Kathlyn Clore

I am flipping through the morning news shoes today here in Monterey.

They are all showing weather reports and traffic reports every 10 minutes or so. Every station is reporting a traffic backup near the Bay Bridge. Live images of a idling cars flash across the screen corroborating reports of a 30-minute backup near a major toll plaza.

After making some kind of cutesy comment about being glad not to be stuck in that sea of metal, the traffic reporter hands the broadcast back to the main announcer. He moves on to another story.

Why not follow this report with images of what’s happening for public transport commuters? There are plenty of CalTrain stations at which to shoot pictures. It would also be good to report any major delays on the train or bus systems in and around San Fransisco and San Jose.

Reporting what’s happening for morning commuters taking public transport would be a good service for viewers (especially folks who might be tuning in to updates via smart phone) and a great way to bring the public transportation systems more into the public consciousness.

If you are looking for info on public transportation issues, check out StreetsBlogs.

Wired has a great infographic and article explaining how AP’s content “protection” system works - or rather, doesn’t.

Helpful in general, but a few grafs in the middle have confused me, especially this bit:

“Indeed, it is designed to detect unauthorized use under conditions a content thief would be unlikely to use: Simply cutting and pasting AP content will remove all underlying code (as an overly ambitious aggregator might). So will re-typing it (as a commenting blogger might).”

But then, one graf later:

“Nothing in copyright law requires a blogger or commenter to include the meta-tags if they use an excerpt in a blog post. (Got it!) In fact for a blogger to comply, they’ll have to do more than just cut and paste – they will have to view the source code on a newspaper’s site, search through the HTML and javascript to find the text of the story and its micro-formats. Once the thief has gone to this trouble the purloined story will call home to report where it is being re-printed, via a Web Bug url embedded in the story. Only then would The News Registry even be aware of this use.”

Question: Does cut and pasting alert The News Registry, or not?

Big brother got a kid sister today, and she’ll be watching you closely.

The media blogosphere was a-crackin’ today after The Associated Press announced its intent to:

“create a news registry that will tag and track all AP content online to assure compliance with terms of use. The system will register key identifying information about each piece of content that AP distributes as well as the terms of use of that content, and employ a built-in beacon to notify AP about how the content is used.”

Hm. Is this OK?

After reading some of the reaction to this announcement, in particular a post written by author and professor Jeff Jarvis’ - that the AP attempting, but will likely fail, to kill the link economy - I decided I don’t think AP’s fancy new “wrapper” system is a problem.

Yes, the AP will be monitoring the use of its content more closely. So what?

Today’s announcement is really just about a somewhat cool bit of technology. In fact, I think big companies like Google should be more supportive of this kind of technology. I’m not an expert, but can refer to an explanation of ACAP and why search engines don’t like it.)

What Jarvis is really worried about is what the AP will or will not do when it finds its content cited, linked to or quoted.

He references one of my favorite Martin Luther King, Jr., quotes when he writes “If the AP goes after ANYONE for linking that affects EVERYONE” in the comments section of this CJR post on the subject.

Not sure I think this is all that serious.

I read just now the AP’s Terms and Conditions. It does not allow anyone to “copy, reproduce, publish, transmit, transfer, sell, rent, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, repost, perform, display, or in any way commercially exploit the Materials carried on this site, nor may you infringe upon any of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights contained in the Materials.”

Granted, The AP does have a reputation for being intermittently tough on bloggers who quote lines of AP content. It puzzlingly went after the Drudge Report about a year ago, asking Matt Drudge to remove lines quoting from the AP from seven stories.

At that time, there was a lot of reaction and attention paid to an AP fee sheet for use of its content.

The hippie illegal downloader of music and movies in me thinks the AP is absurd to try and apply such stringent standards to the link-based Internet. Its board of directors clearly don’t understand how this medium works.

But the girl who desperately wants to try and support her travel habits on a reporter/editor salary thinks content creators have the right to protect the economic value of their work. And that’s what the new tag and tracking system should give AP the opportunity to do - after it gives AP a better understanding of how its content is being referenced/used online.

After all, it makes sense to try and really understand how content is being used on the Internet before deciding the best Fair Use policy for this “new” medium.

