Process Memo

This project really didn’t go quite the way I had hoped.  In retrospect, there are so many things that I wish we could have done better or differently as a group.  The big one being communication.  This really wasn’t the finest example of great communication, or organization for that matter.  It is possible that a few of my group mates would say differently, but that would also be influenced by the fact that they were constantly in the loop while myself and another were shut out of pertinent information at times–for whatever reason that may be. 

There was never much of functioning as a unit throughout the duration of the term.  Around week 6 we finally buckled down and realized we needed some kind of game plan.  This was merely laid out as:

Makenzie: Senior Center interviews

Jonnie: Senior interviews

John: Senior interviews

Mike: Graphics

Mahria: Professor interviews

This was as extensive of an outline as we had.  The rest was improv that really left people out of the real artistic design and vision of this project.  Obviously, these things happen.  People get silenced during the creation do to differences, some form of personal matter, etc.  This is very unfortunate as I had planned on getting far more out of this project.  I had a far different idea of how this would turn out in the end and how proud I would be of the content I helped produce, but instead I’m left concerned as to whether or not I will even be receiving a copy of the work for myself as there is so much on the final product that I wasn’t made privy to, nor was I involved in any of the editing process which I had expressed extreme desire in being a part of.  This is an area that I need work in and my idea was that the class was supposed to be used for utilizing each other’s talents and stepping outside of our comfort zone to get acquainted with programs, techniques, and processes that prove to be crucial traits within this given industry.  This I got none of.  I conducted interviews, which I have done plenty of, did a lot of research, ran the camera and that was all my claim was allowed to be.  The group leader took the footage to keep with them, did not contact me on being able to help with the editing process as I had made myself available for, then as I was informed from another group mate had a few words to say about me when I was at work rather than a “night before the project is due” meeting that I was never informed of.  I credit this to all of the last-minute planning and disorganization that lead to scrambling and the project becoming nothing more than an obligation to get done, rather than something to really explore and learn from.  All of the exploring and learning I got out of this was simply from the interviews that I conducted with Bill Loges and Jon Dorbolo.  Worse yet, is that the interviews conducted with these two professors were very manipulated to appease our initial theory rather than dealing with the revelations that were made through these interviews that our theory was and is, in many ways, disinformation.  I wanted this to be shown, as the truth that transpired through speaking with these professionals, in the process of our project.  But, as I said, I was left out of the editing process and am very displeased with carrying the initial assumptions over as fact.  This is not good reporting or storytelling.  It is manipulative storytelling to satisfy one’s own opinion.  This certainly isn’t want I hoped to get out of the project at all, or a fashion of storytelling that I would like to be known for.  I wanted the story to be honest, not one-sided. 

I have a very sour taste in my mouth after this project.  I am very impressed with other’s contributions; Makenzie’s website is fantastic and John did a great job of editing.  These are things that I would have loved to have seen in the process, but with the lack of planning and time constraints due to this people were just left to do what they already knew and it is hard to be proud of something that you really don’t feel like you were a part of, so in this sense I am very displeased.  I wanted to feel far more proud of the work that I did at the end of the term, but unfortunately that just isn’t the case right now.  I’m sure my group mates have their opinions, as I have mine, and we should probably leave it at that.  I will say that I am impressed with the final product, still, overall.  It is a good story and one that deserves and needs to be told.  However, it needs to be told with a little more responsibility and care for the facts and professional opinions rather than manipulative to conform to an initial assumption.

 

Taken to school… What I have learned on reporting.

Earlier in the term I made a post about how I would be doing two final projects…  Completely thought that I would be able to have that locked down—I was completely wrong.  That young idea was squashed before it even started.  There was no way it was going to happen.  I’m not so sure anyone could pull off working on two of these projects.  The initial state of the term and our glorious delusions about how the current term will somehow be different from others—where you’re dragging yourself, legs exhausted and limp behind you across the finish line, praying that you will just pass—proved futile as always. 

I am certainly content with this, however, because of the quality experience I have gotten out of our “Bridging the Gap” project.  Let me just start by saying that none of this has been easy—nothing about a group project has ever been.  You bring together individuals who are going fifty different directions, and probably have other group projects with individuals who are all going fifty different directions, mix that with food deprivation and personal attachment and you damn near have the emotional equivalent of an A-bomb. 

