Fame whores

OH MY GOD FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST PLEASE GO AWAY AND NEVER EVER COME BACK AGAIN EVER.

Micro

So this week should have been a much better week for blogging, but I haven't been doing it. Ideas flit into my head briefly, usually when I'm working or otherwise unable to update, and then I get home and don't blog. I have been using twitter a lot lately, so maybe I'm wasting all my expressiveness through micro-blogging.

As you've probably guessed, I love the internet. I love social media, although I feel pressure to keep up with all the new toys. Lately I've been meaning to check out 12seconds, which lets you make 12 second videos, and AudioBoo, which is an audio blog tool built specifically for iPhones. For anyone interested in social media, you should be following David Akin (@davidakin) and Ian Capstick (@iancapstick) on Twitter. Besides being prolific tweeters they are also the very first early adopters on the Hill for new tech stuff.

Speaking of new media...earlier this week I had to rush off to a story with about an hour's notice. It was an interview with a veteran from the Battle of the Atlantic. Naturally, I turned to Wikipedia (double-sourced at the Veterans' Affairs website). Let me lay this out for you. My history marks in high school were always in the high 80s and low 90s. I was AWESOME at history. And I couldn't even tell you if the Battle of the Atlantic was in the First or Second World War (it was WWII).

As I often do with the internet, I wondered what people - specifically reporters - used to do without it. Would I phone someone in the newsroom's library to get me some articles on it? What if I were a freelancer and didn't have library access? Reporters have beats, but it's unlikely someone on the defence/military beat would be dispatched to cover an advance story on a commemorative event.

Either we are lucky that technology arrived in time for us to deal with newspaper staff cuts, allowing us to do quick research rather than taking the time to dig through books, or they were able to make the cuts because we had technology to help us keep up with the information we're expected to manage. Maybe I should hate the internet for that.

I admit it

I finally have to accept that I'm a member of the youtube generation. Usually I ignore silly labels like that, mostly because I was born in 1980, which is the cut-off for Gen X to Gen Y/Me/Echo Boom/spoiled brats with helicopter parents. So I never fit either one really well. But after spending 15 minutes with my husband learning via youtube how to tie a Windsor knot, I think I need to own it.

In case anyone is wondering, apparently all the cool kids wear Windsor knots.

The only good part about being sick...

...is being able to watch dvds and tv. In this case, I have been catching up on the episodes of Being Erica that I missed when we were in Egypt. I think this one is one of my favorites yet.

I have some thoughts on tv-via-the-internet, sparked by a conversation with some former colleagues a couple of weeks ago. But they're not fully formed and my head hurts too much to put them in order right now.

Please try this show. I don't want it to end up like that other awesome CBC show with Michael Riley, This is Wonderland, cancelled after three amazing seasons because the network moved it around too many timeslots for it to develop an audience.

The only sure thing is the continuing decline of the industry

Dan Gardner has it right: Hug a reporter and buy a newspaper. We could use the support.

Blogging is light as I fall into a funk. On top of me being sick all week, we were forced (through many tears) to return our new cat to the SPCA because he had a major health problem that could infect our other cat. He had already become a cuddly, loving part of the family and we're still having a hard time dealing with it. The dark cloud over my head isn't conducive to blogging and I'm having a hard time shaking it. More to come when I am not such a Debbie Downer.

Introducing Le chat 2

So we got a new cat. We had been thinking about it for a long time, since Le chat sometimes seems lonely when we're both out working (she greets us at the door and follows us around the apartment, meowing. We think she is telling us about her day). Then I wrote a story about a local SPCA that is full to the brim with animals, and since our one-bedroom apartment won't support a big dog, we looked for a cat.

Le chat 2 is somewhere around 8 years old, although our vet thinks he may be younger. He spent the majority, if not all, of his life outside, and needed to be neutered when he got to the shelter. He was a little rough, but settled into indoor life beautifully. He's incredibly gentle with us and with our other cat, and does this thing that S describes as a "cuddle-seeking missile" when he puts his head down and heads right for the nearest set of legs so he can get your attention. He sleeps on our bed, right up at our shoulders between S and I.

