"Of All Places ..."

Fellow UMass journo -- and one of my favorite columnists -- Kevin Cullen seems to have run afoul of UMass cheerleaders with his latest column about a "stupid college kid" who made the grave mistake of aiding and abetting the current poster boy for satanic terrorists, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Three little words were spiked after initial publication.

Obviously when you talk about an uber rich guy sending his son to "elite schools" but then when it comes time for college sends him to "of all places" UMass Dartmouth, it kind of sends the message that it's not exactly the same as an "elite school."  Which of course it's not.

But you can't say that.   In the venerable Boston Globe.  Apparently.

Like walking on the moon

Journalists in the Movies. (Final Paper)

So my Journalism 393F instructor, John Katzenbach, has been overly nice all semester--keeping assignments relatively short and deadlines fairly flexible. Except of course for the final. Not less then 2,500 words and a drop dead deadline. Yikes.

And No, I do not mention the perfect 'Only in Amherst' connection to this historic event because I figure Mr. Katzenbach has lived here over 20 years so he probably remembers it as well: only days before Operation Desert Storm lit up Baghdad like a Christmas tree, venerable Amherst Town Meeting voted unanimously at a Special Town Meeting for a resolution addressed to President Bush and Congress--with that being the only article on the warrant--demanding we "continue negotiations" with Saddam Hussein, thus reaffirming Tracy Kidder's aside about Amherst being the only town with a foreign policy
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Every good athlete dreams of that rarefied moment when skills acquired through years of long hours of physical training combine with competitive experience, and perhaps a little luck, and all come together at the perfect moment to make a decisive difference in the contest of a lifetime.

Just as every journalist dreams of being in the right place at the right time with the proper equipment to cover the story of a lifetime.

"Live from Baghdad" represents just such an event for Robert Wiener, the CNN producer who lived it. He points out to his editor that it could become, “The journalistic equivalent of walking on the moon."

Early on we learn that Wiener has regrets that he abandoned Viet Nam before the fall of Saigon--so vividly captured in videos carried on the major networks showing helicopters retreating from the roof of the American Embassy with marines pushing back panicked South Vietnamese; or the exclusive video captured by Australian photographer Neil Davis showing North Vietnamese tanks smashing through the gates of the presidential palace and raising the communist flag.

The opening scene set in a movie theatre sets up the good verses evil theme by going back six months to the day Saddam Hussein first attacked Kuwait. Civilians are watching an American science fiction movie--'Tremors', starring Kevin Bacon--where he is fighting a snake-like monster and the loud action on the screen is suddenly interrupted by the rumble and roar of tanks storming into the city. Saddam Hussein is of course the monster.

The main characters are introduced in a documentary style with names and job titles rolling across the screen as they first come into view. The CNN newsroom looks like a typical big-city news operation with phones ringing, a plethora of employees typing away on computers and the editors dressed in traditional business attire.

Weiner says to his boss as part of his pitch to get the assignment to go to Baghdad on the eve of war: "We're a 24 hours news station and we need a 24 hour news story, and this one just fell from the heavens."

This statement is also somewhat ironic in that the most gripping part of the story would end up being the bombs falling from the heavens on Baghdad (and anti aircraft fire spraying wildly into the night sky) dropped from US stealth bombers that lead the assault on the first night.

The moral dilemma Wiener would face as a journalist is also on display early on: as he and his crew arrive at the airport in Iraq a CBS journalist is leaving and somewhat jokingly derides him: "From us they (the viewers) get the news, from you they (the Iraq regime) gets access."

The tensions he and his crew would live under is quickly demonstrated by shots of all the surveillance equipment on the streets and in their hotel room (9th floor the of the Al Rasheed Hotel)

The first story they file underscores the depth of Wiener's news judgment and how clever he is getting things past Iraq censors. While watching government TV in their hotel room they notice a "news" story of Saddam Hussein welcoming British "guests" in one of his many luxury palaces. They all can tell that a 5-year-old child looks petrified as Hussein pats him on the head in a forced, stiff manner--reminiscent of Richard Nixon's clunky "checkers speech" (about his dog).

Wiener perceptively says to his crew: "This is not the story (tapping the screen image of Hussein), this is," as he circles with his index finger the image of the child's panic stricken face.

So they run that video on CNN and close with a stand up by their correspondent strongly suggesting that anywhere else in the free world these folks would be considered "hostages" but in Iraq under the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein they are considered "guests". A word play George Orwell would appreciate.

The scene showing this first feed back to Atlanta also demonstrates the resolve of the crew as they have to use an Iraq government TV station with antiquated technology and only at the very last second do they make it work, much to the relief of CNN bosses back in Atlanta.

At the obligatory bar scene after this first triumph other mainstream journalists criticize Wiener saying, “You give Hitler a microphone and call it journalism.” And another one chimes in about “providing context to a story.”

An agitated Wiener responds, “Who are you to say what it means!” And indeed he has a point. If a picture is worth a 1,000 words than a video is easily worth ten times that.

The next morning as they are off to do another story Wiener explains to one of his crew, “Got to get something to feed the beast.” A concept that underscores the then relatively knew concept of a 24-hour news cycle now taken for granted by journalists harnessing the power of the Internet.

