During a conversation about YouTube, a classmate in my Independent Media class today started to reflect on how people are talking about journalism is a dying field. She then said something very powerful: “It’s not dying, it’s just changing.” Change is something crucial to the journalism field. As the world changes, journalism must also change, rendering the way it tells news with the rise of new technologies, especially social media.

Although social media doesn’t always tell hard news, it offers viewers a space to engage in current events in a more casual way, a way that might be less intimidating than picking up a newspaper.

Michael Buckley is a self-taught host of his own youtube channel called “What the Buck?” His role in youtube is discussed in the New York Times article by Brian Stelter “YouTube videos Pull in Real Money.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/business/media/11youtube.html?_r=0)

Buckley’s show, described as being “silly,” revolves around Celebrity gossip and it airs three times a week. He initially started the show for the web, but it expanded with YouTube’s help, receiving 100 million views.

YouTube is extremely popular today. People go on the site to pass time. I think what makes Buckley’s channel so successful is his personality and his content. Our generation has a sick fascination with celebrity gossip. For some reason, we enjoy learning about people we don’t know. We marvel at their luxurious lives, living vicariously through them. Buckley delivers his celebrity news in an energetic manner. He speaks incredibly fast and engages the viewer/listener directly. Consequentially, no matter how irritating Buckley’s videos can be, he automatically draws the audience in.

Although Buckley isn’t reporting on news that may be crucial to the average person, he should be an inspiration to independent journalists. According to Brian Stelter’s article, he started his YouTube channel with a $2,000 canon camera, a $6 piece of fabric for a backdrop, and some work lights. Additionally, he spent 40 hours a week on YouTube before he received compensation. This shows how much of a sacrifice the channel initially was. Unlike mainstream media journalists, who probably rely on their regular salaries, the independent journalist does not treat news as a commodity. The Independent Journalist thrives on pure passion for the subject matter. YouTube helps journalists to embody this passion, sometimes transforming their hobbies into a successful business.

How many times do we use google a day? We don’t keep count, for we use it too many times to keep track of. What do we use google for? Just about everything. Google represents a sort of vast, mysterious abyss. It has the answers to everything we want to know. We don’t normally think of the power google has but the article “Journalist Who Exposes U.N. Corruption Disappears from Google” reveals google’s extraordinary control over information.

The article discusses Journalist Matthew Lee. His style is described as “clunky,” his methods as “unorthodox” and his judgment as “off the mark.” However, In the past, Lee has been a whistleblower for the U.N. He has helped in unveiling human-rights abuse by the Ugandan People’s Defense Force.

Lee was surprised when he received an email from google, after google allegedly received a complaint from a source about Lee’s small website. The assumption is that the UNDP sent the complaints. What’s strange is that after two years, this was the first time Lee was receiving complaints. Although Lee had helped the UN in the past, as a journalist, he was naturally also skeptical of the UN itself. He found that in November of 2007 the UN had not signed global human-rights and anti-censorship compacts. He questioned why they had not done this. This was not taken well by the UN.  Lee states,

"I've been covering ... U.N. stories, three to four a day, for two years, and for the last two years there's been no problem at all… Then that Friday, I received the e-mail. There's something a little skeezy here. I think that Google got involved with the U.N. on these Millennium goals and thought, this is the United Nations, if they tell you some small Web site is a thorn in their side and there's a credible reason you could remove them from your news service, you do it."

Lee’s quotation revealed how google is able to control journalism. In my last blog post I also spoke about how Jacobson had to leave google, fearing its power over his identity as a liberated and independent journalist. It’s interesting because the UN seems to be acting like complete hypocrites. They respect Lee when he’s a whistleblower in their favor, but as soon as he steps out and is critical of them, they dismiss him. Why can’t organizations accept criticism if it will make them a more ethical organization in the long run?

As I came across the article “Senator’s Attempt to Define ‘Real Journalism’ Blasted by Journalists”

(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2013/08/02/senators-attempt-define-real-journalism-blasted-journalists)

I was struck by the phrase “Real Journalism.” I began to think: If there is a real journalism, is there a fake journalism? Who defines what is journalism and what is not? And then I re-read the article’s title: Senator’s Attempt to Define Real Journalism… Then I thought how can you define journalism? And what gives a senator, somebody who is not a journalist, the power to do this?

So I read the entire article, not knowing what I was getting myself into. Here’s a summary of the article: Senator Dianne Feinstein says the shield law protecting the press should only be given to real journalists. She defines a real journalist as somebody who has a salary for a journalism career. Here I challenge the senator: A journalist, by nature, should not be driven by compensation. A journalists true passion should be to seek truth and report it. In the SPJ code of ethics, the rule of ethics do not only apply only to journalists who are getting paid. By tying journalism to money, Feinstein is suggesting that news is a commodity. This is a very troubling idea because when news becomes dictated by money it is no longer news. And a journalist’s ability to report the news should not be determined by his/her paycheck.

