Journalism as remix?

Is it art ... or appropriation? Creativity or theft?

Take a look at the web's latest phenom, Kutiman, who makes music videos by mashing up and remixing short clips of other people's YouTube videos.



Daniel Sinker, a member of the journalism faculty at Columbia College in Chicago, comes down on the side of art. So do I.

In a recent Huffington Post piece, Sinker said, "If your reaction to this crate of magic is 'Hm. I wonder how we'd go about suing someone who did this' ... instead of, 'Holy crap, clearly, this is the freaking future of entertainment,' it's probably time to put some ramen on your Visa and start making stuff up for your LinkedIn page."

Perhaps the Associated Press might want to consider taking that advice. Instead of acting like RIAA gestapo and suing Shepard Fairey for "copying" an AP photographer's campaign photo for his now-iconic Obama "Hope" poster, the AP might want to consider adopting similar techniques instead. Instead of regarding Fairey's poster as "a threat to journalism," the AP might want to lighten up and bask in the glow. After all, I doubt anyone would remember that photographer's name, or that photo, if it weren't for Fairey's poster.

I think Kutiman's music ... video ... whatever you want to call it ... is seriously cool and creative. But I also like Sinker's larger point ... that musicians and artists aren't the only ones who can take advantage of the proliferation of raw material on the web. He says journalists should be tapping into that mother lode of material too, instead of viewing the web as a threat.

Sinker advises journalists to "Be like Kutiman: use the millions of blog entries, photos, tweets, and videos that find themselves on the web every day to build something new."

• See Daniel Sinker's "Where is Our Orchestra? What Journalism Can Learn From the Mind-Blowing Remixes of Kutiman" on Huffington Post

• YouTube remixer Kutiman may be the best mashup artist yet -- on Gawker's Things We Actually Like

• AP, artist feud over famous Obama poster, on USA Today

• tags: music, web, youtube, mashup, journalism
  

Prop 8 - the musical

If you haven't yet seen the video, Prop 8 - the Musical, starring Jack Black as Jesus...well, here's your chance.

Can we solve it?

You know, maybe we can.

If polar opposites like Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich can actually sit knee to knee on small sofa and agree that we must take action to address climate change...well, maybe there's a glimmer of hope. Maybe we will come to our senses and take action before we destroy the planet.

To view the ad, just click on the pic.

The ad is part of the We Can Solve It campaign, a project of The Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by former Vice President Al Gore. The goal is to educate people that the climate crisis is "both urgent and solvable."

I'm hoping they're right.

Already the naysayers are piling on, bitching and moaning and calling them hypocrites in blog posts, comments and the like.

But I prefer to take a "the glass is half full" approach to life. I'd rather applaud them for doing what's right and trying to make a difference...in spite of their political differences. That's what we all need to do if we want to pass on a livable planet to the next generation.

Where's the beef?

Take one unresponsive government agency, hobbled by years of Bush budget cuts and misdirection, add some big meat companies with minimal federal oversight, plus a dash of YouTube...and what do you get? The largest beef recall in history and a big fat scandal that exposes just how badly the Bush administration has eviscerated the Department of Agriculture's food safety division in favor of making life easier for businesses.

Huzzah for the Humane Society, which took undercover video of the abuse of sick and disabled cattle at a Chino, Calif., meat packing plant and posted it on YouTube, where it has created such a furor that Agriculture officials had to respond. Boos and hisses for the U.S. officials who tried to downplay the problem by saying they thought it was an isolated incident (if they're not stationed at these plants, how can they know?) and that most of the recalled meat had already been eaten.

As you read the New York Times story, Largest Recall of Ground Beef is Ordered, consider that "downer" cattle are banned from our food supply to keep us from contracting mad cow disease, a fatal brain-wasting disease that has killed people in Great Britain and Canada. Then consider that "of the 143 million pounds that were recalled, 37 million went to make hamburgers, chili and tacos for school lunches and other federal nutrition programs...."

Just one more reason why we need change in Washington.

(Author's note: In the 1980s, I worked for a livestock industry trade association.)

iMovie and YouTube...my classroom buddies!

The most wonderful thing happened in class the other day, right before my very eyes...learning, yes, learning!

