above the scroll

"What you read is important, but not all important. How you read is the main consideration. For if..."

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:36:47 -0400

“

What you read is important, but not all important. How you read is the main consideration. For if you know how to read, there’s a world of education even in the newspapers, the magazines, on a single billboard or a stray advertising dodger.

Th secret of good reading is this: read critically!

”

- Timeless wisdom from 75+ years ago: How to acquire knowledge. (via explore-blog)

via Washington Post: A composite image has been making its way...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 09:12:36 -0400

via Washington Post:

A composite image has been making its way around the Internet that appears to juxtapose images of the throng in St. Peter’s Square in 2005 during the announcement of Pope Benedict’s election with the audience present during that of Pope Francis.

But here’s thing, the photos weren’t taken at those times.

The lower photo (shown below this paragraph), which features a sea of smartphones and tablets, was, indeed, taken during the announcement of Pope Francis’s election. But the top photo (shown above), which shows an audience with far fewer gadgets was taken during the funeral procession of Pope John Paul II — a very different mood and event type.

You can blame Reddit, where this likely originated, but a better target is yourself/me/us/the lack of news literacy training. It took the Internet about 24 hours to suss out the false premise here, which is decently fast, but by then the image had already spread far and wide (and studies show that mistakes travel further, and remain in people’s memories longer, than any sort of corrections.) Again, a mirror unto ourselves, the abyss gazes back into you, etc.

futurejournalismproject: Using the Newspaper as a...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:59:59 -0400

futurejournalismproject:

Using the Newspaper as a Textbook

Newspaper in Education Week is an annual celebration of the newspaper as a classroom resource. This year, the American Press Institute has partnered with the Newseum to create a free downloadable curriculum for middle school and high school students (there are extension activities for elementary school students) featuring six lessons aligned with Common Core State Standards.

Lessons are as follows:

Newspapers in Your Life

What’s News Where?

The First Rough Draft of History

In the Newsroom

The Fairness Formula

Planning for the Unpredictable

Media Literacy

Where News Comes From

Evaluating the News

Somewhat Related: I recently encountered TuvaLabs, a startup that creates math classroom content using news and current events. A fantastic concept.—Jihii

Image: via emissourian.

This is a huge, valuable resource. News literacy has been blowing up on the media radar lately, not least due to a new report by Pew Research on technology in the classroom.

thursdayfiledigest: Child-friendly newspapers “An...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:09:39 -0500

thursdayfiledigest:

Child-friendly newspapers “An augmented-reality app that ‘translates’ grown-up newspapers for children has been developed in Japan,” reports BBC News. The Tokyo Shimbun, one of the country’s biggest dailies, has worked with advertising firm Dentsu to create the software. “It allows children to hold a smartphone over the newspaper to see a child-friendly version of the text. In a promotional video, Dentsu said the app could ‘create a future for the old media newspaper.’… The demo video shows a father laying a newspaper out on a table as the child holds his smartphone over the page. Cartoon characters appear on the screen, explaining stories and drawing attention to important words.”

Could be huge for #digitalliteracy #newsliteracy

Photo

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:07:25 -0500

futurejournalismproject: Anthony De Rosa: Why Newsrooms Should...

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 10:54:14 -0500

futurejournalismproject:

Anthony De Rosa: Why Newsrooms Should Poach Tech and Startup Talent

Anthony De Rosa is Reuters’ Social Media Editor, where he’s also a columnist and host at ReutersTV. We sat down with him to discuss where the tech and news communities meet and, increasingly, overlap.

Being that the news industry has more than a few business problems these days, Anthony suggests hiring outside help. By choosing Craigslist, Groupon and Facebook as examples of places from which to steal employees, De Rosa makes a solid point: go where the success is, and learn from the people that have done smart things in the more turbulent and burgeoning media landscapes.

Anthony also discusses what news life is like at Reuters, which we’ll dive into in more detail over the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

And for more FJP videos, see our new site, theFJP.org.

Google Has Officially Eaten the Newspaper Industry | Slate

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:08:18 -0500

Google Has Officially Eaten the Newspaper Industry | Slate

Why "Googling It" Isn't Enough

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:07:31 -0500

via PBS Media/Shift:

According to a survey of more than 2,000 middle and high school teachers, “research” for today’s students means “Googling,” and as a result, doing research “has shifted from a relatively slow process of intellectual curiosity and discovery to a fast-paced, short-term exercise aimed at locating just enough information to complete an assignment.”

