ABOUT CLICKED

The modern news consumer ignores Weblogs and online citizen journalism at his own peril. But not everyone has the time to keep track of what's going on the Web. With this blog we hope to track the highlights of what's being discussed online so when news breaks from the Web, we're ready.

Will Femia is a Weblog enthusiast who, through good fortune and dumb luck, was introduced to the form as his position as chat producer for MSNBC.com careered into obsolescence. On any given day, Will can be found having already spent an unhealthy amount of time squinting at a computer screen.

Send a message to Will at spotter@msnbc.com



Who the people?

Posted: Thursday, May 10, 2007 6:14 AM by Will Femia
Filed Under:

It seems there's a new war on the media taking place.  Maybe it's par for the course when elections begin to heat up (and the pollsters regain their dubious authority). I clicked Glenn Greenwald's rant against David Broder and Beltway journalists. Not too distant, Firedoglake takes a shot at old school media types who distort the blog audience. Elsewhere: "Together, our community at techRepublican will think, discuss, read, collaborate, criticize, share, and act to make a difference." The thrust of this essay is that Republicans suffer for not being Webbier because they're missing the people -- or they will be when the people aren't kids anymore.

And Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has been making a lot of noise online (or at least, his supporters have) not about bias so much as outright lack of coverage in spite of his apparent popularity and strong showing in the debate. They've even got an MSNBC.com conspiracy theory. (They're talking about this. If I get a hold of the politics editor today I'll let you know if there's any worthwhile internal perspective.  I'm not expecting any though.)

In case you're not seeing what I'm seeing, what unites the links above is a general concern for making sure "the people" are being correctly represented and/or interpreted. It's been my experience that individuals are notoriously bad at assessing the tastes of "the people."  The blogosphere hasn't helped any, expanding the "everyone I know" test to "all the blogs I read" to confirm one's opinions about the public's mental state. I had hoped to find a lesson in the course of assembling these links but I'm afraid I don't have one. I suppose it's just that "the people" are an elusive bunch so beware their representatives.

Speaking of assessing the people, Pew's new study goes really well with the Forrester study we looked at last week.   This one is about how people use the Web, breaking the online population into three categories and ten subcategories.  See page three for a handy chart.  Don't be intimidated by the length of the report, there are a lot of graphics that make it pretty easy to scroll through.

Speaking of We the People, the Appeal For Courage is a petition by military members asking Congress to stick it out in Iraq.

And the people of the online left are rallying in support of habeas corpus rights.

Speaking of bias battles, The Minnesota Star Tribune is in the midst of a debate over the extent of its liberalness.

I don't recall if I've posted this already but I've definitely seen it before and I alternately think it's no big deal or only a little bit of a big deal but today I feel like it's worth mentioning.  The Imax version of the movie poster for the new Harry Potter movie makes Hermione's boobs a little bigger. The reason I can't get too worked up about it is that it's not like they turned her into a Bond girl. A different posture and bra could probably have produced the same effect.

Speaking of movie posters, Polish movie posters. (Remember the Russian ones?  These are better.)

Snopes confirms the story in one of those mass e-mails you may have received.  The mail tells the graphic story of two white people who were brutally raped and murdered by a group of black people and accuses the media of racism for not covering the story like the Duke rape case.  Snopes suggests an explanation for why there hasn't been more coverage of the story in the last paragraph. I'm not sure that's the one I'd give.  I don't know the story and I haven't been in on any editorial assessments of it but I have some idea of what it takes to make a long dragged out TV show trial.  One thing that will kill a crime story right away is if there's no video or image collection.  The TV folks need stuff to show on the screen, even if it's just background while a reporter speaks over it. If there aren't a lot of photos and movies of the victims (not to mention a media-friendly surviving family) then TV probably won't go there.  Also there often has to be some contention.  If these killers confess and take a plea, the story goes away a lot faster. I have to wonder if the nature of the crime put off some media.  Is there such a thing as a crime too horrible to report?  Lastly, it could be purely a matter of scheduling that bumps a crime story.  Maybe some news organizations had plans to cover it and something else happened that demanded immediate coverage.  By the time that was over, the rape/murder story was old news. I recognize the media has certain storylines it likes to follow and that may be part of the appeal for stories like the Duke rape case, but I don't agree there's no place for deranged killer stories in the media. Snopes says they're still awaiting trial. It could very well be that the folks at Court TV have the trial on their calendar and if it actually happens, plan to use that as the news peg for reporting the story.  Once the trial produces enough imagery, don't be surprised to see it as a piece on a show like Dateline.

10 useful knots

In need of a break from Desktop Defender I've been playing Tactics 100, which reminds me a little of Wizards' Chess from Harry Potter.  You position your guys and attack your opponent's guys.  There's a live feature which probably appeals to folks who are good at these kinds of games.  For me I just like to see what kind of score I get for finishing the first round (actually finishing it isn't that hard).

