Trust is perhaps the most critical element as the media become “democratic, decentralized and diverse” as Hanson Hosein stated early in his presentation, “The Storyteller Uprising” at Seattle’s Town Hall.  There are many experiments in developing trust, like NPR’s model for curating local bloggers as reporters in the Hurricane Ida and Haiti disasters.  Universities are also in the enviable position of having scholars with credibility in their field, given their intense and often lifelong research in a field.  Some universities are taking full advantage through platforms they manage, like the MIT Technology Review Others are wisely creating a crucible for the next generation of scholars, activists and journalists.  University of North Carolina is a great example of community scholarship, multimedia journalism and activism.  Seems like an unreachable goal, eh?  But check out the work created last fall by a group of 21 students and 5 faculty in the Galapagos Islands. http://www.livinggalapagos.org/

UNC living galapagos map

Living Galapagos has won several awards for innovation and journalistic quality – all well deserved, I think.  There is great storytelling by the residents, beautiful photography, and the unveiling of thorny issues about economics, tourism and sustainability.  Taken together, these can ignite passion in readers of the site.  But, as you also pointed out – how does one sustain the passion?  I did a cursory review of google looking for efforts to expand the message and link to others that can help, as Lance observed, to “take the news and translate it into things to do.”  It’s just not there.  Too bad.  Let’s hope there are other elements in the works.

I’m certainly going to keep an eye on UNC’s journalism program and share what I find here on campus.  We have a real connection to activism here at the UW through various programs like those at the Evans School of Public Affairs, which produces more Peace Corps volunteers than any other public university,  that may help our students create the stories AND sustain the passion.

If you’re a young company, getting on the Oprah show can mean a pot of gold – it can also make you plenty nervous about ramping up to the anticipated demand. Despite her mainstream platform, Oprah Winfrey practices social networking with gusto! Think about the “favorite things” product handouts and her endorsements of all kinds of products – talk about a network!

Bacon Salt is a Seattle company that just got Oprah-ized, but has a real track record of using social media to get established.

Xconomy first reported on the company, started by two alumni of Jobster.com in 2007. They started with profiles on MySpace and Facebook, and launched discussion groups. Perhaps their crowning touch was to friend everybody who said “I love bacon”. Xconomy quotes their results as 37,000 bacon loving fans on MySpace alone. Founder Justin Esch is quoted as saying “There’s a huge bacon subculture. There’s love and there’s fanaticism.” They have since attracted the attention of venture capitalists, and now Oprah. There are some business lessons here also – Again in Esch’s words:

1. In the social media space, having advocates of your brand, evangelists, is the most powerful thing you can do. Do you trust someone marketing to you, or do you trust a friend’s referral?

2. Be genuine. be honest about who you are and what your intention is.

3. Never give up on promotion. – they mailed product to the Oprah show four separate times, but a convergence that started with John Stewart’s poke at baconnaise got her attention.

Lessons here for all kinds of companies, and for daytime Divas.  Social media has the power to make an overnight sensation – or maybe just a hurricane that was forecast, but never came ashore.

Many of us in MCDM have a working knowledge of pocketmedia, but so far the term has escaped a clear definition -it’s not in wikipedia, can’t find it in Shirky’s writings, so I think it is up to us to define.

We’re about to launch the first ever UW pocketmedia film festival to encourage filmmakers in the UW community – students, alums, faculty and staff – to shoot and submit 90 second films made with a camera that fits in a pocket, like the Flip camera!

We’re working with a great Seattle start-up, zooppa.com
that specializes in video and advertising contests. All the entries will be uploaded to zooppa, and their community will vote on a people’s choice award winner. We’ve also been busy gathering prizes and have some great ones, including an iPod Touch and a Flip camera. Enter your great idea! Tell your friends!