PBS’s advice, which I agree with in theory but not in practice:

1. PROMOTE DIGITAL LITERACY — AND TRADITIONAL LITERACY, TOO

2. ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO FACT-FIND FACE-TO-FACE

3. GUIDE THEM TO SEARCH DEEPER.

Face-to-face is overrated and really not contributing to the literacy skill set needed to navigate the web. I believe it comes down to building minds and a culture that INSISTS on fact-checking, that doesn’t believe everything it hears but does take credibility seriously and does not hold an innate distrust of “the media.” Not an easy balance to strike, of course.

PS - this study is the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s recent report, “How Teens do Research in the Digital World.”

"A Politico headline: “GOP soul-searching: ‘Too old, too white, too male?’” Around noon Wednesday, I..."

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 11:01:45 -0500

“A Politico headline: “GOP soul-searching: ‘Too old, too white, too male?’”

Around noon Wednesday, I started hearing a voice inside my election-addled head: Where else had I seen numbers like these? Where had I heard that Politico description? Who else was getting a really good market share of a smaller and smaller slice of the population?

Ah, yes: the newspaper industry.”

- Ken Doctor, Nieman Lab. The newsonomics of the newspaper industry as the Republican Party. (via futurejournalismproject)

"In the end, 47% of these teachers strongly agree that the literacy of these students has yet to..."

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 13:13:26 -0500

“In the end, 47% of these teachers strongly agree that the literacy of these students has yet to catch up with the Internet. 44% of the same teachers say that schools should be focusing on digital literacy in their core curriculums.”

- Red Orbit reports on a new survey on youth, academics and digital technology from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

"The amount of meaningful information relative to the overall amount information is declining. We’re..."

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:48:55 -0400

“The amount of meaningful information relative to the overall amount information is declining. We’re not that much smarter than we used to be, even though we have much more information — and that means the real skill now is learning how to pick out the useful information from all this noise.”

- Nate Silver (via sometimesagreatnotion)

"But editors and professors recognize that the best way to understand the future of journalism lies..."

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 15:13:24 -0400

“But editors and professors recognize that the best way to understand the future of journalism lies in learning from and working with students.”

- And so, Mercer University is starting a $5.6 million project to collaborate with the Macon Newspaper and Georgia Public Radio.

via The New York Times:

Reporters and editors for the 186-year-old paper The Telegraph and the radio station will work out of the campus’s new journalism center, alongside students whom the university expects will do legwork for newspaper and public radio reports, with guidance from their professors and working journalists.

It’s a plan born in part of desperation. Like many newspapers, The Telegraph has lost circulation and advertising revenue in the last decade, and the public radio station was forced to trim down to one staff member during the recession.

William D. Underwood, Mercer’s president, expects that by applying what he calls a medical residency model to journalism, all of these players may give the struggling industry a chance to stay alive.

Bonus: This report [PDF] from the New America Foundation entitled “Shaping 21st Century Journalism: Leveraging a ‘Teaching Hospital Model’ in Journalism Education”

(via futurejournalismproject)

futurejournalismproject: jayrosen: The art of the on air fact...

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:40:28 -0400

futurejournalismproject:

jayrosen:

The art of the on air fact check.

“The clip shows these elements in her style: If you interview people on television for a living, you and your team over-prepare. You anticipate points where a Peter King may feel entitled to his own facts. You know your material (and his) cold, so you aren’t worried about the interview spinning out of control. You smile more as the struggle heightens. You interrupt when a dubious claim is first introduced, and each time is it re-asserted. The tone you maintain is a plea for evidence. You have your mark-up of the documents with you. You have your pen. You wave them, which is theatrical. But you also read from them, and send through the lens an evidentiary calm.”

Read the rest at my blog, PressThink: The clash of absolutes and the on-air fact check.

FJP: And that, present and future broadcasters, is your pro tip of the day.

JAYYYY

"What is a publisher anymore, anyway? A blog is a magazine. A magazine a blog. A newspaper a..."

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:54:12 -0400

“What is a publisher anymore, anyway? A blog is a magazine. A magazine a blog. A newspaper a WordPress install. A Twitter account a journalist.”

- Craig Mod, Our New Shrines (via explore-blog)

strangewood: François TruffautI’d like to have your definition...

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:58:00 -0400

strangewood:

François Truffaut
I’d like to have your definition of the difference between “suspense” and “surprise.”

Alfred Hitchcock
There is a distinct difference between “suspense” and “surprise,” and yet many pictures continually confuse the two. I’ll explain what I mean.
We are now having a little chat. Let us suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, “Boom!” There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware that the bomb is going to explode at one o’clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions this same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on screen: “You shouldn’t be talking about such trivial matters. There’s a bomb beneath you and it’s about to explode!”
In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is, in itself, the highlight of the story.

