oh yes, this presentation shall be epic

I did calculate a Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index to compare the outcomes, but with so few species and the basic way I tabulated the data the results were the same as a simple tally, and I really don't feel like explaining the finer points of Biodiversity to the Comm 491 class...

WWW isn't Public Domain or Fair Game

I found this forum post on Reddit.com today. Pretty appalling from someone with "30 years" of experience. I hope they get the crap sued out of them (way more than a $130 donation).

Future of Newspapers/Magazines

I know this video has been out for a while, but I haven't posted it to this blog yet (and yes, it is very relevant to new media!)

Living Magazine Cover & Spread - Outside Magazine from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

Podcast

Here is Group One's Podcast:

The Dude Abides

I saw this article from Flowtown on Digg today. Comparing best practices for social media to The Big Lebowski? I'm there.

Shirley Sherrod and the Shame of the Scoop

Social media, the internet, even cable TV and radio have all been technological advances used to bring us news faster than ever before. Until recently, though, there was still a delay. Stories would be developed, written and then published on a cycle (generally daily, with a deadline). With the advent of these faster means of communication this cycle has been broken down into a rough guideline.

This has great benefits, and great failures. News can be tweeted, tumbld, and blogged by anyone anywhere (Mumbai and Iran are two great examples I can think of off the top of my head).

Because of the speed of the news, many sources seem to be ignoring the ethical code of journalism in favor of being the first to break the story. Such is the case with Shirley Sherrod.

Shirley Sherrod was the director of rural development in Georgia for the USDA, that is she was director until a conservative blogger, Andrew Breitbart, posted a video clip where Sherrod was telling the NAACP about a time when she didn't want to help a white farmer based on his color (Sherrod is black, by the way).

As soon as Breitbart had posted this video, it was picked up by Fox to be aired on TV. However, what is even more amazing is that before the video was aired, Sherrod was fired.

The best part of the whole ordeal? The video of Sherrod was (almost definitely libelously) edited to make her appear racist. The rest of the video clip shows her discussing how she didn't act on this thought and instead helped to save the white farmer's land from foreclosure and how they've formed a very tight friendship ever since.

After the full video was exposed, the USDA offered Sherrod her job back and she declined.

So what's the moral here?

Journalism in America was founded on a system of ethics. The People should be able to trust their news sources to be actually fair and balanced. The lack of research done by news organizations (who still reported on Sherrod's supposed racism all day after the video broke) is absolutely astounding. Did anybody bother to look at the rest of the tape? Did anybody bother to find a source other than a blogger with an agenda? WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA TODAY!? Please, next time you find a lead for a story, do your job. And in case you aren't sure what to do, here is a link to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.

Twitter Saves the Day!

Here is a great article I found on Reddit.com. A Japanese journalist, Kosuke Tsuneoka, was captured by insurgents in Afghanistan. When one of his captors got a new phone, he asked Tsuneoka to show him the internet. While helping his captors, Tsuneoka sent two tweets that led to his release.

To Be or Not To Be (a Journalist) and Thoughts on Social Media

Who is a Journalist?

Dan Gillmor is a writer and educator at Arizona Sate University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Recently, Dan wrote an article for Salon.com on "Who's a journalist? Does that matter?"

I agree completely that with tools like facebook, twitter, digg, reddit and a host of other outlets for laymen to communicate, we all are creating media, and lots of it.

I also agree that not all of this is journalism. Not even Dan calls himself a journalist most of the time feeling that

"Calling myself a journalist, which I did from time to time, tended to make me feel like I was pretending to a higher role than the craft, however vital and honorable it may be, merited."

While trying to define who is a journalist in class, the example of Jamal Albarghouti was brought up. For those of you who don't know this gentleman by name, he is the only person to have captured video during the Virginia Tech shootings. Jamal used his Nokia cell phone to capture not only footage of a S.W.A.T. Team entering a building, but also 26 shots fired by the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho.

Many fine points for both side of the argument were brought up during the discussion. Jamal acted with the Media in mind, wanting to show people what happened, instead of running away, he started rolling video and even moved forward toward the danger. On the other hand, Jamal is an engineering graduate student, while he did take the video he gave it away (not a professional choice), and he provided absolutely zero context for anyone watching the video.

When you watched the video the first time, did you know what it was? I sure didn't. My position is that Jamal, and many other people in positions similar to his, are not journalists. They don't practice journalism as a vocation, they don't provide context, they don't even know what is going on half the time. While their actions are valued and are important, Journalists are the ones who take this information and turn it into something of substance for the audience.

Thoughts on Social Media

Who doesn't enjoy a good tweet about someone's poop?

"Holy Crap! ...I need more fiber in my diet.

7:32 PM Aug 24th via txt"

Or maybe about the sexual encounters of a newly-wed couple as a prank from the best man?

"They’re on the job! #26 - Action commenced at 22.04GMT. Weight: 156KG.5:04 PM Feb 18th via Power Twitter

They’re off the job! #25 – Action concluded at 22.15GMT. Duration: 8m.10 s. Frenzy Index: 10 (http://song.ly/2j6j3). Judge’s Comment: "OOF!"5:16 PM Feb 17th via Power Twitter"

I love twitter. I think it is a fun way to keep up with people you know or people in similar lines of work to you, or just follow someone who likes to party.

Twitter also provides an opportunity for people to quickly provide information to each other. Did you read that Dan Gillmor article I linked above? Do you recall the traffic information tweets during that snowstorm? Yeah, that's pretty much why twitter rocks.

On the other hand, we have Facebook. Fuck you, Facebook.

and I'll leave you with that for now. I'll finish it when I get back from class.

and by back from class I really mean at 2:26am the next day because, well, that's just how I roll.

Back to Facebook. When I first got accepted to Purdue, one of the first things I did was head over to Facebook (shown to me by my older brother) and start an account. It was a fun tool that I used to keep in touch with high school friends, and people I met at Purdue. Then came bumper stickers, then gifts. Then farmville. And mafia wars. And now god knows what because they've changed their layout so many God damned times I don't even know what I'm looking at.

And in the meantime Mark Zuckerberg and his team of cronies have decided to change the privacy settings to, oh wait, that's right. There are no privacy settings.

What was that Facebook? A public outcry for control over our own content and respecting copyright and privacy? Oh, I guess you could just send out a quick press release and put a few confusing-as-hell-and-impossible-to-get-to settings back up. But don't worry, Zuckerberg is still impossible to friend and I'm sure his data isn't getting mined at all...

Yet I still use you facebook. Why? Because of your 500 million users. Not because I like the system, but because it is the easiest way for me to keep in touch with my friends all over the world.

Granted, when Diaspora is released to the public, I'm opening an account there, but I'll leave my FB account open so others can still contact me if all else fails.

/rant.

New Media Includes...

Today in class we discussed some aspects of what new media includes. I think this is a beautiful example of three of those: Audio, Video, Graphics. Plus its just really cool to watch (and informative).