Category: Internet/WWW

Wow, officially spread too thin

So now we’re trying out Ning, a pretty darn attractive, free, easy-to-use social network platform for The High Desert Forum. A chance to do the things (talk about non-local news stuff, share pix etc.) our Web provider makes difficult/nearly impossible to do.

But that means between that, the Website, Facebook, Twitter – and this lil thing called TV news – I’m not blogging as much (and that’s always been hit or miss for me).

I guess I prefer conversations to blog statements. Others have different favorites.  I just think we all need to listen more, and talk less, and blogs, to me, are usually about talking, one to many. (I’m sure I’ll get some pushback… again.)

I just think social networks are fun, others consider them a royal pain, and absolutely HATE Twitter. Brings out the worst in some people. I just figure it’s another way to tell folks what’s going on.

Anyway, if you don’t see me here…look me up there. I’m bound to be online somewhere😉

Is blogging endangered, like G.I. Joe’s?

Okay, there’s a provocative title, if only for those in the ‘Pac-NW’ who grew up with GI Joe’s being a regional success story.

I’ve been meaning to write a piece of basically, ‘Will Facebook and Twitter kill blogging?” But now, first let me tell my G.I. Joe’s story, now that the stupidly-truncated named ‘Joe’s’ will be fading into liquidation history.

My first real job was at the original G.I. Joe’s on North Vancouver Avenue, a long but not killer-for-a-teen walk from my mobile home… no, trailer home on Hayden Island (Jantzen Beach) in north Portland.

I worked the summer of ’72 in the original part of the original G.I. Joe’s – a quonset hut where, some 20 years earlier, Ed Orkney began selling military surplus. By the time I worked there, it had grown into your basic clothes, housewares, etc. kind of store, and I worked in housewares, toys and bikes. (Believe me, you would not want to ride any bike I ever put together, if you valued your life.)

I remember working up in the musty dusty storage area upstairs, lugging things up or taking them down, then being all hot and sweaty and asking a customer if I could help them, imagining them saying, ‘Yes, please stand downwind.”

I remember how IMPOSSIBLE it was to get the store’s linoleum floor un-slippery after a groovy lava lamp fell and smashed open, spreading that goo all over.

I remember using my terrible handwriting (thenand now) to fill out these forms to transfer items to other stores, or request them from other stores, and dealing with getting signs made for the little holders on the racks and shelves. It’s really my only retail experience – a few years later, I’d be neck-deeper in journalism, an intern at UPI almost my entire senior year at Pacific U. in Forest Grove.

I remember some nice bosses I had, without of course rememebering their names, and I also remember the discounts on merchandise, and for me, for albums. Buying Elton John’s ‘Honky Chateau’ that summer of 1972 (I was Class of ’73 at John Adams High, a story in itself some time.)

(And I remember, on one long walk to or from work one day, a sleazy driver pulling over and saying, in a wimpy-creepy voice I’ll always remember, “Would you like to have sex?” Uh, no. Ewww. Shiver…)

Anyway, flash-forward to now, and Joe’s (losing the G.I. was so … dumb.) goes bankrupt. It hadn’t been special or different enough – I hadn’t been in Bend’s for years, ever since the dumb move to wall off entrances to stores from the Mountain View Mall (now the all-outdoors, lifestyle (but only for Californians) shopping center called … what’s it called again?

So time passed Joe’s by, as folks went to the places where cheap prices rule, or trendier climes like REI beneath the smokestacks.

How does that relate to blogging? Let me try to connect the unconnectable, dot-wise;-)

I’m not blogging as much because I’m Facebooking and Twittering more, and there’s only so many hours in the day.

Blogging is a somewhat lonely enterprise. Facebook and Twitter are far more social – you are amongst friends, among followers, listening as well as talking, laughing and not just trying to make some “important point.”

No, blogging won’t go away. (Neither will journalism, though boy is it going through some rough times). But I feel I’ve neglected this little corner of cyberspace. As I have Newsvine, which I do enjoy but get tired of the yahoo factor at.

That reminds me – our comment system at KTVZ.COM now, much like Newsvine, is built around the news, pretty much (though folks could link to anything, I suppose.) But we’re probably going to finally launch the High Desert Forum at KTVZ.COM, using the latest version of KickApps, to allow folks to talk about things OTHER than the news (well, along with the news), to finally be able to post photos of the weather, wildfires, their kids Little League – whatever they’d like to share with a broader audience, primarily local.

