Electronic Journal, January - March, 1994

NOTE: I've made several unsuccessful attempts at keeping a regular diary; I simply don't seem to have the discipline for it. This was probably the longest period I ever kept at it.

I do hope, however, to use the weblog features of this site to make another attempt.

1/10/94

I have decided to create a journal or diary to write down the eventsin my days and the thoughts in my mind on a regular basis. I will also try not to edit my own thoughts or correct typos, although it would be difficult.

I woke up sick this morning,so I haven't done much work atall today. I did manage to balance my checkbook, which was an accomplishment, but since it wasn't on my list of things to do i couldn't scratch anything off that list.

The financial situation does not look good. I still won't have even enough money for the room and board for the summer session,and almost everything has been stripped from my budget. This makes it impossible to set money aside, although I will be trying to set $25 or so aside from each check into savings.

The only other significnt event today was the GSO meeting at 7 pm in Newhouse.

There were four votes fo money, all under $1000, except for the extra $1200 the GSO allocated itself to buy a new photocopier. They had just bought a new one, but it doesn't copy both sides, so they want to trade up. I voted against it because it shows sloppy purchase practices.

Still after two meetings there are only two other people I know for sure are members of the Remunerated Students Committee, which I was made chair of after two other students left because of class conflicts. The compact that was drawn up last semester still hastn't been brough to chancellor Shaw for signing. So much needs to be done after that that it would be a shame not to make that first step before this semester ends. Still, the benefits of any changes in policies regarding the treatmenst of teaching assistants will most likely come to pass after I graduate, so I admit my motivation in that area is not as high as it could be. However, I feel little guilt for that seeing that this chairmanship was given to me secondhand after others left.

There are several other larger ideas in my mind. Newhouse could use its own newspaper. The DO seems primarily for undergraduates, and requires much time. Not to mention that its political structure is already set in stone, and it is the traditional structure I would like very much to subvert. The Alternative Orange discusses more academic ideas, but is so elitist in its language that you need a dictionary just to read it. It isn't designed to be read and understood by a wide audience.

There could possibly be an electronic paper as part of a listserv, but that restricts those to who don't read email,and doesn't havethe same visual impadct as a printed pubicaton.

Eventually I'd like to start my own alternative paper, one that discusses alternative political viewpoints in straightforward language and uses a collaborative newsroom approach. That kind of radical departure from traditional modes of operation may only be possible in a new publication. But the success rates for new ventures in this economy is not good. Perhaps a small paper already leaning in some small way in that direction would be a good target. Still, most of the papers that size seem to be entertainment-oriented weeklies, like the Syracuse New Times.

Even then,it is a struggle for me to admit I may have to cooperate with the existing wage system. I know that it is basically unjust to force be to "rent" themselves out to feed themselves while companies and conglomerates give executives exorbitant salaries for little real work, and I do not want to contribute to that in any way. Still, there doesn't seem to be a large enough network of people outside that system to create self-sufficient communities that can provide opportunities for people with wide ranges of interests. In other words, if people weren't forced to take wat jobs were available bec. there are more people than jobs, would everything that society needs to have done get done?

Gunmen should apply to women as well, you shouldn't have to spell out DOS, and chairperson should be a legal word. AP sucks.

Internet access should not be metered like phone calls. It will be turned into a profit generator, and that will kill it and/or make it even more elitist than it is now.

2/12/94

I got back two papers in Advanced Writing and Reporting NEW 617 yesterday morning. Both of the grades were subpar to say the least. One was a rewrite that went up significantly, the other was a better grade to begin with but lost on style points. Another rewrite to do.

The style mistakes are just careless, last-minute shit, but the big problem was the story I did on the King celebration at the Carrier dome. I wrote a critique/column. I figured that with everybody else in the class writing straight news, it wouldn't matter if I varied from that. Secondly, I think that comment and analysis are sorely lacking in Syracuse's curriculum. D. King says that Columbia has courses in that area. I should've filled out their application. Branca was right; I could've written my own ticket, instead of taking doggy bags from the second-rate lot here. It's amazing how one's lives may be shaped and controlled by things like early application deadlines.

I'm inclined to be hardheaded about being graded down on the presence of criticism. Flocke said my job was only to report the news. I wasn't aware that the course's goals were so narrow (or in my opinion, useless.) This course doesn't have and can't have the same laboratory effect as the cancelled 635 practicum, but shouldn't be as limited as the introductory 525 class, which is nearly all in-class rewrites of fake stories and such. It was enjoyable, but not challenging. NEW 617 hasn't been so much challenging as frustrating. It seems the style preference of the professor is going to have a big effect in at least two, perhaps all three of the courses I'm taking right now.

I want my own paper. I like being a chief, not an indian. If for no other reason than to create a paper that places more emphasis on comment, criticism, and analysis.

Right now the inverted pyramid form for writing breaking news is killing newspapers, whether they realize it or not. By placing the most important information first, in simplest possible form, encourages readers not to continue reading stories that are jumped. That, combined with the historical problems of getting readers to follow multiple stories jumped from a single pages to many other pages, encourages papers either not to jump stories, which means shorter stories in a form more like television (but without the essential visual elements) or to write multiple sidebars. Both of those situations drive newspapers away from their best potential niche role: which is to provide analysis, explanation, wider ranging coverage, and COMMENTARY.

Instead, you get USA Today, which uses short stories, limited #s of jumps, and loads of color to try and compete against the perception of shorter attention spans (which is blamed on television and the baby boomer instant-gratification culture). However, what is actually achieved is articles that are WORTH less attention, that give readers the perception that less attention is required to read the day's news. That perception is traced back to the inverted pyramid, which was designed to ensure that unreliable telegraph transmissions sent the most important facts first. Nobody said this was a good way to organize facts. it isn't. Related facts need to be organized, then prioritized, not the reverse. but when schools teach that all the 5 W's(or nearly all of them) need to be compacted into a breaking news lead of 35 words or less (preferably less), readers get the idea that they know all they need to know after readingthe lead. No wonder people don't finish stories, don't follow jumps, and wander from headline to headline, from lead to lead.

If newspapers are to come to fulfill any role (regardless of the delivery technology) it will be to provide an indepth analysis. That requires more space. Stories will have to be organized on a principle normally used forlonger pieces; harder edged than most magazine writing, more detailed than television and radio, with a slightly higher opinion of the average reader than today's newspapers.

But anyway, I've decided to voice some of my concerns over personal style to Flocke next Friday and see if I can't get permission to take more liberties. If not, I'm not terribly concerned with the grades I get, as long as I make the minimum. I'd be more afraid at this point with tampering with my views just to kiss up to authority. More than in undergrad, kissing up seems to be the game here. i won't play by those rules.

2/14/94

I didn't write yesterday, which is a shame, but not much of a waste as I didn't do much besides clean, shop, cook, and watch the olympics on television.

Today was far more eventful.

Jerry Lansing from the San Jose mercury News gave s stirring and refreshing talk in NEW 508 today about consultative/collaborative editing, and afterwards a few other students and myself had a chance to speak with him for about and hour and a half. I got his address written down somewhere. I hope I can remember where. I think it is in my notebook.

I was so rejuvenated by hearing familiar ideas about the Way Things Ought to Be (take that, Rush) that I went down to Bird and took out the only remaining Shor book, which happened to be Culture Wars.

After diddling around on the email and sending Fr. Deegan a farewell surprise, saying Hi to Cas and Cin, I watched more television (much to my detriment) and was finally so disgusted by a C