Lindsey Mastis, Bob Shieffer, Al Neuharth at the Newseum

To me, Al Neuharth is the Elton John of journalism. He breaks all the rules, jazzes it up, and revolutionizes the industry. He is a rock star. But if you were to ask him, he’d just say he’s an SOB.

I read his book “Confessions of an S.O.B” back in high school. I dreamed of one day working for Gannett. That’s when I was interested in becoming a newspaperwoman. I thought the ultimate job would be working for USA Today (Neuharth founded USA Today, The Freedom Forum and the Newseum). I’ve certainly realized my dreams at a young age, working instead for Gannett’s broadcast flagship station WUSA-TV as a reporter.

Today I met the legend. It was during a program at the Newseum called “The Future of News” and today’s topic is “Who Decides What’s News” with guests Bob Schieffer (CBS Face the Nation) and Krishna Bharat (Google News creator).

Sitting front and center (next to my friend and photo obsessive genius Bruce Guthrie) is Al Neuharth. I almost fainted! Neuharth is in town for the Free Spirit Awards which honors, educates, and provides scholarships to high school journalism students. Neuharth has also written a book titled “Free Spirit” which is a fast, easy and inspiring read.

Lindsey Mastis talks with Krishna Bharat, creator of Google News

Neuharth sat with the students as Schieffer and Bharat talked about news. I found myself nodding my head in agreement with the main themes: That people need to get their news from more than one source. That there has to be a balance between what people want to know and what they ought to know. That fact checking is more important to credible news sources than getting the story first but wrong. That social networking sites like Twitter can be used as news tips. That aggregators are helpful tools to determine what most editors believe is news.

Lindsey Mastis meets Bob Schieffer, host, CBS Face the Nation

An additional point Schieffer brought up is about money. He believes journalists and their news organizations that break news stories should get paid for the work. For example, a news organization could pay one of their investigative journalists to spend weeks exposing government waste spending and interviewing whistle blowers. The story runs and in a matter of minutes other news agencies are reporting the story and citing the source. The other news agencies did not have to invest time, money, and stress into the story. Yet the audience is getting the same information. Is there a solution?

Neuharth has been called an SOB and even worse. And it’s not just because of his managing style. It’s because he created USA Today– or the McPaper. He is the one who made newspapers sexy (placing “tits above the fold“). He had reporters write shorter articles and place information in easy to understand graphs. He was criticized, yet it was where the eyes were and he made it profitable. And now we live in a society that needs to fit its thoughts in 140 characters or less.

The problem today: free news for the consumer, with high costs and low profits for the news organization. Neuharth made profits at a time when everyone said it was impossible. Today, people say it’s impossible to make money on the web. Yet that is where the eyes are. The question is, how can news organizations provide trustworthy and ground breaking content for free online and still make a profit?

In my opinion, people will not pay for news. News is free on TV. News is free on Google. We can even get the news by reading one word on a Twitter trend list. But there is a way to capitalize on this new and continuously evolving technology. All the industry needs is another Neuharth to figure it out.

By the way–Neuharth is not my idol for being an SOB, nor for making a profit. It’s not even for starting USA Today.

It’s because he believes in the audience. He hired minorities and women to reflect the readership. He wanted bold pictures and simple graphs so people could get a better understanding of the story. He wanted people to get important news along with the watercooler stories. And he made sure people everywhere in the nation could access the same information. Not to mention, he worked hard.

Neuharth is turning 86 next week. When he first started in the industry he had to deal with crumudgeons, cynics, and naysayers. Those people still exist. They always will. But to those of us wanting to make a difference in this world, Neuharth is  ”a perfect embodiment of a concept.” And that concept is the evolution of the news media.

Popularity: 5% [?]

President Barack Obama appointed Howard Schmidt as the new White House Cyber Security Czar in December 2009. It’s an important position. This is the man charged with protecting the country and its citizens from cyber warfare.

What can we learn about Schmidt in five minutes using only the web? Here goes…

• He’s worked for some well-known and innovative companies including Microsoft and eBay.
• He has a military and government background. He once worked for the Air Force, George W. Bush Administration, FBI, served in Vietnam, and was once a police officer in Arizona.
• Upon taking his post, he made headlines when he told WIRED there was “no cyberwar“
• Others declined the Cyber Czar position before Schmidt accepted.
• There are questions about whether Schmidt has authority in this post. It seems he will have to report to more than once boss– which seems to go against the grain of a true “czar.”
• He may or may not have a Twitter account. I found one with his picture, name and corresponding tweets about meeting with the president. But it is unverified and only has 112 followers.
• If it is his Twitter account, he knows how to attach pictures, tweets about family, but fails to tweet often.
• There’s a disappointing video release from the White House. Schmidt sits in front of a camera and reads his bio.

