Flashback to a war protest

I'd just scanned an article about the Iraq War protests, and moved on to an article about a student free-speech case, when I ran smack-dab into a flashback.

What set it off? It was this paragraph in the NYT article, Free-Speech Case Divides Bush and Religious Right:

Mr. Fredericks’s ensuing lawsuit...pits official authority against student dissent. It is the first Supreme Court case to do so directly since the court upheld the right of students to wear black arm bands to school to protest the war in Vietnam, declaring in Tinker v. Des Moines School District that “it can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

I remember that. I remember wearing a black arm band at school, and I remember Mr. Day, the conservative civics teacher, angrily challenging me and another student in the hallway. "Do you know what you're doing?" he asked, sure that we were just following the crowd, thoughtlessly aping the college crowd whose protests were then making headlines.

I may not have know exactly what I was doing, but I knew this: the Vietnam War was still raging, the draft was still in place, and a couple of my good friends had just drawn low numbers in the draft lottery...which meant that if they weren't accepted into a college, they'd have to decide whether to enlist, wait to be drafted...or make a run for Canada.

Tough choices, especially for young men who hadn't even finished high school yet. Beyond the mounting death toll and our growing awareness of the utter futility of the war, that one thing was enough to warrant black arm bands...a visible sign of mourning for all the lives already lost, and for the next crop of young men about to be thrown into the war's relentless maw.

Today marks four years and counting for the Iraq War. Is the situation really any different now (except for the draft, of course)?

Maybe it's time to start wearing those black armbands again.

Serendipity, Trains, and Celluloid Dreams

In less than six months, I'm a convert. I love trains.

It all started last fall, with a confluence of events: gas prices spiking at more than $3.00 per gallon and a semester where I had to be on campus four days a week, instead of my normal two. I live 35 miles from campus, so it added up to a lot of time spent on the highway and a lot of money spent on gas. I decided it was time to start taking the train.

I'm lucky; there's a CalTrain stop about a mile from my house. It backs up to Bay Meadows racetrack, so sometimes I even get to watch horses breeze around the track while I'm waiting for the train.

I like almost everything about trains...the size and heft and noise of a passing train...the excited clamor of the crossing gate alarms, and the distinctive, rhythmic clang of each train's bell as it approaches the station.

I like it that CalTrain cars are two stories high and I can look up to them. I like waving at the engineer in his high perch at the front of the train (southbound) as it pulls into the station.

And I like the notion that the train doesn't turn around. Instead, after delivering the last of his riders to San Jose, the engineer simply puts it in reverse and backs up all the way to San Francisco.

I like the people on trains too. Yesterday I sat across from two guys, obviously movie buffs, chatting with one of the conductors. Between stops, the conductor, a former prop man, told tales of working and partying with actors like Micheal J. Fox. And the guys, Tim Sika and Larry Jakubecz, talked about some of their favorite movies and some of actors and directors they've interviewed for their radio show, Celluloid Dreams (which desperately needs to update its web page). The show airs Mondays at 5 p.m. on 90.5 KSJS-FM, the campus radio station at San Jose State...where I happen to teach.

Small world, right? But there's more....

Turns out Sika and Jakubecz really want to figure out how to create RSS feeds, so they can post podcasts of their radio show for all the world to hear...and I just happen to be teaching a new media class this semester that includes a segment on podcasting...and I have an RSS guru lined up for next week's class.

Sometimes the stars are aligned, and the right people meet at just the right time. Sometimes a penchant for chatting with strangers is a good thing.

I'm looking forward to seeing my new friends in class next week...and maybe on the train.

To read a Spartan Daily News feature on Celluloid Dreams and its hosts, click here.

How do we feel?

Part art project, part social media...wefeelfine.com tracks the current mood of blog posts.

Organized like a musical piece in a series of "movements," this web site lets you sample the mood of what's currently being blogged. In the first movement, "madness," a swarm of dots, colored bright to dark, represents the varied moods of current blog posts. Click on a dot and you'll get a random, representative sentence or photo from a blog.

The "Mobs" movement displays the most commonly blogged feelings. Creators Jonathan Harris and Dep Kamvar write: "In this movement, the particles self-organize into rows of shared feelings. The rows are sorted by the number of particles they contain, and the particles within each row are sorted by the length of the sentence that each particle contains. The rows are colored to inherit the chosen color of the feeling they represent. Any particle can be clicked to reveal the sentence within."

When you click on a specific word, you get a sample, an excerpt from someone's blog. It's oddly fascinating, and very voyeuristic.

Is podcasting the new marketing?

