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Got a link to this funny YouTube clip today from landlinetv, a funny sketch comedy channel. Basically this is what would happen if we hired old journalists today — and by old, I mean like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington-type journalists.
So if you’re curious to find out exactly how addicted you are to Twitter, check out TweetStats.
After entering your Twitter username, TweetStats will compile a bunch of cool information about how often you Twitter, who you reply to the most and more. Here’s some screenshots:
The number of tweets per month/day — which also shows your addicted-ness level or whether you just dropped off the face of the earth for 3 months.
You can find out what day(s) you Tweet the most. Saturday makes sense for me — Tuesday not so much, I have class from 10-4… hmmm. And when you post the most Tweets / how often you’re not going to bed until 3 a.m. And your tweet density which combines the days and hours you tweet into a neat looking graphic.
Finally, my fave is the tweet cloud! You can see how often you write about certain words — obviously my most used are new, blog and news. I wonder if ‘new’ though includes ‘news’?
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Better Know a Lobby – Newspaper Lobby | ||||
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An article in the American Journalism Review says more and more newspapers are offering unpaid internships, or in some cases, making colleges or students pay for the internship themselves. While the trend is not surprising given the state of the newspaper industry, I really question the long term effect such practices could have on younger journalists.
We all know that securing internships are vital to entering the profession upon graduation, but for students who don’t come from wealthier backgrounds, an unpaid internship may be … well … unaffordable. Add in the costs of paying for credits, which many news organizations now require for internships, and you have interns basically paying to have an internship.
However, I disagree with one expert’s opinion:
The best interns will follow the money, says Penny Bender Fuchs, director of career placement and professional development at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. “It’s that old line, ‘You get what you pay for,’” she says. “The most talented students are going to continue to seek the paid positions.”
Everyone is still going to seek the paid positions but with major newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune offering only unpaid internships, I think some students will begin to choose quality over money: The ability to work in a large newsroom will begin to trump the fact that interns are paid for their work.
I was in such a situation last summer when I interned at USA Today. Not only was the internship unpaid (except for a small travel stipend), I had to (meaning my parents) shell out somewhere around $1,000 for the credit required to even get the internship. While my experiences there were invaluable, my rapidly declining checking account is a testament to the effects the summer had. (The previous summer, I worked 35 hours a week at a rate of $15 per hour for comparison.) Basically, I will graduate with no money saved up while at the same time trying to find a newspaper job. I’ve already gotten over the fact that I very well may end up working a retail job after May 16 until something better comes along.
While I did apply for some internships this summer, I had to focus on paid ones because I cannot afford to pay living expenses while working for free — the only reason I was able to take the USA Today internship is because I live 10 minutes away. I can’t even really afford an internship or job at this point that doesn’t allow me to live at home because of the economy and newspaper situation.
Back to the article — What’s most disconcerting is the fact that some newspapers are asking colleges and universities to hand over the money to pay for a student’s internship.
“It would be a desperation move, I think, on the part of the university. It’s one thing to offer an unpaid internship..as painful as that can be for [students], it can still provide an opportunity for them,” he says. Asking schools to pay for internships sets “an awful precedent. I can’t think of a similarity in other industries outside of the media where this would be done.”
Tuition at Penn State increases every year and I’m sure it’s the same for many schools around the country so I don’t really see how this is a viable option to get students the experience they need. The only hope that remains, therefore, is scholarships. Hopefully through university and alumni scholarships, students, colleges and newspapers looking for interns can find some middle ground.
If you haven’t seen this video yet, you’re really missing out. The explosion of Twitter’s popularity in the past few months has amazed me as I’ve watched countless doubters and self-described “enemies of Twitter” convert in what can only be called some weird sort of religious-like cult movement.
My prognosis since I started using the social networking site remains the same: Those who use Twitter and use it to its full potential will find themselves addicted to it within a week.
My favorite excerpt from this video:
“But I don’t care what other people are doing every second of the day.”
“Neither do I, but we do want other people knowing what we’re doing, right?”
“No, no …”
Well that and the failwhale that eats up all the Twitter people.
Oh, wait. That’s right, I’m not.
