Your fellow bloggers

Just to recap a few interesting posts on some of your blogs. Heather wrote up a nice one on her Style Stalker blog about the recent annual fashion show over at The Cambridge Artists' Cooperative Craft Gallery. She also loaded up some original pics, which is great. Shari, who is writing about reality TV, was able to rub shoulders with three reality TV personalities at the recent collegefest - with the photo to prove it. Jillian, who is blogging about health and fitness, writes about an upcoming PBS special on the Boston Marathon and includes a dramatic pic from her photo archives. Jewell writes about the Colorado State University college newspaper free speech issue with their F--- Bush headline on her higher education blog. And Matt. D. turned 21 and you can read all about here. Happy Birthday!

Chronic commenters

The New York Times had a piece today about how some people are making names for themselves just by commenting on other people's blogs - a few don't even have their own blogs, they just spout off on others (many, many times).

Blogs I read

Once in a while I'll write a post about a blog I check out on a regular or infrequent basis. Usually I'll try to cover one that is not one of the work/school related ones I check out. Today, it's Petite Anglaise. The last time I was in Paris was two New Year's Eve ago and I came back all enthused about all things Paris - dreams of moving there, planning another longer trip, ordering cafe au laits in my Dorchester coffee shop, etc. Needless to say the closest I'm getting to any of that is reading blogs of people who do live there - some are Americans and some are French. This blog is a British woman living in Paris and an example of a real personal blog - with photos, daily accounts. I like reading blog of people living other places - there are a ton of them out there and some give some real insight of daily life in places around the world.

Blogs are bad ... no they're not

The Globe ran an op-ed by local author Steve Almond about why blogs aren't right for newspaper Websites and for the news in general. I disagree with most of what he writes, although I do agree that many newspapers just added blogs to their Websites in a desperate "we can do this too" approach and many of them aren't that great. However, some reporters are writing great blogs that greatly expand their beats and establish a smart and intelligent rapport with their readers. One that I particularly like is Cathy Horn of the New York Times who covers fashion - her blog, On The Runway, gives a behind the scenes look at what she does, the business, the people - stuff that would never get in her printed pieces.

Welcome Fall 2007

So the Fall 2007 semester has kicked off and this year's online journalism students are setting up their blogs. I'm starting to add the links over to the right under Student Blogs. A few students from prior classes have still kept their blogs going in a one form or another and they are listed below in the former student category.

Boston music blogs

Yesterday's Sunday Globe had an article on local music blogs. One is Bradley's Almanac bradleysalmanac.com - which is 7 years old and posts recordings of live local shows. Another one is Band in Boston bandinbostonpodcast.com - which has podcasts. There are a few more local blogs profiled in the piece.

Who's afraid of the big bad blog?

Adam has a post on Dan Shaughnessy's (Globe sports columnist) column from yesterday, which was a mock on Curt Schilling's personal blog - basically Shaughnessy was making fun of Schilling's blog and the fans who post to it and basically just the whole concept of a sports star communicating with the fans. I think it was suppose to be funny, but it wasn't. And I felt it barely concealed "old media" angst about blogs. Read it for yourself and judge.

Blog highlights

On the blogging front, Adam has making good use of You Tube on Every Game is a Superbowl, Dinah writes about her audition on the reality show "So You Think You Can Dance" Rose has posted some pics from Puerto Rico, and from Em's blog I found out that Vanilla Ice (ugh!) is actually performing in Copley Square tomorrow to promote Dunkin Donuts! (free iced coffee on Wed. if you can bear to stand in the line at Schillman Hall)

Speaking of copyright

... which we talked about last class, Viacom is now suing You Tube for "massive copyright infringment" - mainly for all the clips of Viacom shows like the Daily Show, which are available on You Tube. This is the first major legal challenge to Google and portends to be a big clash between old media and new media.

Blog assignment

Blog your break. So I want everyone to write a "what I did over my break post." If you have some photos - this would be a great place to post one or two. Please write the post by Friday the 16th. So here's mine:

My break was spent in the library for the most part - I'm trying to finish two papers for conference deadlines. I've put the book to the side for a few weeks while I work on that. But I also got away for two nights to NYC. I didn't bring any work/computer, etc. It was great. Stayed at Bryant Park Hotel in midtown. Usually we stay in Tribeca, but decided to be different this trip. Went to MOMA on Friday night - it's free during that time. Saw an exhibit of Jeff Wall's photography and also checked out a few of the stand-bys - Picasso, Van Gogh, etc. But it started to get really crowded. Here's one of the Jeff Wall pics that I liked here. That night we headed down to the lower East Side to hang out - went to the Backroom and also ate at this great tiny Asian tapas place called Kuma Inn - I highly rec. it. The next day was lots of walking and a visit to the Neue Gallerie - mainly because I wanted to see this recent acquisition of a Gustav Klimt. We saw it, but most of the museum was closed because they are setting up for a new exhibit - but it meant free admission! Long walk through Central Park. That night we headed over to Brooklyn for dinner at Superfine - we'be been there a few times, because every year we come down to see the Wooster Group - a theater group that performs at St. Anne's Warehouse in this part of Brooklyn. After dinner we went to see them perform a very different "Hamlet"- they incorporate a lot of multimedia - usually video into their performaces. It was long - almost three hours! - but excellent. The next day we head to back to pick up Zoe at my parents and celebrate my brother's birthday. All around great little respite! Now back to work!