A Tennessee writer friend of mine, frustrated in his efforts to get an agent or publisher interested in a novel he’d written with SciFi overtones, once described his plight as “no room at the genre.” If you were an unpublished author, he said, and your book didn’t fit neatly into an existing genre, you were probably out of luck.

That was 10 or 12 years ago, and it hasn’t gotten any easier. In fact, with the loss of so many independent bookstores and the continuing consolidation of publishing houses, if anything it’s gotten harder to get a first book published.

So determined writers are having to change tactics and find other paths to publication. My friend now publishes his stories online at his website, Tall Tales to Go. Here's a link to one of his tales, Can Aliens Be Angels? Or the Search for Armaggedon in Ol' Man Kelsey's Woods, a science fiction novelette.

Other writers are turning to podcasting to get their stories in front of an audience…and to attract the interest of a publisher.

An article in the Sunday Book Review section of the New York Times, Authors Find Their Voice, and Audience, in Podcasts, focuses on one such author, San Franciscan Scott Sigler, who writes “science-fiction horror novels.” The article notes:

After being snubbed by publishers for years, Mr. Sigler began recording his first book, EarthCore, in 2005. He offered it as a podcast in 22 episodes (roughly 45 minutes each) that he posted online and sent free to subscribers for downloading. Before long, Mr. Sigler had 5,000 listeners; by the time he finished releasing his second novel, Ancestor, last January, he had 30,000, as he does for The Rookie, which is playing now.

“A lot of no-name authors like me are getting massive grass-roots exposure, and some of us are going to percolate to the top and get on the best-seller list,” said Sigler, who now has a publisher and an agent.

Here’s the link to the prologue to Sigler’s first novel, Earthcore, which he recorded in a walk-in closet that serves as his podcasting center. You’ll note that it includes background music and sound effects, characteristics that distinguish it and many other podcast novels from audio books.

One web site now offering books as podcasts is Podiobooks.com. It now lists about 100 titles, including many science fiction and fantasy.

(Cross-posted on Jour 163 class blog.)

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.

Can bloggers be journalists? PR pros think so.

Remember the recent dust-up over the bloggers hired by the John Edwards campaign? In Salon.com, blogger Lindsay Beyerstein explains "Why I refused to blog for Edwards."

The upshot? Her gut feeling was that any liberal blogger who joined the Edwards campaign would face a full-bore attack by right-wing bloggers and conservative groups...and she didn't want to become that kind of target.

And that's exactly what came to pass after Amanda Marcotte, a well-known feminist blogger, joined the Edwards campaign. Right-wing bloggers combed through her Pandagon blog and attacked some of her more provocative posts. Others joined in, and soon it was pig-pile time. Marcotte eventually resigned.

A better model for political blogging, Beyerstein said, is the 2006 Jim Webb Senate campaign, which put two bloggers on its payroll. These bloggers, Josh Chernila and Lowell Feld from Raising Kaine, are the guys who captured the "macaca" moment...and knew what to do with it. Beyerstein explains:

When Webb's videographer captured George Allen's "'macaca' moment"...all the campaign had to do was upload the video to YouTube and send out some well-targeted e-mails to bloggers and other supporters and wait.

Supporters forwarded the clip to their friends. Bloggers started posting the video on their sites. The "macaca" clip got more than 600,000 views on YouTube alone and exploded into the mainstream media.

The lesson for progressives, Beyerstein says, "is how effective bloggers can be when they're outside the campaign." She concludes:

"I think the candidates who benefit the most from the netroots are the ones who can inspire bloggers to do their work for free.... Every campaign needs a blog, but the most important part of a candidate's netroots operation is the disciplined political operatives who can quietly build relationships with bloggers outside the campaign. And the bomb-throwing surrogates need to be outside, where they can make full use of their gifts without saddling a campaign with their personal political baggage."

What I find interesting is that while academics and journalists waste time debating whether or not bloggers ever can be "real" journalists, PR professionals have decided. They are dealing with influential bloggers the same way they deal with influential reporters...by sending them information and trying to build relationships.

"Campaigns 'work' bloggers more or less the same way they work the mainstream press," Beyerstein says. "They send out e-mails and press releases. They make phone calls. They make their candidate available for interviews. They invite bloggers to campaign events. They network in person at Drinking Liberally or the YearlyKos convention."

Sounds like dealing with the media to me.

Wanna be a better writer? Watch TV!

It's not the advice I would normally give a student writer, but it sure has worked for Soledad Rosas. So here is her advice: If you want to get better at telling stories, watch more TV...especially soap operas.

