Media
Media
A Foreseeable Risk of Substantial Disruption
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 05/30/2008 - 04:33Thursday was a bad day for me. I received an email from a media watchdog organization declining my job application. I received an email from the DNCC declining my application to be a blogger at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, and I received a copy of the Second Circuit of Appeals decision to uphold the District Courts denial of the Doninger’s preliminary injunction motion. Yet all of these tied together into a fairly consistent theme.
In the rejection letter from the media watchdog organization, I was told that they “needed someone with more traditional journalism experience”. I can see why they say that. They are a fairly traditional watchdog organization. It is important to them that their watching of the media does not create any substantial disruption of the media landscape.
The rejection letter from the DNCC didn’t give any reasons other than that “Several hundred great blogs submitted applications.” It suggested that I check out “The Big Tent” organized by “DailyKos, ProgressNow, the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, and the Wright Group… with some of the most well known faces in the non-profit and political world, as well as food, drinks, entertainment.” I’m not sure that well known faces and entertainment being gatekept by people making their name by writing about crashing gates is going to bring about any substantial disruption.
In 2004, bloggers at the Democratic National Convention in Boston were a substantial disruption, at least to the media narrative. People wanted to talk with and about bloggers about how they were changing the media landscape. Subsequent research found that the bloggers, myself included, didn’t really bring about any substantial disruption in the media landscape, but at least coming into the convention there was a foreseeable risk that that might occur.
Many great blogs have been credentialed this year and the Democrats have chosen to have a blog credentialed to sit with each State delegation. This could bring a whole new perspective on the convention, creating a new foreseeable risk of substantial disruption, but I worry that it may not. It may be just part of the new generation of political media, the new boys on the bus.
I’ve often commented about blogs being passé. They are so 2004. “New Media” is being replaced by “Social Media” and I wonder how much the bloggers of 2008 will have moved beyond 2004 style blogging. What role will streaming multimedia, microblogging and lifestreams fit into the picture? That may be where the real potential for a foreseeable risk of substantial disruption of the political media process exists this time.
All of this takes me to the Doninger case. The Second Circuit wrote that “Because Avery’s blog post created a foreseeable risk of substantial disruption at LMHS, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion. We therefore affirm the denial of Doninger’s preliminary injunction motion.”
The substantial disruption that Avery’s words in the blog post are accused of creating a foreseeable risk of, is citizens in the school district getting more involved the school and thereby in the community.
I disagree with the court that this sort of ‘substantial disruption’ is something the existing political structure should be protected against. Instead, the ability to create this sort of ‘substantial disruption’ is exactly what our Constitution is supposed to be protecting the right of each of us to participate in.
The candidate at the Democratic National Convention most likely to become the Democratic Party Nominee for President is running on the slogan “Change We Can Believe In”. We are most likely to see a candidate at the podium who says, “I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington . . . I’m asking you to believe in yours.”
This candidate has brought many new people into involvement with the political process, similar to how Avery worked to get more people involved in the politics surrounding her high school.
So, I am frustrated. Unlike Barack Obama or Avery Doninger, I am not managing to generate a foreseeable risk of substantial disruption to current media and political status quo. Yet looking at the successes of Barack Obama and Avery Doninger, I continue to have hope that I may yet contribute to such substantial disruptions.
»
- Aldon Hynes's blog
- Login to post comments
- Comments
Call Your Nana
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 05/06/2008 - 10:27So, Fiona and I did our first BlogTalkRadio podcast last Sunday. Fiona's Nanna called in, and we all had a great chat. We haven't nailed down what our format is going to be. How much will I talk about the eclectic set of topics I like to discuss on Orient Lodge? How much will it be Fiona's show? What role will the extended family play in the show?
Yesterday, I got a nudge in the extended family direction. Call Your Nana added me as a friend on BlogTalkRadio. This is a weekly show where Nana, aka Miriam, talks with her granddaughter, aka Hilary. So, I listened in to their last broadcast, Relax More!. It was a great show. Full of family stories and discussions about how people relax. Today, at 4PM PT, 7PM for those of us on the east coast, they will have their one year anniversery show.
BlogTalkRadio: Episode One, Take Two
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 05/04/2008 - 19:13Well, we did it. After an unsuccessful attempt a week ago to produce our first episode on BlogTalkRadio, Fiona and I this evening recorded Episode One, Take Two. Mostly, it was Fiona and I talking. Nanna did call in and join the discussion and I tested playing a pre-recorded piece, in this case "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth Longfellow, which I had recorded a year and a half earlier for Librivox.
All in all, it was a very successful first session, and a great opportunity for both Fiona and I to hone our online talk show radio skills. As we continue this, I expect themes and clearer voices will emerge out of the experiment.
So, please, listen to the recording and let us know your thoughts about where we should be going.
Events, May 4th
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 05/04/2008 - 04:42Connecticut State Senate Candidate, Mike Renzullo will be walking in the Multiple Sclerosis walk at 9 AM starting in Litchfield. He is encouraging people to join him for the walk. If you can’t make it to Litchfield, there are several other walks going on through out Connecticut today. Mike is running a great campaign, including service politics into his activities and sending out a great newsletter.
In his latest newsletter, he has a great section about picking up trash on Earth Day.
