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.

Indy Glenn Greenwald v. NYT's Bill Keller

Maverick blogger and former top NY Times editor Keller engage in a lengthy debate about insider vs. outsider journalism, indy vs. establishment reporting. (H/t Christian) It is a testament to what Glenn has achieved since he turned to journalism in 2005 that a top Timesperson feels the need to defend the NYT approach in a debate with him. In my view, Glenn was far more persuasive -- and that's without even looking at the powerful links to his earlier, real-time critiques of NYT offenses against journalism

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 repot, "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.

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" -- about 77million views). He told the NYT in 2008 that he was earning over $200k per year, partly from (ugh!) product placements in his videos.

For years, my 16-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, including this recent commentary that mentions the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011. (Should I have been monitoring my daughter's online activities better?)

Become 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.

 

Cheezburger.com posts something (semi)serious on politics

Make the politicians wear the logos of their corporate funders on their business suits.

Web Censorship/Persecution in China

After Yahoo provided info to China's government that led to the imprisoning of 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 to hit that tab?

Web Censorship in the USA

The media reform group Free Press highlights media and telecom corporations caught censoring web or cellphone traffic.

Inner City Press, a monitor of Wall Street and the United Nations, temporarily is 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). The banned ad featured a photo of Murdoch and the caption: "This is the face of Big Media." Is it My Space or Murdoch's space?

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 August 2012.  

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.)

I hope this kind of thing is beneath the Ithacan. . .

. . . but is okay in Harvard Crimson.  Thought it was a joke. Seems to be product placement or disguised ad. (H/t CI)

Pre-financing websites for independent media/art/service projects

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

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'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.

It was announced today that Brave New Foundation's latest documentary -- "Unmanned: America's Drone Wars" -- will be screened on Capitol Hill, along with Pakistanis who survived 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).

Paul Krassner's "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.

Michael Wolff reported . . .

. . . this 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."

"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.

"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.)

Boing-Boing founder posted this video on Sunday. 

Breaking News: Glenn Greenwald to launch new outlet

As I said from day one of class, the good news in independent media is that some of these outlets and startups are actually doing some hiring on occasion. Right after indy media class yesterday, news broke on BuzzFeed that blogger and Izzy Award-winner Glenn Greenwald is leaving the Guardian (on friendly terms) in order to start “a very well-funded … very substantial new media outlet.” The funder is reportedly eBay founder and billionaire Pierre Omidyar.  

Greenwald said in a preliminary statement: “My role, aside from reporting and writing for it, is to create the entire journalism unit from the ground up by recruiting the journalists and editors who share the same journalistic ethos and shaping the whole thing — but especially the political journalism part — in the image of the journalism I respect most.” (My emphasis.) He was quoted in BuzzFeed as saying that it would not just be about politics: "it’s going to have sports and entertainment and features."

Glenn Greenwald finds "The Perfect Epitaph for Establishment Journalism"

Greenwald is appalled by a column just published by the former editor of Britain's daily, The Independent, referring to British MI5, akin to our FBI. This was the headline:  

Edward Snowden's secrets may be dangerous. I would not have published them.    If MI5 warns that this is not in the public interest who am I to disbelieve them?  

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.

Journalists, Police 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."

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 press 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.

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

...seemed to pave the way for "Savage Love" column by Dan Savage in today's alternative weeklies.

Obama Administration vs. Journalists and Their (Unofficial) Sources

New report documents the history of an administration that had promised transparency.

From student blogs

Halloween costumes that are alternatives to Disney princesses (H/t Allie).

Alex L achieves the impossible -- catching McChesney and yours truly with our mouths shut.

Manger 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."

Who is today's Upton Sinclair? Steve Colbert

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:How many newspaper editors who ignored or apologized for racist lynchings have schools named after them? Ida B. Wells High School is in San Francisco (just across the park from the famous "painted ladies" Victorian houses.)