The MoJo Prof

If you haven't noticed, the Tigers are prowling the political blogs again.

In the fall I have the pleasure of teaching editorial writing at the Missouri School of Journalism. I've been a newspaper editor, but I really don't think many young journalists will have a chance to fill the editorial page. That's the domain of the senior staff.

But they certainly can blog. And what better place to try their wings than MyFoxSTL.

I divided my class into four team, each with a theme:

CultureWars -- A liberal-leaning look at politics and social issues. Adam Daniels, Burk Krohe, Sean Madden, Bridget Mullen, and Greg Wasserman take turns posting.
TigersRightPaw -- A conservative view from four university students: Nathan Birt, Gregory Spielberg, Benjamin Herrold and Philip Laposa.
ShowMeMo -- It's a look at politic from the Missouri perspective. Written by Amber Fehrenbacher, Ryan Neal and Adam Stillman.
ShadesofGreen -- Green and green: The politics of the environment and the costs of protecting it. Written by Melissa Boyer, Lesley Grissum and Lauren Titterington.

In addition, a faculty member from nearby Columbia College sits in on the class and blogs on this system. He also writes a Friday column for the Columbia Missourian. Dave Rossman's acerbic blog is ProfDave.

Many media critics (perhaps read "you"?) complain that journalists are out of touch with their readers and don't grasp the significance of the blogging phenomenon. That's why these students are targets for your comments. Given the reputation of the Missouri School of Journalism, you can count on one or more of these students becoming an editor at one of America's leading newspapers. And all will play some significant role in the media. Giving them real-world experience is what we call the "Missouri Method."

So here is your chance. Teach them the ropes by cutting them no slack. But be honest, please. And if you have a problem or special comment, you can post it to me here or you can email me at bentleycl@missouri.edu .

Clyde Bentley
Associate Professor
Missouri School of Journalism

Musicians intrigue me beyond description. They are our access to an alternate universe where countless emotions flow freely on the backs clefs and dancing notes. From thin air, musicians pluck magic that sticks in my brain for days, weeks or a lifetime.

I’ve always wanted to have music, but that simply is not my lot. Words live in me. Music just visits.

Monday I had more than a simple visit; I was treated to a visage. Itzhak Perlman’s face, to be exact.

Last spring my wife asked if I would like a special musical treat for my March birthday. Cecile knows I can’t tell a sonata from a sing-along, but she also knows I love “historical” opportunities. That’s how we ended up with front-row seats for violinist Itzhak Perlman’s scheduled Columbia concert.

A health problem kept the Perlman from playing for my birthday, but the cherubic master finally came to Jesse Hall this week.

I’ve been to concerts of many kinds in many halls. I am often sadly disappointed by classical music performances that seldom seem as good as listening to my own stereo. But this time Itzhak Perlman’s face was no farther from me than if it had been on the television in my living room. That face became the concert for my eyes that his Stradivarius gave to my ears.

Perlman doesn’t play music. He releases it. To watch him tuck his violin beneath his chin and look down the strings is much like watching a pigeon fancier touch the bird to his lips before giving it to the sky.

And when he plays, it is a constant conversation with the score. Some notes he had to coax – furrowing his brow in concentration. Others he welcomed with a big smile. And during a Beethoven sonata, I swear that Perlman seduced the music into the air.

My lasting impression, however, will be of Itzhak Perlman playing Stravinsky’s Suite Italiene. He greeted the piece as an old friend, laughed with it, reminisced with the sernata and danced the jig of friends for the tarantella.

I watched in awe as he cracked open the door to that other place where beautiful sounds eliminated crowds, the exhaustion of touring and even the polio that hobbles Perlman’s legs. He did not read the notes on the stand before him so much as he glanced back to make sure his friends were still following him into the concert hall. His was not the stare of concentration, but the approving gaze of love.

Today I peck at a tuneless keyboard and try to capture some small part of the wonder I experienced Monday night. I still don’t have music. But at least I’ve come face to face with it.

And that in turn gave me words.

There have been several posts about our "overuse" of cell phones and how they might cause driving problems. But should we face up to the probability that landline telephones are doomed?

