Radio Pick: The Burrito Analogy

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Since the audio file will only be available until Sunday morning, I'm going to do an extra radio pick this week. Brent Walters, a professor at San Jose State University, does a weekly Sunday morning talk show called "God Talk" on KGO Newstalk 810 out of San Francisco that focuses on religious and moral issues in a newstalk format, using his historian's perspective to shed light on many issues. In an excellent hour on mis-perceptions about the historical Jesus Christ, Walters opened with a "burrito analogy" for how religious traditions have been distorted. Whether one accepts the analogy or not, it's an interesting perspective, and exactly the kind of thought-provoking material that should be more common in talk radio.

Listen to a MP3 of God Talk "The Burrito Analogy"
(This link will only be available through Saturday)

Media: No Twittering on the Air

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I've long been a critic of running opinions from the general public on news programs, whether on radio or television. Talk shows are one thing--they are entirely based on the opinions of the host and the audience in many many cases, and everyone knows that. However, opinions have no place in a short-form or long-form newscast. While one might say that "experts" interviewed in an analysis section of a news shows are just offering opinions, those experts are vetted by the news staff and their position or background is presented, so those paying attention are either informed of the expert's bias or can easily research the expert's bias based on the affiliation presented. In the end, the news organization still has a degree of editorial control and a responsibility to present a balanced view of the news item, so the interviewing of an expert doesn't bother me.

What does bother me is including "man on the street" interviews or, even worse, "instant feedback" from e-mail or other electronic media. In the latter case, there's often no way to find out who actually submitted the feedback. It could be an employee of a company affected by the news items, a marketer trying to sell something, or a political operative trying to shape public opinion instead of just a common citizen. There's no way that a news organization can check on such a submission during a show, but even the venerable BBC Newshour has started to include e-mails sent during its one hour show as part of its presentation. I find this almost inexcusable.

Twitter, with its 140 character limit for messages, has now taken the instant feedback phenomenon to a new low. Not only is the potential source of the opinion suspect, but the message itself may be unreadable in broadcast media. I've heard reporters on the CBC, BBC, and other media outlets reading a tweet that barely made any sense when read aloud and trying to explain the bad grammar or abbreviations in it to the audience. (I'll give the CBC credit that I've only heard them do this on Cross Country Checkup, which is a call-in talk show where opinions are legitimately presented, but it still sounded terrible.)

This should be a sign for the news organizations that they've gone too far. Not only are they presenting things that I think are inappropriate on a newscast, but those items are now not even comprehensible. Writing is important in broadcast media, and good writers can make or break a broadcast. ("As It Happens" on the CBC would not be such an iconic show without its excellent writing staff.) Presenting someone's attempt to jam an uninformed opinion into a 140-character tweet detracts from the writing on the remainder of a show.

Of course, unless the inclusion of tweets in a broadcast starts affecting ratings, the networks will probably keep presenting them, and I'll keep flinching.

Margin Notes: Garbage, Fireworks, News Hour

The strike by city workers in Toronto, Ontario affects both the primary topics in this photo taken on 1 July 2009--garbage is not being collected, and the ferries to the islands being advertised are not running

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The city worker's strike continues in Toronto. Talking to friends, it is affecting more than just the garbage collection pictured above and the cancellation of city events written about here on Canada Day. City inspectors are not inspecting buildings, parking tickets cannot be paid, and pretty much everything the city does except transit is affected in some way. It looks like it's going to be a long summer here as no movement has been reported in the ongoing talks.

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Hearts were coordinated with the "I love you" lyrics in "What a Wonderful World" during the Festival of Fire in Toronto, Ontario on 4 July 2009

One of the signs of a normal summer is the Festival of Fire over Lake Ontario. The Festival of Fire generally features the most innovative fireworks seen around Toronto in the summer. While I found the accompanying soundtrack broadcast on CHFI quite unimaginative this year--what place does "Mambo Number Five" have in a fireworks display ten years after it was a hit?--I must give them credit for nice coordination of heart-shaped fireworks with the lyrics "I love you" from "What a Wonderful World" as sung by Ray Charles in the middle of the 4 July 2009 show.

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Unusually-shaped fireworks were included in the Festival of Fire presentation over Lake Ontario in Toronto on 4 July 2009

On the other hand, I couldn't figure out what the fireworks shown above were supposed to be during the Festival of Fire. Were they supposed to be a human face? A baseball? One set was fired off during Elton John's "Circle of Life," so maybe they were just supposed to be circles.

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The "Roundhouse" sign was erected on the coaling tower at the John Street Roundhouse in Toronto, Ontario on 3 July 2009

Not a circle but a half-circle was the shape of the new "Roundhouse" sign that was erected on the coaling tower of the John Street Roundhouse on 3 July 2009. The sign joins other signs advertising the Leon's furniture store that is scheduled to have its opening ceremonies in the higher-numbered stalls of the roundhouse on Wednesday.

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That event will likely receive some local press coverage, but it certainly won't appear on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States. Traditionally, the News Hour opened with a news summary. Sometimes, during a crisis covered for most of the show, it would move these headlines to the end of the show. For the past few months, it has moved the headlines to random times in the middle of the show after the lead story. I don't understand this practice--the top story is no longer in the context of the rest of the news of the day, it's not possible to tune in for the headlines specifically, and the show generally feels like it has no flow on many broadcasts. They should drop this practice and either air the headlines at the beginning of the show (my preference) or move them permanently to the end of the show. That formatting would at least make some sense.

