Random idea: the office of WTF? in chief

January 12, 2009 · Posted in Media Criticism, Politics, Random Ideas · Comments 

Following up on the “semi-success” of the Unicorn Chaser idea, here’s another one that might be worth some time from the media industry, even though the idea itself isn’t solely aimed at the media industry:

The WTF? In Chief

I’ve been working on an interactive graphic for the Obama inauguration. Here’s a preview:

click to see larger version

click to see larger version

The idea is, you get a visual representation of all of the things the new president has “on his plate” when he takes office. It might be instructive to compare his “plate” to what previous presidents had on their “plates” when they took office.

Honestly, I probably won’t get this finished by the time the inauguration rolls around (classes starting this week and all), but I might assign it to my interactive reporting class to finish up. :-)

So the WTF in Chief idea would be to have an official appointee whose job it was to explain WTF?!?! to the American people.

Not the press secretary, but someone whose sole job is to respond to the righteous indignation of the American people about the seriously messed up state our nation is at the moment (and if you don’t think we’re in a world of doo-doo, then I don’t even want to deal with your denial of reality). Maybe that’s Obama’s job ultimately, but it might help if we had someone who could respond on a semi-regular basis to commiserate with us.

Someone whose job it would be to explain:

  • WTF happened to our $350 billion in bailout money?
  • WTF happened to the recovery from Hurricanes Katrina, Ike and Rita?
  • WTF is going to happen to those who authorized torture at Guantanamo Bay?
  • WTF is going on in Iraq?

etc. See this report from the Center for Public Integrity for a list of 128 major meltdowns in the executive branch over the last 8 years. I think you get the picture.

The idea also got me to thinking about a similar position newspapers could adopt – think of it as sort of the ombudsperson for the financial meltdown. We already have Alan Mutter doing this from the outside, and others who are content to lob information from the outside, but wouldn’t it be a good thing for some newspaper company execs to come out and lay everything on the line for their loyal readers and “stakeholders” (I hate that word)?

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Random Ideas: The Unicorn Chaser sidebar (new feature!)

January 8, 2009 · Posted in Random Ideas · Comments 

This is going to be something I’ll be adding to as often as I come up with something.

This morning’s Random Idea is called the Unicorn Chaser sidebar.

We’ve all seen the “related content” links that show on a web site’ story page. Here’s one from the New York Times:

related1

So the idea is this: people are always complaining that there’s not enough “good news” being told. What if you created a “related content” box that featured good news as an antidote to the bad news you’re reading currently.

I’m calling it the Unicorn Chaser box in honor of Boing Boing’s original Unicorn Chaser.

For instance, let’s say you were reading an article about how disgusting and unclean doctors’ lab coats are, an article by the Wall Street Journal. (aside: why is this article in the “opinion” section? Does that diminish the factual basis for the article? Shouldn’t it be in the “Health” section?) Obviously, this is the type of article that can put you off your breakfast, especially if you’ve recently been in a doctor’s office. So, to counteract that mental disturbance, In the article sidebar, you’d see something like this:

unicorns2

Click for larger version

Some people will dismiss this with a wave of the haughty hand and a suggestion that it’s somehow beneath journalism to provide links to positive stories. To which I respond: why? If it’s information, why not link to it from disparate places on your web site? Is it a little bit “light”? compared to all the heavy-hitting innovation that’s happening these days? Sure. But why can’t we try some light with the heavy subject matter?

Thoughts?

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