A recent research project found that in 30 countries, per capita use of cell phones exceeds 100% of the population. There are also twice as many users of text messaging than there are of people who email.

So the shoe is shifting to the other foot. How do you justify paying the extra fee for a landline telephone now. And would you miss those wires stringing through the neighborhood? My son says the only reason to have a landline is to call your cell phone when you can't find it.

Clyde
MoJo Prof

There have been several posts about our "overuse" of cell phones and how they might cause driving problems.  But should we face up to the probability that landline telephones are doomed?

A recent research project found that in 30 countries, per capita use of cell phones exceeds 100% of the population.  There are also twice as many users of text messaging than there are of people who email.

So the shoe is shifting to the other foot.  How do you justify paying the extra fee for a landline telephone now.  And would you miss those wires stringing through the neighborhood?  My son says the only reason to have a landline is to call your cell phone when you can't find it.

Clyde
MoJo Prof

I need a little help again from my favorite set of bloggers.

Missouri journalists are in the midst of a rather divisive discussion over the credibility of blogs and comments on news sites that are signed only with screen names.  You know the drill, as most of the blogs here are signed with a name like, well, MoJo Prof.  Now those same Web identities are coming in on the comments sent to newspapers and broadcast Websites.

Traditionally, newspapers only run content authored by identifiable people who use their real names, so they won't run the anonymous comments.  But increasingly, people say they prefer a pseudonym. Some want to keep their opinions from their employers and neighbors.  Some say it gives them the emotional freedom to speak out.  Others just think it is cool.

The states editors are getting heartburn.

The Missouri School of Journalism has an obligation to help the media understand what you want.  And guess who was drafted to answer the questions of the state's editors?

I know we have been through this before, but please, please help your befuddled Missouri media wonks with some fresh and insightful comments. It's the editors in smaller cities who are most desperate for your views. I may have the journalism degree, but you have the expertise in blogging.

• So how credible are anonymous comments?
• Ditto blogs
  
• Why don't you use your real name? 
  
• And just as an aside, how do people choose their pen names?
  

Let me know by commenting on this post or sending an email to me at bentleycl@missouri.edu.  I will pass your insights to the editors and then let you know what they said.

The MoJo Prof

aka Clyde Bentley

Associate Professor

Missouri School of Journalism

I came across a fun bit of research today.   A study of 6,000 women by BlogHer found that they would give up most of the niceties of live (sigh, including newspapers) to keep reading or writing blogs.

Except chocolate.  The sweet stuff is still the temptation of choice for the larger half of our population.  Say it ain't so, Blogettes.  My prose smeared by Hersheys?  At least newspapers beat Jim Beam.

The report says:


55%     would give up alcohol
50%     would give up their PDAs
42%     would give up their i-Pod
43%     would give up reading the newspaper or magazines
only     20% would give up chocolate

Clyde the MoJo Prof

By the way, the term is ended and I will have more time to post.  In June I go to Mongolia to research the curious legacy of Genghis Khan.  I'll check in from Ulaanbaatar and diary the trip on my personal blog, Heard from Afar.

It's no secret to my wife, but I got to spend part of my New Year's weekend with two very lovely ladies.

The one you know best was our own Jill Hampton.  The Fox2 blog queen was in Columbia to mark the New Year with friends, but I was able to lure her to lunch with Cecile and I.  The bait was just too tempting for any Mizzou grad -- burgers at Booche's.  USA Today rated it one of the best burger places in the country.  Tigers rate it THE best.

But then there was this sultry, lithe and oh-so-loving little lady.  Big brown eyes, hair like a Renaissance painting and a kiss that puts you in heaven.  Greta.   Another Garbo.



OK, so she's a dog.  But she's a beauty.   We picked up our 9-week-old whippet from Okellie Kennels Saturday.  Our son's whippet, Saffron, has been a fixture in our family for nearly eight years.   But Garrett will graduate from MU and move on soon -- and with him Saffron.

So now we have Greta to enliven our almost-empty nest.  Happy New Year.

