A Beautiful Two-fer Today

A brilliant pick-up on brieibart.com today about angry journalists venting about the future of their profession. Current and former scribes carry on about layoffs, websites and management at angryjournalist.com.

OK, this is just too delicious. We constantly hear from the Fourth Estate (and the Leadership -- be it athletic or political) about the low-life nature of anonymous posters. They'll say anything cause they have nothing to lose, cowards hiding behind screen names.

Guess what -- all the posters at angryjournalist.com are simply numbers? Et tu, media?

The story has several rants on each side of the new media world -- joining in one one of our local columnists today who decries Al Gore's invention as the bane of serious journalism -- but one of the payoffs is accidental.

I have always said that one of the keys to understanding the blogosphere is accepting the fact that it fundamentally is a negative medium. No one goes on-line to praise; they only take time to vent. Snark is driven by bile. So, quoting from the story:

Since then, his website has inspired an imitator, happyjournalist.com, which has much catching up to do with only about 100 "pieces of happiness" compared to the more than 2,600 gripes so far on angryjournalist.com.

Yes indeedy -- hate beats love 26:1.

More for on More Signs of the Apocolypse

All we need now is a zombie movie, Night of the Dead Newspaper. The New Yorker adds its touch to the fin de siècle literature. A good read, nothing really new here.

Interesting Research on the Next Market

The Millennnials -- not a bunch of tattooed, pierced, boomerangs according the J. Walter Thompson. The venerable adverting agency released its findings of surveys of the 21-29 year olds. Read the whole thing in the Washington Times. One quick quote:

Among the findings: 94 percent said they respect monogamy and parenthood, while 84 percent revere marriage. Eighty-eight percent respect the U.S. Constitution, 84 percent respect the military and more than three-fourths believed in the proverbial "American dream." Fewer than one in four, however, said they have any admiration for Hollywood.

Sounds like a huge future for college sports, that ever-so-old-school hobby.

Thanks for Catching Up

The local student newspaper, The Traveler, has discovered that corporate recruiters may be looking at your Facebook.

More Signs of the Apocolypse

For the traditionalists, the news from Editor and Publisher isn't just bad; it is epic. The lifeblood of the industry is advertising revenue, and it dropped precipitously in 2007. On-line grew, but not even a 10th of what it takes to make up for the print loss. The worst loss in 50 years is how the story characterized the drop. I await the analysis that says this really doesn't point toward a change. Right. Like global warming becomes climate change when one year's winter temps wipe out the statistical rise over the past several.

At the same time, this very clairvoyant entry off the blog of one of the true gray ladies of the industry, TIME, about where the industry is headed. I particularly like the part about how the package we get our news is changing. It reminds me of a quote I heard this week on NPR talking about someone needing to figure out how to "monetize eyeballs" as they harvest news from lots of free sources (that reference at the bottom of the TIME piece on the individual atoms of news). That's spot on -- and it is where those dollars leaving the E&P story are waiting for someone to tell them where to go.

Former IU Gets Digital Lesson

Somebody decided the world needed to see an Indiana 's private photo shoot. A night of fun? An amateur tryout for ? Who knows. Her name's been tagged to several threads promoting the photos. From those indications, she was a senior in 2007, so no news stories about her being dumped from the team. One would think you would not have those kind of photos readily available anywhere on-line to be harvested by breaking security, but I've been surprised before. This time, the lesson likely is that an ex or the photog got ed and decided to out the images. Then again, maybe she did it to get publicity for a new career. Either way, before digital, it was a lot easier to get the negatives back from a night of indiscretion and believe that at least it would have taken more time and effort to copy them than point and click today.

Cuban, blogger update

Once again, Deadspin brings out the latest on the Mark Cuban vs. bloggers in the Mavericks locker room. The cliff note: NBA has ordered bloggers back in and Cuban counters by inviting EVERY blogger in the world to apply.

You know, I haven't been in the Mavs locker room since 1984 at Reunion Arena . . . . .

Once Again, SNWs Not Always Secure

Once posted, always vulnerable as Facebook is forced to admit that there were significant holes in its privacy functions. A hacker gave the keys to the kingdom to the Associated Press, and they were able to quickly replicate the entry into several private "friends only" photo albums, including some of Paris Hilton.

From the AP story:
The latest lapse serves as another reminder of the perils of sharing sensitive photos and personal information online, even when Web sites pledge to shield the information from prying eyes.

Here's where I do the smug dance: I told you so.

Memories Should Always Match the Video Tape

That's the payoff line of a CBS report that is making the rounds on the internet about Hillary Clinton "misremembering" her visit to Bosnia as First Lady. There are two lessons here. The obvious one is when you are a public person, stick with the truth and don't embellish it. Someone, somewhere will have evidence to the contrary, and in this digital media age, probably video or audio actualities.

The second is more subtle. So how many people really saw this live on the CBS Evening News? No where near as many as have seen it now -- your correspondent included -- because the reference was picked up by new media aggregators like Drudge and blog sites like Politico. Thanks to YouTube, the clip itself lives forever -- far more damaging than a thousand editorials.

When You Get to the End, You'll Get it

Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post has a very funny, but cuttingly insightful piece on what it would be like to attempt to soak in the complete news cycle -- the whole 24. Or as he titles it, Cruel and Unusual Punishment. Many gems about the blogosphere within this story, which came to me via Arts and Letters RSS feed. And now gets regurgitated here. That cycle of birth and recycling is a part of the opening, and you'll see what I mean in the title once you think about how he follows some idea genesis.

Weingarten hits a lot of the right buttons about the pundistry, but here's where I wonder if he gets his own joke -- he's calling out himself. Or, cleverly, is the joke on us. Nevertheless, a good read on the world outside sports. It won't be too hard for a mental search and replace the names of the politicos with the names of coaches to see how it applies to us in the college sports industry.

The Future Draws Closer; and the Future is Free

A very interesting perspective on CBS' coverage of the men's Final Four from the Canadian media.

The move to a no-charge, ad-supported model pushed the online audience to more than a million, almost immediately. This year, the network has unshackled things further by eliminating blackouts that were in place to protect local CBS stations. The company doesn't expect TV ad sales will be cannibalized. (BOLD MY EMPHASIS)

Contrast this with the shackles other networks have attempted to put on conferences, and in turn, conferences on schools. It is absurd to restrict universities from streaming live sports against network windows. All it does is reduce the potential to expand interest in the sport. It seems if interest grows, the value of the TV contract increases.

The narrow-minded see live content as a zero sum game. There are lots of very high-paid smart people at CBS that figured out they were not taking away from their affiliates, but instead opening up the games to new audiences.

And if you think it's stopping with the online video streaming:

CBS is also pushing the games further onto the Internet this year, allowing social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to link to the games directly. The network expects to shatter last year's record of 1.4 million unique users, which will also drive up ad rates for next year.

Meanwhile, Texas has taken all the subscription cost off its streaming video, turning to an advertising model to pay the freight.

The future is free.

Isn't There Health Care, Something Important Going On?

This is embarassing politics. Sen. Robert Singer of Ocean, N.J., introduced a resolution in the New Jersey legislature to call on the NCAA to investigate the final second clock operation at the Tennessee-Rutgers game.

The REPUBLICAN state senator obviously has not heard about the concept of limited government.

Meanwhile, I'd like to have a few other things investigated. Perhaps the Arkansas state senate could vote a resolution to review the film of the 1969 Great Shootout? Maybe the city of Fayetteville could vote that the laws of gravity should be suspended.

Look, Rutgers and head coach Vivian Stringer has moved on. Sen. Singer might do the same.

Tell Me Again Why You Can Ignore the New Media

Fourth quarter loss for Tribune Corp -- almost $70 million.

In story, now saying they may start selling off some of the core group newspapers.

Costas Responds

Bob Costas elaborates on his comments published in the Miami Herald with a direct call to Deadspin. On so many levels, interesting read -- above all, Bob Costas called Deadspin.

Revenge of the Blog-i

Deadspin squares off on Bob Costas' screed on bloggers. One must read it to appreciate.

