Is Criticism the same as Journalism?

In our democratic society, the freedom of the press clause in the First Amendment is to protect the right of citizens to have their own publications even if they criticize the political power. In contrast, a partisan press system– such as of Nazi and the Soviet Union–can degenerate into lying propaganda with the purpose of disinforming and depoliticizing the citizens rather than encouraging them in the political process.

            Like historians, journalists have the responsibility to distance themselves from their own political views and interests, from their own culture and religion. In our democratic society, they have the freedom of expression and can criticize their own society; they have the responsibility to pursue the truth, to present real facts, and to tell their audience what actually happened.

            The basic questions of journalism criticism are: What is the relationship between journalism and influential sources? Do journalists have direct influence in politics or vice versa? Who controls the public domain? The main idea is that in democracy, the public should have open access to public institutions and resources for information, including journalism. Thus, access to journalism should be open to all citizens (Jankowski, Nicholas: Reflections on the Origins and Meanings of Media Access, Javnost/The Public 2, 1995). There should be a dialogue between Journalism and the public, a “real conversation”, debate, and discussion about the communities that journalism addresses (Park, Robert Ezra, 1941).

            Criticism should be a part of the news reporting and writing process even though the journalists are accused of being unprofessional and attempting to include their own views in the news when they raise issues that the people in power are not debating but rather manipulating them in their interests. At the same time, journalism should not be confused with criticism. journalism should be “reality –based reporting” as opposed to opinion journalism:

           

Which Character Do You Admire Most in Stoppard’s Night & Day?

Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard was born Tomas Straussler on July 3, 1937 in Zlin, Czechoslovakia. Besides his work for the theatre, he began writing plays for radio and television in 1963. Among the eighteen plays Tom Stoppard wrote, “Night and Day” is one of the best plays of our times although much criticized. It is Stoppard’s best drama and a real improvement over his two preceding “serious” plays, “Travesties” and “Jumpers”.

            “Night and Day” is about British and international correspondents in Africa to cover an uprising revolution, about love and death, and about Journalism as a pillar of free society. In this play the characters are emotionally engaged. The action takes place in an African state called Kambawe, which is dictatorially ruled by “President” Mageeba. When Mageeba’s regime was threatened by rebels, Dick Wagner and Jacob Milne (two newsmen) gather at Geoffrey Carson’s house, a British mine owner. The journalists are central to the “Night and Day” play, which is concerned with the responsibility of journalism and a free press. They met at Carson’s house, because they were eager to cover the uprising in Kambawe (once a British colony), and Carson had a Telex machine and close connections to dictator Mageeba.

            The unifying character is Carson’s wife Ruth, who has a complicated and vulnerable personality, is frustrated, fears madness, and has retired prematurely from an active life. She had an affair with Wagner in a London hotel. While waiting for war to break out, the journalists conduct debates on various topics: free expression and free press, the nature of British trade unions, and British Colonial experience. All the characters, including the tyrannical ruler Mageeba, are brought into the debate.

            As major questions about the role of the press arise into the debate, the play is at its most intensive moment. Milne’s idealistic notion of the press is a great deal of arguing with Wagner about the value and place of journalism and the limits on the freedom of a corporate-run paper. The main question is about the role of journalists. If one of them dies in action, is he a hero giving his life for truth or for a modest salary received from a profitable newspaper? Richard Wagner, the cynical reporter, hopes to use Geoffrey Carson’s ties with Kambawe’s dictator and the opposing rebel leader to his advantage.

            Ruth, the enigmatic and romantic character, has a focal role in the play. She is right when she says: “I’m with you on the free press. It’s the newspapers I can’t stand”. I sympathize with Jacob Milne, who was machine-gunned to death–one of the newsmen who risk their lives to provide the public with the truth about the revolution in Africa– while Carson has his business interests. Milne, an idealistic journalist, was the only non-game player and suffered the most tragic fate off all characters. He speaks with Stoppard’s tone of voice reflecting his own philosophy: “But in Night and Day, certainly in Jacob Milne’s monologue about newspapers, he does speak for me. No question. But when the African dictator puts in his point of view about the relativity of the freedom, that also makes sense”. (An interview with Tom Stoppard, by Nancy Shields Hardin; Tom Stoppard, Contemporary Literature: Vol. 22, No. 2, p. 159)

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Buyout

The recent government buyout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was happy news to many Americans. According to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the government wanted to “initiate market stability, mortgage availability and tax payer protection”[1] by showing support for the wobbling lending industry. However, it is difficult to say what this action will mean in the long term. Of course, it has positive intentions, but what is it saying about our economy?

