Talk Radio

I actually love Eric Bogosian. When I was in high-school, I read his play Suburbia which by then had been turned into an indie flick staring the then-unknown Giovanni Ribisi. The play was better than the film, but that is so often the case.

Bogosian is always trying to get at the heart of complacency, but I think he challenges his readers and viewers to understand that complacency is not always what it seems. In Suburbia his characters were washed-up twenty-somethings -- too young to actually be washed up at all. Talk Radio has a slightly different focus. Barry Champlain may be washed-up, he may not. He may be brilliant, he may be a farce. But he's got a mouthpiece and that's enough to keep him going.

While reading it I tried to put my finger on exactly what the relevance of this play for a class on the commenting feedback loop was. Certainly the endless loop of callers who were supposedly interacting with each other through Barry's show were "commenting" on some level. But those comments weren't able to build off of each other in any meaningful way. Instead, Barry served as gatekeeper -- cutting off everyone but himself and yet no more or less profound or stupid as his callers.

The callers are part complacent, part oblivious, part self-obsessed, and part oblivious. But that doesn't mean that their impact is negligible. It only means that Barry is the broadcast tower that projects them. I believe Bogosian's ultimate focus is on the loneliness of life and the search for meaning. This is not a dramatic departure from his characters in Suburbia, either. Those kids were just a little nicer to each other as they stumbled around looking for the path to meaning.

As readers we can judge them on their substance, but that seems shortsighted. Talk radio is not journalism. Their is no reporting in the mouthpieces that sound off, or let their listeners do the same. Instead its like group therapy. Which can have a greater impact on public opinion than the facts and figures. So the hard-nosed who/what/where/when/why of journalism has to compete against the analysis and exposition of the neurotic self. On a Birmingham School level, we have to recognize that giving a broadcast tower to expound upon the inane inner workings of a woman afraid of her garbage disposal is not something that can be so quickly dismissed. Listeners will interact with texts (whether auditory, on paper, or visual) in a way that is not purely passive.

But contrast the forum for "discussion" on the talk radio program with the breadth and scope of the Internet. There is no Barry standing in the way to hit the "off" button. Granted some sites are moderated and others are not, but ultimately whether you are terrified of your garbage disposal or convinced the panda bears are dying off you now have a way to connect with others who agree with you. And no one is going to hang up on you and shut it down. (I should preface this with the point that this assumes that we maintain net neutrality).

The content of Barry's show don't get us any closer to solutions. In a lot of ways the play is a classic Gen-X reactionary text that leans towards frustration and apathy over any sort of concrete action. And as I was reading I was reminded of the following quotes from this recent post on TechPresident:

Imagine for a moment being one of us. Taught in school that all people are created equal, that all countries are sovereign, that freedom, democracy, and capitalism are embraced by all people and nations because they are ultimate ideals that allow us to prosper and live as we choose in the pursuit of happiness. Old enough to read the New York Times online and blog on Huffington Post, we see a very different world. Equality? Not for the poor, not for LGBT. Capitalism? It appears to have been a house of cards recklessly constructed by greed for the benefit of a few. Sovereignty? Not for resource-poor or oil-rich countries. Ideals? Not for the media or our political and business leaders.

...

The problems and the contradictions being left to us are so big that there are no easy answers. It appears that everything has to be undone, before it can redone. So let us figure out how we want to proceed. Let us "waste" our time like Mark Zuckerberg building a 150-million person online network because it may be the only hope we have. Your generation doesn't know what it means to be a global citizen the way our generation will have to. And those values you taught us, they seem pretty empty when you don't act on them yourselves. If you want us to change the world, don’t look at your sixteen-year-old listening to an iPod while writing on Facebook and watching YouTube and yell at him that he's wasting his privileges. Instead, start cleaning up your own messes. Lead by example. End your own hypocrisies. Start caring about the rest of the world and not just yourselves.

What do you think?

Commenting vs Forums

I just cracked the Slate commenting code!

Okay, it wasn't that complicated. But it was hidden which is interesting in and of itself. In the list of options next to the piece I was reading on the Amazon Kindle (the generic print, email, facebook, etc) was a link titled "discuss." Lo and behold, "discuss" led to a forum specifically built around the article.