We thought he was a breed called a Scottish Fold, which would explain the cute folded-over ears, but our vet said his ears look like he's had a lot of ear infections and ear mites over his life, so with no medical treatment it could be that his ears are like that because he was just so sick. It could also be that he had frostbite that made his ears fold over. Either way, it was undoubtedly painful, and it's incredibly easy for him to get infected ears.

We are fighting an infection right now. Our gentle little guy has to endure having q-tips jammed into his ears twice a day to clean them, followed by a round of ear drops, and then by an antibiotic pill shoved down his throat. The vet spoke softly to him as she cleaned them at his appointment, telling him that it would be okay and that she knew he didn't deserve to be so sick.

He's not happy with any of this, but we're hoping that he'll be better after a couple of weeks. Mostly we're relieved that we could give him a home and hopefully a better life than whatever he faced when he lived outside. All animals deserve that.

Fifteen years

I wrote earlier this week about going to Rwanda, thanks to the passion of a Carleton professor who works to put Canadian and Rwandan journalists in touch so we can teach each other. That prof wrote a piece for the Star on the 15th anniversary of the genocide this past week. You should read it.

Self-promotion

Sometimes I still get a real buzz off seeing where my stories end up.

Today, one was on the front page, and the other picked up on macleans.ca (top story on Friday).

Maclean's is my favourite magazine. I'm having a fangirl moment.

UBC gets international reporting course

I can see Carleton turning green with envy even kilometres away from campus.

Travel money for their international reporting course?

When I went to Rwanda in 2006 as part of the Rwanda Initiative, Carleton had just started an ad campaign that featured bus and tv ads with students talking about "My Carleton". Despite the best efforts of an extremely dedicated prof, most of us couldn't get any kind of funding for our trip - the only thing paid was accommodation, and that was covered by the newspaper we were writing for. Anyway, talked one hot African day about writing our own ad. Something along the lines of:

"I paid for my summer internship. I covered my flight and expenses. I gave up paid work. That's My Carleton."

The money I spent was well worth it, and I would never take back that experience. It just means that kids who can afford that type of trip will go; kids who can't don't get to participate.

It's great that UBC students won't face the same problem.

Last to fall

The Canadian Press had been, by my unofficial count, the only company in Canada to avoid having to (publicly) consider lay-offs or cuts.

Not anymore.

My husband works there. I always wish for plentiful jobs and big budgets for media companies, but even more so for CP.

(via j-source.ca)

Bringing down the House

Last night's episode of House caught me totally unprepared. I had heard one of the main characters would get killed off, but I sort of put it out of my head, assuming it would happen in the last episode of the season, or that there would be some kind of hint.

The good (?) news is that Kal Penn is going to work for the Obama administration. For real.

Anyway, he and the executive producers talked to a blogger about last night's episode. But I'm not sure if this explanation makes sense to me.

SHORE: ...we wanted it to be a character who didn't make sense -- or didn't superficially make sense. Obviously, there are reasons, but the notion that the reasons are too complicated for even House to figure out is what was drawing us to it. I like the fact that Kutner is almost the least likely guy to do this. And it gets down to the issue of, "Do we know anybody? You work with somebody for two years, but do you really know them?"

It sounds like they chose the plot twist and then decided to write the show around the twist, rather than letting a storyline come to its natural climax. I know nothing about tv writing, but that just seems so...gimmicky. And so unlike House.

Random

Two things from daytime tv that made me wonder.

1. The View shows a picture of Rihanna during a segment on teen fashion (what? I like the background noise while I work...it's weird not being in a newsroom). Chris Brown is in the photo. They do not crop him out. Fashion expert guest says "And with Chris Brown! He's such a cutie." It seems to have been a re-run (they showed a "current" cover of Seventeen that ran in March), but somebody needed to think this through a little better. The man's trial starts tomorrow. TOMORROW. BAD timing.