Photos: Trip to the West Coast, Part II

Mount Rose loomed in the distance in a view looking across Lake Tahoe from South Lake Tahoe, California on 6-May-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's update to my photo page continues coverage of my spring trip to the west coast. While traveling around northern California and the Reno/Tahoe region of Nevada between 1-May and 8-May-2009, a variety of scenes were encountered, from a kayaking course and jets taking off from Reno, Nevada to the state buildings and museums of Carson City, Nevada, to the ski slopes around Lake Tahoe to the home of my Great Aunt Pauline near Placerville, California, to the mountains of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges.

Radio Pick: News 2.0

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's radio pick is a special presentation from the CBC.

Ira Basen has long been one of my favorite CBC producers; pretty much everything he has touched, from "Quirks and Quarks" to "The Hidden City" to "Spin Cycles" has made for excellent radio. His latest effort is a two-part series on the reality and future of news in the Web 2.0 world which has been titled "News 2.0". The second fifty-four minute segment aired this week on the Sunday Edition and right from the first story explaining how a blogger ended up greatly affecting a stock price, the impact of technology on news is explained in a compelling manner.

Listen to MP3 of The Sunday Edition "News 2.0 Part Two"

Media: Michael Jackson and Niche Media

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Generally speaking, on this blog I don't bother to express my opinion about topics if my opinion is well-represented in the so-called mainstream media or even elsewhere in the blogosphere or niche media--though in the later case I am more likely to link to that external coverage as many readers of this blog may have missed it. That's why I have avoided any comment on the death of Michael Jackson eight days ago, apparently of a heart attack at the age of 50--the level of coverage was almost nauseating and other people with far greater credentials than me had weighed in with pretty much everything I had to say.

Surprisingly, at least to me, the person I heard in many hours of Michael Jackson coverage who was most closely aligned with my views was the rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot, who appeared on the Dave Ross show on KIRO-FM out of Seattle a week ago today. During the interview, which can be heard at this link, "Mix" made points including the following:

• Michael Jackson's death represented the death of pop music, in that he may have been the last great crossover superstar spanning and combining genres
• Michael Jackson did not just transcend race, but transcended culture, bringing people all over the world together with his music, not just people of different races
• Michael Jackson's death caused everyone from convicted violent felons to juvenile girls to cry
• The Man in the Mirror was the quintessential Michael Jackson song

"Mix"'s first point was echoed over in the niche media at Scott Fybush's Northeast Radio Watch. In his weekly publication, Fybush pointed out that nearly the entire radio dial could do Michael Jackson tributes and not break their individual formats--and indeed even some that were arguably breaking format ran tributes anyway. The story was that big, and Jackson inspired that much emotion.

Yet, I fear that "Mix" was right that there are no more "pop" artists that have connected with the world the way Michael Jackson did--and extrapolating Fybush's point about hyper-niche programming of contemporary radio, it may not even be possible for another Michael Jackson to exist. Everyone is listening to just the music they are attracted to on their portable music players--and if they listen to the radio at all, they are most likely to tune to a station with an extremely well-defined format. Could a young Michael Jackson even get airplay today? It's not clear.

Whatever his flaws--and books will probably be written about them, both real and accused--Michael Jackson was fundamentally all about bringing everyone in the world together. It's a shame not only that the world has lost a media star with that perspective, but that it is entirely possible he will never have a successor.

Culture: Closed for Canada Day?

Patriotic colors dominated this scene from the Canada Day fireworks display at Civic Centre in Mississauga, Ontario on 1-July-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - As much of the media would have it, Canada's largest city did not celebrate Canada's birthday. Because of the city worker's strike, most city events including those on Canada Day have been canceled. To the rest of the country, this was further evidence that Toronto doesn't care about anything outside of the 416 area code.

Yet, that's not what I saw in the behavior of Toronto residents on this Canada Day. The city-sponsored events, most notably the fireworks displays over Ashbridge's Bay and Mel Lastman Square in North York may not have been taking place, but there are multiple layers of government in this country and provincial, federal, and private events went on. The provincial capital at Queen's Park hosted its normal suite of day-long events. The federally-administered Downsview Park went about its entertainment including a fireworks display. The privately-sponsored Festival of Fire at Ontario Place went on with its fireworks display, and the Toronto Blue Jays held some Canada Day-related events at their game, including after-game fireworks. All of these events were well-attended by Torontonians and tourists alike.

Admittedly, though, I chose to venture outside Toronto for my Canada Day fireworks fix. Having seen the Downsview Park display last year and with two other dates to see the Festival of Fire, I decided this was a good year to venture to neighbouring Mississauga--the sixth largest city in Canada that nobody outside of Ontario seems to have heard of. The inducement of free rides on Mississauga Transit--normally expensive at $3 a ride--was another reason to give it a try.

The diversity of faces at the Civic Square was a nice reflection of Mississauga itself--all the races of the world mixing freely--quite similar in fact to what I've observed in the past on Canada Day at Downsview Park in Toronto. The fireworks themselves are set off on top of City Hall, not unlike the North York display. The emcee for the day, made it clear on a regular basis that we were in Mississauga, and that the city was prouder of Canada than its larger neighbour.

The 25-minute display itself was worth seeing; my only real complaint was that Mississauga Transit did not run any extra buses over its normal holiday schedule out of Square One after the display--I guess it's free for a reason.