U.S. continues to fall behind . . .

. . . in speed of Internet access. (H/t Evan)

Why don't we have this kind of public TV in US?

Weeks before the Iraq invasion, the BBC's Jeremy Paxman and skeptical British citizens literally cross-examined Prime Minister Tony Blair about evidence/reasons/legality behind the invasion -- an interview whose transcript and Blair's comments became part of Britain's official Iraq inquiry in 2011. (Here's another tough Paxman interview of Blair . . . unrelated to Iraq. And here, Paxman interviews Rusell Brand.)

In our country, pressure from politicians + lack of insulated funding = embarrassing timidity at so-called "public television"...as evidenced by PBS surgically removing Tina Fey's comedic swipes at Sarah Palin from a broadcast in November 2010.

Country by country comparisons of spending on public broadcasting here.

Jon Stewart's mock interview of Rupert Murdoch

In a 2013 segment, Jon Stewart gently asks questions of Murdoch about "Murdochopoly." The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is even more deferential to Murdoch and other media moguls than Stewart. (Years ago, Murdoch famously said: "Monopoly is a terrible thing, until you have it.")

Are we losing fast, open Internet in USA?

In the opening scene of Outfoxed, media scholar Robert McChesney explains how big media corporations (acting almost like gangsters) have made media policy behind closed doors, dividing up the cake among themselves. 

In recent studies, USA was behind other countries when it comes to access to broadband (15th place) and Internet speed  (23rd place).

There's a digital divide in our country whereby upper-middle-class kids grow up with fast Web-accessed computers at home, while kids in some rural areas and inner cities don't have fast Internet, or even computers.

In 2009, big Internet providers such as Verizon, Comcast, AT&T DID NOT APPLY for any of the billions in federal stimulus grants for expanding broadband infrastructure, according to the Wall St. Journal, because recipients of our tax money had to agree to respect Net Neutrality or Internet non-discrimination.

Here's a 2010 Daily Show segment segment on Net Neutrality after Google cut its deal with Verizon, that would subvert Net Neut.

P.S. In January 2011, I was asked to appear on a talk-radio show on a big city station to analyze Keith Oblermann's exit from MSNBC; when I suggested a link to the Comcast takeover and criticized Comcast's opposition to Net Neutrality, a producer asked me during a commercial break to stop the "Comcast-bashing" because "they're our biggest sponsor."

Did Breitbart blog inject video distortions into mainstream media?

The late Andrew Breitbart, a former assistant to Matt Drudge, ran BigGovernment.com and other websites. In July 2010, the Obama White House fired US Dept of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod soon after BigGovernment posted a 100-second video excerpt purporting to show that, during a speech to the NAACP, Sherrod had boasted about discriminating against a white farmer while she was a federal employee in the Obama administration. Actually, as Breitbart later semi-corrected, Sherrod was describing events in the 1980s when she was Georgia field director for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, a nonprofit that had grown out of the civil rights movement to help Black farmers. More importantly, a fuller version of the speech aired by CNN indicated that Sherrod told the story to illustrate how she had overcome her racial hostility toward whites and ultimately helped the white farmer save his farm.

Months earlier, other selectively-edited tapes distributed by BigGovernment.com (played repeatedly on Fox News and elsewhere) helped put the anti-poverty group ACORN out of business. Rachel Maddow dissects the distorted presentation that doomed ACORN. (Fox News had goaded others in media for not doing enough ACORN-smearing.)

It wasn't just Fox News that promoted BigGovernment.com's misleading ACORN story. The Public Editor of the paper of record, the New York Times, went to absurd lengths to defend his paper's inaccurate coverage

When Drudge posts "Exclusive," readers beware

Perhaps Matt Drudge should stick to aggregating content from elsewhere (often with revved-up headlines) rather than "report" -- as demonstrated by this 1999 "world exclusive," which helped push the story into mainstream media.

