BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

August 06, 2004

Whereabouts

: At the airport on my way back home. See you later....crack Watcher 2

Free!

: Jay Rosen is speaking now to the AEJMC journalism education confab and he tells the educators:

Blogging represents to me freedom: intellectual freedom.

He tells them it gives him the power to publish and "independence from editors." Knowing, envious chortles from the crowd. Next, he says, blogging gives his "ideas a place in public conversation." And it lets him publish in the same public space as Howard Kurtz or Jack Shafer; he can compete. crack Watcher 2

: Len Witt is blogging the blogging as he moderates the panel. crack Watcher 2

: For the benefit of the audience in Toronto, here's a link to the list of recommended blogs I put up after Aspen. crack Watcher 2

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Changing the world, one post at a time

: At dinner last night with Hossein (Hoder) Derakshan and his wife Marjan, Jay Rosen, Rebecca MacKinnon, and Joey deVilla at a fusion Persian restaurant in Toronto (envious, eh?), talk turned, of course, to the question of how to spread weblogs -- and free speech and, if we're lucky, democracy with them -- in other countries as they have in Iran, thanks to Hoder's good work. Here's our list:crack Watcher 2

1. Promotion. Hoder says it is important to get prominent people, like journalists, blogging in these countries to bring attention to it. He wants to set up an award for Iranian blogs -- not for the best blog but for the best post, which is appropriate to the medium. We talked about the need to creat a blog news service that would translate and reblog notable posts from around the world: Hey, big news guys, here are the stories you're missing but here's a link to where you can get them. And hey, powerful politicians, here is what the people are reporting in your country. And hey, readers around the world, here's a new perspective on a country you're not seeing in the paper or on TV -- either because it's not coverered or it's covered from a high-altitude and not from a human level.crack Watcher 2

2. Tools. We need to get tools and instruction translated into Arabic and other local languages. They need to be the appropriate tools -- so, for example, bloggers can post via email when they can't get Web access. For blogging to take off in a country, it has to be done in the native language. Efforts are underway.crack Watcher 2

3. Hosting. If rich folks want to help the cause of free speech and understanding, providing free and anonymous hosting that's not under the control of repressive governments will help.crack Watcher 2

4. Detours around censorship. The web technical community needs to invent new ways to get around government censors, who regularly block access to specific blogs and to blog domains (e.g., Blogspot and Typepad). Hoder's site is now blocked in Iran, which lost him a lot of traffic that matters, but he also found that more people are now subscribing to his RSS feed instead. Separate RSS feed services, cacheing of blogs, clever redirects, and other means need to be created to keep free speech free. crack Watcher 2

It has happened in Iran. It is happening in Iraq. Rebecca says it's exploding in China (though I wish that news service existed so we could get an idea of what people are saying there). Where else should it be happening? Afghanistan. Turkey. Egypt. Saudi Arabia. Indonesia. Central Asia......crack Watcher 2

(And the kebobs were great.)crack Watcher 2

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Unfair and unbalanced

: A commenter points me to a story I missed (because it was on UPI): Thirty-eight Democratic and independent members of Congress want to meet with Rupert Murdoch to complain that FoxNews is nice to Republicans.

"The responsibility of the media is to report the news in an unbiased, impartial and objective manner," the letter reads.

Who says? No, really, who says that is the "responsibility of media"?

That is an American assumption of recent vintage. Media got started with pamphleteers grinding axes, eh? Only in fairly recent history has "objectivity" been a prime directive of news -- which is only a subset of media -- and that is being cast aside these days as the audience -- the people -- gravitate toward news with attitude, whether that attitude is FoxNews' or the Guardian's. (By the way, if you broaden this past news to media, as these guys do, then what they say should also hold for Fahrenheit 9/11 and OutFoxed. They are media, too.) crack Watcher 2

Here are members of Congress acting as if there is a law that media -- not just news -- has a responsibility to be unbiased, impartial and objective. And they practically threaten Murdoch with the force of law:

The letter's co-signers include Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., a member of the House Democratic Leadership, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., ranking member on the Joint Economic Committee.crack Watcher 2
A spokesman for Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said there were legislative avenues that the group could pursue as a secondary measure but declined to speculate on what those might be.

Is that a threat? Sure sounds like it.crack Watcher 2

This is why I object so strenuously to FCC regulation of speech and media, whether that is Howard Stern or FoxNews, whether that's what you can hear on the radio or next see on cable or next read on the Internet. It's none of government's business to regulate what we say. That's why we have a First Amendment, remember? crack Watcher 2

Rupert Murdoch starts a station that has a viewpoint and he puts it on cable, which -- remember -- is not under the control of the FCC.crack Watcher 2

If these guys don't like that, then what about AirAmerica, which is on public airwaves, which are regulated by the government? If they think government should regulate what Murdoch can say on cable, don't they realize that they set the precedent for government to regulate what AirAmerica says on broadcast... or what you and I say on the Internet. crack Watcher 2

Dangerous twits.
crack Watcher 2

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Citytv

: Toronto's Citytv is a local media pioneer that hasn't been copied nearly enough in the rest of the world. crack Watcher 2

I've never figured out why. Is it because it's Canadian and nobody noticed? Naw. Or is it because Citytv wasn't afraid to come out from behind its wall and talk to people long before anybody else thought of it? crack Watcher 2

Citytv is media at a human level. And that's rare.crack Watcher 2

I've been singing that melody in conversations with other media folk lately: Media are institutions: stone monoliths with stentorian names -- The Times, The Guardian, National Broadcasting.... The web (and weblogs) cut media down to size: to a human level. They level the playing field. They force big media to look eye-to-eye with their public. They start the conversation.crack Watcher 2

Citytv did it first. Years ago, the genius behind the station, Moses Znaimer, put a booth on the side of his building on perpetually hip Queen Street West with a video camera and called it the Speaker's Corner: Put in a loon (a buck), talk to the camera, and it might end up on TV. The people speak. Citytv listens. The people speak. Citytv makes them stars. crack Watcher 2

It makes great TV. They used to pepper the videos throughout the day. Now they make a show out of it every Saturday night. Go to the site and click on the weather whiners on the right column or on the preview of this week's show. It's great stuff.crack Watcher 2

Citytv calls this the original reality show. It's also the original vlog. crack Watcher 2

Citytv also put its studio on street-level -- eye-level -- long before Today did it. This morning, I ran by at 6:15 a.m. and saw a Korean bell choir inside klanging away. The weather lady was outside doing a live report. I moved to run the other way and the security guy motioned me on to run into the shot. It's OK. It's reality. crack Watcher 2

CityTV now has a local 24-hour news channel and they cleverly borrowed from Bloomberg TV by cramming the screen with useful information: The video feed is only a quarter of the real estate. Elsewhere you always see a four-day forecast (which certainly beats waiting 20 minutes for the weatherman in your market to read the weather... and if you blink, you miss it) and traffic video and headlines and stick tickers and sports scores and entertainment calendars. This is useful TV. crack Watcher 2

I briefly consulted to an effort to start a local TV news network and I tried to get them to learn from Citytv. I wanted to hear from the people with Speaker's Corners all over the state. And -- also long before Today returned to the street -- I wanted to put the studio in a storefront in a mall (since that is now America's downtown). Didn't happen. Too bad. It would still make good TV. It makes great TV in Canada still. crack Watcher 2

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