In Media Guardian
A second personal announcement: I am now a regular, every-other-week columnist for Media Guardian.
I’m delighted and honored to be there because I’ve long admired the Guardian’s media section and because I think the Guardian is the best-written newspaper in the world (in English, at least). And note that I’m there not thanks to my resume but thanks to my blog. In fact, they say they want me to write for print on themes I’ve explored here — how shall we say this? — for screen.
It’s also cool to be in the first edition of the new, medium-sized, Berliner-format Guardian.
Today’s column reiterates and polishes up some of what I’ve written about news media and Katrina. The Reader’s Digest version, just the lead and the kicker:
In less than a day, Hurricane Katrina rendered worthless the printing presses and broadcast towers that made big media big. And that will change news forever….But journalism’s rediscovered courage and newly discovered fallibility are, I will contend, less profound changes than the one brought on by the flooding of presses and the toppling of towers. For at that moment, news was freed from the shackles of media. Now he who controls distribution no longer controls news. And news is no longer shaped by the pipe that carries it. That is what Katrina did to the news.
Rex Hammock, a magazine publisher and fellow blogger at Rexblog.com, wrote that the Times-Picayune and nola.com deserve a Pulitzer for their news blogs. I second that. It doesn’t matter whether the work came rolling off a press or a blog: it is journalism of the highest calibre and greatest service. The Pulitzer committee would serve journalism well by separating the content from the container, the medium from the message, and recognising great reporting wherever and however and from whomever it comes, with or without a press.
Tags: journalism, Media, Media_on_Media, Weblogs
September 12th, 2005 at 12:17 pm
Congratulations Jeff, and as a Brit I look forward to reading your thoughts on paper as well as on the net (handier when in the bath).
I see that for the next two weeks, because of its launch, the online Guardian will be free to everyone instead of only on subscription; so people will be able to read your next two weeks articles for them: http://www.guardian.co.uk
September 12th, 2005 at 2:40 pm
[...] Whilst reading through the new Berliner-format Guardian, I noticed a column in the New Media section by Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine. This week’s article by Jeff is about how blogs and other forms of new media have proved to be indispensable through the Hurricane Katrina devastation against other forms of media outlets. Did I miss something here? I missed this completely in the blogosphere and found out from my hard copy. Although I am a subscriber to Jeff’s blog and he did mention it, I guess I’m not paying full attention! [...]
September 13th, 2005 at 9:41 am
And the Guardian’s anti-american stance doesn’t bother you at all Jeff?
(and they are anti-american - not just anti-Bush).
September 13th, 2005 at 2:43 pm
Jeez, Jeff, this is pretty nauseating. I always had you figured for a moderate guy, but if you believe al-Grauniad is the best-written paper in the world, I can only say I misjudged you. Well, wear a Che shirt to the staff meeting and you should get along fine…
September 13th, 2005 at 6:08 pm
Jeff, As a British “Guardian” reader of some 35 years and a massive enthusiast for the Net, I’m delightedthat you’ve become a writer for the newspaper. It’s encouraged me to look at your blog on a regular basis and given me ideas for my own. The “Guardian” is a unique paper in its ownership structure - a trust rather than a megalomaniac or shareholders - and its web site is one of the best new sites in the world.
September 14th, 2005 at 7:44 pm
Jeff, with regards to Guardian “print” and blog “screen” - are you aware of “sassygate”?
If you are, I find it hard to believe* that you would even consider writing for that newspaper. Your expressed opinion that the Guardian is the best-written paper in the English publishing world indicates a profound ignorance of the reality of that publication (or of English), so perhaps you are indeed unaware of “sassygate”.
*My belief is based on my earlier experience of your blog. I came back purely to see your reaction to the anniversary of September 11th. Sadly, I wasn’t surprised by the muted, distant and almost matter-of-fact nature of your posts. You seem to be forgetting.
A day later and you announce this. You are either not sufficiently motivated to investigate the grim reality that is the frothing, anti-Western delusion of the Guardian mindset; or you have investigated and just aren’t sufficiently concerned.
It’s still WWIII, Jeff, and you’re sleeping with those that knowingly and happily sleep with the enemy.
Peter
September 15th, 2005 at 10:17 am
“And note that I’m there not thanks to my resume but thanks to my blog.”
yeah right. and I suppose michael jordan got to play minor league baseball for the chicago white sox because of his stellar sub .250 batting average. give us a break. your blog would not be as well-known if it were not for your resume. there are plenty of other blogs just as well-written (if not more) with plenty of smart things to say. i’m not saying you don’t deserve a guardian column, of course you do, but don’t try to push that “one of the little people” line of bull as if it’s anything else.
September 15th, 2005 at 2:19 pm
[...] : After Rex Hammock and I said that the Times-Picayune and Nola.com should win a Pulitzer for their journalism, which happened to be distributed online and could not be distributed in print after Katrina, Mark Glaser did a good act of reporting and asked the Pulitzer committee about whether work online could win their prize. [...]
September 22nd, 2005 at 3:47 pm
[...] Whilst reading through the new Berliner-format Guardian, I noticed a column in the New Media section by Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine. This week’s article by Jeff’s is about how blogs and other forms of new media have proved to be indispensable through the Hurricane Katrina devastation against other forms of media outlets. Did I miss something here? I missed this completely in the blogosphere and found out from my hard copy. Although I am a subscriber to Jeff’s blog and he did mention it, I guess I’m not paying full attention! [...]
December 7th, 2005 at 11:11 am
[...] The Pulitzer committee finally will allow online submissions in breaking news and breaking-news photography; in other categories, online has be go hand-in-hand with print. It’s a wimpy step but at least it’s a step. And I wonder whether the Times-Picayune’s blogs could win the Pulitzer. Rex Hammock and I said they should. [...]
April 17th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
[...] : Here are Rex Hammock and I wishing for a Pulitzer for their online efforts. (Full disclosure: Nola.com was of the sites I helped start in my last job, so I’m prejudiced.) [...]