How OU uses its plane to raise money

We the Media

The back of Dan Gillmor's book We the Mediawrites, "We the Media has become something of a bible for those who believe the online medium will change journalism for the better."

I've been studying online journalism for four years now. I believe it is the direction the industry is already- for better or for worse-- but I don't believe Gillmor's book will be the bible of online medium.

He writes about RSS feeds, camera phones, and P2P like they are the future-- buddy, they are the present and probably soon to be past. I have expiration radar for technology: when my friends start using it, it's outdated (and they most recently caught on to sharing music).

I did like Gillmor's historical recap in the beginning. He writes about the age of pamphleteering and "the pamphleteers who, before the First Amendment was enshrined into law and guaranteed a free press, published their writing at great personal risk."

Many feel bloggers service the public much like those in the past who circulated pamphlets. Gillmor writes, "Even more important were the (at the time) anonymous authors of the Federalist Papers." Is the blogosphere not the same? Are the anonymous posters not creating, amending or correcting potentially historically changing records of the present? Ideas about blogging and citizen activism are interesting and debatable. Gillmor does a good job covering the citizen's new role.

Chapter 10, Here Come the Judges (and Lawyers), attracted my attention. In conjunction with this class I am also taking one about Internet law. Gillmor recounts blogging and libel repercussions, the Jason Blair incident and plagiarism, as well as revealing trade secrets and copyright. He never comes to a conclusion on how to solve the legal issues, but instead writes recaps about each one.

The chapter Next Steps was a bit disappointing. It offered vague solutions to gaps the industry cannot afford to leave unsolved. Gillmor wrote about obscure laws-- Metcalfe and Moore-- that really have no real-life application. I would like to know about Shield Laws, protections, where lines are going to be drawn. I think the chapter scapegoated the real issues instead of offering innovative ideas.

The last chapter, Making Our Own News, was useful. "We are still in a top-down mode and don't realize that the conversation is more important than our pronouncements," Gillmor writes. I agree. He then writes about Creative Commons and the benefits copyright can have if used appropriately. This I liked because the idea of a Creative Commons is appealing and sites that operate on such standards (creativecommons.org) are wonderfully helpful.

Despite some of the outdated material, I have to give the guy credit. Six months on the Internet is old news and this book was published two years ago. I'm trying to imagine what I was learning my sophomore year and I believe it was RSS and digital cameras. The truth is a text book does not belong in an online journalism class because once it's published some techy will have release a whole new way of creating and accessing news.

To most benefit students is to assign them to research the Web. Quit reading about how the Internet is changing and get online to figure it out yourself.

Facebook gets facelift

Big Changes Coming to Profile Pages on Facebook

Basically, Facebook held an hourlong meeting with the media to announce changes that will come to profile pages on its site. Read the story here.

More to come...

Athens water quality

The recent boiler order affecting thousands of on-campus residents left many people wondering how clean was the water they consume.
Through these photos, I dispel the rumors that urge consumers to drink only from a Brita filtering device. The water in Athens, although threatened from aging pipes and potential exposure to chemicals, is currently safe to drink.
This slide show comes just in time for the summer heat!

Click here to view flickr slideshow


Click on photos to see captions.

MTV to revive print journalism?

Here's hoping MTV can help make newspapers cool again
by Chuck Barney

God bless Amanda Lorber, a senior at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Fla., who says “Journalists are the most important part of the world.”

Oh, a woman after my own heart. Say it loud and proud.

Amanda is editor-in-chief of the Circuit, an award-winning student publication that serves as the setting for MTV’s new reality series “The Paper” (10:30 p.m. EDT Mondays).

You heard right. A school newspaper. On MTV.

The show marks a real departure for the youth-centric cable network. It’s not “The Real World,” or “Laguna Beach,” or “The Hills.” Rich, hot-looking kids aren’t making out in Jacuzzis. They’re not slamming shots in some raucous club. They’re not prancing about in skimpy bikinis on spring break.

Instead, the show just focuses on smart, normal kids going to class, sacrificing large chunks of their social lives and pouring their passion into a ... newspaper.

Excuse me while I clear the lump in my throat.

And now permit me to ask: Can MTV actually help to make print journalism cool again? Oh, one can certainly dream.

Read the full story here.

Interviewing Stefanie Klaus

On the Sunday of Ohio University's annual mom's weekend, fifth-year senior Stefanie Klaus spoke with me about her mother's battle with breast cancer. Just seven months ago, Karen Klaus died after fighting six-years to beat the disease. This interview was the first time Stefanie spoke in great detail about her experience.

Journalism Day

The panel I was fortunate enough to attend on Wednesday was called Widening the Net: Political Campaigning and New Technologies. The gist of the discussion was how political candidates utilized alternative methods to combat opponents.

Rosemary Palmer and Anthony Fossaceca opened the panel with a review of Palmer's 2008 campaign for congress, which began as an idea when she lost a son to the Iraq war.

Palmer knew her political experience would be critiqued from the get-go because her only previous experience was at a local office in New Jersey. This put her at a serious disadvantage, especially against incumbent Dennis Kucinich.

But Palmer and Fossaceca had an idea that seems to match the slogan, "go big or go home." The Palmer campaign went for Kucinich and held nothing back. They ran campaign ads similar to the one below (*this part amended thanks to Fossaceca's comment below).

