Michael Josefowicz's Comments

Philly Teacher : The Times Are A-Changing

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:48:21 +0000

I agree 100%. With only limited direct experience I would value any thoughts you might have about how I see the problem. First, teachers do not have the time to do their jobs. Enormous amount of wasted energy and being busy, being busy. The other problem is a process for a path out for teachers who don't get it. My impression is that almost every teacher knows who is good and who is not so good in the building. I would think a simple on line survey - probably anonymous - would highlight those with problems very quickly. Once identified, the Union could take the lead with either a little help or info. For those few who really shouldn't be teaching, the Union could develop paths to alternative careers. The easiest to me is to help them start their own businesses or get some training edu job in a different sector.

Newsless.org : Eulogy for news voice

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:37:29 +0000

My two cents. The Twitter format of a 140 characters or live blogging at an event is, in my view, the best way to get the facts as they happen. I read the live blogging from one of the President's press conferences at WSJ. Because time was so limited, there was no analysis. Just an amazingly skilled reporter being able to communicate what they saw happening at the moment. There is just no getting around the truth that after the event, the selection of facts is fraught with implicit judgments and the selections are filtered through personal and socially supported lens. It's why jury trials have such a hard time figuring out the "facts of the case" and why eye witnesses are sometimes the most unreliable. It's also why lawyers spend so much of their time finding and presenting the "facts of the case." And historians do the same. Presenting the facts in a particular order is the "analysis" in the sense of the patterns that create meaning for the reader or viewer or jury. To be clear, I am not suggesting that events are not amenable to becoming facts. Merely that it is a complex process. I agree with Terry's point about "just the facts, ma'am." I'm just saying that translating facts into useful data points might be exactly the irreducible value of journalism. Everyone is entitled to do "analysis" or "commentary". Some patterns emerging from the data points work for me. Some don't. But that's not the core of the journalist's job.

Newsless.org : The timing of local news cycles

Sat, 16 May 2009 10:55:00 +0000

i agree that the issue is that the article is a broken format. There's been a useful discussion about how the story is the appropriate kernel for the news. But, 'they want the whole story without having to ...." There is no way to tell a complex story in a summary. What you can do in a "summary" is let people know if something might affect them adversely or get them to smile. And give them a portal so they can wade into the stream of information to learn what might have really happened.

Newsless.org : The timing of local news cycles

Thu, 14 May 2009 11:55:34 +0000

I think an interesting data point is the regular news in brief column on the front page of the WSJ. The question that it answers is "Did anything happen that I have to worry about?" That's worth the price of admission. Everything else is a nice to have. I do think that the daily paper has the value of making easily available for a quick glance, "Did anything happen last night that I have to worry about." The value is in the expectation of getting that question answered on paper, every morning. The longer features could be published once a week, or in the form of a paperback book or with links to the website. Meanwhile, that leaves lots of paper real estate for appropriately priced advertisement, sports, comic strips.

Newsless.org : While I was out

Sat, 2 May 2009 16:44:40 +0000

Just had a little time to click through the site. Brilliant. If you have some time to keep us posted on how it works out re engagement, that would be much appreciated. FYI http://toughloveforxerox.blogspot.com/2009/05/ver...

Newsless.org : Wikipedia Foretold

Sat, 4 Apr 2009 12:39:36 +0000

Matt, In case this hasn't gotten on your radar, I think it's a must read.. http://eaves.ca/2009/03/17/journalism-in-an-open-...

Newsless.org : Wikipedia Foretold

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:12:54 +0000

Fair enough. But, I think the narrative of many journalist students since then was more about meeting Deep Throat, getting access to just the right source, and "we took down a President." The fact that it is a myth is not a surprise as the other myth is that the media got it mostly right when reporting about the Vietnam War from 1964 to about 1971. In that context Judith Miller is only the most egregious example, not an outlier.

Newsless.org : Wikipedia Foretold

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:50:51 +0000

Public record is most usually found in documents. So maybe there is a kind of journalism that can be document based. I had to laugh when I heard some congressman telling Joe Scarborough that "no one in the House read the stimulus bill" before they voted yes. Then Joe et al were "shocked, shocked!" Then I asked myself.."Shouldn't that be a journalists job?" "Find delight in the task of establishing useful trails through the enormous mass of the common record." is very specifically not heroic Watergate journalism.

Newsless.org : There is only us

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:53:51 +0000

Nice. Maybe it's Journalist as Hero is replaced by Journalist as Teacher.

