when you are ready, you will know.

Finally, Winter Comes

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:09:00 +0000

After all this unseasonably warm weather, Chicago got hit yesterday by a beautiful day of cold, snow, and ice!

Scenes from our journey from the quad to the lawbrary. Click for larger.

It was also Undergraduate Break Day (also known as “Suicide Prevention Day,” but Ben and I were both on campus. I had to run some errands for the Maroon, tying up loose ends from Clare Gillis’s visit. (Note: I need to blog about Clare’s visit!) Ben had a paper due at noon and a class that he opted to attend at 15:00. We arrived on campus just in time to turn in his paper to his professor’s office in Wieboldt, then stopped by a Mexican food truck for a burrito and some guac and chips.

More photos from today, all from my phone.

Then it was the bank to deposit a check, the bookstore to browse the latest UChicago apparel, and then Reynolds Club to hang out, eat, read, and take a bit of a nap.

Forrest stopped by to hang out for a little bit while we were hanging out in the basement of Reynolds.

Then Ben went to class while I printed some stuff out for him, did a little bit of research for my B.A., and swung by my academic adviser’s office to apologize for missing a meeting with her (due to aforementioned Clare Gillis visit).

At this point, Ben's class had finished, so we took a quick trip to the D’Angelo Law Library (the Lawbrary) to get a book for my B.A. paper. Then we went to the Mansueto, to pick up another book for my B.A. and a copy of Don Quixote for one of Ben's classes.

After checking out, it was the 171 back to the apartment, and Ben promptly passed out for several hours. Marco, too, fell asleep for a while, but he was actually able to wake up and go to Boston Market with me for dinner. Ben, on the other hand, stayed knocked out for a long, long time.

Watched some TV, read a little bit, and otherwise had a nice, relaxed night. Perhaps not the most productive use of “Suicide Prevention Day,” but pretty good, all things considered.

I love this weather. And this school. And it is very nice to have a day off, once in a while.

Five Things I Read This Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:02:00 +0000

MLK long weekend edition.

The New York Times: “Big Study Links Good Teachers to Lasting Gain”
MIT Admissions blog: “Surviving MIT”
The New York Times: “Among the Wealthiest One Percent, Many Variations”
The Atlantic: “This Is Why You Don't Go to the Gym”
The Washington Post: “10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free”

And the weekend's only halfway through. This is great.

早睡,早起

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:27:00 +0000

“You get up early in the morning and you work all day. That’s the only secret.”

—Philip Glass

Came across this quotation today by composer (and UChicago alumnus, A.B. ’56!) Philip Glass. Reminds me that I want to start waking up earlier. Waking up at 05:00 every morning (back when I was a first-year) was surprisingly productive, I want to see if I can move back into it.

Toni Preckwinkle Gets Hacked

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:33:00 +0000

Yesterday, I opened Twitter to find that Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle had suddenly developed bad grammar and a love for a new weight-loss solution.

Obviously, Ms. Preckwinkle had been hacked. Still, as I posted on Facebook, “I'm hoping Toni Preckwinkle wasn't hacked, and is being totally serious.”

I figured her staff probably hadn't realized, since it was the weekend. Oddly enough, there didn't seem to be any response from her followers. I expected someone to start tweet back at her, whether to warn her about being hacked or to poke fun. After all, she is a politician.

Then, today, we get another sales pitch from @ToniPreckwinkle:

Need to burn some fat? here's the cheapest, most affective product top4serials.com/redirect.php?u…
— Toni Preckwinkle (@ToniPreckwinkle) December 19, 2011

Yesterday's tweet had also been deleted. (See?)

This time, a few people did respond to the tweet, and @ToniPreckwinkle was pretty quick to respond. Preckwinkle (or, more likely, a staffer) sent out a public tweet saying, “We were a victim of hacking,” and then replied to the Twitter users who had responded to her tweet.

The good news is, it seems like her staff has figured out what happened: In response to one follower, @ToniPreckwinkle said that, “Actually, it doesn't involve using our password at all.” Not sure what that means in terms of the security breach, but it certainly doesn't inspire confidence. Especially the way she/they simply told everyone they were hacked and provided no further details.

@dsheetzActually, it doesn't involve using our password at all.
— Toni Preckwinkle (@ToniPreckwinkle) December 19, 2011

In what might be an important related note, Twitter user @MarketIntuitive replied to Preckwinkle to say that City of Chicago Treasurer Stephanie Neely (an alum with whom I hope to have an Uncommon Interview this quarter for the Maroon!) also had her Twitter account hacked.

@ToniPreckwinkle the City treasurer @StephanieNeely was also hacked over the weekend.
— Chicago Property (@MarketIntuitive) December 19, 2011

Not sure what the hacked tweets said, since Neely deleted them by the time I visited her site, but she did respond.

