Toluu

McGuire on Media

It was a bad day at Black Rock for newspapersDecember 4 2008

I remain besieged by grading papers. I really planned on switching the subject from ruing the decline of newspapers to explore some new topics.  That is difficult when you are gripped by melancholy and bad news. I am tempted to call Wednesday a bad day at Black Rock, but there are too many Black Rocks.

it was definitely a bad day at Black Rock in Minneapolis. E-mailers and phone callers on Wednesday wanted to talk about the “six weeks until bankruptcy” memo from Star Tribune publisher Chris Harte. That is MinnPost’s David Brauer’s characterization of the six week deadline Harte gave the paper’s unions. The Star Tribune article on the subject does not make the six week reference, but it certainly lays out the possibility that Harte thinks bankruptcy may be his only option if he does not get the concessions he thinks he needs.

From afar Brauer is THE source on this problem. He filed an incredibly insightful piece late Wednesday. His reporting and his insight are invaluable to someone who wants to watch this situation closely.  Brauer’s version struck me as totally authentic and on target. It did sti

Cronkite School is the best place for me nowNovember 19 2008

I love where I am now.  I am really happy I am not where I used to be.

This particular week of events and news makes me savor the pleasures of academia and mourn the plight of former colleagues.

My current work home at the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State University is celebrating Cronkite Week as we speak. A number of panels presented by faculty and visitors will be capped by the annual Cronkite luncheon on Friday. This year’s honorees are Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil, the PBS news anchor team. The luncheon coincides with the 25th anniversary of the school and the dedication and grand opening of our beautiful new facility in downtown Phoenix.

This past Sunday the Arizona Republic Viewpoints section presented a two page spread on the new school, its aggressive posture for the future and its imaginative approach for the future of journalism education.  Dean Christopher Callahan laid out his vision crisply and clearly. Being a part of that vision, and being a part of helping students figure out journalism’s future, is a great t

Musings on newspapers, journalism and innovationNovember 7 2008

I apologize for my absence.  Every semester about this time I am shocked at how overwhelmed I get with grading. I hope I eventually figure out how to spread that burden throughout the semester. I am going to spring back into action by commenting on several fascinating items I’ve seen on Jim Romenesko’s blog in recent days.

Business Week’s Jon Fine wrote an excellent analysis of the difficulties facing newspapers and the Associated Press. Fine correctly makes it clear that those problems are more intertwined than they are different.  I was especially taken by this concluding sentence: “But you don’t get to choose the collateral damage major changes to the media landscape bring, as legions of other news entities have been finding out.”

The clarity and power of Fine’s observation seems to be lost on many media players. The dominos that are going to fall because the business model for newspapers has been disrupted are not well understood or appreciated. The single-mindedness of media titans trying to achieve a better bottom line and the public apathy about newspaper’s plight puzzles me. The demise of the American auto industry is ballyhooed and recognized as a threat to the overall economy. The battle to save commercial journalism is going to have dramatic implications for democra

Getting students involvedOctober 29 2008

Today I have been asked to participate in a Cronkite School session on teaching methods.  Instructors will be coming together come together to share their thoughts on how to involve students in class discussion.  This is what I am going to share with that group.

I don’t teach “stuff.” I teach to provoke thought. I think that is a crucial first decision. If I teach them “stuff” to retain my style would be very different. My entire gig is to make them think critically about complexity.

I script my classes. I don’t rely on notes. I actually write a script. All of my comments and questions are in italics. Obviously I am prepared to follow the discussion and break off on tangents, but I do not count on the discussion “just happening.”

I try to never speak more than eight minutes. I will lose them if I talk any longer than that. After six or eight minutes it’s time to invlove students in the discussion.

I may ask questions about the material, but that is relatively rare. Most often I try to get students to make connections between the material they have read and specific cases, stories  or examples I might use.

When I teach ethical values I try to get students to relate Kant, Mill and Aristotle to their daily lives. I think it is terribly important that no matter how un-hip I am, and I am very un-hip, that I try to meet them where they live. FaceBook examples and Matt Leinart’s beer bong will resonate and engage.

I

When the sheriff comes for me: When do we cover political abuse?October 20 2008

Since the time of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the relationship between the press and politicians has been strained, contentious and controversial.  Despite what some politicians think, the press tries to be civil, but that has to be balanced with aggressive attention to the interests of the public.

The most remarkable press/politician relationship I have ever encountered exists here in Maricopa County, Ariz.  Sheriff Joe Arpaio is probably the most controversial elected figure I have encountered in any community where I have lived for the last 59 years.  And, I’ve met some doozies. Arpaio is a lightning rod. I hesitate to characterize him because nobody agrees on whether he’s tough or mean, effective or manipulative,  or on any other words to describe him.  I suppose the only word anybody could agree on is he’s popular, and that mystifies his critics. Arguably, much of that popularity depends on his tough guy image.

At a local sporting event several months ago he was introduced as “America’s Toughest Sheriff.” That moniker was bestowed on him by the media and that’s where this journalistic post picks up the story. Arpaio was elected in 1993 and when I started following Arizona politics in 2002 the Sheriff had already amassed a reputation for being “tough” to prisoners.  According to Snopes.com, the t