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VIDEO: Geoff Davidian's wedge approach to journalism

Former daily-newspaper editor and reporter Geoff Davidian was upset when he felt his bank charged fees he hadn't agreed to. So he filed suit and started using the discovery process to learn he wasn't along. Davidian explained his reporting tactic in a Media Giraffe Project interview recorded in Santa Cruz, Calif., on Jan. 26, 2008. This is not Davidian's first muckraking crusade. In 1998, he founded a small paper called the Putnam Pit in a rural part of Tennessee -- and ended up in a lawsuit with the town followed by Salon.com.  He chronicles his dispute with the bank at his MilwaukeePress.net, where details of the bank suit are searchable.

VIDEO: Plotting the future of independent media

How do you bring 200 strangers together for two days, ask them to debate the future of progressive media, and come up with action steps? Marc Tognotti explains in this short interview during a break in the Independent Media Strategy Summit held Jan. 25-27, 2008 in Santa Cruz, Calif.

VIDEO: Griff Wigley, Minn. citizen journalist

A Media Giraffe Project interview with Griff Wigley, conducted Sept. 2, 2005 in Saint Paul, Minn. Click on the carat at the left of the bar below the photo to launch the streaming video. See full profile at: http://www.mediagiraffe.org/profiles/index.php?action=profile&id=92

VIDEO: Paulding.com's Pat Hughes capitalizes on hyper-growth Atlanta suburbs

Pat Hughes is using a lifetime of corporate and entrepreneurial experience in mainstream media to build a community-news and information website for one of the fastest-growing U.S. suburban areas northwest of Atlanta. Paulding.com is a quirky but high-traffic website for communities west of Atlanta. As the population of Paulding County, Ga. began to boom, Hughes saw the opportunity for a hyperlocal news site and obtained the Paulding.com domain in 1997 as editor of a local weekly newspaper. In August, 2007, Hughes said Paulding.com had 12,500 registered users (in a 43,000-household target market area 35 miles northwest of Atlanta), and some news posts on breaking stories would garner 714 comments and 24,000 pageviews. On Oct. 18 2007, Media Giraff Project Editor Bill Densmore taped a one-hour interview with Hughes while both attended the Online News Association annual convention in Toronto. Click on the carat on the bar below the black screen to start streaming video of the interview. Also: View the Media Giraffe Project profile of Hughes. (Joining in the Hughes interview with comments and observations is Rob "Roblimo" Miller, an editor at SlashDot.com)

VIDEO: ChiTown Daily News -- Geoff Dougherty

In late 2005, Geoff Dougherty left a reporting job at the Chicago Tribune to found the non-profit ChiTownDailynews.org -- to provide local news online to the nation's second-largst city. His PublicMedia Inc. is an Illinois not-for-profit corporation which whas seeking federal tax-exempt status.

VIEW MEDIA GIRAFFE PROJECT PROFILE OF DOUGHERTY.

On Oct. 17, 2007, Media Giraffe Project Editor Bill Densmore conducted an hour-long video interview with Dougherty as both attended the Online News Association annual convention in Toronto. To launch a stream of the video, click on the carat on the left of the bar below the photo.

AUDIO: The community embedded journalist -- Paul Bass

Paul Bass is a different kind of embedded journalist. Raised in New York City suburbs, Bass came to college at Yale University and never really left New Haven, Conn. Now in his late-40s, Bass worked for the city's once-family-owned-daily, edited the alternative weekly and then took a break to work on a book. When he was finished, he realized he couldn't stay away from a newsroom. But instead of returning to the established ones, he created his own, in a spare bedroom of his urban home. Now he's embedded in the daily political, cultural and social life, as editor/founder of the New Haven Independent, a non-profit which publishes one of the most news-rich local online news blogs in the United States. In a one-hour Media Giraffe Project interview taped Jan. 16, 2008, Bass talks about his motivation and passion.  To stream the 58-minute interview, click on the carat at the left of the bar below. Download an MP3 podcast for offline listening. Or watch the VIDEO VERSION.

AUDIO: Demand-side plea for 'news literacy' in classrooms

Jim Klurfeld and Howard Schneider wrote sports stories together at the Syracuse University Daily Orange as undergraduates. They started a weekly paper on Cape Cod. And they rose close to the top of the mainstream media world as editorial-page editor, and executive editor,respectively, of Newsday, the big Long Island daily. Now they have teamed up together at the Stony Brook University to start their next career -- tending to the "demand side" of journalism. The duo, working with grants from both the Ford and Knight foundations, are developing a news-literacy curriculum for the nation's schools and colleges. Learn why in this 23-minute audio interview with Bill Densmore of the Media Giraffe Project. (DOWNLOAD CURRICULUM POWERPOINT -- 11MB) Click on the carat of the bar below to launch the audio, or download an MP3 podcast version. (Size: 5.5 MB)

  A VIDEO VERSION of this interview is available.

VIDEO: The demand dilemma and news literacy in schools

ADVISORY: Due to a recording error, the audio on this clip must temporarily be played in stereo. If your computer has a speaker which combines the left and right channels, the audio will be very soft. Listen with headphones, or play back only one channel. Or you can listen to the audio only by clicking HERE.

Jim Klurfeld and Howard Schneider wrote sports stories together at the Syracuse University Daily Orange as undergraduates. They started a weekly paper on Cape Cod. And they rose close to the top of the mainstream media world as editorial-page editor, and executive editor, respectively, of Newsday, the big Long Island daily. Now they have teamed up together at the Stony Brook University to start their next career -- tending to the "demand side" of journalism. The duo, working with grants from both the Ford and Knight foundations, are developing a news-literacy curriculum for the nation's schools and colleges. (DOWNLOAD CURRICULUM POWERPOINT -- 11MB) Learn why in this audio interview with Bill Densmore of the Media Giraffe Project. Duration: 22 minutes, 56 seconds.  View Stonybrook "news literacy" Powerpoint (15 MB download).

VIDEO: The community embedded journalist -- Paul Bass

IMPORTANT: Due to a recording error, the audio on this clip must be played in stereo. If your computer has a speaker which combines the left and right channels, the audio will be very soft. Listen with headphones, or playback only one channel.  Or click to the audio-only version.

Paul Bass is a different kind of embedded journalist. Raised in New York City suburbs, Bass came to college at Yale University and never really left New Haven, Conn. Now in his late-40s, Bass worked for the city's once-family-owned-daily, edited the alternative weekly and then took a break to work on a book. When he was finished, he realized he couldn't stay away from a newsroom. But instead of returning to the established ones, he created his own, in a spare bedroom of his urban home. Now he's embedded in the daily political, cultural and social life, as editor/founder of the New Haven Independent, a non-profit which publishes one of the most news-rich local online news blogs in the United States. In a one-hour Media Giraffe Project interview taped Jan. 16, 2008, Bass talks about his motivation and passion. 
(Click on carat to left of bar below black screen to launch video)

AUDIO: NewsTools2008.org discussion -- future of journalism

What sort of technology tools are needed to sustain civic journalism? It's a key question we hope to answer at NewsTools2008.org April 30-May 3 in Silicon Valley. Listen to this inpromptu discussion among Paul Bass, founder of the local online newsblog, the New Haven Independent, Marc Oppenheimer, director of the Yale University Journalism Initiative, and Bill Densmore, director of the Media Giraffe Project/JTM at UMass Amherst. The discuss occurred Jan. 18, 2008 at a New Haven restaurant. Then add your comments below.