Instead of using a comment-style format, Slate relies on a forum approach which is reminiscent of the old-school bulletin board days of the Internet. And there are a surprising quantity of categories -- over 64 different threads with as few as zero and as many as 21. And each thread can be rated (I can't really tell if the rating system is done by users or moderators, but most of the time when there is a rating system it is done by the users). So the thread with the most replies is 21, but has a rating of -2. Next in line is a discussion with 18 replies and a rating of +5.

I tried to post a reply, but after 6 efforts to retrieve my username and password from the system (which told me repeatedly that my email address already had a registered user and that I could recover my password by just entering my email address and username -- which I don't remember!) I gave up. Had I managed to get in, here are the basic points I would have conveyed...

To Tweet and be ReTweeted...

I have been using Twitter since the summer of 2008. I think that I joined because everyone else in my office started using it on the same weekend -- the weekend that our organization threw a massive conference in the Midwest that drew over 3,500 participants. Twitter was one of the many social media sites that conference goers were using to interact with each other and the outside world at the event. I remember the first few months being rather useless. I never went to the website (why would I?) and therefore never updated. Because I never visited it, I never saw what the people I was "following" were saying. I couldn't really see the point.

Later in the summer I read Clay Shirky's book Organizing Without Organizations and decided to give Twitter another shot. This time, I decided I would use it as a social tool for real life and I posted updates like "headed to the dirty" (read: the Dirty Truth, a bar in downtown Northampton) or "anyone wanna go to the show at the elevens tonight?" It was about at this time that I discovered the great advantages to syncing my phone number with Twitter. Within a few seconds I was suddenly able to send text messages to "40404" and sound off about anything.

But posting in the social media sphere is like bringing up the old kōan "if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?" Tweeting in the forest silently was pointless. Because I couldn't see what others were saying I completely lacked the validation that comes from using social media. I needed to experience what 140-character statements my friends were saying. And I needed to be sure that my "followers" were enjoying my contributions. In short, I needed interactivity.

In the last three months my use of Twitter has increased dramatically. I've tried syncing it to my Facebook status and mobile Tweeting, but the ultimate reward was installing an application that allowed me to see what the folks I was "following" were saying. TwitterFox was a game changer because it gave me the window to interactivity that I needed to make using Twitter at all worthwhile.

I follow an interesting crew of folks. Mostly activists, journalists, and information aggregators, nearly every Tweet I read has a link in it. I realized the other day that during this time when I am in still juggling full-time work and finishing up school there are many days where all the news I read is the news I get through my collegaues reports and the news aggregators I subscribe to.

There's an overwhelming amount of information out there. And it just makes me wonder still if the role of journalist is shifting into information facilitator. Someone speaking at a conference I went to recently put it quick succintly: The "who, what, when, where" is easy enough for anyone to find. But the why? That's where we need journalists most.

Yelping away over here...who will notice?

New Radiant Storm King at the Sierra Grill, courtesy of Local Media

We were asked to post a review on Yelp.com -- which of course I completely managed to forget about until today. Having just got back from The Dirty Truth, I didn't really feel in the mood to rehash the experience. Also, I'm not so much a fan of reviewing food. But reviewing a music venue...that was a little more up my alley.

So why not go for the two-for-one?

I posted the following review of the Sierra Grill on Yelp, mostly focusing on their Thursday nights during which they push aside a few tables and turn the place into a hopping local music venue. I actually know the guy who does the booking there and I think he's doing a pretty good job of it (at least for the shows that I have gone out to see).

On a meta-level, I once again hated contributing to the cacophony because I am always so cautious about the language I use and the things I am willing to leave a record of online. It especially frustrated me that I couldn't figure out how to hide my name behind some sort of pseudonym. I'm sure the option is in there somewhere, but I just couldn't find it.

Anyway, here it is...

As far as Northampton restaurants go, the Sierra Grill is a tasty and delicious treat. A menu that is largely deconstructed and full of tiny nibbles that can be used like Lego blocks to build a full meal, Sierra Grill is affordable for any wallet and mold-able to any appetite. The beers are good, the wines are good, and the flavored mashed potatoes are to die for.

That aside, on Thursday nights the Sierra transforms from the haven for academics and white collar workers of the Pioneer Valley into a music venue for a variety of sounds. Simply pushing aside a few of the tables does the trick rather nicely and depending on the act you are guaranteed to find a handful of hip youngsters sitting patiently on the floor as local folkies strum their guitars or stomping their Converse-clad feet to a 4/4 rock beat. Sparing one ill-fated Thursday where I caught a band that had way too much love for hippie jam-fests, the acts have all been worth seeing.

