“Corporate Blogging” – North Shore Music Theatre Blog

In our current Web 2.0 world, it is more important than ever that we embrace our new social media tools.  Blogging is one of them.  Chris Anderson says in his book, The Long Tail, “…collectively blogs are proving more than an equal to mainstream media.”  Journalism is literally changing as we know it, and we have no choice but to adapt to these changes.

I thought it would be interesting to search around and find various performing arts organization blogs.  One of the best ones that I came across was the North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) blog.  North Shore Music Theatre is one of the largest non-profits professional theaters in New England that creates “some of the most vibrant classic, contemporary and new musical theater in the country” according to its website. Through the use of photos, video, informative text, and a human voice, they truly provide a behind the scenes look into their productions.  This blog is fairly new, but if they keep it up, it will be a huge success.  Additionally, they are extremely open to audience suggestions and questions.  In their first blog posting of their newly revamped site, NSMT says:

North Shore Music Theatre is happy to announce the return of THE NSMT BLOG. Our new exciting format will be an informative and exciting editorial magazine style that will mix interviews with video and photo essays. However what we are most excited about is that we want your input on the content. Let us know what you want to read or see and we will update the blog regularly with answers to your questions as well as many other fun facts and insider information.

As a patron of the arts (and NSMT) this blog makes me very excited to see its upcoming production of Bye Bye Birdie –  which I will actually have the opportunity of seeing next weekend!  Here is the video of Bye Bye Birdie they provide on their blog that gives viewers an insider look to their rehearsal process:

Additionally, NSMT uses similar social media tools for its children’s productions.  Another video podcast was created for their recent performance of Frog and Toad.  Here is the video clip for that one:

I’ve always enjoyed productions at NSMT; I even used to be a yearly subscriber to their musical season when I lived in the Boston area.  If I could, I still would be!  Just a bit difficult being an 8 hour drive away…

I’d just like to thank NSMT for embracing these new social media tools.  It is a such a joy to read their blog and watch their videos.  See you next weekend!

Web 2.0 Fills the Gap Created by Mainstream Media Coverage of the War

Web 2.0 has changed reporting as we know it.  This is especially apparent with combatant-reporters from Iraq — real soldier correspondents eager to share what they have seen and experienced with the rest of the world.  For my assignment this week, I have been asked to explore various military blogs (aka miliblogs) as well as any other blogs and YouTube clips pertaining to the war.

The shear mass and detailof reports and footage coming from soldiers in Iraq and other parts of the world is simply incredible.  The Internet, with its Web 2.0 features, brings it all to us instantly, with a click of a mouse.  Gone are the days when we have to wait for the morning paper, or a magazine, to see or read about breaking news updates or graphic photos of a major event.  (FYI, Without a functional updated website, Life Magazine has still yet to fully embody Web 2.0 which is not in their best interest since the popularity of individual blogs and Flickr sites have been overwhelming) – Update: Wow, I’m a space cadet.  Thanks, Crystal, for letting me know that Life folded last year.  However, reports show that they intend to keep their website.

I believe that seeing and reading about the war is a good thing, although hard to stomachat times.  It is in America’s best interest to have this much access to the front lines and show the reality of the war to as many people as possible in order to make our country feel directly connected to it.  This new way of sharing information provides us with a broader understanding of the war leading us to make properly informed opinions of the war, and hence appropriate decisions on what should be done.  Blogs and YouTube clips from combatant-reporters also provide Americans with alternative views of the war that perhaps the mainstream media left out.  Colby Buzzell, a famous blogging soldier, agrees in his blog when he talks about military bloggers,

In the sleepy on-base hours between missions, they share their stories directly with the world, unfiltered by the biases of the “mainstream media” many of them distrust.

Also, I read about one of the biggest online controversies involving Kevin Sites’ video clip.  While being an independent journalist in Iraq, Mr. Sites videotaped a soldier shooting a wounded and unarmed Iraqi.  Mr. Sites provides an in-depth explanation about his experience, as well as the aftermath of releasing his video to the world in the following YouTube clip: 

From blogs to Flickr to Twitter to YouTube, soldier-reporters have a lot to show and tell us, and it is in our best interest to watch and listen.

Wikiscanner: Scientology

After much deliberating, I chose to look into the Church of Scientology for my Wikiscanner report.

Employees working for the Church of Scientology have made about 170 edits to various Wikipedia pages from 2004 to 2007.  For the most part, these employees, probably made up of mostly Sea Orgs, have added Scientology-related links to these articles.  Scientologists are anti-psychiatry and have edited many Wikipedia articles for psychiatric disorders commonly treated with drugs such as: bipolar disorder, depression, generalized anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD, and dyslexia to name a few.  They edit these articles to include a link to the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) website to provide alternatives to using medication and standard psychiatric procedures.  The CCHR “investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights” and was co-founded in part by the Church of Scientology itself.  Scientologists are anti-psychiatry, but those who are anti-psychiatry are not necessarily Scientologists.

