I’ve joined a network of bloggers called The Carnival of Journalism. Each month, a member poses a question for the others to answer. This month’s question asks whether a journalist can be a capitalist?

What Would Joseph Pulitzer Say?

That’s Pulitzer as in the “Pulitzer Prize.” About 100 years ago, he and William Randolph Hearst went hand-to-hand in a circulation war that spawned the phrase “Yellow Journalism.” Pulitzer, Hearst, all the giants of the industry would shout “Hell yeah!” But Pulitzer and his ilk weren’t content creators. They didn’t write the stories or draw the cartoons that brought eyes to their product. They were primarily entrepreneurs who may or may not have been working journalists.
If Pulitzer and his kin were alive today, there’s no doubt they’d be innovating at a breakneck pace. But most of us are not Pulitzers. Many of us got into journalism because we loved telling stories, especially about stuff folks weren’t supposed to know. We liked seeing our byline or hearing our voices. We liked being in the mix. But the environment that feeds a modern-day Pulitzer starves a content creator.

An independent journalist has to have a “day job”

Markets that used to pay dollars per word, now pay pennies. The content mill model has invaded book publishing. Now companies are paying fewer than $100 for an ebook of a couple thousand words. Pulitzer would rejoice; low salaries mean a higher profit margin. If your talent is blogging, though, be ready for a long haul. In order to bring in decent money,  you’ll have to constantly produce while you promote your brand and hawk your wares.  You’ll have to be entrepreneurial, while realizing the market doesn’t value your product as much as you do. You’ll have to be an idealist and a capitalist, while you hum the words to theme from the movie “Car Wash.”

“You may not ever get rich, but remember, it’s better than digging a ditch.”

The Cleveland Collage Project aims to assemble portrait of Greater Cleveland that is inclusive, accurate, nuanced and complete. It’s my reaction to the Rust Belt coverage I’ve seen in national media like the Washington Post, the New York Times and CBS.

I’m not saying the stories weren’t accurate. I’m saying they were framed.

What is a frame? Think of a cinematographer preparing to shoot a movie. She makes a tiny rectangle with her fingers to see how much of the scene should be photographed. She knows she can’t depict everything, so she chooses the most arresting elements. But the audience doesn’t know that image has been cropped. They think they’re seeing the entire picture.

When I read stories about the Rust Belt, I know what’s on the outside of the frame because I’m an insider. I pass  drive down streets boarded up houses.  Just blocks away from my home, I watch businesses open and close within months.  I see high school students parading down the street, cheered by loving families and friends  at the “Line Up” on prom night.

Each image depicts a slice of life in Greater Cleveland. A true portrait of the city would include these pictures and others. That’s why I’m asking for your help in constructing a collage that shows the reality of local life.

What is the Cleveland Collage Project?

From now until the beginning of spring, I’ll be working on finding, creating and collecting images that show present-day Cleveland. Although I’m referring to the city, I’m not limiting myself to its boundaries. Cleveland is the sum of its parts, and those parts include its suburbs.

You can help by suggesting subjects or topics for the Cleveland Collage Project, and/or by sharing photographs. Because I plan to exhibit the collage, I have to set some guidelines for content:

• No racist, sexist or otherwise discriminatory photos or pictures
• No images with overt sexual content. The pictures should be suitable for family viewing
• No images that promote a political or religious stance to the exclusion of others. (News photos may be accepted on a case-by-case basis)

If you have a suggestion for a topic or subject, please share it in the comments. If you wish to donate scans of images that should be included, contact me or email me at afi(at)aoscruggs(dot)com.

In 1998, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism examined how journalists approach the news. Its questions were provocative:

• “Do some stories contain discernible underlying messages?
• Do these journalistic conventions of storytelling represent a set of professional predilections or biases, which contend with ideology and other personal perspectives in determining the nature of news?”

I was intrigued by the use of the word “frame.” The PEJ defined frame as an underpinning, like a frame for a house.  Say frame, and I recall the  rectangle I  made with my fingers when I was studying cinematography. Even though framing a scene crops it,  a viewer doesn’t realize how much has been omitted. If I’m a good cinematographer, you think I’ve captured everything.

