Why I got my PhD As early as the eighth grade I knew that I wanted to get a higher degree. There was no question, really, just something instilled in me. Having two parents with graduate degrees was likely a huge reason. Also, growing up in an area that didn’t seem, culturally, to value and [...]
May 3, 2011
The Columbia Journalism Review posted yesterday an intriguing piece about the rise of public relations and shrinking of news reporting. Arguably, much of what is mentioned in the story as “PR” is not what many of us in the profession would endorse as normal public relations practice or as being ethical. The free flow of [...]
March 31, 2011
What the company defended and why it may have failed I was a budding journalist in the early 1990s. I had been assigned to cover the university’s faculty senate meeting, what I assumed would be a snooze-fest. It mostly was. But toward the end, something curious occurred. A faculty member made a surprise announcement, a [...]
February 25, 2011
How punk rock evolved as a subculture is a study not free from controversy. Punk, forever ingrained ideologically as anti-mainstream has, since its inception, been granted credibility by the very mainstream it takes strides to loathe. The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Ramones, easily the top punk bands of their day, were all on major record labels [...]
February 16, 2011
There is now ample evidence supporting early claims by Toyota that, essentially, its vehicles were not at fault for a number of crashes last year. Unfortunately, the toll taken on the auto company has been significant both in terms of cost and reputation. A few have commented about the situation with marvelous insight: James Donnelly’s [...]
June 22, 2011