PressingMatters

While new technologies create new outlets for reporting and journalism, the conceptual framework of the new media closely resembles the old. The best news blogs look and feel most like the morning news shows- a trusted media personality guides viewers through the day’s events. Okay, so blogs are like television shows. Continuing the analogy, the next generation of web tools can create something like television networks—like-minded programming part of a dependable brand. [Keep reading!]

Continue reading "Blogs: TV Shows :: Del.Icio.Us:: TV Channels" »

Posted by Ward Long at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stephen Colbert's address to the White House Correspondents' Diner has been the most blogged about event of the week (so far). It's brillant satire, particularly courageous since the president sits only a few feet from Colbert. Youtube took the link down, but Crooks and Liars has the video in WMP and Quicktime. Watch, and witness some powerful irony.

Gawker media group was one of, if not the, first networks of commmercial blogs. Check out their new news tabloid Sploid, and it's representative coverage of the Affair Colbert.

Posted by Ward Long at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Microsoft and the New York Times have just unveiled software that will allow you to read the Grey Lady on your tablet PC. While this particular announcement isn’t all that large- just a minor improvement on the recently reformatted Times website, it allows me to wax poetic on the future of the internet (every blogger’s not-so-secret wish). Tablet PCs make a lot of sense, but are only an update of the traditional newspaper experience. Eventually your newspaper will be digital and constantly updated via the wireless internet. While these are certainly revolutionary steps, they’re not enough to get me excited. A self-updating newspaper is still a newspaper. What I’m more interested in is how newspapers can change their web presence to be more visually stimulating – combining text, audio and images in a thoughtful way that will make today’s cable news stations look even more pitiful. [Continued after the jump]

Continue reading "GoogleZon is so last week. MicroTimes is the newest in new." »

Posted by Ward Long at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Elizabeth Williamson

The reluctance by the American and British press to print the controversial Muhammad cartoons illustrates a willingness to compromise the central value of liberal democracy. The long-running debate over the publication and republication of the Danish cartoons has raised many critical issues over the right to free speech and free press. The Economist Magazine suggests that “freedom of expression is not just a pillar of Western democracy, [but it is] as sacred in its own way as Muhammad is to pious Muslims.” A paradox arises out of such a comparison. The Islamic religion does not allow for the depiction of Muhammad, whereas a central element to democracy is the inherent right to do so. This conflict over the cartoons can serve as a microcosm for the existing tension between Western and Islamic societies.

Continue reading "The Statue of Liberty? Or the Statue of Censorship?" »

Posted by Elizabeth Williamson at 4:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

By Erik Swanson

Imagine your ideal model of a top-notch newspaper article. Well-written, thoroughly researched and significant, this article engages you far more than the typically dry or irrelevant stories that often populate the daily paper.

Where would you expect to find that top-notch story?

Would it make the front page, or would it be relegated to the inner folds, buried behind stories that did not hold a candle to its newsworthiness? You know the answer, unfortunately. Increasingly, high-quality hard-news reporting is becoming scarce. Bottom-line journalism is the reason; and with it, we are experiencing an epidemic of infotainment. That’s why we see large front-page spreads dedicated to the Academy Awards (see The Charlotte Observer, March 6, 2006.)

Continue reading "The Threat of the Bottom-Line" »

Posted by Erik Swanson at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

by Lauren Hungarland

If you were to ask the American public what the biggest story of the year was, it would not be surprising if the breakup of Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson topped their list. Or perhaps the “Bradgelina” saga, which dominated the headlines for weeks, would come out number one. Celebrity coverage is everywhere these days, and “infotainment” is replacing traditional news.

Some may blame the big media conglomerates who try to increase profits by luring fickle audiences with tabloid-style coverage. But it is the American public’s acceptance of all this that is intolerable. The demand for serious news, both domestic and international news, continues to dwindle as Americans pay less and less attention to the world around them. In the end, it is the consumers who need to take responsibility for the news coverage.

Continue reading "Who's to Blame For Lousy News? Consumers!" »

Posted by Lauren Hungarland at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)

by Anne M. Pearlstein

“For many Americans the rest of the world does not really exist” ~Mark Hertsgaard.

By reducing international coverage, the media encourages Americas’ detrimental inclination to isolate itself from the world at large. As United States citizens, we largely ignore global occurrences unless they directly affect our domestic existence. Anti-Americanism in the Middle East did not matter until our country was attacked. After 9/11, suddenly everyone wanted to know why our innocent citizens had been killed and who was to blame. If the American public never hears about present global problems, how can they understand the causes behind a crisis?

Continue reading "Americans in a Vacuum" »

Posted by Anne Pearlstein at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

By Brittany Crawford

Working in television can be a game of musical chairs, but Bonnie Bernstein’s decision to leave CBS, where she worked as an NFL sideline reporter, has much more significance than a simple job change. It highlights network sports’ unspoken problem: gender bias.

