Seen That (former) Cox Plantation Pundit Somewhere Before

I don't know why I bother to respond to things like this anymore, because doing so just makes me tired and mad and sad, and just plain kinda weary in the long run. But Jesus H... this CL picture of Tom Baxter (above) is the same imagery I shot and used in a video about a political event in Atlanta -- weeks and weeks ago.

You can re-view that package here if you must. TB at 02:00 minutes in.

As I said in their pretty little comments place, while Rome burns, or writes up tedious, longwinded pieces about the death throes of traditional media (now there's a topic not heard much about 'round the Internets), new media rage on through the night, acknowledged or otherwise.

Free Book At APC Event Thursday!!!!

Come get your free book and jump into the New Media, uh, discussion. Lord knows what this event will end-up looking like. Hopefully nothing like the WSB one last week. I promise to be on my best good girl behavior... for at least the first 10 minutes. Lemme dupe over the APC press release for you:

It's no secret that the way news is gathered, reported and disseminated has changed in recent years. What is not clear is the impact of these changes. Do "new media" trends have staying power? Could they eventually lead to the decline of traditional reporting?

The Atlanta Press Club will hold a series of monthly programs in 2007 that examine the way traditional journalism is changing with the times.Join us for our first program in this series on Thursday, June 7. We'll look at the phenomenon of citizen journalism.

So far confirmed panelists include: Lea Donosky, Atlanta Journal-Consitution; Mark Bauer, WSB; Grayson Daughters, Way South Media, Inc. More panelists will be listed soon.

This is an evening program that is free to APC members and $10 for nonmembers. Networking will be 6-7 p.m. and the program 7-8:30 p.m. The program will be in The Commerce Club building, 18th Floor. Go to http://www.atlantapressclub.org/ to register.

People who attend this program will get a free copy of Manning Selvage & Lee's 2007-2008 Atlanta Media Guide.

Things Change

Let me recount a little story a dear friend of mine told me about when she was a reporter for the AJC and used to cover technology, back when they actually cared about technology...

Friend said she had "sent herself", late nineties I assume, to a biggy music industry conference, just as the music industry was starting to have some serious shifts in their tectonic plates. Napster was running loose through the industry, and the industry was fighting back hard... in all the wrong places. At some point in the Biggy Conference, the head of the RIAA stated that the industry would go digital and drive themselves totally off the industry farm via the MP3, and I paraphrase here, over her dead body.

At that point, a young indie music techno type stood up and yelled towards the titans at the front of the room, "You're a fucking dinosaur, lady." Others took up the chant. All hell broke loose, and my friend, always the intrepid reporter, ran off to call the AJC desk in excitement to say things were just completely in chaos in, gee, of all things... the little 'ole recording industry, and that she needed a LOT of room, like maybe the front page even, to tell this kind of story the way it should be told.

The utterly disinterested (editor) voice on the other end of the phone told her, "You can have 10 inches."

I recount this tale only to warn of times here in a town long run by Cox Plantation Enterprises, and one other alt publication, that the music industry fought and raged against the new, digital machine, and they lost. Their entire industry is in turmoil. And as we move towards what the APC so quaintly calls "New Media" here in the news biz, don't be surprised if we too experience a few You're a fucking dinosaur moments of our own. It's not so much "New Media" as it is an industry-smashing tsunami.

As I mention over at Radical Georgia Moderate, it is a sorry day in hell when journalists like Doug Monroe, who at this point in a fine career should be running papers, are run out of town, and the papers are left to be run into the ground by the likes of Ken Edelstein and Julia Wallace.

Then again, with arrogant, clueless jerks in charge of papers, we have nothing to fear. They’ll only help steer an entire industry right into the ground… just like a lot of aging dinos did with the music industry. As if all the people watching ‘em crash and burn, here on the ground going digital, could care less.

I hope they don’t ask us to come and haul their derisive, dismissive, divisive, arrogant butts out of the wreckage either… we’ve got new media product to keep on cranking.

What Planet Did I Land On?

So I went to see this man about a dog. A Social Media Club dog. And came up with a not so nice pat on the head. I am still feeling like the dirtiest whore on the planet for having sitted through the whole mainstream media "presentation" at WSB just smiling and nodding. Just like a good, stupid southern girl is taught to do.