See? Now when I post here, I have to try to catch up by cramming 4-5 things in the same blog entry. Maybe the 140-character limit of Twitter is the ultimate personfication of ol’ Bulletin editor Bob Chandler’s favorite reminders: “Omit needless words. Prune for vigor.” Followed by my usual whine to an editor back then, shoehorning so much to say into so little space: “But I don’t have time to write it that short!”

So I’ll stop there. Hope all’s well with all of you, and come looking for me or us (KTVZ has pages/feeds too) at Facebook or Twitter. I’ll be the one trying to find the Magic Answer to monetizing either/both for the station.

Wish me luck;-)

Being an assignment editor is… challenging

And thanks to a Facebook friend, I’ve found a lady in Denver, Colorado, Misty J., who writes a wonderful, fascinating blog about what the joys and tears and challenges of what this job is like – as well about Twitter, which KTVZ now has a feed on (we also have a new Facebook page! Come check us out;-)
http://assignmenteditorminds.blogspot.com/ is it, and if you’re all curious about what we face on the phones, in the newsroom etc., I highly recommend it.
I plan to be a regular commenter there. It might even inspire more blogging by yours truly.

Sorry so long (Best of luck Barack, farewell Bill)

Wow, time flies when you’re not blogging – sorry about that;-) Elections were … well, let’s just say we learned lessons about how early to prepare for new stuff. But it did go pretty well;-)

So now, a watershed moment in American history. Let’s all hope and pray for better days ahead, and that bipartisan is still possible. We shall see.

And tonight came word of a sad passing of what folks used to call a “city father” of Bend – Councilor and former mayor Bill Friedman has passed away at age 72. I liked Bill – I don’t know if I ever saw him lose his temper, but he was a strong voice for good planning to deal with Bend’s rapid growth over the past decade. It’s easy to look back and make judgments, but I have no doubt every vote he cast was done with Bend’s best interests at heart.

He loved to be witty, and to sit back, let others weigh in and then slowly, calmly, crystallize his thoughts. I wrote on the Website tonight about a memorable moment, when he donned a Dr. Seuss ‘Cat in the Hat’ hat to read a fable of ‘The Lonely Little Log Deck,” as he argued for the controversial Southern River Crossing (now Bill Healy Memorial Bridge). A fun moment, from someone who often tried to break a testy council moment with a gentle moment of levity.

He shall be missed, by many.

Personally, I’m going to try for more blog entries. If I can’t do this at least weekly, something’s wrong. Adding WordPress to the laptop’s taskbar should help remind me.

Actually had less news for a change this weekend (yay) allowing time for things like reading, not just skimming The Bulletin (had to drop The Oregonian, who can afford $75 a month!) and last night actually watched a movie with darlin Deb (that “Journey to the Center of the Earth” remake, a fun trip;-)

Hidden treats and tricky touchy topics

First of all, I just wrote a piece that I hope to share on-air – er, on-Web video – about the parts of KTVZ.COM that just don’t get the attention they deserve, because they’re not locally produced.

Of course, folks go to the Website for local news, but have you ever just happened to click on the part marked Lifestyle, off to the right in the Navigation links? Just the Halloween page alone has recipes, safety tips, videos on how to make great kids’ costumes without sewing – the works! And there’s tons of content on every topic imaginable, from technology and money to health, family life etc. Give it a try once in a while!

Okay, then there’s the heavier topic I may/may not do a video piece on, depending on whether I want steam coming out of my ears for all to see.

We have quite the questioning group in our article-comment community – some are the typical armchair quarterbacks you might expect, but some try to put the thumbscrews to ME over why we didnt report this or that, or didn’t know this or that that the cops aren’t telling us, etc.

It gets pretty maddening. So let me make some points.

Other than victims’ names – if they aren’t hurt, we usually leave that out – I use just about EVERYTHING police tell us in news releases, in our online stories. And quite often, more, because there are inevitable ‘holes’ in releases that I try to fill, some more obvious than others (“Captain, when it says ‘vehicle’ – are we talking a car, motorcycle, SUV? And when it says ‘residence,’ do you mean apartment, duplex, mobile home?”

Stuff like that.

But quite often, police don’t include some information in a release because they don’t want to hinder their investigation by revealing too much. Most, I presume, of our online comment-posters realize that, but some get all incensed and claim we or they (or both of us!) are “covering up.” It makes me as mad as the ones who say we “slant” stories in order to make them more exciting. BS. But they have a right to their opinion.

I enjoy some decent head-scratching questions about what “REALLY happened” in this or that notorious crime. But I get heartburn when I see folks claiming to know “the real facts” and throwing them out there AS facts. How do we know Mr. or Ms. Anonymous isn’t just trying to muddy the water and mess up what police and the courts are trying to do?

