Science, Technology and Freedom of the Press

I knew there was a reason I haven't completely written off my former career in information technology. From Wired.com:

Scientific advancement never happens in a vacuum.... The broad and effective communication of science is essential for public understanding and support of the research enterprise. ... Any region hoping to be recognized for innovation needs an independent press corps that is able to seek out truth, without interference, while providing a conduit for exchange between science and the rest of society.

More broadly, the article pinpoints my gut feeling that the reporters and scientists I admire share the same intense curiosity about the world: "Good journalism, like good science, thrives on openness and a respect for truth based on evidence."

That, and they tend to be nerds. Let's just be honest.

Social Media: Are You Guys Real?

The possibility of being manipulated via social media has been on my mind a lot lately.

First there was the discovery by The New York Times' Jennifer Preston that one or more people created fake Twitter identities to dig up dirt on Anthony Weiner. I hear from her own (presumably genuine) Twitter account that she's now working on a story on the subculture of "sock puppets", which I can't wait to read.

Then there was the "Gay Girl in Damascus" saga, which gave us not one but two middle-aged American men pretending to be lesbians on the Internet. (Check out the Washington Post for a really good article on what journalists should learn from this.)

Now I'm hearing that some politicians may be using social media to fight dirty against their opponents:

[C]ampaigns across the country are discovering that the anonymous and instantaneous qualities of Twitter can also create headaches when candidates come under attack.

In the San Francisco mayoral race, most of the mock feeds have at most several hundred followers and so far do not appear to be having much influence. But the growing prevalence of the anonymous accounts is raising questions about how to balance free speech and transparency in the fast-evolving world of online political communication.

It's all fascinating stuff, particularly when you throw satire and creativity into the mix (hi there, @MayorEmanuel). But I have to wonder - are there any dirty tricks going on in my little corner of the internet? As a politically active person and an aspiring journalist, do I need to be careful who I talk to? Am I social media-savvy enough to recognise a sock puppet when I see one?

It's something to think about.

P.S. I'm totally who I say I am.

P.P.S. Swear to God.

What The Media Can Learn From Porn

I may need to add this to my To-Read pile: The Erotic Engine: How Pornography has Powered Mass Communication from Gutenberg to Google.

This review on CNBC mentions four of the lessons the mainstream media can learn from the porn industry, including this intriguing detail about media innovator Moses Znaimer, who decided to add porn to his start-up TV channel in Toronto:

For 166 hours a week, his station’s Nielsen ratings were too low to measure. But for two hours each Friday night he captured more than two thirds of the city’s viewing audience – when he aired softcore movies he called “Baby Blues.”

Despite the ratings, stigma-wary sponsors had no interest in advertising during Baby Blue movies. But, viewers who came for the porn, stayed for other CityTV programming. Ratings during the rest of the week began to climb. Although Znaimer earned little directly from pornography, he still built a media empire worth tens of millions of dollars on the back of the Baby Blues.

Give it a think, Current TV. I'm just saying.

Civility vs Glitter

It seems the more I hear about civility and bipartisanship in American politics, the more contrarian I get.

For example. This weekend Michelle Bachmann became the latest target of “glittering” by LGBT activists as she left the stage at the RightOnline conference in Minneapolis. A member of a gay-rights group tried to dump glitter over the congresswoman’s head in protest of her anti-gay rhetoric. Bachmann managed to get away unsparkly, but Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty have been less fortunate.

One of the left-leaning political bloggers on my Twitter feed hates this kind of thing. “I’ll say it: this is dumb,” he wrote sternly. “Stop.”

An Hour With Fatima Bhutto

Original post at The Lumière Reader as part of their coverage of the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.

The names march down the book’s cover in bold white print: “Granddaughter to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, executed 1979. Niece to Shahnawaz Bhutto, murdered 1985. Daughter of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, assassinated 1996. Niece to Benazir Bhutto, assassinated 2007.”

But when Fatima Bhutto took the stage at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival, casual in jeans and a loose white blouse, she seemed determined to resist that introduction. “It’s not on my business card, actually, who I’m related to,” she joked. “You could just say Writer.”

It’s a fitting contrast. Fatima’s memoir Songs of Blood and Sword is a political history of the Bhutto dynasty in Pakistan, but it is also an expression of grief and an act of political defiance. In promoting the book, she is attempting to tear down the myths and deceptions that have defined her family for the last four decades.

Breitbart 1, Journalism 0

Dammit, Congressman, I TRUSTED YOU and you LIED TO ME.

Actually I find this kind of tame and silly as far as sex scandals go, particularly since Anthony Weiner has never run on a Family Values, My-Sexuality-Is-Better-Than-Your-Sexuality platform.  What really annoys me is the fact that everyone will spend the next week fawning over Andrew Breitbart as if all the times he's been caught lying and fabricating scandals no longer count.

Peachy. Less than a week before I start journalism school, I get a nice long look at everything that's wrong with the mainstream media.

The one bright spot throughout this incident, oddly enough, has been Gennette Cordova, the recipient of the lewd photograph. From the Washington Post:

According to Cordova, Fenton [a journalist from the New York Post] posed as a photographer’s assistant during the photo session in Bellingham, Wash., where Cordova attends community college. He then “interviewed” her by casually asking a few questions, she said, but without identifying himself as a reporter or saying he was writing a story. Both are generally considered ethical breaches — as Cordova, a journalism student, pointed out by posting a link to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics.

[...]

“If I’ve refused to do interviews with credible shows like Good Morning America, why would I give an interview to @NewYorkPost?” she tweeted. Again, rhetorically addressing Fenton, she tweeted: “Why would I do an interview with a tabloid about how I don’t want media attention? Trash.”

Someone hire this woman.

Weinergate: Allow Me to Explain How the Internet Works

So, this is happening:

New York Congressman Anthony Weiner said on Wednesday that he did not send a lewd photo over his Twitter account but cannot be sure that the photo was not of him.

"It certainly doesn't look familiar to me, but I don't want to say with certitude to you something that I don't know to be the certain truth," Weiner told CNN in an interview.

"I didn't send any twitter picture," he said, adding that the photo might have been manipulated.

Weiner has said his account was hacked when a lewd photo of a man in bulging boxer briefs was tweeted to a 21-year-old female college student in Washington state over the weekend. ... The student, Gennette Cordova, issued a statement to the New York Daily News that denied she personally knew Weiner but said, "I am a fan."

Here is why I think the news coverage of this story is painfully ridiculous.

I follow politics on Twitter a lot, so I have a pretty good idea of how this corner of Internet fandom works. When we’re not watching the news and debating the issues, we’re joking, arguing and sometimes outright flirting with our favourite media personalities – and there are intricate networks of nicknames, catchphrases and inside jokes for each of them.