Rusty, Amber and my post-spin rooftop podcast on the utter and endless bullshit is here. I am still shaking my head with astonishment that I let myself be led so far down that yellow brick road.

Old Media Noticing New Media In Georgia Politics

(This post cross-posted at Peach Pundit too.)

With the 10th Congressional being one of the few political shows in town, in the country for that matter, won’t be long before Big Media notices all our Little Media efforts here in Georgia, just as the Athens Banner-Herald has. Especially if Marlow makes it to a runoff on June 19th. Then the big guys will be all over us, trust me, because we can then, and only then, say that New Media is likely impacting the political process in the Peach State. Likely.

I caution anyone to use extreme caution when believing a word out of a political advisor’s mouth right now about new media. Not only do they tend not have a clue about new media as a whole, they don’t have a clue about the impact of new media on voter behavior. So when people make statements like this from the OnlineAthens story:

Unless a (newspaper) story’s written about it, the people viewing it (an online video) probably know how they’re going to vote anyway,” (Emil) Runge said.

…trust that they’re pulling statements out of their as* book of facts.

No one, at this point in time, has a clue whether a “traditional” print story about a YouTube video will impact voter behavior or not. Just as no one has a clue whether watching a YouTube video will translate into feet to the polls. There simply is no data right now to support any kind of “new media” political reality.

Let’s hope that some of our fine Georgia (national?) pollsters will seize the momentum of this special election on June 19th to get out there and gather us up some good, hard data on whether or not “new media” influenced not only:

a.) how people voted.
b.) But also did new kinds of media get folks off their butts and actually out of the house to vote at all?

In the meantime, don’t believe any hype coming from “traditional” campaigns on any side about what the Internet vs. traditional media will or will not do for them. They simply don’t know. Anyone trying to dazzle you with statements about the impact of any kind of media on politics right now is simply flying by the seat of their (old media advice) pants.

This Video Belongs To You And Me

To piggyback on Buzzbrockway’s post at Peach Pundit about YouTube warriors, consider the case of Congressional floor (speech) video…. who owns that material, and why has only C-SPAN had ownership and rights to that material… up until now?

Others are at least getting into the biz of selling back to us something that really should belong to us in the first place, least I feel that any and all video generated from the floor of OUR Congress should belong to us — and it should be free to access for any and all YouTube Nation tribal members to use as they see fit.

As the mighty media blogger, Jeff Jarvis says, and I fully agree:

Just as with the presidential debates, that democratic discussion should belong to the people and to truly give it to us, Congress should be doing everything CQ (Congressional Quarterly) is doing — for free.

Jarvis’ post in full is here. Times like this, we need to remind ourselves that we are now The Media.

And if we are, then why are more "traditional" journalists not acting as if they are now The New Media, rather than just waiting around for their bosses to tell 'em how to behave? (Jim Long is just about the lone exception to this sorry state of affairs, bless his new media heart!)

Matt Waite, a reporter for the St. Pete Times, tells it like it is. Preach on Brother Waite, preach on:

I can hear people I know gnashing their teeth already. Why should I do something that costs me time and maybe even money to benefit my employer when I don’t get paid for it? Here’s my response, and it’s two-fold: If you don’t, you run the risk of being first up for layoffs (so you’ll REALLY be uncompensated) and the more skills you have, the better off you are for whatever newspapers evolve into.

Or even if they go away completely. Let’s play fantasyland for a second: newspapers collapse, and all that content goes away. Someone is going to step into that void. Let’s pretend it’s Google and Yahoo and MSN. Do you think for a second they aren’t going to want new media skills? That they’ll be impressed with your paper clippings and your stubborn insistence that you can only write a story for a printed publication?

Come on. Wake up.

Georgia Dems Meet New Media

The Georgia Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner was a place to not only see John Edwards' hairdo up close and personal, it was also the place to find out just how Georgia politicians are using social media.

The Gatekeepers Are Gone. Sing Halleluia!

Jeff Pulver reflects on his live Internet show yesterday:

So the innovation here is the ease-of-use associated with creating a new TV show where you no longer need anyone's permission to be live on the net. Ustream.tv makes this a reality in 5 minutes or less. No longer does a show have to get green lighted in order to be seen. The gatekeepers are gone. It is now up to each and every show producer to fine their audience, service their audience and grow their audience from the ground up.

