Challenging the Constrictions of "Developmentally Appropriate" Chains

Recently, I had a conversation with a colleague from a different department. I mentioned I was working on a paper about how teachers perceive parents.

She nodded, and made some comment about how teachers talk about parents.

"I know a kindergarten teacher," she said, "who had a child yanked out of her class the third week of school because the parents were upset that she had not corrected the child's spelling on something."

She went on to say the teacher had tried to explain to the parents that inventive spelling is developmentally appropriate at this age and that correcting the child's spelling this early in her schooling could be detrimental.

"Can you imagine the parents pulling her out of the class the third week of kindergarten over something like this?" she concluded.

When I suggested that maybe the parents were right to be concerned, my colleague clearly thought I was one French fry short of a Happy Meal, as the colloquialism goes.

Really?

Let's first note that such reputable, parent-friendly online sources as Education.com back up this view of invented spelling, noting that it may be frustrating for parents to ignore misspellings but that the important thing is that "Children should feel like successful, independent writers" (para. 5).

But what does developmentally appropriate mean, and why do I call them constricting chains?

Stay tuned.

Final Tally -- Second Tier News Outlets Ed Policy People Should Monitor

(Want to multitask? Listen to this post by clicking the link embedded in the title above.)

It never fails.

All the good stuff pops up at the end. That's what has happened as I have read and searched and tried to understand the relationship between the news media and how policy develops.

I have revisited my journalism studies, looking specifically for information about 1) how journalists report on policy, especially education policy, and 2) more specifically, how the way journalists report on education policy affects the way policy is formed.

I also have read books about making policy, looking specifically for information about how policy makers -- widely defined -- use news media as a tool and/or view news media as a factor in the policy-making process.

What I have seen so far, leads me to believe a blind spot may exist.

Policy analysts tend to comment on what the news reports said -- but not on how the way the news was reported might affect the process. Journalists -- who, by the nature of their jobs, generally don't broadcast their introspections -- tend to look at what each other is reporting, how, and whether they can apply that to their local community.

As a result, each group plays the other and neither group is willing to acknowledge playing anything at all.

In an article in the International Journal of Leadership in Education, Stack (2010) put it this way, "Policy makers and journalists attempt to mobilize symbolic capital within and across their fields to be seen as having knowledge that is worthy of recognition" (p. 108).

Or as Kaniss put it, speaking specifically of reporters (but applicable to all of us) who have an innate desire to “write the most important story of the day and have it given the greatest prominence” (Kaniss, 1991, p. 73).

 Look, for instance, at the Education Writers Association's Web site. Notice that the left rail features paid press release space, i.e., fodder from policy organizaitons for potential news stories they're hoping writers will pick up on. And here is the focus of the site, captured in a link to recent EWA contest winners:

How We Did the Story: Contest Winners Share Tips on Ed Beat
On Ed Beat, several winners of our 2010 contest have shared the process they used to bring their acclaimed stories to their readers. This is a great resource for writers on the ed beat to pick up pointers for their own reporting, and to gain new insight into the stories that shaped the national education conversation in 2010.

So where does that leave me with this particular several-week study and what else have I learned?

Last question first: As a result of this particular assignment, I have reacquainted myself with IMovie and its podcast-making capabilities. I was familiar with a previous version of IMovie – had even made some 3-5 minute videocasts – then, unknowingly, bought a newer version – and was suddenly stymied. I’m finding the newer version requires some coaxing, but I’m seeing the possibilities once again.

My journalistic curiosity has been reawakened. For a while, it was easier to let policy pass me by. I’m even considering watching the school board meetings again. Hardcore stuff. How that will figure in to children’s literature, I’m not sure.

Finally, I’ve been amazed at the multitude of well-developed online outlets that have sprung up over the last couple of years. I shouldn’t be, of course. With so many traditional news outlets trimming staff and with so many online opportunities for entrepreneurial types – and concerned citizen-stakeholders – the increase in online alternative coverage was bound to happen. In a previous post, I listed two. My final tally lists six – by next month there could be more.

