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• September 07, 2010
• 23:28

  Translating research theory into a multilingual local news website

   » ‎ Online Journalism Review
  By Daniela Gerson: Facing City Hall in Alhambra, California, a predominantly Asian and Latino suburb just east of Los Angeles, a life-size bronze statue of a man sits holding a newspaper. A plaque says the statue is dedicated to the memory of Warner Jenkins, "Alhambra's beloved journalist/chronicler." That is the closest a journalist gets to Alhambra's City Hall most days. Local news coverage in the municipality of roughly 90,000 is severely lacking. What exists tends to be in Chinese or crime coverage in the area's larger dailies. USC's Annenberg School of Journalism, responding to the dearth of reporting on Alhambra and the challenge of creating a media outlet in an ethnically and linguistically diverse area, launched the Alhambra Project in 2008. Michael Parks, former director of the journalism school and former editor of the Los Angeles Times, and Sandra Ball-Rokeach, a communication researcher and director of the Metamorphosis Project, collaborated with support from the Annenberg Foundation. Parks was interested in investigating how local news coverage could better serve communities. Ball-Rokeach, whose research had previously found that the Alhambra area had one of the lowest levels of civic engagement in Los Angeles County, wanted to explore how creating a news product grounded in local needs could improve that level of engagement. I joined the project in early summer of last year. As a journalist with a background in immigration reporting – and with a smattering of community organizing skills, including managing a Brooklyn farmer's market and running a small non-profit magazine – my assignment was to take the research ideas and help translate them into an online news source grounded in local needs.

• 23:26

  Hiperbarrio: Bloggers on Violence in Medellín

   » ‎ Rising Voices

  This is a post by Lully Posada of Hiperbarrio, simultenously published in Global Voices Online.

  Violence, murder, theft and crime are a constant in Medellín, Colombia and its metropolitan area; issues all people must learn to live with and a social phenomenon that has grown in the last year. Members of the Rising Voices grantee Hiperbarrio expressed their feelings and different viewpoints on this matter in their personal and group blogs.

  Yuliana Paniagua, in the Hiperbarrio site [es], highlights the area of Castilla, where members of the blog Hope Revolution (Revolución Esperanza) went to take pictures. She also shows the importance of Hiperbarrio as a positive alternative for the community.

  Jorge Vasquez wrote at Villactivos collective blog [es] about the influence of a lack of values as a result of an uncontrollable situation, despite the government's investment in military spending:

  Se ha configurado aquí un mundo del sigilo, de la desconfianza, de la prevención, en el cual reconocer un error es resbalar, un mundo con sus propios leyes, iconos y figuras ejemplares para los jóvenes provenientes de los bajos mundos, de las imágenes de los comerciantes de los medios de comunicación serios, que han hecho de la apología del violento un negocio lucrativo. Un mundo despiadado, donde al niño se le enseña con el ejemplo, que ser bondadoso con el otro es ser tonto, que disputar el centímetro de calle, el pupitre en el colegio, el favor de la pareja es lo que vale. Y aquí están algunos de estos barrios hechos a imagen, semejanza y escala del egoísmo de los poderosos, unos más, otros menos, como vórtices de fuego, mientras la autoridad, de este país, que está entre los 10 de mayor gasto militar en el mundo, no ha podido controlar la sinfonía de fusiles que arrulla el sueño de sus habitantes.

  What has been set up here is a world of secrecy, mistrust, prevention, in which recognizing a mistake is slipping, a world with its own laws, icons and exemplars for young people from the underworld, from the images by the businessmen in the serious media, who have made a lucrative business our of the advocacy of violence. A heartless world, where the child is taught by example, that to be kind to another is to be dumb, that to compete for a centimeter of a street, for a desk at school, for the favor of a partner is what counts. And here are some of these neighborhoods made in the image, likeness and scale of the selfishness of the powerful, some more than others, like vortex of fire, while the authorities in this country, which is among the 10 largest military spenders in the world, has not been able to control the symphony of rifles that lulls the dream of its inhabitants.

  

  Photo of Comuna 13 neighborhood in Medellín by author Lully Posada

  Luis Elías, a member of Convergentes, cries out in his personal blog [es] for the war in the neighborhoods to stop. He wrote a second post [es] where he also refers to unemployment and laziness as causes for this violent situation:

  Estoy harto de esta guerra , no respetan ni los niños menores de edad, ya lo utilizar como carrito para cargar armas, pero eso también va en los padres que no se han dado cuenta de lo que están haciendo sus hijos o también de los hermanos que están metidos en los grupos armados le piden en favor para que le lleve el cuerpo del delito , y para mal de todos acabar con los barrios que son buenos para vivir, ¿esto cuando se va a terminar? ¡Ojalá rápido! Matan a los que no tiene nada que ver con el conflicto.[

  (…] cuando llega el desempleo o la falta de estudio para los jóvenes buscan otras opciones para salir de la misma rutina en la que estaban y probar cosas nuevas, cosas fáciles para sobrevivir en mundo que está lleno de corrupción.

  I'm tired of this war, they don’t even respect under-age children, they use [them] as a cart to carry weapons, but that also goes for parents who have not noticed what they are doing to their children or also siblings who are involved in armed groups and ask [under-age children] to take away the body of a crime, and worse of all they ruin neighborhoods that are good to live in, when will this end? Hopefully soon! They kill those who do not have anything to do with the conflict.

  […] when it comes to unemployment or lack of education for young people they look for other options to get out of the routine in which they were and try new things, easy things to survive in a world that is full of corruption.

  Jaider Ochoa makes a positive comment about Hiperbarrio in the collective blog Revolución Esperanza [es]:

  La idea de recuperar la memoria social y cultural de los barrios, de destacar esas cosas buenas con las que se cuenta, pero que se ven opacadas por el despliegue mediático sobre la violencia, permiten ver que estas comunidades no sólo tienen delincuentes, sino que también hay quien pueda decir que en ellas hay un sinfín de rasgos, personajes, tradiciones y actividades que hacen la diferencia y que permiten conocerla como un lugar donde también se puede habitar en condiciones dignas.

  The idea of restoring the social and cultural memory of the neighborhoods, of highlighting these good things that are available, but are overshadowed by the media hype about violence, allow us to see that these communities are not full of criminals, but that you can also say there are endless features, people, traditions and activities that make the difference and allow us to see it as a place where you can also live in decent conditions.

  Finally, Henry Osorio at the Funacrate collectibe blog, raises some questions after narrating an event [es] experienced by an acquaintance called Manuel.

  Pasaban los minutos, Manuel seguía observando desde la terraza y vio a un miembro del Ejército, como alienaba con su fusil a un señor que se trepaba por otra terraza de la vecindad, cuando el primero tuvo la oportunidad le disparó casi botándole el brazo. Después que Manuel me narró su versión, quedé con una cantidad de interrogantes que me hacen reflexionar sobre la situación violenta en algunos sectores de la ciudad y la intervención de la Fuerza Pública en las comunidades.

  ¿Cuál es el tipo de intervención que debe hacer la Fuerza Pública cuando suceden estos hechos? […] ¿Cuál es el tipo de confianza que brinda la Fuerza Pública cuando interviene las comunidades afectando algunos habitantes de estos barrios? ¿Las personas que corren en busca de refugio ante estos hechos acaso son delincuentes?

  The minutes passed, Manuel was watching from the terrace and saw a member of the Army, how he alienated with his gun a man who climbed another terrace in the vicinity, when the former had a chance he shot him almost busting his arm. After Manuel told me his story, I was left with a lot of questions that make me think about the violent situation in some parts of the city and the intervention of the Public Forces [the Military and Police] in the communities.

  What is the type of intervention the Public Force should have when these things happen? […] What type of confidence does the Public Force bring when it interpheres in communities, affecting some inhabitants of these neighbohoods? Are the people looking for refuge in these events deliquents?

  Translated by Silvia Viñas.

• 23:00

  And Now: The Bubble Election

   » ‎ Gotham Gazette: New York City News and Public Policy
  And Now: The Bubble Election
• 23:00

  Down the Ballot: The Party Posts

   » ‎ Gotham Gazette: New York City News and Public Policy
  Down the Ballot: The Party Posts
• 23:00

  Two Longtime Congressmembers Face Stiff Challenges

   » ‎ Gotham Gazette: New York City News and Public Policy
  Two Longtime Congressmembers Face Stiff Challenges
• 23:00

  Filling Albany's Big Three

   » ‎ Gotham Gazette: New York City News and Public Policy
  Filling Albany's Big Three
• 23:00

  Guide for the Last Minute Voter: Primary 2010

   » ‎ Gotham Gazette: New York City News and Public Policy
  Guide for the Last Minute Voter: Primary 2010

• 20:35

  Opportunity for Participant Input in E-Democracy.org’s Rules Review – Open-ended Phase One Due Sep 14

   » ‎ Steven Clift
  

  From Mick Souder, E-Democracy.org co-founder, Board member and Rules Committee Chair:

  Greetings,

  Every few years E-Democracy.org reviews the rules we ask our forum participants to abide by.  We are currently collecting input for a rules review we have scheduled to complete by the end of this year.  We invite our forum participants and moderators to submit suggestions on rules adjustments that may enhance our forums’ effectiveness.

  The rules can be found at [e-democracy.org]

  At this time the request for input is open ended.  Later in our process the Board of Directors will decide what changes (if any) our rules committee should focus on based on the input we receive and in light of E-Democracy.org‘s mission and strategic plan.

  If you have any suggestions on rule changes or re-wording, please send your suggestions to committee members at rules@e-democracy.org') //-->rules@e-democracy.org [Email address: rules #AT# e-democracy.org - replace #AT# with @ ] .

  The suggestion should include:

  1)      The specific rule that you are interested in E-Democracy.org reviewing.
  2)      What change or rewording you suggest E-Democracy.org make.
  3)      Why you suggest E-Democracy.org make the adjustment to the rule.

  Please submit these suggestions by Tuesday 14 September 2010. You may also post copies of your submissions on the blog, but official input should go in via e-mail') //-->via e-mail [Email address: rules #AT# e-democracy.org - replace #AT# with @ ].

  Thank you.

  Mick Souder
  E-Democracy.Org Rules Committee, Board of Directors

  Editors Note:  Our home grown rules have evolved since 1994. We uniquely use a warning and time-based suspension process for violating our rules rather than a moderate everything or delete violating posts process. These rules are not just “terms of service” that don’t matter. They give participants rights and limit our power as hosts based on our democratic ideals and mission. – Steven Clift
  

  Please read the full rules, but here is the current summary:

  Rules Summary

  1. Real Names – Sign posts including your real name and city.

  2. Limits on Posting – Two per member per day in most forum charters.

  3. Keep Topics within Forum Purpose – Local issues on a local forum for example.

  4. Be Civil – No name-calling. Respect among citizens with differing views is our cornerstone.

  5. No Attacks or Threats – This keeps the forums safe. If content is illegal it will be forwarded to the proper legal authorities.

  6. Private Stays Private – Don’t forward private replies without permission.

  7. Avoid False Rumors – Asking for clarification of what you’ve heard in the community can be appropriate if issues-based. You alone are responsible for what you post.

  8. Right to Post and Reply – Sharing your knowledge and opinions with your fellow citizens is a democratic right.

  9. Items Not Allowed in Forums – No chain letters, etc.

  10. Public Content and Use – You are sharing your content forever, but retain your copyright.

  11. Warnings – You may receive informal or official warnings from the Forum Manager.

  12. Suspension – With your second official warning in one year, you are suspended for two weeks. It goes up from there.

  13. Appeals Process – You can appeal a warning(s) once you receive a third warning and six month removal. Rare appeals are not received most years.

  Share/Bookmark

  

• 15:35

  Department of Play Asks: Can Technology Improve the Lives of Youth?

   » ‎ MIT Center for Future Civic Media

  

  On August 10th and 11th, 2010, the Department of Play (DoP) hosted its first Summer Institute, a workshop for practitioners and researchers, all with one thing in common: a commitment to improving the lives of youth through technology. The purpose of the Summer Institute was to bring together people from across the globe that were pursuing similar work, but had not necessarily connected with one another yet. Attendees were asked to rethink the role of technology in youth participation, social inclusion and local civic engagement, and in the process form meaningful partnerships for future projects.

  Participants included Media Lab professors, researchers and students, representatives from the MIT Center for Future Civic Media, members of the DoP, program officers from UNICEF, the co-directors of the Children’s Environments Research Group at CUNY, and a member of Plan International, West Africa, as well as the founder and director of the Srishti School of Art and Design in Bangalore, India.

  The Summer Institute began with each participant creating a map and timeline of his or her professional and personal path, and explaining it to the group. This activity allowed everyone to learn about one another and become familiar with each other’s perspectives and experiences. For example, Nitin Sawney, a DoP member explained, “Seeing how media and arts education programs helped young people deal with trauma in the Palestinian refugee camps has really molded the direction of my work.”

  This workshop then took the format of "World Café", a methodology for hosting conversations about questions that matter. The group broke into three smaller teams and had in-depth discussions and debates about three “provocative propositions,” which included:

  1. What does true youth empowerment look like to young people, adults, organizations, and communities? How can one recognize it when we see it?
  2. In terms of children and young people's empowerment, in what cases should telephones and computers be placed before food?
  3. Based on your experience, what are the key qualities of successful projects in which technology is used to empower children and young people? How can we balance the highly innovative technological interventions/research with the realities of the underserved? Where do start when beginning interventions such as this one?

  These questions ultimately forced participants to reflect about their role in the field of youth empowerment and the overall effects of their own work. Professor Roger Hart from CUNY went on to explain that in order for each individual to begin to understand this, the group needed to understand why youth choose to use technology versus why NGOs and governments choose to use the same tools.

  Each participant had the opportunity to present his or her own projects and receive feedback from the team. These presentations fueled a larger discussion: were social media, blogging, and digital mapping really useful tools for youth in marginalized communities? The group extensively debated why we use these tools and the various tangible outcomes of using them. For example, it was agreed that digital mapping helped youth gain a sense of ownership over their communities.

  By the end of the workshop, most participants agreed that a next step for the group should be to evaluate the impact of technology in the lives of youth through methodological research and studies. “We need to see if it is really making a difference and how,” said Geetha Narayanan of the Srishti School. To do this and to continue exploring the questions that were raised at the Summer Institute, the participants formed the DoP Working Group to keep in touch with one another, share ideas, and collaborate on projects.

• 15:25

  Liu For Rice, Weiner for Schneiderman

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  City Comptroller John Liu has endorsed Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice in her bid to become attorney general.

  “Kathleen Rice is progressive, she’s tough and she will be an excellent attorney general,” said Liu.  “From her work taking on corrupt public officials and sexual predators, to her tireless commitment to protecting consumers, immigrants and taxpayers from fraud, Kathleen has proven that she is the candidate most capable of reforming Albany and most capable of managing an office that is so vital to New York families.  In addition to her unrivaled law enforcement and legal experience, there is no doubt that Kathleen gives our party the best chance to keep this office in progressive hands after November.  She’s got my support and I look forward to campaigning hard with her over the next week.”

  This is a major endorsement for Rice who is trying to make inroads into New York City. Sen. Eric Schneiderman’s campaign has racked up a list of impressive city based endorsements in the last month.  And the tide has not stopped.

  Schneiderman’s most recent endorsement comes from Rep. Anthony Weiner.

  “I am endorsing Eric Schneiderman for Attorney General because he has been a lifelong champion for middle-class families and those struggling to make it into the middle-class,” said  Weiner. “No one has fought harder for fair wages, for equality and flexibility in the workplace, for foreclosure protections than Eric. We need a strong, lifelong progressive Democrat to fight for the working people of this state as Attorney General. We need a real leader with guts, who fights for what’s right, not just what’s politically popular. The choice is clear. The only choice for progressives is Eric Schneiderman.”

  There primary is on Sept. 14.

• 14:55

  DocumentCloud Helps Newspapers Bring Transparency to Government

   » ‎ MediaShift Idea Lab

  Since we last updated readers on DocumentCloud's progress, we've made it much easier to upload a lot of documents at once, and introduced a related documents search that uses data about names and places provided by OpenCalais to find documents that are probably related to the one you're looking at. We've also added a bit more contextto the data we help reporters comb through. Most of this work is happening inside the gates of the DocumentCloud workspace, but it is resulting in some lively reporting. For example...

  Using Documents to Tell the Story

  This summer, as the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals prepared to hear arguments in a challenge to the University of Texas's affirmative action policy, Texas Tribune complemented its coverage of the case with nearly 200 pages of annotated court documents, including the original district court ruling, the university's appellate brief, as well as that of the plaintiffs in the case.

  The Las Vegas Sun incorporated quite a trove of documents into its series on hospital care in Las Vegas. Readers were invited to browse everything from Department of Health and Human Services reports to individual records, right along with the Sun's reporters. When they say that hospital-acquired infections cost the country $30 billion per year or account for close to 100,000 deaths, they back each number up with original documents.

  The Columbia Missourian annotated the city budget and took a local blogger to task for exaggerating Columbia, Missouri's cash reserves.

  When Texas Governor Rick Perry challenged reporters to find anyone who can out-work him, Texas Tribune posted the governor's May 2010 schedule alongside that of Florida's Gov. Crist, New York's Gov. Paterson and California's Gov. Schwarzenegger and invited readers to help them skim over a hundred pages of briefings, receptions and photo ops for stories deserving of a closer look.

  The Washington Post supplemented its reporting on the cozy relationship between the oil industry and the federal agency assigned to regulate them with an annotated report on the prospects for "Moving beyond Conflict" between regulator and regulated. Their document cache also included reports outlining just how cozy things had gotten by 2008. As Emily Keller pointed out in Free Government Info, a transparency project, documents like these give more transparency to journalism itself.

  New Features in the Testing Lab

  We're also hard at work fine tuning the document viewer, transforming it into something that users could reasonably plug into a template with a narrower content column. Thus far folks have been stuck with a full page viewer. We haven't fully rolled it out yet, but we've worked with a couple of our beta testers to implement it already.

  Iowa State has a new men's basketball coach, and the Des Moines Register included all 14 pages of his contract to their coverage of the finer points contained in it. Among the unusual clauses? Hoiberg can walk away if the university decides to increase academic standards for student athletes beyond the NCAA's minimum.

  Meanwhile, at the Santa Fe Reporter, Alexa Schirtzinger opted not to publish tables of information right inside her story on elder abuse in New Mexico, but she did use her staff blog to share the data that she had such a hard time tracking down. An annotation highlights the numbers that showed her that New Mexico fields more abuse complaints per nursing home bed than any other state.

  DocumentCloud watchers will notice that they posted the contract right on the same page as Randy Peterson's writeup instead of displaying the document in a full page. We'll be making tweaks like this a lot easier for all of our users. In the meantime, if you're skilled at the art of reverse engineering JavaScript, you can view the source of the Register's story (or the Reporter's) to see just how they toggled the sidebar or zoom on those documents.

• 14:16

  Spending the Summer in 'Journalist Law School'

   » ‎ MediaShift

  

  Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  What do you get when you cross a lawyer and a journalist? Most of the time, of course, you get a lawyer. You know: The kids who worked so hard on the college paper but jetted off to Boalt when the prospect of years of unpaid internships scared them off. Most journalists remember a few people like that. (I know a dozen or so.)

  

  Sometimes, of course, you end up with a journalist: Take Adam Liptak, the New York Times lawyer who started writing book reviews and ended up covering the Supreme Court for the Grey Lady. The Fox News crowd has their own Liptak in Brooklyn Law School grad Geraldo Rivera. Michael Kinsley started working at the New Republic during his third year at George Washington Law School. But not every journalist who covers legal issues has the time (or the money) to get a law degree. That's where John Nockleby comes in.

  Journalist Law School

  For the past five years, Nockleby has been trying to construct a third breed of reporter/attorney hybrid: the journalist with a crash course in the law. To bring this new beast into the world, this avuncular, bespectacled, aggressively friendly law professor is prepared to push the limits of what you can teach someone about the American legal system in three and a half days.

  

  Every summer, Nockleby's Journalist Law School (JLS) brings several dozen reporters to Loyola Law School in Los Angeles for 84 hours of lectures, seminars, and discussion panels on the law. This June, my colleague at Mother Jones, Stephanie Mencimer, who attended JLS in 2009, suggested I apply. That Stephanie found the program useful was a shock: She literally wrote the book on tort reform -- it's called "Blocking the Courthouse Door" -- and I never imagined that she had much more to learn about the legal system. On the other hand, it would be very useful to me to have a bit more of a background in the law. Covering civil liberties issues for Mother Jones, I run into a lot of legal documents -- habeas petitions, Office of Legal Counsel memos, and so on. So I applied and got accepted. Next thing I knew, I was in L.A.

  Learning and Schmoozing

  The JLS program is centered around what are essentially miniature versions of standard first-year law classes: Constitutional law, criminal law, civil procedure, criminal procedure, torts, and so on. I had heard a lot of the basic concepts because my girlfriend (not a former journalist) is a law student. You might think a basic familiarity with the concepts would make the classes boring. But Nockleby, knowing that journalists are an "especially critical" audience, did an excellent job of assembling an engaging group of professors to teach the core classes. Even the most jaded of my fellow students seemed engaged.

  The core JLS classes are supplemented by a series of small-group sessions focusing on more specific topics. I attended two on terrorism-related issues, and got a number of story ideas (and contacts) that made the entire program worthwhile in and of themselves. In addition, JLS offers a series of talks and schmoozing sessions featuring practicing judges and attorneys. The schmoozing includes one's fellow journalists, too, of course.
  
  
  The "fellows" (that's what they called us) were a diverse crowd -- television, radio, Internet, and print journalists, with everything from a few years to a few decades of experience in the media. Our beats ran the gamut from local crime reporter to the New York Times' Mexico City bureau chief.

  Why does Nockleby even bother to do this? At first, he just got tired of the complaining. Nockleby kept hearing complaints that people didn't understand the legal system -- and that the media did a bad job of explaining it.

  "You guys keep going on about how the media doesn't get it," he told potential funders. "Put your money where your mouth is."

  They did. The American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), which represents top plaintiffs' and civil defense attorneys, wrote a big check. It has kept on writing them.

  Program Goals

  Ideally, the goal of the program is to provide an overview so that the particular legal issues journalists cover "can be placed in broader perspective," Nockleby said.

  You'd be hard-pressed to find a New York Superior Court beat reporter who doesn't understand how that court works. But she might not know how that court's procedures differ from others, or how to find out.

  "It's not that we can provide a legal education in three and a half days," Nockleby said. "We can't show journalists how to go about investigating a particular problem. But we can give a systemic overview so that problems get placed in a context where they make a lot more sense."

  Is Nockleby's experiment succeeding? The reviews of the program are certainly positive. Then again, most journalists I know appreciate any opportunity to meet new sources and gobble up some background information -- especially if there are open bars involved. My fellow "fellows" appreciated the experience. If our reporting gets even a little bit better or more informed, that's what counts, right?

  Nockleby's ambitions aren't limited to half-week fellowships, however. Longtime New York Times Supreme Court reporter "Linda Greenhouse had a year of legal education and that helped her tremendously," he said. "If everybody reporting on law had a law degree, that would be great."

  But not every journalist can be Adam Liptak, or Geraldo. And while the Pentagon may sometimes wish that more military embeds had prior military experience, and scientists may wish more reporters had lab experience, that won't always be the case, either. Even Nockleby acknowledges that there's more to journalism that subject-matter expertise.

  "All that is great, but more important is the ability to explain things in simple terms," he said. "A lot of lawyers don't have that."

  Nick Baumann is an assistant editor at Mother Jones. He covers national politics out of the Washington, D.C. bureau. Nick's writing has also appeared in the Economist, the Washington Monthly, and Commonweal. Email tips and insights to nbaumann [at] motherjones [dot] com. You can also follow him on Twitter.

  

  Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  This is a summary. Visit our site for the full post ».

• 10:22

  Bloomberg Bucks for Bing

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  As we write today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed State Assemblymember Jonathan Bing earlier this summer. Now the billionaire mayor has put his money where his mouth is, giving almost $4,000 to Bing’s campaign on Aug. 31.

  Bing was the sponsor of an unsuccessful bid to change the current system of laying off teachers, which depends on seniority. This spring, when the city feared massive teacher layoffs, Bloomberg’s school chancellor, Joel Klein, repeatedly endorsed altering the “last in, first out” system.

  In the primary, Bing faces Gregg Lundhahl, a longtime teacher backed by the teachers union. The winner will compete against Republican Paul Niehaus in November.

• September 06, 2010
• 23:00

  East Side Incumbent Faces Challenge from Unions and the GOP

   » ‎ Gotham Gazette: New York City News and Public Policy
  Education has emerged as a key issue in an East Side assembly race where the UFT and the GOP both hope to topple the Democratic incumbent
• 23:00

  Budget Cuts Reduce English Classes for Immigrants

   » ‎ Gotham Gazette: New York City News and Public Policy
  City cutbacks have reduced the number of English classes for adults, creating lengthy waiting lists and long-shot lotteries for thousands of immigrants.

• 16:49

  Padernacht, NY Times Endorse Gustavo Rivera

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  Daniel Padernacht, a Bronx lawyer who was campaigning to oust Sen. Pedro Espada has dropped out and put his support behind surging candidate Gustavo Rivera. There was a lot of talk that the anti-Espada vote would be split as Rivera racked up endorsements and Padernacht continued his campaign.

  Here is a statement from Rivera regarding Padernacht’s decision:

  “Dan Padernacht is a tireless community advocate who ran a great campaign, and his selfless decision today puts our community first.  With a united front, the thousands of voters in the district who are seeking change can turn to one place.  That’s the message that Dan and I are going to be getting out together over the next 9 days. I am deeply grateful for his support.”

