Saturday, June 30, 2007

Covering iDay: Two approaches



iDay: I was torn between "This is sooooooo (expletive deleted) cool" and "It's an inanimate object, people! Besides, it will be better and cheaper in nine months! Get a (expletive deleted) life!"

Nevertheless, it's a cultural phenomenon (for better or worse) and it needed to be covered by the print and broadcast -- and Internet! -- media everywhere. Here's how a couple of newspapers did it online.

At the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune, there's no local story from the Mall of America to be found. Just the standard national overview off the wire. But that faux pas is forgiven, for on the Strib's community site,
Buzz.mn, we have the inimitable James (Think outside the box? There's a box?) Lileks blogging and doing a video report. Here it is:


MEANWHILE, over at the Omaha World-Herald -- my local paper -- there's a serviceable local story (score an attaboy for getting the local angle), no blog (a.k.a., "live update" in World-Herald speak) and a competent, if formulaic, video.

Here 'tis:
LILEKS' VIDEO exemplifies what newspapers need to do to survive in a world that's both wired and starving for community -- it connects. It's personal. It's quirky. It has a point of view.

It's human.

And isn't human what we need in a world where we get more excited about handheld computer-phones than we do about one another? Isn't human what we crave, even when we don't consciously realize it?

In one another, we see a reflection of the divine, a reflection of He Who Completes Us.

iPhones are just another distraction to dull the ache of alienation. Which, come to think of it, is an angle I'd like to see some ink-stained (or silicon-saturated) wretch tackle the next time we have one of these People Go Nutso Over the Latest Thing feature pieces.

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