More on Nose In The Air Media
The knowledgeable among you already know that Annika of Annika's Journal has founded Nose In The Air Media. You probably learned this from KOER Synthetica Radio, the self-proclaimed official radio station for Nose In The Air Media. Or maybe you learned about it from Robbie at UrbanGrounds. Whatever.
Annika is like the Beatles, however. She is not starting a new movement. She is expressing the reality of a movement that's all around you. Kinda like luv. Sexi luv. But I digress. Let's look at Slaying the Dragon:
Before setting out from Perth on two Harleys last August, we drew up a tight schedule and sent well in advance information on the Huntington Awareness Ride to newspapers and radio stations in the small and big towns and to the dailies, broadcasters and TV channels all along our itinerary
Enthusiastic readers of newspapers and magazines, we learned after 82 interviews with various newspapers 61 radio interviews 20 TV appearances what happens when the tables turn and the stories you are reading are about yourself.
For the most part, our dealings with the media, comprised a wonderful, yet steep learning curve. In the process we were able to experience quite a revealing cross section of the media....
We decided to approach the Sydney Morning Herald, the Daily Telegraph and the Australian personally because we didn't get a single reply to any of our media releases or calls. We had found previously that if you turn up in person and people can see your face you can usually get a good response. Not so in that city.
We arrived at the new Sussex Street offices of the Sydney Morning Herald to be greeted by an overcrowded front desk. After explaining our situation and saying that I would like to speak to a journalist,the woman looked at us liked we had walked in from the gutter and said "we don't do things this way, you have to have an appointment". She handed the phone to me with nose in the air and arm outstretched like it was a doggy doo or some other distasteful item and said, "this is the number, you can dial it".
What followed was straight out of a government department in Canberra. The first person I spoke to told me that the Chief of Staff was out to lunch. I then had to explain to nine different journalists that, "my partner and I are traveling around Australia on two Harley Davidsons to promote an awareness of Huntington Disease. We are in the foyer. Could we possibly organize to do an interview?"
We were told they would put me through to the right person. If I hadn't been cut off I'm sure I could've got to twenty. Not to be deterred I rang again but I could only manage six different journalists before being told that the medical writer was on holidays and can you ring back in three weeks. I explained that we were only in town for another day, the person said they would transfer me. I was cut off. We left their plush offices fearing we may have disturbed their morning tea.
We then arrived at the Holt Street offices of The Australian to be met with a more friendly response. The lady at reception explained that we did need to make an appointment, but she would try for us if we took a seat. Our new friend was unsuccessful in her attempts but gave us the number that we could dial direct. She wished us luck on our journey.
Tracey and I stood for a minute wondering what to do, whether to have an ice cream to cheer ourselves up or try the number. After a long moment of contemplation I started dialing the number. I was transferred only twice before getting a positive response. Asked if we would like to organize a time I said that we were standing out the front, would now be OK? What transpired from that was one of the best interviews of our whole trip. Persistence pays off.
From Working for Change:
"The serial sniper story gave the 24-hour cable news networks some of their highest ratings of the year, feeding the hunger for fresh information and increasing pressure on law enforcement officials to tell all on television," an Oct. 21 article noted in The New York Times. But that nose-in-the-air newspaper of record was hardly above gratuitous pandering in the snipe-o-rama media spectacle.
"It was The New York Times that ran a graphic pinpointing the location of every traffic surveillance camera in the vicinity of the shootings," Boston Globe writer Eileen McNamara observed. "That information assists who, exactly, besides the shooter?"
Meanwhile, JC Mount longs for the good old days:
There was a tiime when newspaper were proudly partisan. The adveritized their political bent. They adovacted for the positions they supported and took shots are the other papers in town. By reading the various papers you got the differing sides of the argument.
Now days papers and other media have a nose in the air with a holier than thou attitude, proclaiming objectivity, neutrality and absolute lack of political bias. The only honest bunch are radio talk show hosts whose stock and trade is a point view.
I wouldn't mind the Seattle Least-Intelligence or the Seattle Slimes so much if they declared their already obiovous positioning.
Posted by: JCM on July 17, 2005 11:48 AM
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