A Whole Lotta Blather to Get to The Point

Three long posts to get to the payoff, but here it is. A very necessary part of our governmental ecosystem is dying. The creative destruction underway in the legacy media is like a wildfire where the lack of logging and clearing of land has left the tender ripe on the forest floor.

Journalism as we know it today exists like a giant whale, feeding on a plankton of advertising that fills the seas. Journalism has survived in its current form on what is functionally a tax upon commerce called advertising.

It is directly funded by advertising. But the ocean is heating up and off the plankton for our media whale. Call it website warming.

Think about it. Since the dawn of Madison Avenue, newspapers -- then radio and television -- survived on their ability to be the most efficient mechanism for promoting commerce. The producers of goods were willing to pay these purveyors of public opinion a tithe to bring people to their door. It wasn't a required tax, but it was a taste off the top of the books nonetheless to the piper.

Today's one-to-many system of communication allows people to let other people know the same information, and unless the brand of an institution gets in the way of that, people will tend to trust other people more.

Ah, yes, brand again. Let's say for the sake of argument that the legacy media were to fully collapse into some eight-track tape anachronism. Who is left with the resources to promote their POV? That would be the institutions -- both public and private. The job of the fourth estate? Bought out at a bankruptcy auction by the other three.

Before we go off on some Ben Richards worm-hole, roll back to these couple of counters.

At some point, a new revenue source will appear for the legacy media that carries with it standing and reputation -- again, brand -- and they will move right into the future.

But the digital media stands ready to fill the gap immediately, and what will differentiate the good from the bad -- well, guess: reputation.

Consider this: who really believed the National Enquirer had the goods on John Edwards? The previous week, they were as likely to have the inside scoop on Oprah's latest diet or space aliens living in our midst. The traditional media harrumphed, but at the end of the day, the Enquirer had a good bit of the story down.

Did that make the Enquirer have a better news brand than the New York Times? For many, no, the brand that is the NYT endures.

How does that relate to our digital natives? I predict the successful ones will be the bright kids that look back to the future. That realize they can short-cut the time it takes to build a reputation -- you don't need a century of newsprint, just ask Politico or Little Green Footballs (or gasp, Matt Drudge). While it may come at hyper speed, the digital brand is build with the same care to the details -- being right, being sourced, being vetted, knowing when you're being played. A melding together of the time-honored traits of journalism with the time-smashing techniques of digital media. Being first doesn't count over time if you're nothing but first with the rumor when others are next with the truth.

Pretty exciting stuff.

All The World Is A Stage

For the past nine years, I've been involved with the local storm spotter training. Continuing evidence of the digital era, four guys show up to record the Tulsa NWS training session. They were uber-weather digi geeks, quite proud of how they didn't need any of that old-school ham radio stuff. I suspect they MP3'd up the event along with their video.

Usually, these training sessions are somewhat embargoed, and contain some copyright material. But, it was in a public space and at a public university, so there was no hesitation in recording and potentially putting it on-line.

OK, this isn't like Justin.TV hijacking content. It is more of a wake-up for anyone in a public forum -- you should expect that you are going to be recorded.

This is the end of "off the record." The end of background briefing. And, for transparency, I can't say that's a bad thing.

However, don't let this illustration give anyone the feeling that life is more transparent. In fact, I believe as we become accustomed to "new media" we will become more -- and better quality -- performers.

The digital natives are quick to remind us old folk that the beauty of SNW is the ability to construct your public personality. As one said, a current college student has three distinct digital profiles -- resume avitars -- Facebook for friends, MySpace to advertise themselves, Linkdin to get a job. While these profiles may be at great odds, they exist as extentions of the reality that is the person who created them.

Welcome to the big show.

The Brand, The New Media and The Future, Part III

Mythbusters is a brand. The hosts are likable. They build up a reputation for truth. Then, you hit the one episode that you have personal knowledge that what they are saying is lacking -- radios on airplanes -- and then poof, the brand is busted.

The guys took the government-industry point of view that electronic devices would surely interfere with navigational devices and communications gear in the pit resulting in the sudden and fiery of all on board if we flipped on our iPods at the wrong moment. OK, that was a stretch, but no one is carrying powerful FM transmitters or AM sets with huge ferrite antenna bars to throw off the coms. By the way, how do you think the pilots keep up with the scores of games? By turning their nav radios into the AM broadcast band to listen.

Nevertheless, if Virgin America and other breakout airlines can now offer WiFi on the airplane, and new systems to allow use of regular cellphones on board -- wait a minute, what happened to all that interference we were suppose to cause?

So, there it is. Now, replace some of the key elements in my story. Let's say Mythbusters was a politician, or a university, and it sought over time to take its information, its brand, direct to its fans, its supporters, its constituents. Again, as long as the veracity of the brand remains in tact, the institution can continue without impediment.

Who challenges the Mythbusters? Sure, they'll do fan shows and retest their work. Let's switch to another part of the Discovery family. Who's going to buy into Man vs. Wild upon its return to the old flat screen after it was revealed the star wasn't exactly always roughing it as much as it appeared in the show. It was counterbalancing media that outed the story, and for a while, forced the show off the air. Without that coverage, would anyone -- beyond that handful of people with a personal experience perhaps in surviving the Amazon -- have blown Bear's cover?

Enter the new media.

The Brand, The New Media and The Future, Pt Deux

If reputation is all we have, how does that relate to the creative destruction occurring in the mass media?

People want to believe in things bigger than themselves. Society is based upon this. Perhaps more than opposable , it separates us from the beasts.

From serfs working for the king to followers to religions, society needs mass forms of belief structure. The difference today is those structures are almost more easy to achieve in a virtual than a physical association. Our media is delivered by means that not only make it simple, they tend to encourage association.

The traditional newspaper, created by editors and writers who were disciples of the cult of objectivity, or the legacy broadcast entity, tempered by the offices of standards and practices, the FCC and the perceived threat of "fairness doctrine," brought the media consumer a product that was reasonably inclusive of a range of points of view in the middle of the road.

The interconnection of supportive opinion, blogs, materials and message boards carries the reader not into a broader view, but rather into an ever tightening spiral toward self-affirming thought. What does suffice for points of view become more like opposite camps, hurling invective at each other with giant virtual trebuchets. Call it the Crossfiring of America.

Here's where the story gets dark. Manipulation is inherent in the human system. From society enforcing its standards of decency to evil-doers seeking to work to their own ends, followers will be urged to drink the kool-aid. And, they will, particularly as long as they are motivated to believe. When there is no challenge to the mindset, when there is no equal and opposite force, it will continue.

Such is the case when the media challenges an institution that has its faith and trust in tact with its base. Only when the faith and trust -- the brand -- is injured, will the opposite opinion to the believe of those inside the citadel break. For those in the local area, I'll point at the unusual case of one of our smaller universities where the administrator was hailed as the next coming in academic leadership. A handful of wrong moves, the sweater snags on the nail, and in what seemed like an instant, the emperor not only had no clothes, he had no job.

What happens when there isn't the counter balance of the media to ask the question?

The Brand, The New Media and The Future

In celebration of post #400, a multi-part discussion on the future of the career once known as sports information.

Once upon a time, the sports information director was the keeper of the flame in almost every athletic department. A trusted confidant, the holder of the institutional memory, the link between generations of student-athletes and coaches to a college or university.

In the late 1990s, the SID died. The role was divvied up among a host of new job titles that feasted on the position like Ebola virus on a wildebeest. Assistant athletic directors for media relations, for marketing, for internal operations. Then came the internet, and more people into the pot. Publications coordinators, website coordinators, new media directors. Soon, the public relations professionals rode in to managed individual coaches and athletic directors.

I once went on an interview at another D. I school for a upper level administrative job, and the athletic director looked me straight in the eye when I asked if the SID office was under my position or independent. "They're nothing but a bunch of stat keepers," he said, the words dripping with disdain. In other words, if I wanted those useless twits answering to me, OK by him. (An aside, he didn't last long there, and it was a good thing I didn't take that job.)

And, like a shortstop, a centerfielder and a rightfielder all charging after the same Texas Leaguer, these different jobs began trying to call the ball when it came to managing the image and reputation of the department. At many schools, political infighting that only a department faculty meeting could appreciate ensued.

The result? You guessed it. More times than is acceptable, the ball falls to the ground uncaught among the fielders.

In the never ending drive to be relevant and hip, PR-types have pounced upon the buzz word of the early 21st century: brand. Brand management is de rigueur, but who is the brand manager in athletics? Same pack of hyenas will compete to be that person. At a lot of places, it will get lost in a hybrid definition of making sure the right logos are used or the correct verbiage is in place.

What does it really mean? In my humble estimation, brand equals reputation, pure and simple. You either have a good reputation, based upon postitive perception of your [fill in the blank -- team, product, school, etc.].

All the talk about brand takes me back in time. My dad had a brand -- well, if a reputation for being a hard-livin', gamblin', rock-n-roll night club owner that always had the hottest spot in town is a brand. For all the oddity associated with that lifestyle, there was one thing all the folks would say about Smitty -- his word was his bond. His brand wan't all that other stuff, it was the trust other businessmen had in him.

