Charlottesville to watch for Martian invaders... again

This looks like fun -- and some "media convergence" to talk about in class.

PR students can see the fine job of "press agentry" by the University of Virginia Film Festival, bringing together the school's observatory, a major studio motion picture, and a series of underground films (described as "most hyperbolic alien invasion spectacles"), all to celebrate the most famous media hoax since the New York Sun's discovery of man-bats on the moon, from early days of network radio:

Virginia Film Festival
Special 70th Anniversary Broadcast of "War Of The Worlds"

"Just to be sure history doesn't repeat itself, we've asked the observatory to have telescopes at the ready to reassure our spectators that the skies are safe," the film festival director said, calling the Halloween show "a great way to honor one of the more bizarre evenings in Charlottesville history."

The UVa school paper's archives ("media history research") are cited as evidence that the 1938 "Martian invasion" panic over Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" broadcast brought people to the observatory, which used its big telescope to show Virginians that Mars was as arid and peaceful as ever.

If you want to get an early jump on Halloween, here's the 1938 radio broadcast that started it all (courtesy of the Internet Archive)...


Back in the spring, WNYC's Radio Lab did a terrific program on the panic over that 1938 broadcast -- and the fact that it wasn't the only incident like it. The full audio of the program is online, along with links to Orson Welles' 1938 script and more. I'll put that link in my official Media History class syllabus page later this semester, since we're not even up to the invention of printing yet...

As for the man-bats on the moon, I jumped ahead and mentioned in my Media History class that yesterday was the 105th anniversary of the founding of the original New York Sun -- I hope I didn't say "100th" the way I mistyped it here a minute ago!...

The Sun reportedly became the best-selling news sheet in this world by printing a hoax series about an entirely fictional telescopic exploration of the lunar surface. News writing students should note that story length and style have changed since then.

On Wednesday I didn't get around to mentioning that there's no connection to the current paper called the New York Sun, whose business troubles are, coincidentally, in the news today. Keep an eye out for circulation-building stories about man-bats or Martians in New Jersey!

It's a story. It's an ad. It's a story with legs.

A Wall Street Journal story is being brought to local readers by The Roanoke Times -- as a paid advertisement by a group protesting the pricing and regional power of the Carilion Clinic hospital group.

Group reprints story about Carilion - Roanoke.com:

"A group opposed to Carilion Clinic's transformation into a multispecialty medical practice is reigniting its two-year campaign -- and it is using a story published this week to light the fuse.
"The Coalition for Responsible Healthcare is paying nearly $10,000 for advertisements showcasing its cause today and Sunday in The Roanoke Times, said Dr. Geoff Harter, president of the coalition and a Roanoke ear, nose and throat doctor."

The Times story links to Carilion's response to the Wall Street Journal story and the Coalition for Responsible Healthcare site, which offers a pdf file download of the Journal article/ad.

The original story, Nonprofit hospitals flex pricing power, also hit number five on the Journal's list of "most emailed stories by WSJ.com readers in the past week," which may keep that link available to non-subscribers.

A quick search with http://news.google.com turns up follow-up stories on area TV news broadcasts and in publications from Richmond to Australia and the UK. One station's investigative reporter even went to several convenience stores to confirm suspicions that the paper was selling out.

If the original story does disappear behind a subscriber-only firewall, university students should remember their tuition pays for access through their library's Factiva database. Just search for the headline or the name of its author, John Carreyrou. That way they'll also find an earlier article by him on the same theme, headlined "Nonprofit Hospitals, Once For the Poor, Strike It Rich --- With Tax Breaks, They Outperform For-Profit Rivals."

Campus news aggregator from a mainstream source

Even college newspapers are facing cutbacks, according to the news from Berkeley. Meanwhile, the Democratic National Convention is disrupting campus life in Denver, canceling a week's classes. And Southern Methodist is requiring frats to register parties that serve alcohol.

How do I know this stuff?

I thank Alison at USNews.com: The Paper Trail - Education (usnews.com)

"Being a college graduate and all, writer Alison Go is uniquely qualified to sift through thousands of student newspaper headlines every day to bring you the latest, most important, or just plain weirdest news from campuses across the country."

