Untold stories of social media

Social media, especially Facebook and Twitter but also a host of others, are changing the way we live, learn and communicate.

Facebook claims 500 million active users; on any day, half of them log on.

That’s a lot of users for a six-year-old system, a lot of users and a lot of stories.

Odd, then, that nobody has yet told the Facebook story in a really engaging way.

The movie The Social Network focuses tightly on Mark Zuckerberg, the nerdy Harvard student and entrepreneur who started it all and became the world’s youngest billionaire after surviving the usual lawsuits.

But the movie fails to tell even one story about a Facebook user whose life has been changed by the medium.

Catfish is a bit better. A self-indulgent New Yorker goes looking for love on Facebook and finds that all is not as it seems.

But the unbelievable, unsympathetic protagonist and the annoying pixilated transitions suck much of the life out of this one. Bring back star wipes!

Searching for a good story about the effects of new media, I fell for a review by Hal Espen in the New York Times of a book about the Washington Post, the first American newspaper to take online news seriously and invest seriously in it. Espen proclaims:

This excruciating, suspenseful inter­regnum between the dying of print prosperity and the rise of minimally commensurate digital profits is itself a huge story, and the version playing out at The Washington Post has been singularly dramatic.

But Morning Miracle: Inside the Washington Post; A Great Newspaper Fights For Its Life by Dave Kindred turns out to be a disappointing sentimental tour through an old-fashioned newsroom.

So come on, writers and critics. It’s time to prophesize with your pen.

Powerful journalists, conflicting visions

In the last week Creative Communications students have heard two powerful Canadian journalists argue for opposing visions of the future.

Margo Goodhand, editor of the Winnipeg Free Press, told students on Oct. 21 that the iPad will save newspapers, including hers. She has asked for an iPad for Christmas, by which time she hopes her newspaper will be available on it.

But on Oct. 26 Dawna Friesen, television anchor of Global National, pooh-poohed the whole social media thing.

The Free Press is moving somewhat cautiously into the world of online journalism. Readership of its website is growing, particularly for big news stories such as last weekend’s double killing in the city. With circulation of the dead-trees edition slowly sinking, online is the obvious way to go.

Goodhand’s vision involves the withering away of the newspaper into just two departments, news and advertising. No more presses, no more trucks.

Friesen, who described herself as an “old fart” and “dinosaur,” is much cooler on this newfangled stuff, especially Twitter and blogging.

Her bosses want her to tweet, she reported. Hmm … that’s often a strong hint of the proper course of action. But her most recent tweet was almost three weeks old.

"What am I supposed to say?” Nobody would be interested that she just had a coffee, she told us.

After some love-bombing by students, who are required to maintain a Twitter feed and a blog, Friesen acknowledged that maybe she should give social media another chance.

Sure enough, within a couple of hours she tweeted three times, including once about being hungry for a cinnamon bun.

Good on her for trying it again. Let’s follow her Twitter feed to see how she keeps it up.

Goodhand does not tweet but her newspaper is quite active on Twitter. And it is experimenting with online delivery, including a surprisingly addictive live streaming traffic cam at one of Winnipeg’s contentious new traffic circles.

From my online consumption of journalism I would say that many newspapers and magazines are moving online faster than broadcasters, with notable exceptions such as BBC and CBC.

The old farts and dinosaurs need to catch up with the students.

Found poetry?

I found this.

Harman

Machine wash in cold water

Separately. Do not mix with

Dark colors. Do not use bleach.

Lay flat to dry. Iron if necessary.

Is it poetry?

You just can't look away

The online coverage of the sentencing of Russell Williams for his reign of depravity has been impossible to ignore.

As The Globe and Mail reported: "Col. Williams was formally convicted Tuesday of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of sexual assault and forcible confinement and 82 fetish burglaries in which he stole women’s underwear and other intimate items."

I found The Globe's blogging, updated every two to five minutes, impossible to stay away from. On Monday my Journalism students and I spent several hours following it.

Several students commented, from strikingly different points of view, on their blogs.

Jessica Cable says some events shouldn't be tweeted about, and provides a couple of startling examples.

Tammy Karatchuk says that just because we can divulge horrifying details instantly, that doesn't mean we should.

Shelley Cook asks whether editors wondered if pictures of Williams wearing women's and girls' underwear would offend the legitimate cross-dressing community.

