The I-Time Media Observer

Should CNN’s Journalist Dr. Sanjay Gupta Help Injured Haitians?

Matea Gold writes in a January 14, 2010, report in the Los Angles Times that, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta’s "role as a journalist who sometimes practices medicine as he reports “trouble some media ethicists, who said it’s problematic for Gupta to be toggling between the roles of reporter and a doctor.” See “CNN's Sanjay Gupta treats injured baby in Haiti [Updated].”

I wonder whether these critics would want Gupta to assist them if they were severely injured at an event he was covering. Would they want him to ignore them and continue reporting? I doubt it. Would they complain if he described the treatment he was giving them? Probably not unless they were purist.

Conclusion: Gupta can talk and provide medical care at the same time, if necessary.

Technorati Tags: Dr. Sanjay Gupta,CNN Chief Medical Correspondent,Matea Gold

‘Journalism Will Continue Beyond The Existence Of Its Institutions’

David Cohn, founder of Spot.Us, a nonprofit media project of the Center for Media Change covering the California, USA, Bay Area and Los Angeles, has a post in the December 25, 2009, Sacramento Bee headlined “The Oh Decade: Fear not for information – it always finds a highway.”

Cohn, one of “various writers and public figures”  The Bee “asked to assess the big events and trends that had an impact” on California “the last 10 years,” writes:

There's no telling what the next decade will bring. But most media entrepreneurs, especially those in sunny California, believe there is a light at the end of this storm. We don't know just what it will look like, and anyone who tells you they do know is lying through his teeth.

“But I believe,” he adds, “as do many others, that journalism will continue beyond the existence of its institutions.”

Technorati Tags: David Cohn,Spot.Us,The Sacramento Bee,The Oh Decade

Manchester Evening News Using Twitter to Cover Local Meetings

“The Manchester Evening News [in the United Kingdom] and its sister titles at the MEN Media group are using social media and blogging tools to increase their coverage of local authorities,” Attiq Sadiq at journalism.co.uk reported December 23, 2009. See “Manchester Evening News ramps up local council coverage with liveblogging.”

Sadiq said, “Journalists for MEN are using Twitter to send minute-by-minute updates from full council meetings at authorities around Greater Manchester.”

Technorati Tags: Manchester Evening News,Attiq Sadiq,Journalism.co.uk

A Chicago Reporter Tells Why He No Longer Contributes to NBCChicago.com

“I am no longer contributing to NBCChicago.com and I feel obliged to tell readers why,” writes Chicago’s Steve Rhodes, proprietor of the always interesting Beachwood Reporter blog, in a December 21, 2009, post. “It's also a tale that needs to be told in any case.”

It’s a very insightful post with thoughts on the current state of journalism in Chicago and in the United States. See “The [Monday] Papers.”

Technorati Tags: NBCChicago.com,Steve Rhodes,The Beachwood Reporter,The Monday Papers

Who Owns An Email Interview?

Dec. 18, 2009, Paul Bradshaw at PoynterOnline posted this question: “In the E-mail Era, Who Owns the Interview?” How would you answer the question?

Note: This item is cross-posted at The Blogging Journalist, one of my other blogs.

Technorati Tags: Poynter Online,Paul Brawshaw,E-Mail Interviews

A Call For Opinionated Journalism

Alan D. Mutter at Reflections of a Newsosaur makes a suggestion I think newspapers in the United States should try. Writes Mutter in a December 15, 2009, post headlined “Putting bite back in newspapers:

In the interests of tossing a potentially unwelcome ingredient into the roiling stew over the future of journalism, I’d like us to consider for a moment whether a more outspoken, less diffident, more opinionated and less dreary press might be welcomed by journalists and readers alike.

Mutter, a journalist I recall from his days in Chicago at the now defunct Chicago Daily News and later the Chicago Sun-Times, adds:

While I am not arguing that journalists go back to the days when newsmen were employed as bullies and shills by self-dealing publishers, I am suggesting that it may be time for journalists to shift out of neutral in order to start calling things forthrightly the way they ought to be called.

I think “ news with an attitude” will work, although any publication that adopts opinionated journalism will have to put up with so-called purist and political partisans who will start bitching about bias unless the bias is in their favor.

Technorati Tags: Alan D. Mutter,Newsosaur,Opinionated Journalism

Something for Publishers to Ponder

Gina Chen’s December 11, 2009, post at the Nieman Journalism Lab blog headlined “E&P and the emotional commitment of a subscription” raises several pertinent questions about her attitude towards Editor & Publisher, that any publisher should ponder. The publication will cease operation at the end of 2009,

Chen’s attempt to understand why she allowed her subscription to E & P to lapse and why she did not renew it over the years despite her love for the publication contains reasons why many of us may not subscribe to publications we profess to love. Or, if we do subscribe, why we may let the subscription lapse and not renew it.  I wouldn’t do Chen’s justice by quoting her, so go on over to the Nieman Journalism Lab blog and read her post.

Technorati Tags: Gina Chen,Editor & Publisher Nieman Journalism Lab

The Fall of Network News

“Oprah Winfrey has been the Walter Cronkite of the current generation, but even bigger,” suggests Walter Rodgers in a December 10, 2009, article at The Christian Science Monitor headlined “Oprah's rise, and the fall of network news.”

Rodgers said, “Of course, Oprah doesn't pretend to be a journalist. But she's the top draw for a newsmaker looking to make a splash.”

I won’t argue with that.

Technorati Tags: Oprah Winfrey,Walter Chronkite,Walter Rodgers,Network News

Reporting and Journalism: What's the Difference?

Guardian blogger and journalism professor Roy Greenslade asks in a December 10, 2009, column: “Is there a difference between reporting and journalism?” The question was prompted by what he calls “a challenging posting” by “American media commentator George Snell…” Snell argues that “reporting is a commodity but journalism is not.”

Conclusion: “Reporting is different from journalism, and it's the latter we need to protect.”

This item is cross-posted at The Blogging Journalist.

Technorati Tags: Roy Greenslade,George Snell,Reporting and Journalism

Is Journalism Storytelling?

Blogger and journalism professor Jeff Jarvis is “not so sure journalism is storytelling anymore.” Why

“One reason: There are so many new forms of journalism emerging,” he writes in a December 7, 2009, post headlined “Is journalism storytelling?”

Frankly, I never thought of it as story telling. Probably because I thought of stories as what I read to my granddaughter. But now that I think about it, many pieces classified as journalism do follow a story format instead of just a straight report. But that’s not what he’s talking about. Read his post to see what he means.

Technorati Tags: Jeff Jarvis,BuzzMachine,Storytelling,Journalism

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