Most of the information came from obvious sources like Wikipedia and the Washington Post. But I haven’t gotten a good feel for what he brings to the table. How great would it be to show a day in the life of our Cyber Security Czar (and better yet, have that story appear at the top of a search engine)?

Popularity: 1% [?]

He’s being called “Balloon Boy.” But did 6-year-old Falcon really hide from his parents– or did his parents tell him to hide? Cameras were fixated on a home-made balloon that everyone thought would cause the boy’s death. But he was found hiding in the attic hours later. Then, on the Larry King Show, the little boy mentioned doing it for the show. What show? The family is scheduled to be on the 100th episode of Wife Swap. Could this whole saga be a PR stunt?

Hoax or not, it got me thinking about other well-known stunts. Here’s my top 5:

MICHAEL JACKSON IS ALIVE:
A German company created a low-quality video of a Michael Jackson look-alike hopping out of a coroner’s van shortly after his death. I saw it aired on one of the prime-time entertainment shows as possibly being real. My jaw dropped.  Talk about wanting to check the facts first. The German company sent out press releases about it being a hoax beforehand. They wanted to show how easy this kind of stuff spreads.

PYRAMIDS IN EGYPT:
Yep. National Geographic got a lot of flak for this one. They had some nice photos of the pyramids, but none good enough for a vertical cover. So they squeezed a couple together to make this beautiful photograph. Today the cover is used as an example in media ethics courses. Along with it are TIME’s cover of OJ Simpson, and Janet Cooke’s “Jimmy’s World” made-up article that won her a Pulitzer Prize.

THE MOON LANDING IS FAKE:
Oh yes, it’s always fun to read The Onion. And it’s even funnier when people believe it’s all true. Apparently, two Bangladesh newspapers believed a recent story. They reported that Neil Armstrong gave a presser to talk about how the moon landing was a hoax. They eventually apologized for failing to “check the facts.” Neither knew The Onion was a satirical newspaper.

BOSTON BOMB SCARE:
This little stunt was supposed to promote Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The light boards (which look kind of like Lite-Brite) went up overnight. There was even video of the boards going up. But some people thought the light boards were bombs. Boston shut down bridges and other parts of the city. The guys that came up with the campaign faced criminal charges. It’s kind of funny when you think about it, but this one was a major FAIL.

MARTIANS INVADE EARTH:
In 1938, Orson Welles broadcast a radio-rendition of H.G Wells’ “War of the Worlds.” He did it to compete with another radio station. In this case, the audience was told– multiple times I might add– that it was not real. But back then, people changed their radio dials as much as we change the channels on our TVs. They missed the announcement about it being fake. Some sued. And according to some reports, there were miscarriages and early births due to the panic and stress it caused.

Popularity: 21% [?]

It seems everyone wants Google Wave– even people who don’t know what it is. It’s like when Apple came out with their iPhone– only Google Wave is free. Still, people were willing to pay for an invite. I saw some listed for $300 on eBay. And on Twitter– well! People begged. Here’s my top 10 Twitter posts from people begging for an invite:

10. btannebaum: @Geeklawyer I do not have a Google wave invite, but maybe if I beg for one all day on twitter, ill get one. What is Google wave by the way?

9.  sophiemcneil: I feel like the middle school girl who didn’t get invited to the party. Umm, like, Google, where the heck is my invite to the Wave party??

8.   mattbrauchler: @dukebaby @wasser I thought maybe if I would wave at google they would give me one. I was wrong.

7.  banditloaf: Dear Internet, I have been a good boy and would like a Google Wave invitation. I want to make people watch me write about spaceships.

6.  Micropixie: @dakster9 what is google wave and am I invited to the party?

5.  gcoghill: No fair Google, I know you can tell from all my searches you store and analyze that I am a big nerd and need some Google Wave.