This second story they file is not much of a follow up as all they get is a routine Iraq demonstration (“dog bites man” story) highly encouraged by the government with the clichéd anti-US chanting, burning of American flags and a small child holding a sign saying “We love Saddam.”

In the American embassy office Wiener looks out at the demonstration his crew is filming with a state department bureaucrat he has just given a box of expensive cigars (at CNN expense) who tells him, “As soon as you stop filming they pack up and go”--which of course happens on cue.

Back in Atlanta, his editors are not impressed with the story. At this point we learn Wiener is attempting to get the Mother Of All Interviews: a one on one with Saddam Hussein.

In order to accomplish this he meets with the Iraq Minister of Information (head government PR flack) and arrives dutifully at his office at 8:00 AM but is kept waiting until after 4:00 PM, thus demonstrating once again his resolve.

When he first meets with Naji Al-Hadithi (who is gazing out a window while slowly kneading prayer beads) the Minister demonstrates he is no inexperienced fool as he says to Wiener (referencing the first story with Saddam and the hostages), “You got your story out.”

Wiener requests an interview with Saddam Hussein and a four-wire circuit hook up so he can contact his office directly, although he does not make it clear that it is his office in Atlanta rather then the local one in the Middle East.

In another follow up story they file the crew gains access to the US Ambassadors Compound where American oil workers and businessmen are sequestered in order to avoid be taken and used as “human shields.”

One outspoken agitated American worker derides the crew, calling them “vultures” and tries to intimidate them into leaving without a story, which Wiener deftly deflects.

His crew interviews businessman Bob Denton who seems not worried at all with the words he’s using (in a monotone way) and praises the Iraqi people, but at the same time the cameraman notices--and zooms in on--his trembling right hand.

After the story airs Bob Denton disappears and Wiener feels guilty thinking he has put him in jeopardy, which of course he has. His able assistant, Ingrid Formanek, points out that Denton’s choose to go on camera using his own free will, something we Americans value. But Wiener is still deeply troubled.

His depression turns to exasperation when he and the crew discover Dan Rather has aired an exclusive interview on CBS with Saddam Hussein.

When he confronts the Minister of Information, who has now become a friend, Naji informs him that his request for a four-wire telephone hook up has been approved and as an additional consolation prize offers him a trip to Kuwait to do a story clarification concerning Iraq soldiers taking babies out of incubators and letting them die on the cold concrete floors.

The crew was promised access to three Kuwait hospitals but their Iraq handler cut them off after the first. The movie uses the same technique of the tight shot of a nervous face to suggest that the Doctor was scared (like the 5-year-old British youth with Saddam) and coerced into dispelling the rumor that babies were murdered, leaving the strong impression that the rumors were true.

Even before the CNN crew can file their story the Iraq Minister of Information has put out a press release saying the only Americans to visit Kuwait have verified that the awful stories of dead babies were in fact false.

His able assistant states the one thing most journalists take pains to avoid: “We have just become the story.”

At this point Wiener realizes he’s been used and Naji later confirms, “Both sides use the media.” Indeed. In a phone conversation with Atlanta his unhappy editors tell him next time to film and report whatever he sees but then admits they will still run the story absolving the Iraq military of the horrible rumor.

The movie clearly leaves the impression that the crew made a mistake filming the contrived story and furthermore CNN made a mistake in running it, but in fact that is far from the case.

Much like the violent scene in the movie “Cronicas” where the mob is attacking the man for accidentally killing a child who ran in front of his truck but he is in fact a serial killer who does prey on children.

This is a major weakness in the movie. The baby incubator story was completely fabricated, aided by a well-coached 15-year-old daughter of the Kuwait Minister of Information and a highly paid PR firm.

In the DVD I rented no disclaimer appeared updating viewers on that reality, although some sources on the Internet stated that HBO in subsequent airings--in response to criticism--added an addendum saying the incubator story was indeed proven false.

In a phone conversation on their newly installed four-wire circuit the president of CNN, obviously unhappy, demands to know “Why were we the only ones the Iraqis chose to do the incubator story?” With a pained expression on his face Wiener slowly hangs up the phone without answering.

Continuing to press his friend Naji for an interview with Hussein, Wiener says passionately “People are going to die...They are going to die when we stop talking!” His impassioned pleas works, and they land the interview with Saddam Hussein. CNN sends anchor Bernard Shaw to do the story.

As Wiener is placing the microphone on Saddam Hussein’s expensive tie he briefly looks into his stern, resolute eyes and casually remarks, “Nice tie.”
After the interview one of his crew says, “We were looking into the eyes of a killer.” No mention of course that the US, a few years earlier, aided Hussein in his war with Iran.

But Wiener is unhappy with the interview as it simply restated the routine: Hussein was not backing down and that giving up Kuwait would be the same as the US giving up Hawaii,

When one of his crew remarks, “If any interview with Saddam Hussein is not news, then what is?” “War,” he responds. Quick cut to archive footage of US troops in full battle gear with overdub of President Bush calling Hussein a “bully.”

Next major event they cover is Hussein releasing all the hostages (“guests”) and at the airport where they go to get footage Wiener spots Bob Vinton the missing man he interviewed earlier.

Vinton does not even recognize Wiener and simply says the Iraqis had moved him to another office building before he hurries off to one of the last planes out of Baghdad.

