Mason J-Roundup

If your mother says she loves you...

2010-03-05T04:37:00.002-05:00

One of the basic rules of good journalism is not only getting information first but also getting it right.

The recent dust up over Justice Roberts' supposed resignation is a good example of law students not checking out their sources.

Anatomy of a Rumor: The Story Behind Chief Justice John Roberts’s ‘Retirement’

By the way, I am really getting to like the OnMason blog site. I am half tempted to move this site to that platform soon.

Demographics of American newspapers

2010-03-04T02:11:00.001-05:00

I'm trying out my OnMason blog site.

Go here to see an old chestnut.

Getting the subject-verb agreement right

2010-03-02T03:47:00.001-05:00

ARGH!

I don't like it but I am almost ready to give up complaining when people say/write, "media is."

But when the venerable Gray Lady decides subject-verb agreement is no longer necessary, I guess we might as well all just give up.

It should be "Data show..."

IT resume tips that also work in journalism

2010-02-26T04:24:00.001-05:00

Toni Bowers did a quick entry at TechRepublic on resume writing.

Quick resume tip: Hone your Job Objective statement

I thought what she wrote is good advice and now pass it on to you for your students.

Recession and booze - Getting the story

2010-02-22T03:02:00.001-05:00

Journalism is more than just repeating numbers and getting a pithy quote. Good reporting also provides context. It helps explain why a story is important.

The Detroit Free Press ran a piece over the weekend on how the number of liquor licenses keeps increasing despite the dwindling population in the Metro Detroit area.

Liquor flows in abundance despite population decline

My first reaction to the headline -- from the front page teaser -- was that the article would be about how much liquor is being sold. From that I would hope the reporter would ask experts to comment on whether the hard times Michigan is facing is leading to the increase in liquor sales. And then what are the social concerns of more people feeling depressed (due to job loss) and drinking more.

Are drunk and disorderly arrests up?
How about domestic violence?
Divorces/separations?

But no. The 300-word article is about the formula for issuing liquor licenses and how the numbers are askew. Nothing at all about the actual flow of liquor.

I understand limited resources the newspaper has. But how hard would it have been to get some sample numbers of actual liquor sales? Up? Down? Has having more distribution points (bars) meant an increase in sales or are the sales just being spread out over more places?

And then, as I said before, there are the social issues.

Are more people spending more time in bars? If so, what does that do to the community and families?

Context: A vital part of journalism

2010-02-20T08:01:00.001-05:00

I just unloaded on some of the reporting coming out of Haiti, especially the reporting on the 10 just-released Baptist missionaries.

Rather than repeat everything here, go to DR and Haiti stories: Where's the context?

TBH, I've been shouting at the reporting since the first day of the earthquake. Granted, most of it is pretty straight forward but there was/is enough to get me riled.

I worked on search and rescue during the 1985 Mexico City earthquakes (8.1 and 7.8). Most of the SAR techniques used in Haiti came from the experiences in Mexico. The SAR teams from the USA and Europe all credit the work done in Mexico as the reason their teams and training are set up the way they are.

Yet, there was nothing about this in the media reports. (Hint: GMU j-students, go talk to the Fairfax County special team that went to Haiti. They will explain how 1985 shaped what they are doing today.)

And now there are stories about Baptists, child trafficking and Dominican-Haitian relations.

Is it really too much to expect that there should be SOME explanatory grafs in these stories to talk about what is going on beyond the immediate?

Context! Context Context!

It sure seems to be missing in most of the stories I have seen/heard on Haiti.

Working with numbers

2010-02-17T16:44:00.001-05:00

The Gallup Survey folks came out with a survey indicating what state had the most churchgoers.

The survey showed that Mississippi led the nation with 63 percent of the people saying they attended a religious service weekly or almost weekly.

The top-10 church attendance states are:

State	% attend weekly religious services
Mississippi	63
Alabama	58
South Carolina	56
Louisiana	56
Utah	56
Tennessee	54
Arkansas	53
North Carolina	53
Georgia	51
Texas	50

You will notice that most of these states are in the South.

The states that showed the fewest number of people attending regular church services come mostly from the Northeast and Northwest.

State	% attend weekly religious services
Vermont	23
New Hampshire	26
Maine	27
Massachusetts	29
Nevada	30
Hawaii	31
Oregon	31
Alaska	31
Washington	32
Rhode Island	32
Connecticut	32

Alone these numbers are interesting if you are going to do a story about regular church attendance.

But let’s look further.

Is there a relationship between education and regular church attendance. Conventional wisdom says the more educated a person is, the less likely he or she will regularly attend religious service.

Let’s compare some date.

Thanks to the U.S. Census Bureau, we can come up with a chart that provides the education level of each state.

It is easy enough to work through the Census Bureau web site (www.census.gov) to create a custom table that will give us the basic information we need to use to start the comparison.

All taken from the 2006-2008 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates

So now we can look at how education and regular religious service attendance compare.

State	Ranking of religious attendance	Percentage of college graduates compared to population	Ranking of 50 states plus DC and PR for college graduates
Mississippi	1	12	51
Alabama	2	14	46
South Carolina	3	15	38
Louisiana	4	13	48
Utah	5	16	29
Tennessee	6	15	44
Arkansas	7	12	49
North Carolina	8	17	27
Georgia	9	17	24
Texas	10	16	37
Vermont	51	23	6
New Hampshire	50	22	7
Maine	49	18	18
Massachusetts	48	25	2
Nevada	47	14	44
Hawaii	46	20	13
Oregon	45	19	15
Alaska	44	16	28
Washington	43	20	11
Rhode Island	42	20	12
Connecticut	41	23	3

A similar pattern emerges when frequency of religious attendance is compared with a state’s ranking for populations with at least a 12^th grade education but not a high school graduate.

This proves everything, right? Numbers don’t lie, do they?

It’s not so much that numbers don’t lie but they are not the whole story.

Nevada is #1 has 1.85% of its population with 12 years of schooling but no degree. It sits at number 44 among the states and territories for college graduates. And it is one of the least religious states in the survey.

Why do you think? (Hint: In what state is Las Vegas and Reno located? Another hint: What state showed the largest housing boom – and bust – in the past five years?)

The numbers get you started. And you can use them to help build the structure of your story but real work is explaining what the numbers mean and putting a human face to them.

___________________________________________________

Oh, and it only took me about 45 minutes to look up the data on the Census Bureau web page, save the file as an Excel document and do the quick and dirty analysis. So "not having enough time" doesn't work as an excuse.

The world's best firefighters to come to Mason/Fairfax co.

2010-02-17T13:05:00.001-05:00

Fairfax County will host the 2015 World Police & Fire Games. The games will run from June 26 to July 5.

That's a pretty cool deal and some of the games will take place at George Mason.

So j-students at GMU...

Making sure we get the terms right.

2010-02-11T02:46:00.001-05:00

Ran across an article in Foreign Policy about what it means to be an "al Qaeda affiliate." I talk about it a bit on my global journalism blog (What does “al Qaeda affiliate” mean?).

But here I want to talk about making sure our students and colleagues use the right words to describe an event or action.

I was really upset with the way the U.S. media covered the Sean Goldman kidnapping case and subsequent return of 9-year old Sean to his father and the United States.

To read about the case in the American newspapers this case was a "custody" battle. And maybe in one sense it was but it was not "Kramer v. Kramer." The custody issue was settled long ago by a New Jersey court. The child was to live with his biological father.

This was a kidnapping case.

The mother left the country with her son under false pretenses. Divorced her husband and denied him access to his son.

David Goldman fought for visitation rights while the biological mother was alive. He also filed kidnapping charges against the mother under the Hague Convention.

Upon the mother's death, David filed for and won custody of the child in New Jersey.

The whole issue was one of returning a kidnapped child to his legal parent. There was no legal issue of custody. (Other than the "possession is 90 percent of the law" mentality that the Brazilian family had.)

Using the right words to describe events clarifies those events. It takes a little more effort to make sure the writing is done right but without that effort we are shortchanging our readers/viewers/listeners.

And ourselves and our profession.

Student abroad safety information release

2010-02-01T16:19:00.001-05:00

The State Department issued a release providing some good information about student abroad issues.

It is a good start for a story about the ins and outs of overseas travel.

Safety Information for American Students Traveling Abroad

Number of people who work at home rises. Think journalism

2010-01-28T00:45:00.001-05:00

Once again my favorite data source, the U.S. Census Bureau, comes through with some interesting information for an article.

This time Joe Grimm at the Poynter Institute talks about "homepreneurs" in his "Ask the recruiter" column.

This column is good on a couple of levels.

It shows what is happening to a lot of people -- including journalists -- who have been affected by the recession, and
It shows that you can work out a good article using data from the U.S. Census.

Prepare for Black History Month: Background data on African-American population

2010-01-26T17:39:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite places to get solid data on population groups, the economy, and loads of other things is the U.S. Census Bureau

The Census Bureau collects packets of information for special holidays or observances.

Click here to see the data on the African-American population in the United States.

For example, here is the data on African-Americans and education:

83%
Among blacks 25 and older, the proportion who had at least a high school diploma in 2008.
Source: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2008 http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/013618.html

20%
Percentage of blacks 25 and older who had a bachelor's degree or higher in 2008.
Source: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2008 http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/013618.html

1.4 million
Among blacks 25 and older, the number who had an advanced degree in 2008 (e.g., master's, doctorate, medical or law). In 1998, 857,000 blacks had this level of education.
Source: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2008 http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/013618.html

2.5 million
Number of black college students in fall 2008. This was roughly double the corresponding number from 15 years earlier.
Source: School Enrollment – Social and Economic Characteristics of Students: October 2008 http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/014354.html

1985 Mexico City quake led to better SAR

2010-01-22T07:19:00.001-05:00

Throughout the Haiti rescue efforts mentions are made of search and rescue teams from Fairfax Co., Los Angeles, Florida, etc. These are volunteers who receive special training and are self-contained SAR units.

