Prodigy, mentioned in that article, was at least the first graphical online service I used, c.1988. (The Macintosh version of what became AOL may have been earlier, but I was PC until ’88.) Early rollout served Hartford, Atlanta and San Francisco — perhaps the only time those cities have been seen as having something in common.

Designed for e-commerce over a closed network at under $10/month, it restricted bulletin board topics but did have news sections and began to do newspaper sites just before more flexible AOL and more open Web ate its lunch.

I wrote a review article about it in ’88 or ’89 for PCWeek, which paid me well but didn’t print it; new editor said it was because publication’s focus was now business apps, not consumer services. So I set aside my research on networks and hypertext, and switched to writing about boats — until the Web happened and I sailed off into a Ph.D. program… paying the bills with a part-time job at another online news pioneer, The News & Observer’s NandO.net in Raleigh, and (slowly) writing my dissertation about another, http://wral-tv.com, across town.

Sorry about the long link text above, and any typos before I get to edit both. I’m reading the Web today on a Nook-liie Pandigital tablet, lowcost device whose software makes it easier to post like this than to bookmark.

It has older Android WordPress app, Tweetcaster Pro with  ReadItLater, but poor keyboard and no direct hook to Delicious.com (http://delicious.com/bstepno). I see another one in the Android store. I’ll try it later.

Until I get something better, I can’t help thinking how GREAT this would have seemed in 1988.

Of course the phone is stamped with a place of assembly, major manufacturers have been well-known, and Apple earlier this month disclosed a list of its suppliers.

But Glass has another point to make. His little dialogue with the iPhone introduces a 40-minute audio performance, in front of a live audience, by Mike Daisey, titled “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory.” It’s a story I’d like my news writing students to hear, although we probably won’t get around to discussing it for a week or two.

Daisey’s amazing narrative tells how he visited a Chinese manufacturing city that “looks like ‘Blade Runner’ threw up on itself,” and getting Apple factory workers to talk to him about their work and their lives. We usually tell beginning journalism students to “stay out of the story” and write in the third-person. That’s the standard approach in print and Web narratives, and in a lot of broadcast reporting. It separates “opinion” and “interpretation” from “the facts.” But here — as in some feature stories and op-edit columns — a reporter’s experience in getting the story is part of the story.

The NPR site lets you stream Daisey’s piece of stand-up news storytelling — or should we call it “performance journalism”? — plus a 20-minute fact-checking follow-up by This American Life, with links to research reports on Apple manufacturing.

You also can buy the full hour as a single download from, ironically, iTunes.

Related:

Jan. 13 blog  after Apple’s release of the supplier list.

Jan. 25 New York Times story, In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad

Mike Daisey’s blog:

In its first week the episode was the most downloaded in THIS AMERICAN LIFE’s history. The internet exploded, and the story went everywhere—I received over a thousand emails in just a few days; the response was overwhelming.

Until I read that article, I didn’t know YouTube started with a homemade video of a young man stating the obvious about an elephant. Now a Google-owned and expanding YouTube is the “elephant in the room” for the television industry — the obvious idea that may be too vast or too threatening to talk about, an open market of online media that two-way network connections make possible.

Having spent the last couple of years researching old-time radio programs for JHeroes.com, and reflecting on my TV-watching childhood, I keep thinking of the question “What’s on tonight?” as the cornerstone of media empires for 80 years. The question  becomes almost irrelevant when on-demand streaming and digital archives make the answer “everything.”

Clay Shirky’s anti-SOPA/PIPA video last week reminded me that  producers of the television programming I grew up with had a relatively easy job. They didn’t have to produce “the best,” just something a little better than the other two programs being broadcast in that time slot that night. Presto, millions of viewers.

Cable changed that. So did VHS, DVD, Blockbuster and Netflix. Now add the idea of thousands of choice-filled YouTube niche-channels to Internet-enabled big screen TVs, and we have a new trunkloaded media elephant, with new questions about (useful/annoying/intrusive) narrowly targetted advertising, serendipity-seeking algorithyms, social-media promotion and who-knows-what next.

Enough preamble. John Seabrook’s “Annals of Technology” New Yorker piece on the future of video in the age of a Google-owned YouTube, linked above, is fascinating. I hope you have the time and patience to read it.

Part personal profile, part cultural study, part business profile, part geek garage dream, it fills seven pages in The New Yorker (Jan. 16, 2012; pp 24-30). Can I get students to read that much online? Should Seabrook do a YouTube video about it?

There actually is a short audio podcast of him talking about the article, including a good observation on fighting the temptation to shift from “journalism” to “futurism.”

When I hang up this phone and get to a bigger screen later this weekend, I’ll add links to that audio, to Shirky’s video, and to another piece of thinking-big online media serendipity — a Harvard event last fall with Newton Minow, who a half-century ago threw the phrase “vast wasteland” at the TV industry.