@GovInTrenches @MarketIntuitive thanks for the notice I will change the password now.#Allstars
— Stephanie Neely (@StephanieNeely) December 17, 2011

What's going on? Do people care so strongly about Preckwinkle and Neely? I'm surprised to find them under attack, of all people. And it didn't seem to be malevolent—a weight loss scam? Weird. Plus, Neely ended up running unopposed in the last election, so I somehow doubt she has strong political enemies. Someone over at City Hall must have clicked on something he or she shouldn't have...

Stop Smoking PSA: Bubbles

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 01:12:00 +0000

I saw this anti-smoking PSA on a DVD, and liked it so much that I decided to rip it to keep. Bubbles! Now I want to start carrying around a little bottle of bubble solution so that I can blow bubbles while people are out smoking. I wonder what the reactions would be like...

Five Things I Read Today

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 07:48:00 +0000

Thanksgiving Tuesday edition.

Time Out Chicago: “Eight reasons why Obama will win in 2012”

Wired's Superbug blog: “Running Out of Antibiotics: Europe Gets It”

UChicagoNews: “Economists gather to salute 2011 Nobel laureates”

The New York Times: “A Serving of Gratitude May Save the Day”

The Atlantic: “A Guide to the Occupy Wall Street API, Or Why the Nerdiest Way to Think About OWS Is So Useful”

Bonus!

The New York Times: “Separating You and Me? 4.74 Degrees”

Also published today was the second-to-last issue of the Maroon for fall quarter. It included one of the saddest, hardest-to-cover articles we've had to run this year, on the suicide of a graduate student who was found in Hinds Sunday evening.

The Chicago Maroon: “Graduate student found hanged in Hinds laboratory building”

Friendship Bracelet

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:36:00 +0000

Too cool for school.

Harris Stole Our Tweet!

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 08:24:00 +0000

Then, realizing that they must have made a mistake somehow, they deleted it about twenty minutes later. Still, I'm not sure how this happens and I think it's something to think about. Social media problems. It wasn't a re-tweet, it was actually our tweet, copied, halved, and sent out as their own. Weird.

I Made Orange Juice!

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:19:00 +0000

I used my juicer, but the pulp kept clogging the little drainage vents. That was annoying, but there wasn't anything major.

It was good! I would halve and juice the oranges, then pour the juice (and pulp) into the pitcher using a funnel. I don't mind pulp, it's more...authentic.

The OJ ended up being darker than usual, but it was still delicious.

A taste of home!

Art

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:20:00 +0000

The "earth" without "art" is just "eh."

Visualizing A Year Of My Maroon Articles

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:27:00 +0000

Last winter, I took an Old English class that at one point involved some very brief, very shallow quantitative textual analysis. We used various tools to analyze word frequency, for example, in order to examine relationships between works or passages that are ordinarily considered different. In another case, we charted relationships between words and phrases to find that certain phrases tend to be used together, though they wouldn't intuitively do so.

In the spring, there was an English course offered that I wish I had been able to take, if not for my Civ class: Quantitative Methods for Literary Studies (ENGL 23408), taught by Professor Eric Slauter. I mean, check out this course description:

This course explores critical and theoretical interest in the quantitative study of literature from the Enlightenment to the present. Topics include: concordance-making in the eighteenth century; attributing authorship in the nineteenth century; the rise of statistical stylistics in the early twentieth century; the introduction of computer-assisted analysis in the late twentieth century; and the place of quantification in twenty first century formalist and book historical scholarship.

That sounds really, really cool. Anyway, I wasn't able to take the class, but the point is that I'm really interested in this sort of thing. Today, in a completely informal but still—to me—cool look at third year, I made a word (frequency) cloud out of my Maroon articles.

It was pretty easy, too: I went to my Chicago Maroon people page, copied the text from all articles I wrote last year into Notepad, and then copied that over to a word cloud-generating website, Tagxedo. What I really like about Tagxedo is that you can create embeddable word clouds and scroll over individual words to see them (useful for the small ones that I obviously don't use very often.)

Anything exciting stand out from the word cloud? Nothing surprising, given that the Maroon is a student newspaper—students, According, University, year, and Student are among the most frequently-used words. Also, a lot of the words make sense when considering that I wrote, for example, several articles on more international or study abroad-related topics, and several on Clare Gillis. Since those articles also tend to be longer, it makes sense that words like Gillis, program, Cairo, group, and Director show up. Merrit also shows up, for study abroad director Martha Merritt being an oft-cited source in those articles.

Overall, the word cloud doesn't reveal any surprising details of my writing, but it's definitely an interesting way to visualize a year's worth of writing for the Maroon. Now what will really be interesting is when I make one next year and compare third year with fourth year, and see what an overall word cloud looks like.

You can also check out a larger version of my word cloud here.

Analyzing NYTimes.com Comments

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:29:00 +0000

The Lede, a New York Times blog that supplements more traditional Times reporting with breaking news, story analysis, &c., has a post today about NYTimes.com comments on the UK riots.