I will lift only one passage:

But -- with all due respect, sir, from a fellow Cardinals fan and a longtime admirer -- why are you the only one who gets to talk?

Costas was speaking in Miami when he launched the broadside against those with keyboards and opinions. The starting point of this whole controversy is the Miami Herald coverage of the event. Part of this began with Mark Cuban's move to toss bloggers from access to his Dallas Mavericks, which of course is being called out considering his own blog.

This is the next frontier. Two years ago, it was the rise of the SNWs. Now it's the bloggers, and they're more than ready to bring their rebel alliance against the traditional media empire. OK, that's a two minute penalty for excessive geeky-ness.

Still, as Dan Rather learned the very hard way, where once one did not get into pissing battles with people who bought ink by the barrel, Costas -- and others -- might want to avoid calling out the masses. Next thing you know, somebody's posting your outtakes on YouTube.

Seriously, hit the links.

Standing Corrected

While watching the event, I had my doubts about a tornado touchdown in downtown Atlanta. High wind damage; absolutely. Here was the spotter coming out in me; don't use the "T" word unless you see the funnel on the ground. That's for the NWS to confirm after the fact. Well, today they did and I'd be terribly wrong to not say I was mistaken. More here.

Never Know When Your Profile Will Go Bigtime

Preached and preached about when you post on your profile, you never know how it may be used. Today, we know far more than we ever needed to know about Elliot Spitzer's friend -- all courtesy of the traditional media grazing over one Ashley Youmans' MySpace pages.

From the continuing and insatiable coverage of the New York media:

Sultry pictures of Dupre, referred to as "Kristen" in federal affidavits, were splashed across the front page of every paper in the city and broadcast around the globe, thanks to the girl's MySpace page, which remained accessible to the public far longer than anyone would have imagined.

In the space of 36 hours we went from Client #9's unknown lover to complete photo galleries, audio clips of Youman's singing (complete with snide commentary about the "tired" cultural references in her lyrics by, of all people, the New York Times), and her entire family tree.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Ashley.

More Changes on the Video Front

The YouTube delivery direct to TiVo later this year comes on the heels of Texas announcing free streaming off its new TexasSports.TV. Add in the Olympics deal to use the new SilverLight to present content on NBC's site, and there is a wave of content creation change just around the corner.

They Said it Couldn't Be Done

Two years ago when SNW was just breaking into the consciousness of athletic departments, the civil liberties crowd wailed that ADs could not tell their athletes to not be on websites like Facebook. It violated their rights. My counter argument was that we already restrict the freedom of speech and association of college athletes at every level, from league bans on comments regarding officiating to NCAA restrictions on association with agents and gambling interests.

Big story this past week in the Birmingham News about the bans and curfews now becoming common practice across the SEC. Just one of the many examples in the story:

For the Tennessee men's basketball team, "there are places we don't want them to go, there are times we don't want them to go out, and those are rules that are confined within the team," coach Bruce Pearl said. "That's why they're called team rules."

And where is the outrage? At least in this story, there isn't any.

Kerry Kenny, vice-chair of the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, said he personally has no problem with coaches placing restrictions on free time, even though it may seem politically incorrect.
"A lot of times coaches are put into positions to do something to get messages across to their team," Kenny said. "Before it even reaches that point, student-athletes need to hold themselves accountable. A lot of times student-athletes think they're invincible to some of the situations that have arisen over the years."

How about that -- a voice of reason speaks. It only reinforces the point -- whether they are places student-athletes should not congregate in person or on-line, athletic departments by virtue of the privilege of participation and representation of the institution has the power to enforce restrictions.

The Bicentennial

Happy 200th post to the blog

So What's It Like

People always think man, you've got the best seat in the house. Granted, when you're calling the game on radio -- yes. Even working the stat crew, you get to see the game up close. But, as is the case with the SEC women's hoops, I spend a lot of time right next to the court looking two computers -- one sending the data stream out and one on-line watching the download to monitor if its still running. Nevertheless, there's no better week of work.

Today I saw a first. I've been to plenty of tournaments where you have an alternate official available, but this was the first time I've ever seen a change during the game. That's 23 years of women's hoops.

Back to work.

Samantha Power Redeux

The Chronicle of Higher Ed's Daily Blog has an interesting take on the "Monster" quote.

According to the The Scotsman, Ms. Power interrupted an interview to take a telephone call from another Obama adviser. When she returned, she reportedly volunteered that the call had been about the Obama campaign’s missteps in Ohio over the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“In Ohio, they are obsessed [with Nafta], and Hillary is going to town on it because she knows Ohio’s the only place they can win,” Ms. Power had told the reporter before the results of the state’s Democratic primary were known. “She is a monster too — that is off the record — she is stooping to anything.”

Later on, the Chron offers classic media training 101:

“Off the record,” as every eager young journalism student knows, is a contract of sorts: The interviewer must agree to the arrangement before the interviewee proceeds. Under no circumstances can someone make a comment and then declare it off the record.

Meanwhile, in other media news, it seems according to a recent Harris poll that radio is the most trusted news form. Of course, this tidbit comes from a story on NPR's news coverage -- hmm, wonder it that colored the placement. Nevertheless, I can anectotally support that survey conclusion. An internet rumor often first becomes a media truth when it appears on the local talk sports show, and generally goes there before TV or print. Here's the quip:

A Harris Poll of 2,300 adults conducted Jan. 15-22 and released Thursday found that radio trumped television, Internet-based news sites and journalists in general — with 44 percent of the respondents saying they trusted radio. Online sources came next with 41 percent, followed by TV with 36 percent and the overall "press" with 30 percent.

Travel: Best Libraries

Last weekend, I saw a travel section story about the best libraries to visit on the road. Several in the story were quality, but the two glaring omissions were Seattle and Nashville. And of the two, there is little comparison to Nashville's downtown public library. Just to reconfirm, I strolled over again this morning. A great building, a nice collection, a very solid cafe.

Considering the armageddon snow storm had shuttered most of downtown (I kid -- two inches, tops and mostly melted by the time I walked over), the library was quiet and a great place to read. I've found some great pieces of research for my professional work there on previous trips.

One aside, it bothers me how our public libraries have changed. I grew up in the library as a child, wandering the stacks. My mother-in-law was a librarian, and she also lamented the shift from public place to loitering place. I put a lot of that on the new wave of book stores that are quasi-libraries with reading areas. Combine that with high-speed internet and a growing scanning of research works and fewer people go to the public library.

Let me rephrase that -- those with means don't go to the public library as much, and only when something can't be acquired on-line or browsed at Barnes and Noble. Call it the privatization and tonying of the library.

That's a shame. We lose yet another place of public interaction when we stay behind our screens and don't interact. Now that's the pot calling the kettle black as I type this blog from the confines of the Sommet Center media room.

Nevertheless, I had a wonderful time joining the locals at the library. You should too.

When SNW Meets the NCAA

Elena DelleDonne and her family is finding out the hard way the the new media is not welcome in the corporate sports world. At the same time, exactly what was she thinking by cutting an endorsement for anyone.

Everyone wears some blame here, but the whole business begins with, well, business. And if you have to start calculating whether or not something will be kosher -- that's your first warning that it just might not be OK. The money quote here, from the USA TODAY account, by the website owner thinking it was permissible -- "They are still student-athletes. There are no rules on that."

What? Maybe you mean high school athletes, cause you just used the association's definition.

Here's my future advice: If you need to parse, you better pass.

After Thursday's USA TODAY on-line story (which is much shorter than the printed version), the local Delaware media has followed with a more interesting recount of the events. I highly recommend reading both -- there are some significant variances between the accounts.

The nugget from the local paper:

Ernie DelleDonne pointed out that Elena often is approached by videographers, representing various media organizations, after showcase games, which are designed to attract college recruiters and scouts. He said he was standing with Elena when they were asked by one videographer what they thought of mybasketballprofile.com.

Elena responded that she liked the site, Ernie DelleDonne said.

"The video had Elena and I mentioning the entity," Ernie DelleDonne said, "but it was not an endorsement."

The video has disappeared from the original site, but one has to think it will YouTube soon.