Rosas, a broadcast major and a student in my "Writing Workshop" class last fall, is a good writer. Right away, I noticed she had a knack for writing stories. Even with a simple assignment ("go outside and observe something...anything...then describe it...be descriptive, use telling details...write me a couple hundred words, and turn it in by the end of class"), Rosas created a story.

Here's what she wrote. She called it, "Talking To Each Other."

"Is that a man?" she asked Sergio, who sat almost, but not
quite next to her. Sergio stopped writing in his thin
notebook. He stood up and walked quickly down the stairs.

Sitting on the side of the steps outside Dwight Bentel
Hall, Katy chewed her gum rhythmically. Her long bright
gold hair, tied at the top, glided down her back. Her right
leg supported her against the smooth rail. Using a
pocketsize, Katy typed a few words, looked up and then
typed some more. From the bright green grass with dim gold
autumn leaves where he stood Sergio replied "No." They
giggled simultaneously.

A bright summer-like sun came down from the sky. Wearing a
red baseball cap that was his perfect fit and a bright
green T-shirt, Sergio walked up the stairs again.

"Do you think anybody took notes?"Katy said in a friendly
manner as she continued typing.

"No, it is such a great day," Sergio replied, and looked
indirectly at Katy.

"I am making background noise crunching on chips," said
Katy as she reached into the bag of chips with her left
hand. She grabbed some potato chips and ate them slowly,
making sure they crunched, then she continued typing.

Sitting on the concrete steps, Sergio also kept writing
every detail in his notebook. A few minutes later, without
saying a word, he walked up the stairs and opened the heavy
brown door. Katy did not seem to care and kept typing
holding her tiny machine in an upward position.

A moment later, she left walking fast. Katy seemed to know
the path by memory.

Rosas's short piece has characters. It has dialog. It has action (of a sort). It has a beginning, a middle and an end...all the element of a story.

I particularly like her closing line: "Katy seemed to know the path by memory." To me, that's the line that makes this piece hang really together as a story. It rounds the story out; it creates a sense of familiarity, a sense of closure.

When it comes to writing, different approaches work for different people. So, students, here is what I have to say: If you want to learn to write stories, you might try watching more television...especially soap operas.

Convergence and conferences

I noticed an odd item in the latest Convergence Newsletter...a list of upcoming conferences that included the following:

Creating Communication: Content, Control and Critique
57th Annual Conference of the International Communication Assn.
San Francisco, CA, May 24-28, 2007
http://www.icahdq.org/conferences/index.asp

It struck me that anyone who still thinks it's possible to "control" content hasn't been paying attention to current trends in the media. I clicked on the link to check it out...and here's what came up in my browser window:

Obviously, the ICA conference web site has a few problems. The red and black color scheme is just lurid, and it appears that the graphics aren't showing. Worse, clicking on a link opens up the page in a new window...but there's no "back" button or link to take you back to the original page.

This may work in browsers like Explorer, where you just pile up open browser windows, but for browsers like Firefox with tabbed browsing, it's really dysfunctional.

Overall, I don't get the impression it's a forward-looking organization.

The ICA conference does list keynotes on the significance of social media and the democratic potential of blogging, so maybe it's more tuned in than the web site suggests. We'll hope so...otherwise, it looks like a bust. And that's too bad because it's practically in my backyard.

A little further afield but more promising is the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) conference in Las Vegas this April 18-21. With sessions like "Journalism Values in a Multimedia World" and "The Future of News" -- a session reporting on a new study of the public and TV news directors on the future of news, new technology and business -- it appears to be more on target.

If I was gonna pick one, I'd bet on the BEA.

Thanks to Robin Williams, Molly Bang and Pam

I wish I was a good designer.

I'm not bad...I can put together a balanced page that isn't ugly...but I just don't have the skill to take a good but pedestrian design and make it eye-catching. Wish I did.

But I do know good design when I see it.

And just as important, I know a bad design when I see it too...and I can usually figure out at least part of what's wrong with it.

I never took a class in graphic design, although I did take undergrad classes in drawing and photography, which probably helped. But I owe most of my "design eye" to three women: Robin, Molly and Pam.

Robin is Robin Williams, author of The Non-Designer's Design Book; Molly is Molly Bang, author of Picture This: Perception & Composition; and Pam is Pam Linwood, a friend and Kansas City-based direct marketer and freelance writer.