Now we have a new vastness to deal with, and it looks like we’re all in the “What’s on?” business.

Take this list, for example:

1. Keep it brief. Be concise, simple and precise…
2. Keep it simple… Use short words, active verbs, and common nouns.
3. Be friendly. Use contractions. Talk directly to the reader…
4. Put the most important thing first…
5. Describe only what’s necessary…
6. Avoid repetition.

Which Journalism 101 textbook did that come from?

Answer: None. It’s part of the “writing” section of Google’s design tips for developers of apps for Android phones.

The details of each step aren’t exactly what we tell news writers. With luck, journalists will be telling their stories on a larger canvas than a smartphone screen, and to an audience whose thumbs aren’t twitching for a return to Angry Birds. But good writing should work on both page sizes. News writers might think of themselves as designing a “user interface” for the information in their stories.

I especially like the ultra-conservative Android version of the “most important thing first” rule (emphasis added):  ”The first two words (around 11 characters, including spaces) should include at least a taste of the most important information in the string. If they don’t, start over.”

The old conclusion-first “inverted pyramid” news story’s summary lead emphasizes the first sentence. But the “two words” idea isn’t unique to Google. For online reading, usability experts with eye-tracking devices have been telling us for years that readers skim down through the start of each line. The “11 characters” reference leads me to believe that  Jakob Nielsen’s work is on someone’s desk (screen, bookmark list, bookshelf) at Google.

If nothing else, following that two-word rule might get beginning news-writing students to stop starting stories with the words “Last night…” — which could be the first two words of every morning-after story in a newspaper.

I’ve taken links from that conversation and added others to share with students, either as examples of online publishing, Web design, journalism, or just for fun. The order is mostly random.

ruwhim.com

ballbearingsonline.com

echomagonline.com

southeastohiomagazine.com

sjmc.oit.drake.edu

IEIMedia study abroad projects

• ieimedia.com/urbinonow-2011
• istanbulstories.net
• inperpignan.net

handshakemag.com

brinkmag.org

Flux

northbynorthwestern.com

Inside

Image

MPJ

The Burr

curiomagazine.com

Some of these are online-only ‘zines, while others are the Web editions of print publications.  I’ve added links to other publications that have won SPJ Mark of Excellence awards over the years, or wound up in my bookmark lists for various reasons. Some are class products of formal “magazine journalism” programs; others are student organizations.

Thanks to David Sumner of Ball State for consolidating some of the links from the email discussion in one message. (His students’ award-winning publication is second on the list.)

The first on my version of the list is RUWhim, here at Radford University. I’m not officially involved with it, but couple of years ago I tracked down its archived editions going back to 1997.

The rest of the list is in no particular order, and I haven’t added any explanatory comments — the better for browsing and random discovery. I may add a few publications to it when I have time later in the semester.

♖ ♖ ♖ ♖ ♖ ♖ ♖ ♖ ♖

The AEJMC Magazine Division also gives annual awards. A list of recent winners is online as a PDF file, but without links to Web editions.

The topic is a serious one: A North Carolina university’s dismissal of its student newspaper adviser over a story that might otherwise just sound like 1970s  nostalgia. A couple of months ago, the paper published photos of a streaker at a fall football game. Autumn leaves or not, the editors didn’t do any “digital fig-leafing” of the images.

Of course the university can’t comment on the details of a personnel matter, but the Student Press Law Center quickly came to the defense of adviser Paul Isom. (His position, incidentally, reported to a marketing and publicity official at the university, not to the journalism faculty.)

“They’re clearly punishing the adviser for something he not only didn’t control, but legally couldn’t control,” Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, said.

The SPLC alert prompted a robust discussion by journalism faculty on an Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication mailing list — more than 30 messages in 24 hours, during a semester break. Professors addressed topics including the independence of student newspapers, community standards regarding nudity, the sensitivities of college administrators and public relations departments, and the responsibilities of student media advisers — as well as a need for student media advisers to get both their rights and responsibilities spelled out in advance.

You do not need to be a member to read the discussion here:

http://aejmc.net/pipermail/news-list_aejmc.net/2012-January/thread.html

I hope sharing the story with my intro class this semester will help me do a better job of addressing issues of sensitivity, diversity, community standards, taste and “responsibility.” Those issues aren’t just for editors-in-chief anymore, not when anyone can register a WordPress.com account like this one and start “publishing” to the world.

Along with my advice about “acting responsibly,” deciding whatever that means, I’ll also point out that student editors have a First Amendment right to ignore their advisers — but that they should be wise enough to listen, discuss and make thoughtful, informed decisions. For example, I wonder how many student publications have drafted their own editorial guidelines about possibly offensive images or language? I wonder if those guidelines were written when the publication’s audience was just on-campus, not a Web-published edition available to anyone in the world?

