I have trouble keeping up with all links to great long-form journalism and essays that stream past every day, but here are my favourites (out of the ones I managed to catch and read and either remember or save (thank you Longreads & Instapaper)). In not much of an order: How the Internet gets inside us, Adam [...]
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2011,
essays,
favourites,
journalism,
longreads,
reading,
writers
Here’s a fascinating article about the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue at Firdos Square in 2003 – a great case to examine how our desire for compelling stories and images makes us deceive ourselves. Some argue it may have made things worse — enabling the infamous “Mission Accomplished” announcement and causing people to overlook real problems. (More [...]
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attention,
conspiracies,
deception,
iraq war,
journalism,
self-deception,
war
We had an interesting exchange on Twitter the other day, about the lack of attention given by the media to lesser-known election candidates. Partially aside, it was the kind of thing I’ve been hoping to see for a while — a lively backchannel discussion about how local politics news is covered — and I hope [...]
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blogging,
conversation,
elections,
ideas,
journalism,
leadership,
linking,
politics,
reporting,
social media,
twitter
Lately I’ve been scouring the nets and local book-lenders for guidance and inspiration on writing. I stumbled on this at Nieman Storyboard [recommended, and the source of this post's title]: Now, just as I don’t know what a story is going to be when I start out working on it, I have no idea how to [...]
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beginners,
david foster wallace,
discipline,
disciplines,
discovery,
entrepreneurship,
history,
hunter s thompson,
journalism,
learning,
outsiders,
reporting,
work,
writing
Part of a new series I’m starting to explore social, creative, and economic opportunities specific to London Ontario. Recently I posted about the benefits of educating citizens to think like journalists. Since then I found a lot of great examples of a collaborative approach to journalism — not just between professionals and amateurs, but between [...]
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cities,
collaboration,
conversation,
cooperation,
journalism,
news,
opportunity,
organizations,
social media,
web
I’m working on trying to select and organize some of my best posts into a book I’ll publish through Lulu. If you have any you like — or stuck in your mind at least — or if you’ve been reading without ever commenting, now’s the time to say something. The working title is “The World Turned [...]
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blogging,
change,
history,
journalism,
social media,
writing
During the weekend I spent some time writing yet another criticism of old media protectionism. I called it, “Because You Wouldn’t Go to a ‘Citizen Prostitute’ for Sex, Would You?”… this is the tame version. What so many protectionists miss is that telling stories and getting to the bottom of things are basic human motives [...]
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careers,
cultural evolution,
dan rather,
jeff jarvis,
journalism,
knowledge,
motivation,
news,
newspapers,
paul berton,
psychology,
social_media,
will to relevance
Halfway through his review of Free: The Future of a Radical Price, it became totally clear to me. I mean, I always knew it but I didn’t appreciate the full implications until now. Malcolm Gladwell is essentially an entertainer. He writes to be read and enjoyed rather than to challenge and educate. He turns ideas into [...]
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abundance,
blogging,
books,
business books,
chris anderson,
entertainment,
free,
intellectuals,
journalism,
malcolm gladwell,
pop intellectuals,
publishing,
seth godin,
the new yorker,
web,
wired
As a journalist, I cannot say that what I have read and seen today is the whole story: everything is too piecemeal, too unconfirmable, too one-sided. But experiencing the raw feed of history has been chilling. As we try to carve out the truth from the speculation and relentlessly repeated reports of outrage, the overall [...]
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crisis,
history,
iran,
journalism,
real-time web,
web,
writing
Contrary to what a lot of professional journalists seem to resent citizen journalism for aspiring to — essentially just cheap and undisciplined journalism — my vision of open and participatory journalism is that non-journalists will play complementary and contributing roles. More people will have some of the basic skills and reflexes needed to contribute whenever they [...]
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blogging,
citizen journalism,
information gathering,
journalism,
news,
social media,
social networks,
systems,
web
by Brian on 05-18-2009
in humour
We got this on Saturday: To the entire staff of brianfrank.ca, Folks, you’re doing a great job. We aren’t quite where we need to be yet but we’re getting there. You deserve a weekend off — not this one, and not the next either — maybe some time in August — definitely at least by [...]
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journalism,
satire,
stupidity
by Brian on 05-16-2009
in media
Above all the claims about the need to save journalism, about it being essential to our society, etc, this fact seems to be missed: the more essential journalism is supposed to be, the more continuously prevalent it should appear throughout history. How much historical continuity is there? Where did journalism really come from? What is [...]
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cultural evolution,
evolution,
history,
journalism,
media,
practices,
professions,
twitter
