It Wasn't Sunil Tripathi

The Atlantic has a sobering write-up of how the Internet falsely identified missing Brown student Sunil Tripathi as one of the Boston bombing suspects yesterday.

[T]here was a full-on frenzy as thousand upon thousands of tweets poured out, many celebrating new media's victory in trouncing old media. It was all so shockingly new and the pitch was so high and it was so late at night on one of the craziest days in memory. That Redditors might have identified the bomber hours before anyone but law enforcement seemed like amazing redemption for people who'd supported Reddit's crowdsourcing efforts.

Hughes himself, the primary source of the information on Twitter, tweeted, "If Sunil Tripathi did indeed commit this #BostonBombing, Reddit has scored a significant, game-changing victory." And then later, he continued, "Journalism students take note: tonight, the best reporting was crowdsourced, digital and done by bystanders. #Watertown."

Within a few hours, however, NBC's Phillips had confirmed with his sources that two Chechnyan brothers were the primary suspects in the case. Their names and stories came out quickly. This horrible deed of misidentification ended mercifully quickly. Apologies were made.

Journalism students should still take note, of course - this is stuff you learn the first week of class. Don't make assumptions. Stuff from the police scanner is unconfirmed and should not be reported. Check and check and check your sources.

Body Image

The NZ Herald Online went unintentionally meta in this article about the need for positive female role models to battle "the epidemic of eating disorders and self-harming among young girls":

I can't tell if the ad undermines the article or reinforces it, but either way it shows the risk of combining news, advertising and automated web design.

Current Events

How's this for media gossip. Today NYT's Brian Stelter got the scoop that Current TV - famous for hiring, bickering with, firing and being sued by Keith Olbermann - has been bought by Al Jazeera, which means Elliot Spitzer, Jennifer Granholm and the other lefty pundits will be dropped too:

Al Jazeera plans to shut Current and start an English-language channel, which will be available in more than 40 million homes, with newscasts emanating from both New York and Doha, Qatar.

Time Warner Cable responded to this news by dropping Current TV, and right-wingers on Twitter started an Islamophobic hashtag game about new show ideas like "Stoned in Afghanistan" and "Arabia's Funniest Home Beheadings."

And now it turns out that Glenn Beck tried to purchase Current himself last year but was rejected because he's "not aligned to [their] point of view".

Remember when that scrappy documentary series "Vanguard" was doing award-winning exposés on organised crime and Olbermann was going to single-handedly save journalism from corporate interference? Where did it all go wrong, you guys? (About five minutes after KO signed on, yes, I know.)

The Making of "Snow Fall"

I finally got around to reading The New York Times's multimedia feature "Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek", which has been attracting a lot of attention from web-savvy reporters.

Basically, it's a long, in-depth article about a deadly avalanche in the Cascades near Seattle, illustrated by videos, photographs, audio clips, slideshows and animations that come to life as you scroll down the page.

I really like the format. It combines classic long-form writing with the smooth interactive experience that people now expect from online media, and the graphics and videos make it easier to concentrate on the story and keep track of all the details.

In a team interview with Source, NYT's graphics director Steve Duenes explains: "We wanted to make a single story out of all the assets, including the text. So the larger project wasn’t a typical design effort. It was an editing project that required us to weave things together so that text, video, photography and graphics could all be consumed in a way that was similar to reading—a different kind of reading."

If this is where print journalism is headed, then I'm encouraged - but it's looking more and more likely that I'll need to dust off my computer science degree if I want my career to go anywhere. And here I thought I'd escaped.

The Ezra Klein Show

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We've been seeing a lot of Ezra Klein on MSNBC lately. Washington Post's "Wonkblog" editor is now Rachel Maddow's go-to substitute host, and there are rumours floating around that he may get his own show. That's how Chris Hayes and Melissa Harris-Perry got their start on the network, after all.

I like the guy and he's really smart, so I wouldn't mind seeing him join the lineup. He needs work, though. You can tell he's trying to develop more on-screen charisma, but right now he's copying Maddow's inflections and mannerisms too much. (Don't worry, Ezra, Chris Hayes used to do that too and he's much better now.)

If the show rumours are true, my suspicion is that MSNBC is trying to tap into the geek love generated by Nate Silver's polling triumph in the 2012 election - which is funny, because Nate Silver apparently hates punditry.

P.S. Yes, I know I talk about MSNBC people all the time. I haven't drunk the Kool-Aid, it's just that Fox News is too absurd and CNN is too boring, and all my other favourite news sources are on the Internet. I think of the network as a tidy case study of everything that is good and bad about cable news.

