Huffington Likes Our Obsessiveness

First of all, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I hope you had a great Halloween.

Tomorrow, Arianna Huffington will speak at Ithaca College. In preparation for her talk, I read this article in which Huffington discusses some of the issues facing independent media and journalism as a whole, as well as some of the strengths of indy media. The thing I found most interesting was her assessment of how the obsessiveness of Internet users has strengthened coverage of some of the most important topics. Crowd-sourcing has become a highly successful way of reporting a story. Huffington used it to find information on lobbyists in the U.S.; other sites have used it for such things as the positions of super-delegates in the last election. Before the Internet, this method of reporting was never possible. Obviously, it has its own share of drawbacks, not the least of which is the possible issue of inaccuracy -- after all, everyday citizens aren't trained in grammar and fact-finding like journalism students and mainstream reporters are. Still, the method has its strengths.

I think Huffington said it best: "Mainstream media suffer from attention deficit disorder. New media suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder."

Check out the rest of the article for more on this issue, as well as Huffington's assessment of the Internet's ability to spread, and more importantly discredit, rumors. And, check back on the blog tomorrow for an update on Huffington's talk on campus.

Indy Media in Zimbabwe

Here's an article that I found pretty interesting: "Independent Media Still Struggling in Zimbabwe."The article discusses how Zimbabwe's new government had promised to process all media license applications, but had not issued any new licenses since the new government came into power eight months ago. Several people or organizations prepared to start publishing, but were not issued their licenses as they had expected.  Despite the fact that the government has not issued any new independent media licenses, the government has launched two more of its own newspapers.

I guess this reminded me to count my blessings - I am able to publish this blog. Anyone can start their own newspaper or Web site in the U.S., provided they have the capital and resources of course. It's truly unfortunate that there are places in the world that do not enjoy even a small amount of press freedom. After all, without the ability to inform the public about issues of importance, how can one expect injustices to change?

For more information on media in Zimbabwe, head over to this Web site. It has information about some of the country's state-run media outlets, a section offering assistance to journalists, and a history of media in Zimbabwe.

Lessons from Kate Sheppard

Today in Jeff Cohen's Independent Media class, Kate Sheppard -- an IC grad -- paid us a visit. She got her start as an intern with Grist in Seattle before eventually becoming their political reporter in Washington D.C. After being laid off, she was quickly hired by Mother Jones, a magazine known for its investigative reporting.

Here's some of the most important things I learned from her today:

• It's a good idea to specialize in something. Sheppard is an expert in environmental politics, so media outlets know that she can cover these types of stories very well. Therefore, it's a good idea to diversify your skills and breadth of knowledge beyond simply being able to write a good story.
• Sheppard said her biggest challenge in finding a career in indy media was that outlets don't have the money to pay for good reporting. She told us there's no lack of need for good writing and reporting, but many outlets simply don't have the funds to pay reporters as they should be.
• She also emphasized the importance of social networking tools, including Twitter. She said she received one job offer because of links to her writing she tweeted. Personally, I don't have a Twitter account yet, but her account of how much it helped her definitely made it sound advantageous to register for one.

Fake AP Stylebook

Here's something fun I stumbled onto today. It's called the Fake AP Stylebook and you can find it on Twitter. Basically, it's a bunch of tweets that poke fun at the Stylebook or newspapers. Here's a few of my favorite gems:

• You cannot libel the dead. You can, however, libel the undead. Vampires have professional lawyers and hypnotism, so be careful. 
• Your newsroom is alloted one usage of "Trial of the Century" every ten years. Please choose carefully.
• Always remember to close all parentheses. We're not paying to air condition the entire paragraph.

You can read a bit more about it in this Oct. 23 post on the Huffington Post. Check it out and enjoy!

How The Huffington Post Finds Headlines

What makes a great headline? Well, the Huffington Post has got a few ideas on how to choose the perfect ones. After all, a headline is a newspaper's or Web site's way of selling its product. A headline must be grabbing and informative at the same time in order to draw readers and keep them on your site.

Since September, Josh Young, the HuffPost's social media editor, has solicited better headlines from time to time through Twitter. While this way of developing new headlines isn't the best, it does make great use of the readership.

The HuffPost also applies A/B testing to some of its lead headlines. Using this method, one headline is shown to some readers, while another headline is shown to another group of people. After only a few minutes -- which is plenty of time for a high-traffic, continually-updated site like the HuffPost -- the headline that generated the most traffic becomes the headline that everyone sees when they log on to the site.

This method definitely has merit. By using A/B testing, the HuffPost can see which headline is best. Of course, this method only selects the best of two possible options, so in theory there could be several better options out there that weren't written. Still, A/B testing is a good option to crafting better headlines that seems to be working well for the HuffPost.

You can read more about this here.

An Update on Net Neutrality

In a move that could potentially have a major impact on independent media outlets online, the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously Thursday to begin drafting rules to prevent Internet providers from acting as gatekeepers. The federal government has so far taken the back seat on net neutrality issues, but with this decision, the FCC will begin a month-long process to develop statutes on what Internet Service Providers can do. Some companies, such as Google, have already spoken out in support of this. On the other hand, ISPs have argued that they should be able to regulate their ever-shrinking bandwidth, which would obviously benefit the ISPs more than their consumers. You can read The Washington Post's story about this here.

What do you think of this? Net neutrality has always been an important topic for Internet users and online content producers, but now this ruling has pushed it into the forefront. Personally, I believe the Internet should remain entirely unregulated, except for things that obvious must be removed by law, like child pornography or private medical records for instance. The vast majority of content, however, should not be tampered with. The beauty of the Internet is that anyone can post to it. It's the lack of regulation that allows independent media Web sites to break news that the mainstream media won't dare to cover. I think the Net should remain an avenue for unfiltered discussion. Do you agree?

You can get the basics on net neutrality by checking out this short video. It was made by SaveTheInternet.com and it's both an informational video and a promotional video for the Web site, so take it with a grain of salt.

Blogger Responds to New FTC Rule

As I discussed before, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that bloggers who review products must disclose any ties to the manufacturer of that product because of advertising or other factors. To me, this was a good thing - it gives readers more information by holding bloggers accountable for any conflicts of interest that may arise. However, now at least one blogger has spoken out against this. Britt Aboutaleb, a blogger at Fashionista, said this is actually unfair to bloggers because print reporters are not held to the same standards. She wrote that fashion magazine are not required to publicize that certain products are chosen as features because of an advertising relationship.

While this may be true, it does not change the fact that the intention of the new rule is just and beneficial for readers, which is who writers are working for, in a sense. Furthermore, the blogger made sweeping statements that all magazines do this, which I think is just not true. This past weekend, I visited several magazine offices in New York City — including W, a high-fashion magazine, and Woman's Day, a women's magazine aimed at middle-aged mothers — and found this wasn't the case at every place. The editors at W and Woman's Day said they receive products that they or other members of their team test in order to see which would be best for their readership. At least at these two magazines, the products received are not part of a business relationship where coverage is based on advertising dollars. While I agree that magazines should disclose that they receive these products free of charge, it doesn't change that the new FTC rule was made with good intentions to help blog readers.

In short, I think the FTC should hold print publications to this standard, but that doesn't change the fact that the rule is necessary to improve the quality of the work being done on the Net as well. Would you agree? Or, do you think the FTC should have cleaned up the print industry before moving on to independent blogs or Web sites?