Remember the old SNW advice. Once posted, easily distributed -- especially when it is within a tightly knit community.

CCM Weighs In

More on the Samantha Powers "monster" story from the Center for Citizen Media blog.

For those of you scoring at home, did I mention this is one of those required reading RSS?

Media Training Reminder

As we tell our coaches, administrators and student-athletes, there is no such thing as off the record. Just ask former Barak Obama staffer Samantha Power. The money quote:

Power's interview Monday was published Friday in a Scottish newspaper, even though she tried to keep it from appearing in print.

"She is a monster, too—that is off the record—she is stooping to anything," The Scotsman quoted her as saying.

If that wasn't bad enough:

"You just look at her and think: ergh. But if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive," she said.

Oh, and just because you said it to a media outlet that's out of town (or out of the country), there are those pesky internets. More here and here.

Bookmark This Blog

Sometimes if forget -- but today in the course of reading several pertinent entries it reminded me to post a link and promo for the Center for Citizen Media. This particular link is about how journalists are their own worst enemies on censorship, but the blog as a whole is a daily must read for those interested in the new media wave.

On-Line Media Restrictions

Major League Baseball joins the NCAA this week by putting serious restrictions on the re-use of material gathered by the new media. In some ways, they are reasonable and understandable. It blends the growing restrictions on TV stations as the leagues look to protect their own channels. Still, no one tells the New York Times they can't run pictures every day in print -- only on-line. The mode of transmission should not matter.

For more on the Online Media Association response to MLB.

Some Things Don't Change

The opening day of the SEC tournament is always filled with excitement and quality basketball. Day One -- except for a 10 minute early hicccup -- went just fine from our end. Much better than previous years, and kudos to the Sommet Center staff for solid connectivity.

Welcome to the SECs

Set-up night for the 2008 SEC Women's Basketball tournament. Nice and quiet in the arena as we load in the monitors and computers for this year's event. Once again, the Lady'Back stat crew is providing services.

Lots of folks ask what that means and why Arkansas. First, all the official stats that flow from the floor come from our stat crew. This year, the Sommet Center (and say it so-MAY, otherwise is sounds ominously like the coach of the big Orange machine -- something one does not do in Nashville) has a new Daktronics center-hung scoreboard. That means we'll touch everything -- arena scoreboard stats, press row stat monitors, truck feed for Fox Sports and the internet streams. Most of the recent venues have not had the scoreboard interface. So, credit or blame if the steams aren't up.

The second one -- well, nobody else can do what we do on the women's side. The good part about separate in the past was having the ability to bring in the right people and control the software and equipment. Over time, we have harvested through surplus a complete set of flat screens, VGA distribution units and low-loss cable to have one set that stays at Walton and one set that can travel. I can only hope that we don't get harvested by the new combined department.

While having the equipment is important -- some schools don't have press row monitors, arenas that aren't set for pro basketball either -- the big difference is our people. No students or interns -- they are computer IT professionals ranging from Fortune 500 to higher ed. They live for this week, and it costs them more in missed wages and vacation days than any league could afford to pay (but don't think we don't appreciate it).

I've heard in the past from other schools -- why can't we do the tournament? Look, there are lots of keyers and callers that are great, but this gig isn't about sitting down behind the keyboard that you use in your home arena. It's the knowledge of how to rig the systems in other venues AND trouble-shoot it when problems happen (they always happen). It's the ability to pace for four straight games on consecutive days. And, above all, its about having a team that is as driven and success-oriented as the teams on the court. They respect the game. They know the game. By virtue of our home schedule and the annual trip to the SEC, they work and stat more college women's basketball than almost any other university-based crew.

They are the best in the business, and I'm privileged to work with them. Tomorrow marks the 13th time in the past 16 years Arkansas has crewed the stats. I hope that continues in the future.

And Somehow You Don't Think It Applies to Sports

A recent Zogby poll found roughly half of the Americans surveyed went to the internet for their news; 70% thought the media was out of touch. Story from Reuters.

During the past year, it would be incredibly hard to not say that bears out at Arkansas with sports. I still hear colleagues both near and far say that the blogs, the internet chat, the new media are not impactful.

People -- wake up. Do you somehow think that a go get the info from the traditional media gene keeps fans from only using the internet for political news?

Sir, Your Spoon

We've never had a lot of luck with food at Auburn. It's a small town, and you need to know the lay of the land. We bet the wrong horse tonight -- very average. I'm loath to dog out a local eatery, so we'll leave it at that. Nevertheless, it prompted a stop by the convenience store for a little ice cream to settle the entree. On check-in, I asked the restaurant for a spoon. That proved a production, with the single spoon carried across the seating area to me as if the person were the cross-bearing acolyte at the head of a church procession. Here sir, is your spoon.

That probably should have been a sign. The ice cream at least brought back memories of the cheaper grade ice cream of my youth, and my father's disdane for it. "It's nothing but whipped air," he would grouse. "They're pumping air in rather than cream." He'd know, farm boy and early life restaurateur.

Travel Karma

When you go on the road, you never know what you'll get for a rental. Particularly with one company that tends to work well with the FBOs where charter planes arrive. Never had a bad car, but I have certainly had cars that gave me the chance to know I'd never buy them.

This very well may be the last road trip -- period. Certainly with the rumors of travel rule changes, the last one where we have anything that resembles the freedom to be flexible. So, what a great piece of karma to receive the key to a Mercedes-Benz -- at the same low cost of the compact that we booked.

Keep an Ear to the Sky

Usually, the local talk radio doesn't catch our attention, but this afternoon on the way to the PMAC there was SHOCKING events and BREAKING NEWS on one of the locals. They had some fellow on "who runs a web site" that said one of the LSU players was "engaging with agents" and other comments about this kid coming out early. That in and of itself was humorous as the hosts went from possibility to closing the segment that you heard it here first and began to speak of the player in the past tense. Cue the dirge music as the Star Player era is over. Again, based on the opinion of the guy "who runs a web site."

The clincher was heading to break, when the host said -- no lie -- that he had kept "an ear to the sky and was shocked to learn" about this news.

Next time, maybe an eye to the ground would keep him from being scooped.

The Young and the Wrasslin'

Road trips bring you to unique eateries, and there are few as colorful and delicious -- both culinary and culturally -- than Louie's. Located in the TigerTown district since 1941, it is a diner meets granola fixture of the LSU landscape. No trip to Baton Rouge is complete without breakfast at Louie's. This year the pancakes are smaller (go for the three-stack; the two won't do anymore) but the atmosphere is consistent. Waitresses with more piercings than "hiya doin' hon," and always, always a lead cook prone to Tourette's-like pronouncements. Hence, the spirited discussion with his sous chef (I use the term generously) over professional wrestling that prompted a patron to declare he'd just as soon watch the Young and the Restless as "wrasslin".

No, on to The Caterie for sandwiches on the way to the PMAC.

Just When You Thought SNW was Passe

On the heels of a news report today that domestic traffic numbers for Facebook and other key SNW were on serious decline, this just in from the political front. It seems if you pose in lingere on your MySpace page, it can effect your job security. Just ask Carmen Kontur-Gronquist of Arlington, Oregon. Former Mayor Kontur-Gronquist was recalled by three votes (142-139) after furor over her pose with a city fire truck. The news report is here.

I Hate the Sound of Birds

Don't get me wrong, I love my feeders and backyard aviary. But in late February and early March, bird song means only one thing -- the end of basketball season is near. The days are warmer, and the smell of rain and ozone hangs in the morning air.

The flip side comes when you are still working games in short sleeves and summer slacks -- those are truly good times. That means you're deep in the tournament. Today after a fourth straight last-shot, final minute loss, the signs of spring are only the death throws of a season almost done. Here's to a good snowstorm.

There's Always the Hobby

Six contacts, two callsigns, three bands from my little simple radio setup in Fayetteville to the other side of the world and Ducie Island.

Lot of friends and colleagues wonder why in the world I spend time with that geeky, "old man" hobby of amateur radio. Look, I love working with digital technology, but there is something distinctly magic about the simplicity of a radio, a string of wire and the skill to communicate effectively directly to someone that is literally half the globe away. (Ducie is about 500 kilometers from Pitcarn Island -- yes, where the HMS Bounty crew landed).

