While reading the intro to the new SciAm blog network (launched today), this caught my eye: We are trying to eliminate the artificial line between “blogging” and “journalism” and focus on good, accurate writing, no matter what form it comes in or what software is used to produce it. Our bloggers are a part of…Continue Reading…
One reader, in response to my post on the PBS discussion of Al Gore’s Rolling Stone essay, asks me if I have any comment on Gore’s primary critique; namely that the MSM is failing the public on this issue? I thought media bashing and climate change was your bete noire”¦. I do have some thoughts, but…Continue Reading…
Oh, the irony. Yesterday, Rolling Stone magazine posted Al Gore’s 7,000 word essay, which is critical of the media’s (and President Obama’s) handling of climate change. That same day, the highly respected PBS news show hosted a discussion of Gore’s essay. Instead of inviting non-partisan environmental scholars or political scientists to analyze the essay’s premises,…Continue Reading…
A lament from Time magazine’s Bryan Walsh: Work in environmental journalism for very long and you can eventually become inured to catastrophe. Every ecosystem is on the brink of collapse; every endangered species is just a few steps from extinction; every government decision to authorize an oil well or a coal mine is the one…Continue Reading…
If there is one deeply held sentiment in the climate debate that is shared by bloggers and commentators of all stripes, it is this: journalists suck. It’s a constant refrain at places like Climate Progress and WUWT. But really the sentiment is widespread in the climate blogosphere, so much so that an alien visiting from…Continue Reading…
He’s a talented provocateur who sometimes smokes his own exhaust. That artful putdown of Jeff Jarvis is sure to be sniffed out by journalism’s eminent aggregator. In his response, Jarvis seems reflexively defensive, but I agree with him here: I dare to question the assumptions about the forms of news and journalism…I believe it is…Continue Reading…
Last week, NBC weatherman Al Roker caught a lot of flak (deservedly so) for suggesting that climate change was now causing tornadoes to strike urban areas. Not all hope is lost for broadcast news, though. Last night, this segment on the PBS News Hour (the one place where talking heads can be relied on for…Continue Reading…
Despite his site’s antiquated layout, Matt Drudge has “stable traffic of about 12 million to 14 million unique visitors every month no matter what kind of news is breaking,” writes David Carr in today’s NYT. How does he do it? Carr marvels: With no video, no search optimization, no slide shows, and a design that is…Continue Reading…
UPDATE: I just noticed this talk is a year old. Still, it’s pretty fascinating. Anyone interested in how the journalistic sausage gets made in the UK, about the cozy relationship between British reporters and politicians, about how climate change gets covered in the media, should watch this revealing talk by Sarah Mukherjee, who until recently was…Continue Reading…
Say one thing about Joe Romm, he understands the value of getting ahead of a story to try and influence the media narrative. He’s kinda like Mike Tyson in his prime, who would launch from his corner stool like a ball of fury as soon as the opening bell was rung and pummel his opponent…Continue Reading…