Last Saturday was Earth Day, and folks gathered at Coe Park in Torrington for a city-wide clean up. I was assigned to pick up trash at a park on Oak Street. This is where older kids hold Little League games and play basketball, and there is a playground for the younger kids. My cousin Kevin used to live in that neighborhood, and we used to go to this park as kids. This is a perfect example of how we can all have a direct effect in making our communities a little nicer. In about an hour and a half, I picked up an entire trash bag full of cigarette butts, broken glass, cans, bottles, food wrappers, and other various types of refuse. While I was working, a couple of the parents who were there watching their kids joined in, and started collecting trash, too!
For a more traditional campaign event, please consider stopping by at the fundraiser for Martin Goldberg who is also running for State Senate in Connecticut. The event starts at 2 PM at the home of Geena Clonan and Peter Schrobenhauser, 1119 Sasco Hill Road, Fairfield, CT 06824. Details can be found on MyLeftNutmeg.
In the evening, Fiona and I will make a second attempt at a show on BlogTalkRadio. I was fairly disappointed that there were technical problems last week. Support from BlogTalkRadio seemed fairly responsive during the attempt, but the problem was not resolved during the show slot, and the folks at BlogTalkRadio failed to follow up on what happened or how it has been addressed, so I am a little bit dubious about whether the show will end up happening this week, or the quality of BlogTalkRadio’s service.
Anything else exciting going on?
Saturday Morning Surfing
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 05/03/2008 - 11:49Saturday morning. These allergies or virus, or whatever it is that has had me wheezing and coughing and not sleeping for a week has waned slightly and I slept well last night. I’m still at a very low energy level, so I thought I would do a little low impact surfing.
By low impact surfing, I mean visiting blogs by following links from sites like EntreCard or MyBlogLog. What I like about these sites is that you can let people know that you were there without having to actually think up some sort of comment to leave. With Entrecard, you can drop a card which the site own sees, and hopefully decides to come and visit your site. You can also buy advertisements, and I’ve been running Entrecard advertisement right below my list of MyBlogLog readers.
MyBlogLog shows a list of recent readers on your site, and I like to check out the blogs of people who have visited via MyBlogLog, as well as people who have been reading their sites.
Typically, these sort of visits bring me to sites very different than I would stop at as a progressive political blogger. Most of the time, I like that. However, sometimes it can be a bit tedious. EntreCard listed a whole bunch of people that had dropped cards on me, but said I hadn’t dropped cards on them. I went to visit a few and found that we’re all ones that EntreCard said I had visited, so I couldn’t drop a card on them. More annoying, as I tried following some of the ads most of them were for opportunities to make money fast on the Internet.
So, I switched over to checking my visitors via MyBlogLog. First on the list was Jill Miller Zimon. Jill is a great writer. We’ve crossed paths talking about different issues and conferences, but I don’t believe we’ve ever met face to face, even though I now live in the town where her parents live. One of these days we will meet.
Unfortunately, her blog doesn’t fit nicely into my idea of Saturday Morning Surfing. While the make money fast blogs were too mindless, Jill’s writing is always thoughtful and requires more time than I wanted to commit to any blog entry. I read her post about Bush, Marc Dann, and Women’s Voices Women’s Votes. Go check it out.
Jill’s list of recent readers included Susan Mernit. Susan is another great writer that I typically wouldn’t visit for some light Saturday morning reading. In her recent blog posts she talks about why she is reading more Twitter and Friend Feed. They act as effective filters for those of us already on information overload. I have problems keeping up with the flood of emails and haven’t gotten through all of the blogs in my feed reader in ages, but Twitter provides a good quick glimpse into what is going on.
She also talks about Digerati as media brand. Well worth the read. It seems like digital natives get both of these ideas. Teenagers spend much of their online communication in short blasts, and do a good job of defining their personal brands online, although some adults might question the markers used to denote a teenagers brand online.
With all this in mind, I went over to Twitter. It struck me, that here I was seeing a much better snapshot of our twenty first century world. whatsnext just finished reading Empress Orchard. chrisbrogan is saying hello to PodCamp in San Antonio. He, along with jerikpotter are twittering about SOBCon. ZoeConnolly is checking the air field in Caledon Penzance in Second Life. Earlier, several friends from Second Life were complaining about difficulties logging in. Others had been twittering about problems with YouTube earlier.
nprpolitics is talking about polls, Rev. Wright, and John McCain. JasonBarnett is reporting live from the Minnesota DFL Second CD convention and MikePanetta is at the DC Democratic State Committee Convention. kentbye saw a bunch of old friends at the Maryland Film Festival. Many friends are talking about Maker Faire.
acarvin is just 49 people away from having 2000 followers. PurpleCar and jeffpulver are talking about Iron Man. Apparently, it is getting great reviews on Twitter and they are both looking forward to seeing it. http://twitter.com/jcnork>jcnork is preparing for his son’s first communion.
As I scan through all of this, my mind goes to Mrs. Dalloway as she reflects on London on the fine day of her party. Pink Floyd’s lyrics come to mind, “Snapshot in the Family Album”. rickmahn twitters from SOBCon08, that Brian Clark says “It is marketing suicide to be too general in blogging today”. I don’t know. Maybe for the make money fast blogs, that I decided to skip over earlier today, it is marketing suicide to be too general. Yet as Susan Mernit points out, people like Scoble, Calcanis, Arrington and Winer have done a good job of creating compelling brands. I’d much rather read PurpleCar and jeffpulver talk about what movie they want to see today, and jcnork talking about his son’s first communion than I would listen to people who have lost authenticity in their business blogging as they try to focus on a narrow niche.
So, I’ll return to my random surfing, until Kim and Fiona get home from riding, and then maybe we’ll find something fun to do on this overcast weekend as well.
(Categories: )