It’s not as easy a cut-or-dried issue as others where it’s clear where the line is and what goes over it and needs to be deleted (remember, I can’t EDIT postings, only let them be or toss them out – the system doesn’t allow me to edit them, which is good, because then I’D assume liability. No thanks.)

There have been a few folks who’ve called for my head on a platter, claiming the postings – which I admit do get pretty wild, and insensitive at times – tarnishes the station’s reputation. Those daggers thrown at me don’t bother me too much, because I work for an organization that has totally supported our efforts to build dialogue on the news we report. They see the pluses that no doubt have the inevitable minuses, too.

No, what makes me nervous is the threat some of our anonymous postings pose to people’s reputations or ongoing criminal cases. In other words, I fear a lawyer at the door, with a tort claim or subpoena. After all, one doesn’t have to WIN a lawsuit to create an unholy nightmare for the recipient.

So that’s why I often plead, even beg, folks to THINK before they type, and think AGAIN before they hit the ‘submit comment’ button. If they value our exercise in community dialogue, and don’t want to see it vanish, they need to think of the impact of their words, intentional or otherwise. I’ve had to laugh at some postings that rip apart the claims of a crime victim or someone involved in a case, then add at the end, “My prayers to the family” or somesuch. With such comments posted like that, they’re going to NEED those prayers.

I think ulterior motives are boundless in such troubling postings. I have no doubt that I’ve failed at times to be completely equal in deciding when to delete a post for violating Terms of Service – depending on how big the avalanche of disturbing posts, how scared I am at the particular moment, etc. I’m human, and don’t always react to the same things the same way.

But I try. And I tell some folks, “You think those are bad? You didn’t see the ones I DELETED.”

Ugh. Anyway, enough venting for one night. Y’all have a great week!

More of me, less of me

I must apologize for not posting here more often, nor for doing the 2x-weekly video pieces I’d done with frightening regularity for so long.

I’ve been busy. Oy. But with good things, new things!

Please Check out the Election Links page on KTVZ.COM’s Decision 2008 site, when you have a sec. I’ll be adding more links before the ballots are mailed next Friday (and no doubt even more as the election approaches). A great way to find out what’s being said online about measures and candidates, well after the Voters’ Pamphlet is printed and the ads are done.

Also check out Prep Sports Nation, linked off our home page and High School Hits page. It’s sort of a Facebook/social network deal, for local prep sports athletes and fans. You can post videos and photos, connect with friends online, etc.

The other big chore of late has been arguing with/debating/defending our coverage of the 16-year-old now charged with murder in the samurai sword slaying of his mother’s boyfriend. Three stories, close to 250 comments, and it’s enlightening and frightening to see how many people claim to have knowledge and are laying it all out there, hang the consequences in terms of a fair trial etc.  Fascinating, in its own way.

I’ve also spent quite a bit of time yakking at Newsvine, where the debate over vraious conspiracy theories, fueled by the economic crisis, is only topped by the shrill debate over the presidential race. At least THAT will be over soon;-)

So I’ll try to get back to some regularity, at least in online posting. Oh, by the way, if you feel tempted to pass along that e-mail which made the rounds in recent weeks on the ‘We Deserve it’ Dividend, please read this first. Ah, Snopes, worth every penny we don’t pay for it. Always a good place to check before passing on what sounds good, but you’re not quite sure.

Us credit addicts – and Netiquette 101

A couple quick pointers – I wrote a vent piece at Newsvine about the Fickle Finger of Blame now pointed at us Americans for spending money we didn’t have, which until a few short weeks ago was saluted as The American Way. Please read it, and join in the discussion!

And in researching my next on-air Leave it to Barney piece, I found a fascinating piece of Internet history – a document last updated in the “ancient” year 1995 about basic Netiquette. Many of the rules still apply. Interesting!

Election season is coming

That’s meant as a joke, as it already seems to have gone along for, oh, 42 years.

A certain weekly paper here scoffed at our lack of local election coverage, including on the Web. Seeing as how the ballots don’t go out for 3-4 weeks, I feel the criticism was a bit…premature.

What we plan for Decision 2008 at KTVZ.COM is as much live streaming video as MSNBC offers up, tons of CNN and NBC video, and a page chock full of links to candidate and measure Websites, election info from counties and parties, etc., as well as a robust calendar of election-related events (forums and the like) and a billboard with lots of unedited announcements from candidates and campaigns of every stripe).

Oh, and a constantly updated stream of political headlines from AP, blogs from Politico.com – lots of fun stuff, some on the site already, much more to come.

I’d promise to post EVERY news release, but you should see how many we’re getting from the Smith and Merkley campaigns alone. I’d never get any news written!