And as demonstrated by his 2007 "exclusive" in which he accused CNN reporter Michael Ware of "heckling" Republican senators during a news conference in Iraq and "laughing and mocking their comments." Drudge's evidence-free charge -- based on an anonymous "official" -- was picked up by rightwing blogs and the Washington Times. Video of the news conference showed Ware hadn't opened his mouth.

Another new general news site launches

Founded by 29-year-old Ezra Klein, who built the Washington Post's Wonkblog into a big deal, has launched Vox.com. Here's some background. Vox.com is part of a new media group that includes SB Nation and The Verge.

Can journalists/columnists with strong political ideologies . . .

. . . still engage in independent commentary -- as opposed to partisan propaganda? Here is some critical commentary from the conservative National Review Online within hours of John McCain selecting Sarah Palin as his running-mate in August 2008.

Undercover videotaping of farm animal abuse...

...has prompted "food libel" or "food disparagement" laws in a dozen states, aimed at protecting powerful agribusiness interests that apparently have something to hide. Here's a video report from U.C. Berkeley News21 students.

2008 Presidential Election: A Huffpost citizen journalist had impacthe Bus" project

Mayhill Fowler says she didn't hide that she was recording ex-President Clinton's angry words ("sleazy" . . . "slimy" . . . "dishonest" . . . "scumbag") about a Vanity Fair reporter, while he greeted voters in public as he campaigned for his wife in June 2008. BUT Clinton obviously did not know Fowler was a HuffPost "citizen journalist." Should she have ID'd herself? (She clearly got a more honest take from Clinton than if he'd known she was a journalist.)

Shouldn't public figures know nowadays that anything said in public -- especially rants (or racism) -- will be recorded and available forever? Exhibits A (and A1) and B.

Mayhill Fowler's earlier reporting scoop that launched "Bittergate" uproar. The Bittergate of 2012 campaign: "47%-gate."

Mainstream TV News Can Have Standardized Content . . . and Format

A BBC correspondent lampoons the sameyness (and cliches) of  mainstream TV news reports.

Mainstream Media Coverage of Edward Snowden

I wrote this piece on how some in mainstream media reacted to Snowden and his revelations of widespread surveillance of Americans who are not suspected of a crime.

Blogger Took Ethical Action

Here's an example of a blogger acting quite professionally and ethically. Ken Krayeske, who famously questioned University of Connecticut's basketball coach about his huge taxpayer-paid salary -- announced in Oct. 2009 that he wouldn't be covering Hartford City Hall because his girlfriend had a job there. If he'd disclosed the relationship and kept covering City Hall, that  might have been sufficient from an ethical standpoint.

Indy Artists Stay in Touch with True Fans . . .

. . . through Facebook, reported NPR's Laura Sydell in 2010. The report discusses cellist Zoe Keating and singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega.

Early You Tube Stars Get Their Income

What the Buck? Here's Michael Buckley's "My You Tube Story." According to a Dec 2008 NY Times report, "You Tube Videos Pull In Real Money," Buckley earned over $100k in the previous year (plus an HBO development deal) from his YouTube video-commentaries or rants about celebs.

For years, my 17-year-old daughter's favorite YouTube star and main source of daily news has been Philly D (of "The Philip DeFranco Show"), who offers his take on current events and celeb news. (Should I have been monitoring my daughter's online activities better?) A recent installment discussed the government of Turkey banning You Tube.

YouTube star Lisa Donovan or ""Lisa Nova"has talent for sketch comedy and parodies. Like Tina Fey, she liked to play Sarah Palin, including in this infamous McCain/Palin rap. Later she launched a company promoting hundreds of YouTube video producers.

Cory Williams and his smpFilms hit the bigtime with "Hey Little Sparta" (aka "The Mean Kitty Song" -- 78 million views). He told the NYT in 2008 that he was earning over $200k per year, partly from (ugh!) product placements in his videos.

Bcome a YouTube Star and appear in a hugely popular music video with Weezer or the earlier one from Barenaked Ladies.  "Where the Hell is Matt?" became so popular, the guy has had his world travels paid by corporate sponsors for years.

