“You won’t miss it until it’s gone”

It’s a sad day for local newspapers today. The Rocky Mountain News is shutting down, leaving Denver, CO with one metropolitan newspaper. Even though I live in London and have never even seen a print-copy of The Rocky, it’s a poignant reminder that local media now face a stark choice between having to reinvent themselves or vanish.

The video documentary of The Rocky’s last day, Final Edition, reminds us that the business model of local newspapers used to rely on classified ads for their bread and butter. That revenue stream dried up, leaving The Rocky and many other newspapers in similar circumstances to rely on print advertising and subscription fees to sustain their operations in an economic downturn that has seen advertising spend shift online.

There’s a real need for a professional class of truth-tellers, inherently suspicious and factual in their reporting. This, of course, is the journalistic ideal. Rocky Journalist Jeff Legwold says that the motto on the wall in the first newsroom he worked in was: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” The problem is that such an operation is expensive, and has to be paid for with something else.

Note that the video above comes to you via Vimeo, and one of the stories on The Rocky’s site today reports that “The world followed the closure on Twitter.” And how did I, a Londoner, notice this story in the first place? I saw it on the Talking Points Memo political news blog.

Filed under: Social media

The Observer’s Top 50 Blogs

Leaving aside the question whether these are “the world’s 50 most powerful blogs”, The Observer’s list is certainly useful and entertaining.

And if you’re planning to get on the list, read Cory Doctorow’s fine article, “17 Tips for Getting Bloggers to Write About You”.

Filed under: Social media , blogging, Pleasures, Technoculture

Time, time, time

I’ve always been suspicious of people who mindlessly drive themselves and others to work, work, work, cheerfully spouting Ben Franklin’s dictum “time is money”. Time is many things, and it certainly is valuable, but it doesn’t equate to money – even when you’re getting paid by the hour. 

 

It turns out that worrying too much about wasting time, losing time, saving time, not having enough time, and generally treating time more like a thing than a quality is profoundly counterproductive. Hence my great pleasure at Stefan Klein’s op-ed piece in the New York Times, “Time Out of Mind”. It explains, but only partly, why time seems to pass at a fourfold speed whenever I so much look at a game of Scrabulous on Facebook…

Filed under: Social media , Education, Pleasures, time

Growing up Online

Another fine documentary from PBS’s Frontline series came to my attention: Growing up Online, broadcast 22 January 2008. I don’t know how, just yet, but I’ll have to make room in some of my classes to show at least some of the segments.

One good thing about this documentary is that it attempts to keep the hysterical “omigod, your kids are doing whatever they want online” attitude in check long enough to point out that socializing online is not a passing fad – it’s now part of the everyday media environment.

Watch the full programme and explore additional materials here.

Filed under: Education, Media Theory, Social media, Technoculture , Education, Media Theory, Postgrad, Technoculture

Conference: Trouble Makers, Making Trouble

We’re putting on a one-day conference at Greenwich, Friday 22 February, 10am to 6pm.

Check out the Trouble Makers / Making Trouble page for full programme and speaker information.

See our Facebook Events page here.

Filed under: Social media , Events, Media Theory, Postgrad

In the City 2007

Went to In the City 2007 in Manchester last weekend, and had a fantastic time. The conference itself was a great success, and central Manchester was bursting with music – I have never seen so many live acts in one night. The frustration was that even at the good gigs I felt like I was missing something elsewhere.

At Bedlam there were three fantastic acts on stage in a row. The Rosie Taylor Project, James Yuill, and Jakokoyak – I’ll be stalking their myspace pages for their next London gigs for sure.

Twisted Wheel had a big buzz surrounding them, and their gig was packed – deservedly. Check out their catchy hummable “You Stole the Sun”.

Oneyesblue is one of the bands I never saw but managed to hear on record – catchy, classic blues rock. Same for OK Tokyo and The Joy Vegas – very good stuff that I would have loved to catch live.

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, of course…

Filed under: Social media , Music

Perception

I scored an invitation to one of IDEO London’s Big Wednesday gatherings. They turn a whole floor of their building into a big seminar/party space and gather some interesting speakers – this time on the topic of “perception”. The party trick of the evening was to ambush everyone with a polaroid camera upon entry, mugshot-style, and then stick the photo on pasteboard with an invitation to draw a self-portrait.

Because I’m vain I got two photos taken of me, but because the “wrong” one was much more interesting, I ended up drawing next to it instead of the second one.

Filed under: Social media

Bit of arts journalism

My piece about Hreinn Fridfinnsson’s show is printed in the midsection of today’s Morgunbladid. Looks great, with a huge photo I took of him against a gorgeously yellow wall at the the Serpentine Gallery. Vera has a great photo from last night’s opening on the back page.

There’s a brief note and a photo on Mbl.is as well (see here).

Filed under: Social media

Get your motor running…

I saw this wonderful vehicle stuck in massively congested traffic by the University campus in Greenwich. Didn’t quite have the nerve to approach the window and chat with the people in it.

If you’re going to get stuck in traffic, at least be stuck in style.

Filed under: Social media

What kind of ignorance does a teacher need?

Yesterday was spent at “Camouflage”, a lively symposium organized by my colleague Johnny Golding, with support from our department at Greenwich University. Instead of conventional conference presentations, we enjoyed around 17 “provocations” ranging from performances to conventional academic papers.

It’s a pleasure to spend time discussing the art and research of a diverse group of people who like to venture beyond their immediate sphere of knowledge, expertise and comfort. The experience of the whole day was summarized by Petra Sabisch, on whose Ph.D. thesis I am a supervisor, who gave a presentation/performance composed entirely of questions: “What kind of ignorance does a teacher need in order to be interesting?”

The fundamental assumption here is that a teacher needs a certain level of ignorance to drive curiosity, experimentation – to remain alive to scholarship. I agree. One of the great disappointments of academic conferences for me is that they so rarely hold surprises. This is why “Camouflage” was such a pleasure – my notebook is now littered with many unexpected remarks, references and connections.

Excuse me, I need to look something up about “Zouzou” youth culture and the Vichy regime…

Filed under: Social media , Events, Postgrad