Old FURIOUS nads! by The One True b!X

Online Journalists Optimistic About Revenue and Technology, Concerned About Changing Values
by Project for Excellence in Journalism

When it came to the impact of the Internet on values, the most cited change was a loosening of standards and more carelessness in online news gathering.

Those journalists surveyed, who come largely from websites linked to legacy media, also believe the Web is changing the fundamental values of the journalism—mostly for the worse. In particular, they are worried about declining accuracy, in part due to the emphasis online that news organizations are putting on speed and breaking news.

But not all of the changes were considered worrisome. Some journalists praised the growing diversity of voices, the potential of technology, and in some cases, even the move toward more overtly ideological points of view at news sites.

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Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism
by Susan Jacoby

… The real cause of America’s fratricidal conflict, many religious leaders asserted, was the failure of the founders to enshrine God in the Constitution. The war was nothing more — or less — than the fulfillment of the Reverend John Mason’s 1793 prediction that the godless document would one day impel the Divinity to “crush us to atoms in the wreck.” The only way to stop the destruction was to amend the Constitution’s preamble and finally acknowledge not only God but Jesus Christ as the source of all governmental power. In 1863, the “nondenominational,” albeit entirely Protestant, National Reform Association was founded for the specific purpose of lobbying Congress to put God into the Constitution. Today’s Christian conservatives frequently use the slogan “Let’s put God back into the Constitution,” thereby implying that “secular humanists” have managed to overturn what was originally intended to be a marriage of church and state. Nineteenth-century clerics knew better and were honest about their desire to reverse what they regarded as the founders’ erroneous decision to separate church and state. At an 1864 convention in Pittsburgh, the National Reform delegates were in a dither about how to word the proposed amendment before presenting it to President Lincoln and the Congress, so as not to offend any orthodox Protestant denomination. They were not worried about offending Jews, Catholics, or dissident Protestant sects like the Hicksite Quakers, who were appalled by the idea of tampering with the Constitution in order to blur the distinction between church and state. After rejecting acknowledgment of “Almighty God” and “His revealed will” as too imprecise, the ministers finally agreed on a rewording of the preamble that would replace “We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union…” with “Recognizing Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government, and acknowledging the Lord Jesus Christ as the Governor among nations, His revealed will as the supreme order of the land, in order to constitute a Christian government…”

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Social Media for Media People 101
by Lynn Siprelle

If you’re uncomfortable in social media environments like Twitter and Facebook, DON’T BOTHER. You will end up looking ridiculous. If you post only once a week, or even only once a day, DON’T BOTHER. If you post nothing but station headlines (“Coming up at 11, see why YOUR child could be in danger, just for picking up the wrong pizza slice at the cafeteria!!!!”), DON’T BOTHER.

You have to be there because you want to be, not because your management told you to be. If management tells you that you have to get on Twitter, show them the study linked above and tell them you’re just not into it enough.

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Management: DO NOT MAKE YOUR PEOPLE GET ON TWITTER. If they’re not sincerely into it and you force them to do it anyway, you will experience epic fail–acute embarrassment–you’ll be square, man. And you, your people and your station will look foolish and out of touch. …

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