Monthly Archives: April 2009
Syllabus for parody course too true
| 23 April 2009 | Posted by Donn King under Communication, Education, Humor, Journalism |
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One of the great things about parody, of course, is that it is all at once funny and not-funny-because-it’s-too-true. Robert Lanham has produced a syllabus for a course called Internet-Age Writing, and it makes me laugh and cry, just like those people I heard about in a student’s speech who named their dog “Fungus.” What…
Likeability and competence are related, but not the same
| 21 April 2009 | Posted by Donn King under Communication |
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Liz Strauss has some good insights into the relationship of these two elements of credibility, as well as some good observations about the possible effect that social networking media have on perceptions we develop of people through those media. Check out her article “Hidden Assumptions and Business Likeability.”
Look behind the curtain
| 19 April 2009 | Posted by Donn King under Communication, Journalism |
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As someone who tries to teach students about evidence, support, reasoning, etc., stuff like this just makes me mad, and I”m not sure if it’s because the cartoonist is ignorant of basic background information and economics, or because he thinks his readers are that ignorant, or because he’s right. (I’m sure he’s right a lot,…
US Patent Office: Blackboard didn’t invent what it claims
| 17 April 2009 | Posted by Donn King under Administrivia, Technology and learning |
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Barry Dahl sums it up and comments on it; D2L announces it succinctly. Bottom line: D2L’s pre-existing art shows Blackboard just didn’t invent what it says it invented, so there is no patent infringement. Pardon me while I offer an editorial opinion, that is mine alone (i.e., it does not necessarily represent the opinion of…
Intellectual property in the age of blogs
| 12 April 2009 | Posted by Donn King under Communication, Journalism |
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Merlin Mann keeps the 43 Folders site. In “Free as in ‘Me’” he does an elaborate but interesting examination into issues of intellectual property and ownership that go beyond the merely commercial. My opinion: the assumption that intellectual property is mainly about commercial interests taints the discussion on the part of both proponents of protecting…
A new look at journalism
| 11 April 2009 | Posted by Donn King under Employment, Journalism, Public relations |
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Kristen King (no relation to me, as far as I know) attended the Region 2 conference of the Society of Professional Journalists, and shared her summaries of several of the sessions. This is very useful information for information workers of any sort, but particularly for journalism and even PR students. This is boiled-down, pure, cutting-edge…
Thinking in terms of benefits
| 5 April 2009 | Posted by Donn King under Communication, Public relations |
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Speech and PR students, listen up: “Website Copy with Benefits: James’ Take” gets at a critical component of persuasion concretely. Unsurprisingly, it gets at audience analysis, in the sense of “understanding your audience, look at it from their point of view.” Go, go, read it all. Please, before your next persuasive speech or copywriting exercise.
Writing for audio gives speech insights
| 3 April 2009 | Posted by Donn King under Communication |
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Producers of audio material (for example, educational or motivational CDs) have a writing task not unlike that faced by speakers. They seek to prepare for the delivery of solid information in a conversational manner. Because of that, Brian Clark’s post concerning “Four Copywriting Techniques for Engaging Podcasts and Audio Presentations” comprises useful ways of thinking…
The myth of government source reliability
| 2 April 2009 | Posted by Donn King under Communication, Journalism |
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When we teach speech students about evaluating sources, we usually tell them that government figures are more reliable than others. We teach journalism students the same thing. Maybe the operative word here is “more” and “than others.” The greater lesson, perhaps, is to be skeptical of anything that any source tells you until you see…
Why we need problem-solving skills
| 2 April 2009 | Posted by Donn King under Humor |
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According to everything I’m reading, this is not an April Fool’s joke. A woman in Kissimmee, Florida, called 911 because she was locked in her car. She was locked in her car because nothing electrical was working, and her car had electric door locks. Yep, that’s right. She didn’t know what that little plunger thingie…
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