Journalists, especially those of us who have yet to publish our best-selling book or start that chat show, don’t often have a particularly interesting financial portfolio.

And those of us who don’t work the business beat often know little about the stock market. To our (readers’ ?) detriment, likely. But there’s always time to learn…

Enter the bull and bear cartoons! Thanks to my boyfriend, who perhaps knows (read: obsesses) a little too much about the stock market, I have been introduced to the Emmy-winning team of Hoof and Boo. They’re easily the most fun way to warm up to a perusal of market news.

Have a look:

A friend who lived an Irish Catholic childhood turned me on to McCourt’s books. And about a third of the way into each one of his three books, I began trying to read more slowly.

I didn’t want the book to end; I enjoyed his characters and his dry point of view so much.

A loss. Wish he would have written more!

Digital skills have become de rigeur, but let me take a minute to remember and pay tribute to that most old-fashioned reporter’s tool: Curiosity.

Mine took me to the California Rodeo Salinas last week for a bit of freelance reporting. I’d never been to a rodeo before, but enjoyed my first chance to check it out. Nothing too serious; my contribution to the Monterey County Herald’s coverage included a preview, profile of a local cowboy and - most hilariously - a feature on the world of rodeo queens.

Side question: Is it effective for reporters be sent to cover events they’ve not previously been exposed to for non-niche publications like newspapers? Or should newspapers consistently recruit experts to contribute to reporting - not just as sources but as content creators? I debated this with my sister, who is training to run her first marathon, last week. She thinks “no journalist can understand or convey accurately” what she’s going through in her training. Having written about several marathoners but not run longer than a 10k, I disagreed.

Thoughts?

A few notes about my first rodeo round-ups:

1. Rodeos can be fun, especially once you learn to wear proper footwear. I’m a city girl for sure - a fact given away the flip-flop sandals I wore on my first excursion to the Salinas Sports Complex - but walking through the dirt on the track to see the bulls and cowboys up close was a sensory experience anyway. The “Old West” is certainly still alive in a lot of American (and Australian and Brazillian) hearts, minds and faces: Good lord, the facial hair! Mustaches abounded, as did Wranglers, boots (spurs included) and hats.

2. Not even cowboys have missed the Web 2.0 revolution. The California Rodeo Salinas may be a 100-year-old tradition, but damn it, they sho’ can Tweet. And don’t cha worry yo’ pretty lil’ head, missy: they’re a-gittin’ their 8 seconds of glory on Facebook and MySpace, too.

3. Rodeo queens are more interesting and wholesome than beauty queens. (I did my best Google Searching to make sure of it, let me tell ya).And rodeo girls can at least ride horses and identify “pieces of tack” while onstage. I don’t see Carrie Prejean being able to do such a pretty wave while on horseback. Plus, I doubt the Miss Rodeo California committee buys its queen a new set of fake boobs.

Story idea for next year: Who provides health insurance for these bullridin’ yahoos?

J-school friend: i’d suggest giving your posts more of a personal voice. it can be a bit hoity-toity this is the future of journalism sounding
Me: ok - yes, i am trying! i realize i’m not very comfortable doing that so I really have to try. but you’re right… my friends’ blogs I like most really use a unique voice
J-school friend: professional but personal
Me: yes… it’s harder than I thought
J-school friend: like use facts, interviews, etc… for cred but don’t make it sound like a trade magazine, which it has not for the most part. i’m no good at it either
J-School friend: yeah, i have to write this weekly column where we can be more personal, i tend to just write it as another story

A few weeks ago I had this conversation with (clearly) a J-school friend who works for a newspaper in Maryland. I thought of it today while reading a blog post lamenting the proliferation - and shortcomings - of what that blogger calls the institutional voice.

Institutional voice, as I interpret it in this instance, is the voice of the all-knowing disinterested reporter. It’s the rather drone-like, systematic voice we use and increasingly try to break out of when writing news stories. And, if you’re as lucky as my J-school friend and I, it was drilled into your head (fingers?) from the time you wore braces and wrote columns about how high school administrators should permit the girls soccer team to practice in their sports bras when it’s hot outside just like the dance team girls (TOTALLY discrimination. Totally.). Later, when your braces came off and you got to college, you used the institutional voice to bang out wrestling team features and 10-inch game stories (over and over and over).