Which leads me back to where I’m left at the end of this several-weeks study of the relationship between news media and education policy.

Answer? In two places:

1) I have a much better awareness of the myriad national and local second-tier news sources (view the list here) I need to monitor to have a more well-rounded picture of the education world in general and of education policy in particular, and 

2) I have a focus for a deeper study of how the two worlds affect each other. The good stuff that came at the end is good, indeed, but it deserves its own study and not to be tacked on to the end of this one.

Stay tuned.

References:
Kaniss, P. (1991). Kaniss, P. (1991). Making Local News. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Making Local News. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Stack, M. L. (April-June 2010). Spin as symbolic capital: The fields of journalism and education policy-making. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 13(2), 107-119.

The In's and Out's of this Study of Second-tier News Media and Education Policy: Part Three

Nope. I didn't forget where this discussion was headed.

It's just so easy to get diverted onto side trails and to wander among Elysian Fields of anything but education policy. Not that I'm not enjoying this excursion into the quagmires of policy and legislation. But, hmmmm, quagmires vs. Elysian Fields should say something.

So -- back to the in's and out's of this study of second-tier media. We've issued a cautionary caveat about the tangled web of media ownership. And we've noted what's out as far as this study is concerned: obvious first-tier national and local news organizations, local news organizations without a Web presence, other-than-English news outlets, and one online blog about local education but written by reporters for a first-tier local news organization.

So what's in?

In order to answer that question -- we're getting there, I promise -- we need to look at how the news media landscape has shifted over the last several years. Specifically, we need to look at some upstart new players.

The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism issued its annual report on American Journalism recently. The State of the News Media 2011 made note of a couple of very interesting developments in the area of online news sources which, to no one's surprise, continue to claim a larger percentage of news followers.

The changes are two-fold. First, the players are changing. It's not just traditional news organizations putting up Web sites and sharing news from print to Web and back again. Second, the delivery substructure is changing so drastically that the relationship between news organization and news consumer is convoluted and tenuous.

In fact, the Pew report said, "It may be than in the digital realm the news industry is no longer in control of its own future."

Why?

Mainly because the behind-the-scenes online conduit components are not owned by the newspapers themselves. Print newspapers print their own papers, or hire a printer to do so, and hire delivery people to drop them on people's doorsteps or to fill vending machines. News broadcasters generally broadcast over frequencies owned by their company.

But online distribution is more complicated. As the Pew report points out, device makers, software developers, news aggregators, and social networks each have their own platform requirements and rules. And, while the end user, i.e. the news consumer, doesn't usually pay for news except when he/she buys a new computer (not seen in the same light as buying a news subscription), each of these links in the distribution news chain cost news organizations money.

Of more concern, the news consumer may access the news by clicking on a link on a social networking site -- but the link may have originated with a friend of a friend of a friend in Outer Mongolia. Indirect links make it almost impossible for news organizations to track audience data, which they use to target content and advertising to specific audiences and which is the commodity they sell to advertisers.

The results? The Pew report says, "Financially, the tipping point also has come. When the final tally is in, online ad revenue in 2010 is projected to surpass print newspaper ad revenue for the first time. The problem for news is that by far the largest share of that online ad revenue goes to non-news sources, particularly to aggregators."

Here's the kicker. Those news aggregators -- Yahoo, AOL, Bloomberg, and others -- are developing their own news organizations. Some of them can be considered second-tier news organizations -- for the time being, at least. Another ten years and, who knows?

(See, I told you I hadn't forgotten where we were headed!)

So -- here's what I'm including in this particular review:

Second-tier national media sources:

• The Christian Science Monitor
• Poynter.org
• Media Bullpen

Second-tier state and local (Tampa Bay area, i.e., Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties) media sources:

• Clearwater Gazette
• Creative Loafing Tampa
• Florida Catholic
• Florida Courier
• Florida Sentinel Bulletin
• Jewish Press
• Khaas Baat
• The News
• Tampa Bay Business Journal
• Tampa Bay Newspapers
• The Weekly Challenger
• Bay News 9
• WEDU
• WPDS-TV

Second-tier online newbies:

• Patch.com
• St. Petersblog

Whew!

