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IVR Cheat Sheet by Paul English

IVR Cheat Sheet by Paul EnglishTrouble with VOICE messaging? See this.

Evening papers are back -- online

NEWSPAPERS
For those who love newspapers -- to read them, write them and rail at
them - these are somber times. ... Newspapers are one of the glories
of modern Western civilization. They have, on the whole, probably
never been better written, edited and produced than they are today.
But their future is in doubt. So, is this the twilight of printed
news? Should the scribes of instant history be hunting-and-pecking
their industry's obituary? The answer is probably no. "I've never been
a believer that print will die," said technology writer and blogger
Edward Cone of North Carolina. "I think print has a lot of advantages.
It's a useful form. It's profitable, it's disposable, and you can roll
it up and hit the dog with it." But the nation's daily newspapers are
certainly changing fast, and to understand their future it may be
useful to glance at their past. ... Morning readers tended to prefer
their news straight-faced and serious. Afternoon readers were
different. They wanted to be entertained rather than educated,
preferring news of crime, sports and local politics, spiced with
strong opinions. The afternoon papers ran many editions, updating
stories throughout the day, getting the stock market closings and the
racetrack results in the final edition. Journalism in the afternoon
flourished until after World War II, when it was weakened by changes
in demographics, technology and the American economy. ... Now the
Internet has given newspapers the chance to compete again in the
breaking-news business. For once, the written word has an advantage
over television and radio. Most office workers would find it awkward,
to say the least, to sit around watching television or listening to
the radio. But they can read. And many with access to the Web check
the news there periodically all day. ... Web editors say readers look
for stories about crime and politics, about local neighborhoods and
communities, local sports and entertainment. In other words, they're
hunting for the kind of news once found in evening papers, exactly at
the times of day that once were the edition deadlines of those papers.
In fact, newspaper Web sites increasingly have come to resemble their
vanished afternoon brethren, albeit in electronic form and loaded with
bells, whistles, blogs and podcasts.

Source: Douglas Birch, The Baltimore Sun
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/ideas/bal-id.eveningnews27nov
27,1,4088875.story?coll=bal-ideas-headlines

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Media focus on white, wealthy in missing-children cases

COVERAGE
Study: Media focus on white, wealthy in missing-children cases

For a missing child to attract widespread publicity and improve the
odds of being found, it helps if the child is white, wealthy, cute and
under 12. Experts agree that whites account for only half of the
nation's missing children. But white children were the subjects of
more than two-thirds of the dispatches appearing on the Associated
Press' national wire during the last five years and for three-quarters
of missing-children coverage on CNN, according to a first-of-its-kind
study by Scripps Howard News Service. "I don't think this results from
conscious or subconscious racism," said Ernie Allen, president of the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "But there's no
question that if a case resonates, if it touches the heartstrings, if
it makes people think 'that could be my child,' then it's likely to
pass the test to be considered newsworthy. Does that skew in favor of
white kids? Yes, it probably does." That race and class affect news
coverage is a fact that's not lost on the families of missing minority
children. "But the thing about it, the ghetto mamas love their babies
just like the rich people do. And they need to recognize that," Mattie
Mitchell said of news executives. Mitchell is the great-grandmother of
missing 4-year-old Jaquilla Scales. Jaquilla, who is black and has
never been found, drew only slight national coverage in 2001 when she
was snatched from her bedroom in Wichita, Kan. But the bedroom
kidnappings of Danielle van Dam, Polly Klaas, Jessica Lundsford and
Elizabeth Smart, all white girls, erupted in a barrage of publicity.

Source: Thomas Hargrove and Ansley Haman, Scripps Howard News Service
via The Island Packet
http://www.islandpacket.com/24hour/nation/story/2926281p-11593332c.htm
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