iWeb - Hope this Helps You All

So this is it. My last blog post for the semester. We were supposed to do two blog posts a week and that is a total of thirty blog posts and this be my thirrr-tee-eth.


Thought maybe I'd close this partay out by giving some tips on Apple's iWeb program to those of you who are planning to start a news website (or any website for that manner). I know some of you already have web skills, but this is intended for those who don't.

iWeb is really cool because it is pretty much the only true WYSIWYG web-production program that is very intuitive. If you know how to use Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, or Adobe InDesign, then it's pretty easy to use iWeb to make websites.

By the way, WYSIWYG is computer lingo (pronounced "wizzy-wig") that stands for "What You See Is What You Get."

I recommend iWeb to all students I see at Annenberg who want to create a website and have no clue how to do HTML or Dreamweaver because the program is so easy. Even Dreamweaver is a pain to use if you're not a web expert. In case you didn't know, you automatically own iWeb if you're own a Mac user and if you bought it in 2006 or later.


Although I could have used a lot more sophisticated means to produce my web-based paper for a class (boy I sound pompous), I decided to do it in iWeb so I could educate myself about it as much as possible and really know what I'm talking about when I help students use it in the Annenberg Digital Lab. I've played with the program a lot before, but I wanted to actually create something for myself to see what roadblocks I'd hit, and then would know how to help students get around them.

It also allowed me to legitimately work on my paper at work because I was techinically doing software research. I love killing multiple birds with one stone. :)

So I got the stupid thing done on time, but I didn't bother to test it on multiple browsers because I was so eager to begin my weekend with my girlfriend. Unfortunately when we stopped by the Apple Store in Walnut Creek, I tested my online paper website on the computers there.

My paper looked F*&@D UP.

All the embedded YouTube videos, QuickTime movies, audio clips, and Comedy Central video clip players appeared ok, but they were misaligned and overlapping on top of the text. Goddammit.

I just finished fixing all the problems this morning before work. Yeah, it took me that long and I'm praying to the good Lord above that our esteemed professors David and Geoff don't consider my paper late because of this. Thankfully, now I know how to avoid this....

When creating a website in iWeb, be sure to do the following...

1. Don't cram too much stuff onto one page. I made the mistake of pasting my entire written paper onto one webpage and peppering the videos and stuff throughout. This is just too much crap for the a computer to handle when loading the page on the internet and probably causes problems when parsing all the YouTube videos and stuff into the page. It worked better for me to chunk up the paper into four separate webpages.

2. Break up your text boxes. In the case of my online paper, I originally had all the text in one giant text field and this apparently caused the layout of the page to goof up (hence all the videos and stuff appearing in the wrong place). My solution was to stop a text field where a video was supposed to appear and then begin a new text field to continue the written paper after the video.

3. Don't do the cool "reflection" effect on your images. I know, that template in iWeb with pictures that have the reflection on the bottom looks really cool, but that effect only works on the internet if you view the page on a Mac with the Safari web browser. So you're alienating all the PC users out there because when you look at the page in any other browser you get an ugly blank area where the reflection is supposed to be.

The funny thing is that a student that I recommended iWeb to didn't encounter these issues. She was creating a website for the Trojan Dance Force and she apparently managed to use the program more effectively than me (and I'm supposedly a web guy). Well sheeee-at.

Oh and BTW - it might be important that I was using iWeb '08 and they just released iWeb '09.

Good luck out there and it's been a pleasure.

Late.

A Modest Proposal 2009

I can't believe I'm going to write about this because it has to do with Octomom and the more we talk about her the more notoriety and attention she gets (and does not deserve, I believe).

But I'm watching KTLA news right now and saw yet another story about that crazy lady, just when we thought Swine Flu or the N1H1 virus of the piggy wiggy sicky or whatever the hell they're calling it now had wiped out all mention of Mommo Octo. I got a blog post idea.

Some lady is speaking out in protest of the Octomom getting her own reality TV show. I wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying but I'm pretty sure I agree with her. I was too distracted by the lower-third C.G. that listed her as "Accuses Octomom of Exploiting Babies."

Hmmmm. Exploiting Babies.