DMNews : Building loyalty on a busted budget in 2009 - DMNews

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:07:16 +0000

Re Lee Gallaghere's post. Google has clearly demonstrated the power of contextually correct ads. In fact the thing that changes junk mail into useful mail is if it the right offer to the right person in the right form at the right time. Every sales person understands the need to actively listen. Data analytics, his first point, is a form of scaling active listening to a mass audience in real time. But just as it is hard for a person to become expert at active listening, the software will continue to evolve, getting smarter the more transactions it analyzes. From where I sit, transpromo is quickly evolving to Google AdSense on paper.

Newsless.org : There is only us

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:13:46 +0000

Matt, I think it helps to distinguish between the function of editor vs journalist. Ever since Watergate, the "journalist as hero" is the meme journalists use to define themselves. Ben Bradley's role, while important, was in the background. Meanwhile the real secret sauce was Deep Throat. It defined the model as "if I can get access to someone who really knows, I'll take down the x,y,or z" I think a more interesting model is "Three Days of the Condor." Robert Redford is a reader for the CIA. He imagines the possible, then passes it along, mayhem ensues. Meanwhile, as far as I know, the only group that got it right on Iraq was a study group in the State Department that had no privileged information. As I understand it they worked mostly from public sources. I'm seeing two kinds of journalism. One is talking to people. The other is talking to documents - either on paper, but more likely on the web. I think it is unreasonable to expect journalists to be researchers. Different jobs. Different skill sets. Consider how many "journalists" have read the stimulus bill. Ok it's a couple of hundred pages. But I think I remember tyhat you spent a good amount of time following some stories over time. Well within the skill set and job description of a journalist. Imagine the value of edited versions of Congressional Hearings. It's the only place in America that very powerful people have to choose their words very, very carefully. The words still may be not true, but once the words are spoken, then cut and paste, compare and contrast, can come into action. The secret of John Stewart is first - no pretensions at superior knowledge. He wins by being funny, not by being an "expert." Second, the fact that finding the right video is fast, simple and free.Cut and paste, compare and contrast. It's how he was able to make the Cramer stuff both very popular and very accurate. I think what we might be seeing is that speed and accessibility of the internet coupled with the search capabilities of google and YouTube have finally destroyed the value creation of the hero journalists. Enough with Tropper Gate, Travel Gate, etc etc. and Judith Miller's "access" to Scooter Libby. In it's place is the separation of content creation and delivery mechanism and the renewed importance of the editor. Just a note . the coming primacy of the editor was what I took away from Epic. In case it hasn't got onto your radar, there is a media organization in Eastern Iowa, that is just now going live with this model. I think they've got it just right.The really cool concept is the notion of an editor as "the conductor of an information orchestra." If you follow the links in this post, It gives a pretty good idea of their approach. http://sellingprint.blogspot.com/2009/03/future-a...

Newsless.org : Comments, community, conversation, coverage and context.

Sun, 1 Mar 2009 11:50:22 +0000

I think you are really on to something. This site is my favorite example on the web as a discussion place that nurtures a conversation that creates new thoughts. From a technical point of view, intense debate seems like great tech. The harder problem is the human factor. This site has a clear agenda. It attracts people who share that agenda. As far as I can see, it's purpose was not to attract a gezillion users. It's purpose is to be a place for collaborative thinking. A newspaper might host a discussion on local economic development. Make sure that at least two pros were incented to participate. They would set the tone. No need to moderate comments. The norms of communication would quickly and naturally evolve. My take is that the most appropriate mind set for a newspaper company is to have a teacher-type manage the discussion. Teacher in the sense of team leader - not in the sense of "talk and chalk." The skills and attitudes needed to nurture a good on line discussion are exactly those of the great teacher. The culture shift is that journalism has rarely lived up to the "inform, educate" part. For very good commercial reasons, it's about "amuse" or amaze. And of course, my plug for Print. Consider the effects on the conversation, if everyone knew coming in that edited comments, with or without names (user's choice) would be published once a week in an "Discusssions on the web" section of the paper.

