Posts tagged NY Times

And I am not advising younger women (or any woman) to tough it out. You can lash back, which I have done too often and which has rarely served me well. You can quit and look for other jobs, which is sometimes a very good idea. But the prejudice will follow you. What will save you is tacking into the love of the work, into the desire that brought you there in the first place. This creates a suspension of time, opens a spacious room of your own in which you can walk around and consider your response. Staring prejudice in the face imposes a cruel discipline: to structure your anger, to achieve a certain dignity, an angry dignity.
How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer’ - NYTimes.com (via techladymafia)

The New York Times

How to Legalize Pot

Kleiman is leading the team hired to advise Washington State as it designs something the modern world has never seen: a fully legal commercial market in cannabis. Washington is one of the first two states (Colorado is the other) to legalize the production, sale and consumption of marijuana as a recreational drug for consumers 21 and over. The marijuana debate has entered a new stage. Today the most interesting and important question is no longer whethermarijuana will be legalized — eventually, bit by bit, it will be — but how.

Challenges include: the DOJ, since anyone who trades in cannabis is still a felon according to federal law; big profiteers, since the cannabis industry could easily become controlled like Big Tobacco; and how to measure drugged driving, since the government hasn’t funded too much research on the chemistry of weed in the human body.

You can read Kleinman’s proposal to Washington State here.

Do not use illegal as a noun, and avoid the sinister-sounding alien.

A new entry in The New York Times’ stylebook on “illegal immigrant”.

Background:

On Tuesday afternoon, a group of advocates against the use of the term “illegal immigrant” gathered outside The New York Times building in Times Square to deliver a petition of protest. Organizers said the petition, which asked the paper to stop using the phrase contained more than 70,000 signatures collected online.

And here is the new entry, (by way of Poynter, if you’re looking for context):

illegal immigrant may be used to describe someone who enters, lives in or works in the United States without proper legal authorization. But be aware that in the debate over immigration, some people view it as loaded or offensive. Without taking sides or resorting to euphemism, consider alternatives when appropriate to explain the specific circumstances of the person in question, or to focus on actions: who crossed the border illegally; who overstayed a visa; who is not authorized to work in this country.

Unauthorized is also an acceptable description, though it has a bureaucratic tone. Undocumented is the term preferred by many immigrants and their advocates, but it has a flavor of euphemism and should be used with caution outside quotations. Illegal immigration, because it describes the issue rather than an individual, is less likely thanillegal immigrant to be seen as troubling.

Take particular care in describing people whose immigration status is complex or subject to change – for example, young people brought to this country as children, many of whom are eligible for temporary reprieves from deportation under federal policies adopted in 2012.

Do not use illegal as a noun, and avoid the sinister-sounding alien.

A newspaper published a story about the Surgeon General’s office that contained information about the size and location of the Army of the Potomac. A furious Hooker complained to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton that the chief of the Secret Service “would have willingly paid $1,000 for such information” about Confederate forces.

Ford Risely, The New York Times, Birth of the Byline.

Risley, a professor of communications and head of Penn State’s journalism department takes us through Civil War era journalism and how the byline came to be.

Indeed, during the first two years of the war, an increasingly aggressive and competitive press had published stories that infuriated military leaders on both sides. The Civil War was the first war widely covered by American newspapers. And in their zeal to report the greatest event of their lives, newsmen produced a decidedly mixed bag of stories.

On one hand, many reporters honestly and faithfully chronicled the fighting. Tireless correspondents went to extraordinary lengths to report stories, often on tight deadlines. However, other newsmen mistakenly, and in some cases recklessly, reported the conflict. Correspondents less concerned with the facts and more interested in rushing stories into print wrote damaging stories that hurt their side.

Following the journalistic practice of the day, correspondents wrote anonymously during the war, most using a pen name or no name at all. Newsmen liked the custom, believing the secrecy allowed them do their work better. As one reporter wrote, “The anonymous greatly favors freedom and boldness in newspaper correspondence … . Besides the responsibility it fastens on a correspondent, the signature inevitably detracts from the powerful impersonality of a journal.”

However, commanders did not like the practice because newsmen often could not be held accountable for what they wrote. McClellan had complained to Stanton of reporters repeatedly “giving important information” about the Army in their stories. “As it is impossible for me to ascertain with certainty who these anonymous writers are,” he wrote, “I beg to suggest that another order be published holding the editors responsible for its infraction.”

After the news leak, General Order No. 48 was issued, which required that all reporters with the Army of the Potomac—of which Hooker (mentioned above) was commander—“publish their communications over their own signatures.” 

