Underage drinking at Ohio University

Although about half the students on Ohio University's campus are under the age of 21, you wouldn't know that by looking at Court Street on a weekend as underage students find ways around the drinking laws. This video examines the problems and talks to the people involved with the issue, striving to find a solution.

Online journalism has potential for more democratic media

Over the past decade, the Internet and its related technological advances have brought many changes to the news industry. The consumer now has more options than ever to get their news, while the media itself has additional resources to tell the story.

However, as media companies converge and consolidate, many journalists have been left to scramble for jobs. A shift to online advertising has devastated the newspaper industry. Online news sites, meanwhile, are searching for a profitable business model.

Although such chaos leaves many wondering about the future of news, former San Jose Mercury News columnist Dan Gillmor views these changes with optimism in his book, "We the media: Grassroots journalism by the people, for the people." Calling the Internet "the most important medium since the printing press," he embraces the shift from a top-down mass media into a more democratic approach to news.

Published in 2004 -- and later updated in 2006 -- the book is noticeably dated in spots, reflecting the rapidly changing media environment. However, Gillmor's objective is not to chronicle the revolution itself but rather to trumpet the potential of tomorrow's news as a conversation between all participant groups -- journalists, newsmakers and an audience that can seemingly morph into a potential army of citizen journalists.

While media critic Walter Lippmann once championed the journalist as a useful go-between in filtering news to the public, Gillmor celebrates the audience's newfound power to skip the filter, get the news themselves and participate in the process.

As one of the early pioneers in this new medium, he begins the book with a brief history in how this process began, as several technological and cultural pieces fell into place. He points to the importance of citizen journalists during the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and shows how the lines between news producers and consumers began to blur.

Technology was behind this transformation, and "We the media" examines the new tools of the trade. Some methods, such as mailing lists and forums, have fallen from the importance they once had when the book was written. However, Gillmor correctly predicted the growth of web staples such as weblogs, text messaging, RSS feeds, and wikis -- all areas that still have a way to go to achieve ubiquity.

Other tools have seen dramatic changes and, in one case, a reversal. Digital cameras have reached a quality that increases the potential for citizen journalists. Although Gillmor's idea of Internet broadcasting has had little impact, YouTube came soon after the book's release and has certainly changed multimedia content.

Gillmor seems to be a big fan of peer-to-peer networks, but this method seems to have dropped in popularity. He saw the beginnings of entertainment industry lawsuits over copyright, and their subsequent increase has limited even lawful use of this method.

Although much of his discussion focuses on how the audience has used these tools to become part of the newsgathering and dissemination process, Gillmor examines the changes from the perspective of journalists and newsmakers as well.

Instead of being afraid of the removal of the wall between reporters and their audience, Gillmor hopes journalists take advantage of the opportunities it presents.

Readers can communicate to reporters via e-mail, forums, comments and chats. If journalists pay attention, they can improve their accounts and find story ideas at the same time. In this larger conversation, they serve as the editors and moderators of this realm.

For newsmakers, the online world is one in which they must stay on their toes. Although the Internet offers them a chance to communicate directly to the masses, Gillmor offers several examples of citizen journalists uncovering blunders that the news media miss. For him, the online world is the ultimate fact-checker, ensuring a higher level of transparency. Even journalists can be held accountable for their mistakes.

Gillmor also sees great potential in the political realm. The same tools that can be used in journalism can potentially transform participation in political life. Candidates can raise money, organize campaigns and get instant feedback. In the long run, "We the media" contends "open-source politics" could lead to increased civic activity.

Although what has since been christened "Web 2.0" has great potential, Gillmor exhorts readers to watch for abuses of these new tools and preserve its existence.

With the promise of increased online freedom and a shift in power toward the people, he correctly anticipated the present battle for net neutrality. The groups that formerly controlled information, government agencies and the entertainment industry, have begun the battle to reclaim control and take advantage of the system.

The book describes how corporations have used the Internet to gather information about its users, sometimes without their knowledge. In addition to this invasion into their privacy, corporations also are attempting to control this information superhighway with little resistance from government agencies that purport to protect citizens' rights.

Not only has the telecommunication industry tried to impose controls on our present end-to-end system, but Gillmor argues that large corporations have used intellectual property laws to stifle the free exchange of ideas over the Internet.

While the author says he respects an innovator's right to compensation, he believes copyright law and digital rights management have gone too far. He urges online content producers to get organized and protect their rights. In the last couple of years, organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have done just that.

Showing that he practices what he preaches, this book was actually written under a Creative Commons arrangement, which grants increased rights to users of the material.

