On The Margins

Friday November 24, 2006

[ Media ] He Said, She Said

Besides Rob Hughes on soccer, IHT has fashioned "MetaMedia" with the back-and forth dialog-blogging by Eric Pfanner and Doreen Carvajal on convergence of media and technology. In other words, "convergence" becomes subject of itself, in action. It talks about itself and to itself. How good of a dialog can that be? Walt Mossberger of The Wall Street Journal will not be passe anytime soon.

2006-11-24 06:06:39.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
convergence media technology

Friday November 10, 2006

[ Media ] A Persian Blogger Comes of Age

If you know Persian, occasional viewing of Hossein Derakhshan's Persian weblog might benefit you. He also has an English weblog and a photoblog worth a visit for a cultural study if nothing else. The Washington Post carries another regular blog of his. Derakhshan's recent piece analyzing current politics of Iran might be a good lesson for those Persian speakers who have a tendency to provide knee-jerk analysis of the Iranian history of the last 30 years. The title is a bit odd but clear "چرا با براندازی حتی نرم هم مخالفم" ("Why I'm opposed to regime change of even the soft variety"). I've not included the link to this particular entry of his but you can search for it on his Persian blog if you're interested. If you don't know Persian, you can turn to his Washinton Post blog, mentioned above, for a taste of his writings. Athough Derakhshan takes the job of the journalist somewhat seriously and does quite a bit to expose double-standards everywhere he can see it, his failing (if any) seems to be related to an exaggerated view of the role of the journalist in modern society up to a purist theoretical limit beyond any dreamed up by common Western journalists in Europe or North America. One may also detect an exaggeration with respect to the actual (as opposed to either the theoretical or the subservient) capability of a journalist to transform society, which in practice tends to remain limited because of subtle realities of human life that stand beyond and above opinions of one sort or another. To his advantage and credit, Derakhshan insists on remaining at least self-consistent unlike some of his peers who go as far as advocating false concepts such as judicious double-standards.

In his "History of American Journalism classes," professor Thomas C. Leonard of UC Berkeley used to ask whether journalists, under the Fourth Estate, had perhaps evolved into a new type of priesthood (The Power of the Press: The Birth of American Political Reporting), and Kierkegaard would have hated that very aspect of modern times, The Present Age, and Ayn Rand tried to capture it all in her Fountainhead. This perspective, focusing on the leveling effect of the journalistic approach to understanding our moral place in the world, while full of modern rings, goes back all the way to Socrates and his dislike of the rhetoricians of the courts who could make anything sound right or good. Hence, his repose into dialogs. 

Who is right? The confusion continues, and perhaps, the disintegration of authentic communities of moral practice tend to give rise to priestly elites who busy themselves with "useful" justifications (of torture under "rules," e.g., by Alan Dershowitz: here, here, here; here and here) instead of advocating well-established and crystal-clear moral concepts having to do with human beings and their due integrity and honor, and also, to journalists who play the missing priests--to use professor Leonard's reluctantly-drawn  but apt analogy.

2006-11-10 20:27:56.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.
america ayn-rand berkeley blogs fountainhead journalism kierkegaard persian philosophy press priesthood socrates torture web

Wednesday September 20, 2006

[ Media ] Big Media Move towards Online Video

Like many other primarily paper news media, The Wall Street Journal seems to be making a big move towards online video distribution of news and trends.

Up to very recently, The WSJ was only distributing videos interviews with its reporters in already established TV business programs. Now, with its new video news program, Dow Jones Online (including WSJ Online and Barron's Online) is conducting its own interviewers with reporters and other opinion holders, business, economic and financial experts.

The advertising pull is great; the reporters and commentators are most often top notch. The frank conversational style works well and the focus lies on substance rather than the show. I hope this experiment will last.

2006-09-20 17:52:37.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Sunday September 03, 2006

[ Media ] Traditional vs. Internet Media

Here's Al Gore speaking his mind on the difference between the Internet and the traditional TV at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

2006-09-03 23:29:31.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Tuesday August 29, 2006

[ Media ] "Open Source" Radio

We have heard of Open Source when it comes to software and hardware.

Radio can also be "Open Source": "Open Source was conceived and developed by Christopher Lydon and Mary McGrath. A joint production of Open Source Media Inc. and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Open Source is presented by WGBH Radio Boston and distributed by Public Radio International (PRI)."

