If you're active on Twitter, and follow @TheAgenda – and our many lovely and talented producers – you've probably noticed that over the past couple of weeks, we've taken to using the hashtag #agendareads in some of our tweets. It's an attempt by our team to share with you what we're reading, because, as any of us would tell you, ideas for a number of the programs we produce come from articles and stories we read in newspapers, magazines, and online.
I'll give you a concrete example: On February 13, my colleague Allison Buchan-Terrell produced a program about Pakistan, and its troubled past 12 months. She pitched the program – "Pakistan's Troubled Year" – at one of our editorial meetings after reading Bill Keller's mid-December 2011 magazine feature in The New York Times, "The Pakistanis Have a Point." After reading the piece, Allison's idea was to bring together a group of Pakistanis, both inside and outside the country, to talk about Pakistan's plight, and what can be done to turn the country's fortunes around. The discussion made for a great hour of television, and it all began thanks to a piece Allison read online.
And, thus, #agendareads was born. We, as producers, want to give you an idea of what we're reading. And, at the same time, we're looking to you to use #agendareads, too, to let us know of articles and news stories that you think we should be reading. As any consumer of media – especially online media – would tell you, there's far too much ground to be covered out there on the information highway alone; one simply can't read everything that's published out there.
Below, you'll find a few examples of what we at The Agenda have been reading over the last few days:
"The Land of No" Book excerpt in The New Republic bit.ly/zjuMtk Is cross-class love possible in America? #AgendaReads
— Mark Brosens (@MarkBrosens) February 15, 2012
Paul Volcker vs. the Bank of Canada: nyti.ms/yCH7CV #agendareads
— Hilary Clark (@hclark_) February 16, 2012
"A Boy Who Was 'Like a Flower'" pulitzer.org/archives/6809 By Anthony Shadid #RIP #agendareads
— Navin Vaswani (@nav_vaswani) February 17, 2012
Interesting Read (Look at referral traffic!)Why Pinterest Is So Addictive bit.ly/y9kXgY #agendareads #socialmedia
— David_Erwin (@David_Erwin) February 17, 2012
Love Stinks: An Economic Manifesto: The market for mates is structured to fail bit.ly/zBbVvX #agendareads /@dailydish
— A. Buchan-Terrell (@abuchanterrell) February 21, 2012
Obama to Cities: Drop Dead—the Life and Death of a Great American Urban Policy nyob.co/wAnPYt via @NewYorkObserver #agendareads
— Hilary Clark (@hclark_) February 21, 2012
We're reading. And we know you are, too. So the next time you come across a must-read piece, let us know by using the #agendareads hashtag on Twitter. Thanks!
Follow me on Twitter @nav_vaswani
