Deadspin Shows Again That New News Media Can Do Investigative Journalism

from the better-than-the-masses dept

If you sit down quietly, wherever you are, close your eyes, quiet your heart, and listen closely enough, you'll be able to hear someone somewhere talking about how journalism is dead and the internet killed it. Even some of traditional news media's players draw an odd distinction between paper and web content. More specifically, there are many who question where investigative journalism will go once traditional news finishes its death convulsions and the web is what's left.

Well...it will go to the web, of course. And for those who believe investigative journalism and the internet go together about as well as peanutbutter and meatballs, one of the biggest stories circulating the sporting world right now should disabuse you of that notion, because it was Deadspin that independently broke the story of Notre Dame's Manti Te'o's fake dead girlfriend (I never get tired of saying that), while the traditional news sources completely screwed the pooch and possibly even sat on the story. If you're not familiar with this tale of intrigue, well, it's just freaking strange.

Te'o was whipsawed between personal tragedies along the way. In the span of six hours in September, as Sports Illustrated told it, Te'o learned first of the death of his grandmother, Annette Santiago, and then of the death of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua. Kekua, 22 years old, had been in a serious car accident in California, and then had been diagnosed with leukemia. SI's Pete Thamel described how Te'o would phone her in her hospital room and stay on the line with her as he slept through the night. "Her relatives told him that at her lowest points, as she fought to emerge from a coma, her breathing rate would increase at the sound of his voice," Thamel wrote.

It'd be a heartfelt sob story if...you know...Lennay Kekua existed. Unfortunately, she does not and did not. Instead, it appears she was the creation of a failed athelete who was associated with Manti T'eo. Given the way the narrative was infused with T'eo's bid for the Heisman Trophy, reasonable speculation currently centers on whether T'eo was in on the hoax and used it to further his own aims. Lest you think that breaking this story took some trivial amount of internet sluething, that's not the case.

But there is no SSA record there of the death of Lennay Marie Kekua, that day or any other. Her passing, recounted so many times in the national media, produces no obituary or funeral announcement in Nexis, and no mention in the Stanford student newspaper. Nor is there any report of a severe auto accident involving a Lennay Kekua. Background checks turn up nothing. The Stanford registrar's office has no record that a Lennay Kekua ever enrolled. There is no record of her birth in the news. Outside of a few Twitter and Instagram accounts, there's no online evidence that Lennay Kekua ever existed.

All of those photographs—with one important exception—came from the private Facebook and Instagram accounts of Reba [false name], whom we found after an exhaustive related-images search of each of Lennay's images (most of which had been modified in some way to prevent reverse image searching)...Then, in a series of lengthy phone calls, Reba told us everything she knew about the classmate, a star high school quarterback turned religious musician named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.

Deadspin then went on to do in depth reporting on Tuiasosopo, including speaking with many people who know him and have knowledge of his antics and ties to T'eo. For those who are not impressed with this, seriously, follow the link to the piece at Deadspin, because the amount of content they were able to build around their investigation is insane. At worst, it's a hell of a story about a horrible college sports scandal.

But Deadspin, often maligned by the same traditional media that pretends they're the gatekeepers of investigative journalism, wasn't deaf to the failings of those same people. They put out a separate post, detailing every last failing the news media engaged in prior to their piece about the T'eo/Kekua story. Traditional media were played for suckers and it took a new media blog to make things right. As they note in their piece, the media wasn't just duped by this hoax, they amplified it.

Filed Under: deadspin, espn, fact checking, journalism, lennay kekua, manti te'o, new media, notre dame, old media

Newspaper Boss Says Newspapers Need More Money... Because New Media Steals & May 'Destroy Civil Society'

from the luddite-much? dept

Via Mathew Ingram, we learn of Alan Crosbie, the chair of Thomas Crosbie Holdings, a large Irish media conglomerate, which apparently believes all of this online claptrap could be on its way to destroying civil society -- which is apparently why we need to fund more newspapers. Or something. Honestly, the guy barely seems to be making any sense at all. He says that old media property likes newspapers, radio and television are important and should get funded because they "produce good information." But that new media "sometimes give credibility to news that maybe should not have credibility."

