Category Archives: Journalism

The power of the hyperlink

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Iowa Senator Tom Harkin talked, by phone, with a group of Iowa radio reporters on Thursday morning. One of the reporters asked the Senator for his reaction to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez’s comments about President Bush at the UN. One of our reporters was on that conference call and posted a story about the senator’s response to our website, RadioIowa.com. (“Harkin defends Venezuelan President’s UN speech against Bush”)

Radio Iowa News Director Kay Henderson blogged the entire story but the short version is The Drudge Report linked to the story…a shit storm rained down on Senator Harkin…his people try to get Kay to change the headline of our story on the web… a long, stressful day for everyone.

This is just one more small example of how the web has changed things. The stations the other radio reporters (on the conference call) work for probably all have websites but I don’t think they post news stories. So, in all likelihood, our little story was the only one online, at least initially.

BTW (Before the Web), one or all of those reporters might have aired the story on a couple of newscasts and people in Des Moines or Sioux City might have been pissed at the senator. And even if the wire services picked it up, it would have taken a little time to ripple out, and the reaction would have been diluted.

It’s now Saturday morning and I googled “Tom Harkin.” The top search result is: “Hearing Is Believing” on what appears to be a blog called Power Line.

“Harkin must have taken some heat for his comments on the radio, because he put a completely different statement on his web site, after the fact. To see what he really thinks, listen to the audio below.”

Power Line didn’t bother to link to our story or mention our network by name. And they stole our audio and posted the MP3 file to their site. But no matter. You get the idea.

Media was once an orderly thing:
Local radio station(s) – Local newspaper
Handful of larger city newspapers, TV stations & radio stations
Statewide radio network
Associated Press
National media

You could manage these. If you were clever, you could spin and control them a little. No more. We’re all breathing the same media air.

If Senator Harkin does the radio reporter conference call again, I sure would like to listen in.

Interview: Dan Shelley, WCBS-TV

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In July, my old friend Dan Shelley left WTMJ in Milwaukee and moved to New York as Executive Editor of Digital Media for WCBS-TV. I spoke with him this morning about digital media, journalism, blogging, radio, life in NY and riding in the elevator with Andy Rooney. Dan is pumped about his new job and living in Manhattan.

AUDIO: Interview with Dan Shelley

Dan offered this warning to broadcasters: “If you don’t do more than just stick your toe in the water, if you don’t plunge head-first and totally immerse yourself in the digital media future, and do it now, you will die.”

For those that might have missed it, I interviewed Dan in May, 2005, right after he took over as chairman of the Radio and Television News Director’s Association. He talked the “digital talk,” and now he’s “walking the digital walk.”

9/11 and the Dawn of Video Citizen Journalism

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I made a conscious –or unconscious– effort to not think about the attack on the World Trade Center Towers. I didn’t think I could stand to watch the video again. This evening I stumbled across never-before-seen video shot from 500 yards away and 36 floors up. I can’t think of any words to describe this video. I could not look away. It was somehow more horrible and more compelling without the mindless chatter of news goofs telling us what we are seeing.

Steve Rubel (I found this on his blog) says we should watch this that we never forget. There will be no forgetting the anguish in the voice of the woman shooting the video when the first building collapsed. I can understand why the couple never released the video. And why they finally did.

Forget all the news specials, docu-dramas and made-for-TV movies. This amazing account will sear your brain and break your heart. It’s a long download but, as Steve says, something you should see.

References available upon request

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My buddy Morris left the radio news game this spring. After 30+ years. Tried his hand at the newspaper business but that didn’t work out. He says he wants to try something online. Blogging, podcasting, etc. I think he knows it will be a tough row to hoe (as momma used to say) but he sounds very positive. In his latest email he observed there just weren’t that many “serious news operations” (he was referring to radio, I believe) in Missouri.

News GuyMorris’ situation raises a good question. If you’re a radio news reporter, and you had to go out and find another job tomorrow, where would you look? Another radio station? Group ownership has reduced the competition (and need?) for your services. The local newspaper? They’ve got their own problems. A traditional fall-back has been PR for some company/association/department. But I always wondered if that wasn’t based on the notion that you could get all of your radio news buddies to run your press releases. On the other hand, I was in a room full of PR folks back in January so the jobs seem to be there.

Radio reporters have what seem to be some very marketable skills. They can do interviews. They can write stories. They can read well aloud. So, where do they go when it’s time to go?

Best tool for the job (Example #2)

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Radio Iowa News Dirctor Kay Henderson covered the Iowa GOP and Democratic State Conventions today in Des Moines and her “tool of choice” was her blog.

