Shame on you, The Columbian, shame on you.

Last weekend there were a number of discussions related to journalism and “new” media, as well as the possibilities for knowledge transfer between traditional journalists and those with skills related to conversational media such as blogs and Twitter. As noted previously, Rick and I hosted a discussion on Saturday morning that focused on bloggers learning from journalists. The audio from that discussion is now available (approx 43mb, .mp3 format).

Following the first discussion, a related session led by three Columbian employees looked at the future of newspapers (timely, given that their paper had declared bankruptcy on Friday). I have a video of that session but need to figure out hosting options. John Hill (one of the Columbian folks) posted his thoughts on his blog.

We didn’t touch much on the conversation aspect of new media during the morning sessions, so some of us gathered for an afternoon talk about comments, Twitter, and the two-way nature of internet media as opposed to traditional (mostly) one-way media blasts. I posed a question, wondering if most newspaper and TV websites’ half-assed attempt at comment abilities were because the companies didn’t really care or want to hear the readers feedback and a couple of the journalists validated my hypothesis. That attitude will need to change. Tonight, @oregoniansteve linked to a piece suggesting that if newspapers aren’t going to do comments right, they shouldn’t do them at all. I wholeheartedly agree.

What’s next? Abraham Hyatt has announced Digital Journalism Camp Portland, to be held some time in August. Follow that link to find out more. The BarCamp discussions were a good start, but there is a LOT of conversation to happen in this area and I applaud Abraham for taking the next step to facilitate the learning.

Anyway, here was the set:

• Polkarama!
• American Idiot
• Close But No Cigar
• Why Does This Always Happen to Me
• It’s All About the Pentiums
• You’re Pitiful
• Medley – Couch Potato, Do I Creep You Out, I’m in Love With the Skipper, Headline News (Britney Spears verse), Confessions Part 3, A Complicated Song, Ebay, Bedrock Anthem, Ode to a Superhero, Pretty Fly for a Rabbi, Trapped in the Drive Thru, Gump, Eat It
• The Saga Begins
• Yoda
• Smells Like Nirvana
• Amish Paradise
• White and Nerdy
• Fat
• Albuquerque

[tags]weirdal, napavine, music[/tags]

[tags]yahoo, search, advertising[/tags]

[tags]CNET, news, media[/tags]

[tags]kgw, portland, news[/tags]

But I really have to ask, is there any information about anything newsworthy here?

The headline could’ve just said “Stuff Happened” and it would be about as informative…

[tags]oregonian, oregonlive, twitter, news[/tags]

I see that Matt has already noted this, but it’s still cool.

[tags]cnn, wordpress, favicon[/tags]

Today he posts his recap of the event.  He notes that Apple disallowed photography.  Jobs would only do interviews on paper (no video).  No wifi.

Apple might make sexy products, but when it comes to marketing and PR they’re about as old-fashioned as it gets.  They’ll feed you the “official” story and do everything in their power to prevent any “unauthorized” coverage.

Putting it another way: if you want to cover an Apple event, you can’t really do it with an iPhone.

I have no real explanation why a company who handles the press in this manner is constantly lauded by social media geeks.

[tags]apple, pressconferences, media, socialmedia, scoble, robertscoble[/tags]

That said, they’re still preventing participation.  I won’t register just to post a blog comment.  Why should I spend my time and give away personal information when I get nothing in return?  Hence, they’ve lost me as a participant.  The information that I could’ve posted to add value to their story will not appear on their site.

[tags]oregonian, oregonlive, blogging, blogcomments[/tags]