the new WSJ

Time published an interesting piece on Murdoch's reformation of the Wall Street Journal, which debuted today:

With its increased focus on politics, international news, culture and sports, Murdoch's reconceived Journal represents nothing short of a formal declaration of war on that most venerable of journalistic institutions, The New York Times.

It will be interesting to see whether the new WSJ will reach a broader audience and change the competition for the paper of record, the NYT.

Jerry Springer in town this week

The first part of This American Life last week is on the political life of Jerry Springer. The episode is a repeat from 2004, but I had not heard it before. Several people from Jerry Springer's "former" life as a politician describe his enormous success as a politician in Ohio. You probably remember hearing several years ago about his potential bid for office in 2004, and he actually came really close to running... Definitely an interesting episode!

He is in town this week as part of UW's all-campus party. It does not say what he will be speaking about, but it might be worth checking out.

more on the difficulties of covering science

I came across an interview from a couple of years quite relevant to Prof. Dunwoody's lecture on Friday.

This interview with Vince Kiernan, another science communication scholar, speaks to the problem of "Eureka" moment coverage of science. He posits science journals have set up a system in embargoing the latest studies, which in turn encourages journalists to focus on this timely "event" coverage rather than the long-term critical coverage of science.



The interview itself is fewer than 4 minutes. Definitely worth a listen for another perspective on the coverage of science and for more ideas on how to evaluate reporting.