This is going to be a doosy! (AKA final blog project) April 30, 2008
Posted by Cuffe in : Feedback Journalism , add a commentAs a huge fan of NPR and public radio, I chose to follow the NPR ombudsman (or ombudswoman in this case) blog, by Alicia C. Shepard. She assumed the role of Ombudsman for NPR in October 2007, and only started writing the Ombudsman Blog in February of this year.
Having seen from the inside how many public radio programs integrate listener feedback, I can say that Shepard seems to be inline with what I’ve seen elsewhere. Most public radio stations and programs utilize all forms of feedback from their listeners, but most of their interactions with listeners come from emails and calls. Most of the posts Shepard writes seem to focus on either topics brought up by multiple letters, or by various criticisms in the mainstream media. In a recent post, Shepard addressed a recent New York Times article that called into question NPR’s (and other news network’s) use of former military people as sources of insight for current military stories. Shepard posted:
“After reading The Times story, however, about 40 NPR listeners either called or emailed to say they found it difficult to see Scales as anything but a lapdog for the Pentagon. Some said Scales should never appear on air again. Another suggested that all Scales interviews should be deleted from NPR’s archives. “As Ombudsman, you should demand that Scales be fired,” wrote Vincent Valdmanis.”
In another post, Shepard mentioned the volume of emails she gets in a given week.
“To date, the office of the Ombudsman has received 165 emails criticizing Shapiro since March 4. In a normal week, the Ombudsman’s office receives about 350 emails, so 165 is eye-popping. Only there was a reason for the outpouring in this case.”
So interaction with listeners is ever-present, just not extremely blog centric yet.
Over the course of the semester, I’ve only noticed one consistent commentor, a Mr. andrew hennessy (his choice of capital letters, or lack there of, not mine.) His comments are often one of the first on almost any post, and always very negative. He seems to fancy himself as a lone conservative voice on NPR, and his comments always come across with that sort of “I’m smarter than you are, so stop being silly and listen to me” tone. Here are a few of the comments he’s left over the last few months:
From “INVITE MORE CONSERVATIVES TO NPR?”
I think you overlook many of the listener’s points. (We only see a few examples; why not post all the comments)?
You do not define conservative. The conversation is obscured with the assumed term. That makes informed discussion difficult. Apparently, conservative is synonymous with the current administration? Many would disagree. The current administration invades a country, yet NPR calls the people that fight them radicals.
I do not want to hear bias presented as news. Why do we get enhanced interrogation? Who came up with that term? NPR applies free market and free trade to regulated gamed systems; why is that?
I believe you aspire to not shut out opposing ideas. Still, from the ombudswoman, we keep getting these feel-good posts about the fine job NPR does; (is that objective)? You imply that there is something extraordinary about hearing conservatives on NPR; that is not true. Further, NPR consistently limits discussion/reporting to the outlooks’ and perspectives’ of establishment Republicans and Democrats. You imagine staying parallel to corporate news is objectivity?
I agree, know your enemy.
Sent by andrew hennessy | 8:47 PM ET | 03-06-2008
This comment was in response to Shepard asking if there is enough of a conservative presence on NPR. In his comment, Mr. hennessy goes into some nit picking, and tries to bring up other criticisms of NPR in the process, but it just comes off as a little rambley.
From A REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK (I know I linked to it above, but here it is again) about Ari Shapiro’s piece where he talked about behind the scenes reporting stuff in Iraq.
I remember the Ari Shapiro interview of Mukasey. Mukasey said victims of water boarding “self selected” themselves for it. Shapiro did not follow up on the circular logic: 1. what happens if someone resists water boarding i.e., do we do something more extreme at that point 2. what does resistance to establish techniques have to do with the legality of water boarding? What about putting the full Mukasey Shapiro interview on a NPR website (instead of sound bites and paraphrases)? That would be nice for all NPR interviews.
What was Shapiro’s response to FAIR? Can we see the entire thing on an NPR page? It seems like FAIR should have posted Shapiro’s response, but I am also only getting NPR’s side of the Shapiro response.
What about FAIR’s main assertion: NPR’s reporter’s lack critical gusto? If nothing else, FAIR offers a specific example? Can you address their main point instead of the tangent?
