Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

Opportunity in crisis. This mantra of globalizing free-marketeers has apparently not lost all of its power, even as the architects of a deregulatory system are chastened to admit the reckless deregulation of their heyday has led to a global financial catastrophe. (For the likes of former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, the flaw in the system of market self-regulation has led to a sort of cognitive dissonance.)  

So even as the grim news of the Chicago Tribune’s filing for Chapter 11 came in on Monday, while more than 15,000 newspaper jobs were cut in 2008 according to the web site Papercuts, members of a new generation were not as entirely shaken as their professional elders.

Here at the journalism school, among next week’s graduates, the mood is far from uniform.  The crisis of the old guard and the industry more generally is seen as an opportunity for the digitally armed, who might just find themselves in the right place at the right time. The death of the newspaper merely clears the way for the bright digital future. Carl Winfield of the class of 08 was was ready to embrace the promise of that future.

Hear an interview with Carl.

But not so for all his cohort. For some the crisis in newspapers is just that–a crisis. So while Damian Ghigliotty doesn’t fear that he will  not find work, he sees the crisis largely as limiting rather than expanding his options. For him, a failing company’s preference for new recruits to replace senior staffer is hardly a draw, he said.

Hear an interview with Damian.

I was surprised last weekend when I came across Senator’s Barack Obama poking fun at themselves on You Tube. They were speaking at the 63rd Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner held at The Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York last Friday.

This political season has seen Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain and most recently Sarah Palin participate in Saturday Night Live sketches. There has been discussion over whether this is blurring the lines between entertainment and news. The Alfred E. Smith dinners show a long history of candidates that have used (more…)

The economic crisis that has cost taxpayers nearly a trillion dollars in bailouts, effectively socializes the hurt caused by Wall Street’s recklessness efforts to feed the beast. (For a terrific and accessible primer on the origins of the crisis see This American Life’s “The Giant Pool of Money.” But while the crisis has spurred a general reexamination of American life and undermined the consumption that many saw as an entitlement, smaller shock have long gone unnoticed, with devastating effects for those that have felt their sting.

Take immigrant small business owners in Brooklyn. In my beat n community district 14, many shopowners say that their businesses had yet to fully bounce back from the shock of 9/11. Overall the economy did recover, and small business owners were offered government loans through the Small Business Administration. But the necessary focus on Lower Manhattan was to the detriment of affected businesses in the boroughs. As they held on to their businesses after seven lean years, many owners say the larger economic crisis as not a disruption, but a continuation of their troubles.

Yolanda Duchenne runs a women’s clothing store near the Church Avenue stop on the Q train. After 9/11 many of her customers left and did not return she said. The middle-aged office workers Ms Duchenne’s shop caters to left Church Avenue, moving out of state. Her business had not fully recovered when the broader economy downturn hit.

Further down the Q line, near the Avenue H stop in little Pakistan, Asghar Chaudri, a pioneer of the community, and president of the Pakistani American Merchants Assocation, said his associates had not recovered from the economic disruption of 9/11 when the crisis hit.

“When we came here this area was all dirt pushers and prostitutes. We cleared it up,” said Chaudhri. After Homeland Security officials raided small businesses looking for illegal workers, many of the shops could not stay open, with their emloyees gone, and shopowners’ undocumented clientele afraid to shop on the strip.

Now there are boarded up shops in the heart of a once bustling strip. It was not so before Chaudhri was quick to say.

Brett Favre emerged from this Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals with a franchise record tying six touchdown performance.  The other Jet to throw as many scores in a single game was Joe Namath in 1972 against the Baltimore Colts.  Favre’s performance puts New York back on track as a competitor in the AFC East, and at an even 2-2 record, reprieves coaches and players from media and fan criticism.

“Its good to be a Jet today,” Favre said after the game on Sunday.  “It was good to be a Jet on Monday, coming back on the plane.”  Jets receivers looked like they were having fun on the field Sunday, running behind the young Arizona Cardinals at will.  Early in the third quarter, Kurt Warner engineered two quick scoring Arizona scoring drives, throwing to his two favorite targets Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald.  Jets coach Eric Mangini stamped out the comeback and showed some teeth by calling a twenty yard play action pass down the seam on fourth and 2 on Arizona’s thirty, resulting in the go ahead score. 

Favre denied taking part in the fourth down play call.  “After third down, I just stayed out there.  You can’t ask me, because I always want to go for it, I think that its important that you go for it.”  The feeling in the locker room was much better than on Monday night, when the Chargers firmly dominated the Jets on both sides of the ball in San Diego.  This Sunday, receiver Laveraneus Coles caught three touchdown passes from Favre to spark the offense.  Earlier in the year, Coles publicly expressed his displeasure about the franchise’s decision to release his friend Chad Pennington and to bring in elder quarterback Brett Favre.

