Paradox Project

Tagged: journalism

Culture

The Rules Of Twitter Journalism

Twitter is a vast and glorious place and one of the wonderful things about it is the many different ways people can use it. Some people use Twitter to shout their opinions to the world, while others use it to talk quietly among friends.

But when it comes to reporting, how should journalists use it? 

At the moment, we’re using it all wrong. We’re grabbing random tweets, isolated conversations locked into a 140-character limit, and using them to drive whatever story we want. We need to stop. So the Paradox team decided we needed some rules for using Twitter as a foundation for our stories.

Faith

Why Deserting the Culture War Is a(n) (Understandable) Mistake

As much of our culture turns away from Christianity, the beliefs our faith espouses make their way into the mainstream press less and less. Many media sources, already vehicles of various biases we find unpalatable, make us angry when they misrepresent Catholicism or advocate immorality or scoff at our values. So we boycott. Stay inside our social media echo chambers. Read about how bad the other side is in our preferred news sources without actually reading what the opposition is writing.

It’s not an irrational response — frankly, it’s an understandable response. But it isn’t the best one.

Culture

‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’ Wins the Battle (Passing the Bechdel Test) But Loses the War (Being a Great Film)

Like its central character, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” can’t quite figure out what it wants to be when it grows up.

The one and only Tina Fey is lots of fun per usual playing Kim Baker, a 40-something who ditches her deadbeat job writing news copy for people who “look pretty on TV” to cover blood, sweat and explosions in Afghanistan. She’s typically deadpan hilarious, with a uniquely Fey sense of timing, and brings a wry humanity to the role as she acts as a surrogate for the audience. Most of us have never been to Afghanistan or experienced the terror of a war zone; Fey’s Baker hasn’t either, grappling with new dangers and a foreign culture in a relatable way.