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Written By, October/November 2009
Reading Written By, a bimonthly magazine produced by the screenwritersâ union, is, for a journalist, a bit like going to Canada. There are just enough linguistic differences to provide occasional puzzlementâwhat does a âshowrunnerâ do? What are these things called âStandards and Practicesâ? But the issues, and the environment, are pretty familiar.
These days, of course, the big issue for anyone under the broad âmediaâ umbrella is the Internet and the changes it has wrought. Written Byâs October/November issue is all about âNew Mediaâ (the phrase is consistently capitalized, suggesting that the editors may still be getting accustomed to this terrain): how to use it, how to cope with the competitive pressures it brings, how to build an audience and (hopefully) make money through it, and, most of all, how to keep it free.
That last topic relates to net neutrality, an issue that comes up several times, including in separate feature-length articles by F.X. Feeney and Robert Eisele, and a third, shorter piece by Charles B. Slocum. Thereâs some helpful history and technical explanation here, but the argument is familiar, if persuasive: greedy telecoms want to control Web traffic but we shouldnât let them; start-ups, entrepreneurialism, and independent actors are good and should be protected. Itâs interesting to see that this argument doesnât always merge with the âcontent wants to be freeâ mantra (screenwriters, unsurprisingly, are not fans of digital piracy), and the pieces are generally well done. But for anyone whoâs looked into this issue before from either a liberal or libertarian perspective, thereâs probably not much new.
Less ambitious, but in a way more interesting, are two pieces about the practice of screenwriting in a new media (or, to use a buzzword employed in one of the articles, âtransmediaâ) world. A profile of John Fasano, creator of the zombie-themed Web series Woke Up Dead, finds him guessing at the right length for Web videos: Five minutes? Four? Three? It also notes his initial skepticism that Web content, however artistically liberating it may be, can be financially viableâan anxiety that reporters and editors know all too well. (A separate how-to on â5 Ways to Monetize Onlineâ has some suggestions that donât really translate to journalism: âCreate a character-written blog to accompany your web series⌠Use your show to promote the blog and the blog to promote products that your character endorses. When someone follows the lead and purchases a product, you make a few bucks.â)
The cover story, meanwhile, on âPioneers of New Media,â focuses on some interesting success stories, including a writer/actor who earned her WGA card based on her Spanglish-language Web series; another online show, Imaginary Bitches, drew 150,000 viewings on its first weekend. To anyone whoâs read about similar enterprises in the journalism world, the perilous status of such triumphs will be familiar: How to handle the timesuck of marketing and promotion? How to generate the new material the Web constantly demands? How to actually, you know, make money from all these people who are watching? Still, it makes for a good read.
A pair of non-new media-related items merit mention. Mike Larsen turns in an entertaining and thoughtful first-person piece on leaving Hollywood to work in D.C.
(see? The experiences really are familiar to journalists). Meanwhile, a Q&A with Spike Jonze about of the film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are is worth reading just for Jonzeâs statement that, in casting the role of Max, âwe were looking for a nine-year-old Sean Penn.â Unfortunately, interviewer Rob Feld writes in his introduction that Maurice Sendakâs book was âcondemnedâ by âinfluential psychiatristsâ upon its initial publication. Guess he hasnât read Jack Shafer. – Greg Marx
Liberty, November/December 2009
âIn our contemporary battles over the correct separation of church and state,â Liberty editor Lincoln Steed writes in the editorial for the magazineâs current issue, âwe need a good sense of perspective.â True. And while âperspectiveâ is not something one can take for granted in a magazine produced by and dedicated to a particular religious institution–in this case, the Seventh Day Adventist Church–this âmagazine of religious freedomâ delivers, indeed, exactly that. This is religion expressed and discussed in a compellingly theoretical mannerâone that is resolutely focused on a topic and tension that has been an intimate aspect of American democracy since the founding of the Republic: the connection, and distinction, between church and state.
To wit, the magazineâs Declaration of Principles:
– The God-given right of religious liberty is best exercised when church and state are separate.
– Government is Godâs agency to protect individual rights and to conduct civil affairs; in exercising these responsibilities, officials are entitled to respect and cooperation.
– Religious liberty entails freedom of conscience: to worship or not to worship; to profess, practice and promulgate religious beliefs or to change them. In exercising these rights, however, one must respect the equivalent rights of all others.
– Attempts to unite church and state are opposed to the interests of each, subversive of human rights and potentially persecuting in character; to oppose union, lawfully and honorably, is not only the citizenâs duty but the essence of the Golden Ruleâto treat others as one wishes to be treated.
