Long-Form As Bad Form

When ‘Long-Form’ Is Bad Form - NYTimes.com: " ... What, then, is the function — the purpose — of “long-form”? To allow a writer to delve into the true complexities of a story, and also to bring readers closer to the experience of other people. Whether a long-form story is published in a magazine or on the web, its goal should be to understand and illuminate its subject, and maybe even use that subject to (subtly) explore some larger, more universal truths. Above all, that requires empathy, the real hallmark of great immersive journalism. In the end, it doesn’t matter if one is writing about a huckster or a fraud. The best work still enables readers to experience their subjects as human beings, not as mere objects of curiosity."

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Ezra Klein, Vox Media, Web Journalism, Old Media

“Digital journalism is as different from print and TV journalism as print and TV are from each other,” Mr. Blodget said by telephone from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Few people expect great print news organizations to also win in TV. Similarly, few should expect great TV or print organizations to win in digital. The news-gathering, storytelling and distribution approaches are just very different.”

Ezra Klein Is Joining Vox Media as Web Journalism Asserts Itself - NYTimes.com: "... Mr. Klein is not running away from something, he is going toward something else. Vox is a digitally native business, a technology company that produces media, as opposed to a media company that uses technology. Everything at Vox, from the way it covers subjects, the journalists it hires and the content management systems on which it produces news, is optimized for the current age. “We are just at the beginning of how journalism should be done on the web,” Mr. Klein said. “We really wanted to build something from the ground up that helps people understand the news better. We are not just trying to scale Wonkblog, we want to improve the technology of news, and Vox has a vision of how to solve some of that.”..."

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Beat-Sweetener Journalism

No Statistics, No Mischief | The Weekly Standard: "Chairman Yellen, unlike Cowperthwaite, is a determined advocate of the redistribution of wealth and other governmental manipulations that are guaranteed to make us happier, healthier, and more wonderful generally. I know this from the many beat-sweeteners that have already been published by the reporters who will be covering her. (A beat-sweetener, in the technical jargon of journalism, is a glowing article written with the purpose of winning favor from a potential source.) In National Journal, for example, a writer named Michael Hirsh wrestled with the question of whether Yellen is a genius or a saint—I’m paraphrasing—and was forced to admit she is probably both. "

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Gary Webb, RIP, LA Times, Doyle McManus, CIA

Here's the fascinating & ugly story of how LATimes, led by @DoyleMcManus, destroyed Gary Webb for reporting on CIA http://t.co/61q2RXUwdy

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 15, 2014

Gary Webb, RIP | Dissonance | Los Angeles | Los Angeles News and Events | LA Weekly: "The core of his work, however, still stands. When much of the rest of the media went to sleep, Gary Webb dug and scratched and courageously took on the most powerful and arrogant and unaccountable agencies of the U.S. government. His tenacious reporting forced those same agencies to investigate themselves and to admit publicly — albeit in watered-down terms — what he had alleged."

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News User's Manual

Book Discussion News Users Manual | Video | C-SPAN.org: "Alain de Botton talked about his book, The News: A User’s Manual, in which he looks at the way the news media shapes the way we think about politics, tragedy, crime, and celebrity. He argued that we are bombarded with so much news and information today that people can’t really focus on any of it. He spoke at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Rose Cinemas. The event was co-hosted by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Greenlight Bookstore. "

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