Tuesday Newsday: Can't Keep It In

Twitter and I have sort of a love-hate relationship, mainly because my life is usually not interesting enough to lend itself to minute-by-minute microblogging (although this does not appear to deter almost everyone else on Twitter). However, I have to give it props today, because it's part of the reason Iranian protesters have managed to organize massive demonstrations over the country's disputed presidential election for the past two days.

Reading some of the posts from Iranians on Twitter makes me feel like the most vapid person in the world. My most recent Twitter entries are on spotting Rob Pattinson outside my dorm yesterday, while the latest missives from Tehran are on violence and arrests and protests. It's scary stuff, but it's also pretty cool to follow what might be a revolution in the making.

"Citizen journalism" is not one of my favorite concepts, mainly because over here, actual journalists do it better (and more ethically, Mayhill Fowler). But in a country where the press has been banned from reporting on the streets, where foreign journalists' press credentials have been revoked, where the government is reportedly starting to crack down on electronic media, citizen journalism might be Iran's last best hope.

Tuesday Newsday: Taking In the Sights of Your Empire's Colony

Aaaaaand, we're back!

The blame for my complete and utter lack of blogging for the past month falls squarely on the shoulders of a finals schedule from hell, complete with an astronomy exam that literally gave me a headache and an eight-page research paper that had me trapped in front of a microform machine reading Nazi propaganda -- in French -- for seven straight hours one weekend. Whew.

Needless to say, it's good to be back in the land of the living.

And while emerging (mostly) unscathed from the Pollock Testing Center doesn't really match up to snagging an early release from an Iranian prison, I'm sure Roxana Saberi is feeling similar sentiments of relief today as well.

Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist living in Iran, was sentenced by an Iranian court in April to eight years in prison on charges of espionage. She was released Monday after an appeals court reduced her charges -- perhaps due to a letter from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad encouraging the court to be fair in its decision.

Her release means a lot of things -- a new and hopefully promising development in the U.S.'s dealings with Iran, an insight into Iranian domestic politics, an indication of how the wind is blowing in a country where Ahmadinejad is seeking re-election next month. It's a testament to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's general badassery (she, along with President Obama, has been clamoring for Saberi's release since she was arrested). It's a signal that rational discourse between Tehran and Washington might not be impossible.

But at its core, it's a victory for the free press, especially in Iran, where a journalist can be arrested merely for working without press credentials. In the U.S., we're bemoaning dropping ad revenues and the perils of online reporting. But halfway across the world, Saberi's case shows that getting a byline can get you arrested. It's sobering stuff.

Analysts have cautioned that it's not prudent to read too much into Saberi's release, arguing that her sudden release illustrates the volatility of Iranian politics. And in a country where two other Americans are missing or detained and Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan is still being held on espionage charges, the battle isn't over. But the case of Roxana Saberi is certainly a good start.

Tuesday Newsday: Aspirations Wrapped Up In Books

As weeks go, this one hasn't been the best for the newspaper industry, and it's only Tuesday. The Chicago Sun-Times filed for bankruptcy today, and according to a Monday rumor, the venerable New York Times will soon be eliminating its City section and regional weeklies.

Newspapers need money, but more importantly, they need buyers -- people willing to invest time and energy in reenergizing and reinventing the business model that so many have failed at. So, in lieu of giving in to the man and accepting bailout funds, here's a solution: let's buy them ourselves.

At least that's Andrew Dunn's plan. Dunn, a journalism student at the University of North Carolina, runs the Web site Let's Buy A Newspaper, where, since January, journalists have been pledging money to -- you guessed it -- buy one of the country's various struggling papers. The now-defunct, almost universally beloved Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Rocky Mountain News were once first on the site's list of potential purchases. That list now includes papers like the Miami Herald and the San Diego Union-Tribune.

On the site's "About" page, Dunn admits that he started the site on a whim when the news broke about the Post-Intelligencer but would be open to following through on the experiment if enough pledges come through.

Yes, only $28,000 has been pledged to save newspapers that are asking for hundreds of millions of dollars. Yes, the site might be a little too idealistic for its own good. Yes, there's almost no chance that Dunn's endearingly bare-bones site will actually manage to buy a paper of its own.

But at the same time, click around the site and you'll find a bunch of concerned, intelligent journalists discussing new practices in newsroom management, laying out a business plan and outlining a payroll for 20 reporters and seven editors. It's kind of like playing house -- what would we do with a whole newspaper of our own? -- but already, contributors are putting forth ideas about investors, advertising and potential locations. Reporters and editors from publications as venerable as the New York Times and as small-scale as college newspapers are pledging $50 and $500 and $5,000 if the project gets off the ground.

Maybe it's wishful thinking; maybe it's a shot in the dark. But that's what new media is about: taking a crazy idea that just might work and seeing where it goes. At the very least, Let's Buy a Newspaper is bringing together print journalists across the country to talk about the future and share ideas in a time when ideas are all we have left.