  Rivera also received the endorsement of the New York Times.

• September 05, 2010
• 12:30

  Times Union Endorses Schneiderman

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  The Albany Times Union has endorsed Sen. Eric Schneiderman for attorney general. A number of other candidates were hoping that an endorsement by the paper would help establish them as the “upstate candidate” but Schneiderman has added the paper to his long list of recent endorsements that include The New York Times, The Amsterdam News, El Diario, The Nation and Rev. Al Sharpton.

  Here is a snippet from the endorsement:

  “New Yorkers might be understandably wary of drawing their next attorney general from the state Senate, a body that has symbolized dysfunction. But Mr. Schneiderman has long distinguished himself as a cut far above the rest in that chamber. Whether he was in the minority or the majority, he has been an eloquent, progressive voice, speaking out for reform, sensible gun control, marriage equality and equal protection for all New Yorkers.”

  The endorsement notes that Assemblymember Richard Brodsky has a strong reformer buy says he “grates on even his allies.” It describes Kathleen Rice as having done “some good work,” on local government corruption but questions her independence from Cuomo and her experience. It cites Eric Dinallo’s time in the attorney general’s office under Spitzer but questions his record as Insurance Superintendent. The endorsement says that Sean Coffey could be called the “most independent” but worries about his political contributions that seem to have lead to business for his firm.

  The endorsement could come as a surprise to some as Schneiderman recently no-showed a debate in Albany hosted by public radio station WAMC. He was slammed by the other four candidates and Alan Chartock, the host of the debate, for not appearing.  But Schneiderman did host a forum on gun violence in Albany in the last few weeks.

  Schneiderman has raised the most money during this period but Nassau County District Attorney has the most cash on hand heading into the Sept. 14 Democratic Primary.

  It has been said that Schneiderman is relying heavily on votes from minorities in the city but the Times Union endorsement should solidify him as a force upstate.

• September 04, 2010
• 13:53

  Questions about the UK Square Mile Idea

   » ‎ Steven Clift

  On the 700+ member Democracies Online Exchange, I started a conversation about Your Square Mile, a very interesting proposal that could directly impact our the UK-based local communities in our international Issues Forum network and the Neighbourly/Neighorly idea.

  Here are is an excerpt from their two pager and some questions I’ve posed:

  Here is some text from the Big Society site (an excerpt from the two
  pager David Wilcox linked to) – then some questions below:

  There are 93,000 square miles in the UK. We tend to only hear about
  two of them, the square miles of the City and Westminster, and have
  felt badly let down by both of them in recent years. “Your Square
  Mile” is about enabling citizens to make changes in as many of the
  other 92,998 square miles as possible.

  There are an estimated 900,000+ community groups in the UK and 238,000
  Social Entrepreneurs. We want to enable citizens to find and join
  these organisations easily, using their own needs and passions as a
  start-point, and to feel able to start their own neighbourhood groups.
  We want to link these groups, social enterprises and communities to
  each other to share ideas and resources, complementing the role of
  existing umbrella organisations.

  We want to create a platform to enable and empower all kinds of
  citizens and social entrepreneurs to achieve things their way: be an “
  i-phone for their apps.”

  We are therefore going to create the U.K’s biggest mutual: to which
  all citizens will be able to belong.

  Over the summer and autumn, we will engage in a public co-designing
  process to gather ideas and best practice, to raise awareness and
  solicit feedback on our proposals. Concurrently, we will work with
  commercial and non-commercial partners to develop a benefits package
  for membership and a delivery platform that will be as inclusive and
  easy to use as possible (including PC’s, mobiles, public kiosks and
  other technologies as well as printed materials, community centres and
  face-to-face meetings.)

  By December 2010 we will have launched Phase 1 of the mutual providing
  national tools, advice and practical benefits such as highly
  affordable liability insurance for all kinds of local volunteering and
  events.

  My questions:

  1. “Neighbourhood groups” – do they mean general interest resident
  associations (which is a very different frame than “social action”
  around specific issues? How does this jive with the neighbourhood
  efforts of local councils where existing resources seem to support far
  larger areas often designated by the government?

  2. Does the “co-designing process” have a home on the web where
  detailed proposals outlines will be shared?

  3. What the heck does “be an ‘i-phone for their apps.’” mean to
  everyday people?

  4. So, who is leading the effort to outline the technology platform -
  finding existing voluntary sector groups seems straight forward – but
  does this envision everyone having their own dynamic square mile of
  online interactivity with their neighbors or are you going to break up
  the country into 93,000 pieces people can identify with? (We’ve been
  pondering dynamic and personalized neighbour circles for private
  exchange among groups 25-100 nearby people – http://neighbour.be -
  with a design the connects people into public life online at a larger
  scale where we have our historical base of experience. To me the
  “platform” sounds quite complex … almost like something twice as
  complex as Facebook behind the scenes.)

  5. Is there any evidence that neighbourhood Facebook Pages/Groups are
  so successful that you’d mention them by brand (in the evaluation
  section)? They seem pretty darn lightweight engagement-wise even if
  they theoretically attract numbers compared to other community blogs
  and online groups I’ve seen.

  6. As a “mutual,” will members be required to pay? Where will/is seed
  funding come from to make this all work?

  Share/Bookmark

  

• 9:00

  links for 2010-09-04

   » ‎ Amy Gahran
  • Fwix Expands Its Geo Index Via Local Widgets And A Broader API "Publishers and sites can pick and choose whatever data they want and create widgets with a customized local feed they can place in a sidebar. These could include Tweets about about the publisher’s business, Flickr photos, check-ins, or Yelp reviews. Widget publishers can also opt to include ads in the widgets targeted to the same location and content on their sites and split the revenues with fwix. Affiliate links to group buying deals is another source of revenue." (tags: geodata geotagging social+media local hyperlocal syndication widgets API)

  

• September 03, 2010
• 18:51

  4 Minute Roundup: Helping Journalism Students Get Tech Skills

   » ‎ MediaShift

  

  4MR is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  In this week's 4MR podcast I talk about MediaShift's Beyond J-School series so far, including the stories on teaching social media, the 5Across roundtable and Jen Lee Reeves' take on getting j-students over their fear of technology. I talked with Reeves more about how she is asking her students this semester to pay $36 each for Lynda.com courses on learning the basics of Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash. Reeves talked candidly about her students and their fears of failing with technology.

  Check it out:

  4mrbareaudio9310.mp3

  >>> Subscribe to 4MR <<<

  >>> Subscribe to 4MR via iTunes <<<

  Listen to my entire interview with Jen Lee Reeves:

  reeves full.mp3

  Background music is "What the World Needs" by the The Ukelele Hipster Kings via PodSafe Music Network.

  Here are some links to related sites and stories mentioned in the podcast:

  Special Series - Beyond J-School at MediaShift

  How to Conquer Journalism Students' Fear of Technology at MediaShift

  Making a Change at Jen Lee Reeves' blog

  Reporter's Guide to Multimedia Proficiency by Mindy McAdams

  How Do I Teach Students to Integrate Multimedia Tools into Storytelling? at Poynter

  AEJMC - Teaching Social Media in the Classroom at Reportr.net

  Also, be sure to vote in our poll about what you think the biggest change is in journalism schools:

  
  
  
  What's the most important change for journalism schools?customer surveys
  
  

  Mark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the Online Publishers Association. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter @mediatwit.

  

  4MR is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  This is a summary. Visit our site for the full post ».

• 17:23

  Party at Gillibrand's!

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  Have no plans this weekend? Going to be upstate? Perhaps in Columbia County? Cash burning a hole in your pocket? If so maybe you want to drop by the Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s house in Hudson. She is throwing a shindig to raise some cash.

  A general admission ticket will cost you $100, VIP tickets $250 and “host” tickets $1,000. The senator has been known as a prodigious fundraiser since her days as the congresswoman from the 20th district.

  Gillibrand is facing primary challenger Gail Goode in the Democratic Primary and will face one of three Republican challengers in the general election, if she wins. Her Republican challengers are Joe DioGuardi, Bruce Blakeman and David Malpass. If anyone goes please tell me how the BBQ was– press are NOT invited. Hurumph. I tried! And to think I was born in Hudson. Have a happy Labor Day!

  

  Here is the text of the invite:

  Please join Kaye & Chuck Abraham, Jon Arnason, Phebe & George Banta, Margaret & David Bova, Mary Burns & Vince Clephas, Paige Crable & Ray DeMarco, Kathleen H. Dittus, Esq., Joan & Wolcott Dunham, Fran & Steve Edelstein, Karen Feldman, Julie Fenster, Kristin & Charles Flood,
  Paula & Philip Forman, Joan & Harvey Friedman, Judith B. Grunberg, Cyndy Hall, Linda Hirshman & David Forkosh, Sylvia K. Johann, Barney Karpfinger & Eric Marcus, Jamie Kibel, Katherine Kolbert & Richard P. Rubinstein, Debbie Lans & Sharon Grubin, Jeffrey Lick & Steve McCarthy,
  Kerry Madigan & Neal Rosenthal, Stephen Mazoh & Martin Kline, Robert Montgomery, Sue & Henry Neale, Susan & Harry Newton, Polly N. Rutnik, Susan & Roger Tilles, Ulster Cty Democratic Women, and David B. Wood, III for a Labor Day Weekend Barbeque at the home of

  UNITED STATES SENATOR
  KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND

  Saturday, September 4
  The home of Kirsten & Jonathan Gillibrand
  Hudson, New York
  VIP Reception and Photo Line: 4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | General Reception: 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
  Host: $1,000 (write or raise) | VIP: $250 (per individual) | General Ticket: $100 (per individual)

• 17:07

  District Council 37 Endorses Brodsky (Update)

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  The city’s largest public employee union has endorsed Assemblymember Richard Brodsky. The union boasts 125,000 members and 50,000 retirees. In a low turnout election unions that have proven to be able to mobilize their membership will be key and by scoring this endorsement Brodsky has taken a bit of steam out of Sen. Eric Schneiderman’s bid to dominate the vote in the city.

  *Update* I goofed a bit–District Council 37 endorsed Brodsky in July–so it doesn’t change any of Schneiderman’s plans for victory via the city vote.

  In other news for the race for attorney general, fund raising numbers are coming in and Sen. Eric Schneiderman has raised the most this period with $380,000 raised in an 18 day period (the New York Times endorsement likely helped out a bit.) Schneiderman has approximately $1.3 million on hand.

  Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice raised $278,405 and has $2.8 million on hand. She was the top fundraiser in the last period. Eric Dinallo raised $66,908 and has $1.6 million on hand. Brodsky raised $98,999 and has $335,494 on hand. Sean Coffey raised $39,120 and has $1.57 million on hand. He loaned his campaign $1 million.

  For more on what differentiates the candidates (besides money) check out our recent story on the race.

• 16:48

  Wall Street's Vote

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  As the candidates for attorney general struggle to carve out identities for themselves, Eric Dinallo may have found his. The Financial Times is reporting (registration required) that the former state insurance regulator is emerging as the candidate of Wall Street.

  The paper analyzed his campaign donations and found Dinallo had far outpaced other candidates in money from Wall Street, bringing in $109,000, compared to the $65,000 financial companies gave Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice.

  The paper also found that eight of Dinallo’s 10 top donors work in finance, including Jim Chanos, who gave $50,000 himself and $16,500 through his hedge fund.

  The irony is that Dinallo worked former Wall Street nemesis Eliot Spitzer when he was attorney general. But, Blair Horner of New York Public Interest Research Group, told the Times that Dinallo may have tuned that to his advantage, going back to contacts he made in his earlier job to “shake the money tree.”

  For his part, Dinallo told the paper that his Wall Street supporters know that, while he can be “tough on people who’ve cheated, who’ve had conflicts of interest … ultimately I am fair.”

  Dinallo also has worked in finance — at Morgan Stanley and Willis Group. And he won the endorsement of Crain’s. In the editorial the paper praised Dinallo for having “a profound understanding of financial services, which he is eminently prepared to police — without the ego and the mean streak that made Mr. Spitzer the industry’s enemy” and chided two of his opponents, Assemblymember Richard Brodsky and State Sen. Eric Schneiderman for having priorities “not aligned with the business community.”

• 16:11

  Inclusion Update – The Technology of E-Democracy and Community Organizing – By Boa Lee, Frogtown Outreach

   » ‎ Steven Clift

  Editors Note: This Inclusive Social Media update is from Boa Lee, our Community Outreach and Information Leader focused on Frogtown.

  

  By Boa Lee,
  Community Outreach and Information Leader, Greater Frogtown Neighbors Forum

  A post appeared on the Minneapolis citywide issues forum in mid-March 2009. The poster, Jay Clark, the director of the Minnesota Center for Neighborhood Organizing and a well-known community organizer in the North Minneapolis and Hmong communities, told forum members about a recent Minneapolis Park Board meeting. At that meeting, Clark wrote, Latino kids and their parents were separated from the wider audience – and eventually removed from the premises – without having been given a fair opportunity to air their concerns. The Latino community members had attended the meeting to advocate for soccer fields at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis; the meeting was taking place in another part of the city. Even before attending the park board meeting, the Latinos who were extracted from the meeting – with Clark’s help – had began a large awareness campaign to put pressure on the park board and city leaders to create soccer fields for the Latino kids already playing soccer in Powderhorn. The group had also been distributing hundreds of postcards to residents, asking the residents to send the notice of support to decision-makers like the mayor of Minneapolis.

  

  Soccer at Powderhorn - Photo by Gayla Ellis for Powderhorn 365

  Meeting organizers saw Clark’s post and one park commissioner responded the next day, explaining that park commissioners were aware of the group’s campaign to get the soccer fields. Neighbors responded to the topic.

  My mid-April 2009, the topic had moved to the Powderhorn Neighbors Forum, where dozens more posts from residents both in support of and against the soccer fields shared their thoughts. One Latino teen who played soccer at Powderhorn logged on to the forum using Clark’s name (but signing his own at the end of post). The teen invited neighbors to come watch a game. By this time, the issue was also receiving wide media attention and several neighborhood newspapers picked up the story and/or published Letters to the Editor written by the Latino teens asking for the soccer fields.

  The best success indicator of the community’s campaign to get the soccer fields was not necessarily that the soccer fields actually came to be or even that a public official responded to Clark’s original post; rather, it was the ability to reach many more people – neighbors – through the forum and garnering a wider and more diverse base of supporters that Clark would later note in an interview with me as the most positive part of the project. Clark said he has used the forum to help highlight other campaigns – for example a campaign spearheaded by Hmong teens to get more Hmong-speaking officers to work the day shift in North Minneapolis – and intends to continue using the E-Democracy forums as another tool in his community organizer’s toolbox.

  While community organizing is not E-Democracy’s direct mission, the organization’s desire to increase civic engagement by providing an online space for neighbors to meet and discuss issues lends well to also aiding in, or perhaps inciting, organizing work. Giving neighbors and organizers a venue in which to share information can complement traditional community organizing. At the same time, this raises the question of how E-Democracy might enhance community organizing and social change in the 21st century.

  Lessons Applied in Frogtown

  In June 2010, I seeded a topic asking the Greater Frogtown Neighbors Forum members where they got their hyper-local (neighborhood) news. No one responded to that thread. But one person did start a new related thread that same day in response, stating that Frogtown was at a disadvantage by not having a dedicated newspaper and asking for creative ideas to get community news distributed to neighbors. The following day and just eight posts later (the thread ballooned to 19 posts), Tony Schmitz – a Frogtown resident and the former owner of the now defunct Frogtown Times newspaper – offered to take the online discussion offline. Schmitz offered to host a brainstorming session at his house.

  Seven days after the thread started, Tony and two other residents (one of whom was Tony’s wife), Mary Turck from the Twin Cities Daily Planet (an online news site) and I discussed the idea of starting a Frogtown neighborhood newspaper. By the time the meeting ended, those in attendance had each volunteered to do more research or outreach about the idea. The neighbors become their own community organizers.

  The two stories shared above represent the convergence of new technologies with old organizing models. What we know of traditional community organizing is that results are met when a group of people can come together to push for a common benefit. To build a foundation of support requires outreach, strategic planning and, oftentimes, good timing. Organizers will need to determine whether and when E-Democracy is the proper venue in which to share information and receive input. As community organizing takes greater advantage of social media and the Internet, adding a new tool like posting on the E-Democracy online forums can become part of the strategic outreach method that capitalizes on changing technology and a growing and attentive audience.

  Editor’s Note: The soccer field story is ongoing with some Powderhorn Park changes and a permanent artificial turf field being built in next door in the Phillips neighborhood (after making this post, I received a telephone call from an elected official crediting in large part the campaign described above even if the permanent field will be in a nearby park).
  

  Share/Bookmark

  

• 14:34

  Business, Entrepreneurial Skills Come to Journalism School

   » ‎ MediaShift

  

  Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  For decades, journalists in mainstream news organizations were shielded from the revenue side of the operation. Many argued their lack of knowledge helped avoid even the appearance of commercial influence in the editorial well. But with increased stress in the news industry and new disruptive technologies giving even entry-level reporters an understanding of audience behaviors and income streams, things have started to shift.

  Journalism educators have increasingly been helping students learn the workings of the business side of news. The trend mirrors similar changes in the newsroom. Plus, with many journalists being laid off, having the business skills to run their own media enterprise -- whether it's a blog, podcast or independent news site -- is vital to many more people.

  

  "It came to be recognized that journalists needed to play more of a role in the future of their enterprises," said Stephen Shepard, who talked to me recently in a phone interview. Shepard is the founding and current dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and former editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek magazine.

  CUNY's J-school and a raft of other journalism schools and institutes have introduced business courses into their curricula, teaching students to read and create basic financial statements and the principles of media management. They are also launching new training programs for mid-career journalists and editors.

  Janice Castro is the senior director of graduate education and teaching excellence at Medill. She told me that at Northwestern University, the Medill School of Journalism and Kellogg business school have cooperated "for a long time" in developing a media management and research center.

  Full disclosure: Medill is a longtime sponsor of MediaShift.

  

  Four years ago, as Medill revamped its curriculum, seats in two courses in media management at Kellogg were reserved for Medill students. Medill graduate students are also required to take either a course in "Audience Insight" or "How 21st Century Media Work," and have the option to take Kellogg classes in finance.

  "We think it's really important for students who are going out to operate as journalists to understand the business of media," Castro said. "It's going to help them make better choices in where they're going to work, because they'll be better able to size up the company and its direction and its vision. They'll know more than the brand or the name of a big media organization. They'll be able to assess it."

  Students will also better be able to help guide the organization strategically, according to Castro and Shepard. "When you have a student who's graduated and immediately put on the management track at a major media company, that's not something that used to happen," Castro said.

  Demand for Entrepreneurial Instruction

  There's also increasing demand from students joining or launching startup ventures.

  CUNY this month expects to announce the formation of a master's degree program in Entrepreneurial Journalism, further enriching and extending courses offered since the school's inception four years ago.

  

  At the Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship" is devoted to the development of new media entrepreneurship and the creation of innovative digital media products," according to its site. (Read this previous MediaShift article about how the school teaches digital media entrepreneurs.)

  Retha Hill is the director of the New Media Innovation Lab at Cronkite.
  During a lab-focused semester, Cronkite school students "have to think about the business implications of their ideas or the information they are gathering," Hill told me via email.

  Even at Columbia University, where school founder Joseph Pulitizer in 1904 wrote that he found the idea of teaching business "repugnant," students are required to learn business principles. All Masters of Science students, about 85 percent of matriculants, take a class on the "Business of Journalism" that was conceived and introduced last year by dean of academic affairs and former Wall Street Journal Online managing editor Bill Grueskin.

  The course includes a Harvard Business School case study about a Norwegian media company called Schibsted that moved its business more strongly into digital media; instruction on managing profit and loss in a business; the differences in advertising and circulation revenues; principles of ad pricing; and other business issues.

  Grueskin told me via email that the faculty at Columbia overwhelmingly supported the course. In a letter to them, Grueskin wrote that while Pulitzer "went out of his way to exclude business courses from the curriculum," today "journalists are increasingly being called upon to make business models work. We owe it to our students to give them a grounding in that field."

  Training Institutes Step In

  Training institutes, too, are helping journalists and editors learn business principles.

  The Knight Digital Media Center, based at both the University of Southern California and the University of California at Berkeley, in May held a week-long "News Entrepreneur Boot Camp."

  Full disclosure: Knight Digital Media Center is a sponsor of MediaShift.

  Attendees, many of them mid-career journalists, learned disciplines such as business models, building a feasibility plan, customer acquisition and web analytics.

  The Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism think tank and training center where I contribute articles and have lectured on business principles, in July named two Ford Fellows in Entrepreneurial Journalism who are mentoring startup initiatives and teaching business disciplines.

  Heartening Trend

  While some journalism purists may bemoan what they consider fuzzing the lines between "church (journalism) and state (business)," I find the move to integrate business into journalism education encouraging.

  It's healthy, I think, that reporters and editors now believe they should understand what it is that brings in the money that goes into their paychecks.

  This is not to say they should pander to commercial or financial interests -- and there is certainly a danger as even junior reporters learn how many page views (and by implication advertising impressions) a story they produce garners. One journalism educator told me that even in his "little blog" he considered whether to disrupt the center column with an ad and make more money.

  It's always been a balancing act, though, even if the rank-and-file weren't completely aware. At BusinessWeek, "ad placement was always an issue," Shepard said.

  That even new J-school graduates now understand some of the struggles is probably a good thing -- as long as they also are grounded in what Shepard called the "professionalism and judgment" to not "cave in all the time to advertising demands in a way that would hurt the reader or viewer."

  In the long run, those guiding journalistic enterprises must understand both the editorial principles that over time bring in and maintain a community of readers and participants, as well as the business principles that sustain the operation.

  If they can do so successfully, perhaps the new news businesses they are molding and creating can then survive the fate of so many of today's severely stressed news organizations.

  A former managing editor at ABCNews.com and an MBA, Dorian Benkoil has devised and executed marketing and sales strategies for MediaShift. He is SVP at Teeming Media, a strategic media consultancy focused on attracting, engaging, activating communities through digital media. He tweets at @dbenk.

  

  Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  This is a summary. Visit our site for the full post ».

• 14:06

  Take two: How Patch.com - or any national network of local news websites - might succeed

   » ‎ Online Journalism Review
  By Robert Niles: Last week, I wrote about my skepticism of Patch.com, based on my assumption that the economies of scale available to a national chain of local publications online were no longer enough to overcome to the inherent cost advantages enjoyed by locally-owned publications. Locally-owned publications don't have to generate enough income to support regional managers and national executives. And if they're boot-strapped, they don't have to pay back VC or investors, either. That gives a local start-up a huge cost advantage in what's become a brutal online publishing market. If you're going to start an investor-funded national chain of local news websites, you're going to need to achieve some economies of scale that allow you to make enough extra income - as a chain - to overcome the cost advantage enjoyed by your locally-owned competitors. I dismissed several such ways that newspaper chains achieved that in the past, arguing that they'd been made irrelevant by the Internet. But a reader challenged me: Are there any economies of scale that could help make a national chain of local online news sites profitable? Hey, I love a challenge. So here are two I thought of this week:

• 10:29

  Daily News for Gustavo Rivera

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  It is a good day for Gustavo Rivera. His bid to unseat Sen. Pedro Espada is gaining some big-name support. Rev. Al  Sharpton is scheduled to endorse him today and he has won the approval of the Daily News.

  The News does not hold back in their contempt for Rivera’s opponent Sen. Pedro Espada. Here is an excerpt from the endorsement:

  “The grounds for dumping Espada, poster boy for Albany insanity, are almost beyond imagining.  He was the party-flipping, power-grabbing instigator of the Senate coup last summer that paralyzed Albany for a month.  He also stands credibly accused by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of looting $14 million from a taxpayer-financed chain of health clinics.
  On top of that, Espada notoriously lives outside his district, in Mamaroneck; persistently ignores campaign finance laws, and is even being sued for allegedly stiffing his tailor on $7,200 worth of fancy suits. Rivera bears no such ethical taint. His professional background consists mainly of campaigning for Democrats, including President Obama. He most recently worked as an aide to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. He also teaches political science part time at Pace University.  While this page is not in sync with Rivera on some issues, he is likely in line with the sensibilities of the district and is surely in tune with the economic interests of working New Yorkers.”

• 9:01

  links for 2010-09-03

   » ‎ Amy Gahran
  • Cell phones and American adults | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project Note that this report only covers voice calls and text messaging, not any of the many other uses of cell phones. (tags: mobile research generations text+messaging SMS)
  • Power-law and why we fail to solve social problems – Idea exChange "Power-law solutions are polarizing. They offer special treatment for people who “don’t deserve it” and emphasize efficiency over fairness. Don’t the ends justify the means? If one of the pillars of social entrepreneurship is to “help people help themselves,” shouldn’t we sacrifice morality, our philosophies, our classical approaches in order to achieve social goals? Isn’t it worth solving homelessness, or poverty, or hunger by any means necessary? After all, the homeless just need a meal at a restaurant, groceries, and a new pair of pants. And the opportunity to succeed." (tags: law policy social+dynamics morals values conflict problems)

  

• 7:23

  Sharpton to Endorse Gustavo Rivera Today

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  Rev. Al Sharpton is set to endorse Gustavo Rivera today in his bid to unseat Sen. Pedro Espada today at noon. The endorsement is set to take place at the studios of WWRL at 333 7th Ave. today. Rivera received the endorsement of El Diario earlier this week.

  Sharpton recently endorsed Sen. Eric Schneiderman  for attorney general. Sen. John Sampson stood alongside Sharpton and Schneiderman on that day but don’t expect to him to show up for the Rivera endorsement.