Fortunately, for how limited our time was together as a group, we have pulled through well.  Everyone took the initiative and got assignments done on their own, which is huge!  It hasn’t been a situation where one person is left having everything dropped on them at the last minute because nobody else ever checked in and completed their assignments.  Having this was key because we were so limited on time that we could actually come together and collaborate as a unit, that the need for people to go out and interview and gather information on their own or just as a pair at the last minute was crucial. 

What we have learned about the topic we have ventured into was as well surprising.  We came into the project with the same—call it stereotypical, perhaps—idea that senior citizens had no clue of how to navigate themselves through new media and the internet.  They are so scared of it and need to be shown why it is so valuable and why they “MUST” use it…  Well, we had two professors who told us that this just really isn’t so—at least not holistically.  We learned that senior citizens as well just don’t feel a large need for some new media, or they just use it for different reasons other than social networking ( e.g., searching health-related topics).  Through my interviews with Bill Loges, Professor in New Media Communications and Sociology, and Jon Dorbolo, Professor in Philosophy and Associate Director of TAC (Technology Across the Curriculum), I learned that the problem—assuming we should even be calling it a problem—isn’t so simple as senior citizens are terrified of new media and technology.  I learned that the use and purpose of use across the generations is where the difference lies.  Certainly there are things right now that kids ten years behind me are growing up with that I would look at and consider completely unnecessary and useless.  These two professors really helped me put this into perspective, as to not write a certain group off as illiterate to a technology and its potential uses simply because their uses and outlook on whether or not it is or isn’t useful to them simply because it is different than mine. 

So where I came into this project with a complete outlook that our theory was completely accurate and the project would end up being of benefit to seniors really turned around and has become more of a benefit to those of us who are misinterpreting this assumed digital divide, or at least can now see it in a different light.  This has been the most exciting part about this project to me.  I started off thinking that I knew, but I didn’t, and instead I learned.  That is really priceless and I hope that all of my future work in this field provides such a fruitful experience.  And it has changed how I look at how to conduct an interview and how to report and tell a story in general.  You have to be unbiased.  It’s all about the information.  You can have your opinion and assumptions but you have to be willing to accept what transpires through the unfolding of the story as the facts are revealed.

 

Techno Fabulous

Anne Marie-Nichol’s blog post “Gadgets for Bloggers” http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/34-Review-BloggingGadgets.html, is an incredibly useful source for wiring yourself as a new media player.  Being wired really is crucial now days, no matter how much you try and fight it.  It’s impossible to keep up with competition and your readers if you aren’t packing the right gadgets. 

I began to learn this for myself once I had to start blogging and twittering and realized that “Wow, I can’t blog, tweet, poke or otherwise do anything online, even while having a smartphone.  Did I know this when I got my Samsung Blackjack?  Nope.  I got it with the idea in mind that I would in fact be able to peruse the internet with ease…  Wrong.  The length of time waiting for a page to load that in fact is never going to load properly, if at all, is enough to in fact brake that smartphone that you got to perform the function that it just failed at—and by the way, warranty is not the same as insurance and will not cover an obvious annihilation of that smartphone. 

Had I read Ann Marie-Nichol’s post before purchasing that smartphone to perform the functions that it is incapable of performing, I wouldn’t have even bothered.  Why?  Because it doesn’t run Apps and apparently apps are a huge deal.  Apps bypass the entire headache of trying to use a palm-sized phone as a fully functioning super computer—it just doesn’t work.  Hence my reason for now having my fantastic little Asus, with a 10.5 inch screen and weighs all of about two and a half pounds and has been the savior to my new media exploration thus far.  With a chaotic schedule, which is pretty much a certain by default in the media field, it is simply impossible to be competitive and efficient in your work without having this kind of automatic access to your readers, those you follow and to stay completely up to date with breaking news and stories.  Definitely review Anne Marie-Nichol’s post for some solid quick-tips on these types of gadgets.

 

Handful O’ Producers no longer helps the media go down…

On The Alcove with Mark Molaro, a YouTube videographer and journalist, Paul Levinson was interviewed on the topic of where new media is going .  Paul Levinson is a pioneer and highly reputable individual in the new media field.  Mr. Levinson will make a bushel of online journalists, vloggers and new media crusaders extravagant when he lets us know that he thinks new media is heading in precisely the same direction that Mark Molaro has taken his YouTube show.  A field that is driven by individual producers versus the former model that was dominated by a few elites producing content for millions of consumers.  The consumer is in fact the producer now, an idea that seems to be justified with the decline of broadcast television that is continuing on a downward slope while new independent amateur content viewable on sites such as YouTube and Blip TV continues to rise at ludicrous speed.

