Looking for Student Blogs

I'm always looking for links to blogs being written by student journalists. If you have one, or know someone who does, drop me a note!

Dr. H

Second Edition Available Now!

The second edition of Mass Communication: Living in a Media World is now available at the very student-friendly price of $45. (Yes, the new edition sells for less than used copies often do of the first edition.) It features a newly strengthened media literacy focus, greater depth on a number of topics, extensive coverage of "long-tail" media, and new chapters on media effects and global media. For more information, visit the CQ Press website.

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Thursday - July 2, 2009

Media News I Learned Wednesday By Reading Facebook
On Wednesday, it seemed like everyone was posting links to media news as part of their Facebook status updates. (Well, everyone I know, anyway.) Here's a sampling of what I learned on FB yesterday.

• Patrick Gavin - How Do We Save Journalism?
  Patrick is a Politco writer (and former editor of Fishbowl DC). He looks at a panel on the future of journalism hosted by Walter Isaacson, former editor of Time magazine.
• Justin McLachlan - Google Drops News Comment Feature
  Justin is a former student of mine who is working as a writer in San Francisco these days. Link is to a story from the NY Times on Google News.
• Lynn Price Reinke - What Makes 'Appalachian Spring' So Great
  Lynn works in extended learning at West Virginia University. A story from NPR about West Virginia's favorite piece of classical music. This is a link to story in the series "What Makes It Great."
• Geneva Overholser RT @knightfdn: From the KnightBlog: Nonprofit news orgs form investigative news network:
  Geneva is the former editor of the Des Moines Register and is currently the director of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. She's linking to an article about nonprofit journalism organizations.
• Brandon Stump I think that I am going to be getting rid of Facebook
  Brandon's another former student of mine. This is a link to a story about from the NYT about how Facebook is changing its privacy policy.

Link Me

Tuesday - June 30, 2009

News About Video

• BYU Lifts YouTube Ban
  Students and faculty at Brigham Young University can now access YouTube through the campus network without getting a special dispensation from IT. Previously the video sharing service was blocked on campus because there was a lot of questionable material up on the site. But the university now says there are so many educational resources on YouTube that they need to make it available on campus and rely on student and faculty good judgment to stay away from inappropriate materials.
• YouTube Launches "How To Be a Citizen Journalist" Page
  Following all of the citizen-journalism news coming out of Iran recently, YouTube is being taken more seriously as a news source. And to help with that, YouTube now has a "Reporters' Center" with lots of advice for aspiring video journalists.
• Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing Turns 20
  Director Spike Lee's definitive film on urban racism is 20 years old and has new DVD release.
• Pyramids Were Real In Transformers
  As were the record-setting audiences.

Link Me

Monday - June 29, 2009

News About The News

• So, Would You Like To Buy The Boston Globe?
  The NY Times Co. is now taking bids on Boston's leading newspaper.
• Coverage of Iranian Protests Has Forced News Orgs to Change Reporting Rules
  Blogs have always been willing to post news first and ask questions about authenticity later. But according to this story from the NY Times, legacy media (AKA the mainstream media) have been forced to report stories using unconfirmed sources about the protests in Iran because of the crackdown on journalists in that country. One of the biggest sources of news out of Iran has been video shot by non-journalists and then posted through social media sites. No question that it's great to have such alternative sources of news available. But should it be the basis of reports from what most of us would consider credible news outlets? That's the more difficult question.
• Speaking of Which, Have You Been Reading Nico Pitney at HuffPost?
  The Huffington Post's Nico Pitney has been live blogging the citizen journalism coming out of Iran over the last couple weeks and has been the real rock star of journalism on this story.
• Don't Assume Early News on MJ is True
  Word to the wise - there are a number of false stories about Michael Jackson's death circulating on the Web. Whooda thunk it.

Link Me

Friday - June 26, 2009

What a Difference a Day Makes
Thursday morning, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz posted the following as his Facebook status:

Howard Kurtz Slow morning. No new Iran protests, no new sex scandals. Might have to do some reporting.

The big news was still Iran and the revelations about South Caroline governor Mark Sanford. I was putting together a post about the great job of reporting The State had done on the Sanford story. The paper had had the incriminating e-mails for several months, but hadn't reported on them because they didn't have the hard evidence needed to back them up. Then the paper sent reporter Gina Smith to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to stakeout the gate where passengers would exit from the plane from Buenos Aires. She was the only reporter there, and she got the first interview with Sanford. Good, old-fashioned Reporting 101 technique - an anonymous tip followed up by legwork.

Then the news came that 70s icon Farrah Fawcett had succumbed to her long battle with cancer. While she was best known for Charlie's Angels, a 1976 poster, and tragic-woman movies, she also made an excellent made-for-cable biopic about photographer Margaret Bourke-White's relationship with writer Erskine Caldwell.

And then late this afternoon the news broke on TMZ that Michael Jackson had been taken to the hospital suffering from cardiac arrest. If you've had the TV or the Internet on, you know the rest of the story by now. NBC and ABC went wall-to-wall with the story, as did the cable news channels. We have a revolution trying to take place in Iran, we have just lost the second Republican presidential hopeful in two weeks, and all that anyone wants to talk about is the death of Michael Jackson.

Here's a sample of the Facebook status messages that have shown up on my feed Thursday night.

• Eric RIP MJ
• Ali Ohh, Michael... Your music genius will be sorely missed in this world. :(
• Matt is saddened by the passing of the King of Pop... Michael Jackson.
• Lindsay RIP Michael Jackson Farrah and Ed!!!
• Charley Said You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' You Got To Be Startin' Somethin' 'Cause this is thriller, thriller night. If youre thinkin of being my baby it dont matter if youre black or white. Oh brother please have mercy 'cause I just can't take it. Stop pressurin me, just stop pressurin' me stop pressurin' me Make me wanna scream. Just beat it. So, Annie Are You OK Are You OK, Annie?
• MK SO would have married Michael Jackson when I was twelve.
• Garrett Michael Jackson already has three albums on the top 10 selling albums on itunes...just 3 hours after his death.
• Alex why are people pissed about all the Michael Jackson status'. Same thing happened with Heath Ledger and you all didn't seem to care then? Silly opinionation.
• Courtney Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958-June 25, 2009) Rest In Peace............I loved listening to his music growing up! So sad he is gone.........

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