About those pyramids

Bob Gray referred this morning to an incident at National Geographic when a photograph of two pyramids was digitally altered to make them look closer together (see left). Some accounts say that it was to better utilize the magazine's format -- basically, as Gray said, to "make the picture look better." That was in 1982. A magazine policy on photo manipulation followed soon after.

The Emerging Media Ecosystem

This picture appeared at the end of a blog a couple of weeks ago from Mark Glaser at MediaShift (http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/03/doomsayers_debunkedserious_jou.html). It shows the flow of information and got my attention because of the strong prescence of community input. At the Republic, we've been including community conversations in our Monday editions in keeping with this model. Regular people doing journalism (commenting, whatever) is scary to me, but it gets more people interested in newspapers, which pleases my masters.

Swamp Thing

Check out this photo of a strange creature in the Dismal Swamp in Virginia.

Wicked graphic

I saw this on Newseum today and it really grabbed my attention. I am pitching an article about how deep our generation is falling into credit card debt, and this is similar to what I had in mind for my graphic. The oversized cards are perfect to describe the amount of debt our society is in, and seeing the guy try to keep it from falling entirely is powerful.

I also like the format of the "charticle" and how there are squares of stats that have your shaking your head instantly. I would like to think I am not a part of the problem, but my bills say differently. It make be an article that is done every few years, but the graphics and layout here really drew me in. I hope you all enjoy it too.

Pay cash. t.

A bit tacky/offensive?

I was browsing through Newseum today, and the very first cover that came up - the Anniston Star from Anniston, Ala. - gave me pause. At first glance, you would think this centerpiece was some sort of art story, with all the colorful masks. But they're actually using the masks to try to illustrate a pretty serious story about the diversity in the Hispanic population of immigrants in Alabama and the measures that are currently being debated in the legislature to keep immigrants out.

These masks don't say anything about the story, and there's not even any sort of cutline to let you know what the significance of the masks are. Some of them even look African - if they are from different Hispanic populations, you wouldn't know which ones. Besides, ceremonial masks don't very often say much about their populations - I feel like this would be like a paper in a different country putting a picture of an Uncle Sam mask on its cover to illustrate a story about American immigrants. At best, it seems like a tacky illustration for the story, and at worst, it could be taken as downright offensive.

What do you all think?

This is the best picture they came up with?

There were probably over a thousand pictures taken during the Ohio State-Georgetown game last night, but this is the one the Plain Dealer decided to run. Just seems like an odd choice.

April Fools' Day and the media

Here's a link to the top 100 April Fools' Day Hoaxes of All Time. They're fun to read to if you have some time to kill. I really don't like April Fools' Day in general, but when the media does it, I think it's kind of funny. It shows that they have a sense of humor, that they're not all business. It's also the one day the newspaper can print false information and get away with it. (Except for the Stale Mess, of course!)