It's been bad for graduates before

Regina McCombs' speech to the University of Minnesota Journalism and Mass Communication graduation this month. It's been bad before, it will get bad again in the future. It's all about maximizing opportunities.

Might be a little quiet for 2 weeks

I'll be O.O.C. until June 8.

See you on the flip side.

A photo a day

An interesting blog about a found series of photos. Never know how your images will effect or impact people.

Keep shooting!

An interesting idea to keep newspapers important

Here's a unique idea that will get those on the polarized sides of politics and cynicism fired up. But until there's a legitimate finding otherwise, subsidies could be very rational. The airlines have been getting bailed out nearly every decade since they began to open it up to any and all in an effort to be public transportation. Information and an informed society seems a bit more important than that trip to Hawai'i. Otherwise we'll be seeing more of these reports just before the bottom absolutely falls out.

It's all about the content, really

The Detroit Free Press put together a page of all their Emmy winning online pieces. If you want to know what people will sit through or click and view, start here for your first lesson. It's all about content, quality, functionality, interactivity and a plan to make all that other stuff happen.

Another collision of sorts

So there's been an interesting story going on in Boulder. Seems a rent-a-guard and a restaurant co-owner had a Taser shootout over a parking issue this past weekend. It's been getting all kinds of traffic because of the weirdness and stupidity that abounds. As a result an editorial cartoon was created in response. There it is, another blending of mediums. Don't know if it's as funny as peeing with a focus, but it's pretty dang funny.

Pay attention at ALL TIMES

Looks like Ryan McGeeney of the Standard-Examiner took a javelin in the leg. It's not too nasty, but I'm sure it hurt like hell. Looks like he'll be alright. But the quote from the coach and the results after the incident make this a classic for the beer table after shooting some state athletic event.

Gaming and urninating collide

So here's one example of how our endless media consumption continues to push the envelope. I've had a couple ideas for a "captive audience" in the toilet the last few months, but I think I'll just flush mine after seeing this.

And you didn't think there were gatekeepers

The NY Times' article Message Machine from April 20 was a result of tons of hard work I'm sure and shoe leather to find out that the Pentagon was creating contrived spin in the media about the Iraq war. There are several surprising notions in the story but according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s News Coverage Index survey not many other media outlets cared too much.

If it had been about Jack Black revealing the Brangelina twins news it would have spread like wild fire. Oh wait, it did.

Sin City in complete multimedia glory

There is so much information in this I don't even know where to start or what to say. Basically you'll have to take a look and get engrossed. I just want to know how many people had how much time with how much planning to put all this together. It is extensive. Never thought I would be able to learn so much about my birth city.

World Press Photo Photog Interviews

Good interview videos with the winning photojournalists of the World Press Photo categories. There's also interviews from 2007. It's interesting to hear more about the back story of photographs. What the photog was thinking and attempting and the end result. The interview with Tim Hetherington about his 2nd place story reveals an interesting struggle while making photos in war torn Afghanistan.

Close call

A sequence of four frames from a Reuters photog in Afghanistan with some Marines that came under fire.

Twitter meets YouTube

So how about a service that combines the microblogging and "following" nature of Twitter and the video capabilities of YouTube? Well, here you go. It only seems like a natural evolution in the realm of social Internet tools. Hopefully I'll get into the beta, so I can add my quality facial expressions to my random thoughts. Watching the continual uptick of Twitter use for journalism as well as social implications, I can see Seesmic doing just as well if not better. With a face to the content there may seem to be more of a notion of truth or validity than just words in a balloon.

A new visual way of doing a music video

Holy Mac ad, but there had to be lots of storyboarding and pre-planning for this gig.

Do you have faith?

A blog with prayers and news about the newspaper biz. I don't know if it will help pull us all up from this nosedive, but sure as heck can't hurt.

And for my next trick (trip)

This sounds like an absolute hoot. This could be done over a long weekend with four or five people. Might need to do it sooner rather than later given the rising cost of petrol.

One more potential future of journalism

The notion of a news outlet being based on a non-profit model could be one more way to keep the integrity of journalism alive and ditch the heroin-like greed of Wall Street's expectations. I believe there are a lot of folks watching MinnPost.com with a magnifying glass and microscope. Let's hope they continue to become a viable enterprise.

The cuts just keep on coming

So here's some scary ugly numbers about the number of media jobs lost this year and total jobs lost in the country this year. Absolutely astounding. Well, you might as well add nine more to the total of media jobs cut. The Camera laid off one in the newsroom and eight others yesterday. I knew it was going to be too hard to be positive in these posts.

Found via Journerdism

Future of news online?

Very simple idea by Josh Wolf using readily available and inexpensive online tools to disseminate news and info. They did a proof of concept during the Olympic torch protests in San Fransisco. More evidence that smaller groups of journalists coming together will be able to find a niche and find their place in on the Internet.

Found via Frontline's Twitter feed

Geeks gone violent

Here's a really interesting video on several levels. First, the style of videography is different for a news production. Second, it's a unique and interesting story. And finally, ESPN has been opening up the spigots on its content to the web. There's a reason they are called the "world wide leader in sports."