Saturday, September 20, 2003
Hi again!
I'd like to lay claim to the U.B.C. School of Journalism's ezine, Thunderbird. www.journalism.ubc.ca/thunderbird.html
Why is it that the best example of Canadian made-for-the-internet journalism that I could find is actually created by other journalism students? There's something wrong here!
I would have posted my comments about this week's readings earlier today but I tried to read Mark Deuze's article while lying in the sun outside and I kept on falling asleep. Also, I then had to go and eat supper (spaghetti and peas). So, if I understand Deuze correctly, he not only thinks it important to categorize online journalism, but also to assess the values, goals and standards brought up in the face of multimedia possibilities. For example, he thinks that multimedia content is sometimes included to distract consumers from the fact that there is little news content. He says it is sometimes used to produce "more content with less news people." I think that this is true - stuff flashing in my face obscures the fact that there is little content. I also thought that the adaptive interactivity category was kind of neat. It would be really cool to run into a site that adapts itself to my preferences. Does anyone know of a site like this?
Mr. McPhail's arguments are also meritous. He is so right - there is really very little internet-orginated content on major Canadian news websites. Everything is just "shovelled" from newspaper content. I can see that this is true! I had a really hard time finding good journalistic content written specifically for the web when looking for a website for my paper. I would have loved to do Highgrader Magazine's site just because I love them - they are so scrappy and so Northern Ontario! You don't see any big advertisors on their site I can tell you. If anyone is interested in checking out Highgrader, their website is www.greviousangels.com/highgrader
I'd like to lay claim to the U.B.C. School of Journalism's ezine, Thunderbird. www.journalism.ubc.ca/thunderbird.html
Why is it that the best example of Canadian made-for-the-internet journalism that I could find is actually created by other journalism students? There's something wrong here!
I would have posted my comments about this week's readings earlier today but I tried to read Mark Deuze's article while lying in the sun outside and I kept on falling asleep. Also, I then had to go and eat supper (spaghetti and peas). So, if I understand Deuze correctly, he not only thinks it important to categorize online journalism, but also to assess the values, goals and standards brought up in the face of multimedia possibilities. For example, he thinks that multimedia content is sometimes included to distract consumers from the fact that there is little news content. He says it is sometimes used to produce "more content with less news people." I think that this is true - stuff flashing in my face obscures the fact that there is little content. I also thought that the adaptive interactivity category was kind of neat. It would be really cool to run into a site that adapts itself to my preferences. Does anyone know of a site like this?
Mr. McPhail's arguments are also meritous. He is so right - there is really very little internet-orginated content on major Canadian news websites. Everything is just "shovelled" from newspaper content. I can see that this is true! I had a really hard time finding good journalistic content written specifically for the web when looking for a website for my paper. I would have loved to do Highgrader Magazine's site just because I love them - they are so scrappy and so Northern Ontario! You don't see any big advertisors on their site I can tell you. If anyone is interested in checking out Highgrader, their website is www.greviousangels.com/highgrader
Hi everybody!
I just figured out how to post a blog on Thursday morning, so I am posting this in reference to last week's readings. I disagree strongly with Arnold Kling's point of view for a number of reasons. One of his main premises is that smaller newspapers are becoming redundant because reporting is being mostly done by wire services. Having lived most of my life in a small city located about five hours north of Toronto, I know this is not true. Our tri-weekly paper, the Northern Life, does not even subscribe to a wire service. The Sudbury Star, which is part of the Southam chain, still manages to have good local reporting even while including wire content. Both of these papers produce creative, valuable stories about issues in my community. I'd like to point out that the only newspapers that I regularly read online are these local papers. When I was at home on the break I kept on deleting my e-mail subscription to the Northern Life because I could read the actual paper. For me holding a newspaper is a sensory experience -you can't get the same effect looking at your computer screen as you do devouring a paper while sitting on a swing in the summer sun.
I also think that Kling's assertion that distributed editing is the wave of the future is really weird, and in the end, impractical. It may be great to have a diversity of viewpoint out there, but in the end, this is not journalism. Journalism needs order and convention to bring these voices together in a coherent manner.
Sidney Goldberg's rebuttal made one really interesting analogy that I'd like to comment on. He says that if kids had a choice between the comics in the newspaper and a colorful, interactive online comic, they would definitely choose the online comic. He points out that people prefer movies that have sound and colour to their more primitive ancestors. As anybody who has ever sat near me in Robinson's or Spencer's class knows, I love the comics. I read them before I even glance at the headlines - it's like an obsession. But I don't think that my passion would be any different if I had been raised in a culture without paper newspapers. What matters to me and to other comics fans is the quality of writing. This is equally applicable to any sort of journalism. Newspapers themselves won't die whether or not trees are chopped down to print them on. What matters is that they represent us because they tell our story, and tell it well.
