Category — news

Follow my attempt to not get sucked into reading too much on the 2012 elections by subscribing to my delicious 2012 tags.

Today, for example, I howled at @cliffschecter’s take on the poisonous GOP Debate Audiences

2012 Elections: It’s Delicious

Two interesting articles about my favorite website (well, favorite pastime while in front of a computer. Website doesn’t quite convey my obsession)

David Weinberger: Reddit and community journalism

What Reddit says about the expanding idea of journalism

In ‘War Made New,’ noted defense historian Max Boot runs through 500 years of battle to show that victory goes to the combatant who had digested and incorporated not just the latest weapon technology, but also the culture and bureaucracy most adept at exploiting this technology.

In other words, it’s not just the latest, greatest military tool that wins battles and wars.

These upheavals on the battlefield show how revolutions in military affairs quickly upend empires, assumptions and future warfare.

It is not hard while reading Boot’s authoritative descriptions of battles in Italy, Koniggatz and Tsushima for me to link the breakthrough tactics and organizations of those winners with the current array of challengers the modern media company faces daily.

The French canons of 1494 and the Prussian needle guns of 1866 were just as revolutionary as the rise of cable and the utility of the internet.

While media companies assail the post-modern methods of web journalism; outdated management techniques and labor fight the radical methods information gathering (When “good enough” journalism is better) while being slow to the punch to counter the hype and monetize the promise of online advertising.

The outcome of media’s struggle to survive depends less on the interest of the public in news, but more on the ability of media companies to deploy organization, staff, technology and tactics to innovate on the sales and content battlefields.

Media pundits sound like an outdated army, scoffing at the enemy’s unwillingness to line up and fight like men when complaints of “inaccuracy” (TMZ leads with early details, while Los Angeles Times and AP do the heavy lifting) and “you’re stealing” (Tighter copyright law could save newspapers: Connie Schultz) are lodged against the likes of TMZ, Newser and Wikipedia.

It’s high time for media companies to learn faster from the likes of Boot, who show how old methods and organization stand little chance and how difficult it is for incumbent s to realize continuous hegemony.

Great rejoinders to every McCain attack on Obama … laying out reasons for why the Democratic Party should win … I may even watch it again

Continued our Twitter experiment at WKYC.com with two live “remotes” this week.

Tuesday, Web Reporter Kim Wendel posted 73 tweets at the Obama town hall / rally at BW. They are re-posted at the bottom of this story.

After increasing the number of people we follow from 51 on Monday to 530+ on Tuesday, we saw the number of people who were following us jump to over 100.

One Twitter user said we were spamming, but at least two users commented favorably on our efforts.

We’re still debating whether to have one “official” WKYC Twitter account, or just funnel multiple reporters’ Twitter feeds into one master one. For now, I think that having one account is easier for others to reach out to.

Besides this week’s experiments, we’ve been intermittently using Twitter to let web users know about live video streams. I think we’ll step up that effort this week. In fact, we added our Twitter feed to our live streaming page — so users could watch the event, chat with other viewers and get updates from Kim at the event.

Here’s the WKYC.com Twitter account: twitter.com/wkyc

LostRemote: Covering the news with Twitter

A repost from Eric Mansfield’s …

Soundbite from the Akron Mayor’s news conference Wednesday, talking about the possible consolidation of Akron Police and the Sheriff’s Office for operations that Eric wrote about here …

I wonder how long before news of the CBS cuts makes every reporter realize they need a blog. I certainly need to focus my energies on what I blog.

So, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing $16 billion per month (Source), at the same time, society has decided that “If the news is that important, it will find me.”

As Terry Heaton points out, this means it’s up to media to find news consumers.

I guess that $16 billion a month news hasn’t found Americans yet.

As WebGuild put it: Important news will not find you.

This is especially true as newspapers crumble. Editor and Publisher writes: The newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in advertising revenue in more than 50 years.

So, at a time when the need for being informed is great, how will the lower-cost, distributed methods of web journalism replace newspapers and TV?

Media employees think we’re figuring this out — but reports of our chances of living are greatly exaggerated.

Next superpower, you’re up. Newspaper’s replacement — it’s your turn, as well.

Some parting links:

For a great read on the death of newspapers, check out Out of Print: The death and life of the American newspaper

And, a poem: the news will find me soon enough

Colbert reports on why he is a great American Finally, a reason to read again.

Live-action Robotech in the works Awesome.

Nukes for Iran Not awesome.

Lentine’s Music closing its doors

Though it’s been about 10 years since I lusted after guitars and guitar gear, I still remember the fun of wasting hours plucking away at Lentine’s.

It’s the store that introduced me to the “Eddie Van Salesman” type: The long-haired sales assistant who wanted nothing more then to be asked “What guitar should I buy?” so that he could pick an axe off the wall and shred through scales and solos as quickly as possible, riffing on Van Halen, Yngwie or Hendrix. I saw several of these guys at various Dream Theater concerts — air guitaring away with the best of ‘em.

Marketplace had a story last week about the fact that Buicks are the premier car in China.

Hot damn, my 2002 Buick Land Boat is cool somewhere!