Practice what you preach

Microsoft's new "I'm a PC" advertising campaign was created on a MAC!


When the news came out that microsoft's ad had been made on a mac, microsoft re-did the work and published it under PC 'conditions'. However, the lessoned learned is that in todays world of removable media everything is saved and collected, and many people were quick to point out the difference between the original and the re-done version.

Follow up on Finnish school shooting (for print release)

The gunman who killed 10 at a college in Western Finland has died in hospital. Finnish police have identified the shooter as 22 year old Matti Juhani Saari, who died only hours ago in Tampere University Hospital. Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen called it a “tragic day” in Finnish history.

Police have confirmed that Saari left behind a note written in his flat prior to the massacre. Police have declined to release the note but head of the police investigation Jari Neulaniemi told the YLE public broadcaster, “"It might reveal some kind of motive, in his words, for this terrible act.”

The Minister Anne Holmlund said that an investigation will now take place as to why
Saari, who was earlier in the week determined as a possible threat, had no action taken against him to prevent this atrocious act.

Saari was interviewed by police on Monday who considered taking away his gun license after he posted a video of himself on YouTube firing a gun and pointing the gun at the camera.

The gunman was found in a hallway not far from the classroom he massacred, where he had shot himself in the head. The siege lasted an hour and a half and included a lengthy series of fire between Saari and police.

You begin to question one's intelligence when a group of 20 African Americans stand up during the Obama speech at the University of Miami with slogans declaring that Obama was a "KKK activist".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3UlxE5Noec

Following Sydney Morning Herald breaking news updates:

September 22 (1200)

Nine people were killed when a gunman went on a shooting rampage in a Finnish trade school, several Finnish media outlets quoted police as saying.
"There are dead people. We have not counted them. It's a big school," local fire department chief Ahti Yli-Mannila told AFP.
Police said "many shots" had been fired inside the school, located in the southwestern Finnish town of Kauhajoki, some 360 kilometres from Helsinki.

Updated September 23 (0800)

A GUNMAN went on a rampage inside a Finnish trade school yesterday, killing 10 people before shooting himself and dying in hospital later, government and local officials said.
The school's headmaster said the gunman had been identified as Matti Juhani Saari, a 22-year-old student at the school.

Updated September 23 (1800)
The student gunman who killed 10 people at a Finnish school before fatally shooting himself in the head worshipped war, hated mankind and lived alone with his cat.

Matti Saari, 22, who was training to be a chef, left a trail of hatred and revenge in profiles created on social networking sites.

The head of the police investigation, Jari Neulaniemi, said Saari left a note in his apartment.
Following the International Headlines:
Time beginning from 4:52 pm Tuesday 23, 2008.
ABC Online Finish school shooter left a note: police - 29 mins ago
The Sun 11 dead in school shooting - 37 mins ago
Los Angeles Times Finland school shooting; gunman kills 10, then self - 44 mins ago
The Hindu 9 die in Finnish school shooting - 48 mins ago
Boston Globe* Student kills nine in Finnish school shooting - 1 hr ago

The immediacy of the web has changed the relationship between the journalist and the general public. I noticed at the Obama speech on Friday the amount of journalists sitting with their laptops creating their story as events unfolded. It is obviously a great feat of modern invention but it is why news online has lower credibility than print media. As journalists post a news story before an event is even over it is quite possible that the account of the events could turn out slanted. It would seem that online journalists have an even greater responsibility of remaining non-biased because their stories are often not fully informed.

Ex- Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker was involved in a plane crash this Friday and remains in serious condition. However the first reports on the event (which were put online) were saying that he had died in the crash. Clearly, this is a huge mistake and has large consequences. But journalists are not really to blame either. Our society demands the most up to date news available to them at an any given point in time. And because the news online has smashed the divide between reader and journalist, journalists are much more vulnerable and open for attack at any mistakes they do make.

It seems to me that the American media keep and sustain an audience through inciting fear. This comment may seem bizarre to some, but as an Australian new to this country I feel like I am constantly being bombarded with the impeding doom of civilization. I guess if I was convinced society was crumbling I would pick up a copy of the paper everyday and check online for regular updates also. It happens to be risky times ( coincidently all at the same time); from the economy to health care, natural disasters, terrorism and politics. The front page of Usatoday.com or CNN.com is filled with these topics which seem to include the necessary 'disaster', 'invade', 'crash', 'downfall', 'death' tag line.

I am not proposing that this is not a global phenomenon. But from my experience it is much more intrusive here in the United States.

The injection of Sarah Palin into John McCain's campaign has undoubtedly pulled John out of what was seeming to be his grave. Palins' popularity (aside from charisma and other significant attributes) is greatly in part of her ability to manipulate online media. Palin has used YouTube and other media outlets to appeal to a wider audience through which McCain was lacking contact. The effect of this demonstrates the 'pulling power' of online media today. It is as if the ability to use new technology is seen by the public as a marker of the aptitude of one to lead a country. It seems that now more than ever the internet and its content has greater weight. This is both a pro and con for online journalism. The pro being that journalists are writing to a wider and more accepting audience, whilst the con is that with this wider audience comes much more responsibility and consideration of the content that is published.

It would seem in a world of readily accessible instant messages, mobile internet and portable laptops that we would all have an ingrained understanding of 0nline journalism. Those who are avid eaters of mexican food, for example,  often make the mistake of believing they could easily make this food. Similarly it seems that even though we are high consumers of online news media, most journalists are inept at producing for an online publication without training.  The online journalist is much more accountable and vulnerable than journalists before them. If the world is making the switch to being informed through an online medium, it seems we should all have a better understanding of the format. The crucial learning point seems to revolve around the issue of how we as a profession can make better use of this format.