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Comics Journalism Takes on Education Reform
“….Adam Bessie, assistant professor at Diablo Valley College, teamed up with Dan Archer, John S. Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalists at Stanford University in 2010–11—the first ever comic journalist to be admitted to their journalism program—and now a freelance comics journalist for hire. The two examine how the reforms intended to save our “failing schools” have, in some cases, failed our schools and, more broadly, perhaps, how society has failed our schools. Archer and Bessie want readers to think critically about hyped-up GERM (Global Education Reform Movement) reforms and provide ideas about improving schools that most readers haven’t been exposed to. In other words, here’s a starting point for a discussion about our nation’s public schools.
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Report: Media as a Key Witness and Political Pawns
Upheaval in the Arab World. Media as a key witness and political pawns. Reporters without Borders Report 2011.
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Investigative video news channel to launch on YouTube
US Center for Investigative Reporting receives $800k in Knight Foundation funding to create ‘hub for high-quality investigative videos’
The channel will feature videos from major broadcasters – including NPR, ABC and the New York Times – and will also seek contributions from freelance video journalists and independent filmmakers around the world.
The CIR said in a release that journalists would be trained in audience engagement and other best practices for online video. Revenue from the channel will be used to subsidise public interest journalism projects.
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THE TOPPLING: How the media inflated a minor moment in a long war
“Propaganda has been a staple of warfare for ages, but the notion of creating events on the battlefield, as opposed to repackaging real ones after the fact, is a modern development. It expresses a media theory developed by, among others, Walter Lippmann, who after the First World War identified the components of wartime mythmaking as “the casual fact, the creative imagination, the will to believe, and out of these three elements, a counterfeit of reality.” As he put it, “Men respond as powerfully to fictions as they do to realities [and] in many cases they help to create the very fictions to which they respond.”
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Photos: In Southern Turkey, Syrian Refugees Wait Out the War
In Southern Turkey, Syrian Refugees Wait Out the War
In a tent encampment in Turkey, 6,500 Syrians are waiting out, or simply taking a respite from, the war being fought just beyond the nearby border.
Take a look at these photos:
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Aaron Sorkin: The Writer Behind ‘The Newsroom’
Radio interview:
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“The writer’s new HBO drama is made in the mold of his hit series The West Wing.” -
Hunter Thompson: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail in ‘72
BY Hunter S. Thompson
July 5, 1973 12:00 AM ET
This story is from the July 5th, 1973 issue of Rolling Stone.“Those who fail to learn from the brutal stompings visited on them in the past are doomed to be brutally stomped in the future.”
– Raoul Duke, Christmas Eve 1972
The following disconnected excerpts from Dr. Thompson’s political book ‘Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail’ were selected more or less at random from the massive text of his book on the 1972 presidential campaign. The author assumes no final responsibility for whatever follows.
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College Newspapers Go Digital-First, Innovate To Stay Relevant
This fall, the University of Oregon’s Daily Emerald — a print publication for more than 90 years — will ditch the daily for digital, publish a twice-weekly magazine, and launch a mini-tech start-up called The Garage.
It’s a digital-first strategy similar to one adopted at the University of Georgia, which killed the daily Red & Black last year in favor of a weekly publication. Meanwhile, student newspapers like UCLA’s Daily Bruin aren’t giving up the daily print edition, but are planning to churn out thousands of apps for every aspect of student life to help supplement lost print advertising revenue.
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The number you need to know on Syria
“I’ll start with a simple number: 20,000. Granted it’s rounded up a little—from 19,738. Rounding up works well on the page, but also belittles its subject. It gives us a solid number to latch on to, for the media to print, for the memory to hold. But 19,738 is the exact count of lives that have been lost so far in the war in Syria, according to a volunteer, nonprofit group called Syria Tracker. And when it comes to this conflict, every little number, every single life, counts.”
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The iPad Is Quickly Becoming Our Primary Computer
“As you can see, after just three years, the iPad is becoming the primary computer for users. When we first ran the survey, only 29.1% of people said it was a primary computer. Today, it’s 46.7% of users.
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In the last three years, the iPad has gotten lighter and more powerful. Additionally, developers have built a variety of applications to make it more useful. Imagine what’s going to happen in the next three years.” -
Election laws: Voting rights, voting wrongs
FLORIDA’S state primary is a month away, the presidential election is four months off and the Palm Beach County League of Women Voters (LWV) is busy. During the lunch rush at JFK Medical Centre on a recent Tuesday afternoon, several volunteers fanned out across the cafeteria, registration forms in hand. This was the first of three hospital-based voter-registration drives planned for the week, and it followed an event on July 4th that yielded 23 new registrations.
The Independence Day event was, however, the group’s first of the summer. Corinne Miller, the volunteer in charge of the JFK drive, says that by this stage in previous elections the LWV had already completed up to 30 drives. This time their efforts have been disrupted by a row over a law that went into effect last year, requiring all completed voter-registration forms to be submitted to the electoral authorities within 48 hours or risk a fine. Dennis Baxley, the Florida representative who sponsored the original bill, said the law was intended to encourage those registering to turn in the forms promptly, and to “minimise opportunities for mischief”. A federal judge disagreed, striking down the 48-hour rule on May 31st as excessive. But a degree of damage has already been done.
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Supporting stability, abetting repression
Supporting stability, abetting repression
BY TOBIAS HAGMANNBERKELEY, CALIFORNIA — Next time I travel to Ethiopia, I may be arrested as a terrorist. Why? Because I have published articles about Ethiopian politics.