But the College of Communications must think enough seniors have been hired to send out this notice for a Lockheed Martin presentation.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Made it myself.
Any other suggestions for captions?
Are newspapers full of kryptonite? It would appear so, as no Superman has come forward with a viable solution to save our failing industry. Sure, we say ‘Go online! Get involved with multimedia. Start a blog. Draw viewers that way.’ But the basic fundamentals of the newspaper business remain broken. Advertisers are not paying for newspaper ads or online ones, at least in the numbers to support the industry.
And while an industry bailout has been proposed, the strings attached are far too disconcerting to consider.
The Associated Press has made a list of newspapers throughout the country that have cut the number of publication days within the last year. It is staggering. While the foldings of major publications such as the Rocky Mountain News and cuts at Gannett and other news conglomerates have made headlines across the nation, it appears that small papers have been suffering as well — several of the papers on the AP’s list are one’s I’ve never heard of.
It makes me wonder that if smaller papers are starting to cut back production and eventually do fail, where will readers in small towns go for local news? I’m sure the internet will pick up some, if not much, of the slack, but not in the same form.
When the Rocky Mountain News closed, Denver wasn’t left without a newspaper. It was, however, left without a competing paper, which could still mean that citizens aren’t getting as much access to the news as before.
If you haven’t already seen it, watch Rocky Mountain News’ Final Edition video.
Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.
“It is now possible to contemplate a time in the near future when major towns will no longer have a newspaper and when magazines and network news operations will employ no more than a handful of reporters.” ~ Time’s Walter Isaacson
As Wall Street is seeing bailouts in the hundreds of billions, another important sector in America is being ignored: journalism. In a recent article by The Nation, John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney write extensively about the decline of newspapers and what the government could do about it.
The basis of the pair’s argument for government support of newspapers is basically that as an institution newspapers provide for the continuance of America’s democracy.
“The founders regarded the establishment of a press system, the Fourth Estate, as the first duty of the state. Jefferson and Madison devoted considerable energy to explaining the necessity of the press to a vibrant democracy. The government implemented extraordinary postal subsidies for the distribution of newspapers.”
To prevent this devastating death of newspapers, Nichols and McChesney believe that an annual tax credit for the first $200 spent on daily newspapers should be instituted.
But that’s just to start us off.
The authors argue that the $450 million spent annually by the government (lower than in most democracies) on public media should be increased to $60 billion, or $20 billion a year for the next three years.
Now, I’m not sure if government support is the way to go — after all it could be a slippery slope — but with fewer and fewer options on the table, I wonder if it should at least be discussed. With the current recession, however, I doubt Congress is going to be ready, willing or able to finance such a large operation, even if there is some economic benefit to be had from keeping journalists out of the unemployment line.
There is, as always, a larger point to this discussion. If newspapers cease to exist, what will happen to journalism? Despite online innovation on the part of newspapers, staffs are still decreasing at a rapid rate — The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reducing its paper staff of 165 to one of just 20 individuals to run its online operations. Will these smaller staff lead not only to less coverage overall, but more coverage on topics without real public impact (especially entertainment?). If even smaller staffed online ventures prove unprofitable, will corporations abandon the enterprise all together for the sake of profit?
When I think about the end of newspapers I think about the thousands of papers that were published on Election Day and on inauguration day. Around the world, people celebrated and read about the new United States president — Barack Obama. And those same people saved their newspapers. In the U.S., papers flew off the newstands, even selling out in some places.
Thirty years from now, we will go through our attic and we will find those papers, tinted yellow by the passing time. And as we leaf through the pages that are beginning to crumble, we will reminisce about the historical events.
But, I wonder, will we also be reminiscing of the days when newspapers still existed?
Just caught this in the Associated Press story I was reading to send through copy desk — more proof that Twitter is going mainstream:
Democratic lawmakers promoted a potential plan to help move so-called toxic assets off bank ledgers. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said discussions were under way, but would not be rushed. “If they wait a week or two more, no one ought to get all in a twitter about that. It’s very important to do it right,” he said.
Now, Mr. Frank doesn’t actually use Twitter himself, but its still good to see that a Congressman knows abiut the social networking site. Maybe he will join TweetCongress.org someday.