The Sea Orgs also make a point to insert major Scientology-related events in Wikipedia year articles.  For example, in 1954, L. Ron Hubbard issued the Creed of the Church of Scientology.  In 1993, the IRS granted full tax exemption and religious recognition in the U.S. to all Church of Scientology Churches and affiliated organizations.  Hm. Is this wise?

The most interesting edit I found occurred in the Wikipedia article for Church of Scientology.  The edit claims to have “removed hearsay” and “added some links.”  However, I think it was more so a NPOV issue, or even, in their best interest to make themselves sound better.  Within this article, the edit was made to the Scientology Volunteer Ministers section.  Originally stating that:

Over the past several years, it has become a common practice for the organization to send ‘teams’ of ‘Volunteer Ministers’ to the scenes of major, headline-grabbing disasters in order to provide assistance with relief efforts. According to critics, most of these relief efforts consist of passing out copies of a pamphlet authored by L. Ron Hubbard entitled “The Way To Happiness,” and by engaging in a method of calming panicked or injured individuals known in Scientology as a touch assist.

The words in red were deleted and the words in green were replaced with the much kinder, “Though they provide a number of different services, critics suggest…”

Additionally, the edit goes on to a paragraph about Scientology Volunteer Minister roles in the aftermath of September 11.  The article orginially states:

An E-mail confirmed to be from a Sea Org ‘Lieutenant’ brags of a deliberate plan to prevent the grief-stricken from receiving counseling from non-Scientology sources. “Due to some brilliant maneuvering by some simply genius Sea Org Members we tied up the majority of the psychs who were attempting to get to families yesterday in Q&A, bullbait and wrangling. … The survivors don’t know it but they need the Scientologists with LRH’s tech to be here right now.” http://www.xenu.net/archive/events/20010911-tragedy/

Although this is not the most articulate article written, it provides a website and quotes.  Both of which were taken out, and re-worked by Scientology workers.  The new text they provided was, “An E-mail reportedly from a Sea Org ‘Lieutenant’ brags of a deliberate plan to prevent the grief-stricken from receiving counseling from non-Scientology sources.”  This has all since been taken down and reformatted on the page now – but, it seems to me that the writer may have an agenda of his/her own.

One final note:  The Sea Orgs also added their Volunteer Ministers program link to articles for major disasters like Hurricane Katrina, 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, Cyclone Larry, and September 11 to name a few.  Does this follow the Wikipedia guidelines of what Wikipedia is not?

UPDATE…

As I was reading individual blogs from our Social Media class on the Wikiscanner report, I noticed that Alicia also examined Scientology on her blog.  She caught something quite interesting on Wikiscanner that I had overlooked.  Alicia found that the workers at the Church of Scientology edited the Wikipedia article on Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (the Columbine High School shooters) to include a report of a “therapeutic amount” of Luvox (an anti-depressant) found in Eric Harris during an autopsy.  I agree with Alicia that “this was clearly edited to support their belief that anti-depressants cause suicidal thoughts and violence amongst its users.”

–

For the first portion of my Wikipedia report, we were asked to write a new page or substantially edit an existing page.  The majority of my work was on creating a page on Town Class (sailboat) with the username bostonsro.  Growing up near the ocean in Massachusetts, I was around boats all the time.  My dad has a Town Class sailboat and I thought it would be beneficial for his Town Class organization to have a Wikipedia page about the boat.  I did run into problems attaching an image to my article.  I would love to include this line drawing of a Town Class sailboat. Can anyone help me out?

Additionally, I made Wikipedia edits to:  One-design, and Indoor Cycling.

Who Else Wants to Easily Find What You Want at the Price You Want?

As noted in his book The Long Tail, Chris Anderson’s three forces of the Long Tail include democratizing the tools of production, cutting costs of consumption by democratizing distribution, and connecting supply and demand — or, more simply, as the start of the chapter states, “make it, get it out there, and help me find it.” By reducing the costs of reaching niches, our culture is able to move away from the head of the demand curve (the hits) and towards the tail (the niches).  We’ve been given more options, more variety!  Anderson says, “For the first time in history, hits and niches are on equal economic footing…popularity no longer has a monopoly on profitability.”  Sounds good to me.

I really enjoyed this book, and started googling “long tail” and other combinations online just to read more about it.  I came across an article that interested me particularly because I love the performing arts world, as well as the movie-making industry.  In this article, major movie-makers from Hollywood admit that shooting digitally changes acting, directing, and the editing process drastically.  Now that we are in the digital age, it seems to me that film is being used less and less.