Cut back to a scene with Naji who tells Wiener “You deceived us,” referring to the four-wire phone. Wiener responds, “Are you going to take it back?” And Naji, spouting the Fox News tagline, responds, “No, you are fair and balanced and we trust you to use it responsibly,” adding the line Wiener used with him earlier, “As long as we keep on talking there’s still hope.”

At this point gun-ho correspondent Peter Arnett arrives exuding adrenaline and the thrill of covering something he obviously loves—war. Bernard Shaw has returned as Naji had dangled the opportunity of interviewing Hussein at the appointed hour of the deadline day imposed by President Bush. As he is taking a cab with Wiener through the abandoned streets of Baghdad he remarks, “High noon.”

The US sends out the code message “Baby has gotten the sniffles,” which means an attack is imminent. Wiener allows each crewmember to decide to stay or go as the CNN president had made it perfectly clear he did not want to lose any employees.

Surprisingly his assistant says she will go. Wiener had already told his editor in Atlanta, “I’m not going to walk away from a great story again”

Cut to darkened complete abandoned streets of Baghdad with Naji gazing out a window once again manipulating his prayer beads. And then all Hell breaks loose as American bombs fall and Iraq counter fire goes up. Since communication is the first priority in a coordinated attack the traditional phone lines go out instantly.

Only CNN is left with the opportunity to report the story live as it happens via the four-wire phone, reminiscent of Edward R. Murrow’s 1939 radio coverage live from the top of a hotel room describing the Nazi blitz of London.

Wiener moves his “non essential” crew down to the basement bomb shelter where he runs into an ABC employee who says, “You killed us Wiener…You own this war.”

Cut back to a tight shot of Saddam Hussein and President Bush’s face as they watch the live CNN broadcast.

After a night of continuous bombardment and a few close calls with all the major networks relying on the CNN phoned in live reports, the morning dawns over a devastated Baghdad.

Wiener’s boss in Atlanta tells him over the phone that the coverage he provided was “simply incredible…you are the envy of every journalist around the world.”

Walking in the debris with Naji who is now dressed in a battle uniform Wiener is thankful that he “kept his word.” Naji responds, “And you got your story.” Wiener gets the last line: “Not the one I wanted,” as he slowly ambles off stage right and Naji exits stage left.

The HBO production aired in 2002 just as the US was preparing to return to Iraq and finish the job started in 1991—deposing Saddam Hussein. And since one of the repeated themes in the movie is the value of negotiation, it was probably viewed by many as an anti war film.

Since the script was also written by Robert Wiener, based on his book of the same name, there’s no doubt the adaptation was true to his original vision. One reason why he probably kept the “incubator story” in the film—because indeed it happened.

The journalism ably represented by Wiener and crew is the traditional “get the story” type of journalism that occasionally gets reporters killed. Although Wiener, obviously distraught about potential harm brought on to one of his sources, exhibits more conscious than many journalists.

The hint of romance with his attractive assistant Ingrid Formanek--but confirmation that no actual affair occurs--also underscores Wiener’s family values.

He is told by the CNN president (who lost two reporters when he was at the LA Times) to make sure he “brings everyone back safe.” When the bombing is imminent Wiener allows a vote on who wants to stay or take a plane out of Baghdad, although it becomes a moot point as the bombing starts.

Wiener demonstrates he has faith in the viewer even though he takes heat from the other journalists for airing the propaganda film of Saddam patting the head of the five-year-old British boy.

Just before the bombs fall as he looks out over a darkened Baghdad with an anti aircraft gun slowly swiveling like a tiger pacing in a cage, he says to Ingrid Formanek, “What are we dong here?”

She responds with a memorable sentiment worthy of a close: “We don’t solve the world's problems, we report them.”

A tale of two Umass buildings

Tilson Farm Steam Plant (also called "Paradis Boiler Plant" located near Orchard Hill)




The new state of the art co-generation plant on Mullins Way, using low sulphur diesel fuel, natural gas and effluent (gray water) from the Amherst Waste water Plant located nearby produces both heat and electricity.
Original coal fired steam plant built in the late 1940s; slated to be replaced in 1974 by Tilson Farm.

In fact, the old warhorse coal plant was under pressure from the EPA to shut down in the early 1970s so perhaps that urgency pushed Umass officials to become reckless in bringing on-line the new Tilson Farm plant too early. The coal fired steam plant, continued operation until about two years ago.



View old power plant in a larger map
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The difference between the new $138 million Umass co-generation heating/electrical plant on Mullins Way and the old $9 million Tilson Farm steam plant is as stark and simple as a light switch: one switched on and it worked, the other turned on and did not.

The Ward Commission, charged with investigating public building contracts during the 1970s, concluded that the Tilson Farm steam plant fiasco was an all too typical byproduct of the greed and corruption ingrained in the system of awarding state government building contracts. Essentially the foxes had free rein in the henhouse with little to no oversight.

According to an abstract of the Ward Commission published in the Boston Globe (1/3/1981):

"The $9 million steam power plant is a white elephant - now standing idle because the 1.5-mile pipeline designed to carry steam to the campus contains irreparable defects caused by backward operation during startup. After $96,492 paid to contractors produced neither a solution of the problem nor even identification of its cause, workers renovated an old plant at a cost of over $2 million. Meanwhile, attempts to "mothball" the new plant resulted in corrosion of valves and pipes."