Brave New Films' "McCain's Mansions" played a role in the 2008 election campaign, thanks in part to You Tube. The Young Turks is a web TV phenom, and You Tube played a role in its success; here's a Turks' video on media censorship.

Web Censorship/Persecution in China

After Yahoo provided info to China's government that led to 10-year prison sentences for two Chinese dissidents in 2002 and 2004, the families of victims (Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao) sued Yahoo. As a result, Yahoo announced in 2008 that it had established a fund for people persecuted or jailed in China for posting political views online. Too little, too late?

In response to demands from China's government, Google agreed in June 2010 to quit automatically switching its users in China to Google's uncensored Hong Kong search site. But there's a tab users can click to be switched. Should Chinese citizens feel safe when hitting that tab?

Web Censorship in the USA

The media reform group Free Press highlighted media and telecom corporations caught censoring web or cellphone traffic a few years ago.

Inner City Press, a monitor of Wall Street and the United Nations, was temporarily delisted from Google News. The de-listing happened soon after Matt Lee of Inner City Press challenged Google over its commitment to free expression.

In 2007, consumer rights groups mobilized to tell the Federal Communications Commission: "No More Media Consolidation." CommonCause was blocked from placing an ad on My Space against conglomerated media. Rupert Murdoch had bought My Space in 2005 (and later sold it at a huge loss, after Facebook eclipsed it). The banned ad featured a photo of Murdoch and the caption: "This is the face of Big Media." Was it My Space or Murdoch's space?

Tom Tomorrow, editorial cartoonist

The chaining of alternative weeklies undercuts alternative cartoonists like "Tom Tomorrow"/Dan Perkins.

A Win for Bloggers' Rights to Cover Courts

In March 2012, a Massachusetts court ruled that bloggers deserve the same privileges in covering courts and trials as traditional media.

Can Pay Walls Around Online News Content Save Newspapers?

No, says Arianna Huffington in May 2009 U.S. Senate testimony. And here's "Life After the Pay Wall" nightmare scenario from Advertising Age.  (A former indy media student complained about Boston Globe's paywall around the Globe's editorial.)

Austin's blog post on funding of nonprofit news outlets

Austin argues that funders will generally have less impact on mission-driven nonprofit news outlets than corporate advertisers who fund for-profit media.

". . . a donor need not shift and change and bargain with indy outlets to get them to publish material that the donor wants. The breadth of indy media is incredibly large, and virtually any donor can simply give to whichever outlet suits him or her. It's cheaper and smarter and more realistic to do this than try and change an established institution.In this way content drives funding/donations. In mainstream media, funding drives content."

Guest speaker William Jacobson

Cornell law professor William Jacobson is a conservative political blogger with a national following. He launched Legal Insurrection.com in 2008, and smaller CollegeInsurrection.com in 2012.  

"The Internet Is My Religion"

Intensely personal speech from Brave New Films' Jim Gilliam (who was raised a conservative Christian evangelical) discussing how the Internet offered him salvation -- and literally saved his life.

Pre-financing websites for independent media/art projects

Spot.Us involves the community in funding journalism, and was founded in 2008 by David Cohn.

Brand new project, Beacon, hopes to fund great freelance writers by seeking donations of $5 per month. (H/t Bethany G.)

Kickstarter.com is "a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers..." A key aspect of Kickstarter and similar funding platforms is "All or Nothing funding."

On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved. Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.

Here was a successful Kickstarter fundraising drive to save a local movie theater. Here's a documentary movie project that I'm a tiny part of, which has used Kickstarter successfully.

Pre-financing of "Iraq for Sale" documentary

This Robert Greenwald documentary was funded mostly by small donors BEFORE the movie was made -- an example of grassroots pre-financing of a work that had real impact.

(Brave New Film's latest documentary -- "Unmanned: America's Drone Wars" -- was screened on Capitol Hill, accompanied by Pakistani civilians who testified about having survived U.S. drone strikes.) 

