photo


26
Sep 12

Journalism, Avengers, something for everyone

Did you know that the history of video has recently been re-written?

British photographer Edward Raymond Turner patented color motion picture film in 1899, but the credit for the first fully functional system went to George Albert Smith’s Kinemacolor in 1906. Researchers at the National Media Museum recently discovered that Turner had in fact shot a few rolls of color film that were languishing in the museum’s archives and set out to see if they worked.

Edward Raymond Turner had no idea in 1899 that you would see this:

From the first parrot, the first people shot in color, to the biggest blockbuster of 2012, re-imagined by the people at Honest Trailers:

A friend had this to say about that trailer:

OK, as a Marvel pseudo-expert, allow me to punch some holes in this “honest” trailer. First, Bruce Banner has ALWAYS been able to turn into the Hulk, just not the other way around. He spends most of his life trying NOT to turn into the Hulk. If you want misunderstood character, see Edward Norton’s Hulk. Anger is what sets off the Hulk, not heart rate. However, in the very first Hulk comic, he changed whenever it turned night. Back stories change. But this one got it right.

Second, every true comic fan knows who Thanos is. If you don’t know who Thanos is, then you aren’t a fan, you are someone who went to see a movie. And that’s fine. But don’t hate because you like superheroes with S’s and bats on their chest so you know who to root for.

Third, Loki didn’t die at the end of Thor, he just let go. He’s a god. He’s immortal. He also has inter-dimensional teleportation capability, see character back story.

And that’s what happens when the comic book set chimes in.

Story about news of the day: Alex Green is the editor of the student newspaper at Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn. One of his professors, he learned, was leaving school. Green started looking into into the public records and learned the professor was facing of “having attempted to meet with a minor child” at a gas station. He wrote a story. School president Dr. Stephen Livesay ordered it killed.

So he publised it himself, out of his own money. He also emailed a PDF version. As you might expect, all of this earned a big reaction.

All of that to get you to the latest, from Jim Romenesko:

This morning I talked to Bryan College Triangle adviser John Carpenter and asked: Are you aware that Alex Green called and asked me to remove the post?

The adviser said he was.

Did you or someone else at the college tell him to make that call? I asked.

“I can’t comment on that,” Carpenter said.

OK, that answers that question, I thought. (Someone else I talked to this morning believes the editor “has been guilted” by the college president to believe he did something wrong by publishing a story about a professor charged with trying to hook up with a minor. Green hasn’t returned a message that I left this morning.)

And that, friends, is a president big timing a student. (For even more, here are notes from a meeting the president had in the aftermath. He would not allow that meeting to be recorded because he can flex that particular puny muscle.)

Update: Now President Livesay says “In hindsight, this may have been a mistake.”

Yes sir. For all sorts of reasons. First, while The Triangle is a class project, and thus under the purview of the administration, Green published this of his own accord after you shut him down. Second, you overreached in your reaction with regard to the intrepid young report. Third, from the university’s PR perspective you’ve now made this much bigger for you than it had to be.

Sure, this is a private school, and we can talk all about the case law. But there should be more to the ethical and moral leadership of students than the case law. The good folks at Bryan, as Dr. Livesay said tried “doing the right thing to protect the privacy of a man charged, but not convicted, of a crime” briefly forgot about their other obligation. Seems that everything is being righted now.

By the way, the Student Press Law Center has a great guide for private school media.

Quick links: When the Tuscaloosa News won their Pulitzer last year for tornado coverage, an important part of that was how they used Twitter. But don’t tell the Associated Press, which is vowing to not break news on social media.

Moving away from their paywall, The Times and the Sunday Times will allow their stories to be indexed by Google, or at least the headlines and the lead. They’ll come around.

Facebook discovers re-targeting, which ad-sellers have been using for years.

From Neiman, something we’ve been saying for a while, too, students really need to know digital research. In some respects, this is a “Can you find it?” era.

On my Samford blog I wrote about perception and elisions as they pertain to quote accuracy.

A picture! On my Tumblr! And more things, of course, on Twitter.

And, now, for no reason whatsoever, a shot of the fountain in Ben Brown Plaza on the Samford University campus this afternoon:

fountain

I work in a beautiful place.


24
Sep 12

The happy headlines

This shot is from standing just off the quad on the Samford campus, which is probably humming with people throwing frisbees whenever you read this. It doesn’t really matter when you read this. Frisbees are being thrown.

