By Daniel Dessinger

May 4, 2009

While some journalists get excited about how big a story they land, I look at news reporting as a bottom rung type position. At least based on today’s media, 90% of reported news isn’t important enough for me to know. That means there are too many people running around feeling self-important for no good reason except that something they did is earning them attention, and getting attention is what so many of us want.

But a columnist, now that’s a different animal entirely. A columnist must write what she thinks. She must share her own opinions with the world in a compelling enough way that people will be glad they read it. Especially in 2009, we’re all about advanced search. We have niche interests and we search for niche information. Nobody really searches for random opinions.

So the columnist has to establish a voice quickly and powerfully. This voice is her only sales pitch. Is her view of the world interesting enough to warrant another read tomorrow or next week? Unless she’s fabulous, a columnist will always be writing to a new audience – i.e., a group of people who wander across her column’s path. Opinion is not a news topic, so someone reading the column either happens across it and is giving it a taste, or he/she has read the columnist before and enjoyed it enough to seek it out again later.

I have no great love for journalism. I took journalism as my elective in high school for one year until I wisened up and switched to choir. I actually love to sing. I didn’t love reporting about track meets or composing yearbook layouts.

Fast forward seven years, and I was semi-dating an actual reporter. She was very intelligent and funny, but I never understood why she cared so much about the news. Whether a company launches a new store or product line isn’t compelling information to me. I simply don’t care that much about the news.

What fascinates me is people. I like to know what makes them tick. What motivates them to tell the truth, tell a lie, force a smile, endure sacrificially. I like observing people making choices, and analyze why they chose that specific option. I guess that’s why I respect successful columnists. They put themselves out there and live or die by the skill of their pen.

© 2009 – 2010, Daniel Dessinger. All rights reserved.

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By Daniel Dessinger

April 15, 2009

Every week I hear someone from GAC on 103.3FM or 105.3FM The FAN talk about how they don’t understand why people don’t read newspapers like they used to.

Tuesday afternoon, the lame conversation from Ben and Skin on 105.3FM made reference to the “bro code.” Apparently, we “bros” have a code that states: You MUST take the newspaper to the bathroom to read and leave it hanging on the handicap bar for the next guy.

Uhh…. do what? First of all, that’s gross. Second, newspaper writers prove every day that they lack vision by sticking to a dying media. Professional journalists can make serious money online if they’d just get over their sorry whine fests about bloggers.

Here’s a thought: Rather than gripe people out on the radio for not reading the sucky paper, why not pay attention to where the eyeballs are going and present your quality content there? OMG! How revelatory.

This is going to be quick and mostly painless. Leave people alone. They don’t read newspapers because newspapers aren’t engaging, because 24 hour-old news isn’t news in the Twitter age, and because somebody needs to stop cutting down so many damn trees. Throwing a fit over the evolution of media and the people’s preferences only makes you sound irrelevant.

Don’t tell me that the newspaper is quality and blogs are just rehashed crap. Many of them are. But if they’re drawing more traffic and eyeballs than you and your silly paper, who’s the joke? Thought leaders adapt to the times and provide quality to their audience through the vehicle the people want. If the people want blogs and Twitter, give them blogs and Twitter. This isn’t rocket science.

You can still sell ads and plug products as long as your web analytics back up the traffic numbers you need.

*Disclaimer: 80% of the time, I enjoy listening to ESPN Radio and THE FAN. Both have sucky morning shows, but 10am and on is good radio as long as they don’t hiss and moan about the stupid paper.

© 2009 – 2010, Daniel Dessinger. All rights reserved.

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By Jenni Hammitt

April 8, 2009

I started writing when I was 8. From that point until the beginning of my freshman year of college, my goal was to work for a newspaper. For ten years I had big dreams of working my way up the food chain and a big city paper. I wanted to see my work in print.

Even when I began to dislike and mistrust The Toledo Blade (a publication that is not even fit to line the bottom of my bird cages), I still loved the idea of working in print media. I worked on the newspaper in high school.

I even went to the special “Eastern Echo” recruiting session at Eastern Michigan University. I was so excited that the article I wrote in that workshop was going to be in the “Welcome Back” edition of the paper. I had every intention of working at the paper all four years I attended there.

Luckily, fate intervened. I went through the steps to work for the paper at the beginning of the term. I got my blue card and headed over the Echo office. I looked at the available stories a couple of times, but I never found anything I liked. Soon I was having other concerns. I began to read nasty articles about the Marching Band, and as a band geek I was mildly offended.