Senator Charles Schumer makes an interesting statement challenging Feinstein’s definition of real journalism. He states, “The world has changed. We’re very careful in this bill to distinguish journalists from those who shouldn’t be protected, WikiLeaks and all those, and we’ve ensured that...But there are people who write and do real journalism, in different ways than we’re used to. They should not be excluded from this bill."

Schumer understands that we live in a world that is constantly changing, especially in terms of technology. Now everybody is able to make a blog and report on corruptions in the world. In a way we are all journalists, but of course, not everybody can be awarded a press pass. But Dianne Feinstein completely disregards the importance of independent journalists. She is stuck in the past and refuses to open her eyes to new media and the evolving identities of journalists.

On March 24th, William A. Jacobson was invited to my Independent Media Journalism class at Ithaca College. Just to briefly summarize the class, it is devoted to exploring independent media outlets that are not tied to conglomerate companies. Independent Media outlets have the liberty to explore their own voice without fear of being punished by their employers or ridiculed by the public. An independent journalist knows that his/her opinion may not be respected by everybody-- but they still choose to publish it, encouraging debates and conversation.

Most recently we’ve been discussing bloggers, independent journalists who focus on a niche that they feel passionate about. I’ve always wanted to be a fashion blogger. In middle school I created a lookbook (http://lookbook.nu/Gabbyj) where I posted outfits. I didn’t do it frequently enough and overtime I lost interest. I’ve been wanting to get back into the habit of it, but it’s taken me awhile. It’s not difficult, I just have to take photos of what I’m wearing in some kind of creative way, but something keeps holding me back. I sometimes fear that I’ll create an unsuccessful blog. As a perfectionist, I have a plan for everything. But a blog is something that can’t be so thoroughly planned. It’s a changing medium, changing with the writer and with the world.

Jacobson gave me confidence that anybody could create a successful blog with the right mindset. He started his conservative political blog: Legal Insurrection in 2008. (http://legalinsurrection.com/.) The blog started with a conversation. He was explaining his reasons for voting for John McCain and Sarah Palin in the 2008 presidential election. The person he was speaking to was voting for Obama, but said that Jacobson’s argument was very persuasive. He gave Jacobson the idea to start a blog. Jacobson took this advice and started a blog on google, posting about 1-3 posts a day. For the first two years of the blogs existence, Jacobson was the only writer.

As time went on and he realized how much work it was to maintain a blog, he collaborated with one of his students at Cornell and she began posting onto the blog about once a week. Most posts revolved around events because these seemed to generate the most user traffic . Legal insurrection moved away from google. Jacobson revealed an email from google saying that his blog was reported as spam. They gave him a time limit to respond to the email otherwise the blog would be removed. Jacobson decided to move away from google, scared about how much power and control it had. He moved on, collaborating with a small company where he has to pay a couple hundred dollars a month. This new site features advertisements and a higher level of organization. While the blog does get most of its revenue from advertisements, it also encourages donations from readers.

Jacobson’s visit to my class taught me the importance of timeliness. A blogger, as well as any journalist, needs to constantly update the public. Jacobson said that if he were to take breaks from blogging, his site would experience a major decrease in views. People don’t want to visit sites when the information hasn’t been updated. He also said that in order to get more views, it’s a good idea for bloggers to send their links to other sites. The sites might refer back to the blog, increasing the blog’s overall audience.

Overall I learned that as a blogger, you have to be confident that there is a group out there that will respect what you have to say. As long as you are true to what you believe and you represent yourself accurately and adopt a crucial journalistic mindset and skill set, everything else will figure itself out.

The article “1,000 True Fans” (http://kk.org/thetechnium/2008/03/1000-true-fans/)  discusses how in order for an artist, a producer, inventor, or any individual creator needs to have 1,000 true fans in order to be successful. A true fan is a person who follows the creator, buys all of his/her merchandise, drives long distances to see him/her preform. In other words, a true fan is completely loyal to the artist, and nothing stands between the artist and the fan. This strong bond is created by technology, allowing for the artist to directly communicate with the fan. Therefore, the fan feels close to the artist.

I found the information in this article to be troubling. Yes, I think it’s important for an artist to engage with his/her audience. But the way the article describes this relationship makes it seem that it is similar to prey and predator. The artist preys on the consumer, manipulating them in a way that will transform them into a fan. I think with bloggers, it’s absolutely necessary to engage with the audience via social media and the internet. After all, these platforms are the nature of the career. Without the internet there is no blogger. But I was always baffled as to how many actors and actresses were urged to get twitter accounts. Instead of advertising their talent in films, they advertised their persona. I think this is where the separation from celebrity and artist comes from. A true artist does not need social media for talent recognition, but a celebrity needs it for attention. It is probably true, for the most part, that encouraging technology-based engagement with the audience leads to a greater financial following.

