NewsLink Indiana

NewsLink Indiana, the organization which I am a GA for, has launched a podcast and vodcast. They should be available through the iPod store over the next few days. But either way here are the feed addresses:

For the podcast:
http://www.newslinkindiana.com/data/podcast.xml

For the vodcast:
http://www.newslinkindiana.com/data/vodcast.xml

Also look for big changes to be coming soon to NewsLink Indiana.

$50 Billion in Budget Cuts

As we spend hundreds of millions of dollars everyday on the war in Iraq and as we keep the "much needed" Bush Tax Cuts, which benefit the richer side of society, the money has to be cut from somewhere else. Here are a couple of places the republicans are deciding to do it:

'Raid on student aid'

It also imposes new fees on students who default on loans or consolidate them and higher fees on parents who borrow on behalf of their college-age children. California Rep. George Miller, the senior Democrat on the panel, called the package a "raid on student aid."
The Ways and Means Committee approved on a party-line vote a plan by its chairman, Rep. Bill Thomas, R-California, with so many difficult-to-swallow provisions that lawmakers and aides whispered about whether the intent was to make it hard for GOP leaders to win its passage in the full House.
It includes $3.8 billion in cuts to child support enforcement. Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-North Dakota, charged that Republicans were appealing to the "constituency of deadbeat dads."
The bill also would tighten eligibility standards for foster care assistance in nine states and delay some lump-sum payments to very poor and elderly beneficiaries of Social Security's Supplemental Security Income program.
"It was abundantly clear that Thomas didn't want to do this stuff," said an aide to a Ways and Means Republican who spoke on condition of anonymity but cited meetings that occurred behind the scenes.
House GOP leaders this month directed Thomas to produce $8 billion in savings, eight times the original target he was assigned.
The Ways and Means plan also would eliminate payments to industries harmed by unfair foreign trade practices. Those payments come from the proceeds of duties on foreign goods "dumped" into the U.S. market.

ANWR drilling

The House Resources Committee approved a controversial plan to raise $2.4 billion in lease revenues by permitting oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Minority Democrats opposed virtually everything that was done, saying Wednesday's actions are part of a broader GOP budget blueprint that also calls for $106 billion in new tax cuts over the next five years.
"They are targeting programs for poor people to pay for tax cuts for rich people," said Rep. David Obey, D-Wisconsin. Once those tax cuts are passed, Obey added, deficits will be increasing again.


So apparently the republicans are deciding to keep the Iraq war and the tax cuts, but get rid of the environment and education.

The above section is from this CNN article.

Google Advertising

"Improving ad quality improves Google's revenue," [Eric E. Schmidt] said in an interview at the company's headquarters, known as the Googleplex. "If we target the right ad to the right person at the right time and they click it, we win." -NYT article

Incredibly interesting article on NYTimes.com today about how Google is going to take over the world. Specifically it is about Google's unique and amazing advertising system might be applicable to alot more media over the next few years. The by far most interesting possibility is using Google's ad structure with digital cable boxes and on-demand TV. The Google system could use what you watch to determine what ads you see, making those ads more effective and more valuable to the client.

Google is taking over the world. Watch Epic 2015.

NBC Nightly News

So apparently NBC is going to start streaming its "Nightly News with Brian Williams" on MSNBC.com. The feed will be available at about 10pm ET, after the West Coast feeds and airings.

Way to go NBC News. Between this and Brian Williams's blog "The Daily Nightly," I am fairly impressed with what NBC News is doing in the new media field. I really like this move. I mean, honestly, I never watch the evening network news. I am usually busy at 6:30, but if I could watch it whenever I want I really think I would be more likely to view it. So who knows maybe they are picking up one viewer.

NBC Press Release

Ball State No. 6????

Ball State Football was number 6 on the top ten plays of the day on ESPN. That is crazy. Ted Ginn and OSU was number 9.

Ohhh...Snap pt. 2

Libby indicted. It isn't treason, so I guess we won't have to execute him. That's nice.

Law Dork Esq.

