The Missing Part, Long Overdue

For my class presentation at the beginning of the quarter, I presented about Hollywood Dropouts and their online show called "Villans the Series." The other production group I wanted to show was Wong Fu Productions.

I'll let this video clip do the talking, but the key points related to the course to pay attention to is the concept of the "long tail" and how the internet gives a whole new playing field/participatory culture.

Twitter as a News Source

Incorporating what we have discussed in the past week, I have decided to post about how Twitter now serves as a mainstream news feed for a lot of people. Any major new source has a twitter page and post daily tweets about the top stories of the day. This allows people to quickly search through headlines while doing their daily twitter browsing. The news source will either give a quick summary of the story on twitter and/or just link the post to their own site. This is definitely a new and efficient way of receiving and delivering news. It also allows users to customize who they are getting their news from. People can follow multiple topics/interest through twitter, and it is all delivered on one page with daily updates. Here is an article that shows the top 100 news feeds for twitter.

Final

Final Exam

DMST 2200

Choose 2 of the following essay 3 questions. Your answers should be 2-4 single-spaced pages each and should be written in essay form with a thesis, supporting paragraphs and a conclusion. Please make your answers interesting, well written and full of examples and references to the course readings that demonstrate that you have a nuanced view of what is going on in the digital media landscape. Also please write a short answer to the question about Free! Please email your completed exam PASTED INTO THE BODY OF AN EMAIL WITH YOU NAME ON THE TOP to me at adrienne.russell@du.edu by NOON Monday Nov. 23. If you don’t hear back from me by 1pm send it again. There will be no late exams excepted.

1. Digital tools and networks provide opportunities for amateur cultural production and distribution, for politicians and corporations to have more direct contact with the public, and for them to leverage the public in generating content and support. And some say power dynamics are changing among corporations, politicians, experts, professional and everyday people. Please write an essay discussing the implications of new media tools (and values) and these changing power dynamics in the last presidential campaign, using specific examples of how new media is being used in the campaigns by politicians and their supporters to illustrate your argument. Extra credit if you reference and discuss the 3 ways described by Joe Trippi, on the Web 2.0 panel, that digital networks helped the Obama campaign.

2. Please watch this video “an open letter to all the Rosie O’Donnells” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJCkHu3trKc and read and watch the material related to it. Write an essay about convergent culture, using this as an example to first illustrate and second challenge and/or support the notion of convergent culture as a frame through which to view the contemporary media environment. Include in your essay a discussion of the intersection of commercial and do-it-yourself media products.

3. The scholars and journalists we have read, watched and discussed in this course have presented various views of the future of digital media (and therefore of our future in general). Discuss some of these different views, their strengths and weaknesses, and finally your own informed opinion about the future of digital media and how it is changing how we socialize, produce and exchange culture and become informed about the world around us. Please specifically address the ideas of the personal panopticon, collective intelligence, the long tail, convergence, social networking and Free! in your answer.

Everyone please answer this question about Free!

Why are so many things becoming free? Please provide examples of the various ways companies make money by giving things away?

Questions We Wanted to Answer

Is digital media changing our capacity to remember things, listen, focus...
ie how is it changing the way we think?

How will the internet evolve?

What does digital media do to notions of copyright ownership and appropriation.

How do we know what is true?

Is the human race collectively becoming an ultimate being?

How is new media changing our relations to one another?

Is it good or bad?

Does the internet propel globalization? If so how?

Future Internet

I've noticed a lot lately the internet shifting to inform the public of the proposed future of the internet. First the Bing commercials on TV seem to promote the "decision engines" especially designed for easier and simpler web searches. However I personally do not see the difference between this new search engine and any of the others available on the internet. Although the commercials promise simplicity and less clutter. And then there are the new Yahoo commercials which center around the idea of the new yahoo being all about "you." I find these commercials interesting because now the internet is at the stage where it is fully accepting and promoting the idea of personalization and collective intelligence. I feel that until now the phenomenon with web 2.0 and collective intelligence was known by only those that actually participated in it and now there is large promotion and spreading of it. It is all exciting and promising for the future of the internet.