In the end, Gillmor concedes that the new Internet landscape is far from perfect. Unethical users can try to use technology to manipulate public opinion. Photos and videos could be doctored. Marketers will try to manipulate messages. The lack -- and sometimes absence -- of editing for blogs and online news has led to inaccuracies. However, the same online world has the potential to expose these schemes or mistakes.

With this in mind, he explains how the new environment of citizen journalism will need to develop its own set of values concerning fairness, accuracy and ethics. With such a vast online world, readers need some type of system to evaluate the trustworthiness of information on the Internet. Gillmor describes several other ethical issues that still need to be worked out as well.

In the end, We the media is neither a history or a guide to Internet journalism. Instead, in a well-crafted narrative, Gillmor takes the reader through a logical progression, from where we've been to where we could be going.

These days, any book on technology will likely be somewhat outdated by the time it is published. However, Gillmor's prescription for grassroots journalism holds true. If we stay on the right track, he feels we will be better off with a democratic online media.

Webby Awards

If you want to do good work on the Internet, you need to see good work on the Internet.

Every year The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences hands out its Webby Awards to honor excellence on the Internet. The range of winners is wide as the variety of web pages. Check them out!

Blogging gone wild

While blogs offer writers a viable avenue to let others know what they think and feel, they also have their darker side.

In an essay in Sunday's New York Times magazine, writer Emily Gould talks about how blogging can open a window to one's personal life that can be hard to shut. Although her personal blog earned her a shot at writing for the popular Gawker site, she later found that blogging about her own life -- and writing gossip about the lives of others -- soon made her the target.

Everyone seemingly wants to be heard, but sometimes the response can be unkind. In a simpler age, people would have to actually take the time to write letters to the editor or talk to someone over the phone. However, in today's Internet world, hurtful comments can be delivered quickly and anonymously.

I don't know much about Gould, but she appears to be a lightning rod for online blogs and comments. When I searched for her photo, I found that this story itself put her further in the crosshairs -- although her detractors say she has earned it.

Either way, it's sad.

Online Travel Blog

As someone who has never left the North American continent, I have a always been a sucker for travel stories. Not those stuffy ones that use only the highest priced accommodations, but quirky travel stories geared toward the average person.

In the past, this has meant newspaper travel sections or travel magazines. Of course, if I were looking for specific information, I could always find it online. Recently, however, I have become a fan of the travel blog.

The New York Time's Frugal Traveler, Matt Grose, recently began his "Grand Tour," a 12-week journey around Europe in which he is bound to spend less than 100 Euros a day. Last year, he took a similar journey across the United States.

All in all, it's like getting daily postcards from a friend discussing where they've gone and what they've done. The blog is updated with new entries and videos every Thursday and short updates and frugal tips throughout the week. Interestingly, Grose's photos are geotagged, which means his camera automatically stamps the latitude and longitude of where they were taken so they can be incorporated into a map. In his previous U.S. journey, the Frugal Traveler employed GPS tracking.

Think of it like the Travel Channel except with more interaction, almost like you're along for the trip. Readers see each stop along the way and are able to leave comments on it. In one of his first updates, Grose revealed what he packed -- including his reporting supplies (pictured). He admits to being unsure about what to bring along and this started a long reader discussion.

From the looks of it, the blog has a large number of loyal readers. In a multi-stage trip like this, people will keep coming back and perhaps visit the other Times' stories, too.

Remaking Nelsonville

Over the years, the economic health of Nelsonville, Ohio, has depended upon a few main industries. Coal mining, brick making, a power plant, Rocky Boots (now Rocky Outdoor Gear) -- each has played its part in supporting the town. In recent years, with no big industry to carry it, Nelsonville -- and its downtown -- has struggled. Over the past few years, a few local artists and merchants have tried to remake the town as an arts community. Although they have had some success, the present state of the economy has hindered their efforts to create a thriving public square.

Link to slideshow

Great series of Video Blogs

Poynter's Al Tompkins has some great Video Blogs on YouTube. I particularly like this one in which he tells how he makes them and what equipment he uses. In particular, I thought the teleprompter program was an interesting innovation.

The fully integrated newsroom

As more and more media are working toward convergence, the BBC is in the process of merging all of their media operations together. While other news providers have certainly moved in this direction, this is the convergence of a massive media operation. Although I am no expert on the BBC or Britain, I would imagine it would be comparable to the New York Times and NBC News doing the same in the United States. Check this out from an article in the UK's Press Gazette.

The first stage of the BBC’s newsroom integration project was completed on Monday as journalists from the corporation’s rolling television news service began working in a common newsroom with their colleagues from radio and television news bulletins.

BBC head of newsroom Peter Horrocks described this week’s changes as the first phase of the BBC’s effort to integrate its news operation across media.

“The number of roles has been reduced significantly because we’ve had to make these big savings,” he said.