In college, there were a couple of journalism teachers and later one history professor who constantly reminded the students to be careful, their reputations -- at the end of the day -- were all they really had.

What, for heaven's sake, does any of this have to do with new media and the future? Everything.

I've Said It Before, Let Me Say It Again

Brand.

One word. One image. One focus. The future.

To that end, post 400 -- hopefully later this week -- will begin a series of comments on how that works in the new media world and for college athletics.

Meanwhile, digest this appetizer from Bloomburg News courtesy of our director of new media, Blair Cartwright. He emails this link last night.

The gist of the story is in bad economic times, the strongest brands have the best performance and the brands that put resources into building image perform at the top. Local giant Walmart, of course, fairs well in this article.

The money quote:

“When the economy tanks, the really strongly branded companies take much less of a hit than price-cutters,” said Frankel, who has worked with companies such as Walt Disney Co. and Honda Motor Co.

Long Week, Semester Looms

A week of consecutive home games and project completions makes the blog a dull place. With an open date upcoming along with pre-semester prep work over, I'll have come special posts on some new theory work to celebrate the 400th entry here.

In the meantime, from the frozen tundra of the SEC's northern outpost, here's one quick post to lay down a marker for a new malaprop.

After visiting Joseph-Beth Bookseller to scan through then purchase Sal Paolantonio's new book, "How Football Explains America" (more to come from it -- I can tell you it should be required reading of anyone in the industry), I turned to Kyle Kellams and noted in response to a question he asked me:

"Well, it's the kind of story you could only read about in the movies."

Halfway through the sentence, my mental on-air spell check was going off, but I couldn't stop myself. Kellams looks at me and we both bust out laughing. That stayed funny the rest of the night.

Now to just work it into today's broadcast . . .

How Do You Know It's True?

One of the courses I have long hoped to see back in the UA curriculum is History of Journalism. I have two reasons, and no, neither one is because I'd be perfect to teach it.

The first reason is the natural outgrowth of doing "We're History" on KUAF. Been a while since there was time to cut a new episode (and not quite so many media fumbles since the election), but the gist of the series is the short-sighted and misuse of history by our media. A big part of the approach I'd designed for the course was to teach journalists how to utilize professional history to their advantage and to avoid the dreaded "unprecedented" pitfall. The second is obvious -- to give these digital natives some sense of the field.

Here's living proof again of the lack of historical perspective. The historical hoax of the last American pirate was revealed recently by George Mason University professor T. Mills Kelly. Kelly, a part of the Center for History and New Media at GMU, turned the digital natives upside down with a well conceived story of Edward Owens. It was part of a semester course in which the 15 graduate students concocted every aspect of the "history" of Mr. Owens, right down to Wikipedia entries and a supporting faux diary.

Kelly took it one step beyond as he launched his fake into the media world, and until the reveal, got away with it. Kelly's going to take a lot of heat for this from the serious academic types, but he did it for the right reasons -- to show just how simple (notice, didn't say easy) it can be to pull the wool over the public and the media. Say, here's your first clue: the name of the course was Lying about the Past. (As usual, the Chron has a great coverage of the course.)

Does it undermine our faith in history? It should.

We live in a world where plenty of people believe Americans never walked on the moon, that Oswald didn't act alone and Guilani was a key conspirator in the destruction of the World Trades.

A healthy skepticism is an important part of citizenship.

Another of my favorite pastimes (huh? well, something for between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., OK?) is the NPR show, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Their end of the year story circled back to the Dana Perino -- Cuban Missile Crisis brouhaha they helped stir up. This week, the host Peter Sagal, had Perino back on to claim the whole thing was a comedy skit, that her husband hadn't really chided her ("Oh Dana") about not knowing the difference between the missles of October and the Bay of Pigs.

But, wait, wait -- it got so much media play. Hosts across the country were calling Perino out as yet another Bush appointment gone wrong. So, was her Dec. 2007 NPR appearance the "exaggeration" she said it was? Was Perino playing the media, knowing that overly smug anchors and commentators would pounce on her?

It does stretch belief that anyone who would rise to her position would not know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was -- I thought that at the time.

So what worse: a history professor that turns his profession and the media on itself with a hoax, a public relations professional who pranks the media or that same PR person would actually be ignorant of a major part of American history?

Happy 2010, Now Go Read Something

Searching for my early blog validation on this one and not finding it handy. Nevertheless, for years I've said that the essentially written nature of the internet was driving a revival in writing and reading. Why? Well, what are you doing right now. Please, hit yourself on the forehead for effect right . . . . now.

Here's my backing -- this WIRED coverage of a University of San Diego study that shows -- shocking -- that reading is going up, not down.

Takeaway from the USD study: Reading, which was in decline due to the growth of television, tripled from 1980 to 2008, because it is the overwhelmingly preferred way to receive words on the Internet.

I could have told you that. As much as I liked to read as a youth, I'd never, ever have picked up a two-pound leviathan like the last Harry Potters. 13 year old daughter? And her friends? Can't get enough of these monster books.

Hello NCAA colleagues -- before you kill those printed media guides . . .

Happy New Year

Here's to this one working out better than the last.

Two Ends of the Spectrum

I'm very supportive of our fans, and try to go out of the way to help them. However, when you get helpdesk emails like this:

Request Description:I am presently using Windows Vista
Business.  When I try to acquire the audio feed, I keep having a problem
with my internet explorer crashing and closing.  I am using 230kbps dial
up with my Alltel mobile phone.  Could you please assist me with this
issue:  I am presently missing the OU/AR game... !!! 

Um.

Well, it's certainly ambitious to try to take any level of streaming content, even audio, by tethering to a cell phone. Not saying you can't do it -- I've tethered many a day to update the website or surf content. Let's just say 230K might be hitting the phone (maybe) at one point, but I'd highly doubt you're going to maintain that with the type of consistency needed.

I'll applaud the desire to stay connected.

Streaming media -- audio, video or data -- is the greatest challenge you will face. No matter how much tech support you line up behind the effort, it is always vulnerable to gremlins. This is the internet at its highest low. By that, I mean very few people go on-line when they are happy; once again my concept that commentary on-line for the vast majority is an essentially negative medium.

Want to check your self-esteem? Read the tickets for your schools' website for a week, or maybe just one day when you're having a streaming event.

I don't necessarily fault the passion (even the frustration and anger), but it has given me a different perspective when I get mad with some other provider. Next time you get torqued, remember, there is a human, not a computer, on the other side of the browser.

On the other side, there is the growing number of content providers that are enabled by our continuing lowering of the technology level. Dan Gilmoor spoke to this future in which all the fans have 3G connectivity with HD phone cams to not only blog or twitter, but to stream our events.

Last night's OU game had generated its share of iPhone picks of the facility, and several blog-like diaries. At least one had to get a pretty good platform into the stands, or one heck of a thumb set. This will be a growing trend, and if they are university students or staff, they'll have access to the facility wireless and the potential to send their blog work out in real time.

We need to begin to prepare more and more for these two extremes -- servicing our fan's digital consumption needs and managing our fan's digital creation desires.

Speak the Heresy

I learned long ago in graduate school, it's plagiarism to steal from one; it's research to steal from many. Another great bromide I've promoted here is to see the public relations future, watch the current political races.

Submitted for your approval for the umpteenth time this year -- the Obama internet machine glimpses the one-to-many future. The fund raising. The FRIEND raising. Here's another story about some of the inner works by Jose Antonio Vargas from the Washington Post. The payoff quote:

Now, because of technology in general and the Internet in particular, politics has become something tangible. Politics is right here. You touch it; it's in your laptop and on your cellphone. You control it, by forwarding an e-mail about a candidate, donating money or creating a group. Politics is personal. Politics is viral. Politics is individual.

Search and replace "politics" for "college athletics."

Here's the killer detail: More than 90 folks on the internet staff. That's 10 less than 100. That's about 90 times the number of dedicated internet personnel in most athletic departments. It's 45 times the number at Arkansas.

One more line from Vargas.

It also means using the Internet to invite people into the process, giving them something to work for, offering them a stake in victory or defeat.

Tell me friends, does he speak for politics or [Your Team Name Here]?

As you read the story, there is a very important detail about the Obama internet machine; it was organic to the organization, embedded in every operation from communications to fund raising. You cannot overlook this point.

The next wave of successful internet isn't outsourced. It isn't sold off to some conglomerate. It's managed and directed by people who know the landscape, who know the local players, who are integrated within the wider community of the institution. As sure as astro-turfing shows up, so will those who claim they can ride in and immediately begin to reap Obama-like rewards.

No, that starts with natives who know the countryside. People who understand the brand and live the culture. Hmm, now what office best embodies that . . . .

