Funding

I think we should fund Brittany's online magazine "Charm." First off, I see a huge whole in the market and she's really hit a perfect target audience.  There's no magazine for women who are just graduating college and just starting careers.  These are the women who don't need "recipes your kids will love" and "how to relight the romance on your 10th wedding anniversary."  I think that having it online will allow it to reach a wider audience.  I know that I would read this magazine and I know many women who would read it.  I think that she’s got a great plan for expansion and for it to become a real power house.

            However, I’d like to see the name changed.  I know the definition of charm means what she wants it to, however the connotation doesn’t.  Charm makes it should like just another women’s magazine that’s about sex and impressing men.  I think this is one that we’d have to take to a naming company because I’m not exactly sure what to call it.  We want it to sound fun, not dowdy but at the same time it should reflect a level of professionalism. 

            I’d also like it to eventually move to being a print outlet.  I think this is something that could be a definite kind of “beach read” magazine.   So I’d like to see a physical copy should the magazine expand enough. 

            Overall though, I think she’s got a ready, willing and asking audience.  Not only that she’s got a fantastic plan.  Her magazine is one I’d like to see produced.

 

Accountability

I think all media, independent or conglomerate need be held accountable for their actions.  Be it independent student media, Democracy Now! or the Disney Corp. trying to cover things up.

I only write this because I just fired someone and now because of his actions, he's off all student media in Park.

See, coming into Newswatch and hanging out in my newsroom and doing my show while drinking isn't ok.  I've never been put in this position before.  An assistant producer can't write a show or design graphics under the influence.  So today, I had to fire someone.  I've never been so disappointed and upset in my life. 

I've seen it in another Park media group, who published something under the name of a person who didn't write it.  The person in charge doesn't want to believe it's happening.  It's sad, because good people make bad choices that lessen your outlets' credibility.

I feel that people are quick to jump the gun and attack conglomerate media about covering things up.  Where as Indys like Breitbart are defended for heavy editing by their fellow bloggers and indy outlets.  In fact, in some cases, it isn't until others point out problems that they publish corrections.  Sometimes, I feel that Indy media, like bloggers, sometimes get away with saying certain things because they aren't seen as a "real media source."

I think all media, big or small, indy or conglomerate, professional or amateur needs to be held to the same standards as a way to be held accountable for the things they say and the news they spread.

The Market for Fantasy Sports

I writing this in the ICTV Greenroom as the sports guys discuss their fantasy sports teams.  More so, they're yelling at me because evidently my boyfriend is beating someone.  Honestly, I don't care, he's got something like 5 leagues.  I can't keep up with them all.  And again, I really prefer to not care.

But now they want me to ask him if he wants to do fantasy basketball.

Fantasy Basketball?  Really?

Then I learned from Rotoworld.com there are fantasy sports for any sport that has a team.  So that leaves out tennis and boxing.  There is fantasy golf and NASCAR.

Then I found a whole host of sites and books that will tell you who to pick, how to get the best team, lists of stats, good trades to make.

Except for ESPN, Yahoo! and CBS  of these are independent websites that give up to the minute sports information.  They run on fees for organizing your fantasy league, some ads and one even runs on donations.  None of them are owned by conglomerates.

In fact, some of these have been quicker to pick up on NFL injury reports than news outlets.  Interesting concept when you think about it.  It's almost like when independent news outlets set the story out first and then the conglomerates get it.

Andrew Breitbart

This man.

Why did he have to be right about Andrew Weiner? 

Why?

Because if he hadn't been, he'd have his crazy cult following and he'd still be massively twisting the videos of ACORN and re cutting Shirley Sherrod to make her look like a racist. 

And he calls himself a Journalist.  That's just the thing, independent of conglomerate, journalists don't cut up the words of others to make them look like they are saying the complete opposite of what they're saying.

The ONE THING he's ever been right about was Weiner.  And during the Weiner press conference Breitbart took over the microphone and essentially the press conference.  If Breitbart wants to be some kind of conservative journalism hero, more power to him, but let's all stop pretending that BigGovernment.org, BigMedia.org and breitbart.com are suddenly these meccas for good reporting.