Singer/songwriter Jill Sobule . .

. . . raised $75,000 in small donations from her fans in 2008 to pay for professional recording fees to produce her next album. Here's one of her semi-hits, "I Kissed a Girl," (not to be confused with Katy Perry song that came out a dozen years later).

Is power over the Web concentrating in a few corporate hands . . .

. . . as happened years earlier to the TV and newspaper and book publishing industries?  According to Michael Wolff in the Sept. 2010 issue of Wired: "the top 10 Web sites accounted for 31 percent of US pageviews in 2001, 40 percent in 2006, and about 75 percent in 2010."

At a time of military intervention, the Russian state . .

. . . cracks down on Russia's independent media. 

"Bloggers Bring In Big Bucks"

This Business Week slideshow in July 2007 summarized some of the most (financially) successful blogs at that time, whether covering technology, fashion, celebs, politics.  Almost all are still successful or more so today. (Here is the intro to the slideshow.)

Paul Krassner and "The Realist"

The leading satire publication of the underground press -- a Mad magazine for adults -- was The Realist. My humble contribution in 1994. A famous Realist poster from 1963.

Hollywood movie on the work and love affair of 2 journalists . . .

. . . John Reed and Louise Bryant. The Oscar-winning movie is called "Reds." Long trailer here; short one here.

Upworthy announces partnerships . . .

. . .with ProPublica and other content producers.

Journalists, Cops and Occupy Wall Street Movement

HARASSMENT OF JOURNALISTS COVERING OCCUPY MOVEMENT: Citizen journalist with video camera tapes himself apparently getting shot by police rubber bullet while covering a seemingly peaceful lull Occupy Oakland (CA).  At Occupy Nashville, a reporter for the long-established weekly Nashville Scene was arrested for violating a curfew imposed by Tennessee's governor (a night judge questioned whether that's legal), was threatened with a "resisting arrest" charge, and was later charged with "public intoxication." Nashville's big daily reported on the dubious arrest.

Between Sept 2011 and Sept 2012, more than 90 mainstream and independent journalists were arrested while covering Occupy protests in the U.S. -- as tracked by Josh Stearns of the media reform group Free Press.  Removing journalists and citizen journalists from the scene seemed to be a strategy because acts of police brutality -- when recorded by citizen journalists and ubiquitous cameras & cellphones -- led to more sympathy and activists for the movement: for example, in NY City and at University of California, Davis. Like in the 1960s, the federal government built a large surveillance apparatus to surveill Occupy activists. 

"THE MAYOR'S AFRAID OF YOU TUBE": In October 2011, hours after New York City authorities made a last-minute decision NOT to clear the Occupy Wall Street protesters out of Zucotti Park/Liberty Plaza, filmmaker Michael Moore said this to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell (begin 2:54 for context):

"One cop down there actually today. I asked...'Why don't you think the eviction happened?' And he said, 'Cause the Mayor's afraid of You Tube.'...The power of the new media, the media that's in the hands of the people -- that those in charge are afraid of what could possibly go out."

Announcing the 6th annual Izzy Award -- and brand new I.F. Stone Hall of Fame

Past Izzy Award winners Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill are the first members selected to the I.F. Stone Hall of Fame, newly established by the Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) at Ithaca College.  Meanwhile, the center has announced that the sixth annual Izzy Award for "outstanding achievement in independent media" will be shared by journalists John Carlos Frey (for reporting on U.S./Mexico border deaths) and Nick Turse (for reporting on civilian war casualties from Vietnam to Afghanistan).  Full news release here.

Ramparts magazine of 1960s

One of the most explosive indy magazines of the 1960s, Ramparts, published photos of the impact of U.S. napalm (a chemical weapon that eats away human flesh) on Vietnamese civilians in Jan. 1967. Martin Luther King, Jr. credited those photos with being the spark that got him to break his silence and speak out loudly against the Vietnam War a few months later. MLK became the most prominent critic of the war. Besides investigative journalism and scoops, Ramparts was known for its cover art shown here and here.

