Journalism: February 2008 Archive Page

Greg Costikyan on Play This Thing!

A review is a buyer's guide. It exists to tell you about some new product that you can buy, and whether you should or should not buy it. A good review goes beyond that, and suggests who should buy it, since not everyone enjoys everything. (E.g., A romance novel may be very fine of its kind, but is quite unlikely to appeal to me, since it is not a genre I enjoy.) 

Thus, Ebert is, ultimately, a reviewer; the net result of his discussion of a work is a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Mind you, he is also an informed and intelligent watcher of film, and his discussion of a movie frequently veers in the direction of criticism; but he is not being paid to write critical works. Pauline Kael was. 

Criticism is an informed discussion, by an intelligent and knowledgeable observer of a medium, of the merits and importance (or lack thereof) of a particular work. Criticism isn't intended to help the reader decide whether or not to plunk down money on something; some readers' purchase decisions may be influenced, but guiding their decisions is not the purpose of the critical work. Criticism is, in a sense merely "writing about" -- about art, about dance, about theater, about writing, about a game--about any particular work of art. How a critical piece addresses a work, and what approach it takes, may vary widely from critic to critic, and from work to work. There are, in fact, many valid critical approaches to a work, and at any given time, a critique may adopt only one, or several of them.

One of the first things I do in my Video Game Culture and Theory course is have students compare a games magazine review with a "new games journalism essay" (in order to get them to realize how much else there is to write about besides simply reviewing the game for a person who has never played it).  I then introduce games scholarship, and have students write their own academic research paper on games.  The first time I taught this course, in 2006, there was plenty of scholarship of the kind Costikyan calls for, and when I taught it again in 2008, there was so much that perhaps next year I will demote the importance of "new games journalism" and jump right into the criticism.

Elia Powers, Inside Higher Ed:

What plays into coverage of violence, both on campus and elsewhere? The answer, most experts agree, is a confluence of factors.

The obvious starting point -- and one that media analysts say weighs heavily on the minds of editors in all tragedies, not just school shootings -- tends to be the number of victims. Look at the math in the three recent college cases: Virginia Tech (33 dead, dozens injured). Northern Illinois (6 dead, 16 others injured). Louisiana Technical College (3 dead, no injuries).

It's also a matter of the news cycle. The Virginia Tech attacks took place during a period of relative calm. These latest shootings occurred in the midst of the busy election season. Some also point to the fact that Virginia Tech came first and with the descriptor "worst shooting rampage in modern United States history." Since then, school and store shootings have become somewhat regular occurrences.

"This has now become, sad to say, a genre of news story -- the crazed gunman in the school or work place or mall," said Roy P. Clark, vice president and senior scholar at the Poynter Institute.

The BBC appended this to its coverage of the Mexico City explosion:

Are you in Mexico City? Were you in the area when the explosion happened? Send us your comments using the form below:

Send your pictures to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to +44 7725 100 100. If you have a large file you can upload here. Read the terms and conditions

At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

From the AP:

Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago.

Amanda Cochran, who was a student in my freshman composition class not too many years ago, went on to be the editor-in-chief of the student paper, and is now in grad school at NYU. She writes about taking on an assignment on short notice.

I was nominated to cover the story yesterday by one of my professors, and just on a whim, I said yes because the press credential online option was closing down and I was one of the only people in my class available to sign up.

So I did.

It wasn't just any assignment... she was to cover Hillary Clinton's Super Tuesday campaign party, and then report live on the NYU Tonight broadcast.  Minimal time to prepare; a chaotic environment; a pressing deadline; competition with a pack of dedicated professionals; then the added pressure of delivering the report live. What did she have to say when it was all over?

God, I love journalism.

Update: added screenshot via this entry.

Wired:

A leading general and former top military spokesman in Iraq is pleading with the armed services to let troops blog and post to YouTube.   Too bad the video site is banned on military nets, and Army rules squeeze military bloggers, hard.  Greg Grant notes, politely, that Caldwell's "recommendation that appears to run counter to Pentagon policy."