Journal Entry XIII

The following is part of a series of reposted journal entries made for a reporting class that I took last term. They aren't particularly edited, or necessarily even interesting (though hopefully they are), but they do a pretty good job of expressing what I am doing right now. And, of course, they are pre-made content. Reader beware.

Journal Entry 13: Crescent Village PR interview

While I waited for the firemen to get back from their call, I went over to the nearby Crescent Village to speak with the PR people and get the stereotypical tour. I figured it would be a good opportunity to get some basic pictures, and to put my toe in the door in case I needed to talk with people later, and I could get a feel for how the lease company was feeling about their media exposure.

In summary, once I got my message through the process went quite smoothly. I didn’t get anything I didn’t already know, but it was good to confirm a few little factoids (eg. Expensive housing, non-Eugene tenants, 2012 completion date) that I had heard earlier. I also got some renter’s literature, which might be useful if I need to throw out some official numbers from the developers.

This interview seemed to draw a lot upon the things that were talked about in the short story we read earlier in the class. The PR person, Julie, seemed a little rattled by my appearance, but I threw on my best smile and tried to appear pretty nonchalant. I left my notepad in my pocket, though I did get her permission to take photos of some of the rooms and the scale model of the village.

Journal Entry XII

Journal Entry 12: Fire station interviews

Taking the advice of my professors, I went around the Cal Young neighborhood in an attempt to garner the thoughts of community leaders on the Crescent Village development. I attempted to go and speak with the principal of the Sheldon High School, or really with any of the educational community leaders, only to find out that a) I was pretty dumb, and b) it was President’s Day, and school wasn’t in session.

Fortunately, the Fire Station No. 6 was nearby, so my time was not wasted. I walked over to the station and spoke with a fireman who told me that Captain Steve Kropf would no doubt love to talk with me, but he was out on call. I went over to Crescent Village to burn some time, and one hour later I was back in the station’s office, chatting amiably with the firemen.

After bonding slightly at our collective disapproval of Swiss seats (a minimalistic equipment harness that saves the wearer from falls but straps between the thighs), I was able to get a good 30 minutes of interview from Captain Kropf as well as Roger, one of the older firemen.

The interview went quite well, with plenty of stories and laughter as well as good quotations (he had significant concerns over the tall and narrow design of the townhouses). I was hoping to take some portraits, but I couldn’t figure out a way to easily work them into the conversation. Oh well, it wasn’t all that important anyways.

Note: See, even Eugene firefighters are part of new media.

Journal Entry XI

Journal Entry 11: NYT China Documentary

In some earlier entries, I’ve talked about the concept of the changing journalism industry, the influence of Internet sources of news and the rise of visual media.

Here, I’d like to mention an example of getting it right:

UO Professor Suttmeier introduced this NYT “article” in the first week of his class on China’s Environmental Politics (PS 399). To me, it represents the future of the journalism industry. The article is really a miniature website, filled with multiple yet related articles that together yield a real understanding of the environmental issues at hand. This is combined with video documentaries showing the issues at hand, interactive objects like maps, as well as a narrated/music only still montages. Additionally, you have interactive roundtables, reference links and even Chinese translations.

Clearly, this website is combining the best aspects of the digital media (depth of coverage, interactivity and multimedia) while also providing the content a thorough NYT polish and shine. Readers are able to take as long as they want exploring the topic, which is explored in many different ways and different perspectives. All the while, they are viewing the adaptive advertising at the head of the page.

While it certainly isn’t possible to provide this level of coverage for every item of news, it seems to me that even doing one of these every two or three weeks would be well within the means of any medium-sized newspaper. It would certainly make news a lot more attractive to subscribers.

Ravel Passacaille

My mum suggested that I try finding a rendition of one of her favorite classical pieces, the dark and brooding third part of the Ravel's most famous piano, cello and violin trio (played by Beaux Arts Trio in this video).

This post is also something of a test of the YouTube embedded blogging utility, which has recently been offered on their website.

Edit: This seemed to work pretty well, though it makes for a pretty minimalistic post. I might start using it more to comment on more of the videos I view.

OH - BAH - MA!

Usually, I try to curb my enthusiasm for Barack Obama on this blog by keeping most of my gushing to my barackobama.com blog, but I have to mention the local campaign stumping that Obama did throughout Oregon. He swept through Portland, Salem and Eugene on Friday, ending with a late night rally at McArthur Court at the University of Oregon.