Harassment of indy journalists continues

Since the 1960s when the FBI and local police engaged in violence and continuous harassment against "underground weeklies," repression against dissenting U.S. outlets has deceased but it has certainly not ended. Example 1: The 2008 Republican Convention in Minnesota. Three years later, the journalists' suit against the police was settled, with $100,000 in compensation being paid by the St. Paul and Minneapolis Police Departments and the Secret Service. The settlement included an agreement by the St. Paul police to implement a training program aimed at educating officers regarding the 1st Amendment rights of the press and public, including proper procedures for dealing with the journalists covering demonstrations.

Example 2: The 2010 election for U.S. senate in Alaska. An online reporter was detained for asking questions of the Alaska Republican senate candidate, Joe Miller. The reporter -- a well-known journalist in the area and founder of Alaska Dispatch -- was handcuffed by Miller's security personnel after a dispute over his questioning of the candidate about his role as a former part-time city attorney. Here's Alaska Dispatch's version of the detention. The critical reporting on Miller's past -- and this heavy-handed incident -- contributed to Miller's stunning defeat in the November election.

The legacy of 1960s sex (and drugs) advice columnist "Dr. Hip" . . .

...is carried on by Dan Savage's "Savage Love" column in today's alternative weeklies.

Glenn Greenwald answers absurd question from mainstream media star

In June, Meet the Press host David Gregory asked Greenwald a question based on false assumptions and ending: "Why shouldn't you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?" He got a loud answer
.

Is U.S. public television being corporatized?

I was interviewed by The Real News Network on the topic of "Public Broadcasters Relying More and More on Corporate Funding." View it here.

Margaret Sanger -- flawed heroine

Sanger is proof that media heroes are sometimes flawed. This article from Women's E-News discusses her flirtation with eugenics-oriented arguments in support of birth control in the early 1920s.

Dinner with Amy Goodman

In the early 1900s, the socialist Appeal to Reason newspaper offered yachts, fruit farms and motorcycles as premiums to bring in revenue and subscriptions. Democracy Now! offers Dinner and a Show with Amy Goodman.

After meeting Amy at a dinner party, Regis and his sidekick acknowledge that their Regis and Kelly TV show is about "nothing."

Is Colbert today's Upton Sinclair?

Stephen Colbert accepted the challenge of experiencing difficult working conditions. Here he is doing farm labor.

Students today carry on Ida B. Wells' legacy

In last dozen years, Northwestern University journalism students and their professor have been instrumental in proving the innocence of many prisoners in Illinois, several of whom had been sentenced to death. Their investigative journalism ultimately sparked the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois

Lynching prompted the classic Billie Holiday song,"Strange Fruit," which she recorded independently in 1939 -- getting around the objections of Columbia, her record label: "Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze, strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees." It ultimately became her biggest selling record. Time magazine denounced the song as a "piece of musical propaganda." The song's lyrics were inspired by this photograph of a 1930 lynching in Indiana.

Re Legacy:There may be a few newspaper editors who ignored or apologized for racist lynchings who have schools named after them. But so does Ida B. Wells.  Click here to see Ida's high school in San Francisco (just across the park from the famous "painted ladies" Victorian houses.)

Kurt Vonnegut quote

"Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?"  (H/t Eileen O.)

Journalists Re-fight Old Battles; Expose Recurring Wrongs

Dissident journalists of the past exposed many social problems (like the labor weeklies spotlighting the problem of people being jailed simply for being in debt) and brought about reform. The practice was outlawed. But other journalists --  years or generations later -- may have to keep exposing the issue . . . as these investigative journalists for the big mainstream daily in Minneapolis recently did.