Who are all these people?

Stay tuned!

Video of Christopher Cross Speaking on Education Policy

Here's a link to an 8-minute video of Christopher Cross speaking about national education policy. The video is an edited version of an almost 90-minute talk Cross gave at one of the Gottesman Libraries, part of Columbia University's Teacher College.

http://gottesman.pressible.org/govan/political-education-national-policy-comes-of-age

Quick Note: Nothing Funny About Stephen Colbert's Super PAC

Check out this Christian Science Monitor article about comedian Stephen Colbert forming -- for real -- a super PAC or political action committee. According to the article, this enables Colbert to receive donations in unlimited amounts from individuals, corporations, and organizations. The superPAC can't donate directly to candidates for office, but it can spend unlimited amounts advocating for or against a particular candidate.

Officially, the name of the super PAC is Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow.

[Aside: Does the second "tomorrow" mean "as in now, not next year or ten years from now," which is my guess. But the cynic in me says it also could mean tomorrow as in "I'll do it tomorrow" and "tomorrow never comes."]

Jumping through the legal hoops of establishing a superPAC is a far cry from writing an editorial in a newspaper. But, historically, newspapers have often begun as the mouthpiece of one political party or another. And who knows what goes on behind the scenes.

How does Colbert intend to use the money? Let's turn to another CSM article for more insight.

And here's the fine print from ABTT's home page: Contributions to Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow ("ABTT") are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. ABTT may accept unlimited corporate contributions, unlimited individual contributions, unlimited labor-union contributions, and unlimited PAC contributions. Contributions from foreign nationals and federal-government contractors will not be accepted. *Federal law requires ABTT's best efforts to obtain and report the name, address, occupation, and employer of any individual who contributes more than $200 in a calendar year.


Interesting that the curious reader cannot access the inner workings of the Web site without "joining" by providing an email address -- presumably, anyway. The only instruction is "Join Us:" followed by a data entry box, which is then followed by a "Submit" button. I tried entering Curious George, but got an "Invalid email address" note.

Who is on the board? Where is the office located? What are the planned expenditures? How will Mr. Colbert himself benefit?

The only clue to the answer to any of these questions is a link to the 10-page letter from the Federal Election Commission notifying Colbert's attorneys that his request has been approved. That letter is addressed to:

Trevor Potter, Esq.

Joseph Birkenstock, Esq.

Matthew T. Sanderson, Esq.

Caplin & Drysdale Chtd.

One Thomas Circle, NW

Suite 1100

Washington, DC 20005

Stay tuned.

Looking Back Before Moving Ahead

Welcome to this second podcast (click on title above) looking at second-tier media and its role in disseminating information about education policy.

So far, we have looked at the current media landscape.

We have explored the web of ownership that might lead to conflicts of interest and pressures to suppress, distort, exaggerate, or promote news.

We have distinguished between first-tier and second-tier news media outlets—a somewhat artificial designation that exists in the eye of the beholder.

And we have noted that not every news outlet is designated as such. News aggregator Web sites, satirical comedy shows, and blogs each play a part in feeding the news stream.

What I have found so far is a fairly empty landscape when it comes to thinking about what the news produces in terms of content. My guess is that the voluminous nature of the news stream makes it almost impossible to study except in tiny samples—a bit like trying to study the water flowing through Hoover Dam by the eyedropper full.

In any case, here is what I have noticed so far:

Books about Education Policy refer to coverage by major news outlets only incidentally and never consider second-tier news media outlets at all.

