-The rebirth, metamorphosis, and transformation of journalism
-The evolution of the dissemination of intelligence If all the world’s problems, pain and suffering are due to ignorance then wisdom, intelligence and awareness are the solutions to all the worlds’ problems, who can deliver the solution? We have a world out of balance, who is there to bring it back into balance? It is a world of disinformation and bias, who can clarify the truth without distortion by special interest? Who is it that is defined by their intention to “make aware” and who is it that can facilitate the many to see the reality behind the appearances?
Independent Journalists and Organizations of Journalistic Endeavor
Organizations of journalists exist to achieve what no individual journalist can achieve alone. They provide collective wisdom and a large pool of knowledge and information sources combined with a little structure and discipline. The organized journalists leverage and share resources reducing costs for all the participants in the journalistic organization and the end user. A journalistic organization is a collective effort that combines areas of specialty to deliver a complete product to the organizations readers.
The role of the editor is a special one to assist the author in, identifying errors and omissions, review of the logic, analysis of the possibility and probability, determining what is known, highlighting what is unknown and needs to be known, defining the questions to be asked. For it is the question not the statement that is most powerful creating a vacuum in the mind that must be filled, and since nature abhors a vacuum it is soon answered. Spotlighting the rational and the irrational views and finding the wisdom that ends the conflict between them. The main function of the editor is to take a lot of information and detail and reduce it down to provide a concise understanding, an executive summary for today’s short attention spans.
The editor translates concepts requiring a specialty framework of knowledge into terms and examples understood within a general framework of knowledge while providing some details to validate. Those working in other vocations don’t have time to study all the detail so the value of the editor and the journalists is saving the reader the time it takes to become knowledgeable and informed, so they can make decisions. The reader with greater interest is then directed to additional detail and more information if they require it and where and when to find the follow-up on the unanswered questions and culmination of the story if it has not ended.
Time is money, time is in many contexts a limited resource; knowledge is power so this is the value generated for other economic system participants by the journalistic vocation. As such the journalistic agents should be duly rewarded by other economic system participants with a portion of the wealth they create for it is the journalist that enhances their wealth creation.
Good investigative journalism is an “effort” intensive vocation which can demand substantial resources to juice and invest in the development of the story and this creates the need for a supporting body to nurture the individual cells. Simple cut and paste is not journalism, it is propagation and validation, something we should all do. Journalism requires study, disciplined placement of attention, a discerning mind, benefited by understanding and comprehension resulting from years of experience.
Enhanced and well exercised cognitive capabilities and a sharp mind are essential to connecting disparate pieces of information and clues to form and assemble the complete picture, the whole story, and the untold story that becomes told.
The New Journalist Organization
Very efficient, advanced communications, data mining, research and collaboration tools, diversified distribution channels, and a database of contacts and the maintenance of relationships to sustain information flow. The news organization is trusted by the readers to direct “attention” to the matters, issues, and solutions in order of priority. The news organization delivers the balanced view, one resulting from the integration of contrasting perspectives to deliver one that is whole and integrated.
The new journalistic organization is not a unidirectional flow of information it is bidirectional where readers provide feedback helping to evolve understanding, pose questions, and some actually becoming sources of information in their specialty area or as a result of their direct experience and involvement in the story line.
Formats: Diversity is good, sometimes print is good on a train, a subway, a plane, at the beach, and in waiting rooms. Print does not require power or energy to read just natural light making it a green sustainable fail proof technology. Newspapers should be available in these locations. A newspaper vending machine is itself a quick informer showing the front page, and the priority stories and current state of affairs. Are things in balance or out of balance, what is being done to correct imbalance? What must be done to bring balance? The static printed medium can supply the entry points, the URLs leading to the dynamic and more expansive content.
On the other hand there is the dynamic real time need for energy efficient electronic distribution to meet the speed of change, the accelerated rate of evolution that is itself a product of the light speed information flow combined with the furthering development of the story. Also we remember there are those, a portion of us that are empowered by the simplicity of access to information provided by the printed medium.
