The Sternberg Effect
Blog
On image and intentionality
A quick look at Super Bowl ads and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Images (moving or still) can be read as a text. We encode and decode the message of the image, of what it means, through camera angles (e.g., camera looking up denotes power), jump cuts, colors, framing, etc. We establish our understanding of an … Continue reading
NYT earnings reflects a new calculus for media companies looking at subscribers
Diversify, diversify, diversify! The New York Times today announced its Q4 earnings, and if it hasn’t been clear for folks, it should be now: the paper of record is now a paper of record for some, but not all. With revenue reliant on subscribers than advertisers, media companies run the risk of making decisions to … Continue reading
Is advertising in the Super Bowl worth it?
You’ll never guess that the answer is: it depends Since the last Super Bowl, the world is, not to put too fine a point on it, different. The U.S. has a new president; a pandemic has brought with it a deleterious effect on everything, from “the economy” to how we view and treat our neighbors; … Continue reading
The newsletter bubble grows
Where it stops, no one knows… The newsletter bubble continues to grow. This week alone: Twitter bought Revue, a “service that makes it free and easy for anyone to start and publish editorial newsletters.” Facebook, the New York Times reports, is building a newsletter platform. The product, which is still in its earliest stages, could … Continue reading
RobinHood created its own Streisand Effect
Can it recover? Brand reputation management in the modern media ecosystem is a challenge, requiring teams of in-house comms folks and lawyers and outside PR agencies and lawyers to make sure that a message is shaped for various forms of media. Did I mention the lawyers? Companies spend a small fortune on monitoring media (traditional … Continue reading
No joy in Mudville
The BBWAA needs to change. Taking a break of All Things Media to write about my other passion: baseball. For the second time in eight years, there is no joy in Mudville, as the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) decided that there would be no members elected into the baseball Hall of Fame (HOF) … Continue reading
When news organizations get manipulated
AI and machine learning, coupled with the spread of misinformation is a recipe for disaster. Yesterday, Defense News, a trade publication for the defense industry, published a story explaining that it had been the victim of a disinformation campaign. The reporter, Joe Gould, recently discovered that The attached jpeg resembled a Defense News story complete … Continue reading
The useful myth of "the liberal media"
And why we need to part the clouds of delusion. One of the most useful myths the American political right has created and wrapped itself up in has been this notion of the “liberal media.” Just by proclaiming that the media is liberal pushes news organizations to trip over themselves to not appear to be … Continue reading
Should media be in the reputation-rehabilitation business?
Decisions were made. Since starting in 2017, Axios has become a poster-child for the success of new media. A September 2020 Wall Street Journal report shows Axios taking in $58 million in revenue, with newsletter sponsorships its bread-and-butter, accounting for half of the company’s revenue. However, one of the biggest knocks on Axios from the … Continue reading
Let's not return to normal
We can use what we learned over the last four years to move forward. American pageantry was in full effect yesterday, and it’s interesting watching the pendulum attempt to swing back to a kind of normalcy. But perhaps we’d be better off if we didn’t return to ‘normalcy,’ instead create a better path forward. Watching … Continue reading
News networks give more airtime to Congress members with extreme views than to others
The media’s role in pushing white grievance, and how to move foward I started writing today’s newsletter about President Trump, but after about 600 words, I deleted it. It’s time to move on. But as Lyz Lenz writes, we can’t move on. Trump, and what he represents, is not over. White grievance is one of … Continue reading
What accountability looks like
is this a one-off, or is there change coming? Accountability matters, and it shouldn’t be striking when companies do the right thing. On Monday night, ESPN reported that the New York Mets’ new general manager, Jared Porter, sent inappropriate and explicit pictures of his penis to a female reporter while he was the director of … Continue reading
Time for media's 'coalition of conscience'
The whole supply chain, from brand to publisher, needs to be better On April 14, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech at Stanford called “The Other America” laying out the inequities of American society. Fifty-four-years later, its relevancy and specificity in and of the American consciousness is a lesson the media industry … Continue reading
Research finds world's biggest brands have no idea where their ads run
While funding disinformation and bad-faith sites at the same time. New research out today from Newsguard, a company started in 2018 from journalists-turned-entrepreneurs Steve Brill and Gordon Crovitz that uses the alchemy of human beings and artificial intelligence to sift through roughly 7500 news stories per day to find ‘fake news’, found that the world’s … Continue reading
Anything interesting happen today?
Inspiration, move me brightly With all that’s happening in Washington— from (yet another) impeachment to preparations for Biden’s inauguration to the National Guard sleeping in The Capitol as they get ready to defend the seat of our legislative branch from the threat of Americans—as well as some personal stuff (a couple job interviews; potty-training the … Continue reading
Unnecessary Journalism Phrases
- How about “lifeless body” when describing a dead person? Here’s a good (bad)...
- bobbymacReports: A growing number of stories with a growing number
- Alliterative Journalism Phrases
- Apologies on the lack of posts
- While not necessarily an unnecessary journalism phrase, friend...
- 50. Old Man Winter - 11/7/11
- Push The Envelope Submitted by unretrecissement and her...
- 49. A.M. in the Morning/P.M. in the Afternoon/Evening, at Night - 11/3/11
- 48. Emergency Situation - 11/2/11
- 47. Roll(ed)(ing) in his/her grave - 10/31/11