  I got a few minutes with the conference leader during the Schneiderman endorsement and asked for his thoughts on Gustavo Rivera. “Who?” he asked. “The man who is challenging Pedro Espada,” I replied. “Well senator Espada is a colleague,” Sampson said flashing a smile.

  Sampson will host an immigration forum with Espada on Sept.9 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Bronx Community College.

• 0:55

  Nomad Green: Why The Mongolian ‘Ninjas' Keep On Digging?

   » ‎ Rising Voices

  

  Ninja gold miners digging in evaporated river. Image by Flickr user chenyingphoto. CC BY

  Gold production in Mongolia is growing rapidly and it saw a seventeen-fold increase between 1991 and 2001. But the real boost came in July 2001, when a Canadian company called Ivanhoe Mines found a large gold and copper deposit at Oyu Tolgoi (turquoise hill). Foreign investment in the country on explorations soared. And the great Mongolian gold rush began with mining companies from around the world coming to the Gobi desert.

  But not only the mining companies, this gold rush has also changed some of the lives of the Mongolian poorest. Thousands of people, called the “Ninjas”, have left home to take up digging and sifting for gold full-time. Otgonsuren Jargal writes in the Nomad Green blog:

  

  A Ninja gold miner. Image by Chenyingphoto. CC BY

  “Ninja”–or artisan miners–in Mongolia means people who dig dirt, live outlaws and seek for gold on old/used mining fields. There are around 5000 artisan miners working in Uyanga soum (village) of Uvurkhangai aimag (province) in Mongolia, today.

  There was some false information saying that the number of ninjas was decreasing in last few years. Actually the number increased to 10,000 during summer season at the area where Ongi river starts which is the range named Taats coming from Khangai mountain.

  The average ninja earns about $10 in a week. Lured by this small fortune, they consist of not only destitute, many students on summer break come to search for golds in potential locations with their parents to help pay tuition. But their work damages the environment. Otgonsuren Jargal explains:

  

  Image by Chenyingphoto. CC BY

  The evaporation of Ongi river made many who live in Gobi suffer for past ten years. Mongolia is the most effected area from desertification, especially in Gobi, the water is a really hard issue at this moment. The Ongi river was the only one water resource of Gobi's life. But, there are more than 10,000 ninjas digging dirt at the very beginning of this river and destroying and poisoning the source of water.

  A group of journalist including Nomad Green members and Italian journalist Gabriele came to this place to report about the artisan miners.

  Many people were working here and there between dump, picking up some dirt and washing them in the pools among the hills. You can see a lot of ghers /traditional Mongolian yurt/ of different shapes-round and roofless and tumbledown etc. These were the accommodation of ninjas.

  Here is the video they produced:

  They saw that excavators were destroying the highest dump which is called “Eifel” by local people.

  The rest of this big mountain will be diminished if they continue digging for another 10 years.

  The gold rush is not going to end anytime soon. The Gold price across the world have reached an all-time high at $1100 an ounce and it is predicted to rise further. Christian A. DeHaemer at Wealthdaily puts it this way:

  You may not be aware of it, but there is a new gold mine in Mongolia. In fact, it is the world's largest — a mine bigger than the state of Ohio!

  The spending on this mine will double the GDP of Mongolia. That's right — double… which means Mongolia will become to Central Asian minerals what Dubai is to Middle Eastern oil.

  So the Ninja miners will not be stopping any time soon.

  The droughts in Mongolia are a big problem which decreases production of wheat and other crops. However Mandah shares an expert opinion:

  Mungunbaatar, coordinator of “Rain richness” state manufacturing agency says “Having rain by shooting rain clouds has great economic efficiency”.

  Meanwhile the Nomad Green citizen journalists continue to write about their trip to Taiwan. Botanist Dorjgotovariungerel writes how environmentally friendly the Taiwanese people are. Dorjgotovariungerel thinks that the irresponsible action and processing of Mongolians have already brought desertification and land degradation in the country and they could use the examples of the Taiwanese people to turn things around.

  

  Lunch at Tea firm. Image by ariungerel, Nomad Green.

  Dorjgotovariungerel also writes about the experience of the Nomad Green team who visited a tea garden and factory in Taiwan.

  They cook all meal in the tea such as bean, cans and rice. All food was very delicious.

• September 02, 2010
• 15:06

  The Charter Commission's Final Word

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  The city Charter Revision Commission has issued its final report (available here) on its six months of work.

  The 219-page document includes the two proposals that will appear on the November ballot — one on term limits and the other a potpourri of measures related to “elections and government administration.” These include requiring disclosure of independent campaign expenditures, reducing the number of signatures prospective candidates must receive to qualify for the ballot and increasing the penalties for conflicts of interest. The commission did “not recommend change at this time” to loosen the mayor’s iron grip on the Conflicts of Interest Board, which seems to make members of his administration exempt from penalties, whatever their size.

  The report offers background on the issue, texts of the proposed amendments and lots of supporting materials along with information on commission members, staff and procedures.

  It also includes a section on items for future consideration, including nonpartisan (or to use the current parlance, top-two) elections. Although the commission heard testimony on this issue from experts and the general public, the report said, “Many commission members, regardless of their personal feelings about top-two elections, expressed doubts about placing a proposal on the ballot without further consideration.”

  Amid its official tone, there are some nuggets here and there. For example, on term limits (the issue that for all intents and purposes led to creation of the commission) the report attributes the move to extend them in 2008 to the City Council. As for the mayor’s role: He established the Charter Commission and ” asked that the voters be given another opportunity to weigh in on the issue.”

  Somehow that isn’t quite how we remember it.

• 13:07

  Voters Very Undecided on AG Race

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  The new Quinnipiac Poll shows what the last one did–voters mostly have no idea which Democrat they will vote for in the Sept. 14 primary.  The last poll showed 81 percent of Democratic voters undecided, the latest poll puts the number at 77.

  Only 4 percent of voters say they plan to vote for Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice, 3 percent for Sen. Eric Schneiderman, 1 percent for Assemblymember Richard Brodsky and 1 percent for Sean Coffey. Meanwhile 2 percent say they won’t vote and 5 percent refused to answer.

  The poll goes a long way to showing why the candidates are still desperatly trying to differentiate themselves from one another.

  Sen. Eric Schneiderman picked up more endorsements today and it seems that he is hell-bent on winning the race on votes from the city and minorities.

• 13:00

  How to Conquer Journalism Students' Fear of Technology

   » ‎ MediaShift

  

  Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  In a time and age when many of my generation assume the younger generation understands technology, I have been surprised by the number of students who walk into my class and announce that they "don't know anything about computers."

  It's a rampant attitude. I beg each and every student who says this to pretend they never said it and try everything I introduce to them in my class. Over the last seven years I've been teaching, I've seen a slow change that is now very obvious: It isn't just a belief that they don't know about computers, many students are simply afraid to fail.

  

  I am open to writing about my professional failures for this site. I thrive from the learning experience that comes from doing everything I can, even if I fail. So my students' reaction to failure has been difficult to understand, and even more difficult to verbalize.

  A Different Approach

  When they arrive in my class, I teach students how to go beyond what they already learned in the radio/television sequence at the Missouri School of Journalism. The students know how to produce stories for on-the-air and online. They know how to edit stellar video and audio. But there is another level of multimedia journalism that I try to help them add to an already solid base of knowledge. This can be scary, as many of my students are overachievers who are frightened to get a bad grade. They're afraid to jump into something new before they even have a chance to fail. I used to just think that was funny and it didn't interfere with my teaching. But lately I have decided it is time to teach my class differently.

  In the past I taught students the basics of software like Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator. I introduced blogging, video conversion tools and many other web-based tools that can make delivering online stories a richer experience. The students who try it all walk away with a knowledge of how things work. But even more important, they understand how to talk about the technology. They may not be experts, but they can talk to an expert and be able to understand his or her needs when they work together on a project.

  I will not stop teaching these tools, but I am going to do it with more help. I think I need to spend classroom time presenting my case for the basic knowledge of software instead of teaching it during class time. I plan on going about this campaign in a number of ways.

  Four Elements

  Here are the four main elements of my new approach:

  1. First, I want to make sure my students know there is no other time in their life when they will have this much free time to experience and be curious about new tools for journalism. I'm handing them access to tools to explore and an outlet to share their lessons. Each of my students work in the KOMU-TV or KBIA-FM newsrooms. (KOMU is a university-owned local NBC station; KBIA is the local NPR station.) They also have a chance to work with a number of social media applications for each of the newsrooms.
  2. Second, instead of focusing on the software in the classroom, I will spend more time showing examples of what technology can produce for the journalism industry. I hope to introduce my students to a number of people in the profession (thanks to Skype) who have a wide range of skills. I hope to use their backgrounds to explain why it's important to break past fear of the new.
  3. Third, I have added five online courses from Lynda.com to my class, which my students will be able to take at their own pace. I will not teach software in class, but I will hold open, non-mandatory meetings for students who are still confused and want to work through the confusion.
  4. At the end of the class, I will ask students to use the lessons they learned with Lynda.com to produce content that will benefit their online portfolio. I will expect examples of photo editing, graphic creation and, as extra credit, a use of interactive graphics. I'm hoping that by requiring content that will benefit the student portfolios, it will motivate my students to jump into learning software.

  Not all of my students are afraid of technology. The shifts I am making in my class are focused on helping this group of students succeed just as well as the more fearful ones. And I'm ready to push ahead with these changes with the knowledge that they too could fail.

  Jennifer Reeves worked in television news for the majority of her career. In the last six years, she has moved from traditional journalist to non-traditional thinker about journalism and education. Jen is currently the New Media Director at KOMU-TV and komu.com. At the same time, she is an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism and was a part of the inaugural class of Reynolds Journalism Institute fellows (2008-09).

  

  Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  This is a summary. Visit our site for the full post ».

• 11:21

  The Cartoonist Aims to Bring Newsgames to the Masses

   » ‎ MediaShift Idea Lab

  The Cartoonist, our winning entry in the 2010 Knight News Challenge, emerged from two research programs. For the past two years, my research group at the Georgia Institute of Technology has been cataloging and analyzing the burgeoning genre of "newsgames" -- videogames about current and past real-world events. That research produced a book, Newsgames, which will be published next month by MIT Press.

  Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, professor Michael Mateas and his Expressive Intelligence Studio at UC Santa Cruz have been working on the problem of game generation by creating artificial intelligence tools to create a virtually infinite number of games.

  The goal of our two-year Knight grant is to create a tool for generating newsgames on the fly, making it viable to create a videogame about a breaking event. This is done by identifying the issue and an angle for editorial or reporting, boiling the story down into its constituent agents and their relationships, and selecting from a range of rhetorical archetypes. Anyone who understands how to use the tool will be able to create a newsgame, remixed from the structures and mechanics of popular arcade games, within five minutes or less. The game will output to Flash and HTML 5 for instant uploading to the web, where it can be paired with reportage, columns, video, infographics, and cartoons covering the same current event.

  Early Newsgames

  Our project strives to enhance the online viability of local newspapers and to lower the technical barrier required to produce videogames with editorial intent. We see it as as an extension of, rather than a replacement for, the tradition of editorial cartooning. The creator of the earliest newsgames, Gonzalo Frasca, was the first to describe his work as "playable political cartoons." The French-language history and geography textbooks Frasca encountered in high school featured many cartoons drawn by an artist from Le Monde, and they were, according to him, all that made civics education bearable.

  By now, anyone studying or working in journalism understands the great loss to news revenue caused by the shift of classifieds to online sources such as Craigslist and eBay. It is our contention that the abandonment of staff cartoonists at many papers -- a tragic and highly visible symptom of overall budget cuts during the recent recession -- represents a similarly vital loss, though of a different kind. For over a century, editorial cartoons drew attention to issues of local importance and generated a sense of regional pride. Their contribution to the wellbeing of local papers has never been easily quantifiable, but it's clear that they've always served a pivotal role in maintaining product loyalty and funneling readers toward the rest of the paper.

  Appeal of Puzzles

  Games accomplish a similar goal: Studies by the New York Times, the London Times, and a number of local papers showed that a significant percentage of their readerships bought the paper primarily for the puzzles. Although the crossword retains its loyalists, and despite the advent of Sudoku having ushered in a new generation of puzzlers, the rise in popularity of online web game portals represents yet another threat to the growth and retention of news readerships.

  The new online news media require a new form of game, one that draws from the accessibility of arcade games and the capability of videogames to present an editorial opinion. Indeed, The Cartoonist has uses far beyond interactive cartoons, and as a result we will be changing the final product's name to reflect its broad potential. More on that as things progress.

  Once it is fully developed, our studios will work with local reporters, columnists, and cartoonists in Atlanta and Santa Cruz to introduce them to the authoring system. Later, we'll make the tool and its source code available to everyone, from veteran cartoonists, to indie game developers, to citizen journalists. Until then, we'll be publishing findings, problems, and points of interest twice a month on this blog, along with other articles on our own Newsgames and Expressive Intelligence Studio websites. We look forward to your questions, comments, and continued support.

• 11:21

  The Cartoonist Aims to Bring Newsgames to the Masses

   » ‎ MediaShift Idea Lab

  The Cartoonist, our winning entry in the 2010 Knight News Challenge, emerged from two research programs. For the past two years, my research group at the Georgia Institute of Technology has been cataloging and analyzing the burgeoning genre of "newsgames" -- videogames about current and past real-world events. That research produced a book, Newsgames, which will be published next month by MIT Press.

  Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, professor Michael Mateas and his Expressive Intelligence Studio at UC Santa Cruz have been working on the problem of game generation by creating artificial intelligence tools to create a virtually infinite number of games.

  The goal of our two-year Knight grant is to create a tool for generating newsgames on the fly, making it viable to create a videogame about a breaking event. This is done by identifying the issue and an angle for editorial or reporting, boiling the story down into its constituent agents and their relationships, and selecting from a range of rhetorical archetypes. Anyone who understands how to use the tool will be able to create a newsgame, remixed from the structures and mechanics of popular arcade games, within five minutes or less. The game will output to Flash and HTML 5 for instant uploading to the web, where it can be paired with reportage, columns, video, infographics, and cartoons covering the same current event.

  Early Newsgames

  Our project strives to enhance the online viability of local newspapers and to lower the technical barrier required to produce videogames with editorial intent. We see it as as an extension of, rather than a replacement for, the tradition of editorial cartooning. The creator of the earliest newsgames, Gonzalo Frasca, was the first to describe his work as "playable political cartoons." The French-language history and geography textbooks Frasca encountered in high school featured many cartoons drawn by an artist from Le Monde, and they were, according to him, all that made civics education bearable.

  By now, anyone studying or working in journalism understands the great loss to news revenue caused by the shift of classifieds to online sources such as Craigslist and eBay. It is our contention that the abandonment of staff cartoonists at many papers -- a tragic and highly visible symptom of overall budget cuts during the recent recession -- represents a similarly vital loss, though of a different kind. For over a century, editorial cartoons drew attention to issues of local importance and generated a sense of regional pride. Their contribution to the wellbeing of local papers has never been easily quantifiable, but it's clear that they've always served a pivotal role in maintaining product loyalty and funneling readers toward the rest of the paper.

  Appeal of Puzzles

  Games accomplish a similar goal: Studies by the New York Times, the London Times, and a number of local papers showed that a significant percentage of their readerships bought the paper primarily for the puzzles. Although the crossword retains its loyalists, and despite the advent of Sudoku having ushered in a new generation of puzzlers, the rise in popularity of online web game portals represents yet another threat to the growth and retention of news readerships.

  The new online news media require a new form of game, one that draws from the accessibility of arcade games and the capability of videogames to present an editorial opinion. Indeed, The Cartoonist has uses far beyond interactive cartoons, and as a result we will be changing the final product's name to reflect its broad potential. More on that as things progress.

  Once it is fully developed, our studios will work with local reporters, columnists, and cartoonists in Atlanta and Santa Cruz to introduce them to the authoring system. Later, we'll make the tool and its source code available to everyone, from veteran cartoonists, to indie game developers, to citizen journalists. Until then, we'll be publishing findings, problems, and points of interest twice a month on this blog, along with other articles on our own Newsgames and Expressive Intelligence Studio websites. We look forward to your questions, comments, and continued support.

• 9:00

  links for 2010-09-02

   » ‎ Amy Gahran
  • Missoulian's digital manager's parting shot at editors "I believe in the process of news and the responsibility of a local newspaper to provide news to the citizens. Unfortunately, newspapers are helmed by old, decrepit captains who cannot see past their bifocals way down their noses reading about yesterday with all the relevance of the Hindenberg blimp disaster.

    "I cannot blame them too much. If I had loved something my whole life, I would find it difficult to let go too."

    (tags: relevance newspapers career evolution)
  • Community-Focused Sponsorship Info Info on how to do one of those cool Spot.us surveys. (tags: research advertising business)

  

• September 01, 2010
• 23:00

  Attorney General Candidates Struggle to Break Away From the Pack

   » ‎ Gotham Gazette: New York City News and Public Policy
  With less than two weeks until the primary, each of the five Democrats running for attorney general struggles to emerge from the pack. But are the voters listening?

• 17:13

  Schneiderman Attacked, Gets More Endorsements

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  Sen. Eric Schneiderman was a no show for a debate in Albany today and Nassau County District Attorney took the opportunity to jab the senator on a number of occasions.

  Particularly Rice attacked Schneiderman over a bill she favors that would increase the penalties for luring a child over the internet. Rice said the bill has “languished” in the senate codes committee for “over a year.” Her campaign released a television ad attacking Schneiderman on the issue.

  Schneiderman’s campaign issued a rebuttal, saying that Rice does not understand the law. In the TV spot Rice says the bill she supports would make luring a child over the internet a felony. Luring a child over the internet is already a felony in the state. Schneiderman’s campaign said he voted for a law that made it so in 2008.

  Here is a statement from Schneiderman’s campaign manager:

  With all due respect, now we know why multiple editorial pages have said in recent days that Ms. Rice lacks a grasp of the issues facing this office,” Schneiderman campaign manager Emily Arsenault said today. “While Ms. Rice called for making internet luring a felony in her commercial, it already is one. And while she attacked Eric Schneiderman for not supporting making internet luring a felony, it turns out he voted for a luring bill that was enacted in 2008, while Ms. Rice’s preferred measure would actually require more proof than currently required to convict. If Ms. Rice wants to actually make it harder to convict internet predators, that’s her right, but she should make sure she has the facts straight.”

  Meanwhile Schneiderman was endorsed by El Diario and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.

  Here is Maloney’s statement:

  “I’m proud to endorse Eric Schneiderman for Attorney General, he’s the best person for the job,” said  Maloney. “There is no one who is better prepared, more experienced or a stronger advocate for working families than Eric Schneiderman. Whether it’s fighting for women’s rights, economic justice or government reform, Eric has stood up for progressive values and delivered results for all New Yorkers. We need a fierce defender of the people of New York to be Attorney General, there’s only one option: elect Eric Schneiderman on September 14th.”

  Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice is not so happy to see Schneiderman riding the wave of recent endorsements and challenges his independence in this recent post.

• 15:01

  Revamping J-Schools in Australia to Bring in 'Citizens Agenda'

   » ‎ MediaShift

  

  Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  As Australian democracy hangs in the balance, and with the outcome of the August 21 national election unlikely to be resolved for weeks, I'm considering the implications for journalism education -- and how we can invent new models for political reporting.

  I am a former Australian Broadcasting Corporation political journalist who now teaches journalism in at the University of Canberra, which is situated just down the road from Australia's national parliament. Parliament House is home to the Canberra Press Gallery, the Holy Grail of Australian political journalism.

  

  I made a small but successful attempt at innovating political reporting in the classroom through the employment of Twitter as a student-reporting platform in a Canberra regional election in 2008. But it's time my school, which bills itself as Australia's "Capital University," embarked on a political journalism project that marries journalism students and media-active citizenry with industry partners, new media players and civic agencies.

  Such an approach could enable the implementation of a citizen-informed editorial agenda; the engagement of a now essential social media strategy; and the enhancement of industry partner's political coverage, with the social objective of enabling participatory democracy. It should also provide an opportunity for academic research, so that the outcomes can be appropriately measured and academically published, as well as being reported for mass consumption through a variety of media.

  Superficial Coverage

  Problematic Australian political reporting, which became a theme of its own during the heavily stage-managed campaign, has been cited as one of the causes of this historic result: The first hung Parliament since World War II, and the upending of Australia's entrenched, highly combative, two-party democracy.

  Journalists have been accused of producing superficial stories that were heavily influenced by polls and the major parties' political agendas, but light on critique and context. Citizen journalists bit back on blogs and Twitter, telling journalists to lift their game.

  They complained about Press Gallery obsessions with predictions, personalities and political processes at the expense of policies. They also cited the impact of spin and campaign stage management on editorial agendas at the expense of independent, inquiring journalism as evidence of the need for changing practice. They asked why Australia's increasingly costly involvement in the war in Afghanistan wasn't probed during the campaign, and they wanted to know why both major parties virtually ignored climate change. This public critique of professional political journalism provoked defensive reactions from some reporters and triggered a vigorous Twitter debate on political journalism between the Fourth Estate and the New Estate. Witness the below exchange between a journalist and one of my colleagues at the university:

  

  

  Four independent Members of Parliament, bent on upending the Oz political landscape, are likely to hold the Balance of Power in the new government -- and they've already taken aim at the Fourth Estate for its failures and apparent determination to maintain the status quo. In a National Press Club (NPC) address last week, one MP, Tony Windsor, challenged the journalists present, saying, "if you people are sick of the nonsense, then promote some of [our] concepts." Another, Rob Oakeshott, pointed to what he sees as the essence of the problem. "In focusing so heavily on the [Prime Minister], the cabinet and the polls ... we have lost the focus on the local member," he told the NPC. And with it, the local community.

  A challenge

  NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen visited Australia in the middle of the election campaign to speak at a national conference of journalists. He was intrigued to find what he calls horse race journalism being practiced on the Australian election campaign trail. He revived his alternative model for political reporting driven by the "citizens agenda" during his highly publicized visit. He also proposed a new role of media outlet as "explainer" for the national public broadcaster, ABC.

  U.S. political journalist John Nichols was another keynote speaker at the conference. His rousing speech invoked Finley Peter Dunne ("afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted") and pointed to the risk that spin increasingly amplifies the voices of the powerful and threatens journalists' capacity to speak truth to power. It made me feel like I'd attended a revival meeting at the Church of Journalism.

  Rosen's practical challenge and Nichols' call to faith focused my mind on the role that journalism education might play in reforming political reporting in Australia. Key targets for an overhaul of political journalism in the Australian setting are:

  • The missing "citizens agenda" and active engagement with citizen journalists.
  • The absence of explanatory reporting and a preference for inflammatory tabloid-style political reporting.
  • The resort to the defense of objectivity in the face of political deceit.
  • The concentration of political reporting on the national capital and the parliament, and the insistence on focusing campaign coverage on the traveling shows staged by the leaders of the two main political parties, Labor and the Liberal National Coalition.

  Barrukka Project

  There has been only limited innovation in the sphere of community and industry-partnered journalism school projects around political journalism in Australia. The best of these was YouDecide2007 project, which sought to explore the role of social media and citizen journalism in partnership with the secondary Australian public broadcaster, the multilingual SBS. This early and very successful research-driven project did not, however, systematically involve journalism students, nor did it directly feed back into journalism training. In fact, most Australian journalism schools don't teach political journalism as a genre, and the training that does occur tends to simply model entrenched industry patterns.

  Here's what I propose: A multi-partnered, citizen-activated journalism project based at the University of Canberra in the lead up to the next national election (which could happen swiftly unless a stable government can be established in the current cliff-hanger of a ballot!). The objective would be to take the focus off the agendas of the major parties and the Canberra Press Gallery and look beyond the walls of Parliament House to the experiences and views of the broader Canberra public.

  Let's call this proposed project Barrukka, which means "talk" in an Aboriginal dialect. This name is in deference to the historically disenfranchised Indigenous Australians and it is a way of reflecting an underlying objective of connecting disempowered voices with the mainstream media and broader public.

  Its four-fold purpose would be to:

  1. Produce citizen agenda-enhanced journalism in multiple forms, across multiple platforms (including social media like Twitter and Facebook) and aggregated on a UC-managed website.
  2. Produce political reporters equipped to challenge dominant media/political paradigms and produce creative content.
  3. Provide opportunities for citizen journalism and community engagement.
  4. Enhance mainstream media coverage of the election.

  Senior student journalists, with the appropriate training and experience, would be embedded within the wider region's individual electorates (which range from inner city through farmland) for one week, researching and reporting the main issues identified by community organizations, local media and candidates. Thereafter, those electorates would become their election beats and their new contacts their main sources for coverage.

  The student journalists would also be tasked to recruit local leaders for community-based discussion groups. These groups would identify and explore key issues of concern and then feed those ideas into editorial processes, while group leaders would also upload content (audio, video, images, etc.) directly to the main website and via interconnected social media platforms.

  Partnerships With Industry, New Media & Government

  Partnerships would provide funding and support for the project. For example, UC's journalism program could partner with the country's respected and community-engaged, multiple-platform public broadcaster, the ABC.

  A second potential partnership could be formed between UC and one of the emerging activist media groups invested in social change like Get-Up, which successfully extended voting enrollment rights during the 2010 poll through legal challenges.

  A third partnership could be pursued between UC's journalism program and the Australian Electoral Commission, the statutory body which oversees the election process and the registration of voters. One of the roles of the project would be to educate Australians about electoral processes, promote democratic engagement and stimulate voter registration.

  Embedded Hyper-Local Reporting

  Embedding student journalists within individual electorates and requiring them to build relationships with both the candidates and the communities, through a combination of online and traditional reporting strategies, would encourage coverage of issues which may challenge both the major parties' strategic objectives and the Press Gallery's narrow editorial agenda.

