Three or four nests on that side; one on the north side of the park.
First Follow-up to Citizen Journalism Panel
My thanks to everyone who attended and to Gwyneth Doland and Kevin McDonald, KNME.
One of Gwyneth’s suggestions seemed particularly important: pick your subject, your interest, and stick with it. She spoke of the specific example of attending meetings, talking to participants, reading official documents. Important advice from the professional journalism perspective. (As devil’s advocate, I say write about what strikes you at the moment. You do not have to specialize to write. You especially do not need one single focus to get started.)
When Kevin McDonald mentioned PBS isn’t subject to ratings in quite the way commercial TV is, I thought most local TV stations don’t have vocal critics clamoring to shut them down completely. This relates to the woman who expressed her irritation at Gwyneth’s specific examples of media sources. We all have biases. Moreover, we all should cut each other some slack, especially when we give up a Saturday to come together.
I have mixed feelings about Kevin’s suggestion to associate with a larger entity. He says it lends some credibility to the blogger. Certainly, it increases the odds of one’s efforts being seen. It smacks a little of my cynical observation at the start that “citizen journalism” sounds like an excuse for firing the professionals. More importantly, I like my autonomy. Anyone is welcome to link to me, but I don’t want anyone’s masthead.
I have a recent example that turns the whole notion of citizen journalism (professionals versus amateurs) upside down, but I need to get my facts straight. Be so kind as to come back here on Tuesday. Thanks.
You, too, can be a Citizen Journalist – whatever that is
Start blogging. Writing is an exquisite exploration of the world and self, at once. If you think you have nothing to say, think again. If you think no one will care, you’re in for a surprise, but don’t despair if it seems no one is reading – they just don’t think they have anything to say. Setting up a blog takes a few minutes.
Consider using Windows Live Writer as a tool for blogging (after you set up your account with some service). WLW is a great wordprocessing-like tool.
Join Facebook. Whereas blogging may connect you to anyone in the world, Facebook connects you to people you already know. Hermits blog; Facebook draws you out of your cave. But don’t ‘friend’ everybody or ‘like’ everything – you’ll be overwhelmed. Learn about Friend Lists as a way to organize Facebook.
Read the Web. Find sites you like. Explore randomly, as well. www.dukecityfix.com has an extensive list of Albuquerque blogs. Use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to keep up with sites without visiting them directly – look for an orange icon on the site or near the address bar. Consider using Google Reader to organize your RSS feed subscriptions.
Share links. On your blog or in Facebook, link to the items you like or learn from. Look for a Share button or link. Learn how to add Share to your browser for any site. If you use WLW and Firefox, add a Blog This button to Firefox, as well.
Note the difference in these links:
www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/ (links to this blog – newest content always at top)
www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/you-too-can-be-a-citizen-journalist-whatever-that-is/ (links to this specific entry: permalink)
Comment. React. Discuss. (Be nice.)
What about Twitter? Meh, but some people love it. (Hint: RSS works with Twitter, too.)
Write me (mark@mjhinton.com). My stuff (each has RSS feeds):
- www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/ – politics, poetry, miscellany
- www.photosbymjh.com – photo blog
- www.mjhinton.com/wild/ – wilderness, southwest, rockies, Chaco Canyon
- www.mjhinton.com/help/ – computer topics, especially Windows and Web
- www.flickr.com/photos/mjhinton/ – individual photo
- picasaweb.google.com/photosbymjh/ – photo galleries
- www.youtube.com/user/ooo0j0ooo – videos I like and a few of my own
- Amazon.com: Mark Justice Hinton – shameless plug
For the 2011 Open Government Academy, presented by the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, New Mexico Press Association, and New Mexico Broadcasters Association.
Information is power. Get yours!
Are you passionate about a political, social or economic issue? Are you a neighborhood organizer, non-profit volunteer, or maybe just a taxpayer who’s ‘mad as hell’?
Whatever your cause, this one-day workshop will deliver the tools YOU need to become an informed and active participant in state and local policy-making.
“Are we still in America?”
Read the whole thing – it won’t take very long. Well-reasoned.
Robert Reich (Why Governor LePage Can’t Erase History, and Why We Need a Fighter in the White House)
The Governor’s spokesman explains that the mural and the conference-room names were “not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals.”
Are we still in America? …
Big business and Wall Street thought Perkins and Roosevelt were not in keeping with pro-business goals. So they and their Republican puppets in Congress and in the states retaliated with a political assault on the New Deal.
Roosevelt did not flinch. In a speech in October 1936 he condemned “business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.”
Big business and Wall Street, he said,
“had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.”
Robert Reich (Why Governor LePage Can’t Erase History, and Why We Need a Fighter in the White House)
Happy Birthday, Robert Frost!
3/26/1874.
Your Tax Money Went to GE Shareholders
On its front page this morning, the New York Times reported that General Electric — the world’s largest company — made $14.2 billion in profits ($5.1 billion in America) and managed to not pay a dime in federal taxes. In fact, the company actually received “a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.”
The mega corporation’s tax dodging flies in the face of the rhetoric of its CEO Jeffery Immelt — also the head of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness — who sought to portray his company as one that values fairness in a speech at West Point in 2009.