Speaking of adventuresome college radio, this week we heard a well done report on KALX (the UCB student radio station) from North Gate Radio about fecal transplants. It was one of those unusual bits of news that usually shoots to the top of the list on odd news websites such as Fark and/or Obscure Store.
The World's Laziest Journalist has noticed that using a photo to illustrate the columns usually means a better chance of catching the reader's eyes, but the challenge (and time consuming nature of the task) of finding an appropriate still shot and then getting the photographer's permission to use it is very daunting, and so (after struggling with learning to include the photos with the posting) we often resort to taking an appropriate photo and using that.
The World's Laziest Journalist missed such a photo op in
Wasn't there some concern in the early days of the Internet media revolution that quality content would be accorded diminished value as "bells and whistles" graphics were added to various web sites?
Here is a hypothetical example of how an item without a very noticeable graphics can loose reader appeal. Recently we picked up a copy of "The New Journalism" by Tom Wolfe ("an anthology edited by Tome Wolfe and E. W. Johnson" [Harper and Row paperback edition]) and began to assemble some information for writing a column about the 50 th anniversary of the start of the "New Journalism" branch of news reporting. The publication of "Joe Louis the King as Middle-aged Man" in Esquire magazine in 1962, is cited by Wolfe as a significant milestone in the demarcation of the birth of the trend.
The anthology includes all of the essential examples of the New Journalism (called "Gonzo Journalism" by Hunter S. Thompson) but it also piqued our curiosity. Does You Tube offer a hilarious obscure example of "Parajournalism" (as Wolfe dubbed it) that consisted of video of Hunter S. Thompson interviewing Keith Richards? We learned that several versions have been posted there and a still shot from that tsunami of mumbled unintelligible syllables would serve as bait for luring unsuspecting new readers into the latest example of this columnist's attempt to preserve the traditions of "thee dot journalism" . . . if we could figure out how the heck to insert such a still shot touting that interview before the (self imposed) Friday morning deadline.
In the past, the World's Laziest Journalist has made efforts to draw attention to the idea that Philip K. Dick, in his speculative history work of fiction titled "The Man in the High Tower/Castle," seemed to accurately predict Hunter S. Thompson's life and writings.
Our efforts to draw attention to that coincidence have been just as successful as our Hans Brinker-ish efforts to warn Liberals that Karl Rove will use delegate gridlock at the Republican National Convention as a smoke and mirrors diversion to hand the nomination to JEB Bush.
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