Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Masked and anonymous (sources)

"Is it worth the aggravatiooooonnnnn, to find yourself a job when there's nothing worth looking for?" - Oasis - "Cigarettes and Alcohol"

- 179 resumes printed and sent
- two drawers full of clips - one for edited copy, one for clips

Resume posted on monsterjobs.com, yahoo.com, University of Nebraska Medical Center, bestjobsintucson.com, University of Nebraska and about a half dozen more that most likely need updating because I learned a better word for 'impact'. Resume updated in three formats, all on nice, sandstone-resume paper from Kinkos; each resume geared toward a specific market (one freelance, one techical writing, one newspaper). Two 3x5 spiral notecard books (75 count) filled with job leads, contact person, when I sent the resume, contact person's email, phone extension and the materials I sent.
... welcome to the job search for the 21st century.

And it doesn't end here. There's always a better way to say 'compiled,' 'assisted' and 'led.' The column format that was so praised by a resume expert gets ripped to shreds and you're asked to resubmit it in a more organized, horizontal format. All of this stuff will lead to a better opportunity, but after working a nine-and-a-half-hour day, it's the last thing you want to do - go out and fight another battle, revise your strategy and get back in the ring for Round 34. It could be far worse - you could not have a job and have to do this. Like exercise, every workout will produce a great result down the road. But... bloody hell, competing in a globalization society with approximately two million new grads can suck all ass.

Media topic - Newsweek and New York Times
So, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh basically say Newsweek killed more than a dozen protesters by running a story that had to be retracted. However, Hamid Karzai said the riots had virtually nothing to do with the Newsweek article. No doubt Newsweek did a stupid thing. And if I read one more "a senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity said she was 'concerned' about Bush's stance on such and such..." - I'm going to freak. I understand anonymous sources are needed in the media, but the reasons that papers are giving sources anonymity has to either get a lot stricter or the reason for giving anonymity to sources needs to be made a helluva lot more clear.

Different media topic (sort of) - but still relating to the Newsweek article - I'm renting the second season of '24' again - the one with the fabricated tape that tried to get three countries into war with the U.S. Yeah, this is a fantasy show, but when that season first came out in 2002-03, I was worried that after the nuke exploded, the last half of the season would get preposterous because, come on... using false information as a means of going to war with a country? (what a difference a few years makes). Anyway - in the age of improved technology, journalists are going to have to not only become journalists, but cops, detectives and CIA operatives as well. It's only going to get easier to make convincing forged documents and even doctored photos and recordings. This happened when Photoshop initially came out - people were worried that newspapers may accidentally run fabricated photos out of ignorance, but with the exception of a few major screw-ups, this never came to be a huge problem. And nothing still beats good old fashion intuition and hunches. But still, with deadline pressures, low paying jobs and newspapers forced to do more with less in the face of lower circulation, it looks like there is a recipe for more Newsweek and 60 Minutes 2 - type gaffes in the future, not less.

Listening selections
Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica
Paul Westerberg - Stereo
Oasis - Definitely Maybe

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