In my PR 191 -- Strategic Writing class, I make Robin Williams' The Non-Designer's Design Book a required text. I figure that, at some point in their careers, most PR practitioners will end up working on print pieces or web pages, either doing it themselves (in small shops/offices) or working with graphic designers. And that means it helps to have an understanding of the basic principles and lingo of graphic design.

In yesterday's class, I reviewed Robin Williams' four basic principles of design and Molly Bang's 10 principles of perception and perception, and had my students tackle one of Robin Williams' graphic design exercises. I also assigned my students to find two print pieces or web pages to critique -- one they like and one they don't -- based on these design principles. I call this assignment "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," and I find they learn as much from bad examples as they do from good ones.

Once you start looking, you start seeing...whether you're looking for typos or good design. For example, as I was reading the newspaper today, I found a great example of one of Molly Bang's principles in a comic strip (you can read about that in this post in my PR 191 class blog).

That's one reason why I encourage my PR students to start filling an "idea file" (sometimes called a "cheat" file) with examples of good design. When you've got a project and you need some inspiration, it always helps to have a file full of great examples to draw upon. That's something I learned from my friend Pam Linwood, back in the day when we worked together at the Livestock Marketing Association (no kidding!), planning and publicizing the organization's annual conference.

Another thing I learned from Pam is the value of being a motivated learner -- of being willing and able to teach yourself new skills. In an era when so much is changing so fast, that's probably the most important skill of all. I hope I can help my students figure that out too.

Already Missing Molly

We lost one of the country's sharpest and funniest political writers yesterday: Molly Ivins.

When it came to skewering mean, vapid and greedy politicos, there was no one like Ivins. You could always count on her to knock the high and mighty down a few pegs, and make you laugh and feel outraged at the same time. It was a hellava combination.

The Chronicle carried a wonderful tribute to her, written by her long-time friend and editor Anthony Zurcher, as well as an obituary.

Do yourself a favor and read her last column, Stand Against the Surge. As Ivins put it,

We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge.... We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it, now!"

Then do our country a favor and take her advice.

California Dreamin'

All the leaves are brown
and the sky is grey...

The lyrics may talk about winter, but California Dreamin' always makes me think of summer...the summer of '66, to be exact. I grew up on the East Coast, not the West. I remember standing in the kitchen on a summer morning, washing dishes and singing along with the Mamas and the Papas as California Dreamin' played on the radio. I was 13, and I hated doing the dishes. (Still do.) But the singing helped.

God, how my brother and I bickered. We fought so much that my mother made us do the dishes in shifts. One would wash and stack clean dishes on the drainer, then it was the dryer's turn. It seems stupid now, but we managed not to kill each other that way.

I've been for a walk
On a winter's day.

The Mamas and the Papas had problems with bickering too. It probably didn't help that both the men in the group, John Phillips and Denny Doherty, were enamored of the willowy Michelle, who married John and had an affair with Denny. And then there was Cass Eliott, the big woman with the big voice, who also loved Denny. She died of a heart attack in 1974.

I'd be safe and warm
If I was in L.A.

I read in the newspaper this morning that Doherty had died. He was 66. John died in 2001, so Michelle is now the only one left of the original foursome. I don't think she sings anymore. But sometimes I do, and I still remember most of the words to...

California dreamin'
On such a winter's day.

I never could have guessed, in 1966, that I'd end up living in California. But I do. And I'm still California Dreamin'.

SF reflections

Here's my favorite photo from my meanderings in San Francisco last week.


Buildings near Moscone Convention Center are reflected in a water feature at Yerba Buena Gardens.

I particularly like the angles, the random glitter of coins in the water, and the two people walking by.

Macolytes worship at iPhone plinth

It took me a while to figure out what the crowds were gawking at...but there it was, slowly rotating in a plexiglass case atop a tall black plinth...the iPhone, spotlighted in all its glory.

Two iPhones were on display on either side of the main Mac stage; Macolytes gathered around the two pillars, gawking reverently and taking photos and videos.

"It's so slim, so stylish," cooed one Asian teen to her friend. "I think I want one."

Me too.

I watched the demo, and it looks like the iPhone is everything my current cell phone is not...sleek, logical and user-friendly. No more tapping the "2" key three times to type a "C" into my address book, no more having to remember "*86" is the code to access my messages.

Plus it's an iPod, a PDA and a web browser. Oh, how I covet it!

The next most crowded spot at MacWorld was the Supacam booth. This tiny digital video recorder, not much bigger than my little Olympus digital recorder, got a lot of attention. On both Wednesday and Friday, it was hard to make your way past the crowd.

The Supacam, priced at just $299, is so small that you have to be extra careful not to stick your fingers over the lens, which is located on the main body/stick/handle. The flip-out video display looked great, as did the projected images.