  The student reporters would be forbidden from covering press-release generated "news" in the interests of countering spin, and they would be required to include two face-to-face interviews from non-official sources in every story filed. Their brief would be to report in an explanatory, rather than inflammatory, manner.

  They would be required to file content across a range of platforms including the project website, UC journalism school radio and TV programs, Twitter, blogs and Facebook pages associated with the project. In addition, they would be expected to tweet and blog about the processes of reporting in the interests of reflexive practice. And they would be tasked to produce one podcast during the campaign about the key issues and policies concerning the assigned electorate for showcasing on the ABC's website.

  Community Forums

  The embedded student journalists would identify leaders for citizen-based deliberative forums to be held in each electorate, every week of the campaign. These forum leaders would be trained in basic technical and professional skills by the project. They would be tasked to collect and file content to the project website with group members commenting on key themes emerging from each forum. They would operate like self-reporting focus groups.

  They would also be asked to identify one question they would like to put to each candidate in their electorate during community Q&A forums to be staged in the final week of the campaign.

  These Q&A forums would be webcast and accommodate questions from the wider audience via Twitter. They would be moderated and reported on by the student journalists involved in the project, with the possibility of content also being fed to ABC.

  Research Processes/Outcomes

  UC journalism academics, working with student research assistants from media studies and communication theory courses, would analyze the processes, outputs and impacts of the exercise and compare the coverage to the mainstream media's reporting of each electorate assigned. The results of this multi-faceted academic research (incorporating quantitative and qualitative methodologies) would then be published academically and in a range of popular, accessible media with a view to feeding outcomes back into the curriculum and future projects.

  At this stage, Barrukka is just a simple on-paper-only attempt at enlivening and improving political journalism education in Australia. But I am about to return to the classroom after a long stint of maternity leave, with fresh eyes and renewed purpose -- and I will do my best to turn this idea into a reality. Meantime, watch on as Australian democracy undergoes renovation. You may be inspired too.

  If you are interested in being involved as a partner or a sponsor in this proposed project, please email me.

  Julie Posetti is an award winning journalist and journalism academic who lectures in radio and television reporting at the University of Canberra, Australia. She's been a national political correspondent, a regional news editor, a TV documentary reporter and presenter on radio and television with the Australian national broadcaster, the ABC. Her academic research centers on talk radio, public broadcasting, political reporting and broadcast coverage of Muslims post-9/11. She blogs at J-Scribe and you can follow her on Twitter.

  

  Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  This is a summary. Visit our site for the full post ».

• 13:12

  The Challenges of Life and Transparency at Quincy District Court

   » ‎ MediaShift Idea Lab

  Now that the celebrations and congratulations are in the past, the hard work of building Order in the Court 2.0 has begun.
  
  The idea that received the endorsement of the Knight News Challenge is now being tested in the real world with formal meetings with officials from the Massachusetts court system. I'm happy to report that we have so far received overwhelming support and encouragement for this project.

  Our first meeting took place at the Quincy District Court where we met with Judge Mark Coven, the first justice of the court, the clerk of the court, the state court's public information officer, the state court's chief information officer and the state's director of court operations.

  Touring the Courthouse With Judge Coven

  Judge Coven set the tone of this meeting with his welcoming remarks and reinforced his enthusiasm for this project. He stressed its importance and how it was critical for the courts to have greater accessibility in order to build confidence in the judicial branch. He also made it clear that he wanted his courthouse to serve as a national model in determining the best practices for providing digital access to the public. After introductions, the judge provided us with a tour of the court.

  After taking a few steps into the courthouse's lobby, the judge was approached by a young man who didn't look a day over 14 years old. He came to court that day to specifically thank the judge for his help in getting clean of drugs. It turns out the young man was in his late teens and had been in and out of court so many times that the judge knew him very well. He recently graduated from a drug treatment program the judge had sentenced him to in order to deal with a heroin addiction. It was easy to see the judge was touched by this man's special visit. Judge Coven took a father-like pride in the fact that he had offered this man a second chance.

  Our tour continued through the busy courthouse with trips to the lock-up downstairs and meetings with court officers. I then spent the rest of the morning with the assistant court clerk who will be the day-to-day facilitator of this project. He too could not have been more enthusiastic. It was humbling to see that an idea that came out of the Knight News Challenge process was going to come to fruition and was going to have tangible support.

  Transparency: Rewards and Risks

  Since that initial meeting at the courthouse there have been meetings with the chief information officer of the state courts, Craig Burlingame. Burlingame is one of the most highly respected people in his field. He had just returned from Australia where he was helping the national government improve its computer records processes. Burlingame is incredibly knowledgeable about the particular challenges of getting the court's data out to the public. He is aware of the rewards of transparency, but he is also helping me understand the risks.

  Here's an example. One goal of Order in the Court 2.0 is to post the daily docket at Quincy District Court. The docket lists the names of each defendant and cases that are scheduled for the day. The docket is produced by the state's computer system, which is called MassCourts. The docket is sent to each court in a searchable PDF document. If Order in the Court 2.0 were to post the docket through its website (which is not yet under construction), data mining agencies would have easy access to the information it contains. This, understandably, is an issue for the court.

  Burlingame explained that it could seriously impact victims of crimes coming forward if they thought it might affect future job prospects or housing, since landlords use these services. He acknowledged that the docket is a public document posted at the courthouse; but to ensure the public's safety he needs to come up with a way to provide the document in a non-searchable PDF, and to seek the input of the judge assigned to preserve the integrity of the court's digital records.

  It was striking to hear how something that initially seemed simple could be so complicated and require further judicial review. It was a perfect example of how the lessons we learn from this project will make it easier for future efforts to build greater court transparency.

  One final footnote to this post. During a phone call with Judge Coven to set up another meeting, he reminded me of our conversation in the lobby with the young man who had come to thank him. He told me that the man was back in custody, and his family had come forward to request that he be recommitted because he was back on heroin. You couldn't miss the sadness in the judge's voice.

• 13:12

  The Challenges of Life and Transparency at Quincy District Court

   » ‎ MediaShift Idea Lab

  Now that the celebrations and congratulations are in the past, the hard work of building Order in the Court 2.0 has begun.
  
  The idea that received the endorsement of the Knight News Challenge is now being tested in the real world with formal meetings with officials from the Massachusetts court system. I'm happy to report that we have so far received overwhelming support and encouragement for this project.

  Our first meeting took place at the Quincy District Court where we met with Judge Mark Coven, the first justice of the court, the clerk of the court, the state court's public information officer, the state court's chief information officer and the state's director of court operations.

  Touring the Courthouse With Judge Coven

  Judge Coven set the tone of this meeting with his welcoming remarks and reinforced his enthusiasm for this project. He stressed its importance and how it was critical for the courts to have greater accessibility in order to build confidence in the judicial branch. He also made it clear that he wanted his courthouse to serve as a national model in determining the best practices for providing digital access to the public. After introductions, the judge provided us with a tour of the court.

  After taking a few steps into the courthouse's lobby, the judge was approached by a young man who didn't look a day over 14 years old. He came to court that day to specifically thank the judge for his help in getting clean of drugs. It turns out the young man was in his late teens and had been in and out of court so many times that the judge knew him very well. He recently graduated from a drug treatment program the judge had sentenced him to in order to deal with a heroin addiction. It was easy to see the judge was touched by this man's special visit. Judge Coven took a father-like pride in the fact that he had offered this man a second chance.

  Our tour continued through the busy courthouse with trips to the lock-up downstairs and meetings with court officers. I then spent the rest of the morning with the assistant court clerk who will be the day-to-day facilitator of this project. He too could not have been more enthusiastic. It was humbling to see that an idea that came out of the Knight News Challenge process was going to come to fruition and was going to have tangible support.

  Transparency: Rewards and Risks

  Since that initial meeting at the courthouse there have been meetings with the chief information officer of the state courts, Craig Burlingame. Burlingame is one of the most highly respected people in his field. He had just returned from Australia where he was helping the national government improve its computer records processes. Burlingame is incredibly knowledgeable about the particular challenges of getting the court's data out to the public. He is aware of the rewards of transparency, but he is also helping me understand the risks.

  Here's an example. One goal of Order in the Court 2.0 is to post the daily docket at Quincy District Court. The docket lists the names of each defendant and cases that are scheduled for the day. The docket is produced by the state's computer system, which is called MassCourts. The docket is sent to each court in a searchable PDF document. If Order in the Court 2.0 were to post the docket through its website (which is not yet under construction), data mining agencies would have easy access to the information it contains. This, understandably, is an issue for the court.

  Burlingame explained that it could seriously impact victims of crimes coming forward if they thought it might affect future job prospects or housing, since landlords use these services. He acknowledged that the docket is a public document posted at the courthouse; but to ensure the public's safety he needs to come up with a way to provide the document in a non-searchable PDF, and to seek the input of the judge assigned to preserve the integrity of the court's digital records.

  It was striking to hear how something that initially seemed simple could be so complicated and require further judicial review. It was a perfect example of how the lessons we learn from this project will make it easier for future efforts to build greater court transparency.

  One final footnote to this post. During a phone call with Judge Coven to set up another meeting, he reminded me of our conversation in the lobby with the young man who had come to thank him. He told me that the man was back in custody, and his family had come forward to request that he be recommitted because he was back on heroin. You couldn't miss the sadness in the judge's voice.

• 13:12

  Rivera and Padernacht Debate

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  Here is the BronxTalk debate between Sen. Pedro Espada’s Democratic challengers Gustavo Rivera and Daniel Padernacht. Thanks to the Bronx News Network for the link. Espada did not show for the debate and Rivera slammed him for it.

• 12:26

  Rice Says She Won't Seek Higher Office Than AG

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice has changed her tune on seeking higher office if she were to complete her bid to become attorney general.

  At the Citizens Union debate on July 21 I asked the candidates if they would pledge not to seek the governorship in their next two terms as attorney general, if they were elected. All of the candidates indicated that they would not run for governor except for Rice.

  “I think that these kinds of pledges are all show. It is ridiculous to say to someone, ‘make a pledge now’ before you’ve even done the job you’re running for,” she said at the time.

  Today at a debate in Albany hosted by WAMC Rice had a different answer to the question. She said she does not have her “sights set on a higher office.”

  “I just refused to engage in political gimmickry,” she said, apparently referring to my earlier question. She said she has “no other plans but to serve…as attorney general.”

  Sen. Eric Schneiderman did not show for the debate. He and Rice did not attend debate the previous night in Rochester.

• 12:02

  Lessons from the 2009 Elections

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  Looking back at the 2009 city elections, the city Campaign Finance Board is urging changes in laws governing how elections are paid for in the city. In particular, the board reiterates its call for the city to ban all campaign contributions by organizations. Although the board does not say so in so many words, this would forbid donations by labor unions, a move the City Council has rejected.

  Overall the board, in its required report on last year’s campaigns, finds the city’s public financing of campaigns — and the rules about how those funds are provided — encouraged small donors and made the elections more competitive. It found many people opened their wallets to candidates who had never done so before and that most gave $175 or less. (Perhaps not coincidentally, the city only provides a full — six to one — match for the first $175 of a contribution made by a New Yorker.)

  As indications of competitiveness, the report found in 37 of the 51 City Council districts, two or more candidates received public funds — up from 26 in 2005, the last City Council election year. And while only one incumbent was outspent by a challenger in 2005, last year seven challengers in the primary and five in the general election outspent the incumbent.

  Primary Day last year saw five incumbents go down to defeat and a few more hang on only by the narrowest of threads. While that may not seem like much, it represented a sharp increase from 2005 when only one incumbent who sought re-election lost.

  If the goal of campaign finance is to level the playing field and increase competitiveness, this could be seen as a success. But the board offers a number of recommendations for further changes.

  The board notes in its report that is has long sought to ban all organizational contributions and that the city already forbids contributions by corporations, limited liability corporations and partnerships.

  But some organizations can still give — and they do. In 2009, the report said, political committees (many affiliated with unions) and employee organizations donated more than $3.1million. On average, “organizations are able to make substantially larger contributions than individuals, which may represent attempts to gain influence,” the report says.

  The report also raises concerns about so-called legal defense funds — money raised by candidates to help pay off Campaign Finance Board penalties. Earlier this year, Gotham Gazette’s Courtney Gross reported that at least three City Council members had such funds. In particular one — Annabel Palma – used money from labor unions to pay off fines arising from charges that her 2003 campaign had been too closely associated with a union..

  In discussing such legal defense funds, the board report says, ” These contributions are yet another way for contributors to seek influence with a candidate. The board believes that all fundraising for the purpose of paying off debt arising from a political campaign should be fully disclosed, and should be subject to the same contribution limits and restrictions that apply during the election.”

  The board also would like to see disclosure of so-called independent expenditures — money spent by a third party that, while it may help a particular candidate, was supposedly spent with that candidate’s involvement. Although the Supreme Court has ruled government cannot restrict such contributions, it has said it can require disclosure of them. The board also recommends making it more difficult for candidates running against very weak — often only token — opposition to get public funds.

  While not surprisingly lauding the 20-year record of the Campaign Finance Program, the board does see difficult times ahead in an era of high spending, independently financed candidates and when, it notes, ” Courts have sought to tie the hands of campaign finance reformers across the nation.”

• 9:41

  What can journalism schools learn from watching the University of Colorado?

   » ‎ Online Journalism Review
  By Robert Niles: Last week, news reports hit that the University of Colorado at Boulder would close its journalism school. By the end of the afternoon, the story had morphed a bit - CU wouldn't be getting out of journalism education, but instead convening a commission to look at restructuring the school, putting its future as a separate entity in question. (By the way, does anyone have an explanation why several of the former Big Eight schools transpose their initials? How does the "University of Colorado" become CU? I digress....) Colorado's earned harsh criticism for the way it handled this announcement. Students, alumni and community members can't rally around uncertainty. Yes, journalism education needs to evolve as the industry also must, in response to the economic disruption the Internet has brought to the field. But if Colorado administrators couldn't have offered a specific plan for the future of journalism education at their institution, I'd argue they'd have served their community better by opening up their decision-making process, instead of putting forth closing the school as their primary option. Why leave your students and faculty hanging like this, especially when none of them will be on the commission deciding the school's fate? Still, every college and university that teaches journalism must be prepared to address some tough questions about the future of journalism education. For that, Colorado's not alone. A personal note: I've had some experience with university restructuring, having served as one of five student members of a 23-member student/faculty/administration task force charged with revamping Northwestern University's undergraduate division back in 1988. Done right, this is tough work that stirs up conflict right away, but in the hope of securing long-term stability for an institution. I see three huge challenges facing higher education today, challenges that aren't unique to any journalism school.

• 9:25

  Neighbors Online Video, London Networked Neighbours and CityCamp Unconferences

   » ‎ Steven Clift

  Here is a video of most of my presentation at the Networked Neighbourhoods event in London the other month. I start on the third minute. Unfortunately my FlipCam filled up so the rest of the even. Also see the blog recaps by Networked Neighbourhoods, and Kevin Harris. This was part of my UK trip in July.

  Also, speaking of the UK, Networked Neighbourhoods is having an unconference on September 25th and CityCamp London is October 8-10. E-Democracy.org is a big supporter of CityCamp and host the ongoing online exchange. We invite those attending the London neighbourhoods online event to join their international peers on the similar Locals Online exchange.

  Neighbors Online Presentation from E-Democracy.org on Vimeo.

  Below are the slides from the Activate Conference which I adapted for the presentation above. Sorry about the abrupt end to the video. Want more? How about a 90 minute webinar reviewing the field? After I concluded with comments on our Inclusive Social Media efforts and Neighbors Online stats, the event went into discussion mode. It was a great event. Thank you Kevin and Hugh for making it happen.

  Local Matters – Steven Clift's Activate Presentation View more presentations from Steven Clift.

  Share/Bookmark

  

• 9:00

  links for 2010-09-01

   » ‎ Amy Gahran
  • MediaShift Idea Lab . What the Spot.Us Community Thinks of Objectivity | PBS "Perhaps what we can learn from all of this is that objectivity, while important as an ideal of fairness, should not be seen as a way of achieving "detached-ness," if you will. But heck, this blog post is by no means unbiased, so even that assumption may not be accurate, or apply to you personally. One thing the respondents did uniformly agree upon is that reporters should unabashedly seek truth. While pure objectivity may be impossible, being honest isn't." (tags: journalism objectivity ethics statistics research bias)
  • AOL Patch: "We Do Not Focus on Race" | The Maynard Institute I think the bigger issue here is: Does Patch focus on race/privilege in choosing the communities it enters? Judging by what they've done so far, I'd say the answer is mostly yes, appear to. (tags: race privilege ethnic news-biz local problems business career diversity)
  • How Does Identity Theft Work? – Power of Data Visualization I would put the "how is your identity stolen" info up top — that's gonna be the most relevant part to most people. (tags: visual+communication security graphics identity)
  • Live Review: Cyndi Lauper Sings The Blues – Americana and roots music – No Depression "At the House of Blues in Las Vegas on Saturday night, Cyndi Lauper introduced a new phase of her overlooked career that challenged her core fans but left no doubt of her passion and talent.

    For eight straight weeks, Lauper has had the #1 album on the Billboard charts but has flown under the radar. She is not again flying high on the popular music charts like she did in 1984. Her new album Memphis Blues has become a major hit on the Billboard Blues charts and has earned the respect of the blues community many of whom appear on the album, such as B.B. King, Johnny Lang, and Allen Toussaint. Taking the stage in a black slip, torn tights, high heels, and a white snakeskin coat with an eruption of lava red hair atop the ensemble, Lauper looked smashing as she thanked the audience for supporting the album."

    (tags: music)
  • They Live Cool! The complete movie, for free online (tags: film entertainment)

  

• August 31, 2010
• 23:00

  Free Concerts Rocked the City as Controversy Rolled On

   » ‎ Gotham Gazette: New York City News and Public Policy
  This year's free performances brought funding challenges for organizers, angry disputes over noise and even a fight about prison labor. But most New Yorkers just enjoyed the show.

• 17:43

  Special Series: Beyond J-School

   » ‎ MediaShift

  

  Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  About this Series

  After the success last month with our Beyond Content Farms series, we decided to do another in-depth special series on MediaShift. This time the series will look at "Beyond J-School," chronicling how journalism education and training are changing, and how journalists need more than traditional j-school. They need multimedia skills, social media knowledge, community management chops, and must learn to collaborate with their audience. It's more than just learning the basics of journalism: They also need more background in business, entrepreneurship, technology and even programming. The entire series is linked below, and we'll be updating it throughout the next two weeks.

  Check Out All the Posts

  > How to Teach Social Media in Journalism Schools by Alfred Hermida

  > 5Across - Beyond J-School, a video roundtable show hosted by Mark Glaser

  > Revamping J-Schools in Australia to Bring in Citizens Agenda by Julie Posetti

  > How to Conquer Journalism Students' Fear of Technology by Jen Lee Reeves

  > Business, Entrepreneurial Skills Come to Journalism School by Dorian Benkoil

  > 4 Minute Roundup - Helping Journalism Students Get Tech Skills by Mark Glaser, with guest Jen Lee Reeves

  > Spending the Summer in Journalist Law School by Nick Baumann

  Coming soon:

  Sept. 8: Dan Reimold: J-Students who Double as Online Entrepreneurs
  Sept. 9: Craig Silverman: Programming Being Taught in J-Schools
  
  Sept. 10: Davis Shaver: Innovations at New York City's J-Schools

  Your Feedback

  What do you think about our series? How could it be improved? Are there other series you'd like to see MediaShift tackle in the coming months? We'd like to hear from you either in the comments below or via our Feedback form.

  

  Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  This is a summary. Visit our site for the full post ».

• 15:39

  5Across: Beyond J-School

   » ‎ MediaShift

  

  5Across is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  Just as traditional media has struggled with disruptive technology and the Internet, so too have the institutions that run journalism education. Most journalism schools and training programs are run by people whose careers were framed by print, broadcast and traditional PR, so how can students get the skills they need in the digital age? We convened a group of journalism educators, a trainer, a student and a J-school dropout to discuss how journalism education is shifting.

  

  The discussion flowed from the changing curriculum to the student's mindset -- why do students still believe in the romance of a journalism career when there are so few jobs? How should educators teach new multimedia skills, as well as collaboration with other journalists and even the people formerly known as the audience? And finally, do students even need a journalism degree or can they learn it all themselves. We discuss this and a whole lot more on this spirited episode of 5Across, part of our two-week special on journalism education at MediaShift. Check it out!

  5Across: Beyond J-School

  beyondjschool.mp4

  >>> Subscribe to 5Across video podcast <<<

  >>> Subscribe to 5Across via iTunes <<<

  Guest Biographies

  After dropping out of journalism school in 1998, Lea Aschkenas wrote a story about her experiences for Salon. Her post-journalism school career includes a stint as a staff reporter, itinerant freelance writer, and author of the memoir, "Es Cuba: Life and Love on an Illegal Island" (Seal Press, 2006). She has also written for the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle. Currently, she works as a public librarian and teaches poetry-writing through the California Poets in the Schools program.

  Kelly Goff is a senior in the journalism department at San Francisco State University, focusing on print and online journalism. She recently moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles, where she earned her associates in journalism from Pierce College. She is also an assistant events planner with the Journalism Association of Community Colleges.

  Jon Funabiki is a professor of journalism at San Francisco State University and executive director of the Renaissance Journalism Center, which conducts projects to stimulate journalistic innovations that strengthen communities. Funabiki is the former deputy director of the Ford Foundation's Media, Arts & Culture Unit and was the founding director of San Francisco State University's Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism. As a journalist with The San Diego Union, he specialized in U.S.-Asia political and economic affairs and reported from Japan, China, South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam and other countries.

  Lanita Pace-Hinton is the director of the Knight Digital Media Center, a
  continuing education program based at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. The Knight Digital Media Center offers free week-long workshops that provides journalists with hands-on training on multimedia storytelling and how to use web tools and social media. Lanita has served as director of career services
  
  and industry outreach for the UC Berkeley journalism school. She advised students on skills development and how to prepare for their entry into the profession.

  Full disclosure: The Knight Digital Media Center is a sponsor of PBS MediaShift.

  Howard Rheingold is a prominent author, educator and speaker on technology and the Internet. He wrote best-sellers about virtual reality and virtual communities, and was the founding executive editor of HotWired. He also founded Electric Minds in the mid-'90s. Rheingold has taught as appointed lecturer at UC Berkeley and Stanford University and has spoken about the social, cultural, political and economic impacts of new technologies.

  If you'd prefer to watch sections of the show rather than the entire show, I've broken them down by topic below.

  Shifting the Curriculum

  The Student's Mindset

  The Good and Bad of Social Media

  Journalism School Necessary?

  Teaching Tech Skills

  Credits

  Mark Glaser, executive producer and host
  Corbin Hiar, research assistant
  
  Singeli Agnew, camera
  
  Julie Caine, audio
  
  Location: Vega Project & Kennerly Architecture office space in San Francisco
  
  Special thanks to: PBS and the Knight Foundation
  
  Music by AJ the DJ

  *****

  What do you think? Are you an educator or student with thoughts on how journalism should be taught? Do you think a degree in journalism is necessary to become a journalist? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

  Mark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the Online Publishers Association. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter @mediatwit.

  

  5Across is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  This is a summary. Visit our site for the full post ».

• 13:02

  Reminder: Media Law Conference for Journalists, Bloggers and Other Digital Media

   » ‎ Citizen Media Law Project -

  We're pleased to announce that the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University are co‐hosting a conference on September 25, 2010 entitled "Media Law in the Digital Age: The Rules Have Changed, Have You?" in Atlanta, Georgia.

  Designed for journalists, bloggers, and lawyers who work with media clients, the conference will be an opportunity to learn first‐hand the latest legal developments and to get your questions answered byexperts in the field.

  The program will bring together legal practitioners, journalists, and academics to discuss the latest legal issues facing online media ventures. Topics will include: libel law, copyright law, newsgathering law, and advertising law, as well as the legal issues arising from news aggregation, managing online communities, and business law considerations for start‐up online media organizations. Small‐group workshops will focus on strategies for accessing government information and understanding legal terms in content licenses, freelancer contracts, and website terms of service and privacy policies.

  If you need personalized legal assistance before or after the conference, contact the Online Media Legal Network, a legal referral network for independent online media administered by the Citizen Media Law Project at the Berkman Center.

  Funding for the conference is being provided by the Harnisch Foundation, which has been a long‐time sponsor of the Center for Sustainable Journalism and recently provided a grant to the Berkman Center to support media law education.

  Visit the conference website for more information on the conference agenda, registration and logistics.

  

• 9:42

  Inclusion Update – Cedar Riverside – Dealing with Distrust Generated from Online Attacks Elsewhere on the Internet – By Julia Opoti

   » ‎ Steven Clift

  Editors Note: This Inclusive Social Media update is from Julia Opoti (pictured on right), our Community Outreach and Information Leader focused on Cedar Riverside. In related news, we’ve been experimenting with Facebook advertising and now in addition to the 275 full forum members we now have close to 750 followers on Facebook (many younger residents).
  

  By Julia Opoti

  When I first started as an outreach coordinator for e-democracy, I thought that my work was cut out for me. After all, I had been writing about the Cedar-Riverside community, particularly its large Somali population, for several years. It was not long before I realized that I would have to re-think my strategy. However, not all my efforts have been in vain. I will share here what I have found and over the next several months I will share how I navigate these challenges.

