The President’s thoughts on the changing media world

I watched Barack Obama’s speech at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner last night, and thought his words to journalists at the end were noteworthy. None of it is particularly enlightening, but it shows that even the President recognizes the identity crisis news media is facing and reinforces the belief of many that journalism should – and will – survive.

I want to end by saying a few words about the men and women in this room whose job it is to inform the public and pursue the truth. You know, we meet tonight at a moment of extraordinary challenge for this nation and for the world, but it’s also a time of real hardship for the field of journalism. And like so many other businesses in this global age, you’ve seen sweeping changes and technology and communications that lead to a sense of uncertainty and anxiety about what the future will hold.

Across the country, there are extraordinary, hardworking journalists who have lost their jobs in recent days, recent weeks, recent months. And I know that each newspaper and media outlet is wrestling with how to respond to these changes, and some are struggling simply to stay open. And it won’t be easy. Not every ending will be a happy one.

But it’s also true that your ultimate success as an industry is essential to the success of our democracy. It’s what makes this thing work. You know, Thomas Jefferson once said that if he had the choice between a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, he would not hesitate to choose the latter.

Clearly, Thomas Jefferson never had cable news to contend with but his central point remains: A government without newspapers, a government without a tough and vibrant media of all sorts, is not an option for the United States of America.

So I may not — I may not agree with everything you write or report. I may even complain, or more likely Gibbs will complain, from time to time about how you do your jobs, but I do so with the knowledge that when you are at your best, then you help me be at my best. You help all of us who serve at the pleasure of the American people do our jobs better by holding us accountable, by demanding honesty, by preventing us from taking shortcuts and falling into easy political games that people are so desperately weary of.

And that kind of reporting is worth preserving — not just for your sake, but for the public’s. We count on you to help us make sense of a complex world and tell the stories of our lives the way they happen, and we look for you for truth, even if it’s always an approximation.

This is a season of renewal and reinvention. That is what government must learn to do, that’s what businesses must learn to do, and that’s what journalism is in the process of doing. And when I look out at this room and think about the dedicated men and women whose questions I’ve answered over the last few years, I know that for all the challenges this industry faces, it’s not short on talent or creativity or passion or commitment. It’s not short of young people who are eager to break news or the not-so-young who still manage to ask the tough ones time and time again. These qualities alone will not solve all your problems, but they certainly prove that the problems are worth solving. And that is a good place as any to begin. – Barack Obama

Kindle – the future of books?

My professor Chris Delboni showed me her Kindle after class last week. She wrote a detailed post about her experience with it in her blog months ago and has mentioned it in class, but I did not appreciate it until I saw it.

Kindle, a product developed and sold by Amazon, is basically the iPod of books.

As a book lover, I was skeptical about the Kindle’s ability to provide an enjoyable reading experience. But Kindle is surprisingly easy to read (something about it not being back-lit allows you to read it without hurting your eyes the same way staring at a computer monitor does)

After playing with it for awhile, I am now convinced that the Kindle or a product very similar to it will be the future of books. I imagine students no longer being weighed down by heavy textbooks but being able to have them all loaded into a single lightweight device. The current Kindle holds up to 1,500 books and even lets you save your page, highlight, and take notes.

Rather than discouraging book sales and hurting the future of reading, I think it has the potential to revive it. And Amazon has just launched a wider version which makes newspaper and magazine reading easier with Kindle.

I really think this is the future of books, and I can’t wait to get one!

Millennium Development Goals

I have mentioned the Millennium Development Goals repeatedly on this site, but I realize I have not really explained what they are. For a detailed written explanation of each goal, visit our page at MillenniumBeat.com/millennium-goals

If that’s too much reading, I found a short video that explains them in simpler terms:

Starting Over

I wrote recently about the challenges of reporting. Yesterday, I encountered another. Originally Gabi and I thought Tina’s story (detailed in my last post) was a great Brazilian immigrant story. However, after interviewing her and talking to our editor, we realized that it did not solidly tie into any of the Millennium Goals, and although it is an interesting and inspiring story, it is not a good fit for MillenniumBeat.

So, last night we were back to the drawing board. A stressful place to be with less than three weeks left in the semester and deadlines and finals approaching.

Luckily, Gabi’s dad helped us out with the name of Brazilian man who immigrated illegally and has struggled with health issues and making enough money to support his family. On Tuesday we will be interviewing his wife, a manicurist in Miami, as well as his son who works as an electrician.

Although it is frustrating to have to abandon a story (and nearly two hours of interview footage), the purpose of this class is to provide good content for MillenniumBeat, and we hope our current lead will provide that.

The American Dream, personified.

This morning Gabi and I interviewed a Brazilian woman. She spoke openly and candidly about the struggles and triumphs of her life. Her story was not as sad as our preliminary phone interview had suggested, but I thought it was an interesting look at immigration and why some foreigners find the difficulties of starting a new life in America worthwhile.

Twenty years ago she was in a small town in Brazil, living a sheltered and unsatisfying life. Today, she talked about her life while sitting comfortably on the porch of the small mansion she lives in on Key Biscayne with her husband, two beautiful children, and dogs that continuously tried to interrupt the interview. She is a stunning example of the American Dream.