"Times Readers React to the London Riots"

There are obvious issues with filtering online comments to try to piece them together into a unified story. Using comments that have been "recommended" is one way to go, though of course it dodges some issues but brings up others. Having issues doesn't make the endeavor worthless, though, and it's worth a look.

But the part that really caught my attention was this:

The prevailing theme we’ve seen in NYTimes.com reader comments since the financial crisis began is that average people feel as if they have no chance to make a meaningful impact on government and social policy. This has gone beyond the normal apathy of the individual, who might see no reason to add one insignificant vote to the ledger. Our readers increasingly feel that voting itself is a diversion because the true decisions are made at a level above the electorate.

I'd be interested in seeing more on trends in NYTimes.com comments. Again, filled with issues but still worthwhile. After all, one of the issues is the sample pool of comments: readers of NYTimes.com, who care enough to comment. Which is likely very, very different from the general population. But it would still be useful to note if the comments on the New York Times website were trending toward cynicism in a way outside of normal. For one thing, one of the differences between NYTimes.com commenters and the general population is, I'd imagine, that the commenters are on average more likely to vote. So these things are important to note and could point to important trends.

Cool side note: if you click the second link, you'll notice that the article opens right at the paragraph I'm citing. NYTimes.com has a really cool system where you can hit the shift key twice on any article or blog post and a little paragraph symbol (¶) pops up next to each paragraph. If you click the symbol, the link in your address bar changes. If you click twice on any sentence, it will be highlighted—do this to as many sentences as you'd like. When you're done, copy/pasting the URL in your address bar will send someone to the specific paragraph you chose, with the highlights you made!

You can't, unfortunately, highlight fragments, and sometimes the system doesn't work perfectly (I've seen it highlight two sentences at once), but it's a really cool system. There was a blog post at some point on the Bits blog about how the system worked, but basically it takes the first letters of the first three words in a paragraph's first and last sentences to make a code specific to a paragraph. So in this paragraph, the code would be [YcuHws]. To send people to this paragraph, you would add #p[YcuHws] at the end of the URL. Highlighting works similarly.

Sweet, right?

Christina Hates Having Fun. #UChiSwag.

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:38:00 +0000

The Law School (@UChicagoLaw) maintains a map of places where alumni end up, and a few days ago they decided to tweet a link to the map.

Curious about where our alumni end up? Answer: everywhere. http://bit.ly/oondEKTue Aug 02 19:38:22 via CoTweetUChicago Law School
UChicagoLaw

As soon as I read it, I went, "Wow. Talk about swag." So I decided to re-tweet it from the Maroon News account (@UofCMaroonNews) with an added hashtag, #UChiSwag.

#UChiSwag RT @UChicagoLaw Curious about where our alumni end up? Answer: everywhere. http://t.co/2gDdXEkTue Aug 02 19:44:16 via webChicago Maroon News
UofCMaroonNews

I then followed up with a short explanation:

(Yes, #UChiSwag is our newest hashtag innovation. That last tweet 100% deserved it.)Tue Aug 02 19:49:51 via webChicago Maroon News
UofCMaroonNews

Since then, we've tweeted and re-tweeted a few different things with the #UChiSwag hashtag, even getting re-tweeted by the official @UChicago account (Christina was very excited about that one). But today, Christina decided to pick a fight—from the Maroon account.

Yes, we have swag, but one of the news editors seems to be a little over-zealous with the #UChiSwag hashtag. I wonder who that could be?Tue Aug 09 20:31:10 via webChicago Maroon News
UofCMaroonNews

I decided to blame it on Haru (@HaruCoryne)

@UofCMaroonNews Haru.Tue Aug 09 20:32:47 via webJonathan
Elaijuh

Nice Try RT @Elaijuh @UofCMaroonNews Haru.Tue Aug 09 20:34:17 via webChicago Maroon News
UofCMaroonNews

@UofCMaroonNews I'm serious.Tue Aug 09 20:35:18 via webJonathan
Elaijuh

Asher jumped in:

Public spat at the @ChicagoMaroon?? MT @UofCMaroonNews one of the news editors seems to be a little over-zealous with the #UChiSwag hashtag.Tue Aug 09 20:41:18 via webasher klein
kleinstar

Amy responded:

@kleinstar I'd call it more of a lover's quarrel @ChicagoMaroon @UofCMaroonNewsTue Aug 09 20:45:09 via webAmy Myers
AmyRebeccaMyers

I first noted that Asher graduated so he's not part of the team anymore...

@AmyRebeccaMyers @kleinstar's just mad that he's not a @UofCMaroonNews lover anymore.Tue Aug 09 20:50:39 via webJonathan
Elaijuh

But then I realized that neither is Amy, who's going to be an RA next year.