Clyde

What a bittersweet day. I wrapped up the fall semester by saying goodbye to one of the brightest and most enjoyable groups of students with whom I have worked.

You know them as Alien, Bad Ad-itude, Common Cents, Life's Relative, The Tiger's Right Paw and The Watchdog. I know them as 18 faces that alternately knit in puzzlement, glazed in terror and brightened in delight as I took them through a semester of commentary, editorial and blog writing.

I invited the students to my house this afternoon for a brownies, hot cider and farewells. Like the 31 other afternoons I have spent with them since August, I learned as much as I taught. I laughed with them as they told of comments on their blogs, exchanges they have on Facebook and the befuddlement of their friends as they became increasingly opinionated. I listened to them worry about their futures and the future of their profession. And I simply enjoyed their wit and wisdom.

As they enjoyed yours. Their tip of the hat is to the bloggers, comment writers and staff at MyFox STL. They all named you as some of the best teachers they have ever experienced.

Some of the students will keep writing on this system and all of them will write somewhere. A third of the class graduates next week. Another third will go to professional projects next term. Others have a year ahead where they can continue to focus their careers.

You may even see their bylines soon. The LA Times, the Dallas Morning News, a major magazine company and several other big media names will soon have them on staff. One student is off to a study session in Australia, another to the Middle East. Both will blog from there.

I won't have an editorial writing class in the spring term, but I will teach a citizen journalism/blogging class. I'm not sure if those students will migrate to MyFox, but I will still be here to report on the view from the not-so-ivory tower.

Thanks, folks. Thanks for giving them hell, for making them think and most of all, for listening. In the past few months you may have had more impact on the future of American media than any panel of talking heads ever has.

Clyde Bentley
The MoJo Prof

I'm sitting in a seminar with another "expert" on online news.  The subject today is using video, sound and fancy graphics.

The unanswered questions:

 What percent of the time when you see a link to a video clip do you actually open the link to a video or sound clip?

Is there an "anti-social" aspect?  That is, do you NOT click on the video when you are sitting in a room with other people because the sound will come blasting out of your speakers?

We just do it, but you consume it.  Tell the journalists what's what.

Clyde the MoJo Prof

The Kansas City Star invited a familiar voice to blog about the upcoming Border War. Brittany Darwell is part of the Watchdog team of MU students that comments in the political area.

Politics are one thing, but mess with a sports rivalry and you really create a storm. Brittany's pro-MO comments have the Kansans out for blood. She has been called stupid, boring, ugly, uninformed, a bad journalist, an awful writer and a a dumb girl . You can read some of her posts and the resulting comments here, here and here. The Star system may require you to register, but that's not all that unusual.

Don't let those Jayhawk bloggers get in the last word.

Clyde, the MoJo Prof

And happy Thanksgiving to all!

This week PBS asked me to guest-host its blog about online journalism.  I got to pontificate in MediaShift three times while host Mark Glaser was on vacation.

For the final post today, I talked about you.  Well, about what you have said to  me.  My post is about blog comments and their impact on traditional journalism.

If that link button above doesn't work, the site is http://www.pbs.org/mediashift.  Take a look.  And, of course, let me have it.

Clyde Bentley
The MoJo Prof

Here's a quiz from the Prof:

    Today an online editor for the St. Petersburg Times talked to my class.  The paper is one of the most respected in the country, with a circulation of about 200,000.

    The question was how many views in the first day does a TOP news story get on the Web site?

    Your guesses, please.  (His answer is in line with other papers).

CB

Many of you know that I have a group of students firing away with political commentary on MyFoxSTL.   But their blogging duties are only a small part of the coursework for the J4420 Editorial Writing class.  They also try their hands at the wide range of commentaries they will at some time be called upon to write.

And last week they brought tears to my eyes.

A death in my own family reminded me that  the editorial least popular to write but most important to a community is the memorial.  We often cope with death as a community even more poorly than we cope with it as individuals.  It falls to the journalists, poets, novelists and preachers to publicly put death into a perspective that allows the rest of us to live.

