Rain Dance, 4th of July
Jack Schafer quotes journalist Mark Sullivan's memoirs Education of an American (on Slate here) to point out that journalism has always been in a state of decline. In 1938 the veteran newsman Sullivan laments the passing of the American newspaper as ad dollars flowed from print to radio.
I felt as if I were like one of those old monks, the scriveners, who continued to copy by hand long after printing had been invented. To young writers looking forward the lesson is as plain, and even more important, than to old writers looking backward. Learn the art of writing, of course, but learn also the art of the motion picture, and of the radio.
Sound familiar? Good advice for today's journalists.
If newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters don't produce spectacular news coverage no blogger can match, they have no right to survive.
OK, right now everyone go to this site and give these people $10. I just did. Why? Magic Lantern is an open platform firmware add on that attempts to fix the major issues with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II
video. Namely the awful sound quality.
I'm not suggesting that anyone actually load the beta version of this firmware. Not unless you have $2999.99 to throw away. But for just a couple of bucks we can all move this process along.
-Stephen Alvarez