Is virtual rape a crime?  "Last month, two Belgian publications reported that the Brussels police have begun an investigation into a citizen's allegations of rape -- in Second Life."  This may be the weirdest story ever.  Here's the main argument: "If it is a criminal offense to sexually abuse a child on the internet, how can we say it is not possible to rape an adult online?"

Sort of related: German officials are investigating the trading of child porn in Second Life. That includes virtual children and people acting online like they're children or acting online like they're pedophiles (which, let's be honest, if you're acting online like a pedophile...).

Speaking of bad for children, this is probably something everyone saw already while I was on a plane, but the David Hasselhoff drunk video is mostly funny but then once I realized the kid shooting the video was calling him "dad" it became a really sad scene.  I guess it's mostly just his hair that makes me laugh. Good luck kid.

I agree with Kevin Drum about the new Bill Richardson ads. Yes it's funny and yes I think it'll make people ask themselves who that guy is, but since the answer is not "he has a new show on Comedy Central" I'm not sure the ads really serve him.

Electromagnetic "wormhole" results from turning invisible sphere inside out - This actually makes sense when you read it.  If you can understand the idea of bending light around an object to make the object invisible, think about what it means to bend light through an object like a tube.

Looks like it's time to learn terms like "geoweb" and "earth browser."  There's a new Google maps blog.  The first entry compares pre and post-tornado Greensburg imagery.

Top ten body hacks - No, this isn't another "get into shape for Summer" link.  Meanwhile, even after following the annoying number of extra links I still can't whistle with my fingers.

As a sort of digital Noah's Ark, this site plans to give every living thing on Earth its own web page. I wonder how they start a project like that.  "Well... let's see, you got your cows, pigs and chickens... and then there's monkeys..."  Actually, if you watch the promotional video it's a little more orderly than that.

So that big Digg controversy?  Turns out, at the very least it was a traffic win for Digg.

Speaking of "The Number," own your own integer.

Sports fans will have to let me know how newsworthy the photos are of the freshman quarterback Matthew Stafford lifting a keg and being generally happy. It reminds me a little of the woman who got in trouble for having a picture of herself drinking from a plastic cup.
Damning photos do show up online but it's a bad idea to assume what the photos don't show.

At the beginning of the week I'd read about new regulations imposed on military bloggers.  Later I saw some kind of clarification had been made.  Trying to find the latest I was scrolling through BlackFive and found a link to this NPR story that covers things well.

I got a laugh from this clip promoting the movie Goodbye to the Normals.  Unfortunately there's not much more (actually even less) to be found at the official site, and it looks like the movie itself is only playing a few festivals so far.

How to value a MySpace mega group - The reason I was out in Redmond was to speak at a few meetings about online trends.  The value of online communities to news organizations has figured heavily in those discussions.  In case you haven't followed it, the Obama campaign has been dealing with an unusual challenge.  A fan of the senator already booked Obama's Myspace URL, apparently robbing the campaign of the opportunity to do it themselves. This essay is about trying to figure out the value of the work done by the fan.

Commuter Click:  Seven pages in the New Yorker on Banksy. I don't know if I'll make it through seven but I made it through the first one pretty easily before realizing what I was about to invest in.  I'm mostly curious to find out what more than could be to say beyond this first page.

Open Source Video - If there's such a thing as video kneading, this would be it.  They're asking people to remix and re-upload as a statement about digital media rights. (Judas Priest vs. LL Cool J)

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Comments

Will, did you notice the difference between Emma Watson's hair style in the two posters. In the regular Harry Potter poster, it's been changed so that it doesn't obscure the actor behind her. In addition to the better use of color, I would guess that the IMAX poster is probably an earlier version of the same image meaning they were probably edited the other way. Disney did something similar to Lindey Lohan in the promotional materials for "Herbie Rides Again" to demphisize her natural curves.

Jeff, South Windsor, CT (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:07 AM)

My heart sort of breaks for David Hasselhoff's daughter. I hope that the public release of this video, while unintended by the daughter, becomes the best thing that could have happened for both her and her father in that it forces him to confront this issue not just privately but in such a way that he feels a public accountability. Ordinarily, I'd pooh-pooh that idea as I think his private life is completely his own - but clearly, he's an addict and doesn't recognize the private toll it is taking.

Laura, Chicago, IL (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:47 AM)

The thing about 'virtual' rape that sets it apart from online sexual abuse of a child is that there's no way to 'force' a clear thinking rational adult to stay online. A child may not realize that turning off the computer is an option but an adult certainly should. Additionally, while I've never used Second Life I would think it rather thoughtless of them to not include a /ignore style command so there probably is one.

