WIKIPEDIA AS NEWS

Peter Tupper over at Tyee.ca has a good, but somewhat overstated, look at Wikipedia as a news source.

I think he overstates his case, but the article gives a good overview of Wikipedia, and provides a base for considering some of the potential for wikis.
10:47:34 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

OOPS

GoogleNews, which is gathered, rated and ranked by computer algorithm with nary a human in sight, occasionally gets a little confused. That was the case this morning, when it threw up last Monday's Red Sox game as today's "Top Story."

It's the latest strangeness from the service which, in the recent past, has featured a blogger's post as the lead item on a top story among other oddities. It's still a good source for an overview of what's out there, but approach with caution.
10:00:14 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

THREE THINGS...SORT OF

An associate member at Testy Copy Editors asked the folks in the discussion forum, "What are 3 things that copy editors wish starting reporters knew?" and has touched off a lively (and sometimes funny) debate.

There's some good, practical advice for beginning reporters, but my favourite post says in part:

haven't you folks heard the joke? "how do you hide a $20 bill from a reporter?" stick in the stylebook

It's funny 'cause it's true.

SOURCE: A Capital Idea.
9:11:02 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

ETHICS? WHAT ETHICS?

Back home from the inspiring words of the documentary photographers of Narrative 360 (item below), and brought quickly back down to earth by this correction from the Washington Post.

In the Oct. 17 Sunday Source, the "Gatherings" story described a Republican barbecue held to watch a presidential debate. The item reported "the possibly unprecedented occurrence of a young woman in a cowboy hat pretending to make out with a poster of Dick Cheney." The item should have explained that the woman was asked to pose with the vice president's picture by the photographer working for The Washington Post. The woman also did not pretend to "make out" with the picture; at the photographer's suggestion, she pretended to blow a kiss at it. The item should have explained that the party was hosted in response to a request from The Post, which discussed the decorations and recipes with the host and agreed to reimburse the cost of recipe ingredients..

Jeebus wept. And mainstream media wonders why it's losing credibility and connection.

SOURCE: Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish.
8:31:17 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

POWERFUL PHOTOGRAPHY

Narrative 360's stunning display of documentary photographs from Afghanistan, Kites, Guns and Dreams, is continuing here in Vancouver and you really should go see it. The group show of works by Christopher Grabowski, Robert Semeniuk, Lana Slezic and Roger LeMoyne provides a look at the central Asian country that is far different from what we're used to seeing.

Their photographs cover a range of life in Afghanistan, from children flying kites amid the rubble of Kabul, to schools, to markets that are run almost entirely by small boys, to Afghanis who have lost limbs to landmines. If there is an overarching theme, it is the dignity of a people who have been victims of a succession of cruel wars.

Saturday, in conjunction with the exhibit, Narrative 360 hosted a forum with two of the photographers, and a number of others working the documentary tradition. A lot of the discussion dealt with the unwillingness of mainstream media to support and publish this type of storytelling, but there was much more than that.

Some quotes from the afternoon:

Art Perry: You don't go there to photograph the other...I look for the commonality. You go there as a human, as a person with a conscience.

David Campion: We have an intent with these images. We hope we can be a conduit of something we've experienced.

Christopher Grabowski: There is an objectivity routine that has been adopted by newspapers and if [your work] is not based on these objectivity routines, then it's not actually "journalism." You can't have documentary photography based on this type of objectivity.

Robert Semeniuk: We can now document many, many perspectives and we can get rid of "objectivity."

THE ASSAULT CONTINUES

Jon Stewart's assault on the dumbing down of American political debate continues on tomorrow's edition of 60 Minutes, where the acerbic comedian is interviewed by Steve Kroft. The CBS web site offers this as part of its preview:

Cable news, says Stewart, has become a street fight instead of civil discourse. "What has become rewarded in political discourse is the extremity of viewpoint," he tells Kroft. "People like the conflict. 'Conflict, baby! It sells.' 'Crossfire!' 'Hardball!' 'Shut up!' 'You shut up!'"

SOURCE: I Want Media.
12:00:23 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

GOTTA LOVE THE WEB

A day after the U.S. Republicans unveiled an ominous new ad using wolves, the web has tossed up Wolfpacks for Truth.

SOURCE: atrios.
11:20:52 AM  LINK TO THIS POST