Still, I looked forward to having the time to work on articles after the season was over. Then they crossed the line. They wrote a horribly insensitive article after one of our saxophone players died in an accident on his way to the homecoming game. I was furious at the author and even more appalled that the editors let it go to print. At that point I was done. The Eastern Echo was now only used to line the bathroom floor on my monthly hair dye day. I walked away from newspapers and found comfort in electronic media.

I am so glad my temper and naïve notions sent me walking. Now, the business I had big dreams of being a part of is on the endangered species list. Papers are declaring bankruptcy. Other papers are “shutting down the presses.” My campus (the one I work for) used to get complimentary copies of the Indianapolis Star for our students. Those days are now gone. The print and the margins are getting smaller, the papers are getting thinner, and jobs are being cut.

Newspapers are a dying breed. This is unfortunate for those who make the paper, but it also has an impact on the readers. What will happen to the newspaper readers once their paper goes under? Actually, we are already seeing the future. More people are turning to television and the internet. The plasma TV’s in our building lobbies are on CNN 24/7. Television is a huge part of our culture already. The internet gives us access to world, national and local news.

In some cases news can be reported as it happens. Between traditional media online, bloggers, and other “citizen” reporters, people have many choices and options. Not to mention mobile web adds a whole new dimension to this. I have Pocket Express on my Blackberry. That application allows me to download top news stories to my phone at any time. I don’t even need to be at my computer.

It does make me sad to see newspapers fade away. Things fall out of style. Technology becomes outdated. However, I never imagined my childhood dream would not even be a possibility for the next generation.

© 2009, Jenni Hammitt. All rights reserved.

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By Lisa Pawlowski

May 9, 2008

My fellow Culture Feast blogger, Michael Callaway, has commented in this space on the many ways television celebrated “Green Week”. But television isn’t the only media that has sworn to raise your consciousness on what an evil polluter you are and how we’re all going to die from drowning in the melted ice caps. In honor of Earth Day (actually, month), several magazines have also launched green issues and as is often the case when it comes to the media and the environment, hypocrisy abounds.

It seems like every magazine must have a “green” or Earth Day issue these days. My favorite story on this subject is about the New York Times Magazine which just published its first “green issue”. It called itself a “low-carbon catalog” and dispersed bon mots for living an environmentally conscious life. The only thing is, according to foliomag.com, the magazine wasn’t printed on recycled paper. The magazine’s editor, Gerald Marzorati was quoted as saying, “Our printing is a very particular method, and these machines use a very old, not terribly good paper stock. It just wasn’t feasible…”   

National Geographic has two lovely magazines, one for kids and the adult one which is familiar to everyone. The National Geographic society didn’t produce a green issue but the network has been beating the loudest drum on global warming. The Nat Geo network has aired fascinating programs such as The Human Footprint which shows how much food, clothing, water and energy a person uses in a lifetime and then makes you feel guilty for being a greedy consumer of the Earth’s resources. When I use the word fascinating to describe the show, I’m not being snarky. It was truly interesting, but I got tired of being preached to.

Now one would think that the people who promoted this program would be behind recycling. But the thing about the Nat Geo mags is that they aren’t printed on recycled paper, either and on their website, which features a green guide, they answer the question of what one does with old issues by suggesting that people donate them to prisons, nursing homes and libraries. Recycling past magazines doesn’t appear to be an option as far as National Geographic is concerned.

Two notable magazines, out of the many green issue publications, were Time and Vanity Fair. But you didn’t have to be a subscriber to these titles to know that they were putting out special Earth Day issues. You could have watched television. Much was made of the Time cover which featured a replica of the iconic Iwo Jima picture, only instead of an American flag, the soldiers hoisted a redwood tree in the air. Morning news shows breathlessly announced that this was the first time in the magazine’s history that the red border that has always framed the cover was turned green! Vanity Fair’s green issue featured many hand-wringing articles on how we simply must “do something.” But then doesn’t that describe every single green issue publication?

All of this enviromania isn’t going to go away anytime soon. In early August, Positively Green magazine will launch its inaugural issue. It will fill the niche market of women who want to live a more eco-conscious life and will have features on fashion, gossip (can one gossip greenly?), home décor, and juggling work and children.
 
Do all of the doomsday articles in these magazines help the environment? No. Do they make people more aware of environmental problems? I suppose, but then again, who hasn’t heard of global warming? The magazines are preaching to the choir but not providing solutions.

© 2008 – 2009, Lisa Pawlowski. All rights reserved.