Say it ain't so, Joe's Diner

With my first class of the day right across the street, I got through my first semester at Radford on Joe's omelets...

Sad to see it closed and its site scheduled for "development," which probably won't put breakfast on the table for some time.

Here's the latest from the City Council, via Tim Thornton at the Roanoke Times:

Council OKs rezoning for Tyler Place development - Roanoke.com

Students have had an "R.I.P. Joe's Diner" Facebook group, originally including a (false) rumor that the university was the culprit, but later updated with Tim's July story.

The page has 780 members, but not much discussion... and too few pictures for such a memorable place.

(Now where did I put that shot I took of Elvis on the diner wall?)

Quotes for old or new journalists

A few back-to-school words from the late Joseph Pulitzer:

"Every issue of the paper presents an opportunity and a duty to say something courageous and true; to rise above the mediocre and conventional; to say something that will command the respect of the intelligent, the educated, the independent part of the community; to rise above fear of partisanship and fear of popular prejudice.
"I would rather have one article a day of this sort; and these ten or twenty lines might readily represent a whole day's hard work in the way of concentrated, intense thinking and revision, polish of style, weighing of words."

... and the late Finley Peter Dunne's "Mr. Dooley":

"Th' newspaper does ivrything for us.
It runs th' polis foorce an' th' banks,
commands th' milishy,
controls th' legislachure,
baptizes th' young,
marries th' foolish,
comforts th' afflicted,
afflicts th' comfortable,
buries th' dead,
an' roasts thim afterward."

... and the fictional editor Perry White (in "Superman, the Movie"):

"Lois, Clark Kent may seem like just a mild-mannered reporter, but listen -- not only does he know how to treat his editor-in-chief with the proper respect, not only does he have a snappy, punchy prose style, but he is in my 40 years in this business the fastest typist I've ever seen."

Election news: CNN vs. Comedy Central?

In this story, Jon Stewart lectures reporters on coverage - Blogs from CNN.com:
Jon Stewart said the "established" media are getting too cozy with candidates and regurgitating campaign spin, calling the 24-hour cable news networks like CNN "gerbil wheels." The story is online... from CNN.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine discusses the election with Jon today from the Democratic National Convention in Denver. See Comedy Central's indecision2008.com, "Something approximating election news with something approximating honesty."

The site also has archived video of interviews with Sen. Joe Biden, but my Macintosh didn't want to play them. I was ready to go back to the established media when I decided to try embedding the code for one here in Blogger. Now it works! Go figure... Here's Joe back in February when he announced his own candidacy for president and made a few comments on other candidates... including an embarrassing remark about Barack Obama... News writing students, alert: Jon shows the senator how a little red-pen editing of his punctuation clears things up...:

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Footnote: I'm not making this up. You know the garbled-letters "word verification" that sites like Blogger make you type to prove you're a human before you can post something? For this item about Comedy Central my "word verification" code is "gazegag."

Pointing at Poynter for online news tips

The Poynter Institute has been doing creative things with online publishing for a dozen years or more, and now has rolled out a new version of its Web site.
Poynter Online - Poynterevolution: "Take a Tour of the New Poynter Online..."

At first glance, there seems to be an awful lot going on, but that was true of the old version, too...

Here are some of the hopes mentioned on the launch page, but I'll break them out into bullets (which may make a list easier to read) and italics (which may make it harder):

• "Navigation is simpler and cleaner, with most recent articles, comments and community activity linked dynamically from a new left rail.
  
• "A new home page carousel enables you to click through the five most recent top stories.
  
• "Our new networking service, Poynter Groups, can link you up with colleagues around the world.
  
• "And if it's Romenesko you're looking for, just click Romenesko in the nav across the top."
  

I haven't used the new site enough to have an opinion, but the old one is already a fading memory...

Yike! I didn't realize this new blog template would turn simple bullets into chrysanthemums or increase the line-spacing... Web usability issues are never simple, especially with these "easy to use" tools doing some of the decision-making for you.