Really, they're the same thing this blog is: one person spewing their ideas and using the pieces that fit their argument.  The difference: He's treating his a news, I know mine is an opinion.  

The Case Against Citizen Journalists

They're cheap, they're willing and they're woefully untrained.

While CNN may think not paying real photojournalists is the easy way out to balance a budget, they're doing so by sacrificing their quality. iReport gives you assignments with dead lines!  You can take pictures!  You can write what you want to see!  It's stupid.

I know many professors here are huge supporters of Citizen Journalist because they think that sometimes professional journalists miss the story.  I get it, I really do, but I can't help but think that these people have ZERO training.  They don't know how to put together a package, they don't know what's ethical, they don't know every law, they haven't had the ideals of a shield law and where they exist drilled into their heads.

It sounds elitest of me, but I hate them.  Do I think there is merit when Citizen Journalists who are participating in Occupy can really get inside and aren't afraid to get arrested do just that?  Yes I do.  But then again, nobody can protect their freedom of the press, because they're just some guy with a camera.

Journalism is like teaching, a lot of people think they can teach elementary school. You only have to know how to write and take pictures, but the truth is it's so much more than that which his why my teacher parents say they could never be journalists because they aren't willing to do the work.

I can't believe Final Cut Pro X would have an "export for CNN iReport" and no way to export to .mov.

I think my hatred stems from my need for a job and people thinking they can do it.

"The Media are Cowards"

As more and more occupy protestors are arrested, the scene in LA proved to be another place where the media could have stepped up and used their rights to show the police brutality.  Actor Wil Wheaton a huge supporter of the Occupy movement and resident of LA was tweeting and retweeting sentiments from protestors and viewers who were watching protestors and the few citizen journalists (like victim @OakFoSho) being carted off and threatened by officers.

While this might not seem out of the ordinary from all of the Occupy news we've heard, the LAPD also blocked most press from being allowed in to the area, set up press approved areas and threatened to arrest any journalist out of the press pool.  Which resulted in this tweet

What's most disturbing isn't that the police but this press ban on, it's that the reporters then FOLLOWED it.  The fact that all these reporters have the chance to get the story and really make a difference.  More so they're openly giving up their rights as reporters.  They are just not doing their jobs on checking the power of government and this might be a time when citizen journalists are going to take hold of the media because trained journalists don't do their jobs.

Wikipedia's Plea

Jeff, you looked really different on Tuesday....

The source every high school and college teacher warns against is at it again.

The site, which is run by donations and is used and read by over 1/3 of the internet it needs a heafty amount of money to stay free.

This isn't the first time Wikipedia has used pictures of writers and founder Jimmy Wales to garner donations.  As the chart shows, Jimmy's personal appeal has pulled in a lot of money, but it still isn't enough.



However, Jimmy's appeal is no different than say, Democracy Now!  urging patron's to give to keep the site free and out of the hands of advertisers.  Because it's only a matter of time before some company wants to change their Wikipedia page that has information of a past scandal and Wikipedia can't say no because they can't lose the ad revenue.

I couldn't start a lot of papers with out Wikipedia's ability to give me fantastic primary sources, my best friend and I would still be trying to figure out the plot to the final season of Supernatural.  So Wikipedia has more than enough reasons to take all the money I have that I didn't have to spend on books or DVDs.

However, this has resulted in some parodies, my favorite has been seeing his face looking like the picture of the article.   But this one is the best one, that is probably NSFW but has gone viral.

A Dedication to A Dear Friend

This doesn't have anything to do with Indy media, rather a huge supporter of everything indy related.  Kevin Michael was a staple of the basement of Park.  His larger than life personality was one that was an inspiration to all.  He was never afraid to treat his students like adults, like we were his colleagues and we were solving a problem together. The countless times he stopped my tears with a funny story or a story to put my tears into perspective made him a wonderful friend. 

Kevin Michael also appreciated Indy Media.  He helped independent projects for students any chance he got.  He saved my show more times than I can possibly count.  Kevin loved student media.  He knew how important it was.  He knew that we became better at our jobs and we would always be there because of student media.  Kevin is the reason I stayed at Park.  He also thought that everything dealing with school was stupid because classes interfere with education.

