2011 was a banner year at Flip the Media. Over the last twelve months we have grown into an informative, timely and thought provoking daily journal. Student run, Flip’s success is based on the content that MCDM students enrolled in the Flip independent study provide to readers every week on a daily basis. Most of our content comes from the students and faculty in the Master of Communication in Digital Media (MCDM) program and Flip the Media reflects the best aspects of that program’s scholarship and entrepreneurialism.
What do a cheese monger with Asperger’s syndrome, a globetrotting photographer and an author experimenting with acupuncture have in common? They’re all great characters whose individual stories can tell us a lot about our world.
That was the premise of Advanced Multimedia Storytelling: People and Story, the course I co-taught with Sarah Stuteville this past quarter; that a short film focused on an individual character’s experience is an extremely effective means to communicate a message, whether it’s about a product, a service or a broader trend in society.
The eight students in the class produced some powerful work, and sometimes got more than they bargained for:
Erika Takeuchi set out to produce a lighthearted profile of guide dog trainers, but when she met a trainer named Joseph Skillings, things took a turn for the serious. Joseph suffered severe head trauma a few years ago after trying to help a women being harassed at a bus stop. He took up puppy training as a way to deal with the lasting impacts of his accident.
Has Fox News been caught doctoring stories once again? According to a new video circulating online as of yesterday, it appears so. While trying to offer “Fair and Balanced” reporting on the recent riots in Moscow in which some thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest Vladimir Putin’s return to power, the folks at Fox News apparently decided to show viewers footage of the protests. Except the violent, fiery images shown during their broadcast on December 7 were not of Moscow at all but were actually re-purposed video shots from protests in Greece earlier this year.
Throughout much of autumn, near anarchy filled the streets of Athens as that country’s austerity bill as voted upon and photographers/videographers captured lot’s of captivating footage during those melees. It appears the honchos at Fox News thought nobody would notice if they made the protests in Moscow look more violent than they really are. I haven’t seen this anywhere on the New York Times’Media Decoder or Poynter.org yet, so I’m hesitant to call it 100% true, but the video above doesn’t paint a pretty picture.
Enough time has passed since the publication of Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs that I think it’s safe to give away the last line of the book. Besides, Isaacson himself reveals it in his extensive 60 Minutes interview. (Here’s a tip to those who don’t have time to read the book: just watch the 60 Minutes profile; it remarkably captures the essence of Isaacson’s reporting.)
In the final passage, Jobs is reflecting on mortality and concedes that he’d like to believe in an afterlife.
“But on the other hand, perhaps it’s like an on-off switch,” he said. “Click! And you’re gone.” He fell silent for a very long time.
Then he paused again and smiled slightly. “Maybe that’s why I never liked to put on-off switches on Apple devices.”
Much can be observed about the late Steve Jobs from this statement: his obsession with simplicity as he oversaw the design of Apple’s remarkable devices, his lifelong connection to digital technology (from pioneering personal computing to creating a market for the “fourth screen” of tablet computing), and how he integrated his soul with the devices that he created. He wanted to make a “dent in the universe” and at least in our gadget-infused, content rich world, he did.
Jobs’ products made a huge dent in my world as a visual storyteller: when I acquired a Powerbook in 2003 with its integrated content creation tools (Final Cut Pro, DVD burning, soundtrack production) I suddenly believed that I could become a filmmaker. Perhaps, I had entered Steve Jobs’ so-called “reality distortion field,” because against all odds, his technology did transform my creativity into a viable content that made its way to the masses. Read more…
Ivan Pankararú and Leandro Pataxó representing the Pankararú and Pataxó indigenous peoples of Brazil traveled to the Pacific Northwest to join with the Puyallup on this year’s annual Tribal Canoe Journey. The two traveled to this corner of the globe in order to seek knowledge, build relationships and connect with the theme of this year’s journey: “Loving, Caring, and Sharing Together.” They started their canoe journey at Owen Beach and carried on through Alki Beach, Suquamish, and Tulalip with the final landing ceremony at the host site in Swinomish.
People have said that I am, but I’m not. I am surviving cancer the only way I know how – by leaning on others. When I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic lymphoma I had a secure job, health insurance and an arsenal of family and friends ready to step in with anything I might need. Mine has not always been a graceful journey, but it is one I shared with the family, friends and people I don’t even know who have reached out to carry me in my moments of weakness.
Whether you are my parents, who paid for $8000 in fertility treatments to ensure I could have kids someday, my boyfriend who held me during more than one emotional meltdown, or someone who is taking a moment to read my blog and listen, you have had a hand in my survival. I am alive today because of you.
As I near the end of my treatment, I would like to help those who are not as lucky I am by establishing a new non-profit for cancer patients age 18-30. And MCDM community, this is where I need your help. Read more…
Sometimes inserting technology and digital media into a conversation can alter the outcome in a negative way. Having bright lights and cameras inside of an intimate setting intrinsically alters the flow of the discussion. But often, the stories that are told in intimate settings deserve to live on if you can find the right balance.
Such was the case with deciding whether to film last week’s heavy-hearted conversation between Olympia-based singer songwriter Kimya Dawson and Detroit-based writer, and filmmaker dream hampton. Both are highly analog individuals with strong presences online. They have an engrained understanding of the need to switch between hyper-connectedness and simply turning everything off which created an important paradox for us. The natural inclination for many of us in the MCDM program is to capture stories with authenticity. Given that MCDM is now partnered with Michael Hebb’s salon style Night School events, filming portions of them are key for the story to live on, but having a camera running the entire time changes the nature of the events themselves.
Luckily, we found a happy balance. Below check out footage that Scott Macklin pieced together from the green room sessions of Kimya and dream laughing about motherhood as Kimya sings a personal ode to her five year old daughter. It’s precious and only a handful of us witnessed this in person. After that check out a full live stream of the green room session itself with nuggets of wisdom galore from both of these women.
You didn’t really think Steve Jobs mania was over did you? The news that came out today from Silicon Valley may be a sign that it’s only just begun. In the wake of the computing pioneer’s death last month there’s been no shortage of material about Jobs coming forward including a high profile biography, a 60 Minutes special, and a host of online moratoriums from all over the globe. That all made sense. But a sign that posthumous fame is really working occurs when folks come out of seemingly nowhere with substandard material and are ready to make a buck.
It’s come out today that a lost Steve Jobs interview from 1995 was not only “discovered” in London recently but is now slated to show in major motion theaters across select cities in the United States. Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview is scheduled to debut in various Landmark Theater’s starting the third week of November. The footage is from an interview Jobs did with did with Robert Cringely for a public TV series called “Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires.” I’ve watched most of it throughout the day and there are some high points for sure. You can see Jobs’ more combative, cranky side come out as he talks about being fired from Apple and his rant against Microsoft. You see his human side most importantly. You see him sneeze, ask to stop and answer questions again, and you get beyond what Jobs was like while unveiling a new product and see what he’s really like reminiscing about the rise of Apple, even before Apple became the beast we know it to be today.
2011 was a banner year at Flip the Media. Over the last twelve months we have grown into an informative, timely and thought provoking daily journal. Student run, Flip’s success is based on the content that MCDM students enrolled in the Flip independent study provide to readers every week on a daily basis. Most of our content comes from the students and faculty in the Master of Communication in Digital Media (MCDM) program and Flip the Media reflects the best aspects of that program’s scholarship and entrepreneurialism.
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