The Fifth Estate

Five years ago, in an attempt to reinvent myself, I became a journalism student.  Unfortunately, no sooner had I started taking classes when the media industry took a nosedive.  Newspapers and magazines became smaller, literally (have you seen how tiny Rolling Stone magazine is now?).  The industry began laying off writers; according to Robert Hodierne, writing for American Journalism Review, over 15,000 newspaper jobs were cut in 2008.

So much for my new career.

I lamented the death of the Fourth Estate and wondered if I was doing the right thing by holding onto my journalism major.  My fears were quelled, however, after listening to the latest lecture by Elizabeth Soutter, our blogging professor, who explained that journalism isn’t dying after all – it’s just different.  People still read the news, but the way they read it has changed profoundly.

There are pros and cons about the shift of media from paper to digital, but the positives far outweigh the negatives.  The most obvious advantage of digital media is that it moves at lightning speed and reaches more people around the globe faster than newspapers could ever do.  The internet is being used effectively to change the course of history, by bringing people together for a common cause, even to the point of sparking revolts against oppressive governments, as Barrett Sheridan outlined in a Newsweek article last April titled “The Internet Helps Build Democracies” (http://www.newsweek.com/2010/04/30/is-the-internet-good-for-democracy-a-debate.html).  In this article, Sheridan extols the impact of blogging:  “Bloggers and tweeters are fulfilling the watchdog role in places where the mainstream media is muzzled.”

For better or worse, there can be no doubt that digital media has changed the face of American politics.  According to politicsonline.com, Jerry Brown was the first person to do an e-mail campaign in 1992 (http://www.politicsonline.com/content/main/firsts/).  Since then, politicians and pundits have exploited digital media to spread their views and raise money.

The downside of mixing digital media with politics is that anybody can say absolutely anything about anyone without having to go through the filter of editing.  For every legitimate political website (http://www.whitehouse.gov/), there are thousands of websites that exploit the passions of Americans without ever seeing the light of truth (http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/).  And thanks to YouTube, no politician will ever again be able to back away from "mis-statements" or "untruths" because the whole world watching.

But this open, uncensored platform is exactly the reason why digital media is so important; it is READERS who do the vetting, rather than an editorial staff.  Now readers can let their voice be heard with a few clicks of a mouse, and these clicks can spur people into action.  Take for example this August 31, 2010 post by mrsammercer on reddit.com titled:  “I’ve had a vision and I can’t shake it:  [Stephen] Colbert needs to hold a political rally in D.C.” (http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/d7ntl/ive_had_a_vision_and_i_cant_shake_it_colbert/).  mrsammercer later added this edit to his post:

             The response to this post has blown my mind. I really did jump out of bed at like 5AM and type this thing up. Then I checked from work and it's front page and there's a Facebook page and people are emailing one of the Executive Producers. I was just hoping some people would get a laugh out of it . . .

Two weeks later Stephen Colbert  announced on his show that he would hold a D.C. rally on October 30th called “The March to Keep Fear Alive” (http://www.keepfearalive.com/) in conjunction with a rally by Jon Stewart called “The Rally to Restore Sanity” (http://www.rallytorestoresanity.com/).  Today, well over 100,000 people have pledged to attend the rallies (http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/the-latest-updates-on-the-jon-stewart-and-stephen-colbert-d-c-rallies).  How many people actually show up remains to be seen, but regardless of the turnout, an event this huge could never have been hatched in conventional news outlets as fast and effectively as it has online.

This is an exciting time to be a journalist; despite all the bogus websites in cyberspace, good writing is extremely important because nothing catches and holds readers’ attention better than a well-written piece.  And since people scan web pages rather than read articles word-for-word (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html), this gives digital media an added benefit of making journalists write more precisely and concisely.  I can now breathe a sigh of relief; journalism is NOT dead after all.

RSS, WIDGETS, AND TAGS -- OH MY

You’ve seen these words online, but what exactly are they?  How do you get them?  And more importantly, are they effective tools for attracting people to your blog?  Tracy Graves, a guest lecturer in the Blogging class I am taking at Harvard Extension School, answered these questions and attempted to take the mystery out of blogging.  In this post I will utilize some of these tools to enhance my blog.  Take a deep breath – here we go . . .

NAVIGATION:  Tracy told us that successful blogs always have a clear system of navigation.  To address this, I changed the color of my NAVBAR on my blog to blue so that it’s more noticeable.  (It’s at the very top of this page.)

TAGS:  Tags are extremely important because they are the flags that Google looks for.  Blogger calls tags LABELS, and after searching Blogger help I figured out how to insert them into your post.  It’s simple – when you’re writing or editing a post, there is a box at the bottom of the “compose” window that says “labels.”  All you have to do is enter the terms you want Google to pick up.  I edited my post titled “This Bird Has Flown” and added the labels:  "motherhood," “empty nest,” “going to college” and “growing up."  These now appear at the bottom of my post.  I will use labels in all of my future posts.

