Resistant Swine Flu Comes to SF

Here's a piece I did on the San Francisco teenager who was diagnosed with a Tamiflu-resistant strain of swine flu (aka H1N1). Pretty scary stuff, as this is the first time that scientists believe that the virus may have the ability to develop drug resistancy and then travel between humans.

Image by AP.

Day 2 of the InJo Conference

Finally, some answers. Jason Pontin, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Technology Review, at last addressed the elephant in the room during the plenary session. In a speech and panel discussion titled "Where is the Money?", Pontin made the following points:

• Print is not dead, but it is dying. Journalism will survive, but there will be many few journalists in the field. The next few years will be "terribly unpleasant" as huge numbers of journalists and publications disappear. Print publications that do survive must drastically decrease their frequency

• Editors are no longer the gatekeepers of information, because there has been an enormous proliferation of sources and citizen journalists. Instead, editors are the leaders of a "collaboration of professionals," charged with delivering a certain quality of content. Editors must also give readers what they say they want. At the Technology Review, the content is about 80% of what the readers say they want and 20% what the editors say they want

• Consumers must buy more of what they read, and advertisers must be given the tools to understand their audience and measure the success of their advertisements. In some ways, advertisers are now making up for years of being "ripped off" by print publications. There should be clear guidelines as to what separates an online advertisement from an advertorial from regular content as has been the case in print journalism for decades

• Readers must be able to subscribe to an online publication for whatever length of time they desire. They should be able to see a single story, or a whole issue, or several years worth of issues

• Journalists must discuss how they will open up the newsroom to citizen journalists, i.e., how they will treat information from the armies of self-appointed primary and secondary sources
  

Pontin is not a prophet, but he has made the most sense of anyone I've hear here so far.

Day 1 of the InJo Conference

Today is the first day of the Innovation Journalism conference at Stanford, hosted by the VINNOVA Stanford Research Center of Innovation Journalism. It's lunch time and so far we've seen a plenary session and a small-group session on best practices (not to mention a very necessary breakfast and lunch buffet).

I got a lot out of my small group discussion on covering biotech, but the highlight so far was the speech and Q&A session with Vint Cerf, one of the creators of the Internet. He had a lot of interesting things to say about the relationship between privacy and transparency, but what was most notable was his answer to the question that was on everyone's mind: how will print publications continue to survive in the current economic/digital environment?

His answer was fascinating, not for its brilliance but for its naivete (no offense, Vint, and thanks for making the web). He suggested that an advertising model would be the savior of print journalism as it transitioned to an online format, and asked one of the audience members as to why that wasn't the obvious solution. The poor guy couldn't come up with a response, which infuriated me. If advertising was the obvious answer, why hasn't it worked across the board for online publications already? Why can't most digital newspapers convert pay-per-click or pay-per-view ads into enough money to hire back the staff members they layed off? How are we going to maintain quality of content with a platform that places a higher value on quantity, the better to place more advertisements? Unless Vint has some magical advertising model hiding in his back pocket, it's clear that the answer is going to be a lot more complicated than just ads.

Sigh. Time to get more coffee and hope the second half of the day will offer more answers . . .

UPDATE: It did not. Left early, but optimistic about tomorrow.

The Story Behind "ABCs in Arabic"

Earlier this week, the San Mateo Daily journal published my story "Learning the ABCs in Arabic," a profile of the only Muslim pre-school and kindergarten in San Mateo County (it is also the county's only Muslim school, period). I received a lot of great feedback on this piece, but my favorite email was from Abeer Elafifi, the Muslim Children Garden's director. She wrote:

"Just to let you know that everyone thought it was well written and really loved it. I can't thank you enough. May Allah (God) give you the best in this life and the life after."

I try very hard to separate my desire to be liked from my desire to be a good journalist, but I can't deny that I was touched by Abeer's email. It was difficult to write a story that described the unique parts of MCG's educational experience while not making the subjects appear overly exotic. The truth is that MCG is just like any other kindergarten/pre-K in so many ways, but the elements that set it apart are the things that make it special. I spent a lot of time on this story trying to strike the right balance with the "familiar vs. foreign" tone, wanting to simultaneously engage the public while staying true to the spirit of the school. I don't know if I fully succeeded, but I was fairly happy with the result.

Working on this story made me wonder why the Bay Area's Muslim community doesn't get more coverage by the local media. As Abeer notes in this piece, the community is young but also strong, and it seems strange that MCG hasn't been covered before. The Daily Journal is no New York Times, but hopefully this story will raise awareness of Muslims in San Mateo County and increase their visibility in the local media.

J-Schools Thrive As J-Jobs Disappear

Very interesting article from Forbes.com today: "Journalism Bust, J-School Boom." It appears that top journalism programs (including Stanford's, woo hoo!) saw a major increase in applications this past admissions cycle, despite the fact that the newspaper/magazine industry is imploding. The dean of Columbia's J-school calls journalism grad programs "less recession responsive" because few reporters go into the field for the money. Not sure if I agree with that line of logic, but it's good to know that the pipeline of top-notch journalists won't be drying up any time soon-- even if that equates to a ridiculously competitive job market.

Photo courtesy of Inju.

Parlez-vous Tech?

Journalists who haven't perused the world of J-School websites recently should be sure to check out the online version of The Columbia School of Journalism. Yes, it's a slick piece of marketing material, but I keep returning for the comprehensive Career Services section. While some of the links are accessible only to Columbia affiliates, there's a surprising amount of useful information on finding a journalism-oriented job in a bad economy. I'm a big fan of the Getting Started link-- it's a great primer on everything from how to negotiate a salary to how to put together an online resume.

It was the resume section, in fact, that got me thinking about the importance of foreign languages in the job search process. As the Columbia website puts it:

"This could be the skill set that puts you in front of your closest competitor, so ALWAYS list your foreign language skills, no matter where you are applying. But don't overstate your abilities. Our rule is that if you can use a foreign language well enough to gather information or conduct interviews, and feel comfortable using the information in your story, then you're proficient."

If I was more interested in becoming a foreign correspondent I might try to learn Arabic or some other difficult language, but what about those of us who are interested in covering science, technology, and business? Surely some other language in addition to English must be of use in the newsroom (other than LOLSpeak, of course).

I studied Spanish in high school and part of college, but I am far from proficient. Spanish seems like a straightforward option because of the number of people in California who speak it as their first language, but I'm not convinced that it's the obvious choice for this sector. Thoughts?

Image courtesy of gabyu.