Full post here. As I mentioned on my call-in, this hour-long live production was easily the least stressful live environment I've ever been in. The tension alone created by a massive (and it's always "massive") old media effort to do anything live could fuel Atlanta's horrendous traffic conditions for days.

I know I could really thrive and flourish in a live broadcasting world where one is NOT perpetually being screamed at by droves of bosses and suits over an earpiece from some DC/NYC headquarters to make it all happen as that magic, live second approaches.

Life During Wartime

Jim Long, network camera-slinger, often mentioned here on the SGR as a mentor, new best friend, and all around wild and wacky dude, has been on the VT massacre scene since the get-go. He's been Twittering comments throughout the crisis, but now surfaces from the chaos long enough to post this blog entry about covering the aftermath at the point of media contact -- a total new/old media convergence, in the midst of the expected clusterfuck.

BONUS FEATURE: Jim tempts Rosenblum into yet another of their now-infamous, new media pissing matches! Who will survive the Sat. Truck Wars??? Tune-in to the SGR to keep up with all the Web 2.0 drama and excitement of everyday life in the new wild, wild west!

Photo credit: Jim Long

Let's Conversation! With The AJC

Shootout At Old vs. New Media Corral

Why do we hate consultants so? Because they have no street creds.

Nowhere is the distrust and dislike more apparent, or more transparent, than this little set-to between Jim Long, an old dog cameraman frequently sited on the SGR who just oozes street creds, and this new media consultant type, Michael Rosenblum, a dude who's busily making millions hawking VJ and branding concepts to old media such as the NYT... with rather dubious consequences.

Mostly Rosenblum is busy pissing all over the history and the craft of broadcast production and photography in his eagerness and greed to not only disassociate old media from itself, but also to relieve it of lots of its hard-earned cash in the process.

Some of the old timers are sick and tired of Rosenblum's big deal, call it professional jealousy if you will, and have called him out on it. 'Bout time. As if Rosenblum ever slung a thirty pound Iki in his life chasing a Class IV for 48 hours straight before even so much as a nap or a meal. It's a little more than "a kid and a DV cam" to commit genuine broadcast journalism.

Seems like Rosenblum would surely know that, because as he says in my pretty little comments place (see below): "I (Rosenblum) actually quit my job as a producer at CBS News and started shooting my own stuff ... in Afghanistan, the Middle East, during the Gulf War for MacNeil/Lehrer, Uganda, Kenya, and lots of other interesting hot spots. Now I don't have the track record Jim has, nor would I claim to, but I think I have earned my credentials."

Yet seems even Long and Rosenblum have come to some sort of mutual, totally wary, understanding here.

I just want to be there with my DV cam to tape a bunch of road dog union camera guys beating some candy-ass consultant's butt with their Beta cam battery packs. After all, those suckers weigh-in at about 10 lbs. each. Now there's a fine use for old media!

Beware the Web 2.0 snake oil salesmen and their bs, folks. I get all kinda nonsense forwarded to me by well-meaning folks about how "I too can learn to blog!" For only $900. per weekend seminar.

Spare the bullshit and just do it. And don't forget to ask for their street creds up front if you're hiring a "new media" type.

Committing News Is Better Than Covering It

Here's a podcast of my Old Media session from PodCamp. Not my best. I was kinda hungover and just a little snippy. Imagine that.

My dear New Media Jim is out at VON committing small TV. Here's his coverage of VON. Amani's there too, who, last time I checked Jim's channel, was busy interviewing Jeff Jarvis. How cool is that?!

FYI... the search term Podcamp Atlanta was at #8 on Technorati yesterday. (Screen shot capture from Amber.) Just under SXSW and not far from Paris Hilton. But remember, it's not news-worthy for Atlanta until Cox Plantation says it's news. Currently, PodCamp Atlanta is #14 on Technorati's search terms.

Technorati tag: podcamp atlanta, podcampatlanta2007, podcampAtlanta

What Is Going On At The AJC?

Things just keep getting weirder and uglier over at the AJC/Cox Auto Auction Enterprises. I am just shaking my head over this one, whereby a dude who's still on the Cox payroll, and was given five freakin' years to massage an ego project, is traveling around the country pointing fingers at Julia Wallace and her posse for having allowed him to do so!