WIDGETS:  As an artist I know that one of the most important concepts when you are in creation mode is that you have to know enough to stop when you’re done.  I like websites that are clean, without a lot of distracting gizmos flashing at me.  So it is with some hesitancy on my part that I have added widgets to my blog.

Widgets are plug-ins – self-contained pieces of functionality.  Again, Blogger uses different terminology and calls widgets GADGETS.  I searched Blogger’s gadget menu and added the following gadgets to my blog:

• A list of courses I’m taking this semester, with links to the course websites
• A list of blogs I follow
• Funny Things to Ponder
• True Blood pictures (because having to wait till next summer for the new season is torture!)

I will look at these gadgets later to decide whether I really want to keep them or not.  Again, I find them distracting from the main focus of my blog, which is my writing.

RSS:  I see these little orange logos everywhere on the internet.  RSS (which stands for “Really Simple Syndication”) is a way to subscribe to blogs, news feeds, etc.  To add an RSS feed in Blogger you click on “Add a gadget,” and choose “Feed” from the list of gadgets.  This brings up a window where you paste the URL for the feed you want to insert.  I’ve added an RSS to the New York Times on my blog.

STATISTICS:  During class I learned about using statistics to keep track of who is viewing my blog.  Blogger has a statistics tool and when I checked it out I found that there isn’t much data since I’ve just started this blog.  Hopefully, this will develop over time.  I did, however, set the stats page so that it will not track my own pageviews.

One other important item I learned in class this week is that when you blog you really have two audiences:  the regular reader and the newbie.  Therefore, you have to be aware of both of these readers in every post.

I can see that this is just the beginning level of blogging and there is still much to learn.  Baby steps . . .

This Bird Has Flown

Last weekend my husband Paul, daughter Marcy and I made the grueling ten hour drive, schlepping Marcy and all her stuff to George Mason University (GMU) in Virginia.  This is Marcy’s sophomore year.

Last year the three of us experienced the wild emotions of sending your kid off to college for the first time.  Marcy was scared to death and was afraid that nobody would like her.  We were scared to death – this was our baby, and were sending her off to the unknown to fend for herself.  The minute Paul and I got in the car after moving Marcy into her dorm I wanted to run back in, take her in my arms and protect her from all the horrible things in this world – drunken boys, mean girls, drunken boys.  When we got home I went into her room and sat there for hours, looking at all the little girl stuff she had left behind -- Pokemon cards; ceramic tea pots; mountains of stuffed animals; her favorite tiny white "cha-cha" shoes she wore as a toddler.  I went to her closet and sniffed her clothes and visions of the shy, tiny young girl overwhelmed me.

Two weeks later Marcy called us; she was out of breath as she told us that she had auditioned and made it into Urbanknowledgy 101, (UK 101), George Mason's hip-hop dance team.  She got her first English paper back and got an "A."  She had lots of friends.  She loved her classes.  She was in better shape than we were.

The following month we went to visit her during Parents’ Weekend.  We watched Marcy and her UK 101 team perform to a full house during “Mason Madness” in the huge campus arena.  After the show she found us in the crowd and introduced us to two of her team members.  They were giggling excitedly after dancing their hearts out.  We were going to take Marcy to dinner, but she said, "Oh, Mom, I'm sorry.  There's a party for UK101 and we're all going.  You don't mind, do you?"  Then she was off, cell phone attached to her ear.


I felt differently this time when we left her to return home.  She had settled into her new life and was happy.  But a new emotion hit me -- she no longer needed us.

When Marcy returned home this summer she told us that she loved college.  She said she felt like she had matured and that she could make it on her own. She felt free.  We saw very little of her while she was home.  Our house was little more than a bed and home base for Marcy and all her stuff.

When Paul and I returned from Virginia last week there were no tears.  Marcy was reunited with her friends and got right back into the swing of campus life.  She’s fully independent now.  We expected to never hear from her this semester.

******

Friday, 4:30 p.m. Marcy calls, screaming hysterically.  She lost her debit card.  Luckily I was able to put a stop on her card.  But now there was a new dilemma -- she had no way to access money in her account.  And it’s Labor Day weekend.  And Marcy needs to buy textbooks.  Panic set in.

I go to the website of the Virginia bank where Marcy has an account and figure out a way to electronically transfer money from her account back home, to the Virginia account.  Problem:  the Virginia bank has to send test deposit and withdrawal transactions between banks before they can finalize setting up this feature.  This will take a couple of days.  And it's Labor Day weekend.

Plan B.  I go to Western Union’s website.  I fill out online forms to wire money to Marcy.  The transaction doesn’t go through.  WTF??!!  I call Western Union.  New plan.  Paul goes to nearest Western Union office with $500 in cash.  He waits in line FOREVER because this place also cashes checks and everybody in the world was there cashing paychecks for the long Labor Day weekend.

