MGP2006: Democracy & Independence -- Sharing News & Politics in a Connected World

Garfield illustrates the "viral" power of short-form video

MGP2006 alum Steve Garfield, the Boston-based videoblogging expert, conducted a test over the last few weeks illustrating the viral/distributive power of the Internet -- if you know (as Garfield does) how to package it. The lesson: Short-form videos that can be spread on the popular mass-market video web services will reach many more people than long-form on a single website. The example he used for his test: A 90-minute video shot of the New England News Forum's multimedia-newsroom presentation at the Feb. 9, 2008, New England Press Association annual meeting. Here's a link to see what he found:
http://offonatangent.blogspot.com/2008/04/making-your-videos-spreadable.html

Fair Media Council's Clement alarmed about "Newsday" sale talk

MGP/JTM alumna Jaci Clement, who runs the Fair Media Council out of Briarcliffe College in Bethpage, N.Y., is sounding an alarm about talk the Long Island daily "Newsday" may be sold by Tribune Co. Read her concern at: http://mediasavvybyjaciclement.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-price-for-local-news.html

EVENT: New Pamphleteers/New Reporters, June 4-5, Minneapolis -- training for passion about place

A host of MGP2006/JTM alumni are coming together to host "New Pamphleteers/New Reporters: Convening entrepreneurs who combine journalism, democracy, place and blogs," on June 4-5, 2008 in the McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. DETAILS:

https://www.123signup.com/event?id=tzfmb OR:
http://www.mediagiraffe.org/wiki/index.php/Jtm-mn

"We're presenting a how-to program for people who are passionate about place," says Bill Densmore, Media Giraffe Project director and a member of the Journalism That Matters collaborative. "We're pulling together experts for discussions on the business, marketing, legal, advertising, journalistic, technical and fund-raising skills needed for local oneline news and community-building websites to approach success." Densmore says the event may also be the launching pad for the American Society of News and Community Forums (ASNCF), a professional/trade group for "placebloggers" -- part pamphleteers, part reporters and part entrepreneurs. "America's new online citizen journalists are inventing a new business and a new passion -- the business of building local, literate, digital domains on the web where community and commerce flourish," says Densmore. "But efforts -- and structure -- to share best practices are only just emerging."

The event is timed to occur immediately before the fourth National Conference on Media Reform, also in Minneapolis on June 6-8 and discounted registration to NCMR is an option for those attending "New Pamphleteers/New Reporters." "We'll serve as an incubator / think-and-do tank for those who are considering starting their own civic engagement / citizen journalism projects in urban/rural Minnesota and nationally," says Densmore.

TO REGISTER: https://www.123signup.com/event?id=tzfmb

J-Lab offers $10K grants for women entrepreneurs in news/information

MGP2006/JTM alumna Jan Schaffer sends along email about the McCormick Tribune New Media Women Entreneurs (NMWE) initiative -- competitive grants to spur new ideas in the world of news and information. Winners will be given $10,000 in funding to launch their ideas and blog about the process over the next year, Schaffer says. The deadline for proposals is May 1, 2008. Schaffer, who heads J-Lab at UM-College Park, says its "part of a unique initiative to address issues of opportunity and innovation, recruitment and retention for women in journalism." The initiative will:

• Provide $10,000 each to help launch three women-led news ideas.--Honor a New Media Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in an awards program.
• Research women¹s consumption and creation of news and explore creative opportunities in today¹s newsrooms.
• Produce a day-long Women Entrepreneurs Summit to unveil pilot projects, spotlight other entrepreneurial ideas, and release research findings.

A link to the application is here: http://www.newmediawomen.org/application/apply/

"Why are we doing this?" asks Schaffer. She answers her own question: "I think of this as an 'asset mapping' project. Women make the vast majority of household purchasing decisions. Women often articulate different definitions of 'news.' Yet existing research tells us that for the past two decades, women have comprised two-thirds of journalism school enrollments but make up only one-third of newsroom workforces. Many women who do become journalists leave prematurely; others say they plan to. Still others are leaving to make their ideas a reality in cyberspace. We want to create a safe haven for women to show their stuff and model the creative attributes they can bring to the table."