It’s hard to escape, this institutional voice. Especially when a lot of older journalism professionals (perhaps: delusionals?) tell you this is the voice in which you must write at least a million words before you even begin to develop even the most rookie-level of writing abilities.

Even trickier, it seems, is how to balance the fact-driven, authoritative institutional voice with a more creative one.

A new-to-me example of a writer who has managed to shed the institutional voice and convey useful information (albeit not the most time-sensitive information) with flair is Jack Tomas. He’s writing the snark-a-licious “Get to know your dictator” series at Guanabee.com, a Gawker-esque site dedicated to Latin American pop culture.

He manages to write cheeky Wikipedia-esque profiles, some of which feature newsy tie-ins, of Latin American dictators past and present. His columns are a great way to feed readers their “veggies” (ie, information useful for becoming an informed citizen) with such a flair they don’t realize what they’re taking in. When I read the first one, on Hugo Chavez, I didn’t even realize how much I was learning.

Apparently Hugo is “the Jonas Brothers of leftist Latino politics” who in “1999 he was elected president and immediately began consolidating power. He got advice from his new BFF, elder dictator and beard enthusiast Fidel Castro”. And if I am ever in Venezuela, I will totally check out his TV show - “He stars in his own TV show called Alo, Presidente in which he holds the airwaves captive for four hours at a time, kind of like Don Francisco does with Sabado Gigante, but with less stupid hats and dancing boxes of Tide Ultra. [Ed: Although just as many breasts--his!]”

It’s no intense narrative effort, but at least it’s not the institutional drone you (er, your grandpa) read over the breakfast table each morning.

If I could make liner notes to accompany the surprisingly delicious eggplant parmigiana I baked this week, they would include a shout-out to Internet how-to videos.

This was my first time preparing the dish, which I decided would be a natural progression of cooking lasagna-esque dishes. Baby steps, my kitchen skills take. Many times, it’s thanks to online video. This time I wanted to make exactly sure I understood what was meant by the instructions “peel the eggplant” - Yeah, yeah. I’m a beginner! - so I hopped online and found a video of a guy peeling an eggplant. Turned out I’d had the right idea all along, but I love the affirmation Internet how-to videos can give when it comes to preparing food.

I’ve been watching a lot of video online lately, and actually, a lot of them are indeed getting longer - just as I read about in the NYT last week.

More recently, I very much enjoyed reading about HowCast, an website dedicated to professional how-to videos. It’s nice to know about a searchable site like that stocked with credible videos. Plus I dig the founders’ entrepreneurial spirit, so I’m keen to support their project.

Some other videos I’ve watched lately:

My boyfriend brought this hilarious 2008 viral marketing campaign to my attention this week. We have watched it three times to be able to hear the background comments made to the men in the Dog House, catchphrases we’re now teasing each other with:

The advertising message here seems OK to me because it is obvious. Plus, it is presented in a humorous, entertaining way. But the warm-fuzzy vibe this Israeli advertising agency went for was clearly missed. I read about this video on Advertising Age and after watching it agreed that the video is quite insensitive.

I found this one via News Videographer, a longer feature about a Fairy Festival. I thought it was a well-told story perfect for local papers and shared it with my mom. When I was a little girl my mom used to trick my younger sister and I into thinking we saw fairies. This would usually happen while driving over a “Ferry bridge” near our home in Minnesota. My sister and I would hear her tell my dad that we were on the “Ferry bridge” and get excited - which my mom totally exploited.

And now for a bad example of video created for a newspaper. I watched this Fourth of July montage on my local newspaper’s website. I was initially excited by the sounds of the drummers, thinking it was an extended introduction shot. But the lack of voice-over or story was disappointing. It was just a bunch of random moving pictures.

This video is a recent snarky Slate production called Buy One Anyway. Evidence of what happens to journalists who don’t learn to move beyond videos like the one above, apparently. It spoofs late-night infomercials from the 1990s.

Another related snarky journalism culture video I can’t help but add here, even though I first watched it months ago, is this NYT subscription ad spoof. My favorite line: “I like the politics and socks page! I love the Garden and War section!”

I wrote Brian Solis via Facebook yesterday in response to his post on TechCrunch, Can the Statusphere Save Journalism.