Anyone ever read "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift in 1729? I think Tom Sparks talked about it in our presentation on satire --- I'm not sure though I wasn't paying attention. Haha :)

Well from what I recall from High School Advanced Composition class, Swift wrote a hauntingly believable idea to help the economic problems of 18th Century Ireland by suggesting that everyone eat their own children. While he noted himself that he had no intention of executing this horrific plan, his essay did a frighteningly good job at proving that it would work.

Hence all the times you might see some people joke about "eating babies" as one of their hobbies listed on Facebook.

Now if Mr. Swift were alive today, maybe he'd have this suggestion for our society today to help our economy (or, for our purposes, the newspaper industry).

It would not be eating babies. It would be exploiting babies.

Newspapers who are struggling to make the shift to online publications would financially could exploit babies to help money. Newspapers could adopt a bunch of babies and put them all in a warehouse, swearing that they will take good care of them. Then, one of the TV networks dying for new reality TV show material would pay the newspapers to make a show about a newspaper organization

Think about it. It would take all these orphaned babies out of orphanages hands and then people who were anti-abortion could put their babies up for adoption by a newspaper company. Now if you're wondering, "Well only one newspaper company would benefit from one reality TV show." But then the answer is a competition reality show where all the newspaper companies show how well they can take care of the babies. It would be like American Idol. The weird thing is, people would TOTALLY watch it. If people are going to watch A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila they will definitely watch Be My Babies hosted by Dan Rather. Hey, it seems to working for Mommo Octo.

Oh my god, did I really just write all this? I think I need sleep.

Oh sweet Friends is on!

Letterman hates Twitter

I don't know if we're still supposed to be blogging or if David and Geoff will grade us down if we don't even though we're in the heat of presentation/take-home-quiz/paper/final-exam crunch time. But just in case they are, here's a tidbit for you who missed Letterman tearing Twitter a new one.



I guess I don't really hate Twitter as much as Letterman does (even though I said "F*)& Twitter" in a previous blog post, I was just being humorously snarky). But I would agree that I just don't see the point and do not want to spend the energy to let everyone know that I'm eating a smoked turkey sandwich (a la the Jimmy Kimmell clip we showed in our class presentation). Anytime I Tweet it's just a reiteration of how much I don't want to Tweet.

What I like about this clip is that Letterman believes that Twitter is the first step in the downfall of our civilization. I recall joking the same thing about Facebook in that the Facbebook servers know everything about everyone on the planet and could amass so much knowledge it will acheive consciousness of itself and take over the world as Skynet did in the Terminator franchise.

The big difference is that I don't hate Facebook. Not sure if that's good news or not.

The rant I told you about

Just in case anyone is curious to read the article I mentioned in class:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/08/who-the-hell-is-enrolling-in-journalism-school-right-now/

The PROOF

Here's the picture I told you about of me in front of the San Francisco chronicle. So now you know I was not lying. Ha.

Saving Newspapers - THE MUSICAL

This is pretty stupid, but if it puts you in a good mood, more power to it. Enjoy!

Dude, seriously...

I fell for another one. Seems that April Fools day is causing as much of a twitter craze as all bleeping politicians and journalists out there. If it weren't for the fact that this was a joke I would be tearing my hair out.



Saw this on KTLA this morning.

F#$k twitter.

The TWAPERS are coming

A newspaper in Asheville, North Carolina has seized all printing operations and now will use Twitter exclusively to put out the news, thereby becoming the nations first "Twaper."

I found this on the "E&P Pub," which is another feed from the "Editor & Publisher" website that we follow as a class.



After I saw this I thought about the future and how life will be with "twapering."

"So honey, have you seen the morning twaper this morning?" I would say.

"Yeah, there was a really funny cartoon in the twunnys," my wife would say.

"Aren't they called the funnys?"

"No, they are now called the "twunnys." You need to get with the twimes.

"Well where is the twaper?"

"It's on the twable under the tweacups."

This sounds like someone's idea of HELL to me. I don't want it to happen.

Then I re-read the entry and saw that the whole announcement was April Fool's joke.

Thank god.