Newsless.org : News as a hook for context

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:16:26 +0000

Me too as in "amazing post and genuine insight." I've been a fan for a while. This is just one that got my attention. "We don’t just cover the news for the sake of telling people what happened; we cover the news to help our communities understand themselves better, so they can improve." If the news media really worked by this simple statement of purpose, many things fall into place. Aggregating eyeballs and selling them to advertisers is a bad business model. Not because it is no longer as predictable as before. Not because advertising is evil. The problem is that the incentives put in place inevitably distort the views of very smart, hardworking editors and journalists. One idea that I've been testing in various places is that newspapers should participate in reinventing education, in addition to reporting on it. K-12 education is one of the few places in our society that learning has to happen. Textbooks are broken. Textbooks attract lots of revenue. I feel so certain that if newspapers and journalist organizations focused on this space, the correct incentives would be in place to " cover the news to help our communities understand themselves better, so they can improve."

Newsless.org : Why we're not creating a wiki

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:21:24 +0000

Good point about wikis and gardens. It just takes time. I'm very interested to see what is going to be Plan B. I have something I wanted to get on your radar. Consider Law and Order: The first quarter is the event and introducing all the players. The 2nd quarter is about getting a plausible theory to connect events and players. The third quarter is about transforming the theory into a provable story. The fourth quarter is where two contradictory stories go head to head and Truth is determined by the jury or the deal. Truth is so satisfying. It's why people love baseball. The point I'm trying to make is that to put ongoing events in context, a working theory has to exist first. We don't have the time of the historians. We have to contextualize what happened yesterday and often today. Here's how I think it can be done. In fact a working theory always exists, The 2 common stories for "growth" is "bad rich people are screwing good poor people". or "rich smart people are selfishly worried about quality of life and ignoring poorer people's need for jobs." it's not very hard to fit the events in any place at almost any time into that story. It's an easy story to tell and guaranteed to get agreement, especially from the most active element of your readers. If it were me, the place I would start , not for publishing but for the journo, is the theory about growth and development in general. The theory comes from some really smart people who have looked at the problem for long time. IMHO, The smartest theory about growth and development is by Jane Jacobs, especially "Cities and the Wealth of Nations". So, I would get everyone on the team to read the book. Have a couple of discussions to get her theory of the "crime" clear so that everyone on the team agrees (sort of like the detectives in the first quarter of L&W. The whiteboard, the sargent sending them out ot interview X). Whoever has the job title or the most articulated vision acts as general editor/chief detective. Not to say that everyone has to agree. But everyone has to have an articulated view of how development works, in general. Then editorial meetings can be really neat arguments about does this event support or negate the working theory of the event. Then use the wiki, not for community involvement, but as a place to collect evidence, discuss the evidence with the team, then publish a story when it's ready. Meanwhile, keep covering events until you have something useful to say. When you have a story worth telling or when an event needs whatever your working theory produces at that moment, publish it in Print and on Web. When you're covering events, forget about context. Just the facts. Use those to fill the news hole, either on the web or if there is a regular print pub, use that to fill the news hole as necessary. To be clear, you don't publish the theory. You only publish those parts of the story that is supported by evidence. Anyway, the real context of the story is created by the interaction of your readers with your words and pictures. That's the really hard part, IMHO. Do you think this makes sense and is practical?

Newsless.org : "Newsless"?

Mon, 9 Feb 2009 20:23:20 +0000

Terry, We agree. The art of journalism is similar to the art of writing history. How to nest an event within a series of events to make a plausible narrative. I thought the cloud was interesing as one more piece that is falling into place.

Newsless.org : "Newsless"?

Mon, 9 Feb 2009 14:10:44 +0000

I wanted to share a link I found this am. I think it is another step closer to using the Cloud in the way that Matt has been arguing for since I got here" The New York Times and ProPublica are looking into doing something similar through DocumentCloud, which would be a place for reporters to store documents they gather during reporting for other newsrooms to use. The link:http://www.collegemediainnovation.org/blog/2009/0... FYI, I've been asked to do a bimonthly post as the "Print Correspondent" for http://www.pbs.org/ideala My first column is supposed to go live late in the day today. The FYI is that I put in links to newsless.org and proposed a scheme to raise some money for Everyblock. Keep an eye on your RSS.

Newsless.org : "Newsless"?

Thu, 5 Feb 2009 20:24:04 +0000

make sense. My interest is to get closer to distribute and print. My other interest is to help figure out how good journalism can benefit from web tech so that more money can be focused on creating and supporting great journalists.

Newsless.org : "Newsless"?

Thu, 5 Feb 2009 19:29:31 +0000

Terry, Am I correct that the process of tagging can be ongoing as long as previous tags were not eliminated?