Digital video cameras are a Long Tail toolmaker, and aid in democratizing production (the first force of the Long Tail as I mentioned above). Now that we are in the digital age, it seems to me that film is being used less and less.  The everyday use of the digital still-camera is an example of this.  Who really carries around a non-digital camera when digital cameras provide us with so much more and at a reasonable price? The accessibility and overall costs (not only of initial purchase, but also including costs of function, maintenance, and printing) associated with the two make digital cameras a winner.  What is the repercussion of this?  I, personally, take many more photos than I ever have.  Additionally, after uploading them to my computer, I spend lots of time adjusting the saturation, sharpness, brightness, and red eye.  I’ve been given more power over my photos, and in turn, they are better for it.

I think the same is true for the movie-making industry in this case.  If not now, then over time we will see a better quality of movie surface due to this change.  Actors have less pressure on them to “get it right the first time” and are given more opportunities to repeat a scene.  Directors have more power than ever: a good and bad thing.  But, after reading the comments on this article, I think Mike Walsh is on to something when comparing the transition of silent movies to talkies with the article’s mention of a director over-working the star actor unnecessarily:

…Right now we are dealing with unintended fallout from digital “filming”, such as overly long takes or murky colors. The upside is that the cost savings, while unimportant in big budget movies, are important in smaller, character driven productions. Just as the painter’s choice of medium (ie watercolors vs. oils) change the kind of painting they create, eventually a consensus will be reached on how the new systems are used.

Well put.

PODCASTS

Additionally, I’ve been asked to blog about my experience with podcasts and I just have to say that I can’t believe I didn’t get into these sooner.  I’ve had iTunes for at least 3 or more years now, and each time I would accidentally click on the ‘podcast’ option, I would quickly exit out and not return.  I was missing out on a lot!  And it’s FREE (? which still confuses me a bit!)

I listened to a handful of podcasts, but found The Economist’s Democracy in America segment, “John McWhorter on Hip-Hop Politics” posted June 12, 2008 (can I link to podcasts?) to be particularly interesting.  McWhorter believes that hip-hop doesn’t make anyone do anything. From acting on a violent theme that it endorses to going to the polls to vote, hip-hop has proven to not be an effective medium. He goes on to praise Barack Obama’s campaign strategies of reaching out to the young vote in ways that have never been done.  Other things come into play when it comes to getting people to vote, mainly, effort (such as the Get Out the Vote campaign).

Reading Response: “We the Media” by Dan Gillmor

After reading, We the Media by Dan Gillmor, I have been asked:  What is the most important point, and why?

Gillmor makes two major points.  First, the Internet has given us the ability to exchange information and converse openly, freely, and very easily, which in turn, has and will continue to forever change traditional public relations, journalism, politics, and Big Media as we know it.  We the Media.  Anyone can be a reporter, photographer, critic, and the like.  Additionally, Gillmor stresses that it is vital that we fully embrace this change and allow ourselves to be part of it, not to ignore it, in order to succeed.

Up until very recently, traditional media was all we had.  Whether we received it via TV, radio, newspapers, or books, we were only consumers of news.  Today, with Internet websites like OhMyNews and Kuro5hin, participatory journalism has blossomed.  And, rightfully so!  Two heads are better than one. And, collectively, the audience knows more than the experienced member of the press.  Gillmor outlines this very well, and goes on to mention that participatory journalism is also helpful in unique niches, which I agree.  Gillmor says, “My main focus in this book is on what happens when people at the edges participate in the news-gathering and dissemination processes…The news is what we make of it, in more ways than one.”

In order to succeed in PR, journalism, politics, and business in the 21st century, we must understand and participate in this conversation.  We must recognize its value and importance and follow suit.  In Chapter 6, Dan Gillmor goes on to discuss traditional media’s opportunity, in which he criticizes the choice some organizations make to not include reporters’ or editors’ email addresses at the end of stories, and The Washington Post’s webchats as not enough interactivity with the audience.   I think he’s gone a bit too far and I have to disagree.

Depending on the organization, providing an email address at the end of an article is not always necessary.  Any person with a valid question or comment can discover contact information, whether it be on the “Contact Us” link, or choose to call the main number, or use the generic email address provided.  I believe that perhaps by making it “too” accessible, the writer/editor would be bombarded with bogus emails cluttering their inbox, making it a waste of time – already short on time with numerous deadlines.  I believe The Washington Post’s attempt at community discussions and conversations via their webchat is a good idea.  Additionally, they have links to blogs, past and current discussions, and podcasts.  Instead, I wish Dan Gillmor provided constructive criticism on what exactly the site is lacking – because to me, it seems well done.  Realistically, what more could they have done to increase interactivity in this case?

We the Media was informative and interesting.  With the exception of a few comments, I agree with Dan Gillmor and enjoyed his book.