Are we all just Googling ourselves?
What if I'm interested in cars AND entymology? (Full disclosure: I am interested in neither.)
Google’s new “Good to Know” campaign intentionally reads like a children’s encyclopedia. As one clicks to turn the pages of the story book in a Gmail banner or walks past a series of “Good to Know” billboards on a train platform, each panel offers a single, simplified concept related to the way in which your information is stored and utilized on the web.
I like the idea of friendly animated scribbles attempting to educate the digitally illiterate about cookies and IP addresses so that they can actually understand what Google is doing with their information. Actually, that wouldn’t make a bad children’s show.
Unfortunately, when I see Google’s protracted, kid-friendly versions of complex concepts, they do not inspire peace of mind. Rather, these minimalist panels remind me of something that has been making me quite uneasy — my ever more “personalized” Google search results.
It’s… Support Your Media Day!
I’ve long been meaning to investigate whether this day actually existed, and if not, put all my effort into organizing it. But Free Speech Radio News (FSRN) has helpfully informed me that Support Your Media Day does exist…and it’s today!
How to celebrate:
Step 1. Think about all the media you consume. Is there any website, radio program or newspaper that provides you with original content you would describe as “refreshing”?
If you can’t think of a source of refreshing and nutritious content in your media diet, find one! Check out the amazing list of independent media organizations on the Support Your Media site (including forever-struggling classics like Mother Jones, In These Times, and The Nation) or check out my list of Refreshing Media below and find media that actually inspires you to become invested in what they’re doing.
Chile’s student leaders try once again to show they don’t lack respect
Today, students plan to march in silence out of respect for families of victims of recent plane crash that killed 21 in Chile (La Nación)
UPDATE: Students with candles protested quietly outside the main building of the U of Chile in Santiago
National and international media coverage of the current student movement in Chile tends to fixate on images of young “hooded delinquents” setting things on fire and yelling at police officers. A lot of citizens with cameras like to capture those moments, too, apparently, as US radio host Malihe Razazan mentioned that was all she could find in a recent Google search. And all this because politicians won’t cede to students’ “‘utopian’ demands” (headline from AP, aug 23; reprinted in msnbc, Time, UK Guardian, Yahoo news, Salon, etc etc etc).
Student leaders are in continuous dialogue with politicians and politicians are continuously lamenting students’ dismissals of their proposals and insistance on manifesting their dissatisfaction in public. But that does not always mean loud (albeit overwhelmingly peaceful) marches.
Everyone from students to union workers to parents to popular musicians have participated in alternative manifestations that (usually) don’t end with disgruntled teenagers throwing rocks at armored police vehicles. There are kissing marathons, cacerolazos (groups of neighbors banging on pots and pans in the evening), free concerts, impromptu marching bands, family days, street theater.
UPDATE: As predicted, police officers in riot gear arranged themselves along the periphery of the protest
This past Saturday, student leaders spent an entire day in discussion with President Piñera in the hopes of reaching an agreement. “Most students are rejecting the proposals of the authorities,” said Camila Vallejo, though the rejection is not yet official. “In its current form, the proposed timeline for education reform will not be accepted.”
This time they won’t kiss or play music for education, but have called for a silent march in black t-shirts, given the current state of mourning in the country.
If past events are any indication, there will likely be police officers in riot gear on the periphery, some mutual provocation between police and young people once the march has reached its final destination, and some flaming trash and tear gas on TV.
Apaga la tele (comercial)/Turn off the (corporate) TV [video]
Otra cadena de medios comunitarios, 1800 minutos más por la educación, esta vez en vivo en el Internet y en canales locales por lo largo de Chile (video abajo en castellano)
Even if you can’t speak Spanish, you can think about the creative coalition building and effort behind the 36 hours of live TV on the Chilean student movement that was broadcast simultaneously from the TV studio of the U of Chile and streamed live on multiple community TV stations throughout the country. It’s another take on the “Cadena Radial” (radio chain) for education executed by the same university.
2nd “Cadena Radial” broadcasts coverage of national strike across Chilean community radio stations
Poster for first "cadena radial," aug 9 & 10, 2011.