When you've watched a fourth straight heartbreaker -- the last second heave came up short again -- and it's the end of an era, it's nice to come home and just do something different.

So, huzzah for DX country number 135 for K1ARK. Tomorrow, back to the grind.

The End of the World As We Know tIt

Today marks the end of an era. It is Senior Day, our final home women's basketball game. We've had those before, but for me personally it is the end of a 19 year run as the person in charge. Who knows what next year brings -- maybe very little changes -- but it is pretty obvious that my run as the captain of the ship ends today.

It's been a good run, and change isn't bad -- but change for change's sake concerns me. I'll call in the crew today to thank them for their service. The one thing that I appreciate the most about the people I have worked with at Arkansas Women's Athletics events is that they worked the events for the love of the game and the support of the women's teams. There wasn't a sole who was here because they were required to do their service at a women's game; or was trying to "move up" to the men's games by training at the women's games. With few exceptions around the country, that is the norm, and you can tell it from the level of professionalism and performance.

But not here these last 19 seasons. For that I am grateful and thankful to a staff of people who have been a part of it. It was women's basketball that brought computers to courtside; brought remote monitors to press row; women's stat crew that got the nod to do the conference, then three Final Fours; women's crew with the first live stats, the first live audio stream, first live video stream, first internet presence, first Spanish language.

That wasn't me -- that was a dedicated staff of workers and volunteers that believed in women's basketball. Thank you all for the years of hard work.

Is This Microphone On?

Occasionally, I am wondering if anyone is out there listening. If so, what ever became of the Disgruntled SID blogsite. Just being curious.

Events of Today Will Affect You in the Future

Ed Wood's words from Plan from Planet Nine echo true today. More from the blog entry about the victory of Talking Points Memo:

220 heads are better than one. Jay Rosen, a press critic and a journalism professor at New York University (NYU), famously called the passionate blog readers “the people formerly known as the audience.” That’s because they are not just passive readers – they react, they mobilize, they comment and write “diaries,” and they make their voices heard. Sometimes they help do the research and reporting.

I am firmly convinced that they are also the people formerly known as the fans.

And class, the Indiana, Tennessee, UNC and Duke SIDs better be ready to go tomorrow.

Future of Journalism

The Talking Points Memo received a George Polk Award -- one of the great "old school" journalism awards. Who would have thought a blogger would take such an award. Recall, he is the one that took Trent Lott to task with his remarks.

Via the Center for Citizen Media Blog, this from Will Bunch about the significance of TPM and the Polk Award:

Since 2002 Marshall has moved to New York and — thanks to increasing ad revenue — made Talking Points Memo into a new kind of journalistic enterprise for the 21st Century, hiring a staff of a half dozen talented young journalists and rewriting the rules with a mix of commentary and original muckraking while highlighting the work of other to focus like a laser on the big political questions.

Again, how long until sports follows politics?

There's Rough, Then There's Gainsville

A travel related entry today. Without a doubt, the roughest hotel towels I've ever experienced. Big thick ridges that look nice and fluffy. The reality? They were the functional equivalent of an abrading loofah. Something around a 80 grain grit. If every single towel wasn't the same style, I'd swear someone was playing a trick on us by switching out the bath towels with floor mats.

That's Going to Leave a Mark

The class was divided into six "universities", and each had to handle a letter of inquiry arriving about Bob "The Turkey" Abrahamowcz's Enormous State University bowling team facing NCAA investigation. The results were, interesting. It appeared none of the class thought the furious questioning and pinning back of the ears by our "media" -- the staff of the WCO -- was realistic.

Bet you Kelvin Sampson thinks it would be realistic. Better yet, athletic director Rick Greenspan, who was put on notice by IU chancellor Michael McRobbie through a spokesperson that he had "seven or eight days" to figure out what to do.

So class, compare your 10 minutes before five media to this:

Before a group of more than 100 media, faculty and students at the Indiana School of Law on Friday, McRobbie read a prepared statement and answered questions in a news conference that lasted less than 15 minutes.

McRobbie didn't take any questions, but there's always someone who will talk. The Indianapolis Star found an IU board of trustee member and some lawyers.

The real world is always worse, and be glad you've had a chance to get a taste of it without blood in the water.

Well, until we see the packages put together for the 6 o'clock news on K-BLAIR.

Don't Think About Elephants

No. I told you not to. But, more than likely, you are, if only in a curious way. Is that suggestion? Likely. Or is it the concept of the meme, also referred to as a mental virus.

There is lots of pop-sci on the idea of an idea that burrows into the subconscious and gets replicated and spread throughout a culture. Richard Dawkins coined the term "meme" (pronounced like dream or gene) to refer to these terms, thoughts and concepts. Stealing shamelessly from one of the many Dawkins' inspired websites:

Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leading from body to body via sperm or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation. If a scientist hears, or reads about, a good idea, he passes it on to his colleagues and students. He mentions it in his articles and his lectures. If the idea catches on, it can be said to propagate itself, spreading from brain to brain.

Thus, by creating the idea of the meme and sharing it with others, Dawkins becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy -- his concept gets replicated. Folds in on itself rather quickly, doesn't it?

What does that mean for the sports media professional? Ever wonder why certain catch phrases become a part of the sporting culture, to the point they become cliche? Maybe they were the successful memes that permeated the collective sports consciousness.

If you want to read more, Richard Brodie gets deeper (and creepier) into the concept in his book and on his website.

There are plenty of adherents that twist the meme concept to their personal belief system -- that religion is a meme or that science is a meme -- with the implication that you're infected by belief in either. There's also a good bit of internet stuff pointing to genes, nano-level biological function and relating that with the meme. OK -- way too deep.

But, the next time you're curious, ask yourself this question: Boo-yea. Cute catch phrase or insidious meme?

There is a Market for the Truth

Never let it be said there isn't room anymore for truth. You find it today on-line, but of course, you have to know the truth to know it. Now, if that isn't a zen line . . .

Seriously, one of the great truths of the internet is there is a place for everyone. The downside is the fragmentation of community in the physical location, but the unification of communities across the virtual location.

The longer we stay in this "web 2.0" -- which is a horrible marketing term -- the greater the value for clear messages. The person who can carry a message and get it through to the constituencies is the winner. They are the greatest enemy of those who obfuscate, distract or detract.

The end result is the numbers are there for those persons and sites that generate truth. The only thing that brings that down is a lack of hope. For all the straight talk, no one really wants to know there is no way out, or no uplifting future.

Thus, it doesn't take a lot of work to tear something down, and for a short period, one can get plenty of attention for that negative message. In the long run, people will burn out on the negative. What people want is a reason to believe.

More Security Worries in the SNW

Of course, if you've already put your whole life on line, not to worry. But, if you think running privacy will help you, here's some more bad news. Facebook says they have it covered, but it is not reassuring. Read more here via The Chronicle of Higher Ed. It also talks about some research projects into how these new plug ins are being used in marketing and the possible security exploits.

Here's one of the money quotes:
Most Internet users these days seem far less concerned than Ms. Felt about the information they share online. In a survey conducted last year by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 61 percent of respondents said they did not feel a need to limit the amount of information that could be discovered about them online.

Once again, digital assets, once posted, are extremely portable and persistent.

Tough Day

Hard to watch, tough to write and even more so to update with web service winking out. Get back to Fayetteville, and guess what? No Super Bowl for Dish customers due to local outage. Great.

What is Worse -- The Truth or Spin?

We had an interesting exercise question from the book this week, and very interesting student responses. What do you do when you have negative news? First, understand that something negative to one person isn't negative to all. Player departures often appear negative, but there isn't a coach in the country that won't say sometimes you get addition of team unity through subtraction of a player or two.

