MySpace Suicide -- And Us

OK, 202ers. Go back and read the previous post on MySpace and the comments to it.
One of the commenters has posted personal numbers and harsh commentary on the Drews. The commenter is anonymous (s/he shows a first name but no profile ... s/he could be in our class but also could be a member of the public following our blog).
Does this change your thoughts about the case overall? What do I do as moderator ... take it down or let it live? We talked in lecture and discussion about journalism, blogs and the space in between. What is it we're doing here? We're commenting on journalism but are our comments journalism? And what responsibilities do we have?

MySpace Suicide

A paper is taking heat for this story about a teen's suicide after she was targeted in a scheme to set up a fake MySpace character. The character was used to gather information that was then used against her socially. She killed herself about a year ago.
The story is tragic, but the paper is being criticized not for running it, but for not naming the adults involved in the fake account.
Read the piece and tell me what you think. Then read the comments posted at the bottom and tell me if that alters your view. Then go to some blogs (here's one), which have outed the offending adults, and follow the comment threads. What do those add to the equation?
I have pretty strong feelings on this one ...

Prof and Plagiarism?

A storm brewing at Mizzou, one of the country's most prominent J-Schools. A retired professor, John Merrill, wrote a column for the newspaper, which is run by the school. He used two quotes from another story without attributing them.
The paper publicly reprimanded him by taking his column away.
It's brought an interesting set of responses from ethicists and bloggers.
So is this plagiarism or something else? If it's something else, what is it? And how should it be handled? What are the "thou shalt nots" of media ethics? What are the grayer areas?

Mom Song

have gotten a bunch of requests for the youtube video i mentioned yesterday during the viral marketing discussion.

here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxT5NwQUtVM

how many times have you heard these lines from your mom???

tnx,
kc

Fat and the Farm Bill

Here's a suggested post from a 202er. I would STRONGLY encourage you to familiarize yourselves with this issue. It's going to be getting a lot of media attention. Took a long time to start bubbling, but now it will boil.

Katy,
I'm not sure if anyone's still reading the blog now that the quizzes are over, but on the chance that they are, it might be good to mention the Farm Bill 2007 that's currently going through the senate. The legislation is extremely important, and, unfortunately, it hasn't gotten much attention (at least that I've seen) besides a few op-eds (and an upcoming documentary called King Corn). Ultimately, the Farm Bill is the reason corn syrup is in everything we eat, and part of the reason Africa loses two dollars to trade deficit for every dollar in aid it receives. Billions and billions of dollars of subsidies go to massive agri-business corporations (I think 75 percent of the subsidies go to 3 companies), and it affects everything: nutrition, local farming,
the environment (that shipping costs money) and global poverty. It doesn't seem like a very interesting topic, but it has a huge impact, and people should know about it (especially since this is a very agricultural state). Here are a couple of those op-eds:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/opinion/15kleckner.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/22/AR2007102201656.html

plus a NYT magazine feature a while back:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/magazine/22wwlnlede.t.html

Print Circulation

Here's a great note from a 202er to supplement Monday's lecture:

Hi Katy,
In case you haven’t read this yet, I saw this article this morning. Relates to what you lectured on yesterday on the Journal Sentinel losing customers regardless of their strong Web site.

<http://www.jsonline.com/watch/?watch=20&date=11/5/2007&id=31384>http://www.jsonline.com/watch/?watch=20&date=11/5/2007&id=31384

Thanks,

In the News

What are you reading about this week? Last quiz = last chance. Offer it up. I may go full throttle and ask six current events questions. What might those look like?

OJ & KC

OK, a 202-er writes to try to suck Katy Culver into the OJ Simpson story, to wit:
____________
I stumbled upon this story today:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,307757,00.html

Does this make this case more interesting now? Was he framed?....if the FBI new about it, isn't it suspicious that they let it happen? Will this get big? I know you hate O.J. in the news...but i'm having trouble deciding whether this is a big, important issue...because it seems highly suspicious, yet i've heard nothing else and it's not very 'breaking.' It seems this was highly preventable...not that i personally wouldn't love to see O.J. rot in prison.
_____________

Y'all know my feelings on overblown tales of woe involving Orenthal James Simpson. So is this news now? And if so, how so?

Non-profit Journalism

Here's a nice wrap-up on my earlier post on non-profit journalism from the Poynter Institute.

Here's how this shakes out. The age-old business model of newspapers is scaring the pants off everyone right now. Print circulation and ad revenue are down markedly. Newspapers all over the country are tightening budgets and laying off workers, trying to keep a Wall Street-friendly profit margin in the face of these revenue problems.
People like me suspect that two kinds of coverage are most threatened by this trend: international reporting and investigative reporting. They're both essential to the very meaning of journalism but also colossally expensive to do.
Enter "non-profit journalism." The idea now goes that philanthropists will fund investigative journalism to keep the press as watchdogs of government, business, other institutions.

Do you think this will work? Can entities like this effectively serve as watchdogs? Were newspapers even doing that in the first place? What are the conflicts of interest?