And it all started when the ad-hoc SAR efforts in Mexico City in 1985 proved dangerous.

I know the 1985 process was dangerous and ad-hoc because I was there. I worked with dog search teams from around the USA, an underground camera team from the US Bureau of Mines and a seismic sensor team from USGS.

The Mexico earthquake was the first time any of these teams worked in an urban disaster environment. And with no training for any of us in an urban disaster situation, we went out to save lives.

Along the way, because so much help was coming in and Mexican coordination of efforts was weak at best, I was able to identify an Israeli medical team and a Venezuelan construction team. In the end we had a comprehensive unit of dogs, technology experts, 8excavation workers and a medical unit.

The video below from Fairfax County makes it clear it was the Mexico disaster that showed the need for comprehensive SAR teams ready to go at a moments notice.

And I am sure the survivors in Haiti are thankful that the lessons learned in Mexico are being applied now.

II have to think that many of the people who are critical of the SAR and relief efforts in Haiti really don't understand what happens to a place that has always had poor infrastructure and communications gets hit with a major

For journalists in the DC area, the members of the Fairfax SAR team are prime candidates for profile stories.

For journalists elsewhere, look around. I will bet there is a similar outfit in your area.

Medill students, the Census and immigrant communities

2010-01-21T14:16:00.002-05:00

Now these guys get it! These kids delivered -- for me -- the journalism equivalent of a Reese's Cup: two great tastes in one wonderful package.

I don't know how long I have argued that the immigrant communities are important elements of any community reporting.

And how long have I argued that the Census Bureau is a wonderful treasure-trove of story ideas? A long long time!

Six Stories About the Census: How Medill students and local ethnic papers came together to find a common immigrant experience

These students looked at different ethnic communities and how they view and react to the decennial census.

From the six papers:
Jessica Abels, Raphaelle Neyton, and Shasha Zou in al Moustaqbil ("The Future"): "When Arab Americans fill out their census forms in just a few months, they won't find an Arab category listed next to Asian, Black or African American, or White. 'Arab is not considered a race, so there's no racial category,' explains Louise Cainkar, a board member of the Arab American Action Network. 'They have to check the white box, and a lot of people feel that their experience is not the white experience, so that's unfair.'"

Kate Endeley and Clara Lingle in the Korea Central Daily News: "Han and Kim cite many reasons why Koreans who are not U.S. citizens opt out of participating: they are undocumented and therefore fear the legal repercussions; they struggle with English (the 2000 census forms did not come in a Korean version); they find the participation process too tedious or they are unaware of the census itself."

Zoe Jennings in Pinoy: "Many Filipinos may not understand the importance of the count because in the Philippines, there is no census equivalent and they had never been counted. In providing the government with their name and family information, Clarito says, many Filipinos fear that the government is keeping tabs on them, or at the very least, will demand they perform jury duty or another civic duty."

Jessica Allen in the India Tribune: "Kamaria said many people don't know why the census matters, and that in general it needs to be better explained. Even she expressed uncertainty about how the census would affect illegal immigrants who choose to fill out the forms and whether illegal immigrants or students are even supposed to fill it out."

Matthew Bellassai and Alex Hollander in Extra: "Although the Census is separate from the rest of the government, people tend to associate the two. 'It's all "the government" as far as anyone's concerned,' Espinoza said. '"The government wants to charge me more taxes, the government wants to get me arrested for immigration purposes." There's no distinction there,' he said. Many people in the community tend to agree."

Arianna Hermosillo and Nadine Shabeeb in the Polish Daily News: "Another barrier to filling out the census form is that people may not even recognize it when it arrives in the mail, according to Zajaczowska. 'We will have to teach them that the Census 2010 means "Spis Powszechny,"' Zajaczowska said. This literally translates to 'common list' which is what the census is called in Poland."

While the theme of this exercise did not look at what can be done with Census Bureau data, the very fact that these students looked at the Census and the ethnic communities tells me they have a lot more on the ball than many of their more jaded and less imaginative journalism cronies.

Journalism awards time -- Deadline fast approaching for college awards

2010-01-21T00:35:00.002-05:00

Each year the SPJ honors the best of college journalism with the Mark of Excellence Awards.

The first step to national honors is to enter.

From there the entries are judged on a regional basis. (Mason is in Region 2.) And then on to the big time.

Mark of Excellence Awards Deadline: Wednesday, Jan. 27.
The general rules and awards category information may be found on the MOE Awards Web page. The cost to enter is $9 per entry for SPJ members and $18 per entry for nonmembers.

Online entry form.

What to do after graduation -- It may not be what you think it is

2010-01-18T12:40:00.002-05:00

Let's face it, the job market sucks for journalists right now. And it looks like it will continue to suck for several more years.

So what is a bright young graduate supposed to do? Because face it, the whole job market really sucks right now.

There are ways to get someone to train and pay you to become much more marketable. You just have to know where to look.

For my money nothing is better for a just-graduated journalism student than to join the Peace Corps. (And I have recommended this to all of my journalism classes.)

I met with dozens of Peace Corps volunteers during my time in the Dominican Republic. (And it seemed at times that they all stayed in our house -- all at the same time -- more than once.)

The volunteers came from many different walks of life and experiences. What they had in common was curiosity about other cultures and a desire to do good.

They hardly lived the "good life." Housing was adequate. (One volunteer had a beautiful house on a hill top overlooking one of the most beautiful lush valleys I have ever seen. And the house was only a short walk to the community toilet and community well.)

What they all did have, was the respect of the local Dominicans and, as the projects ended, the satisfaction that they had helped another group of people climb their way out of poverty and hunger.

Besides the feeling of satisfaction for a job well done, what else did the volunteers get?

Most had their student loans deferred while they were in the Peace Corps
They learned another language.
They learned management and organizational skills
They learned how financial and social conditions affect individuals and communities
They learned how to better listen and react to the needs of local communities

And they grew up faster and became more mature than if they had stayed at home and found a 9-5 job.

Go to this page to see the official list of benefits a Peace Corps volunteer gets.

Why do I recommend the Peace Corps?

It gives a graduate a different experience.
It broadens his/her perspectives about the world.
It helps the person better understand what people "not like them" have to go through to survive.
It makes a person more "hireable" because of that global exposure.

When mangers are hiring they look for more than academic credentials. They also look at a person's character. (Unless they are hiring lawyers or ad execs. Character is not a requirement there. :)) The Peace Corps helps a candidate stand out from the pack.

And it gives the graduate a chance to look around and take a break from the work of education before he/she moves on to the work of working everyday.

Charting body parts and songs

2010-01-15T07:22:00.001-05:00

One important thing about good reporting is being able to properly explain things. Sometimes a reporter needs good art.

So if you are doing a story about what body parts are most frequently mentioned in songs, you might want to visit this web site. (I thought that would get your attention.)

Bottom line, good visuals help tell a story.

Is social media a fad?

2010-01-13T10:12:00.001-05:00

Odd connections that can make an interesting story

2010-01-07T00:07:00.002-05:00

From the "Honestly, honey, I was just doing some online research" Department.

I get a regular news feed from the Reuters "Oddly Enough" section. It's usually good for a laugh to read about how the South African president is having wives problems -- will they have "first lady status -- or how French police are investigating reports of a pickpocket on a Tokyo-Paris Air France flight.

One story that really caught my eye this week -- and one that might be fun to investigate to see if a similar trend is happing now in the States -- is Snowed-In Brits boost adultery website.

Seems IllcitEncounters.com gained more than 2,500 new members in just one week this month. Most from areas hardest hit by the extreme weather in the United Kingdom.

"In light of these figures, I'd be interested to see how much work those 'working from home' have actually done," IlicitEncounters.com spokeswoman Sara Hartley said in a statement.

"Perhaps these wives and husbands have just been waiting for a time when they could join, away from the eyes of their work colleagues and, most importantly, their partners..."

I have always argued before my students that story ideas can come from anywhere. All a journalist needs is curiosity and a creative mind. And, in a time of massive layoffs in our industry, a journalist who can write compelling and interesting stories has a better chance of surviving than the one who writes well but only follows the standard beats.

So, anyone up for looking to see how similar U.S.-based porn sites are doing during this nasty January?

Honestly, it is all for story research!

10 Reasons Santa is Like Your Professor

2009-12-23T03:39:00.001-05:00

This has nothing to do with journalism but rather with perspectives of professors. Thanks to my bud in Hong Kong Nury Vittachi for this.

10 Reasons Santa is Like Your Professor

1) He has shaggy hair.

2) He has a beard.

3) He wears unfashionable clothes which make him look ridiculous.

4) He is fat.

5) You are expected to write to him, but he never writes back.

6) You can give him a list of things you want, but you have almost no chance of getting anything on it.

7) He lives in his own world, which seems entirely unconnected to real life.

8) He does around one day of actual work every year.

9) He is surrounded by practical people who do stuff that needs to be done on his behalf.

10) He seems to be several centuries out of date.

Looking for that local angle: Macy's and Rwanda

2009-12-22T02:45:00.002-05:00

CBS News did a great story about how baskets woven by women in Rwanda are being sold in Macy's. The sales are allowing these women to rebuild their lives and their country after the brutal genocide of 10 years ago.

Discussion of local story ideas from the CBS story is at Journalism, Journalists and the World. (Sorry, just had to plug my blog.)

Story Idea: Want a globalization link? Look at the plug

2009-12-07T07:30:00.006-05:00

Living overseas for the past 25 years has made me look carefully to be sure an item I buy in the States will work in another country. And vice-versa.

The cosmetic issue is the plug size and shape. They come in a wide variety but adapters are available for all.

The real issue is the voltage.

The U.S. system is 110-120 volts. Europe and many other countries use 220-240 volts. Plugging a U.S. item into a European power line can fry the device.

That is why converters were invented. And I have a large collection of converters from my 30 years of travel.

But in the last few years just about every electrical device I have purchased has been 100-240 volts. That means all I have to do is worry about is making sure the plug fits. And adapters are cheaper than converters.
How does all this relate to globalization?

Manufacturers are no longer building electrical products for JUST the U.S. or European or Asian markets. They are making their products easily available to the rest of the world.

A laptop purchases at Best Buy in Fairfax, Va., with a plug adapter can draw power from the grid in China, France or Brazil with ease.

Trust me, even 5 years ago that was not such an easy thing to assume.

And many manufacturers are now including adapter plugs with the unit. So no need to go out and buy one.

So if journalists are looking for a link between their individual lives and the rest of the world, look no further than the power ratings on the back of your computer and look at the plug.

Story ideas could include:

What is safer, 110 or 220 volts?
Why does the US use 110 volts?
How this 100-240 volt availability makes travel and business easier.

And your idea?

More data on a trend we already know about

2009-11-19T11:12:00.001-05:00

One point sticks out in this reprot form the Census Bureau: "Those who were least likely to own a computer in 2005 were the elderly, those in poverty and those without a high school diploma."

This is an important point to understand as more government entities move to providing services online. So please tell me, how do these groups participate in the government?

Homes With Cell Phones Nearly Double in First Half of Decade

The number of households with cell phones increased from 36 percent to 71 percent between 1998 and 2005, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. This corresponded with a decrease in households with telephone landlines, particularly households headed by young adults.

These figures are part of an in-depth look at the living standards of U.S. households using extended measures of well-being. The data were collected in 2005 as part of the ongoing Survey of Income and Program Participation. The survey is unique because it allows the user to track select quality of life measures over time using a variety of demographic characteristics.

"While income is generally regarded as the best single measure of one's living standard, it doesn't give us the whole picture," said Tiffany Julian, an analyst in the Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. "This survey is unique in that it includes additional measures of well-being that give us a broader look at household living conditions."

Householders who were 29 or younger went from 35 percent with cell phones in 1998 to 81 percent in 2005. Over the same period, this same group saw a decrease in ownership of landline phones from 93 percent to 71 percent.

Landline phone ownership fell from 96 percent to 91 percent overall from 1998 to 2005. In 2005, 98 percent of householders who were 65 and over had a landline telephone.

The number of households with a personal computer increased from 42 percent to 67 percent between 1998 and 2005. Those who were least likely to own a computer in 2005 were the elderly, those in poverty and those without a high school diploma.

Among the indicators in this survey that measure quality of life are possession of appliances and electronic goods, housing conditions, neighborhood conditions, public services and the ability to meet basic needs, such as paying bills, avoiding foreclosure and having sufficient food.

Some of the household characteristics in this survey include race, Hispanic origin, age, income, poverty status and type (e.g., family, nonfamily, married, nonmarried, etc.).

To determine who is in poverty, the Census Bureau uses a set of income thresholds that vary by family size and composition.

Other statistics:

In 2005, 92 percent of householders felt their neighborhoods were safe; 96 percent were satisfied with public services such as fire and police protection.
Eighty-six percent of households reported being able to keep up-to-date on overall essential expenses.
Households that paid either rent or a mortgage were generally up to date on their payments -- 94 percent.
Ninety percent of households responded that they were able to pay their utility bills.
Households in poverty were more likely to have trouble paying bills; 35 percent had unmet bills.
Among all households, 96 percent reported having a microwave oven.
Ninety-five percent of households said they had no roof or ceiling leaks; 97 percent reported no broken windows.

Threatened in Iran, coverage continues from Toronto

2009-11-18T12:40:00.001-05:00

Students might be interested to know what they are getting into if they go into overseas reporting.

Thanks to Jim Romenesko at the Poynter Institute for a great story about the professional and personal anguish reporters trying to cover Iran have had to go through.

Canada is becoming a safe haven for the world's exiled journalists

Find a story in international data

2009-11-18T07:19:00.001-05:00

Transparency International just came out with the 2009 Corruption Index.

Now where, might you ask is there a story for student journalists in that?

Let's start with just the international community at a college campus. What are the reactions of the students from Country X about the ranking their home country got? What is their own perception of corruption in their country AND in the USA? What do they think should be done about the problem of corruption? What do they think are the main effects of corruption on their countries?

From there, start talking to professors from other lands. Professors who are studying the most corrupt countries on the list. Get them to talk about the hows and whys of the problem.

Boom! A local campus story with an international angle.

Now step outside the campus and talk to the local immigrant communities. Ask them the same questions you asked the foreign students.

Boom! Another local story with an international angle.

Go to New corruption index out for more discussion on this issue and a batch of links.

Racism and progress

2009-11-01T12:17:00.001-05:00

One big issue in the world is racism and how to fight it.

I was amazed at the racism in the Dominican Republic. And I have known for some time the feelings of racial superiority by the Chinese. I saw how Shanghainese treated African exchange students. (Very humiliating.)

For Americans who have not had the overseas experience, this story (China's black pop idol exposes her nation's racism) and others like it could provide a good measure about racism and discrimination in our own country. We could look at how and why changes have occurred in the States. (After all it never hurts to challenge opinions and conventional wisdom.)

Another place to look for story ideas

2009-10-30T10:45:00.001-04:00

For a long time I have loved the Census Bureau as a source for background info and ideas for stories. With the holidays coming up, there are plenty of stories possible from the data the Census Bureau has.

Here is a link to some basic information.

How a Denver station covered "Balloon Boy"

2009-10-26T07:44:00.001-04:00

Al Tompkins at Poynter interviewed the news director at KUSA-TV, the station that broke the story about the 6-year old who supposedly climbed into the basket of a balloon just outside Denver.

From this interview it looks as if it took some real convincing to get the station to believe the "lost boy" in a balloon story was real.

KUSA-TV News Exec Explains Station's Balloon Boy Coverage

Money makes the world go 'round

2009-09-23T17:55:00.001-04:00

Story ideas pop up in the strangest places.

Transparency International looked at 180 countries and came out with its latest report on corruption in the world.

Go to my blog to see a few choice comments and to get all the links to look over the 500 page document.

So how does this fit in with students and student journalists in the United States?

To begin with, the U.S. is no angel. We came in below Canada (#9) at #18. And seven other countries are less likely top pay bribes than the U.S.

But reporters could look at the cost of corruption and corrupt practices. The could look at:

What rules and regulations are in place to prevent corruption in the bidding process to do business with the university.
What local laws are on the books to prevent corruption in city, county and state purchases.
Have there been any cases of corruption or questionable dealings in university or local government contracting.

A lot of this will require use of the freedom of information act. Good exercise for the students.

BTW, Chile (#23) was praised for enacting whistle-blower and freedom of information laws. The TI said these laws are a big help in fighting corruption.

How successful has the use of whistle blower or FOI laws been in finding corrupt practices?

Good hunting!

Getting data where you can

2009-09-22T15:07:00.001-04:00

I just posted a story idea blog item on the DC SPJ web site. It's all about using the Census Bureau data to build good stories.

http://www.spjdc.org/node/13507

You might want to consider inviting a person from the Census Bureau to explain to your students how to really mine the Bureau's databases.

Deadline: A history

2009-09-04T07:05:00.001-04:00

Publisher, scolding the editorial staff for the paper being late one day:

“Do you know where deadline comes from? It comes from prison. If the guards saw you cross the deadline, you were shot.”

Herdict: What is and isn't accessible

2009-09-03T03:51:00.001-04:00

A while back Tom Crampton wrote about a website that tests accessibility of other web sites. The site, Herdict harnesses the reporting power of the entire Internet to see what sites are being blocked in what countries.

To no ones' surprise, I am sure, China and Iran lead the way.

For example, in the past week FACEBOOK received eight inaccessible reports. Five were from China.

YouTube had 15 inaccessible reports. Here China led with three of the reports, followed by Indonesia and the United States (2 each), Egypt, France, Israel, India, Morocco, Malaysia, Portugal and Tuvalu with one each.

Granted some of those reports may have been because of network glitches. But the overall pattern is that China leads the way with the most sites made inaccessible to Internet users.

If you are a traveler, you should think seriously about joining the Herdict herd. I regularly send in reports from Brazil (a very open place).

The more we know about how and where information is being denied, the more we can report on it. Download the browser add-in here.

The Mindset list is ready!

2009-09-02T08:12:00.002-04:00

I love this list.

The Mindset List is a collection of the way the incoming freshman class of college sees things.

For example for the class of 2013:

They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible.
Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice.
They have never had to “shake down” an oral thermometer.
Condoms have always been advertised on television.
They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.
“Womyn” and “waitperson” have always been in the dictionary.
There has always been blue Jell-O.

For those of us who had to teach these students, it offers an insight into how they think and how they perceive the world.

Just think about how many times j-profs ask their students, "Who reads a newspaper every day?" Usually 90% of the hands go up.

Then when the question is changed to, "How many read a paper newspaper everyday? That is one that is not online?" Almost all the hands remain down.

Times and perceptions change. This list has always helped me better understand those changes.

BTW, the list goes back to the class of 2002. So you can look at how your 4th year students see things as easily as the 1st year students.

Story idea: Just how prepared are college campuses

2009-09-02T06:50:00.001-04:00

This month is National Preparedness Month.

The whole is idea is to be ready for anything. And I wonder, as I looked over the NPM web page, "How well prepared are college campuses?"

I don't know.

Do you? Do your students?

Just think about how panicky the Washington area gets with just a few snowflakes. And the traditional run on milk and toilet paper. (I never understood why those two items. But every time a big snow presses down on DC, people stock up on milk and toilet paper.)

Searching for the story

2009-08-28T05:10:00.001-04:00

A couple of years ago a student filed a story about the growing trend of hookah use. The story came from the assigned theme: "The World and your backdoor."

Of course I knew about Alice in Wonderland and Jefferson Airplane ("And a hookah smoking caterpillar..."). And -- as a child of the 60s -- the American version: The bong.

I discovered from my student's article there was a growing hookah scene in the DC area. This meant more than a bunch of kids getting together on a street corner or in a backyard smoking shisha in a hookah (as my sons did). There were hookah bars and a whole social network that went with it.

It was a well done story and I suggested she try to sell it to a local magazine. She never followed through on it.

THis week I received a copy of Fortune Small Business. One of the major stories was all about the hookah movement and how a few guys figured out how to make money in it.

The article looks at the building of the business as well as the growing trend among young people to go to hookah bars.

Maybe your students might want to look into this phenom in the GMU/Fairfax community.

Booming hooka biz links China, Iran, Egypt -- and Texas

Don’t Depend on Spell Check

2009-07-15T08:21:00.002-04:00

Reuters carried a story today about how employers look at resumes: Here is my job resumay

Spelling errors on a resume can kill a chance for a job.

"The resume is an applicant's first chance to impress the hiring manager," said Kathryn Bolt, president of Accountemps' Canadian operations. "Mistakes on one's application materials may prompt employers to assume there also will be mistakes made on the job."

This reminded me of a small piece I wrote for one of my journalism classes when I saw that my students were not fully looking over their work for spelling errors. I told them one of the best ways to find mistakes is to take the time to read their article out loud.

"The ear," I said, "can catch an error the eye might miss."

Plus, I added, don't trust spell check alone. Correctly spelled words in the wrong place are just as bad as misspelled words. The Reuters' piece offers the following:

Common mistakes include: "Dear Sir or Madman", "I'm attacking my resume for you to review", "Following is a grief overview of my skills" and "Have a keen eye for derail."

And I offer my own contribution:

When ewe right, ewe should remember two double Czech you’re spelling. Spell check will knot catch awl miss takes.

As eye sit hear in my office reeding articles, eye one dear how many thymes I have scene speeling errors that should have been avoided.

Spell check a loan does knot prevent mistakes.

Sum times using the grammar Czech helps too identify some miss takes.

Butt knot awl of them.

There is nothing like reeding a story out loud. When ewe reed sum thing and here it, ewe can often sea wear the mistakes our.

Just two old white guys sittin' around talking about the future of journalism (and getting it wrong)

2009-07-14T15:28:00.001-04:00

Two pipsqueaks sitting around talking

Fighting trite writing everywhere

2009-07-10T05:37:00.002-04:00

Good journalists try to avoid cliches. (Dare I say, like the plague?)

One of the good things about being a good journalist is that the solid writing skills developed in this business can translate into other areas.

Here is a good piece on resume writing -- 10 boring phrases you should cut from your resume -- from TechRepublic.

I especially like the graf: "Cliched forms of speech are crutches for the uncreative. And the frequency of their usage make them absolutely meaningless."

Good journalists -- good writers -- are not uncreative. So why should your resume not show you at your best?

Find the right internship

2009-07-06T19:07:00.001-04:00

CNet has a great article about web sites that help students find the right internship.

Go here.

Different CUltures - Different ways to questions

2009-06-07T08:55:00.002-04:00

I looked at the transcript of an interview session Pres. Obama had with Arab news organizations while in Egypt.

Take a look at how many of the reporters prefaced their questions:

Q Well, thank you for your speech. I'm sure that the Palestinians are overwhelmed by some of the things that you have said regarding the Palestinian issue, specifically about the settlements.
Q (As translated.) I think your speech was wonderful and more -- above and beyond everybody was expecting. And you have talked about the Middle East and the future of this region. You also spoke about the commitment of the United States towards achieving progress towards special issues. I also believe there are some difficulties. I might want to be much more precise.
Q First of all, Mr. President, I want to congratulate you for a great speech.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

Q I believe that everybody in the region listened to it, including in my country.

Now to be clear, not ALL the reporters did this. And before anyone criticize the way the reporters from the area do their jobs, but it does show differences in how news is gathered and perceived in other countries.

Chinese plainsclothesmen block CNN

2009-06-04T04:24:00.001-04:00

Getting facts right and dangers to journalism

2009-03-05T01:58:00.001-05:00

Getting the story right means getting the facts right.

On his Wed. radio show Rush Limbaugh challenged Pres. Obama to a debate on his show. Among other things he wanted to discuss was: "let's talk about sending $900 million to Hamas."

WTF?

Yes, there is $900 million planned for Gaza. But let's go to the facts:

Reuters, Feb. 23: The money will be channeled through U.N. and other bodies and will not be distributed via the militant group Hamas (U.S. plans $900 million pledge for Gaza-official)

And please note that the word "official" in the headline does not refer to a Gaza official but to a State Dept. official who said the money was coming.

Limbaugh has always had a distant relationship with the truth when it got in the way of making a point. The problem is that how many of his followers will bother to check the facts? Already a handful of conservative blogs have cited this information as "fact."

For journalists, the problem also arises that too many people view what Limbaugh and other commentators do as journalism. They see no difference between the commentaries of Limbaugh and the news reporting of a street reporter.

And that lack of understanding the difference between commentary and reporting is perhaps the greatest threat to journalism.

Story Idea: More Hispanics on campuses

2009-03-04T11:43:00.002-05:00

From the Census Bureau

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2009

e-mail: pio@census.gov

Hispanics Become More Prevalent on College Campuses

Hispanic students comprised 12 percent of full-time college students (both undergraduate and graduate students) in 2007, up from 10 percent in 2006, according to U.S. Census Bureau tables released today. Hispanics comprise 15 percent of the nation's total population.

School Enrollment in the United States: 2007 contains eight detailed tables based on statistics collected in the October School Enrollment Supplement to the Current Population Survey. The national-level data are shown by characteristics such as age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, family income, type of college, employment status and vocational course enrollment.

Women continue their majority status, comprising 55 percent of undergraduates and 60 percent of graduate students.

Other highlights:

In 2007, 53 percent of Hispanic 4-year-olds were enrolled in nursery school, up from 43 percent in 1997 and 21 percent in 1987.
In 2007, 27 percent of the population 3 or older were enrolled in classes -- from nursery school to graduate studies.
More than half (59 percent) of all 4-year-olds and 39 percent of 3-year-olds were enrolled in nursery school.
Students in grades one through 12 made up 64 percent of people 3 and older enrolled in school.
Students 35 or older comprised 15 percent of people enrolled in college. They made up 7 percent of the full-time college students and 36 percent of those attending part time.

Editors note: The information can be accessed at http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html.

-30-

Pew Report: Newspapers Face Challenge

2009-03-04T06:29:00.001-05:00

From the "DUH!" Files:

The Pew Trust completed its 2008 news media consumption survey. And surprise surprise, readership is down.

39% said they read a newspapers yesterday in the 2008 report. That compares to 43% in 2006.
In 2008 14% said they read an online newspaper, in 2006 that rate was 9%.

"The balance between online and print readership changed substantially between 2006 and 2008. In 2008, online readers comprised more than a third of all newspaper readers; two years earlier, fewer than a quarter of newspaper readers viewed them on the Web. This is being driven by a substantial shift in how younger generations read newspapers."

Read the summary here
Read the full report here.

Fair Use or Rip Off

2009-03-02T07:42:00.001-05:00

The New York Times had a good story Sunday on blog sites reprinting large portions of copyrighted material. Copyright Holders Challenge Sites That Excerpt.

This could be a good article for students to read to understand more about what stealing copyright material is all about.

Taking a graf or two as the lead in to a blog posting followed by a link to the whole story seems to still be in bounds of the "fair use" doctrine.

Maybe we, as j-profs and models for future journalists, should be talking more about this.

How to use data and make a story come alive

2009-02-21T06:01:00.003-05:00

Earlier I commented on a story from Newsday about how a reporter took Census data on foreign born in the United States, put a human face to the data, and did a great story. (2007 census data compares immigrant groups on LI)

The New York Times did a story using the same basic information (Government Offers Look at Nation’s Immigrants) but does not do what Olivia Winslow did in her Newsday story.

Winslow went to the Census Bureau web site and got the information about Long Island.
The Times did nothing to localize the data

Winslow sought out a local immigrant (foreign born) to get her story as part of the larger Census story.
The New York Times only quoted some one from Brookings.

The bottom line is that the New York Times ran a story of statistics and sociology. Newsday ran a statistical story with a human face.

At the same time Newsday helped explain to its readers more about the immigrant communities in their neighborhoods. There is no sense of explanation in the Times article.

Okay, let's say The Times was writing for a national audience and Newsday for Long Island readers. A fair cop.

But, it is still The NEW YORK Times. Why was there no look at the numbers in the New York area? Or how about a look at other areas around the country.

In about 3 minutes I compared the foreign born and total populations of Illinois, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Virginia. I could take another 10 minutes and delve deep into the education, income and housing data for these states as well.

Maybe a national paper could do something like that and then tell us what it all means.

Because this is being posted first on the George Mason University j-prof group, let's look at Virginia.

In seven minutes I found the following items for the Old Dominion:

General population (GP): 7.7 million
Foreign born (FB): 794,000
School enrollment at the graduate college level - GP: 28.7%; FB: 51%
Less than high school diploma: GP: 14%; FB: 20%
High school diploma or equivalent: GP: 27%; FB: 22%
Bachelor's level of college achieved - GP: 20%; FB: 23%
Commute to work on public transportation - GP: 4%; FB: 7%
Speaks English less than well - GP: 5%; FB: 43%
Median household income - GP: $59,000; FB: $66,000
At poverty level - GP: 7.1%; FB: 7.8%
Owner occupied home - GP: 69%; FB: 63%
Rental - GP: 30%; FB: 37%
Rent less than 30% of income - GP: 57%; FB: 51%
Rent at or greater than 30% of income - GP:43; FB: 49%

And with another 5 minutes of work all this information can be obtained for Fairfax County.

So what does all this mean?

Quickly we can see that a higher percentage of foreign born use public transportation and pay more of their income to rent than the general population.

Are there political, economic and social issues to be addressed from this data?

You betcha!

For example, New York has a state-wide population of 19 million. The foreign born population is 4.2 million. A little more research

And just so you know, another 7 minutes and I had all that same data on New York.

So with 15 minutes of research I could easily draw comparisons between the general populations and foreign born in New York and Virginia.

Context becomes the big issue.

Why are foreign born doing better in Virginia than New York? Maybe it is who is moving into those areas.

Last year the largest single growing group of foreign born in Fairfax county were Indians. The largest single minority group (non-white) in Fairfax County are Asians, with Koreans as the largest nationality within that group.

And for Mason, what does this all mean?

Do the state, county and school all have to do something differently because of these numbers?

I don't know but I would like to know.

Story idea: How Newsday used census data

2009-02-20T07:47:00.001-05:00

Excellent story by Olivia Winslow in today's Newsday on immigrant populations in the States. (2007 census data compares immigrant groups on LI)

Ms. Winslow used the just released Census Bureau data on immigrant groups as the basis for her story. She then went out and found someone to give a face to the data.

Proving once again -- and I don't know how many times I have made this point -- the Census Bureau has loads of great data that an enterprising reporter can use to develop a great story.

Winslow took the national data and then looked at the local data.

The nice thing is that the Census Bureau makes this kind of comparison -- national to local -- very easy. (Census Bureau Media Tool Kit.)

Also please notice, in the following press release from the Census Bureau Feb. 19 that the Bureau already compares the statistics of the foreign born with the native born.

Context!

And notice that nowhere in the press release, nor anywhere in the Census data, will you find any reference to a person's legal status in the United States. The Census Bureau does not get into that issue. As they will point out over and over, they are not a law enforcement agency. Their job is to gather data.

My only complaint about the Winslow article is that she could have included the links to the raw data in her online story. But I will bet that is the fault of the online editor and not the reporter.

Now tell me, how difficult would this story be to do in the DC area, especially with the large foreign-born populations we have? Too bad it has been done yet!

CENSUS BUREAU NEWS:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, THURSDAY, FEB. 19, 2009
Shelly Lowe
Public Information Office
e-mail: pio@census.gov

Census Bureau Data Show Characteristics of the U.S. Foreign-Born Population

According to a new analysis of data about the U.S. foreign-born population from the 2007 American Community Survey (ACS), a higher percentage of people born in India have a bachelors degree or higher (74 percent) than people born in any other foreign country. Egypt and Nigeria had rates above 60 percent.

Based on 2007 ACS data, these figures come from new detailedcharacteristic profiles on the foreign-born population people who were not U.S. citizens at birth available by country of birth.

Meanwhile, among the nations foreign-born, Somalis and Kenyans living in the United States are the most likely to be newcomers, and Somalis are among the youngest and poorest.

These new selected population profiles highlight the diversity among the many different foreign-born groups in the United States, said Elizabeth Grieco, chief of the Census Bureaus Immigration Statistics Staff. This diversity is due in part to the way the various communities were established, whether it be through labor migration, family reunification or refugee flows.

The new data reveal the diversity among the 38.1 million foreign-born living in theUnited States in 2007, not only by where they were born, but also by where they live now.

For example, about 80 percent of the nations population born in China are high school graduates. In the New York metropolitan area, about two-thirds of those born in China are high school graduates, while in the metro area of San Jose, Calif., the figure rises to 93 percent.

Other findings available for foreign-born populations of 65,000 or more in areas with a total population of 500,000 or more include the following:

Country of Birth
Mexico tops the country of birth list with more than 11.7 million people. The next highest countries by birth include China (1.9 million), the Philippines (1.7 million), India (1.5 million), El Salvador and Vietnam (both at 1.1 million), and Korea (1 million). Cuba, Canada and the Dominican Republic round out the top 10 countries of birth.

Educational Attainment
Foreign-born from several African nations are among the likeliest to have graduated from high school, specifically from countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa.

About 96 percent or more of theforeign-born age 25 and over from these nations are high school graduates.

Overall, about 85 percent of the total U.S. population, 68 percent of the U.S. foreign-born and 88 percent of the native-born are high school graduates.

About 27 percent of the foreign-born and about 28 percent of natives have bachelors degrees.

Household Income
Among the foreign-born, those from India, Australia, South Africa and the Philippines have the highest median household incomes. The median household income for U.S. residents born in India is $91,195. The foreign-born from Somalia and the Dominican Republic had some of the lowest median household incomes.

Median household income is $50,740 for the total population, $46,881 for the foreign-born population and $51,249 for the native population.

Age
Europe is the source of some of the oldest foreign-born. U.S. residents born in Hungary (64 years) and Italy (63.1) share the distinction, statistically, of having the oldest median ages. The foreign-born from Greece, Germany and Ireland also have median ages of about 60.

U.S. residents born in Somalia have the youngest median age (26.8).

Nationally, the median age for the total U.S. population is 36.7. The total foreign-born population has a median age of 40.2 and the total native population has a median age of 35.8.

Year of Entry

The foreign-born from Somalia and Kenya are the most likely to have entered the United States in 2000 or later. Nearly 60 percent are in this category.

Overall, about 28 percent of the nations foreign-born entered in 2000 or later, 29 percent between 1990 and 1999, and 43 percent entered the United States before 1990.

Employment and Occupations

Approximately 81 percent of the foreign-born age 16 and over from Nigeria and Kenya are in the labor force. Nationally, about 65 percent of the U.S. population in this age group are in the labor force, compared with about 67 percent of the foreign-born population and 64 percent of natives.

U.S. residents born in India have the highest percentage of civilian-employed people working in management, professional and related occupations (69 percent). These occupations employ about 36 percent of the native civilian-employed U.S. population and 27 percent of the foreign-born.

The foreign-born from Liberia and Haiti have the highest percentage of civilian-employed people working in service occupations (at 40 percent and 39 percent respectively, the differences are not statistically significant). About 16 percent of natives and 23 percent of the foreign-born civilian-employed populations are working in service occupations.

The foreign-born from Jordan (40 percent) and Bangladesh (36 percent) are among the most likely to work in sales and office occupations (the differences between the two are not statistically significant). Among natives, 27 percent work in sales and office occupations, compared with 18 percent among the foreign-born population.

English Language Ability
About 97 percent of the foreign-born population from Mexico and the Dominican Republic age 5 and over speak a language other than English at home. Those born in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Armenia, Honduras, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ecuador also have high rates of speaking a language other than English.

People born in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador age 5 and over are most likely to speak English less than very well. More than 70 percent of the foreign-born population from these countries identified themselves in that category.

On average, 52 percent of the foreign-born population, 2 percent of the native population and 9 percent of the total U.S. population speak English less than very well.

Among people for whom poverty status is determined, about 51 percent of residents born in Somalia are living in poverty. About a quarter of the population born in Iraq, the Dominican Republic, Jordan and Mexico are also living in poverty.

On the low end of the poverty spectrum for the countries of birth, U.S. residents born in the Netherlands and Ireland each have a poverty rate of about 5 percent.

About 13 percent of both natives and the total U.S. population are living in poverty, while about 16 percent of the foreign-born are.

-30-

The 2007 ACS estimates are based on a nationwide sample of about 250,000 addresses per month. In addition, approximately 20,000 group quarters across the United States were sampled, comprising approximately 200,000 residents. Geographic areas for which one-year data are available are based on total populations of 65,000 or more.

As part of the Census Bureaus re-engineered 2010 Census, the data collected by the ACS helps federal officials determine where to distribute more than $300 billion to state and local governments each year. Responses to the survey are strictly confidential and protected by law.

As is the case with all surveys, statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error. All comparisons made in the reports have been tested and found to be statistically significant at the 90 percent confidence level, unless otherwise noted. Please consult the data tables for specific margins of error. For more information go to http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/index.htm
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Editor's note: News releases, reports and data tables are available on the Census Bureaus homepage.
Go to http://www.census.gov and click on Releases.

NewsVision Conference March 30 at Newseum

2009-02-19T00:23:00.002-05:00

Registration has opened for the first NewsVision conference. The day-long symposium will look at how the news business is changing.

Organized by the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, the conference is sponsored by The Newspaper Guild-CWA and the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, in partnership with the Online News Association. The March 30, 2009 event will be held at the Knight Conference Center at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

$75 registration fee covers access to the panel discussions and lunch and snacks by Wolfgang Puck.
Register by March 6 and save 10 bucks.

Social Networking: Hazards and Opportunities -- WAMU/Kojo

2009-02-18T07:06:00.000-05:00

Last Tuesday (2/17) WAMU had a good discussion on the Kojo Nnambi Show about the ups and downs of journalists using social networks such as Facebook.

Guests included Amada Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist, Pew Internet and American Life Project; (friend of the SPJ) Alicia Shepard, NPR Ombudsman; Nancy Flynn, Executive Director, The ePolicy Institute, and Saqib Ali, member, Maryland House of Delegates.

