editorial policies of an amateur journalist

UBC Insiders has launched into a beast we only dream’t up over a beer, then a phone call, then an email, then a bbq. While we’ve encountered a lot of bumps we didn’t anticipate (for instance, the revenues column in the budget turning up 0), our most important planning, around our editorial, has worked out pretty well. Here’s some of the principles I’ve personally developed, and some of them we commonly accept.

1. The goal of the blog is to drive the debate. We’re politicos. We have opinions. We believe the status-quo is insufficient, and we use the public eye as a tool for change. We do not apologize for opinion.
2. Educate through exposure. It’s easy to say things. It’s not easy to quote sources. We will seek out original sources and provide them raw–not only to make our point, but to show how the sausage gets made, and make it less intimidating.
3. Assume readers speak the language, but give them a dictionary. In trying to make campus more learned, we deliberately use the talk that’s used by those on the inside. Though, with our dual mandate of education, we will provide links to where the reader can learn more.
4. Only report the issues that matter. It can be hard at times, especially when it means we might get scooped by one of the message-forwarding blogs, but we don’t publish rumors or personal conflicts. If we get scooped, we get scooped, but if we can state “the rumor is false”, then we’ve done a greater good. As a rule of thumb, the AMS does not matter.
5. Editorial autonomy. Editors retain their own integrity. One cannot block another’s right to write. We do this for efficiency and for efficacy. Less collaboration means less work, and more independence means wider, stronger connections. We each have universal access to everything, though.
6. Find the story early and define it. The most effective advocacy starts from scratch. If you can take something from nothing and frame it in your way, you’re pretty much done.

Those said, the zeroth editorial principle we have is that the site comes second. There are times when it can just take over, but if things get rough, we’re friends, lets get a beer and talk about life. Only four more days until we go into more relaxed mode (and we know to relax in four days, because of our research.)

a fascination: food policy

There’s no sector as seemingly innocuous, yet profoundly important as food policy. The impacts, especially on health, range an entire state. We could become happier, healthier, and more importantly, more cultured by encouraging diets based on the recently dead, instead of the injected, killed, frozen and microwaved. As a result of all this watching and reading, I’ve personally cut my meat intake by about a third. After watching, you’ll understand why.

Some video primers:

Mark Bittman on “what’s wrong with what we eat”.

Ann Cooper’s emotional appeal to changing the diet of kids.

Bittman, again, and Ezra Klein on America’s diet. (my favorite of the bunch)

Essay planning, debate-wise

This is the outline for a narrative I’m writing for class. It’s written using a debate flow chart. That’s pretty damn nerdy, if I could say so myself.

Process vs. outcomes

This opposition of terms has a long pedigree. Democratic proceduralists believe in process, partly because they assume that the differences among the parties in contention are relatively minor, and because today’s majority will become tomorrow’s minority, and vice versa. Everybody, so to speak, gets their turn in the long run. Opposed to them are Kantian idealists for whom good intentions are sufficient to define the good. A third position is held by those who are so persuaded of the rightness of their own ethical position that they lack patience with democratic procedure, pursuing their ends by whatever means are at hand. Among them are many who believe in the theory of the ‘big revolutionary bang’. Transformative change, according to this theory, requires a sharp break with the past, a break that is often connected with some violence, because the ancien regime must be ‘smashed’ before the revolutionary age can dawn.

- John Friedmann, The Good City: In Defense of Utopian Thinking (2000)

Debate

In my last year of the academy, I’ve been trying to exhaust all those activities I was meaning to try, but never got around to. Backpacking and debating, were two I’ve had an interest in for some time, and only recently I tried debate. I went to two meetings, and before I knew it I was on a bus to Calgary for a pro-am tournament. I’m glad to say my partner and I came home as semi-finalists (85th percentile), in what was a UBC sweep.

Now, this is somewhat to be expected, since I’ve spent most of my undergraduate degree in public/private meetings making arguments on the fly, but the debate platform is rather unique. I personally didn’t score so well at the tournament (I was the median speaker, given the stats, though its said they screwed up the calculating). There seems to be a very different method of speaking in this form:

First, the structure of speech. It has to begin with the model presented (or with a characterization of one of the other side’s points), bring in either some moral or factual claims, then in the end hinge on an appeal to a ‘common value’ (e.g. self-actualization, economic prosperity, maximal utility, logical consistency).

Second, the manner of speech. It’s a sort of subtle pretentiousness. There is a language to these debates which I do not speak, and am not used to. This makes it hard for me to follow at times, and makes me hard to follow. I’m used to speaking for clarity, to people who may have a completely different perspective than me. They’re used to speaking for argumentation, to those they’ve been arguing with for years.

That said, I really enjoy it. I’m learning a lot, particularly around rhetoric, and it’s a lot of fun discussing high-brow topics and pretending I know a lot about them (we took first on “this house would support an Israel strike on Iran”, though I know little about that conflict). Given the costs of tournaments and the funding structure of the society, I won’t likely be able to attend many other tournaments this year, but it is something I’m glad I discovered before getting out of school.

Auditory Thursday

Life has been busy. Plenty of ups and downs this month as I realize I wasn’t as planned as I thought I was. Life’s changing, quick, but I’m getting by, and trying to learn the most from it.

A song for the ups: Phoenix – Love Like a Sunset

A song for the downs: A mislabelled track by either Philip Glass or Gidon Kremer

Reliving the ups of last year

At times I wonder why I invest so much volunteer time into the community. Then I realize: it’s the rush from making a positive difference. About forty hours of research and meetings paid off, and I’m really happy on behalf of the future of campus for it!

Auditory Thursday

For back to school.

http://www.myspace.com/americandollarband

Projects ‘09

School is around the corner, so it’s time to recount the projects underway right now.

First, I’m excited for the launch of the 60-or-so-hours I’ve invested into the new UBC Insiders. It doesn’t look like much yet, but the seeds of greatness are there. Also working on a number of projects under this umbrella, which I wont go in to much here, but one of them is VoteView. Check out the work so far at ubcinsiders.ca, and thanks to those who have provided input so far.

Second, I’m still doing my research for my TerryTalk. I need to cram out my submission video in two weeks, but that shouldn’t be too rough. I’ve made the skeleton of the talk, and am pretty excited for it. It’s about the radical change some economies have gone through since their widgets have become non-rival and they’ve eliminated their transaction costs. In particular what that could (and should) mean for education. Sound boring? Well, that’s why it needs polish. I’ve got a couple of zingers so far, like “the ivory meadow”, but more cleverness and cohesiveness is needed.

Third is this blog and developing my personal online presence. Still a long time in the works, but I did register alougheed.ca, as well as this here loblog.ca. Hosting forthcoming.

And the last project going on is the project that is always going on: getting my life to where I want it to be. I recently made another to-do list, but this one’s scoped at the five-year scale. I’m still struggling on what some of the things I came up with mean, and how I’ll accomplish them (transcend wage slavery? achieve livelihood independence?). The list has added a lot of focus of late regardless, which was well overdue.

New life goal