There might even be a nice research paper topic there for a grad student or two.

For inspiration, I’d point students to the ethics-related pages at: SPJ, SPLC and its FACT team, RTDNA and NPPA, and the College Media Association, including its page for advisers.

For the recent specific case, here are additional news reports mentioned in the journalism faculty discussion:

• http://theeastcarolinian.com/ (The school paper itself)
• http://theeastcarolinian.com/?p=2633 University fires student media director
• Greenville Daily Reflector
• WNCT.com Adviser Fired story
• WITN.com Adviser Fired story
• Raleigh News & Observer story (includes interview with adviser… N&O story has legs: Boston Herald)
• ScholarsAndRogues.com post by Denny Wilkins of St. Bonaventure, with its own discussion thread.
• Streaker isn’t college’s greatest embarrassment — by Gene Policinski, senior vice president/executive director, First Amendment Center, Nashville.

Nostalgic footnote: The first time I was on a television “Face the State” panel, it  was as education editor of The Hartford Courant, and the newsmaker was the relatively new president of the University of Connecticut, Glenn W. Ferguson. Between questions about political influence and university budget cuts, I threw in one about the Yale Daily News acknowledging that UConn led Yale in streaking that year. I thought his response — something about looking forward to Yale’s recognizing UConn’s excellence in other areas — was his best remark that day.

As much as I like old radio shows, the medium doesn’t do justice to Asta…

Since the movie trailer is on YouTube, I’m including it too.

An article at AndroidPolice.com is convincing about an “authentication” issue as the possible technical cause of 4G problems that have been plaguing me for months. Verizon has replaced my Samsung 4gLTE hotspot device twice and most recently also replaced the SIM card. In perhaps 10 calls to Verizon tech support, I’d never heard this “authentication” topic mentioned, but that article reads exactly like what’s happening, including why my old 3G Droid phone works even when the Samsung hotspot’s 4G/3G connection doesn’t. Quoting: 

This is what your 4G LTE UICC SIM card does – it’s responsible for authenticating you on both Verizon’s 3G and 4G networks. Verizon 3G-only phones use the old authentication system, because they don’t have these SIM cards… the new scheme is extremely particular about failed attempts to authenticate a device. Your device authenticates regularly, “checking in” with the network to ensure you’re still supposed to be connected. When your device fails to authenticate on the network (for any reason – and there are a gamut of possibilities)… you notice you no longer have a data connection, and throw your phone at the nearest wall.

So far, I haven’t tried throwing the hotspot at the wall. It’s so small and light that it would be more satisfying to skip it across the surface of a lake. If I had a lake handy, I’d be tempted. Even yesterday, with blogs and twitter feeds reporting a widespread Verizon 4G outage (the third this month), a Verizon tech support person still had me doing things like removing and replacing the SIM card, logging into the device itself from my browser (http://192.168.1.1/)  and waiting for long breaks while he, presumably, scratched his head and tried valiantly to look things up in a support database. Another hour of my life I’ll never get back.

While the Samsung 4G LTE hotspot was useless, my Droid 3G phone performed just fine all day. The  hotspot’s indicator lights sometimes said it was connected with 4G, sometimes with 3G, but my computers could never connect to any website, regardless of the configuration of blinky lights.

Most annoying: Do a Google search for “verizon 4g outage status” and notice how far down the search list you have to go to find anything at “verizon.com” or “vzw.com.”  For a communication company, Verizon doesn’t appear to be communicating with its own technical support staff or its customers. How about an honest “system status” page somewhere?

I did eventually discover these discussion forums, but they have been mostly speculation and questions, no answers:

• community.vzw.com 4G Network discussion
• community.vzw.com outage topic
• androidcommunity.com outage topic

UPDATE: On the 29th, Verizon Tweeted that the problem had been solved and posted a press release that didn’t explain the extent or cause of the outage. It blamed the several recent outages on different “triggering events,” and made no mention of the SIM/authentication issue.

On the day of the outage, there had been nothing useful from the Verizon PR folks, but enough about expansion of the system to make you wonder whether the problem was just a matter of trying to grow too fast:

• http://news.verizonwireless.com/LTE/Overview.html#PressReleases
• http://news.verizonwireless.com/news/2011/12/pr2011-12-27.html
• http://news.verizonwireless.com/news/2011/12/pr2011-12-14m.html
• https://twitter.com/#!/VZWnews on Thursday tweeted, “4GLTE issue resolved overnight. 3G operated normally; calling, texting were unaffected,” but didn’t say extent of “issue” or point out that 4G devices like mine did not connect to the 3G network.
• https://twitter.com/#!/VZWSupport seemed buried in inquiries about badly timed announcement of a new billing policy, (which was rescinded two days later)

Ironically, but not unexpectedly, my connection flaked out a couple of times while I was writing this post. One of the most annoying aspects is that the 4G LTE WiFi hotspot’s indicator lights always show a normal connection, my Mac’s Airport icon shows a normal connection, but any Web browser attempt to load a page results in a “This webpage is not available…” display like the one shown above on the right.