The American economic system is a big web—everything is connected. Some call it a ripple effect, where one drop has many ramifications. Some others, those who are less optimistic, may call it a domino effect: one falls, and the rest will follow.

Because the world economy is dominated by globalization, it is important to think about how the government’s buyout of the mortgage houses will affect not only the US, but the rest of the world. This step will not only encourage Americans to purchase more homes, but it will also please foreign creditors.(2) Because of our huge deficit, it is very important that the United Stats maintains the trust of foreign friends.     

Everyone knows that politics and economics have a symbiotic relationship, where there is a constant exchange between the two. Yet I would argue that until recently, the American government was very reluctant to have a direct role in the American economy. The government buyout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac signals a new era of federal participation in the economy, recommending a huge shift on the (classic) conservative and liberal spectrum.

However, since the buyout, it has been an absolute roller coaster ride on Wall Street. Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, and insurance giant AIG is in crisis. I’m sure Americans all over the country are wondering if they should just keep their money in a shoebox under the bed instead of the stock market. However, it is important to remember that this is not the Great Depression—since then, many precautions have been taken to ensure that never again will there be such a run on the banks. Examples of such precautions include back-up organizations like the FDIC and the Securities Investors Corp.

            Although we are not necessarily in a major crisis, perhaps this tightening on the economy serves as a reminder to be vigilant with your money. Americans who have invested a lot of money in such assets were perhaps getting too comfortable, and of course there are many Americans who have never been comfortable at all. Thus, the government buyout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sets off a whole chain of events that ultimately reminds us to pay attention to our money, our economy, and perhaps more so now than ever, our government.

 

 

 Fannie Mae Headquarters at 3900 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Washington DC.

 

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Readings about Internet, Blogoshphere, Technology II

There are many other things to consider in order to do blogs right. To adhere to the fundamentals such as transparency and authenticity is another example. But, I should write some ideas that I found interesting in The Long Tail, as well.

While reading Chris Anderson’s book, I was fascinated about the evolution of technology and its impact in culture, society, and in people’s life. In the earlier era of a niche culture, most culture was local, people were divided, and could not communicate their new ideas and trends outside their geographical places.

The Church was the main institution that distributed infrastructure and unified cultures in Western Europe. The Bible was the most mass-produced media by Gutenberg’s Press.

In the mid late nineteenth century, new technologies such as commercial printing technology, the photography thechnology, and the phonograph–invented by Edison in 1877–led to the first wave of pop culture. The production of illustrated newspapers, magazines, novels, political pamphlets, and commercial catalogs exploded. Later, Edison crated another mass market with the moving picture. The effect was the possibility of linking and mixing people across time and space, and synchronizing society.

In 1922, AT&T and Bell companies developed technologies for transmitting voice and music on the new long-distance phone networks. Along with the explosion of the broadcast mediums of radio and television, the “network” broadcasting was the beginning of shared national culture.

However, “The Internet’s Long Tail” has the most fascinating contribution to the transformation of media since the commercialization of television half a century ago. Technology and the Internet are changing cultures, societies, the way people communicate and do business. Chris Anderson’s book, explains how the Internet revolution creates huge opportunities in the global economy and international markets.

Readings about Internet, Blogosphere, Technology I

One of the things that I found interesting in the Naked Conversations reading was the fact that blogosphere is not monitored, filtered, and that there are no absolute enforcement rules. The benefit is huge, when people can express their creative ideas freely.

There are some unforceable rules if you want to have a good blog, though. Write cautiously and positively on your blog. Ignore when other sites write negative or challenging remarks. Make sure you don’t offend anyone inside and outside your company. Avoid controversial conversations and write diplomatically.

Companies can learn a lot from blogger opinions. As an example, Boeing–which is in a fierce competition with the French Airbus–made innovative efforts to join the blogosphere in mid-2005. It offered test flights to bloggers if they would blog about their experience. Later, the blogers’ postings were very advantageous and favorable to Boeing.