Be concise. Be honest as you are legally allowed to be. And understand when you do not say what happened, often the perception will be much worse than the reality. Case in point: Athlete is leaving program due to a family situation. If you take the "positive" road and try to ignore that the athlete is leaving, when it is discovered it immediately looks suspicious. Suppose you literally say "family situation," but the truth is she's pregnant. Unless that athlete is about to disappear from the face of the earth -- 1950s-style -- in six to 12 months it will be really obvious what happened. In the meantime, people will wonder -- did she flunk out, is she on drugs, is she fighting with the coach/team, is she a quitter.

Meanwhile, all the sunshine statements in the world won't fix the problems avoiding or hiding the truth caused. Reputation of the school and individual are at stake. Look, people make mistakes. And people forgive those mistakes when they are dealt with honestly. Don't compound the mistake with an obfuscation that makes the situation worse.

This was one of the class' money answers:
"A sports information specialist should be honest when dealing with a negative situation. The SID should establish its credibility by alerting the media as oppose to the media finding out on their own. After alerting the media, they should focus on upcoing and current positive issues to take focus from the news-making negative issue."

+1 to you for that answer.

And part of another that elaborated on what that release should say: "It would probably be smart for the SID to also include a quote from the coach on the matter, that way, once you give out the relase, the subject doesn't have to come up any more."

There is faith for the future here. But not everything is not good. One answer encouraged the release of bad news only internally as a way to keep the media from making a matter worse. Um, there's this thing called the internet -- and you're department (regardless of who or where) leaks like a sieve. Maybe I need to revisit this in class on Tuesday.

Have to add this one, in which the student adds a great angle to being up-front: "The SID should announce with the negative information a plan of action, or a way they are already solving the problem." Nice.

And to the class -- you are getting ready to cover the men's basketball game in 30 minutes, correct?

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.

What Do You Do When The Rumors Are Wrong?

Rumor starts to run that Mike Conley was trying to be, or was, Darren McFadden's agent. They were spread far and wide. Those darn internets at work again against Arkansas? Well, it spread on the internet, but what do you do when it's the traditional media?

Within 24 hours, hardly any of the details stood up to scrutiny. Some of them should have been obvious from the get-go. Former Razorback track star Conley is not registered with the NFL, working instead the NBA for his son and friends. He hasn't lived in Fayetteville in years, and by all accounts was in Chicago the past week.

The car first came from a dealership in Fayetteville that didn't sell the brand. Then it changed to a correct dealership, but in Little Rock. It was registered to his mom. Then his step-mom.

ESPN bit, and sunk the hook deep because of "multiple" media sources reporting the troubles. Problem is, two of the stations are really one when it comes to the hybrid combined sports department.

Much time has been spent decrying the blogger, the new media, the citizen journalist; but this was at best a two source -- more likely one source -- story that the media began to multiply without a lot of time spent on verification. That is a fact that one TV station in its apology and retraction has admitted as much.

Reminds of the multiple coaches hired by Arkansas -- men's basketball and football -- reported by media thanks to unnamed sources. Being first appears to have completely overtaken being right.

And how was this behavior any different from the folks who blindly post rumors on line? At least on this one, it's hard to see it.

The story isn't over, and it still could turn out with McFadden missing the bowl. That would be a tragic outcome for the media. What would be remembered is that taking a chance on a rumor -- and getting almost all the key supporting facts wrong or severely twisted -- led to a scoop.

New Hampshire Travel Notes

One spare day to take a little time off . . .

The one good thing that comes from an all-day flight thanks to a "mechanical" 'ed first flight, a lying series of airline managers and a redirect to Vermont was stumbling onto Art's in Burlington. Anyplace that sells frys (note the spelling) by the cut, pine or quart should be good, and indeed Art's lives up with the closet thing to In-and-Out french fries. They obviously are using fresh spuds cut on the site and properly fried up. And the pepper burger wasn't bad either.

The Red Arrow in Manchester is far hipper, much edgier and quite small compared to the piece on Food Network. Don't miss it, and maybe you took can sit in the booth where BareNakedLadies sat.

Basketball Hall of Fame -- another must see if you are a hoopster, but there are some disturbing little errors (letter soon enroute to BHOF -- one preview, the Supreme Court can't pass legislation [it reviewed the Nixon administration's legislation on Title IX]).

And, it was great taking in a 70 contacts in a single hour in the studio at ARRL. By the way, for the guy in Florida who took the time to CALL and complain about the signal, sir, the ARRL tech did check, and you were the only one in 70 folks to have splatter. Thanks to you for ruining the day for those other 69 folks who were just happy to get a contact from W1Aw.

Game day tomorrow

Wii're Having Fun Now

OK, another post off the beaten path, but Nintendo scores again with Wii. The wife surprised all with snagging one for Christmas, and the games are -- well, something you must experience. One media colleague said that his staffer's poker night has now degenerated into a Wii bowling league. Another of my former students who works for one of the major game companies admitted that initially they put very little in resources into the platform, but now it is second only to XBox360 -- forget PlayStation.

What caught my eye today was setting up the wireless, which opened up a weather and news channel. This is iPhone for the home TV. Sure, the selection is highly filtered for a national audience, but I was on top of the mauling tiger before anyone else in my circle; plus I even found a story related to my field -- more later on the feature on the director of the sports security group at Southern Miss. My son could get EPL scores. My wife can get weather easier than our DirecTV setup (which is the one thing she regrets of terrestrial cable).

In the constant battle for content, wonder what it takes to create a channel on Wii? The Razorback Channel goes Wii, hmm?

Feliz Navidad for Mexican Coca-Cola

This is decidedly off topic, but I've rediscovered a bit of my youth with imported Mexican Coca-Cola. I've had friends that went out of their way to find Mexican Dr. Pepper, or kosher Dr. Pepper, claiming that the cane sugar product was that much better than the domestic high fructose corn syrup.

There was a story in one of the local Sunday papers about this import, and how much fans were saying it tasted like the Coke of their youth. Predictably, the official spokesperson said there was no difference in taste at all.

This reminded me of the infamous New Coke fiasco. I was working at my first job as a reporter, and noted in my column how much I disliked the new Coke and once we ran out of the Real Thing would be switching to Nehi Grape. If you didn't know, Monroe was the town in which the first Coke bottle was used to produce by a bottler, and the Biedenharns were not amused. They came down on the publisher, and he came down on us. We were forced to do a blind taste test to "prove" that we couldn't tell the difference. After the third time of getting it right -- telling New Coke from Real -- the Coke reps finally gave up and the publisher got off our case.

So after paying quite a premium price for a case of Mexican bottled Coke at the local Sam's, I was a little curious if there was something to the old cane sugar formula. Oh. My. I'm sorry to tell you that you can't get Mexican Coke outside of Texas and Arkansas unless you find it through a third-party reseller. Guess why? Yep. To protect the local bottlers.

As Ferris said, if you have the means, I highly recommend it.

Thank You Pat Forde

Certainly the genius of a 10:30 PM press conference to reveal Bobby Petrino as the next Razorback football coach was revealed by the full house and the 24-hour news cycle nce of Arkansas football.

It did become the classic "just-spell-my-name-write" publicity as the national media hammered both Petrino and Arkansas. But for the last day, you could not escape the Razorbacks.

The hire of an aggressive coach like Petrino was set to unite the Razorback Nation, and the near universal reaction by fan sites, bloggers and general fans was positive. The Arkansas fans are ready to unite and head forward.

Enter Pat Forde. I single him out only because he's been quite vocal with his issues over Petrino. OK, they have history. Forde does us a tremendous favor. Make all the fun you want, but this is the South. Speaking globally, I can call my coach a SOB, but by god, just like my brother, sister, cousin, mother, father, YOU can't say that about my family.

Meanwhile, my favorite blogger post: For coaches, the NFL is a stepping stone to the SEC. Think about it.

More Facebook Disasters

Beacon, the advertising delivery platform in Facebook, has a dark side. As it harvests your sales information, it can mate that with your friend lists and use that to target others. Fine, as long as your purchases are those that you want to share with friends.

Think that new commercial with the voice activated MP3 player in the car that gives up the embarrassing info that you have Michael Bolton in your artists. Except all your friends without your permission know you just bought MB's greatest hits. An alert -- hey, Dr. BS just purchased MB's greatest hits -- with the hope that your friends will want to join in with your trend.