I managed to squeeze into the tightly packed rally in Eugene (10,000 in the building, and almost that many couldn't get in), and I was overjoyed to hear him speak. He's just so inspiring. I already wrote about it here, so I'll avoid repeating myself any further, but I did manage to find a short video where you can see where I was standing. The footage was shot from across the court, but when it zooms in you can spot me to the bottom right of the frame. I'm the guy in the green shirt who keeps on raising my arms to form the 'O' sign like I was at a football game or something. It was a whole lot of fun.

It was only after I visited family in Corvallis that I realized that Obama had dropped by my hometown too. He made a quick stop (well, as quick as a three bus entourage guarded by the Secret Service can be) at American Dream Pizza in downtown Corvallis. He said, "There’s something very metaphorical going on here," of the locally owned business. They are my absolute favorite restaurant, and I was amazed to hear that he went there. If only I could have been there when it happened. The local newspaper went nuts over the incident, and you can read more about it here.

A Monkeyfishing Expedition

One of my blog posts was recently cited in a Slate.com article about Malcolm Gladwell. Slate writer Jack Shafer attempts an expose of Gladwell's stories of his early journalism days, which Shafer describes as "mostly bunk." He goes on (and on) about the perceived wrongs being committed by Gladwell, and includes a list of bloggers and writers who were 'duped' by the This American Life podcast.

Whether or not I really was, I leave up to you, but clearly there were a number of people who did take Gladwell's stories seriously ... it is also clear that they were a huge minority.

The article's comment forum is filled with irate readers who feel they didn't require a "detailed debunking" of what amounts to a self-described "send-up of the seriousness with which journalists take themselves."

"What a humorless douche," reader Prytania3 writes. "It is pathetic that anyone wrote and published such attention-grabbing gotcha! shit."

Perhaps Shafer is simply a victim of poking at the bees nest that is the blogging community, but it is also a reminder of the ivory tower that many journalists tend to hole themselves up in. It is all well and good to send forth missives to educate the 'fray' (seriously, what the hell?), but make sure they are worth reading.

So Shafer: Before you publish your next tell-all (tentatively entitled: "EXPOSED: The Chicken/Road Scandal!"), consider treating your readers as being slightly more intelligent before putting your article on the front page.

Also, thank you to flutterbyblue for commenting on my post and bringing it to my attention. I'd also like to thank Slate reader wadofglue who informed me of the word monkeyfishing. I'm not sure what it is, but it sounds excellent.

YouTube Awards 2007

I almost forgot to mention that the annual YouTube awards are finishing up today. The best videos of 2007 have been gathered for your viewing and voting pleasure. Even if you aren't particularly involved with YouTube, it is a fantastic opportunity to see some great multimedia art.

There are 12 categories, and my top picks were:

Adorable: Laughing Baby
Short Film: My First Crush
Series: How to Seduce Women
Politics: Stop the Clash of Civilizations
Music: Harmonica + Beatbox
Instructional: How to Charge an iPod
Sports: Puehse Twins Skateboarding
Creative: How We Met
Eyewitness: Battle at Kruger
Commentary: Are You Anybody's Favorite Person?
Inspirational: A Vision of Students Today
Comedy: Powerthirst

But don't just take my advice, go check it out: (Link via YouTube)

Sir Arthur C. Clarke Died Today

I was very saddened today to hear that the great science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke passed away today at his home in Sri Lanka. For those who are not familiar with him, he was part of the classic sci-fi triumvirate of Issac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein. He also wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey, invented the communications satellite, and is largely responsible for the American lunar exploration. He was a real inspiration to me as a youth, and his book The City and the Stars remains one of my all time favorites.

I had a couple videos I wanted to share.

The first is a farewell address from him earlier this year: (Link via YouTube)

The second is a demonstration video of one the most advanced robotic AIs yet produced. While Clarke was more concerned with exploration than robotics (that was Asimov's gig), his HAL 9000 remains one of his most well-known legacies. I'm sure he was quite excited by the development of this amazing machine: (Link via Youtube)

As an addendum, the Big Dog robot is being developed as an automated packbot for the US Army. The angry buzzing sound comes from its two-stroke on-board gas engine. This will eventually be replaced by advanced battery power. You can find out more about it at the Boston Dynamics webpage. (Link via Boston Dynamics)

Happy St. Paddy's!

