We could do this. When I came back from Newsplex, I tried to get my dept. excited about this, but it was still a bit too new for them. Now that Medill has done it, maybe we can. PCWorld.com - Blogging on the Run in Boston

Blogs and blogging.Cybertourists in Boston | Perspectives | CNET News.com

Blogs and blogging. So, the media frenzy has led to "blogsploitation." OJR article: Blogsploitation: Big Media Try to Steal Bloggers' Thunder at DNC

Blogs and blogging. "PHILADELPHIA, July 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Christopher M. Rabb, founder/publisher of Afro-Netizen(TM), is the only Black readership 'blogger' accredited in the inaugural corps of 35 independent 'bloggers,' given coveted press credentials for the 2004 Democratic National Committee Convention in Boston." PR Newswire para Periodistas :: Todo Comunicados de prensa

Blogs and Blogging. This looks at some of the reasons why blogs are catching on as journalism. They are journalism, of course, though they are not the only form of journalism. Big Media blots out local news, and blogs are rich with detail and set at a human scale.

"What they're all skirting around saying is that Big Media are no longer satisfying the regional needs of the politically active community. With newspapers losing ground to television, people who want to know what's happening must absorb it the way TV news presents it: As a national story, with pundits from the national stage analyzing the events."

Read the whole thing.

Too cool department. As a child of the 50s I love drive-ins. Guerilla drive-ins sound like a great way to while away a warm summer night. The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > Now Playing, a Digital Brigadoon

Blogs and blogging. Bloggers as the news...Wired News: Stars of Convention: Bloggers

Internet as news channel. PR Newswire para Periodistas :: Todo Comunicados de prensa: "BOSTON, July 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Since the opening gavel of the 2004 Democratic National Convention on Monday afternoon, the official Convention website has received more than 16.5 million hits from visitors across the globe.

Patriot Act Here is more on the FBI use of the Patriot Act against a fan website that was accused of copyright infringement. The Canadian views on privacy and copyright are interesting. Vive le Canada - FBI uses US Patriot Act against alleged "copyright infringer"

Patriot Act This is a strange snippet about the MPAA urging the FBI to use the Patriot Act against a fan site. Disturbing is a good word for it...Stargate Information Archive - Federal Charges Filed Against SG-1 Archive: "And perhaps most disturbing of all, it was later revealed that the FBI invoked a provision of the USA Patriot Act to obtain financial records from his ISP."

Blogs and blogging. Bordering on becoming the most overcovered story, the Democratic Convention credentialed bloggers are providing important information. Even old-school reporter Walter Mears admits that "no one can be totally objective." USATODAY.com - Blogs, journalism: Different factions of the write wing

Collectives. I have ordered my pair, have you? The anti-corporate statement you can wear proudly. Sneakers made without sweatshop labor...BLACKSPOT SNEAKER: BLACKSPOT THE WORLD

Found while looking for something else. Quality_Project_Menu_Bar

Blogs and Blogging the Dem convention, continued. Here Steve Outing reminds us that journalists are blogging the convention, too. He provides a handy list of links to lots of traditional journalism outlets that are including bloggers.Poynter Online - E-Media Tidbits

Blogging the Dem Convention Here are sites to keep current with the Democratic Convention. This includes the official bloggers admitted with credentials, as well as Delegates blogging. It isn't happening on TV or radio the way it is on the web this year. Maybe that makes more sense when an event is multithreaded and consists of hundreds of impressions that go beyond who is on the podium.

• DNC 2004 Weblogs: News Aggregator
• Feedster political links
• Technorati blog feeds from convention

Photo manipulation. Pretty interesting exploration of ways to analyze the pixels in .gifs to detect fake images, and a proposal for a camera that takes a picture of the photographer's eye and embeds info in the picture. Later, looking at the 'eye' can reveal if someone has altered the image. The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > What's Next: For Doctored Photos, a New Flavor of Digital Truth Serum

Why I don't respect TV news....but I do like Jon Stewart and the Daily Show. UNDERNEWS: TALKING POINTS

Blogs and Blogging.With bloggers becoming part of the mainstream coverage of the Conventions, we won't be asking "if" they are journalism, but "how to" use them....Just allow me a tiny "told you so" to my iconclast colleagues.Wired News: Blogging Against Convention

