The Slow Media Movement November 19, 2009

 

How the media ‘sausage’ is made November 17, 2009

Every Saturday morning I’m up at the ungodly  hour of 5:30 am to meet my fellow runners. During my semi conscious drive one morning I realized that the show that was on NPR at that time was talking about issues from JRN 301.

I thought I was delirious, needed more sleep and school was really taking over.

However, I was wrong. At 6am on WSHU (105.7) is a great show called On the Media.

Every week I get to hear more in depth information about issues we discuss in class. This show was made for our class. As they put in their about section “On the Media explores how the media ‘sausage’ is made.”

I liked this one in particular, a segment about bailouts and government support for newspapers:

Newspapers go to Washington

And of course you do not need to be up at that hour to listen as you can do it right on their site: On the Media

My Place in the new media ecosytem November 16, 2009

Assume you are planning to become a journalist. Where do you see yourself fitting into “the new media ecosystem”? What kind of job would you look for if you were graduating in December?

I find myself facing the question that many college students nearing graduation face: What are you going to do now?

Since jobs in journalism are difficult to come by these days, and I’m a fly by the seat of your pants type I plan on creating my own job. I prefer to be happy with what I’m doing, and what makes me happy is writing about food.

After Michael Rosenblums’ visit I feel that I have been empowered to create my own destiny. Granted I will not be paying my bills on my own business in the beginning so I will probably have a job answering phones 9-5, but if this allows me to do what I want then I’m quite happy with that.

I don’t want a job that will intrude on my free time. My free time is business building time. I’ll be able to spend my weekends traveling, cooking and eating and writing about it. That alone is enough to keep me happy.

This isn’t theoretical either, this is what I plan to do when I graduate this May. I plan to enrich my food education with cooking classes, become a sommelier, brew more beer, refine many of my recipes, take a class on cheese and do more research on food’s social and cultural impact on everyday life. Eventually I plan to do my masters at NYU in food studies. This will allow me to expand on what I am able to offer readers and fully immerse myself in what I love most.

That’s where I’ll be.

Points for discussion November 12, 2009

1. I feel a little bit wary about Patch.com. When Brian Farhnman spoke about the boundaries of each Patch being unclear I feel that if they don’t stop at the city limits various patches in a close proximity will begin to mesh together and start to seem the same. I’m certain that if most towns had a patch that many residents would also check out other patches local to the or where they do business.  I think that the idea of a hyper-local news site is a good idea but needs to be done carefully otherwise the market will be saturated with the same information.
2. I’m bothered a little bit by the “one man show” model on Patch.com. To me only having one editor do a majority of the reporting makes it feel like a blog with guest authors. It seems extremely overwhelming to the editor and makes me wonder how this would affect the quality of the coverage on the site.
3. I’m really bothered still by the Seagrams story he told us. To know that the NY Times would re-do a survey several times to keep advertisers happy, well that just goes against everything we were taught. I’d like us to talk more about church and state.
4. What about the quality of journalism in the future using both models? Sending citizens out to cover stories with little experience or a quick journalism crash course. How will this affect in depth reporting?
5. Also Farnham says having citizens add stories to their Patch sites, such as a local coach putting up a story about the team. To me this sounds like the online version of the local town paper which is full of these type of stories.

Kraft Foods Magazine November 8, 2009

Every few months I would find a free magazine from Kraft foods in my mailbox. I would flip through it and sometimes I would find something that might peak my interest. The pages are packed with recipes using only, you guessed it, Kraft Food products. It’s one big advertisement for time pressed soccer moms who wish to feel good about preparing their kids “healthy” meals consisting of Kraft macaroni and cheese, Lunchables and Digiorno pizzas. Every single “recipe” uses as many Kraft products as possible. Please note I go out on a limb here and say “recipe” because I saw one such “recipe” that was for Kraft macaroni and cheese, which gave the instructions that come on the box.

But non the less, it was free. Yesterday, I received the winter issue in a magazine bag with a bill. A bill for $6.99. Actually that is the discount subscriber rate. On their website it is $13.98 for a year subscription.

Of course it is not the issue of the cost, it is the issue of quality, which the magazine lacks. Nearly every recipe that is published in the magazine is available free on their website or on the back of a product needed to make the recipe. Don’t get me wrong I actually do enjoy looking at it, there is some great food photographs, but I have never made anything in it, and I disagree with their ideas of healthy meals. I would much rather pay double the subscription price to have Gourmet back again for some high quality and class.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Kraft is in the midst of buying Cadbury and needs about $16.5 billion to do so. Clearly they are not aware of the ongoing journalism crisis. Major publishers are having a difficult time as it is selling subscriptions of high quality food magazines to consumers in tough times. Does Kraft really believe that people are willing to pay $13.98 for a quarterly magazine that is one big advertisement and suggests that a quick healthy dinner idea is macaroni and cheese from a box?

