Nowadays it is really hard to imagine how a few centuries ago women were limited in their rights to the extent when they were not able to vote, work and speak out. As Rodger Streitmatter mentions in his book “Voices of Revolution” “The American women of the 19th century were widely perceived to be incapable of rational thinking – resolutely helpless and inferior to her male counterpart.” Less then two hundred years ago women in our society were supposed to marry, give a birth to child and make her husband’s life easier. That was the purport of their lives. But that situation couldn’t last forever and the whole society needed changes. Those changes came in the person of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who established her “The Revolution” to improve the situation with women rights and initiate women all over the country to join her ideas.
Journalism became the platform for Elizabeth to speak out and inform people of her thoughts and goals. Journalism as a whole always played a great role in initiating the social changes as it ahs a great influence on people’s views and opinions. Elizabeth was in some way a predecessor of an independent journalist, who decided to establish something that hasn’t exist before, something that didn’t fit the typical “social box”, something that she really believed in. As for me, Elizabeth is a great example of how one person can change the whole society once and for all. Although her “The Revolution” survived only for two and a half years and its circulation was not as big as she had been expected, but the fact of appearance of this kind of press for women was itself priceless. As it often happens in a history, people who start doing something, who gibe this first “push” to new idea for the whole society are the ones who don’t reach success. But all their beginnings are significant because they “build” a base for others to continue developing a new idea. I think Elizabeth was a great and brave person, who worked not for profit (as many independent media outlets even nowadays), but for the idea itself.
Without people like Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony and George Train, who was a controversial millionaire and who supported the newspaper, the society would have stayed on the same level as 200 or 400 years ago. These people, who go against the ideas of their society, who not only disagree, but what is more important, act and often sacrifice their life to the idea; these people are worthy our respect. And nowadays, as independent media becomes even more important then the “old media” I think these people should be as an example foe every truly independent journalist, be he or she citizen journalist or professional.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Women’s rights
Nowadays it is really hard to imagine how a few centuries ago women were limited in their rights to the extent when they were not able to vote, work and speak out. As Rodger Streitmatter mentions in his book “Voices of Revolution” “The American women of the 19th century were widely perceived to be incapable of rational thinking – resolutely helpless and inferior to her male counterpart.” Less then two hundred years ago women in our society were supposed to marry, give a birth to child and make her husband’s life easier. That was the purport of their lives. But that situation couldn’t last forever and the whole society needed changes. Those changes came in the person of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who established her “The Revolution” to improve the situation with women rights and initiate women all over the country to join her ideas.
Journalism became the platform for Elizabeth to speak out and inform people of her thoughts and goals. Journalism as a whole always played a great role in initiating the social changes as it ahs a great influence on people’s views and opinions. Elizabeth was in some way a predecessor of an independent journalist, who decided to establish something that hasn’t exist before, something that didn’t fit the typical “social box”, something that she really believed in. As for me, Elizabeth is a great example of how one person can change the whole society once and for all. Although her “The Revolution” survived only for two and a half years and its circulation was not as big as she had been expected, but the fact of appearance of this kind of press for women was itself priceless. As it often happens in a history, people who start doing something, who gibe this first “push” to new idea for the whole society are the once who don’t reach success. But all their beginnings are significant because they “build” a base for others to continue developing the idea. I think Elizabeth was a great and brave person, who worked not for profit (as many independent media outlets even nowadays), but for the idea itself.
Without people like Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony and George Train, who was a controversial millionaire and who supported the newspaper, the society would have stayed on the same level as 200 or 400 years ago. These people, who go against the ideas of their society, who not only disagree, but what is more important, act and often sacrifice their life to the idea; these people are worthy our respect. And nowadays, as independent media becomes even more important then the “old media” I think these people should be as an example foe every truly independent journalist, be he or she citizen journalist or professional.
Journalism became the platform for Elizabeth to speak out and inform people of her thoughts and goals. Journalism as a whole always played a great role in initiating the social changes as it ahs a great influence on people’s views and opinions. Elizabeth was in some way a predecessor of an independent journalist, who decided to establish something that hasn’t exist before, something that didn’t fit the typical “social box”, something that she really believed in. As for me, Elizabeth is a great example of how one person can change the whole society once and for all. Although her “The Revolution” survived only for two and a half years and its circulation was not as big as she had been expected, but the fact of appearance of this kind of press for women was itself priceless. As it often happens in a history, people who start doing something, who gibe this first “push” to new idea for the whole society are the once who don’t reach success. But all their beginnings are significant because they “build” a base for others to continue developing the idea. I think Elizabeth was a great and brave person, who worked not for profit (as many independent media outlets even nowadays), but for the idea itself.