SID Simulator

OK, how much can you get out of Hell's Kitchen as a video game?
Oh.
My.
God.
My wife hasn't put down the Wii remote (even bypassing her beloved Price is Right new Wii game -- which is also pretty cool). The tart nasty is right there from Gordon Ramsey's faint praise and snide commentary. But the adrenalin rush of balancing the front of house with back of house and the strangely tense feeling you get from the stock Ramsey cliches (COME ON, PLEASE; You DONKEY!).
Want to get a good feel of what its like in the SID office on a late October weekend with home soccer, road streaming volleyball, a football game and the start of basketball season -- jump in on the middle levels working five tops and the back kitchen with three pots and an oven.
I need you to really, seriously, up your game, says Gordon.

Yeah, And He Likes to Hear Himself Talk

Took time this morning to answer some survey questions for a student at Baldwin-Wallace on a senior thesis. A lot of the subjects covered here in the blog, most notably Fan First.
Couple of the questions got me thinking a little after the hour and a half (he seemed a bit surprised that I'd take that much time on Boxing Day -- well, there's no games today).
The first one -- did I feel it was necessary to see a story in the newspaper to have considered it successful? I think the yes answer wasn't the one anticipated, but it is that it remains important to have a story covered by the area's dominant news brand. That it appears in dead trees or on-line isn't the key; it is that the local legacy agenda-setter of news deemed it worth. That remains important.
The second -- what did I see different about the media today? As you might suspect, this is where things got long-winded but I think a generational mind-set shift is in play. Boomers and Gen-X'ers still cling to the Watergate-era impartial journalist model. Being a fan of the Ben Bradlee school takes you right there.
But if you were born in the 1990s, Bradlee and the Washington Post was something that was forced on you in a movie watching assignment in mass comm class. The way you grew up consuming news was from the Crossfire school -- two polarized commentators duking it out. Whole networks are programmed this way today. Doesn't matter whether you're a Fox, CNN or MSNBC follower -- the formula is the same from 7 eastern to 10 eastern, conflict journalism.

All The President's Commentary

Saving my anniversary copy of All The President's Men for later, I sit up with the features and commentary disk. Throughout the pieces, the lions of the era -- Ben Bradlee, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and Linda Ellerbe -- opine how today it could never happen.
They point out how much it takes in manpower and money to support investigative efforts. How if faced by the right-wing machine of talk radio and the Republican White Houses today how they doubted a media institution like the Washington Post could stand up against the corporate pressure.
I'm sitting here -- granted with a lot of cough syrup -- amazed at the lack of faith displayed.
Two key thoughts come to mind. First, a legacy media company does have assets that can be threatened. But they also have lawyers, reputation and numbers to resist. The New York Times certainly didn't back off when the Bush administration put the pressure on over the WMD stories.
Second, and more important, the blog and cloud have advantages that Woodward and Bernstein could not imagine. What exactly is a government or corporate entity going to do to a committed blogger? It's asymetrical warfare. The institution has the assets and reputation -- both is could lose. What's the blogger got? A computer? A rented apartment?
The cloud of bloggers can't be hit directly. It's like the Resistance Movement. Knock out one investigator, he's already shared his info with five others who can pick up the trail. Just ask Dan Rather, it grows like a virus.
Still, it was funny to watch the legends say it can't happen again. Tres pompous.

On the Holiday Reading List

Our good friend and citizen media savant Dan Gillmor brings to our attention a new report from the Berkman Center on the new media called Media Re:public.

There's is much to read and digest in this report, and that will wait for days off [HA!] during the holiday break. There is one highlight for now, and it is a new breakdown that the authors propose regarding the different flavors of media:

Legacy Media -- They began in the pre-Internet era, and while may be very active players, remain non-native. A great term rather than "traditional" or "main stream."

Web-Native Media -- Better than "new media" -- or as one colleague said, if you're in charge of new media, does that mean I'm in charge of the old media -- or "advanced media" -- another comment being, so if MLB had an advanced media division, does that mean the rest of public relations in backward -- and it speaks to the nature of the beast: these are media born on-line that exist for first distribution on-line. When the creators of Fark.com and RegretTheError.com write books, they don't become legacy -- their content was created for original distribution on-line.

Participatory Media -- To me, this is the best term; better than my own catchy B&B (boards and blogs). These are, using the Jay Rosen phrase "people formerly known as the audience," the interactives, and an intersting point is made -- we had these before and we called them letters to the editor, CATV access and radio call-in shows.

I like the way they related to the past -- another constant theme that there are indeed constant themes. Scale and speed are the real change factors, not the internet itself.

Dan also weighs in on the GateHouse v. NYT dispute on copyright.

Merry Christmas

Nothing like the gleeful squeal of children getting just what they wanted for Christmas. An iPhone for the oldest, a digital camera for the youngest.
So three old classic movies for me -- and a hellacious chest cold. Somewhat of a twisted family tradition; I can recall the Christmas' without either illness for family catastrophe on my two hands.
But I digress. I haven't seen one of my all-time favorite movies in years.
None of other than the greatest John Wayne documentary of all time.
Uh, that would be Hellfighters, thank you.
As a child, I was obsessed with the Red Adair legend, and rewatching the movie (unremastered on DVD and while wide screen, quite rastered) with an adult's eyes I can see why. No less than three holidays (a New Year's, a Christmas and a wedding) get trashed by the call out to put out a oil rig fire. Hmm, paging Dr. Freud.

Not so Happy Holidays

Not to harsh your mellow for the holidays, but if you have missed Facebookgate while wrapping presents or getting ready for time off, the must-read quick synopsis of the event comes from The Chronicle.

The highlights: A company called College Prowler created dozens of Class of 2013 groups on official Facebook sites associated with universities. Potential members of the incoming freshman class joined up. That's where things get dark.

Did College Prowler create the fake groups, based on fake college students at the school for access, just to promote their new "free" service?

Unlikely. Remember, anything that is free on-line eventually has a cost. Like, oh let's say, your personal data?

That's one of the reasons now surfacing for the scam. College Prowler now has all sorts of great data.

The other is that College Prowler may have been a Trojan horse to get data and help launch a new Facebook competitor.

Either way, it serves as a reminder for our student-athletes -- give up your personal data to ANY website at your own risk.

Warm Thoughts on Web Feedback

Listening to Leo Laporte on his final TWIT of the 2008 year, the crew had several comments about the feedback they see and receive on "back channels" -- that is, chat rooms. They had several comments about the "yelping" of America.

When a little time presents itself, I'll share the following with Laporte.

Leo -- the reality of sports media is the essentially negative nature of the internet. Fans don't take the time to come to a chat room when they are happy. When they're happy, they celebrate among themselves. When they're upset, they are motivated to do some, to complain. Whether we like it or not, the internet is an essentially negative medium.

Where Does Publicity End and Copyright Begin?

Pondering after a story that was clearly a website-only "mechanical" was picked up by a local newspaper word-for-word as if we had sent that story out as a publicity release.

On the one hand, we want our media outlets to help promote events.

On the other, the reality is on some level, our web sites compete for the attention of consumers.

The issue is as fresh as the news. Just this week, two media groups -- New York Times and Huffington Post -- found themselves sued by bloggers for copyright infringement. (Click here for GateHouse against NYT; here for Huffington's troubles.)

I do not have the answer here -- and would be interested in some of the reader's feedback.

Certainly, when we write press releases that we send to our media outlets, we intend on them to be used verbatim. We don't ask for credit, but many outlets do that to differentiate between staff written and externally written copy.

This question relates to when we write something that is only for our site -- the term I use is a "mechanical." The only reason the short blurb existed was to create a vehicle to hang links to a game -- tickets, video, live stats, etc. It was a promo that only turned on within 24 hours of the event. My surprise when that appears in the paper.

This incident is truly insignificant, but it gets me wondering. As we begin to create more and more original content for our websites -- live blogs, in-house columns -- and some of that belongs to premium services -- not as much for us, but I know it is at other schools -- where is the line between publicity and copyright?

Judging from this week's national news, I don't think this is going away.

New Fav MLS, and New Media

I'm intrigued with the Seattle Sounders, who will play 2009 season for MLS. I like the minority owner, Drew Carey (yeah, that guy), and the way he's bringing some of the interesting angles like the Barcelona FC tradition of fan stakes in the ownership. Liking the keeper, Kasey Keller. Liking the manager hire, picking off my man from the Crew. Liking the rumor of Theirry Henry as a potential designated player pick-up. I know they may have my son's allegiance thanks to the sponsor -- XBox 360. OK, that is a bit sexier than Gliddeon, who sponsors my Columbus Crew.

But here's an interesting angle that I picked up in surfing around to catch up on the Sounders -- the interactive of the team showing off the new stripe is a YouTube video. It's not from KING, or any of the other big name TV stations in Seattle. It's from the Seattle Times, closing with a credit for the video editor.

Video editor? At a newspaper? Yeah, welcome to the Brave New World that is the post-modern media.

Chronicle article athletics adminstrators must read

Perfect follow-on to the last entry -- pointing out a great story that is the lead article on the Dec. 19 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Libby Sandler's last story in her series on athletic recruiting is a survey of 300 athletes about the recruiting process. This is a great starting point, and one that I have desperately wanted the NCAA, CoSIDA, NACDA, somebody of authority to authorize -- but in much greater detail.