For their final project for the broadcast segment in my Journalism 61 (beginning news writing) class, I asked students to rewrite one of their news stories or campus event blog posts for broadcast. Their task this week: Bring their broadcast script to class, record it using iMovie, upload it to the web (ya gotta love You Tube and blip.tv!), and post it to their blogs.

As they started recording, an interesting thing happened: They started rewriting their broadcast scripts. All around the room, I could see students crossing out a phrase here or adding a word there to improve flow and clarity. They scribbled notes between the double-spaced lines of their scripts (yes, there is a reason for that double-spacing!); they tweaked and they polished. A few even said, "I need to start over," and did a total rewrite before continuing with their recording.

One student, who'd knocked off her broadcast quickly during the first of this week's lab session (and who'd stuck around during the second one to help other students upload and link), came up to me at the end of class and said that she wasn't really happy with how hers had turned out and she was going to do it over. Yes!

It was great! I was so proud of them!

So here's what I learned: You can talk to students about the need to make broadcast writing more conversational; you can preach broadcast style and urge them to read it out loud to make sure it works...but nothing beats seeing yourself on screen and hearing your own voice reading your own script...and realizing that it doesn't quite cut it. That, and the realization that it'll be online for all the world to see, proved to be powerful motivators this week, so I'd call this assignment a success.

If you'd like to cruise over to my Journalism 61 class blog and check out the links to my students' blogs, here's the direct link: http://jour61.wordpress.com/

In the eye of the beholder

How do you define beauty? How have our ideas of what is beautiful changed over time? Over generations? Over the centuries? The video "Women in Art" explores that question, showing 500 years of portraits of women by Western artists...one image morphing into another, one era into another, a changing portrait of beauty.



If you'd like to see more YouTube videos by "eggman," here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/eggman913

P.S. Thanks to Steve Greene for passing on the link to this video.

Improve your webcam picture

Wanna make your webcasts and computer videos look better? My friend Pam in KC tipped me off to this helpful post on the Strobist blog: How to Improve Your Cheapo Webcam’s Picture Quality.

The Strobist blog also includes a “lighting boot camp” and “lighting 101: learn the basics.”

Who's a loser?

Sit through about 30 nausea-inducing seconds of Lindsay "I support the surge" Graham and...wait for it, wait for it...here comes Barbara Boxer!



You go girl!

Okay, now that I've got that out of my system...what an interesting use of a video news clip to frame a point of view, promote a candidate, and raise funds.

Video blogging is wide open

I was fortunate to have two local video bloggers, Ryanne Hodson and Jay Dedman, come to my journalism class last week to talk to my students.

Ryanne has developed some great online tutorials for aspiring video bloggers at Freevlog.org. She is the co-author (with Michael Verdi) of Secrets of Video Blogging. Jay is the co-author (with Joshua Paul) of Videoblogging.

“There’s definitely a need for quality content,” Ryanne told my students. “It’s great to come from a place like CBS or CNN…and now we’re producing our own content.”

“It’s so exciting now because it’s so wide open,” added Jay, noting that it’s still fairly easy to get attention for your videos because there are so few video blogs out there.

Jay’s advice to my students: Start making videos, do it consistently, focus on the kinds of stories you like (not the kinds you think might be popular), have fun…and do it because you really love it. He says he only wishes video blogging had been around when he was a little younger so “instead of forming a rock band I could have formed a video band.”

Ryanne added, “Your blog becomes a resume.”

Jay & Ryanne’s Video Blogging Resources

• FreeVlog.org - free tutorials and other helpful info on video blogging, created by Ryanne Hodson and Michael Verdi, authors of Secrets of Video Blogging
• SpinXpress.com - home of the Get Media search engine for all kinds of media available for reuse under Creative Commons licensing
• OurMedia.org - a community site for video producers and podcasters
• havemoneywillvlog.com - a blog to help video bloggers fund worthwhile projects
• creativecommons.org - everything you need to know about creative commons licensing
• blip.tv - free video hosting with creative commons licensing
• WGBH Lab - Video Sandbox - WGBH’s video archives, now available for mash-ups under creative commons licensing

(Note: The content of their RyanIsHungry vlog was recently licensed to the PodTech Network for broader online distribution.)

Vlogs, blogs and scholarships

Gawd, what a busy week! It had everything from dental work to scholarship awards to faculty workshops....

I got drilled Tuesday morning, in preparation for getting a crown. That afternoon, I finally set up a video blog (McVlog), and uploaded a little multimedia project I've been playing with for a while.