Christopher Cross, for instance, in his book Political Education: National Policy Comes of Age, cites various articles appearing in major newspapers, but he makes few comments about the coverage itself or about its impact. When he does comment, it is without explanation or analysis [“The Washington Post, in an unseemly reference, called it a ‘political Jonestown’ (Heffernan, 2001, p. 472).”]

Even in the next-to-the-last chapter, Chapter 8 “Lessons Learned From a Half Century of Federal Policy Development,” Cross buries comments about communication problems of any kind as a factor in shaping public policy under the sub-heading of “The Federal Government Deserves a D in Implementing Programs, Building Capacity at the State and Local Level, and Getting Timelines Right” (p. 147).  In this eight-paragraph section, astounding for its understatement, Cross quotes Barry White as saying that “when things fail, and they often do, it is almost always due to the lack of an implementation plan” (p. 147). Cross says major changes in federal law come with money for “technical assistance, training, and support,” and that this is a “problem that plagues all human –services programs” (p. 147).

The main problem? Communication. “How,” Cross asks, “does a politician explain [emphasis added] supporting the salaries of ‘bureaucrats’ rather than expanding services, even if the quality of the services suffers from the lack of the capacity to deliver them?” (p. 147). Then Cross says the “communication pipeline is inefficient and, as in the old game of telephone, messages are often received—if at all—with the content distorted as it passes from layer to layer, person to person” (p. 147). Web site designs are responsive to people seeking information rather than actively disseminating information. And, Cross says, the time lines in most bills don’t even consider school starting dates, when staff members are generally hired, or other important dates—information is not being sought or communicated. If internal communication is this faulty, can we assume external communication with an aggressive press is any better?

Books about Journalism dismiss second-tier media as unimportant. William A. Hatchen, a professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Wisconsin, mentions second-tier news media twice in his book The troubles of Journalism: A Critical Look at What’s Right and Wrong with the Press. While Hatchen presents a comprehensive look at first-tier news media, Hatchen also mentions two second-tier media sources without seeming to understand the importance attached to what he says about them.

1)    On page 10, Hatchen devotes all of one paragraph to weekly newspapers, numbering, at the time, about 7,500. Hatchen says the total circulation of weekly papers was, at the time, around 55 million. 55 million!!! Hatchen has just finished listing the major daily papers and said the total circulation of the dailies was about 63 million. The circulation of the weekly papers almost equals the circulation of the dailies, but Hatchen only devotes one paragraph to this vibrant facet of print journalism.

2)    On page 17, Hatchen says most of the news Americans were getting about what was happening in foreign countries came from just seven daily newspapers: “The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Baltimore Sun—which all maintain overseas news bureaus.” What does it say that The Christian Science Monitor is never mentioned again in the book, even though its ownership and financial model is unique and even though it has earned a reputation for quality, neutral reporting? Today, The Christian Science Monitor is published weekly, but its Web site is still updated 24/7.

The academic world seems equally devoid of information about either second-tier news media or about the relationship between journalism and education policy. A search of several databases using the terms “second-tier” and “media” yielded nothing. Because news media often is concerned with reaching a particular market, I next searched “second-tier markets,” which gave me 1,114 articles—almost all of which dealt with the stock market or commodities. The remainder dealt with the real estate market and other financial matters.

Switching gears to “weekly newspapers” and “education” gave me 19 hits, most of which explored 19^th century newspapers, college newspapers, or were otherwise unrelated. That’s not to say college newspapers should not be included in discussions of education policy. But the articles focused on management issues than on what they reported.

A search of “journalism” and “education policy” gave me 12 hits—all but one originating outside the United States. These articles will be the subject of the next few blog postings.

Stay tuned.

An Aside: News Comedy as a Type of Second-Tier News Media

This posting is supposed to be a podcast (by me) updating my faithful followers as to my discoveries about second-tier news media and their role in the dissemination of education policy.

It's not. Instead, I bring you an aside -- a look at another form of second-tier news media, news comedy.

A 2009 Rasumussen Reports survey indicated that "nearly one-third of Americans under the age of 40 say satirical news-oriented television programs like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart are taking the place of traditional news outlets."

