Friday, July 22, 2005
Making connections to what we learn in class
First I would like to say that my thoughts are with all those suffering in London right now. It is a very stressful time but the people of London, as the typically do, have displayed an immense amount of courage and quiet strength that should be a model to all those suffering from tragedy. It is better to hold strong than to lose your cool.
It is funny how in the midst of tragedy the strangest things pop into your mind. I was lying in bed last night when I made a connection. About two years ago, on a warm, bright London day, I was sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture by a project manager for a non-profit in Central London. The project he was telling us about was a type of citzen media, trying to recreate neighborhoods digitally in essence. They were planning on handing out voice recorders, camera phones, digital video cameras and the like to ordinary citizens to record what they see and hear when they walk through their neighborhoods. These would then get uploaded to a website and referenced against locations. My friends and I spent a fair amount of time during this seminar about how this then novel idea would be used by the public to distribute negative materials such as indecent photos or racial slurs. We also argued that by then editing what was sent in and posted it would be distrupting free speech.
Last night I realized what the project had intended to do. I am sure the mission statement of the project at the time was laid out in black and white but we were to wrapped up in our desire for free uninhibited speech to see it clearly. This was an early form of citizen media. The same type of citizen media that is now being shown (sometimes truthfully and sometimes in an edited version) in sources such as the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4704069.stm). The link to the BBC shows stills taken by bystanders in London during yesterday's scare. It is photos like these that are helping to change the world, we are being brought the news as it happens and we don't have to wait for the reporters to clear police barricades or travel into unsafe situations where people are already fleeing.
It is media like that; hard, raw and truthful that is helping bring the world together in my mind. The tragedy while painful to see is given a human face and feel when you understand that the guy or gal who took the photo was scared and running for his or her life. It is these photos and stories which the BBC has been posting and other news organizations have been picking up that give us a connection to other parts of the world. This concept is what the lecturer was trying to get across, it is too bad that it took a tragedy for me to see it.
Now if we could only start sharing the good news in the same manner.
It is funny how in the midst of tragedy the strangest things pop into your mind. I was lying in bed last night when I made a connection. About two years ago, on a warm, bright London day, I was sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture by a project manager for a non-profit in Central London. The project he was telling us about was a type of citzen media, trying to recreate neighborhoods digitally in essence. They were planning on handing out voice recorders, camera phones, digital video cameras and the like to ordinary citizens to record what they see and hear when they walk through their neighborhoods. These would then get uploaded to a website and referenced against locations. My friends and I spent a fair amount of time during this seminar about how this then novel idea would be used by the public to distribute negative materials such as indecent photos or racial slurs. We also argued that by then editing what was sent in and posted it would be distrupting free speech.
Last night I realized what the project had intended to do. I am sure the mission statement of the project at the time was laid out in black and white but we were to wrapped up in our desire for free uninhibited speech to see it clearly. This was an early form of citizen media. The same type of citizen media that is now being shown (sometimes truthfully and sometimes in an edited version) in sources such as the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4704069.stm). The link to the BBC shows stills taken by bystanders in London during yesterday's scare. It is photos like these that are helping to change the world, we are being brought the news as it happens and we don't have to wait for the reporters to clear police barricades or travel into unsafe situations where people are already fleeing.
It is media like that; hard, raw and truthful that is helping bring the world together in my mind. The tragedy while painful to see is given a human face and feel when you understand that the guy or gal who took the photo was scared and running for his or her life. It is these photos and stories which the BBC has been posting and other news organizations have been picking up that give us a connection to other parts of the world. This concept is what the lecturer was trying to get across, it is too bad that it took a tragedy for me to see it.
Now if we could only start sharing the good news in the same manner.
Friday, July 08, 2005
Tragedy in London
Ok what is written below was supposed to be posted a week ago but it got delayed a bit, sorry for the draft nature of it.
I thought when I opened this account that I would post mostly on advertising, public relations and other communications issues. I never thought I would be posting about a tragedy, again after having so much experience with them already.
After yesterday's events, in a town where 9 of the best months of my life were spent, I think it is important to talk about the importance the people in a society. The media is an important tool for dissemination of information, but more importantly as was illustrated yesterday in the British media it is a tool to keep us all together. I am lucky (again) that most of my friends have already replied back to me by e-mail and my heart goes out to all those who have not been so lucky.
A tragedy like 9-11, 3-11 or yesterday illustrates just how resilient a society can be. The media was quick to provide up-to-date information that informed people how to get home, where to go to get in touch with the missing and hope that everything will be alright.
In a post by David Poltz of Slate (http://slate.msn.com/id/2122196/) called Dispatch From London: Stoicism and the city, he ended with a comment that is naive and inspirational at the same time "When he brought me the menu, he gestured to the sky, which was turning blue after a gray and drizzly morning. 'Look," he said, 'it has become such a nice day.'" This comment by a young waiter (who as Poltz points out is American) is indicative of the attitude of the British people, they are a strong, quiet breed who will bounce back from this situation with the resolve and grace that they always seem to carry. The media will go on covering the story for weeks but life in London will return to normal.
The people are what makes London the great city that it is. It is a mixture of people from all over the world who all manage to work together whether it is sitting in classrooms at the London School of Economics, performing surgies in operating theatres, hawking their wares in one of the many markets or serving food in any of the top tier restaurants. London is a great and noble city that loses nothing by accepting its diversity and thriving off of it. If only the rest of the world could be as great!
I thought when I opened this account that I would post mostly on advertising, public relations and other communications issues. I never thought I would be posting about a tragedy, again after having so much experience with them already.
After yesterday's events, in a town where 9 of the best months of my life were spent, I think it is important to talk about the importance the people in a society. The media is an important tool for dissemination of information, but more importantly as was illustrated yesterday in the British media it is a tool to keep us all together. I am lucky (again) that most of my friends have already replied back to me by e-mail and my heart goes out to all those who have not been so lucky.
A tragedy like 9-11, 3-11 or yesterday illustrates just how resilient a society can be. The media was quick to provide up-to-date information that informed people how to get home, where to go to get in touch with the missing and hope that everything will be alright.
In a post by David Poltz of Slate (http://slate.msn.com/id/2122196/) called Dispatch From London: Stoicism and the city, he ended with a comment that is naive and inspirational at the same time "When he brought me the menu, he gestured to the sky, which was turning blue after a gray and drizzly morning. 'Look," he said, 'it has become such a nice day.'" This comment by a young waiter (who as Poltz points out is American) is indicative of the attitude of the British people, they are a strong, quiet breed who will bounce back from this situation with the resolve and grace that they always seem to carry. The media will go on covering the story for weeks but life in London will return to normal.
The people are what makes London the great city that it is. It is a mixture of people from all over the world who all manage to work together whether it is sitting in classrooms at the London School of Economics, performing surgies in operating theatres, hawking their wares in one of the many markets or serving food in any of the top tier restaurants. London is a great and noble city that loses nothing by accepting its diversity and thriving off of it. If only the rest of the world could be as great!
