Journalism: May 2007 Archive Page

Take the role of the FDA inspectors in a world of increasingly numerous food imports and increasingly unmanagable risk. Your charge: try to protect the country from contaminants in foreign food imports using extremely limited resources.

The first in Persuasive Games newsgame publication relationship with The New York Times, in which our editorial games are published alongside all the other op-ed content on TimesSelect. --Food Import Folly (Persuasive Games)

I'd wondered when the rhetorical potential of a current-events game would be recognized as a vehicle for critical commentary, rather than the occasional subject of a column or other traditional form.

When I go to the link on the NYT website, I get a header and footer, but no content.

Are you a skilled programmer or Web developer? Are you interested in applying your talents to the challenge of creating a better-informed society? Do you want to learn how to find, analyze and present socially relevant information that engages media audiences? Do you see possibilities for applying technology as a way to connect people and information on the Web or new delivery platforms?

If your answers are "yes," consider coming to Medill for a master's degree in journalism. You can earn your degree in just a year. You will learn new skills that will open doors to new opportunities that might help build a better democracy. And a new program at Medill offers you a chance to win a fully funded scholarship. --Medill offers journalism scholarships to programmer/developers (Northwestern)

Sounds like a great program.

We know that pro-am journalism can work only if people are persuaded to give their time, lend their knowledge, pool their intelligence. Those are donations, but not of money. Often they are more critical than money.

To succeed in this, we have to persuade several hundred people to donate good work to one big story -- and to swarm around so it gets really good. We plan to modify this site for use in future stories, more sprawling and more difficult. Maybe about the environment. Or the schools. Or -- who knows? -- the war.

A professional newsroom can't easily do this kind of reporting; it's a closed system. Because only the employees operate in it, there can be reliable controls. That's the system's strength. The weakness is the organization knows only what its own people know. Which wasn't much of a weakness until the Internet made it possible for the people formerly known as the audience to realize their informational strengths. --Jay Rosen --Why We're Doing This (Assignment Zero)

They came from all over the world, poles in hand, and feet ready to inch more than half a mile across a high wire strung over the Han River in a spine-tingling battle of balance, speed and high anxiety. --Bo-Mi Lim --Skywalkers in Korea cross Han solo (Yahoo! | AP (will espire))

This is a news article about a high-wire competition that involved crossing a body of water called the Han River.

A tip of the blaster-shield-fitted helmet to a very clever headline writer.

On the night of Monday, April 23, the magazine's editorial system crashed, wiping out all the work that had been done for its June issue. The backup server failed to back up. --Richard Pérez-Peña --Business magazine fails to heed its own tech advice (International Herald Tribune)

What makes this a "dog bites man" story is the fact that Business 2.0 publishes an annual "101 Dumbest Moments" feature, in which the magazine mocks other companies for making mistakes.

Oddly enough, while I was typing this entry, I accidentally pulled my computer plug out of the wall -- again.

But the last time this happened, I must have rearranged my plugs so that only printer and monitor were connected to that particular power bar. The CPU is plugged directly into the wall. (Yay, me!)

A cameraman for the NBC affiliate in Houston was captured on home video sporting a Mexican flag on his camera while covering a rally in the Texas city that supported illegal immigrants, drawing angry shouts from counter-protesters.

In the first of two clips posted on YouTube.com, a counter-protester with a bull horn can be heard condemning the cameraman's flag.

"Why does Channel 2 News have a Mexican flag on their camera?" the man asked. --Art Moore
--NBC cameraman flies Mexican flag at march (WorldNetDaily)

In another clip, the cameraman is seen helping someone attach an American flag to his camera, too.

But the damage had been done. He was on duty, and should not have betrayed his bias.

"We believe the victim was assaulted after hours Friday by an unknown individual or individuals," a Columbia County sheriff's departmaent spokesman said. "Though autopsy results are still pending, we believe the victim suffered fatal head trauma after his face was immobilized against the glass of a photocopier and repeatedly struck with the machine's cover." --White-On-White Violence Claims Life Of Accounts Receivable Supervisor (The Onion (Satire))

I never thought the Kornfeld character was funny enough to deserve his own recurring column, but it looks like his untimely death might spark an enjoyable, long, drawn-out story.