Archive
February 5th, 2007
The Libby Trial Narrative: Character Development
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 02/05/2007 - 08:56I continue my quest to find out what people around me would like to see from bloggers’ coverage of the Libby trial. Some people are solely focused on gaining that one nugget of information that will tie the whole story together. I will leave that to the more experienced professional journalists or a gadfly with laser like focus. Instead, right now, I’m looking more at character development.
One of the first things I wanted to think more about is what is it like inside a Federal courtroom? What is it like to be on the stand? What are the stories of the people involved? My father-in-law and mother-in-law are both retired U.S. Treasury Agents. They have spent a fair amount of time testifying at Federal trials. The stories they tell at family picnics about their work are much different than the stories you see in TV dramas.
February 4th
Real Journalists
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/04/2007 - 12:52Below is my letter sent to the Connecticut Post in response to Ken Dixon's opinion piece, Plenty of fingers can be pointed in Krayeske issue
I read, with amusement, Ken Dixon's opinion about the Ken Krayeske case, "Plenty of fingers can be pointed in Krayeske issue", Feb. 4, 2007. He states, "First, beware of people who call themselves `journalists.' It's a highfalutin appellation. Real journalists are too busy working, gathering information to share with readers, to cop existential 'tudes."Dixon is right. We do need to beware of people calling themselves journalists. I do hope that Dixon doesn't call himself a journalist, or if he does, that he doesn't mislead many people. He seems to be too busy copping his own existential attitude to get beyond name calling and provide any real information about the important issues of what constitutes journalism in the twenty first century and what that means for our democracy.
What do you think?
(Cross posted at MyLeftNutmeg. Please vote in the poll there.)
February 2nd
R.I.P. Jo Wheeler
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 02/02/2007 - 22:46At around 9:30 on a Friday evening, my daughter looks over to me from her computer. She has been reading notes on Facebook from her classmates from The Long Ridge School. She tells me that they are saying that Jo Wheeler has died. I check the local paper and find this obituary.
JOSEPHINE STALDER WHEELER - creative and beloved teacher of young children, died peacefully Jan 28 at home and surrounded by family. She was 81. She had for several years suffered from COPD and lung cancer.
My mind goes back to the numerous times my children brought treasures to school for Jo to talk about in class. You never knew what you would find in her classroom. I thought of the urgent phone calls I would receive from her about some important physical phenomena that I should show the kids.
Long Ridge School always spoke about giving children a life long love of learning. It was more than just a marketting line, it was embodied in the life of Jo Wheeler, and it is now carried forward in the lives that she touched.
In the song Joe Hill, Joe tells young labor activists, that he didn't die, "Where working men are out on strike Joe Hill is at their side, Joe Hill is at their side." Well, perhaps something similar applies to Jo Wheeler.
Whenever a teacher joyfully accepts a little discovery, a dead beetle or a piece of animal dung that some child brings to the the teacher with urgent fascination, Jo Wheeler is at their sides.
Hope is Presidential
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 02/02/2007 - 21:32As we wade further into the 2008 presidential primary season, we are seeing more and more candidate videos and more and more commentary on such videos. Yet I wonder if somehow the whole point is being missed.
Matthew Bernius talks about a tale of two candidate’s video distribution strategies, comparing Obama’s use of BrightCove with Edwards use of YouTube. He notes that “YouTube offers tools to manage posting comments, [but] you cannot control what content your page links to. In going to ‘where the people are,’ you leave yourself open to direct commentary from the people” and contrasts this to “Brightcove’s promise of control”. He carries it further to note “Edwards’ decision to speak extemporaneously, on location in New Orleans versus Obama’s use of a controlled backdrop and a prepared speech and teleprompter” Brian Russell, and Coturnix have also commented on this.
Edwards appears to understand the nature of online video much better than the other candidates, however, I still think there is a long ways to go.
Today’s Hotline takes a different look at issues with online video: On The Download: YouTube Does Pay-To-Play. While the article focuses primarily on the FEC issues of YouTube’s Pay-To-Play plans, it also has an interesting comment from Mike Hudack, CEO of Blip.TV where he observes, “political content is on the lower end of the viewership scale”.
Why is this? Perhaps it relates back to the discussion of distribution. Too many people are looking at online video as simply another means of distributing the 30-second spot. People have attributed some of Ned Lamont’s early success on his advertisements which, unlike most political advertisements of the day, weren’t stuck in a 1960’s style of TV ads.
Sen. Edwards’ announcement video on YouTube was a step in the direction of recognizing the different language of online videos, but there is still much further to go. What are the popular online videos? Ask a Ninja, Hope is Emo, Lonelygirl115 and various coke and mentos videos come to mind. Perhaps the 2008 candidates can learn from these videos.
Edwards and Obama can duke it out to see who gets ‘Hope is Presidential’. Sen. Clinton, after her webcasts might think about engaging the folks at Ask a Ninja to come up with Ask a Candidate. The lesser know candidates can struggle to see who will be the next Lonely Candidate 2008. The real question is whose videos will be the coke and mentos of the 2008 campaign season. I haven’t seen any like that yet.
One of the things that is special about the coke and mentos videos is the participatory nature of them. They were fun and everyone could make one. I did the coke and mentos thing in my backyard, but didn’t put it online.
Personally, I am hoping that videos of regular people working together to fight the war on poverty and to find new ways of dealing with dependence on foreign oil and global warming will be the coke and mentos, but we need to find ways of making this fun and exciting. Sen. Edwards’ Day of Action is a good start but they haven’t found their viral fun yet. Let’s hope they do.
(Full disclosure: I’m in talks with the Edwards campaign about possibly working for them.)
(Cross posted at Greater Democracy)
The Libby trial meta-discussion
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 02/02/2007 - 11:13Back in 2004, I was one of the bloggers credentialed to cover the Democratic National Convention in Boston, and was surprised to find how much we bloggers were part of the story. Some of that is because of the scripted nature of conventions with their outcomes already predefined. There wasn’t much for uncertainty, other than about the bloggers. There is much less certainty with the Libby trial, but still there are some interesting discussions of the role of bloggers.
Somehow, during the convention, these discussions seemed misplaced. Yet as I wander deeper into discussions about media reform, I am thinking that the meta-discussion about bloggers may be an important part of the story.
Yesterday, I wrote a blog post asking How should Media Bloggers cover the Libby Trial?. I received quite a few different replies.