Click here to hear the segment.

Fewer US bureaus in DC - More foreign bureaus.

2009-02-17T04:47:00.001-05:00

The New Washington Press Corps, a special report from Project for Excellence in Journalism has an interesting article about how US media outlets are reducing their presence in Washington but foreign news media are increasing.

Maybe the foreign press understand something about covering another country -- or even this on -- that the American media are missing.

Mexican Journalist Gutiérrez Released by U.S. Immigration Pending Hearing

2009-02-13T12:53:00.001-05:00

Good news from the border.

Emilio Guitierrez Soto was released from a U.S.immigration jail pending an immigration hearing.

Guitierrez, a journalist in northern Mexico, requested asylum in the United States after he was threatened not only by the drug cartels that seem to be running that part of the country but also by the Mexican army, which was sent in to clean out the cartels.

As a journalism professor, we must never forget to explain to our students how important it is to have a free press. And that many people in our profession are threatened and killed because all they do is report the news.

Overseas Press Club of America statement

Fairfax Co. Tweets -- Easier to follow

2009-02-12T05:11:00.002-05:00

The McClean Connection ran a story yesterday (2/11) about how Fairfax co. now uses Twitter to get news out quickly: Fairfax County is All Atwitter.

Interesting use by a government to get info out quickly.

I wonder, how many of the 31 followers are journalists covering the Fairfax beat?

Update:
Guess I should have looked at the followers at the Fairfax site.

The Connection has it backwards. The county is following 31 people -- all media types. The county has 134 followers. And from the looks of the list, the followers range from other governments to media to average citizens.

Standing out from the crowd: Looking at corporation HQs in area

2009-02-09T06:35:00.001-05:00

Saw a news item that Hilton is moving its corporate headquarters to Fairfax County.

First, I hope it does not mean Paris will be visiting often to get her allowance.

More importantly, what can we see from this move?

At at time of economic trouble, this move means a new corporate taxpayer
It means more taxpayers moving into the area.
It also represents another international company operating in Fairfax County.

It is this last point that I want to talk about.

Hilton, like other international hotel companies has a staff drawn from around the world. New hotel managers are cycled in and out of corporate headquarters for training. New corporate managers are moved in and out depending on the global needs of the company.

This cycling of people from around the world in and out of the headquarters is not unique to Hilton nor to the hotel industry.

I would bet Fairfax County -- and the greater DC metro area -- get loads of temporary international visitors passing through the other international corporate headquarters.

I wonder how well local journalists understand how much these international corporate activities affect the local area.

Are there changes in restaurants?
How about grocery stores?
Dry goods? (For example, where does a traditional Indian woman buy a good sari in the DC area?)

Maybe student journalists should be looking at these local issues. And maybe they should be looking at how international headquarters of major corporations affect their school.

What kind of relationship does the university have with the large companies? If they don't have one, why not?
Does the presence of international corporations affect the composition of the student body?
Do the incentives offered by the state and local governments to get these international companies to locate in the area affect funds available for education (higher and otherwise)?

To be honest, I don't see a lot of mainstream media reports on these issues. Maybe student journalists looking to stand out from the crowd of other graduating student journalists entering an ever-tightening market could look at these stories and see what others don't.

And I will bet -- in fact I am sure -- there are quite a few other story ideas based on what I presented that I have not figured out.

Murder your darlings: The best way to write

2009-02-06T16:52:00.000-05:00

"I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English--it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice."

--Mark Twain (1835-1910), who knew his words (Letter to D. W. Bowser, 3/20/1880)

Using Digg to promote a publication chain?

2009-02-05T12:46:00.001-05:00

Many thanks for Jim Romensko at Poynter for bringing up a discussion on how Village Voice Media may be using DIGG to improve its place on the Internet.

Here is Jim's column.

Here is the original article Romensko links to: How Village Voice Media Uses Digg to Game Their Traffic Numbers.

An interesting read and analysis on how one can use DIGG to drive attention to a site.

Explaining things so people can understand what is going on

2009-02-05T09:59:00.003-05:00

Too many times, especially when dealing with technology, some of the writers in television and newspapers forget that not everyone is a 20-year old geek.

The following is as much about making sure the message is understood as it is about trying to learn a new technology.

That troublesome idea of fact checking...

2009-02-05T03:38:00.001-05:00

NPR Ombudsman Alicia C. Shepard has a great piece on some issues that can arise from using social network sites for stories and NOT doing enough fact checking before going to air/print.

What about Chuck and his sister?

Census: Foreign-Born Exceed the Native-Born in Advanced Degrees

2009-01-28T15:51:00.003-05:00

The following reports was released by the Census Bureau Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009. It got me thinking about what the situation was in the universities in the Washington area.

Foreign-Born Exceed the Native-Born in Advanced Degrees

A larger percentage of foreign-born than native-born residents had a master's degree or higher in 2007, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Nationally, 11 percent of foreign-born -- people from another country now living in the United States -- and 10 percent of U.S.-born residents had an advanced degree.

These statistics come from Educational Attainment in the United States: 2007 a report that describes the degree or level of school completed by adults 25 and older.

In the West, the percentage of foreign-born who had completed at least a bachelor's degree or higher was less than the percentage of the native-born (24 percent compared with 31 percent). Among the foreign-born, those living in the Northeast had the highest percentage of bachelor's degrees or more (32 percent), which was the same as their native-born counterparts. The foreign-born in the South (26 percent) and Midwest (31 percent) were more likely than native-born residents to have at least a college degree (25 percent and 26 percent, respectively).

Across all regions, a smaller percentage of foreign-born than native-born adults had completed at least a high school education.

This is the first Census Bureau report on educational attainment to use data from both the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey. Combining these two data sets not only provides a state-by state comparison of educational attainment, it allows an examination of historical trends.

Other highlights from the report include:

-- 84 percent of adults 25 and older had completed high school, while 27 percent had obtained at least a bachelor's degree in 2007.

-- A larger proportion of women (85 percent) than men (84 percent) had completed high school, but a larger proportion of men had earned a bachelor's degree (28 percent compared with 27 percent).

-- The percentage of high school graduates was highest in the Midwest (87 percent), and the percentage of college graduates was highest in the Northeast (32 percent).

-- Men earned more than women at each level of educational attainment. The percentage of female-to-male earnings among year-round, full-time workers 25 and older was 77 percent.

-- Workers with a bachelor's degree on average earned about$20,000 more a year ($46,805) than workers with a high school diploma ($26,894). Compared with non-Hispanic whites and Asians, black and Hispanic workers earned less at all attainment levels.

__________________________________________________________________

Editor’s note: The report can be accessed at < http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p20-560.pdf>.

-30-

The data in this report are from the 2007 American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS) from 2008 and earlier. Statistics from surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error. For more information on the source of the data and accuracy of the estimates, including standard errors and confidence intervals, see Appendix G at < http://www.census.gov/apsd/techdoc/cps/cpsmar08.pdf> [PDF].

Note: See <www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/ACS/accuracy2007.pdf> for further information on the accuracy of the 2007 American Community Survey data.

Ethics and editing

2009-01-27T07:59:00.001-05:00

Al Tompkins at the Poynter Institute has a great lede article on the ethics of editing and what the BBC did with Pres. Obama's inagural address.

BBC's Edit of Obama's Inauguration Speech Raises Important Ethical Questions

The BBC's Newsnight show recently opened with what seemed like a single soundbite from President Barack Obama's inauguration speech. As it turns out, though, the BBC used three different parts of the inauguration speech and edited them together to create the soundbite. In listening to the audio, it's not clear that it had been edited.

Rest of blog filing.

After looking over the article and the BBC story in question, what do you think?

A wired or tired White House?

2009-01-24T11:07:00.000-05:00

Wired magazine has an interesting article that looks at the "high" tech in the White House.

Gadget Lab

One interesting thing is that the White House still uses Windows XP!

Changes in application of Freedom of Information Act

2009-01-22T10:23:00.001-05:00

One of Pres. Obama's first acts as president was to order federal agencies to approach requests under the Freedom of Information Act "with a clear presumption" in the face of doubt, openess prevails."

Memo on FOIA

Obama also issued an executive order changing the Bush Administration policies on the Presidential Records Act.

And issued a memo establishing a policy on transparency.

Electronic Frontier Foundation report on open government.

Story idea/angle: Drop in web browsing for Obama inauguration

2009-01-21T03:41:00.002-05:00

MerchantCircle, host for small business web sites say a dramatic drop in web activity right around noon Jan. 20. Then activity returned to normal.

CNet's Rafe Needleman looks at the situation.

And did you wonder how busy the social networks -- Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. --- were?

Here is another CNET report: Inauguration Day By the Numbers.

200th Anniversaries

2009-01-19T08:43:00.003-05:00

This has nothing to do with journalism but some good stories might come out of this.

What a year.

This is the 200th Anniversary of a poet who changed literature, a scientist who changed how we look at life and a politician who saved the Union.

The poet: Edgar Allen Poe, Born: January 19, 1809
The Scientist: Charles Darwin, Born February 12, 1809
The Politician: Abraham Lincoln, Born February 12, 1809

Google Notebook replacements

2009-01-16T15:50:00.001-05:00

The use of online notebooks has been a great help in making sure everyone in your group/class gets the same information at the same time. Google Notebook was good but now it seems the Mountain View gang is ending it.

Josh Lowensohn at C-Net looks at some alternatives.

Worthy Replacements
Josh Lowensohn

With Thursday's news that Google is discontinuing development on its Notebook service, it may leave a few people looking for a viable replacement. The good news is that there are a handful of really solid products that do the same thing, and in some cases--do it better. Here's a list of seven of our favorites, in no particular order.