And the byline was born.

Related: A few more thoughts on journalism history from our archives.

As we started to collect our ideas for the structure of the project, the multimedia group agreed that we didn’t want to create a bunch of different overlapping pieces and hang them all off the text. We wanted to make a single story out of all the assets, including the text. So the larger project wasn’t a typical design effort. It was an editing project that required us to weave things together so that text, video, photography and graphics could all be consumed in a way that was similar to reading—a different kind of reading.

Steve Duenes, NY Times Graphics Director in the Q&A: How We Made Snow Fall (via Source)

Last month, the NY Times created a beautifully compelling story on avalanches and skiing in Washington State. This morning, we get to read about exactly how they did it. Most fascinating is their discussion of how to pace the story so it would feel like a seamless reading experience:

Q. There’s a ton of audio and moving-image work in Snow Fall, and you used a lot of techniques from filmmaking, but within a very reading-centric experience. What kind of challenges did those elements present?

Catherine Spangler, Video Journalist: The challenges of crafting multimedia to compliment a text-based story were the same challenges faced in any storytelling endeavor. We focused on the pacing, narrative tension and story arc—all while ensuring that each element gave the user a different experience of the story. The moving images provided a much-needed pause at critical moments in the text, adding a subtle atmospheric quality. The team often asked whether a video or piece of audio was adding value to the project, and we edited elements out that felt duplicative. Having a tight edit that slowly built the tension of the narrative was the overall goal.

Graham Roberts, Graphics Editor: With the visuals, especially ones that would actually interrupt the reading, we wanted it to feel like a natural continuation. This required choosing appropriate color palettes, and the right kind of fluid movements. The reader would hopefully feel that they were reading into the graphic, and not see it as a distraction. Content wise, these elements needed to occur in passages that were challenging to express with words alone, like the layout of the terrain, and the shape, speed and duration of the avalanche itself. Or something that was very hard to follow without a visual aid, like the trajectory and timing of each skier’s path down the mountain.

Thanks to Sandy, Bye-Bye Paywalls

…for now.

via Poynter:

New York Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy confirmed by email that the news organization is suspending its paywall starting this afternoon, so that readers can get information about Hurricane Sandy.

“The gateway has been removed from the entire site and all apps. The plan is to keep it that way until the weather emergency is over,” Murphy said.

With the paywall in place, only digital and/or print subscribers can read beyond 10 articles. The Times suspended its paywall last year when Hurricane Irene threatened New York.

According to its third quarter earnings report released this past week, the Times has about 566,000 digital subscribers to nytimes.com and the International Herald Tribune. But thousands more will be closely following the storm as severe weather typically brings traffic surges to news websites.

Wall Street Journal Digital Network Managing Editor Raju Narisetti tweeted Sunday afternoon that all of wsj.com would be freely available starting Monday. Other newspapers have made similar announcements: The Boston Globe tweets its storm coverage is available free on Boston.com; The Baltimore Sun is dropping its wall; Newsday is also making its content available for free. 

FJP: Stay safe all, and happy reading.

"Occupation, Not Culture, Is Holding Palestinians Back"

iradeh:

By Palestinian businessman Munib Masri

EARLIER this week, while Israel’s cheerleaders and Las Vegas casino moguls were parsing every syllable uttered by Mitt Romney in Jerusalem as fastidiously as the Olympic judges were scrutinizing every back flip in London, millions of Palestinians issued a giant collective yawn.

The most excellent (and accurate) first line to a New York Times article ever. Worth a read.

FJP: It is a pretty great first sentence.

So you want to be a journalist?

(via)

FJP: Happy Sunday, and good luck with your journalistic aspirations.