It would appear that Crosbie is, well, confusing the medium for the message. There are plenty of newspapers, radio and television news efforts that equally (if not more so) give credibility to news that should not have credibility. That, alone, has nothing to do with the medium in question. And yet, to Crosbie, new media could be the end of civil society:

There is a tsunami of information coming from new media, some of which has the "capacity to destroy civil society and cause unimaginable suffering."

Again, what does this have to do with new media vs. old media? The details come out later. Apparently, he just thinks that new media "steals" from old media, and thus old media can't afford to produce their good news any more:

"The fact is that, to generate good information carries a cost. It requires money. Unless you steal it like most new media companies do.

"And, if you bring that argument to its logical conclusion all you'll get on their news sites is a blank screen, because they eventually will have no one left to steal from."

We've been hearing these arguments for years, and yet, somehow, it seems like more news than ever before is being produced. And rather than "stealing" from old media, plenty of new media sources are adding value to those sources (value that the old media folks could provide if they just stopped blaming new media). Either way, comments like these are the sort of comments that should make any board of directors immediately question what out of touch luddite they have in charge of their media properties...

Filed Under: alan crosbie, new media, newspapers, society

Toughest Job In All Of Showbiz? Trying To Teach Major Record Labels How To Adapt

from the great-way-to-get-fired dept

Want to know what the toughest gig in show business might be? Perhaps it's teaching the major record labels how to adapt to new technologies from within. Digital Music News has a list of 34 former execs at the various major labels, whose role it was to help get those companies up to speed on new technologies and new media -- all of which were "pushed, fired, or otherwise jumped ship over just the past few years." While the stories behind what happened to the different individuals may be different, from those on the list who I'm familiar with, there's a common refrain: the label they worked for had no real interest in embracing what the technology allowed. They hired these execs because they thought that just hiring such people would fix their problems, but then they generally didn't like what they were hearing... which is why they all ended up moving on.

Filed Under: adapt, digital, execs, music, new media, record labels

New Hampshire Supreme Court Recognizes That New Media Can Be News Media

from the good-news dept

We've seen a lot of cases lately concerning whether or not certain new media sites or participants were actually covered by various journalism shield laws (which are all at the state level, currently). In some recent cases judges have ruled against the idea, saying "new media should not be confused with news media." However, up in New Hampshire, it appears that state Supreme Court has overturned a lower court ruling, and noted that a new media site absolutely can be considered part of the press.

The case involved a website graphically named The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, which had apparently published a document that mortgage lender, Mortgage Specialists, had filed with the state, but which Mortgage Specialists did not want public. So it sued Implode-O-Meter and demanded it reveal its source, claiming that New Hampshire's journalist shield law did not apply, because:

"the newsgathering privilege is inapplicable here because Implode is neither an established media entity nor engaged in investigative reporting."

While the lower court agreed and ruled that the source should be revealed, the state Supreme Court rejected that claim, noting that:

It explained that "[t]he fact that Implode operates a website makes it no less a member of the press," and that "Implode's website serves an informative function and contributes to the flow of information to the public." ... Therefore, the court concluded, "Implode is a reporter for purposes of the newsgathering privilege."

Of course, as Sam Bayard's writeup notes, New Hampshire's newsgathering privilege law is limited, so the courts might still force the site to cough up the source, but at least some courts are recognizing that not being "an established media entity" doesn't mean you can't be press.

Filed Under: journalism, new hampshire, new media

Columbia Journalism Professor: Fuck New Media

from the playing-with-toys-indeed dept

Well, well, well. You want to know why some journalists seem to be having so much trouble adapting to a changing marketplace? Perhaps it's because the folks who are teaching them their trade are equally as clueless. We've certainly seen it before, but this latest one is pretty stunning. Jay Rose points us to the news that Columbia journalism professor Ari Goldman, who also is the coordinator for the school's big "Reading & Writing I" class (a core component at what's considered to be the top of the top in journalism schools), told his class on the first day: "Fuck new media" and said that new media training was just "playing with toys."