“We’ve introduced some multimedia roles, but as people develop multimedia skills and once we’ve got all the platforms sitting alongside each other they can work together most effectively.”

The Simpsons takes a shot at newspapers

You know things are bad when cartoons are making fun of print journalism. And it comes from Nelson, no less!

Stop the Presses - for good

The Capital Times of Madison, Wis., recently announced that they will be eliminating their print version and moving exclusively to online publishing at madison.com. Its publisher said the decision was made because the print product had become irrelevant.

That may be overstating it a bit, as it's less of a statement about what content is delivered and more about how it was delivered. As more people went to Internet editions, the print circulation declined. At some point, however, the move was probably inevitable. Although many newspapers have made many changes, the Cap Times was the first to go all the way.

The Madison publication will not give up all printed content altogether, however. It will still put out an entertainment guide and a news weekly. This is an example of how news publishers are trying new business models.

it will be interesting to see how this approach pays off - or doesn't. Unfortunately, 20 staff members -- one of whom is one the most amazing photographers I've ever met -- lost their jobs to either layoffs or buyouts. If more and more newspapers go this route, the job market will be tighter than it already is.

Online Campaigning

At last week's Journalism Day at Ohio University, one of the panels featured the former Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Rosemary Palmer, and her campaign manager, Anthony Fossaseca.

While the online world certainly has affected journalism in many ways, it also has the potential to change campaigning. It allowed Palmer's primary campaign against incumbent Dennis Kucinich to gain some attention.

By producing short and lively videos, her campaign was able to get its message out on YouTube. Even Scott Milburn, a former press secretary for many prominent Republican politicians, applauded their efforts.

Here are links to some of her commercials:
Super Bowl Ad #1
Introducing the HopeMobile

(Milburn really riled me up every time he referred to the DEMOCRATIC Party as the DEMOCRAT party. Apparently the former makes them sound democratic, and you can't have that if you want the REPUBLIC Party to be successful. Although your party convinced the gullible to say "death tax" instead of "estate tax," you have a long way to go on this silly new bit of re-framing, Scotty.)

Giving up too easy?

Yes, the media environment is changing.

Yes, many advertisers are moving online.

Yes, newspapers are making staff cuts.

However, is print really dead? These days the people giving the most eulogies seem to be the print reporters themselves.

They seem to being throwing in the towel without a fight. Sure, print media will certainly be different and have to find a better business model, but it bothers me that most of what I hear from print reporters is a begrudging acceptance of a dismal fate.

At Ohio University's Journalism Day on April 30, Randy Ludlow of the Columbus Dispatch talked about the many ways his newspaper is practicing journalism online. However, like most reporters, he seemed almost apologetic to the audience that he was from "old" media. It seems most print reporters are willing to go down without a fight these days.

On a recent Simpsons episode, I watched a newspaper reporter cower with shame as Bart Simpson taunted him with something like "your medium is dying!" (I wish I could rediscover the link to that clip!)

However, I think there is a place for print. I enjoyed listening to Ludlow's fellow panelist, a former print reporter now partner in Maroon Ventures, talk about how he wants to help find ways for newspapers adapt their product for the online world.

Although you wouldn't know it from the constant proclamations of doom from financial analysts who follow the media, newspapers still have higher profit margins than most businesses. Of course, this may be shrinking further in the future, but perhaps it is simply unrealistic to expect any company to make increasingly higher profits every quarter.

In the meantime, newspapers are sealing their fates by cutting staff and taking money from their product. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy.

People will go online to find news that they need. But sometimes news needs to find you. No offense to our online Post edition, but I think most people read the Post because they see it on the way in or out of class. I'd venture to say fewer students take the extra step to go to the web site. I'd say the same thing for community newspapers or the alternative press.

I'm not saying things will ever be what they once were for newspapers. However, reporters should stop writing their obituaries so soon. There is a place for print; publishers just have to work hard to find the right niche.

Chef Barbara Fisher

Barbara Fisher is a chef at Salaam Restaurant in Athens, OH. She also writes a great blog about food that has received national attention called Tigers and Strawberries.

User Interaction

Although some news sites may still present their content in standard formats, other organizations like the Chicago Sun-Times are doing some interesting and innovative things -- especially in the sports section.

Like many news sites, the Sun-Times has its share of blogs where readers can interact and offer comments. In addition to blogs for the city's major sports teams (Sox, Bulls, Bears, Cubs), there are blogs for high school sports and the outdoors. At the bottom of many stories, you can also find links to related blog posts from outside the site.

One of the more recent additions to the suntimes.com has been the use of scheduled online video chats with Sun-Times sports writers. In this example, White Sox beat writer Joe Cowley took questions from fans about the team.