Of course, satirizing the news -- especially political news, which is how most top-tier news outlets tend to define news -- is nothing, pardon the pun, new.

Jay Leno and David Letterman do so every weekday night on broadcast TV; Saturday Night Live has the weekend shift. Before them, there were Johnny Carson, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and That Was The Week That Was (TW3) hosted by none other than Sir David Frost.

Before TV, Will Rogers captivated radio audiences. The surviving copies of Weekly Lampoon[1] and Momus Ridens Or, Comical Remarks on the Publick Reports,[2] two British periodicals of the early 1690s, suggest that the alternative press probably has a history as old as the mainstream press. Today, The Onion is one of the better known of the satirical newspapers/news sites.

From ancient times, fools or jesters were appointed, with impunity, to criticize those in authority -- to say the things that needed to be said but that no one else dared to.

One problem I see with relying too heavily on comedy news sites is that they are really, really good at mocking politicos and at pointing out what's wrong. They seldom stray into the areas of what's right, nor do they tend to stick around long enough to try to figure out how to fix something. They make us laugh, but do they motivate us to act?

Uncle Jay is one of my favorite news satirists. In the video above, he discusses the word "euphemism."

What euphemisms are used in the world of education?

Podcast coming soon.

Stay tuned.

---

[1]Weekly Lampoon (London, 1690).

[2]Momus Ridens: Or, Comical Remarks on the Publick Reports (London, 1690-1691). Also referred to as Momus Ridens: Comical Remarks on the Weekly Reports in some issues. Both Weekly Lampoon and Momus Ridens were “printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor , near Stationers-Hall.”

Want More Info? Check out my bibliography

Look for the Annotated Bibliography: Media link on the right rail . . . or click here to go to this page. Check back to see what new sources I have found and reviewed.

Watch for other annotated bibliography pages, too. The Resources link will combine the citations for them all.

At least, that's the plan.

:-)

The In's and Out's of this Study of Second-tier News Media and Education Policy: Part Two

What news organizations am I not considering in this particular exploration?

OUT:

Obvious national first-tier news media outlets: Dow Jones & Company*-owned Wall Street Journal; Sidney Harmon and IAC-owned Newsweek magazine;  New York Times Company-owned New York Times, International Herald and Boston Globe; Time Warner-owned Time magazine; Turner Broadcasting System**-owned CNN; Washington Post Company***-owned Washington Post.

* Dow Jones & Company is a News Corporation (Rupert Murdoch-controlled) company.

**Turner Broadcasting System is a Time Warner company.

***Since 1984, the Washington Post Company also has owned Kaplan, Inc., test preparation and education company. WPC also owns CableOne, among other businesses.

Obvious local first-tier news media outlets: News Corporation-owned and Fox-affiliated WTVT-TV Channel 13; Gannett-owned and CBS-affiliate WTSP-TV Channel 10; Media General-owned outlets The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com, and NBC-affiliate WFLA-TV Channel 8; Scripps-owned**** and ABC- affiliate WFTS-TV Channel 28; and Times Publishing Company-owned St. Petersburg Times, tbt* (Tampa Bay Today), and TampaBay.com.


****E. W. Scripps sponsors the National Spelling Bee.

Not-so-obvious news first-tier media outlet: Gradebook is an online blog written by the education reporters at the St. Petersburg Times. While it offers much in the way of convenience -- gathering in one spot news articles about education in five counties and at the University of South Florida -- and while it offers the combined talents of six education reporters, it is still part of the St. Petersburg Times.

Some second-tier news media outlets: 
These fall into roughly two categories: 

• The Tampa Bay area has a number of other-than-English-language news media outlets. Some of these are owned by first-tier outlets, and some are independent. These news outlets collectively are an extremely important factor to consider, but it would be presumptuous of me, knowing only functional German and less Spanish, to try to comment on their coverage.
• Any news outlet without a fully functional Web site. Again, these outlets collectively are an extremely important factor to consider, but the logistics of collecting these publications are prohibitive for this particular examination. 