The "backward operation" probably seemed like a clever cost saving idea at the time: pulling steam into the plant from the older one located 1.5 miles away to heat it during the first winter of operation.

Attorney General Francis Bellotti eventually won a $970,000 lawsuit against the building designers but by then the $9.3 million steam plant was abandoned. A "Building Condition Report" done by staff at the office of Administration and Finance dated 5/26/09 estimates $5 million in demolition costs for the 19,000 square foot plant, although no such action is imminent.

A recent inside tour shows the derelict four story building to be remarkably well preserved:












Perhaps a lasting legacy of the powerless powerplant is reflected in the shiny exterior of the new co-generation plant built 35 years later. As State Senator Stan Rosenberg, President Pro Tem of the Massachusetts Senate (D-Amherst) points out: state officials had learned a hard, expensive lesson.

Behold the Power...

Interesting article on the Front Page of the downsized Springfield Republican about politicians using social media to connect with their constituents. They lead with local success story Catherine Sanderson's School Committee Blog pointing out posts that generated 150 comments and 10,000 hits per month.

Two weeks ago at the height of the School Superintendent A-Rod coup d'état she came within a whisker of breaking the 1,000 mark--two days in a row.

I noticed three years ago when I first launched this blog my numbers almost tripled the days immediately before the May 1 Override vote. And during the recent A-Rod affair (a story broken by me three full days before the Crusty Gazette) my numbers also more than doubled, and now have stayed there as yet another Override looms.

So I think when people really want to be informed and they want it NOW they come to the Blogosphere, Twitter, Facebook, etc. When they want to leisurely sip cappuccino and passively peruse the local news, they pick up the brick-and-mortar media.

And the children shall lead...

With a little help from the adults--both with vested interests.

Funny how this supposedly fair and balanced "news" article in (ARHS) The Graphic extensively quotes Nina Koch, a teacher, and Rick Hood, a pro status quo School Committee member wanna-be, slamming Catherine Sanderson's School Committee blog for being too negative, and then of course they pile on some more.

Yet each of them chime in rather regularly on Sanderson's blog. A blog is a perfect example of interactive free speech: if readers don't like what you publish then they can freely rebut. As the ACLU would say, "The way to counter bad speech is with good speech--not censorship."

In the Free Market of ideas and opinions, may the best one win.

"The sun will come out tomorrow," and 5 years hence

Image borrowed from:http://thetattytruth.wordpress.com/

Life in the news delivery world five years down the road will be: a narrative told by a genius, full of the sound and fury, signifying everything (to everybody). Or, a Hell of a lot of data/information from which a viewer can write their own narrative.

Like the previous decade, technology will continue to lead the way, opening doors-although not battering them down-- for innovative, cost effective ways to engage the citizenry and allow them to return engage .

Internet usage by average citizens worldwide will now be as ubiquitous and routine as running water.

Apple computer will dominate the (just now emerging) lightweight portable tablet market as they did with iPods and the iPhone, so consumers will have the best aspects of smart phones, MP3 player, netbook, video camera and e-reader all packaged in a sleek, sexy, easy to use gadget, with almost unlimited battery life.

Google will continue to dominate as an internet search engine and their Wave software allowing for live web streaming of information and real time interactions between providers and consumers of news and entertainment will be standard protocol.

Comcast will continue to dominate as an Internet /Broadcast service provider, but with government regulation will not become some rogue corporate superpower capable of taking over the world. High-speed wireless Internet will blanket the globe.

Newspapers will have survived, but most certainly not thrived. The gatekeeper role of the Fourth Estate is almost completely extinct. Big players-Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times-will still be cranking out print editions, but more and more of their readers will be viewing them on their portable tablets via the Internet.

The war between Google/Yahoo/search engines and newspapers will have ended with a strategic alliance allowing readers worldwide a "fair use" of a newspaper's website, thus continuing to drive traffic to them--but readers wishing more than casual perusal will pay a reasonable amount for the content.

The clash between Citizen Journalists/Bloggers and Professional Journalist will FINALLY be over, as more and more of the crotchety, ink-in -their -veins editors/publishers die off a la Thomas Kuhn's 'Structure of Scientific Revolutions' prediction.

Professional journalists will be far fewer but they will be cream of the crop, and legions of Citizen Journalists will fill in the gaps-especially with local news. Those Citizen Journalists will have rudimentary training and certification from a private non-profit (Knight Foundation?) giving them increased credibility with readers.

Almost every town or city boroughs with a population over 10,000 will have a local portal to provide news, weather, entertainment, and reams of data all packaged on an interactive platform based on Google Wave.

The word "breaking" in breaking news will take on new meaning as almost any event anywhere in the world will occur within eyeshot of somebody with a device to capture and transmit the event to a worldwide audience as it happens with "universal translator" software instantly translating words and text into their native language.

In other words: it will all be good.

"Real Revolutions" indeed!

“In real revolutions things get worse before they get better. .. One of the bad things I think is going to happen is, I think civic corruption is just going to rise for towns and regions of under about half a million people. Which is to say, I think the old model of the newspaper is going to break faster than the hyperlocal civic reporting can come in its place.”

I commented to my online journalism discussion group that I hated to disagree with such a New Age Internet/Journalism Guru like Clay Shirky but, Citizen Journalists and Bloggers would indeed continue to shine a spotlight on civic government. After all, most City or Town Council's meet only once a week.