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By Daniel Dessinger

January 21, 2008

Every year we experience different types of award ceremonies: in the media, schools, music, writing, food and in our own little neck of the woods.  But this year, I came across an award that almost made me fall out  of my chair.

As I was surfing the Net, I came across the funniest story that really caught me off guard. Every year, Harvard University is one of these little schools known for their high prices and intelligent students. So how in the world did they decide to award Ms. Paris Hilton Woman of the Year?

This girl is either one really good actress or just one really ditsy blonde. First of all, right before the premiere of The Simple Life which co-stared lifetime bff Nicole Richie, Ms. Hilton came out with her first movie, i.e. One Night in Paris. Now i don't know about you, but I thought that it was a pretty funny tape. She didn't seem to mind it all that much until mommy was asked about it in an interview and then all the sudden Paris was enraged by the violation of her privacy.

My mom taught me that anything I would'nt want to get around about me is best left unspoken, and I think the same would go for making videos. As we all know, Paris didn't do so bad raking in the dough from The Simple Life. And then she made sure to get into a real life drama-filled fight with Ms. Richie to insure the ratings of her show for the next two seasons.

So now she has a movie coming out on February 8, 2008, called "Hottie and the Nottie." It's superficial story about the hot friend and the ugly friend. Hmm… I wonder which character she will play? So right before the premiere of her movie, Ms. Hilton will be on campus at Harvard University receiving the Woman of the Year Award and, of course, she will be  premiering the movie on campus all day! Wow! I'm so glad some parents can afford that higher education. But the joke is that she is being awarded by Harvard's Lampoon, which is the oldest running comedy magazine. It has to make me wonder if she is really that smart or really just that dumb?

© 2008 – 2010, Daniel Dessinger. All rights reserved.

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By Daniel Dessinger

September 19, 2007

I can’t help but write about today’s current events there are so many interesting and juicy topics in the mainstream media circle, so let’s get started.

First, the Idiots:

O.J Simpson

There is really nothing I can say about O.J. Does anybody really care? Apparently, he is all over the news with alleged armed robbery charges – holding some memorabilia dealers at gun point accusing them of stealing his “s***” . All I can say is that Karma’s a bitch and I hope he rots in jail so we don’t have to see his ugly sociopath face all over the news again.

Barry Manilow

Barry refused to appear in a scheduled interview on the popular morning show “The View” because he did not want to sit on the same stage with Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a self-proclaimed conservative sister-in-law of Matt Hasselbeck – starting quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks. Barry is a close friend to Rosie O’ Donnell. Both play together in very far leftfield. Is it me, or are all extreme liberals cowards, especially the washed up singers who sucked even in their prime? By the way, I think it is a genius marketing ploy by Manilow. Not.

Isiah Thomas

Thomas is in the middle of a sexual assault case with a former Knick executive, Browne Sanders. Apparently he thinks it is okay for a black man to call a black woman a “bitch” and a “ho”. But if a white man said it, that would be offensive. Sounds like he and Don Imus have a lot in common, except Imus is out of work and Thomas still has a job and apparently doesn’t care if white season ticket holders cancel or don’t buy. What is James Dolan thinking?

Sally Fields

Sally accepted an award at the Emmy’s. Part of her acceptance speech went like this: “If mothers ruled the world there would be no God D*** wars in the first place.” What does this say about Sally?

50 Cent

Well, it looks like we will be missing out on one of Hip Hops biggest and brightest stars who vowed to retire if fellow Artist Kanye West sold more albums than him. Both albums were released the same day September the 11th –“Graduation leads with 781,000 copies sold over the 603,000 moved by 50 Cent’s Curtis, according to projections” I have a feeling this won’t stick. If I were to buy an album it would be Kanye’s.

The New England Patriots and Bill Belichick um CHEATERS!!!!!!

The Patriots have been caught red handed using video assistant Matt Estrella to record defensive signals by the New York Jets coaching staff. The Patriots have been known to sign players who have been cut from other teams, hire them to play for the Patriots, and then cut them after the New England coaching staff have suckered them out of all the useful information about their previous employers. Tom Brady isn’t the only ladies man in the New England Organization, Bill has been accused of being the significant other in a New Jersey divorce case, so he obviously condones cheating……Speaking of bastards, is Tom Brady still acting out the deadbeat dad role or am I getting him confused with “Norbit” GO COWBOYS !!!!!!!