He was kind enough to respond to my suggestion that a reliance upon one’s “statusphere” for news perpetuates homophily. This could be especially true if a person’s network is not very diverse.

Here’s his response:

“I think your take is great. I disagree however, as the scientific work I’ve run over the last year demonstrates that outside influence eventually breaks homophily and actually creates distributed and distinct echo chambers (tied to different areas of focus - yes there’s an echo chamber for every topic at every stop along the bell curve) that accordingly introduce us to extended networks and extended social graphs. The point of the post was how a journalist, and in turn a media property, can use the reality of the new individual attention dashboard (statusphere) to bring people back to their content since they’re losing eyeballs dramatically and ultimately competing with the lifestreams where people discover information right now - facebook, tweetdeck, seesmic, ping.fm, socialthing, AIM (their new lifestream that launched today), etc. There are studies that haven’t yet been published that show what happens to media properties who actually carve a share of the attention dashboard and how it not only brings readers back, it changes the editorial landscape and accordingly brings new readers in. Those studied are in the black and bucking the trends of media demise. Hope that makes sense.”

I’m hoping he can point me in the direction of some of these studies, because I am wondering how this “new individual attention dashboard” (nice phrase) can bring in new readers.

One project I know about that will examine this issue is called SYNC3. It is a three-years research project sponsored by the European Commission with the goal of creating online tool that can easily search through opinions of bloggers and citizen journalists and show the blogosphere in context with news from traditional media. Basically, it will trace information flow. It’s very ambitious and has, in true European fashion, a whole consortium behind this project. The EJC (which I work for) is the leader in the part of user requirements and evaluation.

If you’re interested in the project, check out a survey the EJC is running.

The Internet tour guides whose job it is to notice and point out just exactly how the ‘Net has taken over our lives really like the term “Statusphere.”

Now TechCrunch wants to know if this new -sphere can save journalism. The answer is a resounding No.

Don’t get me wrong, I like this term a lot. Reading the words of online sociologists who sit around and make up these words reminds me of the first time I heard David Weinberger speak about his book Everything is Miscellaneous. I felt like Homer Simpson, smacking myself on the forehead going “Doh! It’s so obvious… Why didn’t I write this down first and get to travel around to cool conferences talking about this!”

But there is a big problem with the Statusphere: It is merely a kind of echo chamber.

TechCrunch writer Brian Solis points out, “It is the Social Effect that determines actual reach, resonance and the course for individual content.”

This is true, but has has a negative and positive effect. And the negative effect is, in my opinion, more of a problem for the Average American Jane than for the Ramblin’ Renaissance Man.

Lately I have come to realize, for example, that some of the most useful “Friends” I have on Facebook - a product I have used since 2004 - are not the grade-school comrades with whom I’ve reconnected with. Sure, it is fun to see who has gotten married, who is having children, et cetera. I dig the gossip.

But the more interesting content I find via my Facebook network comes more and more from people I have met only a few times: Friends I made in a short time who then moved to another place, nice people I have met on airplanes, colleagues I have met at conferences. I don’t actually know these people particularly well, and that’s maybe why I delight in seeing what music, links and commentary they post. I find things that surprise me.

Example: An Italian girl I lived with for a few months posted this video as she was about to attend Cesária Évora’s concert:

I’ve never heard of Cesária Évora before, but I enjoyed this song so much that I used YouTube to seek out more of her work. So soulful…

So in this way, the Statusphere exposes me to content I enjoy but might not find otherwise. But I think that in the United States, my experiences are rather unique: In the last five years, I have lived on the East and West coasts as well as in Europe. I’ve traversed the Atlantic Ocean eight times. (And no, I’m not in the military.) Obviously, I’ve done this moving around because I think it’s a good idea to travel and be exposed to new ideas and new people.

So

when I consider, say, friends who have not traveled outside the United States, who are living in the same state in which they grew up and have never lived anywhere else, I wonder if the Statusphere is as useful. Plenty of Americans speak only English and spend their lives within only one or two states without ever applying for a passport. Can a vanilla network really bring someone a neapolitan Internet news/culture experience? I don’t know if I think this Internet so powerful that it can overcome the routine of life.

Which is why the Statusphere will not save journalism.