The material is released under Creative Commons. As usual, some mixing of views gets out on Radio "Open Source". I should add that I do not agree with everything on this radio station but I find the branding concept interesting, and of course, the pendulum keeps swinging.

Perhaps, we should start a real "Open Source Radio" which focuses on Open Source software! Would it have any listeners? Open source software does most of its doing using collaboration tools like e-mail, wiki and instant messaging.

2006-08-29 23:16:55.0 -- Comments [3] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Monday August 14, 2006

[ Media ] Editors' Choice

The issue of how mental frames can be used to gain an advantage has been discussed thoroughly by Stanford Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer in his Managing with Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations.

In journalism, editors make the foremost framing decisions.

Editors make important choices that frame a reader's mind before the reader moves to the rest of an article.

I've given an analysis of an example of framing choices editors make elsewhere.

 

2006-08-14 00:07:14.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Thursday May 11, 2006

[ Media ] A Revolutionary Paper

The Washington Post remains truly revolutionary and ahead of many of its peers in how it incorporates new technology to distribute content of value to readers.

Check out its coverage of the E3 Expo in Game Days. While at it, don't forget to browse the images from digital games.

Something else that makes WP really revolutionary is the attention it pays to Dilbert!

2006-05-11 23:16:31.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Tuesday March 21, 2006

[ Media ] How Reporters Lead With Loaded Questions

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks his mind about Iran to The Wall Street Journal despite the reporter's attempt to lead him on with loaded questions. By the way, setting the context is a common reporting practice which can be and is regularly used by almost all reporters. Some use it with skill and fairly. Others are quite inept and use it for relatively mundane or dubious purposes.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told The Wall Street Journal that Turkey is not afraid of Iran, and then asked the question "Why should we be?". The reply came after the following question by the interviewer was posed, "Are you worried about Iran's nuclear program?". The Turkish PM then went on to say: "As you know we are a member of NATO. We were a neighbor of the Soviet Union for a long time and were not scared during those days either."

Robert Pollock reminded Erdogan of the movie "Kurtlar Vadisi" (Valley of the Wolves), which was criticized for being anti-American, and made a joke to Erdogan saying "Be careful, they may not let you in the US!"

Erdogan evaluated the movie and said, "For example Abu Gharib Prison, we saw it on TV. And now it is Guantanamo Bay on the agenda of the World press. Of course this film might have been influenced by these."

If this Hurriyet report of the interview is correct, most astonishing to me would be Pollock's barely veiled brandishing of a potential threat to deny Erdogan entry to the U.S.

Perhaps, the reporter would rather have Turkey go back to the rule by the friendly dictators rather than by an elected liberal and populist?

2006-03-21 04:25:24.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Tuesday March 07, 2006

[ Media ] A Week of Free FT Online

This week (March 5 - 11) only, you can access all of Financial Times Online for free, for example, Financial Times Business School. (Registration may still be required.)

2006-03-07 17:50:33.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

Saturday January 21, 2006

[ Media ] Diversions

If someone believes the traditional media, and in particular paper media and books, will grow old and join the oblivion of the "dust bin of history," they should have been at my home this morning watching me comfortably relaxed on the couch in my living room reading Financial Times, or later while I was working on a Sudoko puzzle in its Diversions section with my daughter, lying down on one of the Persian carpets in our living room.

The Persian carpet has a non-traditional design with 40 squares filled with flowers and animal motifs, the Sudoko puzzle was quite easy and filled quickly, and the Financial Times carried a story compiled from London and Tehran on Iran's intention to move its assets out of Europe. It did have the mark of an editor sitting in London.

Once this was all done, there was a pre-recorded viewing of a Barareh show which focused on the inhabitants of Barareh seeking to install a garbanzo bean factory in their village, and the Pahlavi King's cronies opposing it.

The dance school where my daughter went for a Jazz session was only 3 minutes away, and now it is lunch time!

A Saturday morning at home --

2006-01-21 12:39:17.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.

[ Media ] Another Technology Blog

Technology editors at International Herald Tribune have started a new technology blog which may have a more trans-Atlantic perspective.

2006-01-21 12:05:52.0 -- ; Permalink ; Trackback.