While his point (as clarified later) is clearly that journalism skills, by themselves, are separate from understanding new media (i.e., you can learn important journalism skills that have nothing to do with new media), it still highlights how poorly he's preparing some of these students (most, we'd hope, know better on their own). To be a successful journalist these days, will require a closer connection to the community -- and that's going to be done via these new media tools. Pretending that the process of doing journalism is entirely the same with or without these tools is wrong. The entire nature of journalism is changing, and those who say "fuck new media" may discover it works the other way around.

Filed Under: ari goldman, journalism, new media

Everyone Is A 'New Media' Journalist These Days

from the it's-not-a-separate-function dept

A few years ago, we pointed out how silly it was for various companies to rush out and hire a "chief digital officer," noting that thinking digitally isn't a separate job function, but something that often needs to be considered across the board in many companies these days. That's certainly true in the journalism world, so it's good to see the new dean of Syracuse's School of Public Communications point out that they won't offer a special "new media" major for undergrads:

"All of our undergraduates need to be conversant with new media. And none of our students, no matter what their major, should be leaving Newhouse without having a basic understanding of the fundamentals of new media and how to tell stories on multiple platforms."

Hopefully, this lack of a specific major doesn't make people think that the school is ignoring new media, but that the school recognizes that new media isn't a silo, but influences things across the board.

Filed Under: journalism, new media

Old Media Always Afraid of New Media... Even Back in 1929

from the history-lesson dept

Petrea Mitchell reminds us that "old media" always ends up reacting poorly to "new media" no matter what we're talking about. As an example she points to this story about theaters (the kind that put on plays) fearing new-fangled radio broadcasters back in 1929:

Once upon a time, complimentary theatre tickets would come with a covering note like this: "Dear Sir, The Management of the ------ Theatre will be much obliged if you will very kindly co-operate with them in safeguarding the enclosed invitation from being used for the purpose of broadcasting a notice of the play from any station of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The invitation is intended to meet the convenience of legitimate journalism, exclusive of broadcasting." Dated 10 October 1929 and quoted in Ego: The Autobiography of James Agate (1935)

That's right. If you were a journalist who was given free tickets, you could report about it the newspaper, but heaven forbid you talk about it on the "radio." Why, that would just be bad.

Filed Under: fear, new media, old media, radio

Singer At New Media Conference Turns Off Audience Member Cameras

from the new-media,-huh? dept

You would think that someone who had "embraced" new media would understand the value of viral content, but that's not always the case. Derek Coward writes in to let us know of a bizarre incident involving a cover song singer who goes by the name Richard Cheese, who apparently sings "cheesy" loungey versions of hard rock songs. There's a podcast called Coverville that (not surprisingly) focuses on cover versions of songs. For his 500th episode, the host, Brian Ibbott, put together a concert at a new media trade show. He found some musicians who specifically allow their music to be used in podcasts without royalties (i.e., those who recognize the value of free promotion) and had them play a concert -- and Cheese was one of the headliners.

At a new media trade show full of podcasters and bloggers, one thing you should expect is that they'll have cameras, and they'll be taking photos and video. That's what they do. But, apparently this upset Cheese greatly, and he started walking around, grabbing people's cameras and turning them off. He later spit on someone who continued to film his concert, and yelled at the guy to turn his camera off. Considering that this guy's entire act is based on building on the works of others, and he understands the promotional benefits of having his music in podcasts, it does seem rather odd that he would be so upset about some folks videotaping him that he would then take their cameras, turn them off and even spit on people. Compare this to the other musician (who actually does write his own music) we mentioned recently who was taking fan made videos of his performances and stitching them together into a virtual concert.

Filed Under: cameras, covers, coverville, new media, podcasts, richard cheese, videotaping