Everyday, in newsrooms with just one person, and those with many dozens, news organizations decide what stories to cover. Call it the "morning meeting" or something else, it is the time and place where stories are selected for coverage...or rejected. It is a complicated process that involves reporters pitching stories and new managers making the final call.
Enter the "Occupy Wall Street" protests in New York City, which have spread to other cities too.
Protesters have been complaining that the media has ignored their two week old protests.
NPR had apparently not covered the event till this morning, when I heard a story on their hourly newscasts. There was no sign of a story in the morning Montgomery-Advertiser, even on their USA Today news-from-away-from-here page.
A story in the actual USA Today quoted an NPR executive making what I think was an excellent point about the lack of a focal point for the story. Just what the heck are they protesting?
Corporate Greed? Global Warming? The plight of Australian Aborigines? Everything?
Surly there are some marketing majors in the group who realize messages in any media have to be short and clear enough to be used on a bumper sticker or a billboard to make an impact.
Shouting "we're unhappy" isn't going to cut it, specially in today's message cluttered days.
On another matter, I noticed an AP headline on a story online this morning that refers to the protests being a "Social-Media Fed Event". So, if they had taken out newspaper ads, would it be a "Newspaper-Ad Fed Protest"?
Oh, and the quote from Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly:
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]
Enter the "Occupy Wall Street" protests in New York City, which have spread to other cities too.
Protesters have been complaining that the media has ignored their two week old protests.
NPR had apparently not covered the event till this morning, when I heard a story on their hourly newscasts. There was no sign of a story in the morning Montgomery-Advertiser, even on their USA Today news-from-away-from-here page.
A story in the actual USA Today quoted an NPR executive making what I think was an excellent point about the lack of a focal point for the story. Just what the heck are they protesting?
Corporate Greed? Global Warming? The plight of Australian Aborigines? Everything?
Surly there are some marketing majors in the group who realize messages in any media have to be short and clear enough to be used on a bumper sticker or a billboard to make an impact.
Shouting "we're unhappy" isn't going to cut it, specially in today's message cluttered days.
On another matter, I noticed an AP headline on a story online this morning that refers to the protests being a "Social-Media Fed Event". So, if they had taken out newspaper ads, would it be a "Newspaper-Ad Fed Protest"?
Oh, and the quote from Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly:
"We see it as our job to make certain that people can demonstrate peacefully."Amen Commissioner. Amen.
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]
Days of Rage, this is not. Next summer's conventions should be entertaining
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