Link Ch. 6 – The Yellow Kid

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

The Yellow Kid, an early newspaper comic character who got his start in a comic called Hogan’s Alley, was the star of the comics page during the yellow journalism era in New York City.  You can read and see more about Hogan’s Alley at this site hosted by the Ohio State University Libraries Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

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Link Ch. 6 – Nellie Bly’s Ten Days in a Mad House

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

Nellie Bly preparing for the mad houseNew York World stunt journalist Nellie Bly landed her job working for Joseph Pulitzer’s penny paper by going under cover as a patient at the women’s lunatic asylum.  In addition to a great series of newspaper articles, Bly also produced the book Ten Days in a Mad-House about her experience.

You can read it and see the original illustrations online at the University of Pennsylvania’s online collection of women writers.

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Link Ch. 11 – Privacy in the Digital Age: Target knows that high school girl is preggers before dad does

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

In the age of online shopping and digital information, it’s easy to get paranoid about how much vendors know about us.  You want to get creeped out?  Start paying attention to the recommendations that Amazon makes to you based on what you’ve previously looked at and purchased.

But taking all your shopping to a bricks and mortar department store won’t help preserve your privacy.  Exhibit #1? Target figured out that a high school girl was pregnant and started sending her maternity coupons before her father knew anything was going on.

How did Target know the young woman was preggers?  It seems that pregnant women have very predictable buying patterns.  And according to an article the New York Times, Target tracks every consumer who comes to their stores with a unique number tied to their credit/debit cards.

This young lady was buying the right combination of cocoa butter lotions,  soaps, and  mineral supplements that told Target there was an 86 percent likelihood she was pregnant.  So Target started sending her coupons for the products people expecting babies are likely to buy.

When these coupons showed up in the mail, the young woman’s father got upset called Target to complain.  Are you trying to talk my underage daughter into getting pregnant?  he asked.  Target apologized repeatedly to the father.  Then dad had a discussion with his daughter, and called Target back to apologize himself.  His daughter was pregnant, but hadn’t told him.

There are a host of fascinating ethical and pragmatic issues that come out of this case.  But there are two that come to mind immediately:

  • How can stores make good use of data mining to build customer loyalty?
  • How can stores do this without creeping out their customers?

Online privacy?  Worry about it, sure.  But there are plenty of other places that are tracking your behavior in the “real” world as well. (Thanks to Kashmir Hill’s blog The Not So Private Parts for this story.)

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Jeremy Lin – Can race-based humor not be racist?

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

A blog by sudden NBA star Jeremy Lin as a 15-year-old has grabbed online attention today.  There’s several things interesting about it.

According to sports blog Deadspin, Lin’s teenage blog was under the address: chiNkBaLLa88.xanga.com.  (You can follow the link, but it’s now been made password protected.  You won’t get in.)  As is typical, you can use offensive racial terms if they apply to yourself.

On his blog, Lin gave his photo impressions of several NBA players using his hair and a headband. Among these was one where he puts the headband on top of his head like a yarmulke to capture the stylings of Dallas Mavs player Josh Howard.

Jeremy Lin's NBA impressions from when he was 15.

The blog BuzzFeed then asked the Anti-Defamation League whether they found Lin’s photo and humor offensive.  Their reponse?  “Not in the least.”

This makes sense on a number of levels.  Lin was clearly mocking the style of a wide range of players in a wide range of ways, sometimes at the expense of himself.

What do you think?  Can we have online humor about race without it being racist?  Does the context matter?  And at a deeper level, how long will we be responsible for what we did online when we were 15 years old?  (Fortunately, that’s not one I have to worry about.)

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Link Ch. 4 – A Million Little Memoir Fabrications

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

Reprinted from my blog from January 27, 2006:

A Million Little Problems Dept. – Fall Out From James Frey’s Fabrications
A week or so ago I ran a guest commentary by my colleague John Temple about his outrage at the apparent fabrications in James Frey’s memoir A Million Little Pieces. I have to admit that prior to seeing his comments, I had given little thought to the book. Drug memoirs (other than Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) hold little appeal to me. But over the last couple of weeks there has been a firestorm of criticism of Frey for either grossly exaggerating or outright fabricating what happened to him as an alcoholic and drug addict. Criticism seems to be particularly harsh because fans of the book feel betrayed by Frey and the emotions he brought out in them with what they thought was a true story.

No reader has been more public in her upset than media maven Oprah Winfrey, who had featured Frey on her book club. In the days immediately following the charges against Frey, Oprah stood by the author based on assurances that the book had only a few minor exaggerations. But Thursday she had Frey back on her show and let him have it with both barrels.

Here’s a brief excerpt from that interview:

While Frey’s major outing came from The Smoking Gun, a few critics had raised questions about the book’s authenticity when it was first released in 2003. The best example comes from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which addressed the issues in an article from July of 2003. The StTrib took on the issue largely because the rehab clinic Frey was treated at is located in the Minneapolis area. Frey’s story made the famous Hazelden Clinic look very bad, and the clinic has been fighting the image ever since.

One of the most interesting stories I’ve heard on the Frey case comes from NPR’s On The Media. In the interview, Brooke Gladstone talks with Andrew Goldberg of TSG, and book critic Adam Kirsch. The issue is not so much why Frey lied, but what why the book industry publishes a book that raises these kinds of questions.

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Link Ch. 4 – Apple’s e-textbook system

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

In January of 2012, Apple announced a collection of software to create and use e-textbooks on the iPad.  USA Today’s Edward C. Baig demonstrates it:

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Link Ch. 4 – Meet Amanda Hocking

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

Meet Amanda Hocking, the indie author sensation who now has a contract with St. Martin’s Press.

Storyseller – A profile of author Amanda Hocking in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

Interview with KTTC TV

Interview with the Associated Press

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Link Ch. 4 – Threats against authors

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

Although the story about death threats against author Salman Rushdie are relatively well known, many other authors around the world face threats of death or injury as well:

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Link Ch. 7 – Bringing Together Hillbilly and Rhythm & Blues

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

In Living in a Media World, I talk about how rock ‘n’ roll got started by bringing together white hillbilly (or country) music and and black rhythm & blues. I was reminded of that this weekend with the sad news about the death of R&B and pop superstar Whitney Houston.  One of her big hits was “I’ll Always Love You” from her movie The Bodyguard.  But what you may not know is that Whitney’s version was a cover of a country song.  “I’ll Always Love You” is a Dolly Parton original that she added to the movie version of the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.  And while I generally don’t approve of new songs being added to movie versions of Broadway musicals, I’ll make an exception in this case.  Here’s both Miss Dolly and Miss Whitney’s version of this great song:

Dolly Parton – Live 2002

Whitney Houston –  1999

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Link Ch. 5 – Meet Editor Bonnie Fuller

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Ralph Hanson

For the last 20 years, editor Bonnie Fuller has been a driving force in the world of popular magazines.  In this video, she talks about how she got involved with magazine editing:

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