So my brother has realized a lifelong dream and went ahead and become a lawyer.

Way to go Attorney Chris Geidner.

Law Dork Esq.???

So my brother, Chris Geidner, The LawDork finds out tomorrow if he passed the bar and if he will be admitted into the Ohio Bar Association. It must be terrible, yet amazing to be only 12 hours from possibly realizing one of your lifelong dreams.

Good Luck and you deserve it Chris.

If you want to find out if he passed you can check here anytime after 7:00am (8:00am Indiana time).

Ooooh...Snap

Harriet Miers withdrawls her nomination for SCOTUS. Did President Bush just become a lame duck?

CNN.com

Goodnight and Good Luck

On Sunday afternoon, in Baltimore, I was able to go see "Goodnight and Good Luck." It was an incredibly well put to together, well shot movie. The use of archive footage was just amazing and I really hope McCarthy gets an Oscar nod for best supporting actor. But in all seriousness, I think George Clooney deserves a nod for best direction of a motion picture.

Also, way to go Edward R. Murrow and all journalists over the years who have fought the good fight for liberty and democracy.

Everybody is doing stuff

Washington Post announced a vodcost.
ABCNews.com offers free video.
Comedy Central is launching a broadband.
Warner Brothers is forming a digital unit.

These ones are all from LostRemote.com, but there are a lot of things going on.

Back in Indiana

So I flew back in to Indianapolis Airport last night. I looked out the window as we were landing and saw cornfields as far as my eyes could see. I cried a little bit...and not in a good way. Either way I am back up in Muncie, back to the daily grind with school and work.

MediaDork is back east...

It's good to be back to a place where all the TV is on at the right time and is airing live. I'll be back in Muncie on Tuesday.

MediaDork going east

So I am taking another trip, but this one is only a vacation. No school. No shooting. No grits. I'll be heading out east to Baltimore to see my Father for a few days and to head up to Washington D.C. to see a friend of mine. A good time should be had by all.

Ohh....Lost Remote coming through again

This is just a good article. It is another biting piece of sarcasm aimed at the state of broadcast news. This is all in response to "Goodnight and Good Luck." The new movie about Edward R. Murrow.

Google getting sued...again

The Google Print Project seems to be generating more controversy. Five major American publishers have come together to file a lawsuit against Google to get them to stop scanning copyrighted books. Google has said that it will not be making full texts of copyrighted material available. They will only be using the scanned pages to make searching more accurate. The publishers apparently don't think it will work that smoothly. Full Article.

Thanks for the pointer from Kevin.

PTC Family

The Parent Television Council released their list of best and worst shows for family viewing. FOX shows make up 60% of the worst list, which is headed up by "The War at Home," "The Family Guy" and "American Dad." The best list is headed up by "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Three Wishes." The best part of the article, "the group couldn't even come up with 10 prime-time shows it would recommend for family viewing. Its list stops at nine."

Full Article

Apple

Apple can just not stop releasing things. It seems they have had announcements like every other day for the last three weeks. The good news is most of the Apple stuff I have is not outdated yet. Well I mean my iPod and iBook are, but my Power Mac and monitor are not, so rock and roll.

Murdoch is taking over...

Well first I am glad I don't use MySpace, being that it is a recent Rupert Murdoch purchase. Second, News Corp. is buying up way to much in the way of internet distribution systems. This is chronicled in a recent Fortune article.

Nightline

Nightline is actually going to a three-anchor format. Martin Bashir, Cynthia McFadden, and Terry Moran will all anchor the newly formatted Nightline, which will start airing on November 28. Kopple retires Nov. 21.

New JibJab.com Animation

JibJab.com most remembered for their satirical animations about the election have released a new animation about big box department stores and globalization. They actually aired the full thing on CNN before an interview with the JibJab founders. Which is crazy, because they don't give that much time to real news or to Lacy Peterson type stories.

Give Now. Give Often.

Ohhh...Muncie

It is Homecoming Weekend at Ball State and that means a number of things, such as the annual bed races. Today was the 25th annual bed races on Riverside Drive and there were about 35 teams that completed. The teams represented everything from fraternities and sororities to random on campus academic groups.

