It was a busy news day today… President Obama on the oil spill, a rising death toll in Jamaica, and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was on the mind of lawmakers on the Hill. So I was amused to see these two tweets just about back to back…
And this one…
Thou shalt not steal.
Seems pretty cut and dry to me. Of course, nothing’s cut and dry when it comes to the online world.
Twice in a week I’ve heard of organizations taking another person’s photos and using them as their own — and it happened to be the same person’s work both times.
Filed under journalism
Semper Lie!
No, Blumenthal did not swim here at Harvard's Blodgett Pool! It opened in 1978. (Photo used under CC, thanks to flickr user jeromeleslie)
It’s certainly among the tabloid-style headlines I would’ve loved to have seen (and maybe I missed) for a story questioning one’s military service, but I can’t take any credit for it. I noticed it in a comment left by ‘meridenite’ on the Hartford Courant‘s piece about
…wait for it…
…wait for it…
whether or not Richard Blumenthal was actually captain of the swim team at Harvard, or was actually on the team, or even dipped a toe in a Cambridge pool during that era. Let alone what counts as ‘the team’.
So you can see where this is going: Over-reporting an over-reported story does not suddenly prove you’re on the case.
Filed under journalism, politics, rants
The funny thing about transparency…
…is that it works both ways.
The story of Richard Blumenthal and the way he “misspoke” (or “lied” or “mischaracterized”, depending upon whom you ask) when it came to his Vietnam-era service record has to do not just with politics, but to a greater extent, with problematic journalism. Misrepresentation by someone believed to be trustworthy is the issue — whether that’s a politician or a newspaper.
(By way of background: Blumenthal is the Attorney General in Connecticut, a Democrat, and is running for the Senate seat soon-to-be vacated by Chris Dodd. Linda McMahon, who helped create World Wrestling Entertainment, is the front-runner on the Republican side. I was, until January, a journalist in Connecticut for more than eight years.)
The New York Times came out swinging, and I count two strikes against them.
Hidely-ho, Neighbor!
We’re a few weeks away from moving into the Mount Pleasant section of D.C. [Flickr stream!], and I have to say it’s reassuring and refreshing to find so much there there.
Not only are there local blogs with strong followings, like The 42 Bus (whose namesake runs right by our place) and the Prince of Petworth, these sites actually have some journalism behind them. And one even seems to be making some money from advertisers.
What’s more, there’s a decade-old, active listserv-turned-Yahoo! group (I’m hoping to be member #1296!). Sure, there are “I lost my wallet” notices and crime and traffic alerts, but there are also news items that I want to know about, like the Commercial Revitalization Strategy the city is shopping around.
Dos Gringos: One reason this place is so Pleasant (Flickr photo by NCinDC)
These community members are giving me the sort of information about my (soon-to-be) new neighborhood that I want. Plain and simple. They’re not putting up paywalls or running interstitial ads that disrupt my viewing experience. Heck, they don’t even have their hand out asking for donations. They’re doing it for the greater good. And I think that’s great.
When we finally move in, I’ll hope to buy them a cup of coffee at Dos Gringos (pictured) or a cookie at Heller’s Bakery. Welcome to the (soon-to-be) neighborhood indeed.
Filed under neighborhood
We’re not friends.
Here’s the thing, Ford car dealership that shall remain unnamed: We don’t know each other.
Same for you, local police department who sent me a friend request. It’s not that I don’t like you, your cars or the job you do. I just don’t get what you’re hoping to accomplish here.
The whole idea of Facebook is to connect people to one other. I’m even kinda okay with it connecting random people to one another, but not anonymous accounts for cities, businesses, or organizations – with full names squeezed into first and last name boxes. That’s what fan pages are for. And that’s a sign that it has taken on too large a role in our culture – become too crowded.
I would consider becoming a fan of a restaurant I really like… and then my friendship has some value to both of us. It has some legitimacy in fact. I would even consider accepting a friend request from the general manager of the car dealership I bought my last car, assuming it wasn’t a lemon. But a car dealer that can claim it has 500 Facebook friends doesn’t mean a thing if none of those folks have or will buy a Ford.
The use of technology in unintended ways can be terrific. It can also reach a tipping point. If you want to embrace the latest social media tool to enhance your business, awesome. But let’s try to use it in the way it was intended. You’ll get more meaningful results.
Filed under rants
Checking in with the WSJ
Suffering Foursquare fatigue yet? The Wall Street Journal certainly hopes not.
That paper based in the financial underbelly of New York today fired a cannonball across the bow of the Old Gray Lady with the launch of its new local New York section.
WSJ.com
But better than the WSJ’s “Greater New York” lead story in the morning (This just in: “Rats Mob the Upper East Side“!) is that the paper immediately partnered with Foursquare to focus on engaging users.
Foursquare.com
[Quick explainer: Users "check-in" on their mobile phones when they arrive at various real life places . They can elect to follow their friends and send out a message or a tweet whenever they move locations to let them know where they are every minute of the day. The WSJ collected more than 700 friends by the early evening Monday.]
WSJ.com
The Journal and Foursquare wisely created three branded badges for users to attempt to collect — two of which may just ‘remind’ users of the WSJ as they’re out and about. For instance, two months from now when they happen to visit Staten Island, they’ll realize they just unlocked a badge they heard of today.
Foursquare, for better or worse, connects people by place. While the friends the WSJ can track won’t amount to a hill of beans for advertisers, it is getting the paper some buzz on launch day — in addition to just the fact that it launched.
And it is that connection with readers that will drive subscriptions and prove to advertisers that you have a solid base, rather than random traffic.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check in somewhere with someone.
Filed under Uncategorized