A very interesting question asked by Molaro was the question of whether or not this new consumer becomes the producer age has a dark side to it?  This is certainly a common interpretation by many people: there is simply too much information, there is information overload and it’s absolutely impossible to keep up–I’m in fact one of these skeptics.  Levinson makes an interesting paradox, however, when he refers to what most of us would consider “information overload” as “information under-load.”  Levinson points out that when you walk into a library or bookstore there are far more books than you could ever imagine to read in a lifetime, yet we don’t get overwhelmed.  Why is this?  Levinson states that “since we were kids we were taught how to navigate through this.”  Here in lies the difference between the most traditional forms of media, such as books and newspapers, and the internet.  We simply don’t quite know how to navigate through this new and vast information source.  This was a fantastic point and really puts into perspective that the internet and new media model is just very young and needs time to really mature before we’re going to completely understand it without being overwhelmed.

This was a fantastic interview that I highly recommend checking out.  Levinson and Molaro raise some very important points and answer some questions in much need of answering.  As well, it is a fantastic look at how one can be successful as an individual, non-elite content producer can be in Mark Molaro.

Mr. Levinson is the Chair of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University and, as well, is a writer, penning novels such as “Digital Mcluhan” and “The Soft Edge”

 

 

Someone else is finding a way to “Bridge the Gap…”

In doing some research for our project I came across another’s wonderful blog that posted on the same topic.  Jane, author of the blog Heres to Life, posted the following in August of 2009:  http://herestolife.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/bridge-the-generation-gap-by-making-lololola-tech-savvy/.  In reading her blog I discovered Teach Lola – an initiative to bridge the communication gap between the younger and older generation, advocated by Bayan Telecommunications after “conducting an informal poll via Plurk and Facebook (2 social networking sites), which revealed that, given the chance, 87% of young people want to continue communicating with their grandparents (lolos and lolas). This same poll revealed that 81% of Filipinos are still close to their grandparents and 57% still visit from time to time. And yet, ironically, the Internet Age is also responsible for further widening the generational gap between a younger set that is used to the internet as a communications and research tool and an older generation that does not know where to begin and is in danger of being left behind.” 

The Teach Lola campaign is a fine example of what our group plans to do; address the fact that senior citizens are being left behind in the surmounting ability to communicate through internet and social networking, which has become the most appealing avenue of communication for the young, and if we can give our elders the tools to at least understand email and perhaps even Facebook then how much of a difference would that make it both the lives of the grandparents, children and grandchildren?  Maybe the elders could even barter with the younger folks and teach them how to write a real hand-written letter for all of their efforts in stepping up to today’s standards…  That could be interesting.

 

New Media Douchebags

WOW!!  And not WOW as in World of Warcraft (a.k.a. Wizards of Wonderland), but rather WOW as in, “this guy is on to something.”  This is my thought after watching the YouTube video “New Media Douchebags,” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSP8xm_gaK4.)  What exactly does the term New Media mean and what exactly do all the people who claim to be a part of it do?  Well, as the gentleman who created the video made note of, you have to create a whole lot of content and “stuff” and post it everywhere you can possibly think of online, such as Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, iLike, Digg, Skype, Flickr, etc., etc., the list goes on, and on, and on…   Another part that has some truth, but does serve an injustice to a large group of professionals, is the idea that these New Media Douchebags don’t do any real work.  If you even own a blog you’ve probably heard the cliche’ of the Blogger who sits in their mother’s basement, in their pajamas, eating cheetohs and blogging either about a bunch of mindless matter that no one cares about and/or stealing the people’s work who are actually out in the field and trenches doing the muck-raking.  These individuals don’t just stop there, however, there is as well a tendency for these individuals to find their niche in criticizing everyone else’s work that they are feeding off of.  Suddenly, since they have a computer, a blog, and a small legion of minions, they’re an expert on business, government, international matters, human rights, so on and so forth… These are the kind of people who made me not want to blog.  A cast that I wanted no part of.

