Creating New Media

Howard Kurtz on the “New Media Order”

To continue your study of the Shirley Sherrod case, the Washington Post & CNN’s Howard Kurtz wrote this August 2nd column about journalism as blood sport.  Should vying for audience and web hits be an incentive for journalists to be provocative?  Does getting it right matter more than getting noticed?

Required reading: The case of Shirley Sherrod

Before I forget, I want to follow up on the Shirley Sherrod story.  If you remember, we discussed her case at the end of class on Tuesday.  A recap - Shirley Sherrod worked for years for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Georgia.  In July, a conservative blogger named Andrew Breitbart featured on his blog part of a video of a March speech Sherrod gave to the NAACP.  In it, she was discussing her interaction with a white farmer in Georgia.  Breitbart claimed the video proved this Ag Department employee was racist toward whites and forwarded the information to Fox News. 

Before Fox even aired the video clip in question, the White House and Ag Department got wind of the story, and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, an Obama appointee, made the quick judgment to fire Sherrod. 

It wasn’t long, though, before the full video was uncovered - though it was easy to get, Ag Department and administration officials apparently did not watch it before making their decision.  Sherrod’s speech on Breitbart’s site was edited before her full thought was presented, showing she was actually resisting thoughts of racism.  And the white farmer quickly came forward to support Sherrod.  Secretary Vilsack was quoted as looking “visibly chastened” when he called a press conference to retract his public firing of Sherrod.

The episode demonstrates the mischief that can be had with selective editing of video, especially in today’s media climate in which there is no “news cycle” as there once was.  Information moves so quickly that officials have little or no time to respond when news can appear instantly on the web.  In the event there’s another instance as inflammatory, will the administration in power, Democrat or Republican, take more time to debate what to do?  If it does, can it be accused of being unresponsive?

Conservative writer David Frum weighed in on “the shame of conservative media” in a column on July 21st.  Frank Rich, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times, wrote about the Sherrod case on July 24th in this column.  At the end of July, Sherrod announced she was suing Andrew Breitbart, then further discussed the incident and her firing at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, which gave a great deal of coverage to the story. 

At the end of August, Shirley Sherrod declined to return to work at the U.S.D.A.

What are your thoughts about this case?  Please reflect on it in your blogs.

“Buy One Anyway”

Zoe’s blog post from the Onion News Network on the three remaining Boston Globe print subscribers made me think of this delicious video from Slate called “How To Save Newspapers.”

More on tbd

TBD’s launch got some attention, both before and after it happened.  Broadcasting & Cable magazine weighed in with this report in May, more than two months before the site appeared. 

Just prior to its launch, the Washington Post, the paper which is supposed to be most threatened by TBD, ran this article by media writer Paul Farhi about its creation.  The New York Times weighed in with this blog item.  A few weeks later, Howie Kurtz of the Post talked about TBD in his column.  Paid Content paid great attention to TBD’s launch.  Note they link you to a chat with TBD General Manager Jim Brady via Poynter.

Jeff Jarvis, a new media scholar, has written about TBD on his blog, BuzzMachine, at least twice.  Here’s Jarvis’s August 6th column, and one from earlier this week.  Group 2, be sure to read Jarvis’s columns about TBD; Group 4, be sure to read Jarvis generally - and regularly.

Those who abhor the mistakes found in online media will not be comforted to know that TBD does not intend to hire copy editors.

Question

Following up on today’s social media discussion, does our class have a need to use Hotseat?  Why either way?  Let me know your thoughts.

Today in class

Today in class we’re going to continue to discuss social media, as promised.  See you at noon.  One topic will be the perils of reporters and social media - see my earlier post on this topic.  Here’s some more on the fall-out of the Mike Wise suspension, mentioned first in that earlier post.

Gregory Bros. have a hit

Fans of Auto-Tune the News may be interested in this piece in yesterday’s New York Times.  For those who haven’t seen it, here’s the video for “Bed Intruder Song.”  Hey, look where they hang the $5 green sheet!  (And for those of you who haven’t seen Brian Lamb’s interview with the Gregory Brothers, check out Brady’s blog - he embedded it as his first C-SPAN assignment.)

A post-script to the story here.

Journalism in the U.K.

A juicy New York Times Magazine piece appeared last Wednesday regarding Scotland Yard’s investigation a few years ago into News International’s hacking of the royal family’s mobile phones.  The NYT asserts that the police investigation didn’t go far enough.  Was there “a serious problem of criminality on this news desk” - ?  How does this kind of investigative reporting compare to American reporting?  What about the relationship between the police and reporters on this side of the pond?  Where are a reporter’s ethical lines drawn?  Are there implications for digital media?  Note that one News International executive called to testify before Parliament is now CEO and publisher of the Wall Street Journal. The Journal is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns the tabloid at the center of the scandal.  Did the NYT have a particular interest in pursuing this feature?  I’d love your observations.

A follow up story in the New York Times from September 6th may be found here.

The Transitional Generation: Online Privacy