Soap Box: The Fall Race We Deserve (But Probably Won't See)

While Clinton and Kasich are their respective parties' most qualified candidates this campaign season, their capabilities are being eclipsed by voters' preference for style over substance.

Our copy of The New York Times arrived on the driveway early yesterday morning and, because of the  current internet-based paradigm of "pushing" news before it's seen in print, I already knew what it contained regarding today's Iowa caucuses. On the eve of this long-awaited start to the 2016 presidential primary process, the paper's editorial board announced its choices for endorsements--the time-honored political practice of publicly bestowing support to or approval of a person or position. With a long history of endorsing presidential candidates that goes back to Abraham Lincoln's first run for the White House in 1860 (and an overall 61 percent--24  out of 39 times backing the winner--accuracy rating for those general elections), the receipt of  "The Gray Lady's" auspicious sanction was seen by many politicians as a needed boost to a flagging campaign or as yet another example of the inevitability of their cause or candidacy to the voting public. In today's social media-dominated world where everyone can have a platform and express an opinion, newspaper endorsements have diminished in importance but are still seen as "bellwethers" to gauge support within the media "establishment".

My Year of Application

Greetings to all of my readers, followers, former classmates and friends on this first day of 2014, or as I am branding it "My Year of Application".  As I said at the close of my last blog update of 2013, I declared completion with my Certificate in Journalism program through the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the physical certificate is in the process of being delivered to me sometime in the next five-to-ten school business days.  Over the past 28 months, I've become formally acquainted with the fundamentals of journalism, did some newswriting and reporting, learned about the current online environment, reviewed ethical considerations, practiced some public relations writing, expanded my photojournalism confidence levels and, lastly, dabbled in opinion writing (to supplement my near lifelong following of these subjects).  Throughout that period, I posted some of my coursework submissions here to serve as waypoints to measure my personal progress towards the certificate completion goal. 

My Media Vacation (Part 1 of 3): New York City

[NOTE: Due to the amount of research I've been doing for my current journalism class and work-related activities, my brain is a little too "fried" for a deep-thought posting.  A while back, I shared parts of a vacation trip that I made with my son over to the East Coast in late July/early August 2012.  These are some of the photos that I took along the way--I hope you enjoy them!] 

"30 Rock" serves as the anchor of New York City's Rockefeller Plaza (and the headquarters of NBC News)

After the reunion/family-related activities of our visit back in Pennsylvania was completed, our first stop for this father/son "road trip" was Secaucus, New Jersey--just across the river from Manhattan and the recognized media capital of the world, New York City.  I chose the cross-river location due to expenses (a two-night stay at a quality hotel in "the Garden State" was roughly equivalent to a single night just five miles to the east) and easy access to the city itself (we were just one exit away from the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel and mid-town locations).  Fortunately, a day-long tour bus stopped right outside our lobby and we made sure we were up bright and early for day one of our two-day visit to "the Big Apple".

Et Tu, Gray Lady?

This weekly section marked a small, but noticeable, change for The New York Times print edition last week

If you have read any of my other posts on this blog, you might be aware that I am someone who is not a fan of change for change sake, especially when it comes to printed newspapers.  Last spring, I called out my local paper, The Dayton Daily News, for making cosmetic changes to their publication that, in my opinion, were unwarranted and simply a ploy to placate their readership's current whims.  In a follow-up piece, I expressed my displeasure with the folks at The New York Times Magazine for toying around with different fonts for its masthead in, what I hoped would be, a one-time experiment.  I haven't seen any subsequent violations of that "sacrosanct" journalism symbol since, but you can imagine my surprise when I took yesterday's copy of The New York Times out of its protective plastic sleeve and saw the wholesale changes they made to the entire paper (minus the news section, the magazine and the Book Review).

Creating a Publishing Platform: Frank Rich

[NOTE: I listened to Frank Rich this morning during the last half hour of The Bill Press Show on Current TV and that reminded me that I just wrote about him during my recently completed Intro to Online Journalism course.  I was to find and analyze the online channels used by my favorite writer and detail how they use them to capture audience attention and create conversations. Just thought that I should share the assignment, which was written in the middle of July, with my readership.]