The PEJ study noted that national news media lean toward interpretative stories. Perhaps  that tendency explains the Rust Belt coverage  I’ve been seeing lately. When national reporters arrive, they make a little rectangle to contain the scene.  Most of the time, they only include ruin.

A recent example  is “Dismantling Detroit,” a short film that ran as a opinion piece on www.nytimes.com. While working on their documentary “Detropia,” directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady happened upon a bootleg salvage crew hurriedly scavenging  an abandoned Cadillac repair shop.  The men planned to sell the beams and fasteners to the junk yard for scrap. Apparently, they were efficient and effective. When Ewing and Grady returned the next day, the building was gone.

That type of content isn’t unique.  In the past year, both the Washington Post and the Times have used Cleveland as the setting for stories on stories on suburban poverty and foreclosure. Here’s the lead from a Times story that ran in October

PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio — The poor population in America’s suburbs — long a symbol of a stable and prosperous American middle class — rose by more than half after 2000, forcing suburban communities across the country to re-evaluate their identities and how they serve their populations.

We residents know how tightly that portrait has been framed. We see outside the narrow rectangle, partly because we’re  making containers ourselves.  We know a collage captures the local reality more accurately than a portrait does.

How would that collage look? What would be included and what would be omitted? Those questions are answered here.

Photo by aresauburn

Two weeks ago at the Happy Dog, I argued that writers are duty-bound to address Cleveland’s economic decline. I wasn’t a lonely crusader. I stood on the same side as Angie Schmitt of Rustwire.com and Christine Bourne and Kathryn Norris of the Cleveland Review. Our position was decidedly more downbeat than some other panelists, such as the cartoonist Derf, and Lee Chilcote, development news editor of FreshWaterCleveland.com. They wanted to focus more on Cleveland’s assets than on its problems.
But problem, like weeds, sprout in spite of your best efforts. If ignored, they take root and kill the greenery you’ve worked so hard to nurture. That’s why you can’t promote clubs, condos and the so-called creative class if the bulk of  the population is living in poverty.

That’s exactly what has happened in Cleveland and its suburbs.  Poverty is “spreading and deepening,” according to a pair of researchers from the Center for Urban Poverty and Community Development  at Case Western Reserve University.

Richey Piiparinen and Claudia Coulton crunched data from the 2000 U.S. Census and the 2005-2010 American Community Survey estimates in their report “The Changing Face of Poverty in Northeast Ohio.” You can download it yourself, but here are some of their findings:

• Poverty has settled in the suburbs: almost half the poor in the Cleveland and Akron metropolitan areas live outside the urban core
• Poverty increased in Cleveland Heights and Berea by 7 and 9 percent respectively.
• Poverty increased in  the city’s North Collinwood and Edgewater neighborhoods by 9 and 12 percent respectively.
• Poverty decreased in the Tremont and Downtown neighborhoods by 4 and 7 percent respectively; the researchers credit an influx of middle-class, college-educated whites residents. (Please see Piiparinen’s comment to understand why I’ve edited this point.)

Piiparinen takes this last development as proof of a possible revitalization of the city’s inner core. You can read her thoughts on her findings in this post on Rustwire.com.

My experience as a Cleveland resident leads me in another direction

I think we’re seeing the creation of yet another demographic niche based on race and income. Even in poorer neighborhoods, the income gap widened.  North Collinwood saw a 51 percent increase in households making more than $100,000 annually. In Edgewater, the figure was 126 percent.

Folks might live in the same geographic area, but they won’t be living in the same neighborhoods. As Piiparinen notes, ” it appears that the lakeside home owners did fairly well for themselves over the last decade. Getting away from the lake, well, that appeared to be a different story…”

This is an area where the river determines identity. I still hear folks who say they don’t visit the (fill in the blank) side of the river because they live on the (fill in the blank) side of the river. Or because they’re out in, say,  Strongsville, they have no reason to come to, say,  Mayfield Heights.

I  have to wonder how many of those boosters at the Happy Dog lived in Tremont and Downtown.  Money has a way of clouding one’s vision. If you’ve got long green, you peek at the world through a rose-colored haze. If your green is short, every day you’ve got the blues.