Rest of story

Not sure this approach will work, but in this economy, who knows?

2009-01-16T03:28:00.001-05:00

My friend Nury Vittachi has some suggestions on how to land a job. (And I won't even comment on his use of "till.")

Fake it till you make it.

I am betting there are some publishers and editors where this just might work.

Tweeting and the news

2009-01-16T03:13:00.001-05:00

Interesting take on Twitter and the main stream media from C-Net.

And considering the SPJ is sponsoring a session Jan. 24 on using Facebook and other Web 2.0 as is Region 2 in March, this offers another look at reactions to the new technologies in news gathering.

Let's Twitter a reaction to the overreaction to...Twitter
By Charles Cooper

Each time our little world suffers a disaster, man-made or otherwise, count on the usual suspects to rush to their keyboards and pound out yet more bloviation about the existential importance of Twitter to our 24 x 7 ecosystem.

Before some of you jump ugly on me, let me hasten to mention that I've long found Twitter to be extremely useful. But how long before we can move past this "wonder of Twitter" moment? An earthquake in China, the Mumbai massacre, war in Gaza--Twitter's proved itself as a tool to report and comment on breaking news. If you haven't been paying attention, Twitter might seem wondrous. For the rest of us, it's old hat by now.

Yet so many of the usual suspects insist on remaining awestruck. So it was that today's U.S. Air crash triggered the predictable run of worshipful commentary. Silicon Alley Insider's headline: "U.S. Airways Crash Rescue Picture: Citizen Journalism, Twitter At Work," was representative of the chatter among the TechMeme crowd.

Maybe it was a slow day for some, but I cringed at the invidious comparisons drawn between the "mainstream media" and Twitter. By now, that's simply a cliche observation. Any news-gathering organization with any hope of surviving is reorganizing its operations around the best technology possible--and Twitter naturally figures into a successful plan.

Rest of article

Eric Idle on writing

2009-01-16T01:54:00.003-05:00

Now I know this has nothing to do with journalism but it is an interesting look and the dynamics of team efforts. And we do make our students do joint projects some times.

More on Sri Lankan editor's death -- and who done it.

2009-01-16T01:41:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, Jan. 13 The Guardian of London ran a piece.
"We know who is behing my death": Sri Lankan editor continues fight from grave

Thursday, Jan. 14 the Washington Post weighs in.
Editor's killing underscores perils of reporting in Sri Lanka

The New York Times had a brief notice Jan. 9.
Newspaper editor is killed.

I raise this for students to look at because at Mason we have students from many different countries and cultures. Many of our students want to be foreign correspondents or at least write the occasional piece from abroad. We must never let them forget that the world is a dangerous place for real journalists.

Plus Wicramatunga's final editorial (earlier posted) is one of the best descriptions and defense of free and unfettered journalism I have seen in a while.

Facebook Journalism

2009-01-15T01:48:00.002-05:00

Journalism groups and schools across the country are running courses or seminars on how to use online social networks in reporting. The National Press Club in Washington seems to run a course like this every month. The DC SPJ is sponsoring one Jan. 24 at Marymount University in Arlington.

So what does Facebook think about all this?

Fortunately for us Rory O'Connor interviewed Randi Zuckerberg, who is part of the network’s creative marketing organization on this very topic

Facebook Journalism

ROC: With slumping public approval, journalism is facing a crisis of trust. We’re looking at how people can find and share credible news and information in hopes of regaining this trust. Do you think Facebook plays a role in this process at all? If so, how?

RZ: The concept of “the trusted referral” is integral to the success of content sharing on Facebook. We’ve found that it is tremendously more powerful to get a piece of content – an article, a news clip, a video, etc – from a friend, and it makes you much more likely to watch, read, and engage with the content.

Rest of article.

The Russian-Ukrainian Gas Mess

2009-01-15T01:02:00.001-05:00

There is lots of coverage about the current pissing match between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas. For my part I am watching what it is doing to the global ammonia market. (Does the word "disaster" ring a bell?)

The problem with many of the stories is that they either refer to "Europe" or a specific country. As with everything, there is more to it. Some areas of Europe are being hit really hard and others are being inconvenienced.

The BBC posted a great map of the affected areas and how they are being affected. A good example of how graphics really help explain the story.

Passport holders in the USA

2009-01-14T02:16:00.001-05:00

There is a running statistic that only half of the members of Congress hold passports. Whether that is true or not I cannot say. (It's always one of those things that bug me every now and then but never enough to go out and actually do the research.)

But, thanks to GOOD magazine, we can easily see the percentage of passport holders state by state and nationwide.

You are free to leave

As expected, Washington, DC has the highest percentage of people with passports -- almost 30 percent. New Jersey is next at 6.37 percent. The national average (2006) is 4 percent.

Virginia is at 4.4 percent and Maryland at 4.86 percent.

Interestingly in the middle of the country Illinois (4%) and Minnesota (4.3%) lead the pack.

Story ideas I can see off the top of my head:

The obvious: How does proximity to a border affect passport issuance?
The next obvious: How does the presence of large immigrant communities affect issuance? (Americans -- new or otherwise -- wanting to visit relatives in the "Old Country.")
How does wealth in a state affect passport issuance?
How does foreign investment in a state affect issuance?
How does education levels in the state affect issuance?
How does the presence of the headquarters of US companies operating overseas in a state affect issuance?

The Obama Effect -- Part 2

2009-01-13T06:54:00.002-05:00

The other day I posted a link to an NPR series on how other countries are dealing with their minorities.

Here is the link for part 2 of the NPR series: Immigrants forced to margins of Italian society.

Plus, I ran across this story from Brazil on GlobalPost: For which it stands.

The following pull quote is indicative of Brazil:

“Blacks in the United States had the opportunity to grow socially, culturally, and politically,” Gomes de Jesus said. “So much so that today white Americans elected a black man president. That indicates that whites in the United States came to the conclusion that if you’re capable, you can have power, whether you’re white or not.”

Most Brazilian whites, he believes, do not feel the same way. He suspects that “white Brazilians find it absurd that a black man is president of the United States.”

Hooray for radio

2009-01-13T06:13:00.003-05:00

Today, January 13, marks the 99th anniversary of the first demonstration of radio.

January 13, 1910

First radio demonstration

Lee De Forest, the American inventor of the vacuum tube, broadcasts a live performance of Enrico Caruso from the Metropolitan Opera. The broadcast over a telephone transmitter could be heard only by the small number of electronics hobbyists who had radio receivers. De Forest started regular nightly concerts in 1915, increasing interest in radio receivers, which at the time depended on the vacuum tubes manufactured by De Forest's company.

Rest of story

The price of free media

2009-01-13T05:55:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Bob Webb, immediate past president of the DC SPJ, for bringing the last commentary by Lassantha Wickramatunga, editor of the Sri Lanka Sunday Leader, to my attention.

Wickramatunga was killed January 8 by four gunmen who surrounded his car. This commentary was published the Sunday following his murder.

There is a lot here that should resonate for journalists around the world. The ideals of journalism often butt up against governments that fear free media and unfettered reporting.

Unfortunately for the advocates of free and unfettered journalism Wickramatunga was killed by a hit squad last week.

And if anyone thinks what is happening in Sri Lanka is just "too far away" for Americans to worry about, let us not forget that the most dangerous place in the Western Hemisphere is immediately south of our border. Journalists are being killed, maimed and otherwise threatened throughout northern Mexico by drug lords and corrupt local government officials.

Thugs -- whether they be government leaders, so-called freedom fighters or gangsters -- have a great deal to fear of free media because that is the only way the horrors of their actions are made public.

And we, in the United States and other democracies have a moral obligation to stand up and support the brave journalists who stand up to the thugs of Beijing, Sri Lanka, Nuevo Leon and elsewhere.

Too bad these battles are getting so little coverage. In fact, a quick GOOGLE check of the Wickramatunga case shows that the only American publication to report the story and follow up demonstrations was a newspaper in New York aimed at the immigrant Sri Lankan community.

________________________________________
And Then They Came For Me
By Lasantha Wickramatunga

No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories and now especially the last.

I have been in the business of journalism a good long time. Indeed, 2009 will be The Sunday Leader's 15th year. Many things have changed in Sri Lanka during that time, and it does not need me to tell you that the greater part of that change has been for the worse. We find ourselves in the midst of a civil war ruthlessly prosecuted by protagonists whose bloodlust knows no bounds. Terror, whether perpetrated by terrorists or the state, has become the order of the day. Indeed, murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty. Today it is the journalists, tomorrow it will be the judges. For neither group have the risks ever been higher or the stakes lower.

Why then do we do it? I often wonder that. After all, I too am a husband, and the father of three wonderful children. I too have responsibilities and obligations that transcend my profession, be it the law or journalism. Is it worth the risk? Many people tell me it is not. Friends tell me to revert to the bar, and goodness knows it offers a better and safer livelihood. Others, including political leaders on both sides, have at various times sought to induce me to take to politics, going so far as to offer me ministries of my choice. Diplomats, recognising the risk journalists face in Sri Lanka, have offered me safe passage and the right of residence in their countries. Whatever else I may have been stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice.

But there is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the call of conscience.

The Sunday Leader has been a controversial newspaper because we say it like we see it: whether it be a spade, a thief or a murderer, we call it by that name. We do not hide behind euphemism. The investigative articles we print are supported by documentary evidence thanks to the public-spiritedness of citizens who at great risk to themselves pass on this material to us. We have exposed scandal after scandal, and never once in these 15 years has anyone proved us wrong or successfully prosecuted us.