  Over the last several months, I have met with community activists, health care advocates, university employees, students, and residents. I walked from store to store discovering a mall I did not know existed. I even attended neighborhood meetings, neighborhood safety meetings and community events. I spent time at the Brian Coyle Center where I got further acquainted with community organizers. Every Tuesday, I would buy my vegetables from the small farmers’ market These opportunities allowed me an almost-insider’s look into the community.

  For the small business I quickly learned that many of the owners did not have an online presence neither did they have emails. In some instances, the store owners and their employees did not speak English making communication a challenge.

  Still, I gathered emails where I could, but haven’t seen an increase in member’s posting new content or responding to forum topics. However, a quick glance at forum stats show that readership is steadily increasing. I also found that many of the community organizers are already registered on the forum, but only lurk. I sought to know why.

  At an informal meeting with several Somali women I learned that the negative press and abrasive online comments on websites such as the Star Tribune newspaper have resulted in a complete distrust of non-Somali websites. One woman said that as a community organizer, her daily battles are constant, and she did not have the energy to constantly “defend her community.” While e-democracy forums are facilitated, and users are required to use their real names protecting members from such diatribe, these women are still hesitant to participate.

  What about softer, cultural issues like explaining Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting? Again, they spoke about online attack fatigue. As I look ahead to future postings and building trust it will be important to include topics that do not rile up controversy such as profiles of businesses and people in the community; and resources.

  E-Democracy is a unique position. Unlike many organizations the forum doesn’t want anything from the community. Not in the literal sense anyway. Of course, for the vibrancy and the posterity of the forum, participation is key. A key factor is making sure that people understand the the forums diversity is only as rich as its member participation.

  When Brian Noy posted on the forum about the low sales in the Brian Coyle Center’s farmers’ market, I met with him to see how he could best promote it. He was creative in his postings by featuring a weekly vegetarian recipe. However, the reality was that the people who needed to see it most were not accessing it. His best approach, it turned out, was speaking to community organizers housed at the Brian Coyle Center that I introduced him to that day who could in turn communicate to their different constituencies.

  As I continue with my outreach efforts I am keen on developing strategies that would allow the community to trust this particular forum. For a community that is very oral with most information relayed through word of mouth and community gatherings; how does e-democracy fit in? For literate Somalis digital engagement is actually not an issue as there several popular forums (Hirraan, Somalia Online, Somali Life, SomaliNet) and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. However, how do we engage them in a wider issues forum like the e-democracy one? Considering digital inclusion, how does e-democracy make a case for communities with little or no access to the Internet?

  PS. There are other communities of color, like immigrants of Oromo, Ethiopian, Eriterian, Korean and Mexican descent, in the Cedar Riverside Neighborhood that I will be profiling over the course of the month.

  

  Kids at National Night Out at Riverside Plaza. E-Democracy.org recruited 15 new forum members that evening using paper sign-up sheets.

  Share/Bookmark

  

• 9:10

  What the Spot.Us Community Thinks of Objectivity

   » ‎ MediaShift Idea Lab

  
  

  The following post comes to us from Sameer Bhuchar, who is helping Spot.Us from Austin.

  It has been said a thousand times before: The landscape of the modern media is changing. With today's more complex, active Internet ecosystem, the accepted norms of journalism are constantly being rewritten or tossed out all together. The Internet has bypassed the once highly regarded norms of gatekeepers at a news desk, and it now seems to be challenging the long held model of objectivity in journalism.

  If there is an underlying theme to Spot.Us it is the idea that we expect our community to tell us what is important in journalism, rather than dictate it ourselves. With that in mind, several weeks ago, thanks to a generous sponsorship from Clay Shirky, we asked for your honest feedback about objectivity and journalism. We let the 500 users who took the survey decide where the sponsorship dollars should go. In other words, we handed over a part of our budget to community members who let us figure out what the ethos is around objectivity in journalism. Community-focused sponsorship for the win! (Try our newest CFS. Let us know about important story ideas in your region and fund a story on Spot.Us for free).
  

  Survey Results
  

  Is there a clear divide between those who support the traditional idea of objectivity and those who take a different stance? Are there exceptions to the standard? How should journalism work for you? Some believe objectivity means reporting facts without bias, and that an article must be balanced and include multiple points of view. To many, objectivity in journalism is the most important standard of the profession. It was once considered the glue of the business, the one aim that let media consumers decide for themselves what was right and wrong.
  

  Increasingly, however, the idea of traditional objectivity is being challenged by this new, proactive age of media consumers. To those who challenge the ideal, it is an outdated standard that has crippled journalists from digging deep into stories.

  Keep in mind the survey results are not scientific and, as the political leanings graph shows, there was perhaps a self-selecting audience (the Spot.Us community). Nonetheless, with 500 respondents there was a diverse set of answers.

  First and foremost it is important to note that about 52 percent of the survey takers were female and 48 percent male.
  
  Also, close to 60 percent of the respondents identified themselves as liberals, with only 10.8 percent identifying as conservative. Close to 30 percent said they were independents. This could be reflective of where Spot.Us' traffic comes from (heavy in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and New York).
  
  

  Responses to the question, "Is objectivity even possible?" show there are a large percentage of people with a changing idea about objectivity. Of the survey questions, perhaps this one and the responses associated with it were the most telling when it comes to attitudes towards objectivity. Only 13.5 percent (60 respondents) very clearly identified "objectivity" as being what journalism is all about.

  This view point can best be explained through Spot.Us member Craig Gaines' extended response. "I define an objective piece as one that represents all viewpoints in a piece and allows readers to make up their minds about those viewpoints," Gaines said. "To do anything less is a disservice to, and disrespectful of, the reader."

  A staggering 44.6 percent (199) people agreed with the answer, "Objectivity is possible but difficult. It separates wheat from chaff." In essence the answer implies that objectivity should be seen more as a quest for honest, factual reporting. Spot.Us member (and NewsTrust executive director) Fabrice Florin summed up this viewpoint well.

  While objectivity is difficult to achieve, it is an important journalistic quality to strive for, particularly for factual news reporting, not for opinion pieces," Florin said. "For news reports, a neutral perspective helps present views from different sides without interjecting the author's personal opinions. Authors are welcome to post their own perspectives in their own opinion pieces, as long as they are clearly labeled as such. But journalists who want to serve society as neutral observers and referees should continue to report objectively on public issues they cover.

  Of the respondents, 27.6 percent (123 people) chose the answer "transparency is the new objectivity," implying that it is the reporting of truth that is most important, rather than a detached account of a scene.

  "I think that reporters ought to reveal their biases in each story as part of the narrative so as to partially disarm whatever criticism of bias they may receive," said member Paul Balcerak. "Doing so will provide a better service to the public and will create better journalism."

  There were also 55 people who believed objectivity was impossible, and 9 people went as far to answer that objectivity "is a crutch to prop old media up."
  
  

  This is all just the tip of the iceberg. Other questions sought to discover the community's view of how important objectivity is (always required, sometimes, never, etc.), and to help gauge the respondents' relationship to journalism (a professor or as an avid news reader, for example). We believe that in aggregate this survey provides unique insight into what people from the Spot.Us community want and expect from the media.

  To drive the point home, we've included anecdotal responses from our insightful community members who gave us permission to publish their answers. (These were used to create the above Wordle.)

  Perhaps what we can learn from all of this is that objectivity, while important as an ideal of fairness, should not be seen as a way of achieving "detached-ness," if you will. But heck, this blog post is by no means unbiased, so even that assumption may not be accurate, or apply to you personally. One thing the respondents did uniformly agree upon is that reporters should unabashedly seek truth. While pure objectivity may be impossible, being honest isn't.

  Community Views

  Below is a selection of comments from the wisest people we know -- our community. Here's what they had to say about objectivity:
  

  "In journalism school I was very swayed by the 'Transparency IS the new objectivity' school of thinking, and the notion that everyone has bias and perspective, and so any attempt to avoid that is foolhardy. From my insider perspective, my own biases and opinions seemed magnified and huge. However, since I haven't been working as a journalist and have been, instead, consuming local media (increasingly independent and citizen/blog driven, as the local establishment journalism withers away) I've longed for the ideal of objectivity while recognizing it might never have been truly practiced. I've grown to strongly dislike the strongly and biased opinionated citizen journalism I am now surrounded by, because it so often willfully refuses to dig deeper and more broadly and is so very proud of its 'perspective'. I am often left with a long list of simple questions I think *I* would have asked just to get the whole story." -- Saheli Datta
  

  "I don't believe what we've traditionally defined as objectivity in the media is actually objectivity--it's more like perceived impartiality. I think that reporters ought to reveal their biases in each story as part of the narrative (writing in first-person would make the process a lot less awkward, by the way) so as to partially disarm whatever criticism of bias they may receive. Doing so will provide a better service to the public and will create better journalism." -- Paul Balcerak

  "Objectivity was a marketing technique invented by the AP 100 + years ago. It's well suited for monopoly style newspaper production but shits the bed when media representation of similar events increases... Debunking objectivity as a concept is as easy as shooting ducks in duck hunt, but fact of the matter is that if *we didn't* believe in objectivity our lives would be intolerable.

  "Therefore the question isn't about whether objectivity in journalism is possible, it's how does a person come to see media as objective? That's where things get interesting and where a lot is getting disrupted. The meaning of an event doesn't happen until it's represented and what we are seeing is an explosion in meaning at the sign of *any event*. See Stuart Hall, he's pre-Twitter but his points are just as valid." -- Cody Brown

  "Transparency means more than understanding where the journalist's bias lies; it means that the journalist or reporter does things like crowdsource some questions, work in partnership with community journalism initiatives already underway, blog about the progress on a story and explain what the next steps are (unless it's a super-secret undercover investigation), record interviews and give public access to the full transcript as well as the audio file, etc. Transparency means addressing reader concerns and input about pieces and continuing the conversation after one story is published." -- Suzi Steffen
  

  "A journalist's background certainly matters in how they interpret subjects, but the job is to look close, ask questions, and get the details right. More and more, unfortunately, it's also about checking out sources and making sure none of them are lying. With more and more resources dedicated to "spin" this part is important and often accounts for why a lot of people reject a good story as objective or biased - because they've been dished the spin in other platforms. But objectivity really is the name of the game." -- Lee van der Voo

  "In most mainstream news reports I hear, including a good number on NPR, there's an annoying trend toward presenting one side and then the other, while completely evading the question of which side might be right! This is a perverted effect of the mania that journalism has for supposedly unbiased an objective reporting. Too often in the name of objectivity journalists avoid taking principled stands on anything; too often monied interests can distract the public's attention from their own dubious business practices by trotting out a voice of dissent rationalizing their stand -- which, of course, will get equal air-time." -- Anneke Toomey

  "There is a saying somewhere: Objectivity is not possible, but fairness is. That is to say: are all sides, all points of view represented honestly and with the same weight? Ultimately, I'd say objectivity is a personal trait, fairness is a professional trait that pertains to our profession as journalists. Strive for fairness." --  Barbara Gref

  "No journalist is truly objective, if that term is meant to mean someone who has no opinions about the subjects he or she covers. Subjectivity starts right from the point at which a journalist chooses a subject to cover and goes right on through to who is interviewed, what quotations are selected, how the headline is written, and on and on. But what makes journalism different from other practices with which it is sometimes confused, such as PR or politics, is that journalists are in the business of *independent* verification of fact." -- Robert McClure

  "No one is truly unbiased or objective but that doesn't mean that a good reporter doesn't look for the truth behind everyone's agenda. Objectivity means not sitting on a story that would make someone look bad just because you're invested in their success. I almost said "Transparency is the new objectivity" only because it is the latest and most fabulous word to throw around. Transparency only helps identify lapses in objectivity, it doesn't replace it. As for transparency, it certainly helps identify lapses in objectivity, but it doesn't replace it." -- Amanda Hickman
  

  "Objectivity often means portraying both sides of the story but without considering power & privilege, you can never get both sides of story. It would be like looking at African Americans & crime in inner cities without looking at the effects of institutional racism and how poverty/availability of drugs/housing blight/welfare policies etc contributes to crime. Journalism needs to put more emphasis on telling the stories of the underserved and marginalized and those most impacted the those who have power." -- Micky Duxbury

  "No one is objective. The best we can do (instead of  pretending to be objective) is being transparent about our biases so readers are aware and can judge our content as they feel is appropriate. That said, it doesn't mean we should turn every article into a ranting, biased blog post, or even take a side on an issue we're covering. We just need to stop pretending true "Objectivism" exists." -- Lauren Rabaino
  

  "While objectivity is difficult to achieve, it is an important journalistic quality to strive for, particularly for factual news reporting (not for opinion pieces). For news reports, a neutral perspective helps present views from different sides without interjecting the author's personal opinions. Authors are welcome to post their own perspectives in their own opinion pieces, as long as they are clearly labeled as such. But journalists who want to serve society as neutral observers and referees should continue to report objectively on public issues they cover." -- Fabrice Florin

  "I find writing by people who disclose and discuss their biases/backgrounds dramatically more compelling than sterile I-refuse-to-take-sides-so-decide-for-yourself writing. I think it's possible to explain and analyze both sides of a story and fulfill a journalistic purpose without sitting on the fence." -- Katie Lohrenz
  

  "Everyone has opinions, and we are all entitled to have them. Journalists are no different. I like it when a journalist tells me how he/she arrived at an opinion, and any part of his/her backstory that will help me to assess credibility. Transparency is certainly part of the picture. What isn't helpful is a journalist who simply reports the sound bite from one side and then gathers the sound bite from another side and calls it a story - without stopping to investigate whether the facts can back up either side." -- Laurie Pumper

  "I don't think it is absolutely necessary to be objective, but if you aren't going to be objective, it is absolutely necessary to be honest about it." -- Luke Gies

  "Objectivity should be the goal for journalism. Reporting all sides of the story without bias is ideal. Unfortunately we live in a very polarized climate. Shock value, knee jerk reactions and stubborn opinion rule the day. I really appreciate news sources that don't resort to playing to that audience." -- Marie Rafalko

  "Basically, 'objectivity' in journalism began post WWII as a strategy to make news content more palatable to a broader advertiser base. That worked -- and it helped enable newspaper consolidation in many cities. But the strategy took on a life of its own -- and while it yielded some benefits, it's a fundamentally not credible premise. Journalism is created by people, and people are not objective. As media has become multidirectional, it's become ridiculous to try to ignore that reality. News organizations that choose a veneer of objectivity over the practice of transparency undermine their own credibility. The sad thing is, many news orgs cling to their veneer of objectivity because they think it builds credibility. They're eating their own dog food." -- Amy Gahran

  "I chose my answer by eliminating the others. I know it's not always possible. It's really tough. But transparency is absolutely not an alternative to objectivity. Fox News is transparent. It's not good journalism. Saying transparency can replace objectivity basically says that journalism can be produced by interest groups, as long as they're honest about who they are. That's no good for anyone, except for the interest groups." -- Molly Samuel

  "The U.S. journalism establishment has determined that they are smarter than consumer sand therefore must talk down, water down, simplify news stories. Their fear was that no one would read the paper. Really.
  

  "If all the facts were reported AND an effort was made to make media literacy an elementary school requirement we might have real journalism again in this country in a generation or so. Or promote and support online platforms that present facts and commentary separately. Then let traditional media fend for themselves." -- Todd O'Neill

  "It's never possible, but always desirable. That is, complete objectivity is probably impossible, because we aren't always aware of our prejudices. But, it is what we should strive for, regardless. So, it is very important to attempt, but also to be aware that we may have blind spots, in order to avoid the arrogance of believing you are able to step completely out of your own biases." -- Rebecca Church

  "To an extent, I agree with 'Transparency is the new objectivity,' but I don't think it's sufficient. I think pursuing objectivity while being transparent is crucial. Journalists should make every effort to escape their biases, explore other perspectives, and challenge their assumptions of what are and are not significant/authoritative voices, but they shouldn't do so at the cost of reporting and storytelling. However, they should acknowledge where they can where they are coming from, what perspectives they might take into the discussion, and what assumptions they are starting with so readers/audiences are able to make an informed analysis of the journalist's credibility." -- Bill Lascher
  

  "'Transparency is the new objectivity' is a fun riff, and it's close, but I think we (in the media business) grossly overstate the public's interest in our affiliations and conflicts." -- Ryan Sholin

  "Science, going back to the Heisenberg principle in the 1920s has proven that observation has an effect on the thing observed. Also, you can play 'he said-she said' journalism, but one statement has to come before the other. Determining the order is the reporter or editor's subjective choice and determines the slant of the story." -- Kellia Ramares

  "Objectivity is not rewarded by anyone, not the public and not the corporate new organizations. It's become like Don Quixote chasing windmills." -- Shari Brandhoy

  "Objectivity is impossible. There is no such thing as a human or institution without opinion. Therefore, it's best for us to know the bias of the reporters. That said, a statement of bias doesn't give license to lie or omit facts. Transparency is twofold:
  • a statement of bias
  • a commitment to releasing all information in an honest manner." -- Joey Baker

  "Shirky has made me bias on the topic - journalist was a special class of citizen when you needed a press. Now every resident has a responsibility to be a journalist. Who is going to write about neighborhoods - when crime is not the topic? Newspapers and other media outlets have always done a poor job covering my home. So who does that responsibility fall to - someone with a stake in the future of that neighborhood. And while I want accuracy and independence, I want the reporter, journalist, or citizen to offer their educated take on what this all means for the future of the area." -- Eddie North-Hager

  "The very definition of dialectic is pastiche. How can anyone be objective while still being informed? Transparency at least offers honesty and a path for the reader to follow." -- Clarisa Morales Roberts

  "I define an objective piece as one that represents all viewpoints in a piece and allows readers to make up their minds about those viewpoints. To do anything less is a disservice to, and disrespectful of, the reader." -- Craig Gaines

  "There is fairness but not objectivity. Everyone decides where to look, what facts to portray, how to frame what they're seeing. Even a pointed camera is not objective -- where the lens is pointed, how the zoom is set ... these all determine what's seen and how." -- Dorian Benkoil

  "Debating object/subject is an endless philosophical waste of time. Facts, and trends, data, information, systems analysis all are much more relevant to discourse around solving the complex problems we face today and in the future." -- Stephen Antonaros

  "I believe that objectivity is the single most dangerous goal journalism can work towards. It is impossible for a human being to produce a genuinely non-biased piece of writing, but it is simple for a writer to mimic the tone of authority that a member of society is educated to frame as truth. Journalism should strive for transparency - not as a new objectivity, but as a drastically different and more democratic concept of media's responsibility to present and portray information." -- Rebecca Glaser

  "Objectivity is impossible, it's an illusion and a myth often used to maintain flat, two-dimensional reporting that implies there are simply "two sides." What's far more important is accuracy, vigorous inquiry and story dimension--looking for texture and layers of debate, and letting the facts tell the story; two 'sides' are not 'equal' if one is heavily fact-based and the other is just opinion." -- Christopher Cook

  
• 9:10

  What the Spot.Us Community Thinks of Objectivity

   » ‎ MediaShift Idea Lab

  
  

  The following post comes to us from Sameer Bhuchar, who is helping Spot.Us from Austin.

  It has been said a thousand times before: The landscape of the modern media is changing. With today's more complex, active Internet ecosystem, the accepted norms of journalism are constantly being rewritten or tossed out all together. The Internet has bypassed the once highly regarded norms of gatekeepers at a news desk, and it now seems to be challenging the long held model of objectivity in journalism.

  If there is an underlying theme to Spot.Us it is the idea that we expect our community to tell us what is important in journalism, rather than dictate it ourselves. With that in mind, several weeks ago, thanks to a generous sponsorship from Clay Shirky, we asked for your honest feedback about objectivity and journalism. We let the 500 users who took the survey decide where the sponsorship dollars should go. In other words, we handed over a part of our budget to community members who let us figure out what the ethos is around objectivity in journalism. Community-focused sponsorship for the win! (Try our newest CFS. Let us know about important story ideas in your region and fund a story on Spot.Us for free).
  

  Survey Results
  

  Is there a clear divide between those who support the traditional idea of objectivity and those who take a different stance? Are there exceptions to the standard? How should journalism work for you? Some believe objectivity means reporting facts without bias, and that an article must be balanced and include multiple points of view. To many, objectivity in journalism is the most important standard of the profession. It was once considered the glue of the business, the one aim that let media consumers decide for themselves what was right and wrong.
  

  Increasingly, however, the idea of traditional objectivity is being challenged by this new, proactive age of media consumers. To those who challenge the ideal, it is an outdated standard that has crippled journalists from digging deep into stories.

  Keep in mind the survey results are not scientific and, as the political leanings graph shows, there was perhaps a self-selecting audience (the Spot.Us community). Nonetheless, with 500 respondents there was a diverse set of answers.

  First and foremost it is important to note that about 52 percent of the survey takers were female and 48 percent male.
  
  Also, close to 60 percent of the respondents identified themselves as liberals, with only 10.8 percent identifying as conservative. Close to 30 percent said they were independents. This could be reflective of where Spot.Us' traffic comes from (heavy in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and New York).
  
  

  Responses to the question, "Is objectivity even possible?" show there are a large percentage of people with a changing idea about objectivity. Of the survey questions, perhaps this one and the responses associated with it were the most telling when it comes to attitudes towards objectivity. Only 13.5 percent (60 respondents) very clearly identified "objectivity" as being what journalism is all about.

  This view point can best be explained through Spot.Us member Craig Gaines' extended response. "I define an objective piece as one that represents all viewpoints in a piece and allows readers to make up their minds about those viewpoints," Gaines said. "To do anything less is a disservice to, and disrespectful of, the reader."

  A staggering 44.6 percent (199) people agreed with the answer, "Objectivity is possible but difficult. It separates wheat from chaff." In essence the answer implies that objectivity should be seen more as a quest for honest, factual reporting. Spot.Us member (and NewsTrust executive director) Fabrice Florin summed up this viewpoint well.

  While objectivity is difficult to achieve, it is an important journalistic quality to strive for, particularly for factual news reporting, not for opinion pieces," Florin said. "For news reports, a neutral perspective helps present views from different sides without interjecting the author's personal opinions. Authors are welcome to post their own perspectives in their own opinion pieces, as long as they are clearly labeled as such. But journalists who want to serve society as neutral observers and referees should continue to report objectively on public issues they cover.

  Of the respondents, 27.6 percent (123 people) chose the answer "transparency is the new objectivity," implying that it is the reporting of truth that is most important, rather than a detached account of a scene.

  "I think that reporters ought to reveal their biases in each story as part of the narrative so as to partially disarm whatever criticism of bias they may receive," said member Paul Balcerak. "Doing so will provide a better service to the public and will create better journalism."

  There were also 55 people who believed objectivity was impossible, and 9 people went as far to answer that objectivity "is a crutch to prop old media up."
  
  

  This is all just the tip of the iceberg. Other questions sought to discover the community's view of how important objectivity is (always required, sometimes, never, etc.), and to help gauge the respondents' relationship to journalism (a professor or as an avid news reader, for example). We believe that in aggregate this survey provides unique insight into what people from the Spot.Us community want and expect from the media.

  To drive the point home, we've included anecdotal responses from our insightful community members who gave us permission to publish their answers. (These were used to create the above Wordle.)

  Perhaps what we can learn from all of this is that objectivity, while important as an ideal of fairness, should not be seen as a way of achieving "detached-ness," if you will. But heck, this blog post is by no means unbiased, so even that assumption may not be accurate, or apply to you personally. One thing the respondents did uniformly agree upon is that reporters should unabashedly seek truth. While pure objectivity may be impossible, being honest isn't.

  Community Views

  Below is a selection of comments from the wisest people we know -- our community. Here's what they had to say about objectivity:
  

  "In journalism school I was very swayed by the 'Transparency IS the new objectivity' school of thinking, and the notion that everyone has bias and perspective, and so any attempt to avoid that is foolhardy. From my insider perspective, my own biases and opinions seemed magnified and huge. However, since I haven't been working as a journalist and have been, instead, consuming local media (increasingly independent and citizen/blog driven, as the local establishment journalism withers away) I've longed for the ideal of objectivity while recognizing it might never have been truly practiced. I've grown to strongly dislike the strongly and biased opinionated citizen journalism I am now surrounded by, because it so often willfully refuses to dig deeper and more broadly and is so very proud of its 'perspective'. I am often left with a long list of simple questions I think *I* would have asked just to get the whole story." -- Saheli Datta
  

  "I don't believe what we've traditionally defined as objectivity in the media is actually objectivity--it's more like perceived impartiality. I think that reporters ought to reveal their biases in each story as part of the narrative (writing in first-person would make the process a lot less awkward, by the way) so as to partially disarm whatever criticism of bias they may receive. Doing so will provide a better service to the public and will create better journalism." -- Paul Balcerak

  "Objectivity was a marketing technique invented by the AP 100 + years ago. It's well suited for monopoly style newspaper production but shits the bed when media representation of similar events increases... Debunking objectivity as a concept is as easy as shooting ducks in duck hunt, but fact of the matter is that if *we didn't* believe in objectivity our lives would be intolerable.