My Professor said we're both right. That in little old Western Massachusetts, Citizen Journalists could help to fill in the void, but almost everywhere else Mr. Shirky's scary prediction is on the mark.

And I could not agree more with my friends at the Springfield Republican: Nobody does investigative journalism better than newspapers.

Springfield Republican provides the perfect example

The Media Internet revolution: Version 3.0

We believe in the nimble, street-level approach to collecting news. We hope to offer great writing from seasoned journalists as well as fledgling reporting from citizens who agree to cover public meetings. Life is a Journey, and we are unfurling our sails.

Mary Serreze
Publisher, Northampton Media

This is how the seasoned Gadfly/Journalist/Information Technology guru turned Publisher described Northampton Media upon its recent September 15 launch. When asked what motivated the new on line endeavor, she enthusiastic replied: “I felt compelled--I couldn’t help it! I love the city of Northampton and felt the local daily newspapers were not doing their job covering local politics.”

With an "angel investor" providing $5,000 and a plethora of free advice from experts who had made the transition from print to Internet bandwidth, combined with her three-year experience doing IT development for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton Media can easily become the poster child for local Citizens Journalism in the Digital Age.

Serreze almost sounds as though she is taking this on-line journalism course, as she describes her role as a "curator and aggregater" of all things Northampton, freely linking to news articles in the Springfield Republican and radio station WHMP, and others not hidden behind a paywall.

Her goal is to make Northampton Media a “One stop shopping experience for fans of Northampton news.” She starts every morning doing a Google news search for anything concerning her adopted City of Northampton, where she has lived for twenty years.

The website already displays links to 25 local blogs (including mine) on the home page and photos or video accompany all posts (bordering on daily). A volunteer Arts/Entertainment editor starts work soon to diversify the offerings and make the site more mainstream.

Northampton Media is still a work in progress as Serreze says she launched a little early in order to closely cover the recent November 3 Northampton Mayoral election which certainly was one of the more contentious and as a result most interesting over the past dozen years.

The website is a step up from her blog as she feels that bloggers have undeservedly gotten a bad rap when it comes to journalism, so this new platform slightly disassociates from the term but still relies on the instant ability to post writing, photos, video and color graphics pioneered by Wordpress and Blogger.
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While online since 1999 the Daily Hampshire Gazette has not embraced the Citizen Journalism movement, although editor Noah Hoffenberg says it is “not harmful or threatening to mainstream media.” In fact, he even went as far as saying it was a “good thing” citing “more people involved leads to a divergent perspective and opinions.”

The Gazette currently uses no outside bloggers or Citizen Journalists and doesn’t plan to in the near future. When they rolled out a major revamp of their website last year they had a half-dozen in house blogs from staff and editors but only the youngish sportswriter (former Daily Collegian writer) Matt Vautour seems to have thrived using the medium.

The Gazette is still very much a bricks-and-mortar newspaper (circulation about 20,000) and the website (about 1,000 subscribers) an afterthought. They layout/build the print edition first and then export to the web. But with their pedigree perhaps it is little wonder: The Daily Hampshire Gazette is one of the oldest papers in the nation first coming off the printing press in 1786.

And a recent $10 to $12 million investment in a new Italian four-color process printing press and the extensive renovation required to house it at their Conz Street, Northampton location underscores their continued faith in the printing press.

Although the building expansion/renovation seems not to have impressed former long-time editor and now publisher of downstreet.net Ed Shanahan, who quoted a local architect on his website last year: “I swear to God, that’s the first building that’s ever scared me.”

The Gazette continues to consider the Springfield Republican newspaper as their main competition, as two years ago they switched from an afternoon distribution to the early morning to match their rival.

And while they abandoned the idea of a Sunday edition they slightly revamped the Saturday edition (with the highest circulation of the week) and call it the "Weekend edition."

The Gazette also saw major changes four years ago when purchased by Newspapers of New England, a private company owned by folks with ink in their veins.

When I asked editor Hoffenberg why they simply do not issue digital cameras to reporters to go along with company issued laptops, he responded that it was a "quality" issue. Citizen Journalist or blog photos often do not look like the kind of photo that would pass muster for the Front Page.

Their staff photographers take photos and are good at it, their reporters write, and editors edit. Fair enough, but with all those layers to orchestrate immediacy is sacrificed--although in the last year or so they have gotten better with getting breaking news up on Gazettenet.

And although ensconced behind a paywall, they have recently started allowing non-subscribers to access articles that come up via a Google search. So they are, at least, starting to get it.

Conventional wisdom claims you "can't teach an old dog new tricks." With Northampton Media now nipping at their flank, the Gazette may want to take a refresher course in Internet news distribution.

Especially since they can conveniently do it on-line.

Should Citizen Journalists be trained?

Well of course there should be training! But then the question becomes who does the training?

The Umass on-line certificate program is of course a good start because it sets minimum standards that allow motivated individuals to tap into a proven brand name for journalism.

But once that training camel gets its nose under the tent, are you going to have government certification required?

In Massachusetts a hair stylist needs 1,000 hours of training and must past a test for a state license. The state legislature is now talking about licensing personal trainers at health clubs and massage therapists. As a health fitness professional (with a degree in Exercise Science/Sport Mgt) I would actually support both of those because someone with inadequate training could potentially hurt a paying client.