Kid Creates Apple Ad

Lots of buzz in the marketing world these days regarding consumer-generated content. The theory is something like open-source in the computer world: the more people you let in on the creative process, the more likely you are to get new ideas and great advertising.
The problem is that you also get lots of dreck. Katy and the Culver kids tried creating an ad for Dove and while my 4-year-old looks darned cute, it isn't exactly something that would move a lot of soap.
So this week, Apple went live with a revamped version of an idea generated by an English student. I'm a fan. What about you? Think this is the future of advertising, consumers creating messages?
Note that this is also an "old media" story. The kid stuck his original on YouTube in mid-September and by mid-October, he had 2,000 hits. The New York Times put it in Stuart Elliott's column (on an inside page, mind you) and in less than 12 hours, the spot went to 20,000 hits. It's now at about 340,000.
Pieces like this often need the support of the (gasp) the "mainstream media." Now, if entities like the NYT can just figure out a way to make money off that hit-generating...

A Skeptical Editor

I was sorry to read of the death of Vivian Aplin-Brownlee, who stands out as one of the few to challenge the authenticity of a story that marked one of the lowest points in American journalism.
In 1981, Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke won a Pulitzer Prize for a story called "Jimmy's World," reporting on an 8-year-old heroin addict in DC. The problem: he didn't exist. The piece was a complete fabrication.
I've often stumbled on the case because when I read the piece, I found it strained the bounds of reason. But then I suspected it was just the clarity of hindsight leading me to that conclusion. You can read it and judge for yourself.
Aplin-Brownlee doubted the story from the beginning and came to be well-regarded for being a lone voice of dissent.
What is a newspaper's responsibility to check the veracity of its reporters' work? How could a false story slip through? What did this do to the Post's credibility? What forces prompt reporters and editors to behave unethically? What effect may race have had in this saga?

Facebook and Ads

Hi Katy-

This is one of two articles discussing the new advertising angle that Facebook is taking with its trademarked "SocialAds." Apparently, they have a new way of looking at market research and targeting. I thought this might promote an interesting discussion on the class blog. That's my two cents.

Facebook Set to Introduce Major Ad Play
Social Network Could Unveil 'SocialAds' at NYC Event Next Month
October 23, 2007
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=121440

Kids and Marketing

Lots of people are spending lots of time talking about the ethics of marketing to kids. Lots of flap over sugary sodas, fast food, cigarettes.
Here's an interesting new take on the issue, courtesy CNET, asking whether kids are ready for the grown-up ad world when it comes to online activities like gaming.
You've recently left the teen set, what do you think of this? Should ad messages be aimed at kids? Does online matter in a different way than TV? Should government control ads targeting kids? Should parents? Is that even feasible? How much marketing pressure did you feel as a kid?

Gossip Gone Too Far?

Page Six in the NY Post is under fire from some readers and competitors for what appears to be a note about raping a woman who criticized the gossip roundup.
Not known for its subtlety or responsibility, the page seems to have gone a step further than it has before.
What do you think of the reference? Would you have read it as a rape threat? Does the page have a different responsibility (to its subjects and its audience) than straight news pages would? Do scandals like this actually help it by beefing up notoriety (i.e., "there's no such thing as bad publicity")?

Politico 4 U

The politics-junkie site politico.com launched a campus minisection today.
Will you use it? Does it cover the interests of your generation? Do you care about politics?

Non-profit Journalism

This week presented yet another fascinating development in the journalism business model. Many people believe that as news organizations have to trim their staffs and budgets to meet Wall Street expectations, the first things to go will be international bureaus and investigative journalism.
This week brought the announcement of a new investigative organization with a big fat annual budget that means it won't have to sell advertising or have circulation. It's bank-rolled by billionaires who think contribution to the public interest is the only return-on-investment that matters.
It's called propublica and it's led by a widely respected journalist, Paul Steiger, who used to edit the Wall Street Journal.
I have two questions for you. Will it work? Will it matter in the public conversation?

In the News

What are you reading about? It's all up to you this time. I'm not giving you any seed stories. Have at it in the comments section.

Nobel Racist?

I've had one intense week (given your midterms and 202 intensity, I'm sure you can relate). So thanks to the 202ers who send in posts. Here's a new one:

Hi, I still dont know how to post a story we found on the blog, but i think this is quite interesting. A nobel prize winner, now living in england claimed found the
link in dna that made black people less intelligent than white http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3067222.ece

I found a follow up story http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/10/19/uk.race/index.html

I cant believe someone with this amount of intelligence, i think his nobel prize was for his work in breaking down dna code, could make such ignorant statements.

Colbert a la Dowd

From a 202er:

Katy,

I urge you in the strongest possible terms to put this article on the course blog -
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/opinion/14dowd.html?_r=1&n=Top/Opinion/Editorials%20and%20Op-Ed/Op-Ed/Columnists/Maureen%20Dowd&oref=slogin

If you haven't read it, it's Colbert's guest column (for Maureen Dowd) from Sunday's NYTimes. It's brilliant - especially if you read the op-ed columns enough to understand his Frank Rich joke, for example.

Paying the Ultimate Price

It's been a bloody week for journalism in Iraq. The Washington Post lost a reporter who worked in its Baghdad bureau. (Check out this moving tribute from his colleagues.) And an Iraqi newspaper lost three employees in an ambush.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports 119 deaths among journalists in Iraq and 41 among support workers. In 2007 alone, 47 have perished.
What does it mean to pay this price to report? When journalists are a target, what else is sacrificed? Press freedom? Security? Information itself? Would you risk your life to tell a story? Are you glad that other people do or do you think it's unnecessary risk-taking? What stories are worth the risk and what stories are not?