Richard Engel, Superman

I'm relieved to hear that NBC's chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and his team are safe after being kidnapped and held for five days in Syria:

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Engel's ordeal reminded me of his theory about the four stages of stress a reporter goes through while covering war zones, outlined in his book War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq:

• Stage One: I'm invincible. Nothing can hurt me. I'm Superman.
• Stage Two: What I'm doing is dangerous. I might get hurt over here. I'd better be careful.
• Stage Three: What I'm doing is really dangerous. I am probably going to get hurt over here no matter how careful I am. Math and probability and time are working against me.
• Stage Four: I have been here too long. I am going to die over here. It is just a matter of time. I've played the game too long.

It's not time just yet, thank goodness. Welcome back, Richard.

Six Months In

I have been a full-time reporter at a daily paper for six months now. I made a list of things I'd learned when I was fresh out of journalism school, so I thought I'd add some of my practical experiences so far.

• Working in a small town is rough at first. It takes ages to figure out all the local gossip and even longer for people to trust you; and in the meantime there's nothing to do on the weekends and you can't get a decent coffee anywhere. But it's worth it in the long run, because you end up trying a bit of everything and learning about a part of society you might not be familiar with.
• Nothing really prepares you for interviewing a man who just got laid off from his job, or facing an angry parent whose child is being bullied at school because of an article you wrote. All you can do is stay calm, be fair, and try to have as much empathy as possible. Never lose sight of the fact that you are affecting people's lives in a very real way.
• You'll also get a lot of political staffers and corporate PR people angry with you, and there is aaaaabsolutely nothing wrong with that. You just annoy the crap out of them. (Politely.)

The Onion: "F*ck Everything"

The Onion nails it with their gut-wrenching article on the shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut - not just America's anger and despair, but also the thoughts running through reporters' heads as they try to cover a tragedy of this scale:

Despairing sources confirmed that the gunman, armed with a semiautomatic assault rifle—a fucking combat rifle, Jesus—walked into a classroom full of goddamned children where his mother was a teacher and, good God, if this is what the world is becoming, then how about we just pack it in and fucking give up, because this is no way to live. 

I mean, honestly, all 315 million Americans confirmed.

Sometimes journalistic detachment is impossible.

Character Sketch

A sketch from Michael Arthur of playwright Tony Kushner and MSNBC pundit Rachel Maddow at the "Duets" event at Joe's Pub in New York City, via MaddowBlog.

From the New Yorker: "[My persona is] not a fake me, but it is a slice of me. Like, I am a person who has depression, and I don’t let depressed Rachel on television."

Post-Industrial Journalism

Journos will find plenty to inspire and even more to worry about in "Post-Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present", a study from Columbia Journalism School's Tow Centre. It's a dense read (check out Poynter's write-up if you're in a hurry) but worth setting aside an afternoon.

Basically, the report says that the transformation of American journalism is unavoidable, "that the journalism industry is dead but that journalism exists in many places", and journalists and news organisations have to be much more versatile in order to survive. Alarming, but kind of exciting if you like a challenge.

Thoughts on Fact-checking

The American presidential election is over, thank goodness, and I'm in the process of separating the important lessons from the emotional drama of the last few months.

On the journalism side, one of the most interesting topics has been the conflict between balance and fact-checking, which I find to be just as polarising as the Bias vs Objectivity debate in some cases (hi there, PolitiFact).

The issue was summed up in this article from The New York Times's public editor Margaret Sullivan. The rise of fact-checkers, she said, was "all a part of a movement — brought about, in part, by a more demanding public, fueled by media critics, bloggers and denizens of the social media world — to present the truth, not just conflicting arguments leading to confusion."

"The Campaign"

I wasn't planning to see this - Will Ferrell isn't really my thing - but my newspaper's social club picked it for our movie night and I had nothing else to do, so what the hell.

In "The Campaign" (or "Citizens United 101 for Frat Boys" as I like to think of it), Ferrell plays Cam Brady, a North Carolina congressman running unopposed for his fifth term until he accidentally leaves a sexually explicit message for his mistress on a Christian family's answering machine.

The Motch brothers, two corrupt billionaires blatantly based on the Koch brothers, see this as a chance to buy the election so they can sell the district to Chinese sweatshops and save on shipping.

They pick an associate's son, Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), to run against Cam, putting millions of dollars into his campaign. "When you have the money," Jon Lithgow's Glen Motch smirks, "nothing is unpredictable." But Marty is fat and silly and sounds kinda gay, giving Cam plenty of opportunities to make gross Will Ferrell jokes.