It sickens me that there are so many talented, unrecognized artists. My sister is seventeen years old. She has been in a few independent films shot by NYU tisch students. The first director was a talented student who worked with actress Quevenzhané Wallis from The Beasts of the Southern Wild, a fantastic independent film which came out in the summer of 2013. I remember when my sister showed me some of his short films, I found his shots to be romantic, with soft lighting that rendered nature so beautifully. His films haven’t gotten much attention. This is partly because he isn’t as well known. Another director my sister worked with had won an oscar and had a celebrity producer for his upcoming film. Unfortunately, I cannot give any more details because the film has not come out yet and the producer can’t be named. I’m sure this film will be great, but it will undoubtedly receive a stronger following because of its celebrity status.

Furthermore, as a blogger I think it’s appropriate to seek fans. This is what blogging is about. Without fans or followers, a blog wouldn’t gain attention. But I do not think mainstream news should be seeking fans. The news should be giving information to the whole public, not in a manner that will get more “followers” with misleading headlines and sensational information.

When I was in middle school, me and my friends usually hung out after school, telling each other we would grab a snack and then get straight to our homework. I suppose middle school students are all somewhat optimistic, because we never did our homework. Our time was spent procrastinating on facebook, playing the sims, and then also looking up http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/. The site consists of real things overheard in New York City. Most things are out of context, so they’re actually very funny to read. We would take turns reading them out loud, laughing at the ridiculous things people said. But there was always a curiosity that kept us reading out loud-- perhaps we would be featured on the blog without even knowing it! I think this is what is so fascinating about overhear in New York-- The entire New York City population makes up its subject matter, therefore it is possible to read something you have said on the blog. I remember reading it and thinking “Well, I could’ve said that..”

Like most blogs, Overheardinnewyork.com owes its success to its specific niche but appeals to such a large audience. Therefore, people can’t go to other news sites to get the same information. The information on the blog is unique. The title is also straight forward, communicating to its readers exactly what kind of information the blog features. It also is written entirely for its audience. Unlike mainstream news sites that do not allow for much reader participation or engagement, overheardinnewyork.com would not survive without its interactive readers. Readers are able to post what they’ve heard in New York while the staff members select ones to post onto the blog. The writers and the readers work together to create the site, creating a tight bond between the two. I think the mainstream could learn more from blogs, especially when it comes to reader engagement. The writers of mainstream outlets should be writing for their readers, but instead, many write for advertisers. The news system has become corrupt, favoring money rather than ethical principles. If the mainstream news outlets created a platform for reader participation, then mainstream news might become more trustworthy. The news is for the people, so that we can function in a society that is supposed to be democratic. When the news is filtered based on advertisements and massive corporations, we lose our identity as a democratic country.

In John Tozzi’s “Bloggers Bring in the Big Bucks,” he discusses the viral blog I Can Has Cheezburger (http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/2007-07-13/bloggers-bring-in-the-big-bucksbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice).

The blog started off small, soon exploding into a site that got up to half a million hits per day. The blog features photos of cats with funny captions. It’s not a hard news blog whatsoever. It explores a very specific niche and gives people brief laughter in the midst of a rough day, during the mornings or a lunch break. It’s not that people are so invested in cat memes, but it becomes a way for people to have a place where they can escape reality for a short while. Therefore, it appeals to most people. People are always looking to escape, and the internet provides a suitable outlet for this escape. It also encourages reader interaction. Tozzi states, “Part of it has to do with the nature of the medium: Blogging creates a direct connection between authors and readers, a conversation with distinct voices carried out in comments and e-mails and other blogs...” Tozzi describes the interactive nature of blogs. This is probably what makes them so successful. Readers like to be a part of something that allows for their participation. I think what also makes blogs so successful is that they cater to a specific audience. I just started following several fashion blogs on Instagram. Most of them revolve around an individual’s personal lifestyle, including fashion, food, and travel. I usually look for people who have similar style to me or people whose style I admire. I’ve always been really interested in fashion, but I have recently become more serious about making a career out of it. Recently I read a book called How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are by a group of female Parisian friends, including Caroline De Maigret, a well known Parisian style icon. The book acts more as a blog than a novel, suggesting that blogs can take countless formats. The book offers style advice, relationship advice, etc. It describes the Parisian woman as fearless, feminist, wild, and strong. It basically describes what every woman aspires to be like. One reads the book and marvels at the depiction of the perfect woman. The book has been advertised internationally and has gained an eclectic readership. Advertised at Marc Jacobs trendy bookstore in the West Village, celebrities and fashionistas in New York City gathered for a signed copy. It has an incredibly strong following, quickly becoming a must-read in the fashion community. Because the book describes several qualities of a Parisian woman, the reader will most likely identify with a few of themselves, projecting themselves onto the woman De Maigret describes. It would be interesting to see the book transform into an online blog. Right now the book  has an Instagram and a twitter, but both act as an advertising device for the book. The book has the potential to turn into a complete sensation if it created an outlet for readers to post their own photographs and writing to the page that correlated to the book’s subject matter. This would be a successful way to keep the conversation going between women everywhere.