Oh, so THAT'S Carl Nolte

Speaking of the San Francisco Chronicle (see previous blog post), I told my girlfriend's grandmother Joann about how Carl Nolte's writing bothered me and how I theorized that the Chronicle needs to axe bad writers to stay alive.

She responded with something like, "Oh I love Carl Nolte! He's been a landmark staple of the Chronicle forever and everyone loves him!"

Shame on me. As I predicted.

Such a quintessential example of the battle between the old and the new, or the old and the young. Us young folk just want to kill newspapers with our iPhones and bludger old timer newspaper columnists with our immature wit.

...and eat babies.

Anyway, I explained to Joann that I wasn't trying to be evil, it was just that his writing was too embellished and reminded me of Pepperidge Farm cookie packages (and I'm supposed to be losing weight, so that doesn't help me at all).

Joann responded with something like, "Yeah, he does write that way. But we love him."

Fine. He can stay.

How I Spent St. Patrick's Day - I swear

My St. Patrick's Day didn't involve as much debauchery as it has in the past, but I did do a lot of walking. My travels on foot in San Francisco on St. Paddy's day took me past none other than the building at 901 Mission Street. Can you guess what is at that address?

Yeah, it's the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle.

I swear I was not drunk (I only had a beer and a half by that point), but I thought it would be so cool to take a picture of myself in front of the Chronicle offices doing a Trojan victory sign and put it on my class blog. Consider it my way of pumping the hurting Chronicle full of Trojan spirit to help them through these tough times (take THAT Cal and Stanford!!!).

But, woe as me, I forgot to transfer the damned picture off my girlfriend's camera and her internet is down so she can't e-mail it to me.

But I swear the picture exists.

I don't have it here right now but I swear it exists.

I swear.

Am I swearing enough?

Then I thought it would be really funny to get drunk at the bar we were heading to and then bang on the door of the Chronicle offices and yell, "Hang in there guys!!!" But I actually wound up not drinking much more that night --- probably for the best because I'm sure it would have gotten me thrashed by the Chronicle's front desk security guard. He looked really big when I peaked in through the glass door.

I also thought it would be cool to do the same thing to the Las Vegas newspaper (whatever the Las Vegas newspaper is called) once I went to Las Vegas, but I forgot.

This compelling blog post is brought to you by lethargy.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship I want to see!

I think our esteemed professor David Westphal needs to duke it out. His opponent would be Sree Sreenivasan from Columbia University.

In class, David has said that lack of readership is not necessarily the reason why newspapers are dying, but rather the lack of advertising revenue from classifieds (i.e. Craigslist kills newspapers more than online news sources).

Well, KCBS 740 AM in San Francisco was talking about the Chronicle's troubles on Saturday. They interviewed this Sreenivasan guy from Columbia. He's the Dean of Student Affairs and Journalism Professor there.



Here's a link to the interview:

http://www.kcbs.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=3556800

To make a long story short, Sreenivasan says this to anyone blaming the demise of newspapers on Craigslist:

"That'd be like the train companies complaining that these new fangled things called airplanes came along and people stopped taking trains... I don't like it when people just blame Newmark (sp?) and Craiglist."

Woah! Those are fighting words! You gonna take that sittin down, David? Time to FIGHT!!!

This actually was just an excuse to paste David's head on a boxer's body. :)

Happy Early St. Patrick's Day!

So I guess I've been living under a rock for the past three years because I first saw this tonight...



Very relevant to my blog posting for this week because (1) it's a news report, (2) it's another example of Tom Sparks' theme of serious news being silly, and (3) IT'S ALMOST SPRING BREAK AND ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

I refuse to be depressed about the pending demise of newspapers (even the San Francisco Chronicle) because I am f&*^ing stoked about Spring Break and St. Patty's day. I'm goin to the Bay Area, Tahoe, and then back to LA for a bit to work, then to Vegas. What you all doin?

And don't say, "Nothing because newspapers are dying and the economy sucks and I have to save my money."

Get tanked for god's sake. PBR is cheap and good. :)

Thank you.

Who is Carl Nolte?

I need help from the class. Who is Carl Nolte?

I am from the San Francisco Bay Area and will always have a huge place in my heart for that wonderful city.