But we’ll definitely ramp up in coming weeks, giving you a place to turn and seek out information galore. And of course, our local election features will include article comments, and those ought to get really interesting. And they’ll also be a big test of my now-stronger efforts to keep the tone civil and to bounce offensive comments that violate the Terms of Service.

Election Night, we’ll scroll the results through the night and take advantage of frequent news breaks in NBC’s presidential election coverage to tell you who’s up, who’s down and what’s what.

It oughta be a blast!;-)

‘Building a Culture of Dialogue’

I spent four very interesting hours Saturday with all three Central Oregon district attorneys, defense lawyers, public defenders, police, several of us media types – all talking off the record.

But it’s VERY ironic that I write up some of the themes of that talk after probably the most overt, posted lawsuit threat in our many months of online article comment postings.

‘Building a Culture of Dialogue’ was the topic of the gathering, arranged by the Oregon Bar Press Broadcasters Council.

Folks gave up a big part of their Saturday for a free bag lunch and a chance to not just talk, but listen to each other as we discussed a few ‘ripped from the headlines’ scenarios that have dealt with the issue of a free press and how that role can cause issues for those seeking to assure a fair trial.

The justice system has changed little over the decades, as technological and cultural shifts have changed, greatly, what a prospective juror might hear or read, and from who or where. Imagine if bloggers, for example, or anonymous article postings existed back when our justice system was created. It’s not a perfect system, but how can it evolve and cope with those issues?

That wasn’t the topic of Saturday’s session, really. But things like that did come up – imagine, for example, a DA sending an e-mail declining to confirm or deny a juicy rumor, but inadvertently – one must presume inadvertently – including some damning information below the e-mail, or in an attachment.

Can the reporter then report that information? Use it to ask questions/gather more info? Confront the DA, threaten to use it unless he/she provides some on-the-record info on an ongoing investigation?

Reporters have gone to jail for refusing to disclose their sources. Local media don’t print info from anonymous sources, unless they can get an on-the-record corrobration.

I’ve learned to live with and have a strong defense against the whole notion that the media only reports things “because it sells papers” (or TV commercials). I know we report what is considered news, and yes, we have to make a profit to survive.

But I am just as uneasy as many a defense lawyer about how days, weeks, months, sometimes even years of reports about a heinous crime can make their job incredibly difficult, even with all the “alleged” and “innocent until proven guilty” provisos that we include, for our own legal protection as much as anything else.

Finding actual justice after the “court of public opinion” has made up its collective mind is only getting harder in an age when Website can give you a person’s criminal history in an instant, and where increasingly, opinions are shared as thinly-veiled, so-called “facts.”

Small town or large, reporters and editors are often friends, of a sort, with their sources, with people who make news, and with people in the justice system. Wearing the right hat at the right time, and knowing how to do one’s job and not rupture those relationships is one of the struggles reporters and editors face all the time. I’ve said before, “I don’t mind making an official mad for the right reason” is a glib quip that tries to put a light face on it.

But of course, when a source tells us something juicy, we have to “consider the source,” literally – how do they stand to gain, if the tip is true and the info comes to light?

We will never convince some – make that many – people that we strive to get the facts right and that we really wouldn’t run over our own grandmother for a juicy story. One thing I try to do in our article-comment system is explain – sure, defend, too, but mainly explain – how we human-being reporters and photographers and our bosses do what we do, and why.

Because if news is a conversation, we all have to listen as much as we talk. It’s that easy – and that hard.

OK, I’m seriously addicted to Newsvine

For some reason, Newsvine didn’t grab me when I tried it last October, after its acquisition by MSNBC.

But now. Wow. I’m a posting, arguing, discussing, debating fool. Is it just as enlightening, yet aggravating as KTVZ.COM’s own article comments? Yep. But with a much wider circle of folks, who “seed” the site with articles from all over on every topic imaginable.

And then… you discuss. It’s that simple. They have wonderful tools to help track multiple article discussion threads. You get your own “column” page where all the comments you’ve posted, articles you’ve seeded etc. are collected.

And it’s a social network – like the comments someone made? Make them a friend, follow what they have to say around the site on other issues!

As I said, I’m hooked. Oy. It tops MSNBC’s article-comment forums, and USA Today’s, and … nah, it doesn’t top ours. But I’d love to use that way of blossoming the comments we do run!

It turns reading the news into a social experience like none other. I love it!

It’s like I read in one of my books recently – somebody took issue with the maxim that “Content is king.”

“Conversation is king,” they said. “Content is just something to talk about.”

Yeppers!;-)