There is some tremendous work listed here. The link shows all the entries for this years National Press Photographers Best of Photojournalism Web division, and it covers just about every size outlet, including colleges and indy papers. It shows that you really can do some beautiful pieces in this new medium, and the perk about the Web is that we can all see the entries as well.
Category: Journalism
They’re outsourcing everything now
They’re even outsourcing journalists. Granted, the stories they’re writing could probably be written by a monkey and a typewriter, but it makes for interesting discussion.
Satire site fools everybody, but not intentionally
I mean, come on, the site’s header says “Indiana’s first source for inaccurate news and commentary since 2003.” Did you really think they’d be the one to break a story? Apparently the folks at the San Diego Union-Tribune, did, as they ran this story in their sports section. The story goes on about how Purdue University recruited the wrong Jason Smith — instead of recruiting the 6’6″ athlete, they recruited the 5’5″, 128-pound nerd. The story made the national radio circuit (all claiming they knew exclusive information), and the Union-Tribune made the mistake of printing it. Meanwhile, the Hoosier Gazette is laughing at everybody.
The Year in Pictures
MSNBC won several industry awards for last year’s version of this, and I’m sure the 2003 version will garner a few as well. This is one of the best ways to take advantage of the online medium, and this is a wonderful slide show (with audio and text commentary as well).
Fill-in scribe, testing 1, 2, 3
(Couldn’t resist the journalism category;-)
Hello all, Jake has mentioned me on several occasions, usually in a nice way. Barney Lerten here, the writer dood at bend.com. As you can see below, Jake has lucked out on a great doc helping him with a donated back operation. (I’d still demand a warranty, Jake;-)
Anyway, I know well from the site I work on all the time that an un-updated, cobwebby site stinks. So … I’m thinkin, maybe I can do some posts here for Jake once in a while. Or at the very least, report on how he’s doing, where to send the cards, bouquets and truckloads of cash, etc. etc.
Okay, then. Let’s all think happy thoughts about Jake’s vertebrae and discs, shall we?
“Frequent faller” tries to scam Wal-Mart
People like this need to get beaten senseless, and force fed UPN’s prime-time line up. On Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, for those of you who haven’t heard the term), news broke that Patricia Vanlester was knocked unconscious and, her sister said, “trampled by a herd of elephants,” a stampede of shoppers reaching for DVD players that went on sale at 6 a.m.
Pundits and media outlets nationwide stated that the incident was just another example of greedy Americans who don’t give a rip about the holidays and are just trying to score a deal.
But leave it to journalists to crack this lady. This lady has been “trampled” several times, filing 16 other claims of being injured at work or at a business. Veteran journalist Al Tompkins interviews the reporter who followed up on the anonymous e-mail tip, and how he broke the story. Good read, and if it weren’t for guys like this, we’d all feel sorry for the lady. I know I don’t.
This is why I respect journalists
The power goes out for newsrooms all over the Northeast, but they still get the news out. Here’s a good list of stories from Romenesko talking about how newsrooms worked through the black out. What it came down to was this: Newspapers, power outage be damned, worked their asses off, even using the presses at the competitors. Nice job to all of you!
The history of Internet awards, and specifics for newspapers
Mark Glaser writes great online media commentary, and this column is no different. If you’ve ever worked for a newspaper or other major media outlet, you’ll understand what he’s talking about: Newspapers, like many other industries, have tons of industry awards. If you enter all the contests, you’re bound to win something. The same holds true for Web sites. Like Glaser, I too remember when everybody was a Lycos Top 5% site.
Basically, what’s happening is that the value of awards is going down. The other problem, writes Glaser, is that newspaper awards more about “bells & whistles” on online-news sites rather than excellent writing for the medium.
I agree and disagree. While writing for the online medium is generally shovel-ware from the print addition, I agree with Steve Outing on this one: online writing is important, but I think I’d give the awards to the folks who take advantage of the medium to its fullest — from the writing, but also the multimedia aspects that are possible. Extra writing for the Web is not what’s going to attract and keep readers on your site, but a good video or interactive presentation will.
Why hire a sports journalist when you can buy on on eBay?
From Romenesko’s letter page:
Foxsports.com, which recently fired its entire writing staff, is using eBay to find a NASCAR columnist. (Yes, you too can pay to work for a Murdoch outfit.) “If this is a success — and why wouldn’t it be for heaven’s sake — I’m sure we can all imagine the ramifications,” writes Stu Schneider. “The fine folks at the Medills of the world can just pack up their stuff and learn to play the harmonica I guess.”
What’s amazing to me is they’re also looking for a British Open writer. Generally, you get paid to do this sort of stuff, you don’t have to bid for the privilege.
Sportswriter fired for using “Caddyshack” bit in golf story
From MediaNews:Here is what Carl Spackler said (second quote) in the movie “Caddyshack” about a very special golf course grass (that was Bill Murray‘s character, if you remember). Here is what “Carl Spangler” said in the Roswell Daily Record about the new grass at Roswell Country Club. And here is what Daily Record editors wrote after learning the truth about “Spangler” and his grass.