Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Online on the magazine rack These cover stories should make for a spirited classroom (or blog) discussion of "how the old media cover the new media." Hmm. Here's a way to integrate the two: Use Google to find blogs discussing the New York mag article about "A-list" blogs. Or maybe use Yahoo to find discussions of that Time article? Or browse some of the top 50 blogs to see how they handled the magazine articles? Or browse the two magazines to see what their in-house blogs look like? (Speaking of blogs, I followed Rex or Steve or Dave to one or both of those articles on Monday, but didn't get around to posting the links.) Here's an example of Web serendipity: If I hadn't been browsing that New York article, I wouldn't have seen this headline "Tab queen exclusive shocks, dismays innocent journalism students." Not a lot of article there. Too bad the magazine's site didn't enhance it with a few Web links... which also fits our classroom discussion of "the difference between shovelware and more creative uses of the Web." I may be wrong, but I think it's also the first time I've seen anyone from the Society of Professional Journalists use the word "trepidatious." Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not the kind of language you'd see in a family newspaper. While on the subject of of hometown papers and new media: The editor of the News Sentinel has some comments on the Texas paper that broke the quail-hunting story a few days ago: "It's fascinating for an old newspaperman to see colleagues adeptly doing journalism in a multimedia environment. First, they break the big story via an e-mail alert and on their Web site, then they develop it in print and video... Is it a great time to be in the news business, or what?" And... here's Glenn Reynolds from just up the street, with an essay on "The Rise of Guerilla Media," a selection from his new book, An Army of Davids. (I reserve the right to use the previous paragraphs as an example in a class discussion of "awkward, contrived transitions as a literary precursor to hypertext.") updated March 3 10:48:13 AM

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