One of the charges of the journalist is to make the important interesting. Advertisers and celebrities are already so good at packaging what is fundamentally trivial that journalists have to work very hard to compete. Infographics are a useful tool for the news industry, but like all tools, they require skill. Similar:Writing That Demonstrates Thinking…
I’m talking about you, Havingsaidthat. You have wriggled your way into the mouths of every Letterman, every shiny-tied anchorman, every political pundit who can now read one poll every way but sideways, every Fox News body language “expert,” and every reality talent show judge. Even the humble weathermen and subway station apocalypto (2013 end of…
I enjoyed using clips of Renata with the little girls in her life, to contextualize her role as the child-hating Miss Hannigan. Showing the kids singing “Happy Birthday” not one but three times amplifies her comments about patience and growing up. This video was the most fun to edit. http://youtu.be/WEQQoAta8Uo Similar:First time experimenting with depth…
Businesses — as well as groups like nonprofits and celebrities like Takei — join the social network by creating pages, and they speak to customers and fans by posting to those pages, which users may follow by clicking “like.” A typical page post is only shown to around 15 percent of the people who follow…
She’s 10 now, but here is her response to seeing The Tempest at Seton Hill University last year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcxnHUQf5rk&sns=em Similar:Rules for Civility: 14-Year-Old George Washington's 110 Commandments for Cultivating Chara… Every Action done in Company, ought…CultureUrsula K. Le Guin: A Personal Take on Go Set a Watchman Before Watchman was published, I…BooksFeature: History Lesson: the…
Peter Anspach posted this list. Here are some of my favorites. My Legions of Terror will have helmets with clear plexiglass visors, not face-concealing ones. My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through. My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my…
Students who are new to journalism often introduce a quote like this: When asked about a habit he’d most like his journalism students to break, Dennis Jerz said, “Usually when I see the phrase ‘when asked about,’ I look for things to throw.” We only encounter that phrase in reporting, so when students start writing…
Students in my journalism class are publishing short articles on the U.S. election, starting with advance stories today, then continuing with live updates on Election Day and afterwards. This year, students have already started publishing articles online as soon as they are ready, rather than waiting until after the print edition has been sent to…
A few weeks ago, I had to get a new credit card because someone tried to use it fraudulently. The new credit card didn’t arrive until after Verizon tried to charge my bill to the old card. I’ve updated the auto-pay feature with the new credit card, but I don’t know how to read this…
My good camera is out of commission… there was a class action lawsuit against Canon for the “lens error” flaw in the camera I bought, so perhaps I’ll be able to get it repaired for free. I volunteer doing PR for a local theatre company; while I was sitting in the waiting room during my…
I’m not sure “thank you” is the right way to acknowledge this painful link from Paul Crossman. “Oh, come on,” you’re probably saying. “It’s not the music that’s addictive. It’s the dance, from the goofy video. That’s what went viral.” (There’s that word again.) Well, it turns out that this programming effect could be embedded…
“Our store has been closed with them for two years now and if you google the name of my boutique Amazon links appear,” she said. “We have sold on Sears, eBay, and others, and if we ask them to close the merchant account, the links disappear from Google. So why not Amazon?” She has a…
William Shatner and technology go way back, but it’s taken him until today to get his own smartphone app. Then again, he is a man known to take long pauses. Dubbed Shatoetry, the new app (iPhone-only, for the moment) lets you string together a variety of pre-recorded words — each with three different versions —…
Attending this was one of the handful of cultural treats my wife and I splurged on during our grad student days. LA Times – Canada's Stratford Festival losing 'Shakespeare' from its name. Similar:Boy, this sort of thing sure makes some racist people very angry.https://twitter.com/steelers/status/1305…CultureA Time magazine with Trump on the cover hangs in his golf…
In anticipation of the film, Sony turned to Wieden+Kennedy to give fans the opportunity to serve alongside the Royal Secret Intelligence Service’s most famous fictional agent, by passing a secretive five-part examination conducted through an online text adventure game. Finding the text adventure game in the first place required more than a little work. A…
Great resource. Cover your Backside with B-roll on Vimeo Video School on Vimeo. Now consider this: Similar:Media Bias Chart version 10 — Left / Center / Right; Fact vs Fabrication; (Ad Fontes Medi…The very useful “media bias chart” is on…CultureAmusing Ourselves to Depth: Is The Onion our most intelligent newspaper?Greg Beato, from Reason Magazine…
Addis, LA: Little Orphan Annie stopped for speeding | #Beet’s B.O.O.T.. Similar:Thirty Years Ago, the Challenger Crew Plunged Alive and Aware to Their DeathsThe Challenger made it through the spect…CultureCode of Honor (ST:TNG Rewatch — Season 1, Episode 3) Rehashed Amok Time plot that gets ra…Rewatching TNG after almost 20 years. (Y…CultureI'm amused by…
I’ve accepted the role of FDR in the upcoming Stage Right! Production of Annie. Auditions for the little ‘uns are Friday afternoon. My 10yo daughter and her tweeny friends are sticking out their chins and grinning and singing “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day” or whatever…
For more than 20 years, Navy archaeologist Steve Schwartz searched for that cave. It was believed to be home to the island’s most famous inhabitant, a Native American woman who survived on the island for 18 years, abandoned and alone, and became the inspiration for “Island of the Blue Dolphins,” one of the 20th century’s…
I rather expected this — popularity of the search term “blog” from 2004-2012. And this, too, was not a big surprise — Similar:Voiceover artist Gayanne Potter urging ScotRail to remove her voice from new AI announceme…When I was working in radio news in the …Culture‘There’s a certain madness to it’ … fans await new chord…