So I asked my faithful 18 to write a memorial about the passing of a person, place or thing.  Their choice.  I mean, how personal could it get?  They're just kids.

It was the hardest assignment to read I have ever faced.  While these wonderful memorials will likely never be published, the body of work from these caring souls deserves my tribute.

Joel's  farewell to a friend who committed suicide was both gut-wrenching and heart-rending. Pamela's description of how she dealt with a sister's death an ocean away touched me.  Megan talked of the personal agony of going off to college while a high-school friend had only death from leukemia to look toward.

Several memorialized the great or put tragic events in perspective.  But I succumbed to my age.  At 56, I have two children and two grandchildren for whom I work with my heart and soul to build memories .

My students taught me that grandparents do indeed live on through the young ones they cherish.  I read of Alzheimer's -- but only after Molly's memories of the sharp man her grandfather had been.  Kyle's love for his grandmother showed us that some bonds endure even when a family is rent asunder.  And Stephanie -- well let's say her memory of her grandfather's scrambled eggs hit home:

"I miss him. I miss him all the time. The close bond that I shared with my grandpa does not compare to any other bond I’ve had with anyone in my life. It’s incomparable. He lived an accomplished life and if he had the choice, he’d live forever.
Although my grandpa is no longer around, the smell of those tasty scrambled eggs lingers. Maybe I’ll scramble some up today. Maybe you can’t taste those eggs, but hopefully this gives you a taste."

It did.

Clyde Bentley, the MoJo Prof

Blogger champs, the prof needs your help. What's new, anyway?

Actually, I'm trying to find out what you think is news.  Or at least legitimate content for news media like TV, newspapers and Web news sites.

 I got to spend much of the past two days with Steve Herrmann, editor of BBC Online.  That's the biggest online news operation in the world.  Among our many discussions was one on whether stories about pets, kids, your garden, religion and other topics favored by many citizen journalists belong in the news media.

 They are not news, Steve said.  So what? They are important to the readers, I said.

 Most of us in the media profession define news in terms of immediacy, proximity and social importance.  It's "hard." But the more I read your blogs, the more I question that definition.  I think we still have to cover the breaking news, but maybe our emphasis needs to change to accommodate the "soft."

 What do you think?  If you were in charge of the traditional and Web editions of the Post-Dispatch, Fox2 or the South County Times, is there a type of information you would say just isn't interesting enough to publish?  And if so, where should that information go?

 

 

I’ve admired Oh Yeonho since the day I heard his credo: “Every citizen is a reporter.” But today he gave me a new mantra I think better describes the type of journalist I most admire:

“Your heart must beat.”

Oh, founder of OhMyNews and arguably the modern citizen journalism movement, was at the Missouri School of Journalism this week to receive a Missouri Honor Medal for his distinguished work in our field.

I was very happy to see him and not just to return the hospitality he offered me when I spoke at the OhMyNews International Citizen Reporters Forum in 2005. I also teach the first and maybe still the only university citizen journalism course that staffs and viable community Web site. This was a very rare chance for my students to meet with the man who literally wrote the book.

Oh lectured to several classes but met with my students informally. They had the chance to discuss with him the challenges all of us who work in citizen journalism face.

We went through all the expected topics from credibility to economics to logistics. But the key comment came at the end of our discussion when I asked him what advice he would give to someone hoping for a 21st century career in journalism.

“Your heart must beat.”

The roughness of his English produced pure poetry. Oh wanted us to know that journalism requires much more than skills in spelling, grammar and note-taking. It requires passion. Your heart must beat with the excitement of life, the excitement of humanity.

I spent the bulk of my career learning and then teaching journalists to stifle their heartbeat. Unbiased journalism requires dispassionate reporting. We try to be Spock in a world full of mercurial Kirks.

But the man from Korea asked us to shed our pointed ears. He also knows that trick is no easier metaphorically than it is physically. As he proudly pointed out, OhMyNews did not get its title from the founder’s name. It is instead an exclamation – like “Oh my God!"  It speaks volumes about the new role of everyday people in the world of information.

And it makes my heart beat.

Clyde Bentley