“I am the world crier, & this is my dangerous career… I am the one to call your bluff, & this is my climate.” —Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972)
Now that Avatar is on track to be the second biggest film of all time, pundits are starting to wonder if there’s more to its success than Art Nouveau pterodactyls in 3-D. Here are five explanations they’ve come up with. (io9)
Thoughtful piece by culture critic Bill Wyman (Splice Today). I would be interested in hearing how this analysis strikes insiders in the journalism business.
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“Amnesty International has installed a new anti-domestic-abuse ad fixture in Hamburg, Germany which is equal parts clever and shocking: when you look at the photo, it's a smiling couple; when you look away, it's a dude punchin' a lady.” (Gizmodo )
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“Slam poetry was invited into the White House last month and it is also the focus of the recent HBO documentary series “Brave New Voices.” So you might think that the originator of the poetry slam, a raucous live competition that is more likely to take place in a bar than in a bookstore, would be feeling rather pleased these days.
But from his base here at the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, Marc Kelly Smith expresses mixed feelings about the growing popularity and respectability of the art form that he created almost 25 years ago. From the start, he envisioned slam poetry as a subversive, thumb-your-nose-at-authority movement, and he wants to ensure it stays true to those origins.” (New York Times )
A dedicated news update page (Wall Street Journal).
“How loudly should a responsible person shout (or whisper) “Possible Fire!” in a crowded theater?” via The Lede – NYTimes.
…[T]oo often, the White House briefing room is where news goes to die.
Name a major political story broken by a White House correspondent. A thorough debunking of the Bush case for Iraqi WMD? McClatchy Newspapers’ State Department and national security correspondents. Bush’s abuse of signing statements? The Boston Globe‘s legal affairs correspondent. Even Watergate came off The Washington Post‘s Metro desk.
Here are some stories that reporters working the White House beat have produced in the past few months: Pocket squares are back! The president is popular in Europe. Vegetable garden! Joe Biden occasionally says things he probably regrets. Puppy!
It’s not that the reporters covering the president are bad at their jobs. Most are experienced journalists at the top of their game — and they’re wasted at the White House, where scoops are doled out, not uncovered.” Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette) (Washington Post op-ed).
“When we go online, each of us is our own editor, our own gatekeeper. We select the kind of news and opinions that we care most about.
Nicholas Negroponte of M.I.T. has called this emerging news product The Daily Me. And if that’s the trend, God save us from ourselves.
That’s because there’s pretty good evidence that we generally don’t truly want good information — but rather information that confirms our prejudices. We may believe intellectually in the clash of opinions, but in practice we like to embed ourselves in the reassuring womb of an echo chamber.” — Nicholas Kristoff via NYTimes op-ed.
Although Kristoff has seemingly only just discovered the ‘echo chamber’ effect, it has been a longstanding preoccupation of thoughtful observers of internet sociology. As newspapers morph into lesser online versions of themselves with less pretense to completeness and objectivity, however, is the situation about to get much worse?
‘The New York Times keeps playing around with their online presentation, with interesting, helpful results. The “Article Skimmer” spreads stories out landscape style and ad-free, creating an easier read for laptops and wide-screen LCDs… [O]ne of the Times’ public prototype experiments, [it] presents a de-cluttered look at the front page, news sections, and the ever-popular “Most Emailed” list. No ads at all, at least in this early stage, until you click on the actual articles. If you find yourself quickly scrolling down the Times’ front page to grab more headlines than the boxed, column-style presentation allows, this might be a nice bookmark or home page replacement.’ via Lifehacker.
I have tried various ways to keep up with the Times on a daily basis since moving my news-reading entirely to the web. This is by far the best way I’ve found. And thanks to Lifehacker, another of my daily reads…
‘So why exactly do most Japanese folk do the V-sign when having their photos taken? According to Wikipedia, the earliest confirmed usage of the V-sign was by Winston Churchil during World War II – the V-sign meaning “Victory.” The Japanese Wikipedia for the entry Peace Sign however says that there is a theory that the two fingers mean that two nuclear bombs where dropped on Japan meaning that peace is near…
During the 1972 Winter Olympics in Japan, skater Janet Lynn (who was also a peace activist) was photographed by the Japanese media doing the V-sign. Although the V-sign was already recognized in Japan, it was apparently these photos of Lynn that popularized the use of the V-sign.
The Japanese entry in Wikipedia does not mention Lynn at all and instead says that the V-sign took off in the 80’s when usage of the V-sign was used when kids were having their photos taken.’ via Boing Boing.
‘South Africa’s ETV News station made a little booboo, prematurely proclaiming “George Bush is dead” in a breaking news flash that aired on TVs throughout the country. Apparently the station uses the phrase a mock-up for headlines and a butterfingered (or sneaky) technician accidently pushed the button that runs the morbid message. A station spokesman said ETV would now test banners using “gobbledegook.” Dubya also responded to the little whoopsie, saying, “South Africa obviously misunderestimated my ability to outlive y’all.” ‘ via Truemors.
“More evidence of the abominable ad market: Wired’s February issue is so thin, its binding is thicker than its actual pages. It feels startlingly flimsy to the touch. The issue numbers just 113 pages in total. Wired’s January issue contained 128 pages; the December issue, 231 pages.
Of those 113 pages, only 31.5 are ad pages. That’s miserable. The usual ratio between editorial and advertising hovers around 1:1.
31.5 ad pages is a 27% decline from the January 2009 issue, which itself was a 47% decline from January 2007.” via Silicon Alley Insider.
Hersh has long been one of my heroes.
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