The journalism that springs from that declarationâwork that self-consciously focuses on The Big Questions of faith as they relate to The Big Questions of American democracyâis rigorous and compelling. A consideration of Sonia Sotomayorâs record on religious liberty. A meditationâsupplemented with twelve footnotes for further readingâon the religious aspects of the U.S. torture debates. A consideration of intolerance toward Muslims in America, written byâŚa Washington (state) ninth-grader. Even âA Clash of Millennialisms on Capitol Hillââpart of âExplaining Liberty,â a series devoted to exploring the magazineâs own historyâmanages to distill, in narrating the saga of the American Sentinelâs fight against a 19th century movement to declare the U.S. a Christian nation, the story of Americaâs battle with itself when it comes to its fraught relationship between religion and politics.
Magazines like Liberty–defined not merely as magazines of ideas, but as magazines of specific ideasâcan easily slide into self-serving, self-interested polemic. The magazine that is Liberty, however, manages to embrace its roots and its mission in a way that is engaging even to this non-Seventh Day Adventist. It is, to be sure, distinctly Christianâboth in its promotion of Judeo-Christian beliefs, and in its assumption that its audience shares them. And yet it battles past the trapsâwhich is to say, the trappingsâof one-dimensionality. It republishes the speech, for example, of the Rabbiâyes, RabbiâDavid Saperstein, delivered on the occasion of the law professorâs and religious-freedom advocateâs winning of the Liberty-sponsored 2009 Religious Liberty Award.) Yes, the many references to Seventh Day Adventism sprinkled throughout the magazine come to feel, after a while, to be precisely what they are: redundant. But in an age of catch-all journalismâmagazines-of-ideas trying to serve as many gods as will buy their productsâthere is something immensely refreshing about a magazine that wears its heart, and its faith, on its sleeve. – Megan Garber
Washington City Paper, November 6-12, 2009
John Kennedy once said that Washington, D.C. is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm. D.C.âs City Paper, however, is a well-reputed source of new-media snark and old-media shoeleather.
This weekâs issue opens with the Mayor Adrian M. âFenty scandal du jour,â which is a âparks contracting scheme [that] eschewed standard procurement rulesâ in awarding $120 million worth of city development money. The mayorâs ostensible motivation is efficiency. Procurement: Who has time anymore?
Strangely, though, this supposed need for speed does not apply to the Fenty administrationâs handling of FOIA requests, which has prompted City Paper âLoose Lipsâ columnist Mike DeBonis to compare his administration to that of George W. Bush. (He details other similarities, too.) If you speak alt-weekly, you know that the invocation of George W. Bush translates to: âItâs on.â
The paper prints some online comments weighing in on a blog post from last week about an internal WaPo Style Section dispute over a charticleâwhich ended with sixty-eight-year-old Style Section assignment editor Henry Allen slugging coworker Manuel Roig-Franzia. One correspondent reveals that: â[N]ewsrooms are tense places and Post editors take a lot of flak from arrogant and unseasoned hires;â another declares that if Henry Allen had hit him, heâd designate his bruise a place on the National Journalism Historic Register. âWe should all be lucky enough to be walloped by such talent,â he concludes. (City Paperâs website has a video reenactment of the contretemps here.)
Christine MacDonaldâs cover story investigates whether D.C. recyclersâ plastics, glass, and corrugated cardboard actually end up at the dump with coffee grounds and potato peelings. The answer is: sometimes. Because: âIn a blur of asses and elbows, workers throw stuff from green containers, black containers, and blue containers in the same truck, creating a jumble of trash and recycling that can never be de-mingled.â
Bummer. On a lighter note, the âYoung & Hungryâ column looks at a D.C. steakhouseâs awesome-sounding âbutter-poachingâ method of meat preparationâwhich, youâll be surprised to find, leaves the author with conflicted feelings as to the resulting steak products. The article also features an unforgettable cameo from duck-fat fries. The accompanying âBeerspotterâ sidebar â whose Twitter feed seems essential for D.C. living â documents the discovery of a rye ale with a ârich, toasty malt backboneâ at Rodmanâs on 5100 Wisconsin Avenue NW.
Donât stop there, though: read ads and support an alt-weekly journalist. The classifieds have the details on some shows by artists you may be surprised to find are still touring and/or alive, including Devo, Public Enemy, and Rob Thomas. It also turns out that there is a Neil Diamond tribute band. Its name? âSuper Diamond.â – Kathy Gilsinan
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