As represented, the Citizen Journalism movement is meant to democratize access to the news and broaden the range of perspectives available. But what happens if our students commit to this work without any regard for objectivity? for verifiability? for balance?
What happens when young people start taking their cameras into places of business and filming their interactions with the desk help? What will the future be like when the news is defined by these acts? It's happening now--does education have a role to play in this?
How do you teach students to think about the importance of context? What does online multi-media research look like in real-time? What's the connection between what's on HBO and what's on Fox News? Can we teach students to think in the 21st century or only to react?
If you're interested in the NPR secret videotape, I've been writing about the man behind this new form of activism, in order to highlight the implications the end of privacy has for educators. What is your students were videotaping you in class? During conferences? Feedback welcome.
James O'Keefe is back in the news with his expose on NPR. What motivates the citizen journalist? Why choose one target over another? If we study the decisions made during the trips to the ACORN offices, we get a sense of the difference between creating the news and reporting the news. We also learn what 20-somethings understand about the US tax structure.
Want to show your students how a digital tattoo works? I follow Pondexter's tweet about God's will and the tsunami over a 72 hour period. The real issue, as I see it, is about the state of American education not the thoughts of a member of the WNBA.
The role of ethics in the world of new media journalism is uncharted. What can we learn from analyzing the collapse of News of the World and the response of the Murdoch media empire to revelations that its reporters hacked the phones of the parents of murdered children?
Raymond Williams had a collection of essays entitled, "Resources for Hope," which I've always felt was another name for teaching done well. Here's a remembrance of an extraordinary teacher and a reflection on 9/11.
Students online as announcers, cultural critics, practicing artists. What is the subject? The self alone. The evolving economy of the self-brand, self-marketed on the web in the jobless present. To understand our students' online actions, we have to confront a present without work.
What are we to make of students who film violence rather than intervene? What are we to make of educational institutions unprepared for viral videos about campus life? Reflections on the four shootings this past weekend at Rutgers, drawing largely on videos posted to YouTube of live action.