Comments for All Things Cahill

Comment on The One Thing Newspapers Do Well… by Mark Cahill

Mark Cahill — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:27:47 +0000

With the ubiquity of smartphones with 8mp and up cameras, we’re all photojournalists now. About 5 years ago I started something like this, live tweeting the Sutton Chain of Lights under the hashtag #suttonchainoflights and blogging here. I think the true local coverage can only come from members of the community…and perhaps can only really be done right in a crowdsourced manner.

The problem with that is that, like it or not, big media enforces journalistic standards, or at least they did. Somewhere there was a curmudgeonly editor deciding not what we want to read, but what we need to read. Also, he and his gaggle of surly copy editors would ensure the news was presented at least to the minimum of ethical standards.

Single point coverage is easily bent and co-opted by the unethical, or even worse the fanatical. This doesn’t mean it can’t work, but we’re subject to the prejudice of the reporter. In most cases, not a problem, but in the cases where it is, it’s a monumental issue.

Still, for smaller communities, like Sutton, like Millbury and certainly like Manchaug, this is a huge step up from where we come from, which is no coverage. I’ve long thought that I’d like to cover this area, but the truth is, I’d more enjoy getting back into outdoor reporting.

Glad to have you aboard!

Comment on The One Thing Newspapers Do Well… by Brian

Brian — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:34:52 +0000

Hi Mark,
I found your site from your Twitter follow. You bring up a very good points and ones that a lot of us have heard before. What we don’t hear much about is how to solve this problem.

One (partial) solution is being pushed by former Baltimore Sun photographer David Hobby (more well-known in the photography community as founder of the lighting blog Strobist.com). He is pushing photographers, amateur and professional alike, to go out and photograph in their community – but not just photograph, use photography as a means to enlighten the community about what is going on. Leading by his own example, he publishes these shots of his (Baltimore, MD) community on Hoco360.com.

The idea is interesting as the community gets a fresh look at what is happening or who/what is interesting and the photographers get a steady stream of “subjects” to photograph with zero restrictions on how they can shoot them along with subtley becoming known as a photographer in that community, helping their business (if they do it for money).

I’m curious on your take on this type of thing is, given your background.

Cheers,
Brian

The beginnings of my own version of this idea can be found at Milling Millbury.

Comment on The One Thing Newspapers Do Well… by Brian Carr

Brian Carr — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:29:07 +0000

When we have to rely on retweets of State Police statements, well that about says it all about the sad state of local coverage. Important enough to Tweet but not put on website? A reporter can’t work two stories anymore? There are no interns in the office?

Comment on The One Thing Newspapers Do Well… by Mark Cahill

Mark Cahill — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:48:04 +0000

Yes, Steve has done a great job of tweeting. My point is that there should be enough reporters to work two stories at once. We need more information than the fact that there were brush fires (although hats off to Steve for getting the word out, a good start there…).

We can’t let the news be brought to its knees for one story, no matter how important.

Comment on The One Thing Newspapers Do Well… by Ray Magner

Ray Magner — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:18:51 +0000

Well said Sir. Looking back a few years at newspapers it is not hard to see what mistakes were made and how costly they were to the industry. Like you mention in your post, local news is important. Yet the first place major newspapers decided to make cuts was in the newsroom.

I believe most newspapers are on an unstoppable spiral to extinction. Very small local town newspapers have the best chance of lasting for a few more years. The others will not be able to survive. People do not need to wait until the paper is printed to find out what is happening around them. People are not going to pay to see online content if they are also going to be bombarded with advertisements. That is the old model and it is dead. We are stuck in a tough time when local news is suffering at the hands of people that have the power to give us the content at a fair price but are still stuck to the old model. Until someone comes in and figures it out we suffer without a good alternative.

Comment on The One Thing Newspapers Do Well… by Nicole Apostola

Nicole Apostola — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:00:55 +0000

While I understand your concerns, the Telegram was covering a murder-suicide at the time, and Steve Foskett was going an excellent job not only livetweeting his reporting of that incident, but he also retweeted the report from the Mass State Police that there were brush fires on 290. Yes, brush fires are of concern, but many of us who live in Worcester are more concerned about the murder of a woman by her ex-boyfriend, against whom she had a restraining order.

Comment on Home Printers – Box O’Nightmare by Mark Cahill

Mark Cahill — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:43:21 +0000

Can I come to the range with you? I think it might help my emotional well being.

Lexmark, printers for the damned…

Comment on Twitter, Hashtags, Baseball and a Dose of Spam by Mark Cahill

Mark Cahill — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:40:43 +0000

Although I still use a hashtag, I’ve gotten to the point where my twitter stream is full of people I look forward to game tweeting with, so the hashtag is kind of a moot point. I now use it to allow my friends that aren’t into the game to filter out the tweets, more than to get into the full game stream. Funny timing, with the Super Bowl the other day, I realized the hashtag “#patriots” was totally unusable.

Comment on Twitter, Hashtags, Baseball and a Dose of Spam by Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:41:34 +0000

Sorry if this is a dumb question. I’m new to Twitter and trying still figuring things out. Why don’t you just move your live game microblogging to a new hashtag? Like #redsoxlive ? All your loyal followers could start using that one and hopefully it would take the advertisers and robots some time to catch on…?

Comment on Home Printers – Box O’Nightmare by RosciT

RosciT — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 07:39:05 +0000

Whatever you do, DO NOT BUY the Lexmark Pro Platinum.
I ran into the office between meetings to copy 25 sheets of an important document I needed for my next client.

Ahh, not so fast. This highly touted piece of ^*%&^^% can only duplex or copy about 6 sheets of paper before it just inexplicably stops! It just hangs there. You HAVE to hit the cancel button. When you do, a little x bounces up and down and tells you that you have canceled the job… which, of course, you KNOW.

Then — NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING happens. If you tap the little on-off button thinking that will get you back to square one – you are wrong. That puts the machine into Power Saver mode. Which it DOES NOT WAKE from. EVER.

Yes – I’m shouting at this point. Yelling. Scaring small children and chihuahuas. All I need is 25 copies of a document, duplexed. My cheapie Canon did that without blinking.

So – I can do about 5 copies before it hangs. Then I hit Cancel. Then I unplug it. Then I plug it back in. Then i have to tap buttons 11 times — ELEVEN TIMES – in order to get 5 more copies made. Then it hangs. Then I yell. Then I hit cancel. Then I unplug it. Then I hit 11… well, you get the picture.

And this machine is touted as being top of the line, Professional. A Platinum….
well, I have to go now. Time to unplug the dang thing again so I can make 5 more copies. Tomorrow I take it to the range for target practice.