@AmyRebeccaMyers Oh but wait...Tue Aug 09 20:50:52 via webJonathan
Elaijuh

Asher once complained about our puns and word play. Hah.

breaking (each other's hearts)! RT @AmyRebeccaMyers @kleinstar I'd call it more of a lover's quarrel @ChicagoMaroon @UofCMaroonNewsTue Aug 09 20:53:32 via webasher klein
kleinstar

Amy responded to me calling her out for ditching the News team:

@Elaijuh player don't hateTue Aug 09 20:54:44 via webAmy Myers
AmyRebeccaMyers

And then I gave up. On everyone.

/unfollow @kleinstar /unfollow @AmyRebeccaMyers /unfollow @ChicagoMaroon /unfollow @UofCMaroonNews /quit /startwritingforWeeklyTue Aug 09 20:56:56 via webJonathan
Elaijuh

Christina felt the need to apologize—again from the Maroon News account—for the fight.

Ironically, the only people who would have seen the fight were people who were following our personal accounts. People following the Maroon News account wouldn't have seen the fight, until it was pointed out by her tweet:

News editors sincerely apologize for the fight between @AmyRebeccaMyers @kleinstar and @Elaijuh. We should move onto real news. London!Tue Aug 09 20:58:30 via webChicago Maroon News
UofCMaroonNews

And I couldn't let Christina go without acknowledging her role in it.

(Whoops, forgot to include @CEPillsbury!)Tue Aug 09 20:59:57 via webChicago Maroon News
UofCMaroonNews

Then, as usual, I wanted the last word.

@UofCMaroonNews No apology for misusing the word "onto"?Tue Aug 09 21:03:01 via webJonathan
Elaijuh

#UChiSwag.

Social Media Riots?

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 01:14:00 +0000

I can say, definitively, that I did not see Twitter, Facebook or BlackBerries looting and destroying tonight. #londonriotsMon Aug 08 22:08:33 via HootSuiteRavi Somaiya
ravisomaiya

Also: the Guardian tries to explain why the Met Police have been struggling to contain the riots and also has interactive photos of two buildings that were set on fire in Tottenham (not relevant to tonight's riots, but still scary and important.) They also talk to some police officers.

And of course, Ravi Somaiya goes more in depth than his tweets in his New York Times article on how the riots have spread to other cities.

Tottenham As A Digital Journalism Case Study

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 19:38:00 +0000

@Spectator_CH @frasernels Thanks for your kind post. Unsung hero here: iPhones/smartphones generally as a reporting tool.Sun Aug 07 12:32:33 via Twitter for iPhoneRavi Somaiya
ravisomaiya

@pete_hoskin I just use Twitter app, Camera+ and NYT video app when needs be. BlackBerry for phone/email. Simplicity is key!Sun Aug 07 19:16:11 via HootSuiteRavi Somaiya
ravisomaiya

These days, whenever something happens, there's a lot of noise about digital journalism and new media. If something big's happening, you can expect people to talk about how things played out on Twitter and Facebook, about how people texted their friends, about how the slow and bumbling legacy media was less useful than something like Storyful or Twitter.

That's fine, because that's how a lot of people see it, but this weekend's Tottenham riots made a really interesting example of how everything can merge together in really cool ways. For example: yes, people were out on the streets tweeting, posting on Facebook, uploading videos to YouTube, but the best sources of information still came from "real" reporters.

Watching the tweets stream in for a search for Tottenham or #Tottenham were crazy, but watching the Twitter stream of Ravi Somaiya, a New York Times reporter based in London, provided a balance of first-person narrative and editorial vetting. Of course, he didn't have an editor on his Twitter feed, but there's a difference between people freaking out about riots and tweets that are more careful to make clear whether things are confirmed or not, etc.

Radio reports suggest that looters were knocking on the doors of houses, pushing past the owners, taking what they wanted. Unconfirmed.Sun Aug 07 04:31:44 via HootSuiteRavi Somaiya
ravisomaiya

The Guardian's making an online survey to try to better understand what happened. In a blog post, investigative data journalist James Ball explains that they're taking the Detroit Free Press's 1967 Detroit riots study as inspiration. By using a survey rather than just asking commentators to write opinion columns, the Guardian hopes to get a better grasp on the real roots of the riots. Mixing in academia? Social sciences + journalism? Nice.

Now I'm excited to read Philip Meyer's Precision Journalism.

Oh, and if you haven't seen them yet, (Bloomberg) Businessweek has a great story on Ground Zero/the World Trade Center here, and the New Yorker has a story on the Osama bin Laden raid that's making waves here.

When The Mansueto Opened

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 01:48:00 +0000

Helmut Jahn came to visit! He came with Blair Kamin and was talking with Judith Nadler, director of the library, when I took these two photos.