A “Cadena Radial” or “Radio Chain” will connect 27 community and citizen radio stations across Chile to simultaneously transmit content from various parts of the country during the national strike today and tomorrow (24 and 25 of August). The first radio chain was “1800 minutos por educación,” which took place on the 9th and 10th of this month. Radio JGM of the University of Chile and Radio Tierra are behind the project and reported that during the first chain, 2 thousand different users followed the Cadena Radial just through the FM signals of those two stations. ESCUCHA EN VIVO POR RADIO TIERRA.
The Latin American news agency of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters is one community radio network that offers the chain on their website
Check out my article on the Chilean movement against HidroAysén on Upsidedown World.
I have long been meaning to do a post about Upsidedown World, but not nearly as long as I’ve been meaning to move to South America and write for them. I’ve been reading the site since I got back from Chile in the beginning of 2009 to keep up with politics and social movements in Latin America. This independent, reader-sponsored online magazine publishes articles in both Spanish and English. The site uses mostly original on-the-ground reporting and also posts some stories from the limited established outlets available in this niche, like NACLA and IPS.
Here are some pics that didn’t make the site, including one featuring a dope Piñera mask:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Fearless Chilean paper with a cult print following: Interview with Bruno Sommer of El Ciudadano [video]
[Videos de las dos partes de la entrevista en castellano abajo.] [English transcript of the interview in 2 parts below.]
El Ciudadano now sells ~ 75,000 print copies per edition, in addition to its ~400,000 web visits per month, according to founder Bruno Sommer.
From one end of Chile to the other, you can find the latest issue of the bimonthly paper at newsstands or buy a copy from an enterprising college student loudly distributing it along with back issues in a local plaza.
El Ciudadano, a national independent periodical, may be one of the only contemporary papers to have seen its modest print sales grow steadily since 2005, when it was launched in tandem with a website. The print edition may one day disappear, but the website has grown alongside with features like El Ciudadano TV.
With a non-glossy, of-the-people look similar to the first issues of Rolling Stone or High Times, El Ciudadano is like many independent news outlets: it defines ‘ethical’ as reporting on issues that matter and taking a stand, rather than trying in vain to appear “objective.”
Red flags abound for readers seeking objectivity in El Ciudadano (as in the politics-laden interview with its founder and director, Bruno Sommer, below).
“We Are Living a PREAPOCALYPTIC Era,” [Sept 2010/2nd edition], one front page warns; another features a picture of President Piñera with a nightmarish grin, labeled “The Trick of Royalty” [June 2010/1st edition] (right). The first headline is from an interview with a well known Chilean intellectual, and in the second, “Royalty” refers to a term the president used for his favored copper mining projects. The paper shoves into the public discourse political and social topics and opinions that never appear in other media, and might be taboo at the dinner table. Still, red flags.
Mexico’s Freedom of the Press status officially changed to “Not Free” in the past year, according to “Freedom of the Press 2011,” an annual report released by Freedom House on May 2nd.
Mexican writer Lolita Bosch, director of the blog “Nuestra Aparente Rendición” (“Our Apparent Surrender”), spoke yesterday on what it’s like to come from a war-torn place that the rest of the world views through the lens of distorted media, and where the only way to (almost) feel like a responsible citizen is to not believe anything you read.
She says her blog has attempted to provide a more credible source of information, as well as an honest and peaceful forum that has received international attention from news outlets, politicians, and human rights organizations.
As a Mexican writer, Bosch said, “You cry and you write, and you cry and you write some more.”
“Media of the 21st Century: Opportunities and New Obstacles” [read aloud in jaded voice]
Bosch’s talk comes from one of three panels that made up this conference on current media issues, which took place in Santiago, Chile in honor of World Press Freedom Day 2011.
Her speech on Freedom of the Press was a welcome reminder that traditional censorship and silencing are still present, after a day of panels that focused on an increasingly important, but distinct human right- the Right to Communication. That is, the right of every citizen to access media; the right to disseminate and receive information through the various technological mediums available, including traditional mediums like print, TV, and radio.
The conference reflected the fact that today, in democracies like Chile and the US, lacking the Right to Communication constitutes the most common form of censorship. How to create laws that facilitate the Right to Communication, and how to exercise that right responsibly, were the two main topics of the day.
