candidate, some peanut farmer from Georgia no one had ever heard of. Jimmy Carter won the 1976 election, and the tradition is that the reporter that covered the campaign follows the president-elect. Clift joined the White House press corps and the rest is history.

That story is a good one. They agonized over it for a long time, they said, because they knew Clift would read it. I’m going to threaten to send every story they write for the rest of the year to the Newsweek veteran.

You can see the full issue here.

Busy day. Started at the gym early this morning, where the biggest problem I had was in almost pinching my pinkie off on the Smiths machine. You’d think, since they named it after me, I wouldn’t have a problem with it, but the left hand re-rack is a tricky maneuver. So I nicked the skin off the top of my knuckle, pinching it between the bar and rack. This flies into my fundamental goal of going through life with all of my appendages intact, so I’ll just move a little more to the right next time.

Visited al.com today. I think this was my third visit since I left there in 2008. My desk is still empty. Prime cubicle space like that simply can’t go empty, though, so they call it the “Kenny Smith Memorial Computer Wasteland Emporium.”

After that a meeting here, lunch there, sales talk, the paper itself, and then studying.

I had to renew my IRB certification tonight. Required every two years for people doing research with human participants, mine was winding down. So I read the things you have to read and took the quizzes you have to take and now I have the nifty little certification to put in a filing cabinet and forget.

Meanwhile my lifeguard certification is woefully out of date. I can’t pull you from a pool, but I can give you surveys and run psychophysiology experiments with you.

If, that is, my IRB proposals are accepted. I have one of those due tomorrow. The Yankee helped (a great deal). And then there’s the reading. Another 100 pages to stumble through tonight. It looks like another after-midnight bedtime.