News/Iphone

As I was brainstorming more alternative sources of news, I thought of something that was right in front of my face, and that is my iphone. On my iphone, I have downloaded applications that allow me to get notifications from news sources as text messages so I am able to keep up to date with the news. Then, that made me think of the DU account. I cannot remember the name, but i'm sure we all get those text messages of news on campus like when school is cancelled or something has happened. This again is another source of alternative news the school uses to get important things out to the students. All of this shows the convergence of media, that I am able to get alerts through text messages from news websites about important updates in the world.

List of 50 Social News Websites

As I am not an avid user of reading alternative news websites, like shelby said, everyone took any that I did know of. So instead here is a list of 50 social news websites. A lot of them are ones that we have already talked about in class like digg. Online grants people all types of news stories for their desire. One that no one really mentioned is Perezhilton.com . Even though it is mainly a celebrity news website, he does always add important news information that is going on. I every so often find a story that is really intriguing or interesting that I do not even find on a regular news site.

The Resident- alternative news website

So you all took the best alternative news outlet examples. I was therefore left to do some google searching for other alternative media outlets. It took a while but I found this blog-like website run by a girl who is viciously against corporate mainstream media biases. Basically she makes all the videos about current issues we already know about as well as smaller, unique stories that are worthy of attention but are not noticed by the major networks. I encourage you all to check it out!

for Wednesday

and PS in case you missed the announcement, the final will be take home. I'll post it here on Wednesday and you will have until Monday 11/23 at noon to complete it.

Wednesday Nov 18 | future of the social web

1. Cascio, Jamais. "WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: The Rise of the Participatory Panopticon." 4 May 2005.

2. Anderson, Chris. “Free.” Wired.

Goofy News Reporters

After Youtubing around for all too long, and forgetting my initial intentions (being to find something for this post), I stumbled upon THIS video. I do not really have a great way to link this to our class discussions, except for the fact that they are news reporters, which relates to journalism. This video was way too humorous for me not to share with my fellow classmates, so I dedicated my last post to it. I think it shows that even serious news reporters have a goofy and non so serious side as well.

Enjoy!

News and The Onion

I just thought since we were talking about news this past week that I would bring up The Onion. Sort of the opposite of what every other site, paper, article, etc are doing out there. The Onion, I believe to be the funniest news source out there, has created a satirical side to news. The Onion, being fake, still gives insight to some of the problems that occur and some of the newest inventions/technologies out there. Instead of dwelling on boring old news, it was genius to create a paper such as The Onion to liven people's spirits up.

Alternative news source

A lot of blogs out there act the same as news sources, simply giving you all the information you need on certain topics. In the last year or so I've gone to the DU hockey blog, LetsGoDU, run by alumni and students. Instead of going to all different news sources to get the information after games each week, I visit their site and they compile all the statistics, game recaps and videos.

I think that blogs that have all the information are interesting to compare the different ways the same events are covered. It's great to see what each outlet does with the same information. Whether it's a blog post, a video, an actual article or a feature it shows all the different facets.

Available News

News in today’s society is extremely broad. The variety of news available today is insane. People can find: health news, entertainment news, weird news, celebrity news, science news, local news, nation news, religion news, educational news, political news, and so much more. Because we live in the era of information, people only have to Google a subject to find pages upon pages of articles about that subject.

~ Tisha B.

Canada Big Box Market: A Cheap Scheme

Keeping with the theme of big business of my last post, I found this funny video on youtube about a company called Big Box Market , which heavily resembles Wal-Mart. In correlation to class, this video exposes how big companies are taking the cheapest and easiest way out, uncaring how it affects their customers, similar to the McDonalds proposal the Movie described in class on Wednesday. Although the McDonald scheme was fake, it was based off of an idea that big companies really don’t care about their customers. They only care that you buy their products and that the cost of producing their products are the cheapest possible. Here’s the clip, enjoy!



~ Tisha B.