Putting the K in Klassy

A couple of the campaigns in Winnipeg’s Oct. 27 civic election are beginning to reek of desperation.

At the end of last week Sam Katz, running to be mayor for another four years, made robo-calls to a batch of voters, including me.

He attacked a promise by Judy Wasylycia-Leis, his main opponent, to end the city’s freeze on property taxes.

What caught me was Katz’s conclusion: “People should not lose their homes when there are other avenues to consider first.”

Huh? People lose their homes?

Sounds like the slippery-slope logical fallacy.

Then the Winnipeg Free Press reports that a regular taxpaying resident has received more than 100 messages from people returning Katz’s robo-call to the number that appeared on their caller ID.

So does Katz’s campaign apologize?

Nope.

Marni Larkin, his campaign manager, blames a phone company. “It has nothing to do with our campaign,” she tells the Free Press.

Then, in leafy River Heights-Fort Garry, those pesky traffic circles have some residents in a tizzy. Especially residents working for Michael Kowalson, who is running to unseat John Orlikow.

On the weekend an anonymous, badly written, nearly hysterical broadside appeared in the mailboxes of the good burghers of the district. Yes, I’m one of those burghers.

“OUR CITY COUNCILLOR JOHN ORLIKOW VOTED IN FAVOUR OF THESE CHANGES AT CITY HALL, SUPPORTED THEM AT COMMUNITY COMMITTEE AND CONTINUES TO DEFEND THEM.” All caps and underlined.

It spells Waverley Street two ways. Oh well, one is right.

Orlikow complained to the civic elections office, and he outed the authors as Kowalson supporters, including the wife of the guy Orlikow defeated in the 2008 byelection.

The demonstration that the flyer urged residents to attend on Wednesday morning attracted “dozens” of people, CBC reports.

Hey, boys and girls, there are just two weeks until election day.

Don’t make me call in Mom to referee.

Yours truly, Sam Katz

Quotes ripped untimely from their context, a Winnipeg mayoral debate at the Red River College Princess Street campus on Oct. 6, 2010:

“Please be specific.” Creative Communications student Thomas Asselin to opponents Judy Wasylycia-Leis and Sam Katz. They ignored him.

“Let me share some facts with you.” Katz to Wasylycia-Leis.

“We are talking about apples and oranges, my dear Sam Katz.” Wasylycia-Leis.

“It’s only a two-hour show.” CJOB host Richard Cloutier to a rambling Wasylycia-Leis.

“Boom, you got ’em.” Katz describes the miracles of a police helicopter chasing down bad guys.

“Why should we bother re-electing you?” Cloutier to Katz.

“Thanks, Mom.” Katz to Wasylycia-Leis.

“Beware the wrath of a Winnipeg mother.” Wasylycia-Leis to Katz.

“The hokiest fraud.” Katz denounces blind trusts, into which he refuses to place his assets.

“God took seven days.” Asked by Wasylycia-Leis what he has been doing in six years as mayor, Katz inscrutably invokes a deity.

“Yours truly.” Katz repeatedly distances himself from himself.

Farewell, Your Excellency

Michaëlle Jean completes her five-year term as Canada’s Governor-General on Oct. 1, 2010.

The Queen’s representative began her term with a trip to Winnipeg.

A former Radio-Canada journalist, she asked to meet journalism students. So on Oct. 19, 2005 a well-dressed and nervous group of Creative Communications students and I met the Governor-General at Winnipeg city hall.

She smiled gamely and spoke graciously to each of us. As RCMP bodyguards hovered, she asked the students about their studies and encouraged them to use journalism to promote human rights.

Whatever you think of the monarchy – and the Queen’s offspring have frequently revealed themselves as genial idiots – Ms. Jean is different.

Born in Haiti, she represents not so much the weight of British tradition as the current Canada of smart, successful immigrants.

Twice my wife and I had dinner with her (and a hundred other close friends) at Rideau Hall when she presented the annual Michener Awards for public service journalism of which I was a judge.

I can testify that Ms. Jean was much more personable than her three predecessors (although Roméo LeBlanc knew how to have a good time, too).

And keeping Stephen Harper waiting for two hours when he begged her to prorogue Parliament in 2008?

Priceless.