Who doesn’t like videos of cats?  Who doesn’t like videos of cats barking like dogs?  These are the types of eternal vexing questions the resident “storytellers” here at FTM ask each other all of the time.  We are just too chicken to post any videos of cats…

Until now.

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If you’re wondering where the future of media production might be headed, there are roughly 30 youth from the Seattle area that have an answer for you. All week long from June 27 thru July 1, the Seattle Digital Literacy Initiative is hosting its inaugural Summer Institute on the University of Washington’s campus and teaching youth various skills of media production and basic journalism. Everything is being headed by the Common Language Project team along with a few select instructors (myself included) as media professionals are being matched up with aspiring photographers, reporters, and know-it-all’s from 10am to 4pm each day.

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The second annual Integrated Marketing Communications Conference is taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa on June 6-7, 2011.  Presenting the latest trends in global media and innovative marketing to industry leaders this conference is where South Africa’s leading communication voices are.

Over 200 people from various fields including public relations, digital media, marketing, advertising and communications are gathering in a Sandton hotel to figure out ways brands can develop an open ear to its consumers.  The opening keynote speaker was Vice President of Africa for InMobi, Isis N’yongo the world’s largest mobile advertising network spoke about the rapid growth of mobile technology on the African continent.  With 489 million mobile phone subscribers Africa is without a doubt a market segment that can no longer be ignored. “This continent has the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world.  If you combine this with the fact that more Africans access the Internet from mobiles than any other platform, it means the market for mobile advertising is set for strong levels of growth.”

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It was like something out of a Tom Clancy novel. A somber and youthful President addressing the nation in an unprecedented late night broadcast, announcing that an elite team of Navy Seals had quickly and decisively killed the head of a global terrorist network. Television viewers across the planet watched as Barack Obama closed one chapter in the long struggle to bring to justice those responsible for the events of September 11^th 2001.

In the hours and days that followed many speculated about the exact details of the dramatic raid.  This speculation was exacerbated by the shifting official narrative of the raid coupled with a frustrating lack of physical or photographic evidence.

After the White House had decisively announced that they were not going to release photos of Osama Bin-Laden’s corpse, journalists, pundits and those of us curious about exactly what had happened were left with Obama’s speech and one enigmatic and very dramatic photo to ponder. Now known as the “Situation Room” photo, this one photo has in the weeks following the raid gained an iconic stature.

Pete Souza's iconic WHSR photo.

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Despite my position as the head of a graduate program in digital media, I’ve always held on to a plethora of print (a.k.a. “dead tree”) newspaper and magazine subscriptions. They’re usually much cheaper than their digital counterparts, and I liked the often serendipitous browsing experience — not to mention the disconnected zen of knowledge absorption.

However, as my affection continues to grow for the ergonomics, usability and convenience of my iPad 2 and Motorola Xoom, I’m resorting increasingly to the excellent tablet versions of The Economist and The New York Times. But this morning clinched it for the tablets. The headline on the rolled up, thrown-at-my-porch edition of The Wall Street Journal read: “Osama Bin Laden, Terror Mastermind Is Reported Dead” (in the smallest middle third above-the-fold of the front page no less).

Hmmm. Hadn’t I received my first notice of Bin Laden’s death last night around 7:15 p.m. Seattle time? I was preparing to view the latest Doctor Who episode (streaming it from iPad to TV set) when the New York Times alert popped up on my tablet screen. I went to Twitter for confirmation. Then I opened up my handy dandy White House iPad application (tellingly, I categorize in under “News” along with my BBC, WSJ, NYT, USA Today, Financial Times, Al Jazeera Live etc. apps), and saw that a live announcement from the President was forthcoming. I popped open CNN on the tablet, but the live stream just wasn’t kicking in. Read more…

Allegations that Central Asia Institute guru Greg Mortenson fabricated parts of his bestselling book “Three Cups of Tea,” and may have exploited the charity’s funds for personal use, bring up serious questions about the level of truth we expect from our leaders, especially in the world of development.

Mortenson brought the issue of girls’ education in Afghanistan and Pakistan to the forefront of mainstream culture with a compelling story of getting lost while descending K2 and then stumbling into a remote Pakistani mountain village. The villagers nursed him back to health, the story goes, and Mortenson was so inspired by their poverty and hospitality that he devoted his life to building much-needed schools for girls in the region.

It’s a powerful “leadership narrative” that inspired thousands to buy Mortenson’s book and support his charity. But it may have been too good to be true, and many of Mortenson’s supporters feel they were duped.

But how truthful do we really expect this kind of leadership narrative to be? At what point on the spectrum between a robotic retelling of factual events and total fabrication do we draw the line? Read more…

The psychsters over at Psychster Inc. have done something that media creators have been clamoring for ever since the collapse of the first internet bubble a decade ago.  They released a study looking at how engaged web users become with video content.  One of the continual challenges for web producers is how to effectively evaluate the cost benefit ratio of developing and distributing rich multimedia content online.  Consumers have more video choices now than they have ever had before, but video producers, directors, editors and writers are being squeezed by the emegence of “content farms” that produce very low cost (and sometimes low quality) video content for web sites.

There is a growing debate among media pundits and economists alike about the inflated valuations of tech companies like Groupon and Facebook.  These voices have raised the specter of a new and potentially bigger tech bubble developing.  Facebook, Google’s YouTube and other Web 2.0 giants have all pioneered business models based on user generated content—not professionally produced content.  Psychster’s recently posted study looks at the effectiveness of online video content in relation to production values.  In short, the study asks the question:  do web users engage with professionally produced video content more than they do with cheaper content?  Why is this important?  Lets back up a little and look at how video on the web has evolved over the last decade. Read more…