  "Therefore the question isn't about whether objectivity in journalism is possible, it's how does a person come to see media as objective? That's where things get interesting and where a lot is getting disrupted. The meaning of an event doesn't happen until it's represented and what we are seeing is an explosion in meaning at the sign of *any event*. See Stuart Hall, he's pre-Twitter but his points are just as valid." -- Cody Brown

  "Transparency means more than understanding where the journalist's bias lies; it means that the journalist or reporter does things like crowdsource some questions, work in partnership with community journalism initiatives already underway, blog about the progress on a story and explain what the next steps are (unless it's a super-secret undercover investigation), record interviews and give public access to the full transcript as well as the audio file, etc. Transparency means addressing reader concerns and input about pieces and continuing the conversation after one story is published." -- Suzi Steffen
  

  "A journalist's background certainly matters in how they interpret subjects, but the job is to look close, ask questions, and get the details right. More and more, unfortunately, it's also about checking out sources and making sure none of them are lying. With more and more resources dedicated to "spin" this part is important and often accounts for why a lot of people reject a good story as objective or biased - because they've been dished the spin in other platforms. But objectivity really is the name of the game." -- Lee van der Voo

  "In most mainstream news reports I hear, including a good number on NPR, there's an annoying trend toward presenting one side and then the other, while completely evading the question of which side might be right! This is a perverted effect of the mania that journalism has for supposedly unbiased an objective reporting. Too often in the name of objectivity journalists avoid taking principled stands on anything; too often monied interests can distract the public's attention from their own dubious business practices by trotting out a voice of dissent rationalizing their stand -- which, of course, will get equal air-time." -- Anneke Toomey

  "There is a saying somewhere: Objectivity is not possible, but fairness is. That is to say: are all sides, all points of view represented honestly and with the same weight? Ultimately, I'd say objectivity is a personal trait, fairness is a professional trait that pertains to our profession as journalists. Strive for fairness." --  Barbara Gref

  "No journalist is truly objective, if that term is meant to mean someone who has no opinions about the subjects he or she covers. Subjectivity starts right from the point at which a journalist chooses a subject to cover and goes right on through to who is interviewed, what quotations are selected, how the headline is written, and on and on. But what makes journalism different from other practices with which it is sometimes confused, such as PR or politics, is that journalists are in the business of *independent* verification of fact." -- Robert McClure

  "No one is truly unbiased or objective but that doesn't mean that a good reporter doesn't look for the truth behind everyone's agenda. Objectivity means not sitting on a story that would make someone look bad just because you're invested in their success. I almost said "Transparency is the new objectivity" only because it is the latest and most fabulous word to throw around. Transparency only helps identify lapses in objectivity, it doesn't replace it. As for transparency, it certainly helps identify lapses in objectivity, but it doesn't replace it." -- Amanda Hickman
  

  "Objectivity often means portraying both sides of the story but without considering power & privilege, you can never get both sides of story. It would be like looking at African Americans & crime in inner cities without looking at the effects of institutional racism and how poverty/availability of drugs/housing blight/welfare policies etc contributes to crime. Journalism needs to put more emphasis on telling the stories of the underserved and marginalized and those most impacted the those who have power." -- Micky Duxbury

  "No one is objective. The best we can do (instead of  pretending to be objective) is being transparent about our biases so readers are aware and can judge our content as they feel is appropriate. That said, it doesn't mean we should turn every article into a ranting, biased blog post, or even take a side on an issue we're covering. We just need to stop pretending true "Objectivism" exists." -- Lauren Rabaino
  

  "While objectivity is difficult to achieve, it is an important journalistic quality to strive for, particularly for factual news reporting (not for opinion pieces). For news reports, a neutral perspective helps present views from different sides without interjecting the author's personal opinions. Authors are welcome to post their own perspectives in their own opinion pieces, as long as they are clearly labeled as such. But journalists who want to serve society as neutral observers and referees should continue to report objectively on public issues they cover." -- Fabrice Florin

  "I find writing by people who disclose and discuss their biases/backgrounds dramatically more compelling than sterile I-refuse-to-take-sides-so-decide-for-yourself writing. I think it's possible to explain and analyze both sides of a story and fulfill a journalistic purpose without sitting on the fence." -- Katie Lohrenz
  

  "Everyone has opinions, and we are all entitled to have them. Journalists are no different. I like it when a journalist tells me how he/she arrived at an opinion, and any part of his/her backstory that will help me to assess credibility. Transparency is certainly part of the picture. What isn't helpful is a journalist who simply reports the sound bite from one side and then gathers the sound bite from another side and calls it a story - without stopping to investigate whether the facts can back up either side." -- Laurie Pumper

  "I don't think it is absolutely necessary to be objective, but if you aren't going to be objective, it is absolutely necessary to be honest about it." -- Luke Gies

  "Objectivity should be the goal for journalism. Reporting all sides of the story without bias is ideal. Unfortunately we live in a very polarized climate. Shock value, knee jerk reactions and stubborn opinion rule the day. I really appreciate news sources that don't resort to playing to that audience." -- Marie Rafalko

  "Basically, 'objectivity' in journalism began post WWII as a strategy to make news content more palatable to a broader advertiser base. That worked -- and it helped enable newspaper consolidation in many cities. But the strategy took on a life of its own -- and while it yielded some benefits, it's a fundamentally not credible premise. Journalism is created by people, and people are not objective. As media has become multidirectional, it's become ridiculous to try to ignore that reality. News organizations that choose a veneer of objectivity over the practice of transparency undermine their own credibility. The sad thing is, many news orgs cling to their veneer of objectivity because they think it builds credibility. They're eating their own dog food." -- Amy Gahran

  "I chose my answer by eliminating the others. I know it's not always possible. It's really tough. But transparency is absolutely not an alternative to objectivity. Fox News is transparent. It's not good journalism. Saying transparency can replace objectivity basically says that journalism can be produced by interest groups, as long as they're honest about who they are. That's no good for anyone, except for the interest groups." -- Molly Samuel

  "The U.S. journalism establishment has determined that they are smarter than consumer sand therefore must talk down, water down, simplify news stories. Their fear was that no one would read the paper. Really.
  

  "If all the facts were reported AND an effort was made to make media literacy an elementary school requirement we might have real journalism again in this country in a generation or so. Or promote and support online platforms that present facts and commentary separately. Then let traditional media fend for themselves." -- Todd O'Neill

  "It's never possible, but always desirable. That is, complete objectivity is probably impossible, because we aren't always aware of our prejudices. But, it is what we should strive for, regardless. So, it is very important to attempt, but also to be aware that we may have blind spots, in order to avoid the arrogance of believing you are able to step completely out of your own biases." -- Rebecca Church

  "To an extent, I agree with 'Transparency is the new objectivity,' but I don't think it's sufficient. I think pursuing objectivity while being transparent is crucial. Journalists should make every effort to escape their biases, explore other perspectives, and challenge their assumptions of what are and are not significant/authoritative voices, but they shouldn't do so at the cost of reporting and storytelling. However, they should acknowledge where they can where they are coming from, what perspectives they might take into the discussion, and what assumptions they are starting with so readers/audiences are able to make an informed analysis of the journalist's credibility." -- Bill Lascher
  

  "'Transparency is the new objectivity' is a fun riff, and it's close, but I think we (in the media business) grossly overstate the public's interest in our affiliations and conflicts." -- Ryan Sholin

  "Science, going back to the Heisenberg principle in the 1920s has proven that observation has an effect on the thing observed. Also, you can play 'he said-she said' journalism, but one statement has to come before the other. Determining the order is the reporter or editor's subjective choice and determines the slant of the story." -- Kellia Ramares

  "Objectivity is not rewarded by anyone, not the public and not the corporate new organizations. It's become like Don Quixote chasing windmills." -- Shari Brandhoy

  "Objectivity is impossible. There is no such thing as a human or institution without opinion. Therefore, it's best for us to know the bias of the reporters. That said, a statement of bias doesn't give license to lie or omit facts. Transparency is twofold:
  • a statement of bias
  • a commitment to releasing all information in an honest manner." -- Joey Baker

  "Shirky has made me bias on the topic - journalist was a special class of citizen when you needed a press. Now every resident has a responsibility to be a journalist. Who is going to write about neighborhoods - when crime is not the topic? Newspapers and other media outlets have always done a poor job covering my home. So who does that responsibility fall to - someone with a stake in the future of that neighborhood. And while I want accuracy and independence, I want the reporter, journalist, or citizen to offer their educated take on what this all means for the future of the area." -- Eddie North-Hager

  "The very definition of dialectic is pastiche. How can anyone be objective while still being informed? Transparency at least offers honesty and a path for the reader to follow." -- Clarisa Morales Roberts

  "I define an objective piece as one that represents all viewpoints in a piece and allows readers to make up their minds about those viewpoints. To do anything less is a disservice to, and disrespectful of, the reader." -- Craig Gaines

  "There is fairness but not objectivity. Everyone decides where to look, what facts to portray, how to frame what they're seeing. Even a pointed camera is not objective -- where the lens is pointed, how the zoom is set ... these all determine what's seen and how." -- Dorian Benkoil

  "Debating object/subject is an endless philosophical waste of time. Facts, and trends, data, information, systems analysis all are much more relevant to discourse around solving the complex problems we face today and in the future." -- Stephen Antonaros

  "I believe that objectivity is the single most dangerous goal journalism can work towards. It is impossible for a human being to produce a genuinely non-biased piece of writing, but it is simple for a writer to mimic the tone of authority that a member of society is educated to frame as truth. Journalism should strive for transparency - not as a new objectivity, but as a drastically different and more democratic concept of media's responsibility to present and portray information." -- Rebecca Glaser

  "Objectivity is impossible, it's an illusion and a myth often used to maintain flat, two-dimensional reporting that implies there are simply "two sides." What's far more important is accuracy, vigorous inquiry and story dimension--looking for texture and layers of debate, and letting the facts tell the story; two 'sides' are not 'equal' if one is heavily fact-based and the other is just opinion." -- Christopher Cook

  

• 9:01

  links for 2010-08-31

   » ‎ Amy Gahran
  • OpenBlock Demo site is now live (for Boston)

    "OpenBlock is an open source software initiative to bring hyper-local news and data capabilities to news organizations of all sizes.

    "OpenBlock builds upon the source code originally developed for EveryBlock.com, and is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation."

    (tags: local hyperlocal news datacasting data+visualization development open-source)
  • Who's Afraid of the News Aggregators? | Citizen Media Law Project " for all of the heated rhetoric blaming news aggregators for the decline of journalism, the fall of civilization and male pattern baldness, many are still left asking the question: are news aggregators violating current law?

    "Today, CMLP releases a white paper entitled "The Rise of the News Aggregator: Legal Implications and Best Practices" that attempts to answer that question, and to provide news aggregators with some "best practices" for making use of third-party content."

    (tags: aggregation law news+biz content-rights analysis)
  • MetroPCS to Win U.S. Race to LTE Verizon is hard at work trying to get its first Long Term Evolution (LTE) high-speed network online late this year, but MetroPCS will beat Verizon according to reports that the MetroPCS LTE network will go live in September. MetroPCS is the fifth-largest operator in the U.S., and a Samsung executive let slip that the MetroPCS LTE network would light up Dallas and Las Vegas next month.

    The Verizon LTE network may go live in November, but the carrier has indicated the first LTE-capable smartphone won’t appear on the network until next year. Samsung has stated that MetroPCS will make the Samsung Craft phone available in September alongside the launch of the LTE network. The Craft is thought to be a smartphone with sliding QWERTY keyboard, and steps down to CDMA when LTE is not available.

    (tags: carriers LTE network handsets)
  • Google and Associated Press Make Content Licensing Deal "For now, it appears the AP has gone in a more conventional direction, however, taking an undisclosed sum of money from Google for the rights to host its content." (tags: AP google business content+rights)
  • Yelp 2.0 for Android arrives with augmented reality "The latest and most talked about feature in Yelp 2.0 for Android is augmented-reality Monocle option. Once this feature is switched on it activates a camera and a radar display appears. By using a combination of the GPS and the compass in the device one can search the surrounding areas for hotels, bars, restaurants or “everything”. (tags: android apps augmented-reality locative mobile)
  • SEOmoz | The Muddled World of Mobile Carrier Search Results "Did you know that Google is doing deals with carriers to provide their on-deck search? It is true that there are financial agreements between search engines (not just Google) and both mobile phone carrier companies (ex: T-Mobile, Verizon, etc.) and handset manufacturers (ex: Samsung , LG, iPhone, etc.) The search engine agrees to provide a search engine for the default web home page included on the phone. These are generally branded with the name & logo of the search engine, so most people would think that they provide the same results as if they were searching from Google.com or Google.com/m but THEY DON’T. While the results appear to be based on the existing algorithm, searches performed from these start-pages will give different results that appear to preference content from the carrier or handset manufacturer." (tags: mobile search search+engines Google carriers SEO)
  • Optimization for Google Mobile Search "mobile browsers. First of all, they tend to use the same search engine on their mobile device as they use on their PC. Even though there are 234 million wireless subscribers in the U.S., only 10% use mobile search (which is still 23 million people). Adoption rates of mobile browsing are much higher in Europe. Finally, mobile searchers are goal-oriented: they want to get the info and get out. They don’t tend to browse or surf.

    A few general practices for optimizing your site are:

    * Keep your content brief
    * Use brief, custom titles
    * For mobile stats, check out MMetrics.com
    * Mobile sites need to be as simple as possible to ensure compatibility among all mobile browser software."

    (tags: mobile search seo tips lean-mobile)

  

• August 30, 2010
• 23:00

  Ethics, Economy Dominate Upper Manhattan Race

   » ‎ Gotham Gazette: New York City News and Public Policy
  Ethics and the economy dominate the hard-fought contest in Upper Manhattan to replace State Sen. Eric Schneiderman.

• 22:52

  Gustavo Rivera Slams Espada For Dodging Debate

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  Gustavo Rivera, the man challenging Sen. Pedro Espada for his senate seat,  is steaming mad that Espada finked out on a BronxTalk debate that took place at 9 p.m. today.

  Here is the statement from Rivera’s camp:

  Gustavo Rivera, candidate for the 33rd Senate District issued the following statement on Pedro Espada’s failure to attend tonight’s Bronx Talk debate:
  “In two short years, scandal-ridden Pedro Espada has betrayed his fellow Democrats, taken money from slumlords to block tenants’ rights laws, and stands accused of stealing millions from Bronx health clinics.  He has even stooped to challenging constituents to fistfights rather than talk to them.

  Our community has lots of questions for Espada, and tonight we were supposed to get some answers.  But instead of directly addressing his own constituents, Espada has let us down again.  Espada declared he would debate me anytime, anywhere. But when the chance came, Espada decided to cut and run.

  Espada can run from tonight’s debate, but he can’t run from the people of the Northwest Bronx. On September 14th, we will have a chance to make change and elect a Senator who put our community first.”

• 16:42

  Man On a Mission Consulting updated Mon Aug 30 2010 3:42 pm CDT

   » ‎ Paul Lamb
  <p>Man On A Mission Consulting (see company website at www.manonamission.biz) is a management consulting firm dedicated to 21st Century social change. We focus on leveraging community-based knowledge and experience, innovative thinking, and emerging technologies for meaningful and high-impact results. We are facilitators of empowering, engaged work that can change the world in a world of change. We believe that people and people connections, not just better tools and processes, are at the core of that change.</p>

• 16:13

  Who's Afraid of the News Aggregators?

   » ‎ Citizen Media Law Project -

  As anyone who has been following the debate regarding the "future of journalism" knows, there have been a lot of ink (and bytes) spilled arguing over the role news aggregators are playing in the "decline" of traditional journalistic models.  Rupert Murdoch has labeled the practice of news aggregation by entities like Google News "theft," and a professor from the Wharton Business School recently called on lawmakers to amend the copyright laws to prevent aggregators from posting any portion of news stories for a full 24 hours after their initial publication. Even the FTC has gotten in on the act, listing "Additional Intellectual Property Rights to Support Claims against News Aggregators" as the first policy proposal in the Staff Discussion Draft recently released in connection with its workshop series on "How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?" (To which Google had a thoughtful reply.)

  But for all of the heated rhetoric blaming news aggregators for the decline of journalism, the fall of civilization and male pattern baldness, many are still left asking the question: are news aggregators violating current law?

  Today, CMLP releases a white paper entitled "The Rise of the News Aggregator: Legal Implications and Best Practices" that attempts to answer that question by examining the hot news misappropriation and copyright infringement claims that are often asserted against aggregators, and to provide news aggregators with some "best practices" for making use of third-party content. 

  A hearty thanks goes out to the people that helped make this paper possible: Justin Silverman, for invaluable research assistance;  David Ardia and Sam Bayard, for reading and critiquing numerous drafts; and the speakers from the "Saving Journalism from Itself? Hot News, Copyright Fair Use and News Aggregation" panel at our spring conference, for helping to frame and crystalize many of the issues.

  You can download the white paper here.

  

• 15:35

  Special Election Called for November

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  As predicted, the special election to replace the late Thomas White on the City Council was called by Mayor Michael Bloomberg today for November 2.

  Here is the release from the mayor’s office.

  Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced that a special non-partisan election will be held in the 28th Council District on November 2nd, the date of the regularly scheduled general election, to fill the vacancy created by the passing of Council Member Thomas White, Jr. Pursuant to the City Charter, the nomination of candidates in the election will be by independent nominating petition, rather than through a party primary.

  The newly elected Council Member will serve until December 31, 2011. A second election to fill the remainder of the term will be held on Election Day in November 2011.

• 14:24

  How to Teach Social Media in Journalism Schools

   » ‎ MediaShift

  

  Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  Editor's Note: This is the first in our special series at MediaShift, Beyond J-School where we will take an in-depth look at the state of journalism education and training in the digital age. Look out for more articles all this week and next.

  Social media is such a new phenomenon that it is easy for someone to claim to be an expert in the subject. A search on Twitter throws up all sorts of people claiming to be social media gurus. But at journalism schools, professors are working out how to teach social media to ensure that graduating students are proficient, if not expert, in this new addition to the curriculum.

  Students use social media in their daily lives, with Facebook an almost permanent fixture on the computer screen. Yet they tend not to think about social media as part of their professional toolkit as journalists.

  If anything, anecdotal evidence suggests that students are resistant to adopting social media, seeing it as a personal activity, rather than as part of their work as a journalist. The pressure is on educators to demonstrate the professional value of social media.

  

  The first step is working out what we mean by social media. After all, there has also been a social aspect to media, whether it was people discussing last night's TV in the office or clipping a newspaper article to send to a friend. But there is something new about services such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter that let people connect, create, share and mash-up media.

  European researchers Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content."
  In other words, digital technologies that empower users to interact with each other, and participate and collaborate in the making of media, rather than just consuming media.

  Clearly there is more to social media in the classroom than technology. Central to teaching social media is providing an understanding of how these digital tools affect the way students actually do journalism. The issue for many journalism schools is incorporating social media into an established and packed curriculum, within an academic environment where the pace of change is slow.

  Lessons in best practices

  The question of how to teach social media in a way that enhances journalism reverberated at a meeting of hundreds of journalism educators from across North America. The annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in Denver provided a platform to discuss ideas on social media in the classroom. In a sign of the growing recognition of social media, the AEJMC even organized a competition for educators to share some of their best practices for incorporating social media into the classroom. (Read MediaShift's previous coverage of the AEJMC conference here.)

  

  One idea mentioned by several speakers at the AEJMC conference was the value of incorporating social media into beat reporting. There are various ways that this can be done. Students can use Twitter to monitor the community chatter on issues in their beats through hashtags. They can also identify and follow key people connected to their beat.

  But students also need to understand how to assess the stream of information on social media. Real-time services such as Twitter have established themselves as primary sources for breaking news, so it is important to teach students to critically measure and check the validity of information.

  Social media is one way of introducing students to the notion of journalism as a conversation. The key lesson here is that these tools are not just another channel to distribute the finished story. Social media can help journalists reach out to audiences, seeking ideas for stories and fresh perspectives on stories they are working on.

  One of the challenges here is teaching the different norms and practices on different social media services. For example, just posting a message seeking information is frowned upon. Instead, students are encouraged to be active on social media, showing they are contributing to the conversation rather than just taking.

  Reputation Management

  Social media blurs the line between the personal and the professional, so another important lesson is how to build and manage your online identity. Serena Carpenter at the Cronkite School at Arizona State University has students use Google themselves to research their online identity. She has found students are encouraged to adopt social media when they see themselves appear high up on Google.

  In a variation of this, I have students Google each other to find out something they didn't know about their peer. The aim of the exercise is to make students aware of how future employers might see them.

  The next stage is teaching students how to manage their reputation and establish their credibility. Prof. Carpenter has students complete their bio on numerous sites such as LinkedIn and Google Profile using the same photo, credentials and web links.

  Social media has also been used for student-centered learning, for example, to educate students about the strengths and weaknesses of online collaboration. Bob Britten of West Virginia University used Google Maps for students to work together to map retirement homes in the area.

  Rather than lecture students on the credibility of Wikipedia, Gary Ritzenthaler, a PhD student at the University of Florida, created a wiki for students to collaborate on study notes for an upcoming test. By participating, the students learned about collaborative writing but also became aware of questions about the credibility of content produced by others.

  Thinking About Social Media

  Practicing social media is not enough in an academic environment. There has to be a place for student reflection on what they have learned, explaining their understanding of social media. Students should have set out their goals for the use of social media and demonstrate they can assess the most appropriate platforms and services.

  Teaching social media is more than showing students the mechanics of Twitter. Rather, they should learn how to build a network of relevant followers and how to interact with them to be a better journalist.

  In the classroom, we need to stress that social media technologies do not just offer journalists new ways of doing old things. They offer the potential to explore new ways of telling stories, of collaborating and connecting with audiences, of rethinking how we do journalism.

  Photo of AEJMC panel by Hunter Stevens via AEJMC News

  Alfred Hermida is an online news pioneer and journalism educator. He is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Journalism, the University of British Columbia, where he leads the integrated journalism program. He was a founding news editor of the BBC News website. He blogs at Reportr.net.

  

  Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  This is a summary. Visit our site for the full post ».

• 14:03

  SeenReport Helps Citizens Report on Floods in Pakistan

   » ‎ MediaShift Idea Lab

  

  The devastating floods in Pakistan have been covered by trained reporters and mainstream media outlets around the world. Citizens, often on the front lines of the flood, have also been contributing thousands of reports though mobile phones, in part enabled by the citizen journalism service SeenReport.com.

  SeenReport (a name derived from "see 'n report") is a citizen journalism service through which users can submit photos, videos, and text accounts of news as it is happening via SMS, MMS, or email. SeenReport won a 2010 mBillionth award, a first-ever contest which recognizes mobile content in South Asia. (This YouTube video explains more about the service.)

  The SeenReport platform is designed to augment stories on online news sites. As a result, it has been purchased and customized by other media organizations in Pakistan, which helps to both promote citizen journalism in the country and to create a revenue stream for SeenReport.

  MobileActive.org talked with Sharjeel Qureshi, a founder of the service, to learn more about it.

  How SeenReport Works

  A citizen reporter captures an event on a mobile phone and sends the content to SeenReport. There is no manual intervention at this stage -- the content is automatically published on the SeenReport website to better ensure real-time reports which augment larger ongoing events. Further, citizen reporters can register personal information on the site after submitting material.

  The system accepts content via SMS, MMS, and email. If images or photos are sent, some basic text is required as far as description and location. The SeenReport platform is intelligent enough to detect this text and suggest related content and news stories. So, if several citizen reporters are submitting reports from the same event on their mobiles -- the floods, for instance -- the system will make a single thread from the incoming reports.

  Some users create detailed online profiles. One freelance journalist, for example, includes his picture, email address, phone number, professional membership affiliation, and has established a subdomain on the SeenReport site with tabs for all of his uploaded content. Qureshi refers to it as a version of LinkedIn for freelance journalists. Others can post anonymously if they choose and are not required to create complete profiles.

  The service has been integrated with social network sites so that when stories are published on the website, they are automatically posted on Twitter and Facebook for SeenReport. If a citizen journalist registers personal social media accounts, their reports will be automatically posted in those locations, too.

  In general, mobile citizen reports open the door to spam, offensive content, and potentially non-newsworthy posts. SeenReport deals with this through a self-policing or "social censoring" system. Whenever content is posted, readers can comment on it, rate it, and flag it if they find it offensive. SeenReport administrators then remove the flagged content. This topic has been an ongoing discussion for the group behind SeenReport: the idea of how news stories are authenticated, how best to integrate citizen journalism into mainstream media, and what is good journalism.

  A Strong Initial Boost

  Qureshi and his team began working on the SeenReport platform in 2007, at a time when there was a media blackout in Pakistan. Heavy censorship was imposed on media organizations. The Internet was the only free medium of information, Qureshi said. During this time, the mobile market in Pakistan had proliferated and "we thought it would be a great idea to empower people to report news right from the cell phone and broadcast to the world in real-time," he said.

  When the site was launched in April 2008, it came on the heels of Pakistan's Long March, the social unrest following firings of the judiciary. During this time, media coverage was heavily censored. SeenReport, Qureshi said, provided an alternative medium to cover the scale of the event and enable citizens at home to witness the historical moment.

  SeenReport allows every mobile user in the crowd to become a reporter. In terms of the Long March, SMS reports provided minute-by-minute and mile-by-mile updates from eyewitnesses. The role of SeenReport in the march was a boost to the fledgling service and was covered by many international news outlets, including Global Voices, the BBC, and CIO Pakistan.

  More Than a Single People Powered News Site

  The SeenReport software, which is cloud-based open source technology, was created in-house by a small team of engineers. SeenReport also sells this software-as-a-service to other media organizations interested in developing their own citizen journalism initiatives. This helps to generate income: The monthly recurring license fee model for adopters is the most significant source of revenue for the "modestly funded start-up," Qureshi said.

  SeenReport was designed in such a way that it can be adapted and customized by other users. Several news and media sites have purchased the platform, including Samaa, GeoDost, Aaj, and PlayTv. The first three use the technology for citizen journalism purposes while PlayTv, an entertainment and music channel for youth in Pakistan, uses it to engage young viewers through mobile interaction.

  Because organizations have their own policies for driving citizen journalism, adopters can customize the functionality and tweak the editorial control. Some sites, for example, require a thorough review of content before it is published, unlike SeenReport's system of instant posts and social censorship.

