Should Journalists Pay for Information?

BRETT FAVRE ALLEGEDLY used his cell phone to send images of his man parts to a former New York Jets sideline reporter. The website Deadspin paid $12,000 for the images and voicemails that Favre allegedly left the reporter.

Is there anything wrong with journalists paying for information?

"When you pay for a story, you're making a contract with the person who supplies it and that means you're no longer acting independently," Hagit Limor, the president of the Society of Professional Journalists, told the Washington Post. "People will say anything in pursuit of money. The public should assume you're reporting something because it's true, not because someone received money to say it."

Still, many news outlets find ways of compensating subjects of their stories, even if the compensation doesn't take the form of a direct payment.

If it is common practice, is it still wrong?

(Image via the New York Sun)

Can Animation Be Journalism?


AN AIRLINE PASSENGER recently opted not to go through the full-body scanner at San Diego International Airport. Instead, he requested the full-body pat-down. But when the security officer explained what would happen, the passenger said, “If you touch my junk I will have you arrested.”

The passenger captured the entire event on his cell phone video camera, and the raw video has gone viral.

A Hong Kong-based news operation creates animated videos of news stories, like the airport incident. Watch the video above.

Is the animation an appropriate way to handle a news story? Could this be the future of journalism?

Jesse Pearson: "We Strive to be as Inclusive as Possible."

A GOOD MAGAZINE represents the editor, Vice magazine editor Jesse Pearson said in class yesterday.

"The mag needs to be about my curiosity," said the Levittown native who has lead the magazine since 2003.

This year, Vice did a photo spread involving bears (burly gay dudes) dressed as vikings. Pearson assigned a gay pornographer to do a Q&A with Karl Lagerfeld. That same issue features a fashion spread with models in caskets, looking like they're dead.

"It's just something I always wanted to do," Pearson said. "Models lead these really unhealthy lifestyles."

Actually, he said he always wanted to dress up actual dead people and photograph them. He probably could have done that. He has no editorial oversight whatsoever, he said.

Here are a few other things he said that stood out for me:

• The monthly magazine is free, so it is advertiser funded. But the advertisers have no influence on the content of the mag (Dickies did pull their ads after a male unit was displayed in all it's glory in the mag).

• A revealed testicle in a photo in the bear shoot had to be discussed with the publisher. It ran in the mag.
• There is occasional "branded content" but that is not usually handled by the small editorial team. "It makes me uncomfortable," Pearson said.
• He doesn't consider other mags to be competition because Vice is free.
• Since the mag is distributed for free, he really doesn't know who is the audience. "Doing this mag is like shooting into a vacuum," he said.
• His 88-year old grandmother reads Vice on her iPad.

• Every issue of the magazine has a theme, like catastrophe, Iraq, fashion, Appalachia, sellouts, etc.
• There are only four staffers on the US edition. But they have loads of freelance contributors, and there are more than 25 offices/ editions (each with their own staff) around the world.
• The contributors tend to have a connection to Pearson, and most have a similar ideology.
• He respects Jackass. "I think it's brilliant, like Vaudeville," he said.
• If Vice was a television talk show, it would be like Dick Cavett.
• He has no sell lines on the cover of the mag because he doesn't have to worry about newsstand sales. "I don't know who would do sell lines if they didn't have to," he said.

• Vice is not a hipster mag, nor do they claim set the standards for what is deemed "cool." Pearson said, "We strive to be as inclusive as possible."
• He is planning to step down from Vice after the next issue. He wants to work on projects beyond the one-month-at-a-time pace, maybe books and freelance stuff.
• "I love this city more than New York," he said of Philadelphia.

What stood out for you?

Vice Magazine: More Than a Hipster Bible?

ON TUESDAY, VICE magazine editor Jesse Pearson will visit class.

Vice magazine started in Montreal in 1994 as a government-funded project. It's now a for-profit, advertising-driven magazine circulated to more than one million people around the world and they have offices in 30 different countries.

The mag has stories from around the globe, about random subjects like fashion, immigration, music, skateboarding, hatred, Iraq and just about anything else. They publish an annual photography issue, and the work of world class photographers like Terry Richardson and Ryan McGinley are in nearly every issue.

