Citizen journlaists

About "We Media"

"We are at the beginning of a Golden Age of journalism — but it is not journalism as we have known it. Media futurists have predicted that by 2021, "citizens will produce 50 percent of the news peer-to-peer." However, mainstream news media have yet to meaningfully adopt or experiment with these new forms.

Historically, journalists have been charged with informing the democracy. But their future will depend not on only how well they inform but how well they encourage and enable conversations with citizens. That is the challenge."

It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside to hear from my peers how much faith they put into today’s journalism.
I believe journalism's honorable purpose 'to serve society' was lost long before 1996 when Clinton passed the Telecommunications Act. Instead of delivering on its promise of more competition, more diversity, lower prices, more jobs and a booming economy, the act failed to serve the public. We've experienced more media concentration than ever before, higher prices and less diversity. Because journalism is just another industry interested in profit, non-paid ‘volunteer’ staffs are a dream come true.
I think the infiltration of volunteers is better than media run or censored by the government. Business has forced journalists to lose touch with their mass audience, and a few citizen journalists may bring us back around.
As for credibility, I think journalism creates just as much of the world as it reflects. News is incredibly powerful because it dictates what people value, but it is also helpless without people to dictate it. If people choose to continue down the path of citizen journalism, values may change. But considering the nature of people, I don’t really think these volunteers will be plentiful enough or last long enough to make a huge impact either way.
Here's more on We Media.

Print vs. Web

I felt this question posted on our class blog pertained to media literacy:

"Many feel the newspapers and their Web sites each have a role to play and should complement each other. Explain what types of information or use-of-news practices you think are best provided in a print product, and/or what types are best provided by the Web. Why?"

After reading other comments, its apparent the class thinks longer articles should be printed in the newspaper and shorter articles should be posted on-line. Many journalists appreciate the tangibleness of newspapers. Realistically, this view seems more nostalgic than practical to me. Technology is making on-line news easily accessible and available to whole new audiences. Web reporting also allows unlimited space. It makes sense to provide detailed articles on-line as well as shorter, immediate hard news stories. The Web also provides opportunities for pictures, videos, links, related articles, blogs, community boards and other Web 2.0 applications. Printed newspapers will always hold a special place in journalists' hearts (and framed on their office walls), but for the rest of the world, newspapers will be more useful lining bird cages.

radio literacy

Radio is a topic that has many more media literacy activists backing it, like the Prometheus Radio Project, a non-profit organization founded by a small group of radio activists in 1998.
"We believe that a free, diverse, and democratic media is critical to the political and cultural health of our nation, yet we see unprecedented levels of consolidation, homogenization, and restriction in the media landscape. We work toward a future characterized by easy access to media outlets and a broad, exciting selection of cultural and informative media resources."
Learn about low power radio, media ownership, spectrum reform and full power radio.
Localized: (from http://www.nmmlp.org/)

"Andrea Quijada, Director of Educational Programs for NMMLP, joined 50 activists from across the country in Washington, DC February 25-26, 2008 to lobby for Low Power FM radio. The gathering was organized by Philadelphia-based Prometheus Radio Project to support the Low Power Community Radio Act of 2007. This piece of legislation would re-instill power to the FCC to provide licenses for LPFM radio stations in urban areas.
The FCC's power was blocked by an act of Congress in 2000, which requested that a study be done to ensure that LPFM radio stations did not cause interference with full power stations. The $2.2 million study was completed in 2003, revealing that no interference is caused by LPFM stations. Andrea, along with Colleen Gorman and Autumn Chacon from Quote-Unquote Channel 27 in Albuquerque, met with the offices of Congressman Tom Udall, Representative Heather Wilson, Senator Pete Domenici, and Senator Jeff Bingaman."

Spoof Ads

Spoof ads are not only hilarious, they usually hit home too. I thought this one was appropriate, considering the fight against Channel One being mandatory in public schools.

Adbusters is the king of spoof ads. Adbusters is a large grass-roots organization fighting against consumerism and capitalism. The organization was created because of a dispute about air time and old-growth forests in Canada. Now Adbusters sponsors everything from Buy Nothing Day to Turn off your TV Week. Browse their home site, you'll probably learn something new!

Why media literacy?

From the time we wake up, we're being hammed by mass media: morning radio, billboards on the way to work, ads on buses, the logo on your lunch, on your shoes, our underwear -we can't escape.

Here are some disconcerting realities:

98% of U.S. homes have a TV
60% of teenagers have a TV in their room
Children spend more time in front of video screens than in the classroom

“We are, all of us, awash in media. Television. Movies. The Internet. Billboards. Newspapers. Magazines. Radio. Newsletters. Individually and collectively, we spend more time with more media than ever before — an average of 10.5 hours a day, about 25% of that time using two media simultaneously, according to a recent study of “Middletown, USA” by the University of South Carolina.”

Read the entire article A Plea for Media Literacy in our Nation's Schools by David Shaw.

Good-bye Tribune

It's been a long tragedy watching the Tribune play out it's last few months in Albuquerque. Many have added their voice to the general lament of losing a great news source and close friend to our dear city.
Having the editor of the paper as a teacher in my journalism class has been another experience altogether. He seems torn between years of real world experience and the dawning of a new era of journalism. Yet his determination to teach a our class how to do a good job with dignity is inspiring for the future of journalists. A classmate of mine, Stephanie Kitts wrote an article about the Tribune. Here the story from the source in Phill's good-bye column.