Without people like Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony and George Train, who was a controversial millionaire and who supported the newspaper, the society would have stayed on the same level as 200 or 400 years ago. These people, who go against the ideas of their society, who not only disagree, but what is more important, act and often sacrifice their life to the idea; these people are worthy our respect. And nowadays, as independent media becomes even more important then the “old media” I think these people should be as an example foe every truly independent journalist, be he or she citizen journalist or professional.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Now it is time to be responsible for what we read and what we trust
South Korea is one of the most mystic countries in the world in terms of the political changes that happened suddenly and turned the country to the completely different way. The geographical location (closeness to North Korea) and political differences between those countries make South Korea unique. As in many other countries all over the world, independent media played a great role in initiating the social and political changes in the state and since that time “indy” media outlets has been the primary source for citizens to read news and share information. OhmyNews is one of the biggest and most influential media outlets in South Korea that was a pioneer of citizen journalism in the country. It played an important role in the 2002 election of Roh Moohyun, but since then the popularity of the web site has never reached the same number of viewers. And this problem exists not only in the OhmyNews site, many other indy outlets become less popular or even completely disappear after one big issue, which was covered in this particular outlet and made it popular. Because at the particular moment particular outlet post the story, that was not covered before or give a platform for citizens to share thoughts about prohibited on the broadcast network topic and in this way the outlet becomes popular and reaches the audience of several millions of people. But after the issue is gone, the platform becomes less popular as people loose the need of the platform itself. But with OhmyNews the situation is a little different and even though the platform lost many of its viewers it is still very popular among South Korean’s citizens. A considerable amount of its writers as in many other indy media outlets are not “real” journalists (they don’t have a degree in journalism or never had a journalism experience). For example, Kim Hye-won, as was mentioned in the Don Lee’s article “Citizens are media in Korea” (http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jun/18/business/fi-ohmynews18) , started her career in OhmyNews just because age wanted to share her concerns about her son’s relationships with his father. And even though she still doesn’t consider herself as a journalist, the Tyme magazine selected her as a “person f the year” for her contribution in the development of changes in media. Kim is just one of millions bloggers, who start their career just to share thoughts and get some peace of advice from the audience, not even thinking about becoming a “citizen journalists.” Probably that is the reason why the company’s motto, posted outside the office is a sigh “Every citizen can be a reporter.”
But independent media outlets also have problems, connected not only with money and revenue, but also with a bias and doubtful information. Along with all the advantages that you can find in indy media, such as freedom of speech and sharing opinions, citizen journalists are however the same human beings, sometimes bias and sometimes liars. OhmyNews also experienced the problems with credibility, when an advertising agent and a citizen reporter wrote a story promoting a company, connected with a client, who was promoting Oh to issue a public apology. And I am sure the OhmyNews is not the only one example. After all, how can anyone be sure that citizen journalists are not connected with political parties, agencies or business? How can anyone be sure that the information they provide on the Web is just their own opinions and facts? Well, the question is rhetorical. But in fact, there is a way to make sure everything you read is true and this way makes the biggest difference between “old” and “new” media. And this difference is that every reader of the blog can not only add comment and correct the information in this way, but also check all the provided facts in the article using links and internet. New technologies give us an opportunity to be active, to participate in journalism, but at the same time they make us responsible for what we read instead of journalists in newspapers and TV, who were responsible to provide us with information they consider to be truthful or important. Now we decide what information is truthful, what is important for us and which journalists deserve to be read. Now the time of changes has come and if we want to know the truth we have to make an effort to make sure the facts are reliable and use the opportunity to check everything on the Web.
But independent media outlets also have problems, connected not only with money and revenue, but also with a bias and doubtful information. Along with all the advantages that you can find in indy media, such as freedom of speech and sharing opinions, citizen journalists are however the same human beings, sometimes bias and sometimes liars. OhmyNews also experienced the problems with credibility, when an advertising agent and a citizen reporter wrote a story promoting a company, connected with a client, who was promoting Oh to issue a public apology. And I am sure the OhmyNews is not the only one example. After all, how can anyone be sure that citizen journalists are not connected with political parties, agencies or business? How can anyone be sure that the information they provide on the Web is just their own opinions and facts? Well, the question is rhetorical. But in fact, there is a way to make sure everything you read is true and this way makes the biggest difference between “old” and “new” media. And this difference is that every reader of the blog can not only add comment and correct the information in this way, but also check all the provided facts in the article using links and internet. New technologies give us an opportunity to be active, to participate in journalism, but at the same time they make us responsible for what we read instead of journalists in newspapers and TV, who were responsible to provide us with information they consider to be truthful or important. Now we decide what information is truthful, what is important for us and which journalists deserve to be read. Now the time of changes has come and if we want to know the truth we have to make an effort to make sure the facts are reliable and use the opportunity to check everything on the Web.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Jokes growing into drama in Matt Taibbi’s speech.
Independent journalism nowadays is something that you should if not be concerned about but at least discuss. “New,” “Free,” “Objective” journalism is believed to be the new page of journalism in general and the new model of journalism considering the development of new technologies and popularity of the Web.
Some people turn to “indy” media because they trust it more and find it more diverse and truthful. Others become “indy-fans” because articles written by independent journalism are more engaging, personal and what is also important funny. “Conzo” journalism is exactly a term used to describe the new type of journalism, or to be more presice the new style of writing articles, where journalists write everything in a subjective, funny manner and the reporter is often an actual participant in his or her own story. "Conzo" journalism was established in 1970's and was actively developed in late 1990's.