Wednesday, in addition to teaching two classes, I attended a STEM session on getting started with Flash...and listened to a few songs by one of my favorite indie groups, The Dimes, who were playing on campus (I 'd forgotten they were going to be there, but I heard them playing as I was on my way to my evening class, so I took a short detour).

Thursday, I helped another prof set up a blog, and then helped present scholarships at the JMC Academic Achievement Awards Reception. What a pleasure that was!

I got to hand out scholarships to a couple of my favorite former students (you know who you are!) and one of my current favorite students. I finally got to meet a student I only know through her entertaining and well-done slide show (created for another section of the new media class). I got to meet several proud parents and scholarship donors. And I got acquainted with a wonderful young broadcast student who told me she was inspired in her career choice by people like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Barbara Walters.

I mean, how can you not have a good time at an event like this? The students are happy, the donors are happy, my boss is happy, I'm happy.

I wrapped the week up with a Friday morning faculty workshop on making slideshows and videos in iMovie, co-taught with my frequent partner in crime, Steve Greene. I brought some photos I'd taken at the scholarship awards reception; Steve brought a video camera and ambush-interviewed each of the six participants as they entered the room: "Do you know any students who won scholarships?"

We showed them how to make a quickie slide show in iPhoto, then jumped into doing the same in iMovie. An hour later, each of them had created a short multimedia presentation using still photos, video clips and music. One even added a voice-over. They were pleased. We were pleased. Another day, another bunch of happy people. I like that.

Fortunately, I had some really fine guest speakers in both of my classes this week (Carol Welsh of Cisco in my PR class and video bloggers Ryanne Hodson and Jay Dedman in my new media class). That cut down on some of the usual class prep. And I guess I'm getting used to not getting enough sleep.

There'll be time enough to sleep in mid-May, after the end of the semester.

Lessons in video

So what did I learn from playing with a video camera and iMovie over spring break?

* It helps to have the right cable (the camcorder I was using wouldn't work with a Mac via USB cable; I needed camera/video-to-firewire cable)
* The Apple Store can show you everything you need to get started with iMovie in about an hour (especially helpful if you're too lazy to read the online tutorials)
* It would probably help to have some kind of script or storyboard
* If you don't have a tripod handy, you can always improvise (see photo)
* You can see more things on video than in a mirror (yes, I'm getting age spots)
* Playing with video is way more fun than cleaning house, and almost as fun as gardening (which is one reason why I'm heading back to campus this week with a tidy garden and a messy house)
* I can get my video work (and embed on my blog) using Google video, but not using YouTube, where it worked briefly then got labeled "rejected" -- maybe it's not kosher to talk about death? Or maybe YouTube doesn't like .mov files. Any ideas?

My Best Worst Moment

I asked the students in one of my classes to create a short video or multimedia slide show and upload it to YouTube or Google Video. I suggested they consider creating something for YouTube's "best moment of my entire life" category. Then I figured I might as well do it too.

It's hard to pick a best moment out of 50+ years of life. (Boy, that sounds old!) It seems that every decade has a highlight or two, like...getting my first horse...earning a ribbon in a combined training event...getting my first newspaper story published...rappelling down a 100-foot cliff, and living to write about it...getting a feature writing award from the same people who'd told me a year earlier that I should find another career...singing with friends and a great summer choir in Kansas City...finding the man I wanted to marry...having my garden on tour in Tennessee...writing a fascinating (well, to me, anyway) thesis, and getting it published...hearing my just-learning-to-talk nephew say, "Auntie likes tea." (Yes, I do.)

I could go on...but what I decided to focus on was something more recent, the day my father died...I think of it as my best worst moment.

To Iraq and back...the Woodruff report

If, like me, you missed last night's special report by ABC News Correspondent Bob Woodruff, To Iraq and Back: Bob Woodruff Reports, you can still catch it online.

In an email to JMC faculty, Prof. Bob Rucker calls it "a truly remarkable and moving special report."

He continued, "This is absolutely GREAT television reporting...definitely EMMY Award caliber. It is also very very emotional TV. It's difficult not to tear up and cry when you see what Woodruff and some Iraqi war veterans went through, and now face as life-long battles for survival."

To watch the video, go to http://abcnews.go.com/ and click on Bob Woodruff links on the main page, or click on this direct link: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2909190.