We don't know spit about the recruiting process, particularly when it relates to publicity materials and their impact. It's because all we have are the anecdotal and self-reinforcing impressions of a few recruiting battles won or lost. (Hint to the academic world: this is one of those survey projects I want to undertake, but I doubt the NCAA would clear since i'd obviously benefit from the knowledge in fine-tuning our own recruiting approach).

Among the questions posed by Sandler that should open a lot of eyes: 97% of the respondents said that how the institution, athletic department and students showed interest in their sport swayed their decision. 50% said extremely; 47% said moderately important. Want to succeed in the "minor" sports? Have a department that gives a flip, and the better athletes will come.

Another one -- 42% said the reputation of the head coach was extremely important in their decision; 46% moderately. That one for all the folks concerned about coaching salaries, or thinking that great facilities sign athletes. People sign people, not buildings. (The counter point: you're not going to get a Nobel laureate without a first-class research facility; why would anyone expect a top-flight coach to work in a run-down stadium or arena?).

The survey results show a huge amount of work left to perform -- how accurate were those two 90-plus positive results?

There's one in the prose that should raise the eyebrows of everyone:

"The survey also showed that as recruiting spreads to ever-younger athletes, the recruits are making greater numbers of unofficial visits to campus before their senior year."

The implication -- all those restrictions on contact before the start of the junior year, and materials restrictions before the senior year -- are preventing institutions from being effective.

Nevertheless, our national organizations are obsessed with limits on printing, limits on content, limits on methods of communication. This study begs -- screams -- the question: has anyone asked the prospects how they are interacting with the schools, with the coaches, with each other.

Hey, I know that answer: No.

Anti-Intellectualism Toward Athletics

Read carefully the headline before proceeding. I find more and more an attitude toward collegiate athletics that reflects a pretty strong bias (thus the "toward" rather than "in"). Granted, my recent encounters are personal, but I was surprised at how open, how "honest" some academics have been.

I'm beginning to understand just how truly platypus it is to have a doctorate in a "hard" liberal arts field (in my case, history) and engage in a career in athletics. Certainly, there are plenty of academicians who have their PhDs, but live in the administrative world. They're deans, and technical specialists -- like registrars, student life, media relations -- that never touch a classroom, or teach the occasional single class.

But no one questions their credentials to their face.

When we bemoan the decline of the media as the centering point of society -- that we only seek the news that reinforces our own previously established opinions -- is that some new trend brought about by the physically fracturing, virtually uniting nature of the internet?

Perhaps it is more a reflection of ourselves than we want to admit. To that end, we expect "ah-thu-leah-tix" be a bunch of dumb jocks; the assumption is you can't be very bright. I mean, really; if you were, you'd be in [fill in the blank].

That may be in part because we in athletics don't take the time to cross over; to illustrate the intelligence side of the sport; to demand it from our athletes and ourselves.

To that end, I'd urge any professor to ask to see the playbook for their college or university football team; the scouting report for their basketball team's next opponent. We ask those young people to memorize and internalize those mounds of information. The difference between the winners and losers is often as much the mental acumen as it is the physicality. (Of course, this would beg the counter point of -- they can master cover-two, why not hikous?)

One of my students at the area junior college where I teach history as an adjunct came up to me about halfway through the course. He wanted to let me know how much he enjoyed the course, how much he now understood the parts of history we had covered and that he was curious what other courses I taught so he could sign up.

"You know, I was afraid you wouldn't be very good when you said you worked in athletics."

I smiled and admitted, yes, when you've come from a high school where good old Coach was sent down the hall to teach American history as his academic assignment, that can be the case. And I thanked him for his compliments.

That reaction is one I've become accustomed to -- I have to prove to the students, be it the history ones at the community college or the journalism ones here at UA, that I really can teach, really do know the subject and really aren't in this room trying to make a little extra money on the side.

Little more disappointing when your peers have the same approach.

So, as we head into the holidays, my New Year's wish is that perhaps both sides of the equation will do a little more to tamp down the anti-intellectualism toward sports. In return for a little more respect from the academic side, we need to demand and promote more the "student" in student-athlete.

On Shoe Throwing

Couple of random thoughts while hoping the stat computer will reboot . . .

Iraqi journalist throws shoes at President of United States. Segments of world see it as apropos protest move. President says no big deal, and it's the price of democracy.

Consider these angles:

First, the shoes were also thrown toward an Iraqi leader. What happens if that leader was Saddam Hussein? Pretty sure it never happens out of fear of the repercussions, and if it does, said journalist gets more than broken ribs in the hustling out of the building. Pretty sure he gets . Maybe some of his family, too.

Second, is it a sign of growing Iraqi freedom that a dissident could throw shoes, or just a growing lack of respect for those in power. See, the flip side of saying that the action is part of a free country is the understanding that someone thinks you're "weak" enough that they won't die for throwing the shoe.

Last, what in the world does it have to do with college athletics? How often do your fans throw things at players, officials, etc.? Usually happens when they are really, really mad.

I digress with a true story. Fan at an NCAA tournament game throws shoe onto the court. Event security heads up into the section where the shoe came from. This should be a pretty easy collar -- look for the kid with one shoe. Crafty, these students. The whole group had discarded one shoe. Game management can't easily find the offender, but smiles on the inside. He'll wait them out. Why? 'Cause it was snowing outside, and there was no way the whole group would go outside in the cold with just one shoe.

Back to the subject at hand. Today, the fan base is more than willing to throw shoes. And at least three of the seven words George Carlin said you couldn't use on television. In the past three days, I've answered extremely scatological screeds over streaming video. I'm not doubting the end users were having problems, but more times than not, they are not on the provider side.

Perhaps I'm early in this academic year to make this prediction, but I might have the logic winner of the complaint email. We and our video stream "suck" (his word, not mine) because we can't get the Windows Media files to play on his high-end Mac (clue one -- you need Flip-for-Mac to watch WMF on any Mac). Here was the payoff pitch -- ESPN can figure this out, why can't you?

Lemme parse that for a moment. ESPN spends millions of dollars -- I mean tens of millions -- on backbone, infrastructure and technology. They reap millions of dollars -- the same tens, thereof -- from advertising. This in turn allows them to have a very, very nice free product -- free to the end user, I might add. AT&T and Verison are paying a pretty penny to "give" you ESPN 360. NBC sunk a similar chunk into Silverlight for the Beijing Olympics. And it was beautiful; hugely successful.

Folks -- It's $9.95 a month. We've got two people on the stream itself. We've got a pretty robust distribution system. And, routinely around 250-300 viewers each men's basketball game; about 450-500 on PPV football. Next month, we'll do 100-200 on gymnastics. Out of that, we get about five percent with trouble. We can help some. Our service provider helps others.

This is not an exact science, and while we're pumping out a lot of content, we're not a network operation. A lot of that content, I might add, that wasn't available before.

It's not perfect. It's getting better as the technology spreads out to more people. It will be the future. Reminds me of hooking together manual phone couplers in the late 1980s to create a radio "network" from a bank of phones in our offices. Today, it works a lot smoother with ISDN and satellites -- but you know what, it can still break and go out.

I know -- fans are passionate. And they're prone to throw shoes when they're upset. We'll just keep ducking.

E-Mail Primer

A great story in this week's Chron -- E-Mails Are Forever.

The money quote is this tip:

Compose every e-mail message as if the entire world will read it. While you may well be engaging in a "private" exchange with a colleague or supervisor, e-mail is by definition a public forum. Be cautious and thoughtful about what you commit to writing and how you phrase your messages. If an issue is especially delicate or controversial, pick up the phone.

Memo to the Old School

Just a follow-up message for those still believing we still control the fate of our brands during times of crisis, and for those who may still hold on to the belief that Arkansas fans, in particular, are hopped up on Cheetos dust nut cases for the events of 2007 and 2008.

Submitted for your approval: one robtigeralum and his brand new channel on YouTube.

Yes, I watched it. Yes, it had all the appearances of a one-off set-up. Yes, there's exactly one "disgruntled" fan greeting the Auburn athletic director at the airport.

But also, yes, as of 4:21 CST today, there have been 38,443 views of this video.

In 20 hours.

May we parse this a bit further, referencing in particular the recent unpleasantness here. To achieve this video required: A) tracking of the movements of the Auburn university plane [haven't checked yet, but wonder if they've taken it "private" to prevent similar events in the future], B) one man with a heck of an agenda is using YouTube video to go after athletic officials, C) there's considerable heat on the Auburn B&B over the whole process.

All three were noted as evidence of how over-the-top the Arkansas fan base was. Hmm. How about, ahead of the curve, instead.

To my friends and colleagues, we fight the future at our own peril. More to the point, to quote Rockhound (the Steve Buscemi character) from that seminal work, Armageddon:

It's time to embrace the horror.

There are two choices here. Wait for the meteor to hit your world or go out and meet it as soon as its detected.