Since the accusations, claims and counter claims are obscuring the issues in this matter so, I just gotta say that strife and dissent seem to follow Wallace wherever she goes. Seems like someone's causing so much weird organic press by merely doing their job that they're becoming a liability rather than a leadership asset. Wallace must be one hell of a political player inside that little hornet's nest of a media empire. Someone'll have to offer her a real sweet auto deal to pry her hands offa the publisher wheel around there, 'cause Lordy she ain't budging an inch.

You know, this Big Media power-play bullshit has got to go. As a result of all the political maneuvering and postering and posing, I now have no idea what or where the truth is in this particular story. I don't know who to believe in these critical issues that effect us all.

Big Media had better hurry up and fall on its own sword. Something's got to give. And soon.

Find My Precious-y All Over Old Media

Look where my boy Shmuely is today... New York Times, baby. With a great photo too! Ari's trying to get through on the line now, hon. Whatever you do, just don't go with MetaCafe. Ugghhh... Stick with the one who brought you to this dance. Shmuel's YouTube channel is here.

P.S. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel here. I gotta crank that YouTube product too, eh Buzz?

Wish Eddie Murphy had won last night. I haven't even seen but a clip or two of Dreamgirls, and he sure looked on fire, as always. Didn't stay up much past Cameron Diaz. She's such a great ditz. Loved The Queen. Loved it. Maybe since Ms. Mirren won, people will now discover the best show ever put on Big TV: Prime Suspect. That creepy Prince Philip dude sure pops up everywhere, eh? Especially all over our TVs. Like, tonight!

AJC = Arrogant Jerks Cornered

The more I think about it, the angrier I get at the astonishing level of arrogance flung all over the place by AJC management last week. Leonard Witt, from the Communications Dept. at Kennesaw State University, points out that not a single person from the AJC, from any department nor in any capacity, even bothered to show-up at SoCon07, Atlanta's first social media conference on February 10th.

Not one person showed from Atlanta's "traditional" media, not even a lone AJC reporter to cover the event as the new media enterprise that it was. (And yes, they were all invited.) Shit, we at SoCon07 had editorial and photos out to the entire planet during the freakin' conference, you clueless AJC nits. Video and podcasts were soon posted too. Yet the AJC in the now infamous "Wallace Memo" has the downright gall to claim:

“Online, we will show that we know Atlanta best, providing superlative news and information and becoming the preferred medium for connecting local communities.”

What planet are these people living on, other than Planet Head Up A Donkey's Ass!?!

As I mentioned on comments to the APC's blog (as of 2007, they now have a blog. Isn't that special?), that very thing has been happening online… for, oh, about 15 years now. Hope the charlatans at the AJC aren't too surprised if no one really WANTS to be associated with their “preferred medium.” We’ve built our own just fine by now, thank you very much, you old media clowns.

So don't go asking a blogger what the Semantic Web is all about. We're too busy moving forward to be slowed down and bothered by wannabees in MSM.

This post put together to Cuts You Up by Peter Murphy: "Look for what seems out of place."

Anna Nicole Died For Old Media Sins

If Anna Nicole's death heralds the beginning of the Apocalypse, then who are the other three horsemen? Execs from Viacom? Suits from Turner Entertainment? Excellent media navel-gazing column from the L.A. Times' Tim Rutten:

Friday morning, less than 24 hours after she died in a Florida hotel room, the Drudge Report — our media culture's digital arbiter of all things tacky and prurient — had 12 items posted on the onetime topless dancer. That would account for some of the media frenzy surrounding her death. It's a little-known fact, but certain sectors of the broadcast media have long believed that if a dozen items on Anna Nicole Smith ever were posted on Drudge simultaneously, it would herald the onset of the apocalypse. Who knew? This is the way the world ends — neither with a bang nor a whimper but with cleavage.

Full column here. And wouldn't ya know, yet another Anna Nicole baby-daddy makes his presense, if not his sperm, known; this time right here in the ATL. Boy, is Britney pissed.