At the age of 24, she left a fiance and a disappointed family behind to fulfill her dream of experiencing the world and living her own life. She gave up security and her family’s pride but gained independence. Fittingly, she arrived in the United States on the 4th of July, 1989. Although her first five years here were difficult, working odd jobs and dealing with an abusive boyfriend, she persevered until she was a successful business woman with a degree from Parson’s and her own clothing company. Her family was upset at first, she recalls that her father did not speak to her for six months after she moved, but she is close to them now and takes her children to Brazil every summer to spend time with their extended family.

She repeatedly emphasized balance. “For everything I’ve gotten, I’ve given something up,” she said. For instance, she got an amazing time in America, but she lost time with her younger sister who died unexpectedly after one Christmas she did not return to Brazil for. For all the wealth she has now, she spent years educating herself and working hard to get to where she is.

Now an American citizen, she maintains her Brazilian identity by speaking only Portuguese at home with her two young children (her husband is also a Brazilian immigrant), cooking Brazilian food and teaching her children family values that were ingrained in her as a child.

Tomorrow morning Gabi and I will be joining her as she drives her 5 year old son to school, so we can get a better sense of her life and hopefully talk to other sources to give our article more dimension. Until then I’ll be working on a rough draft of an article about an inspiring immigration success story.

What does Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter victory over CNN mean for news?

For anyone who doesn’t know, celebrity Ashton Kutcher recently challenged CNN to a race to see if his Twitter account could reach one million followers before CNN’s Breaking News Twitter account. CNN accepted the challenge, mentioning it in their newscasts. On April 17, the breaking news on CNN, both online and on-air, was that Ashton had won.

It’s tempting to write off the whole Ashton v. CNN race as a silly publicity stunt, but I was interested in part of what Ashton said in his victory speech.

Look, at the end of the day, what’s this about? This is about the changing of the guard, from the old way of consuming media to the new way of consuming media. We together, can decide, we can make the news on our cell phones, on our iPhones, on our cameras, on our video cameras. We can edit the news, we can broadcast the news, and we can consume the news. We can decide what news we want to hear, how we want to hear it, when we want to hear it. And we can get it faster on the web. That’s all we’re saying. And it’s not about me, it’s not about anything, any accolade I’m trying to achieve. It’s really about us and, uh, it’s about a statement that one man can have a voice that’s as loud as an entire media company. And you can have that voice as well. And we can all have that voice together. And, and, and we can change media forever. That’s just the start. I dunno, um, maybe that was a little too preachy?

Ashton is right in saying that this reflects a “changing of the guard” that the internet has ushered in. The fact that one man can now have a voice as loud as an entire media company is a powerful thing that journalists should not ignore.

Ashton v. CNN is really Citizen Journalists v. Professional Journalists.

Media companies are no longer just competing with other media companies, they are competing with the Ashton Kutchers of the world, and everyone else who has internet access. The challenge journalists face in this age where anyone can create content that can be quickly and widely disseminated, is to distinguish themselves as the most credible source for news.

With so many webpages and twitter-feeds filled with the thoughts and opinions of celebrities and average Joe’s, there is a strong need for honest information that has been thoroughly researched and verified before being published.

Journalists are going to need an impressive marketing plan to remind people that their voice is the most trustworthy… especially since I just learned Oprah has joined Twitter.

A fascinating look at the world, technology and communication

This video is more than a year old, but I found it interesting and relevant to what we’ve been discussing in my multimedia journalism class this semester.

Challenges in Reporting

Today, en route to Key Biscayne to interview a woman for our final story on the Brazilian immigrant community, Gabi and I got in a car accident.  Gabi attempted to break for a red light on a slippery road and skidded into the car in front of us.  Fortunately, neither us nor the passenger of the car we hit was injured.

Needless to say, we did not make it to the interview.  Although coincidentally, the woman we were supposed to interview drove past us and stopped and pulled over.  We talked to her briefly, and she agreed to reschedule later this week.

It’s certainly the biggest obstacle we’ve faced in getting a story this semester, but not the first.   Our most recent story required multiple trips to Homestead and several follow-up interviews before we were able to get the depth necessary for a good story.   Last week, a classmate found a typo in a soundslide that required us to re-edit the entire thing.

Although these challenges have been frustrating at times, it has taught us a lot about the time and effort that goes into good reporting.

I’m hoping that the rest of the semester goes more smoothly, but bracing for the inevitable road bumps we will encounter along the way.

Thousands of people come to South Florida each year with aspirations for their future. Our mission is to tell their story.

The title of this post is the tag line for MillenniumBeat.com. a website created by several UM School of Communication students.

We’re currently “soft launching” the site,  meaning it cannot be found through search engines yet.   Please look around the site and comment with feedback.  Tell us what you like, what you don’t like, and any suggestions you have.  We want this site to be a valuable resource for both members of these immigrant communities as well as people who are interested in them.

It’s still in the beta phase – it’s a work in progress  – but we hope make it as good as possible before we hard launch it.

So please, check it out!

Mission: “deeper” story Accomplished

Gabi and I returned to the Redland Center in Homestead Monday afternoon to delve deeper into our story about how capoeira classes are helping children in poor community.

Our professor/editor sent us on a mission to “answer the how’s and the why’s”  and I think we accomplished it.  We were able to talk in more detail with capoeira instructor Cuica, as well as the father of two capoeira students. After getting more information about the area and why it is so valuable to children in the community, I think we finally have a solid story.

The story as well as the article should be posted soon on MillenniumBeat.com   Check it out!