But I pretty much never read the SF Chronicle because my family never subscribed to it. I grew up 40 miles north of San Fran, but feel free to blame it's pending demise on us.

This Carl Nolte wrote the following about the North Beach district of San Fran:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/01/BADS166I36.DTL&hw=north+beach&sn=001&sc=1000


I decided to share it with my friends who live in North Beach because his writing reminds me of the over-embellished writing on the packages of Pepperidge Farm cookies (which we were laughing at hysterically). This is how the Facebook conversation went:

-------------
Billy: Looks like the Pepperidge Farm guy wrote something about your neighborhood in the SF Chronicle...

North Beach exemplifies S.F.'s dreams, history

Source: www.sfgate.com
A drizzly night on the edge of spring at the Caffe Trieste on upper Grant Avenue. Not many people inside: a man in a dark suit and tie, maybe a lawyer, sitting by himself, a tall young woman writing the ...

Jonathan Ogan: interesting article, doesnt really end up saying much though

Billy: Indeed. Just like the pepperidge farm boxes.
-----------

Are we going to hell for criticizing this Carl Nolte? Or is he a writer they may need to axe to save money?

Just wondering.


Oh, and if you're curious, here's a delicious sample of the writing on the Milano packages:

-------------------
You've chosen a classic. Simple. Elegant. The perfect balance of two exquisite cookies embracing a layer of luxuriously rich, dark chocolate. A true masterpiece.

There's a whole world of Pepperidge Farm cookie temptations out there - reward all your senses. Lacey-thin crsip mint Brussells, sweet strawberry Verona, Geneva, with chocolate and crunchy pecans... Try them all and expand your horizons!
-------------------

Two thoughts: This sounds like Nolte's writing. Also, it makes you hungry don't it?

Just to let you know...

From this point on, if David and Geoff don't mind, I will no longer post anything on this blog related to my group project/paper topic. I don't want to spoil any surprises!!!

Thank you. :)

WRKC in Cincinatti and the Current Economic Times

So this one came from Joel McHale's "The Soup" blog...

Just watch it. It needs no introduction...



I see what Tom Sparks means when he talks about the pressure for "serious" news media to take on the guide of more entertaining forms.

Personally, I think I'm part of the problem. I'd rather watch this then listen to All Things Considered.

Shame on me.

I is a smart graduate student

Sorry for the shameless self promotion but I'm just stoked for reading the following blog post on Poynter:

----------------------------
"Zorn suggest news orgs adopt the cable TV model"
Chicago Tribune | Blog Maverick

Columnist Eric Zorn says news organizations that generate significant original content should band together and and sell group subscription packages for unlimited access to their stories, photos, videos, archives and other offerings. "For, say, $10 a month, a subscriber would have a choice of, say, 50 participating local, regional and national newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations. Another $5 might buy an additional 50 outlets, and so on." || Mark Cuban: How cable and satellite can save the newspaper business.
---------------------------

Who suggested that in class last week? ME, baby, ME.

And check out the title of the actual article that the blog references...

Rescuing print journalism: Does Cable TV have the right idea?

It's a rhetorical question in the title! Whoohoo!

Ok shut up, Billy. Whaddya want, a f***ing parade?

Adam Carolla's last show AND FREE FM's last day is tomorrow

After hearing so much from our class relaying their fears about the pending demise of newspapers, it is now my turn to be sad. CBS has apparently pulled the plug on FREE FM (97.1 KLSX in Los Angeles) and therefore, starting next week, I won't be able to listen to Adam Carolla live on the radio in my car on the way to work.

Luckily he will still do a podcast.

Here is the link to his website if you want to check out his show and podcast.



I'm guessing that no one else in class really cares because I didn't get the feeling that anyone else listened to Adam but me, but today he spent a great deal talking about the future of radio and that is relevant to our class. If you have the time to check it out that's awesome. If not, here's some of my highlights...

1. The jist I got is that FREE FM's demise has been on the horizon for a while. According to my best friend Sebastian (he got me into the show and is more of a Daily Show junkie than I ever will be), this demise of FREE FM may or may not have to do with the current economic situation. Apparently the FREE FM affiliate in San Francisco went belly up after only being on the air for about a year.

