Tag: digital divide

I like it when you’re angry

Ryan Sholin1 Comment

So I’m the last person in the world to blog about AngryJournalist.com, a good (albeit a little twisted) deed done by Kiyoshi Martinez to give folks a place to vent in public, anonymously.

While I would certainly prefer that you do something potentially productive with your time other than whine about how little of it you have, I’m particularly pleased that so many of you (almost 2,000 comments as of this morning) have found it.

That’s right, I’m happy to see you there, because to find it, you must have either been reading about journalism online, or you have a friend who does. So, whine on. At least you know how to use a Web browser, which is a plus.

Here’s an excerpt from a recent uplifting comment from Angry Journalist #1973:

“I can accept the low pay, low respect, uncompensated overtime, etc.
What I can’t accept are these jag offs who talk about the importance of community journalism but keep me from wandering through the community looking for worthwhile things to write about. The most important thing j-schools should teach is that the largest obstacle a reporter has to overcome daily are the people that logically should be helping him but are too worried about covering their own asses to let him explore instead of punching a time clock at the copy factory.”

(Not pictured: HappyJournalist.com.)

[UPDATE: Apparently, the Angry[YourJobHere].com thing is becoming a meme. Kiyoshi points to periodistacabreado.com en Español, and AngryResident (for the medical profession).]

[ALSO: Pat Thornton talked with Kiyoshi about AngryJournalist in a podcast here.]

Next Newspaper

Ryan Sholin7 Comments

Funny thing about the newspaper business.

If you’re interested in innovation, you find yourself constantly trying to demonstrate the present to people with their feet (and desks, workflow, and hierarchy) planted firmly in the past.

And while The Future of Newspapers mostly gets ink for being bleak, the future of news does not blink, or miss a beat, or stop to have a meeting to decide what color the background of its new Web site will be.

The future of news is Qik and Twitter and Friendfeed and Google Reader and Seesmic and Yahoo Live and whatever launches tomorrow that lets the people in your community share information and produce content by pushing a big red record button.

The future of news looks more like Blade Runner than Minority Report. And I don’t mean the part where Deckard reads the print edition. I mean the crazy chaotic floating blimp advertising and the bits of information flowing around mobile screens in places like taxicabs and the exposed innards of machinery.

So stop waiting for The Future of Newspapers to arrive, wrapped in a plastic sleeve with a business model printed on the outside, slipped politely behind the screen door by the paperboy. He got laid off last week. You’re going to have to try something new if you want to survive.

Citizen journalist killed in Iraq

Ryan Sholin1 Comment

{ Those of us that were in the room during the ‘Video’ session at the Networked Journalism conference in October remember witnessing Brian Conley of Alive in Baghdad basically make a plea to anyone from the numerous large, profitable news organizations at the conference to help out the cause of citizen journalism in Iraq with a contribution.

A call quickly went out to everyone in the building – the notion was that if 4 or 5 people could throw down $4,000 or $5,000 each, that would keep Alive In Baghdad going a while longer. }

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Late Friday night @baghdadbrian sent out a message on Twitter that an Alive in Baghdad correspondent had been killed.

He was Ali Shafeya Al-Moussawi, 22.  He was shot 31 times.  It’s not clear if his death was related to the story he was working on for Alive in Baghdad.

Here’s a clip from the post on the AIB blog:

“Ali lived in Habibya, it’s considered as a part of the Sadr city. On Friday the 14th at 11:30pm Baghdad time, Iraqi National Guard forces raided the street where Ali’s house is, one of the neighbors heard a gun firing after 15 minutes from the arrival of the Iraqi National Guard convoy to the street, the force left at 3:00am.”

No matter what your politics are or what you think about this war, if you’re reading this post, the odds are good you believe it’s a good idea to put communication tools in the hands of the people around the world who have the hardest time getting the most important stories to our eyes and ears and hands.

That doesn’t mean it’s an easy job to do — or a safe one.

Put your money where your mouth is: Chip in to help this 22-year-old kid’s family bury him.

http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/ac4cd4eb8bc24165