"It's not a crime to owe money, and debtors' prisons were abolished in the United States in the 19th century. But people are routinely being thrown in jail for failing to pay debts. In Minnesota, which has some of the most creditor-friendly laws in the country, the use of arrest warrants against debtors has jumped 60 percent over the past four years, with 845 cases in 2009, a Star Tribune analysis of state court data has found."

I.F. Stone pointed out that some reforms don't happen except through the work of generations of journalists and democracy activists:

“The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have got to be willing - for the sheer fun and joy of it - to go right ahead and fight, knowing you're going to lose. You mustn't feel like a martyr. You've got to enjoy it.”

Early Dissident Newspapers -- Not Very Reader-Friendly

See crowded layout of William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist publication, The Liberator, here and here. Not exactly HuffingtonPost. No half-naked actresses. Cady Stanton's/Anthony's feminist publication, The Revolution, was almost as dense.  Content was king (or queen) back then.

Internet Hoaxes

Question: Are younger educated people who were raised on the Internet LESS likely to be taken in by hoax emails such as Obama as "radical Muslim" than Jon Stewart's 80-year-old aunt? Or clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger as racist?

Today, viral video hoaxes seem more common than text hoaxes -- like "Golden Eagle Snatches Kid" hoax, which, unknown to this ABC News panel, was perpetrated by animation students using computer imaging in Montreal. And like "Worst Twerk Fail EVER - Girl Catches Fire," a hoax perpetrated by the Jimmy Kimmel show as self-promotion.

NBC "Today" show interviewed me last Sept. 30 (my bit starts at 2:25) about separating fact from fiction in media and Internet.

Comcast to acquire Time Warner Cable?!

The tiny number of corporations controlling our access to the Internet will soon shrink if Comcast is allowed to acquire Time Warner Cable.  Decades ago, when anti-trust laws were still enforced, such a merger would have been unthinkable and illegal.

Is U.S. media system failing U.S. democracy?

A 2008 academic study compared the level of public knowledge about current events in Denmark, Finland, United Kingdom and the United States. It found that the countries where TV/radio is dominated by public broadcasting -- Denmark and Finland -- were the best informed. Our country, dominated by corporate commercial media, was the least informed. The study's authors suggest that differing media systems play a role in those results.

A 2003 study of U.S. public knowledge of facts related to the Iraq War found that misperceptions were greatest among those whose primary info source was Fox News -- and least among those whose primary info source was public broadcasting. (A Pew poll taken in Aug. 2010 found that almost 1 in 5 Americans believed President Obama to be a Muslim; only 34% knew he is a Christian. 43% chose "don't know.")

Oh My News . . .

. . . still pushing to get the story.

Night(time) in Tunisia for Longtime Dictator

Tunisia is a small, Mediterranean country in North Africa.  Back in 2007, Tunisian citizen-journalists and bloggers had documented the tourism/shopping sprees of the dictator's wife aboard the presidential plane to Europe and global fashion capitals. (H/t Global Voices)

In 2010, the TuniLeaks website was set up to post (WikiLeaks-released) internal U.S. Embassy documents candidly exposing the corruption of Tunisia's dictatorship.

Fascinating photo (released by Ben Ali's office) of dictator Ben Ali visiting the hospital bed of the desperate young man who set himself on fire in Dec. 2010 -- the young man didn't live long enough to learn that his act led to the overthrow of Ben Ali after sustained nonviolent protests.

Amid the protests, Tunisian rapper El General put out this widely-circulated music video attacking Ben Ali and urging folks to join the protests. It led to his arrest for a few days. Soon after, the dictator fled. The song went on to become an in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere.

U.S. jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie performs his classic jazz tune "Night in Tunisia," first recorded in 1944.

It has arrived! "The Intercept"

Long-awaited online news site from Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill has arrived: "The Intercept."

A police murder of 28-year-old sparks Egypt uprising

In June, 2010, Khaled Said was beaten to death by police in public for the crime of Internet use and, apparently, exposing police corruption. His martyrdom inspired protests and Internet organizing that led to the uprising six months later that ended the Mubarak dictatorship. Middle East-based Google exec and activist Wael Ghonim set up the galvanizing "We Are All Khaled Said" Facebook page in Arabic.  (Here's an English FB version of "We Are All Khaled Said.") 