It was a beautiful day for bed races and the turnout was very impressive. I'd say most of the the 1/4 mile course was lined about 4 or 5 deep with students and on-lookers. We stuck around for about an hour, but I guess they'll be going on for hours until one champ is crowned.

For more info you can check out NewsLinkIndiana.com. They did a feature piece on the guy who has been firing the starting gun for the last 25 years.

Point - Counterpoint

Lost Remote has a couple decent articles looking at the iPod video. It is a point/counterpoint kind of thing between Steve and Cory, but I think they are asking the wrong questions and looking at the wrong thing. The importance in this first generation iPod video is its possible future implications. What is amazing about the original iPod is not the actual technical specs, it was its future implications. And although I agree with Steve to a point I think it will have lasting implications which will be important, such as the two main points of my two articles on the iPod video.

What's next...

Well as I had predicted a couple months ago, Apple released the iPod video and a new version of iTunes, with full video options, so then the question to ask is what's next? I got a few ideas.

The first and biggest is going to be the addition of Wi-Fi to the iPod video. The Wi-Fi enabled iPod video takes the whole idea of vodcasting and podcasting to the next level. I assume when they do it, it will include an RSS style auto-update feature, which will download new versions of any of the pod/vodcasts to which you subscribe. This auto-updating will happen anytime you walk into an open Wi-Fi area, such as say, San Francisco.

Here's how I picture this will work for me. I'll subscribe to the CNN Breaking News/Updates vodcast, maybe some other ones, but definitely that one. And say every half an hour or so, CNN will update their vodcast and if I am in a Wi-Fi area it will automatically get downloaded to my iPod, writing over the previous cast.

I think this will be huge and so convenient. I also think it will grab multiple demos, unlike the full show or music video model, which Apple is using as the jumping off point.

I also think the implications iTunes 6.0 will have on the market are huge. I have not downloaded anything yet, but a friend of mine downloaded an episode of Desperate Housewives and was impressed by the quality. He said in high-movement, high-action moments you could see a little pixelization, but that was it. So this leads me to think, why should I pay 12 bucks a month, or whatever I pay, for Tivo. I mean given, there are only a few shows available now, but that is going to end up expanding. So once there is more available I can just pay 2 bucks for commercial free shows, whenever I want them. I don't need to remember to have the Tivo record or anything.

There will still be more on this, but for now that is all I have.

iPod Review

Engadget reviews the new iPod video.

iTunes 6.0

As I had previously guessed along with the announcement of the release of the iPod video comes a new version of iTunes, iTunes 6.0. The impact this could have on television viewing patterns in amazing. You can now download a full episode of Desperate Housewives for only $1.99. Imagine what that will do...2 dollars is cheap and iTunes is easy. I have always said HBO shows do so well because you don't have to ever miss an episode, they air them like 6 or 8 times. Now you don't ever have to miss an episode of Desperate Housewives. You can go out on Sunday night and then come home and download it for just 2 dollars. That is huge.

There are only a few TV things up right now, but I think we are going to see a huge jump over the next couple of months. For example, anything that the nets are now Podcasting they can start putting up on iTunes. ABC News could put up ABC Nightly News and Nightline...leave the commercials in and make it free or take the commercials out and charge a buck. This is huge.

Michael Bloxham, of Ball State University's Center for Media Design, has predicted the world is turning into a world of 'screens.' No television. No computer. No separate entities, just 'screens' and iTunes video is helping that along. I have a 20' Apple Flat screen monitor and the Harmon Kardon Sound Sticks and I can tell you I would rather watch a DVD on that than my slightly older TV and DVD player. One single broadcast viewer is by no means worth two advertising dollars.

This has huge implications and I will have more later. Product placement. Overall TV viewing. Tivo sales and more.

iPod Video

Finally I was right. Apple announced the iPod video. More later.