The bookers are doing a good job at filling the venue with the abundant pool of local talent and is even bringing in smaller touring acts as well. Entrance is usually pretty cheap ($2 - $5) and its pretty easy to get a basket of fries to go along with your beer and rock music -- even pretty late in the evening.

If you ask around to the right folks, you may even unearth some stories about what the place was before it became a hotspot for those overeager to shell out $5 - $6 per microbrew. Expect to hear at least a few folks at the microphone giving props to the Bay State Hotel for having live music again...

An epic journey of commenting

Last minute postings...

I began the process of commenting on ten stories, posts, etc. today. Waiting until the day of class is certainly going to impact the second part of the assignment (following the activity), but I have learned from experience that a lot can happen in one day online so hopefully I'll have at least some things to report back.

Comment #1) MassLive.com: Western Mass. road, rail projects in line for federal stimulus aid

I chose to comment on this story because I am a sucker for infrastructure projects (yeah, I know that sounds boring but just wait until this becomes something you care about, too). Personally I track the building of broadband and high-speed Internet more frequently than light rail systems, but as a Western Mass resident of almost seven years I know how badly we need updates to our public transportation options.

Comment #2) BoingBoing: LAist visits Barbie's full size Malibu house

Originally I wanted to comment on this great op-ed by Sarah Haskins in the Washington Post on Sunday, but I was suffering from a complete brain failure on what I wanted to say about it. Since a post of, "wow, Sarah. I love you. You are great" seemed like a waste of binary space, I decided to participate in the great act of connecting by posting a link to it on this BoingBoing post about a full size Barbie house. I suppose the only really interesting thing that I can find out about this is if people find a comment that is merely a link interesting or an additional waste of binary space...

Comment #3) Valley Advocate: Bardsley on the BID

Northampton is considering a BID (Business Improvement District), which is a public-private partnership that will give public funds to downtown businesses for "improvement" efforts/projects. When described by proponents of the BID, these efforts are summed up as cleaning up trash and planting flower pots. Opponents argue that this is essentially the re-creation of something like the Chamber of Commerce, except all businesses within the zone must buy-in and the results could fill streets with security cameras and additional security who will spend most of their time ushering people out of formerly public spaces (read: the sidewalks of downtown).

To put it bluntly, I am mad at the BID but haven't had a lot of time to follow its movement through city council. Here is my comment.

Can anyone post an update on where the BID is at in the legislative process?

The idea that downtown Northampton needs someone to clean up trash and graffiti is absurd. Has anyone who is arguing the downtown needs some sort of "clean up" ever actually been to a city whose downtown spans farther than two miles? Downtown Northampton is about as clean as they get.

This is a class issue under the gauze of some white Christmas lights.

Comment #4) Boston.com: SJC to rule whether Lowell curfew violates teens' rights

Curfews for teenagers? I think they do more harm than good. Looks like the courts may agree with me. My advice to the comment reading world? Screw curfews and focus on giving kids a place to go.

This was a very contentious commenting-fest with a lot of inane statements and assorted banality. I resisted the urge to tell the commenter who said that the teenage girls featured in the article must have been practicing to become prostitutes ("that's a recession proof business") to go f*** him/herself. My comment:

These curfews are pointless and I look forward to seeing how the courts rule on them. Kids need places to go, that is the biggest problem. I grew up in suburban eastern Mass and I can assure you that the only public spaces that existed were parking lots and retail chains. Put some funds into public projects that build community centers (and staff them with smart and creative people, not folks who are completely out of touch) and have them stay open past 9pm.

Comment #5) MassLive.com: UMass Amherst opens new $5 million traveler information center

I thought I was going to be outraged by this post, but then I realized they were talking about the new Transit building that houses all the buses for the UMass Transit Authority (a very important and neccesary bus system in the Valley). Actually, my best friend was a bus driver there for a few years. But in particular I responded to the part that had to do with the bus tracking systems they are hoping to have in place. Certainly a comment about surveillance will be provocative enough to get a reaction out of people?

Comment #6) YouTube.com: Yacht Rock (Episode 1: What a Fool Believes)

Alright, this one was a bit of a cop-out. But the commenting world of YouTube is vicious, so I figured my blasé post might still get a reaction. Mostly I just wanted an excuse to share Yacht Rock with the readers of this blog. So go enjoy it and talk about how great it is until your friends are sick of hearing about it. (That's what happened to me anyway...)

