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Dec

20

More media get how to leverage citizen journalism

Filed Under Blogging, Campaigning, Elections, Media, Politics, Tools, WH2008 | Comments Off

MTV got $700,000 from the Knight News Challenge for their effort:

As part of its quadrennial “Choose or Lose” youth voting initiative, MTV has announced a “Street Team” of 51 young amateur journalists, one from each state and the District of Columbia, who have been selected to cover the 2008 election and emphasize issues important to the younger generation.

[snip]

The citizen journalism project has been funded by a $700,000 grant from the John L. and James S. Knight Foundation’s Knight News Challenge. Each member of the team has been provided with mobile equipment–laptops, video cameras, mobile phones–and software provided by Adobe as part of the company’s Adobe Youth Voices philanthropy program.

[snip]

[Vice president of public affairs and strategic partnerships and MTV, Ian] Rowe explained that a passion for politics in general, not any particular affiliation, was the goal. “We’ve recruited a very diverse population,” he said. “Some are more ardently conservative, some are more ardently liberal, but they weren’t chosen for their political views. For all of them the goal is to produce objective reporting.”

Efforts will focus on not only traditional coverage of political primaries, but also how national issues play out locally in each state. Additionally, there will be a focus on the 18-35 demographic: how the election will affect young voters, issues of relevance to youth that are underreported by mainstream news, and how politics are shaped by new technology.

Readers benefit.  And those “amateurs” get a great experience, let’s hope.

Hattip to PJNet.org.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:22 pm December 20th, 2007 in Blogging, Campaigning, Elections, Media, Politics, Tools, WH2008 | Comments Off 

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Dec

20

Blogger meetup review

Filed Under Blogging, Ohio | 2 Comments

From Gloria.  She writes the truth, although I got there an hour late and missed much of what she described, it was obvious to me that everyone was very engaged when I walked in.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Bloggers.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:10 pm December 20th, 2007 in Blogging, Ohio | 2 Comments 

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Dec

20

Bad American on ouster of former boss & Iowa paper editor Mark Bowden

Filed Under Elections, Media, Politics | Comments Off

It’s best for those of us who really follow this stuff, but it is absolutely fascinating reading if you do follow politics, journalism and – no suprise – ethics.

Thanks for taking the time to write this post, Keith.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:32 pm December 20th, 2007 in Elections, Media, Politics | Comments Off 

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Dec

20

“The Jewish Americans” Cleveland preview 1/3; on PBS 1/9, 1/16, 1/23

Filed Under Announcements, Cleveland+, Culture, Jewish, Judaism, Ohio, Religion, Social Issues | Comments Off

Here’s information about the preview event.

Here’s information about the PBS broadcast.

Here’s a pdf with information on the episodes.

Titles like “The Jewish Americans” remind of the movie, Avalon, but maybe that’s just because I like thinking about Aidan Quinn.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:26 pm December 20th, 2007 in Announcements, Cleveland+, Culture, Jewish, Judaism, Ohio, Religion, Social Issues | Comments Off 

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Dec

20

Questioning Cillizza’s independence from WaPo

Filed Under Blogging, Elections, Media, Politics, WH2008 | 4 Comments

I wrote about the Washington Post’s story on Iowa newspaperman Dave Yepsen a couple of days ago.

Today, The Fix has this piece about Yepsen that refers readers to the WaPo piece I critiqued.

However, Chris Cillizza has exorcised all references to Yepsen as the “blogging Iowa newsman” or “new-journalism king” – the monikers with which I took issue.

Interesting, isn’t it?

I’m not suggesting that Cillizza doesn’t genuinely feel as he’s written about Yepsen – nothing reeks of insincerity in Cillizza’s post.  And I’m not even sure it’s because Cillizza realized exactly what I pointed out and knew that if he followed with the WaPo lede, his reader’s would be disappointed too.

Still, to have such a glowy reference to the Post’s mistitled and mis-leding article just feels wrong to me or somehow not honest to followers of The Fix, especially since I read the original WaPo piece, which went with a hook about Yepsen as a blogger when he hasn’t blogged since early November.

On the one hand, my regard has slipped for Cillizza because of the referral to the story.  On the other hand, at least he didn’t try that new-journalism king or blogging Iowa newsman thing on readers.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:06 pm December 20th, 2007 in Blogging, Elections, Media, Politics, WH2008 | 4 Comments 

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Dec

20

Judge Joe D. Russo, law school classmate, heads to Ohio Supco race

Filed Under Campaigning, Courts, Elections, Ohio, Politics | 7 Comments

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Joe D. Russo‘s entrance was mentioned within the last three weeks, but today, the Plain Dealer has a lengthier article about his announcement and opponent:

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor finally knows who wants to take her job next year – it’s one of her neighbors.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Joseph D. Russo said Wednesday that he will run in 2008 against O’Connor, a Republican and fellow Cleveland Heights resident who lives a half-mile away.

Democrats still do not have an opponent for Republican Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, who is also up for re-election next year, but vow to announce a candidate to face her before the Jan. 4 filing deadline.

I met Joe on the very first day of classes.  We were seated next to each other in the front row, though I don’t recall what class it was.  Joe is an eager beaver with a very upbeat affect.  One of my roommates was very good friends with him and I always admired his go-getter approach, though for me, it was a little too classic law school student, which, coming from an extremely non-traditional law school student isn’t really saying anything more than he was right in the thick of law school stuff.

If he’s running, he’s running to win.  The fact that he hasn’t made a ton of noise as a judge is probably a very good thing, because it seems as though when we do hear about judges, it tends to be only the negative.

I wish him the best of luck.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:48 am December 20th, 2007 in Campaigning, Courts, Elections, Ohio, Politics | 7 Comments 

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Dec

20

Filing status update for OH-10

Filed Under Campaigning, Congress, Elections, Ohio, Politics | 2 Comments

A birdy wrote me that three Democratic primary candidates for the 10th Congressional District have filed their petitions in time for a pre-check: Barbara Ferris, Rosemary Palmer and N. Olmstead Mayor, Tom O’Grady.  According to the source, Tuesday (12/18) was the last day for a pre-check (which is optional) of the petitions and now the process requires waiting to see who files before Friday, January 4, 2008, at 4:00.

No Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman, incumbent Dennis Kucinich and no Jim Trakas (R) (Bill Smith-R, Jason Werner-R or Paul Visokaj-Undecided either for that matter according to county BOE documents) yet.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:39 am December 20th, 2007 in Campaigning, Congress, Elections, Ohio, Politics | 2 Comments 

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Dec

20

Plain Dealer’s change to “local-local” front page noted

Filed Under Media, Ohio | 5 Comments

From Poynter:

A tipster told me the Cleveland Plain Dealer has gone all-local on its front page.  Check out a week’s worth of front page layouts posted on Cleveland.com — and it is pretty much true.  The only national display story in the last 10 days was the Mitchell report on steroids in baseball[sic]

Editor Susan Goldberg said in a phone interview that the new policy was not formally announced — the paper simply did it.  National and international stories are regularly teased on a left-hand page one news rail, “but we wanted to get away from putting commodity news that everyone knows already out front.”  The policy is a logical extension of the thought, “hardly an original,” Goldberg said, that people can get up-to-the-minute national and international news many places on the Internet so the core remaining news franchise for a regional paper is local.

I did notice the prominence of the voting story yesterday but didn’t notice anything else about the page in particular.

You?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:10 am December 20th, 2007 in Media, Ohio | 5 Comments 

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