We must stop Google: A ScreenShot Essay
Ah. Thanksgiving. A day of relaxation, of visiting with family. After eight maddening weeks of introduction to J-school, it’s a weekend where I can lean back and reflect on how when I get my degree, there probably won’t be a journalism industry left. Just Google, sending News Spiders to our homes with the day’s events. For free.
Still in beta
Right and Wrong on Roman
EDIT: Edited for some HTML errors that kept popping up. Also, my first go around, committed the faux pas of not linking to either Weinstien or Murphy. My bad.
Busker Festival
It’s been a hot weekend so far In Halifax, made worse by the humidity. I’m not a creature who does well in heat, and my first instinct is to make a made dash (fine, lethargic crawl) towards the first opportunity for shade/water. If it’s downhill from my current location, all the better.
It was that instinct that had me hitting the waterfront again yesterday. Can’t say I found much shade. And you’d have to be made to want to spent any time in the waters of the harbour. But, luckily enough, I was able to catch a few acts at the International Busker Festival, which more than made up for the deathly heat.
Arts and Crafts Time!
I have a notebook that I like to keep on me. It’s homemade, little more than scraps of paper stapled together with a little stub of a pencil shoved between the pages. I carry it around in case I think of photo ideas, story ideas, need to write down a phone number or address or what not.
I love it. The only problem with this notebook that I have access to at all times is that I HAVE ACCESS TO IT AT ALL TIMES. Even when I have thoughts that should be immediately forgotten – like say, last night when I was stumbling home from trivia night at the campus pub.
See, now that Mr Hyde has access to my notebook, he can make demands, knowing full well that my sober, upstanding Dr Jekyll self will be forced to read them the next morning. (Or, sometimes, early afternoon.) Many of them are inchoerent and foolish, destined for the garbage bin. But sometimes they aren’t just random thoughts. Sometimes, they are demands.
I could sell these notebooks to hipsters for $5 a pop and make MILLIONS!
Canada: The Remedial Class
It pains me that this is a discussion we even need to be having.
Honestly. Out comes another report from another committee that puts forth the ‘controversial’ position that “hey, maybe if the RCMP is accused of doing something wrong, we shouldn’t let the RCMP investigate it.
From the report:
“Can the current process of the RCMP investigating itself legitimately engender confidence in the transparency and integrity of the criminal investigation and its outcome?
“Based on the results of our research and analysis, the informed commission answer is that it cannot.”
Canada, this is Responsible Government 101, and we’re failing it badly.
A Look Across The Country
Haven’t had a lot of time to get to the photos I’ve taken on my trip: what with all the unpacking, getting to know Halifax (and especially the pubs.
Thinking of resurrecting the blog here. Fresh city, fresh start – that cliched kind of thing. But, for right now, here’s a few of my favourite shots I’ve taken over the last couple of weeks.
You can check out the rest of the gallery here.
Photoshop and Dinosaurs! Grand Adventure!
A critical lack of hard drive space means that I’ve got to focus a little bit more on editing and storing my photos, and less on shooting more.
Bad timing, seeing as I just picked up a new telephoto lens. Not great at that planning thing.
But, I finally got through the first part of my 800+ shots at the Calgary Zoo. Decided to bust out the Photoshop and tell a little story.
So, I present: The Lost Diary – Shots from Prehistoric Park
Now working on Part Two (and possibly Three) of the Zoo trip. Those will probably be less sepia-soaked.
News fail
Part 98 in a 17,238 part series:
The internet is killing print journalism, I’m told. Dying right along with it are the old-school ideas of a “final proof-read” and “paying attention to what the hell I’m doing.”
For those who don’t have the joy of dealing with wire copy every day, “EMBARGO” isn’t supposed to be a headline – it’s a quick line to tell the media outlet not to run the story before a certain day. You’re supposed to, you know, take it out.
Not the first time Canada.com has done it this month. They don’t seem big on changing it either.
Citizen goes wrong way on Google Streets
Google Street car in Edmonton (via iNews880.com)
As we all slowly crushed under the weight of 6 billion articles about the coming Swine Flumaggedon, let’s all take some time to stop and thank the Ottawa Citizen for forging their own path.
See, while most media organizations are losing their heads over the swine flu, Citizen’s Robert Sibley has latched on to a more grave threat: a car with a CAMERA on it (c/o mathewi)
Is all the news that fit to print?
In essence, the primary job of a journalist is to be a conduit – to take a remote experience and relay it to the reader. Of course, there is much more to the job than that. Not to mention that both methods and mediums differ on a wide scale.
But, in essence, the job of the journalist is to record and relay an event to his or her readers/listeners/ viewers. That’s what we strive to do – immerse our audience in the experience and give them an accurate account of what is going on in the world around them. It does not matter if these events take place in university laboratory, on a foreign battlefield, or on a city street just a few blocks away.
But can we do it too well?