Please define “left-of-center orientation” (the label you put on FAIR), or can someone tell me the parameters of “center” (without making vague assertions)? How is center measured?
Sent by andrew hennessy | 6:10 PM ET | 03-20-2008
And again, Mr. hennessy seems to nit pick a little, and get off topic. In the article, Shepard was answering listener emails and calls about the TONE of Ari Shapiro’s piece, where he came across as dismissive about some of the questions asked by some new Iraqi journalists. This was an article defending Shapiro, and answering the criticisms aimed at him by the group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR.) They had nothing to do with the controversial topic of “water-boarding” nor do they feature Shapiro’s interview of Mukasey. Mr. hennessy just felt that, per-usual, the definitions of political leanings (left and right) should be spelled out, every time, for every story, and that NPR is not being open enough.
From SHOULD NPR LINK TO VIOLENT ANTI-MUSLIM VIDEO?
You should link when you can link. In the U.S. we do have a “right to insult people.” It is called the First Amendment. Why not focus on greeter disclosure at NPR; why not post the complete NPR interviews we hear sound bites from?
You suggest gatekeeping is gone. That is far fetched. Public utilization of technology has allowed greater circumvention of gatekeepers, but some voices (CBS, CNN, NPR, etc) have a lot more volume, and they blast us (mostly with advertisement and indoctrination). W. Lippmann talked about manufacturing consent. Remember that media blitz into war?
You talk about “strong anti-Muslim sentiment and fear of Islam across Europe.” Didn’t Congressman Tancredo talk about bombing mecca? We hear “Islamo-Fascism,” but a big part of fascism is government and corporations working together. Why doesn’t the media and NPR ferret that out better?
You have mentioned that NPR aspires to be mainstream, so why do you say “the so-called mainstream media”? I am confused.
Sent by andrew hennessy | 7:06 PM ET | 04-15-2008
From HATING THE MEDIA WHEN YOU SHOULDN’T
Life is not fair. It is very precious.
The “winners” write history. Corrections, if at all, are on the back pages of our papers.
When there is domestic trauma, the press goes into post disaster blitz, and we get inundated with the same story over and over. Your report has to look for someone that is crying; that is objective?
How many people were killed in Iraq the week of Virginia Tech? How many people died violently in Iraq, the Congo, or in U.S. streets this week? How many South East Asians were killed during the Vietnam War? The media ignores some people’s plight.
I am sorry for the people of Virginia Tech; it was a tragedy.
Why don’t the listeners on NPR elect the ombudsman?
Sent by andrew hennessy | 7:10 PM ET | 04-21-2008
With both of these posts, I feel Mr. hennessy is really just harping on about the same criticisms. He says NPR isn’t open enough with its listeners. He says press is not covering the things it should and that NPR is doing a terrible job covering the things it does. To be honest, I feel that all his criticisms are weak at best, and are really just confusing as to why someone who seems so unhappy with NPR’s coverage would be such a frequent poster.
While there are many comments left by others who further the conversation, all that Mr. hennessy seems to bring to the table is the fact that people are more likely to post once someone else has posted. Like many other conservative critics of NPR, I can’t help but dismiss these comments as worthless, because they don’t really add to the conversation.
Shepard is really only using feedback from her blog in one way, and that is just showing them to readers at the end of the post. From all the posts I’ve read from her, she hasn’t been using the comments to bring up other topics, or to gain better insight into what the listeners are thinking. But she does make constant references to emails and calls from listeners. I think this is because using callers and emails/letters has been the way that public radio stations and programs interact with their listeners for a long time. And in many ways, public radio has an audience that is already as interactive as other online places hope to be. And I think Shepard is placing a higher value on these forms of interaction than on the blog comments.
And to a certain extent, I agree with her. I think that for the most part, the comments to be found on the blogs are hampered by the need to adhere to the previous topics in order to sound sane, and are restricted by the small amount of space available. People who post off topic always come across as being driven by an agenda, and with a space restriction, often times the emotional response from a listener has to be held back, if not completely removed.
But on the other hand, maybe there has not been enough attention paid to these commentors. Since there are so few reoccurring names coming up in the comments sections, perhaps they really are an untapped resource for engaging listener concerns.