Today, turning the hotspot off, waiting a bit, turning it back on, and recovering this page from the WordPress cache did the job. (Kudos to the combination of Google Chrome and WordPress.com for saving work in the background.) Yesterday, I was trying to do some online shopping, connect with some friends by email, pay bills and do research. I lost half a day, not counting what I’ve wasted “venting” about this today. Mea culpa. It’s enough to send me looking for an older technology… maybe a pencil. One with “AT&T” or “T-Mobile” written on the side.

For Portrayal of the Journalist in Popular Culture students who need one more story for their comparison papers, check the films-adapted-for-radio posts at JHeroes.com.

For journalism or Web design students trying WordPress for the first time, see the “WP Tips” tab at the top of this page and my “Not a blog” site, demonstrating that WordPress isn’t just for blogs these days.

For news writing students — or anyone — following the shooting story at Virginia Tech, try my list of New River Valley journalists using Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/bobstep/nrvj

Included are individual reporters at Roanoke and New River Valley area newspapers and television stations, and a few dedicated news-watchers who post useful updates.

The staff of the Collegiate Times at Virginia Tech did a terrific job, making extensive use of personal Twitter accounts covering both the breaking news of the shooting and the community support following it.  As I pointed out to my students on Friday, during a big story, “beat” definitions go out the window and everyone pitches in to get the story covered — hence some “sports” Twitter feeds passing along timely information about an event that was far from their usual upbeat Hokie news.

Alas, while a change in ownership has kept delicious.com alive, it has disabled all of the Droid bookmarking apps that worked with the original service.

This page is my attempt to use the Droid WordPress app as a substitute — pasting somewhat random items here for eventual transfer to my Delicious lists. The links below may or may not be relevant to a class discussion in one or another of my classes, but at least they’re here where I can get at them easily.

First, concerning the UK wiretapping tabloid case mentitoned in both my intro-newswriting and “Portrayal of the Journalist in Popular Culture” classes. The topic is “the procurement of information by illegal means,” and this article from The New Yorker captures the current state-of-the-art, for better or for worse:

IS PRIVACY EVIL?

“…you’d almost think he’d been genetically engineered by a celebrity publicist bent on proving to the public, and the authorities, that reporters are amoral dirtbags. “

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/

===============

Next, concerning Patch.com, TheBurgs.com and hyperlocal or regional news treatments mentioned in class, see delicious.com/bstepno/hyperlocal

On Twitter, I’ve started a list of New River Valley area journalists, which follows their tweets about local news stories, among other things. I’m surprised when they don’t link through to a full story, or when a local TV station lets what appears to be its main Twitter feed sit unused for a week or more.

https://twitter.com/#!/list/bobstep/nrvj

==================

These are older stories that I may have mentioned in class before Thanksgiving.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/nov/12/va-nuclear-plant-in-quake-zone-gets-go-ahead/

http://reston.patch.com/d/articles/police-arrest-parents-in-drowning-at-westin

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2011/10/saudi-couple-maryam-masaad-almutiri-wafy-abdullah-almutiri-facing-neglect-charges-68553.html

http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/crime-punishment/2011/11/parents-charged-1-year-olds-drowning-death

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/crime-scene/post/parents-charged-with-neglect-in-drowning-of-baby-in-reston-hotel-bathtub/2011/10/31/gIQAdJ6NaM_blog.html

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/11/tip-when-first-frost-hits-month-stay-grass

“Frost is winter’s curtain- raiser, ushering out autumn’s last act, slaying the remnants of summer. Goodbye, geraniums. Adiós, impatiens. Bon voyage, begonias.
“Only the warm embrace of ocean and bay has spared our landscape this long. Just west of here, frost has already made the growing season a memory, its bouquet withered to mush by frigid fingers that reach deep inside tender plants and rupture their cells.”

Fire at poultry house kills at least 10,000 turkeys

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/11/fire-va-poultry-house-kills-least-10000-turkeys

Associated Press:November 13, 2011 SWOOPE, Va. Authorities are investigating a fire at a poultry house near the Shenandoah Valley town of Swoope that killed at least 10,000 turkeys. The fire occurred Tuesday night at Hilltop View Farm.

Once a tree, now firewood in Roanoke giveaway

http://m.roanoke.com/mapp/story.aspx?arcID=301089