What is a “journalist”? Simply somebody who works for a mainstream media outlet and gets paid, or volunteers for a college newspaper, senior center quarterly or high school yearbook? And can their lack of training cause damage? Of course it can.

We have laws against libel/slander for an aggrieved party to seek retribution against a news outlet that publishes something a cub reporter failed to fact check and does damage to an innocent persons reputation.

But we also have something in a freewheeling, market driven system called “let the buyer beware.” If you act upon information gleamed from a Citizen Journalism site that nobody has ever heard of operated by anonymous contributors and it looks like it was designed by a pimple faced high school kid then you deserve to absorb whatever damage inflicted.

Chances are any site that consistently attracts eyeballs –especially enough for the owners to generate revenue from advertisers—must be doing something right.

Most karate schools have a color belt program so you can tell who is the beginner (white belts) and who are the more highly trained experts (brown and black belts). Schools that have lousy standards (selling the higher belts as long as the check clears) usually don’t last as students eventually figure it out.

Perhaps one way for government to ease into this fray is to make it mandatory that any news outlet that puts out their hand for a government subsidy (either tax exempt, non-profit status or outright stimulus funding) must have minimum training standards and a certification program for all reporters and editors.

Information gathering is easier if the sources know they can trust the reporter and the entity they represent. Although Woodward and Bernstein were not the most experienced reporters at the Washington Post the rock solid reputation of the newspaper itself more than made up for that.

While anyone can start a blog and call themselves a “journalist”, the ones that garner attention and make a difference will be those who take themselves seriously and exude that in everything they do.

Training and certification is just another step (leap) forward on the road to mainstream acceptance.

Hear ye, hear ye: Town crier needs material

What things would you do as editor of a Citizens Journalism effort to increase public input?

I would establish ‘beats’, ‘channels’, or compartmentalized sections on the site (just as a newspaper has national, local, sports, entertainment, living sections etc).

All of these sections would have their own Forum Comment fields for reader response/submissions BUT would be moderated. Anonymous comments would be acceptable (you can get great tips when a person knows they are protected) and with moderation you can quickly weed out off-topic comments or possible libel/slander.

Police beat: One of the best read sections of the Amherst Bulletin is the Police Log (they are public documents) so I would make sure to publish that every week. But I would also try to find a cop, spouse, or somebody "into" public safety to write a weekly analysis/report/editorial about crime--even if it is the small town kind.

School/education beat: As you pointed out some towns--like Amherst--spend 75% of their tax money on the schools. A blog in the area that consistently (when schools are in session anyway) beats mine is Catherine Sanderson's "My School Committee Blog" and it gets tons of comments. Since I know she does it for the exposure and not for money (School Committee is an elected but none paid position) it would not be hard to form a strategic alliance with her already successful blog.

Arts beat: These days everybody has a digital camera so I would establish a photo section where budding photographers could upload their work (no Porn of course).

Sports section: Every parent loves to see his or her kids names in print--even if only on the web. A knowledgeable coach would be happy to write a weekly column and I would try to get a lot of them covering everything from standard seasonal sports like basketball, baseball, football as well as mixed martial arts, cycling, running, triathlons, and yes, even bowling.

Health beat: With the graying of America combined with older folks embracing the web and the spread of broadband this is a perfect place to attract that older demographic that the national beer, auto, and entertainment companies seem to ignore in their advertising (going after the 18-35 kids.)

Heath clubs, yoga centers, chiropractors, sports medicine rehab centers would be happy to submit material and I would form a strategic alliance with Umass Exercise Science department as well, for articles of a more general interest (not just trying to drum of business) on safe practical exercise targeted at senior citizens or just casual couch potatoes.

Politics—or I should say local politics: As Tip O’Neil so famously stated: “All politics is local.” This one would of course be my favorite. I would enlist citizen journalists to cover all the major meetings of town boards and committees. My theory is if the town can find 5 or 6 people to staff these committees I should be able to find one person with a computer to cover them or even enlist one of the committee members.

Entertainment Beat: This would include all the staples--local bar and music scene, movies, music downloads, links to local radio and TV stations with a section devoted to music or video uploads from readers.

And all that mundane boring stuff that folks need/like to know: bus schedules, school schedules, weather, lottery results, crossword puzzle, horoscopes, free classifieds, etc

Hmmm…now after review it looks like all I’ve done is combine the best qualities of a local daily newspaper with a weekly free publication and put it all on the web where your audience can instantly interact and even move forward a story/issue.

But since all this happens on the web, the “burn rate” for overhead (unlike bricks and mortar media) is pretty close to nothing. And as Facebook has just demonstrated, if you attract enough “eye balls” advertisers will want a targeted piece of that action.

Blockbuster fast forwards to extinction

So after a dozen years dominating the Happy Valley video/DVD rental market the Blockbuster in the Stop and Shop Hadley stripmall is going the way of the Dodo bird. A tad too late for 'Video To Go' the iconic, slightly funky, video store that opened in Amherst many years before Blockbuster and moved from Main Street to the shopping center near Gold's, errrr, The Leading Edge Gym and then to Greenfield and then the graveyard.

Locally owned 'DV Den' and 'Captain Video' will be happy, but with consumers shifting to online downloads, cable video-on-demand or just the mailorder convenience of Netflix, the future of the industry is not in bricks-and-mortar outlets.