But until these comments outnumber the emails and phone calls, they’ll always be second best.
Forums are a scary place… April 23, 2008
Posted by Cuffe in : Uncategorized , add a commentSo I decided to post on two different forums, the masslive wine and dine forum and a comic book forum, Z-Cult FM. And to be honest I didn’t really get a great response.
I posted onto the masslive wine and dine forums, and asked “where should I go for my graduation dinner?” (but with a little more background info) and I got some well reasoned, and honest responses. People mentioned a couple of interesting sounding places to eat, and a few that I’ve never heard of! And I think this is where forums come into their element.
When forums are used to solicit opinions, and not filled with self righteous hatred, then they tend to really be informative. I’m probably going to go to one of their suggestions! But if you look at many of the posts on someplace like UGHH.com you start to see some really vicious and hurtful posting. I know that both when I was younger and starting to post on forums, and when I was thinking about what forums to post onto, I didn’t feel welcome on UGHH. Nor did I really want to.
As for my post on Z-Cult FM, I got one response. It was about a question about the Metal Gear Solid trade paperbacks, and really I got the most measured and safe response I’ve ever seen on a forum (probably because it was from a site moderator!)
the comics are just the stories of the first two games that they made for the playstation. And they are nice to have in your collection.
Not really too valuable, but a nice sort of “it’s okay if you like that sort of thing” type of comment.
I’m Getting a New Toy! April 21, 2008
Posted by Cuffe in : Uncategorized , add a commentInspired by the frequent use of the new Journalism tools in my Multi-Media classes, and by my 6 year old Minidisk recorder finally kicking the bucket, I’ve decided to make an investment in my profession.
But not this one. 
Instead, I’ve decided to go with a smaller version of what every public radio station I’ve interned at is using. So without much further ado, I give you, The Marantz PMD620!
It’s costing me nearly 400 clams so I hope it’s worth it! From all the reviews I’ve read on it (check out the Transom.org ones I linked to, their the best!) this one seems to be the best balance of value and quality.
The only other contester is the (above) Sony PCM-D50, which costs at least another $100, and is so wind-sensitive that you need to shell out another 50 Washingtons for it’s russian bomber hat if you plan on using it in the field.
I’ll keep you posted when I actually get my hands on mine though!
Images courtesy of: Sony PCM-D50, from the official Sony Web site. Marantz PMD620, from the Transom.org review page.
Surprise, Surprise… April 16, 2008
Posted by Cuffe in : Feedback Journalism , 6comments
So we had to look at the most commented article on washingtonpost.com, and this time it was about Obama’s recent gaff, saying people were “bitter” and were clinging to their guns and religion because they didn’t have anything else that was theirs.
The comments here were the same sort of thing you see on any political blog. The sort of “everyone is stupid” and “you are dumb because you support _____” comments that don’t further the conversation at all. Although what was interesting was the several HUGE immense comments that were trying to be articles in and of themselves, that as a reader, didn’t inspire me to read past the first two sentences.
Also surprising, the washingtonpost.com homepage didn’t link to the article at all. I used to seeing that little box on the edge of articles that give you the small rundown of most emailed and most read, but over at the WP there was none of that. Almost like the post had just decided that this conversation didn’t need more attention, and that everyone had better just take it outside to settle their differences.
That and there weren’t any immediate “Vote Ron Paul!” posts. Who woulda figured?
Not Exactly What I Had Hoped… April 16, 2008
Posted by Cuffe in : Feedback Journalism, Uncategorized , add a commentAlright, so I tried to stoke the flames of the news-haters. I tried to leave an open ended question that everyone could chime in on… but my efforts were fruitless. (Just like this tree…)
I think that, yes, I could have probably done a better job, and yes, I probably could have been a little bit more incensed, but I was a little scared too. As I mentioned in class, I’m going to be looking for a job soon, and I had hoped to include this blog on my resume. But I don’t think it’s entirely my fault. I think that loads of blogs (and school ones especially!) fly so low under the radar, that even when applying all the tricks I know about google, I couldn’t find my own blog! I think were I to go all out with this assignment, I would’ve used, Blogger and posted it on redit and digg, and even facebook. AND Then I’d have been an insensitive jerk to cap it all off in style. If that wouldn’t have gotten me any comments, I don’t know what would.
