The name on the door.

Leo Burnett “When to take my name off the door” from Lobo on Vimeo.

Pretty little lies.

How Little White Lies are made… the print kind at least. I think they missed a few cups of coffee in the process.

Tweets and quakes.

Some people have called this “bad taste” but I think they are being a bit sensitive. Twitter is faster than an earthquake…

Twitter was how I learned about the occurrence of the earthquake, how I got both news and “eyewitness” reports from the quake zone and how I checked-in with my friends on the East coast to make sure they were okay. If I ever doubted twitter was my go-to source for breaking news, I will doubt no more.

Move, learn, eat, now buy a one-way plane ticket to anywhere.

“3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage… all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ….into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films…..” - MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo

Go watch the other two videos – if afterwards (or during) you don’t get the sudden impulse to buy a plane ticket to somewhere you’ve never been, then I don’t know if I can be friends with you…

Oh and guess what. This whole video project is one big advertisement for STA Australia. I think these guys were worth their money.

I shower with my iPad too.

It’s (kind of) an old video – but it’s still funny. When the New Yorker sets out to make a promotions video, it goes big. Try watching this with a straight face. My only complaint? I want to know where to get that waterproof iPad!

Mobile journalism in Greektown.

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Tonight (or last night since it is now 1am?) I got my first true taste of being a mobile journalist. As soon as my “regularly scheduled programming” was interrupted by the announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death, my quiet evening watching Brothers and Sisters was brought to a sudden halt.

I live in a house in the middle of the University of Missouri’s Greektown. “Noise” is a nightly routine. But tonight’s noise was unmistakable – it was the sound of celebration (and as I type it is still going on thanks to caffeine and a great sound system). An estimated 2,000-plus students took to Greektown’s streets to celebrate and show their patriotism. Between loud/out-of-tune renditions of the National Anthem, repetitive “U-S-A” chants, and contraband fireworks, the scene was pretty show-stopping. 

Carrying my ONA club card.

I needed this print last week, it was a bit hectic to say the least.

Wow, talk about neglect. Last week this blog saw absolutly no love from me. But I have a good reason…

Earlier this semester some nerdy friends and I took on the task of starting a new club at the #bestjschoolever (aka the University of Missouri School of Journalism – checkout the hash tag on twitter for some wit, cynicism, and sarcasm sometime). We organized the Online News Association Mizzou club.

As a team, we came up with some pretty impressive results. Check out this value statement; “We believe that the Internet is the most powerful communications medium to arise since the dawn of television. As digital delivery systems become the primary source of news for a growing segment of the world’s population, it presents complex challenges and opportunities for journalists as well as the news audience.” Clearly we are taking our club and our profession very seriously. Plus we’ve invested substantial time on Twitter and Facebook (ahemm, it is all in the name of ONA Mizzou, not procrastination or Facebook stalking) to promote, connect and brand our club. 

Lawyering up for the digital journalist.

ho knew the Huffington Post was running a modern day form of slavery (for journalists)? Apparently Jonathan Tasini did…

Tasini alleges that thousands of writers and other contributors have been wrongly denied any compensation for the value they created for the Huffington Post. Jeff Bercovici at Forbes.com explains:

“TheHuffingtonPost.com has been unjustly enriched by engaging in and continuing to engage in the practice of generating enormous profits by luring carefully vetted contributors, with the prospect of ‘exposure’ (which TheHuffingtonPost.com deceptively fails to verify), to provide valuable content at no cost to TheHuffingtonPost.com, while reaping the entirety of the financial gain derived from such content,” according to the lawsuit.

Facebook ‘likes’ journalists.

Facebook is after world domination. That might be a bit of a severe overstatement, but the social networking website is extending its reach to a new crowd. The crowd is not web-addicted college kids or first-time social media sharing grandmas – it is journalists, a crowd who helps shape the activity and use of social media. In an effort to encourage the use of Facebook in the newsroom, the site has unveiled a new Facebook Page and meetup program specifically for journalists. An article in Mashable explains:

The new Page, Journalists on Facebook, is intended to be a resource for journalists who want to incorporate social media into their reporting, networking and storytelling. “The Page will provide journalists with best practices for integrating the latest Facebook products with their work and connecting with the Facebook audience of more than 500 million people,” Facebook Director of Media Partnerships Justin Osofsky wrote in a blog post.

The false dichotomy.

I’m becoming an even bigger nerd. What and why you ask? Well, I want to be employed one day (more specifically by G-Day; aka Friday, May 13th 2011 – graduation day). That’s why.

In the University of Missouri School of Journalism I have an emphasis area of study in Mobile Development. Last semester I worked with three other students to develop an iPhone application and this semester I am devoting 15-plus hours a week developing an Android application on a five person team. While both experiences have taught me a lot of things, one lesson has stood out more than any other – I should have studied computer science.