Cool, right? The day of the Mansueto opening was awesome. With Adam (the Maroon's Editor-in-Chief), I got to go on the press tour, and then we saw Jahn, Kamin, and Nadler! The press tour was basically the same thing as the tours the fourth-years got to go on, just with journalists in the group.
Oh, and the Mansueto is so, so sweet.

Farewell, Good-bye, See You Later

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 19:36:00 +0000

Saying good-bye to people can be tough stuff. Earlier this year we had to say good-bye to Jeremy as he left the University. Recently, with the school year out, we had to say farewell to Ben, who is at home in Boston for a bit before going to Paris for not only a summer language class but also for study abroad in the fall. We're not going to see him for over six months (all of July through December, plus half of June)! And of course, with graduation ("convocation") we have to send off an entire class, with all of the people in it that we know and love. Happily, some of them are sticking around (e.g. Mary Frances, Yahira) but others are heading off (e.g. Kris, Nao, Diana, Arieh).

It's so bittersweet.

01/15/11: Jeremy and Crystal take his luggage to the bus

01/15/11: Jeremy, me, Ben, and Crystal standing in O'Hare, sending Jeremy off

01/15/11: Jeremy in O'Hare, right before heading off

06/12/11: Ben leaving our new apartment to catch the 55 to Midway

06/17/11: Paula, me, and Kris outside of the Med before they drive to New York

06/17/11: A close-up of the previous photo

06/17/11: Paula and Kris getting into the car they rented to drive to New York

06/17/11: Paula and Kris, driving off to New York!

Okay, how great of a word is "bittersweet"? It shouldn't even be allowed, it's so perfect in that it's just a combination of two words that are each right, but you're allowed to use it! You can't say, "It's so sadhappy to see them go," but you can say, "It's so bittersweet to see them go." That's awesome.

Three Random Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Sat, 14 May 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Marco, Crystal, Ben

Me, Jeremy, Ben

Shaunae, Marco

How the NYT Breaks News

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Sun, 08 May 2011 04:13:00 +0000

Tomorrow's New York Times has an op-ed piece by its public editor, Arthur Brisbane (grandson of the Arthur Brisbane), on how the Times covered the breaking news about the death of Osama bin Laden.

The piece itself describes the way White House correspondent Helene Cooper first found and confirmed the information, and then the way the Times rushed to (literally) stop the presses, update the website template, and push out a new print issue.

There's some really cool information there, such as the standards that were necessary before the information would be posted, and the way that people received different newspapers all over the country because of the nature of print publication.

A high school friend of mine had posted on Facebook about the Times national edition not including the bin Laden news on time the next day, but my copy did have it. Turns out that's because Chicago had a printing press that the Times was able to stop in time.

Also check out a companion piece in Brisbane's blog that shows the different layouts for the website and print editions of the paper. Definitely cool to see how these things play out.

Fortune Cookie: Confidence

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Sat, 07 May 2011 03:36:00 +0000

That would be really cool, if it were true. Not saying that it's not, but that I hope it's true. I'm a pretty confident person, and I want to help strengthen others!

I remember walking downtown once, with Sakina on my arm.

Sakina: "I love walking with you! I feel like I own the city!"

Steph laughed at her.

Steph: "Sakina, it's his swagger."

Scavenger Hunt World Record

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Sat, 07 May 2011 01:21:00 +0000

Before the event -- phones weren't allowed during the hunt itself.

Even though the University of Chicago's annual scavenger hunt is often considered one of the world's largest, it wasn't formally considered the world's largest scavenger hunt by Guinness until today.

Scav Hunt is ridiculous, with items that are less of a traditional scavenger hunt and more of a build-make-and-create-crazy-things hunt. Check out this year's list at scavhunt.uchicago.edu

Anyway, today there was a traditional scavenger hunt, where hundreds of people gathered in teams of four to answer the questions on a list, searching the quads for answers. There were all sorts of rules, and it lasted for an hour.

The news editors got together and did a team of four (Christina couldn't make it), and altogether there were enough people to shatter the 212-person record set by a group of Canadian schoolchildren. During the celebration after the scavenger hunt, one of the judges announced that we had over four times as many people as the previous record.

Basically, when my parents ask me what I did today, I'm going to say, "Nothing really, just murdered a world record. So, not much. You?"

(And of course, people were cheering, "USA! USA!" after we confirmed that we had beaten the Canadian students.)

World Press Freedom Day

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Tue, 03 May 2011 19:40:00 +0000

Since 1993, the UN General Assembly has declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day, which – let’s be honest – is usually ignored by the general public. The UN declares so many different days, and overall there are so many different days, weeks, and months of this or that, it’s hard to actually pay attention to and care about what day of X it is. Plus, in the case of WPFD, we often don’t think enough about freedom of press and the troubles that journalists face.

I’ve been thinking about journalism recently, though, for several reasons. (You could probably tell.)