Comment #7) John Gorman's blog: Radio: RIAA v. NAB - two wrongs don't make it right

I wanted to comment on the Pitchfork article that clued me in to this debate (somehow I had missed this one), but it turns out the Pitchfork doesn't allow comments! Social media blasphemy! Not such a bad thing, though, because that led me to seek out a place online that would and I came across Gorman's blog which had an excellent rant against both the RIAA and the NAB in this debate. I look forward to following this one...

Comment #8) Slate.com: Uncivil Union

At first glance I thought that Slate didn't allow readers to comment at all. They have stashed the comments aside on a separate page, which surely impacts the tone and quantity of discussion going on around their articles. They have more of a bulletin board set-up. In this case, I was responding to someone's post about the Employee Free Choice Act. Now the my commenting tongue has warmed up a bit, I was a little more agressive than I had been.

His comment:

The employer- the one who OWNS or has been put in place by those who own to run the business- should have every right to hire, fire or otherwise manage as he or she sees fit. Thats how the overwheming number of businesses ARE run. Your attitude is precisely why unions times have passed and they need to be abolished. Yes, workers should have a safe work environment and should not work under slave conditions like those prevelent 80 years ago but thats about it. The lazy, incompetent or simplly insubordinate should be fired without any input from you. A boss should be able to hire his family and friends and cut out early on Friday- hes earned those perks by being the one in charge

My response:

Disagree. The employer, the one who owns or has been put in place to run the business, has no business without the workers. You say that union times have passed, but the decline of unions in this country is not because they have outlived their usefulness. They have been crippled by bad public policy (i.e., the Taft-Hartley Act). Poor working conditions still exist for thousands of workers across this country. And these workers are intimidated regularly by union-busting campaigns. Your analysis that a boss has "earned the perks" by "being the one in charge" reflects an ignorance on how privilege functions.

Comment #9) Slashdot.org: Young People Prefer "Sizzle Sound" of MP3 Format

Slashdot has one of the most intimidating posting environments. The readers all spend way too much time consuming information and tend to be well educated but lacking social skills. I responded to this idea with a more "cultural studies" approach. I assume I will be eaten alive. Also, I know I lost points for not registering and posting as "Anonymous Coward."

Anyhow, here it is:

It is interesting to consider this in the context of defining artistic creativity within parameters of the culture it arises from. Portability seems to be the most important thing as our audio players change over time. Technology is inextricably linked to art.

Comment #10) Consumerist.com: Overpriced, All Caps Book Inspires Amazon Reviewers

In my final post of this epic day of commenting, I grew weary of forcing myself to offer substantial commentary in the online world. I've been trying to balance this assignment with finishing two chapters of my thesis and calling into meetings for work all day long. As someone who has spent a great deal of her academic and professional life aware of their digital footprint, I figured my final post to this humorous article on the Consumerist may as well be tied to my college email account instead of my personal. Looks like I screwed up on that one, though. The spam filter at Smith appears to have trapped my email verification.

Too bad. It was probably the funniest thing I had to say all week.

Someone get me a drink. That took FOREVER.

Letters editors have their own axe to grind...

Photo courtesy of The Spacebase via Flickr and Creative Commons

Some final thoughts onWahl-Jorgensen's work on letters-to-the-editor.

There are lengthy sections of the book that focus on the feelings of letters editors towards activists and activist organizations.

To them, the letters section belongs to "the people," and this elusive entity consists of private individuals, the "average Joe." In their discussions of expression entitlement they distinguish these private individuals from well-organized activists groups who have "an axe to grind." Activist groups consist of private individuals gathered to advance a cause, whereas private individuals often have "an axe to grind." In some ways, this is therefore a spurious distinction to make, but one that springs out of legitimate concerns for allowing everyone entry to the public sphere, regardless of their status and resources (102).

Wahl-Jorgensen is exactly right -- activist organizations are indeed composed of individuals. This is an entertaining dichotomy. Letters editors seem particularly concerned with questions of democratic debate and deliberation, something that would imply an interest in civically motivated individuals. But should this civically motivated individual be affiliated with other civically motivated individuals...well, that becomes a problem.

It's not that I am unsympathetic to these claims. In fact, I have had some interesting interactions over the years with people regarding these very debates (another story for another time). I share the conviction that the form letter is not the answer. I understand it is unlikely to be published. I also know that anything composed by the central office of an activist organization will never be as powerful as someone telling their own stories. And I believe, in my heart, that anyone who is crafting those form letters and trying to get them published thinks the same thing.