Kucinich campaign



It was this ad and others like this that brought attention to the previously unknown candidate. She became a name among bloggers-- a sign you really know you've made it big. Fossaceca also said that soon after donations-- small, but frequent-- entered the picture and Palmer became a player in the campaign.

They had money to create devices like this...
Bus video


But what is even more notable about the Palmer campaign is she allowed her constituents to guide her. Using You Tube and the Web she listed two potential Super Bowl advertisements and asked for users to vote for a favorite. She then wrote that if a few thousand donated only $5 each, the ad could potentially run during the Super Bowl.

Palmer didn't acquire the amount she needed for a spot during the football game, but her innovation did get picked up by television media and they ended up broadcasting the winning video.
Super Bowl Ad #1


Palmer lost the congressional campaign by a few votes, but in her mind she perceived the campaign as a victory. She is now known as the "Internet candidate" for the techniques she used and the precedent she set.

Journalists restricted on Internet

In a move designed to protect the Internet operations of its 32 teams, the pro football league has told news organizations that it will no longer permit them to carry unlimited online video clips of players, coaches or other officials, including video that the news organizations gather themselves on a team's premises. News organizations can post no more than 45 seconds per day of video shot at a team's facilities, including news conferences, interviews and practice-field reports.

See article here

Assertiveness workshop

Those with degrees should lead

I remember the Friday when Marc Kidby first attempted suicide in Baker. I was walking past the center’s fourth floor entrance probably minutes after police evacuated the building. I assumed a fire alarm was pulled and continued walking, oblivious to the situation occurring on the inside and the role I would have with it.

Two days later was The Post’s week-ahead meeting where the editors meet on Sunday to discuss the week’s stories. At the end the former editor-in-chief informed us that at the time of this suicide threat a Post photographer was in the building and shot photographs of Marc perched on the fifth floor. He wanted us to think about whether we should run these photos, and if yes which photos and how dominant. We were going to make a decision at the evening’s budget meeting.

My initial thought was no. It’s unnecessary, insensitive and indulgent. But then I saw the photos that delivered a message words could portray. I believed it was The Post’s obligation to our readers to give them this message.

Was I right? Was The Post right for covering Marc Kidby’s public cries for help? This was when I realized the power of the media.

So, where was I going with this? On June 14, the Scripps School of Journalism is going to give (a number to which I don’t know exactly) students a piece of paper entitling them to privileges of the fourth estate.

I believe on the back of each diploma there should be written a caveat. Imagine something written from Dumbledore to the students of Hogwarts—very wise and very telling. It should enlighten every student about the power they now hold, but this power, like everything in the world, can be great or awful.

We, as graduates of a journalism school, are going to be looked upon by our predecessors to shape the new media industry. Citizens are emerging, yes, but they will not be the leading the Internet news industry because they lack the education. They lack experiences like the one with Marc Kidby that teaches ethics, objectivity and judgment.

Journalists do not have licenses like doctors or lawyers, but those with journalism degrees should not overlook their trade.

Baby Ethan

Citizen journalism has infiltrated advertising:







I tried finding out if the family received any money for this commercial, or did they lose copyright privileges when they posted the video on YouTube? What's more, who found this and thought it would be a great idea for a commercial? Don't get me wrong it's brilliant, but I would like to know if it was someone younger pushing the envelope. Ultimately, pretty cool.

The Post shrinks in size

It was announced in one of the The Post's daily budget meetings that the paper size will be losing 10 column inches from each of its pages. This decision was made for The Post staff by The Athens Messenger who prints both papers. Although it's unclear why the Messenger is changing the size of the paper, the best educated guess is it's a result of the financial slump and decreased ad revenue.

I've been hearing a lot about the state of print media since my first year at Scripps. Newsrooms are downsizing, subscriptions are decreasing, ad sales have dropped, etc. Add this with the current state of the economy and it's no wonder little Athens is finally being affected. One woman in The Post's meeting was surprised this could be happening-- The Post? Shrink? "Why don't we just sell more ads?" she asked (and to her defense, I first wondered the same thing). But it's not that simple in a market that doesn't want to buy.

The Post isn't the first to shrink. The Washington Post, USA Today and L.A. Times reduced their size to save cost on paper. In 2007, the Wall St. Journal changed from 15" to 12" and plans to save about $18 million a year.

Personally it's a little strange to write about papers shrinking. One, because I'm writing about it on an Internet blog (killing them softly?) and two, because the earliest memories of news comes from my parents in the mornings with a paper. As an online major I believe in the Internet, but the pace by which it's changing the past frightens me. We need a new term for revolutionary.

Aesthetics vs. Design

This post may not directly relate to camera journalism, but in a course called advanced online journalism students are bound to have run into two types of Web sites: the good-looking, broken sites and the boring, navigable sites. Thus, ensues the tango between designers and programmers.

As the Web Editor for The Post, I've struggled to merge these boundaries the past two quarters. To make any cosmetic change, a simple headline color change for instance, means altering each section of the site or restructuring the entire template system by which it was built. A program will make the change, but then another will follow immediately after and the previous work may be voided.

Sites like blogger are nice for many reasons because it puts a sense of freedom of design and functionality into the user. The site says, "Pick this template and move whatever you want around-- you got a site!" It's a lot harder merging the two from the ground up and meet reader demand.

Through this post I didn't draw any conclusions, perhaps because I am still looking for some. How can a Web site have all the bells and whistles with half the time and frustration? (I won't accept money as an answer either.)