Some of you locals may remember only a couple years ago when Hollywood Video opened right around the corner from Blockbuster and only lasted about a year. Kind of an oldstyle Monitor vs. Merrimack engagement, only in this case one sank (Hollywood Video).

Interestingly this paradigm shift on the demand side leaving large (over)supply types like Blockbuster out in the cold parallels what is happening with the media--especially print media--today.

No wonder Netflix is killing Blockbuster.

Becoming a Citizen Journalist in Amherst?

There’s always room for one more; and God knows I could use the help.

First off, establish a blog…and then behold the power. Like many things involving the Internet, they are free. Perhaps the main reason print news industry has become a “dead man walking.”

Writing is of course a basic requirement but not nearly as important now as it was four or five years ago. But with a blog, if you are going to do it correctly (and my mother taught me “If you are going to do something, do it right,”) then you will be writing a lot and as a result your writing will improve. But still, shorter is better.

A computer, preferably a laptop with WiFi, and high-speed Internet access are mandatory. Give your blog a catchy title, easy for folks to remember and for a google search to find. Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are great adjuncts and can feed back into the blog.

Get a free sitemeter that tells you how people find your blog, and hits per day will give you an idea of what stories are of interest, have legs, or fall flat. Post frequently but don’t force it with something Twitter –like about what you had for breakfast this morning.

A digital camera with video is also a must. Try to get one with a high optical zoom, as digital zoom tends to come out blurry. Last year I pushed an older camera to the limit of digital /optical zoom taking a shot from a public road about 100 yards away of an Amherst town official gardening at her new home in the town of South Hadley, and it came out lousy.

But she had a recognizable, errrr, figure so it still proved my point. (She later resigned as Amherst has one of those pesky regulations that you must live in town in order to serve as an elected public official.)

Photo editing skills are not all that important as cameras have simple settings that allow any neophyte to take decent photos. Basic skills with video editing are handy because you will need to snip only the pertinent sound bites. These days Apple imovie or simplemoviex make it for anybody to become a Stephen Spielberg.

Now that you have all the tools, establish your turf. Are you going to specialize by covering only school related issues (and in the community of Amherst that is a paramount issue) or just local government in general (and in Amherst they often dabble in foreign policy)?

For the sake of this discussion let’s assume you are a political blog covering the People’s Republic of Amherst.

Either way continue to read/watch the mainstream media, get out to the local coffee shop, bar or restaurant where the locals hang out and keep your ears open. Attend public meetings, ask hard questions. Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s none of your business because you are not a reporter for the local newspaper. The First Amendment applies to everybody.

Bone up on Massachusetts Open Meeting Law and Public Documents Law. Get to know the Town Clerk. Visit other blogs and post relevant comments under your name or google/blogger name so it can link back to your blog. Visit the cyber versions of local media and post comments there with your blog URL.

But above all, seek the truth. Triple check facts and spelling of names,stick to the AP pyramid style of presenting information (most important fact first) and never let your guard down.

Because with every post, you piss somebody off. If you don’t, then you are not doing your job.

And did I mention there’s no pay?

What do people want from the media

People want the media to inform, entertain, amuse and they want it all instantly. A Herculean task for the industry—especially since a lot of folks want it free.

But above all, readers want to trust the source. You expect the New York Times or Wall Street Journal to thoroughly vet a story so you know what you are reading is reliable. Folks hate to be deceived.

And in journalism, even with iconic newspapers, it happens. Reporter Janet Cooke’s, infamous profile of “Jimmy, an eight year old third-generation heroin addict” that originally won a Pulitzer Prize for the Washington Post but was then rescinded because it was all fiction.

The Washington Post did something hardly any major newspaper does: they apologized; and in a mea culpa report by their ombudsman of what had gone wrong concluded it was due to a “failure to check confidential sources and the risks of putting sensationalism above editorial judgment. “

I disagree with Mr. Crosbie’s declaration that the local news story is dead, which flies in the face of Tip O’Neil’s famous assertion “All politics is local.”

Yesterday a run away balloon that everyone at first thought had a 6 year old stow away child on board riveted the nation.

If not for that hair raising component of a child potentially at great risk it could easily have been just a local news or blogger upload about an “interesting” family who happens to keep a large flying saucer balloon tethered in their backyard and who also recently appeared on the national TV show “wife swap”.

Here in bucolic Amherst, I posted on Monday morning about a “ghost bike” (a bicycle painted all white and placed at the scene of a car/bike accident where they cyclist died) vandalized by ax wielding assailants.

The local newspaper picked it up the next day (even used a photo from my blog) and then within 24 hours both local TV news stations covered the story as well.

And on a slow news day that is the kind of tragic/weird story that could hit the AP wire (they covered the original accident/death a month ago, a hit-and-run still to this day unsolved).

I agree with Crosbie that in today’s 24/7 world of instant information the average reader initially craves (to, sort of, quote Sgt Joe Friday) “just the facts”; but then 59 seconds later, they are ready for a well-written, well –researched, human interest story--all the better if it actually occurs in their neighborhood.

Well if everybody is a journalist, who's the reader?

Take Sides: do you agree with Jay Rosen's definition of "the people formerly knows as the audience."

