Link: I have a whole slew of links I need to get out there
In times like this, I wish the Reactionary Hurl was still around. Instead, I’ll just post like this is it and move on.
- Massive Hoth Lego Diorama – How cool is this? Star Wars geeks all dreamed of making something like this at some point. This guy did. Sweet.
- On teaching old dogs new tricks – This is specifically about teaching social media to “the media” (see this post for more background), but it easily applies to anything where you have to explore new ways to compete and be good at what your organization does. Note that I didn’t say be good at what you do. Organizations have to adjust, and that means that individual members of the organization have to make incremental changes themselves. The punchline of this, of course, is that in the current economic state, justifying your position is always something you have to do, and without being able to teach the old dogs in charge what you’re doing, you get tossed aside.
- Cortez-Masto Audited – Lo and behold, the troubles that politicians can get in seems to know no party bounds. So what will happen here? According to the RN&R, which is hardly a Republican-friendly publication, Masto’s alleged misdeeds are part and parcel with Lt. Governor Brian Krolicki’s misdeeds that led to Masto seeking (and getting) an indictment on him. This goes way beyond politics, I think, at this point. We’re getting to the point where our pretty decent state, filled with pretty decent people, has grown to the point where we’re now ruining lives for what appears to be political gain. It’s sickening that it’s how some people have chosen to operate. No longer is trying to win a political battle on ideas enough in Nevada; we’re now indicting opponents as criminals and moving them out of our way from there. Neither of these two people (Cortez-Masto and Krolicki) are even close to the scumbag governor of Illinois, who is considered a scumbag by politicians in a state filled with scumbag politicians. What either one or both did might be illegal, but I think this, along with some of the charges leveled in the last gubernatorial election, marks the end of politics that are driven by a genuine desire to do good for Nevada. I think that’s sad, and the rest of us will be relegated to the ruled class instead of being a part of a state where any of us could conceivably present what we have to offer and get a chance to win election and try to implement those ideas. Call me naive, but that’s how I see it.
- Why Journalism Schools should not be teaching PR – I’ve been thinking about this very heavily the past week or so. It’s something that I have always thought was strange—that advertising and PR were in the same college as the craft that seemingly was at odds with them by nature. Bob Conrad lays the case out in ten points. I think you can go beyond what he says and hyper-focus it down to the idea that the main thing most people take away from journalism schools is the ability to write well. I think that’s less important today than it ever was, but that’s a post in itself. I guess I’ll start working on that one now.
Comments
Bob Conrad makes excellent points, but I don’t see journalism schools ever giving up any of their majors.
I attended a reception a few years ago in honor of the man who was chairman of the UNR j-school when I was a student there. He spoke about how journalism majors poured into the school about the time I was there and how someone pointed out that they (we) wouldn’t all be able to find jobs as journalists. He said they all knew that and expected the rest to find work doing PR, editing newsletters and so on. I wish I’d known that then.
Sorry, it’s all about job preservation at UNR (and probably every university).
Dec 28, 08:40 PM
I don’t know if moving the majors would cost jobs. The jobs might shift. PR professors would still be needed—only they’d be needed in the new college. I tend to agree that it won’t happen anytime real soon, though. I think most people realize that. But in making the case, it hopefully starts enough people thinking about it and starting to move in that direction. It’s all we could ask.
Dec 30, 11:23 AM
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