February 21, 2003
ESPN.com pushes the multimedia envelope
Has anyone noticed what ESPN.com has done sometime in the past couple of days? When you hit their front page, instead of the usual static main image of the day's top story you get a prompt to activate Motion, a free feature that integrates ESPN video into the ESPN.com front page with no bufering, "transforming ESPN into the world's first integrated news and video site." All you need is a high-speed connection.
Because I visit ESPN fairly often and have a cable modem, I spent a minute registering (I'm one of those oddballs who actually gives truthful information in these fields). Then I had to download a 507K applet, or app, to install Motion on my machine.
The result? Who knows? Returned to ESPN's home page to see Michael Jordan in all his static-photo glory.
'Blogging is not journalism.' Period.
Technology consultant Bill Thompson -- whoever he is -- has an absurd little temper tantrum today on BBCNews.com in a column about Google's purchase of Pyra and the excitement it stirred in the blog community.
Fumes old-schooler Thompson:
Ridiculous comments, such as Dan Gillmor's claim that "with the advent of weblogging, the readers know more than the journalists" only stoke the fires of hyperbole and do not help us understand this new tool.Blogging is not journalism.
Often it is as far from journalism as it is possible to get, with unsubstantiated rumour, prejudice and gossip masquerading as informed opinion.
Without editors to correct syntax, tidy up the story structure or check facts, it is generally impossible to rely on anything one finds in a blog without verifying it somewhere else - often the much-maligned mainstream media.
The much-praised reputation mechanism that is supposed to ensure that bloggers remain true, honest and factually-correct is, in fact, just the rule of the mob, where those who shout loudest and get the most links are taken more seriously.
Thompson's cave-dweller rhetoric notwithstanding. a vibrant community of hundreds of thousands of grassroots voices -- a brilliant and invaluble contribution to the media ecosystem -- is proving him wrong every day.
A thanks for the pointer goes out to an incredulous Matt Haughey. who notes, "The link near the end to tell Bill what he should write about in the future -- that's the extent that the audience should participate?" I'll be on a panel with Matt next month at South by Southwest.
Too bad we won't have Thompson at SXSW, so that his wildly wrong, cocksure assumptions could be punctured in person.
Ernie said:
Yeah, blogging isn't journalism. But, ironically, just today I got an E-mail from a Times Picayune (the local New Orleans paper) writer who wanted information about wireless access points in New Orleans, as well as information about how wireless works generally. I agreed to help, and she is going to call me tomorrow. I don't care if blogging isn't journalism, I say 'journalism isn't blogging.' All this reminds me of Coleridge's aphorism:
"Sir, I admit your general rule that ever poet is a fool; but, you yourself may serve to show it, that every fool is not a poet."
Bill Thompson said:
Didn't spot this til now - funny that good old JD doesn't remember interviewing me for an article he wrote for OJR back in February 02, where he said "'I've already interviewed several online journalists, but I'm looking to get a comment from informed observers of the British online journalism scene who are not connected with the usual big news sites (BBC, Times). Would you be able to help me?"
From 'informed observer' to 'whoever he is' just because I write something he doesn't like... isn't life wonderful, at least in blogspace :-)
IRE's Extra! Extra! weblog
Derek Willis, of The Scoop blog fame, has helped put together a new weblog for IRE, the Investigative Reporters & Editors organization, called Extra! Extra! Derek says itís still a work in progress, but theyíve already got some interesting entries up about investigative stories in Raleigh, Denver, Portland, Detroit and elsewhere. Good stuff.
Bloggers' albums of the year
Blogcritics.org -- "a sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, and technology" (gotta like that description; you can see the contributors in the left hand nav) -- has named its Albums of the Year in advance of the Grammys' dreary affair Sunday night. Blogcritics' top 10 albums picks:
1) Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco
2) Come Away With Me by Norah Jones
3) Sea Change by Beck
4) Turn on the Bright Lights by Interpol
5) The Rising by Bruce Springsteen (more here, here)
6) A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay
7) When I Was Cruel by Elvis Costello
8) () by Sigur Ros
9) Once More, with Feeling - Buffy the Vampire Slayer
10) Murray Street by Sonic Youth
Not a bad list. Actually, damn good. More of their music award choices, as well as some interviews, here.
Eric Olsen said:
Thanks JD! Have a great weekend, EO
Putting events in context
Just put your birthdate in the window when you click on this link and see what happens.
Taking up the cause of Charles Babbage
It's not every day I get an email missive from the Communications Manager
at Southwark Town Hall in London, but Lise Colyer writes to say:
I'm writing to ask if you would mind asking your readers to vote for Charles Babbage, the father of computing. Here in the London Borough of Southwark we're setting up a sort of People's Plaques historic plaque scheme, in which people vote for the famous places, events or people they believe should have a historic plaque. These include Shakespeare's Globe, The Mayflower, Brunel's Thames Tunnel and so on. Is there any chance at all you might be interested in urging your readers to take up the cause of Charles Babbage? It's just that he doesn't have many votes yet, of 2,000 or so we've had already. We'd really appreciate interest from cyber buffs all over the world. These two links should explain what's going on in full.
Where's the security?
Daniel Schorr -- whom I had the pleasure of spending the day with at a journalism conference at Rutgers I organized 20 years back -- has a dead-on commentary on NPR. Excerpt:
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge may provide low-cost diversion with color-coded alerts and advice to stock up on duct tape. But talk is cheap and real security is expensive. One would have thought that, with memories of Sept. 11, the president's first priority would be the first responders to a terrorist attack - police, firemen, public-health workers.Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley wrote in The Washington Post this week that the federal government provided only $1 million of the $11 million his city has spent on homeland defense. And, Mr. O'Malley asks why it is necessary to wait for another devastating attack before taking action to protect America's ports, railways, and borders.
Quick hits
Sheila has an item looking at the The Station, scene of the fire that killed at least 86 people and and injured 150 others in West Warwick, RI.
XML -- The only way to fly: Another reason to like Movable Type: an RSS feed that kicks ass.
Moveon is planning a virtual march on Washington next Wednesday, Feb. 26 -- a daylong effort to inundate every member of Congress with phone calls, emails and faxes.
The Boston Phoenix calls Slate "the best online journalism out there."
PressWise has assembled codes of journalistic ethics from around the world.
Wired News: The Center for Democracy and Technology said it will try to compel Pennsylvania's attorney general to disclose new details about unusual efforts in that state forcing Internet providers to block visits to websites containing child pornography. Lawyers for the group compared the technique to disrupting mail delivery to an entire apartment complex over one tenant's illegal actions.
Dan gives his take on yesterday's FCC rulings.
Here's another snide, Big Media sneer about the pending death of Salon, courtesy of the WSJ's OpinionJournal.
NY Times op-ed piece: The Trouble With Corporate Radio: The Day the Protest Music Died.
