Tagged: journalism

If there was ever a man who knew how to fail fabulously, it was writer, journalist, and editor George Plimpton.  Ten years after his death, and sixty since he helped launch esteemed literary magazine The Paris Review, Plimpton is probably best known for his amateur antics among pro athletes – taking hits from light-heavyweight champ Archie Moore, playing quarterback for the Detroit Lions, and taking the mound at Yankee Stadium. His accounts of these stories, now acknowledged as the beginning of participatory journalism, effectively transformed Plimpton one of the greatest everyman writers in modern memory. 

For the new documentary Plimpton!, directors Tom Bean and Luke Polling combed through countless hours of footage to create a film posthumously narrated by its own subject.  Already out in select cities, Plimpton! opens Friday, June 21st at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, Massachusetts. 

After every errant tweet from another major news outlet, or the announcement of fresh layoffs from another print newsroom, many shake their heads and talk about the good old days, before false reports of WMD’s and internet news aggregators. We remember a time when Edward R. Murrow and other icons of objectivity were our revered national watchdogs, serving up the truth...one newspaper column or TV broadcast at a time.   But what if our idealistic view of American journalism's "golden age" is nothing but a nostalgic myth?  Todd Gitlin teaches journalism and communications at Columbia University. His recent article “The Myth of Journalism’s Golden Age” was recently featured in the Utne Reader.

To anyone who doesn’t care to Tweet (that would be a whopping 90% of Americans), the massive influence of so few characters seems unlikely. Yet, information disseminated by NPR’s Andy Carvin during the Arab uprising spread across all forms of media, reaching people in ways no one would have expected.

Breaking news! Experts say there’s a lot wrong with new media journalism. According to the Daily Beast’s Michael Moynihan, the real crime being committed by online journalists is overused, over-hyped language. He joins us to share his linguistic pet-peeves. Some critics say it's one of the most unbiased and nonpartisan exclusives Word of Mouth has ever featured.

A number of major newspapers have stopped the presses in recent years. Meanwhile, community journalism sites have sprung up from Seattle to Springfield. Media gurus declared “hyperlocalism” to be the future of journalism and a path for out-of-work reporters. A few big ticket news outfits took that bet, including AOL, which launched Patch.com in 2010. A few years on, hyper-local phenomenon takes many forms, with differing degrees of success. AOL reported losing $147 million dollars on Patch in 2011, so maybe news of town hall meetings, police blotter reports, and high school sports might not be as bankable as once thought.