2. A caller told Adam that Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (co-creators of the original The Office show in Britain) were on the radio. They then moved to doing a podcast that was free and but after building an audience, they started charging for it and made enough money that they don't have to work anymore. So, I guess it is possible that a business model for podcasting could be developed.

3. Adam's not sure what's going to happen, but he and his co-host Teresa think podcasting MIGHT be the way of the future for radio and that someday everyone will have internet in their cars so they can stream podcasts while driving. But, similar to the idea of newspapers going online, a business model has to be determined so that the people doing the podcasts will make money. No one is absolutely sure what that model will be. As for Adam, he's going to get it off the ground and see what happens. Luckily for Adam, he's rich and he has the freedom to experiment. However, he feels terrible for the hard-working radio guys at FREE FM that are now unemployed.

4. Teresa Strasser (Adam's co-host who reads the news headlines on the show everyday) says that the sound of human voices talking (or in my words, RADIO) will always be compelling to people. We always want something to listen to while working or driving in the car. How we get those voices in the future is the question.

Let's see what happens. Is the silly, ranting Adam Carolla correct? Will podcasting be the radio of the future?

Am I asking rhetorical questions again? I am ashamed of myself. :)

I'm really feeling that Broadcast TV and Radio will always exist. But the technological method that will bring the medium to us will probably be the internet. Again, let's see what happens.

Are rhetorical questions annoying?

One of my pet peeves when reading someone else's writing is the cliched use of rhetorical questions, especially when it's in news writing or blogs. I used to be in charge of developing course flyers for the Annenberg School (I actually started the buzz myself because I wanted my job to be more exciting when I first started here, then it was passed on to someone else {{{SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION}}}). Anyway, I wish I could have had a dollar for everytime a professor would give me a course description that had a long stream of rhetorical questions and then concluded with "This course will address those questions."

Maybe I'll find a good piece of journalism that would illustrate this further...

In any case, I got so sick of seeing rhetorical questions.

But then I read through my own blogs and noticed how many times I've used rhetorical questions. I must stop whining about them now. :)

Maybe it's the new circle of life for mainstream journalism

So here are some themes that keep coming up in class and our readings:

1. Mainstream media is on the decline.
2. "Alternative" or "freelance" media (e.g. bloggers) is on the rise
3. If mainstream media dies, then the bloggers will have nothing to write about because they rely on mainstream media for material.

Maybe we're seeing the start of a cyclical structure that may be a fact of Journalism for years and years. It would go like this:

(insert steps one through three from above right here)
4. Bloggers and other "alternative" media producers freak out that there is no mainstream media for them to write about. So, they go out and start doing serious reporting on their own.
5. "Alternative" media BECOMES "mainstream" media after they're operations become so huge. Advertising revenue and income starts pouring in because there's no one else to take it away from them.
6. Years or decades later, the NEW "mainstream media" goes on the decline.
7. New alternative media goes on the rise.

You get the idea.

And then Elton John writes a song about it. Oh wait, I guess he'd be dead by then.

Or I'm totally wrong or this has already been talked about and I should shut up.

2012?

So I'm reading my class readings like a good little boy, namely the paper by our esteemed Professor Louis(!) Cowan and this is the first passage that jumps out at me...

"When Arthur Sulzberger told the audience in Davos that he would not mourn the death of the New York Times print editions, he was offering an optimistic statement about the future of the Times as a profitable and authoritative source of news in a digital world. He is determined to make the Times the nation’s paper, the indispensable source of news for concerned citizens wherever they live." (Page 5)

It's just a breath of sweet fresh air for me to read an optimistic point of view of how the internet will change newspapers because we seem to always be talking about how the internet is going to destroy newspapers.

But then this passage came along...

"In five years or 2012, we expect 68% of revenue to come from core, 20% from online and 12% from niche. In operating cash flow, our goal in 2012 is 40% from core, 50% from online and 10% from niche. That would be a great business, one that investors would applaud.”" (Page 7)

Yeah, 2012. The next year that everyone is going to freak out about because it's another possible time that the world will end, according to the Mayan Calendar (or something like that).

Well sh**. So much for optimism in journalism in the digital age.

When did reporters become your high school counselor?