Advertising: There is nothing wrong with advertising and marketing, and it is evolving. The new department name is the Awareness Department. No longer is it a medium of gimmick, manipulation of ego, or motivation through fear or a producer of envy. It no longer attempts to create an illusion and seduce with fictions, but portrays a reality. People want to know a service or product’s features and functions, the level of quality and intelligence that goes into it; the efficiency achieved in producing it. The consumer wants to be educated in how the product or service can benefit them and the lives of others they know. The consumer wants to be able to access the detail specifications if needed so they can compare and the various levels of need each model of product or service package can fulfill. The consumer wants to be aware of what is available as a solution to a problem or challenge they are having. The consumer wants to be able to find the information they want easily. The consumer expects to find this information linked to the channels of interest associated with the product. If one is a music connoisseur then what better to see what is newly available, the evolutions of products and services and their current status, related to their listening pleasure, while they are selecting music to listen to. Advertising and marketing is not a “push operation” it is a pull operation, not one of force, but one of gravity, and it does this by making itself intelligently available and nudging with the creation of awareness.
It is the job of the awareness department representing an organization of producers, a business, to deliver this to the right places in a concise and understandable form allowing the seeker to drill down to the detail. When the want or desire of a consumer arises it is the job of the awareness department to make sure there is a link to a path that leads to fulfillment.
News Story: the local, regional, and global scope of perspective and story are all separate areas of focus and need yet all combine to provide a holistic view. There is an understanding that the local gives rise to the regional and the regional to the global, the story lines are all connected to our Great Epic story, the story of humanity, and it is we all of us that together are writing it.
It is the job of the journalist to create awareness leading to balance in the world while promoting evolution and growth, and the ability to adapt. It is the journalists that query the technicians that can solve the problems and the experts that have the insight and understanding. It is the journalist that helps generate the impetus that comes from the people to direct the politicians to orchestrate. It is the journalist that eliminates the fictions that divide, for truth only creates unity. It is journalists that bring attention to issues and their solutions, to direct healing, repair and aid to those areas of humanity needing it, so we can all sleep soundly at night without worry, knowing that tomorrow all the children will awaken to play and pretend, and fill the air with the music of their laughter, and appease the gods so that everyone has a life worth living.
"Let it be know that when the sounds of the children’s laughter grows dim in the universe and the divine vibration is replaced with sound of crying and tears the gods will come and with their enormous might carried by vehicles of light and eliminate that which silenced the laughter."
Richard Thomas Gerber - Feb 09
This was written in response to a planned event on April 23rd some 60 journalists will be meeting to talk about the past and future in the present in the Old Detroit Free Press Building. There are still 100 potential seats available to this exclusive revolutionary media event. Those that might like to attend can send an email to freepressevent@gmail.com . It would seem that we would be talking about and forming the new news media; the core of which is simply the journalists and editors empowered by new technology, connectivity and need.
I was asked recently why I refer to myself as an “Obamacrat” when I’m a registered Democrat. And it’s a very good question. From 2000 to 2007, I was a registered independent. During that period, I continued voting for Democrats because I liked their agenda and issues, but I scoffed at the notion of belonging to a party. After all, “issue identification” has always been more important to me than “party affiliation”.But President Obama really inspired me to change my party affiliation…and ultimately, to believe again. My belief in the concept of the politics of hope has always been strong, but now it's bigger than the boundaries of this planet we inhabit. It was just a matter of time before I knew the word Obamacrat fully applied to me. But it's more than a word, it's a bonafide movement.Allow me to explain.To be an Obamacrat is to acknowledge (not dismiss) the color-specific differences that make us unique, while also embracing the color-blind commonalities that bring us together. If you see it this way, then you’re happy that President Obama has assembled a rich, cosmopolitan group of smart people that will advance, improve, and transform lives while "visually reflecting" the diversity of America. In a country of shifting demographics, this is necessary. In fact, Obamacrats will be cheering loudly when President Obama names a Latino and an Asian American to The Supreme Court.To be an Obamacrat is recognize that nothing, but nothing, trumps grass roots organizing. President Obama beat Hillary Clinton during the Democratic Primary season last year because of his simple community organizing philosophy: city-by-city; block-by-block; person-by-person. But he became the most popular person in the world when he grew his profile using the tools of The New Media: the MySpacing-YouTubing-Facebooking-texting-Twittering component. Obamacrats see this as the smartest way to market your message for a mass audience. And we appreciate how Barack Obama continues to use New Media tools to promote his presidential message.Obamacrats crave diplomacy, you know, where our country talks to both its friends (like Great Britain and Israel) and its enemies (like North Korea and Iran). In a world that is more connected and inter-dependent than ever before, nations working together can reduce, if not obliterate, the child sex trade; female inequality; global warming; the AIDS epidemic; famine; and never-ending war.Furthermore, Obamacrats also want a president who can bridge the cultural divide in this country, you know, someone with both BLUE STATE credentials and RED STATE credibility. Indeed, regardless of who voted for him on November 4th, President Obama now represents the evangelical farmer in Montana and the supply-side economist in Mississippi (who probably didn’t support him) as well as the small business owner in California and the union worker in Connecticut (who probably did).To be an Obamacrat is to believe you can build something as majestic as The Great Pyramids or The Great Wall of China; to believe you can be as historic and life-affirming as P.B.S. Pinchback or Shirley Chisholm; or to believe that regardless of your cultural name (Gupta, Nguyen, Garcia, Omar or, Obama) you can be President of the United States. You know there are limits, but your strong, overpowering belief in the possibilities pushes you, and drives you.Labeling myself an Obamacrat is a profoundly impressive honor that I take very seriously. I love the fact that President Obama is not only a great communicator, but also an intellectual stud. The Obama Family living in The White House, a building built by African-American slaves, is compelling. Truly earth shattering. But, even more compelling is the fact that slaves also dug foundations, hauled limestone, baked bricks, and cleared timber for The Capitol, where Obama was inaugurated, and for the massive area known as The National Mall, where 2 million people were packed in to witness his swearing in.Like President Obama, we walk in the spirit of people who championed our rights, who spoke truth to power, and, who even envisioned this great moment in history. Let us all make the most of it.To be an Obamacrat? Man, right now, nothing even compares to the feeling.