Jason Li, Canada (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 11:01 AM)

Okay, so the two Polish movie posters that confuse/freak me out the most are the Weekend at Bernie's poster and the one for Cabaret. Maybe I am remembering Cabaret wrong, but I don't remember a terrifying set of four legs cart wheeling down the stage while it's screaming scary face sits helplessly at it's spinning middle.

Melinda M, Tampa, FL (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 11:15 AM)

Criticisms of the media's political coverage are perfectly legitimate. They spend way too much time on "the trail" and with these candidates and get tunnel vision. Also, the 24/7 news stream requires them to constantly come up with more news, however irrelevant it is, which is often a quote that gets completely blown out of proportion. With the Dems, it's Clinton/Obama/Edwards. That's what all the talk is about. The media hardly acknowledge the other candidates, thus giving them no shot. Same thing with Rudy and McCain and, only because he's not running, Thompson. Ask the average person to name the candidates on either side and you'll most often get the top two or three on each side. Also, the media are far too willing to simply repeat politicians' quotes, which is why they are so good with the sound bytes. The media need to have the guts to find the story for themselves, not let politicians and candidates feed it to them. That's exactly what happened with Iraq. Days of investigative journalism are long gone and the media are largely irrelevant as far as the Fourth Estate is concerned.

Patrick, Minneapolis (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 12:02 PM)

In reference to "Goodbye to the Normals", check out IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0925088/). You've actually seen the whole movie! It was actually a promo piece for a new Robbie Williams album. I could see it developing into a longer piece, though...

Devon, Cincinnati, OH (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 12:48 PM)

Will, that's all there is to the 'Goodbye to the Normals' film. It was a short that was commissioned by Robbie Williams to help promote his new album Rudebox. Funny though.

Tom, Toronto, ON (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:47 PM)

Will: Regarding Ron Paul and the debate poll, why must there be a conspiracy at all? Is it possible to watch the debate snippets (or not) and then vote for the same guy more than once, or even multiple times? "Early and often," as they say. If so, then maybe it's simply that a bunch of Ron Paul supporters flooded the poll with positive ratings, thus skewing the results. If so, then msnbc.com would probably remove the results, because at that point they'd be meaningless. I have absolutely no idea if that DID happen, but it sure seems plausible to me. And, if true, definitely non-conspiratory.

David McLean, Greensboro, NC (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 2:39 PM)

Will, thanks for the ariel pics of Greensburg..having seen the coverage and knowing firsthand the destruction a tornado can do,this really put a perspective on the devastation..Americans, please remember these folks in your hearts and prayers....

Paula- Benton,Kentucky (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 3:06 PM)

The media doesn't represent me. If they did, they'd be screaming for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. If they represented me in 2003, they would have been screaming about Bush's lies. But they didn't. The media sat down and watched Bush crap all over our constitution and reputation. For all the shrill low-income conservative insistance that the liberals run the media, an awful lot of conservatives hold the purse strings.

Sean, Torrington CT (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 3:56 PM)

The lack of coverage of Ron Paul by the media should be a clear signal to everyone that most of the 'mainstream media' is little more than a big propaganda machine. In this day and age, you would think the one Republican candidate to receive more positive than negative votes on a major 'liberal' media website (msbnc.com) would receive some coverage. Yet the average person that pays some attention to politics has no idea about Ron Paul's widespread online popularity. True, that does not mean it translates to real world popularity, but nonetheless it should be a newsworthy event.

Ben Johnson, Chicago IL (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 4:18 PM)

Thanks Will for covering the Ron Paul situation. Hopefully it will 'wake up' some more folks to how the game is rigged.

Ben Johnson, Chicago IL (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 4:20 PM)

"Lifehacker's Top 10 Body Hacks, #1: Impress your friends and scare the hell out of your Mom at the pool with this breathing technique, which can buy you up to 10 more seconds underwater. Before you dive: "take several short breaths first -- essentially, hyperventilate. When you're underwater, it's not a lack of oxygen that makes you desperate for a breath; it's the buildup of carbon dioxide, which makes your blood acidic, which signals your brain that somethin' ain't right. "When you hyperventilate, the influx of oxygen lowers blood acidity," says Jonathan Armbruster, Ph.D., an associate professor of biology at Auburn University. "This tricks your brain into thinking it has more oxygen."" (Source: Men's Health)" I just want to say "War Damn Eagle!"

Always a Plainsman, Auburn, AL (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 5:19 PM)

Regarding Ron Paul supporters voting 'early and often' (which I can appreciate coming from Chicago), I read somewhere both the msnbc and abc websites record IP addresses so one can only vote once. Will, any inside info on this?

Ben, Chicago (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 5:50 PM)

Say that Hasselhoff is only 'acting' drunk. Or the pedophile is acting like a pedophile. Just like the mark is acting like a child. Too many acting likes for my tastes. We are getting too virtual here. The courts are getting to the point of being able to judge our actions in advance. I just don't like this direction.

dan rapson, bad axe, mi (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 7:08 PM)

Jeff is right; Hermione's hair is different (it's more windswept and even obscures the person behind her). And, oddly enough, her face appears to have LESS makeup. I'm curious to know what the original picture looked like and where exactly in the process the versions were diverged.

