media news and info

The IDA Awards are coming!

2009-11-09T20:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've been gone a really long time. I'm knee-deep in research. That's no excuse.For those in the L.A. area, the International Documentary Association awards are coming up on December 4, 2009. Hosted by Ira Glass! You may remember Glass won a special IDA award last year, the Distinguished Continuing Series Award for his This American Life program on Showtime. (It's available on DVD if

are we back?

2009-08-26T14:54:00.000-07:00

It's been forever since I've posted. Things have picked up a lot with writing and new projects. I'm going to try to get back into regular posts, though. We're getting into everyone's favorite season -- the fall and winter film releases! Looking forward to it.

Participation culture, creativity, and social change

2009-04-10T15:50:00.001-07:00

An overview of a lecture given by David Gauntlett. Connects evolving media to cultural and social change. More information available at 12 November.

IDA call for entries 2009

2009-04-06T18:11:00.001-07:00

The International Documentary Association has put out its call for this year's DocuWeeks Theatrical Documentary Showcases. The feature-length documentaries chosen are shown each year in Los Angeles and New York, in order to qualify them for Academy Awards consideration. Documentary shorts are also chosen and shown in Los Angeles -- also making them eligible for Academy consideration. If you're

Future of Music is On Demand

2009-04-05T18:49:00.001-07:00

A presentation on how music fans can access their favorite music while still compensating artists -- for example, streaming subscription services and new apps for mobile phones.

Free Documentaries at Hulu

2009-03-27T20:08:00.001-07:00

Greatest thing going right now: Feature-length and short form documentaries at Hulu. Plenty of new and classic features. (uh, hello, Dig! anyone?) Blogged with the Flock Browser

Breaking the hiatus for a little Cock Shot

2009-03-25T17:38:00.001-07:00

Obviously the blog is being severely neglected while I wrap up my never-ending master's degree.... I'll be finished in June, and will be back to posting random video bits and media pieces on a regular basis. There's a new video by comedy group invisible engine that's too funny not to share: Cock Shot at vimeo. FYI -- It's a mock infomercial with liberal use of the word "cock" -- so if you're not

Star Wars: Retold on Vimeo

2009-01-18T13:55:00.001-08:00

Hilarious video, whether you've seen the movies or not. And a great example of what can be done with a voice recorder and some still-images.Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.Blogged with the Flock Browser

2008 in review

2008-12-31T15:48:00.001-08:00

Here's a couple of my Year in Review pics this year -- The BBC has posted excerpts from this year's Harare diary. If you haven't seen it yet, it's the diary of a young professional woman living in Zimbabwe. I think this is one of the best examples of citizen/new journalism, or however you want to categorize it.This is more of a "Five Years in Review", but Reuters has posted a photo timeline of

FaceBook In Reality - idiotsofants.com and BBC'sThe Wall

2008-12-31T12:30:00.001-08:00

sure, it's been passed around for a while ... but still worth sharing.

Looking for Sundance swag?

2008-12-23T19:47:00.001-08:00

Okay, I get zero kickback from this, but since it's coming up I thought I'd point out the Sundance store. Hats, t-shirts, posters -- yeah. And if you're heading out there this year, so much the better.If you're not heading out this year, you can still catch some videos posted on their site. Enjoy. Blogged with the Flock Browser

Dancing Under Crossfire

2008-12-19T20:27:00.001-08:00

Filmmaker Hayder Helo is working on a documentary on an Iraqi dance troupe, and he's put a trailer for the film up on the film's blogspot page. My particular interest in the film has a lot to do with the theme of being exiled. I left New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, so in many ways I could relate to the dancer who says his home is neither away from Iraq nor in Iraq anymore. I think many

20% of teens posting nude pics?

