A bird-eat-dog world and hyperlocal blogging over tea

At first I couldn’t really see what “Skeptical Editing” by Reid MaCluggage had to do with the other four readings, especially the Wikipedia entry for the “Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970.” I’m still not even if it Professor Rodgers intended for students to draw correlations between the readings, but I feel inclined to do so, and so I will.

“Skeptical Editing” introduced some obvious but important points. Editors do need to be trained in scouting out more than just the series comma error. This was made especially evident in class when we discussed the “Eagle Snatches Dog” story. Yes, it was a funny story and we all laughed, but the fact that such fiction could be printed and passed of as truth is not so laughable. A story about an eagle snatching up a “Chihuahua-like dog” may not be important in the interest of national security for example, but the other examples MaCluggage provided just make editors seem lazy.

I was not surprised to read that it was President Richard Nixon who approved the “Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970.” Although the entry reports that newspapers would share advertisers while retaining individuality, I know that media has to screen content based on the interest of their advertisers in order to continue operating the business. In the story “Meet the new face of hyperlocal journalism,” Debbie Galant talks about a writer who fell to the pressure of advertisers requesting to read blogs before publication with the intent to encourage the writer to gloss content in the company’s favor. This is when it becomes important for editors to edit critically. Technology allows media to get a story out to the public fast, but the privilege also allows for less editing time.

“‘Potemkin Village’ Redux” was only interesting to me because it called out fallacies of grassroots journalism. The concept of the article was more exciting than the piece itself. In reading about the weaknesses that the author, Tom Grubisich, found in the 10 sites, it taught about what to avoid if the reader were to make his or her own community site. The “Common Sense Journalism” article gave solutions to the problems found among the 10 Web site in the “Potemkin Village” article.

The articles for this week made me think about the hierarchy of writing. Literature elitests have thought of journalism as the lowest form of writing, and journalists to be turned off by bloggers. As Galant mentioned in the interview with the Online Journalism Review, “…we are a serious threat to our traditional competition in the local market” – local competition being newspapers. I can’t find much of an appeal to writing a blog about local news since the audience would be quite limited, but I suppose after reading some about grassroots blogging, I could see it as a backlash against globalization.

Case Study, “Eagle Snatches Dog”

As mentioned in the abstract, I was shocked to find the story was fictional. I was embarrassed to find that Professor Rodgers was the editor, couldn’t believe that he was so nonchalant about admitting the publication was a product of his doing. Since he’s teaching students to analyze everything carefully, it made me curious to know who taught him. Sometimes people do get carried away in wanting to believe a story is true, as in the case of the book “A Million Little Pieces” by James Frey, which was originally marketed as a memoir.

I really didn’t find the story to be all that interesting. Large birds are known to swoop up rodents and other small animals. Also, there’s a fact error in the lead. Without obtaining a statement from the eagle, it is not known if its hunger was satisfied with the consumption of the dog.

Story Idea

Ann Romney, wife of presidential candidate Mitt Romney, visits in Gainesville, Fla. today at 1:30 p.m. for tea. However, an article in the Alligator released information today of University of Florida President Bernie Machen’s endorsement of presidential candidate John McCain. Was it intentional that the Alligator or Machen should release the story on the same day? A reporter should be sent today to the tea event to interview the owner of Conestogas, obtain information on why Romney decided to visit Gainesville, and obtain points of view from attendees..

Conestogas
14820 Main Street
Alachua, FL 32615
386-462-1294

The reporter should interview Machen to find out why he felt the need to announce his endorsement, and if McCain or his party has been in contact with the president since the announcement. If the reporter is able to obtain the information, it could be useful to find out if and how much the president has donated to the McCain campaign.

Information about the schedule of visits can be found at this Time Magazine link:
http://thepage.time.com/2008/01/22/candidates-comment-on-35th-roe-v-wade-anniversary/

http://alligator.org/articles/2008/01/22/news/uf_administration/machen.txt

To follow up, the reporter should attend McCain’s visit to Gainesville on Sunday. More information on the event could most likely be obtained from the author of the Alligator’s article, Deborah Swerdlow.