For one thing, we often don’t realize just how much the media does, and the importance of it. If we talk about journalism these days, I feel like it’s so often about the death of journalism, the democratization of information, the rise of social media and subsequent fall of “legacy media,” &c. Even when we read reporting from contentious areas about contentious issues (e.g. reporting on and about Sudan, or human rights in China) we may feel like it’s the journalist’s job, waving off the issue with the attitude that the journalist is supposed to put themselves in danger and that they know what they’re getting themselves into.

And that’s fine on the one hand, because it’s true that a photographer heading into a dangerous area to report on it knows what the dangers are and is, really, doing they’re job.

But the uprisings in the Middle East, the range of natural disasters (Japan, the southern U.S.), and the responses of the press have really reaffirmed for me the importance of the press, particularly a free press, and its staying power. Whenever I go into CAPS, or talk to someone in the industry about journalism, they always tell me that when it comes to the arguments about legacy media versus internet media, there’s no greater need for well-reported, objective journalism that has been edited for bias, clarity, and for comprehensive coverage of issues. That’s fine, and I agree in general, but that doesn’t account for the trends that people have been pointing to, to the actual rise in popularity of sites like the Huffington Post or blogs like Gawker and the decline in readership in traditional news organizations.

Things are different now, though. It takes those organizations to do the comprehensive reporting from the Middle East, for instance. The reporting from those countries over the past few months has really proven to me the importance of the press, especially the way they have to deal with unfriendly governments and societies in some cases. I remember reading one particular article in the NYT where the reporter, frustrated with the Libyan governments attempts to manipulate the media and show them only what they want them to see and believe, decided to get around his media handler. With a few other journalists, they distracted the handler so that some of them could literally run away, going out into the city and report on what they saw.

First of all, how cool is that? I think that sort of thing is so cool, having to get the story in any way possible, even if it means running from the authorities to talk to people and see for yourself.

But more importantly, the stories of the situations faced by some journalists are troubling, in some cases downright disgusting. Laura Logan being sexually assaulted, or the many journalists, including Anderson Cooper, who were physically assaulted while reporting, or the cases of journalists being arrested or detained while reporting from the Middle East – these things are intolerable. It’s hard to imagine that these things actually happen, and it’s almost surreal to read about. The Times, for instance, usually publishes an article written by their journalists who encounter such situations. Reading the stories of those journalists is of course really moving, but also really hard to believe almost.

For the Maroon, I’ve been covering the case of Clare Gillis, the UChicago alumna who was detained in Libya by pro-Qaddafi fighters. That’s included talking to Clare Gillis’s friends from college or even from earlier, as well as her parents. All of those interviews were really touching, and the whole thing’s scary. Gillis, with three other journalists, are currently confirmed to be detained by the Libyan government, and it’s upsetting.

As someone who is thinking (sometimes) about being a journalist in the future, the level of apathy we have can be really scary. So can the fact that some governments think it’s alright to do things like that.

On a sillier level, at the Maroon we sometimes interview people who are explicitly rude and disrespectful. They won’t be passive-aggressive or just ignore phone calls, they’ll actually shout at you, or say mean things about you. But that’s not that big of a deal – when you’re asking people about negative things, trying to catch them on something they’ve done wrong, of course they’re going to respond negatively.

But imagine trying to hunt down the real story in another country (with a hostile government) and without the protection of the law.

I sometimes think that some of the coolest jobs in the world are investigative reporters, or being Nicholas Kristof or Anderson Cooper. How sweet would that be? Really, I can’t imagine any investigative reporter for the NYT hating their job or ever feeling bored.

The idea that a free press isn’t universally accepted, though, makes it hard. I guess it makes sense, but it’s still hard to accept. Those sorts of limits and hostilities must make the job so hard – but also so exciting! As Nick Kristof tweeted from Cairo during the revolution:

#Mubarak thugs targeted journalists, to keep us from covering his crackdown. Hmph. Makes us all the more determined. #Egypt
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) February 2, 2011

I love it. I may not ever get into investigative journalism, at least not the type that leads me into that sort of dangerous situation, but I can still support free press.

The end.

World Press Freedom Day: http://www.wpfd2011.org/

Endnotes: This year’s theme is “21^st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers.” I would have written on the theme, but this is what’s on my mind more than anything else. Also, write your senator about Clare Gillis. Something on the theme: “like” facebook.com/freegillis to follow updates on Gillis’s situation and show some support! There’s also an online petition somewhere, not something tangible but it shows support for the release of Gillis, Foley, Brabo, and Hammerl.

Obama On Journalism

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Sun, 01 May 2011 18:11:00 +0000

Yesterday was the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, which I always enjoy – especially the way they're a celebrity and comedy event. There's actually a red carpet! I watch my share of C-SPAN, and there usually are definitely not many red carpets on C-SPAN.