Kay is not double-jointed (as far as I know) but she has a knack or skill (super power?)…she can type blazing fast. Her posts from the conventions are not verbatim but they’re damned close.

As I read them, I was reminded of an earlier post here at smays.com where I pondered the best tool for covering a live event. I guesss a live video or audio feed of these speeches would have been cool but I think I can make a case for Kay’s posts being “better.” I mean, Jesus, the speeches are on line before the applause dies down.

This is what happens when you equip a really good reporter with a blog.

Everyman Journalism

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In a recent interview by Rocketboom, Dave Winer talked about making an introductory course in journalism a requirement for college students.

“Journalism is the new practice for Everyman, it’s what we all will be doing all the time in this new century. As the professional media pulls back, the citizens, you and me, need to fill in and replace every pro with 100 of us, to cover every school board meeting, every planning commission, defense contractor, civic organization. It’s like the Second Amendment for information and ideas. We need a well-informed electorate to make the tough decisions n our future.”

I’m not sure why professional meda would “pull back,” but I like this idea and see no reason why those of us that didn’t go to J-School can’t help cover some events that would otherwise go unreported. During my dozen years at KBOA, I covered every kind of event. Took my little cassette recorder, interviewed folks. Edited the audio. Wrote a little story. Put it on the radio. Could my reports have been more “professional.” Sure. But the listeners to our little station were just happy someone covered the event and reported it.

For my money, we could drop the Algebra requirement and replace it with Journalism 101.

Website as newsroom apendage

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Based on this memo, Miami Herald editor Tom Fieldler understands it is nut-cutting time in the news business:

“We are beyond being satisfied with incremental change and giving polite head nods toward other media platforms. We are going to execute fundamental restructuring to support that pledge. Every job in the newsroom — EVERY JOB — is going to be redefined to include a web responsibility and, if appropriate, radio. For news gatherers, this means posting everything we can as soon as we can. It means using the web site to its fullest potential for text, audio and video. We’ll come to appreciate that MiamiHerald.com is not an appendage of the newsroom; it’s a fundamental product of the newsroom. No more will some people be strictly newspaper staff and others will be strictly on-line or multi-media staff. If you produce news, you’ll be expected to produce it as effectively for the electronic reader or listener as you would for the newspaper reader. If you edit or design for the newspaper, you’ll learn to edit and design for the web site.”

Looking (from the outside) at our newsrooms in this regard, I would rank us at 5 or maybe 6 (out of 10). No higher. Reading Fiedler’s memo, it sounds like he sees no reason the Miami Herald can’t do “radio.” For us to ignore that challenge, we have to believe there is something so magical about what we do, that nobody else can do it as well. I don’t know. [Via BuzzMachine via Onsquared]

Where did you get the news yesterday?

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Pew_news

Interesting answers to that question in the latest PEW study (PDF). For those of us with broadband, 49% got yesterday’s news from the radio…while 43% got it from the Internet. Will there come a time when more people get the news from the Internet than radio? If so, what does that mean for News/Talk radio? What does that mean for regional news networks like ours? [via Radio Marketing Nexus]

Working on our news moves

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Scott Rosenberg recounts how he got the news that the next version of Windows will be delayed, and what that might mean for people in the news business:

As tech news goes today, so ultimately will go the rest of the news. It’s not the death of newspapers or pro journalism, but it’s further evidence that the pros face an extremely tough challenge: they’re rarely going to be first, so they’d damn well better be good. But it’s hard to hire enough good people to be good at everything; a newsroom has only so many seats, and the Web’s supply of amateur experts, anonymous insiders and random kibitzers with an occasional insight is limitless. The pros had better prepare to be outgunned.

This competition will force journalists to stop being lazy and to find and reconnect with what is unique about their work, now that so much of what they used to do is being done for free, and often well, by amateurs.

BatteredIf I had the time (and the nerve), it might be interesting to look at every story one of our networks did for the past 30 days. Put a check-mark beside every story that was “original”…that we didn’t get from an affiliate, a news releases, or from some other source.

The next question might be: Did we do this story any differently or better than the other news organizations that covered it? Like the man said, we’re rarely going to be first, so we damn well better be good. [via Scripting News]

Seven in 10 watching TV news?

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That’s one of the findings in a new Harris Poll of about 3,000 U.S. adults.

While broadcast television news appears to be the most popular medium sought, many adults also get their news several times a week or daily by going online to get news (64%), reading a local daily newspaper (63%), listening to radio news broadcasts (54%), listening to talk radio stations (37%), listening to satellite news programming (19%), and reading a national newspaper (18%).

Update: Table on Media Usage from Radio Business Report. The most disturbing stat? Radio news tied with online in the 59+ group. Shudder.

Media Usage