On Sunday, the two were all smiles.  “I have started to get Brett’s ear right after the huddle, him asking me what I’m seeing from the defense.  I am not shy to tell him I am always open.”  Coles suffered a thigh sprain in the preseason that limited his practice time and hindered his movement in the first few games.  Favre credits their improved game-time chemistry to the greater reps they have had on the practice field over the past week.

Coles said, “There’s nothing I could do to enhance his career, but there’s a lot he can do to enhance mine with everything he brings to the table.“  The Jets reached the quarter pole on Sunday with a modest 2 – 2 record.  But, the flourish that the offense displayed on Sunday suggests that with Brett under center, the Jets always have a chance to win this year.

For as long as I can remember, I have had a largely uninformed fascination with the Amish people – a religious community indigenous to the U.S. that lead a very simple, conservative life, based on their literal interpretation of the Bible.  Their beliefs prohibit their integration with modern society to the extent that some of the strictest divisions – like the Swartzentruber Amish – choose against using electricity, plumbing, phones and even furniture that is too comfortable!

(more…)

Maria Perez, 39, from Coney Island, is excited about going to the poll booths this November.  That’s because for the first time in a decade, Perez will get to vote.

“I carry the [acknowledgement] notice all the time, even when I switch bags,” she said.

New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) has just launched its public education campaign to raise awareness on the right to vote- among ex-felons.  Perez is just one of them, who didn’t know she had this right as soon as she completed parole.  It didn’t help much either when she was denied by her board of elections, as she claims.  Apparently, the workers are either just as ignorant about the law, or they’re instilling their beliefs into an established legal system, making their actions illegal.

The felony disenfranchisement law been an ongoing controversy with various opposing issues as NYT presented back in 2004, conveniently before the presidential elections.

There has been no other campaign like this one, according to NYCLU.  It will include putting ads in public buses from the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan.

NYT concludes by highlighting one of the problems of restoring former prisoners the right to vote:

“Voting rights should not be a political football. There should be bipartisan support for efforts to help ex-felons get their voting rights back, by legislators and by state and local election officials. American democracy is diminished when officeholders and political parties, for their own political gain, try to keep people from voting.”

So what is meant by “political gain?”  Many conclude that many of those who re-enter society turn to the more liberal, more “accepting” Democratic party, thus giving more votes to them.

However, NYCLU has reassured that their focus has nothing to do with political feuds.  All they want is to reiterate what already stands.

And in the end, that’s all that really matters- people can bicker all they want, but regarding New York ex-felons, the NYS law still stands:

You can vote even with a criminal conviction IF you:

•are discharged from parole

•are currently on probation
• have been pardoned
• have been convicted of a misdemeanor
• have a max sentence that has expired
•have been convicted but have not been sentenced to imprisonment

And this isn’t a secret, it’s on public record.

Though Perez is just one out of the 115,500 or so New Yorkers with felony offenses under their belts, she’s not a hardcore Democrat, “I’m sort of in between with the parties for now.”  She claims she isn’t influenced by any of the advocacy organizations that has helped her separate fact from fiction when it came to voting rights.

Why do this now?  Might the upcoming elections have anything to do with it?  The campaign is said to run until October 10th, the voter registration deadline.  NYCLU claims it’s a crucial time to get people to vote, to make a change, whether that’s voting for McCain or Obama.   They just want a bigger voter turnout, not to mention do what’s just.

“[Ex-convicts] have done their time, they need this assurance to feel like proper citizens in society…instead of shutting them out, we have to embrace people,” said Corinne Carey, NYCLU Public Policy Counsel.

ae

-While attending Christie’s fall auction preview I met Mark and Katy, owners of Resurrection, a vintage clothing store, and now sellers to Christie’s prestigious auction house. I was intrigued by the story of how they ended up with the most comprehensive collection of 20th century avant-garde clothing that Christie’s has ever sold.-

Katy Rodriguez and Mark Haddawy began selling vintage clothing out of an old funeral parlor in New York’s Lower East Side. Thirteen years later they are selling over 250 rare pieces through Christie’s London auction house.

Reminiscing about the start of their now well-known store, Resurrection, Rodriguez recalled setting up the store by herself during a giant snow storm in the winter of 1996, before Haddawy joined her in New York. They began their store in a tiny space with an initial rent of $1100 per month. “New York was a very different place back then. You were able to start a store with very little capital”, according to business partners, Rodriguez and Haddawy. They even had memories of paying their first landlord in installments.

(more…)