Seth Meyers, the featured guest comedian of this year’s dinner, actually joked about C-SPAN, too:

“C-SPAN is of course the official network for wide shots of empty chairs. Every time I tune into C-SPAN it looks like they just had a fire drill. C-SPAN is one unpaid electric bill away from being a radio station.”

Before the comedian, though, is the other highly-anticipated speech of the night: President Obama’s. President Obama has been pretty funny in these speeches, but I’d like to point your attention to another really interesting aspect of the speeches: his comments on journalism. Sure, they're long and political, but I enjoyed hearing them.

The journalism stuff always come at the end of the speeches, and the quoted passages here are transcripts from the White House website. They’re also edited to remove some filler, both for brevity and clarity.

In 2009¹:

I just -- I want to end by saying a few words about the men and women in this room whose job it is to inform the public and pursue the truth. You know, we meet tonight at a moment of extraordinary challenge for this nation and for the world, but it's also a time of real hardship for the field of journalism. And like so many other businesses in this global age, you've seen sweeping changes and technology and communications that lead to a sense of uncertainty and anxiety about what the future will hold.

Across the country, there are extraordinary, hardworking journalists who have lost their jobs in recent days, recent weeks, recent months. And I know that each newspaper and media outlet is wrestling with how to respond to these changes, and some are struggling simply to stay open. And it won't be easy. Not every ending will be a happy one.

But it's also true that your ultimate success as an industry is essential to the success of our democracy. It's what makes this thing work. You know, Thomas Jefferson once said that if he had the choice between a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, he would not hesitate to choose the latter.

Clearly, Thomas Jefferson never had cable news to contend with -- (laughter) -- but his central point remains: A government without newspapers, a government without a tough and vibrant media of all sorts, is not an option for the United States of America. (Applause.)

So I may not -- I may not agree with everything you write or report. I may even complain, or more likely Gibbs will complain, from time to time about how you do your jobs, but I do so with the knowledge that when you are at your best, then you help me be at my best. You help all of us who serve at the pleasure of the American people do our jobs better by holding us accountable, by demanding honesty, by preventing us from taking shortcuts and falling into easy political games that people are so desperately weary of.

And that kind of reporting is worth preserving -- not just for your sake, but for the public's. We count on you to help us make sense of a complex world and tell the stories of our lives the way they happen, and we look for you for truth, even if it's always an approximation, even if -- (laughter.)

This is a season of renewal and reinvention. That is what government must learn to do, that's what businesses must learn to do, and that's what journalism is in the process of doing. And when I look out at this room and think about the dedicated men and women whose questions I've answered over the last few years, I know that for all the challenges this industry faces, it's not short on talent or creativity or passion or commitment. It's not short of young people who are eager to break news or the not-so-young who still manage to ask the tough ones time and time again. These qualities alone will not solve all your problems, but they certainly prove that the problems are worth solving. And that is a good place as any to begin.

In 2010²:

Also in our thoughts and prayers tonight are the men and women in uniform who put their lives at risk each and every day for our safety and freedom. (Applause.) So in that spirit, I'd also like to pay a tribute to the journalists who play an extraordinary role in telling their stories.

Earlier today I gave the commencement address at Michigan, where I spoke to the graduates about what is required to keep out democracy thriving in the 21st century. And one of the points I made is that for all the changes and challenges facing your industry, this country absolutely needs a healthy, vibrant media. 'Probably needs it more than ever now.

Today's technology -- (applause) -- today's technology has made it possible for us to get our news and information from a growing range of sources. We can pick and choose not only our preferred type of media, but also our preferred perspective. And while that exposes us to an unprecedented array of opinions, analysis, and points of view, it also makes it that much more important that we're all operating on a common baseline of facts. It makes it that much more important that journalists out there seek only the truth.

And I don't have to tell you that. Some of you are seasoned veterans who have been on the political beat for decades; others here tonight began their careers as bloggers not long ago. But I think it's fair to say that every single reporter in this room believes deeply in the enterprise of journalism. Every one of you, even the most cynical among you, understands and cherishes the function of a free press and the preservation of our system of government and of our way of life.

And I want you to know that for all the jokes and the occasional gripes, I cherish that work, as well.

In 2011³:

We also need to remember our neighbors in Alabama and across the South that have been devastated by terrible storms from last week. (Applause.) Michelle and I were down there yesterday, and we’ve spent a lot of time with some of the folks who have been affected. The devastation is unimaginable and is heartbreaking and it’s going to be a long road back. And so we need to keep those Americans in our thoughts and in our prayers. But we also need to stand with them in the hard months and perhaps years to come.

I intend to make sure that the federal government does that. And I’ve got faith that the journalists in this room will do their part for the people who have been affected by this disaster –- by reporting on their progress, and letting the rest of America know when they will need more help. Those are stories that need telling. And that’s what all of you do best, whether it’s rushing to the site of a devastating storm in Alabama, or braving danger to cover a revolution in the Middle East.

