Calhoun Said it Best

The not-so-merry pranksters turned out to be nothing more than crass opportunists. Morning call-show shock jocks who hit the Big East men's basketball conference call. More on the men's event from the Chicago Tribune.

Jim Calhoun sums it up:

'I wish some people would get a life'

The Cabinet Never Opens

One of the profound changes in my travel is the emergence of high-speed internet. Over the past couple of years, the TV in the room is used less and less. The computers, that's a different story. Last night here in Knoxville before the UT game was a perfect example. The doors on the chest were never opened, but the laptops for Kyle Kellams, our play by play announcer, and myself were on the whole night. I'm working on projects and reading news; he's working on iTunes and gathering sound bites for his day gig with KUAF.

Not once did we consider turning on the local news. I'd already read the local forecast for today, checked out a place that we plan to visit to kill time this afternoon. This has become the standard for our trips. Through the whole five days in New Hampshire, the Patriots game and a couple of bowl games were the only thing that caused the TV to be turned on. Even then, it was background to the clatter of keyboards.

At home, I find myself watching more and more TV with the computer in my lap. I can google things that happen in the show (hey, wasn't that guy in some other movie), I can fill time during the commercials when the event is live and not TiVo'd, I can find something interesting when the show gets boring.

When IPTV emerges as the legitimate competitor to terrestrial and satellite programing, the argument becomes who gets to use the big screen on the wall and the surround sound, and who has to watch with the small screen and the earbuds.

Predictable National Reaction

Well, there you have it from Deadspin about the infamous phone pranksters.

Lead with People

Heading into class Thursday, let's see how many students are paying attention yet. Part of the assignment is to think like a modern information gatherer. The semester assignment project on becoming a school's "SID" for the class involves monitoring that school's various media platforms. How many of you in the class have taken the time to google the teacher? Or find this blog?

Be kind to your guest lecturer Thursday. The assignment for next Tuesday is to read chapter 4, discussion question two.

See you Tuesday.

Not so Merry Pranksters

Here's one of those days where the blurring of the lines between citizen and media causes more walls to be thrown up against the citizens. For lack of any other way to put it, the SEC conference call was hacked by pranksters this week. To read more, look here.

This is where the new media must turn and police itself. Those who made the calls ruin the opportunity for legitimate new media persons to become a part of the process.

The flip side is how little respect the pranksters had for women. Would they have jumped on the men's basketball or football conference call and asked the kinds of scatological questions they did of several coaches? I have a bad feeling the answer is no.

Every time you think we've escaped some of the Neanderthal times of the 1970s, a day like yesterday reminds you it takes a long time to change attitudes.

What Was the Point?

For the students -- so you struggled to write your first post-game story from the point of view of the institution. It was a reality check. When you're in the business, many schools will not have the funds to send you on the road with a team. Sometimes, the sport won't be at a high profile to allow for travel. Still, stories must be distributed on the results.

There are some nights that you will only get a box score, or the raw stats. Sometimes, the opponent SID can help you with some more details. Many nights, the coach won't call either.

In this case, the website went out for most of the day. That was an unplanned unfortunate coincidence. Still, there was the radio broadcast -- which really should have been the easy default. It was a bonus that it was on cable as well.

But the story must go on. We'll work more about how to deal with these problems in class, but there is no better way to simulate the real difficulties, the panic, the deadline.

Protect Your Good Name on Facebook

While this is old advise -- probably a year too late for many -- but if you have not claimed your name on your campus Facebook, here's yet another example of why that's a problem.

Seems the students wanted to create a fake Facebook with some malicious content about a professor. The story details it took a while to correct.

From the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

And now, off to Tuscaloosa -- class, are you listening tomorrow?

And the Course Begins

The question becomes, how long until and how many students discover the blog?

We'll wait and see but 30-odd students were on the room today for the start of Journalism 405V -- Sports Media and Publicity -- here at the UofA. For fellow SIDs, here's your most telling results. When asked to show hands, how many had read the paper edition of a newspaper sports section today, six of the 30. How many didn't already work for a newspaper? Hands drop to two out of 30. How many had read the newspaper sports, but on-line today? About 11 out of the 30. OK, how many in the last 24 hours had been on-line looking for sports from "non-traditional" sources (ie, bloggers, message boards or internet-only sports media). That was about 16 or 17 out of the 30.

The future is on line.

Words Mean Things

OK, that's a Limbaugh quote, but they do. We'll just put that down as the thought for the day.

Regret the Error Pickup

I see that the Regret the Error website has noticed the recent unpleasantness of Mike Conley and KARK. They classed it as a "major error."

Good Luck with That

The NCAA has issued its new blogging restrictions for official credentials. There is more on the Chronicle of Higher Ed website, and the PDF for the blogger part of the credential form is here.

Two things come to mind. First, this means the NCAA is planning to issue credentials to bloggers during the coming year. That would be a bit of a change. Second, I'd hate to be the GA assigned to monitor that kingpin.blogspot.com had made its 11th post of the day and get its credential pulled.

CNET probably had the best to say on this; not surprising that the bloggers are teeing up Myles Brand.