A Day In The Life Of A (News) Road Dog

Jim Long, an NBC cameraman out of D.C. (and SGR reader) has a fun video he packaged for an MSNBC blog that takes us behind the scenes with the White House press corps. The White House camera crews, amazing pros all of them, are the most serious road dogs on the planet. They could kick an Aerosmith's road crew's butt six ways to Sunday, and be able to shoot and articulate their feelings about it -- all at the same time. (Drink 'em under the table too? Well... back in their day fer sure.)

Be glad you're a blogger. Pay might suck, but you don't have to get up at 2am every day. Here's the video.

ADD ON: Also on MSNBC is a terrific global news/semi-travel blog called World Blog. What's different and compelling about this one, and especially if you loath "travel writing" as I do due to the incessant blather about food items and hotels, is that its "regular contributors include NBC News correspondents, producers and staff based in bureaus across the world and on assignment." Check it out here. And watch your back, ladies, if you're in Cairo this week.

Culture Gap Widened By New Media

Well folks, it's official: the masses are scared of... well... just about everything! Especially technology -- when law enforcement and their speaker system (traditional media) have NO idea what they're dealing with. After the Boston Techno-Fright fest of the last couple of days, we can see the writing on the wall, though. From Boston.com:

On the one hand, Boston police and city officials demonstrated how ignorant they are about pop culture, guerrilla marketing, and technology, and then got embarrassed, which is why they're so angry now.

What I do know from experience, that may offer insight into this matter, is that every (U.S.) disaster scene I've ever been at (as media), and there have been plenty in my long, if somewhat undistinguished, old-media career, the blue collars get to play God. And it makes 'em happy as a pig in shit.

Normal communications, routines and processes come to a screeching halt, and the good 'ole boy-law enforcement-blue-collar crowd takes over. And maybe this is a good thing in times of crisis, but tell that to the people who, after a hurricane for instance, are anxious to get back to their property to assess damages as soon as they can. Forget it! You cain't have it until the blue-collars say you can.

Just apply those "methods" to say... oh... a nuclear disaster site. You're smart people out there, you blog readers, you get the point.

One other note, I once saw one of those LED promos, under an overpass somewhere. Can't remember what city, maybe it was Atlanta, but it was at night and the "thing" seemed to be easily and immediately comprehended as a promotional device, or at least something kinda cute. Then again, it was dark, when a cartoonish figure would be clearly visible as techno-graffiti.

Beware "cartoon" figures lurking in society that don't make themselves obvious. They might scare the little people, and the off-the-gridders, if you're not careful.

My Bedroom For An Original Thought

Seems Bobby Lefsetz is getting awfully close to the mind of George Will who's quoting Brian Williams. Heck, these dudes' utter lack of originality is almost as bad as handing out trophies to little kids!

First there was Mr. Will in the Washington Post in full clueless prattle about the evil of blogging:

Time's issue includes an unenthralled essay by NBC's Brian Williams, who believes that raptures over the Web's egalitarianism arise from the same impulse that causes today's youth soccer programs to award trophies -- "entire bedrooms full" -- to any child who shows up: "The danger just might be that we miss the next great book or the next great idea, or that we will fail to meet the next great challenge . . . because we are too busy celebrating ourselves and listening to the same tune we already know by heart."

Then along comes Bobby who's at least not half as clueless as Will and a whole lot funnier if not any more original:

If you believe they are, sadly, you’re on a completely different page from me. This reminds me of the baby boomers’ kids, ALL of whom got trophies for playing in the soccer league, even if their team ended up in last place. I mean can’t we draw the line ANYWHERE anymore? Does EVERYBODY have to get in? Are we afraid of hurting every last person’s feelings?

Lordy hon, if Brian Williams is setting the intellectual tone, we are all soooo screwed.

Hyper Egos Scheduled To Ruin Network News

A perfect example here of why mainstream media/network news is doomed. Doomed I tell you. When egos rule the bottom line, then you've got yourself a house of hot air, stamp your feet say ME ME ME straw.

Only one business-class seat could be procured because the trip was hastily arranged. But "Murphy (Katie Couric's hairdresser) went to the foreign desk and screamed at people about how outrageous and incompetent this was. She threatened that heads were going to roll," an insider says... More here.

It ain't the bloggers who will bring down network news. MSM can do it just fine left to their own devices. Thank goodness for blogs though, as now more people can see what I suffered through in my network years.

Now where'd you put my goddamn conditioner, Zelma? (My dog.)