I just figured out how to post a blog on Thursday morning, so I am posting this in reference to last week's readings. I disagree strongly with Arnold Kling's point of view for a number of reasons. One of his main premises is that smaller newspapers are becoming redundant because reporting is being mostly done by wire services. Having lived most of my life in a small city located about five hours north of Toronto, I know this is not true. Our tri-weekly paper, the Northern Life, does not even subscribe to a wire service. The Sudbury Star, which is part of the Southam chain, still manages to have good local reporting even while including wire content. Both of these papers produce creative, valuable stories about issues in my community. I'd like to point out that the only newspapers that I regularly read online are these local papers. When I was at home on the break I kept on deleting my e-mail subscription to the Northern Life because I could read the actual paper. For me holding a newspaper is a sensory experience -you can't get the same effect looking at your computer screen as you do devouring a paper while sitting on a swing in the summer sun.
I also think that Kling's assertion that distributed editing is the wave of the future is really weird, and in the end, impractical. It may be great to have a diversity of viewpoint out there, but in the end, this is not journalism. Journalism needs order and convention to bring these voices together in a coherent manner.
Sidney Goldberg's rebuttal made one really interesting analogy that I'd like to comment on. He says that if kids had a choice between the comics in the newspaper and a colorful, interactive online comic, they would definitely choose the online comic. He points out that people prefer movies that have sound and colour to their more primitive ancestors. As anybody who has ever sat near me in Robinson's or Spencer's class knows, I love the comics. I read them before I even glance at the headlines - it's like an obsession. But I don't think that my passion would be any different if I had been raised in a culture without paper newspapers. What matters to me and to other comics fans is the quality of writing. This is equally applicable to any sort of journalism. Newspapers themselves won't die whether or not trees are chopped down to print them on. What matters is that they represent us because they tell our story, and tell it well.
Thursday, September 18, 2003
I am going to claim www.blogads.com/weblog/weblog.php
I've looked it over a bit, and it looks like exactly what I'm interested in (good ol' left-wing blog) :)
I've looked it over a bit, and it looks like exactly what I'm interested in (good ol' left-wing blog) :)
I'm doing mine on RPG.net. Premiere source for gaming news and stuff. Very geeky. Very fun.
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Here are the readings in clickable form!
Content? No thanks.
Missing the Medium
The Internet and its Journalisms
Content? No thanks.
Missing the Medium
The Internet and its Journalisms
For those who would like a head-start on next week's readings, here you go.
One of the authors - Wayne MacPhail - will be a guest speaker in the class in the upcoming weeks.
He raises some interesting points about online journalism in Canada. I'm sure you'll have lots of questions for him when he comes.
Paul
Readings for next class:
The Internet and Its Journalisms
Mark Deuze
www.ojr.org/ojr/future/p1026407729.php
Wayne MacPhail, “Missing the Medium” http://www.rabble.ca/everyones_a_critic.shtml?x=3498
Wayne MacPhail, “Content? No Thanks!”
http://www.rabble.ca/everyones_a_critic.shtml?x=3049
One of the authors - Wayne MacPhail - will be a guest speaker in the class in the upcoming weeks.
He raises some interesting points about online journalism in Canada. I'm sure you'll have lots of questions for him when he comes.
Paul
Readings for next class:
The Internet and Its Journalisms
Mark Deuze
www.ojr.org/ojr/future/p1026407729.php
Wayne MacPhail, “Missing the Medium” http://www.rabble.ca/everyones_a_critic.shtml?x=3498
Wayne MacPhail, “Content? No Thanks!”
http://www.rabble.ca/everyones_a_critic.shtml?x=3049
The issue of computer ownership and overall penetration of the Web is a key one in this discussion. In developed countries, particularly Canada where Internet use is very high, access to computers and to the Net is a relative non-issue. (Not to say that many people cannot afford a personal computer or the monthly fees for cable or dial-up service). But move out of the first-world and out of the West and not only do people not have computers or the infrastructure necessary for widespread use of the Web, they don't even have electricity.
The "demoncratizing" power of the Web, and its ability to unite us all in an electronic network, only works if the place you live has power - or a floor, or running water...
Much of the world's population continues to live without these basics. As Justin pointed out, we live in a bit of a "bubble". It's important to keep that in mind.
Great to see people using the blog. Terrific postings.
Paul
The "demoncratizing" power of the Web, and its ability to unite us all in an electronic network, only works if the place you live has power - or a floor, or running water...
Much of the world's population continues to live without these basics. As Justin pointed out, we live in a bit of a "bubble". It's important to keep that in mind.
Great to see people using the blog. Terrific postings.
Paul
Public libraries. Free internet. Go to it.
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Nicole, the thing about having to know where to find online news (which means you have to actively look for it) is a feature not a bug as I see it. When you have to search out the news it means that you are one step further up the independent thought food chain. You are the one who is finding new voices to listen to, new points of view. You aren't relying on some person behind a desk in TO to do it; it's your own responsibility. Again, I'm veering all elitist because I know that's not what everyone wants, but cobbling together a picture of the world makes for a less manufactured experience, right Lise?
Here's where some of this is coming from on my end. I read a comic by Warren Ellis. It's about a journalist an unspecified time in the future and it's called Transmetropolitan. In book 7 of the series, he's been fired from his job and has gone independent with an underground online news service. This is a quote from one of the columns he writes:
I am free to write what I want, when I want. And you have to come to me to read me.