Third-tier media: Admittedly an arbitrary decision on my part, I am excluding all locally published magazines.


For the most part, these are the Out's, the news media outlets I am excluding.

What's In?

Stay tuned.

The In's and Out's of this Study of Second-tier News Media and Education Policy: Part One

From Microsoft Gallery

What's In and what's Out in this exploration of second-tier news media and their role in disseminating information about education policy?


Before answering that question, let's look briefly at the tangled web of news media ownership.  Many people and organizations, such as Free Press, are concerned the vast majority of our news media outlets ultimately are owned by six mega-corporations, listed in order of 2009 reported revenues: General Electric, which founded NBC TV and still owns a large share of the company; Walt Disney Company, which owns ESPN and ABC TV; News Corporation, which owns FOX Broadcasting Company and the Wall Street Journal; Time Warner, which owns CNN and Time magazine; Viacom, which owns MTV and Nickelodeon (don't discount either as news sources); and CBS Corporation, which owns CBS TV. Many of the major book publishers are owned by these corporations, as well.

Even smaller weekly papers and local radio and television stations may be owned by conglomerates. And just because an outlet lists Company UVW as owner, that doesn't mean that Company UVW isn't itself owned by Conglomerate XYZ.  Broadcast news outlet CNN, for instance, is owned by Turner Broadcasting System, which is a Time Warner company.

The main concern is the obvious conflict of interest involved when a non-news media parent corporation owns a news media outlet and other non-news media businesses.

Dr. William A. Hatchen noted in his 2005 book, The Troubles of Journalism, "Communications companies in recent years have ingested many news organizations, yet these same companies are involved in lobbying government and seeking government favors. In a recent election campaign, the communications industry was the sixth largest contributor to candidates, giving almost $10 million to political action committees" (62-63).

One not-so-subtle manifestation of this tangled web can be seen at the end of many local newscasts, when local anchors report on the latest Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, or Survivor developments. A generation or two ago, this would have been anathema in the world of news journalism. Today, these infomercials for the entertainment industry blend so smoothly into the evening news that most people don't think twice about their presence.

What about news outlets such as BBC, PBS and NPR? There is potential for conflict there, too. After all, when the BBC operates under the terms of a Royal Charter and when NPR and PBS receive even a small portion of their funding from the government, it could be argued there is an implicit political threat to the continued existence and/or impartiality of these outlets.

With that cautionary caveat, stay tuned for Part Two to learn what's In and what's Out for this particular exploration of second-tier media and education policy.

Second-Tier Busine$$ $trategie$

Click on the title above to listen to the podcast or scan the text below.

Listen or read. It's up to you. We aim to please. :-)

Say 'news media' and most people think of the biggies: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, etc. People living in the Tampa Bay area of Florida might think of the St. Petersburg Times, the Tampa Tribune, and various local television stations.

But those news media organizations are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Floating just under the surface of instant name-recognition status are a larger mass of smaller news outlets, ones we might call second-tier organizations.

Second-tier is one of those eye-of-the-beholder kind of terms that gets bandied about casually and expands or shrinks to fit the moment. Second-tier doesn’t necessarily mean second-rate. In fact, second-tier thinking in the business world, however, can prove quite profitable. 

Forbes.org, for instance, noted in a May 23, 2011, posting that Bethesda, Maryland, based Coventry Health Care, Inc. uses a “growth by acquisition strategy” that “targets small, local health plans in second-tier markets, where it can leverage its four regional service centers and improve operating efficiencies, largely through economies of scale.”

Apparently Coventry’s strategy works. Forbes noted that Coventry “reported net income of 150.3 million … in the fourth quarter” up from “109.1 million in the prior year period.”

The World Bank noted in its report Global Development Horizons 2011—Multipolarity: The New Global Economy that one category of so-called second-tier companies, emerging-market companies, are “becoming powerful forces and agents of change in the global industrial and financial landscape.”