2. E-Talk (please refer to the above point about background noise) says Gabrielle Miller from Corner Gas adopted a child from "southern Africa". Is this a generic reference to a country in the southern part of the continent? Do they think we wouldn't recognize the name of the country itself? Did they actually mean South Africa? Why is this so hard? (no link, it's currently leading to a segment of a tv movie instead of the segment of E-Talk I want)

3. Wow, I totally forgot about this guy. I actually had to imdb him to figure out that he spent five seasons on CSI Miami. Hope he's learned to take care of his gun for 24.

Defamer takes on the Wall Street Journal

When I start to feel guilty about reading celebrity blogs, I always defend them (to myself or to others) by describing how good the writing is. TMZ.com, Go Fug Yourself and Defamer, among others, are not really bringing any value to the internet, other than giving me a good laugh, and taking the piss out of people who are treated with often undue respect in traditional celeb media like E-Talk or Entertainment Tonight (seriously, anyone who makes a deal with Anna Nicole Smith's baby daddy and then does specials on said baby's first birthday party sickens me).

But, as a writer, one thing I appreciate is the strength of their writing teams. Active voice phrasing, sentences that punch and aren't flabby or over-written, proper grammar, clever turns of phrase...on top of being fun, they're also another venue for pros to get some much-needed work.

All that to say that this weekend Defamer.com brutalizes the respectable WSJ for a story that is inaccurate enough to sound torqued.

"The example today was the Wall Street Journal's report, "Hollywood Squeezes Stars' Pay in Slump," which is being cited everywhere to suggest that there's no money left in the movies . This is wrong. If your movie just opened huge last weekend, a studio will still back up a Brinks truck to your Hollywood Hills abode. Lauren A.E. Schuker starts out with a way-past-his-prime Eddie Murphy. But even there, she makes a muddled mess of things..."

Defamer goes onto give a detailed explanation of how she got it wrong, and how stars get paid.

It just shows that even though blogs won't replace traditional media, there is room out there for the niche websites that offer critiques and back them up with expertise.

Free speech, free PR

Not really knowing anything about George Galloway, I leapt to his defence in the face of Canada denying him entry to our country.

Dan Gardner has repeated pointed out why Galloway is undeserving of all the attention he's gotten (or perhaps more deserving, depending on how much credit you give him for brewing up this storm).

Lots of commentators claimed anyone in favour of Galloway coming to Canada is really a lefty who would never support right-wing speakers in the same way (Gardner didn't lump everyone into that category, but he did accuse unnamed left-wingers of that). So just to be clear, I'm for free speech for everyone, including the oft-cited Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn (I told Levant that when I briefly met him last year).

I still stand by anyone's right to speak publicly in Canada. I just wanted to make sure everyone knows Galloway is a hypocritical blowhard too.

The reality of freelancing

When people outside of journalism hear what I do, they often look at me quizzically and say, "So you don't know if you're working tomorrow?" I think unless you work in the industry (and sometimes even if you do), it's hard to grasp why someone would willingly do that to themselves.

I've been fortunate enough to have regular work lately. The buy-outs in the industry have certainly helped the market for freelancers, although budget cuts have hurt. But part of being able to work is not being picky. I just don't say no to any assignments, and on the days when I don't have an assignment, I look for my own stories to pitch on the slow days. Lots of people do it better than me and market versions of a story to multiple outlets, work for industry publications that pay better, or in-flight magazines and international publications that pay even better. That's just how freelancing works.

And yet. This is the downside.

In 1979, the average annual income for a freelance writer in Canada was around $25,000. In 1996 the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) conducted a new survey on rates. They found the average annual income was about $26,000. In 2006 PWAC released its latest survey results. It shows a full 61% of freelancers making under $25,000, with nearly 40% making less than $10,000. The average income had dropped to $24,000.

But these numbers only show half the picture. Between 1979 and 2006 inflation grew the cost of living by about 165%. What cost $1 in 1979 cost about $2.65 in 2006. It now takes about 65% more money just to be at the same economic level, compared to 1979. Yet freelancers are still receiving the same $1 they did thirty years ago.

The discussion I linked to is about magazine freelancing rates (and copyrights, another issue for freelancers). I'm curious about newspaper rates from back then. Something tells me that the day rate may have changed but the per word rate will be around the same.