CONTACT: Jan Schaffer / Executive Director / J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism 7100 Baltimore Ave., Suite 101 College Park, MD 20740 Ph: 301-985-4020 Fx: 301-985-4021 jans@j-lab.org

ALUMNI NOTES: ABOUT THIS BLOG

As an ongoing resource, this blog spotlights the work of Media Giraffe Project/Journalism That Matters alumni  that fosters participatory democracy and community -- starting with "MGP2006" -- the event "Democracy and Independence: Sharing News & Politics in a Connected World" held June 29-July 1, 2006 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Organized by the Media Giraffe Project, the event drew some 300 journalists, educators, technologists and political strategists to consider the funding and future of journalism. Click on the links in the column to the left for archived teaching videos and background.  Or view the archived MGP2006 HOME PAGE. Oher MGP/JTM convenings have been in St. Louis, Memphis, Washington, D.C., and, soon, Sunnyvale, Calif.  Send "alumni" notes to mediagiraffe (at) journ.umass.edu.
GO TO MEDIA GIRAFFE PROJECT HOME PAGE

Len Witt introduces "representative journalism" idea

Kennesaw State University Prof. Len Witt  (MGP2006/JTM2007) is going public with his "representative journalism" idea. To learn about it, watch this short flash video (click on carat to left of bar underneath the picture) or go to Len's web-page primer on the subject.

Hume joining MIT center which has $5M Knight grant to study "future civic media"

MIT announced last week that Ellen Hume (MGP2006) is moving from UMass Boston to head research for the Center for Future Civic Media. C4FCM, as it is known, was founded earlier this year with a $5-million grant from the Knight Foundation to "develop new techniques and technologies to promote and enhance civic engagement in local communities, providing people with new means to share, prioritize, organize and act on information . . . " The MIT release says the center uses the term "civic media" to refer to any form of communication that strengthens the social bonds within a community or creates a strong sense of civic engagement among its residents. Here's the MIT news release: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/future-media-1206.html
. . . and background on Hume's New England Ethic Newswire project at UMass, which will continue.

Gillmor moving to Cronkite School at ASU to head digital-media entrepreneurship

JTM2007 alum and Media Giraffe Project advisor Dan Gillmor is making a professional move effective Jan. 1 to Arizona State University's Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where he'll be a "professor of practice" heading a new Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship.  The school put out a detailed Nov. 6 news release.  A few notes from the release . . . Gillmor is working on his second book, about digital media literacy . . . he'll continued to be affiliated with the Berkman Center at Harvard . . . but will bring his Center for Citizen Media efforts to Tempe.

ProPublic is great -- but what about funding journalism at the granular level?

Outgoing Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Paul Steiger's ProPublica project will put $10M in philanthropy to work on civic/watchdog jouranalism for the nation. But what about funding journalism at a more granular level. Josh Wilson, founder of NewsDesk.org, and an alum of both MGP2006 and JTM2007,
examines the question in an essay on the Media Giraffe Project website. Follow the link below to the essay, and react to it by posting here.
http://www.mediagiraffe.org/artman/publish/article_577.shtml

MGP alum George White sees watchdog-muckracking in Africa

MGP2006 alum George White – assistant director and editor at the UCLA-based Center for Communications and Community www.C3.ucla.edu – spent three weeks in Ghana and Benin exploring ways to help support journalism institutions and community media in West Africa. Among others, White met with the following: Alfred Opubor of the West African Newsmedia and Development agency (WANAD), Kwawme Karikari, director of the Media Foundation for West Africa and Alex and Wilna Quarmyne, founders and co-directors of the Ghana Community Radio Network. White hopes to encourage and assist an emerging watchdog-muckraking movement in African media. He expects to work on press freedom issues and coverage matters relating to human rights with the Media Foundation for West Africa. Also, he anticipates working with WANAD on techniques for improving coverage of development. In addition, he plans to help provide technical and content assistance to community radio stations in the region. Says White, who has a M.A. in African history: “A vigorous, unfettered news media is an important building block for development.”