4.  CheeseKing: Let me just say this…I would do horrible, unforgivable acts to get a Google Wave invite. #GoogleWave

3.  devongundry: if i were homeless, i would beg for a google waveinvite instead of food. if youre feeling philanthropic, devongundry at gmail will love you

2.  Gurdonark: People who beg for a Google Wave invite remind me of folks who paid above-sticker to buy a PT Cruiser. Patience!

1.  noahlevin: Fellow nerds: I will pay TEN DOLLARS for an invitation to Google Wave. Yes, it’s worth slightly more to me than a burrito with guac. #fb

Seriously, noahlevin– if I had an invite, it would be yours in exchange for a Chipotle burrito!

Popularity: 16% [?]

When we first moved to Maryland, Patrick and I watched a movie called “Burn After Reading.” It takes place in DC and includes a line from Brad Pitt– it goes something like this: “Do you have anything other than Maryland swamp water to drink?”

The longer we live here, the more we notice problems with our water. Mainly, it’s smell. We threw away a bunch of towels thinking they rotted. But when we got new ones, we had the same problem. If I use a wash rag more than once, it smells moldy. We realize it’s the water. But we don’t know why.

The Associated Press (AP) has put together an interactive list showing schools with violations for contaminated water. You can click on any state and see which schools have been cited. Most schools have trouble with coliform, followed by lead and copper. This is alarming.

I also thought I may be able to figure out what’s wrong with my own water by looking at water trouble from nearby schools. Instead of hastily clicking on my state and focusing in on the violations, I first read about how the information was collected.

The AP discloses how they got this information. It’s important to note the information spans 10 years– from 1998 to 2008. So when I looked up my city, I found that two elementary schools have been cited for lead and copper. But the violations were between 1999 and 2000. I would have to assume the problem has been fixed in the past nine years. And the information only includes schools that operate their own water systems.

Plus– there is no way to tell whether my apartment building has the same water problems as nearby schools. I checked other schools in the DC Metro area. I had a hard time finding recent violations. I then checked the St. Louis area– where I grew up; and for problems in Southern Illinois where I lived for five years. Again, no recent problems.

I think this information is important to know, but people need to take a close look at when the violations occurred and what they mean.

I am extremely impressed with the interactive chart. Any question I had was answered and easy to find. BUT– and it’s in all caps for a reason– I could not find information for DC. I have heard of water problems in the city and I am interested to know about problems with water in its school. Perhaps it’s because DC is not a state? Even if the information is not available, or does not apply to schools in DC, I would appreciate an explanation.

Check for schools near you: AP Interactive Contaminated School Water

Popularity: 13% [?]

This is my favorite new toy. It’s a site called Trendsmap and it shows tweets on a Google map.  Yes, it’s in real time and just like a tag cloud, words are big or small, bold or thin based on number of tweets.

I love looking at Twitter trending topics. But there are only 10 and they lump in tweets from all over the world. I want to know what my community is tweeting about. Now I can and I can also see where most of the tweets are coming from.

If I click on one of the floating words, a small window pops up and I can watch the latest tweets.

I’m not surprised to see the words: politics, debate, policy, organization, congress and funding. These are all typical DC topics. But it’s important that I see people are still tweeting about: ACORN, Kirk (referring to Paul Kirk), vaccine (for H1N1), and summit (G20).

As a journalist, people will ask why I’m covering a certain topic. Some believe the media hypes up stories. Others think we fail to report on certain topics enough.

We can now use tools like Trendsmap find out whether people need more information or if they’ve moved on.

For example, we report on the H1N1 flu every day. It’s a hot topic. We–as journalists– are getting sick of covering this story. Yet we continue to pitch H1N1 ideas because we know it’s important. But are viewers board? Are they truly getting the information they need, or are they tuning it out? According to Trendsmap people in our area are still interested. This is important for journalists to know.

It’s also a way for people to get the latest news. It’s a high-tech version of word-of-mouth. I logged onto Trendsmap to find that “Ginsburg” was a top trending topic in DC. I clicked the tag and quickly learned the Supreme Court Justice had been hospitalized. I didn’t hear this on the news. I heard it on Twitter. Just as if a friend called me and said, “Hey, have you heard…”

But how accurate is Trendsmap? Because I just discovered this tool, I’m not quite sure. It claims that the updates are in real time. But when I investigate further I find that some of the tweets were posted hours ago. There is a disclaimer. The company says it just launched and they are still working out the bugs and adding more “hot cities.” I can only hope the data gets better. This is definitely a toy I want to keep playing with!

Popularity: 15% [?]