For those who need the most up-to-date news on their favorite team, the Sun-Times is also making use of an online social networking service (Twitter). Once you sign up, you can receive text message or instant message updates from the reporter. Since I'm not much into those activities, I'll take a pass; however, this may be a wave of the future for text-messaging maniacs who like their updates in 140 words or less.

Finally, the Sun-Times has all sorts of great short video from sports highlights or interviews, to consumer advice by my former classmate aka "The Fixer," to "Joe Meets Pro," where a baseball beat writer tries his hand at doing what the pros do.

All in all, I'm impressed with the creative things suntimes.com. I'm not sure how popular each will be (i.e. Twitter), but I think it's admirable that they're trying new ways to communicate with readers/users.

Creative camera angles

During our class, we talked about how sometimes certain situations really don't lend themselves to great visuals. In these situations, however, I think we need to think more about being creative with both angles and distance.

In looking through the New York Times multimedia page I was struck by the sheer variety of camera angles -- especially in the slide shows.

The photograph above is from a slideshow about the only remaining pinball factory in the country. This shot through the wires takes what would have been a fairly standard shot and made it unusual. Also, the close-up shots of a cluster of pinballs and a wall of buttons really bring the slideshow alive.

Another slideshow of a long-closed subway station has some interesting shots, too.

As more and more non-photographers shoot photos for the web, I think it would be helpful if more online journalists paid more attention to good photography.

Southeast Asian Night Market at OU

The Southeast Asian Night Market took place Saturday, April 19, at Ohio University's Baker University Center ballroom.

Should reporters put their e-mails online?

As online editions and the Internet make the news media more accessible to the news consumer, many news operations seem to have different policies regarding whether or not to post reporters' or editors' e-mail.

On the plus side, at places like the Chicago Tribune, readers can now contact reporters much more easily to offer things like input, story ideas and corrections. Before e-mail, readers would have to be motivated to send an actual letter or make a phone call - which rarely happened.

Personally, I have found reporters' e-mails useful to set up guest speakers at a national high school journalism convention. In my News Writing class, I've had my students follow a reporter for a few weeks and ask them questions about their work. Most journalists are people persons and love to talk about what they do -- especially with young people.

The other side of the coin is when a journalist might become a target of unwanted communication from a reader /viewer.

A few years ago, I remember Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg lamenting his newspapers' policy of posting staff e-mails. Since he often wrote columns that stirred readers' passions, Steinberg apparently did not like being subject of their ire.

ESPN.com, which features many of the sports giant's famous personalities, does not post as many e-mail addresses as it has in the past. (However, with a little legwork, you can break their e-mail code.) Even if you wanted to call someone, like I needed to do recently for an interview, only one sales phone number is given and only a corporate address.

Although I have not heard any actual incidents involving e-mail stalkers, I'm sure this probably happens, too. One of my former students, who now works for ESPN, is the subject of a couple of fan tribute sites. For this former beauty queen, if her e-mail address was public, I'm sure she would be barraged with admirers' e-mails.

Therefore, I do understand the tendency to set up walls to communication. Logistically alone, reader e-mail would clog one's inbox. However, I think outlets that set up barriers to communication lose out on positive interaction.

By setting up in-house and outside e-mail accounts, journalists can use reader/viewer input in whichever way they see fit. E-mail is easily deleted in the same way hate mail is thrown away; but the majority of e-mails help establish a connection with news consumers.

Look at the reader comments on blogs. Look at live online chats. Readers want to interact and feel part of the newspaper, website or news station.

Instead of fearing contact with them, it should be a welcome addition.

Hop on the Photoshop Express

For as long as I can remember, the best photo editing program in the business has been Adobe's Photoshop. For most people, however, it is an expensive option that can be cost prohibitive to many.

Well, those days look to be over. Enter Photoshop Express, a new option available free to anyone online. Instead of ceding the online photo world to sites like Flickr or Photo Bucket, Adobe is adding its well-regarded brand into the mix.

Right now, it's still in a beta version, but what's not to like? Instead of having to pay for more than minimal storage on other sites, you can get 2 GB for free on Photoshop Express. However, not only can you store and share your photos, but you can use Photoshop's full editing capacity. When you are ready to share, it has new ways to showcase your photos, too.

I have not had much chance to test this out yet. Since I have not uploaded any photos yet, I don't know if you can link to Photoshop Express slideshows in your blogs -- like I have done with Flickr. (Flickr slideshows are great, but the free capacity is reached quickly, and I'm too cheap to pay for more right now.) If this site does that, I'll be overjoyed.

If this is not the case, perhaps they will add that feature if people demand it. If not, it's still a nice site to edit your photos and share them with your friends.

You can't beat the price.