And if the whole thing does work out, they can have my $50, any day.

Tuesday Newsday: Too Much History, Too Much Biography?

Note: The news industry is pretty insane right now -- but pretty fascinating, too. On Tuesdays, I'll be blogging about journalism -- how it's changing, who's shaping it, and what's next for the news. Thus, happy Tuesday Newsday, kids.



When the management of a major metropolitan daily newspaper decides to publish their Twitter accounts instead of their names on the masthead, you know something is changing.

This, if you couldn't tell, is the March 19 masthead of the venerable Chicago Tribune, one of my favorite papers and, coincidentally, one of the most troubled papers in the country right now.

So it's interesting that just a few months after its parent company declared bankruptcy, the Tribune printed a masthead devoted to one of the more pervasive aspects of new media journalism. Twitter is what you might call a "microblog," a vast aggregator of millions of people's 140-character status updates. At its worst, it's vapid, narcissistic, and completely pointless.

At its best, though, it's kind of the coolest thing ever. Wade through the masses of voyeuristic losers and you find really, really awesome journalists -- not just sitting there navel-gazing but delving in-depth into their reporting, taking you inside newsrooms across the country and around the world.

I follow way too many journalists on Twitter -- Daniel Victor from the Harrisburg Patriot-News, Chris Krewson from the Philadephia Inquirer, the adorable freelance blog queen Ana Marie Cox -- and while stalking my fellow newsies is admittedly a mildly pathetic way to spend my time, it's convinced me that Twitter isn't just for the self-absorbed yuppies that make up its majority. It's taught me that in the midst of layoffs left and right, of venerable papers collapsing like dominoes, there is a small subset of journalists who are embracing new media and making it work.

A few months ago, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had a bomb scare on campus. Zach Tracer, a reporter for Duke's student paper, was on the scene and reporting -- but before filing a web update, he was posting everything he saw to Twitter. Watching updates come in instantly in real time was fascinating -- and yeah, it might speak to what my parents enjoy calling "the instant-gratification culture," but at the same time, it shows a remarkable willingness to adapt and innovate. Twittering the news is not going to make us any money in the short run, but maybe it's part of what will save us in the end.

Sunday Nunday: A Very, Very, Very Fine House

Note: I spent nine years getting taught by Sisters of Saint Joseph, and I have generally found that nuns are pretty much the best people around. Thus, I introduce Sunday Nunday, in which I find interesting news about nuns and blog about it.

Nuns should get anything they want. (Within reason, of course. Renouncing your vows, for example, is probably not the best idea.)

But still. They give up everything they own, they get up early for Mass every morning (a feat indeed), and they can get serious stuff done when they want to (word, Mother Teresa). So when a FOX affiliate got all up in arms this weekend over a New Jersey parish that purchased an $800,000 McMansion to house its nuns, I was left wondering what all the fuss is about.

At first glance, this seems mildly excessive. After all, the nuns at my high school lived in a convent that was attached to the actual school. That's like working in an office all day and then walking down the hall to your bedroom. No one but nuns could do that without wanting to burn the place down within a week.

Anyway, nuns are generally expected to live in weird/terrible conditions and like it, and no one ever really makes an issue about it, including the nuns, because they know it's all part of the vows, yo.

Thus, when a parish in New Jersey bought a swanky new house for its five nuns, people were upset. The news report quotes some parishioners yelling about how nuns take a vow of poverty and that this is a waste of money for the parish and it's a terrible example to set, etc. etc. etc.

My favorite line is the lede in the article that accompanies the video: "Why are five New Jersey nuns living in a mansion that should be in Beverly Hills?"

BECAUSE THEY'RE AWESOME. OKAY? Okay.

The FOX affiliate also takes stalker helicopter photos of the house. Not cool.

The report goes on to mention, a little halfheartedly, that the nuns in question were living in a three-bedroom house and expected to welcome three more by the summer. Eight nuns and three bedrooms doesn't exactly work out. And building a new but more modest house for the nuns would have set the parish back by about $2 million, the archdiocese explains.

So we have eight nuns in a six-bedroom house, plus several acres of land, all bought at a discount price from a Catholic couple who were selling their house and wanted to help the parish out. Not only do the nuns get an awesome house, but the parish plans to use it for retreats, too. And you can totally throw giant church fairs on the new land.

I highly doubt that living in a huge new house will suddenly cause the nuns to adopt a high-flying nouveau riche lifestyle in which they ride around their new estate in personalized golf carts or something. And if they do, who cares? If I encountered a bunch of nuns driving a golf cart with their order's logo on it or something, I could die happy.

So: the parish saves money, the nuns finally get some decent housing, and the parishioners get a giant multi-acre party zone on which to throw fairs and raise more money for the church. Clearly, there is nothing wrong with this scenario. Catholicism for the win.