Image courtesy of the Julie Saul Gallery.
My first Soundslides Project! April 7, 2008
Posted by Cuffe in : Multi-Media Class , 2commentsI’m actually really excited about this! This is my first project using Soundslides and I think it went quite well.
http://www.media.amherstwire.com/slideshow/multimediaclass/politicoBGCCKK/
I’m not sure if it will embed itself, but you can just follow the link, and enjoy the sweet taste of jounalistic semi-excellence.
Hopefully I can figure out how to embed it later and update this post!
An Interesting View from the Other Side… April 1, 2008
Posted by Cuffe in : Feedback Journalism, Multi-Media Class , add a comment
I was doing a bit of research for an upcoming story about Graphic Novels in college and university settings, when I came across this little informative page on the Smith College website.
The page gives pretty good advice on how to deal with all us journalistic vultures when we come a’callin.
One of the choicer comments:
“Regardless of the format, expect a reporter to paraphrase much of your information and select a few of your pithy quotes to use verbatim.”
Now I know we Journos aren’t exactly held in the highest regard, but we’re not that bad are we?
Still, I think the above quote from the Smith news office is ment in good fun, and I actually appreciate them going through the effort to help us get better interviews from their staff and students.
But how do the other colleges (and a University) in the 5 college consortium stack up?
(Picture courtesy of Wikipedia)
The changing names March 31, 2008
Posted by Cuffe in : Uncategorized , add a commentJust a quick note to explain the name change.
First it was “Chris’ Blog” – Not bad I guess, but it didn’t really say anything that might make people want to read more than one post.
and then came:
“the Resident NPR Nerd” – Now we’re cooking with gas! I am a huge fan of National Public Radio (do I even need to provide a link for youse!?!) and I think this really does a better job of describing me in a few short words.
But…
I want to have a Job in Public Radio sometime soon, and I’d hate for anyone to think I was affiliated with NPR, or that my opinions and writings in anyway reflected the views of NPR or their reporters. AND NPR isn’t exactly the only horse in the race. There’s PRI and PRX too you know!
Just a reminder of who I am:
I’m a Journalism Student at UMass Amherst. I’m an aspiring Radio Journalist, and I hope to work in Public Radio in the future. I’m not a paid employee of NPR, but I am an intern at WFCR, an NPR affiliate out here in Amherst.
So it may be a little bit of CYOA going on here, but especially since one of my next assignments is to generate traffic for my blog, I’d hate to be cursing this place, when I should be loving it.
Thanks.
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of… March 27, 2008
Posted by Cuffe in : Uncategorized , add a commentHuman Tetris! Seriously!
And here’s how the “Grand Master” does it!
Journalism Panel on Covering Politics March 27, 2008
Posted by Cuffe in : Feedback Journalism, Multi-Media Class , add a commentOverall I liked what the panel had to say, and I’m glad they came, but I wish they had given more time to the nuts and bolts of political reporting.
I think they all gave great anecdotes about what they’ve seen and done, and certainly talked about things like “the national narrative” but in retrospect it would have been interesting to hear the panelists talk about how political reporting is different from news reporting, and what skills you need to use. I liked when Jill Lawrence talked briefly about the risk you take when making predictions and how wrong they have been this election, but I would have liked to hear something about whether or not making predictions is a necessary part of political reporting, or should it be more like traditional reporting, just focusing on the facts.
I guess I should have asked the panel that when I had the chance!
I think my favorite part of the panel was when Mark Stencel talked about how the web has changed the election over the years. I thought his comments on the interactivity of things like the YouTube debates or the wealth of information available, were really very fascinating. It was also very insightful to hear what sites he thought were worth looking at. I know I always find it a daunting task to find a good political reporting site, without first wading through the bad ones!
I thought one of the panelist’s views on blogs was also very interesting. One of the panelists said that blogs are really just a medium, and that the characteristics we apply to blogs (personal tone, opinionated content, etc.) are going to change as we use them more and more. Perhaps the only thing about blogs that will stay the same is the length of the posts!