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.

links / Samford / things to read / video / Wednesday — Comments Off on The plan, the mystery and the secret
11
Feb 15

The plan, the mystery and the secret

First paper of the new semester is out today. We have a weird schedule such that we are now three weeks into the term by the time the paper comes out. I wish I had a way to remedy that, but at the moment I do not. This morning, we got this:

Crimson

So it was a long night last night as they got back into the swing of things. That was followed by class today, two critiques today and various other work-related fun. It was enough to keep me busy in the office. The phone does not ring, but the email does constantly ding.

There are big plans in the first 45 seconds of this video have been pretty influential the last few days:

I showed it to a class. It is going into a big presentation on Friday. It figures pretty highly into conversations like this, as well: How to Advertise to the Millennial Who Hates Advertising. Everybody wants millennials, he said. And you found yourself shaking your head, knowing he was right.

Not the last, but surely the definitive word on this less-than-mysterious subject: Here’s why NBC didn’t fire Brian Williams.

Things to read … because there’s rarely a definitive word. The science is never, really, settled. The U.S. government is poised to withdraw longstanding warnings about cholesterol:

The nation’s top nutrition advisory panel has decided to drop its caution about eating cholesterol-laden food, a move that could undo almost 40 years of government warnings about its consumption.

The group’s finding that cholesterol in the diet need no longer be considered a “nutrient of concern” stands in contrast to the committee’s findings five years ago, the last time it convened. During those proceedings, as in previous years, the panel deemed the issue of excess cholesterol in the American diet a public health concern.

The finding follows an evolution of thinking among many nutritionists who now believe that, for healthy adults, eating foods high in cholesterol may not significantly affect the level of cholesterol in the blood or increase the risk of heart disease.

I wonder how many people are celebrating with breakfast for dinner tonight.

The UK has lost her way. There’s just no other way to say it:Charlie Hebdo’s UK distributor gave police list of stockists ‘in case of community tensions’ … then officers went to newsagents to demand names of customers who bought it

Two more police forces have been caught asking British newsagents which sold copies of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for details of the customers who bought it.

Officers from Wales and Cheshire police have approached shopkeepers and demanded personal information on readers of the magazine, according to reports.

It comes after police in Wiltshire caused outrage by demanding similar details be handed over in the wake of the Paris attacks.

A video from campus. You should check out the Christenberry Planetarium, which is awesome and too often overlooked:

We always ask their secret: 109-Year-Old Man Spends His Time Knitting Sweaters for Tiny Penguins. Australian Alfred Date says the secret to his longevity is just “waking up every morning.”

So, on those days when you wake up in the afternoon …

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.

iPhone / Monday / photo — Comments Off on You wonder what they’re thinking
09
Feb 15

You wonder what they’re thinking

“Be my Valentine, hooman.”

Allie

Or …

“If I were bigger I’d eat you. Since I’m not, I’ll rest my head on you and purr.”

Related: Do you know how difficult it is to build a PowerPoint when all of that is staring up at you?

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →