Charles Hope and the Luminous Top

New Media Collective interviewed me

(originally posted here on 4 Apr 2006)

Melanie of the New Media Collective interviewed me over email this weekend. It was fun!

The newest NMC segment, MEDIA MINDS, will feature those at the forefront of new media who’ve dedicated themselves to the creation and expertise of the technology that allows us to do what we do in the blogosphere.

Journalist left out in the rain

(originally posted here on 12 Oct 2005)

Ryanne & Jay were on Chuck Olsen recently. Julie DuRose reports:

Though mainstream media is married to the ideal of god-like objectivity, vloggers in general have abandoned the futility of this model. Vloggers believe that the objectivity claimed by mainstream media is good in theory, but impossible in practice. And that the illusion of objectivity is what is most insidious; real truth in storytelling comes when the writer overtly states his or her own biases. This sortof objectivity is prized above any elusive omnisceint “objectivity.” When the perspective of each individual is valued, everyone who wants to can have a voice; everyone can show his or her truth.

Their “illusion of objectivity” is simply the smell of intellectual safety, scrubbed clean of all traces of deviance, deep controversy, or abstract thinking. Do you really think modern journalism’s “objectivity” is more epistemologically sound than blog posts? Go through a newspaper and cross out the statements that are direct quotes or nonverifiable and see what you have remaining. Please!

Jeff Jarvis writes:

In the left column, under “news,” I found commentary from a student paper in Tennessee. In the right column, under “blog beta,” I found analysis from law professors. Which is more valuable, more authoritative, more trustworthy?

Do they have Starbucks in Bahrain?

(originally posted here, 23 Jun 2005)

They have Starbucks in Bahrain. Who knew? I didn’t until I discovered Mahmood’s video blog.

I consider myself global, well-educated, and well-travelled, having been to 3 other continents than my own. And yet, without having personally been to the Middle East, I have no clue at all what daily life is like there! Is this my fault? Where on American Media is there any depiction of ordinary existence in foreign countries besides the occasional British sitcom on PBS? Is this really a pure reflection of market forces, or is a demographic being ignored; are the numbers of people bored with Michael Jackson’s trial and the Runaway Bride really negligible? You offer me 30 minutes of rape and murder, and then console me with people being voted off fake “reality” islands and other people eating scorpions. I’m sorry about that girl missing in Aruba, but what is life like in Aruba?

Are you starting to see the gaping void that only vlogging dares to fill?