YouTube: A Springboard for Stardom

So after watching the YouTube sensation GloZell for about a half hour with my roommates, it made me think of just how much YouTube is revolutionizing the Internet and really just how much people are profiting from it. (Along with how much time I actually waste watching them.)

GloZell, a woman who rants and raves about everything and anything in 900 videos of her “reality show life,” garnered an immense following. This relatively new comedian’s channel has led to numerous opportunities. She has performed at The World Famous Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, Showtime at Apollo, and was a guest on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which is stated on her blog, among other performances.

What makes GloZell so famous, besides her hilarity, is how real her videos seem to be. Anyone can relate to her videos in some way or another and that is what makes many of these types of videos go viral and become so popular. It creates a sort of bond between people, further emphasizing a connection between users.

YouTube provides a window for talent to become noticed. Hey, it’s where Justin Bieber got noticed and look where he is now. It is a place where those with real talents benefit, and those who just benefit well, by chance.

I’m sure many people are familiar with ‘The Bed Intruder’ video; a recording of a WAFF-48 news report about an alleged attempted rape in Huntsville, Alabama that found it’s way on YouTube.

The newscast was then made into a song that was charted as a top song on iTunes, selling over 100,000 copies and has more than 35 million views on YouTube. The man in the video, Antoine Dodson, was interviewed for the Today Show on NBC and appeared on the BET Awards to perform his song as well.

It’s crazy how some find themselves in superstardom from something they posted on YouTube in their leisure. The site has truly become a springboard to stardom for those who possess the talent and want to be noticed. 

And I guess those who well, are just plain entertaining. 

Future of Sports Journalism?

Imagine having a passionate blog dedicated to your favorite sports team and being offered the same access to media and credentials as the professional journalists that are covering that team's beat for major print publications.

Well, currently one professional sports team is doing that, and I had the opportunity to witness and be involved with its growth.

After our discussion in class about the future of sports journalism, I immediately thought about my summer internship experience with the New York Islanders, and how they are currently utilizing bloggers in their NYI Blog Box.

One of the main focal points of the Islanders Hockey Club that Owner Charles B. Wang revealed to the interns during a meeting this summer was their ability to think outside of the box.

“When someone says to you, we always did it this way, well then that’s a great reason to change it,” he said. “To build something that is sustainable and long lasting you have to build the kind of foundation that’s going to be different, otherwise you’re just one of 30.”

And that is precisely their objective with the creation of the blog box.

There are currently 12 Islanders bloggers who make up this blog box, offering bloggers the opportunity to the team’s media availability and access to the press box while covering home games. The blog box is currently in its fourth season and allows bloggers to be situated high above the Nassau Coliseum ice in their own box, covering home games for their respected blogs.

In an article distributed on the Islanders website, Denise Karl, founding member of the blog 7^th woman and the Islanders blogger for Hockey Buzz, said that there was some concern about giving bloggers access and the quality of material being disseminated.

But now most of the mainstream media reporters are quickly accepting their roles and affiliation with the team. The bloggers and mainstream reporters have created a relationship and understand the boundaries of both of their roles.

I think what the Islanders are doing is a great opportunity for the bloggers to gain an immense following and serves as a catalyst for getting them so deeply involved with the sports industry. It provides them with a responsibility and duty while allowing them the once in a lifetime opportunity to do what they are most passionate about.

"The Most Dangerous Man in America"

Ithaca College and the Park Center for Independent Media were honored to have been in the presence of Daniel Ellsberg Wednesday, the man who Henry Kissinger deemed “the most dangerous man in America.”

Ellsberg’s apprehension about the Vietnam War led to his leak of the 7,000 page Pentagon Papers to the press, a decision that would ultimately change the course of history.

As shown in the powerful documentary, when he was asked by a reporter whether or not he was concerned with the possibility of going to prison for his actions he replied, “wouldn’t you go to prison to help end this war?”

Sad thing is, it seems like very little have that mentality anymore.