In art as in news as in life: “The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed.”

My thesis, now available for purchase (or, email me and...

Mon, 28 May 2012 22:27:36 -0400

My thesis, now available for purchase (or, email me and I’ll send you a PDF. Bad business, I know, but good marketing?!) Yes, that’s me on the cover…

News Literacy, Informed Consumers and Consumer-Driven Media: The Future Landscape of American Journalism by Caroline Klibanoff

AS WE MAY THINK by VANNEVAR BUSH

Thu, 17 May 2012 22:20:34 -0400

AS WE MAY THINK by VANNEVAR BUSH:

theatlantic:

ninaperlman:

…

“Our ineptitude in getting at the record is largely caused by the artificiality of systems of indexing. When data of any sort are placed in storage, they are filed alphabetically or numerically, and information is found (when it is) by tracing it down from subclass to subclass. It can be in only one place, unless duplicates are used; one has to have rules as to which path will locate it, and the rules are cumbersome. Having found one item, moreover, one has to emerge from the system and re-enter on a new path.

The human mind does not work that way. It operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature.

Man cannot hope fully to duplicate this mental process artificially, but he certainly ought to be able to learn from it. In minor ways he may even improve, for his record have relative permanency. The first idea, however, to be drawn from the analogy concerns selection. Selection by association, rather than by indexing, may yet be mechanized. One cannot hope thus to equal the speed and flexibility with which the mind follows an associative trail, but it should be possible to beat the mind decisively in regard to the permanence and clarity of the items resurrected from storage.”

…

where was this article when I was writing that paper?

It’s been hanging around for 67 years!

"In towns and cities where there is a strong sense of community, there is no more important..."

Thu, 17 May 2012 22:11:13 -0400

“In towns and cities where there is a strong sense of community, there is no more important institution than the local paper. The many locales served by the newspapers we are acquiring fall firmly in this mold and we are delighted they have found a permanent home with Berkshire Hathaway.”

- Warren Buffet, founder, Bershire Hathaway, in a statement announcing the fund’s purchase of almost all newspapers currently owned by Media General, 63 titles in all mostly located in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama.

Via Yahoo Finance:

A subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, BH Media Group, will purchase all of the newspapers owned by Media General, with the exception of the Tampa group, for $142 million in cash. Media General said it is in discussions with other prospective buyers for its Tampa print assets.

Under a separate credit agreement, Berkshire Hathaway will provide Media General with a $400 million term loan and a $45 million revolving credit line. The new loan will be used to fully repay the company’s existing bank debt due March 2013 and will mature in May 2020. In conjunction with this, Media General will issue Berkshire Hathaway penny warrants for approximately 4.6 million Class A shares, which represents 19.9 percent of Media General’s existing shares outstanding. In addition, Berkshire Hathaway has the option to nominate a director to Media General’s Board of Directors.

Possible Takeaway: It’s good to have one of the world’s richest people on your side.

(via futurejournalismproject)

"In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation."

Fri, 04 May 2012 13:59:05 -0400

“In the case of news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.”

- Voltaire

"1. The model which has guided many people’s thinking in this area, the 1/9/90 rule, is outmoded. The..."

Fri, 04 May 2012 13:53:57 -0400

“1. The model which has guided many people’s thinking in this area, the 1/9/90 rule, is outmoded. The number of people participating online is significantly higher than 10%.”

- Above is just one finding of 6 by BBC’s Holly Goodier, who has spent a good deal of time assessing online participation patterns in the UK. Here are the other 5, which she and her team culled from a general agreement that the former audience is becoming more and more active online:

2. Participation is now the rule rather than the exception: 77% of the UK online population is now active in some way.
3. This has been driven by the rise of ‘easy participation’: activities which may have once required great effort but now are relatively easy, expected and every day. 60% of the UK online population now participates in this way, from sharing photos to starting a discussion.
4. Despite participation becoming relatively ‘easy’, almost a quarter of people (23%) remain passive - they do not participate at all.
5. Passivity is not as rooted in digital literacy as traditional wisdom may have suggested. 11% of the people who are passive online today are early adopters. They have the access and the ability but are choosing not to participate.
6. Digital participation now is best characterised through the lens of choice. These are the decisions we take about whether, when, with whom and around what, we will participate. Because participation is now much more about who we are, than what we have, or our digital skill.

See here for more on the 1/9/90 rule.

(via futurejournalismproject)