Do I have the answers? No. Absolutely no. And just to be clear, NO.

This is not to point fingers at Auburn, where I have several close friends. This is a fill-in-the-blank with the name of the day situation. I am highly confident that a search would turn up similar videos/manifestos/flash animations for every one of the major Division I jobs, and for several that aren't open but some part of the fan base has decided it should be open.

The Boyer Lectures

As previously mentioned, the Australian Broadcast Company sponsors an annual lecture series with a prominent Australian. This year, Rupert Murdoch was the speaker. There is much more in the actual lectures than the previous news reports highlighted. You can get the entire series either from the ABC's website, or from iTunes.

A drive for car service gave me time to take in all six -- I highly recommend them, but in particular, the second and third lectures.

Murdoch has a couple of particular insights I haven't seen covered. First, he points to the value of Matt Drudge's news judgment as the key to his website. Drudge serves as a city editor might have in the past, and his ability to glean from other sources and post his results is his particular genius. The way Murdoch explains it, then plays it against the dying age of the old-school editor "who determined what was and was not news".

The second is an expansion of this first -- that news organizations must evolve into "news brands." The reputation of the NYT is in its, well, reputation. If the Times backs a story, puts the stamp of its brand upon it, it adds a certain level of value over the same story from a one-man blog-shop.

Once again, it's value-added content people -- it's content that shall be the coin of the realm. As Murdoch titled his fourth lecture -- Fortune Favours the Smart.

Murdoch's other lectures get into very interesting details about the value of human capital, the need for education and the competitive impact of the rising world-wide middle class.

He also has some suggestions for the future of journalism education that should be taken straight to heart.

As a side note, we hear plenty about the BBC, but let me take a moment in praise of ABC. This is also the home of Gruen Transfer, which was a 10-episode show about the advertising industry that was part Meet the Press, part Daily Show.

Creative Destruction

A good conversation today with a group of journalism professors got me thinking about the future of the business and this catch phrase going around in the business world: "creative destruction."

Sometimes, it just doesn't make sense to keep printing newspapers. Or magazines.

That doesn't mean the need for well-formed, cogent messages is gone. It just takes on a new form or uses a new transmission method.

Cross pollinating that thought with last week's TWIT podcast, some of the great innovations happen in times of troubled economic times. Sure, the crazy financing or venture capital dries up, but creative people will continue to be creative. And the tools to publish are cheaper than ever.

The Tribune company might be bankrupt, and the NYT is taking out a second on its building. It does not mean the end of journalism. It means a new beginning is here.

In their time, Life, Look and the Saturday Evening Post were dominant. Once upon a time, CBS mattered. All they did was replace a penny press who came before them; and a pamphleteer before that.

Today, a journalist must be a writer, an editor and a publisher; a scribe, a recorder and a shooter. One person can repurpose the entire event: video tape and post the sound blast in its entirity, condense it to sound bites for a podcast and write commentary that refers back to the primary source -- the tape itself.

Hmm -- sounds a little like judge, jury and executioner. Well, that's where the journalism school comes in, now doesn't it, to provide the grounding as well as the advanced techniques.

More later.

Calling a Time Out

Two days off for myself during the University's final exam break. A chance to catch up on home projects -- the first real days off since the transition started in earnest back in April. Use them or loose them, in University system.

Out of town part of this time -- but before heading out the door -- a passing nod to the stupidity of the governor of Illinois.

Let's put aside the fact you've been under investigation. How about the thought that as a public official, everything you say (or your wife says) may be recorded -- or at least copies requested when it is email.

Or, as a public official, did you think by avoiding email and using the phone you'd be OK/

Truthiness

What to do when you have made a mistake with on-line content? The reaction of far too many is to scrub it -- delete the story, delete the link, etc. -- rather than post an update or an correction. Exposing these, of course, is the stock in trade of Regret the Error.

I highly recommend this post at Craig Silverman's website to illustrate the need for updating rather than scrubbing.

The gist -- in a highly linked, increasingly transparent world, an organization does itself no good by attempting to hide mistakes. Or, as Silverman says:

This is an example of why scrubbing is such an unethical and fundamentally unprofessional practice. On the web, you can’t just pretend that a mistake never happened. It’s already been cached, blogged, linked… Wales Online and especially the Press Association have to make an effort to spread the correct information. That’s journalism.

Please taken in the whole thread, including an update no less.

Facebook Faux Pas for Adults

If you are the prime speech writer for a presidential candidate, it's not a good idea to fondle a cardboard cutout of the opponent. Even worse to post those party pics anywhere on-line. Such is the dilemma of Barack Obama's chief wunderkind, Jon Favreau. The 27-year-old made the mistake, and it's been found by the mainstream media.

Al Kamen of the Washington Post has a very good column about the whole event, and points out something more significant than just the run of the mill photo gone bad. Kamen points out the two questions on the Obama team vetting form that relate, notably question 41:

"Please provide the URL address of any websites that feature you in either a personal or professional capacity (e.g. Facebook, My Space, etc.)"

Read more here

Many A Truth Told in Jest

Chris Wyrick, one of our senior associates, is fond of that line as one of his touchstones.

The new episode of Mayne Street -- Hotel -- is the epitome of the saying. In one comedy bit, you get the full impact of the digital world, how it effects celebrity.

"This is a sad commentary on your generation," Mayne deadpans.

I'd make this required viewing in the next go-round of media training and social networking awareness.

I've noted how Mayne Street shows the Long Tail way to content -- and the detail work within this episode is magic. Stop frame on the faux websites that have dug up the past of Kenny's make believe producer and ESPN executive.

Available

Every once in a while someone will inquire about a presentation or handout I've created. Email in and I'll share.

That said, starting Dec. 1, I'm formalizing a consultancy for new media, brand assessment and media training.

If you want your message to get through, call Rowan.

Web presence to follow on Jan. 1.

Is the Fund-Raising Pyramid Dead?

There isn't a foundation director in the world that doesn't believe in the pyramid. The highest return comes from the small number of top donors. Therefore, investing five, six, seven visits into a top of the pyramid donor is the routine. Working that payoff of six and seven figures is where the vast majority of fundraising time is spent.

Barak Obama may have pulled the foundation from under the pyramid. One does not raise the hundreds of millions his campaign banked by focusing on the top of the pyramid. No, not unlike the reality of his tax plan, you can't harvest that kind of bank from a few; to get there you need to get some from the many.

As time moves on, the papers and studies will begin to filter out on how Obama created his virtual on-line ATM among the less than $2,000 donors.

We as an industry have built an athletic economic system on the backs of the major donors, the networks and the PSL gift for seating priority.

The first school that figures out the way to tap the tens of thousands of members of their Mascot Nations for Obama-like contributions will become the new leader in that athletic arms race.

When they do it, they'll learn they can live without the soul-selling deals with outside entities.

At the same time, they will become dependent upon keeping the fan base happy. That kind of democracy can be a good and bad thing.

The Hanging Coconut of Death

A photo that I could not resist. In the ripping winds today, this is the image of certain death.

Why?

Because statistically speaking, more people world wide are killed by falling coconuts than are killed by shark attack.

Keep your head on a swivel today in the Bahamas.

One to One is One to Many

I spend a lot of time these days in my new role of directing our new media emailing angry fans. It takes up a lot of time and emotional energy, but over the course of the past three months I’ve become convinced it is crucial to the athletic department.

More than one person has asked why in the world do you “waste” your time with “those people.” It is an outgrowth of my interaction with “those people” who also spend their days and nights on message boards.

Critics think I’m spending too much time doing “retail” work; that our time is best served reaching larger audiences.

Respectfully, I’ll counter that I am doing “wholesale” because today’s one-to-one work in reality is one-to-many.

This is one of the great keys to turning your messaging from a speech into a conversation. Thanks to the growing strength of word of mouth, reaching out to solve the problems of individual fans pays huge dividends.

I am as guilty as anyone of thinking I am talking to a computer when I get upset at a retailer or other supplier. Fans will say some of the most violent, demanding things when they think that they are A) anonymous or B) not talking to humans. They are quite surprised that an assistant athletic director is taking the time to respond.

There are some important rules to this work:

First, you need to respond quickly. Complaint anger can grow exponentially over time.

Second, listen. Inside that rant is a problem, one that you probably need to fix.

Third, apologize and offer solutions. Outside of coaching issues, they don’t take the time to go off on you if nothing wasn’t wrong.

Fourth, acknowledge their opinions. No matter how bad, it is their opinion. It’s OK to have that opinion, but perhaps the opinion is not well informed. Does this person have all the facts?

Fifth, be transparent. With the exception of private schools and certain team/academic/FERPA issues, it does you no good to act like what you know cannot be shared. Fans can be forgiving, but only when you are respectful of them and are willing to bring them in.

Last of all, sometimes you can’t solve their problems. This becomes an agree to disagree situation, but you ignore their feelings at your own risk.