What I found interesting during the Q&A with Ellsberg was just how many people contain top-secret documents, and how little action people take towards them. Ellsberg commented on this and explained the risks people would have to take in order to be involved in a leak.

Ellsberg said, “There always were people that had information, but we don’t hear it when there’s a chance to say it.” Why is that? Because people’s careers, income and marriages are at stake. The cost is “too great.”

Ellsberg didn’t play it safe. He risked everything for the public’s right to know, and his loyalty to truth in a time of lies. It was the actions of one man sticking up to authority that had the power to change history. Where are the Ellsbergs of today?

Well, it was ironic for Ellsberg to be at Ithaca College on the eve of when whistle blowing website WikiLeaks would leak more Iraq war logs. However, there are differences between the role Ellsberg played, and the role of WikiLeaks today.

WikiLeaks has changed the role of whistle blowers by use of the Internet, being able to reach a vast audience. But the question is will Julian Assange, the founder of the site, be paralleled to what Ellsberg did in 1971? 

I guess only time will tell.

Mark Finkelstein: Strengths of Blogging

Our Independent Media class had the opportunity to learn from Mark Finkelstein, a nationally acclaimed conservative blogger for Newsbusters. He highlighted his strengths and weaknesses in being a blogger and what it takes for a blog to thrive, and sometimes well, fail.

But lets just focus on the strengths:

What he made evident was the importance of creating an Internet footprint, which is something our professors always entrench in our heads as well. Get your stuff out there, if you’re proud of it, put it on the Internet. You are your own brand and it is important to advertise your work where others will notice.

What makes his blog so strong is his use of short, concise blog posts that are up usually a couple hours after the event he is analyzing happened. It is important to enhance the speed at which you are working as a blogger because it brings more traffic to your site from your readers and from others who have linked to your work.

It was interesting how he noted the difference between newspapers and blogs. Blogging has started a movement in a way. When you are the first to blog on a current issue, other bloggers will link to you, making your perspective on the issue prevalent in order to further the cause. This is virtually unheard of in the newspaper world, where friendly competition is non-existent.

One other point I found interesting is that he doesn’t exhaust the subject he is writing about. This causes readers to become more passionate about it and allows them to engage themselves in it more by commenting and providing feedback. It creates a bond between your readers, which helps heighten your appeal.

And lastly, accuracy, accuracy, accuracy! You don’t want to be lampooning someone on something and have spelling errors or wrong information. This will only undermine your point and turn the lampooning around on you!

I think Finkelstein gave us some crucial information that will help make us better bloggers, and I will keep that in mind for the next five weeks.

"Breaking Through the Information Blockade"

Gene Hyde’s article “Breaking Through the Information Blockade,” provides profound insight into the development and growth of the Independent Media Center and it’s domino effect on other independent media outlets.

With its birth in Seattle, the Independent Media Center was set up in order to employ passionate grassroots reporting geared to “break through the information blockade” that is currently enforced by the corporate control of news reporting.

The Independent Media Center’s website is great for other dissident voices to become heard globally. I thought it was interesting how they developed their website in regards to dealing with stories that were published.

At first they had an “open posting” policy, meaning anyone could publish a report with little editorial restrictions. However, after noting the attention and popularity the site gained and amount of stories, they decided to rank them, allowing the most newsworthy stories to appear first.

The Independent Media Center’s impact has been vast, covering many perspectives and using the Web as a platform in order to gain an immense following.

It is evident just by looking at their website just how far their impact reaches. Their website allows for the translation of numerous languages and for the option of even adding a translation. The Independent Media Center is just one example of an outlet trying to work towards a better world.

As stated in the article, after seeing the Indy center newsroom during the Seattle protests, Stephanie Greenwood from The Nation noted it was “full of committed people doing really good documentary work and reporting… something is starting.”

And that “something” has sparked a flame for dissident reporting outlets on the Web and has been burning ever since.