Editor's desk: Week of July 31, 2006

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Friday August 4


Further to media coverage of the continuing strife in Iraq and the apparent loss of interest in the topic, CBS journalist Matt Strassman in Baghdad addresses the subject of Iraq fatigue:

"To many American looking on, the daily drumbeat of death and despair has a certain sameness. It seems numbing after awhile. And all this has been going on for more than three years now, with no clear end in sight."
- - - posted 9.44pm by Neil Sanderson


Alive in Baghdad is a collection of video blogs recorded in Iraq, then edited in the US and posted online by journalist and filmmaker Brian Conley. The video blogers aim to offer an alternative to network TV coverage:

"...Alive in Baghdad will encourage Westerners to ask questions about the similarity of life between working Americans and working Iraqis, to wonder about the strength of resolve it takes to continue supporting your family against all odds under occupation."
- - - posted 1.25pm by Neil Sanderson


The stats are in, and here are the most-read stories on nzherald this week:

1. Tokoroa murder accused named
2. Parents voice disgust at haka
3. Widow's fury at $111-a-week rate burden
4. Home-ownership falls dramatically
5. All Black taken off flight named
- - - posted 1.00pm by Neil Sanderson

Thursday August 3

Maybe he's just photogenic

, but has anyone ever seen a

police mugshot

as nice as the one of Mel Gibson supplied to media by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department?

- - - posted 10.23am by Neil Sanderson

Wednesday August 2

What's hot [just for fun].

There are several ways to use the web to find out which of two items is more popular.

Take this weekend's Tri-Nations match between Australia and South Africa. From the 49-0 thrashing they received in their last encounter with Australia, you could be forgiven for thinking the Springboks are down and out. Let's see...

According to

Googlefight

, there are 2,770,000 search results on Google for Wallabies, with the Springboks slightly

ahead

on 2,930,000.

FlickrTagFight

shows there are 302 pictures on Flickr tagged "Wallabies" and a mere 60 tagged "Springboks".

And

Technorati

reveals 9654 blog postings that mention "Wallabies" and only 3032 mentioning "Springboks".

Hard to tell from this. May have to watch the game. [Results may have changed, of course, by the time you view this.]

- - - posted 2.50pm by Neil Sanderson

Reader comment:

In

Distraught father says his son shot intruder 'in self defence'

[4.00pm Thursday July 27] you stated that the Penrose shop is in South Auckland. Penrose is NOT in south auckland. It is part of Auckland City Council and is on the volcanic isthmus which is regarded as Auckland central. The only suburb of Auckland city considered to be South Auckland is Otahuhu. On one hand this questions the sourcing of your information and the quality of journalism. And even more disturbing, borderline stereotyping! South Auckland has enough real problems to deal with, without mainstream media making these "mistakes" again.

- - - posted by Reece

Response:

Thanks for your message Reece. Actually, we said south Auckland, not South Auckland and I suppose it's true that Penrose is in the southern portion of Auckland City. But I agree that it is not in the area normally referred to as South Auckland or Manukau City. And that's what people would probably have assumed we meant. After all, we would not have described Freeman's Bay [for example] as being in north Auckland. So, point accepted, and the story has been amended. Thanks again for letting us know.

- - - posted 2.22pm by Neil Sanderson

Tuesday August 1

Citizen journalism.

Nicholas Lemann

, writing in the

New Yorker

, says citizen journalism on the net has a long way to go in measuring up to the work of professional media.

"The most fervent believers in the transforming potential of Internet journalism are operating not only on faith in its achievements, even if they lie mainly in the future, but on a certainty that the old media, in selecting what to publish and broadcast, make horrible and, even worse, ignobly motivated mistakes."

Lehmann, dean of the Columbia Journalism School, begs to differ, and asks "what has citizen journalism actually brought us?"

Along the way, he compares the internet to the "new media" of pamphlets and periodicals in Stuart Britain.

- - - posted 11.30am by Neil Sanderson

Modest growth for online news.

A major study

released yesterday shows that a growing number of Americans - currently one in three - regularly obtain news online.

But the report, from the

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

, says the growth in online news readership may be levelling off.

It also says online news readers tend to regard the web as a supplement to traditional news sources - television, radio and newspapers - all of which continue to lose audience.

The entire report is available online, but here are a few points that caught my eye:

"The web serves mostly as a supplement to other sources rather than a primary source of news. Those who use the web for news still spend more time getting news from other sources than they do getting news online. In addition, web news consumers emphasize speed and convenience over detail."

"...a significant number of young people (13%) say they get news via a cell phone, a personal digital assistant such as a PalmPilot or Blackberry, or an iPod or similar portable music player."

"Just 4% of Americans say they regularly read online blogs where people discuss news events, but that figure increases to 9% of those ages 18-24."

"...public interest in news about Iraq has faded since the spring of 2004, amid the violent uprising in Falluja and the revelation of abuses at the U.S. prison at Abu Ghraib. At that time, 54% said they were following news about the current situation in Iraq very closely. That compares with 43% in the current survey."

- - - posted 8.20am by Neil Sanderson

Monday July 31

Prison blog.

The National Party thinks

Tim Selwyn

shouldn't be allowed to

blog from prison

. Corrections officials say Selwyn, who is serving 17 months for sedition and fraud, is simply writing letters - as prisoners are allowed to do - and someone else is posting them on the web. The letters are, of course, subject to censorship before leaving the big house in Mt Eden. National's main beef seems to be that prisoners should not be permitted to blog - that it is one of the liberties they lose when sent to jail. On the other hand, the owner of the blog, Martyn "Bomber" Bradbury, says Selwyn's postings are a way to learn a bit about what goes on inside prison.

>>

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- - - posted 9.00am by Neil Sanderson

Middle East War

- that's what we're calling it now. There may be some who wonder why we held off renaming our

Middle East conflict

feature until a few days ago - given the decades of bloody clashes betweeen Israel and the Palestinians. But "war" is a word we use cautiously - especially when, as with the Israeli attacks on Hizbollah that began three weeks ago, "war" has not been declared between two nations. But when more than 500 people have been killed, and there seems little chance of a quick ceasefire, words like "unrest", "tension", "skirmish" and "offensive" just aren't adequate. So, war it is.

- - - posted 8.30am by Neil Sanderson