From personal experience, taking the time to win over an upset fan who has given up on the streaming plan at the school, or is upset about an error on the website, pays dividends. Fans want to be loyal. Even more so, they want to be connected. Hold them at arm’s length at your own peril. Sooner or later, you will need them to step up for the program. If you have ignored them, they will not rally to your cause.

Farewell to the Bahamas

Not exactly the view from my window, but the pounding surf outside the room. The wind kicked up last night and howled through the windows and doors of the hotel. Big storms rolling north -- hey, just in time to fly into them.

Back in Fayetteville, the radar has that distinctive soft feathered look of snow. As we leave Our Lucaya, 25 mph winds gusting the tropical storm level.

If I Was King for a Day

Reflecting on the announcement of PC Mag from print to a 100% on-line entity this week . . .

Create recruiting guides for every sport, none longer than 64 pages. They would be magazines with a high-gloss, fashion look because frankly, they are sales pieces for the program to parents.

Convert press guides into PDF almanacs with a high index content and XML searchable databases.

Put all the work that once went into those 208-page hybrids into new media content, focusing on personality and real-time streaming.

Build community through transparent message boards -- by transparent I mean confirmed real identity -- that along with real-time media would support the data store of the traditional HTML website.

Instead, I'll spend this weekend creating a printing calendar for next year's media guides.

Sam Adams School of Communication

Organizing groups of insiders who can carry the message of the athletic department into the social media appears creepy, if not down right controlling, to many. These folks break down into two groups – those who do not want visible ties to message management and those who do not feel it necessary to engage those people on the boards.

I will argue that it’s not only proper, it’s American.

You mean you’ve forgotten Samuel Adams? The colonial governments needing to get word out to supporters and potential recruits required an alternate means of spreading information. The crown printers were not about to issue the news favorable to the insurgents. Thus, Committees of Correspondence were formed on an ad hoc basis until Adams formalized the system.

The Committees would carefully repeat the news of the day and mail it on to the next member for local dissemination, either by word of mouth or by circulation of the letter itself.

Sound familiar? How different were the Town Cryers used by the Obama campaign? Not one bit.

There are several groups waiting for the athletic department to utilize. Existing booster groups – tipoff clubs or swatters clubs – are a great source. Scholarship donors or foundation members are another important group. The network need not be formal – it can be as simple as a short list of trusted fans that can be informed of events.

Not everyone can employ the technique, and it has to be understood by the leadership. They must be comfortable enabling others to speak for the department. The ones that understand the control of the brand exists within the fan base rather than within a marketing or media relations office will be the administrators most willing to engage.

Never Forget It's All About the "E"

An interesting article in today's Austin American-Statesman about the power that ESPN wields as a schedule maker. The point of the piece is how ESPN has gone beyond the concept of "made games" to bring together power teams for televised games. The Worldwide Leader now has "made tournaments."

One of the money quotes, from the director of the Great Alaksa Shootout, who is no longer a part of the family:

"I think what happened in 2006 was a law of unintended consequence," Cobb said. "The rule change wasn't meant to empower ESPN, the 600-pound gorilla, but that's what happened.

"ESPN creates events. ESPN can write a check to bring in some little guys like Presbyterian or Prairie View for the big guys to feast on early and then set up great matchups. We used to be televised by ESPN. All of a sudden the vendor becomes the competitor, and I'm afraid the writing is on the wall for us."

Read the whole story here.

You Betcha We Took the Phones

One of the few upsides to being stuck off from family on Thanksgiving is you have time to catch up on work and on TV. A replay of an interview with Sarah Palin provided this nugget. When Todd brought the family down to the lower 48 to catch up with mom for the announcement in Ohio that she was the VP candidate, he took away the kids cell phones. The story he told them was they were going to surprise mom at an anniversary dinner, and he couldn't risk them letting the secret out.

What he really knew is he couldn't risk the kids texting friends in Alaska that hey, we're all flying off together to surprise mom somewhere.

Why?

Same reason why every coaching departure in America is news within no less that 15 minutes. The kids text friends. They text more friends. It gets in the social media. And just like that, the regular media knows what's happening.

Gotta hand it to someone in that camp -- at least for one moment, the knew how to enforce message discipline.

Happy Thanksgiving

To all my brothers and sisters scattered across the world -- from Maui to here in the Bahamas -- stuck away from home on Thanksgiving with basketball teams, have a good day.

On the travel side of this blog, one of the good things is off-shore, the sodas are made with real sugar. Tastes like your childhood before high fructose corn syrup.

It is also very quiet, and it's obvious that people are not traveling like they have on Thanksgivings past.

Take Note Kids: The Adults have Digital Troubles

More proof of one of my favorite lines: digital assets, once posted, are incredibly portable.

Seems that the Shermans of nearby Bella Vista have some troubles. Wifey Tina had sent some nudes to her husband Phillips' cell phone. OK, a little spousal spice. No facebooking here.

Well, be careful where you leave your cell phone. Phillip left his phone at a local fast food resturant, and someone found the phone -- and the pics -- and posted them.

We know about these events as the Shermans have sued the company. Read more from one of our local papers.

Is Blogging Dead?

Wired seems to think so. So do a lot of the on-line technocrati. Given that the top of the Google and other search engines are -- as Wired puts it -- on-line magazines rather than bloggers, I'm not so sure.

Twitter is the new blogging, and private email lists the new twitter. We are cycling through vehicles, not messaging.

The two items that seem constant -- people want the information they want, and they want it delivered to them. The vehicles seem irrelevant.

What I do see as a dying venue is the web site. My anecdotal evidence tells me they are reference material, not news sources. It is consistent with communication theory -- we trust those we know the best, and those are usually those closest to ourselves or think like ourselves. Mass communication began with a tribal elder spreading the word by mouth. Now it's a board operator spreading the word by text.

The future isn't better web site design and layout.

The future is better content and the willingness to interact with our fan base.

My constant drum beat to colleagues and coworkers over time has been to watch the magazine racks for layout -- they are paid to be the cutting edge -- and study the politicos for messaging -- they only succeed when they reach the people. Barack Obama is pushing for more transparency in government by putting on-line huge amounts of government documents. One of his few bills in Congress was to create a "google" of government contracts. Why contracts?

Because he crowd-sourcing them.

Notice, the idea wasn't to ask the people what we thought of legislation. Not to get folks looking into the national security apparatus. Not to pour over the pork-barrel earmarks of Congressmen. It was to look through government contracts. The president elect has targeted those recipients of government contracts for the microscopic inspection of thousands of motivated Americans to find the errors, the waste, the corruption.

This should tell us several things. Not unlike bloated Congressional legislation that is often voted upon without being fully vetted, much less read all the way to the end, there is a ton of stuff buried in these contracts (EULA, hello!) that while it is created by bureaucrats, the bureaucrats charged with oversight can't keep up. Like a short-staffed Gannett newsroom, let's get the people to do our work.

This means the peasants are at the gates, pitch forks and torches in hand. Be careful what you unleash in the power of the people. It is highly likely they will do the job you asked them to do, and that can lead to unintended consequences -- perhaps for the people who started the process themselves. Mr. Obama, meet Mssr. Robespierre.

It may also lead to something more important: a more engaged electorate. Here's the thing about working in the sausage factory. You know what's in that stuff, and either you don't eat it or you make darn sure you buy the brats that are rat and sawdust free.

What does that mean for college athletics? Well, fans aren't going to like that schools are spending as much as they spend on some things. At the same time, they might begin to understand why their tickets cost what they cost and begin to make choices. No, we want X-program to be good, and we will support success. No, we're tired to spending money down that rat hole and stop supporting non-productive coaches/teams/programs.

Regardless, for public universities, there is a new day just on the horizon. We have always lived in glass houses -- FOIA, sunshine laws, public funding accountability. The shades are about to open, and standing outside the windows are thousands of folks, ready to look in.

The ones that flourish in this future are the ones who can function effectively while being watched by everyone. The spin, as O'Reilly might say, stops here.

Hmm. Guess I went more than 140 characters.

The Dark Lord Speaks

Love him or hate him, Rupert Murdoch speaks the truth:

"My summary of the way some of the established media has responded to the internet is this: it's not newspapers that might become obsolete. It's some of the editors, reporters, and proprietors who are forgetting a newspaper's most precious asset: the bond with its readers."

And, that's just the start. Murdoch was participating in a lecture series for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. That blurb came from Coop's Corner on CNET, which gives a fine summary of the speech here. For those that want more details from ABC, this is a press release on the Boyer Lectures. The first three lectures of the six-talk series is currently on iTunes (search Boyer Lecture).

Speaking of ABC, did anyone else catch Gruen Transfer via iTunes last year? Perhaps one of the best 10-episode run on the subject of the advertising community.

Last Time We Checked, They Paid You to Check

Last week, MSNBC was forced to issue a retraction after being hoaxed by an internet blogger. John McCain advisor Martin Eisenstadt came forward to admit he was the source on a Fox News story regarding Sarah Palin, and MSNBC and several other major outlet blogs (LA Times, notably) bit on the Eisenstadt claim.

