Risley Ranch

Now this is funny.

Another video I received from a friend.  This one's funny.  And I love the fact that it pokes fun at viral videos.

technorati tags: youtube, viralvideo

KU class presentation

Last night I had the pleasure of presenting my social media thoughts to a masters of marketing communication class at KU.  One of my Barkley colleagues, Chris Dickey, teaches the class (Integrated Marketing) and invited me.  I really enjoyed it -- in fact, I enjoy just about every chance to talk about social media.  Here's my presentation, and I've also uploaded it to my Social Media File cabinet (at left).

Download social_media_presentation_ku_class_103006.ppt

technorati tags: risley, presentation, ku, marketing, socialmedia

I'm impressed

KUJH-TV, the student-run TV station at the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism, is video podcasting.  The KU J-School, my alma mater, has always been forward thinking.  In addition to the TV station, a student newspaper, a radio station, and magazine, the school has always pushed students to learn through experience.  By embracing convergence, they've shown they are willing to adapt with the times.

More citizen journalism

J.D. Lasica was in the audience during Dan Gillmor's session.  He's also a big contributor to the citizen media conversation.  A former editor of the Sacramento Bee, he's written a book on the subject and he started Ourmedia. 

Wisdom from a wise journalist

Wow.  I had the pleasure of hearing Dan Gillmor speak yesterday.  Outstanding.  He just oozed wisdom.  I mean, this guy has been a professional journalist for years, covering one of the most amazing times and places in history -- the growth of the tech industry in silicon valley.

He's an old-school reporter, meaning he still believes in things like accuracy, balance, independence and ethics -- the stuff I was taught in J-School but seems to be lacking in many journalists today.  In fact, one of his most interesting comments was his fear that traditional journalism quality is getting lost during this transformation we're going through.

But the thrust of his talk was the subject he's most known for -- citizen journalism.  He wrote the book on it.

Dan believes the more people are engaged with the news, the more active they'll be in their communities.  And getting engaged with the news is more than writing letters to the editor.  But he doesn't mean everyone has to blog or be a stringer either.

He had an excellent idea/example for how citizens could get involved -- as local investigative journalists in the rebuilding after Katrina.  No newsroom has the resources to monitor the rebuilding projects that will be funded by the billions of dollars coming from the Federal government.  Why not "deputize" local citizens to do things like make phone calls to local officials to trace where the money is being spent or to submit Freedom of Information Act requests whenever they get stonewalled.  Newspapers, he contends, could be the facilitators of all this activity and allow citizens to take part in the process.  It's an amazing idea.

I also liked his notion that newspapers can be "the conveners of the community conversation."  If you think about it, local papers still have a great deal of credibility -- I know ours does.  They have an opportunity to build on that credibility by allowing citizens to take over the editorial page or write "hyper local" sections of the paper or web site.  For example, why couldn't one of the moms in my neighborhood submit a story now and then about our effort to get the City to install a speed bump on our street or the state of the housing development and its impact on my home's value.  Very cool stuff.

A little thing, but important

I really like Heather Green's blog and podcast.  She's a solid journalist and a leader in the "I'm a journalist/blogger/podcaster" movement.  Friday she posted a very simple post about an upcoming interview she has with Jon Landman, the guy in charge of podcasts at the New York Times.  And she asked her blog readers for questions to ask Jon!  Simple, but profound.  I mean how many journalists do you know that ask you, their readers, for story ideas, let alone questions to ask an interviewee.  I love it.

WSJ Washington bureau chief delivers optimistic view of journalism's future

I had the pleasure of hearing Gerald Seib, Washington bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, speak Friday at the University of Kansas, my alma mater.  Seib was here to receive the William Allen White Foundation National Citation, an award bestowed upon outstanding journalists that embody the spirit of William Allen White.  As a recipient of this award, Seib joins a fraternity of the who's who of journalism. 

White (1868-1944) was a nationally influential Kansas editor and publisher of the Emporia Gazette.  KU's William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications is named in his honor. 

Like Seib, I am a graduate of the KU School of Journalism.  So his speech -- much of which honored the school and former professors -- reminded me of the outstanding education I received.  Seib is also a western-Kansas boy (he's from Hays), so I completely identified with his humble, pragmatic style.  It's always nice to see an example of small-town-boy-does-good.

Coverage of the speech by our local paper would have you believe he spoke mostly about the impact blogging is having on traditional journalism.  That's the problem with traditional news stories -- there's not room to tell the whole story.  Although he did address the subject, blogging was not the focus of his presentation; objectivity was.  Had I been more prepared, I would have taken my laptop to the speech and blogged it.  Some journalist I am -- I didn't even bring a pen to take notes!

But I did listen.  And his words encouraged me.  He emphasized the journalist's role as the fact-checker and presenter of information in a fair and balanced manner.  He said there would always be a demand for objective reporting.  But he noted that news rooms had to embrace the change bloggers and the Internet are bringing to traditional news gathering and reporting.

The J-School's on line coverage was more straight-forward, and they are promising to post the transcript, which I would encourage you to read if you're at all interesting in journalism.

Journalism 2.0

has been defined here by Mark Glaser, a columnist at Online Journalism Review.  Awesome.  Makes me want to dust off my journalism degree and change sides.