More likely, things you don't want others to know are revealed. From the , the gift you just bought your significant other is outed. To the creepy, that the gift came from Frederick's, and perhaps you have a liking for French Maid outfits.

Remember, you volunteered for this when you signed up for the SNWs. Ooh la la.

No, You Didn't

While the world turns in the pursuit of a new Razorback football coach . . .

This just in from the Facebook world. Penn State students busted out for photos of a relatively tasteless Halloween party themed on Virginia Tech victim costumes.

One of the students caught in the story, of course, puts the blame on the system. "They were suppose to be private," he says. How many times does it have to happen for people to understand there is no such thing as "private" once it appears in the server farms of others.

More from WSLS

I'm a Believer

For years I've heard about Shakespeare's Pizza in Columbia from the various Mizzou grads in the media. So on this road trip, the radio crew decides its time for a little research. Oh. My. This would not replace my hometown favorite -- there is nothing, nothing like Johnny's Pizza -- but that pie in Columbia was darn tasty.

Even better was the vibe. That's what's truly missing in America today. To one side, is that a photojournalism prof that is being fawned over by his young-enough-to-be-daughters. And scarfing up tables as fast as they could, is that the sociology department entertaining a future colleague? Mixed in with several nuclear families and fraternity brothers? It was a lovely step back in time. You can fill in the blank with your college food haunt -- Enochs was where we went with the profs.

Oh well, until the Ajax next month in Oxford . . .

You've Got to Be Kidding Me

As much as I like a nice winter day, the cold and drizzle in San Antonio made this trip miserable. Any further north, this would have been snow -- no doubt. And, now the forecast has winter weather advisory for two counties over.

Really looking forward to New Hampshire now. Of course, with this wacky weather, it may be short sleeves at Christmas. Then again, the Mount Washington weather station had -2 F and 55 mph winds.

A Visit to the Mother of all Cabanas

Now the unarguable upside of the UTSA tournament is the chance to visit the original Taco Cabana. Great story -- an old Dairy Queen bought by two guys running a neighborhood bar that wanted the building's parking for the bar. Decided to go ahead and operate a taco stand, and the rest is history. Turnabout is fair play -- today, the bar is the parking lot for the Taco Cabana #1 location.

Kyle Kellams, our play by play announcer, mused how many motherships I'd had the chance to visit. The ones I can remember: Wendy's, Popeyes, Tom Horton, Krystal, Burger King, Whattaburger, Starbucks along with the Cabana.

But the Cabana, with its limited locations and a lack of trips to its region has a special place. With any luck, I'll equal or surpass the record run of every meal except one during a tournament trip from the Rice tournament back in 2004.

I Hate Thanksgiving

Now that I have your attention, what I dislike is traveling on Thanksgiving. This is a factor of being in college sports, particularly basketball. If your team is any good, you get none of the holidays -- at an early season tournament for Thanksgiving, to or from some holiday tournament at Christmas, same for New Year's Eve and in many years postseason tournament for Easter.

I saw the harbinger of the holidays a few days ago -- the green and red Starbucks coffee cups. Shudder. Visions of really bad chain restaurant Thanksgiving dinners. Wandering aimlessly through empty airports or closed down city centers.

Last year was the exception to a 23-year run as the family got the chance to travel with me to Hawai'i, and we all had home cooked Thanksgiving dinner with my kami'ani aunt in Honolulu. Years ago, we at least got to stay home for Thanksgiving as Arkansas hosted a tournament, but some of the other staff got tired of having to work the Friday after, so they endorsed killing the tournament and sending the rest of us off on the voyage of the damned (I hope their turkey's got dried out in the oven today).

It has led to some interesting Thanksgiving meals, like the one in 2000 madly grabbing at a package to turkey meat and a bag of fritoes at a grocery store in New Jersey -- literally the only thing open on Thanksgiving night.

I love to travel with the best of them, but looking back, I've missed way to many family events for this job. Here's fair warning to those wanting to get into the business. When I started out, we always wondered why the boss sent the graduate assistant to Hawaii, or Puerto Rico, or Alaska. He never seemed to take the cool preseason trips.

Now on the other end of the gig, I can see why. Once you've seen San Antonio, there's no need to see it again on Thanksgiving night. Family is more important. I did make that choice one year, however, as my mother was dying of cancer I sent my student worker to the Virgin Islands. To this day, people still don't get why I'd skip that trip. As it turned out, it was also the last Thanksgiving our extended family had together as a series of holiday deaths would follow -- punctuated last year with my mother-in-law passing on Christmas morning just minutes after opening the presents under the tree.

We hoped the long shadow of illness and funerals had passed -- literally -- with last season. We were fresh out of older relations -- mothers, fathers, aunts, birth parents -- then we get the slap in the face of maybe having my job potentially dead. Another reminder that just when you think it's safe to go back to the gym . . . .

Oh well, at least the Blue Bell is fresh down here.

Those Internets Strike

No one will know what really happened this past weekend with Houston Nutt for a while. By what happen, let me be clear I am not casting any judgment on the rumors. What I'm more concerned about is the process that brought us to the point that the story went from website hint to national television network within the space of 24 hours.

For the moment, this is another unfortunate ramping up of the clash between traditional and new media. A fundamental part of the problem is the shifting scale of sourcing. Are two sources required? What if those two sources are not independent of each other? What about an individual who runs his own blog, and has a different standard than when he is working for his traditional media outlet? What if the same applied, but it was a radio talk show and a media outlet? Speed is one of the great problems, as competing media -- both similar and dissimilar -- battle to be first.

When all the dust settles, one can only hope that the parties may be able to come together and figure out how to better control these outbursts.

The End of the World As We Know It

The unification of men's and women's athletics at the University of Arkansas gets announced today, and if it is a unification, if it really becomes taking the best policies and people of the two departments, it will make something that can take us to the next level.

If it becomes as almost every other men-women event -- as Donna Lopiano once said, "When the departments merge, the women submerge" -- we'll become just another cog in the big wheel of athletics.

As one would expect, individuals on both side are anxious. Time will tell.

The Ad Platform Comes to Facebook

Remember those profiles you made, those friend lists? That represents a social graph to the folks running the SNW. Now Facebook will utilize this info to create an advertising graph, and in turn target advertising. This could be benign, but then again it is a little more of your privacy peeled away.

Meanwhile, TiVo is acknowledging it is planning to sell data on your viewing interests. One difference here, hardly anyone realized you were signing up to give up how much you watched Gillian's Island or the Inside of Jillian.

Telling Quote from New Book

On the nightstand right now is Craig Silverman's Regret the Error. Right off in the introduction, this one is a winner:

As trust in "official" journalism wanes, many other newslike operations are evolving to fill the void. When people stop trusting the media, believing the media, they go elsewhere.

Silverman's thesis is all the errors -- large and small, acknowledged and uncorrected -- add up to a general loss of faith in journalists.

The elsewhere referenced by Silverman are blogs, websites and message boards. No surprise here.

Booing by SNW

Saw a little of this last year when the "cheering" instructions for the Duke student section against UNC were posted on Facebook. Now the Orlando Sentinel brings us the tale of heckling football players by opponent fans.

Once again, it proves there is such a thing as too much publicity.

For those of us in the profession, here's the money quote:

Courts have ruled that college athletes are quasi-public figures, said Catherine J. Cameron, an assistant professor at the Stetson University College of Law in St. Petersburg.

That means an athlete would not have to prove that an Internet message-board poster acted with malice when making comments about the athlete's personal life.

Even then, and even if a statement was shown to be false, a plaintiff still would face difficulties in potential lawsuits.

"Can you really prove they [the defendants] posted it instead of somebody else who had access to their computer?" Cameron said.

We go a step further. Every year during the new student athlete orientation, the first slide of the PowerPoint tells them the moment they signed their letter of intent with the University of Arkansas, they became public figures -- in every sense of the term.

Not Exactly on Pace

Weeks like these remind me that while you might get behind on the blog, it could be worse -- you could lose family members, or spend quality time bailing out siblings. Compared to last week, these real life things with some others around remind you of two things. Above all, not so bad in your world. Second, you never quite see the life changers that come at you on a Tuesday afternoon.