Vice is very comfortable with male and female nudity, curse words, sexuality and stuff that isn't politically correct.

"Lenny Kravitz is the biggest fucking twat I've ever met in my life," Pearson said in 2003. "He is arrogant and dumb and boring. He even had a guy carrying the back of his extra-long cardigan like he was a fucking bridesmaid. Joe Strummer was surprisingly cool. Really personable and funny and didn't want anyone to leave. He had time for anybody that wanted to talk to him. He even wrote our DOs and DON'Ts one month."

The New York Times accused Vice of creating "a trailer-park sensibility, embraced with and without irony, that has taken hold among postcollegiate society."

In that same article, Robert Lanham, author of The Hipster Handbook, said, "Of all the magazines that are out there, I think that's the one that nails hipster culture on the head."

What an awful thing to say!

The editor of the UK edition says that Vice isn't just a hipster mag where young people can learn where to find the latest jeans. They are taking a different approach in appealing to the younger audience by doing "serious" work, like documenting drug abuse, prostitution and wars in the Middle East and Africa, among other subjects.

"There are people out there who want to learn," said Andy Capper, Vice's UK editor, "and who don't want to be talked down to."

Vice now has retail stores, an online broadcast outlet, a music label, a pub/ music venue in London and an ad agency attached to the global brand.

Check out Vice's website. What do you think?

Making Friends, With Marc Zumoff.

EVERY DAY MARC ZUMOFF wakes up, the sun is shining and life is good.

"I'm happy to be me," he said in class today, despite the dreary rain outside.

Zumoff, a Temple grad, is the voice if the Sixers. He's one of only 30 pro basketball play-by-play announcers in the country. He flies in chartered planes, stays in fancy hotels, eats quality meals and then gets to watch some of the world's top athletes from the front row at mid-court. That's his job. He gets paid to talk about basketball.

It wasn't always this grand. When he was in college, he received so many rejection letters from potential employers that his parents suggested he become a pharmacist rather than a broadcaster. He started at a small radio station in Trenton, earning peanuts for wages. He slowly worked his way up the broadcast ladder, ultimately joining the Sixers in 1994.

He offered a few steps for reaching your dreams.

- Reach out to anyone you know who might serve as a connection to a person in charge. Make friends. You need those connections so that you stand out in comparison to all the other applicants for jobs and internships.
- When you write to the person in charge (in email or snail mail), Zumoff said to write three things:
1. Make the personal connection.
2. Ask to meet face-to-face.
3. Mention that you will follow up.

- When you sit down and meet with them, Zumoff said, don't bore them with your life history. Listen to them. Subtly remind them of your personal connections.
- Dress appropriately, as though you are interviewing for your dream job.
- In advance of the meeting, do research and arrive prepared with questions.
- Ask them for other people you should speak with (because this person is now a connection to other people for you).
- Slide them your resume, clips or demo reel before leaving.
- Stay in touch with everyone. Send thank you notes.

- When you get the internship, come early, stay late and do even the stupid stuff with a smile. Your bosses are watching you.
- In the end, it will take more than just connections to land the dream job. You need to work hard. Real hard. "No one hands you anything," he said. "You have to earn it. Pay your dues."
- Never burn bridges. It's a small, small world.
- Believe in yourself and your abilities.
- Surround yourself with positive people.

"Do whatever you have to do to get in the door," Zumoff said. "Get in the door and then move on toward that dream job."

What stood out for you?

Do You Want News With an Attitude?

DURING TUESDAY'S ELECTION, Fox News drew larger audiences than any other cable news operation.

Fox News averaged 6.96 million viewers in prime time on Tuesday, according to ratings results from the Nielsen Company, the New York Times reported. CNN averaged 2.42 million viewers. MSNBC averaged 1.94 million viewers.

Does that mean that people with conservative leanings were more engaged in this election? Or is this a sign that viewers want information with a particular slant?

If news with an agenda is gaining larger audiences, should other networks and news programs try presenting the news with more analysis and maybe some opinion?

Should journalists abandon the idea of objectivity?

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