A good day to you all on my favorite holiday. Though all good Catholics must stay home tonight, the rest of us should go out and enjoy ourselves.

Oh, and here's an ecard my uncle sent me (it's legit because his name is Patrick and we're an Irish family). I just about died when I saw it, so hopefully you'll like it too.

If you seem short of good Irish music tonight, check out my Pandora site and click on the St. Paddy's radio link.

Journal Entry X

Journal Entry 10: AP Style

I finally got a copy of the AP stylebook, and I came home only to realize that I did indeed have an earlier version of the same. C’est la vie. The new version is still an excellent thing to have, and it holds a wealth of information in it about writing and grammar. In fact, when a friend asked me about getting into journalism I recommended her a copy of Zinsser’s On Writing Well as well as the AP stylebook. The way I see it, if you have the two of those there isn’t much you can’t learn.

I like AP style a lot, though it might seem like a pain in the ass to others. Perhaps it is a latent degree of OCD coming out of me, but I like how well ordered it is. There is a common set of guidelines that are adhered to when creating the governing rules, which means that I only have to understand those guidelines to feel like I understand the style. I might not know the exact rules governing a specific word, but I’ll know enough to be able to check anything that could be suspect and then receive a definitive answer. One of my biggest problems with MLA style is that it attempts to create this kind of system, but fails. This leaves you knowing that MLA has an arbitrary style that it wants you to follow, but it doesn’t cover anything comprehensively, leaving you to come up with your own subjective answer.

AP style still has faults, however. It could do well to update for more regularly, the e-mail/email conundrum is perhaps the most glaring error of this kind. On this issue the AP guide is simply out of date. Then there are the agency’s traditions that are making the style more difficult to use. Italics would make the entire industry more readable, but the editors are resisting change due to heritage. This needs to change just as black and white photographs gave way to color.

Web album update

Ah ha! I have updated my web album with a brand new, almost up to date series of photographs. In color! How exciting! A series of portraits of people! Real!

Check them out along with my other photography. Which for the most part still isn't up. Because I am lazy and like to sleep more than host images. How sad.

edit: Alright, apparently I don't like sleep that much. I also uploaded the rugby photos that people have been asking for. Enjoy the bone-crunchiness, and come to their game on Sat. at 1000.

http://picasaweb.google.com/tmcoolen/DirtyDucks

Journal Entry IX

Journal Entry 9: Online Newsgathering

I am consistently astonished about the ways people get their media. The sheer number of different methods available is incredible, as is the variety in the quality of the information. I’ve held down a system for getting news pretty well over the last five years or so: I get local news off the Oregon Daily Emerald and the Eugene Weekly, but I probably only get three or four of those a week. I also listen to Oregon Public Radio (including NPR, PRI, BBC) for a variety of news, especially regional and national. For most national and international news I go online to the BBC World Edition, which is also fed to my Google homepage along with AP, Reuters, and other major news outlets.

But all of this tends to just be top news, meaning that it is usually covered only somewhat satisfactorily. Due to this, I also get my news off a variety of in-depth online sources that combine news articles along with independent and open commentary. These sources tend to give better coverage because you can end up being linked to five to 10 sources, each with their own perspective and information. For example, I get a lot of my technology news off Slashdot, which is a technology compblog. I might see a dozen different stories, each with their own links to media and commentary, as well as an option to add my own voice. I get news trivia off BoingBoing, Internet news off Digg and General/Political news off Something Awful.

Of course, this might seem like a veritable onslaught of media, and perhaps it is, but I manage to deal with it pretty quickly each morning.

Un peu de fatigue

I am so tired right now.

Yesterday I worked on my photos and prints, then gave people rides, then more prints, then more rides. Worked on my stuff until 0315. Woke up at 0520 to go over to the ROTC detach and catch a ride out to their FTX at Dorena Lake near Cottage Grove. Took a lot of photos and ran all over the place. Got back at 1600. Worked with photos a bit more while watching Terminator 2 and napping at the same time, and now here I am.

So, anyways, my point is that if you are wondering where are my a) rugby photos, b) community photos, or c) ROTC photos, please note that you are probably impatient and I'll put them up soon.