Moving...

I thought a change of scenery might inspire more blogging.

Therefore, I ask you to update your links and your RSS readers:

http://convergencetangent.wordpress.com/

Let's not get excited

What? New life for Kyle's new media blog?

Maybe.

I've decided to pull this blog off the shelf. I may have found a new use for it.

This blog lay dormant for two reasons:

1) I was running out of content to comment on. The observations about the future of media over the last year are becoming boring, predictable, and lacking any new insight.

2) I was busy.

Item #2 is still a major problem. I'm still working two jobs and loving a wonderful family (which will always come first).

While I think current commentary on new media and the future of the news business is still disastrously uninspiring, I think my experience working for a media company and university at the same time is giving me plenty of ideas to chew on with this blog.

Further, I would like to use this blog as a communication tool for my students, in class and at the Royal Purple.

Sometimes it's hard to strike up a conversation with a student about say, Andrew Keen...but the blog is a good spot for me to pass along interesting stuff.

Should I promise another blog post in the near future? Am I crazy to think I'll have the time to keep this blog lively?

Stay tuned to find out.

You can always follow me on FB and Twitter...I'm especially active on Twitter.

(pic is me in 1999, in Prague...I'm getting old)

Kyle, why don't you blog anymore

I do blog...on Twitter.

Ok, that's mean.  Not everyone is on Twitter.

I am involved in a number of projects right now in two different jobs.  I sorely miss blogging.  It's so good for my mind to reflect on what I'm doing everyday.

But, alas, too many items on the priority list rank higher at the moment.

That's a lame excuse, but it's a sincere one.

I'm having a wonderful time co-advising at the Royal Purple at UW-Whitewater (yes, we're working on the Web site), but that, along with a teaching gig, are eating up what little free time I used to have.

I'm not shuttering this blog.  I will return.  I have a lot to write about.  There are so many blog entries I started typing in Blogger, but haven't finished them.  So many drafts, just waiting to be fully-fledged blog entries.

It makes me sad.

However, I am on Twitter, and Tweeting frequently.

I am not silenced, I'm just hunched over my desk, working feverishly.

Back on the radio

I started a new routine today, spending a few minutes with our morning radio audience talking with host Bob Dailey about what the newsrooms and online team are working on.

This is part of some format changes at WCLO and the inclusion of some new content in the morning drive time.

I'll be using the time to focus on what stories are getting extra attention in both newsrooms. Today, for example, I talked about Stacy Vogel’s profile of Ed Martinez, an employee at the Rock County Job Center who has 30 years of experience with General Motors. I talked about the interview I did with Stacy about the profile and where people can hear it online.

We will also discuss the online polls, blogs, podcasts, videos, stories users are commenting on, and other online content.

It's a chance to talk about online content we don't normally talk about on the air...and I'm excited about it.

I'm also be glad to be back on the radio on a regular basis. I've come on live a couple of times over the years, but since leaving my reporting job, my on air time is mostly in a digitally-reproduced mode (Memorex).

The segment is on around 6:20 a.m. most weekdays.

RSS v. Twitter

RSS takes a lot of flak for being "old" technology.

"Old", in this case, meaning it's not instant....like Twitter.

While "instant" is important, it's not everything.

When I find a new source of information on the Web I would like to receive updates on, I perform a test to decide what's more important...the urgency of the updates, or the importance.

For instance, when subscribing to a source of breaking news information, I'll use Twitter because it's faster.

However, when subscribing to a blog about new media, I would use RSS because I don't want to miss any updates.

Twitter is fast, but it's so fast that I miss a lot of content from my feed when I'm away.  With my RSS reader, everything is saved until I see it.

Sure, I could it up so I could see all of my Twitter updates, but frankly, there are some Twitter feeds I don't need all the updates for.

In a few cases, I subscribe to an information source using both RSS and Twitter because the source is both urgent and important.

Much like other "old" technologies, their value persists through transformation.  Indeed, RSS used to be the fastest way for me to get new information from the Web.

It's no longer the fastest, but it's a vital way to make sure nothing important gets past me.

New York bias

Have you ever felt like the national news networks put more focus on stories in their hometown?

As you may know, the "Big 3" networks are all broadcasting out of New York, and many of the cable networks do the same.

There is a lot written about media bias, but I think the most under covered aspect is the New York bias.

It shows up most blatantly with weather coverage. Here in Wisconsin we can routinely predict when the networks will go into snow storm emergency mode...because it's usually a day or two after we get dumped on, with little to no mention on the national news until the storm reaches the East Coast.

It's no mystery why there's such a focus on New York. First, important things actually happen there more often...no doubt. But second, it's only natural that newsrooms would report on what's going on around them.

It would be helpful for newsrooms in New York to occasionally as themselves this question when they decide what to cover: "Does this story really affect anyone outside of New York?"

I excuse the bias because of the reasons listed above, but what baffles me is the lack of public critique of this particular bias.

In grad school the "New York" bias was mentioned a few times, but not considered a major issue.

I suppose I need to cut New York newsrooms some slack because the lack of critique. Perhaps I'm in the minority on this concern. If so, carry on.

I'm more interested in what's going on around me. Certainly some things that happen in New York and the East Coast affect my life...

...but not snowstorms.

Is new media making us smarter?

There's a fascinating debate going on among new media types about whether the vast amount of information made available via the Internet is making us smarter.

There is credibility to the arguments on both sides, but what it really comes down to is how you define "smart".

If "smart" means the quantity of information that's available, then yes, we are smarter.

But I would argue that the definition of "smart" is how you process information. See if you can follow this lame analogy, no doubt inspired by being raised in a farming community:

Imagine a stack of hay bales (information) outside a barn (your brain). What makes you smart is your ability to get the hay in the barn....how fast you can do it, and how well you can organize it.

All new media has done is given you a lot more hay bales to contend with.

By my definition, if anything, new media has made being smarter a greater challenge because of all the data we must now learn to organize.

What do you think?