  By providing the software to others, SeenReport contributes to citizen journalism in Pakistan. Across the spectrum of organizations using the platform, there have been over 10,000 news reports relating to the floods. GeoDost, for example, has established a unique section on the main page for natural disasters and an initial flood portal. More than 500,000 citizen reports have been submitted by all users across all organizations, Qureshi said, which gives "an idea of how strong citizen journalism is in Pakistan."

• 14:03

  SeenReport Helps Citizens Report on Floods in Pakistan

   » ‎ MediaShift Idea Lab

  

  The devastating floods in Pakistan have been covered by trained reporters and mainstream media outlets around the world. Citizens, often on the front lines of the flood, have also been contributing thousands of reports though mobile phones, in part enabled by the citizen journalism service SeenReport.com.

  SeenReport (a name derived from "see 'n report") is a citizen journalism service through which users can submit photos, videos, and text accounts of news as it is happening via SMS, MMS, or email. SeenReport won a 2010 mBillionth award, a first-ever contest which recognizes mobile content in South Asia. (This YouTube video explains more about the service.)

  The SeenReport platform is designed to augment stories on online news sites. As a result, it has been purchased and customized by other media organizations in Pakistan, which helps to both promote citizen journalism in the country and to create a revenue stream for SeenReport.

  MobileActive.org talked with Sharjeel Qureshi, a founder of the service, to learn more about it.

  How SeenReport Works

  A citizen reporter captures an event on a mobile phone and sends the content to SeenReport. There is no manual intervention at this stage -- the content is automatically published on the SeenReport website to better ensure real-time reports which augment larger ongoing events. Further, citizen reporters can register personal information on the site after submitting material.

  The system accepts content via SMS, MMS, and email. If images or photos are sent, some basic text is required as far as description and location. The SeenReport platform is intelligent enough to detect this text and suggest related content and news stories. So, if several citizen reporters are submitting reports from the same event on their mobiles -- the floods, for instance -- the system will make a single thread from the incoming reports.

  Some users create detailed online profiles. One freelance journalist, for example, includes his picture, email address, phone number, professional membership affiliation, and has established a subdomain on the SeenReport site with tabs for all of his uploaded content. Qureshi refers to it as a version of LinkedIn for freelance journalists. Others can post anonymously if they choose and are not required to create complete profiles.

  The service has been integrated with social network sites so that when stories are published on the website, they are automatically posted on Twitter and Facebook for SeenReport. If a citizen journalist registers personal social media accounts, their reports will be automatically posted in those locations, too.

  In general, mobile citizen reports open the door to spam, offensive content, and potentially non-newsworthy posts. SeenReport deals with this through a self-policing or "social censoring" system. Whenever content is posted, readers can comment on it, rate it, and flag it if they find it offensive. SeenReport administrators then remove the flagged content. This topic has been an ongoing discussion for the group behind SeenReport: the idea of how news stories are authenticated, how best to integrate citizen journalism into mainstream media, and what is good journalism.

  A Strong Initial Boost

  Qureshi and his team began working on the SeenReport platform in 2007, at a time when there was a media blackout in Pakistan. Heavy censorship was imposed on media organizations. The Internet was the only free medium of information, Qureshi said. During this time, the mobile market in Pakistan had proliferated and "we thought it would be a great idea to empower people to report news right from the cell phone and broadcast to the world in real-time," he said.

  When the site was launched in April 2008, it came on the heels of Pakistan's Long March, the social unrest following firings of the judiciary. During this time, media coverage was heavily censored. SeenReport, Qureshi said, provided an alternative medium to cover the scale of the event and enable citizens at home to witness the historical moment.

  SeenReport allows every mobile user in the crowd to become a reporter. In terms of the Long March, SMS reports provided minute-by-minute and mile-by-mile updates from eyewitnesses. The role of SeenReport in the march was a boost to the fledgling service and was covered by many international news outlets, including Global Voices, the BBC, and CIO Pakistan.

  More Than a Single People Powered News Site

  The SeenReport software, which is cloud-based open source technology, was created in-house by a small team of engineers. SeenReport also sells this software-as-a-service to other media organizations interested in developing their own citizen journalism initiatives. This helps to generate income: The monthly recurring license fee model for adopters is the most significant source of revenue for the "modestly funded start-up," Qureshi said.

  SeenReport was designed in such a way that it can be adapted and customized by other users. Several news and media sites have purchased the platform, including Samaa, GeoDost, Aaj, and PlayTv. The first three use the technology for citizen journalism purposes while PlayTv, an entertainment and music channel for youth in Pakistan, uses it to engage young viewers through mobile interaction.

  Because organizations have their own policies for driving citizen journalism, adopters can customize the functionality and tweak the editorial control. Some sites, for example, require a thorough review of content before it is published, unlike SeenReport's system of instant posts and social censorship.

  By providing the software to others, SeenReport contributes to citizen journalism in Pakistan. Across the spectrum of organizations using the platform, there have been over 10,000 news reports relating to the floods. GeoDost, for example, has established a unique section on the main page for natural disasters and an initial flood portal. More than 500,000 citizen reports have been submitted by all users across all organizations, Qureshi said, which gives "an idea of how strong citizen journalism is in Pakistan."

• 13:54

  Nunes Says Nothing Changes

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  Candidate Lynn Nunes says he is sticking with his race for State Senate in district 10, despite the fact a seat he narrowly lost last year opened up in the council.

  Nunes lost to the late Thomas White last fall by just four votes. White died last week after a long battle with cancer. No special election has been called yet to fill the seat, but observers say one could be held as soon as November 2.
  
  

  We caught up with Nunes today to see if his plans have changed.

  “We’re not focusing on losing,” Nunes said. “We’re gonna win. There is no need to worry about a plan b.”

  For more on the race, go here.

• 13:12

  How to Use TimeFlow to Manage, Analyze Chronological Data

   » ‎ E-Media Tidbits
  As a reporter at The Washington Post, Sarah Cohen was frequently frustrated with the dearth of tools for working with chronological data. Now the Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University, Cohen looks for ways to help journalists be more efficient.
  
  TimeFlow, a free and open-source data analysis tool, is the first version (still alpha) of a project that she has been working on to make it easier for reporters to look at data over periods of time. Unlike some of the alternatives, such as the SIMILE Timeline and Dipity, TimeFlow is not built to present the data online.
  
  Cohen worked with programmers Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg (who previously worked on Many Eyes and are now at Google) to describe what features the tool would need.
  
  "I felt really strongly about the ability to look at data on a calendar or time line," Cohen said in a phone interview. She also thought it was important for the tool to give journalists the ability to filter data, zoom in and out of it, and edit it in place without having to import or export it from somewhere else.
  
  TimeFlow was developed as a desktop application instead of a Web app so that it could easily handle large data sets. Also, in consideration of security measures, which prevent many reporters from installing software onto their work computers, the tool was designed to run off a thumb drive.
  
  There are a few key ways journalists can use TimeFlow:
  

  • To keep notes on long-running stories -- such as court cases, bankruptcies or police investigations -- that require journalists to keep track of ongoing developments.
    

  • To compile material in a way that might make it easier to look at the relationship between various events and stories.
    

  • To organize information for narratives and the reconstruction of events.

  TimeFlow handles chronological data in a pretty unique way. You can use approximate dates, create entries to span a set of dates, or enter events with a start date alone. Data fields also include URL links to source materials and text descriptions.
  
  The data is viewable in various formats: a calendar, a time line, a bar chart, a list or a table. It can be filtered in any view -- by using tags and data fields, by searching for keywords, or by using regular expressions. It can also be edited within each view.
  
  You can add data by copying and pasting from an Excel spreadsheet or an HTML table, or you can add it by importing a CSV or TSV file. There are currently no export functions.
  
  Once you've downloaded TimeFlow, you'll be able to start playing right away with some of the example data sets.
  
  
  

• 9:00

  links for 2010-08-30

   » ‎ Amy Gahran
  • Mobile Testing | Mobile Website Development | Mobile Interactive Testing Environment (MITE) from Keynote Systems MITE provides interactive testing and validation of mobile content right on your desktop. Test content with 1,600+ mobile device profiles over a live wireless network, mobile carrier or Internet connection.

    Why Keynote MITE?

    – On demand testing with no phones, contracts or SIMs to manage

    – See the actual source code behind the scenes

    – Record once, play back across multiple device profiles

    (tags: mobile development tools)
  • A Social Media Outline for any Journalist "
    I did the outline this way for the journalist that uses social networks, but doesn’t also work on the website.  The Producer section is intended for the station looking to actually create a lead position to oversee social media and web efforts.  The entire outline, which also separates out uses and goals for certain social networks and the web, can be used in any broadcast or print media outlet and even be implemented in any business." (tags: journalism social+media tips)
  • Send your ETA with TeleNav OnMyWay from your Android or iOS device | ZDNet "You need to enter your destination and schedule details (appointment time) and then select the people you want to notify (it integrates with your address book) with a personal message if you like. Just to be clear here, you do not need to be using TeleNav’s GPS navigation solutions to use this utility, it is a stand alone GPS location-based notification system that just uses your current location and the destination you enter to perform the calculations.

    Your recipient(s) will receive notices when you leave and an ETA, based on your GPS location, and then up to three additional status messages may be sent based on your preferences. OnMyWay does not share your specific location in the notifications."

    (tags: maps location mobile)
  • U.S. GAO – Telecommunications: Enhanced Data Collection Could Help FCC Better Monitor Competition in the Wireless Industry Sounds like it boils down to: As far as GAO can tell, wireless consumers are better off now than earlier — but that doesn't mean they're isn't substantial room for improvement in a more competitive wireless landscape.

    "In particular, additional data could help assess the competitiveness of small and regional carriers, as well as shed light on the impact of switching costs for consumers. FCC should assess whether expanding original data collection of wireless industry inputs and outputs–such as prices, special access rates, capital expenditures, and equipment costs–would help the Commission better satisfy its requirement to review competitive market conditions with respect to commercial mobile services. FCC took no position on GAO's recommendation, but provided technical changes to this report that were incorporated as appropriate."

    (tags: research mobile carriers competition business)
  • Jay Rosen on the media: Seven questions for Jay Rosen | The Economist excellent, succinct coverage of the big issues

  

• 2:00

  Links for 2010-08-29 [del.icio.us]

   » ‎ David Sasaki
  • 12 fantastic photos of factories in Japan
    The strange appeal of industrial aesthetics. [via Scilla]

  

• August 29, 2010
• 23:00

  Nunes Takes on Huntley in Queens

   » ‎ Gotham Gazette: New York City News and Public Policy
  Incumbent Shirley Huntley faces an opponent almost 50 years her junior in a State Senate race in southeast Queens. And age is hardly the only thing that divides them.
• 23:00

  Agencies Almost Always Have the Last Word

   » ‎ Gotham Gazette: New York City News and Public Policy
  Courts have little power to overturn decisions by agency hearing officers -- as two evicted public housing tenants recently learned.

• 12:50

  Would you quit Twitter? Reflections on personal media choices

   » ‎ Amy Gahran

  Wow. If You Think Quitting Booze Freaks People Out, Wait ‘Til You Quit Twitter.

  Very interesting insights from TechCrunch’s Paul Carr.

  I think there is much to be said for periodically cutting back on (or eliminating) anything that feels absolutely essential or habitual to you, to gauge how much you really need it.

  In the last year I asked myself, “Do I need a house?” Nope. I’d like to have a house again, but I can be happy without one.

  Several years ago I wondered, “Do I need a car?” Nope — and I’m much happier without one. Same with printed books: “Do I need several crammed bookcases around to reassure me that I’m smart or that I won’t get bored?” Again, no — I’m far happier with my Kindle and with being able to make better use of limited space.

  I doubt that I’d ever entirely quit using social media because in my case it has vastly improved my life in many ways. But in the last couple of months I’ve cut back on it quite a lot — some days I post a lot, but others I don’t post at all (and a post-free day NEVER used to happen to me). I feel less compulsive about it.

  However, I have definitely increased my use of two kinds of social media tools in recent months: social bookmarking tools and Facebook…

  I’m always finding stuff that’s interesting or useful, and I like to be able to find it again in ways that make sense to me. Also, I believe that public curation is one of the most lasting values of all kinds of internet-based media — it not only makes stuff findable, it makes particularly good or relevant stuff findable.

  This is why I’ve used Delicious for many years to save relevant links — it’s not the most usable or functional social bookmarking tool, but it syndicates nicely to WordPress and thus gives me a way to realize visibility benefits on this blog from my social bookmarking efforts. For me, that’s killing many birds with one stone simply by capitalizing on my penchant for wanting to keep interesting stuff.

  But lately, since I’m engaged in some special research projects and a great deal of regular writing/editing/training for clients such as CNN.com, the Knight Digital Media Center, the Society of Environmental Journalists, eMeter and OaklandLocal, I also want to track useful stuff for these projects that may represent only a highly temporary interest and doesn’t necessarily need to be syndicated to Contentious.com.

  For temporary project-related links, I’ve resumed using Diigo — which I used assiduously several years ago as my main bookmarking tool when it was Furl then stopped using entirely, then resumed a few months ago. I had been using the Firefox plugin Zotero to save research-related links, but I guess I saved too much stuff in it and it started crashing Firefox so I stopped using it.

  I like Diigo for project-related research because I can choose to make it public and shareable — or keep some projects or items private. I generally keep my lists public unless there’s a specific reason to make them private, since I believe in the value of sharing. Also, I use the Diggo groups feature to collaborate with people on projects.

  …And regarding Facebook — despite its privacy challenges, I’ve actually been using it more in the last year. But I use it mainly for personal stuff (connecting with friends, sharing info about me and my life). I monitor my privacy settings there pretty closely. I’ve also been going back and systematically removing Facebook “friends” who I don’t actually know personally. I create groups of my friends there so I can check in separately on my closest friends, my Boulder friends, my Bay Area friends, my family, colleagues who also are friends, etc. So for me, Facebook has become a particularly good channel for maintaining personal connections.

  I still use Twitter, and I mix it up between personal and professional stuff there. I like it, it benefits me, I see no reason to leave — but I’ve channeled some of that energy elsewhere. Twitter is not a good archiving mechanism, so if I find something I really want to save I’ll often put it in Diigo or Delicious. If I also tweet it, I’ll clarify what other people might find interesting about it; whereas for Delicious and Diigo, some of my notes and categories might really only make sense to me.

  I’ve been writing fewer blog posts of my own (like this) mainly because I use Delicious to post interesting stuff here. Not everyone likes that format, but it works well enough for my purposes here. I’ve been doing so much writing for clients and other projects that I frankly rarely have the energy for writing for my own blog.

  My remaining personal energy for writing tends to go into my personal journal, which is on paper. Really. It’s the only paper left in my life that I really enjoy handling.

  …All of this is the long way of saying I applaud Carr’s choice to leave social media, since it works for him. Almost everything in life — and especially in media — is, in fact, optional. It’s always good to challenge assumptions and explore options, whether additive, subtractive, or shifting. And I challenge anyone who feels compulsive about social media to at least take a vacation and then see what you really need and want. Life is too short to stay stuck in any rut or take anything for granted.

  

• 9:37

  The First Posts from the Exploring Taboos Project

   » ‎ Rising Voices

  The “Exploring Taboos” project conducted by the Nazra team has finally started with workshops attended by five people: two females and three males. Fatma Emam, one of the project's coordinators, said all attendees were in their mid-20s. She continued saying that the first day the training focused on video journalism, and techniques of producing visual content; the second day was about sexuality theory and its manifestations in the Egyptian society, and the third day was about social media and how to use it to discuss these issues.

  Fatma showed us some of the posts by the attendees and added that this is just the start - as the projects organizers are waiting for more articles to arrive.

  

  The first output of the workshop was a blog post written in English by “Rebel” titled “Sexuality education woes in Egypt“. The post starts by explaining why sexuality education became a need in the Egyptian society.

  The talk about sexuality hardly ever surfaces in Egypt. Even when an article or a speech is given by an enlightened intellectual, waves of rejection and censure usually follow. Discussing sexuality usually stirs accusations of spreading vice and encouraging promiscuity. Consequently, the debate on sexuality education here is starkly lacking and flawed, just like the process of sex education itself.

  […]

  Public education ignores sexuality information, except for a class on human reproduction during preparatory school and some skewed information on sexually transmitted infections. A lot of young people remember that awkward science class where the teacher was too embarrassed to effectively convey useful lessons on sexuality, or skipped the class altogether.

  He then explains the role of the civil society in such process saying:

  Civil society organizations have recently recognized the importance of delivering sexuality education programs to young people.

  […]

  Reality is unfortunately far from this. Instead of providing a positive approach to sexuality, it is often portrayed as an evil desire that needs to be controlled. Instead of promoting tolerance and understanding, it’s not uncommon to find Sex Ed programs that foster negative attitudes towards sexuality and gender.

  He ends his post by further explaining why opening such talks are important.

  Sexuality is closely associated with people’s happiness and productivity. Providing comprehensive information regarding sexuality is a goal that must be achieved equally and effectively for a better nation.

  

  Another output of the first workshop was an Arabic blog post written by “Just a human” titled “Men also Cry.” Fatma said that she's happy with this post as it is so bold that it comes from a male who questions the typical gender roles assigned for men, and even raising the homosexuality dilemma in a very candid way. She's also glad it is in Arabic to break the fear of the social stigma.

  The post starts with these words:

  منذ صغرى و انا اعانى من مشكلة حقيقية مع كلمة “ذكر” و التى تتطور مع تقدمك فى العمر لتحل محلها كلمة “رجل”..لا اتصور انى فى يوم من الايام فهمتها او استوعبت المعايير الحقيقية لها .و لا اتذكر انى فى يوم من الايام كنت فى حالة وئام مع المجتمع الذى اعيش بين افراده شاذا و شاردا عنهم لا لشىء الا لانى لا احترم ذكوريته.

  Since my childhood and I have a real problem with the word “male”, which was then replaced by the word “man” as I got older. I don't imagine that I have ever understood this word, or the standards it complies. I don't remember a day I've been in harmony with the society I have been living with its members with feeling of weirdness, for nothing except that I don't respect its masculinity.

  The post sheds light on various aspects of how “Just human” feels this strangeness in the society, where the climax starts when he talks about crying in an Eastern society:

  تربيت منذ الصغر على ان الرجل ابدا لا يبكى ..و انه اذا بكى سقط عنه شرف الرجولة و حينها يتم وضعه فى مرتبة اقل حتى من تلك التى تحتلها “النسوان ” و عذرا لاستخدامى تلك اللفظة ولكن مجتمعى يفضلها لانها تشعره بنشوة جنسية غريبة .
  الغريب انى املك القدرة على البكاء ..بكيت كثيرا ..عندما مات “جاك ” فى “تايتانيك ” بكيت..و عندما مات “هانى سلامة ” فى “انت عمرى ” بكيت ..و عندما مات ” جاك تويست ” فى “بروكباك ماونتين ” بكيت ..و عندما مات صديق لى منذ سنوات ..بكيت ..نعم لقد ارتكبت هذه الجريمة ..بكيت و شعرت بتلك الدموع الرقراقة الشفافة و هى تنساب من عينى على وجهى ثم ملابسى ..لمستها و رايت من
  خلالها آدميتي واضحة امامى بدون خوف او خجل

  Ever since I was a child, I was raised to believe that men never cry. And if a man cried, then he turns into a “woman” - losing the honor of being a man. The strange thing is that I have the ability to cry. I cried many time. I cried when Jack died in Titanic. I cried when Hani Salaa died in Enta Omry (Egyptian film). And I cried when Jack Twist died in Brokeback Mountain.

  I also cried when my friend died few years ago. Yes, I committed this crime of crying - and I felt tears flowing from my eyes onto my face, and then my clothes. I touched it, and saw through it my humanity without fear or shame.

  He then tries to define masculinity the way he relates to, from his own perspective, and according to his experience.

  الحقيقة هى انى فشلت فى ايجاد تعريف مناسب للرجولة يتجاوز التصنيف البيولوجى الخاص بالكروموسومات و الذى لا يستهوينى باى حال من الاحوال ..و الحقيقة ايضا هى ان ايجاد تعريف لمعنى الرجولة لم يعد يشغلنى على اى من الاصعدة ..لانى اعرف ان اى تعريف قد اصل اليه سيظل عاجزا عن ايجاد نقطة يستطيع التقابل فيها مع تعريف المجتمع للرجولة ..و لعل هذا ما يفسر تفضيلى لان اطلق على نفسى لقب “انسان” ..اجده اكثر حميمية وقربا لقلبى ..فهو فى النهاية يحمينى من شوائب تعكر صفو انتمائى لهذا اللقب ..لذا لا يشغلنى حاليا سوى ان اكون مجرد انسان.

  The truth is that I failed to find a proper definition for masculinity other than the biological classification, which I don't like in anyway. And the truth is also that finding a definition for the meaning of masculinity became of no concern any longer. Because I know that at any point, the definition I will reach will be incapable of concordance with the society's definition. And maybe that's why I prefer the title “Human being”. I find it more intimate and closer to my heart - for it is in the end protects me from anything that disturbs my belonging to this title. Therefore, nothing concerns me now except how to be just a human being.

• 9:00

  links for 2010-08-29

   » ‎ Amy Gahran
  • Historic Preservation ~ City of Oakland, California Apparently, Oakland's historic preservation guidelines are nationally famous (tags: Oakland history government)
  • Finding a prepaid SIM card CNET On call – CNET Reviews "Unfortunately, the prepaid phone situation in the United States is pretty backward. Yes, you can buy prepaid SIM cards here, but it's a more convoluted process than it is in many other countries. For example, while most U.S. carriers require you to buy a phone to get prepaid service, carriers in other countries don't have such restrictions. I've been to a few countries in Europe and Asia where I purchased a SIM card from a carrier store and then popped it into my handset I brought from home. They didn't care whether I used one of their handsets or not; it only mattered that I was purchasing service. Other countries, particularly those in cell phone-loving Scandinavia, make it even easier by selling prepaid SIM cards in vending machines.

    "There are a few places in the United States that sell SIM cards without a phone. I would check a few wireless stores when you get to Delaware and see if they have them. Best luck in third-party cellular stores not operated by a carrier.

    (tags: mobile access carriers problems)

  
• August 28, 2010
• 9:00

  links for 2010-08-28

   » ‎ Amy Gahran
  • RIP Breaking News Online App: You Were the Best Way to Get News Fast "The app was a favorite of news-junkies and reporters around the world. Even members of the RedCross said they used it to find out about natural disasters before any other channel alerted them. Then in November, Breaking News announced that it had sold control over its wildly popular Twitter account to MSNBC. Today the organization announced that its iPhone app will be shuttered. BNO will now sell access to its news exclusively to the corporate media clients it had originally disrupted with its innovative nearly-free service to consumers."

    "When BNO sold control of it's popular Twitter account to MSNBC, the difference was immediately and for serious news-hounds, disappointing. It felt less personal, there was no MSNBC branding on the Twitter account, but a substantial number of the links posted went to that company's site. It was still pretty cool, but not nearly as cool as the independent organization that it had been before."

    (tags: News-biz apps iphone social+media business deals)
  • Table 4. The 10 industries with the largest wage and salary employment declines, 2008-18 (1) Yes, newspaper publishers made this top-10 list. Oddly, so did wireless carriers — and that's REALLY odd! (tags: career statistics future newspapers carriers)
  • Minneapolis will pay $165,000 to zombies | StarTribune.com "The Minneapolis city attorney's office has decided to pay seven zombies and their attorney $165,000.

    The payout, approved by the City Council on Friday, settles a federal lawsuit the seven filed after they were arrested and jailed for two days for dressing up like zombies in downtown Minneapolis on July 22, 2006, to protest "mindless" consumerism.

    When arrested at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and 6th Street N., most of them had thick white powder and fake blood on their faces and dark makeup around their eyes. They were walking in a stiff, lurching fashion and carrying four bags of sound equipment to amplify music from an iPod when they were arrested by police who said they were carrying equipment that simulated "weapons of mass destruction."

    (tags: zombies law rights)
  • How-to: resize your SIM, change your APN, and drink the sweet nectar of mobile freedom — Engadget If I ever want to reuse the SIM card I pulled from my own iPhone, these instructions might come in handy. (tags: mobile technology tutorials)
  • MediaShift Idea Lab . Washington Post Caught Napping at Imaginary Intersection | PBS "Four days after that, on Sat., Aug. 21, more than a week after the original mistake, the Post did publish a correction. Good luck finding it on the Post website, though. The paper does have a dedicated online corrections page, which is linked from the News menu in the top navigation bar. Yet the Mozart Place correction notice doesn't show up on this listing. Meanwhile, there's also a link to "corrections" in the footer of the Post website, but right now that link points — inexplicably and uselessly — to the corrections page for a single day two weeks ago."

    "Why not streamline the process?

    Correcting an error of this magnitude shouldn't require days of deliberation, the valuable time of a deputy managing editor, or concern over distinctions between "correction" and "clarification" that are meaningless to the public. It ought to be a simple matter to go in and fix the error on the website, as bloggers routinely do."

    (tags: newspapers processes corrections problems geography)
  • Apple Upgrades iWork, Gives ePub a Boost "It is pretty clear by now that Apple’s iWork productivity suite is an acquired taste. But soon, folks who are interested in publishing their content in the ePub format — an open eBook standard — might just develop a taste for it. Apple today released a new update to the iWork suite that makes it simple to export documents in the ePub format, allowing them to be read easily on Apple’s iBooks app for iPhone, iPad or iPod touch." (tags: e-books format apple)
  • chinaSMACK – Hot internet stories, pictures, & videos in China "ChinaSMACK is a treasure. It provides such a useful com plement (and coun­terbalance) to mainstream China news, precisely because it isn’t news at all. Instead, it’s a cross-section of the stuff that’s criss-crossing Chinese web browsers right now. It’s weird and funny and meme-y. Sometimes it’s gross and depressing. But it’s always revelatory.