Deep thoughts aside -- recent development in the SNW world is the potential desire of Facebook to entertain screen names. That would be the beginning of the end for their brand, what would separate them from MySpace, et al.

There are No Boundries Anymore

One of the best articles I've ever read about the attitude of people who openly SNW talked about those on-line viewed the non-on-line as not "getting it" regarding privacy. Between red-light cameras, security videos, key tracking, RFID chips -- you really don't have any privacy anymore anyway.

I'm not too sure I go that far, but this weekend's round for college football fun did reinforce that there certainly aren't many boundries left. Not being glass house -- those who have followed know we have had our own issues -- but the incident between reporter and coach's wife at Oregon reinforce the lack of a zone of privacy. The papers are going to report on all the goings on with a team, even when its a family member. And the reporters have to know they aren't so insulated themselves when the reports seem personal -- an echo of the Oklahoma State press conference.

It is a full-contact world out there with the immediacy and permanence of internet copy, something both sides should recognize.

Time to get some sleep

With the 07 press guide back from the printer and media day over, there's a chance for a nap. Sorry for the delay in the blog, but time was at a huge premium.

Plus, many of the recent events that were worthy of comment . . . well it may be a while before we speak of them, perhaps this spring in the SID course.

That's the good news for now -- your humble correspondent gets a chance to fill young skulls with mush with a course on sports information. More on that later.

Next up -- back on the road to cover cross country at the SEC meet in Lexington. Joseph-Beth Booksellers! That's worth the trip by itself.

Sorry to be Away, but This Can't Wait

Watching the Texas A&M email scandal while finishing our women's basketball guide . . .

Sorry for the long break, but this angle today needs notation. If you don't think the citizen media world isn't going to dominate sports soon, consider this move by TAMU. From the Dallas Morning News account of the scandal today:

The university temporarily shut down its entire athletic Web site and listed only links to various .pdf files so fans could judge the content for themselves.

If that isn't crowd sourcing your truth, I can't think of a better example.

At the Speed of New Media

Today, 34 minutes from booking posting to message board. That tops the earlier 57 minutes.

Never for a minute thing the public isn't watching like a hawk.

Choose Your Friends Carefully

A new twist on an old theme -- on the social networking websites one must be careful who one becomes friends with. Unlike worrying if the person you let into your private area might one day tag you out with compromising photos or data you never thought would see the light of day, this time you could get a visit form the local gendarmes.

Removing the names to protect the innocent, seems like a University had a break-in and theft of several computers. It appears to be an inside job since the perp knew exactly where the computer storage room was within the facility. The suspect also removed the license plate and shielded the face from known security cameras.

Here's where it gets interesting: Last card swipe into the facility was a female. Thief appears to be male. First place the PD looks for a list of potential associates of female that might fit the description of the male? Female's Facebook friends list.

Which Part of Public Did You Not Understand?

More trouble for student privacy as Facebook announces that it will begin to allow search engines to access the system. That means if you have not elected to make your pages private, you can add the ability of future employers and profilers to simply google your pages.

Quoting one of Facebook's engineers: “We’re not exposing any new information, and you have complete control over your public search listing.” Surprise? Not.

At the same time, several student newspapers have launched vicious attacks on the decision, notably accusing Facebook's founder of no longer being the student-friendly little start-up. Isn't that the point of getting a degree and moving on after college -- to make money and be successful? In particular, Cornell students, wake up. Quoting from the linked editorial: "Facebook isn’t secure anymore, and there are ways to get around the privacy settings that we put up to save ourselves from parents, employers and overly-solicitous lab partners alike."

Shocking news: More than your future hook-ups are checking you out.

Social Network Bill of Rights

Finally, a movement to take control of your data and your privacy. Far too many people do not realize that your data, your images, your information does not belong to you once posted on-line. Learn more and sign on to the movement: jump here.

As Long As You're the Same Person in Both Places

We recently had some preseason features on an athlete at our university. Two newspaper writers both indicated they needed to check some information on the athlete. Both items came from the athlete's Facebook page. Both also indicated their first stop before doing an interview was to pull up the Facebook to see what angles they might find for a feature.

Just another area where students need to be careful, but a special case for athletes. Many times, hobbies, personal likes and dislikes, family information is included in press guides or official athletic department website bios. If the social networking website profile echoes or expands on the personality of the student-athlete, great. However, if it reveals a completely different person, then that's going to be an issue for both the athletic department -- caught "red handed" perpetrating a false image -- and the athlete -- particularly if the fun and interesting new hobbies involve questionable activities.

For example, Christian conservative athlete in official bios found simultaneously to favor conspicuous consumption of hemp products.

A brilliant moron

That's my best estimate of today's soccer. It's a pretty good barometer of our world today. Ashley's U12 team opened with great execution and a 9-2 local league result. Yours truly was coaching. Get home this evening, and read the comments on our website that whoever was the talent on the Friday night webcast of Lady'Back soccer must have been unpaid students cause they didn't know anything about the game. Hmm. Guess that makes me a brilliant moron. The unpaid part, yep, that was true -- I step in and volunteer on that gig cause I enjoy it, plus I get the chance to mentor some young UA students that want to try broadcasting. I hope the coaches don't cut my pay after the email.

Whew

Long weekend, but what a weekend in Canada. Vancouver is a beautiful town, and the games were outstanding. I can't imagine what could have made it better as a foreign tour. OK, we could have pulled out the last second win at Simon Fraser. That aside, our young players had a chance to mature in game situations, our veterans got some quality reps against Canada's best two teams.

Personally, it was a thrill to bump into John Tilley at the west coast location of Tilley Endurables. The tour through the EA complex from my former student assistant was an experience. By the way, if you had any doubts about the upgrades, the preview of NBA 2008 (compared to NBA 2007) was eye opening. I thought the current products were realistic -- the new frame rate makes them scary realistic.

Well, there is one error. I pointed out there isn't an SID or stat crew at the scorer's table. I volunteered to do the mo-cap, but the studio was closed over the weekend. Maybe next year.

Somedays, The Media Really Doesn't Matter

Not that those with this blog would be surprised, but raw source media is growing by leaps and bounds, and of course that is driving the citizen media. Today's lesson involves the speed of bad news.

A huge storm rolls through Fayetteville this AM -- which has me up at 6 trying to protect my wife's garage sale displays from the storm. Come inside and while checking radar scans and killing time, I do my usual morning survey of the MSM, blogs and boards.

The notice of an arrest of an athlete catches my eye, so I go to check the thread. We are a county where the jail intake -- read bookings -- are posted on the sheriff's website. Media watch it, but so do citizen media. Check this timeline:

Booking: 3:19 am
First posting: 4:32 am

That's scary enough, but its a Saturday and one can reasonably expect the regular media won't take this up until the Sunday papers, maybe the 10 pm news tonight. I get the expected calls from colleagues that also monitor new media, and it's made those rounds by noon.

Here's the kicker, late afternoon after the garage sale -- about 4 p.m. -- I'm at the checkout of the local natural foods store picking up some turbino sugar (and if you like coffee, let me tell you there is absolutely no finer sugar for your java). Young guy, I'll guess 20 at the outside, notices my hat and begins to make chit-chat about athletics. Mentions an injury that was in the paper this morning. Then he hits me with the whopper.

"So, how about (athlete) getting arrested this morning."

Parce it: This is the checker at the health food store. Not exactly a sports talk/message board environment. He's asking me about an incident that at this time is about 12 hours old, that has not been in any media, on any call-in show, on any sportscast because on Saturday in this town there aren't ANY of these until the evening.

How did he know? Maybe co-workers chatting (I doubt), maybe friends during the day (better), maybe he's also a fan of the county sheriff website (also doubtful). I didn't ask, because I didn't want to prolong or draw attention to the athlete's misfortune -- move along, nothing to see here, move along -- but the most likely source of his news: one of the four or five major Razorback boards which were doing dot-com stock traffic business on the info.

All and all, it's just another brick in the wall.