Eisenstadt, a senior fellow at the Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy, said he was the source of the story that in debate prep, Palin said that Africa was a country.

Just a few problems with the story. There is no Harding Institute. There's not even a Martin Eisenstadt. It was all the creative invention of a pair of filmmakers, and they played the traditional media for the LOLs. The Times went with the rumor, thinking it was viable because it was passed along to the news desk via email from a friend. MSNBC quickly said they were sorry that the story had not been "properly vetted".

This might be a little less egregious if it was a one-off. Regretably for MSNBC, this was Eisenstadt's third political hoax of the year.

It was one of those earlier stories that the Associated Press had the quote of the day, this time from Mother Jones' Jonathan Stein.

"My only consolation is that if I had as much time on my hands as he clearly does, I probably would have figured this out and saved myself a fair amount of embarrassment."

Um. Gee. Aren't you guys the professionals -- as in the people that are PAID to figure these things out? And you were had by a bunch of "amateurs"?

Is it any shock that more and more people believe the established media less and less?

That is, unless that quote from Stein was too good to be true and I've been had by the other great trend. We spend less and less time seeking out opinions that don't reinforce our own, and more and more time

I am Reminded of the Three Rules

Before Dan Rather lost his mind -- and his job -- he wrote in his book, The Camera Never Blinks, that he expected the sources he respected to give him one of three answers:

I know, and I can tell
I don't know
I know, and I can't tell

Every source in the world, by Rather's estimation, fits into these three categories.

I was reminded of this by one of my students from last semester, that this was one of the items that really stuck with them. Good.

Our friends at Awful Announcing bring Mr. Rather back to mind with this entry about ESPN rejoining the BCS bidding war. A story written by ESPN on its own website resulted in ESPN saying that it had no further comment.

How exactly can the worldwide leader fit into the Rather system? I leave it to the readers to decide.

The Niche Future is Here

Kenny Mayne is a unique talent, and ESPN has found the perfect niche vehicle for his humor with Mayne Street. Think SNL for sports.

The difference is its all digital. Shot for web. Aired by web. Sponsors, embeded and by the side in a traditional web presentation.

How much was the sponsorship? Probably not much. Low cost, low investment. But, I'll be willing to bet the return for Vicks NyQuil against traditional expenditure will be extremely high. It's Long Tail niche.

The Duxford Mystery

I've been cleaning up some old files, and this picture I took at the American Museum at the Duxford complex. No one at the facility had any clue about the background of this B-29. Its markings were Korean War -- not Second World War -- and obviously the pilot had an Arkansas connection. The commander didn't just pick the Razorback logo, accurate to the 1950s, and the tag line.

I'm posting the image here in hope of someone who knows about the crew could get in contact with me.

Stop Me If This Sounds Familiar

The thing I find most interesting about The Long Tail is how much it reinforces the positions I've presented to the SEC Spring Meeting or CoSIDA. One of those points at the 2007 SEC was to understand the fact that we as SIDs are outnumbered. That's a pleasant way of saying surrounded.

From Chris Anderson's book:

Once, the power of newspapers came from their command over their tools of production. As the saying went, “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.” But starting in the early 1990s, news started coming on screens, not just smudgy pages. And suddenly, anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection had the power of the press.

I've also used the Dan Rather analogy -- he was the most traditional, and taken down by those that were derisively called the Pajamaistas. Anderson quotes Richard Posner:

“Bloggers can specialize in particular topics to an extent that few journalists employed by media companies can. . . . A newspaper will not hire a journalist for his knowledge of old typewriters, but plenty of people in the blogosphere have the esoteric knowledge, and it was they who brought down Dan Rather.”

It's validating stuff, but more important, with a major author like Anderson saying it, perhaps others will begin to listen.

Long Tail Notes to Chill the Traditionalist

As promised, some notes and quotes from Chris Anderson's The Long Tail. This book has been around for a while, but the more I talk about it with athletics colleagues I understand that it has not penetrated our world. I highly recommend getting a copy -- it's been reissued in trade paper this fall.

Three quotes from the final chapter, which is about the radical change in marketing and PR that is upon our profession.

Where does this leave PR? The usual role of sending press releases to traditional media will probably continue as long as there is traditional media.

Blogging is all about authenticity and the individual voice, not paid spin.

Fundamentally social media is a peer-to-peer medium; bloggers would rather hear from someone doing something cool than from the paid professional representative of that person.

These passages are near and dear both to my heart and my experience. Especially the second quote. If you choose to blog, you must find your own voice. In sports, this really isn't that hard to understand. The heart of the sports section was the commentary of the editor's column. It is that value-added insight that separates a game story from an explanation of the game.

Jerry Springer; Media Savant

Tonight, Jerry Springer had the best explanation of the election I have heard from any pundant. On Hannity and Combs, the three were discussing the meaning of Obama earning two-thirds of the vote from those under 30. Springer pointed out is wasn’t just a youth vote. Obama is the first new media president. As surely as Kennedy would not be elected without television, Obama does not succeed without the employment of the internet on all levels – fund raising, reaching out through new media, touching a new electorate with their type of message.

I would extend that analogy further to include Franklin Roosevelt never gets elected without radio, and the way that he mastered the use of the medium to put forth his message. Perhaps even as far back as the Penny press and Grover Cleveland; Lincoln and the age of the great orators.

Future always belongs to the one who masters the medium of the moment.

Just When You Thought Facebook Was Going Away

Mack Brown dismisses Buck Burnette, the back-up center for the Texas Longhorns, after Burnette makes a really stupid post on his Facebook about Barak Obama's election. I'll leave it for Deadspin to provide the quote and link.

Kudos to Coach Brown for his action. Immediate dismissal from the team. The First Amendment crowd can cry that this is a violation of Mr. Burnette's ability to express himself. That perhaps is was simply satire.

No. Mr. Burnette represented the Longhorns in a public way. He is, for all intents, a public figure. His fate becomes no different than John Rocker. The difference is Mr. Burnette cannot blame the media for misquoting him.

Something I stressed to my student-athlete in the past -- when you run a Facebook/MySpace/SNW page, you have become the media. You have complete responsibility for what appears there. And, accept the liabilities.

It is a shame for Mr. Burnette. He's a college student, and college should be a time for stupidity. I mean that in the best of intentions -- people experiment, people learn who they are, people need the forgiveness that we should have for the learning.

Back in the day, we called them youthful indiscretions.

Today, they become near-felonious offenses.

The Line of the Day

From TWIT, an expression of how Google sees the lack of advertising as more important than picking up a few more bucks via an extra ad.

"Google sees this as investing in the user experience"

Yes. This is why Facebook's interface is so loved, but not so often imitated. The TWIT crew continued to infer that Google is making more through less advertising, then driving partner sites to have more advertising. People go to one of the partner sites, see more ads and conclude, gee, I'd really like to use Google to search because it's less cluttered.

I get the very real sense we need to spend more time investing in our user experience across the board -- websites, new media products, in-game presentations -- and have a resulting better presentation of brand.

Or, as I've more clunkily said in the past, no one likes the Vegas strip on their desktop.

The Long Tail of Athletics

Chris Anderson's book, The Long Tail, was recently reissued in paperback with an additional chapter and some revisions. I regret not having seen this business book earlier, but at the same time glad that during the last year I had not.

I say this to prod others to go get a copy and read it (it's a quick read, and well written). The editor of Wired magazine, many of his conclusions have been my own independently arrived at theories of where we are headed as an industry.

The Long Tail refers to the growing ability in the digital marketplace of profit to be obtained from inventory or information once considered unworthy of reaching the shelf in the physical business world. He also speaks to the ability of things out at the end of the Long Tail effecting brand.

In other words -- it all matters. It matters what the minor sports or doing (and how they are covered). It matters that those bloggers are defining who we are.

The most stunning chapter for our field relates to the Chevy SUV experiment where they encouraged people to make their own commercials. I vividly recall how the Madison Avenue-ites clucked at Chevy for being stupid enough to let the public use their website against them. To make anti-SUV ads. To poke fun at the brand. And to let it all stay on line. What clueless idiots.

Get the book. Read what really happened to Chevy's SUV sales numbers.

Anderson hits some of my favorites (and he's a much better writer), but really hones in about the change from Speech to Conversation with your fans regarding the brand; that we no longer control our brand -- our fans do (see the Dell Sucks section).

More to come over the next few weeks from the book. In the meantime, it's in almost any Barnes or Borders, pretty sure its at Audible.com also.

The Importance of Metrics

So, who does your clipping these days? All the SID types remember clipping -- cutting out those actual literal articles and filing them away. In the digital shift, clippings start to have less and less meaning to the majority in our field.

That's all the more reason to clip more.

Tracking and measuring the success of placement of messages -- oh, sorry, press releases -- is crucial to the ability of the office to do two things. First and regrettably foremost in these Excel-spread sheet driven times, it proves the worth of the enterprise. X-number of inches can be translated into monetary value.