I wrote a policy report on Ethiopia’s difficulties with federalism. I gave a talk in which I questioned Ethiopia’s May 2010 elections, in which the ruling EPRDF party (Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front) won 545 out of 547 seats in the Parliament. As part of my ongoing research on mass violence in the Somali territories, I interviewed members of the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a separatist rebel group in eastern Ethiopia that the government has designated as a terrorist organization.
In the eyes of the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, my work is tantamount to subversion. Not only do his officials have zero tolerance for criticism, they consider people who either talk to or write about the opposition as abetting terrorists.
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NYTimes: Seeking a Laptop? What You Need to Know
TOOL KIT: Seeking a Laptop? What You Need to Know
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A step-by-step consideration of the features to think about in choosing a new laptop. -
Daily tablet newspaper’s future in doubt after huge first-year losses
Bosses at Rupert Murdoch’s embattled tablet-only newspaper, the Daily, have hit back at rumours of its demise, dismissing doom-laden reports as “misinformed” and “untrue”.
Staff at the Daily were said to be fearful of the product’s future after the loss-making venture was reportedly put “on watch” by parent company News Corporation.
Yet in an email to staff on Friday, editor-in-chief Jesse Angelo said they should “ignore” reports in the press.
News Corporation is said to be weighing the value of maintaining the app as it prepares to separate its publishing and film wings, and will assess whether to shut down the app later this year.
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Ethiopian journalist jailed for 18 years
An Ethiopian court on Friday jailed a journalist for 18 years for “terrorism” and 23 others, reporters and activists, for between eight years and life, after a trial condemned by rights groups.
Journalist Eskinder Nga was jailed for 18 years, while opposition member Andualem Arage got life because of “the heaviness of the case” after he was convicted of participating with an outlawed group, Judge Hussein Yimer said.
Both men were found guilty of “participation in a terrorist organisation” and “planning…(a) terrorist act”.
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Tiny Camera to Rival the Pros
This is a review of the best pocket camera ever made.
The Sony RX100 has a huge one-inch sensor — the biggest ever stuffed into a pocketable zoom camera. More Photos »
But first, a history lesson.
For years camera makers worried about competition from only one source: other camera makers. But in the end, the most dangerous predator came from an unexpected direction: cellphones.
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How journalists decide to interview
How journalists decide whether to interview by phone, email or face-to-face?
“I recently came across a 1997 American Journalism Review story that discussed “the newest communication tool” for journalists: email interviews.
In the years since, stories highlighting email interviews have often placed journalists into two camps: those who think they’re acceptable and those who don’t. But as I’ve learned from my own interviewing methods and from talking with other journalists, the issue’s not that black and white.”
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INSIDE ART: The War Photographer
INSIDE ART: The War Photographer, Way Back in 1666
For decades now we have relied on news photography to capture the horrors of war. But some 350 years ago there were artists risking their lives, sketching away as soldiers and sailors fell and guns blazed.
An unusual canvas by Willem van de Velde the Elder and Younger, depicting a 1666 British naval defeat, is being offered at Sotheby’s.
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Superhero journalists ethical breaches (for fun)
“Journalists have an almost superhuman ability to hold forth on the ethics of our own profession. And yet, despite endless talk about “self-plagiarism” or some such, we have been wilfully blind to the more grievous ethical breaches carried out by revered reporters who cover the so-called “superhero beat”. Perhaps we are unwilling to admit that those who write about truth and justice are the least likely to champion transparency and proper attribution. Here are some examples of the most severe offenders”:
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“The Newsroom” on HBO
“Much of McAvoy’s diatribe is bona-fide baloney—false nostalgia for an America that never existed—but it is exciting to watch. And if you enjoyed “The West Wing,” Sorkin’s helpful counterprogramming to the Bush Administration, your ears will prick up. The pilot of “The Newsroom” is full of yelling and self-righteousness, but it’s got energy, just like “The West Wing,” Sorkin’s “Sports Night,” and his hit movie “The Social Network.” The second episode is more obviously stuffed with piety and syrup, although there’s one amusing segment, when McAvoy mocks some right-wing idiots. After that, “The Newsroom” gets so bad so quickly that I found my jaw dropping. The third episode is lousy (and devolves into lectures that are chopped into montages). The fourth episode is the worst. There are six to go.”
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Aaron Sorkin on The Newsroom , Sorkinism, and Sounding Smart
On June 24, HBO will air the debut of The Newsroom, the first cable series from Aaron Sorkin, the Oscar- and Emmy-winning creator of The West Wing and writer of The Social Network. The show is not just a return to television but a series about television — in particular, television news and its squandered powers.
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Who jumped first from the newspaper sinking ship?
When did the ripe, bulbous, and gibbous newspaper bubble pop?
It was probably in the 1990s, when the business better resembled a cruising blimp than it did the dotcoms like Pets.com, Boo.com, and TheGlobe.com, which all went kerblewy around the turn of the century. Unlike the bombing dotcoms, the high valuation of newspapers was based on real, not imaginary profits, and the belief that the profits from these deals would extend for years, if not decades, into the future.
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Amid Iraq violence, journalists struggle government control
Car-bomb attacks killed dozens in Iraq today, a reminder of the dangers that continue to lurk in the country. Local journalists are struggling with government restrictions on covering their country.
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Russian Official’s Death Threat, in Bold Type
The editor of Novaya Gazeta, a prominent newspaper, wrote an open letter accusing Russia’s chief federal investigator of threatening to kill a deputy editor.
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The Sound of a Sentence
OPINIONATOR | DRAFT: The Sound of a Sentence Language can be an adventure if we remember that words can make a kind of melody.
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