There's been so much talk in the last few weeks about which major American city will be the first without a newspaper, with a lot of the focus on San Francisco or maybe now in Chicago where both papers are now in Chapter 11. just like here but with two owners instead of one. What would No-Newspaper Town USA look like? No one knows, but here in Philadelphia we've seen a couple of peeks:
The bad: This is kind of stale now, so I won't dwell on it, but a couple of weeks ago did you see how see how Eagles' coach Andy Reid came to break his long silence on the departure of defensive stalwart Brian Dawkins? He submitted himself to a probing interview...on the Eagles own team web site. Frankly, the interview could have been worse, but you see where this is heading. Sports teams, big corporations like Comcast, City Hall or even the White House -- all of these people are going to be getting their story out directly to you, without the jaundiced eye of a skeptical journalist as a middleman trying to cut through the spin (even though that often goes bad: See Iraq, 2002-03). Even so, these pseudo-stories like the Reid interview will be 100 percent spin, and nothing but.
The good: New Media fanatics believe that other kinds of journalism will rise up to replace newspapers, and some of may be even better than what is produced now, because these sources of news will be more closely rooted in the local communities where news happens. Here's a case in point -- a story that generated a massive debate this morning on the Michael Smerconish Show.
The article was reported and written by a Temple University student in their Urban Journalism Workshop, the kind of community-oriented hyperlocal effort that many experts hope will rise up even as traditional newsrooms shrink. It was a much more simple and on-the-ground approach to crime reporting than many big dailies -- who now have just enough resources to cover The Big Murder of the Day -- are able to undertake on a regular basis. Shannon McDonald simply rode around crime-plagued Strawberry Mansion and got a very provocatve story:
The stories of police brutality are easier to believe when Thrasher and his colleagues interact. “TNS” is the code they use for many of their cases. When Thrasher arrives at Arthur’s Dog House on Germantown Avenue in response to a midday call about an escalating argument; the cook greets him by saying the fighting couple has already left.
“Nobody died,” he tells her dismissively.
Thrasher’s lieutenant drives by as Thrashers slides back into the seat of his car.
“TNS,” Thrasher tells his superior. “Typical N----- S---.”
Although it was published on a relatively obscure Web site, word of the story spread virally through the tangled Web of electronic media -- Smerconish to Attytood to anyone who picks up the ball from here -- and it reaches a wider audience, triggering a community discussion on urban crime, racism, police brutality, and other important issues. This is how news increasingly works in the 21st Century, and it's not bad.
Is this a perfect Brave New World? Of course not. Who will pay Shannon McDonald a living wage to practice journalism when she graduates in May? I have not a clue. But I do think the Great Debate of Journalism is at the point of looking forward and not back, of how do we advance the good -- local reporting -- and how do we mitigate the bad and the ugly of corporate and political spin in a world that will look very different from the one we know.
Comment removed.
yes bill a., the police can do no wrong. Police NEVER do anything wrong, and they always tell the truth and never lie. nor do they get cozy with informants or destroy surveillance equipment and steal cartons of cigarettes. that never happens, especially not in philadelphia. get real: there are a lot of good cops, but a lot of bad cops too, just lie in any other profession.— brendancalling- While what Thrasher said is wrong, they are just words. Free speech is still a protected right in this country. Nothing should happen to Thrasher unless it can be proven that his words were followed with action in how he interacted with other people. You dont have to respect the people you are protecting/serving to be able to do your job. Of course, people can take offense at his attitude or words; but, by what I read, he did nothing wrong when actually doing his job.— Master Dreamz
- "get real: there are a lot of good cops, but a lot of bad cops too, just lie in any other profession." I believe that is bill's exact point, brendan...that there are good and bad cops, but the media focuses only on the negative side and excludes reporting the positive.— legatus
- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
"The article enraged The Guardian Civic League, an organization of black Philadelphia police officers, which is calling for his dismissal." One might wonder how an exclusionary group can claim racism.— bird11- Comment removed.
- Comment removed.
- In New York, they don't say N----- S---, they say N----- Nonsense. "NN" for short.— WriteWinger
- Comment removed.
- Classy ET, truely classy.— phillyfanaddict
- Comment removed.
- Front page story on Philly.com "Times are tough, but there are bargains to be had. On Sunday morning at the Target store on City Avenue, for instance, customers were presented with some sweet "Expect More. Pay Less" options at the point of purchase. For starters, there were four packs of Tastykake Tasty "Tweets" available for just $2.99. (If only I had a Twitter account, I could have tweeted about it on the spot.) Right next to that, another great deal, with a "Chocolate Box" of its own: a three-CD set that includes two new albums by Prince - Lotusflow3r (*** out of four stars) and MPLSound (**½) - plus a third, Elixer (**), by his latest comely protege, Bria Valente. The bargain-basement price for the 31-song troika? A hard-to-resist $11.98." LJL would you like to revise your earlier statement "The media's purpose isn't to tell feel-good stories about people actually doing what they are supposed to do."— bird11
- Comment removed.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
PLEASE COMMENT WITH PASSION...
...but not with racial slurs, potentially libelous allegations, obscenities or other juvenile noise. Such comments will, at our discretion, be deleted in their entirety, and repeat offenders will be blocked from commenting. ALSO: Any commenter advocating killing any government official will be immediately banned.
Thanks.
- Atrios
- Kiko's House
- Suburban Guerilla
- Booman Tribune
- All-Spin Zone
- Philly (Dragonballyee)
- Afro-Netizen
- Rowhouse Logic
- MyDD
- Bad Attitudes
- Billmon
- iFlipFlop
- CorrenteWire
- upyernoz
- Tattered Coat
- Fables of the Reconstruction
- Slacktivist
- Citizen Mom
- The Next Mayor
- Philly Future
- Philadelphia Will Do
- Philebrity
- Young Philly Politics
- Phillyblog
- Welcome to Phillyville
- Phawker
- A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- Keystone Blog
- Philadelphia - America's Hometown
- BlankBaby
- Above Average Jane
- Phillyist
- Metroblogging Philadelphia
- The Clog
- Josh Marshall
- Daily Kos
- Juan Cole
- Oliver Willis
- Andy Borowitz
- War and Piece
- Wonkette
- BuzzFlash
- Raw Story
- Cursor
- Crooks and Liars
- Swing State Project
- Kevin Drum
- Talk Left
- AmericaBlog
- Hullabaloo
- Mad Kane
- Think Progress
- Jesus' General
- The Carpetbagger Report
- Majikthise
- Echidne of the Snakes
- David Sirota
- Glenn Greenwald
- TBogg
- Fire Dog Lake
- Taylor Marsh
- Matthew Yglesias
- Jon Swift
- Drudge Report
- Beer Leaguer
- The 700 Level
- Dick Polman
- Balls, Sticks and Stuff
- Shallow Center
- Philling Station
- Phillies Nation
- A Citizen's Blog
- The Good Phight
- Romenesko
- Editor and Publisher
- Pressthink
- Buzzmachine
- The Inksniffer
- Media Bloodhound
- Eat the Press
- Mickey Kaus
- Media (Huffington Post)
- Blinq
- The Corner
- Instapundit
- Andrew Sullivan
- Free Republic
- James Taranto
- Blonde Sagacity
- ScrappleFace
- Blogorrhea
- February
- January
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- January 2008
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