And then, take a few minutes to think about pocketmedia and help define it. We plan to have uwpocketmedia.org live on after the festival as a “community center for filmmakers, developers, content providers, educators, and anyone interested in sharing or learning about storytelling with small video cameras, mobile phones and other electronic devices that are small enough to fit in your pocket.” (working mission statement)

But what else is it? What goes on inside? and what the heck is “pocketmedia”? –need some crowdsource help here. Here’s a list of ideas to get the conversation started –

Pocketmedia is video from your jeans pocket
Pocketmedia is content production and distribution with low barriers to entry
Pocketmedia is a set of tools to share your message broadly
Pocketmeida is a way that everyone can report on events as they happen
Pocketmedia is a method for production of ideas
Pocketmedia is using handheld communications technologies to tell stories
Pocketmedia is a new genre in filmmaking
Pocketmedia is a new set of storytelling tools
Pocketmedia is happening at the University of Washington

On Tuesday, March 17, 2009, the Seattle Post Intelligencer will cease operations as a print newspaper. Seattle PI.com will be re-launched with a new vision and staff. Summarizing the words of Executive Producer Michelle Nicolosi, here are the salient points of the new venture:

“We don’t feel we have to cover everything ourselves. We’ll partner for some content; we won’t duplicate what the wire is reporting unless we have something unique to offer; we’ll continue to showcase content from 150 reader bloggers and we’ll link to content partners and competitors to create the best mix of news on our front page.

Readers are also interested in photo galleries for all kinds of news and features. Our daily news of the world photo gallery is one of the most popular features on Seattle PI.com

We have just sealed a new partnership with Hearst Magazines that will give us great new health and wellness and at-home content from their many titles.

We’ve also signed up dozens of prominent local leaders to write columns for us.

A lot of our staff efforts will be on coverage of government, spending, crime, and harder news in general.

We don’t have reporters, editors or producers — everyone will do and be everything. Everyone will write, edit, take photos and shoot video, produce multimedia and curate the home page.”

Overall, this sounds like the new PI.com will be positioned to cover most of the content areas that have high readership and interest. The collaboration with Hearst’s stable of magazines will also bring a fresh new look, and potentially cross-platform advertising. The new online service has yet to discuss advertising or budgets, but Nicolosi points out that the online edition has been in the top 30 most popular US newspaper websites, as measured by Nielsen, for a long time. That they are sticking closely to the watchdog-on-city hall value of objective journalism gives me hope for the future.

And here is a comprehensive look at new models for the future of news from Prof. Jeff Jarvis at CUNY.
[slideshare id=652889&doc=newbiznews2-1223840372539559-9]

A recent article in MediaPost captures one of the more interesting issues in branding today. When do you draw the line on user generated content that impinges on your brand? There have been a number of notable infringements that could be interpreted as helping or hurting established brands – remember the 2003 VW Polo television spot with a terrorist-like figure that parks in front of a busy restaurant and blows himself up (contained in the car)? Or maybe the “enjoy Cocaine” t-shirts in red with Coca Cola script?

Read more…

I just ran across a new slideshare app that makes it really easy to add sound or music to your slide shows. John Boutelle, Slideshare founder, gives a cool tutorial – with his voice recorded – maybe he’s not really there? Maybe you could dial it in!

Slidecasting 101
View more presentations from Jonathan Boutelle. (tags: propaganda slideshare)

Social networking takes many forms. My wife sent me this link because she thought the message was great. It’s a site called Born Again American and it was started by the venerable Norman Lear as a way of re-invigorating people’s commitment to American citizenship and values.

The song is great, especially when the production challenges of 16 performers and choruses are considered. What I find most interesting is the number of organizations that are using social media to build a spirit of nationalism and generate positive feelings about pulling together through these economic hardships. Sure, some of these are really partisan attempts at fundraising or cause-related actions, but I think there is a nascent spirit of cooperation that I haven’t seen for a long time.

The “brand” Shaquille O’Neal received an unexpected boost from an impostor who used Twitter to share with Shaq’s fans. Or did he? The impostor was actually a 33 year old fan, and when Shaq and his publicist found out, Shaq took over as The_Real_Shaq, and has enjoyed a new wave of fan-aticism, according to a story in the NY Times.

It’s interesting to contemplate the value of communicating so directly with your fans, especially for pro athletes. They hire PR firms to negotiate endorsements and get them good publicity. All of the work creates the “brand” the athlete represents. In the world of social media, branding can become very personal. His publicist, putting a positive spin on the whole thing, took credit for trying to get Shaq to tweet with fans. Seems like he’s got a built in audience, thanks to the faux-Shaq.