During the last few weeks, I am more and more reading short stories rather than novels. Up to now, I have never paid much attention to short stories. It began, I think, when a newsletter reader mentioned Ed Hoch, whose name I had never heard and stories I had never read. And it’s gone on from […]
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PBS Frontline confronts the Facebook Dilemma
Some people spend hours a day on Facebook; others have never seen it and actively avoid it. Some people have strongly partisan views, one way or another, which may color their view of Facebook. In my view, it doesn’t matter whether or not you “like” Facebook, or whether you are red or blue or any […]
Hurricane news: it’s not always what you think – or what you hear
OntheMedia, the radio show about all things journalism, has produced an excellent piece to counter some of the predictable narrative that you are likely to hear as we approach another season in which high winds and waves slam into various parts of the U.S. Members of FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue Nebraska Task Force One […]
A pointed, provocative post: Why You Should Stop Reading News by Shane Parrish
Parrish wisely makes the distinction between “news creators” and “journalists.” News creators simply want to gain your attention and hold it for as long as possible. He doesn’t spell it out, but I assume that in his view journalists report information that adds value to your life.
September 8 is International Literacy Day
September 8 is International Literacy Day, designated so by the United Nations. There are still too many people in the world who cannot read, and two-thirds of them are women. This year’s theme is Literacy in a Digital World. “The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who […]
Photos of Hurricane Harvey’s devastation from FEMA’s photojournalists
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sends out photographers along with its emergency responders to record disasters wherever they occur. Here are some of those photos. Please remember the victims of this disaster by donating to the relief agency of your choice. My choice is the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR.org). Members of FEMA’s […]
The Newspaperman: A poem from the 1880s
In doing some research in 19th century newspapers recently, I found this clever little poem: THE NEWSPAPER MAN Little they know. or even think, Of the work there is in shedding Ink By the busy wielders of pencil and pen, Generally known as newspaper men. “Jottings,” “In General,” “Spice of Life,” “Variations,” and rumors rife, […]
Digital Reader blogger tries to get at the real facts about ebook sales
A lot of buzzing and scoffing these days in the world of independent publishing about the “fact” that ebook sales are down. Blogger Nate Hoffelder tries to set the facts — the real facts — about ebook sales straight. Source: Damn the Facts: The “Ebook Sales Are Down” Narrative Must be Maintained at All Costs […]
Revelations by scholastic journalists come by just ‘looking it up’
“You can look it up.” If you remember anything about baseball in the 1950s (and fewer and fewer of us do), you would remember Casey Stengel’s famous conclusion to almost all of his long soliloquies to surrounding newsmen. Stengel was the manager of the New York Yankees, and his teams won pennant after pennant in […]
50 years ago, Harrison Salisbury did not win the Pulitzer Prize
Fifty years ago when the Pulitzer Prizes were awarded, politics — not merit — kept Harrison Salisbury from winning the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. This week’s announcement (see below) of the latest prizes brings this sad tale to mind. Salisbury was a reporter and editor for the New York Times who already had […]
In which I answer the question, “What’s next?”, part 2: the suffrage ladies and me
The suffrage ladies may not be done with me. Those were the women who, between 1910 and 1920, affected the most profound change in the make-up of the electorate in the history of the Republic. In 2013, Seeing Suffrage was published by the University of Tennessee Press. The book was about the 1913 Washington suffrage […]
Blue Angels streak across the pasture for fourth straight day
Few sights get the blood to pumping or raise the goosebumps on your skin like the sight of a sleek Navy fighter jet streaking across the sky. When the jet is streaking across the treeline of your pasture, the heart pumps faster. When you get six of them — the pilots performing with mathematical precision […]
Blue Angels practice — over our pasture
These shots of the Blue Angels were taken from in front of my shop as they practiced for the Smoky Mountain Air Show this weekend.
Swag for SPJ’s Front Page Follies
For the past several years I have been asked (and honored to be asked) to provide some items for the silent auction for the Front Page Follies, the annual musical production of the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists. So, here are this year’s offerings: The first is a watercolor that was posted on Facebook […]
Design: breaking the chains of habituation
Design is important, but not always for the reasons we believe. In the TED video below, Tony Fadell, the designer of the iPod, talks about the things that really make design something that innovators should pay attention to. Here are some of the points that Fadell makes: — Habituation – “We get used to things as […]
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The web imposes new responsibilities on journalists
The web has imposed new responsibilities on the journalist – responsibilities that go far beyond those of the traditional print or broadcast reporter.
Newswriting in the near future
The speed of the Internet and the World Wide Web in disseminating information has forced editors and journalists to rethink the way they present news and the structure of writing.
Two major league sports journalists question the NFL’s existence
Times are tough for the National Football League. Concussions, racism, criminality, strokes and heart attacks, harassment — the problems keep piling up. This weekend, things got a little worse.
FoxNews and CNN viewers
Earlier this month, Pew found that the voting intentions of the election news audience were deeply divided according to where voters got their news. The current survey shows that gap remains substantial, with a large majority of the Fox News audience supporting President Bush and a comparable share of the CNN audience favoring Sen. Kerry.
Open society
What does an open society mean? Students may want to talk about what part of society should be open and what should not. How freely should information be available?
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