Comments on: A poor craftsman blames others’ tools

By: Andy Freeman

Andy Freeman — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:31:12 +0000

Actually, sportswriters, like the folks who cover weather and society, are among the most accountable of journalists. Sportswriters can root all they want, but their narrative is limited by the score on the field. (Weather folk have the same “fact checker” and society folks don’t get invited.)

By: Bookmarks for August 25th through September 20th by andydickinson.net

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:03:54 +0000

[...] A poor craftsman blames others’ tools « BuzzMachine – Is Twitter useful for journalists ? Well, even if it is to help identify the cog native gaps that need filling for people to #039;get#039; the change in the media landscape, this post by Jeff seems to suggest yes. [...]

By: Vivian

Vivian — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 02:56:07 +0000

I believe that if used the right way, Twitter can be a useful tool for journalists. Not only can you use it to tell of breaking news but you can also learn about breaking news from it and that’s exactly what some journalist do with Twitter. Twitter (to me) is merely a stepping stone to help possibly improve a story or let other people know. Yes you might be limited to 140 characters but you can sum up a whole story in a sentence. Is that not what journalists do in the headline?

By: Del Norvin

Del Norvin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:24:09 +0000

Jeff, you’re right about the sports hack but IMHO entirely unfair to Cohen and don’t analyze him in context. In his piece, Cohn talks about how worked up Huffington got over his comments. She predictably became unglued at his claim because she believes that anyone with a modem connection should be able to cover events in Iran since everyone’s now a journalist. Cohen understands the power of technology but at the same time he’s quite right about his central point: there’s a crying need for boots on the ground. during the uprising earlier this summer, we found out a lot because iranians used tech to post pictures and blogs. i also sorely missed reading in depth reports that previously were produced by western correspondents, who had been thrown out of the country.

By: What does Twitter say about your worldview? | It's Open - Social Media Strategy Consultancy

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:56:08 +0000

[...] an insightful piece from Jeff Jarvis, who explores the issues by looking at contrasting interpretations from [...]

By: Ricard Espelt

Ricard Espelt — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:13:54 +0000

I’m completly agree Jeff.

By: Roger Gonzales

Roger Gonzales — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:01:41 +0000

I believe 140 characters are enough to create a headline that will take the reader to your story. and not only that, if it is good it will be retweeted!

By: A poor craftsman blames others’ tools | Twittermazing

A poor craftsman blames others’ tools | Twittermazing — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 06:00:32 +0000

[...] A poor craftsman blames others’ tools Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet BoxCompare these two columns about Twitter: one by Mike DeArmond, a sports hack in Kansas City, and one by Roger Cohen in The New York Times. Read More [...]

By: Decatur Metro

Decatur Metro — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:34:55 +0000

One more thing, you said

“But I also wonder if your community might be better served if you were to scrap all the snippets of purported news — McDonald’s promotion, high school students watching a speech — in favor of one good, long investigative piece.”

I would argue that you’re looking at this the wrong way. Long investigative pieces are great, but no reporter should delude themselves thinking that they can start a website and ever hope to become financially sustainable if they just write one article a week. Traffic won’t be high enough and you’ll never have a shot at attracting advertisers. How valuable is an article that no one reads? I’d argue that long form investigative pieces are what I’m working towards, if I can become financially viable like BaristaNet or WSB. They should never be the starting point for a one-man-show looking to start a local news source.

But even after admitting that, I’d still argue that a piece that I write that has a bit of digging in it and then thoughtful reaction from players in the story and followups from other residents can be just as valuable a community service as long form.

By: Decatur Metro

Decatur Metro — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:21:54 +0000

Thanks for the cursory glance. The McDonald’s “promotion” was actually pure sarcasm, and the high school students watching a speech just a report sent in by a teacher. Everyone out there needs filler. Let’s not pretend that newspapers don’t also copy and paste press releases…they just aren’t as up front about it.

If you want to get a taste of what my site is actually about, I’d ask you to take a look at the comments in this post.

http://www.decaturmetro.com/2009/07/31/emory-professor-accuses-decatur-pd-of-racial-profiling/

I don’t know about other traditional newspapers online, but in Atlanta, the AJC’s comments are an absolute joke that are all flaming and racist attacks. I work hard to promote an environment where comments are respectful and well-thoughtout. The fact that you wrote “with room for comments! yay!” signals that while I’m certainly willing to give complete deference and respect to your tried and true methods of journalism, you don’t seem to understand the value of a well-moderated site, chock-full of thoughtful viewers.