    "Importantly, chinaSMACK filters and translates not just Chinese internet con­tent, but also the comments on that content."

    (tags: china culture video language social+media bridging entertainment fun)
  • Older Adults and Social Media | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project "Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled—from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010.

    Between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking use among internet users ages 50-64 grew by 88%–from 25% to 47%.
    During the same period, use among those ages 65 and older grew 100%–from 13% to 26%.
    By comparison, social networking use among users ages 18-29 grew by 13%—from 76% to 86%.
    “Young adults continue to be the heaviest users of social media, but their growth pales in comparison with recent gains made by older users,” explains Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist and author of the report. “Email is still the primary way that older users maintain contact with friends, families and colleagues, but many older users now rely on social network platforms to help manage their daily communications.”

    One in five (20%) online adults ages 50-64 say they use social networking sites on a typical day, up from 10% one year ago.

    (tags: generations demographics social+media trends research)

  

• 7:11

  Impact of IndiaUnheard Video: Remote Village Gets Medical Aid

   » ‎ Video Volunteers

  An IndiaUnheard video by our correspondent from Chandel district of Manipur has inspired a local organization Burning Voices to donate lifesaving medicines for over 500 people in a remote village who were in dire need of healthcare . The  correpsonent of the video - Daniel Mate – is a local tribal youth who says the video has changed his own life as well.

  The impact story comes at a time when community media is just starting to gain ground in India because mainstream media is widely seen as obsessed with TRP ratings and advertisement revenues.  But when met with these facts, the media players hit back with ‘will such media work?’

  Well this story presents the proof that it does.

  This video was shown on IndiaUnehard website on 24th May. As a fellow community member, Daniel had been witnessing the plight of the villagers of Bongli – the village with no healthcare – for years. He was pained to see the poor villagers being forced to use herbs and faith healing to take care of their sick and even the dying. To reach the nearest public health centre they would have  to trek a distance of 10 km  through dense forest and hills.

  Within a week of the publication of the video, IndiaUnheard team was contacted by Devakishor Soraisam – a member of a Human Rights organization called the Burning Voices. They were deeply moved by video and would like to reach out the villagers, they said. Would IndiaUnheard help them?

  When told of this, Daniel was overjoyed. In mid-June Daniel met the Ronid and Devakishor – representatives of Burning Voices who had brought with them a carload of medicines for villagers of Bongli. It was a moving sight when Daniel went to the village with the donors and distributed these medicines in the village, as well as other neighbouring villages that needed it.

  Says Daniel, “I joined IndiaUnheard because we had no media telling out stories and covering our issue. So IndiaUnheard was a platform where I could share our stories. But now, it has become the forum where we can make changes. I have just turned from a story teller to a change maker. It feels great!”

  The video, thus has created 3-fold impacts.

  1.         It made possible for over 500 people access healthcare in more than one village which had no hospital, no medicine whatsoever.

  2.         The video inspired locals take action to find solution to local problems

  3.         The video has, deepened faith of the correspondent and the whole community into the power of community produced media.

  The skeptics of people-powered media can take a re-look at their own thoughts.

  Meanwhile, community reporters like Daniel should take a bow.

• August 27, 2010
• 20:54

  Weekly Web Wrap

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  Group Picked for Living Wage Study Called Biased
  (Bronx News Network)
  Claim that America has Killed More than Islam is Fact
  (The American Conservative)
  Mosques Curb Domestic Radicalization
  (The American Prospect)
  Closest Senior Center May be a Mile Away
  (IBO Web Blog)
  Cartoonist’s Take on Legislators’ Office Spending
  (Matt Davies)
  Tennis Courts to Get Carbon Neutral Composting Toilets
  (Inhabitat)
  Reimagining “Towers in the Park”
  (Urban Omnibus)
  No Reason to Wait on Paid Sick Leave
  (DMI Blog)
  Men Die Younger than Women
  (Health Department)
  Albany’s 2010 Transportation Wrap Up
  (Tri-State Transportation Campaign)
  A Return of the Full Face Ballot Requirement?
  (ReformNY)
  Correction: No State Records on Bike-on-Pedestrian Injuries
  (Streetsblog)

• 18:36

  4 Minute Roundup: Google Offers Free Calls via Gmail

   » ‎ MediaShift

  

  4MR is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  In this week's 4MR podcast I look at the recently launched free phone service from Google through Gmail. Undercutting Skype and other VoIP services (not to mention landlines), Google is letting people call from their computer to anywhere in the U.S. or Canada for free, and charging low international rates. What's in it for Google? I spoke to tech pundit and Computerworld contributor Mitch Wagner to learn more.

  Check it out:

  bareaudio82710.mp3

  >>> Subscribe to 4MR <<<

  >>> Subscribe to 4MR via iTunes <<<

  Listen to my entire interview with Mitch Wagner:

  wagner full.mp3

  Background music is "What the World Needs" by the The Ukelele Hipster Kings via PodSafe Music Network.

  Here are some links to related sites and stories mentioned in the podcast:

  Call Phones from Gmail at Google

  Six Things Google's Free Phone Service Can't Do at NY Times

  Gmail call feature a ringing success, a million times over at Christian Science Monitor

  How to make calls using Gmail at CNET

  Google reportedly adding voice calling to Gmail at Computerworld

  Gmail Voice Is About Future Search, Not Free Calls at Gizmodo

  Gmail's now in the phone biz. Trouble for carriers down the road? at Sprint Connection blog

  Google continues the assault on the price of a phone call at Washington Post

  Google adds free phone calls to Gmail, wow at Seattle Times

  Google Voice phone booths Dr. Who might love at News.com

  Google introduces Gmail-linked phone service at SF Chronicle

  Also, be sure to vote in our poll about what you think the future of the landline will be:

  
  
  
  What's the future of the landline telephone?Market Research
  
  

  Mark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the Online Publishers Association. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter @mediatwit.

  

  4MR is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

  This is a summary. Visit our site for the full post ».

• 16:39

  Print Outreach Resources for Inclusion Online – Kill Some Trees

   » ‎ Steven Clift

  

  We’ve created a new section on our site with links to all of the print materials we are generating in our Inclusive Social Media effort promoting neighbor Issues Forum for all.

  Here is the text of that page as of today.

  • 1. General Brochure – Meet Your Neighbors Online!
    • Adapt this two-page trifold brochure to suit your local forum and distribute copies at community events to raise awareness and grow your forum. (Publisher file)

  • 2. Minneapolis-St. Paul Multi-forum General Poster – Join your neighbors to discuss local issues, exchange information, build community, and simply be neighborly.
    • Post these to bulletin boards at local businesses and public venues throughout the neighborhood. The simple tear-off URL serves as a “take away” to remind people to look up your forum when they get home. (Editable version at Google Docs)

  • 3. Customizable Poster (Power Point Template)
    • Tailor this poster to your forum and post to bulletin board in your neighborhood. Be sure to update the tear-off URL!

  • 4. General Flyer – Two per page – Multi-forum flyer to support recruitment across neighborhoods.
    • Adapt this two-up flier to suit your local forum and distribute copies at community events to raise awareness and grow your forum. (Editable version at Google Docs)

  • 5. Sign-up sheets à la carte
    • We’ve used a variety of these tailored to specific forums such as Frogtown and Cedar-Riverside, as well as put together these “multi-forum” sign up sheets to support recruitment across neighborhoods.
    • To successfully add these new members after your outreach efforts promptly scan (or to speed uploading enter the data into a spreadsheet yourself with at least first name, last name, and e-mail in their own columns – keep your forms handy because some will bounce) and e-mail to: signups@e-democracy.org') //-->signups@e-democracy.org [Email address: signups #AT# e-democracy.org - replace #AT# with @ ] OR fax to: +1-612-605-0137
    • While Forum Managers may invite people via the website, we prefer to upload 5 names from paper sign-ups for you. When a Forum Manager does it themselves, people must click on a link in their e-mail to verify – which most people miss. Behind the scenes, our technical support team can upload people without verification. New members only need to set a password on the web if they want to post via the web.
    • Tip: Use a black pen (no soft point without a soft tip) bold stroke and definitely read the e-mail address back to confirm. Double-checking the handwriting can improve your success rate by as much as 30%!
    • Minneapolis Neighbor Forums Sign-up (MS Word) (PDF)
    • St. Paul Neighbor Forums Sign-up (MS Word) (PDF)

  • 6. Customizable Single Forum Sign Up Template – MS Word – US Version (MS Word A4 – UK/NZ Version)
    • Tailor these to suit your needs to help you collect names and e-mail addresses at neighborhood venues and events.
    • See submission instructions above. We will pay the cost to do manual data entry for any forum in our network. In-person outreach where you get people to sign-up right then and there is the most effective way to grow participation in a local forum. We want to make it as easy as possible.

  Share/Bookmark

  

• 15:06

  Why I am skeptical of Patch.com

   » ‎ Online Journalism Review
  By Robert Niles: AOL is rolling out its Patch.com "hyperlocal" network around the country. Having watched similar efforts since Microsoft launched Sidewalk in the 1990s, I remain skeptical. Look, we all agree by now that the Internet's changed the economics of the publishing business. One of the ways that's happened, however, makes it much more difficult to create a workable business model for a national network of local websites. Why? Let's try this question for an example: How much money does Howard Owens at TheBatavian.com have to ship out at the end of the month to his national corporate bosses? Of course, owner-operated sites like Howard's don't have to share any of their earnings with a national corporation. Nor do they have to pay for national and regional bureaucracies that oversee the network of local sites. Everything a local news website publisher earns goes right into that local news website. That gives independent publishers a huge cost advantage over their corporate competition. So why did the newspaper industry evolve toward national corporate ownership? Because of the economies of scale that used to exist in the newspaper business. A larger chain could get a better deal on syndication contracts. It could centralize design and IT work and share national bureaus, reducing duplication of effort. It could employ a national sales team, earning more income than individual, local papers could get on their own. But the Internet's changed those opportunities.

• 14:59

  Liu and de Blasio for Gustavo Rivera

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  Gustavo Rivera, the man who is challenging Sen. Pedro Espada for his Bronx senate seat, has been racking up the endorsements as of late. The most recent come from City Comptroller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

  “Gustavo Rivera and I share the belief in equal opportunities and access to good schools, quality health care, and affordable housing,” said  Liu.  “Gustavo is a true champion of working families and will fight every day to put the people of the Northwest Bronx first.”

  “It’s no secret that we need real change in Albany and I believe Gustavo Rivera is the kind of reformer New Yorkers need fighting for them,” said  de Blasio.  “He will be a strong voice for issues New Yorkers care about including tenants’ rights and for housing that is safe, secure and affordable. I am proud to endorse Gustavo’s candidacy for the State Senate.”

  Rivera was also recently endorsed by former Mayor Ed Koch and Sen. Eric Schneiderman.

  Espada has been endorsed by his close pal Sen. Ruben Diaz and a group of Hispanic ministers.

• 12:45

  Councilmember Tom White Dies

   » ‎ The Wonkster

  Here is the statement from Council Speaker Christine Quinn regarding the death of Tom White:

  “My deepest sympathies go out to the family of Council Member Tom White; his mother Marie White, his children: Bryan D. White, Lucile Precious Middleton, daughter-in-law Seleste White and grandchildren Lamar White and Jacob. Tom spent most his life serving the people of Southeast Queens, working to support communities that faced great challenges. As chair of our Economic Development Committee he fought for programs that helped many of these neighborhoods on the path to recovery.

  “He searched for ways to break the cycle of poverty and violence. He fought for job training and placement programs, and investments in long term economic growth. He had a particular soft spot for women and minority business owners, pushing for additional resources to help them stay afloat and create good jobs for their neighbors.

  “Throughout a government career that spanned two decades, he balanced his work on the City Council with public service of another variety. As Executive Director of one of the largest substance abuse programs in the state, he cared for New Yorkers who have often been marginalized, forgotten, and incarcerated from an early age. He gave them hope, a shot at redemption, and a chance to build a better life.

  “Though Tom has left us, he remains present in the lives he touched and the impact he made on the face of our city. The thousands of New Yorkers he helped shepherd away from the jaws of addiction; the small business owner given a chance to build her own American dream here in the five boroughs; the working family that can now afford to stay in the home they built; the child who will grow up with cleaner air and safer streets.

  “The New Yorkers whose lives have been made better, in ways both large and small, thanks to the laws Tom sponsored and the causes he championed. It is through them that Tom White will truly be memorialized.”

  And from Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

  “My friend Council Member Tom White lost a long battle with cancer today, and on behalf of all New Yorkers, I want to express my condolences. Born and raised in Queens, Tom spent over 30 years trying to improve his Southeast Queens community, and not just through his work with the City Council. He was the executive director of J-CAP, which serves Queens with a recognized alcohol and substance abuse treatment program. He served as Chair of the Council’s economic development committee, and because of his efforts, we were able to create programs that range from providing loans to help small businesses stay afloat and grow to helping New Yorkers avoid foreclosures. Tom’s legacy will live on in the results of his work, and my thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.”

• 11:40

  FTC Flexes Blogger Rules Again

   » ‎ Citizen Media Law Project -

  The Federal Trade Commission has reached a second settlement with a marketer over apparent violations of the Commission's rules requiring disclosure of compensated endorsements, particularly on blogs and social media, as well as other contexts in which the compensation (which may include free samples or discounts) is not "reasonably expected by the audience."

  Back in April, the Commission sent a letter to Ann Taylor LOFT raising concerns about a promotion the clothing company ran for bloggers and warning the company not to undertake any similar campaigns. The Commision declined to undertake any enforcement action in that case because it was the firm's first apparent violation, only a very small number of bloggers posted content as a result of the promotion, and the company adopted a written policy in February 2010 stating that it would not issue any gifts to bloggers without first telling the bloggers that the gift must be disclosed.

  Now, the Commission has reached a settlement with Reverb Communications, a public relations firm, which the FTC alleged had employees and interns post positive reviews on Apple's iTunes store for games produced by Reverb clients.  According to the FTC complaint,

  From approximately November 2008 through May 2009, Reverb employees, including [Reverb owner] Tracie Snitker, and company managers, posted [positive] public reviews about Reverb’s clients’ gaming applications in the iTunes store. These reviews were posted using account names that would give the readers of these reviews the impression they had been submitted by disinterested consumers.

  In the Matter of Reverb Communications, Inc., No. 092 3199 (FTC 2010), complaint at  2.

  While Reverb did not admit any wrongdoing, under the settlement the company agreed to remove within seven days any previously posted endorsements that misrepresent the authors as independent users or ordinary consumers, and that fail to disclose a connection between Reverb and the game developers.  The settlement also bars such misrepresentations in any future comments. (FTC analysis of settlement here.)

  The five-member Commission unanimously gave preliminary approval to the settlement, and will take a final vote after a 30-day public comment period.

  While I've questioned the disparate application of the FTC rules to new and traditional media, enforcement of the rules to remedy the apparent "astroturfing" in this case is a good use of the FTC's power to ensure that customer endorsements are just that: honest opinions of actual customers.

  

• 11:24

  Managing the River of Media

   » ‎ David Sasaki

  We are all overwhelmed by too much information. Either we feel burdened by thousands of unread emails, articles, and blog posts, or we generally feel out of the information loop, as if others have secret access to content that we’re not privy to. If we don’t develop systems to manage how we discover, make sense of, and use the information around us then either we begin to feel anxious or so overwhelmed that the information itself begins to lose its value.

  We start freaking out.

  This post is a detailed overview of how I personally manage media content in my life. (I won’t include how I manage other types of information like financial and contact information — that’s a whole other story.) I should emphasize that there is no single media management system that will work for everyone. Everyone has different types and amounts of information to process. Because of my job and my own interests I probably consume much more media than others, and so have developed a fairly intricate system that, though extremely automated, still requires more daily attention than most are probably willing to invest.

  Finding and Consuming Media

  There are three main factors that influenced how I designed this system:

  1. Media types — above all else, I categorize media by whether it is text, audio, or video. Each has its own advantage. I love text because it is searchable and easy to copy and paste. Audio is fantastic because it is the only media type that allows me to multitask. I listen to podcasts and audiobooks as I bicycle to the office, work out in the gym, clean my apartment and wait in Mexico City’s round-the-clock traffic. Video, on the other hand, demands your full attention which is probably why it can make such a big impact on our lives. I tend to only consume video at night, either on my television or my iPad.
  2. Device types — another strong consideration is that I consume media every day on four different devices. I want access to all my media from all four devices: 1) my iPhone where I listen to podcasts and frequently discover new media via Twitter, Google Reader, and email; 2) my iPad where I read books, feature-length articles, academic papers, and watch 10 – 15 minute videos from TED, PopTech, YouTube, and Vimeo; 3) my laptop computer which serves as the home base for all my media and documents; and 4) my television which is hooked up to a Mac Mini media server — this is where I watch most movies and documentaries, and occasionally where I listen to podcasts as I clean my apartment.
  3. Info-snacking versus deep reading — after a while I came to realize that I consume media in two different ways: 1) info-snacking in which I scan a vast amount of content to get an overview of a particular topic or to get a feel for the day’s news; and 2) deep reading which usually takes place on my couch with a cup of tea or on a park bench in Parque México. Many observers like Nicholas Carr point out that we are increasingly spending more time info-snacking at the expense of the time we spend reading deeply and reflecting. While I think that Carr tends to exaggerate the inability of my generation to read deeply (just look at Goodreads), I do think it’s important to set aside a certain amount of time each day to commit to a single piece of media for at least 45 minutes to an hour.

  Good Morning: Toast, Coffee, Info-snacking

  Before I even get out of bed I reach for my iPad and start up my NPR app. As I listen to the five-minute morning news roundup, I look through all of the latest NPR stories and make a personalized 30-minute playlist of the four – six stories that interest me the most. I listen to this playlist as I shower and make breakfast. With my toast and coffee in hand I walk the ten feet to my home office (now green at the request of Tricia).

  Every morning I spend about an hour to 90 minutes scanning various sources of media to get a general feel for the day’s news. During this time I never read anything longer than three paragraphs. First I read through my email and click on all the links to articles that people have recommended to me. If these articles are less than three paragraphs then I read them right away. If they are longer, and I determine that they are worth my time, then I save them to Instapaper to read later on my iPad or iPhone.

  After email I look through my three Twitter accounts (@oso, @civicinfolatam, @infocivi) to see what articles my contacts have been recommending. Very few of the Twitter users I follow write about what they ate for lunch; rather the service is much more like a list of cleverly worded headlines written by individuals I trust. Each of those headlines then links to the main article. I probably read about 3% of the articles that my Twitter contacts link to. Still, I find it valuable to know what they find valuable on a daily basis. Of those articles I do read, if they are less than three paragraphs then I will read them right away; if they are longer then I save them to Instapaper to read later in the day. I use Nambu to read through my Twitter accounts on my laptop, the official Twitter app for my iPhone, and Twitterific for my iPad.

  Next I read through the feeds in my RSS reader. I use Google Reader to store all of the most recent articles from the 307 feeds I am subscribed to. While all of the information is stored in Google Reader, I use NetNewsWire for my laptop, iPhone, and iPad so that I can continue to read the articles even when I’m not connected to the internet (which is often when I am traveling). Every morning there are an average of 600 – 800 new pieces of content waiting for me. As you can imagine I skim quickly through all of the headlines, but only read a small minority of the articles and blog posts. From a total of 800 new articles every day in my RSS reader I probably read around 15 short articles (less than three paragraphs) and two long articles on average.

  In addition to long articles and blog posts that I save to Instapaper, I also often come across PDF reports and short video clips that I want to watch later. PDF reports I save to my Dropbox folder, which I can access automatically via my iPhone, iPad, and both of my computers. While the Dropbox applications allow you to read PDFs directly inside the apps, I prefer using GoodReader which has more functionality and connects automatically to your Dropbox and Google Docs accounts (in addition to other services). If I discover a 5 – 10 minute YouTube clip that I want to watch later, I drag the link to Evom which automatically downloads and adds the video to iTunes, which then syncs to both my iPhone and iPad.

  

  The podcasts I listen to on a regular basis.

  Lastly I open up iTunes where I am subscribed to around 25 different audio and video podcasts. Currently iTunes tell me that I have 75 episodes waiting for my attention, and that it will take me 1.4 days to listen to everything. I try to download podcasts selectively so that I realistically can listen to everything I download, but often I am only able to catch up when I take a long flight or road trip.

  Deep Reading

  

  Instapaper allows me to read long articles on any device with an interface that doesn’t tire my eyes. It removes all advertisements and unnecessary text from the articles.

  After my morning routine of info-snacking I usually have around two to three hours of media content to consume throughout the rest of the day. I tend to do this in hour-long blocks. I listen to around 90 minutes of podcasts and audio books during my afternoon run and my time in the gym. I read for about 60 minutes on a bench in the park. Then I’ll read for another thirty minutes when I’m at home on my couch and before I go to bed. Often times I watch a documentary movie while I eat dinner.

  I read e-books on my iPad, and occasionally on my iPhone. I use both the Kindle and iBook apps to read various books (though I prefer iBooks). Both applications synchronize what page I am on and my bookmarks so that if I finish off at page 113 on my iPad it will automatically start me at 113 on my iPhone as well.

  Admittedly, I tend to info snack a couple more times throughout the day, though I am trying to spend more time reading deeply and less time info-snacking. I use Twitter, FlipBoard, NetNewsWire, and Google FastFlip to info-snack throughout the day, mostly from my iPhone and iPad.

  

  Flipboard for the iPad feels just like a traditional magazine, but it’s content comes from recommended links by my Facebook and Twitter contacts. I can send longer articles to Instapaper directly from within the app.

  Processing and Sharing Media

  Everything so far relates to how I organize and consume media. But there is a more important guiding question: Why the hell am I reading/watching/listening to this? In part it is to become a better person: more informed, worldly, empathetic. But I am also aware of my place in the information ecology, and my role in spreading information across different communities. With each piece of content I consume, there are nine possible outputs:

  • Do nothing – either delete the content (if I never ever will use it again) or store it in my media archive so that I can search for it in the future. This is what I do with 75% of content I consume. I use a program called Together to manage an archive of content I’ve read. Instapaper also keeps an archive (though there are no promises that it will be permanent.)
  • Share via email – if the content is directly relevant to a particular person or small group of people then I will send an email with the link and the relevant excerpt(s).
  • Share via twitter – I manage three different Twitter accounts – one personal and two for work. Twitter is a great social way to share information related to recent news, but it is especially bad at building an archive of well-organized bookmarks.
  • Share via Delicious – when I need to organize bookmarks by category so that I can find them later on I use Delicious. I have both a personal and a work account, and they help me build bibliographies for future blog posts and essays. I use Pukka to easily post to both accounts without having to log in and log out. Pukka is also great for quickly searching past bookmarks.
  • Share via Facebook – Sometimes I find information that strikes me as oddly intriguing, such as how porcupines have sex. This, in my opinion, is requisite reading for anyone I consider a friend. Many applications now have a “share via facebook” option. In my browser I use the Facebook bookmarklet.
  • Share via Tumblr – though I haven’t been using Tumblr lately, an essay by Steven Berlin Johnson about the 18th century practice of keeping a commonplace book convinced me to start collecting scraps of content that influence the evolution of my thinking.
  • Share via Goodreads – if it is a book. I usually also leave a small review with my thoughts and reflections.
  • Create an outline – often times I choose to read/listen/watch particular types of content because I’m working on a blog post or research paper. I use MarsEdit and OmniOutliner to take notes on my laptop and Simplenote to take notes on my iPhone and iPad.
  • Translate an article – I often feel that the most valuable output is when I decide to translate an article from Spanish to English or English to Spanish. I do this with the help of Google Translator Toolkit, which remembers how I personally like to translate key, common phrases.

  That may seem like a ridiculous number of outputs and a lot of work, but it literally takes me about 10 seconds to share information via email/Twitter/Delicious/Facebook/Tumblr, and I hardly ever spend more than an hour a day writing blog posts.

  Stepping Away From it All

  At this point you probably thing that I do nothing more with my life than submerge myself with media. While it’s true that I probably spend more time consuming media than most, I never spend anytime watching advertisements and I don’t play video games. Still, I’m increasingly aware of the need to step away from media completely. @shirafu recently pointed me to the NY Times article “Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime,” which really struck a chord with me. If we don’t step away from media we fail to engage with it meaningfully. At least once a day I try to spend time simply staring at the ceiling and/or going for a walk around my neighborhood. I am trying to spend more weekends out in the mountains away from connectivity. Cooking dinner has also been a recent source of calm for me.

  Some Content Gems

  Here is a list of some of my favorite sources of content (not all are legal):

  • NetFlix – movies, television series, and documentaries.
  • Avaxhome – ebooks, audiobooks, videos
  • AAARG.org – academic papers
  • iTunes U – university lectures
  • MVGroup – documentary movies
  • BBC Worldservice Documentaries – consistently interesting audio documentaries. I listen to almost all of them.

  Bonus

  I rarely watch television, but when I do, this is how. (Again, I never watch advertisements.)

  Colophon

  In traditional print publishing a colophon is a brief description of the printing and publication of the book. Early bloggers like John Gruber re-appropriated the term to describe a list of tools used to produce digital media. Below is a list of all the applications and services I have mentioned above.

• Nambu
• Official Twitter app for iPhone
• Twitterific for iPad
• Instapaper
• NPR iPad app
• NetNewsWire for Mac, iPhone, and iPad
• Dropbox
• GoodReader
• Evom
• iTunes
• FlipBoard
• Google FastFlip
• iBooks
• Kindle for iPhone and iPad

Please feel free to leave a comment below to explain how you manage the river of media.