I came across Robert Darnton’s beautifully articulated essay collection, The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future (2009), while looking for a book to review for class. Darnton’s book intrigued me from the first glance. Aside from the effective title, its warmly designed, aptly metaphorical cover drew me in, inviting me to flip through its pages. This is an experience that is unlikely to be matched by a digitized copy downloaded via the Internet, to be read on an electronic device.

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Trust is perhaps the most critical element as the media become “democratic, decentralized and diverse” as Hanson Hosein stated early in his presentation, “The Storyteller Uprising” at Seattle’s Town Hall.  There are many experiments in developing trust, like NPR’s model for curating local bloggers as reporters in the Hurricane Ida and Haiti disasters.  Universities are also in the enviable position of having scholars with credibility in their field, given their intense and often lifelong research in a field.  Some universities are taking full advantage through platforms they manage, like the MIT Technology Review Others are wisely creating a crucible for the next generation of scholars, activists and journalists.  University of North Carolina is a great example of community scholarship, multimedia journalism and activism.  Seems like an unreachable goal, eh?  But check out the work created last fall by a group of 21 students and 5 faculty in the Galapagos Islands. http://www.livinggalapagos.org/

UNC living galapagos map

Living Galapagos has won several awards for innovation and journalistic quality – all well deserved, I think.  There is great storytelling by the residents, beautiful photography, and the unveiling of thorny issues about economics, tourism and sustainability.  Taken together, these can ignite passion in readers of the site.  But, as you also pointed out – how does one sustain the passion?  I did a cursory review of google looking for efforts to expand the message and link to others that can help, as Lance observed, to “take the news and translate it into things to do.”  It’s just not there.  Too bad.  Let’s hope there are other elements in the works.

I’m certainly going to keep an eye on UNC’s journalism program and share what I find here on campus.  We have a real connection to activism here at the UW through various programs like those at the Evans School of Public Affairs, which produces more Peace Corps volunteers than any other public university,  that may help our students create the stories AND sustain the passion.

Here are my slides from our December 2 2009 info meeting.

IndieFlix Play It Again Podcast with Masizakhe Filmmaker Scott Macklin Hosted By Lois Fein

“We are each other’s best and most powerful resource.”

“You’re punk rock.”

That’s how a Microsoft staffer described our digital media Masters program at the conclusion of my recruiting presentation late last year.  Loud, brash, aggressive, simplistic, imperfect?

Actually, punk was a reaction to an old world order of music.  Just caught this passage in the liner notes to the first Cowboy Junkies CD, originally released in 1985:

One of punk’s lasting legacies perhaps the most dramatic of the changes that it brought about, was proving that you don’t need to be signed to a major label to make a major record.  In the early ’70’s, it seemed inconceivable that a band could literally “do it yourself.”…Punk had been a reaction to the 48 track studio system that had taken the means of making records away from new bands in the first place…

Despite my staid upbringing in law and TV journalism, I’m slightly subversive.  So I see opportunity in how digital media disrupts the concentrated power and high barriers to entry of traditional communication.  We named this site with that disruption in mind: flip the media.

And today, we’re rolling out the Media Space, our online collaborative platform — the front door to the community media lab we’re building here at the University of Washington.  Believe it or not, collaboration is not easy in higher education. Academics specialize in niche subject areas, research relies on funding for highly specific deliverables.  The “ivory tower” is actually a collection of silos.

Obviously, that won’t fly in a graduate program where we focus our attention on communication in a networked, interactive world.  And we had to ensure that we’re practicing some of what we’re studying, such as Shirky’s Holy Trinity: sharing, cooperation, collective action.  (My colleague, Kathy Gill’s Twitter book class is an example of how we work and the discussion we provoke)  So we needed an online platform to make that happen.  And it all begins with “Got an idea?”

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As a new addition to the MCDM family, I’d like to introduce myself by posting a story regarding my recent travels to South Africa. Looking forward to many great happenings as the Associate Director of the MCDM.

Scott Macklin participated in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Diversity Conference – BREAKING BOUNDARIES, EMBRACING DIFFERENCES in August. Featured in the week of events included a screeing of his film, “Masizakhe: Building Each Other” and follow up panel discussions. This was the film’s homecoming.

“Masizakhe: Building Each Other” from Scott Macklin on Vimeo.

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In the wake of DePaul University’s announcement about its forthcoming journalism class focused on Twitter, John Cook at TechFlash has written about the University of Washington’s graduate-level summer course focused on Twitter.

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