Looking for Student Blogs

I'm always looking for links to blogs being written by student journalists. If you have one, or know someone who does, drop me a note!

Dr. H

Second Edition Available Now!

The second edition of Mass Communication: Living in a Media World is now available at the very student-friendly price of $45. (Yes, the new edition sells for less than used copies often do of the first edition.) It features a newly strengthened media literacy focus, greater depth on a number of topics, extensive coverage of "long-tail" media, and new chapters on media effects and global media. For more information, visit the CQ Press website.

NEWS: The RSS feed is fixed! Check it out.

NOTE: The video on these pages does not work with Internet Explorer. Try Firefox if you are having trouble viewing the video.

Going through a very busy time right now. Will keep having links, but I'm going to have to keep the comments to a minimum over the next few weeks.

I'm now on Twitter. Follow me at ralphehanson

Author Pam Hanson blogs on Holding on and Letting Go

Monday - Nov. 30, 2009

Things I Learned This Morning From Media Post Newsletters

• Super Bowl Advertisers Will Also Be Exploiting Social Media
  In other words, advertisers will be using Facebook, Twitter and the like to make the most of their Super Bowl spending.
• Scion Using Online Video Games to Market Cars
  Toyota's downscale, youth-oriented brand is using an online Facebook game to help promote a new limited edition car going on sale December 2.
• Milan Prosecutor Wants To Jail Google Execs for Invasion of Privacy
  If you ever doubt that the first amendment is unique to the United States, check out this story about Italian officials seeking to put Google execs in jail for allowing a video clip of four boys bullying another boy on YouTube.
• Glenn Beck Continues To Draw Advertisers
  When Fox News host Glenn Beck called President Obama a "racist," the show lost several of its top-name advertisers. But the spots formerly taken by companies like Procter & Gamble, Clorox, and Geico have now been snapped up by smaller advertisers.

Link

Tuesday - Nov. 24, 2009

Questions Worth Asking (Maybe)
BTW, if you aren't reading Media Bistro's Daily Media News Feed, you should....

• Is Twitter For Sale?
  Nope, but an IPO might be in its future. And Twitter finally has at least a small revenue stream. (Bloomberg)
• Is Lou Dobbs Really Running For President?
  Maybe keeping him on CNN would have been a better idea.... (Politico)
• Can Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Save Content?
  For all that he gets portrayed as an evil force in media, Rupert Murdoch is one of the few people out there who seems to have any idea how to survive in the new media world. He's in negotiation with Microsoft to provide exclusive News Corp. content (Fox News, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, etc.) in a way that will actually make money. Radical, Chuck. (The Daily Beast)
• Are Magazines Getting Ready For the Mythical Apple Tablet?
  Wired, Time Inc., Conde Nast, and Hearst are all working on getting ready for a better platform for digital magazines. Might that be Apple's tablet? (9 to 5 Mac)

Link

Friday - Nov. 20, 2009

How Comcast's Competitors View the Proposed Purchase of NBC Universal - Part II

How do cable giant Comcast's competitor's view the company's bid to take control of NBC Universal? Hint - They don't like it.

• How do other cable companies view Comcast's quest for NBCU?
  They don't like it. (Post Tech)
• How does DBS provider Dish Network feel about the proposed merger?
  Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen doesn't like it much either.(Post Tech)
• Would Comcast/NBCU be big enough to take on Disney/ESPN?
  Maybe. Analysis of the impact on sports cable from USA Today's Michael Hiestand. Comcast already owns the Golf Channel and Versus. And NBC has Olympic broadcast rights. Remember, Comcast tried to take over Disney back in 2004.
• And just how in the heck does Comcast fit in to the Ticketmaster/Live Nation proposed merger?
  Can't claim that I understand this one. Finance geeks? Go nuts. (Basically, Comcast owns arenas that Ticketmaster and Live Nation promote shows at. I think.)
• How will NBC affiliates react to the purchase?
  Not sure on this one, but Comcast clearly sees them bringing value to the table.

Link

Thursday - Nov. 19, 2009

Everything You Need To Know About Comcast's Proposed Purchase of NBC Universal - Part I

Trying to keep up with the changes taking place in the media landscape recently is a full-time job. I thought I had closed out the newspaper chapter for the third edition of Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, when word came about the shuttering of several gay newspapers and suggestions that the fundamental market for the gay press had changed. That led to Tuesday's blog post and a flurry of e-mails between me and my editors.

But there's a much bigger change hovering on the horizon - the likely change of controlling ownership of NBC Universal. NBCU has been owned for the last several years primarily by General Electric, a major provider of consumer products, military and industrial products, and financial services. Speculation started circulating back in late September/early October that Comcast, one of the nation's largest cable companies was trying to buy a 51 percent stake in NBCU, which would give it control of how the network/film company would operate.

Today we will look at issues surrounding the merger itself. Tomorrow we will see how competitors view the proposed merger.

• Who, other than GE, currently owns NBCU?
  That would be the French media company Vivendi SA, which also owns the world's largest music company. As of right now, GE owns 80 percent of NBCU, and Vivendi owns 20 percent. Every year Vivendi has a several week window in which the company can sell its stake in NBCU. The question investors are wondering about is whether GE will be able to buy out Vivendi's investment. (Bloomberg)
• If Vivendi doesn't reach an agreement to sell its portion of NBCU to GE, what could happen?
  According to Diane Mermigas at investment news web site Seeking Alpha, Comcast could buy up 51 of NBCU directly from GE without the Vivendi portion; Comcast could abandon its quest for NBCU and buy other, smaller content companies, or NBCU could be sold to another company such as Liberty Media or News Corp. (though how News Corp. would be allowed to own both NBC and Fox is beyond me).
• What would federal regulators have to say about the merger?
  According to the Wall Street Journal, the proposed merger would draw a lot of scrutiny from regulators. Expect approval to take six months to a year.
• Where did Comcast come from, anyway?
  The Associated Press provides a history of Comcast from 1963 to the present day
• Just who is Brian Roberts?
  Beyond being CEO of Comcast....

Link

Tuesday - Nov. 17, 2009

Washington Blade, Window Media Close Down
The question of authenticity is a difficult one for the entire alternative press. How can a paper represent the interests and concerns of a particular group yet still operate as a profitable commercial venture? This question has been particularly problematic for the gay press.

The Washington Blade was the oldest and biggest gay weekly paper in the country. It was started in 1969 as a one-page mimeographed publication that was distributed in several gay bars at a time when such establishments were routinely raided by police. In the 2000s, a typical edition of the Blade ran to more than 100 pages, with news about health as well as legal and political issues. In the early 1990s one of the key features of the Blade was the large number of obituaries of men who had died of AIDS; these have become much less numerous in recent years. The Blade became such a success that it expanded outside the District of Columbia in 1997 with the New York Blade News.

But in 2009 the recession hit the media industry hard, including the LGBT press. The most prominent of the gay papers to be affected was the Washington Blade. Just week's after the Blade's 40th anniversary party, the paper's parent company, Window Media, shut down after investors were unable to meet financial requirements from their Small Business Administration financing. With the closing of Window Media, a number of gay papers across the country were shuttered, along with the Blade. The New York Blade News also ceased publication in 2009, when it's parent company, HX Media, closed.

Why did these previously successful publications fail? There are likely several reasons:

• Like many media companies in the late 2000s, the owners of LBGT newspapers were facing severe financial problems. Even though the Washington Blade was reportedly turning a profit up until the time it closed, its parent company was not.
• The audiences for LGBT media went online to use social media and web-based publications. MediaPost reports that the LGBT community was an early adopter of new online media.
• Gay culture has moved into the mainstream. As Truth 3 states - Everything from the margin moves to the center. When gay and lesbian papers were founded in the 1960s and 1970s, reporters at the papers feared for their personal safety. Reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr., who had been with the Blade since 1976, told the Washington Post that over the course of his career there he had gone from writing under an assumed name in the 1970s to sitting in the front row at a presidential press conference in 2009. With gay and lesbian issues increasingly being covered by Big Media, there may not be the same demand for gay-specific newspapers now.

The trend of gay publications moving to the mainstream has been an ongoing one. In the 2000s, there was an extensive debate in the New York over whether straight-owned papers could adequately cover the LGBT community. In a 1997 interview with Editor & Publisher magazine Troy Masters, the former publisher of a gay-owned New York newspaper, laid out the issue clearly in a way that could apply equally well to culture- or community-specific alternative papers outside the gay community:

There needs to be a hard look at whether or not a publication that serves a specific group of people—whether they’re of a certain race, nationality, sexual orientation, or whatever—can be owned and run by people who are not from that place. Do they truly understand the culture they’re getting involved with, to treat the business the way it needs to be treated and to be sensitive to those they’re trying to reach? It’s very important, I think, for those kinds of publications to be treated first as a culture, and lastly as a marketplace.