Jay Rosen: The People Formerly known as the Audience

Yes, I completely agree with Rosen that high technology has changed EVERYTHING concerning news production and news consumption, where the word "instant" applies almost equally to both sides of that equation.

But still, there are a lot of people out there who want (and will pay for) a packaged, professional product covering a wide variety of news, politics, sports, entertainment, weather, lottery numbers, etc. Even if that newspaper does go to bed at 10:00 PM the night before.

Rather than a blogger vs. mainstream media pissing contest, everybody wins--especially the general public--if the the two camps merge into a hybrid that taps the fantastic features of the Internet with the tried-and-true methods of traditional journalism.

Simply allowing comments on a news web cite allows for greater participation from readers; and perhaps some of them have inside information valuable to the story. Even better if the newspaper shares some of their bandwidth and exposure by hosting and promoting outside independent blogs.

They can still keep things at an arms length and protect themselves legally by using a disclaimer to readers that the blog is a separate entity. That way they could use the blog as sort of a canary in the coal mine to ascertain if a story is worth pursuing in greater detail.

Newspapers have always solicited feedback from readers via Letters to the Editor and Guest Columns for almost as long as they have been in existence. Only now those letters or columns can appear INSTANTLY as opposed to the days or weeks it required back in the good old days they they were properly vetted--albeit slowly.

When I was writing a professional column for my little hometown paper--The Amherst Bulletin--my goal was for half the readers to hate it and the other half to love it.

Howie Carr at the Boston Herald has said pretty much the same thing when he observes that half his readership loves how he skewers public officials and the other half are those public officials checking in to see if he is skewering them.

My stingy editor wanted me to keep it to 750 words--and since the issue and not the money was my motivation I would usually end up with a first draft closer to 1,000. Retired Journalism icon Howard Ziff told me his goal was 600.

So I would reread my final draft 100 time and every time try to edit out something.

These days I publish to my blog six days per week, although I try to keep it shorter than 750 words. And before I hit the "publish" button I reread the final edit only 10 times rather than 100.

But I can still go back anytime and instantly change anything 90 more times over the next hours, days or weeks.

And of course my daily numbers even multiplied over the month probably still do not equal the audience I had as a monthly newspaper columnist. But my theory is the folks who come to my blog daily really want to read what I have to say (even if hoping I make a mistake they can use to embarrass me.)

Thus they are committed readers/consumers rather than passive newspaper readers who usually only lazily scan the headlines (and Columnist don’t get to write their headlines) maybe the lead paragraph and if both are really compelling the rest of the article.

Quality vs. quantity.

What drives Citizens Media?

So yeah, I'm taking an on-line journalism course on line at my old Alma Mater, Umass. This was Friday's assignment.
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A search for the truth drives those who would call them selves “citizen journalists.” And holding up a mirror to reflect what actually occurs at an event is now far easier because of technology—digital cameras, cell phones with built in video, micro-cassette recorders, etc.

Plus the Internet makes publication for the whole world to see just a click away.

But facts still matter. The old “who, what, when, where and why” still matter. And yes, for God sake spell names correctly because somebody will notice, and they’re going to think “If you can’t spell my name correctly what other facts did you mess up.”

When it first made the literary scene in the late 60’s and early 1970’s New Journalism, where a writer immersed themselves in the actual story, was viewed by journalism purists as a red headed bastard stepchild.

But with talented writers like Joan Didion, Truman Capote, and Norman Mailer to name a few, it proved to be more than a passing fad. The New Media journalist has a tremendous advantage with new technology and can capture actual scenes instantly thus relying less on writing skills and more on layout.

A good lead, however, still matters—as does a catchy headline. And these days a citizen journalist can’t rely on a photo editor or headline editor, which of course can be good or bad. But who better to chose a headline or photo than the person who actually wrote the article?

Since most Citizen Journalists are not paid a salary obviously their motivation is similar to an Olympic athlete who does things for the love of the sport.

And yes in spite of some of the recent articles about competition between mainstream media and citizens journalists being a thing of the past competition is a powerful motivator. I hate to say it but I dearly love scooping my local newspaper (not that it’s all that hard to do).

About the only good thing to come out of the 2004 Presidential election was the common use of the term “core.” (I think it came up in a negative sense in ads paid for by the Swift Boat Veterans against John Kerry and he made the huge mistake of not responding instantly but—for the sake of this discussion-- that is irreverent.)

Core is an all or nothing thing. You either have it or you don’t. And being motivated by altruistic principals goes a long way to ensure you do indeed have one (although it’s nice to bring home a paycheck at the same time).

Bobby Kennedy once said something to the effect that if a politician really, really believes in the message then they should be able to present it without a script or (if they had them back then) a teleprompter. Extemporaneous speaking often comes from the heart.

On the day Martin Luther King was assassinated (4 April 1968) Bobby was in the middle of his ill-fated Presidential run and against the wishes of his advisers got up on a flatbed truck and spoke from the heart to a predominantly African American crowd in Indianapolis, Indiana in what was supposed to be a routine campaign stop.

He broke the horrible news off-the-cuff and ever so eloquently, closing with a message of non-violence. That night Indianapolis was one of the few cities not to go up in flames.

No, I don’t honestly think Citizen Journalists or bloggers are the reincarnation of Bobby Kennedy—but many of them share the same ideals: to dream things and say, why not?