This is not the same deal as picking up a newspaper for the sports and the TV listings and getting a piece of me too. You actually have to sit down and poke your feedsite reader and come to me.
And I will tell you things that will make you laugh and I will tell you things that will make you uncomfortable and I will tell you things that will make you really fucking angry and I will tell you things that no one else is telling you.
What I won't do is bullshit you.
That's the ideal that I see online journalism striving for, and that the old monolithic print things won't be able to compete with. But maybe that's just me.
And Kyle, I see what you're saying and I agree. For now. The tech will get cheaper and cheaper and cheaper until it won't be a problem, though.
Here's where some of this is coming from on my end. I read a comic by Warren Ellis. It's about a journalist an unspecified time in the future and it's called Transmetropolitan. In book 7 of the series, he's been fired from his job and has gone independent with an underground online news service. This is a quote from one of the columns he writes:
I am free to write what I want, when I want. And you have to come to me to read me.
This is not the same deal as picking up a newspaper for the sports and the TV listings and getting a piece of me too. You actually have to sit down and poke your feedsite reader and come to me.
And I will tell you things that will make you laugh and I will tell you things that will make you uncomfortable and I will tell you things that will make you really fucking angry and I will tell you things that no one else is telling you.
What I won't do is bullshit you.
That's the ideal that I see online journalism striving for, and that the old monolithic print things won't be able to compete with. But maybe that's just me.
And Kyle, I see what you're saying and I agree. For now. The tech will get cheaper and cheaper and cheaper until it won't be a problem, though.
I think that Nicole and James both make a good point about problems in reading electronic newspapers.
There is something more 'real' about reading something in a newspaper. It seems authoritative and true, while online material is ephemeral and 'not really there.' Right now I think this has more to do with the questionable authenticity of internet material than anything else, but even now when I read the Globe online, it doesn't seem 'real' unless I read it in a newspaper or see it on television.
Another problem I have is from Goldberg's article. Goldberg mentions wireless receivers and foldable sensitized paper sent electronically as the 'wave of the future' for newspapers. This would certainly revolutionize the way we read newspapers, but I wonder whether this would be a good thing. Yes it would save some people a lot of money, but what about people who cannot afford a computer, or the internet? They are banished from this world of new technology. Right now, if you have a buck or two, you can buy a newspaper - but to access online media, you have to own a computer (or at least have access to one, which is not the case for all) a phone line or cable access, and enough cash on hand to buy services from an ISP, to utilize the advantages of online newspapers.
In doing so, aren't we narrowing down who in fact can read and absorb the news by instituting new technology? Sure it may be the way things are going, but the place for a newspaper that is cheap and widely availabe is very important in a democratic society...
There is something more 'real' about reading something in a newspaper. It seems authoritative and true, while online material is ephemeral and 'not really there.' Right now I think this has more to do with the questionable authenticity of internet material than anything else, but even now when I read the Globe online, it doesn't seem 'real' unless I read it in a newspaper or see it on television.
Another problem I have is from Goldberg's article. Goldberg mentions wireless receivers and foldable sensitized paper sent electronically as the 'wave of the future' for newspapers. This would certainly revolutionize the way we read newspapers, but I wonder whether this would be a good thing. Yes it would save some people a lot of money, but what about people who cannot afford a computer, or the internet? They are banished from this world of new technology. Right now, if you have a buck or two, you can buy a newspaper - but to access online media, you have to own a computer (or at least have access to one, which is not the case for all) a phone line or cable access, and enough cash on hand to buy services from an ISP, to utilize the advantages of online newspapers.
In doing so, aren't we narrowing down who in fact can read and absorb the news by instituting new technology? Sure it may be the way things are going, but the place for a newspaper that is cheap and widely availabe is very important in a democratic society...
Monday, September 15, 2003
But JLow, what about the weird plasticelectronic paper that one of the articles mentioned as a future form for the newspaper? I think it was in one of the defending newspapers articles even though the hightechiness of it seemed so nonpaperish. I thought that one at least did address the "how people read newspapers" bit, like how reading online newspapers on the bus is really shitty right now. Right Now. Futurephones and Handsprings are making these things more portable and pretty for us as I type. I think the more important thing is the cost factor. These techy solutions aren't nearly as disposable and they don't have disposable prices, so you need to make an investment to deal with the news on these terms. Which gets weird and elitist, and will be till we can housebreak dogs on yesterday's computers.
Class:
I see we have some postings already. Great. A few people are having a little trouble with the posting process. Please help out your classmates. This stuff is pretty easy once you get going, but can seem a little daunting at first.
Glad to see that people are posting suggestions. Metafilter is a huge blog and worth taking a look at for sure.
Paul
I see we have some postings already. Great. A few people are having a little trouble with the posting process. Please help out your classmates. This stuff is pretty easy once you get going, but can seem a little daunting at first.
Glad to see that people are posting suggestions. Metafilter is a huge blog and worth taking a look at for sure.
Paul