MTVU in the News Again

MTVU has announced the creation of MTVU Uber, a broadband only channel, which will feature content from students across the country. "We are handing over an entire channel online to college students," says an mtvU rep.

Pointer from IWantMedia.com

Google Fixing, Taking Over World

Google has announced a new philanthropic operation, which will start with a one billion dollar endowment. It is thought that this move is in response to criticism that Google is getting too big and preparing to take over the world.

More Info:
Google.org
SF Gate Full Article
Epic 2015

PC World Writing about Epic

As I have mentioned many times before Epic 2015, the short animation by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson, is amazing and now others are starting to realize it. Epic 2015, which describes how Google is taking over the world, is written about today on PCWorld.com.

MTV Digital Incubator

MTV's university out-reach program, MTVU, is working together with Cisco to create 'Digital Incubators.' These ten $25,000 grants will support the creation of any type of content which can be broadcast via broadband. This includes online games, short films, and various other projects. Full Story.

Audiobook...

So I am trying my first audiobook. I decided that there are a number of books I would like to read, but either don't have the time to read them or don't want to commit the time to reading them, so I figured best alternative option...audiobooks. I am starting with Jon Stewart's "America: the audiobook," which obviously is based over his bestselling "America: the book." I am about 12 minutes into it and it seems to have kept my interest, but we'll see if it lasts.

300 Years

It could take 300 years to index all the world's information and make it searchable, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt predicted on Saturday at the Association of National Advertisers annual conference in Phoenix.

"We did a math exercise and the answer was 300 years," Schmidt said in response to an audience question asking for a projection of how long the company's mission will take. "The answer is it's going to be a very long time." -excerpt from CNet article

Google is clearly taking over the world. This is just propaganda to convince us it will takes them enough time that we don't have to worry about it.

Watch Epic 2015.

TV Guide

So apparently TV Guide is not really going to be a TV Guide anymore. As I Want Media is reporting the 52 year-old version of TV guide will be replaced by a "much-anticipated, full-size TV Guide, with fewer television listings and more photos and features on celebrities." That's right it is going to be full sized not digest guide and it is going to cut down on all that crazy TV guiding that it does.

Apple announcement

Apple is making another big announcement on Oct. 12 and yet again it looks like it is not going to be the Video iPod. Booo Apple. ThinkSecret.com is reporting that the announcement is going to involve new iPods and 4 new mac configurations. The new iPods are just going to be regular iPods with more storage and the new macs it sounds like they are going to be updated Powerbooks and PowerMacs.

10 Miles

Today I completed my first real distance run. I went 10 miles on the Cardinal Greenway in a time of about 1 hour and 22 minutes or so. The Cardinal Greenway is a beautiful running/biking trail that cuts through the center of Muncie and goes all the way across Delaware County. , which was funded by the Rails to Trails Conservation Project that started in the mid-90's.

New Nightline

So ABC News is revamping "Nightline" after Kopple steps down. They are going to a 2-anchor New York/Washington DC format. It is very obvious that this reworking is being done to try to attract a younger demographic. In a recent article Broadcast and Cable went as far as to saying, "ABC has made no secret of wanting to remake the show to draw younger viewers and mix up the story selection with more human interest pieces." I have absolutely no problem with ABC adjusting the show a little to appeal to a younger demographic, but as I member of the younger demographic I beg ABC not to dummy down the content.

We in the younger demo might have short attention spans and might not even be huge television news consumer, but more and more the nets and news organizations in general are going to be stuck with us and that doesn't mean they should stop producing high quality news. The web and twenty-four hour news channels are more and more becoming shallow places were celebrity gossip and over exaggerated news stories rule, but I am here saying there are still people who want to see real, relevant news. And even if there were not people who wanted to see it, it is the responsibility of the nets to act in the public interest, convenience and necessity and it is necessary that we receive good news coverage.

Daily Show

Apparently "The Daily Show" is going to start having bands. December 1st they will start with The White Stripes. I don't know I am fairly indifferent on it. I don't mind bands, but I just don't want it to take away from the show. For example, if Jon Stewart is still doing the Daily in 2008, I would much rather have all Indecision '08 and no band. On the other hand, if it is a slow news day I don't mind it.