In my journey to find focus in my paper topic.... I believe I am going to do the following: If the media's role in democracy is to keep the government in check, then it is possible that it's the comedian's role to keep the MEDIA in check. I'm gonna start investigating this. Here is an example. This is the report on the Michael Phelps weed scandal featured on the Adam Carolla Show on February 6, 2009 (jump to 1:24)...




For those of you who don't want to listen to the whole thing, Adam basically asks "when did reporters become your high school counselor?" Is it really the role of the media to make sure celebrities stop smoking marijuana?

A pitch on spot.us

So I was looking at spot.us in preparation for tonight's speaker David and saw this...

---------
After Proposition K failed this November, sex workers in California have faced the fact that the voting majority still looks at sex work as a dirty job. That doesn't mean it's not a lucrative one though, even in tough economic times. While the recession may be bad for savings and morale, it's good for sex.

A recent study says the sale of sex toys and lingerie are up since the economy hit bottom. A report from The L.A. Times however claims that legal prostitutes in Nevada are facing harder times than ever. Which is it here in San Francisco? Is the recession good or bad for an industry that employs thousands of SF locals at jobs we often overlook? More here
---------

So I say I no longer worry about newspapers going out of work, I'm worried about the strip joints and prositutes that hang around the North Beach district of San Francisco (where my good buddies Ryan and Strat live).

Yes I'm joking. :)

It pays to actually do your class readings

I answered my own question from my previous blog entry "Keeping Obama in check?" I did it by being a good little boy and doing my weekly readings. In that entry I asked if the press is supposed to be expected to keep politicians in check, not simply objectively relay information to the public. The answer is "Yes."

Cool!

What could cause the death of the internet?

We're always talking about how the internet could destroy broadcast television as we know it. We talk even more about how newspapers will inevitably die because everyone gets their news from the internet. We then discuss how devastating this will be to a great number of people because people will lose jobs. Those who are news reporters can move on to become bloggers, but those that operate the presses will be out of work.

When this topic comes up in class discussions or academic forums, sometimes one will put forth the fact that the internet is just another step in the evolution of media and it's threats and benefits to society are the same type of threats and benefits that society have needed to address before.

When phonograph recording was invented, people thought that no one would buy sheet music or go to live music performances anymore, therefore the music industry as it existed would die.

When television was invented, the radio industry and film industry feared that no one would listen to the radio and no one would go to the "pictures" anymore.

In all of these cases, the industries that were in danger from these media innovations suffered drawbacks, but they survived in the end.

I wonder this, "What is going to come in the future that will put the internet in danger?" I'm gonna go to my dorky roots (I used to be a huge Sci-Fi nerd) to address this. Arthur C. Clarke, the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, wrote several sequels to that book (they definitely are not as well known as 2001, nor are they as good). In the final book of this series, 3001: The Final Odyssey, mankind all shaved their heads and wore metal helmets that allowed them to download and upload information directly to and from their brains. I could see that technology as a threat to the internet as we know it, but how long until that comes about?

I don't want it to happen in my lifetime, personally. I like hair. A lot.

Also, consider this: What if somehow the internet existed before Television or Radio or even newspapers? It could be possible that those inventions could have threatened the popularity of the internet back then if history were to work that way.

If you're getting the idea that I am teasing my class presentation tonight, you are correct... :)

DID you SAY those THINGS???!!!!

None of our blogs have talked about this so I'm gonna jump on it.

Did anyone see this? I don't watch The View but I heard the bites on The Adam Carolla Show during Teresa Strasser's news headlines.

Jump to 2:12 and see how many times Walters asks Illinois Governer Rod Blagojevich, "Did you say those things?" Also check out how many times Blago says, "out of context."



One of those montages I talked about last week would certainly be called for if this were to show up on The Daily Show (maybe it did, not sure).

Liz Cox Barret wrote an interesting blog for the Columbia Journalism Review on how Barbara Walters could have better handled this situation...

----------------------------------------------
Those words have been “taken out of context” seems to be Gov. Blagojevich’s go-to reply when asked by reporters about some of the things he’s said or stands accused of saying.

For example, on The View moments ago:

BARBARA WALTERS: You’ve compared yourself to Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi. Are you really seeing yourself as one of great martyrs of history?


