A "Watershed" Moment in Journalism

Ok, a day old, but still sticking in my head: Brian Stelter writes in the New York Times of the new journalistic M.O., courtesy of the Iran protests: "publish first, ask questions later. If you still don't know the answer, ask your readers."  Also interesting in this article: a reporter from iReport.com, CNN's "citizen journalism" site, for the first time now sits alongside the other CNN reporters in the office.

Is the Next Tylenol Scare Upon Us?

Tylenol and other analgesics are under scrutiny this week by the FDA, due to reports of liver damage--some patients required liver transplants, and some have even died--from accidental overdoses of Tylenol. Back in May, the FDA recommended the packages of Tylenol have stronger warnings added. 

The FDA is also recommending the maximum adult dose be reduced to 650 mg...that's significantly less than the 1,000 mg most adults take when they pop two of the extra-strength kind. 

What I find interesting is that there are two spots on the Tylenol.com web site that hint about health issues related to Tylenol. But they're teeny tiny--and I mean teeny tiny (see above). Sorry, have to get my glasses to see that! 

Advil.com, on the other hand, which is also facing potential labeling changes, has a very in-your-face message on their homepage about 10 times bigger than the one on Tylenol's site. Not that I expect the average consumer to head to these companies' sites before taking their pills, but I'd expect traffic to these sites will likely increase when the FDA meeting concludes today and press coverage sees a boost. Advil's being much more transparent; Tylenol seems to be acting like a company that has something to hide.

The medical community's concerns about Tylenol go back years; University of Washington researchers have studied liver damage that occurs when acetaminophen is taken along with caffeine, and of of course combining the drug with alcohol also increases the potential for irreversible liver damage. 

Next time I have a headache, I'm pulling a grandma and will use an old-fashioned ice pack. 

If It Quacks Like A Duck

This morning, Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman gave her take on Twitter, the Internet, and Iran.

The Not-Quite-Twitter Revolution shows all the virtues and vices of the Internet. The ease and flow of information. The difficulty of knowing its accuracy and meaning. It’s like searching for medical advice in an online world of quacks and cures. If there’s anything we have learned, it’s that the need for guides - and dare I say trusted guides - is greater than ever.

As an editor, her comments made me sigh (a little, at least) with relief. Like a principal at a loud, bustling middle school who can rein in the rowdy students, the blogosphere--and Twitter--need some firm voices of reason to guide the masses. We're still working on figuring out who those people will be, and how their points of view and guidance can cut through the sargasso sea of online voices.

What Does the White House Think?

I love that Obama's posting policy updates on Facebook (and Twitter, though my FB account is less overwhelming and more useful for news like this). And something he mentioned in this statement on Iran may be one of the many quotes he'll be remembered for: "Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away." Gives me goosebumps. 

And a note on social media's role in the situation: Twitter's being given much of the credit for promoting, or at least raising awareness, of the uprising in Iran ("The Twitter Revolution, anyone?), yet the focus on social media's role in the situation is dampening the awareness, imo, of the human suffering taking place. Let's hope there are more tweets on fundraising and practical ways that Americans can be of assistance, instead of merely being informed of the madness taking place. The last report on MSNBC as I write this indicates Mir Hossein Mosavi is asking for a national strike to start if he's arrested. 

'Vanguard Journalism' Grows More Dangerous

With the splintering of the media into millions of blogs, it's growing more difficult to make an impact on an audience--let alone the 18-to-34 demographic. And that may be in part to blame for the imprisonment of two U.S. journalists.

This New York Times article illustrates how journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, currently sentenced to 12 years in a North Korean labor camp for trespassing, may have been detained in part because their employer Current TV, was struggling for audience share, and the women were emboldened to get their story--on refugees--no matter how dangerous the pursuit.

An excerpt: “There’s an impetus with any upstart news organization that you have to be bolder and you have to be more aggressive than other news organizations to get attention for your stories,” said Kevin Sites, a freelance journalist who covered conflicts for Yahoo. “That has to be admired. That also has a real inherent risk in it.”

The Blogosphere Gets Punk'd

Hilarious. 

Remember playing telephone as a kid? "She sells sea shells by the seashore" would morph into nonsense once it made it past just two or three kids. 

Check out this cluster, compliments of Twitter. The 19-hour timeline is especially enlightening. Bloggers and journalists didn't bother to check facts, and a rumor spread like wildfire, mostly thanks to Twitter. 

Here, media outlets from MSNBC to the New York Times pick up an AP story that was based on a Tweet that was based on a not exactly fact-based Variety story that involves Ashton Kutcher and--get this--Twitter's (alleged) plans for starting a TV show. Not until Jay Rosen of NYU thinks to go straight to the source does the truth come out. 

Confession: MSN Entertainment ran the AP story in a prominent chunk of online real estate, next to a photo of Kutcher. I don't have the stats on how many readers clicked, but my conservative estimate is a million or more--before I spotted this story around 4:30 PST and had the editor yank the link.

 http://www.mediabistro.com/baynewser/soc_media/twitter_tv_show_story_burns_some_journos_makes_others_shine_117367.asp