More than once he encouraged me to skip classes to go hunt down a story or dig further into a piece I was working on.  Usually after this class I'd go down on Thursday and sit and talk to him and learn so much.

Today it kills me that he won't be there and I went to his memorial and not to his office.

So Kevin, Park pushes on with out our best assest.  We miss you.

The Election, from ICTV

Right now I work for an Independent Media outlet.  Newswatch 16! Last week we had election center and I've had time to critique the show and reflect on what happened so I can write about it.

Last year, we had critiques from a crazy townie who made lots of comments about our female anchor's chest and I was a little bit off set  But I suppose when you're the only local station the crazies watch you and then send you stuff of about your anchors.

This year was small and very local which made a lot of things easier.  We were able to put reporters at every single person running's parties.  We had staffs on data center looking up every single race.  I was proud, I was line producing.

When doing the opening though I realized something.  Our main SOTs that we used were all from Svante Myrick.  Svante is the new 24 year old mayor.  I've had his phone number in my phone for years.  Svante used to send us stories that were happening in the town and when he had a statement to make I was always the reporter.  Svante was more excited than me when I became news director.

Svante loves ICTV, he loves Newswatch and indy media.  He's become close to us not only because he's a huge supporter but because he's our age.  The problem with indy media is because we're not a big name, we're small we don't have the same credibility.  I can't tell you how many times I've had reporters struggle because they can't get an interview because "they're just college students" or "they're not real news."


So to be honest, my connection with Svante and his love for Newswatch may make us seem biased, but really if I sit in your office for 3 hours trying to get an interview and you still won't comment I'm going to somebody who will.

I'm excited that he's in office because now I know we'll get comments from more people.

Prop 26, Sanity Prevails in Mississippi

I've been reading a lot about Prop 26, a personhood law that would place the point of personhood at the exact point of conception.  As in the moment the sperm meets egg and the zygote is floating around the uterus.

It's been well publicized, because it's the strictest personhood law to come out.  On blogs, people who are pro-life have come out against it. And some pieces pointing out the strangeness of the whole idea have come out.

This is truly a stupid law. Let's be honest, do you prosecute a woman for miscarrying?  I mean, half of all fertilized eggs exit the womb with out a woman ever knowing she's pregnant.  Is God the number one abortionist in the world?  (I almost think that a lot of crazy, evangelicals' heads exploded every time somebody presents that thought)

On Tuesday, Mississippi voted on Prop 26.  Many in the mainstream acted like it would pass.  Fear was struck into the hearts of many and maybe it had an advantage because it had people coming out to the polls, but the main fact is, they got it wrong.

Slate realized this, and while the author was honest, he also thought that Prop 26 would do better than similar laws in other states because it was supported by people in the government.  The real problem is is they brought in outlawing the pill.  Making it just about abortion tends to get people going, but taking away a mother of 2's IUD will end your campaign.

The mainstream jumped to conclusions about why this would pass and the fact that it would pass in general.  Really, media should instead inform people that it has the chance to pass and not that it has passed already.

The End of Wikileaks?

According to Julian Assange, places blocking donation to Wikileaks are going to drive them out of business.  Wikileak said that they will have to stop publishing temporarily to focus on revenue. It was something that is not surprising.

Both in the US and in Europe, credit cards have not allowed donations and so hosting website DataCell allowed people to directly donate through banks. The blockade, on a perfectly legal website is going to drive it out of business. With Assange's need for a lawyer for both his book deal and his possible sexual assault charge there's no money.

More so, these companies are shutting donations off to a person who can make or break them.  Meanwhile, you can use your credit card in any country to donate to every racist and hate group in the world, but a group that exposes government secrets is considered more dangerous.

It's frustrating for the government to act like this information is somehow going to destroy the lives of every American.  That some how the walls of America will be broken down by the release of papers that aren't totally, 100% secret.  The government should be scared of Assange, but shutting him down will just make others step up to take over what journalism should be about