Tuesday, April 24, 2007

In Philly, the Inquirer blends editorial with advertising, and it's not pretty

The New York Times reports: ''Starting next week, The Philadelphia Inquirer will run a new column called PhillyInc., written by Inquirer reporters and editors, on the first page of its business section.'' OK, but here's the questionable part of this new column: ''What is unusual is that the column will be sponsored by a local advertiser, Citizens Bank. It will carry the bank’s logo and be outlined in the bank’s distinctive green ink.'' All the details online here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/business/media/23inky.html?8seia&emc=seia

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Russian News Service staff gets the bad news

The New York Times reports the bad news about "good news" mandate in Russia. Half of what is reported must be positive. Russia is becoming one of countries that does not respect press freedom. Here's how the story begins:

''At their first meeting with journalists since taking over Russia's largest independent radio news network, the managers had startling news of their own: from now on, they said, at least 50 percent of the reports about Russia must be ''positive.''
''In addition, opposition leaders could not be mentioned on the air and the United States was to be portrayed as an enemy, journalists employed by the network, Russian News Service, say they were told by the new managers, who are allies of the Kremlin.
''How would they know what constituted positive news?
'' 'When we talk of death, violence or poverty, for example, this is not positive,'' said one editor at the station who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution. ''If the stock market is up, that is positive. The weather can also be positive.' '' Log in free to the NYT for the entire story.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Nike ad campaign: Socially responsible--or marketing ploy?

After the Imus comments, Nike does this: http://adage.com/article?article_id=116145
Advertising Age gives us the background.

'Clinton fatigue' and sloppy reporting

I usually see this kind of sloppy generalizing in student work (most vividly a story about scientology from Colorado student-writers). But the Washington Post? Let's go back to remedial reporting.
http://mediamatters.org/items/printable/200704170009

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Catholic Mobile? Get regular inspiration

http://catholicmobile.com/
AdRants takes note of this new mobile company. The Web site states: "Catholic Mobile provides families and individuals with inspiring Catholic content that will enrich their daily wireless experiences." OMG

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Toledo Photog altered dozens of photos

As mentioned a few days ago, a Toledo Blade photographer altered an image and was suspended, then he resigned. The newspaper investigated a bit deeper and found all kinds of manipulated images. Read the Blade editor's commentary: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070415/NEWS08/704150316

Friday, April 13, 2007

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Couric's video blog on libraries: Plagiarized!

Katie didn't acutally plagiarize, but one of her producers did. The unnamed and fired person "put together" the copy for her to read for the video blog--almost word for word from the Wall Street Journal. Geez. The AP has the story about this ethics lapse:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8OE1PQ81&show_article=1

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Pole dancing for kids

Teachers in the UK lament the kind of advertising that gets into their schools: http://media.guardian.co.uk/advertising/story/0,,2051965,00.html

Wilfling?

Media Guardian reports on ''wilfing,'' the new British pastime. Wilfing is mindless wandering on the Web.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2053568,00.html

A stop put to sale of captured sailors' stories

Should the British soldiers get paid for their interviews and/or stories? The government thinks not. Some were offered up to 100,000 pounds.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,,2053380,00.html

Monday, April 9, 2007

Citizen Journalism etiquette and ethics: A difference exists between the two

Don't confuse ethics with etiquette--but some civility seems to be in order!
The New York Times shares a story about some bloggers who want to DO something about bad manners: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/technology/09blog.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The Knight Citizen's News Network has a good list of five ethical principles for the citizen journalism: See these at http://www.kcnn.org/principles/

Anna Nicole news coverage was actually educational, Slate writer says

Readers and viewers learned all about "civil procedure, pharmacology, and police work."
Read the commentary: http://www.slate.com/id/2163504/

Altered sports photo in Toledo!

Don Winslow, editor of the magazine News Photographer (and a friend of mine [disclosure!]), writes about the recent incident at an Ohio newspaper: http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2007/04/toledo01.html
Photog resigns: See the story at http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003569046

MTV is doing WHAT?

The blending of entertainment and commerce is its latest enterprise. Read all about it at http://www.adrants.com/2007/04/mtv-blurs-adcontent-line-with-new-program.php#more or just watch the real thing on MTV.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

What the heck is AP up to now?

In 2005, the Associated Press created ASAP for younger readers--you know, the coveted 18- to 34-year-olds. ANYWAY, in an attempt to be totally cool and outrageous, the writers for ASAP (see asap.ap.org) want you to write to them and assign them news stories. This project is called "Assignment: You."

If your story idea is accepted by an AP writer, you get to help with the reporting. Hey, you can put this on your resume if your story idea is actually chosen and you actually help!

Lohan: 'Cats scare me'

The Washington Post's Peter Carlson reports that GQ has done an entire interview via Blackberry with Lindsay Lohan. OMG! Apparently, the interview was not anything special. Pretty dull actually. Read all about it at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/02/AR2007040201603_2.html (Scroll down to the middle of the page.)

Monday, April 2, 2007

Advertising and the End of the World--Really!

If you haven't seen professor Sut Jhally's 1997 documentary titled "Advertising and the End of the World," you must. Now, 10 years later, the ad industry is starting to pay attention to all the clutter advertising creates--mass consumerism and pollution, etc. Some of us see or hear almost 5,000 ad msgs a day. A long article available at Advertising Age Web site:
http://adage.com/article?article_id=115873