Credit Honolulu Weekly editor Ragnar Carlson with calling out the Honolulu Advertiser for its faux front page in Sunday’s edition.
I have to admit that I just ripped the annoying thing off and discarded it without further analysis, so I appreciate that Carlson went further to assess this advertising copy disguised as news.
When “custom, journalistic communication” is paid for by a car or resort company, it’s called “advertorial” or just plain advertising. When the client is a consortium of the State and the biggest corporations in town, and the product is a way of thinking about the state itself, it’s called propaganda.
Never mind that the word calls to mind giant posters of Josef Stalin. Never mind that the propaganda in question doesn’t hit you over the head with salacious, screaming headlines. Whether you agree with it or not, the representation of statehood in Sunday’s Advertiser was propaganda all the same.
I’m not sure I would have put it that way, but Carlson’s definitely got a point. A provocative point, too, which should cause some rethinking at the ‘Tiser (but probably won’t).
There’s a nice story in today’s Star-Bulletin about the publication of an edited version of the massive dissertation on Indonesian blacksmithing by President Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham.
The story correctly notes: “Dunham, who died in 1995 at the age of 52, earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in anthropology at the University of Hawaii.”
What isn’t mentioned anywhere in the story is that Dunham’s book was published by Duke University Press, although the editing was done by a UH duo.
The somewhat embarrassing back story is that the University of Hawaii Press passed on the opportunity to publish the book, saying they don’t publish dissertations. I don’t think they even reviewed the manuscript.
What? This isn’t any old randomly selected bit of academia. It’s apparently outstanding research by the mother of the president on a piece of traditional culture of Indonesia, one of the world’s most populous nations and one getting a lot of foreign policy attention these days. Obviously it’s a book that will get more attention than most of the UH publication list. Why couldn’t UH Press see this as an exciting opportunity to display work of a UH graduate thrust into prominence by historical circumstance, rather than seeing it as a routine rejection of an academic tome?
Answer that question and you’ll probably find the key to transcending the administrative mediocrity that hobbles many island institutions.
“Caught between a rock and a big wave.” That’s how the impact of climate change on Hawaii is described by Kauai freelance writer Jon Letman in an excellent recent piece from Truthout.org.
Meanwhile, I noticed the Portland City Council is considering a four-day city work week as a cost-saving measure, while 1,000 Portland teachers disrupted a school board meeting in a protest of stalled contract talks.
I’m not really sure what this little duck I met yesterday afternoon was trying to communicate. Her tail was wagging, although I don’t know when or why ducks wag their tails. But it all seemed friendly enough. Anyway, just click on her photo to play a short video, and you can decide for yourself.
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Re UH passing on Ma Obama’s dissertation… Naval Institute Press had never published a work of fiction in its entire history when it came across a novel that contained such accurate technical detail on submarine maneuvers and warfare that it decided to make an exception. The book? “The Hunt for Red October.”
Can’t tell if the duck is menacing or enthusiastic. Leaning toward “killer duck.”
A more duck-oriented friend advises that Ms. Duck is begging for food.
that makes a lot of sense! now you need to carry duck treats with you as well.
“[T]he administrative mediocrity that hobbles many island institutions” is observable, but its origins remain a puzzle to me. Is it a question of values? Of local cultural conceit?
Unacknowledged advertorials are bad enough. But treating the delicate subject of statehood as just another excuse to sell advertising sponsorship for a wrapper, and producing an example so, ahem, incomplete, is amazingly crass, even for the Advertiser. They need to rethink many things over there, but you’re right, they probably won’t. Ignorance, opportunism and an embarrassing lack of managerial integrity reign.
I didn’t see the spadea, did it bear the “paid advertisement” label? Advertising copy has masqueraded as legitimate news copy for ages, in all kinds of print media, from single “story” ads to full advertising sections. But as long as it was labeled as advertising, it’s been considered okay.