Blog highlights

Just some highlights from your blogs - although most people slowed down on the blogging over the spring break, there were still a few people busy out there. Glenn is actually blogging on Boston.com this week as his band Cassavettes tours in Texas. Click on that link to help drive up the traffic to his blog, because news Websites track that stuff! On Boston Heath and Fitness, Ami had an interesting post of a new energy drink that was actually called 'Cocaine' - talk about extreme branding - the name has caused the drink to pulled off the shelves of some convenience stores. Adam weighs in on the recent suspension of long-time Globe sports columnist Ron Borges for plagarism. Jeff weighs in on the death of Captain America - for all you comic book fans. Welcome back!

Copyright

Here are some links we are going to be talking about in class.
10 Big Myths About Copyright Explainedhttp://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
Creative Commonshttp://creativecommons.org/
There was news last week about the Recording Industry Assocation of America (RIAA) targeting college students (once again) who are downloading music.

More audio slide show examples

Here is a New York Times example, "Climb Like a Girl" where there are multiple people interviewed.

Here is one where the reporter does the narration - it's on high-end Indian restaurants in London.

Audio Slide Show examples

Here is a simple one from the New York Times. Notice the audio quality isn't great (most of ours won't sound perfect either). The subject of this slide show is the only one narrating. You can choose this approach or I will also post an example where the reporter's voice in in the narration also. The piece only runs about 1 1/2 minutes. There are simple captions under the photos. Notice how one of the photos includes the sign of the dog business. There was a story about finding your dream career that was related to this slide show. I'll be posting other examples soon. If you come across any you would like to share - please let me know!

Newspapers and video

New York Magazine columnist Kurt Anderson had a piece on how some newspapers are embracing streaming video over their Websites - some, like the New York Times, experimenting - with some that work and some not so much. Take note of how magazine giant " Time Inc. just announced a new “studio” to develop Web video." Lots of future jobs in this area!

Blogs, blogs, blogs

I've noticed the mention of blogs more and more in the stories linked from Romensko's media blog -- what at first was not considered journalism or worthy of attention, blogging is now getting a lot of chatter in media circles. One of the stories linked today from the site is about how 45% of NYU undergrads read blogs - mostly of the entertainment/gossip genre.

P.S. - I've mentioned Romensko's site in class - it's worth following if this is the business you want to get into - it's filled with stories about what is happening in the industry - gossip, news, etc.

Blog your debt away

The New York Times has a piece yesterday on people who blog about their debt - how much they have, how they are trying to pay it off, etc.

No more wikipedia

UVM has said that students can not use Wikipedia as a cited source for papers. They're not banning it completely - because as we talked about in class, some of the wikipedia entries footnote credible sources, which you can seek out on your own and possibly use in your work.

Promoting your blog

Where is everybody? It can be a bit discouraging, when you are writing post after post on your blog, but don’t see anyone commenting on your prolific witty and knowledgeable writings. There are many blogs out there that got off to an enthusiastic start, but slowly fizzled because the writer wasn’t sure if anyone was reading and gives up. The best course is to just to keep plugging away. Write and write and write. It is good discipline and you will grow as a writer, even if no one, but your best friends or parents, are reading you. If you feel you are starting to find a voice, and you are writing regularly, you might want to think about getting your blog “out there” a bit more. There are a few ways to plug in to the blogosphere. One is to link to other blogs on your site and then read them on a regular basis. When you click on the link from your blog into theirs, they may notice you if they are following their referrer links (some blogging programs allow bloggers to see how much traffic they have and where it is coming from). Some of these blogs, may in turn, put up a link back to you, driving their readers over to your site for a visit. To be more involved, start commenting on these other blogs to join the conversation. To find other blogs in your topic area, see below **

Another option is Google. Share your url address with Google and they may add it to their vast index. This means when people type in certain words during a search, your blog may turn up as one of the links. Go to this page to learn more about this: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl. You can also submit your blog address to Blogwise – here is their page on how do to it.

But the purpose of our assignment is not to become the most popular blog or build high traffic. The point is to be "out there" with your voice, improve your writing, and possible connect or tap into a community that exists in the blogosphere. Good luck!
** Finding other blogs. There are a few blog directory/search engines out there. Google has one, there is Blogwise, and Tecnhnorati

All of me - online

There is an interesting piece in New York Magazine this week about how the "younger" generation are comfortable exposing their personal lives -via words, photos, video on the Internet. I thought this was going to be another story with a "young people post risque pics on the Internet" angle - and there is some of that, but it goes deeper into privacy issues, generational shifts in communcation tools, approaches. Please take the time to read this week and I would love to hear what everyone thinks of the piece. While I'm more cautious about how much information some people are putting out there - I do love how creative some of these kids/young adults are. And I don't think that all of them who are claiming they won't have any regrets when they're "older" may necessarily feel that way 10, 15 years from now - but who knows?