Bonnie Bernstein had worked eleven years for various radio stations and ESPN before she finally became a correspondent for NFL Today in 1998. In the words of a longtime CBS colleague, she was “overqualified for what she was doing.” Despite the qualifications, Bernstein never was able to work to her full capacities. “Female sportscasters are lumped into two categories,” says Bernstein according to and article in Sports Illustrated, “the legitimate ones and the others. If you're fortunate enough to be ranked with the legitimate ones, people are always looking for a reason to lump you into the other one."

Continue reading "Mix it up" »

Posted by Brittany Crawford at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

By Sarah Boyce

Move over, Jan Brady. You too, Barney Fife. America is now the land of Simon Cowell, Paris Hilton, and Jack Bauer - of biting criticism, celebrity sexcapades and earth-shattering explosions. It should come as no surprise that the front pages of our newspapers clearly reflect these new trends and tastes. Editors must deal with the fact that many Americans would rather pore over photographs tracking the progress of Angelina Jolie’s baby bump than read an article analyzing the dangers of Arab companies taking over the operation of American seaports.

Caught between consumers who read the newspaper for entertainment (to make up for the fact that People is only a weekly) and those who expect the newspaper to contain only serious articles (on topics that would make your average teenager yawn), editors are struggling to negotiate some middle ground. Yet there are some stories we can all agree are worthy of the front page, and those stories are the ones that should be showing up there more often.

Continue reading "Extreme Makeover: Journalism Edition" »

Posted by Sarah Boyce at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

(Ed. Note: Watch EPIC 2014, a thought-provoking video on the future of news.)

By Liz Barry

I used to be a newspaper and coffee person. Now I just log onto my e-mail account and scan the headlines delivered to my inbox by The New York Times and The Washington Post. No more clumsy newsprint. The Internet is a smudge-free zone, providing 24/7 access to an endless flow of information. Crucial breaking news stories like “Michael Jackson blinks 329489203 Times During Trial” and “The Search for Natalee Holloway: Day 832480935890” are now just a mouse click away.

Continue reading "Man vs. Machine: Robots, Journalists and the Future of News" »

Posted by Liz Barry at 2:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

By Adam Martin

The media? A fog of talk show pundits, government leaks, advertisements, press releases, entertainment shows, magazines, and newspapers. Some appealing to specific audiences with overt perspectives and prejudices, some striving for objectivity or neutrality. The news? Car chases, extended live coverage of lottery winners, Michael Jackson’s latest deviance, gruesome murders, or boring stories about corporate takeovers, American political maneuverings, or distant, complicated conflicts. Mostly inconsequential, disconnected stories that seem irrelevant to our lives.

Continue reading "Media Haze: Finding your way through" »

Posted by Adam Martin at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Can quality newspapers stay afloat given investor pressures?

By Ryan Elizabeth Thompson

The power of Wall Street is no secret, but who would ever expect a large (and profitable) newspaper company to be squeezed to death by unhappy investors? Last November Knight Ridder’s largest institutional investors demanded that the company put its 32 newspapers up for auction with hopes to raise the stock price. The McClatchy newspaper company won, with little competition and a $4.5 billion bid.

Continue reading "Wall Street’s Heavy Hand" »

Posted by Ryan Thompson at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

By Marshall Worsham

Driving along South Tryon Street, through the corridor of glass and steel that comprises one of Charlotte’s largest business districts, I have often passed a building familiar to many of this town’s residents. The imposing concrete structure bears at its top a sign that reads, “The Charlotte Observer” and immediately next to it, “charlotte.com”. The two names have sat adjacent to each other on the building’s face for almost two years, and while it may seem an unimportant detail, it is a sign of a new future for Charlotte’s primary news source.

Continue reading "No Reader Left Behind" »

Posted by Marshall Worsham at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The time has come for The Daily Show to accept its role as a major media player

by Rob Heidrick

The term “fake news” is quickly becoming a redundancy in the American press. From Jon Stewart to Bill O’Reilly, self-anointed pundits routinely infuse comedy, theatricality, and polemics into the journalistic mix, and as the daily dose of “spin” increases, these diversions become more and more subtle. The label of “fake news” does not imply falsehood so much as it does theatricality, or a degree of purposeful emphasis on entertainment. In The Daily Show’s case, comedy comes first – with satire, sarcasm, and slapstick as plentiful as honest information. Other infotainment shows, concerned with maintaining a façade of journalistic professionalism, are less direct in flaunting their status as entertainment. Which of these programs “hurt America” (as Stewart famously accused the hosts of CNN’s debate show Crossfire) and which, if any, have anything useful to offer the waning news audience?

Continue reading "“Fake” or Fiction: Does Comedy-Journalism Hurt America?" »

Posted by Rob Heidrick at 4:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Well, Adam Martin thinks so....

Click on the picture below to see a local tv news story on alleged leprechaun sightings near Crighton, Alabama.

Posted by Ward Long at 8:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's one of my favorite bits of recent media coverage. Click the "continue reading" link below to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart react to the Cheney hunting accident. The clip is around ten minutes long, so it may take a while to load.

Continue reading "The Daily Show" »

Posted by Ward Long at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)