Walmartopia: A Musical on a Mission

As I was browsing through the internet I came across this interesting clip from a musical called Walmartopia: A Musical On A Mission. In correlation to a movie we watched on Wednesday, this movie exposes certain negative aspects – such as the working conditions – Wal-Mart employees suffers by using satire and humor. The story is about a working mother who speaks out against Wal-Mart and finds herself in a futuristic world where Wal-Mart rules the world. I enjoyed the actual musical, but here is a little clip of it…kind of like a trailer:



~ Tisha B.


Go Here to Walmartopia.com

Google News

One sight i believe many people would use to get their news would be Google News. Mainly because most people use google and everything it has to offer, why not use google news? It is up to date and has the latest braking stories. But what i noticed about this website was the layout of the page. Reflecting back to the presentation on Archives and the entertainment we all enjoyed when the class was looking up past sites, i feel that googles news page is not a lavish as other news sources like CNN and Fox News. It is still a really organized site, but little pops out. This site is not years behind like the white house's page was originally but only like a year behind! Still the sources are good and so is the content.

So being that I really don't get much of my news via the web I really had to do a bit of searching for alternative forms of news. I am really amazed at how many avenues are available for the average person to obtain their news. The amount of variety in the news is also quite staggering. There is hardcore news like www.CNN.com, local news like www.9news.com, political news such as www.FOXnews.com, humorous news like www.funnymos.com, parody news such as www.thespoof.com, and the list goes on and on. This many options certainly offer people a much wider choice. The masses are no longer stuck with accepting only what the major networks offer. People can actually get news from other people who have the same view as they do. Communities can be built on these similar opinions. So no matter what your opinions are there is something for everyone. Ofcourse the best part of news online is you can always find footage of newscasters making really funny bloopers!!!

News Flash!

So this week we are talking about news/journalism, an interesting way to get news is through Twitter. One can subscribe to any person or figure/organization to get the latest news of their interest.

Usually short blurbs gives the reader an idea of what the news piece might be, and a link is provided so that they can check out the latest news. There are many major corporations and news networks, or even just news-based organizations are using Twitter as a way to communicate with their audience. For example, CNN has several Twitter accounts for various kinds of news: breaking news, newsroom, news report, and so on.

You can find them all here.

Is No More Fake News, News?

No More Fake News is a alternative news website started by Jon Rappoport who was a freelance reporter for 20 years. Since 2000 Jon has been writing news articles of big stories in the news and breaking stories for the website as sort of a citizen journalist. He uses the site also to promote other services he offers such as soul reading, business consultation, and imagination work. My question is would you consider this a news site that is creditable and would you even consider ever going to the website to get news?

Getting the Audience Involved

For this week's blog I thought about how we were discussing in class the shift from viewing to interacting in news. I think this is a very progressive idea in which the media should act upon and take up. With the increase in connectivity in today's world there is a much better possibility of hearing and seeing news from all around the world. Not only will one be able to see news from everywhere but this will also allow for different viewpoints to be heard. I believe the more you get a population involved in news reporting the less bias there will be or at least there will be arguments from every side of the story.
There is already a culture of self reporting that has begun and an example of this is CNN's iReport. Most people have already heard of iReport either through watching CNN or going on there website. But it's really great to see how CNN has incorporated this feature into their daily news. Often you will see iReports on their main page along with short videos played during their actual air time. I hope to see more of this kind of reporting incorporated in media as we continue to advance or technology. Eventually everyone will be able to gather their ideas in the melting pot of news, which I can only hope for instead hearing corporate fed bull.

Learning Curve

In the past week or two, my friends and I have delved into many technology services that would increase our efficiency in productive collaborations and projects. We all learned and exchanged our knowledge on Google Document, Gmail, Gtalk, tokbox.com, Skype, and Wordpress.

Looking back, learning the in's and out's of all those services and utilizing them (after experimenting with many alternatives and combos as well), was quite a task. It took some time, but it's amazing how much technology can affect our lives.

Documents can be changed on the fly while chatting with your collaborators in live time. Groups can do video conferencing with more than just two people at a time, making officer meetings a breeze. You could even do your homework and laundry in the middle of it too!