I had a veeeeery difficult time choosing between two videos this week. Both have been all over my Facebook, Twitter, and G+ feeds, and both have had big reactions from the public.

The decision was taken out of my hands, though, because I can’t show you one of them: it’s been set to “private” by its 14-year-old creator.

But that’s okay, because have I got the video for you! It’s about a new beauty product for us women which has taken the nation by storm–more than two million hits since the ad launched just four days ago. This newest beauty tool is practically magical, and has already revolutionized the lives of countless celebrities. You’ll never look at yourself the same way again.

Like any devout follower, writer and performer Mike Daisey was reluctant to ask questions about his favorite religion—the church of Apple. A self-professed gadget freak and number one fan of the ubiquitous technology company, Daisey’s reluctance is probably familiar to all of us.  In his most recent monologue on NPR’s popular series, This American Life, Daisey renews the debate about “fair trade” electronics by traveling to China and investigating working conditions at Apple’s main manufacturing plant, Foxconn.

Listen to his story here.

Is anyone truly surprised by what he found? Should it come as a shock that while hundreds of thousands of Americans are perusing the latest gadgets at this week’s Consumer Electronic Show, children as young as 12 are working full-time in China in conditions so poor their manufacturing plants are surrounded by suicide-thwarting nets? Read more…

The venerable and sometimes troubled social news outlet Reddit announced today that it would go dark on January 18th to protest the upcoming votes on anti Internet piracy legislation in the House and Senate. Upcoming votes on the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate prompted the site to announce that they will suspend normal operations of the site on January 18th from 8:00am until 8:00pm . Instead of the normal user defined news channels, Reddit visitors will see links to anti-Sopa sites and live video streams of Congressional testimony on the legislation.

Lively responses have been appearing on the Reddit site and several comments in support of the move are also encouraging Facebook and Google to follow suit.  Its hard to imagine those two huge tech giants following Reddit into the breach, but if they do, that would be quite a protest.

MCDM Director Hanson Hosein unpacks his kit and shows you what you need to cover CES.  Check it out:

Five mornings a week for the last seven years, while you were sleeping – Lily Jang has gotten up to go to work. Her alarm clock is set for 3:45 am. “I never hit the snooze button,” says Jang. “I get paid to be myself.” Lily Jang has worked in Seattle TV news for 11 years, for the last seven as the lead morning anchor for the Q13 Morning News

http://www.q13fox.com/news/mornings/
Still, in six weeks all that will change. Because Lily Jang is leaving Seattle to go back to Texas to accept a new job as morning anchor for KHOU-TV (CBS) in Houston, her hometown. Her new purpose is to connect with family. Lily says she’ll be going home to be with her father who’s suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. “Everything I ever did was because of my parents,” Jang says. She was born in Vietnam. Her parents, Vivian and David Jang are Chinese. She is fluent in Cantonese and Vietnamese.

Right now she just wants to tell stories, mainly those she considers “American Dream” profiles. Her inspiration comes from her mother and father. Vivian Jang got out of Vietnam with Lily and her brother in the spring of 1975 when Saigon fell to Communist forces. Because of bureaucratic red tape her dad had to wait three years to get out of the country.

Her mom worked as a secretary. “All they ever did was support me.” Eventually the couple opened a Chinese restaurant and grew the business. “Everything they ever did was because of me and my brother.”

But today, with her father suffering from Parkinson’s disease, Jang feels it’s time to go home. “If not now – when?” she asks.

Read more…

I’ve been reading the horror stories about surviving the mammoth Consumer Electronics Show with some trepidation. There’s Survival Gear for Battling 100,000 Nerds in a Desert. Then I spied our own intrepid Todd Bishop of GeekWire in his lovely fly fishing vest.

Me?  Well, I’m in an unusual situation.  I’m there to promote the MCDM through Storyteller Uprising (which has a new chapter) as well as cover the event (for KUOW, GeekWire, KING 5, Flip The Media).  But I’m also looking forward to being “covered” as a subject matter expert.  I have interviews already scheduled with Wired, Reuters, PRWeek and the Seattle Times with my take on the show, seen through the optic of Storyteller Uprising and the MCDM.  So I’ve got to look Chic while being practically prepared for any eventuality as would any good Geek.

“Chic”: dark blazer, polished boots, dress shirts, make-up, brushes, spot removal wipes. I’ve even got a business card that actually doesn’t have a telephone number.  But it does have four URL’s, a QR code for journalists to download my e-book, my e-mail address, and of course, my Twitter handle.  Which means of course, that we’ve already moved into the “Geek” section of this post (considerably longer than the “Chic” one!):

I don’t have to worry too much about the gear, which is a relief.  I’m traveling with my colleague (and former student) Filiz Efe who’ll be capturing the show (and me) through a Canon 5D with a fancy Zacuto add-on viewfinder, and a multiplicity of microphones.  The MCDM’s new Program Manager, Ashley-Rose O’Mara will be our enforcer as she manages my interviews and schedule, while she makes friends for our degree program by handing out brochures and copies of my book.  We’re also supported through our terrific partnership with public relations firm Weber Shandwick Seattle.

But I’m forever the backpack journalist and I’ll be the only one in the team who’ll have access to certain events.  So I’ll be filming with my Galaxy Note “phablet” in 1080p video mode (read Todd Bishop’s feature on my mammoth conversation starter of a phone), which will probably be announced for the American market this week.  I’ll also have an Olympus XZ-1 point-and-shoot (with external mike setup), a Macbook Air, a backup mobile broadband hotspot (T-Mobile, how congested could that network be at CES?), and a plethora of cables. Another first for me?  We won’t be editing in Final Cut, but rather with Adobe Premiere.  It’s all a sign of the times.

Follow me on Twitter (@hrhmedia) for my latest #CES reports.  I’ll also be filing on Storyteller Uprising, and here, regularly.

On Thursday, January 5th, The Federal Communications Commission released a report confirming that the presence of low power FM stations (LPFM) do not impact the advertising or audience of full power FM radio stations.

Currently there are 838 LPFM stations in the country operating at 100 watts or less and reaching a radius of three to ten miles. In 2007, bipartisan legislation was introduced to increase the number of available LPFMs. It was then that the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) came out strongly against the introduction of what they called “thousands of micro-radio stations to the FM band”. It is possible that several hundred nonprofits will apply for new LPFM licenses when the application window opens in fall 2012 and the NAB has been concerned that they will interfere with full power stations.

This finding wasn’t new to those of us who follow LPFM, but the FCC had to issue the report as a provision of the Local Community Radio Act that President Obama signed in 2011.

Read more…

This is the first Viral Video post of 2012. I have to say, that I have had the best time EVAR with this weekly spot.

So before we move on to new videos next week, I’d like to take a look back at last year’s offerings, and show you the best of what we’ve had up on the Flip. And by “best,” I mean “what Kat liked.”

Since there were so many videos, and so many different types of video, I broke my recap out into genre. After all, a baby playing with an iPad isn’t really comparable with a news story about riots in England.

Best PSA

Rethink Breast Cancer’s monthly check app video–Funny, campy, sexy, and has the potential to save many lives.

Best random funny

Ocean Marketting’s (sic) bad PR day. This story was such a train wreck, that the absurdity of the video was all-the-funnier. Read more…