2morrowknight is an internet strategist and community organizer who blogs at 2morrowknight.blogspot.com, and is author of a forthcoming children's book. You can follow him at Twitter.com/2morrowknight and friend him at Myspace.com/2morrowknight.
Following the Obama campaign over the last few months has been an exciting and inspiring time. The campaign has been conducted brilliantly, and can be considered perhaps the most well executed and progressive Presidential campaign of all of time. Of all the many facets of the campaign, the utilization of the internet and social media has been extraordinary--and likely a fundamental factor in the overall success of the campaign. Here, I want to outline the components of this new media campaign strategy, explore the implications of this trend as it can follow into the Presidency, and speculate on how the advents of communication technology and socially-driven politics suggest the emergence of 21st century democracy, and evolution of social change.
To view this blog post with music and Barack Obama messages taped on his podcast in the past access this link
By Daniel Kurtzman, About.com
"They say I need to be seasoned; they say I need to be stewed. They say, 'We need to boil all the hope out of him -- like us -- and then he'll be ready.'" (Watch video
********************************
'Eye Without A Face' by Mark Bellinghaus, Copyright 2008
Life is all about signs...seeing the signs....understanding the signs...acting upon the signs
--Mark Bellinghaus
Extract & Photo caption/description posted on OUR MARILYN BLOG - you can find the entire blog article here: blog.ourmarilyn.com/2008/08/31/marilyn-monroe-would-have-voted-f .. and also here: my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/markbellinghaus/gG5W75 Ella Fitzgerald & Marilyn Monroe, in 1955 (above) and in 1962, (below), the year Marilyn Monroe passed away. In 1955, when racism was still a big issue in the United States of America, Ella Fitzgerald became the first African-American to perform at the Mocambo, after Marilyn Monroe had lobbied the owner for the booking. The booking was instrumental in Fitzgerald's career. Marilyn would promise the owner that she would appear every night (and be on time), and this way also fill the house--and she did, she was there every night, and she filled the house and: she was always on time! Their close friendship lasted for many years and Ella would sing Marilyn Monroe's famous 'My Heart Belongs To Daddy' in honor of her wonderful friend Marilyn Monroe, who died almost 34 years before she passed on in 1996, at age 79. Barack Obama Quotes: 'They say I need to be seasoned; they say I need to be stewed. They say, 'We need to boil all the hope out of him -- like us -- and then he'll be ready.' 'I have nothing to hide, I enjoy being myself. I'm not going to change who I am just because it's Halloween." -appearing as himself on Saturday Night Live as part of a skit that featured Hillary Clinton dressed as a witch at a Halloween party * 'It's like I was shot out of a cannon. I'm so overexposed that I make Paris Hilton look like a recluse.' 'Hillary is not the first politician in Washington to declare 'Mission Accomplished' a little too soon.' Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday to President John F. Kennedy, who was a Democrat
Chances are if you're reading this page, you know that Ohio is crucial to this election. If we defeat John McCain in Ohio, it is almost totally impossible for him to become president.
The Campaign for Change is looking for interns--young, educated people dedicated to committing much of their time and energy for the next two months to making sure Ohio turns blue for Barack. Click HERE to become part of the army of change-makers.