No, I can’t spend three days researching articles and getting quotes from local officials, I can’t afford it…but I DO have connections to all the pieces of local government and can get a response in a couple hours on any issue. Who does my on the scene tipping? Residents. And I serve as their middle man to get detailed info. Often it’s not pretty, but people don’t care. They just want info that no one else is willing to provide.

By: Bradley J. Fikes

Bradley J. Fikes — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:56:43 +0000

Marc,
If the sports guy is as good as a journalist as he preens himself on being, he should have been able to discover that for himself. The column is just a fashion statement.

By: Marc Cooper

Marc Cooper — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:33:18 +0000

Tell the sports guy that most tweets are links to blogs, news sites, videos, forums which contain much more depth that one single newspaper article

By: Pablo Alvarez

Pablo Alvarez — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:30:41 +0000

A small complaint: Why ‘of course the sillier’?

A sports guy

By: links for 2009-09-11 « burningCat

links for 2009-09-11 « burningCat — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:06:13 +0000

[...] A poor craftsman blames others’ tools (tags: twitter media) [...]

By: Patrizia Broghammer

Patrizia Broghammer — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:28:23 +0000

They say the Internet reshaped History, may be it is true, because it reshaped life.
Once people read the news, now they want to be part of them.
The whole production, news included, used to be a monologue, after the dawn of the Internet it has become more and more a dialogue.
That is why people like blogs and blogging.
It is not just writing, it is beginning a discussion in which the reader can talk and say what is wrong or right (in his opinion).
It is may be the beginning of a real democracy, where everybody counts a little bit.
It is the cloud computing, where every end is also a beginning.
It is a Network, a community, a big living room where everybody wants a seat and has a voice.
It is a place where you can find out that there is somebody, somewhere, that can give you what you didn’t expect: new ideas.

By: Jarvis criticizes NYT’s Cohen for his dismissal of Twitter | Hypercrit

Jarvis criticizes NYT’s Cohen for his dismissal of Twitter | Hypercrit — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:39:21 +0000

[...] Jarvis has a post worth reading over at BuzzMachine. In it, he compares columns about Twitter from two very [...]

By: Another blog post that makes you think « JOUR3180 Online Journalism

Another blog post that makes you think « JOUR3180 Online Journalism — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:01:23 +0000

[...] A poor craftsman blames others’ tools ( [...]

By: Alex S

Alex S — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:34:47 +0000

Here here, Bob. There’s some weird self-flagellation thing going on with all the “journalists aren’t the center of the universe” yelping. We have yet to reconcile the value of story telling, words and reporting with the new tools and paradigms before us. If you think about it, it’s not so strange that those who came up in the “old camp” and have moved on to the “new” are being polarizing right now. A new generation won’t feel that way at all — post-journal, maybe, just like post-racial. Can’t wait!

By: Alex S

Alex S — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:27:50 +0000

DM, just took a look at your site and while I was on your side before, now I’m not so sure. Let me be clear — I respect your efforts and know well that in-depth reporting and quality writing take time and money. But I also wonder if your community might be better served if you were to scrap all the snippets of purported news — McDonald’s promotion, high school students watching a speech — in favor of one good, long investigative piece. The hyperlocal blogs that have gotten press may become true news sources with time, but for now many are no more than hyperlocal ads cloaked as hyperlocal news (with room for comments, yay!). I fear that in our efforts to do something different from the “journalism” of old (which I’m not against!), we still aren’t serving the public.

By: From the twitter discussion: Check out t… « Too Much Information

From the twitter discussion: Check out t… « Too Much Information — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:15:15 +0000

[...] 4:15 pm on September 10, 2009 Reply From the twitter discussion: Check out this article: http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/09/10/a-poor-craftsman-blames-others-tools/ [...]

By: Fiesty1

Fiesty1 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:04:16 +0000

You could have tweeted this whole article as: “Journalist exposes journalists’ non-acceptance of Twitter in article longer than 140 characters”. Grin.

Gotta go… too many people on my lawn with tweezers (cutting my grass in 140ml of gas or less).

By: Taylor Walsh

Taylor Walsh — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:57:58 +0000

Hah! I was going to ask the same about sheets of paper and typewriters, just to be ancient enough about it.

By: Sebastian

Sebastian — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:42:53 +0000

This feels so old at this point. There are so many examples of ‘journalists’ that can do both with ease: Write the long-form traditional narrative *and* provide meaningful real-time context to events via Twitter. DeArmond’s piece is so willfully ignorant I think it’s best to just label it as trolling.

By: Jeff Jarvis

Jeff Jarvis — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:59:58 +0000

Or to put it another way… the process is a new narrative. I like that better.

By: Jeff Jarvis

Jeff Jarvis — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:59:40 +0000

I’m not saying narrative is dead but that it’s not the only kind that will or should exist. We agree.