Macon Money: Social Games Meets Social Impact
Macon Money, a Knight Foundation-funded social-impact game aimed at strengthening community ties and bolstering economic revitalization in Macon, Ga., got a writeup this week in the Nieman Journalism Lab blog. Interesting read that touches on civic engagement and media business models. Read the whole story
“Cultivating the Landscape of Innovation in Computational Journalism”
I’m announcing my intent to read a few more times, and then blog about, this paper: “Cultivating the Landscape of Innovation in Computational Journalism.”
E.B. White on Sponsorship: poisoning the media well?
The Letters of Note blog has a wonderful three-letter piece up today featuring E.B. White’s criticism of “sponsored content” in the magazine business and other print media (in response to a Xerox-sponsored feature in Esquire magazine), and a corresponding elegy to a free, independent press that serves the public.
Journalism’s responsibility to the public
“[I]t’s important to remember that the public is our primary stakeholder, and we wanted to emphasize that. It’s critical that we earn and preserve the trust of our sources and subjects of coverage, but it’s always most vital to tell the public what we know to be true.” —Matt Thompson, Editorial Product Manager at NPR
Can We Please Get Some Better Reporting on Students & Tech?
Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction is the latest NYT piece pondering the perplexing challenge of technology in modern society, this time with a focus on students. This is an endlessly fascinating topic to me, but I’m always very frustrated with what passes for journalism in these stories.
Sending Garbage Through the Mail
The New York Times had a nice writeup last week on Amazon’s efforts to cut down on frivolous packaging in its shipments. I am among those who have submitted customer complaints about the absolutely ludicrous packaging that you get on occasion.
Tara and Tyler, You Deserve a Book Deal
Dear Tara and Tyler, I don’t really know you. Sure, I went to high school with Tara, but its not like we were friends of the sort to keep in touch. But after following your beautiful, exciting adventures on your trip around the world — by bike, no less! — for months, I feel like I know you. Your blog (and, frankly, your whole website) are amazing. Thank you! — Celeste
Must Read: Real Editors Ship
“The media is very good at making itself seem like something other than a business (and there are a lot of problems with what business it does manage) — but if you realise that every edition, every issue, every article, every bulletin, every thing made by the media is a product, then you start to think differently about these situations.” — Bobbie Johnson
To Read: Kay Ryan Review
My friend Aneesa has a lovely review of the poet Kay Ryan’s work published over at Fanzine today. I’m a poetry fan, myself, but I’d never heard of Kay Ryan before. Aneesa’s review made me want to go out and purchase her books, though, so I wanted to share it. I’ve included my favorite of the excerpted poems after the jump.
A Fine Piece of Journalism
This is apropos of nothing I usually write about on this blog (if you can even say I “usually” write on this blog at all), but if you happen to stop by and find that you haven’t read the Esquire magazine profile of Roger Ebert yet, do it. I read a lot of writing for work and for pleasure, but mostly for work. Words can get exhausting by the end of the day, and this was one of the first pieces of long-form journalism that I’ve had the patience to read through from start to finish, with no breaks, workload be damned, in ages.