BLAGOJEVICH: No. In fact, that was taken out of context.

When I mentioned Mandela, Gandhi and Dr. King it was in response to a question about how I felt after I was arrested and what my thoughts were. And I talked about, I thought first of my two daughters. I thought of my wife. And then I thought about some historic figures who have experienced similar experiences. Under no circumstances am I comparing myself to Dr. King or Mahatma Gahndhi or Nelson Mandela. I must say all three were great men who have been an inspiration to me and I think about men like that always but certainly during a difficult time like I’m facing now.

The governor provides the missing “context:” he was not comparing himself to these men, just comparing their “similar experiences.”

Another “out of context” moment:

WALTERS: Let’s get to the big question…You’ve denied trying to sell Pres. Obama’s senate seat but you’ve been wiretapped saying, “I’ve got this thing. It’s golden. I’m just not giving it up for nothing” a lot of expletives in the way…If that’s not selling a senate seat, what is?


BLAGOJEVICH: You have to understand these were private conversations taking place over a long period of time…These are snippets of conversation taken out of context…

WALTERS: But did you say these things?

BLAGOJEVICH: Well I think…. if you hear the whole story…under no circumstance was I trying to sell a senate seat…

WALTERS: Let me ask this one question. Did you say —in context, out of context, it’s on a wire tape — did you say those things… Here is your chance. No lawyers. You’re talking to the public. Please answer that part of it. Otherwise why are you wasting time on these programs?

BLAGOJEVICH: Again…

WALTERS: Did you say those things?

BLAGOJEVICH: Whatever the tapes are, they’re going to come out and they’ll speak for themselves. The tapes will show the whole story. They will take all the conversations in the proper context….

WALTERS: I guess what I’m trying to say without pushing you again is that you do not deny, although those sentences may be in context with others, you have not now denied that somewhere along the line you said those things. If that’s the case, I’ll move on.

BLAGOJEVICH: I can’t confirm or deny anything when I haven’t had a chance to hear the tapes…

What might be a better way to handle Blago’s “out of context” comeback (if, that is, you aren’t too busy fixating on getting him to admit to saying things that there are tapes of him, allegedly, saying)? How about, simply, the way ABC News’s Diane Sawyer did on Good Morning America earlier:

BLAGOJEVICH: …again, they took snippets of conversations completely out of context. Didn’t provide all the tapes that tell the whole story and when the whole story comes out you’ll see that the effort was to work to have a senator who can best represent Illinois and one that can help us create jobs and provide health care..


SAWYER: Help me with context. Help me with the context that explains I’ve got this thing, it’s bleeping golden. I’m just not giving it up for bleeping nothing..

BLAGOJEVICH: Again, I can’t go into the details of that case and I wish they would allow me at this impeachment trial to be able to bring the evidence to show exactly what those conversations were….

Isn’t that — what’s “the context” that could explain those “out-of-context” remarks? — the obvious follow-up question here? (Not that Blagojevich answered Sawyer. But at least she asked.)
--------------

I personally prefer Walters' reactions. They were hilarious and brightened my day, and it proved to me that you can find awesome tidbits about our media from listening to the Adam Carolla Show. Thank you Sebastian Grubaugh for turning me on to it because it's helping me with my blogging homework. :)

BTW - It's on 97.1 Free FM in the mornings, the same station that has Tom Lichus (much to Teresa Strasser's dismay).

Dude!!!

Ever seen the Terminator movies? I am convinced that Facebook is SKYNET and it will take over the world...

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.53d2fb293d708cf32571d6ab8f4b3208.211&show_article=1

Montages in news montages in news montages in news montages in news montages in news

This is a prominent blending of fantasy and reality today. Or, actually it's a blending of fake news and serious reporting.

Here's a tibit from The Colbert Report from last night, celebrating it's 500th show and the last day of George W. Bush's presidency. I want to draw your attention to the section with the montage of Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez saying the word "recall" (it's at about 2:20)....

