Comments on: If A Tree Falls in the Forest and No One Retweets It … http://www.john-zhu.com/blog/2009/03/20/if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest-and-no-one-retweets-it/ Useful Resources for Some, Useless Rants for Others Sun, 05 Sep 2010 01:57:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Bill http://www.john-zhu.com/blog/2009/03/20/if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest-and-no-one-retweets-it/comment-page-1/#comment-2421 Bill Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:23:50 +0000 http://www.john-zhu.com/blog/?p=699#comment-2421 "Pop Rocks seller in a fizzy over alleged imitator" What, no link? C'mon, John. “Pop Rocks seller in a fizzy over alleged imitator”

What, no link? C’mon, John.

]]> By: John Zhu http://www.john-zhu.com/blog/2009/03/20/if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest-and-no-one-retweets-it/comment-page-1/#comment-2415 John Zhu Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:08:45 +0000 http://www.john-zhu.com/blog/?p=699#comment-2415 Hi Geoff. Thanks for the clarification. And I agree wholeheartedly that nobody's arguing that democracy falls apart if we lose sports coverage. I worked in a sports dept., and I would be the first to say what we did wasn't as important as political news & investigative reporting, perhaps more widely read, but definitely not as important to society. But I feel we need to point out the total number of stories the Tribune produces with its budget because the discussion in which the number was raised was about whether local news reporting would suffer w/o newspapers and their big budgets. Which is easier: To say, "Let's make more of our 20-some stories a day about local news" or "Let's come up with the financial capacity to go from producing 8 stories a day to 20-some stories a day"? The paper may not be producing 20 local stories a day <em>right now</em>, but as long as it has the capacity to produce that many stories, then the possibility for it to produce 20 local stories remains and it can come as easily as one editorial decision from the top. That possibility disappears when the ability to produce that number of stories disappears. And just to be clear: This post wasn't written to criticize your assertion or your site. It's just thoughts about how Twitter works, and this particular story just happened to be the thing that sparked those thoughts. Hi Geoff. Thanks for the clarification. And I agree wholeheartedly that nobody’s arguing that democracy falls apart if we lose sports coverage. I worked in a sports dept., and I would be the first to say what we did wasn’t as important as political news & investigative reporting, perhaps more widely read, but definitely not as important to society.

But I feel we need to point out the total number of stories the Tribune produces with its budget because the discussion in which the number was raised was about whether local news reporting would suffer w/o newspapers and their big budgets. Which is easier: To say, “Let’s make more of our 20-some stories a day about local news” or “Let’s come up with the financial capacity to go from producing 8 stories a day to 20-some stories a day”? The paper may not be producing 20 local stories a day right now, but as long as it has the capacity to produce that many stories, then the possibility for it to produce 20 local stories remains and it can come as easily as one editorial decision from the top. That possibility disappears when the ability to produce that number of stories disappears.

And just to be clear: This post wasn’t written to criticize your assertion or your site. It’s just thoughts about how Twitter works, and this particular story just happened to be the thing that sparked those thoughts.

]]> By: Geoff Dougherty http://www.john-zhu.com/blog/2009/03/20/if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest-and-no-one-retweets-it/comment-page-1/#comment-2413 Geoff Dougherty Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:37:24 +0000 http://www.john-zhu.com/blog/?p=699#comment-2413 John, My initial description of what I was counting could have been a bit clearer, I suppose. I looked at the print edition of the Trib on the day in question and counted the stories that focused on Chicago public affairs. The count is accurate as originally published, and you can find a similar trend on many days. While I agree with you that sports coverage is important and interesting, nobody's arguing that democracy falls apart if you can't get the latest Cubs score. John,

My initial description of what I was counting could have been a bit clearer, I suppose.

I looked at the print edition of the Trib on the day in question and counted the stories that focused on Chicago public affairs. The count is accurate as originally published, and you can find a similar trend on many days.

While I agree with you that sports coverage is important and interesting, nobody’s arguing that democracy falls apart if you can’t get the latest Cubs score.

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