Ch.9 Conversations, Not Lectures

(FUSION)

When reading Chapter 9 this week, I came across a paragraph that I felt strongly about in the book. The main idea of the section was that the Internet has created opportunities for the public to comment, influence, and create their own journalism. This means that,

"Journalists can no longer view themselves as the sage on the stage," Emerson College journalism professor Janet Kolodzy notes. "They must step back, step down, and team up."

I am apalled that journalists would say that "the news is what I say it is". What? Since when are journalists above everyone else by telling the world the news? Journalism means, to me, sharing with OUR world the news and even shedding light on stories that may bring justice to the citizens of the country we live in. I have never thought of a journalist as a "gatekeeper", controlling exactly what people see and hear. The whole job of a journalist is to bring the people the REAL news, showing exactly what our world is like, even if we don't want to see it. Journalists don't have the right to control what people see, they are citizens as everyone else is. Journalists should share the news with the people, and have people share stories with journalists. Journalism should be a conversation with the people, not a lecture.

Drawing Comments

My experience drawing comments has been an interesting one, that’s for sure.

When thinking about what to write to draw comments, the first thing that came to mind was music. Music is a big part of my life and I figured it would be a good idea to post something related to something I care about. So, I posted a video of a contemporary saxophone piece about a samurai warrior. Unfortunately, that first post was not successful at all. I didn’t get any comments on it. True, I only left it up for about a day, but I thought it might at least get one.

After that first attempt went awry, I decided to take the post down from my blog. I figured people probably weren’t used to contemporary saxophone, and that I should try to go for a bigger audience. I thought about posting funny videos, cute videos of puppies, anything to draw some comments. Nothing, however, felt good enough to post.

Fortunately, later that day, I had a conversation in Franklin Dining Hall (as my post says) that led to the youtube find of Total Eclipse of the Heart. Wow. After watching that video, I knew right away that it was going on my blog. It was just the kind of thing I was looking for: something absurd, hilarious, creepy, or just plain crazy that people would want to talk about. And it worked! Turns out, people thought it was just as atrocious and wonderful as I did.

All I did to draw some comments was show it to my friends (who were conveniently in my dorm room at the time, and usually are in my room at all hours of the day and night- we’re kind of like Seinfeld, always talking about nothing. I’m Jerry, in case you were wondering. Ps. One of my friends is here now and is making vomiting noises) and asked them to comment on it. Then, I talked about the crazy video in as many of my classes as I could, telling people about my blog and asking them to check it out. I also updated my status on facebook to: CHECK THIS OUT: http://is.gd/3KlS WTF?!?!, so that people would see that if they looked at my profile.

This process was harder than I thought, and easier than I thought, if that makes sense. I realized that I had to post something that wasn’t so specialized as the contemporary sax video, but I could never make up my mind on what to do. When the 80s video came up, however, I knew that a lot of people would think it was ridiculous. Things became a lot easier from there. I was really excited about the video because of how insane it was, and I think that rubbed off on my friends, and their friends, and so on. I really wanted people to see this video, not because it was on my blog, but because it was definitely something I would want to share with as many people as possible anyway. Thank you, Bonnie Tyler!

Amazing.

I guess lately I've been interested in youtube videos, and I just couldn't pass up posting this one. If you have ever danced in your lifetime, you know that it takes quite a lot of balance, discipline and work to make movements fluid and beautiful. Well, this duo makes it look easy. The thing is, the man lost his leg while he was a child, and the woman lost her arm in a car accident. Their dance, however, is one of the most beautiful I have seen between a man and woman.

The dance shows the value of mutual support and friendship in their lives.

(Fast-forward to 30 seconds in)

Turn Around...

This evening after marching band, I went to what I like to call Frankenfurter (otherwise known as Franklin Dining Hall). While eating my cereal, fruit, and peanut butter and fluff (because there is nothing else there I would put in my mouth), I noticed a friend of mine was sitting at a table behind me. He was facing away from me, chatting with some friends.

Being the person that I am, I decided to be creepy like someone who was watching him from behind and text him: Turn around....

From there, a text frenzy ensued of the lyrics from the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart" across the dining hall's expanse. This then spurred a google search of the music video.

What I saw next took my breath away- heh heh. I hope you too, can experience this total 80s mind fuck.







What the hell is going on in this video?!?!?

Twitter Debates

(Photo from Donkey Dish)

Wow. Unbelievable! Last night's presidential debates produced some mad twitters. It seemed like there was a new twitter faster than the seconds were passing. I just plain couldn't keep up. The tweets I did get to read, however, proved interesting and humorous.

My favorite tweet of the night had to be that McCain looked like he was walking around the room like he lost his keys. Priceless. From that point on, each time he spoke I could only laugh because McCain was indeed searching for his lost keys...or marbles.

Anyways, what an experience. I felt like I was in a huge living room where millions of people were saying exactly what they wanted to each other just as the thought came to mind.Those are the best kind of conversations. Never a dull moment.

I liked getting both Democrat and Republican views. It was nice for a change to hear what people are really thinking about, even though I didn’t always want to hear it. I feel like I have connected with my fellow American citizens.

Besides all of that, seeing what people were talking about and watching what was actually happening was enlightening: a million takes on the same few words.

Woops! 3 minutes!

Ok, so, the Daily Beast.

I thought this site was pretty interesting. I liked the line up of the Cheat Sheet, the top 10 must reads from all over. You can get informed on popular topics pretty quick with those links.

"Read this, skip that" was a good motto I think. I got to everything I was interested quickly and could scan and find a lot of information. I also read Tina Brown's blog on Palin, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I have to admit, I feel like I need a lot more time to rate a site like this. However, overall I think the site's ideas are good: getting the information out to people fast and in short bursts.

Drudge vs. Huff Post vs. NY Times

In comparing these sites, I've come across some characteristics that separate them from eachother in the world of online journalism.

Drudge Report seems to update very often. Although, there are so many links to other stories and blogs that are updating constantly, it seems a little unfair. Huff Post and NY Times I feel are sort of tied on the updates, although, NY Times has more original content and Huff Post has a lot of video and other material that is updated.

I like how Huff Post has so many videos and links to explore, however, I also like how NY Times almost has the layout of a print newspaper with front page info and then links at the bottom.

Out of all three, only Huff Post and NY Times attracted my interest enough for me to click on some of their material. I watched this funny SNL skit of the VP debates on Huff Post and I found this cool article on a bar in Chicago from NY Times. Props to them.