Follow the money. Not only in politics is that a solid dictum. Reporters and journalists are buffeted by any winds that blow in advertising, and P & Gs decisions regarding where marketing and where advertising agencies come into their sales process is a bellwether of change. Significant shifting of ad money from magazines to Internet, for example, will just speed the push to retire pulp in favor of electrons.
The way that broadcasting is structured around programming segments that are interrupted by commercials may go the way of the buggy whip, as product placement (would that it will be tasteful and unobtrusive) and sponsorship gain a foothold.
As one old enough to remember radio hours and television playhouses that were sponsored but not interrupted with commercials, this may not be bad for the audience. As far as content creators are concerned--"heads up! Chicago Tribune | P&G launches major change in media spending: "A move to more non-traditional communication outlets to reach consumers would send major ripples through television networks and the magazine industry. P&G, the nation's second-largest advertising spender behind General Motors, has traditionally spent the bulk of its advertising money in TV and magazines."

Media bias. Here are some of the "Fox memos" that are in the news because of the new guerilla documentary, Outfoxed, by Robert Greenwald that was in the NYTimes magazine. MediaChannel.org - A Global Network of More Than 1,000 Media Issues Groups News about Outfoxed

FCC and cable Wired News: Cable Debate Generates Static: "'If you want Nickelodeon, you must buy the sexually explicit programming of MTV and Spike TV,' said Deal. 'If that same business philosophy applied everywhere, candy stores would be required to sell marijuana.'"

Boy who cried 'wolf" syndrome befalls Bush Administration? Warnings on pre-election attack not political: Ridge

Wired News: Cable a la Carte Still Half-Baked

News on Internet Pew Internet & American Life Project: Internet as Unique News Source

The Young People What do they need? To get organized and see themselves as a bloc...The Village Voice: Features: Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young: One Sick Fall by Solana Pyne

Off topic, but topical. Two interesting stories of the USA in the summer of 2004. The first (NYTimes free registration required) story is about a rapper called the "Iron Sheik" who is and American with Palestinian background. It caught my interest because last semester one of my students did a report on media about "spoken word."

To me, "spoken word" is William Burroughs, Gil Scott Heron, The Lost Poets, or Laurie Anderson (whom most of my students had never heard.) Of course, the artists my students can name are a mystery to me but I had no idea that "spoken word" was so popular across all kinds of college-age kids. Black women, Hispanic women, white men, all were performing and involved in the "spoken word" scene. I couldn't pin them down too specifically on exactly what "spoken word" was, but that's typical of genuine cultural expressions that are coming from people, rather than being fostered by commercial interests. I think it is something to watch to see if it stays an arts and entertainment movement or if it melds political and social interests to become a cultural force on more than just fashion and entertainment.

Item two details a study of health care in the USA that documents that we pay more but get less than in other countries. If this doesn't make the argument for policy reform, then we know the neo-cons are moving us forward on blind faith and ideology (NYTimes free registration required.)

The New York Times > Arts > Music > American-Born 'Iron Sheik' Rhymes for Palestinian Cause The current state of Health Care in USA

Blogs & blogging. To de-link or not. How politically correct does your hyperthinking need to be? Wired News: America's War With Blogistan

RFID First, a tech note about cutting the cost of RFID tags, the devices that will eventually replace barcodes. Then a visit to a RFID-equipped store in Germany where the future is closer, and snoopier, than you think. BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Magic ink' that makes metal grow The Extra Future Store where microchips, not vegetables,respond to you.

News & Propaganda A story from the Inter Press Service examines the "prop-agenda" coverage of the Iraq War. "All of the rightwing critics of Moore's latest film say that he plays loose and fast with the facts, as if government leaders don't do the same when it's convenient to them.” SPECIAL REPORT: The 'Prop-Agenda' at War

Patriot Act satirized in a way that makes a few good points. Makes one wonder, why didn't this happen? Selective enforcement is very, very scary. My advice is, "don't forget to vote." YellowTimes.org - "Patriot Act being used to solve Valerie Plame case"

Photojournalism Good news from Peter Turnley whose work will now appear in Harper's Magazine. "Maybe too often today in the field of journalism, photography is used to illustrate text and be at the service of prose, and it's wonderful to find the support of the philosophy that a photographer can be the author of his or her own stories using visual language.'" NPPA: New York Upholds Ban On Cameras In The Courtroom

Social network analysis created using Flash. Too bad it pulls from a static database, but it's still cool. OJR article: Thinking About Interaction Design for Online News Delivery

Games, gaming Last year, it was the Army's interactive online war game, funded by the public, and used to identify talented potential recruits. This year it is political games. Yes, it's true, games are actually a potent form of learning. The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > In These Games, the Points Are All Political