LV (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 7:38 PM)

It seems to me that the big element in the Duke case was that it involved Duke athletes. Events involving university athletes always garner more national news coverage than other types of events. While what happened in Tennessee is awful, there's nothing about it that makes it attractive to a national news outlet. Of course, it really bothers me that the tone of the email implies that it's normal for black people to be depraved killers. There isn't a group (race, religion, etc.) on the planet that doesn't include some seriously sick, twisted, disgusting people. But the only factor I see in this case that would have prompted the national outlets to take notice is how horrible the crime was. One factor just isn't going to be enough.

LV (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 8:10 PM)

On the Snopes confirmation of the Tenn. killings, I think it quite odd that this story hasn't gotten more than local coverage. The extreme violence and torture of those two people is far more unusual than 99% of the murders that occur. And Ms. Mikkelson's using the OJ Simpson murder as a racial comparison is completely ridiculous. Racism might have been the dynamite, but OJ's celebrity was the match. No way that trial would have gotten publicity if he had even been as much as a second stringer on a semi-pro team. In TN, one possible explanation other than racism would be that the killers were caught and there seems to be a mountain of evidence, thus there's no suspense for the media to play upon. Maybe it is possible that the gruesomeness of the crime makes reporting it widely just too sensationalist...but I think that would also mean that hell has frozen over.

KW (Sent Thursday, May 10, 2007 8:35 PM)

Ben, our regular "live votes" are cookie based, so if you clear your cache you can vote again. I'm not sure how that positive/negative flash app works, but I'd guess it also cookies your machine to make it harder to vote more than once. I wish there were screen grabs of what the Ron Paul supporters are talking about with the vote resetting. I'm wondering if it was another candidate's supporters who were voting early and often and temporarily dropped Paul's numbers until his own people came back and put him back on top (which is where he was last time I looked). We note on all of our polls that they're unscientific so no one here takes the results very seriously.

Will Femia (Sent Friday, May 11, 2007 12:11 AM)

At first I was surprised at the strong showing of Ron Paul in the post-debate polling (though I liked seeing him get some attention). After thinking about it though I suspect his strong anti-war position was the thing bringing in the votes (from non-Republican types). The anti-war folks in this country seem quite focused on keeping themselves front and center, and I suspect this was just another platform to push their agenda.

Mike S, Plainfield, IL (Sent Friday, May 11, 2007 1:21 AM)

Do bloggers and blog readers vote? Do they influence voters? I haven't seen anything on the demographics of the voting population. Food for thought...

Wayne Chilcote (Sent Friday, May 11, 2007 8:08 AM)

Wayne, bloggers do vote, but not as a block so we don't really talk about "the blogger vote." That said, bloggers do appear to be disproportionately libertarian and it's easier to find alternative political views, so the political perspective online is not quite the same as what we see in the mainstream.

Will Femia (Sent Friday, May 11, 2007 11:09 AM)

I think you might need to talk to you fellow MSNBC.com'ers... somehow they left Desktop Tower Defense off the list of TOP 5 games to play at work... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18560137/

Randall K, St. Louis, MO (Sent Friday, May 11, 2007 1:24 PM)

More on the Harry Potter poster: Debunkery.com says it's a 3D image (maybe for a hologram poster), and we just happen to be seeing the right camera's shot. http://nyquil.org/archives/852-Debunkery-I-demonstrate-how-Emma-Watsons-Boobs-Were-NOT-Altered-for-the-IMAX-Poster.html

Anonymous (Sent Friday, May 11, 2007 2:51 PM)

I don't support Ron Paul for president but I had noticed the complete absence of any news of his campaign in the main stream media. I did notice some bottom of the poll candidates getting repeated coverage reporting that they are still at the bottom of the polls but not including Ron. Also non-candidates got more coverage as potential candidates. Very curious.

Russell in Maryland (Sent Friday, May 11, 2007 4:36 PM)

The Richardson commercial was BRILLIANT. Gets straight to the heart of his qualifications while injecting his brand of humor. I loved it.

Paul M. (Sent Friday, May 11, 2007 5:04 PM)

Ahh....thanks for posting that Goodbye to the Normals link. I feel happier having seen it, especially since Rudebox was such a wretched cd. Now I don't feel quite as cheated. Poor Robbie's slipping.

Leslie, NM (Sent Friday, May 11, 2007 5:39 PM)

Not sure where the Matthew Stafford link is going, but I don't mind it!

Aaron Myers, Fort Wayne, Indiana (Sent Saturday, May 12, 2007 10:24 AM)



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