However, There is a middle road here. Activist organizations are not often composed of well-heeled individuals. Their memberships reflects the very "private citizen" that letters editors so despareately seek. An effective activist campaign that is incorporating letters-to-the-editor as a tactic to elevate their issue in communities will do everything they can to get activists to put these stories into their own words. By rejecting anything that comes from a particular issue group, be it environmental or gun-rights, letters editors are severely limiting the conversation and playing the gatekeeper role that the rest of the paper already plays in covering "the doings of the powerful" (105).

A letter to Wahl-Jorgensen

We've been asked, in the spirit of reading a book about the culture of letters-to-the-editor, to compose a letter to the author of Journalists and the Public: Newsroom Culture, Letters to the Editor, and Democracy, by Karin Wahl-Jorgensen. Though forcing myself into the format of a "letter" to an academic scholar about the content of their work makes me cringe, I'll take my marching orders with only the slightest protest (which I am now done with, thanks for listening).


This book serves as an excellent primer for students just entering the field of democratic theory of media studies -- particularly by highlighting the connections between the two. The format was brilliant -- by placing letters to the editor in the context of democratic theory before launching into an enthnographic study of the newsroom culture that curates and publishes them, you gave readers an opportunity to place the high fluent (albeit well intentioned) theory of letters pages as public sphere for debate and representation of popular opinion against the juxtaposition of the workload reality that commercial newsrooms are faced with on a day-to-day basis.


I suppose there are a number of things to walk away from this book with, but the biggest takeaway for me was the impact that the commercial industry has on the newsroom. The letters editors featured extensively at the Bay Herald, as well as those interviewed throughout, believed one thing about the role of letters in the public sphere while juggling with the reality of increased demand on their time. Although the consolidation of newspapers with other media outlets is not the sole thing impacting the letters pages and their ability to mirror the public debate surrounding the issues of the day, it is at least one that could be impacted through public policy changes. The other problems cited -- the "idiom of insanity," the extensive submissions from racists or other prejudiced individuals with an axe to grind -- could be alleviated if the editors had time to reach out in the community and cultivate relationships with their readership and authors.


I wonder what you would write today, as newspapers across the country are folding and the journalism industry is desperately seeking solutions. How do suppose a non-profit paper's letters pages might differ? Or do you believe that as online readership has increased that letters still play the same role -- in your mind and in the minds of those you interviewed?


Always more questions than answers, huh?

Cheers.

Commenting on 90s nostalgia

Photo courtesy of Peacefulbean (good karma) via Flickr and Creative Commons

Steve Waksman, one of my former professors at Smith College is a scholar of popular culture, music in particular, and has started a blog to experiment with the promotion of his upcoming book The Metal/Punk Continuum. Consistently following my own tendency to post comments only to locations where I have some tangible connection to the author, I replied to one of his posts this evening (see below).

I realize that my patten of entering the public discourse in such cautious and calculated moves does detract from some of the intentions we have laid out -- either explicitly through class discussions or the course materials or even implicitly -- regarding deliberative democracy and the public sphere. But it does bring me to think about the networks in which I travel and the unintentional connections made and webs spun. I remembered to visit Steve's blog when I saw Scott's post on Van Morrison. I'm unintentionally building links between these two posts through my digital footprints.

Anyhow, here's my commentary in response to Steve's post on hating 80s nostalgia. Since I can't speak with too much authority on distaste for a decade that I remember for colorful clothing, synthesizers, music videos, and Fisher Price tape recorders, I opted to talk about my personal favorite decade so far -- at least for music -- the 90s.

The 90s are completely under appreciated. Especially musically. But I recognize that part of the love I feel for the music of this decade is nostalgia. Some of it might even be ironic. But even the music that was bad -- even the height of the corporate posturing of grunge -- was better than the Clear Channel hard rock of today. I often wonder if this is merely my own skewed perception of the years I spent in high school or if somehow that decade was actually in some way "better" musically... I too have great love for punk bands of the 80s (based on my own narrow definition of what "punk" is). I didn't discover the best of it until I was much older (great albums by The Pixies, Sonic Youth, et. al.). All I remember actually listening to in this first decade of my life was Prince. Who is incredible in his own right. (I recently watched Purple Rain. Still amazing. On many levels. But perhaps irony is the highest).