I made a blog based on those two issues, so I clearly find them fascinating, EXCEPT when discussions devolve into the dreaded debate over whether name-dropping Twitter implies an understanding of contemporary journalism and communication.
Next panel, lecture, or casual conversation on media I find myself in, I’m going to keep a running count of the number of times this happens. And then I’m going to remember that Twitter still represents a tiny percentage of the population, and that all over the world people are still denied their freedom of expression and access to information – be it a result of the “digital divide,” corporate media concentration, or government threats to journalists.
Read more on the “Freedom of the Press 2011″ report here.
News for all! Or, How the Internet works…
Your mom may tell you you’re wasting countless hours staring at a screen when you’re online, but you are really a part of (or a passive witness to) the endless revolution that is the Internet. From what I understand, it is a constant struggle between people who block access to content in order to exploit it for capital gain; and others who undercut the system of capitalism (and censorship) by finding ways to access said content for free, and even reuse it in new and exciting ways (by, say, Auto-tuning it).
For more on this important perspective, watch the documentary I cribbed it from: Steal This Film.
That said, here’s a link to Euri.ca, a site that allows you to circumvent the new 20-article-per-month limit instituted by the New York Times.
If you had any impetus at all to continue reading all the Times you wanted for free, you have probably already Googled something like “new york times free (goddammit)” and found this handy article, which has been up since before the block even went into effect. I was psyched to find that the Internet still works how I thought it did, and immediately went to NYTimes.com to try it out.
I devoured my monthly article allowance as fast as I could. In addition to learning about our country’s tax inequities, an economic crisis in Portugal, sexy female athletes, and a slew of ill-advised wars (and then getting bored and just clicking), I found that the trick works! Phew.
In my last post I said that I liked the idea of charging people for news–that is, with the assumption that employing reporters allows them to tell stories that require a lot of training, access, and resources. I still do, but I am a big believer in providing equal access to quality information because that is one way in which the Internet can be used to promote media literacy and education (as opposed to being an extension of cable TV).
I am also a realist, so I must acknowledge How The Internet Works (see above). It is worthwhile to use a pay model to fund news outlets because those who can afford to pay, and either prefer convenience, or actually find the news worth paying for, will adhere to the rules. Those who cannot afford to pay, or do not find it worth funding, will find a way around it.
Interview w/ Mark Karlin: how Internet pioneer Buzzflash.com survived a decade without ads
Mark Karlin, taken from Skype
Stream or download this mid-February Skype interview, wherein Mark Karlin, founder of Buzzflash.com, discusses the viability of the “progressive marketplace” model (3:10); Buzzflash‘s lonely beginnings (0:01); the Huffington Post merger (7:14); and why Truthout/ Buzzflash is neither left, nor right- just common sense (10:22).
Ever been to one of those sites with links to loosely related content that some company made in order to hold onto a profitable domain name so they could sell it later? In 2011, at first glance, Buzzflash.com looks a little like that. But, as Karlin explains, back when it was started in 2000, the Buzzflash news service was a hallmark of the ‘progressive’ (thinking and not conservative) Internet community, with little company other than web 1.0 staples Zmag and AlterNet.
Around the time when the Huffington Post merged with another relic of Web 1.0 (AOL), Buzzflash moved into the new decade by becoming a feature on Truth-out.org.
Truthout has been around since 2001, but with its sleek minimalist design and continually growing readership, it seems more like a new frontier in Internet journalism. The non-profit, funded by a few foundations and a couple million loyal readers, is proving a sustainable source of independent reporting and commentary. The addition of the “Buzzflash Daily Headlines” feature shows that, like many sites, Truthout is now attempting to cover all its bases and become a one-stop-shop for news on the Internet.
Personally, I sought out Buzzflash‘s founder not because of the site’s recent consolidation or its historical significance, but rather because of its unique revenue source that allowed it to avoid both advertising and the donation-for-premium model used by many public and non-profit news outlets. Up until the site merged with Truthout, it was funded by a “progressive marketplace” model, wherein Karlin and his wife (who also worked other jobs) sold books, DVDs, and other wares that were progressively minded.
According to Karlin, this allowed them to help provide a market for others in their broad community and re-invest the profits into their operation.
Could this symbiotic model work, not only for independent political journalism, but for independent journalism about art, music, and literature, as well?