What should be more important is gauging the effectiveness of the operation, and it is more important the further down the Long Tail of sports publicity we move. Anyone can generate voluminous copy for a major sport at a major college. Except where pro sport franchises are sucking the oxygen out of the mass media, how many inches D-I football gets isn't the issue. How many inches is the soccer team pulling at the same time; the D-III football team, etc.

Certainly there are other metrics -- click through on websites, as a prime example -- but for the publicity office this remains an important one. If the inches are declining, what are the factors? Smaller news hole? Sport attendance also dropping, indicating a decline in fan base? Here is where the SID can shine, because if they can buck those trends, they have proof of their effectiveness.

Was It Watergate Bad?

Back when I was at Northeast Louisiana, my GA was taking a readings course for his communications master's. He recalled the less-than-stellar effort of one of his classmates on a review, which ended with her proclamation that the scenario covered by her book "was bad; it was Watergate bad."

Ever since in our circle of friends, when we speak of the clueless and their errors, it's always referenced that the event was "bad, Watergate bad."

Submitted for your approval today, one Isiah Thomas. He has, indeed, been bad, Watergate bad.

Just ask the chief of police in Harrison regarding Thomas' quite incredible statement that she was the person who had difficulties. That the 47-year-old male transported from his house to the hospital for an al overdose wasn't necessarily the former coach of the New York Knicks.

Thomas told the New York Post that he wasn't the one treated for the sleeping pills problem, and inferred without directly saying it that it may have been his 17-year-old.

The money quote from police chief David Hall:

"These people should learn something from Richard Nixon -- it's not the crime, it's the cover up."

The Thomas family is sticking with their story, as Isiah's son is also saying it was his sister that needed treatment, not his dad. To this the Hall replied:

"My cops know the difference between a 47-year-old balck male and a young black female."

On the one hand, I'd ask the media to consider their impact on the family by gleefully engaging in a Schneidenfreud contest at the expense of the Thomas family.

But Isiah. Really. That was bad. Watergate bad. Both literally and figuratively.

The Latest in Free Video

As the 20th century world continues to try and limit the expansion of streaming, this just in -- want to beat the system for your home team's video stream? Hook up a deal with someone off shore, rig up the slingbox to a Dazzle unit, push stream through a proxy to the off-shore and then tell all your buddies about the free video.

Or, by shorter name, justin.tv.

Are we really surprised? Free television beget pay cable; over time pay cable became standard thanks to advertising and cable systems wanting to hold off satellite. Now various pirates around the world are making those ever-so-portable digital assets, well, portable.

The networks have finally figured it out. The streaming is free (to the end user; of course it's advertising supported) for Hulu and many of the major sports teams.

This is just the more advanced, less cease-and-desistable, version of using the home state billing and zip code to fool systems (or proxy servers to beat IP checking).

The college sports world will fight to keep its blackouts and protections. And the ones that will get hurt are the ones with U.S. addresses. Kind of like the reward Real got for trying to play by the rules with the movie industry over copying DVDs to hard drives. They're injuncted, but all those off-shore DVD rippers that will never pay royalty dollar one continue to roll.

Losers on Both Side of a Digital Divide

Sarah Palin's hacket is charged for breaking into her Yahoo account. The son of a Tennessee legislator is paying the price for compromising the privacy of a public official.

Unfortunately for the governor of Alaska, Palin is now getting reprimanded for using a personal email account for doing public business.

Readers here will know that's a no-no -- proven already in the LSU women's basketball situation as administrators tried to loop around their ".edu" known FOI'able accounts.

Turns out the state of Alaska takes a very dim view to not doing the public's business on the public's email system. Learned today also that the state of California (Brown's Law) is even more of a stickler under a combo of FOI and open meetings.

Let's repeat again: Don't expect to keep your private email private if you use it at work, even for private functions. Why? Because you are using state computers, state routers, state connectivity. I continue to be amazed at colleagues -- here and at other schools -- that insist on using a Yahoo or GMail account to read ALL their email. Good luck separating out your personal business from that account you are forwarding your ".edu" official business to.

So the world has this hacktivist from Tennessee to thank for revealing the Palinista email circle. So, you betcha, he's gonna pay some fines; but gosh darn it, the illegal activity revealed another illegal activity.

You Didn't Just Say That

Moments ago, the talent for ESPN's telecast of Clemson-Georgia Tech:

DAVE PASCH: It seemed like the players had a lot to do with this because Terry Don Philips was allowing them. The Athletic Director was allowing their voices to be heard.

ANDRE WARE: Which should never be the situation in a the case in this. You’ve got to gather everybody up, and you go to the coaches. If it does indeed come down to this kind of situation. Kids should never be speaking out about changes that are made from the top. It should never happen.

DAVE PASCH: With all the different kinds of media we have out there. Players’ comments. You’re in a small town like Clemson, South Carolina, where anything the players say is going to get printed and talked about ad nausium.

Whoa. Wait a minute. Let's parse that shameless shot at TDP.

First, God Forbid an athletic director that talks to student-athletes. Last time I checked, the job in college sports has dramatically changed from being autocratic to being inclusive. That's the reality.

Second, and the most ridiculous, it was the fault of the athletes that live in lil' old country towns like Clemson?

How about this small town paper -- ESPN? No problem in this pre-Bowden departure game story of Wake quoting the Clemson quarterback's vent.

And of course, who missed Tiger QB Cullen Harper's quote when Bowden resigned:

"It's what he deserved," Harper said. "Dabo Swinney is a fine man and will do an excellent job."

What small down paper carried that quote prominently -- why even in a big text pull quote box in it's front-page story. That would be E-SPN.

And how did ESPN get that quote? Harper texted it in to ESPN reporter Joe Schad. He realized later that was ill-advised, but did manage to dig himself a little deeper with a blog on Sporting News. Oh, those darn internets and texting.

Never forget what the first letter stands for: Entertainment.

If the ESPN crew wants to say that Harper's comments were in bad taste, sure. That they were self-serving as he had been benched by Bowden, sure. But these are the days of Web 2.0, and people want their opinions heard.

Does Harper need a little media training? Oh Yes. But Pasch and Ware might want to understand that their own company was that small town that printed the words of the players.

UPDATE: The talent crew in the closing minutes of Miami-Duke are picking up the mantle. The payoff line -- a kid shouldn't say someone deserves firing because there are children involved, other coaches and families involved -- and that Harper should not have spoken out.

Care to guess what network? Yep, ESPNU.

While we're piling on the "kid" for speaking out, why is no one getting on the "adult" reporter who didn't take into consideration that perhaps a young person was making a mistake with his text message?

On the Wall

Or maybe Twitterish -- at soccer, waiting for kickoff.

Great discussion today with colleagues at another major college about a project regarding the reaction of SIDs to the new media.

Proofing through 192 pages on-line will leave you a little blurry.

More coherent comments tomorrow. Meanwhile, The Long Tail is the book on the nightstand. Huge. Again, more later.

Time to set the streamer and get ready for futbol.

I'm Back

Lord. Anyone who's been through the wringer can relate to facing down 192 pages of media guide.

But, it's over for the 20th time here at Arkansas; the 24th in a row on women's basketball.

So, what did I miss? I did take a moment to drop a note about the faux death of Steve Jobs. My good friend Dan Gillmor once again has the best, succinct take on the event. His blog entry recalls how the techniques were used and misused.

Leo Laporte on This Week in Tech (OK, it was last week's This Week) had several of the key details, most notably that the first-post anonymous blogger used a proxy to make his now infamous rumor post.

As I noted, it's not the citizen journalist that was wrong, it was how horribly bad traditional media can't handle when it tries embrace Web 2.0. A modicum of checking would have revealed the obvious attempt to mask tracking.

Not the Way to Reintroduce a Coach

Again, light posting here as we wade through printing deadlines, but this couldn't wait. It's from the English Premier League as Newcastle United announces the return of Joe Kinnear to the league as a manager. Let's just say that one might want a better relaunch, and it takes any tirade by an American coach. By one estimate, 51 bleepable words in the rant, and Kinnear settles some scores with individual writers.

I warn you right now, this is not anywhere close to PG-13. Depending on your connection, it may not be viewable and could be considered NSFW. The F-word is prominent.

It's horrible, yet you can't look away . . . .

Newcastle's Joe Kinner: "I have had a million pages of crap written about me."

Failure to Administer

Citizen journalism gets down right dangerous when established media groups use it as a replacement for trained staff, or as a primary source for short-staffed situations. CNN got a very hard lesson in that with today's rumored Steve Jobs heart attack. Silcon Alley Insider has the best recap on this on their page.

It reveals the danger of no governor journalism -- the person making the post was a first-time poster to the iReport part of CNN. Even the most basic rule of thumb is not let a person go full post on the first time.

Bit chilling that according to web sources, not only has "johntw" and his post disappeared, his profile claims this iReporter has not uploaded any iReport stories. That's Soviet-style revisionism at its finest.

Expect investigations, not unlike those by the FBI and Secret Service into the hacking of Sarah Palin's email. This time it will be the SEC (not the athletic league, the government regulators), and you know they will have the IP for johntw by lunchtime.