temporary hiatus

I won’t be posting daily for now, but if something strikes me in the paper I’ll throw it up.  In the meantime, you are still welcome to comment and suggest other resources that you come across.  Thanks for your clicks and comments.

the extinction of the news anchor?

At least on the local television news level, the veteran highly paid news anchors are becoming fewer in number.  They cost too much for what they propose to deliver–the human face of the local news brand.

Across the country, longtime local TV anchors are a dying breed. Facing an economic slump and a severe advertising downturn, many stations have cut costs drastically in the last year, and veteran anchors, with their expensive contracts, seem to be shouldering a disproportionate share of the cutbacks. When station managers are forced to make cuts, hefty anchor salaries are a tempting target.

 In the past, the thinking was always that tv ratings were driven by subjective feelings of attachment to the anchor figure, making him or her worth the high price.  Now they run contrary to how audiences consume media, more interactively and in their own order, and fewer viewers need an authority figure to guide them through the linear mix of news, sports, and weather.  One could argue that their years of experience with the community represent a loss, but how many were actually using that experience in any substantive manner?  Had they done so, they might have justified the salaries.

citizen journalism in mumbai

The terrorist attacks in India gave rise to a spurt of citizen journalism, using Twitter, Flickr, cell phones, cell cameras, and other easy to use tools.

Much of this activity flourished early in the crisis, while there was a vacuum of official information either from government sources or from mainstream media outlets still struggling to understand the extent of the attacks.

If news is a conversation among citizens concerning what they need to know to function together, new social network technologies like Twitter, which at one time seemed like a strictly superficial time-waster, now provide a platform of far-flung communities to keep up with what’s going on (particularly in times of crisis and lack of traditional media information, such as in Mumbai).

the military-industrial-media complex

Once more on the theme of transparency, an extensive review in today’s Sunday Times about a retired general, turned lobbyist, turned favored media consultant for NBC News and talking head.  Gen. Barry McCaffrey, although arguing he is objective given his criticism of execution of policy in Iraq, nevertheless advocates, as this investigation demonstrates, views in line with his business interests

On NBC and in other public forums, General McCaffrey has consistently advocated wartime policies and spending priorities that are in line with his corporate interests. But those interests are not described to NBC’s viewers. He is held out as a dispassionate expert, not someone who helps companies win contracts related to the wars he discusses on television.

transparency about your money

The Wall St. Journal has been sued for publishing negative performance information about a big hedge firm, with the Journal claiming it properly covered a matter of public concern.  Big investment companies often seek to work in private, but then how is the public ever to know how they are doing? These days one could argue that lack of transparency in the financial world is largely to blame for the crisis, and the Journal (regardless of the slant of its U.S. editorial page) tries to play it straight when it comes to money.  Investors expect it.

new source for health news

Given the difficulty in finding unconflicted health news (posted below), or much health news at all on a topic of great and growing concern to the audience, the Kaiser Foundation is experimenting with a new non-profit health news service.  As traditional journalism has found it difficult to do an adequate job of providing the resources for important stories, the philanthropic world has stepped into the breach.

el mozote writer’s latest story

The Washington Post writer featured in the case study, Alma Guillermoprieto, now lives in Mexico and just published a story in the New Yorker about the narco-culture of the region.

transparency in health news

An NPR health science show host has received large payments from drug companies, a fact not revealed to the audience.  Like the undisclosed ties of military contractors to media talking-head generals, these extensive payments to health communicators (in this case, a kind of “journalist”) threaten the credibility of the news.  Few vested interests are as wealthy and able to direct the information environment as the defense and health industries.

image control

In war and conflict, the military has control over a story in hot demand and can determine matters of access for the media.  Security concerns play a role of course in dictating who is provided what information, but often image sensitivity and putting a positive spin on operations take precedence. Hollywood works the same.  Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have a story the public wants, and to the extent they control the access they, particularly Jolie, can dictate (with great strategic skill) the terms of coverage, with the goal of promoting their own causes and burnishing the celebrity image.

a powerful means of war “framing”

The Times revealed a disturbing pattern of military experts providing policy spin for the television networks.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraqwar and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.