Friendship and Politics

In the end it was probably inevitable.

I'm sad to notice that a rift has opened between one-time friends and colleagues Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann. The two of them were a big reason why I got into news and politics, and their apparent break-up is a reality check about the pressures of show business.

When Olbermann left MSNBC in January 2011, he and Maddow had kind words for each other. He called her "my dear friend" as he signed off, and she spent a brief segment of her show explaining that she would never have found a place on the network without his support.

US Weekly and the KStew Scandal

I feel so dirty about this, but I can't help it. The scandal of Kristen Stewart cheating on Robert Pattinson has me hooked - not because I have any interest in the actors or, God forbid, the Twilight series, but because of the fascinating way the tabloids are manipulating their consumers.

Here's my favourite theory (okay, conspiracy theory). This is the photograph that started the whole thing, splashed across the July 27 edition of US Weekly and revealed online on July 24.

Rabid "Robsten" fans quickly noticed the distortion where Stewart's right ear should be, indicating the face has been heavily Photoshopped. They spent the rest of the week accusing US Weekly of making the whole thing up by superimposing Stewart's face onto the body of Rupert Sanders' wife, Liberty Ross.

Jon Stewart Skewers CNN (Again)

I don't always agree with Jon Stewart, but CNN's big mistake on the Supreme Court ruling was what he was born for.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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"Yes, 'widely different'. There's what you've been saying, and then there's what happened."

Has Cable News Peaked?

Jack Shafer makes an interesting point about the future of the cable news business:

CNN isn’t the only network riding the down escalator when it comes to ratings. Over the same week, Fox News Channel attracted its fewest viewers in the important 25-to-54-year-old category since July 2008, the Times added.

Various observers have blamed the viewership downturn on the lull in the 2012 campaign, on viewers defecting to the season finales on the entertainment channels and on the lack of breaking news. But I interpret the falloffs as fresh evidence that the audience for cable news has peaked.

Despite my favourite (and pretty much only) TV show being on cable news, I see discussion like this with more curiosity than concern. Beyond a few bright spots, the format is starting to feel tired and predictable, and I'm waiting for some innovative multimedia format to become profitable enough to take off.

That's one of the reasons I'm drawn to television personalities who didn't originally come from television - who started out as professors or bloggers or writers. With a little basic talent you can always learn how to look good on TV, but I think if you want to stay afloat in the media over the next few decades you need to be able to evolve and do something out of the ordinary.

HBO's "The Newsroom"

Days after Keith Olbermann gets fired from Current TV, we get this spectacular teaser from Aaron Sorkin.
 

I'm hooked. Sorry, "Mad Men."

(I can see it now. Sorkin in interview after interview, saying "Why, my character is completely fictional! He's a combination of a range of different TV personalities! After all, he's a Republican!")

Charlie Brooker: How to Report the News

Amen on the vox pops, seriously.

One Foot on the Ladder

Making the transition from news junkie to journalist is a strange experience. I have insight now that I never imagined when I was just watching political shows and bumming around on the Internet - and there are a few guilty pleasures from my fangirl days that I can't get away with anymore.

Here are a few of the things I've learned:

• Controversial issues have a tendency to split into obvious, polarised and ultimately unhelpful factions. Reporters ought to find a different way to frame the debate while still getting ratings and page clicks. Good luck with that, reporters.
• Everyone thinks their favourite story should be on the front page or at the top of the news hour. Don't even try to please them all - but have a good reason for your decision.
• Humour, sarcasm and moral indignation are fun, useful tools that can backfire spectacularly.

How To Fumble a News Story

I've been watching with interest - and not a little frustration - the recent evictions of Occupy protesters in the States, and how the possibility of federal involvement in the raids has been covered by the media. 

You dig through the debate at your own peril by now, but here's what I've pinned down.

More than a dozen cities moved to evict Occupy protesters from their campgrounds earlier this month, all acting in the space of ten days and using similar tactics. Department of Homeland Security vehicles were spotted at a number of the evictions, including one in Portland.

Later Oakland Mayor Jean Quan revealed to the BBC that she participated in a conference call of 18 cities before the wave of crackdowns began. There was another set of conference calls headed up by the Police Executive Research Forum.

Rick Ellis, a reporter for the (somewhat dodgy) news aggregate site Examiner.com, said an unnamed Justice Department official told him on background that local police agencies had received tactical and planning advice from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.