I know I’m not.

Brian Farnham November 8, 2009

1. Who is writing the content for each patch site? Are they staff writers or freelancers? Do they live in the community where their Patch is?
2. Where else do you plan to spread Patch to?
3. What is your model for making money with Patch? I see about two adverts on each page.
4. I like the idea of giving back to the community with donating advert space to community organizations and having staff do volunteer work. What inspired this?

Michael Rosenblum Saved my life. November 6, 2009

I’m tired of all the whining about how the journalism model is broken, there’s no jobs and we need a better plan. Every time a read an article about it my eyes roll on their own. Yes the model is broken, yes we need to fix it. But nothing is going to fix it’s self. Stop complaining about it, be proactive, think about yourself and figure out what you need to do to not be jobless.

Professor Selvin announced that Michael Rosenblum was coming to speak to our class. I rolled my eyes. Even though I didn’t know who he was if just figured he was some journalist who was going to ramble on about how the business model is broken blah blah blah. I assumed that I would spend the better part of the class time drawing 3-D cubes in my notebook and making a grocery list.

She sent us links to his blog and some other blogs he asked us to read before he came. So I read his blog. He made me angry. Who is the guy? Who does he think he is? He said that Harry Potter was written solely for proft in a comment response to his blog. J.K. Rowling started writing when she was six and although she was on welfare when she wrote Harry Potter, I’m sure it wasn’t just for profit.  What does Michael Rosenblum know?

He knows a lot. I had a grudge against him when he started but by the end of class I wanted to hug him.

I’m an Asian Studies major who had the intent on being a ESL teacher. Last spring I started my teaching classes and found out I *hated* it. I would come home from class observations with a headache and thought about taking up chain smoking.

Enter the quater life crisis. I had no idea what I was going to do with myself. As I whined to my husband about it (who does what he loves) he asked me what I really wanted to do. All I want to do is talk about food and travel. He suggests I sign up for journalism classes.

I start taking journalism classes and find out there is no jobs.

Then Michael Rosenblum comes to class. In less than an hour the man who made me angry taught me how to be in business for myself.  It was so easy and I knew that, but having someone who had done it tell me that I could do it too. Well that just made my day. And now I like him.

I currently keep a food blog, which has served as a journal of my food adventures. I want something more from it. Since I left class my mind has been ticking as to how I can make money with it doing something I love. I have ideas and just need to figure out how to put them to work for me. Maybe when I graduate this spring I will be able to be doing what I love. Cooking and Traveling and getting paid for it.

Thanks Michael!

Procon.org November 6, 2009

While making diner tonight I mentioned to my husband that i received the H1N1 vaccination today when I went for a check up. He told me I was going to become paralyzed.

It’s really hard to know all sides of major issues. Usually there is no right or wrong issue it’s a matter of circumstances and beliefs. With many cuts taking place there is not always enough money to cover all the issues all across the board and as in depth as we all would like.

Today I NPR heard a new website mentioned as a sponsor. Procon.org takes most major issues and breaks them down to the key points of each side.  Procon.org is a non profit website whose mission is to educate the public and allow them to make their own informed opinions.

The questions cover a whole host of topics including the legalization of marijuana, under God in the pledge, and the bailout to name a few. They also tackle spinoff questions such as should marijuana be used as medical treatment?

It’s an interesting site, check out.

Rosenblum Questions November 6, 2009

1. You talk about the merging of Church and State, what would be your recommendations for media organizations to keep their reported fair and balanced? Your idea of turning sublimating journalism into business in interesting, however, I am a skeptic. So how would I be able to trust what I read and know that stories are not influenced by money?
2. What is your idea of the new model that will save journalism?
3. Can you talk about your experiences with Travel Channel and the Travel Channel Academy? Who made up the bulk of the students? Do many working journalists enroll to learn video skills?
4. What was the strangest place you visited?

Comments November 3, 2009

With the change in job description of jounralists many are now required to do many more tasks besides researching and writing a good story. Some need to shoot video and photos or produce podcasts and keep blogs. One thing that I just recently found the value in is readers comments and journalists responding to their work.

One writer I follow on NY Times is Tara Parker-Pope who writes the wellness blog. This summer she signed up for the NYC marathon and in five months went from couch to marathon. I saw myself in her as I am doing the same thing this January and followed her blog. Now I find myself at a point in my training where I’m nervous about finishing 26 miles and I look to others success for motivation. Today in my feeds I saw her post about her experiance with the marathon this past weekend.

And I did something I never have done before, I left a comment on a news story. Even better Tara Parker-Pope wrote back to me! It is nice to see journalists being there to follow up on their work to clear up misunderstandings and answer questions. This is something that I would never have experienced 10 years ago. Maybe I caught an error or a story really rubbed me the wrong way I may have written a letter to the editor and maybe it would have been published and responded too. Maybe.

Running at the Back of the Pack