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Tribute to the Bush Administration - Christine Ebersole

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

The same episode used a similar montage technique showing the "boiling frogs" motif in political coverage:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Boiling Frog Metaphor

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Actually, this is a VERY common visual humor technique used on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I do not know if this originated on The Daily Show, but it is where I first noticed it years ago. It's an easy way for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to make politicians and talking heads look like goons: simply show a montage of them saying the same word or phrase on multiple occasions and expose the ridiculous repetitiveness of their rhetoric (say that three times fast!). It also works to establish rediculousness in a word or phrase motif ITSELF by showing a montage of people saying it.

Now try THIS on for size...

Here's a package from a year ago by CNN's Jeanie Moos that opens with the SAME montage technique. Remember, this is CNN, NOT the Daily Show or Colbert Report...



As much as I love to watch these montages of sound bites because they are funny, I cannot help but consider that it's not a very fair for a credible news outlet like CNN to use. Of course someone is going to look like a goon if you count how many times they say a particular word or cliched phrase (I do it all the time when I'm listening to my instructors in class). You can make ANYONE look like an idiot if you string a bunch of clips of anytime someone said the word "house" or "car" or even the word "the." One of the ways Jessica Simpson was portrayed as a ditz in her old reality show "Newleyweds" was a montage of all her saying the word "cute" as she went shopping (I'm sure you're disappointed that I don't have video to back that up). Let me just say that my girlfriend says "cute" a lot as she shops for clothes and I don't consider her a ditz.

To reiterate my excitement of the Lost season premiere, look how this montage makes Lost look like a goon...

Keeping Obama "In Check?"

Gonna jump on the bandwagon and post a blog about the inauguration coverage. I actually haven't seen any evidence that this topic is the bandwagon of our class, but I'm sure it is. It definitely is the bandwagon of the media today (even Entertainment Tonight and KIIS-FM's JoJo on the Radio are constantly talking about it). Here's one for ya (if you haven't already thought of this...)

Romenesko featured a blog today showing that the LAT "pledge[s] to watch Obama, to hold him to his work, and to report back." Here's the blurb so you don't have to dig for it:

Barack Obama's victory "was welcome news to us, as it was for many millions of Americans," says the LAT editorial board. "But recent history supplies a sobering lesson in what happens when support for a president dulls the skepticism needed to ensure public accountability." || Jay Rosen: "What we should care about is not how many questions the press gets to ask at White House news conferences -- a hapless metric -- but how open to questions the Obama White House is in all the available ways."

I heard similar comments on CNN as the inauguration post-mortem coverage was playing in the background of my office in the Annenberg Digital Lab. I tried to find a clip on YouTube for y'all but I couldn't. Basically they said something like, "We'll definitely be keeping Obama IN CHECK during these next four years now that this inauguration is complete."

As I admitted in class last week, I don't know as much about the history of Journalism as others in our class, so I don't know if this is a dumb question. But, I wonder if the function of the press/media was always to keep our president "in check." Isn't the press simply supposed to keep the public informed and keep an air of objectivity? Seems to me that establishing yourself as an identity that scrutinizes for the purpose of a result does not count as objectivity.

That being said, I will be honest as I say this: I hope it doesn't make me a bad person, but I'm over the inauguration. It's time for me to look forward to the event that I was really most excited about... the season premiere of LOST tomorrow night! YEAH!!! Hopefully we'll be let out of class early so I can watch it at 9pm! :)

Cheers!

Why the Roosters?

If anyone is wondering why there is a slideshow of Roosters on the bottom of my blog... I actually have no idea. I think I slapped it in there when I was first testing out blogger for a bunch of students about a year ago. The rooster apparently is my zodiac birth year so maybe that has something to do with it (I'm not big on astrology).

Tips for My Classmates

If any of my fellow COMM 599 flunkies want a tip for how to manage all the blogging and following we need to in class, you guys should use the an iGoogle homepage (I use the Google Apps at USC one that we were provided by the University). Use Google Reader to subscribe to the RSS feeds of all the sites that we need to keep tabs on. Then, you can embed the Google Reader stuff into your iGoogle homepage amongst any CNN, Fox News, or other gadgets that you've put on your iGoogle homepage. You can even add blogger gadgets to it so you can post directly to your blogger blog from your homepage.

If anyone's found an even better way than this, I'd love to check it out!