The free media serve as a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and styling gel. From us you learn the state of your nation, and especially its management by the people you elected to give your children a better future. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant one. But while you may grumble in the privacy of your armchair, the journalists who hold the mirror up to you do so publicly and at great risk to themselves. That is our calling, and we do not shirk it.

Every newspaper has its angle, and we do not hide the fact that we have ours. Our commitment is to see Sri Lanka as a transparent, secular, liberal democracy. Think about those words, for they each has profound meaning. Transparent because government must be openly accountable to the people and never abuse their trust. Secular because in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society such as ours, secularism offers the only common ground by which we might all be united. Liberal because we recognise that all human beings are created different, and we need to accept others for what they are and not what we would like them to be. And democratic... well, if you need me to explain why that is important, you'd best stop buying this paper.

The Sunday Leader has never sought safety by unquestioningly articulating the majority view. Let's face it, that is the way to sell newspapers. On the contrary, as our opinion pieces over the years amply demonstrate, we often voice ideas that many people find distasteful. For example, we have consistently espoused the view that while separatist terrorism must be eradicated, it is more important to address the root causes of terrorism, and urged government to view Sri Lanka's ethnic strife in the context of history and not through the telescope of terrorism. We have also agitated against state terrorism in the so-called war against terror, and made no secret of our horror that Sri Lanka is the only country in the world routinely to bomb its own citizens. For these views we have been labelled traitors, and if this be treachery, we wear that label proudly.

Many people suspect that The Sunday Leader has a political agenda: it does not. If we appear more critical of the government than of the opposition it is only because we believe that - pray excuse cricketing argot - there is no point in bowling to the fielding side. Remember that for the few years of our existence in which the UNP was in office, we proved to be the biggest thorn in its flesh, exposing excess and corruption wherever it occurred. Indeed, the steady stream of embarrassing expos‚s we published may well have served to precipitate the downfall of that government.

Neither should our distaste for the war be interpreted to mean that we support the Tigers. The LTTE are among the most ruthless and bloodthirsty organisations ever to have infested the planet. There is no gainsaying that it must be eradicated. But to do so by violating the rights of Tamil citizens, bombing and shooting them mercilessly, is not only wrong but shames the Sinhalese, whose claim to be custodians of the dhamma is forever called into question by this savagery, much of which is unknown to the public because of censorship.

What is more, a military occupation of the country's north and east will require the Tamil people of those regions to live eternally as second-class citizens, deprived of all self respect. Do not imagine that you can placate them by showering "development" and "reconstruction" on them in the post-war era. The wounds of war will scar them forever, and you will also have an even more bitter and hateful Diaspora to contend with. A problem amenable to a political solution will thus become a festering wound that will yield strife for all eternity. If I seem angry and frustrated, it is only because most of my countrymen - and all of the government - cannot see this writing so plainly on the wall.

It is well known that I was on two occasions brutally assaulted, while on another my house was sprayed with machine-gun fire. Despite the government's sanctimonious assurances, there was never a serious police inquiry into the perpetrators of these attacks, and the attackers were never apprehended. In all these cases, I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.

The irony in this is that, unknown to most of the public, Mahinda and I have been friends for more than a quarter century. Indeed, I suspect that I am one of the few people remaining who routinely addresses him by his first name and uses the familiar Sinhala address oya when talking to him. Although I do not attend the meetings he periodically holds for newspaper editors, hardly a month passes when we do not meet, privately or with a few close friends present, late at night at President's House. There we swap yarns, discuss politics and joke about the good old days. A few remarks to him would therefore be in order here.

Mahinda, when you finally fought your way to the SLFP presidential nomination in 2005, nowhere were you welcomed more warmly than in this column. Indeed, we broke with a decade of tradition by referring to you throughout by your first name. So well known were your commitments to human rights and liberal values that we ushered you in like a breath of fresh air. Then, through an act of folly, you got yourself involved in the Helping Hambantota scandal.

It was after a lot of soul-searching that we broke the story, at the same time urging you to return the money. By the time you did so several weeks later, a great blow had been struck to your reputation. It is one you are still trying to live down.

You have told me yourself that you were not greedy for the presidency. You did not have to hanker after it: it fell into your lap. You have told me that your sons are your greatest joy, and that you love spending time with them, leaving your brothers to operate the machinery of state. Now, it is clear to all who will see that that machinery has operated so well that my sons and daughter do not themselves have a father.

In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death, but dare not call his name. Not just my life, but yours too, depends on it.

Sadly, for all the dreams you had for our country in your younger days, in just three years you have reduced it to rubble. In the name of patriotism you have trampled on human rights, nurtured unbridled corruption and squandered public money like no other President before you. Indeed, your conduct has been like a small child suddenly let loose in a toyshop. That analogy is perhaps inapt because no child could have caused so much blood to be spilled on this land as you have, or trampled on the rights of its citizens as you do. Although you are now so drunk with power that you cannot see it, you will come to regret your sons having so rich an inheritance of blood. It can only bring tragedy. As for me, it is with a clear conscience that I go to meet my Maker. I wish, when your time finally comes, you could do the same. I wish.

As for me, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I walked tall and bowed to no man. And I have not travelled this journey alone. Fellow journalists in other branches of the media walked with me: most of them are now dead, imprisoned without trial or exiled in far-off lands. Others walk in the shadow of death that your Presidency has cast on the freedoms for which you once fought so hard. You will never be allowed to forget that my death took place under your watch. As anguished as I know you will be, I also know that you will have no choice but to protect my killers: you will see to it that the guilty one is never convicted. You have no choice. I feel sorry for you, and Shiranthi will have a long time to spend on her knees when next she goes for Confession for it is not just her owns sins which she must confess, but those of her extended family that keeps you in office.

As for the readers of The Sunday Leader, what can I say but Thank You for supporting our mission. We have espoused unpopular causes, stood up for those too feeble to stand up for themselves, locked horns with the high and mighty so swollen with power that they have forgotten their roots, exposed corruption and the waste of your hard-earned tax rupees, and made sure that whatever the propaganda of the day, you were allowed to hear a contrary view. For this I - and my family - have now paid the price that I have long known I will one day have to pay. I am - and have always been - ready for that. I have done nothing to prevent this outcome: no security, no precautions. I want my murderer to know that I am not a coward like he is, hiding behind human shields while condemning thousands of innocents to death. What am I among so many? It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remains to be written is when.

That The Sunday Leader will continue fighting the good fight, too, is written. For I did not fight this fight alone. Many more of us have to be - and will be - killed before The Leader is laid to rest. I hope my assassination will be seen not as a defeat of freedom but an inspiration for those who survive to step up their efforts. Indeed, I hope that it will help galvanise forces that will usher in a new era of human liberty in our beloved motherland. I also hope it will open the eyes of your President to the fact that however many are slaughtered in the name of patriotism, the human spirit will endure and flourish. Not all the Rajapakses combined can kill that.

People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it is a matter of time before I am bumped off. Of course I know that: it is inevitable. But if we do not speak out now, there will be no one left to speak for those who cannot, whether they be ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged or the persecuted. An example that has inspired me throughout my career in journalism has been that of the German theologian, Martin Niem”ller. In his youth he was an anti-Semite and an admirer of Hitler. As Nazism took hold in Germany, however, he saw Nazism for what it was: it was not just the Jews Hitler sought to extirpate, it was just about anyone with an alternate point of view. Niem”ller spoke out, and for his trouble was incarcerated in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945, and very nearly executed. While incarcerated, Niem”ller wrote a poem that, from the first time I read it in my teenage years, stuck hauntingly in my mind:

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

If you remember nothing else, remember this: The Leader is there for you, be you Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, low-caste, homosexual, dissident or disabled. Its staff will fight on, unbowed and unafraid, with the courage to which you have become accustomed. Do not take that commitment for granted. Let there be no doubt that whatever sacrifices we journalists make, they are not made for our own glory or enrichment: they are made for you. Whether you deserve their sacrifice is another matter. As for me, God knows I tried.

Internship off the beaten path available

2009-01-12T14:21:00.001-05:00

The National Interest in Washington is looking for an editorial intern.

Here is the information as provided to Foreign Policy Association.

Contact Person: Rebecca White

Phone: 202-467-4884
Email: editor@nationalinterest.org

Description:

The National Interest, a bimonthly magazine offering in-depth but
accessible debate and commentary on today's critical foreign-policy
issues, is now accepting applications for a semester-long internship.
Interns will gain experience in all aspects of the publication process
— from editing to research and publicity to production.

Responsibilities:

- Researching potential articles/authors and fact-checking submissions

- Maintaining media and other databases

- Supporting webmaster

- Assisting with issue layout

- Reviewing and copyediting articles

Qualification:

- Currently enrolled in a Bachelor's or Master's program

- Experience with, or at minimum an interest in, international affairs and foreign-policy publications

- Strong organizational skills and attention to detail

- Ability to multitask within deadlines and work well with others

Qualified candidates may email a cover letter, résumé and unofficial transcript to editor@nationalinterest.org.

The Obama effect around the world

2009-01-12T08:09:00.001-05:00

Right after Barak Obama won the election in November 2008, minority groups in Brazil pointed out that maybe it was time for black Brazilians to have their rights respected in Brazil. Needless to say, just days after the Brazilian elite -- mostly white or at least light skinned -- were praising the election of Obama, they were sweating bullets that they might have to start sharing more power with minorities within their own country thanks to Obama.

And where did we ever see this reported in the USA? No where that I saw.

Until now.

NPR started a three-part series on minorities in other countries and their struggles for equal rights.

Part one aired today (1/12/09) Read and hear the first installment here.

News Team Dance Time

2009-01-12T05:23:00.001-05:00

And some wonder why local news is not taken seriously.

2009-01-09T18:01:00.001-05:00