Anyway, I’m lucky enough to go in this building to work every day:

UniversityCenter

My office is on the third floor, and off the left side of the photograph.

Or, if you’re reading it at night, there is a small chance that some of the students are trying their luck wading through one of the fountains without getting caught. There are differing opinions on the challenge involved with that.

Samford is a great place, a happy place. I think I’ve met one person there who was not smiling. This is my fifth year on campus. That’s a pretty good ratio.

Oh, I’m sure some students have less than happy moments. Most people don’t like tests, or last minute projects.

Which is why I’m working long and hard on tomorrow’s lecture topic: Headlines. Everybody loves them, until they have to write them.

Occasionally I take a break from writing this stuff and pulling examples, surfing some of the best newspaper design across the country that landed on doorsteps this morning. (It is difficult to provide a good example on question marks in headlines, for example.) When I do push back from this PowerPoint there are two or three other tasks demanding attention.

Emails to write, letters to compose, numbers to crunch.

Living the Monday dream, friends.

Sad to learn of Paul Davis’ death. He was one of those strong regional voices of journalism. He helped launch a lot of careers. And those careers served communities and inspired others.

He knew the value and he taught a lot of us about it too.

It is too bad we only really contemplate that connectedness at the end. In the end that connectedness is what we hold on to.

The second most important headline of the day: AP promises members it won’t break news on social media. Everyone else will.

There are different audiences here, of course. AP sells news to media companies who sell the news to the general public. But the public, of course, have ways of seeking out the information they want. They’re often using Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter for their own wires.

And, sometimes, with poorly written, unhappy headlines.


22
Sep 12

LSU at Auburn

Second-ranked LSU visited Auburn. The good Tigers were three touchdown underdogs. We always win the pregame:

Nova

Auburn played LSU extremely tough. The defense moved faster and forced a few key turnovers. Our Tigers were leading at the half, despite a still-struggling offense:

Frazier

Some odd play calling and an offense that can’t move the ball means LSU wins, every time, despite an Auburn defense that refused to give in. LSU won 12-10, but it felt a lot like Auburn should be able to take the victory, so the gratification of not watching them get beaten up was replaced by the frustration of what should have been.

At least we got to enjoy the Golden Band from Tigerland.

LSU

Up next for Auburn is a bye week, and then Arkansas, who lost at home to Rutgers tonight. Elsewhere, Alabama defeated the mighty Florida Atlantic 40-7. UAB almost ruined Ohio State’s season. Looking at the stats, it is hard to see how the Buckeyes managed to win, but they held off UAB 29-15. Samford, meanwhile, came from behind on the road to beat Western Carolina 25-21, giving them a 4-0 start for the first time since 1995.


19
Sep 12

A birthday

us

Pretty as ever, and we got to celebrate with ice cream cake.

(This picture is from another great day, this one in the woods in Washington state, as we worked our way up to Mount St. Helens last year.)


17
Sep 12

Know what today is?

SamfordSun

We’re getting that autumn light. Bested only by the great relief of spring light — Winter is leaving! — that soft, golden orange of a fall evening is like receiving an invitation for an event you’ve never quite been able to attend. You’ve always wanted to go, but it has always been out of reach, or you’ve always been unavailable.

He said, ruining a perfectly fledgling analogy.

You can’t go to the sun because you’d burn up. So, really, you’ve now received this invitation but realized That’s lovely, though, I remember what happened to Daedalus’ son. I’ll keep my wings undamaged, thanks.

Another Monday, another day of nothing exciting to report. All of my Mondays feel the same: email, reading, making class notes and looking forward to Tuesday. And the sun, always the sun.

A few things elsewhere, then: Florida journalism professor Mindy McAdams: Don’t just teach skills, train young journalists to be lifelong learners:

The ability to learn on your own and teach yourself new skills depends on your willingness to play, experiment, make mistakes, and stick with things that take much longer than you had expected.

This will actually come up in my class tomorrow, the joy of learning.

The 150th anniversary of the bloodiest day in U.S. history, Antietam. And there’s also a series of then-and-now photographs, using the same photographic techniques.

Finally, today is Constitution Day. Celebrate with a First Amendment quiz. If you make it all the way through and ace every answer you can call yourself a real party animal. And you will have also passed the bar in Maryland.