Within the expansive territory of the blogosphere, this news clip amounts to little more than a pebble plunked into Lake Superior. And even within the much more modest boundaries of my blog, it’s nothing big. But it speaks volumes about the power of a heavy digital footprint.
A few days ago, NJTV News, the PBS evening news show for New Jersey, requested to use a photo from a blog article of mine from a few years ago–a photo of the entrance sign to the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Union Township, Hunterdon County. The news piece itself, about a state-level hearing on the likely abuse of inmates at Edna Mahan by prison guards, probably didn’t need my photo (which appears at about the one minute point), but NJTV News contacted me anyway.
Clearly my photo is no great shakes. But it helped establish the context that the article needed, like dropping a pin on a map at Edna Mahan. And even though I have no professional photography training, my understanding of what makes a great image is secondhand, and the camera I was using back then was particularly lousy, NJTV News chose my pic because it was out there, the blog was attributed to me, and I said yes.
To some extent, its a testament to how even a somewhat old article retains saliency because our preferred search engines don’t factor publication dates heavily when we’re seeking resources on an obscure or arcane subject. That is, if a 12-year-old article from a now-defunct magazine answers our burning questions about a Nokia flip phone, it’s probably the best resource available, regardless of age. And, thanks to American Dirt’s tendency–over the last nine years–to pry into whatever arcana the landscape offers, I manage to come up with some pretty odd little photo subjects. This obsession with such details is unlikely to ever boost a person’s social life, but now and then it manages news coverage. And, in its own humble way, maybe orienting photos like this will help raise awareness and advance the causes of justice for abuse victims at Edna Mahan. I could be giving myself more credit than I’m due–then again, I hadn’t bothered to check the stats to see if anyone else was reading my Edna Mahan article these days. Yet it looks like they are. The possibility of permanency keeps the blogosphere spinning, even when other, jazzier media have started to push it off of its orbit.
4 thoughts on “NJTV News: pics picked from New Jersey’s Edna Mahan.”
You rock Eric and absolutely deserve some credit. Logical, thought provoking writing with a good eye-catcher will never get old! In looking at the sign it occurs to me, in the context of our so-called failing infrastructure, a task that I have *never* seen neglected is the updating of names on state signs! I wonder whose job it is to go an update all the state signs when a new administration comes in? Haha – just provoked my thoughts ! Hope you’re well – have a great day.
Thanks so much, Pete–really appreciate the compliment! As for the sign, bear in mind that I took the photo a couple years ago, during the Christie admin. But it’s a good question regarding who does that, especially at state boundary signs. Maybe DOT? The replacement probably costs far more than any of us would ever want to think about…
Absolutley! On a blog of mine, far and away the most “popular” post was such because of an image (yoked oxen). Turns out there must not be many images of yoked oxen out there and online searches kept popping up that blog post.
Thanks for the message, Jon. I bet you’re right about the yoked oxen–your photo is probably particularly useful very helping people even understand what yoked oxen even look like. About the only other context I’ve even heard of a yoke of oxen was in the classic educational video game for PCs, “The Oregon Trail”.