Perez Hilton

Aside from this chump’s alter ego I just can’t stand this flamboyant gossip blogger who gets way too much credit for a (guy/girl/thing) with the intellectual ability of a goldfish and only has the capacity and substance to write about things that are the equivalent of Michael Vick’s diarrhea.

And now, for the Champs:

The Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys signed Tank Johnson to a two year deal. I think this is a great move for the Cowboys. It makes them deeper and will help the defense out tremendously, especially since Ferguson is out with injuries. Tank is known to be some what problematic. He is on probation for gun charges (no permits) and he violated probation. The Bears cut him. Tank is suspended for the next 8 games with the Cowboys and will make his debut in November. I am sure there are a lot of Cowboy cry babies out there who think this is a bad move. Well, I am here to tell you IT’S NOT ….. Really what do the Cowboys have to lose?

Brad Pitt

“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” starring Brad Pitt comes to theaters September 21st watched the trailer. Looking forward to the movie.

© 2007 – 2010, Daniel Dessinger. All rights reserved.

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By Daniel Dessinger

January 8, 2007

It would appear that Jennifer Engle, a.k.a. The Little Ball of Hate, is my biggest fan. I can’t imagine that there are that many people out there who listen to her morning talk show on 103.3 fm ESPN who then feel the need to search for her on Google, Yahoo, MSN, or AOL.

Yet somehow CultureFeast receives more referral links to this site for Jen Engle than just about anything else. I picture her sitting at her computer at work, searching her own name every day on all the major search engines, hoping to find some really cool articles about herself. Who knows? Maybe Nasty Boy or Taylor does the searching for her. Regardless, it’s gotta be someone on the show with an inflated ego.

Seriously, this is only the second time I have written anything about Jennifer Engle, yet I receive anywhere from 5-10 visitors daily from various search engines for her name or nickname.

Don’t get me wrong; The Little Ball of Hate Show is interesting enough to listen to. The Randy Galloway Show (a.k.a. GAC) is by far the best sports talk show on the radio, but there really isn’t anyone else I care to listen to except for Jen. So she deserves some props. She’s working hard with her column writing and daily sports talk show.

I just wonder how she finds the time to search her name and visit my blog five times a day.

© 2007 – 2010, Daniel Dessinger. All rights reserved.

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By Daniel Dessinger

December 11, 2006

Is there any doubt that Dale Hansen is the most annoying sports columnist in the Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex? There can be no doubt that he dwells on a level of suck all his own. Once upon a time, there was a radio guy named Randy Galloway who really got on people’s nerves. He was belligerent, obnoxious, and unwilling to consider anyone else’s opinion. Mr. Galloway was famous for his “idiot alert,” with which he would blast good intentioned callers whose opinions differed from his. That was annoying to say the least. I only ever enjoyed listening because I enjoyed disliking him.

My sports radio attention span is fairly weak, and months if not years went by without my listening to a single minute of sportstalk radio. It was probably the success of the Dallas Mavericks last year and the fact that I couldn’t watch many games that led me back to the radio to catch the day-after summaries and opinions.

To my surprise, Randy Galloway had transformed into this humorous, good natured guy whose insults had grown so mellow as to make his show entirely digestable. The personalities on his show added to the mix. Little Ball of Hate – Jennifer Engle - and Chuck “The Coop” Cooperstein were two personalities who brought a satisfying mixture of disagreement and a degree of logic. They disagreed with Randy enough to keep him honest. The infamous Idiot Alert was nowhere to be heard. To top it all off, Randy Galloway is actually funny.

ESPN Radio then made the mistake of following the three hour Galloway and Company show with the Dale Hansen Hour. What a pathetic excuse for radio. Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that Dale Hansen is famous because he’s a decent looking guy? It’s definitely not because of his personality.

Words cannot express how disappointing it is to get into the car after working out in the gym, turn on the radio, and realize that I’ve missed GAC (Galloway and Company). Dale Hansen’s voice is torture to my ears.

He has nothing to say. I’ve listened a handful of times, and he always has one big complaint against Bill Parcells or the college football bowlgame setup for the evening. He rants and raves over the same thing for the entire hour, asking the same questions over and over again. He repeats his points over and over as though he expects us to be total flipping idiots who could not possibly understand what he’s trying to say within the first five minutes of his hour-long show.

To be forthright, Dale Hansen is a television sports figure because he’s better looking than Randy Galloway. He has no business whatsoever on the radio or in print, where Randy Galloway dominates the DFW Metroplex. Everyone else is a Galloway wannabe.

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© 2006 – 2010, Daniel Dessinger. All rights reserved.

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