Why covering the econ crisis is hard for CNN

A slightly tongue-in-cheek rebuke to CNN from Boing-Boing on why it is so difficult to cover the economic crisis going on.

Some of my favorite reasons:

• It's not a hurricane so Anderson Cooper of CNN is unable to position himself in the middle of the storm for optimal drama...
• Where are the winning and losing teams?
• I can almost hear producers wondering each night if there isn't a
  better story to lead with. "Isn't there a story we can do on Sarah
  Palin?"
• Why can't this be happening to Russia or China? CNN would send Christiane Amanpour there.

Health and Religion and campaign coverage -- Pew Reports

A couple of reports were recently released by the Pew Trusts.

• Health News Coverage in the U.S. Media
• How the news Media Covered Religion in the General Election

Some interesting reading.

From Health News Coverage:
Network evening news viewers were the most likely to find health news
in their programming. Looking at every newscast (Monday - Friday) on
the three evening news programs from January 2007 through June 2008
reveals that fully 8.3% of airtime was devoted to health-related news,
with a heavy emphasis on specific ailments such as heart disease and
cancer. This was more than twice the coverage of health in any other
news genre except newspapers (where it was 5.9%).

Cable news, on the other hand, found very little room for health news, just 1.4% of programming studied


From Religion in the General Election:
[T]here was little attempt by the news media during the campaign to
comprehensively examine the role of faith in the political values and
policies of the candidates, save for those of Republican vice
presidential nominee Sarah Palin. And when religion-focused campaign
stories were covered by the mainstream press, often the context was
negative, controversial or focused on a perceived political problem.

Bail out journalists -- PJ O'Rourke

Nice (and funny) piece by PJ O'Rourke on the state of print media from the Weekly Standard via Fishbowl DC/MediaBistro.

Journalists Need a Bailout, Too

Pull Quote:
We print journalists are victims of economic forces beyond our control. We were as surprised as everyone else was by the sudden collapse of the reliable reporting market. We had no idea that real news and clear-eyed analysis were being "bundled" with subprime celebrity gossip, US Weekly derivatives, and Jennifer Aniston/Angelina Jolie swaps. We need a swift infusion of federal aid. Otherwise all the information in America will be about Lindsay Lohan's sex life

The comics and journalism

A comic look at our profession that many (unfortunately) will take as truth.

Story Idea: Foreign Students Flocking to US schools

The numbers are finally up again. Enrollment of foreign students in US universities  jumped 7 percent between 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years.

See ABC story.

So here's the pitch...
What are the numbers like at Mason?
How have they changed?
How has the increase (if it has happened) affected how Mason operates? Looks? Feels?

And if the Mason foreign enrollment has not gone up, while the rest of the universities have, why? What were Mason's numbers like immediately post 9/11? In the years after 9/11? And compare those numbers to other colleges in the area/state/region during the same period.

More cuts in news gathering

Reuters reported Nov. 20 that the Associated Press plans a 10 percent cut of its workforce next year.

AP Chief Executive Tom Curley delivered the news as part of a "town hall" meeting with employees.

"All areas and ways of doing business are being reviewed," said an
AP statement provided to Reuters. "The AP, which recently instituted a
strategic hiring freeze, may need to reduce staff over the next year.
If so, it hopes to achieve much of the reduction through attrition."

Follow up to PC Mag and Ziff-Davis

I just received a message from a computer columnist about some more strange goings on at Ziff-Davis.

Seems to cut costs one of its publications is accepting vendor-supplied content for news articles and slide shows.

EWeek news editor John Hazard is reportedly frustrated with the situation. He said he has had to reject most of what comes in.

In addition, Eweek is doing a print feature for 2009 titled "Products to Watch." They are printing a notice that the "products may or may not be reviewed by eWeek Labs. The point of the section is to expand our ability to recommend products that we think are compelling for our
readers."

[Thanks to mediasurvey.com for this insight.]

So that takes us back to the issue of local television news accepting VNRs without revealing the source. Or the hack who sits in the back of the newsroom who just puts his byline on a press release.

It keeps happening and we are not talking about it enough in classes to make sure our students know these things are wrong. (I know some students are confused about this issue because some have told me they saw nothing wrong in it. And I had many 303 -- intro class -- students write their stories by just paraphrasing other reports.)