Video cameras and blogging for human rights

Launched in 1992 with the help of musician Peter Gabriel, the nonprofit Witness.org began distributing video cameras in hopes of minimizing human rights abuses. Their slogan: "See it. Film it. Change it."

The Israeli human rights group, B'Tzelem, provides cameras to Palestinians so they can record Israeli settlers who harass Palestinians, including incidents of intimidation in and around the Palestinian city of Hebron, which rightwing Israeli religious settlers believe God has bequeathed to Jews.

Vancouver Film School students created an inspiring video, "Iran, A Nation of Bloggers," and put it online months before the tech-fueled protests over Iran's disputed 2009 election.

Mexico's "Yo Soy 132" Youth Movement

This Internet-driven movement didn't alter the outcome of Mexico's July, 2012 presidential election -- since the candidate being "imposed" by the two major TV networks ended up winning.  But the student activists of Yo Soy 132 had impact; they set up an historic presidential debate that was carried online (the TV-promoted frontrunner was the only candidate who didn't up).  It was this YouTube video that launched the movement.

President Caught on Video: "Get Lost, You A*#hole"

Then-President of France Nicolas Sarkozy caught on video in 2008 calling a disgruntled citizen an "idiot" or "dumbass" or "a**hole" (depending on translation). French politicians are having difficulty tolerating the scrutiny of online coverage (including online video) -- especially compared to deferential coverage they're accustomed to from traditional media.

One of our former presidents (then governor of Texas) caught on video.

Global Voices Online

Global Voices is a community of more than 800 bloggers and translators around the world who post reports from blogs and citizen media, emphasizing "voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media."

This 2011 post features short videos from a competition on gender equality in the Ukraine.

This 2010 post features a public protest by a brave professor and blogger in China, offering himself as a slave.

Egyptian bloggers & online activists paved the way for 2011 uprising

With the Mubarak dictatorship in control of all major media in Egypt, brave Egyptian "citizen journalists" risked imprisonment and torture to blog or tweet about human rights abuses. Here's renowned Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas interviewed on BBC in January 2010. Over the years, Abbas was harassed, censored and assaulted by authorities -- and was briefly detained during the uprising early in 2011.

P.S. Sharif Abdel Kouddous covered the 18-day uprising in 2011 for Democracy Now!, and he was the central character in an HBO documentary about the Egyptian revolution. For his work in Egypt, he was awarded (on I.C. campus in April 2012) the Izzy Award for outstanding achievement in independent media.  (Here's a paperback "Tweets from Tahrir.")

Upworthy.com

Upworthy.com promotes social/political issues virally through clever headlines and visuals or video, like this animation on advertising/media impact on girls.

Tavi Gevinson -- fashion blogger, feminist, publisher

This interview was recorded when fashion blogger Tavi was 15, and had founded Rookie. At age 16, she appeared on Colbert Report. By age 17, she was costarring in the Hollywood movie, "Enough Said."

Local Nonprofit Watchdog News Sites

As dailies have shrunk, local online nonprofit news sites have sprouted, such as the well-funded VoiceofSanDiego.org and the professionally-staffed MinnPost.com ("a thoughtful approach to news"). Across the country, local watchdog outlets try to survive, reports Jodi Enda in American Journalism Review.

The WikiLeaks Controversy

In Dec. 2010, blogger Glenn Greenwald (a WikiLeaks supporter) explained independent journalism to CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin. WikiLeaks website is here. This leaked video (with more than 14 million YouTube views) shows the killing of employees of the Reuters news agency and wounding of children by US attack helicopters in Iraq.

Photo above was taken in August 2012 when I visited the Ecuadoran embassy in London (with WikiLeaks' founder having taken refuge inside); I was there days after the British government threatened to invade the embassy.