NY Times Introduces Chinese Language News Site via: [The site is] intended to draw readers from the country’s growing middle class, what The Times in its news release called “educated, affluent, global citizens.’’ The site will feature about 30 articles a day on national, foreign and arts topics, as well as editorials. Joseph Kahn, the paper’s foreign editor, said that about two-thirds of the content would be translated from Times articles and one-third would be written by Chinese editors and local freelance journalists. The Times Company, which is well aware of the censorship issues that can come up in China, stressed that it would not become an official Chinese media company. The Times has set up its server outside China and the site will follow the paper’s journalistic standards. Mr. Kahn said that while the Chinese government occasionally blocked certain articles from nytimes.com, he was hopeful that the Chinese government would be receptive to the Chinese-language project. In the past few years, many Western publishers have been expanding into China, drawn especially by the promise of luxury advertising aimed at the country’s growing affluent class. So far, the Times site has attracted Bloomingdale’s, Salvatore Ferragamo, Cartier and Milstein China, the real estate company, as advertisers, according to Denise F. Warren, chief general manager of nytimes.com and chief advertising officer for The Times. Advertising sales will be run out of New York, with help from Cesanamedia on sales in China and Italy. Ms. Warren said she hoped that the range of advertisers would increase in the coming months. “It’s generally luxury manufacturers,” she said. “But I believe there will also be an opportunity for corporate and financial advisers. We believe we will be reaching a global, well-educated, international audience.” FJP: Nope, readers won’t have to pay for content (yet). It is pretty neat to see the NY Times in Chinese but this whole thing also feels a bit uncomfortably consumerist. Unsurprising considering China’s very quickly growing class of consumers. The site went live Thursday and you can view it here or click-through the screenshot above.

NY Times Introduces Chinese Language News Site

via:

[The site is] intended to draw readers from the country’s growing middle class, what The Times in its news release called “educated, affluent, global citizens.’’

The site will feature about 30 articles a day on national, foreign and arts topics, as well as editorials. Joseph Kahn, the paper’s foreign editor, said that about two-thirds of the content would be translated from Times articles and one-third would be written by Chinese editors and local freelance journalists.

The Times Company, which is well aware of the censorship issues that can come up in China, stressed that it would not become an official Chinese media company. The Times has set up its server outside China and the site will follow the paper’s journalistic standards. Mr. Kahn said that while the Chinese government occasionally blocked certain articles from nytimes.com, he was hopeful that the Chinese government would be receptive to the Chinese-language project.

In the past few years, many Western publishers have been expanding into China, drawn especially by the promise of luxury advertising aimed at the country’s growing affluent class. So far, the Times site has attracted Bloomingdale’s, Salvatore Ferragamo, Cartier and Milstein China, the real estate company, as advertisers, according to Denise F. Warren, chief general manager of nytimes.com and chief advertising officer for The Times.

Advertising sales will be run out of New York, with help from Cesanamedia on sales in China and Italy. Ms. Warren said she hoped that the range of advertisers would increase in the coming months.

“It’s generally luxury manufacturers,” she said. “But I believe there will also be an opportunity for corporate and financial advisers. We believe we will be reaching a global, well-educated, international audience.”

FJP: Nope, readers won’t have to pay for content (yet). It is pretty neat to see the NY Times in Chinese but this whole thing also feels a bit uncomfortably consumerist. Unsurprising considering China’s very quickly growing class of consumers. The site went live Thursday and you can view it here or click-through the screenshot above.

Kids Draw the News Drawing by Violet Newman, age 7, Brooklyn. via NY Times: We are excited to announce the debut of a new feature on City Room today: Kids Draw the News, in which we ask the children in the audience to render a current event in pictorial form. Today’s assignment: The spectacular brawl in the Tap Room of the New York Athletic Club. Please have your children-artists read the article or read/summarize it for them. Talking points: fancy restaurant/bar, men and women dressed up, people punching each other, throwing glasses, overturning tables, arrests. (I took the liberty this morning of asking my daughter to provide the example above.) FJP: This will be interesting. I think I’d prefer the drawings that kids come up with on their interpretation, when their parents don’t summarize the story.—Jihii

Kids Draw the News

Drawing by Violet Newman, age 7, Brooklyn.

via NY Times:

We are excited to announce the debut of a new feature on City Room today: Kids Draw the News, in which we ask the children in the audience to render a current event in pictorial form.

Today’s assignment: The spectacular brawl in the Tap Room of the New York Athletic Club. Please have your children-artists read the article or read/summarize it for them. Talking points: fancy restaurant/bar, men and women dressed up, people punching each other, throwing glasses, overturning tables, arrests. (I took the liberty this morning of asking my daughter to provide the example above.)

FJP: This will be interesting. I think I’d prefer the drawings that kids come up with on their interpretation, when their parents don’t summarize the story.—Jihii

It’s a really hard time for newspapers of all kinds. This is the Voice‘s business model and I hate to undermine it. But for anybody who loves journalism: How can you fund that journalism with sex trafficking?

Nicholas Kristof, NY Times op-ed columnist.

Kristof recently published two columns (January 25 and March 17) criticizing online classifieds, especially Backpage.com, for their adult services section as a vehicle for pimps trying to sell girls. Backpage.com is owned by Village Voice Media, and in line with past criticism against sex ads on Backpage.com, Village Voice responded with criticism of Kristof’s fact-checking. In reality, can they afford to eliminate these Backpage.com ads?