West Wing Rocks

In continuing to be one of the greatest shows on TV NBC's "The West Wing" is rising above the rest by airing a live debate between Presidential candidates Congressman Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) and Senator Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda). The debate will take place Nov. 6 at 8:00pm. NBC is also preparing to launch campaign sites for both Santos and Vinick.

Pointer from LostRemote.com

2 Anchor 'Nightline'

Apparently, ABC's 'Nightline' is going to a 2 anchor format in November after Ted Kopple retires. The new format is going to launch November 28. Full Broadcast and Cable article.

Life Skateboards

Well I started production on my second major work since I came out here. My first one for all of you who don't remember was going down south to cover a very small slice of the aftermath of Katrina. I have cut a one and half minute little sample piece for Ball State to use and now I am working on a long piece from the Katrina footage about the role of faith in times of tragedy. Anyways, today we started shooting just generic b-roll for a 15-20 minute piece on 'Life Skateboards,' a Christian skateshop and skatepark. We are honestly not sure exactly what the story will be, but it will generally focus around the juxtaposition of skateboard, a gritty, extreme sport, with Christianity, generally a very ritualistic and tranquil religion. Anyway as with any idea I post up here I would really appreciate any comments or suggestions.

Heifetz Leaving

Today is Terry Heifetz last day at NewsLink Indiana. Over that last three years Terry has lead the NewsLink operation as its News Director and will be sorely missed. He has accepted a position as Assistant News Director at WRTV 6, the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis.

Video iPod

Again people are talking about the possibility of a video iPod. Apperently Apple is making another big announcement on October 12th. Full Story.

Buying of News Illegal

"Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party." -New York Times excerpt

Well it is great to hear that this kind of propaganda is illegal. So now what? As Dan Gilmore points out, "...which government official or officials will be charged with a crime? Who will go to trial?" And I agree with his answer...Nobody. Nobody will be held responsible for the blatant abuses of power by this administration.

Interesting article...

Mark Biello, a veteran CNN photog, apparently put down his camera a number of times during the Katrina aftermath to help save lives. This jumps into the awkward area of making not merely recording the news. And although I am not by any means saying what he did was wrong, I am saying that this a very awkward journalistic predicament...to save a life or record the facts. Full AP article.

Pointer by Lost Remote

Again I say...

Google is taking over the world, which is both the best and worst thing for civilization. Google is offering free Wi-Fi to the San Fran area. Full article here.

Sidenote: Watch Epic 2015.

Cultural Immersion

So as part of the Digital Storytelling Masters Program at Ball State University I need to do a cultural immersion. The requirement for this program is to emerge myself into a different culture for at least four-weeks. I have been slowly, but surely coming up with ideas. Basically I am looking for somewhere to go which is rather cheap, well because I am poor, and a place I might be able to pick-up some kind of side work. Here are a couple ideas:

1) Across America by Rails - For this I would jump on the Amtrak and ride, ride, ride. I would look at the cutural on the train and off the train.

2) Anchorage, Alaska - I think it would be a lot different up there then here in Muncie or over in Youngstown. They also have TV stations, so maybe I could pick-up some kind of vacation relief work or something.

3) London - You know...why not?

If you have any ideas, please get in touch with me. I am looking to go to any city for really any amount of time during next summer. Well I guess my time limits would be between mid-May and mid-August.

On The Media

NPR's 'On the Media' this week has a segment devoted to the Digital Middletown Study done by the Center for Media Design at Ball State University. The segment is with study co-author and Ball State telecommunications professor Bob Papper.

8 hours and 11 minutes

That is how long Nielsen says the average American watches TV. Here is the full article. Along with Neilsen's claims I think it is also important to look at Digital Middletown Study done by the Center for Media Design at Ball State University. This study looks at concurrent media usage. It basically says people don't just watch TV. They watch TV and use the internet or watch TV and talk on the phone. I think it is very interesting relevant research.