The other evil of the New Media trend is the endless filling of bandwidth with some of the most seemingly insignificant nonsense–Twitter is a fine example of this.  Why in god’s name would anyone care about when you’re eating a sandwich,  at the mall, or currently completely sauced-up, vomiting  in a sink at some Frat-house and ready for another shot..?  This stuff is hardly profound or ground-breaking… But, as it so happens, some people do care–oddly enough.  But does this text to the world really belong alongside those who have used it to update the world of the social injustices in Iran during the Iranian election and media blackout?  Do they belong alongside Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s updates from Mexico during the beginning of the H1N1 outbreak?  Logic would say, “No,” but I’m sure these questions could be up for debate to some people.

Heres the deal: we find news and important information in some of the must unsuspected places.  Are there people dumping unnecessary loads of garbage into these New Media social networking sites?  Absolutely yes.  Is it fair to lump all individuals utilizing these new tools at their disposal for spreading messages into one category dubbed, New Media Douchebags?  No, but it definitely makes for a better joke and punch-line.  Bottom line, there will always be the people out there who are going to abuse and misuse any new technology.  But, we continue to trudge forth in hopes that these misusers and abusers don’t overshadow the worthy.

 

Two final projects?! Have Mercy!

This may prove to be the death of me but I’m going to do it.  I’m working on two projects for the term…  That is at least until Pam tells me “Absolutely not, crazy lady!!” 

Project 1:  Bridging the Gap

This piece is centered around that ever-so obvious technology gap that seems to be growing and in many instances keeping families apart.  Theres too much technology and too many new ways of communicating, yet it doesn’t seem as though too many people have said “Stop,” and took a second to think about the people being left in the dust either due to lack of resources or just plain inability to keep up with the ever evolving ways of communicating in a new media driven world–many of these individuals being our elderlies.  People with real stories and lifes needing to be shared with people who seem to have forgotten as they fade into a digital fast-track. 

Our group plans to tackle this issue by speaking to senior citizens in a retirement/nursing home who have lost touch with their family and friends and  attempt to give them the tools to reconnect with important individuals in their lives where communication has deteriorated.  We will be documenting their experience with email, facebook, or any other social media site that would prove to be beneficial in bridging the gap. 

Certainly what is key to this project is not only these individuals’ new found ability to navigate themselves through the internet at a novice level, but the real hope that there is someone there on the recieving end to return the email, the comment, the status udate, perhaps even the “poke.” 

I’m very excited about this project because of how much I know I’m going to get out of it other than just a grade.  

 

 

First Reader Response

I first chose to read Howard Owens blog post, Objectives for todays non-wired journalaist.  It was written for people such as myself.  I’m not technologically iliterate by any means, but not exactly up to my assumed generation’s standards wouldn’t be off target in describing me. 

Truth about me: I’m an active excercise fanatic and I found that his steps read a bit like a training program.  I myself can most certainly appreciate the use of a steady gradual increase leading from basic fundamentals into less novice practice in an area.  Wrecklessly firing ourselves into any new discipline is bound to be overwhelming and lead to confusion and quite possibly burnout.  So to Howard’s training regimen I say, Bravo! 

There is some excellent key pointers as well that one can only be given by someone who has experience in the field and, have themselves, learned through trial and error.  And making note of the necessity to be able to do your own film and video editing as a “wired journalist” I think is crucial and above all, pivotal to the success of journalists heading into the future of this field.  The days of just a story in the paper and a simple photo to accompany it are certainly long gone.  A journalist needs to be able to upload written and visual content to a multitude of sites, and fast. 

I’m going to attempt to stick to some of these steps for the non-wired journalist throughout the term and see how my skills and techy know-how will improve.

 

Hello world!

Where to start? Hmmm…  Well let’s start with this is my first blog post ever because blogging simply isn’t something I had ever thought about doing.  It seems like everyone and their widow’s peak has a blog, so I thought originality in creating one was a lost cause.  But I’m going to try and make the best of it.  As a New Media major I probably shouldn’t go around toting the title without ever actually venturing into all new media and its resources…or at the very least not denying any of them without trial. 

I’m going to be using this blog to delve into what exactly new media is, where it is going and hopefully expose and enlighten some viewers as well as myself through experimentation with some new media resources that I myself haven’t even dabbled in yet.  Cheers, and happy blogging!!