2008-12-12T22:48:00.001-08:00

Prepare to be shocked (or not?) -- Ars Technica reports on a survey that claims 1 in 5 teens has posted inappropriate photos of themselves online or sent said pics to others via email. Personally, I wonder if ye kids are pranking the survey takers, but I suppose with the right "Tweet everything" mentality, anything is possible. Blogged with the Flock Browser

The science of influence

2008-12-10T21:22:00.001-08:00

I've been crazy busy with work and I've sadly neglected the site -- but just read an article in Science News about the power of being influenced.In a way, it's a review of Malcom Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. If you haven't read it, basically Gladwell makes the argument that "exceptional people" drive social epidemics and make certain things more

Top 25 websites and new media metrics

2008-12-02T19:51:00.001-08:00

Media Life has listed last week's top 25 websites, as measured by Nielsen Online. The ratings are split into several lists: Top 25 parent companies, top 25 online brands, top 25 advertisers, and top 25 advertising sites. Scroll down to the bottom to see average use metrics for this week and last week, as well as the percentage change.You can check out Nielsen's new media traffic metrics each week

VIETNAM AIDS: The Grass House (from current.com)

2008-12-01T20:13:00.001-08:00

a brief history of online journalism

2008-11-29T17:30:00.001-08:00

Mindy McAdams at Teaching Online Journalism wrote about a few milestones in online news coverage. After reading a CNN article called Tweeting the terror recently, I guess social media's influence on breaking stories is a hot topic. With good reason. How often do you find out about stories from people's blogs? Or your RSS feeds? And how often were you turned onto those feeds by people you know

Short film: The Aviatrix

2008-11-27T00:05:00.001-08:00

Runs 10:44. Girl with cancer fights evil and meets boy with lawnmower. Nice resolution.

tips for media students

2008-11-26T16:43:00.001-08:00

Have you seen Theory.org.uk? It's a collection of ... stuff ... that "explores the complex connections between media and identities" (a quote from their homepage).The site has a list of Nine Top Tips for Media Students. Good reading. It all sort of comes down to this: Get out there and explore the world, use your powers of synthesis, and learn to communicate. All good things, whether you work in

New media isn't killing the video stars

2008-11-26T07:30:00.001-08:00

A new Nielsen report on the amount of television Americans have watched so far this year -- the surprise? It was actually up 1.6 percent in the third quarter of 2008. Speculation on why includes increased web and mobile video viewing. Do you catch up on TV shows at work? If so, they're talking about you. Read about it at Media Life. Blogged with the Flock Browser

Presentation on niche online social networks

2008-11-23T13:19:00.001-08:00

I just found a pretty thorough PowerPoint presentation and .mp3 file describing different niche online social networks. The presentation, by Gerry McKiernan at Iowa State, is divided into two parts: Web 2.0/Facebook and Niche Online Social Networks. He focuses on how libraries can use niche social networks to engage users, but most of the information is just as applicable for other groups

C-SPAN founder looks to the Internet

2008-11-22T13:18:00.001-08:00

TV Week has a short article on a speech given by Brian Lamb (founder of C-SPAN). He comments on how the Internet seems to be overtaking television news in the relevancy department, especially among young people (evidenced by Barack Obama's video addresses on YouTube).In yesterday's post, I linked to an IFC-sponsored poll that said Fox News and "the Internet" are now seen as trusted and respected

Should we be frightened?

2008-11-21T20:29:00.001-08:00

A new poll from Zogby and IFC claims Fox News is seen as a trusted news source -- scratch that, they called it THE most trusted news source. A little frightening, no? Read all about it at Wired's blog network. Blogged with the Flock Browser

What's this? MGM goes YouTube?

2008-11-20T19:39:00.001-08:00

Looks like MGM will be the first major studio to post full movies on YouTube. According to this short piece at Media Life Magazine, they're also planning to put TV shows up. Interesting, but will people really stream full length movies from bandwidth-intensive YouTube? I can barely get 5 minute videos to stream without hitches. On the other hand, I watched Crawford in its entirety on Hulu and had

Facebook as marketing machine?