Blog voices are also very important for a good blog. Selfish blogging should be avoided, because it makes a blog wrong. As an example of selfishing is Google’s official blog. Although Google is the owner of Blogger and one of the most respected and prestigious company in the world, its official blog speaks of no other companies but Google. It creates the impression that the company has never experienced anything wrong, but had only success.

World Opinion Roundup-My Favorite Blog

It is very difficult for me to decide which blog I like the best, as I have interest in various fields from global issues, to international relations, foreign cultures, diplomacy, travel and tourism, local business news, and so on.

I have been reading constantly The World Opinion Roundup blog, and I really find it very informative and conversational. This blog was launched in 2001 and was meant to capture global discussions from different perspectives of international news for Washingtonpost.com readers.

If you are interested in more comprehensive coverage of international news, you might want to try another washingtonpost.com blog that was inaugurated this year: PostGlobal. This one has a higher traffic than World Opinion Roundup, but it is under criticism due to a less informed discussion.

The World Opinion Roundup blog is much different from the Washington Post print edition. First, Washingtonpost.com staff writer Jefferson Morley conducts Live Online discussions about the best Internet news from all over the world. You can find more about this here.

Second, the blog is different from the print edition in depth & interactive coverage of discussions; it has a focused approach aimed at developing a global debate on most important world news. For instance, I have been more interested in European news, and I read Jefferson Morley’s posts about CIA secret prisons in Europe. Written on this topic, his entries are not a monologue like the print edition, but rather a conversation on the issues. He got tens of comments on every post he made.

I read the story in the Washington Post print edition but in the first article, it only reported that “the US maintains a secret prison for suspected al Qaeda operatives in an unnamed East European country”. The big question for the European officials and Online Media was about the location of those prisons.

Jefferson Morley made several entries about CIA’s secret prisons for al Qaeda suspects in Eastern Europe. Here is one of his articles. After more than a hundred comments on Jefferson’s articles on his blog, the officials of European Parliament and the Swiss prosecutor Dick Marty moved to investigate the Washington Post’s report about secret CIA’s secret flights and prisons in Eastern Europe, and eventually, they got to the conclusion that some of those prisons were in Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and other European countries.

Lastly, Jefferson Morley’s blog is different from the Washington Post print edition, because his blog is connecting to other sources of information like these: “Europe Tracks CIA Operations“, “More on Secret Prison Location“.

Digital University Publishing

The debate we have had on the “University Publishing in a Digital Age” inspired me to blog about this report released by Ithaka (“an independent not-for-profit organization”). Since I work in an academic publishing field and I am aware of the importance of digital publishing, I will try to take my precaution and just try to participate in the conversation about this report and about an aggregated published university content online.

There are interesting points in this report. At some institutions, the role of university presses is in question. Some are looking to libraries to assume digital publishing. Others are re-evaluating the governance of their presses and are considering moving their presses into different reporting lines. Perhaps, they would adapt better to the digital world if they would be part of the Information Technology entity, for instance.

Meanwhile, the university presses should work collaboratively with the libraries, information technologies departments, provost offices, graduate schools, and other offices to be able to make the transition to electronic publishing.

In the nearest future, professors will get more aggressively their previously published work as well as current content on line, so we will need to operate print and electronic programs at the same time. Scholars will seek to work in electronic research and publishing environment, which will provide them with the tools for conducting research, collaborating with peers, sharing working papers, and manipulating data. Scholarship published on line, will include graphics, audio, and video materials.

As non-profit organizations, the universities should make a publishing decision that balance the priorities of mission and profit. Because of serving the academic mission, they aim to publish quality scholarship in markets with little profit, but great research or educational impact. The solution would be to invest capital strategically. The transition from print to digital, publishing requires investment capital in order to develop new infrastructure. New sources of funding will be necessary. For example, in raising money for digital programs, university presses should work with development officers, to focus on foundations, government agencies, and other sources of funding.

Evan Schnittman mentioned in his blog after returning from the Frankfurt Book Fair: “it occurred to me that the publishing industry today is in a position rarely if ever experienced before”. In Longtail Wars, he says that there are three wars that are changing the nature of publishing: the discoverability wars, the print on demand wars, and the repository wars. He offers an enthusiastic take on digital publishing strategies (http://blog.oup.com/2007/10/longtail/).

It is concluded that universities should become more actively involved and committed to publishing online. The digital publishing would enable universities to fully realize the potential global impact of their academic programs and will help scholars to distribute their work more efficiently.