Backpage.com rakes in $22 M. annually from prostitution advertising, according to media analysts at AIM. Backpage.com reportedly accounts for one-seventh of VVM’s revenue overall.

(full story via The New York Observer)

The paradox in this story is what Village Voice actually stands for. Kristof writes:

Village Voice began as an alternative newspaper to speak truth to power. It publishes some superb journalism. So it’s sad to see it accept business from pimps in the greediest and most depraved kind of exploitation.

His columns are a call to action:

True, many prostitution ads on Backpage are placed by adult women acting on their own without coercion; they’re not my concern. Other ads are placed by pimps: the Brooklyn district attorney’s office says that the great majority of the sex trafficking cases it prosecutes involve girls marketed on Backpage.

There are no simple solutions to end sex trafficking, but it would help to have public pressure on Village Voice Media to stop carrying prostitution advertising. The Film Forum has already announced that it will stop buying ads in The Village Voice. About 100 advertisers have dropped Rush Limbaugh’s radio show because of his demeaning remarks about women. Isn’t it infinitely more insulting to provide a forum for the sale of women and girls?

What's the etiquette on commenting on a colleague's post?

A piece by FJP contributor, Dave Burdick, in which he raises some interesting questions (inspired by an exchange on Daily Camera) about commenting etiquette:

  • Do or should colleagues hold themselves to a different standard than the everyman commenter?
  • Is there a place for publicly commenting on a colleague’s style?
  • Is there a place for publicly commenting on a colleague’s accuracy?
  • Does it serve journalists better to be asked these questions publicly? 
  • Does it serve news consumers better? 

Read Dave’s piece, and then read the comments below it. There, another interesting question (among many) is raised by Ian Howell:

Another question to ask…is why a news website doesn’t curate their own comments section. It may be a human resources issue, as Laura referenced above, but the absence of an obvious “policy of community standards” on the website makes me wonder if any thought has been given to it? 

He then points to the NY Times comments policy, which moderates comments. 

Thanks for opening the discussion, Dave! 

The Man Who Stayed Behind

(via The New York Times)

The Op-Ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof talks with Ryan Boyette, a Florida man who braves bombs to document atrocities in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains.

Boyette:

There is no way we could have left and said we hope that you make it out on the other end of this okay. So we decided to stay and we decided to form a team and report what was happening.

Kristof:

To its credit, the Obama administration is working hard to end the food blockade in Nuba. But Boyette is skeptical, as am I, that the measures under consideration will be enough to avert starvation. If Boyette has anything to do with it, images of Nuba—courage, resilience, and suffering—will make it into American living rooms and build the political will for Washington and the world to take firm action.

5 minute video. Powerful work.

Meet Deep Dive, the New York Times’ experimental context engine and story explorer Using an article as a jumping-off point, Deep Dive can create a custom, contextual feed that will allow readers to follow topics in the news. Deep Dive uses the Times’ massive cache of metadata from stories to go, as the name suggests, deeper into a news event by pulling together related articles. So instead of performing a search yourself within the Times and weeding out off-topic results, Deep Dive would provides readers a collection of stories relating to a topic, based on whatever person, place, event or topic of their choosing. So let’s say you’re interested in protests in Yemen, with Deep Dive you could use an article from nytimes.com as a seed and let the system collect a history of previous items relating to news from the region. Really interesting tool.  When I was in Studio 20, we examined “explainer journalism” in detail. A huge part of an explainer is being able to find the history of the story easily so that you can bring yourself up to date on the issue in the new article. continue reading at Nieman Journalism Lab

Meet Deep Dive, the New York Times’ experimental context engine and story explorer

Using an article as a jumping-off point, Deep Dive can create a custom, contextual feed that will allow readers to follow topics in the news.

Deep Dive uses the Times’ massive cache of metadata from stories to go, as the name suggests, deeper into a news event by pulling together related articles. So instead of performing a search yourself within the Times and weeding out off-topic results, Deep Dive would provides readers a collection of stories relating to a topic, based on whatever person, place, event or topic of their choosing. So let’s say you’re interested in protests in Yemen, with Deep Dive you could use an article from nytimes.com as a seed and let the system collect a history of previous items relating to news from the region.

Really interesting tool.  When I was in Studio 20, we examined “explainer journalism” in detail. A huge part of an explainer is being able to find the history of the story easily so that you can bring yourself up to date on the issue in the new article.

continue reading at Nieman Journalism Lab

niemanlab.org