Reinventing the BBC

Jeff Jarvis blogs about changes occuring at the BBC. They area apparently revinventing their network as a response to change. Apparently they intend to create a new approach which includes "development commissioning and prodution"- this includes a lot of different projects, some of which I didn't completely understand, but it is really clear that they are focusing heavily on multimedia and their relationship with their audience as they want to make it more interactive. This is a clear marker of what we have been discussing in class and the importance of this multimedia revolution! One of their biggest projects is called BBC Web 2.0 which among other things it will include a more powerful search tool, with both video and audio search. They said they aim to be the best web interactive forum in the world with a strong audience engagement "with the aim of being the most open and transparent news organisation in the world." It will be an interesting development to follow and see whether news networks in the US follow, as they seem to trail far behind the BBC. IT will also be interesting to see what other evolutions will come about.

The Dream Act

I did a story about the Dream Act this week, which I think is a topic that has been undercovered in the news in regards to the immigration debates, yet a very important topic. For those of you who don't know what it is, The Dream Act is a proposal in Congress that proposes 2 things: 1)to give in state-tuition to undocumented students if they meet certain requirements and 2) it proposes a path to residency for students who graduate from at least a 2 year college or the army if they meet certain requirements. One of the bigger issues is that currently undocumented students who graduate from college can't really do much with their education because they are not residents, thus can't get a job.

Check out my videocast and let me know if you have any comments

more current events

This past week, the Associated Press published an interesting report about the No Child Left Behind Act- and the loophole it has. Apparently the implementation of this Act into schools across the nation is actually hurting school integration. The Act requires that each school meet certain standards every year for each ethnicity in order to aquire benefits such as funding, but the result has had a negative side effect. Apparently test scores of minority students are not being counted when reported. They are not being accounted so that the school can score better and not be negatively impacted by their low scoring children's performance. This is really awful considering that a lot of these children will probably fall throught the cracks because they will not receive the instruction they need. And how could the government be in the shadows about this? I am a bit weary, but it will be interesting to see what type of solution they try to implement and whether they will finally do away with the notorious No Child Left Behind Act, which seems to be leaving millions behind.

Journalism Professor Panel

This past Monday, I helped organize a journalism professor panel with an organization I am a part of. Professors from all areas (excluding photo j) were present (including Sharon!) and we discussed several contemporary issues as well as job experiences. One of the things that I really sunk in at the panel is that multimedia is really sweeping all mediums (despite the fact that that's what this course is about) almost every professor who participated mentioned in one way or another that multimedia, the internet, is a factor in their field and it really really made me question again how much longer print is going to be around for, at least in the US. I think everybody realizes that slowly it is becoming more obselete, but I really think it would be a terrible medium to loose, especially because we still have a huge technilogical divide. I think it is probably dissipating slower in other countries again because of this technological divide. Another thing that I really came away with is again the realization that this job is extremely competitive and demanding and aligning yourself with good resources while in college is really a must. It was also sad to realize again how companies can easily take advantage of a person beggining their career. Overall, the panel was insighful and it helped me rethink some of the issues that we have always discussed in this field from the beggining.

current events

Last week we saw an impressive manifestation across the nation regarding undocumented immigrants rights. Millions across the nation rallied last Monday, UT also participated by having their own rally. I would have liked to see a response from Congress, I think it's a bit unfortunate that they would take a 2-week Easter break when such decisions are at stake. Easter is only one day, 2-weeks for recess is long. I don't think however that any decisions will be made soon considering that congressional elections are coming up and candidates will probably want to use the issue as a platform for their election. We'll see what happens, but I don't think we'll see anything soon.

blogs as a professional

Upon reading more about the Washington Post closing a blogs comments, I begun to analyze the situation a little more. I think that it defeats the purpose of the blog if you dont allow citizens to participate by giving them the opportunity to give their input. If the Post is just posting blogs, it kind of defeats the purpose because it is merely in a way reporting or another commentary which is what a newspaper contains already. Blogs are meant to be interactive. The decision was made after a citizen's reply contained profanity which is reasonable, but I think that that particular post could have been deleted or revised for the sake of keeping the blog principle alive. I wonder what kind of complaints if any the Post has gotten.

Web dangers

With the popularity of sites such as MySpace and Facebook, I recently read an article that warns people about the content they choose to reveal on the internet. Apparently some job emoloyers are now looking to these sites when considering a future employee. I don't necessarily agree with this use because I think that especially facebook, these are spaces for you to be creative and not so serious. This isn't intended to market you for a job Nonetheless, everyone out there should be careful with what they post.

Newspaper tactics

I recently read an article from the Post Gazette that talked about new tactics that newspapers are employing in order to attract younger audiences while increasing their appeal to advertisers. Since newspapers have been in jeapordy with the rising popularity of the internet and increased television viewership, one tactic they are using is creating youth oriented publications that attract smaller advertisers that can't afford mainstream newspapers. Several newspaper publishers are also creating specialty publications that target a certain younger wealthier demographic while also attracting local businesses to advertise with more affordable rates than the local newspaper. Another such tactic is the launch of search engines that are meant to compete with Google and Yahoo on a local level. Instead of just finding a news story related to the search, you'll also get a lot of different advertising options. And yet another tactic is the free use of the classifieds, which generally generated most of their profit, but with sites such as Craigslist, Monster and Ebay, many are resorting to free classifieds in order to maintain and attract more readers. While they are good ideas, we will have to see how well they work and how much of a positive impact it has on newspapers

CJ Story

I went to the Austin Fine Arts Festival this weekend and took a couple of picture for my photoblog. You can check it out here The festival celebrates over 50 years of existence and it brings artists from all over the country to promote the visual arts. I also gave podcasting a stab and I talked to a couple of people about the festival through an italk. It was a bit challenging but I hope it works: audio

A recent article on Poynteronline talked about a new model for citizen journalism. A media company in Boston, Massachussetts is tightly blending professional journalism with contributions from citizens, instead of separating the two. Apparently this 'tight integration of citizen content with professionally produced journalism' is the better way to go to produce the best information.
The melding of professional and amateur collaboration could be a success, but I don't think it's the way many news outlets will head. I think it could definately work for some markets, but maybe not for all.