We Want Media

We all have the distinct privilege to take part and shape the next generation of media. There is a level of flux and change taking place right now that there hasn't been since television was introduced over 50 years ago.

I was disturbed this weekend by some people's ignorance of blogs and other new media. During an orientation meeting for an environmental action group, the audience of 20 college students was asked to write letters to the editor about global warming.

Facebook rolled out two new features last week. Facebook Mobile allows members to text the site for information like phone numbers and email addresses.

Monday's episode of Rocketboom was a feature devoted to TVTonic an attempt to merge television and video blogs into the internet channel.

Amanda Congdon of Rocketboom fame paid our class a visit. She discussed a variety of topics, from an odd encounter with an Amish fan to her sleeping pattern over the last year (not much). Most interesting to me was her vision for the future of video blogging.

BBC World News is a real 24 hour news network. While watching BBC World News this morning, I saw a live report from Palenstine followed by a countdown to the results of the Israeli elections.

Perhaps you've heard of AMD's 50X15 project. The goal is to have half of the world's population on the Internet by the year 2015.

I leaped into the air with excitement last night when Three 6 Mafia won the Oscar for Best Song. Not only did Three 6 win the Oscar they were also the first hip-hop group to perform at the Oscars.

It's a violation of privacy that social networking sites and blogs are now being used as portals into personal lives by employers and government organizations.

So I'm sitting down to eat my cereal this morning and I turn on CNN for my usual ten minutes of headlines as I eat. I enjoy CNN because they generally run through the top stories in a rather objective and easy to understand manner that doesn't require all of my attention.

Last September, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published several cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad in various ways. Wikipedia has created the ubiquitous post.