Paul is finally able to wire money to a Western Union office in a supermarket near GMU.  I call Marcy and tell her where to pick up the money.  Mission accomplished.

Ten minutes later Marcy calls from her car and says she can't figure out how to get to the supermarket which is about 1.5 mi. away from campus and involves only three turns on major roadways.  Google in one hand, phone in the other, I become her co-pilot.  Go straight.  Left at lights.  Left at lights.  She finds the store.  She gets the money.

******

So what are the reasons to be cheerful in this story?  We nurtured a shy, scared little girl and helped her become a well-adjusted, intelligent, and (mostly) self-sufficient woman.  Yes, the nest is empty; this bird has flown.  But she still needs us in her life.

MARCY, Summer 2010

Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was a Russian artist who made the most astounding paintings.  His use of color and geometric figures create harmony, much like music.

Im Blau

Yellow, Red and Blue

Weiches Hart

Several Circles

(THIS IS MY FAVORITE)

The Guggenheim Museum has an incredible Kandinsky collection.

You can purchase beautiful poster reproductions of many of Kandinsky's paintings, as well as work by other artists, at AllPosters.com.

*****

In the early 2000's I created and sold collages:

   

  

  

It didn't dawn on me at the time, but after looking at them as a whole, I realized that I was heavily influenced by Kandinsky.

Blogging -- First Impressions

I spend too many hours on the internet each day reading political news and blogs, and more often than not these blogs make my head want to explode.  For relief, my guilty pleasure is checking out what’s going on in the bizarre world of “celebrities” by reading Perez Hilton’s blog (http://perezhilton.com/), TMZ (http://www.tmz.com/), and X17 online (http://x17online.com/).  There’s something deeply gratifying about watching wealthy train wrecks implode – schadenfreude is good for the soul.

But I never got into reading personal blogs.  I don’t know why I never plunged into that pool before – maybe it’s because the thought of reading someone’s daily posts seemed boring to me, or maybe following someone’s life online seemed to me like the digital equivalent of stalking.  But my fears were unfounded. In last night’s class Elizabeth introduced us to the world of personal blogs and I was ecstatic to discover that not all blogs consist of doom and gloom.

Reading Heather Armstrong’s blog “A Simple Kind of Chaos” (http://www.dooce.com/) made me feel like I was talking with an old friend on the phone.  It is easy to relate to someone who brings out the garbage and recycling in a ratty old t-shirt and bed head only to be approached by new neighbors.  I had one of those moments myself when a friend visited me right after I had applied coloring to my hair.  He wanted to show me something in his car, so I had to go out to the driveway in my holiest t-shirt with my hair piled up on top of my head in a white, foamy froth.  Of course, every neighbor on my street was outside and saw me at my haggard best.

When Elizabeth told us about Karyn Bosnak’s foray into blogging I thought, here is a smart woman.  Sure, Karyn got herself into her own mess, but her solution to getting herself out of debt was ingenious.  (http://www.savekaryn-originalsite.com/).  The fact that she parlayed her crisis into a successful blog (http://prettyinthecity.blogspot.com/) is brilliant.

Elizabeth’s blog, “Motherhood is Not for Wimps” (http://damomma.com/) is another personal blog that piques my interest and makes me happy.  I mean, come on – who else in their right mind would think of throwing your kids off high platforms to shut them up!  Elizabeth’s snippets show the joys, frustrations, and everything in between, of motherhood.   She’s right – motherhood is NOT for wimps – it changes everything.

Our first class assignment is to contemplate what makes a blog successful.  For me, a blog must be well-written; a blogger who writes, “Today I went shopping.  After that I went to the hairdresser.  Came home and cooked dinner.  Watched the news and went to bed,” is not going to hold my interest.  You can read plenty of this blather on Facebook.

The best way to make a successful blog is exactly what Elizabeth spoke about in class: bloggers have to have something compelling to say.  This doesn’t mean that each post must contain earth-shattering revelations; bloggers must give something to the reader that is lacking in other “communities” on the internet.  The reader needs to be able to relate to what the bloggers are writing.  The blogs I’ve cited here make me feel like I’m not the only crazy person on this planet.  I thought it was interesting when Elizabeth told us that once people start blogging they typically end up revealing much more about their personal lives than they had planned.  Maybe this is why the most successful blogs flourish; personal blogs, whether funny or poignant, reveal the nature of humankind in all our mundane, fallible glory.

With their honest simplicity, successful personal blogs smash through the impersonal “us vs. them” mentality found in political blogs and provide a much-needed respite from the news of the world.  It’s the little everyday scenarios that make life interesting:  watching a child take their first steps, dogs chasing squirrels, poopie diapers – this is the stuff of life.