2008-11-19T21:08:00.001-08:00

A short video (approx 15 mins) by Mike Lazerow of Buddy Media on how businesses can use social networks (like Facebook) to effectively market to customers. The focus, says Lazerow, is on "cutting through the noise" and building interactive applications that engage and draw in potential customers. I can say personally that this has worked for me (to a certain extent) with Twitter. I've found that

short-list for Documentary Feature Oscar announced

2008-11-17T17:17:00.001-08:00

Story at indieWIRE -- five nominees will be chosen from the short-list. How many have you seen? I need to get to the theater. ha. Blogged with the Flock Browser

Media ad models are changing ... or are they?

2008-11-15T19:31:00.001-08:00

If you haven't heard, ConAgra (makers of Healthy Choice meals) has launched a new television ad campaign. You may have already seen the commercials; they tie into a new lunchtime web series. (You can view the series at their Fresh Mixers website here.) The series, called Working Lunch, features the Second City improv group and will consist of four short episodes each workday between noon and 4:00

There Are Monsters

2008-11-07T19:51:00.001-08:00

An odd and scary short from Canadian filmmaker Jay Dahl.

media links: The Net Generation and Digital Strategies for Film

2008-11-03T23:43:00.001-08:00

Here's a couple of articles on the Net Generation and digital film distribution.The Obama Factor: The Net GenerationFrom MediaLife, an overview of how the Obama campaign connected with young voters, followed by an analysis of the "Net Generation". Discusses 11-30 year olds: How they consume media and how distribution will need to shift as this generation comes of age.ITVS Digital Strategies for

Independent Lens

2008-11-03T11:20:00.001-08:00

Get this widget!

Watch free speaker sessions from the Digital Media Innovation Forum 2008

2008-10-31T00:00:00.001-07:00

The website takes a quick, free sign up to access (name and email address), but selected conference speaker sessions are now available for free viewing on the Digital Media Innovation Forum 2008 website (sponsored by Limelight Networks).The video I found most interesting was a panel discussion on Creating Engaging Online Experiences; it featured panelists from Disney.com, Fox.com, Gaia Online,

Five favorite web productivitiy tools

2008-10-29T23:00:00.001-07:00

As we spend more time online and use the internet to stay in touch with family, friends, and customers (as the case may be), good web productivity tools get more important.Here's my five favorite web productivity tools. They've saved me lots of time online, and hopefully you'll find some of them useful, too.The Flock Browser : The thing I like about Flock is, you can have your social networks

The Chestnut Tree

2008-10-28T13:03:00.001-07:00

An animated short from The YouTube Screening Room -- global, high quality short films.

in defense of firewire | it's time for a Hackintosh!

2008-10-25T19:41:00.001-07:00

I have to admit I've been asleep at the wheel with the whole Firewire being phased out of Mac notebooks thing. (Huh? Really?!)If you have a miniDV camcorder, you probably use Firewire. Lots of external hard drives have Firewire connections, too. So I'm really, really surprised Apple is no longer including a Firewire port on their Macbook notebook computers. I'm equally surprised there seemed to

feeding the virtual dog | why I love Twitter

2008-10-24T22:43:00.001-07:00

(sections of this are cross-posted from my personal blog)So, I wrote some SEO content today. Mmmm…content. What else? Fed my virtual dog on Facebook. Got very into Twitter. I'm finally starting to get how these tools work.First of all, let me say why I love Twitter: Every time BBC World News starts a new program, I get a message. Every time NPR posts a political story, I get a message. I can

The obligatory awkward first post

2008-10-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

As I learn more about how knowledge management is changing, and convergence culture is truly becoming mainstream culture, I decided to start a place where I can keep track of everything.Not sure yet what this will or won't evolve into, because between Facebook and Twitter any free time I scrape together is totally wasted (ha) ... but we'll see how it goes.Find me at: