Category: Journalism/media 2.0

Riding the tide of the daily news (and helping others float their boat)

I often tell people I ride the tide of the daily news.

And that means I often have less than full control over where the day takes me — because you can never know exactly what’s going to come into the e-mail box, pop up on the police scanner or just… happen. (Like an ER doctor, but thankfully with a lot less blood and … stuff;-)

Some days that look to be busy as heck fizzle. Some quiet days blow up fast.

Ever since second grade and the mimeoed (remember mimeograph machines? How about ditto machines?) Room 210 Tooter, I’ve loved telling folks what’s going on.

Part and parcel of how we hear about stuff is the lowly (hey, they get little respect but are vital) news release (which of course is usually e-mailed but — we still get the occasional fax. Fax machines – long gone, so they are turned into Adobe PDFs auto-magically;-)

Ask just about any Central Oregon police officer or fire official, and odds are after we get such a release, I’ll be one of, if not the first calling or e-mailing to fill in holes, ask a follow-up question or find out something more specific than say, “vehicle.” (Bleh.)

My list of Press Release Pet Peeves has been so longstanding, there’s probably a version buried in the (ahem) bowels of this very blog.

Things like — don’t say what year something is going to happen, even near the end or beginning of the year — that’s so obvious in the vast majority of cases. But please DO put in what day of the WEEK it will be – that helps folks know whether they can attend your event or not. Don’t make them look it up on a calendar.

Titles are only capitalized immediately BEFORE a name, not after. Stuff like that. (Give up the two spaces between sentences — or heaven forbid, double-spacing the lines — those kinds of things died with the typewriter and grizzled newspaper copy editors with red pencils. And know your its and it’ses. And try not to let your organization develop it’s own quirky style, like capping the “City” of Bend (it’s not the only city!) or having to cap “County” every time in a release. Why? And ease back on the Acronyming of America (A of A). (Oh, and “Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley?” There are 2 senators from Oregon. Or is that a dig at your fellow Democrat?;-)

Oh, and PR folks: I know you want to make personal relationships happen, but if you send something only to one person in a 20-person newsroom, it WILL be the day they are off – or worse yet are the ancient un-updated media lists that send to people and places long gone — in some cases, dearly departed, even. That’s really worth the time and investment. Better to use the generic e-mail address, like stories@ktvz.com for our newsroom. Several people check that and will route it properly.

I’ve thought many times about a sideline business of helping folks get the basic style and grammar hurdles out of their releases, so folks can focus on the content.

But when you ride the tide of the daily news, it’s pretty much all-consuming, just to stay in the boat, not have it flip and keep it pointed downstream, ready for whatever rapids, swirls and eddies lie ahead.

And don’t forget that life jacket!

Right and wrong and speed, 1981-2011

Man, deja vu and not in a good way.

AP quoted NPR and CNN (if I remember correctly) in reporting an Arizona congresswoman’s death after a mass shooting.

She did not.

No doubt, there will be mass dissection of how the mega-error happened, but what will be just as sadly interesting is how, 30 years after the Reagan assassination try and AP’s in-error report of James Brady’s death (I worked for UPI, which got it right), such a rare, major human breaking-news error is still possible — but that the world of the Internet spreads the error far and wide in milliseconds.

Drat. Humans will make mistakes, and communication errors will exist as long as there are humans.

But the much greater speed of today’s communication networks means even more care and caution must be used before unsubstantiated info is spread around the globe.

Whatever the specifics may be, this will be another excuse to blame the media as sloppy and reckless. When really, all we are is … human.

Mistakes are big or small. This one is very big, and very sad, and … never 100 percent preventable. But boy do we have to keep trying.

Belated welcome, hearty thanks

(I’m training myself to do Headlines With Words Capped on the Website, but dang it, this is MY blog and I know current style is downstyle headlines;-)

It was a long week, but a fulfilling one, getting the new KTVZ.COM up and running. It was touch-and-go for a bit, due to late problems we’re still addressing, one that delayed getting the new video system (Syndicaster) working. But it works great now – bells and whistles, just like the site itself – and the video looks far better than under the old system/site.

We’re still working out some kinks with things like the weather page, e-mails and the like. Unlike what our poll results show, most e-mails and comments have been positive about the cleaner, faster-loading site, and for that I and my colleagues are very grateful.

It was especially nice to easily be able to compile a slide show of user-submitted Pole Pedal Paddle photos, nice and big, to share with everybody. It’ll be great when the next surprise snowstorm;-), fire or other big local event happens. (I’d already posted a couple slide shows on a ‘burn to learn’ exercise and the National Guard troops’ homecoming.)

But who knew that after a night with too little sleep, the first day of the new site would end with a fiery gas tanker truck crash east of Bend? And then, on Friday, a Facebook post inquiring about sirens in Redmond led to something we hadn’t heard about – a fatal plane crash near the end of a Redmond Airport runway.

These things might not even make the cut on a big-city newscast, but it was big news here, and I got to, for example, learn how to send a breaking-news e-mail in the new system, on the fly, with a kind lady at the Internet Broadcasting (IB) help desk helping me through it.

Got a bit nervous when we dropped from Google News’ radar screen for a day or so, but looks like we’re getting better.

I wrote a long, typically Barney-rambling welcome over on the site, so won’t repeat myself here, other than to offer a hearty thanks to the folks at IB, and at the station, for allowing me to focus on all the little nitpick things I keep bringing up to make a great new site even better.

Back to making the Week 2 list of needs and wants for just that purpose. Have a good week, everybody.

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;-)

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!;-)

Godspeed, Big Easy

I moved to New Orleans when I was 9, lived there for close to a year – the year of Hurricane Betsy, in 1965.

Wild times. We spent a wind-howling night in a second-floor apartment, then returned to our mobile home, which had floated during the storm, apparently, and came down almost on its blocks. My stepmother was scared to open the door – bone dry, only the air conditioner underneath was ruined.

I remember no power, Sterno for cooking, vienna sausages to eat. Ugh. (That was also the year my stepmother had to go to a notary public to swear out an affidavit that I and my two older brothers – having just moved from Philadelphia – were white. Segregation time and all that.

Anyway, I only lived there for one Mardi Gras, remember looking through the windows at the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on Bourbon Street, and… well, I sure hope things go well in the next 12 to 24 hours.

You might remember I’ve been pining for WorldNow to add forum/photo album features to our Website. Well, Hurricane Gustav has prompted creation of a nationwide message board, available to all their stations, and while it isn’t the busiest place in the world, I’ve weighed in, and I do like the look, and hope we can create my dreamed-of High Desert Forum some time, using that software.

Like babysitting the article comments isn’t fun enough, at times;-) But it WAS the top-viewed item at KTVZ.COM in August, topping any individual news story. Some people are offended by what some posters say, but … it is a thriving community and I’m fascinated by it. Many nice folks there, too. Please join in!

Reality can be ugly

A lady named ‘Michelle’ just posted to an article on KTVZ.COM: “It is really disgusting that the family of the person in this vehicle is forced to look at this. I wish the media had an ounce of courtesy, you can give the news with out these type of pictures!!”

Ah, Michelle, life – and death – can be really ‘digusting’ at times. But maybe, just MAYBE, a large photo of a violent crash will make someone stop and think before they put pedal to the metal and try to pass someone on a busy two-lane highway.

We’ll never know. But we can hope.

Video, vexing and victorious: Olympics, CNN

Weren’t those Olympic opening ceremonies amazing? I sure thought so – YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary). Got to watch on my sister-in-law Diane’s new flat/wide-screen TV and … that surely helped make them truly awesome, to use a much-overused term of the day.

And there’s a comfortable familiarity to the way our network, NBC, covers the games – the great John Williams music, Bob Costas at ease talking to President Bush or Bela Karolyi, etc.

Before I dive into the unfortunate part of this message, let me point to a nice new addition to our Website – CNN videos, a frequently updated selection available right below the video player, in what’s known as a ‘widget’ – something added to our and our sister stations’ Websites. Click one, and the screen darkens a bit and the pop-up viewer plays the piece in wide-screen format (something we intend to move to for our own online videos in coming months, by the way).

The best thing about the CNN video addition – at least, to my work-addled eyes – is that much like our wide variety of AP news, it’s automated, which means it’s fresh and up to date, 24 hours a day, days and nights and weekends. If we can get the same thing at some point from MSNBC, then the only manual posting I’ll need to do will be our local video content. Yay!

But, alas, things aren’t going quite so swimmingly for Central Oregonians wanting to watch live streaming video or other “enhanced” video coverage of the Beijing Olympics.

I’m going to try to word this carefully here, because I know just enough to be dangerous, but basically it boils down to the fact that NBC wants to partner (read: contract) with local “TV providers,” on providing not just all that extra online video – 2,000 hours worth at the Olympics – but also on-air via the cable systems, with Video on Demand, special Olympics channels, etc. And they want to extend those contracts through the 2012 Olympics.

But there’s this big umbrella cable-operators organization that wants to instead negotiate a deal for everyone. So while NBC-Universal has been trying to work out deals with individual cable operators, some want to wait for the big package, national agreement. And those, alas, at this time include our very own BendBroadband.

I learned that the eve of the Olympics, as I wrote my Friday piece, fired up the fancy Microsoft Silverlight-powered NBC Olympics player, and hit… a message, asking for my ZIP code and which “TV provider” I have. I said BendBroadband, and it said, “We’re sorry,” and explained basically what I just explained above.

I got, um, a bit upset. Fired off some notes, both to NBC folks I know and on Websites like Lost Remote, asking what the heck was going on? I heard today – on a Sunday! – from an NBC-Universal VP who explained what I’ve said and agreed it wouldn’t hurt for folks to make their cable provider aware of their… dissatisfaction with paying for that great speedy cable-modem service, and then being unable to view one of the most unprecedented offerings of Web content ever seen, because of a contract squabble.

He said they are continuing to negotiate, and hope to get the issue resolved beore the Olympics ends.

I sure hope so. In the meantime, I’m not sure that fibbing about your “TV provider” works – I have gingerly tried, and given up. There’s still lots of NBCOlympics.com material to enjoy, including some video, if a bit… delayed. But the four-screen window of live events, etc. has to wait for the negotiators to negotiate.

(By the way, we’re not alone in this mess – I was told today the uncovered areas include about 3 MILLION customers, and MediaWeek has reported on Cablevision folks in the Northeast stuck in the same boat we are.)

Just wanted you to know it’s not KTVZ’s doing or fault, any more than the 15-hour delay to prime time of certain marquee sports coverage (and the Opening/Closing Ceremonies, etc.) I can understand NBC driving folks to the TV, even in these Net-enabled times, because… hey, they spent quite a bundle on the TV rights, and then charged quite a bundle for the commercials, so… like I always say, “Information wants to be free, but I want a raise.”

But to promote these 2,000 hours of online streaming video, and then throw a caveat/asterisk/roadblock in like this is, well, more than a bit bothersome.

I won’t put BendBroadband’s link/phone number here, but chances are, you know them already. Maybe you can help convince their powers that be that we want and deserve that live streaming video, and we do promise to watch the TV too. I believe the two are complementary, not robbing each other of viewers.

UPDATE: I should have known, my pal Jake over at UtterlyBoring wrote about the Olympics video issue back on Thursday and suggested the work-around of using another ZIP code and provider to see the stuff. Why we should have to fib to see the added video, sigh…

Community comes together in grief, online

I do think we’re developing something of a community at KTVZ.COM with the article comments.

When the news is slow, most of the “regulars” just snipe at each other, give me grief over typos, others come to my defense, etc., etc.

But in a time of tragedy, like this week’s drowning of a popular, dare I say beloved ER doctor, and … wow.

An outpouring of human emotions – support, prayers, remembrances and salutes – and while I do appreciate the page views (heh), I moreso appreciate how this has become a place to share when there’s really no other public way to do so. And I appreciate every single one of the folks taking the time to make those posts.

I’ll probably do my Friday on-air piece about this wonderful phenomenon, which almost wipes out the icky taste of those who like to hijack discussions, dump on each other, make outlandish accusations, etc.

THIS is why I pushed so hard for comments, despite the risks – not to babysit or referee, but to just sit back and watch a community sharing its views and feelings – be they grief, joy, frustration, what have you.

Thanks to all. It’s a great feeling, and I so appreciate the wonderful use of our little corner of cyberspace.

The BarneyBlog and High Desert Forum Network

As I mentioned on-air and probably here, I’ve done a few blogs/Websites over the years – heck, I built, in Microsoft Publisher (with an art assist from Greg Cross), The Bulletin’s first Website, back in the ’90s – go ahead, check out the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine if you care!

So it could be considered part of the Barney Blog/Website and High Desert Forum Network!

Oy. Let me explain.

I’ve started a few blogs in the past, and they mostly still exist. Plus, I’m anxious to add a non-article-specific forum to KTVZ.COM – probably nuts, considering how the comments alone get scarily abusive and potentially litigious at times – but I have this intense, perhaps insane desire to get communications going among Central Oregonians. Hopefully sane, thoughtful Central Oregonians (and visitors who care about our issues) who wish to discuss issues, not spend their lives either glued to the TV or firing off flames back and forth in an article comment thread.