Watch this inspirational video about the difference young people can make in this election, and then see the details about the opportunities available below:
INTERN FOR BARACK OBAMA IN OHIO.
Internships available in:
Field Organizing
New Media
Voter Protection (JUST ADDED!)
Data
IT
Click here to apply as an intern right now.
SocialDevCamp Chicago! This will be an unconference for individuals passionate about social networks, web applications, platform development, new media, and any of the exciting (but messy) topics between.
http://www.facebook.com/events.php?ref=sb#/event.php?eid=20586291919
"Join some of the brightest minds in the Midwest (ha, I didn't write that) for a day of fun, learning, and coding. Discussions will surround topics including Google App Engine, Data Portability, Online Trust, and mobile application development."
Working in a campaign is a lot like swimming in the ocean: it looks fun on the surface but underneath you are paddling as fast as they can to stay afloat and despite your best efforts you never know where the currents will take you.
This is the first of what I hope to be a handful of posts about my month-long hiatus from Google to work for Barack Obama’s campaign in Chicago.
A phenomenon is occurring within the Obama campaign, with thousands upon thousands of students flocking to Barack, and supporting him through these very early stages of the 2008 Presidential election. Typically, the grass-roots youth movement swells, like Dean in '04 and Gore in '00, then dies down after a period of time. So it's important to note that the Obama youth movement is bucking this trend, and actually increasing momentum.
One of the reasons for this is that the main Obama campaign has firmly grasped the energy and enthusiasm of the youth movement, and has directed it in efficient and effective ways. One of these directions was the immensely successful Camp Obama.
In an article published in the Capital Times, the campus chapter of Students for Barack Obama for University of Wisconsin in Madison was profiled due to success not only in their state, but in the nearby state of Iowa. Andy Gordon, the group's campaign chair, attributed the continuing success the group has had to the fact that, "many of us have already been trained on how the caucuses work and what to do."
In fact, before school started, the dedicated members of the UW-Madison SFBO chapter were in contact with their counter-parts in Iowa, campaigning and helping out with various tasks. The group has also taken initiative in the new media area, encouraging Facebook participation, and using e-mail as a campaign tool.
The article focusing on this youth movement as well as the impact that the UW bunch has had can be found here.
Ok, I know it's Father's Day, but I'm in the mood to talk about mothers. I have been thinking all week about how my generation of women is transitioning in this age of new media. I read articles saying how suburban women in their 30's and 40's are supporting Hillary and how they will be the group that ultimately gets her elected. And I see polls that say she's leading that also suggest it is because of these same women. But the more I think about this, the more it makes no sense. There is no way that traditional polling is accounting for how women my age are going to vote. I'm a suburban woman in my 30's and I wouldn't answer the phone for a polling company if I had to. How many women do you know that don't screen their calls using their caller id's? All the moms I know are at the height of multitasking when those kinds of calls come in. I can guarantee answering a bunch of questions on the phone while emptying the dishwasher, acting as a toy-disagreement-referee, planning a weekly schedule, wiping a little nose, and helping someone with their homework is just not going to happen. As a matter of fact, I have several friends who don't even have home phones anymore...they just use their cells. So who exactly is answering these calls and taking the polls that show Hillary in the lead? I have a pretty strong suspicion that it is the group of women that is one generation older than mine. This group is probably less likely to have caller id. Or maybe they have it, but don't care as much about screening out 800 and unfamiliar numbers. So their views are accounting for the rest of us. As much as I want my beliefs reflected in national polling - because I know numbers show trends that create buzz that raises money and gets media coverage - I'm still not going to answer a poll call. So what do you do if you are an organization trying to get real data in this age of new media? Send me an instant message that takes me to a website polling company. Let me take a poll generated in email. Have me watch something on YouTube and then ask my opinion about it. But don't use a technique that was outdated 10 years ago and then tell me that's how my contemporaries are going to vote. Most of the candidates have embraced new media. I just am waiting for the day when the organizations that conduct polling catch up with them.
Hey folks!
Jessica and I will be loading up the camera and the rest of our gear and heading out to join Senator Obama out on the road as he makes several stops stops through Iowa this weekend. (specifically, Dubuque, Clinton, Davenport, Muscatine and Burlington.) We'd like to see you all out there and we'd love to hear what you have to have to say. Tell us about yourself and what you want to tell Barack Obama.
If you're planning on attending one of these events and want to tell us about yourself or what you want to tell Barack Obama, drop us a line. Let us know which events you plan on attending and hopefully we'll be able to meet you there.