Link

Thursday - Nov. 12, 2009

More Questions Worth Asking (Maybe)

• How Can I Use Blogs In The Classroom?
  Notes from the presentation I gave to speech education students tonight.
• Is It True Nobody Watches TV In The Internet Age?
  Nope. Folks are watching it more than ever!
• Why Did Lou Dobbs Suddenly Quit At CNN?
  Not sure yet, but one can only be grateful.
• Will Wireless Internet Lead To People Watching Porn In Public Places?
  Like you have to ask on this one? The Washington Post investigates secondhand smut.
• Can You Tell Me How They Sing On Sesame Street?
  Coverville celebrates the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street.

Link

Monday - Nov. 9, 2009

Questions Worth Asking (Maybe)

• Does Apple Have a Political Sense of Humor?
  Apparently not. They've said no to a congressional directory app that has caricatures of all 500+ members of the house and senate done by Tom Richmond, an artist from Mad magazine. They considered it offensive. (I found this link over at Daring Fireball, a great Apple blog.)
• Will Steve Jobs Save Journalism With The Apple Tablet?
  That's a pretty lofty goal, even for Apple's Steve Jobs.
• So How Much is Half of NBC Universal Worth?
  $30 billion is one likely answer. Comcast and GE are apparently in serious negotiations on the topic, according to the WP.
• Why Don't They Make Paranormal Romances About Frankenstein?
  Because the reanimated dead aren't as sexy as the undead, perhaps? Fabulous parody from SNL. And do you remember Tonto, Tarzan and Frankenstein Away in a Manager?
• Is V's Anna Representing Obama?
  Actress Morena Baccarin says no. Others? Well, messianic figure endorsing universal health care? On the other hand, if it is good TV, does it matter?
  

Link

Wednesday - Nov. 4, 2009

Health Care & The News
Last night I was part of a panel talking about news coverage of health care issues. The link above is to the slides I put together on how health care has been covered over the last couple of years. One of the key points I wanted to make is that we can't just talk about "media coverage" because as we all know, different media cover this story in dramatically different ways. For example, talk shows talk about health issues as a political conflict while the broadcast network morning news shows talk about it in terms of specific diseases. Because we all remember Truth #2 - There are no mainstream media. That is, all media matter, regardless of whether they are the legacy big media or upstart new media.

Link

Monday - Nov. 2, 2009

Questions Worth Asking (Maybe)

• Why Do I Like Online Op/Ed Content Better Than Print Op/Ed Pieces?
  Because print op/ed articles are never generously illustrated with cool paintings! This one is by Maria Kalman about her visit to the U.S. Capital Building ran on the NY Times web site. I also am fond of the work of Christoph Niemann.
• Who Is Cathy Hughes? And Why Does No One Talk Back To Her
  A story about African American Talk Radio. Yes, there is more to talk radio than Rush, Sean, and Art Bell.
• How Does Jay Leno Feel About Moving To The Earlier Time Slot?
  And all the negative talk associated with it. An interesting interview at Broadcast and Cable.
• So, Is This Comcast/NBC Universal Thing For Real?
  It just might be. NY Times says the companies are close to an agreement. This is clearly going to be the story I'm playing chicken with on the publication of the third edition. On the second edition, it was the Bong Hits For Jesus Supreme Court case that was being resolved right as the pages were being typeset.
  

Link

Saturday - Oct. 31, 2009

Celebrating Halloween The Web Comics Way

• Sheldon's List of Rejected Halloween Costumes
  Read through the whole week's comics!
• Jenny Goes To A Corn Maze
  Halloween is big enough here for a week and a half of comics.
• Girls With Slingshots Costume Up As Their Favorite Internet Theme
  This one can get pretty strange. But that's a good thing.
• Dorm Dorks Takes On Halloween
  Halloween for different ages, great costumes, and the changing face of vampires. There's several to read here.
  

Link

Wednesday - Oct. 28, 2009

On The Media Takes On The Music Industry
NPR's On The Media typically takes a news/press orientation to what they cover, but this week the show has Rick Karr as a guest host and reports on the current state of the music industry and how it got there. Aired on the 10th anniversary of the creation of Napster and the brave new world of online music, this program is an absolute must for you to listen to. (I suppose you could read the transcript, but how much fun would that be?) Here's the run down of stories:

• Facing the Free Music
  The impact of Napster and file sharing.
• They Say That I Stole This
  The world of hip hop sampling and copyright fair use.
• Played Out
  The concert promotion business. You might also want to read the recent big article from the New Yorker on the same topic.
• Teens on Tunes
  Where do teens get their music?
• Charting the Charts
  How do you chart the sales of albums and singles when there are so many ways to listen to music?
• "Why I'm Not Afraid To Take Your Money"
  How the Dresden Dolls raise money directly from their fans.
  

Link

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