Yeah, nuts. I should be committed;-)

Anyway, let’s take a trip through history:

The Computing FOOL: Circa late ’90s – Ah yes, Microsoft Publisher – for the time, it was sure fun. And creating Websites back when you had to know FTP, etc. I haven’t figured out how to get in there and change it – and I don’t want to, it’s a fun little time-capsule of pre-Y2K nervousness and – well, I’ve moved since that messy desk picture was taken, but it’s replicated in my current abode. (This thing was playing music until past year or so, that file musta gotten lost or something.

Please Release Me!: Then I found a super neat Website creation site – not a blog creation, but full-blown Website – called Squarespace. I still pay $5 a mo. for the thing, for two reasons: 1) It’s about the easiest way I’d seen to then, and really still, to create full Websites, not just linear blogs – and 2) It’s home to my Grand Idea for a book/consultancy/speaking tour/$$$-generating movement – to help people in government, public business anybody realize that they don’t have to play the old PR game and beg for time/space from Old Media – they can communicate with and build relationships directly with their customers/voters/etc. Barack Obama knows it, and so do a lot of smart folks. But everyday folks who have lives to lead need a helping hand and kick in the tush, hence… the idea for Please Release Me.

If I could clone myself, that’d be one of my top clones’ missions – and just might get enough attention and money to let the Real Me retire;-) (Or at least hire some great help and stop working so hard;-)

Barney’s BendBlog: Circa 2001-02 or so – This was before Blogger got bought by Google, and as with everything else I’ve done like this, it’s suffered from neglect as I pursue by workday passion, KTVZ.COM. But suffice it to say I can talk more…freely there than in a blog like this that I’m using within the station’s Website. Depressingly, I found that Blogger does allow World Now’s new Video Player Widget to embed its code into the site – and that WordPress, from what I can see, doesn’t (oh, I’m sure if I run it through some third-party program, no thank you very much;-)

I also had the truly frustrating – and it’ll sound familiar to you – experience of getting stuck without the password for the Blogger site, and getting stuck in some sorta vortex trying to get it sent to me and straightened out. (Honestly, I think the world could blow up some day because the person in charge of The Button hits it out of frustration because they can’t remember the damn password!)

So I invite you to visit any/all of these semi-moribund Websites/blogs, leave a comment or 3, and suggest which if any deserve further attention from Yours Truly. (I especially like the Squarespace one, believing there’s a true calling for PR 2.0 (I believe that’s been used) or whatever the “Truly Public Relations/New PR” mantra could bring.)

Now, as for the forums. As I said, I’ve been trying out various pieces of software – oh, and before I forget, the article comments’ tiny typeface WILL get larger in a week or two, yay! – but there’s no real way to try these without trying them on the public.

WorldNow also has announced a partnership with KickApps, a social software creator, but we’re not sure how much will come of that. Still, I’ve used forum software it’s powered, Yuku, to create the High Desert Forum. I like the look, but again, how can you tell if something will be useful until you have it? So please, try to sign up, make posts, etc.

And if you wish, compare it to some earlier tries, such as this one created in Forumotion, or this one, powered by ActiveBoard, or this one, through ExcoBoard, or this one, through ZetaBoards.

Yep, as Chicago once sang, “I’ve been searchin’ so long… to find an answer.”

And who knows what other free/easy/good-looking forum software is out there I haven’t tried? (Maybe you? Please let me know!)

I believe in the Internet’s ability to have us talk to each other, and communicate in ways we never could. The comments on articles – now I don’t know how many, but surely close to 10,000 in 4-5 months – have been infuriating, frightening, depressing – and entertaining, enlightening and hope-inspiring of a true community dialogue.

So please, kick the tires of my “network” – if they break, well, no $ lost, just a bit of time – let me/us know which you like and why, and if you think I’m nuts or if it’s a grand idea.

Sure, there’s the Social Networking software of Facebook and MySpace and many others offering similar platforms. We may well use one or some of those tools as well. But I believe the good old fashioned, somewhat ’90s-style forum software is a great foundation as well – and these too are branching into blogs, embedded video, etc.

 So, do you agree? Is there a place, with controls over those who would hijack discussions and create flame wars, to really talk about the issues – in, dare I say, respectful fashion that involves listening and an open mind, not just venting to flap one’s digital gums?

I’d like to think so.;-)