First Week at NWACC; T-Minus One Week

A double dip this week as the semester begins for both UA and Northwest Arkansas Community College. And, for the first time in almost 20 years, that means I'm back in the classroom on a regular basis. American History, second half, and I must say that it is great.

However, here's the creepy thought for the day. Those students in my classes back at NLU -- these could be their children at NWACC.

Today marks one week left until we depart for Canada and the basketball foreign tour. Expect some travel oriented editions of the blog.

Nothing Like the Start of the Semester . . .

. . . to bring your world to a screeching halt.

But this just in over the transom, the latest in ham-fisted corporate viral marketing. Looks like the Big Ten vs. Comcast bombast is taking it to the message boards. For those not following earlier, Big Ten is creating its own sports network, Comcast isn't wanting to agree to carry it on its cable systems and hilarity has ensued.

Seems Comcast is funding a "student/fan" website that is carrying on a beat-down campaign against the Big Ten commish, and was outed by one of the Michigan State websites.

The thing about those internets people, they may have Cheeto dust on their fingers, but they do know how to look up an IP address: Jump here for more.

Why Didn't I Think of That

This is a little off topic, but I can't resist. I absolutely hate cheese on my burgers. And if I've had to peel cheese off one Quarter Pounder, I've probably scraped cheese off 10,000 during my lifetime.

If only I'd thought to sue. Ten million dollars.

Media Training for Parents Next?

The SID community has put considerable resources into working with student-athletes to make them aware of the risks and pitfalls of working with the media. Maybe we've done too good a job as the media has moved on to find new unsuspecting folks to quote: their parents.

Not many days go by without a parental miscue, from speaking about on coaches to predicting player futures. Today's entry belongs to one of our own at Arkansas, Darren McFadden, who's mom got taken off-guard by ESPN to say her son would be leaving after the season.

It's in the after the interview coverage that we get a glimse, courtesy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, into her remorse:

“ Lord knows I don’t want to be the one to advertise it [if McFadden decides to turn pro after this season ]. I’m not trying to tell anything and hurt my son. They’re going to make me not talk to nobody.”

I'm confident mom means the media when she says "they". The media is doing it's job asking questions and trying to get news, but I'd be willing to bet its the last quote for ESPN.

Oh Behave, Baby

In my best Austin Powers voice, have you seen the mojo? No, not Austin's Swedish-ly enhanced mojo, the brand-spankin' new label for mobile journalists touted by one chain in particular.

Hmm, I thought anyone who wasn't working on the desk was a journalist capable of being moving, but I digress -- don't let thinking get in the way of pimping, oops, I mean marketing, nope that's so 20th century, rebranding (yeah, that's the ticket) this revolutionary concept.

Give a reporter a laptop, a cell card, a digital camera, maybe even a digital video recorder and send them out in the field to send back stories. They will work from their vehicles! Equally stunning news -- they may not come into a desk in the office!!!

When they come to a regular reporter and tell him he's about to become a mojo, is the replicant already coming out of the basement pod?

Fort Myers News-Press is one of the Gannett properties hyping its mojo. They're also adding in those other new-wave terms of "crowdsourcing" (interestingly, now one word so I guess there's a little branding going on there) and "audience building".

The story in the Washington Post about these nifty hyper-local micro-site journalism innovations carried what has become the standard Michael Maness, Gannett VP for strategery, line on crowdsourcing. However, I do think the Dr. Evil twist in this quote is worth mentioning:

Crowdsourcing will "enable people to do digging themselves and maybe find conclusions we won't. It's having thousands of investigative reporters instead of three."

Perhaps I should provide a more serious analogy: Robespierre didn't imagine the Committee of Public Safety getting out of hand either.

Future Continues to Trend Internet

Pew Research Center weighs in with a new poll on public opinion regarding the media. Compared to a similar 1985 survey, the general view of the media is down; but dramatically down among younger news consumers that get the majority of their information from the internet.

More than 50% of those surveyed didn't believe the mainstream media. Not a good trend. Here's a quick story on the results.

At This Pace, Both the Media and SID are Out

How about this new Google wrinkle -- adding comments from the sources of stories alongside the search results. So, citizen media can write about a story, post it on the blog and Google will gather feedback on the journalists from the people involved.

Read more at the Center for Citizen Media website.

Once Again, You've Got Two Choices

Dipping into the political world, Mitt Romney's campaign got caught in a digital crossfire when the candidate went on with a talk radio host in Iowa. The station was recording everything for its webcam. Politico has a much better indepth take on what happens next, but for the sports world it reinforces the two decisions you have on days like this.

Romney got caught. He's animated, passionate -- bordering on mad -- with the host. Not the cool, collected image he wants. Knowing the radio station would post the video, his campaign people went first and set the stage by claiming here's Mitt unleashed. They made a positive of the candidate taking the gloves off and showing his passion. Nice.

Better than the alternative -- waiting for someone else to define your person for you.

More on Those Internets

Not exactly where you might expect to find one of these chestnuts, but Tony Blankley was railing on against withdrawal from Iraq and promoting his book, The West's Last Chance, when he delivered this prescient thought about the internet.

From the Fishwrap blog:

Mr. Blankley said that technology has helped spread the violent extremist message of radical Islam. "The Internet has been the purveyor of these ideas across the globe," he said, comparing the way the Internet has spread radical Islam's message to the way in which Guttenberg's development of the printing press helped spread Protestant Christianity.

Certainly speaks to the sea change nature of the net, but is he reaching? Discuss.

How Many Times Do You Have to Say It?

Regulars here will find this passage remarkably familiar:

Investigations would no longer be conducted by a coven of professionals working in secret. Instead, they'd be crowdsourced — farmed out to readers who'd join in the detective work. Gannett papers would also become repositories of local information, spilling over with data about everything from potholes to public officials' salaries. "We must mix our content with professional journalism and amateur contributions," read one of the PowerPoint slides prepared by Gannett execs. "The future is pro-am."

For the whole story on how Gannett invents the future, jump here.

Once again, this is coming to sports and it will likely start on more college campus than just Arkansas. I know it's the near future -- at least, who knows it just might be a trend, but I doubt it -- because this is what we are living today. It has split the local media right down the middle between those who let the crowd drive their agenda and those who cleave even closer to their sources.

Surely Sanity will Reign

When I first read some references to this story, I thought certainly this was a slice of fark -- that quintessentially overstated event way-hyped by the media.

Can anyone in America explain to me how student-athlete statistics can be remotely viewed as a part of FERPA? Public institutions, public events, no way, no how private student records.

That said, here's a link to the Houston Chronicle's amazing story. The gist: looks like PO'd parent wants to rescore the high school stats; coach wants to keep his numbers from the parent.

Show of hands on the number of irate parents that have questioned your stats? Good, that's about everyone. Show of hands that think this is a legitimate legal position and/or good public relations idea? Good, there aren't any airborne digits.

Here, we have all students sign a waiver regarding their publicity info. That said, if I am to believe the lawyers who claim that we can't restrict or trademark the statistics from events -- the argument is these are facts -- how can that possibly jibe with FERPA?

Unless this gets cleared up quickly, I can see aggressive coaches and councils across the country using this as a new cudgel to batter media or fans they see as negative.

Has Talk Radio Become the Anti-Blog?

Message boards are by their very nature a negative medium. You don't take the time to sit down at the keyboard and bang out a point-by-point atta-boy post. No, you hit the keyboard when you're pissed. The positive sunshine fan turns into an acid-dripping rabid dog to rip negative folks.

Ten years ago, we were wringing our hands about the negative influence of talk radio. The reality today is there is more positive energy on the sports talk show.

Take a look at the political realm. Conservative voices dominate talk radio. For whatever reason, no one has managed to program a profitable and ratings successful liberal talk show. In the spoken word, there just doesn't seem to be a market for liberal ideology.

Before you get too upset, look at the blogosphere -- where Daily Kos, MoveOn.Org, and other liberal oriented websites hold sway. So the written word -- or better put, the multimedia word -- is a market that seems more oriented toward the liberal.

Perhaps the balance isn't within the format, but by using the format that best fits the message.