Two quick dispatches from the printculture Review of Journalism:
I. You can't really fault Sen. Tom Harkin's timing — with Valentine's Day approaching, he figured it was a perfect occasion to remind the public about the conditions under which chocolate is produced in West Africa. Linking public and private, Harkin declared “This Valentine's Day, I am going to buy my wife flowers instead of chocolate. The chocolate companies have the leverage and clout to stop this suffering. But if corporate responsibility is lacking, Congress will be obliged to act.” Fair enough — it's a good message and by making a statement just before Valentines Day Sen. Harkin did manage to get a Reuters story written about the situation, landing publicity the issue would likely not receive on another date.
But it turns out that his mixture of serious issues and frivolous holidays was more than the crack staff at Reuters could manage. Is it a serious human rights story or is it a “laugh at our indulgent material celebration of love” story? Sadly, before it went to press no one had quite figured that out, so we got this as the story's lede:
Oof.
II. It's probably easy to over-reach in looking for the impact of blogs on the official journalistic writing it crosses paths with on the web. Setting aside the more prominent questions of objectivity and sourcing raised by blogs’ challenges to the Bush memo or the Jeff Gannon story, I want, nonetheless, to propose that what might at least be called the spirit of blogs has had its impact, pointing the way toward a new journalistic maneuver that might some day be as fundamental as a good, non-joking-about-slavery lede.
This comes from a story about newly-invented Japanese robot mannequins that can both a) pose to make clothes seem more appealing, and b) “judge the age and sex of shoppers and even identify the bags they are carrying and pass along the information to stores for marketing purposes.” OK. — not the big story of the day, but an intriguing fashion/business report.
But, about 3/4 of the way through this otherwise forgettable story, journalistic history may just have been made:
If the strength and weakness of blog format is its personal focus — here intimate, there narcissistic — then I see this otherwise unaccountable paragraph as journalism's harnessing of the power of blog.
Clearly, the robot reminded the writer of that Mannequin movie. If the nameless AFP writer of the robot story were writing a blog, he or she could simply write: “Hey, I read this article about mannequins with a limited range of movement and that made me think of that movie Mannequin, where the mannequin moved, also!” But this is journalism, so what to do . . .
Bingo: the paragraph that speculates on what the subject of the story might remind someone of.
Of course, the paragraph will always be subject to the sort of suspicion one reserves for someone asking about a problem “their friend” has, but, no matter. The cool formality of the “may remind” paragraph gives the writer's personal reflections the proper anonymity while providing a space for the sort of personal connection that the blog and news reading public craves.
Take today's AP story about President Bush stumping for Republican congressmen:
Bush was to appear Friday at meetings with mostly hand-picked audiences in the districts of GOP Reps. Mike Ferguson of New Jersey and Chris Chocola of Indiana.
Interesting enough, I guess, but it seems so remote, so coldly precise. But, with the magic of the “may remind” paragraph:
AP, you (would have) had me at spokesvampire.
The stories in full:
Lawmaker Shuns Valentine Candy, Cites Slavery Fear
Japanese robot mannequins to strike a pose for their customers
Bush Helping Two Vulnerable GOP Lawmakers
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