You know, in the last months, we’ve seen journalists threatened, arrested, beaten, attacked, and in some cases even killed simply for doing their best to bring us the story, to give people a voice, and to hold leaders accountable. And through it all, we’ve seen daring men and women risk their lives for the simple idea that no one should be silenced, and everyone deserves to know the truth.

That’s what you do. At your best that's what journalism is. That’s the principle that you uphold. It is always important, but it’s especially important in times of challenge, like the moment that America and the world is facing now.

So I thank you for your service and the contributions that you make. And I want to close by recognizing not only your service, but also to remember those that have been lost as a consequence of the extraordinary reporting that they’ve done over recent weeks. They help, too, to defend our freedoms and allow democracy to flourish.

So President Obama seems to have two main points in each of these: the first is that the media plays a central role in a properly functioning and flourishing democracy, and the second changes from year-to-year. The former is great to hear, but the latter is particularly striking. In 2009 and 2010, President Obama seemed to answer critics of legacy media, attempting to instill hope in a future revival and in the continued success of the press.

This year, however, President Obama focused on the current work of journalists who risk their lives to report, and it makes me wonder if recent events really have changed popular opinion on journalism. I read a few weeks ago -- I forget where -- about a shift in public opinion as people who would normally rather depend on blogs than legacy media (to oversimplify) had to go to legacy media in order to read about events in Tahrir Square, or in Japan.

Obviously, I love the idea that maybe recent events have shown the importance and power of a free, strong media, but I question whether there's been a real change in opinion. Did people ever doubt the importance of media, or was it just a matter of changing tastes in media consumption? Seth Meyers made a joke at yesterday's dinner about the parties that the different news organizations would throw, and he described the Huffington Post's as being the most popular but asking everyone to bring with them to the party some food and drinks taken from other organizations' parties. How accurate.

I have nothing against the Huffington Post, and I'm not necessarily bemoaning the loss of dead-tree newspapers and subsequent rise of dynamic, multimedia content. But my question is whether recent events have changed that at all, or whether they just affirm the importance of media.

Links:
[1] Full Transcript (2009) -- whitehouse.gov briefing room | C-SPAN video (2009) -- youtube.com
[2] Full Transcript (2010) -- whitehouse.gov briefing room | C-SPAN video (2010) -- youtube.com
[3] Full Transcript (2011) -- whitehouse.gov "White House Blog" | C-SPAN video (2011) -- youtube.com

For your entertainment, you should definitely watch those. Obama's actually quite a good comedic speaker. You'd also enjoy watching the featured comedians, as well. Wanda Sykes killed it, and so did Seth Meyers. On the other hand, Leno's performance was broadly considered a huge wash, so watch out for that.

Wanda Sykes (2009) -- C-SPAN -- youtube.com
Jay Leno (2010) -- C-SPAN -- youtube.com
Seth Meyers (2011) -- C-SPAN -- youtube.com (available in HD!)

A Scary Lede about Japan's Nuclear Power Plants

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 00:59:00 +0000

There are plenty of scary and disturbing news stories every day, as anyone who reads a news source can tell you. Natural disasters tend to be pretty scary, and yesterday's earthquake and tsunami were no different.

The situation with the power plants is one of the scariest stories that I personally have read in a while, but it's not just a scary story -- it has one of the scariest ledes in the Times that I've seen in a while:

Japanese officials took the extraordinary step on Saturday of flooding a crippled nuclear reactor with seawater in a last-ditch effort to avoid a nuclear meltdown, as the nation grappled simultaneously with its worst nuclear mishap and the aftermath of its largest recorded earthquake.

I mean, that sentence just sends all worst possibilities flooding into my head. When I first read an earlier version of the story on my phone, though, the lede was even scarier:

An explosion at a nuclear power plant in northern Japan on Saturday blew the roof off one building, brought down walls and caused a radiation leak of unspecified proportions, Japanese officials said, after Friday's huge earthquake caused critical failures in the plant's cooling system.

On second thought, I'm not sure the earlier sentence was necessarily scarier, but it was definitely more ambiguous. The earlier sentence focuses on the fact that there was an explosion and a radiation leak of "unspecified proportions" (c'mon, that's scary!) but the later one focuses on the "last-ditch effort to avoid a nuclear meltdown." Both of them are scary, in different ways.

Check out the whole story here, and keep praying for the Japanese. As the Tzu Chi song says:

誠心祈求天下無災
人皆平安遠離苦難
願持善念膚大地
世界充滿著愛和關懷

P.S. Tzu Chi has opened a relief center, if you'd like to find ways to help!

Finals

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 20:35:00 +0000

“Learn to play with the pain. This isn't Evanston, kid.”

– Det. Jarek Wysocki, Monday's Chicago Code

I have 30+ pages to write, two exams, an apartment to find, along with a bunch of other stuff? I guess I'll have to suck it up and learn to play with the pain – this is UChicago.