San Francisco Chronicle Podcast

We were given an assignment to listen to a podcast from the San Francisco Chronicle and my first reaction was “They are all on sports!” I am sorry but I have no interest in listening to someone talk about sports for 20 minutes. But I didn’t give up home and down the page I found a podcast on movies, YA!

This Podcast [Movies with Mick LaSalle: The tiger twins, chick flicks and more] spent majority of its time talking about why American guys don’t like “chick flicks.”  I won’t get into the dirt of it and let you listen for yourself but it did offer a unique perspective that ultimately came down to that chick flicks have a happy-ever-after-ending and men need more substance.  They just can’t accept that it all worked out, that has no intensity and no turn on for them.

The more we develop these skills of blogging and podcasting in class, the more I enjoy it.  It is weird for me to think any one would want to hear my fluff on life but ultimately my enjoyment in producing my opinion outweighs if anyone will have ever listen to it.  As a tool for journalism, it might be successful but it isn’t for me.  I am not the type of person who can listen to news on the radio or on my computer, I need visuals.  And if I don’t have time to watch the news than reading it online would be my second choice so I  can stream what I want to read and how much time I am willing to give to it.

My Vlog and podcast

My vlog is here

my podcast is here. 

Video blog… again

My name still hasn’t been added to the side list of video blogs [and since I am quite vain and like to see my name everywhere], I will post it again.

Danielle’s Ultra Fabulous Video Blog Site click here>>

We The Media Pt III

LIBEL

I never really understood how libel worked exactly which is why Chapter 10 was very interesting for me but I will admit I am still a little confused.  What are we and aren’t we allowed to say?  Have any of you heard of the website Yelp?  Yelp is a lifesaver to me… it is a community based network that does reviews for restaurants, business, products, pretty much anything that has an address.  Users are then able to give a something-star review and explain their choice.  I have found countless restaurants and events thanks to this website and one that I check before I head out to try someplace new.

When Yelp first launched and gained popularity a good number of restaurants wrote to the reviewers threatening libel against their poor review.  Yelpers at the time were scared and immediately changed their review or deleted it all together until talk threads started saying that for most of the reviews an actual case couldn’t be made.

But still, I wonder… what constitutes libel, how far is to far when blogging?

Chapter 10 is interesting… definitely read that one if you haven’t yet.

Comments on free speech in the computer world

I just wanted to comment a little on the “Email and Free Speech” section in Chapter 10.  I’ve taken a media law class last semester and read many briefs on digital rights and laws that are still confusing trying to understand them.  But I actually understand how Intel would think somebody using their server to spam is transpassing because its passing information using a entity or body for that message to pass along.  The decision made by the Judge in this case was actually fair because there wasn’t any damage done to Intel at all.  I have read many computer hacking stories and most of them are only serious if it involved stealing private information or corrupting a computer with a virus.  But spamming is pretty much harmless unless its spyware spamming which is another story.  Anyways, reading this section made me remember my media law class where every week, we brief about three media cases and how it effected the laws today and since technology is moving towards the digital age, new digital laws are forming and changing for the better which is quite extraordinary considering the fact about 10 years back, we didn’t even think spamming was going to be something big.  Catch you guys later.

Shamefully late…We the Media, Part I

So, I’ll start at the beginning, and work my way up from shamefully late to just kind of late.

Dan Gillmor says “if we can raise a barn together, we can do journalism together. We already are.” I think Gillmor is absolutely right about journalism becming more of a cooperative process fueled by open lines of communication between the community and professional media. However, as someone who is trying to become a professional journalist, I find it naive of Gillmor to think that just because people have the platform to distribute their “community journalism” they have now become journalists.

The wide dissemination of infomation through applications like blogs, vlogs, and podcasts has forever changed traditional media. All one has to do is watch the evening “traditional” news, and you hear mentions of blogs and online content. This is great! What isn’t so great is when people confuse a blog for a reputable news source.

Just because someone writes about something, does not make it a piece of journalism. Reporters and writers study for years to acquire the tools of their trade. Ethical judgement, fact checking, and writing style are just some of the ways journalists are trained to tell the news. What we need to be wary of, as Web 2.0 users and creators, is confusing online editorializing, personal accounts, and ranting with journalism. Regardless of how many people are blogging or podcasting, there will always be a difference.

More “We The Media” blogging.

In chapter 8, “Next Steps”, Moore’s law is mentioned as being “the density of transistors on a given piece of silicon will double every 18 to 24 months.” Whenever I hear about this law, it is applied to technology as whole rather than just transistors. It usually holds true. That new computer I saw two years ago is now on sale for half the price. Even for me, a terabyte hard drive seems like overkill, but eventually the prices for it will go down while.

‘Okay, But Whose “Information” Do You Trust?’

I assume that anyone who wants to see the news would go to a major news site first. Even though anyone has the power to publish it should be fairly easy to tell what has a reliable reputation.

Trolls, Spin, and the Boundaries of Trust

Of course there are bad points to everyone being anonymous on the internet, people lie all the time. Trolls do it just for the thrill of annoying others and companies can do it to add more hype to whatever they are selling. Viral marketing, which is the use of social networking by companies to promote their products, seems to be all the rage now. I find it funny when a company is found out to be making “fan made” sites. Last year Sony got caught and was heavily criticized for doing so.

“Sony came under scrutiny online in December 2006 for a guerrilla marketing campaign hoping to go viral, for the console, with advertisers masquerading as young bloggers who desperately wanted a PSP. The site was registered to and created by youth marketing company Zipatoni on behalf of Sony before it was taken down. A mirror of the blog can be found here.^”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Portable

Similar to that, I remember a few months ago when someone released a method (or program…not sure what it was) that showed which IPs were editing certain Wikipedia pages. There were many stories of government offices editing pages. Another example is Exxon editing the article for the Valdez oil spill, changing it to say that there were no lasting damages to the environment.

I don’t have much to say about chapter 10, “Judges and Lawyers.” Free speech, trademarks and copyrights does not to change as much on the internet. Don’t get me started on the RIAA now…

Discussion November 27; The Long Tail

Discussion: The Long Tail

Important terms for this conversation:

• Disintermediation: “Cutting out the middleman.”
• The Long Tail: “Products that are in low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters.”

Topics of conversation:

• Amazon and the death of the corner bookstore
• iTunes and the death of the music store business
• Craigs List and the death of classified revenue.

Related Commercial Moment
“We have every movie ever made, in every language, any time, night or day,”
“Qwest – Bandwidth – Roy’s Motel Cafe (1999)”.

Places to Go, People to Know:

• The Long Tail Dot Com
• About The Long Tail
• The Long Tail Wired Story
• The Long Tail Book
• Chris Anderson: Wikipedia, Biography

Examples of Past Semester’s Work

Here are some examples of previous student’s work
Are you looking for inspiration? Here are some example’s of what some of last semester’s students did.

• Sarah Kyo’s Vlog
• Lesger Talavera Movie
• Mimi Sanouvong’s Vlog
• Devon Thames Audio Podcast
• Marti Malloy’s Vlog
• Mohamed Salih’s Vlog
• Liz Herrera’s Vlog

I hope you like them!

Reading Assignment

Finish the Book, We the Media
Also by December sixth please have finished the book and have your final posts done and be ready for a class discussion on that date.