podfolk

a podcast... and weblog section for folk music and online folklore (see the weblog front page for Bob's "Other Journalism")... and, no, this isn't about "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," unless as pod-folklore.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Desktop broadcasting, converging media and 'control anxieties'...

... in classroom, newsroom and board room

A half dozen years ago a colleague of mine was startled to learn that my graduate students were "publishing to the entire world" with their classroom Web pages, taking responsibility for their own words, not submitting them to any faculty-designated editor...

Now it's really "cybercasting" as well as "cyber publishing": We can have the Internet equivalent of an audio or video broadcasting tower on every desk, offering the world original programs. And perhaps offering faculty some new "control" anxieties. The benefits for the students are clear in this quote from a teacher:

"Their audience has moved to the entire world," said Jeanne Halderson... "The students find that exciting. It's a lot more motivating to write something that the whole world can hear, rather than just something for a teacher to put a grade on."

The surprise: Halderson's students are in the seventh grade. For more about her class and others, see this New York Times story about podcasting finding its way into grammar schools and high schools from Massachusetts to Wisconsin.

The kids are recording everything from musical variety shows to programs finding local angles on national news. One podcast episode mentioned in the story "featured student interviews about bullying, a follow-up to a report on '20/20.'"

As one teacher told the Times, "All you need is a computer, access to the Internet and a microphone that you can buy at Toys 'R' Us."

Luckily, I'm pretty sure our new classroom Macintoshes have built in microphones, and I've already helped one faculty member launch a blog and podcast using free off-campus software/services... My online publishing students will be able to do the same if it suits their projects in this semester's class. After all, I don't want the UT seniors falling behind those Nebraska eighth graders, even if they will get to the job market a few years sooner!

Another good sign: The Times article breaks the stereotype of "mainstream media" sites being reluctant to link to other sites. The story has several clickable liks to school projects and educators' lists of topical podcasts, so I won't repeat them here.

Another Times story points out that interactive media "convergence" isn't something the old media corporations can control: As Gadgets Get It Together, Media Makers Fall Behind.

These four sentences make up a paragraph headed "Control Anxiety"; I think they're worth bullets and some "spin" of my own:

Since the invention of the high-speed printing press, mass media have been created for the masses, not by them.
The rise of Weblogs has given everyone a printing press and even the opportunity to get income from ads that Google will happily sell.
Now we can all be D.J.'s and film directors, distributing our podcasts and movies online without groveling before a studio executive.
The career prospects for hit makers, gatekeepers and even fact checkers may well be in doubt.

I wouldn't use the negative phrase "in doubt" -- which might depress deans, teachers and students at journalism schools. I'd just say "different."

The journalist's editorial skills of gatekeeping and fact checking -- presented as a positive "filtering the information overload" instead of a negative "blocking-the-road" or censorship -- are skills more people should acquire. As for "hit makers" -- in the world of words, that means clear, concise, entertaining, convincing (or persuasive) storytelling.

Journalism students are in a good place right now... as long as they keep up with those eighth graders.

11:29:30 AM

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