One of the most famous representatives of "Conzo" journalism is Matt Taibbi, who visited Ithaca College in New York to give a speech about his own experience in both “old” and “new” kinds of media. The story of his life is itself seems to be a one big experiment in terms of different jobs, places to leave and study. It is no wonder that after Matt has got so much experience in Russia and Mongolia, countries with a totally different culture than the U.S., after being a reporter in the “Moscow Times” in 1990’s, being a freelancer for British newspaper he turned to experimental journalism – independent. From being a basketball player in Mongolia Matt Taibbi now became one of the most famous independent journalists in the United States. His articles and books are known for being funny and serious at the same time. And that is exactly how Matt is in the real life. Laughing at his own mistakes, making fun of problems in his past life and being sarcastic about “old-school” journalism in particular and the whole journalism system in the U.S. and overseas, Matt is representing not only the new type of journalism, but the new type of journalists. Open, honest and of course funny. His endless stories about his experience in Russia, where he first was a reporter for the Moscow Times and then a co-founder of The eXile, an experimental newspaper that represented everything you shouldn’t do in “regular” journalism reporting, were full of sarcasm and jokes, but at the same time everyone could understand what meaning is hidden behind these jokes.
But at one point the jokes about Russian politicians seemed too unceremonious for me for some reason. Maybe my cultural background didn’t allow me to be objective or maybe I am too brain-washed by the “old” type of media, where jokes about politicians are allowed, but not greeted. Somehow or another but I felt offended when jokes about the ex-president of Russia, Boris Eltsin, came to the point when it is not a joke any more, but a scorn. And I think this is one of the main problems in independent media. The problem is that those journalists are not responsible for what they write. They don’t take a responsibility before the editors, the owners of the media outlet and as a result they sometimes forget about ethic issue, which is really important for journalism, old or new. When I asked Matt if there is a line that you should not cross when making fun of politicians, he agreed on that point and it looked like he was even regretting some stuffs he did in the past. That gives a hope and makes me beleive that independent journalism can be funny but tactful at the same time. After all, "Human style" in writing, that Matt mantioned in his speech, is also about human attitude to those you are writing about, even if you don't support his or her views and positions. Indy media is a future of journalism. Then why don't we make an effort to make this new journalism not only funny and honest, but also ethic and correct...
Some people turn to “indy” media because they trust it more and find it more diverse and truthful. Others become “indy-fans” because articles written by independent journalism are more engaging, personal and what is also important funny. “Conzo” journalism is exactly a term used to describe the new type of journalism, or to be more presice the new style of writing articles, where journalists write everything in a subjective, funny manner and the reporter is often an actual participant in his or her own story. "Conzo" journalism was established in 1970's and was actively developed in late 1990's.
One of the most famous representatives of "Conzo" journalism is Matt Taibbi, who visited Ithaca College in New York to give a speech about his own experience in both “old” and “new” kinds of media. The story of his life is itself seems to be a one big experiment in terms of different jobs, places to leave and study. It is no wonder that after Matt has got so much experience in Russia and Mongolia, countries with a totally different culture than the U.S., after being a reporter in the “Moscow Times” in 1990’s, being a freelancer for British newspaper he turned to experimental journalism – independent. From being a basketball player in Mongolia Matt Taibbi now became one of the most famous independent journalists in the United States. His articles and books are known for being funny and serious at the same time. And that is exactly how Matt is in the real life. Laughing at his own mistakes, making fun of problems in his past life and being sarcastic about “old-school” journalism in particular and the whole journalism system in the U.S. and overseas, Matt is representing not only the new type of journalism, but the new type of journalists. Open, honest and of course funny. His endless stories about his experience in Russia, where he first was a reporter for the Moscow Times and then a co-founder of The eXile, an experimental newspaper that represented everything you shouldn’t do in “regular” journalism reporting, were full of sarcasm and jokes, but at the same time everyone could understand what meaning is hidden behind these jokes.
But at one point the jokes about Russian politicians seemed too unceremonious for me for some reason. Maybe my cultural background didn’t allow me to be objective or maybe I am too brain-washed by the “old” type of media, where jokes about politicians are allowed, but not greeted. Somehow or another but I felt offended when jokes about the ex-president of Russia, Boris Eltsin, came to the point when it is not a joke any more, but a scorn. And I think this is one of the main problems in independent media. The problem is that those journalists are not responsible for what they write. They don’t take a responsibility before the editors, the owners of the media outlet and as a result they sometimes forget about ethic issue, which is really important for journalism, old or new. When I asked Matt if there is a line that you should not cross when making fun of politicians, he agreed on that point and it looked like he was even regretting some stuffs he did in the past. That gives a hope and makes me beleive that independent journalism can be funny but tactful at the same time. After all, "Human style" in writing, that Matt mantioned in his speech, is also about human attitude to those you are writing about, even if you don't support his or her views and positions. Indy media is a future of journalism. Then why don't we make an effort to make this new journalism not only funny and honest, but also ethic and correct...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