Like any business, an independent journalist needs a slogan, if only to reinforce the brand. I happen to believe a slogan should be more than a snappy string of words. A good slogan should encapsulate the truth and function as a directive.

With that in mind,  I’ve changed my Facebook, Twitter and Blog titles to match  the slogan that has become a promise:   Committing Journalism Every Day I Can, In Every Way I can.

I mean every day.

So what is this journalism I’ve committed to? Once upon a time, I thought journalism was writing stories, asking questions, reporting.  Then I thought, “Okay, it’s telling stories, taking photos, making multimedia.” Over time, though, I realized committing journalism involved more than creating content. I came to understand I wanted to be a obsessed with creating content.  I wanted to become a conceptual journalist, like Marcel Duchamp is a conceptual artist.

The more I thought about the notion, the more I realized journalism is simply intellectual inquiry brought down to earth. The 5 W’s and 1 H underlie any type of investigation, scrutiny or explanation.
Thinking about refinancing your home?

• What will be the new payment?
• Which bank or company will give you the best rate?
• How will you earn the money for the payment?

By the way, these are surface questions; kinda like a spot news story.  Dig deeper with these questions

• What is the track record of the lending institution?
• How do they treat customers who can’t make the payments?
• What is the future of the neighborhood surrounding the house?
• Who will pay if you walk away from the mortgage?

You haven’t made content: there’s no story, no slide show, no photograph. But you’ve used the idea of journalism, and  a journalistic methodology to become better informed about a personal issue.

You’ve committed journalism.
Don’t get me wrong: I love making content. I like being able to see the fruit of my efforts. But I’ve come to see precious little difference between the journalistic process and the creative process.

Here’s the deal. People commit journalism every day. They just don’t  recognize it. I commit journalism constantly. I’m just letting the world know.

When we were doing journalism the old-fashioned way, I didn’t have to promote my work, just write it. I liked that until I started writing books. My reviews were great but my sales, not so much. But that was 10 years ago. Now I’m blogging, tweeting daily. I’ve got one eye on my Facebook likes, and the other on Google analytics.  I needed help, and I found some in these three books.

1) The 2012 Photographer’s Social Media Handbook:  This is one of several free downloads offered by PhotoShelter. The site is geared to professional photographers, but the information in the books works for anyone who is self-employed. Free downloads are a common come-on among professional bloggers, but this book isn’t a five-page list of obvious points.  The section on Facebook  gives suggestions on improving your page’s  edgerank. It’s the algorithm that determines how Facebook populates the newsfeed.  Another good suggestion: running a promotion through your Facebook business page.

2) Content Rules: I love that the authors haven’t updated their blog in a month. Nevertheless, the book is a great reference on creating informative and engaging online content. Their approach relies on techniques used in journalism, marketing and literature.  That’s an unusual mashup, isn’t it?  The advice is solid and the writing is engrossing. The book will be out in paperback, but I got a hardback copy for less than $20.

3) The Twitter Book : I don’t want to be a social media dilettante. I want to become intimate with a couple platforms while possibly flirting with others. The Twitter Book is an authoritative guide to getting the most from the world’s most popular micro-blogging site. Their instructions go beyond writing tweets. They cover ways to hold great conversations, listen to discussions and share topics and ideas.  The book is inexpensive; the latest edition was about $14, not including shipping.  If you don’t trust the reviews on amazon.com, read this review  on blogcritics.org:

From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., you’ll be redirected to the SOPAStrike site. I’ll be taking notes in pencil and writing a post for Thursday.  See you on Thursday.

Writing organizations give prizes for all sorts of stuff. Some group should set up an award for best Tweets, similar to the awards given for best headlines.