Danny Ng, writing in the July/August 2010 issue of China Brief, noted that while China’s second-tier cities—numbers four through nineteen in terms of population—“account for roughly six percent of China’s population…they contribute about half of the country’s total foreign direct investment.” Foreign direct investment refers to other companies from other countries coming in and building a manufacturing or other facility in the host country.

What makes second-tier markets attractive? Ng says the second-tier cities often have governments that are actively pursuing foreign investors and offer comparatively lower operational costs than larger cities but still have large potential labor pools and markets. They may also offer a less competitive atmosphere—especially for foreign banks—than the larger cities, where the market is often saturated. Finally, because consumers in second-tier cities tend to expect less, they are an easier audience to cater to. But that doesn’t mean this is not a lucrative market. Ng noted that “The demand for luxury products is so hig in some second-tier cities that it is outpacing demand in their first-tier counterparts” (p. 10).

Locally, St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport, generally considered a secondary airport compared to Tampa International Airport, has carved out a niche in the travel industry by attracting secondary airlines, such as Allegiant Airlines, that fly to other secondary airports. Not everyone wants to fly to Memphis, but enough people want to fly from here to the Tri-City area on the Johnson City, Tenn., side of the Smokies to make it a regular run.

Sometimes it pays to think smaller.

And in the media world?

Stay tuned.

Second-Tier? Says Who?!

Second-tier is one of those eye-of-the-beholder kind of terms that gets bandied about casually and expands or shrinks to fit the moment. 


For almost three decades, U. S. News & World Report has ranked colleges and universities, and their various programs, using a four-tier system. The top 50 were in the first tier, numbers 51-100 were in the second tier, and the colleges in the third and fourth tiers were listed alphabetically. 


This year, USNWR changed the system for ranking law schools and increased the number of "numerically ranked institutions from the top 100 to the top three-quarters of the schools. The remaining schools are listed alphabetically as the second tier" (¶ 7). Some people might argue that renaming what previously was the fourth tier and calling it second tier sounds a bit like grade inflation. Be that as it may, the change illustrates the subjectiveness of the term.


By contrast, Richard Binder Fountain Pens  gives a fairly explicit definition, in their multi-page glossary, of what constitutes a second-tier fountain pen (who knew?!) and even lists the companies producing such pens. Of course, when one rates anything -- no matter how explicitly -- one invites opposing voices, as evidenced in the "First Tier Companies and their Second Tier Pens" discussion forum on The Fountain Pen Network's Web site.


Second-tier thinking in the business world, however, can prove quite profitable. 


Examples? 


Stay tuned.

Second-Tier News Media and Education Policy Discussions

Say 'news media' and most people think of the biggies: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, etc. People living in the Tampa Bay area of Florida might think of the St. Petersburg Times, the Tampa Tribune, and various local television stations.

But those news media organizations are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Floating just under the surface of instant name-recognition status are a larger mass of smaller news outlets. Some of them are owned by the same companies that own the biggies. Tampa Bay Newspapers, for instance, which publishes several weekly newspapers covering mid-Pinellas County, is owned by Times Publishing Co. Others, like Creative Loafing, cater to other types of audiences.

Still others are not official news outlets at all, but they still serve to disseminate information and to provide a forum for discussion. Often, these types of sources, such as Saint Petersblog, are online blogs.

Then there is a third type of news source that studies news in general, such as Poynter.org, or that comments on news coverage about a particular topic. The Media Bullpen, operated by The Center for Education Reform, critiques education coverage by media around the nation. Poynter.org, by the way, is produced by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which owns Times Publishing Co., which owns the St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Bay Newspapers and a few other publications.

And who funds and runs The Center for Education Reform?

Good question.

That and other questions about the role second-tier news media outlets play in discussions about education policy will be the topic of the next few postings -- with maybe a random post or two thrown in for good measure.

Stay tuned.