If I didn't have access to a video camera at school, I'd be wanting one of these too.

MacWorld!

Here are some highlights of my recent MacWorld foray...

Surge...schmerge!

I spent the morning after Bush's speech calling my elected representatives to tell them I oppose the president's plan to send more troops to Iraq. As far as I can see, the only result of a surge in soldiers will be a surge in casualties.

I also told my reps that a non-binding resolution against the troop increase is not enough...it's too little, too late. It's time to stop funding this war. (You know the old saying...when you know you're in a hole, first stop digging.)

Before the fall elections, I thought Bush might listen if it was clear that most Americans no longer support his war. I thought talk of impeachment was a waste of time and energy. But no more. I think it's time to remove Bush from office. That's what he does to people who don't agree with him, so maybe it's the only language he understands.

Want to take action too? Here are three toll-free numbers you can use to call your members of Congress: 800-828-0498, 800-459-1887 and 800-614-2803.

Obama, Sundance and student films

You know how sometimes one link leads to another...?

Well, this morning I was reading about Barak Obama's recent New Hampshire appearance (I'm a N.H. native, so I tend to notice N.H. stories) in Salon.com...and isn't it interesting how much attention he's getting? I think it shows how hungry so many Americans are for a new path in this nation's politics and policies. But I digress....

Anyway, from Salon.com, I clicked on a banner ad for the Sundance Channel...I mean, how could resist a TV show called "One Punk Under God"? It looked kinda interesting, but perhaps not my cuppa tea...so I clicked on a link to Sundance's Second Life blog...and, yes, Sundance avatars (named Vincent and Maya, if you must know) will soon be appearing on a Second Life Island near you. And if you're interested, you're invited to tell the folks at Sundance what you'd like to see their avatars do (in a nice way, of course).

Then another Sundance link -- for the "College Television Awards" -- caught my eye, and ended up watching some very cool short films created by college students. My favorites were an animation, "Things That Go Bump in the Night," and a short film, "Trojan Cow."

Check them out!

For once, Bush is right

President George W. Bush spoke honestly about the situation in Iraq this week. "This business about a graceful exit just simply has no realism to it," he said.

No shit, Sherlock. At this point, it's hard to picture any way we can exit Iraq gracefully. No doubt about it...it's going to be a mess.

Viral marketing

I was browsing through the latest San Jose area meet-ups list when I found one for the SF Advertising 2.0 meet-up next Tuesday.

The topic of the meeting will be viral marketing, and the group's meet-up page has links to some fun examples. Here are my favorites: Monk-e-mail and Waitin' Woes. Oh, and the Mentos video contest winners site.

So much fun stuff, so little time.

Reporting 2.0?

In Chron 2.0, an article posted last week on sfweekly.com, JMC lecturer Michael Stoll takes an in-depth look at the life and times of the San Francisco Chronicle. Overall, his article offers another fairly dismal view of the future of newspapers and journalism, pointing to continuing decreases in readership and increasing competition for ad revenues from the likes of craigslist.com.

But, as Stoll points out, at least the Chronicle is still hiring...unlike the Mercury News, which is about to slash its news staff again. As reported on the eastbayexpress.com blog:

Merc managers plan to lay off 40 editorial staffers on Monday night and Tuesday morning, along with another 61 workers in the newspaper’s other departments.... Management has remained tight-lipped...and the secrecy has put the 446 employees who received layoff-warning notices on edge. “It’s the largest layoff in Mercury News history – that I’m aware of,” said Luther Jackson, executive director of the San Jose Newspaper Guild.

Aspiring young journalists may want to take note of what the Chron is looking for in its reporters these days. Near the end of his article, Stoll notes that prospective Chron reporters are being asked to explain how they would make blogging, podcasting, and video a part of their news routines. Stoll also quotes Narda Zacchino, the paper's deputy managing editor, who says, "I think we think of ourselves not just as a newspaper anymore, but as a multimedia provider, not just in print but on the Web."

In the olden days, people used to tell ambitious youngsters, "Go West, young man, go West. Now I think it should be: "Go Web, youngster, go Web."

Professor Blogger

A sign of the times, perhaps?

According to BlogTogether, a blog for North Carolina bloggers and podcasters, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill is looking for a tenure-track prof who's a blogger.

An excerpt from the UNC ad says candidates should be "highly skilled in writing and editing online news, in blogging and in developing news content for the web."

Sounds like the future is now.

(Thanks to grad student Ryan Sholin for passing this on.)