If given the choice of any writer I would aspire to be (or one that would require a natural disaster for me to miss their latest work), the hands-down choice would be Frank Rich.  A one-time theater critic turned op/ed columnist, Rich has been one of the leading progressive voices in America’s ‘mediascape’ for the past decade who came into his own during the country’s lead-up to the Iraq War and the later years of the George W. Bush administration.  On a weekly basis, he penned hard-hitting 1,500-word columns on politics, current events and culture which anchored The New York Times’ expanded ‘Week in Review’ section in their Sunday editions from 2005 until early 2011 when he left to join New York Magazine.  Rich has slowed down just a tad at his new employer (he now does a monthly column and weekly ‘interview’ sessions with editor-in-chief Adam Moss) but this new tempo has not diminished his veracity nor his desire to seek out the truth from among the multitude of media outlets and political operatives.  While already a devoted weekly reader, his 2006 book The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth and its blistering expose of how Bush and his team ‘rolled out’ a campaign to coerce the American public to sanction a war with Iraq cemented his place as my favorite writer.

'The Newsroom' Premieres Next Sunday--I Can't Wait!

This is what greeted me this morning on the back cover of today's New York Times Magazine

I'm not quite sure if it's due to my college program or if it's the thought of a television show of the same (or perhaps better) quality of The West Wing but I am anxiously counting the hours (less than 168 from this posting) for the debut of Aaron Sorkin's latest drama, The Newsroom, much like a young child does late into the third week of December in anticipation of Christmas.  I read the piece about the show in last week's New York Times and today's back cover of that publication's Sunday magazine section featured a full page advertisement for the series premiere a week from tonight.  A quick comment to HBO's marketing people--mission accomplished!  Count me in!

I Guess This Means No

My vote has been negated

If you read my earlier post concerning the recent change of typeface/font by the Dayton Daily News, you would know that I was not happy at all about it.  As a person who possesses a 'critical eye', such a change to a product that I've become very familiar with over the past dozen years or so was a shock to my system--so much so that I drafted my response to it here on the blog and sent Jana Collier an email with a link to my critique.  I didn't get a formal reply to my submission but I found this item related to the change tucked in the bottom corner of page A2 of last Tuesday's DDN. 

My Sentiments Exactly!

"Hi and Lois" courtesy of King Features Syndicate

It's not often that a comic strip attracts undue attention from me but yesterday's edition of Hi and Lois appeared to take a page directly out of my day-to-day life.  In the two panels above, we see a short but succinct representation of the current transition of the newspaper industry from a paper-based paradigm to one with an online domain.  'Thirsty' Thurston, on the left with his impartially branded laptop computer, represents the future of information distribution to consumers.  Hiram "Hi" Flagston, on the right with an equally impartial newspaper, is a fan of the more traditional medium.

Recent Journalism-related Articles

I haven't done this in a while but I am mentioning two articles that I read in today's edition of the New York Times due to their ties to my current field of study.

The first reviews the current struggles at the Washington Post, the Times' true competitor for the the title of "America's paper of record," as they contend with the financial issues surrounding all traditional news outlets in the wake of the Internet's intrusion upon previously successful business models. 

You're Welcome!

I had a pleasant surprise this morning when I opened up my copy of the Dayton Daily News and saw a 'teaser' article at the bottom of the front page.  Julia Wallace, publisher of the newspaper, announced to the paper's readers that the Sunday circulation for the official reporting period from March-September 2011 had increased, the first such gain in the past 10 years.  She thanked the readership and directed us to go to the above page (AA4), where Jana Collier, the paper's editor-in-chief, explains the recent changes.

Print vs. Online

As a current subscriber to the New York Times (and someone who grew up with newsprint stains on my hands), I felt that this article was speaking directly to me...

 

 

Print vs. Online 

The ways in which old-fashioned newspapers still trump online newspapers. 

By Jack Shafer

Posted Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, at 5:47 PM ET

A little over five years ago, I announced that I was canceling my subscription to the New York Times. My cancellation wasn't in protest of Times coverage of the Middle East, ethnic minorities, religion, sex, or any of the other thousand hot-button issues that cause readers to kill their subscriptions. I was getting rid of my newsprint New York Times because the dandy redesign of NYTimes.com had made it a superior vessel for conveying the news.

(more available at link provided above)