A survey that asked how uniformed NYPD officers treated their undercover brethren made news; this, after an African-American undercover officer had been killed in a friendly-fire incident.

RaceWire.org, ColorLines magazine’s weblog, posted an item about it.  But it omitted a link to the survey.  When I clicked to the New York City news source, NY1, I found that they had omitted it too.

Before I shared this via Facebook, I refused to do so if I could find the survey; after some minutes of semi-zealous research, I found nothing.

This makes me wonder about what standard news audiences should expect or demand.  A sometime mentor, who runs a national radio show, spoke a lesson that stuck in my head: “There is so much bad journalism out there!”

This isn’t a big deal, but…yeah it is.

All news organizations, including NY1 and RaceWire.org, need to abide by consistent rules.  Either post the PDF, or a link to the survey, or explain why they do not.  If your audience can peruse and scrutinize the survey, they can judge its worth; without it, they have to assume.

It sure took a while for me to pick a simple web-journal name that doesn’t sound so, well, depressing. I actually liked “the last option,” because that’s kind of what it is (Having trying 20+ different meds should count as having tried a lot of options). But I suppose the ECT is not just the last option but it could be the first time in a long time to actually feel alive, which by the way, I can’t really recall what it’s like to not want to die all the time.

So, I thought “a little spark” is appropriate in several ways, first of which is that it makes ECT sound kind of magical, rather than “you’re going to have a grand mal seizure and will experience some memory loss.” Second, a spark often starts something, like a sparkplug, or a spark that will give one a brilliant idea.  It’s that little spark that I guess I need in order to get a new life, and my little spark that’ll give me that life is actually going to come by means of a little spark (or at least 6 to 12 of them) in my head. Sounds a bit cutesy, and I’m not sure I quite believe what I’m writing. But just because I don’t believe it doesn’t mean I don’t want to believe it.

Btw, after I picked my little journal name, I found that there is a quote by Dante with that phrase: “From a little spark bursts a mighty flame.” And though I write in this tone in my personal, paper-form journal, this exercise in writing on the web feels ridiculously self-indulgent.

Interrogé par téléphone ce matin dans la Matinale de Canal+ dans le cadre de la chronique de Christophe Beaugrand, Edwy Plenel, fondateur de Mediapart.fr, a insisté sur la viabilité de son projet. Fort de déjà 4000 abonnés selon les dernières estimations auxquelles il a pu avoir accès, l’ancien directeur de la rédaction du Monde se montre plutôt confiant et affiche son objectif de 15 000 membres d’ici à l’été prochain.

Il rappelle le caractère « unique » de son projet, affirmant que « le journalisme est en crise », qu’il existe une insatisfaction vis-à-vis de la presse quotidienne et que par conséquent, « le journalisme classique peut s’enrichir sur le net ». Il n’hésite pas à comparer son modèle économique avec celui de Canal+ : une partie cryptée, le journal en lui-même, et une partie en clair, le « club », où les abonnés peuvent participer en s’exprimant au travers de blogs par exemple. Il qualifie ainsi Mediapart à un « journal dans la démocratie ».

Quand on lui fait remarquer le succès de modèles entièrement gratuits comme les quotidiens 20 minutes ou Métro, Edwy Plenel pointe leurs pertes importantes. Il estime que « les gens sont prêts à payer pour de la liberté, de l’indépendance et de la qualité ». La période d’accès libre et total au site, initialement prévue jusqu’à aujourd’hui, est prolongée jusqu’à dimanche, afin qu’un maximum d’internautes soit en mesure de découvrir l’intégralité du contenu de Médiapart.

Capture d’écran Mediapart.fr

Mediapart, le web-journal créé par Edwy Plenel et une équipe de journalistes professionnels, a été officiellement lancé aujourd’hui, depuis le Salon du Livre. Dans le monde des sites d’informations alternatifs (Rue89, laTéléLibre.fr, Bakchich.info etc …), ce projet se distingue par son modèle économique (abonnements payants)et son organisation (3 éditions par jour, 9h, 13h et 19h) qui rompt avec la logique d’information continue en vigueur sur la toile. Ses créateurs font également le pari de fidéliser leur lectorat en proposant un espace personnel aux fonctionnalités étendues: outre les commentaires, blogs et autre réseau de contact, le web-lecteur a la possibilité de créer sa propre édition.

A noter que vous pouvez découvrir gratuitement ce média jusqu’au 18 mars 2008.

My first foray into advertising the website was by placing some flyers on the UMBC campus. I have received some hits on the website, but not as many as I would have liked. Will probably go to another college soon and try putting up more flyers.

Nasce il Cassonetto differenziato!

Questo blog nasce dall’idea di due ragazzi che vogliono cambiare il mondo in cui viviamo.
Per noi l’informazione deve essere incondizionatamente libera! In italia c’è ne un bisogno assurdo, perchè il nostro bellissimo paese è corrotto fino all’osso.
Le informazioni che ci vengono somministrate dai telegiornali e dai quotidiani sono sotto l’effetto di quello che si chiama “taglia e incolla” cioè le notizie sono montate o scritte
perchè raffigurino solo quello che vogliono farci sapere, in più, le notizie, sono commentate per plasmare maggiormente il nostro parere su quell’argomento.
Ecco perchè nasce questo blog, vogliamo far leggere le notizie così come accadono.

- Perchè questo nome per un progetto così importante?
Il nome “Cassonetto differenziato” ha una filosofia tutta sua, questo blog si propone come una vera soluzione al problema della disinformazione e dell’occultazione della medesima. In fondo siamo tutti in un cassonetto, ma noi ci differenziamo e lottiamo per un’ informazione libera!

Decided to start my web journal as an experiment to see if I can be bothered to keep maintaining it or not, and see if anyone is actually interested. How many other blogs start of like this I wonder?

I also have a music blog over at MySpace, so if you are curious about what music I’m interested in and listening to, see me there.

Kevin.