The first prize should go to a certain employee at the Washington Post. I don’t who this person is, or whether it is a single person. But someone or some people are doing a great job coming up with clever missives  Here are a few I’ve noticed on Tuesday:

• “Before @Wikipedia goes offline, you might want to read about actual encyclopedias — just in case you need one: http://wapo.st/y0bnSk“
• When you go to Google’s home page tomorrow, you’ll see this: http://wapo.st/yH6RXO ( Of course I clicked on the link. How could I resist?)
• Tattoo aficionados show off bodies of work at D.C. expo http://wapo.st/xAVfdh (I didn’t know you could pun in a tweet)

I don’t have an ulterior motive. I’m not trying to siphon traffic from Washingtonpost.com. Quite frankly, some of the site’s tweets are as flat as a pair of ballet slippers. But I’ve been reading tutorials urging web writers to abandon creativity and embrace SEO. That advice goes against my gut feelings;  isn’t wit an effective way to pique interest ? In my case, at least, the clever tweets send me straight to www.washingtonpost.com. And that’s’ the point, isn’t it.

Let’s just say I’m collecting the best tweets and studying them for techniques I can use. If my page views jump, I’ll know I’ve figured it out. If not…

Once upon a time, when the telegraph was a technological innovation, reporters had a problem. The transmission system wasn’t reliable. Sometimes, all of their dispatches would get through, but other times entire portions dropped out. So the medium inspired a transformation. The writers put the most important information in the beginning of the dispatch, not in its body. Thus the inverted pyramid was born.

Almost 200 years later, bloggers face a similar dilemma. The media are directing the way we present our messages. The influential Poynter Eyetrack Study revealed subtle differences between reading online and in print. For example:

• On average, online consumers read 77 percent of a story text. Readers were more likely finish a shorter story or posting than a longer one.
• Online readers are just as likely to scan a story as they are to read it methodically. Scanners hit the headlines and visuals before checking out the text.
• Readers recall information better if the content has Q&As, timelines, lists or other information graphics.

How can the average blogger use these findings? Here are some tips:

1. Write shorter rather than longer. Aim for 250 to 600 words. If that’s not possible, break the blog post into parts and link them at the bottom of the content. You can also use headlines to break the post into manageable chunks.
2. Put the most important information close to the top, so scanners and methodical readers get your point.
3. Sweeten the post with eye candy. Photographs, lists and other visual elements help readers distinguish information and recall it.
4. Make sure headlines illuminate content. Search Engine Optimization matters, but a good headline can make a reader stay on the page instead of bouncing to another site.

You don’t have to be a graphic designer to get good visuals. Many Eyes lets ordinary folks make good data visualizations. The project is run by IBM and uses easy-to-manipulate templates. All you need is a spreadsheet, like Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice. If you want photos, you can also check Flickr, or free stock photo sites like The Stock Exchange . Just make sure to check the copyright restrictions. Be courteous; link back to the site and credit the photographer or artist who created the image.

I want to hear from other writers. Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
Part 1: How to write a good blog post: some grammar tips

The Plain Dealer covered Dr. Martin Luther King's visit to Cleveland in April 1967.

Engagement is the new buzz word in media circles. Blog post and articles tout techniques to get folks involved with and talking about content.  But an obvious point is overlooked: if the content is powerful, conversation will flow.

What could be more powerful than a speech by  Dr. Martin Luther King? I’m not talking about the so-called Dream Speech; it’s been reduced to a soundbite.  I’m talking about the speech he gave in April, 1967, a year before he was killed. King spoke at several places in Cleveland. Recently, a tape of the speech he gave at Glenville High School has resurfaced.

The speech was recorded on a reel-to-reel tape and stored at the school’s library. Although the content was clearly marked, the tape was tossed in a box headed for the trash. The art teacher and a student browsed through the items, and found the tape. When it was digitized,  the voice of one of America’s greatest leaders floated through an audio studio.

You can listen to the speech courtesy of the Plain Dealer.   I  did.  For 20 minutes, I was enthralled and oblivious to the rest of the world.

I’m sure social media consultants would kill to get that measure attentiveness for their clients. But let’s be real; their clients are engaged in selling. They want me to talk up their product and raise the visibility of their brand. They know that and so do I.  So I protect myself. I meet their messages with skepticism. I know that and so do they.

When I heard Dr. King’s voice, I let down my guard and became fully involved. Yes, that really Dr. King’s cadences coming through my computer. His message is as timely today as it was 45 years ago. I wanted the world to hear his words.

So I’m sharing.  Please keep this link going. Give it to your Facebook friends. Send it to your Twitter followers. Push it up to the top of Google. If we work, we can send this speech around the world.