Winners of First Izzy Award: Glenn Greenwald & Amy Goodman

Soon after accepting their Izzy Awards in Ithaca, NY in March 2009, Greenwald and Goodman spoke about independent media on public TV's Bill Moyers' Journal.

News 21: Student Journalism, Multimedia Presentation

News 21 is a foundation-funded student journalism outlet that emphasizes in-depth reporting and multimedia presentation. It originated with 8 journalism schools/departments at big campuses that each investigated and reported on a different area, for example: Univ of Southern California(USC)/money in politics; UC Berkeley/food safety.

In animated video, Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar discusses . . .

. . . his plans to launch a company that will house a new kind of newsroom. This is the venture that is to have muckraking journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill in its leadership. (Here's a clip of Scahill from last October saying that he sees the venture with Omidyar as a collaboration, not Omidyar as boss hiring the journalists.)

Short Video Impacts 2008 Presidential Election

This 2008 Brave New Films video short "McCain's Mansions" (with over 600,000 views) boiled up through the media food chain into the mainstream.  It impacted the campaign, as shown by this self-promotional video, "The Making of McCain's Mansions."

Are some journalists too cozy with their official sources?

In 2003, a CNN executive actually boasted about having given the Pentagon an advisory role on who his on-air experts would be during the Iraq war. . . . At 2007 Radio-Television Correspondents Association Dinner, top journalists (including NBC White House correspondent David Gregory) were literally dancing with a top source, controversial Bush aide Karl Rove. These are social/charitable events where journalists and newsmakers are expected to have some fun, but is it symbolic of too much coziness? . . . Whether dealing with political leaders or celebrity athletes, the quest for access to star newsmakers can undermine independent journalism, according to indy TV host Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks, one of the most successful web-based TV shows.

Bold question from indy blogger launches big controversy

Former IC journalism student Chris Lisee reports on the impact that a single off-key journalist can have.

"Independent Media in a Time of War" featuring Amy Goodman

A group of volunteer citizen-journalists (Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center) produced a short documentary based on an April 2003 speech by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!  At the time, many in mainstream media were cheering what they believed was a successful, nearly-completed invasion of Iraq.

Democracy Now! focuses on the big central issues, so "alternative media" is a misleading label. Those who tend to obsess on derivative or marginal or alternative issues are what we call "mainstream media." Check out this video from last week.

"Stickin' It To The Man"

In the movie "School of Rock," a substitute teacher (played by Jack Black) explains the purpose of rock 'n' roll to his 5th grade students. Do independent media share a similar purpose?  (The School of Rock kids in the original cast just had a 10-year reunion with Jack Black. H/t Sabrina D.)

Daily Show segment on "End Times" at NY Times

The Daily Show's cruel 2009 look at the New York Times' "day-old news."  It made me feel quite sympathetic toward the Times.

"Don't Touch My Internet" Protesters Met with Water Cannons

Protests against government takeover of internet receive violent response in Turkey, reports CommonDreams.org.

Turkish citizens protesting a draconian takeover of the nation's internat system on Saturday were met with a violent response from security forces who used rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse grounds in Istanbul.

Though similar protest was also held in the nation's capital of Ankara, only the demonstration in Istanbul turned into a scene of tear gas and chaos as protesters holding signs reading "Dont Touch My Internet" were targeted by riot police and run off the streets by streams of heavy pressure water shot from moving vehicles.

Links to Student Blogs

Stephen Adams . . . Brandon Adelbock . . . Kellen Beck . . . Opal Jessica Bogdan . . . John Brunett . . . Austin Douillard . . . Patrick Feeney . . .  Noreyana Fernando . . . Emily Francis . . . Bethany George . . . Lewis Kendall . . . Aaron Laramee . . . Gillian Nigro . . .  Eileen Oaks . . . Evan Rockow . . . Harmony Wright

Course Syllabus

Syllabus for "Independent Media -- Issues and Challenges"