WAM 2009
Yep, I am winding down from my third (?) year attending the Women, Action, & the Media conference.
It’s difficult to know what to say about it. On one hand, I go to this conference for the same reason I go to every other conference – because of the people. Some of my friends from around the country are there, and there are usually some people I’d like to meet. But, as I’ve said in the past, I think the conference is a challenge because it appeals to several constituencies – women who make their own media, women who are employed (or want to be) by corporate media, bloggers and reporters, students and mavens, etc. In many ways, this diverse community is a benefit, I meet people I never would have otherwise, hear different perspectives, etc. But it’s also difficult for me to find people who I truly connect with politically, whose work closely aligns with mine. Tomorrow I’ll post some links to some of these great women.
I also have criticisms of the conference that are the same ones I have for every other conference. Read the rest of this entry »
Issue 399 and counting…
I have a big post I’ve been working on about independent media stuff, kind of a summary of the talks that I’m giving around the country over the next couple of weeks. That will be up in a few days, but in the meantime, I wanted to give a big huge shout out to The Sun–one of my long-time favs. Yep, that’s not a typo, this is issue No. 399 of this monthly, advertisment-free publication.
I read this issue on the way up to Portland last week, and honestly, this is one of the best issues I’ve read in a long time. Each issue features one long, in depth interview, and this time it is with Nicholas Carr, author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The interview is all about how we interact with each other, how the internet is changing those interactions and how we think about things and process information. It also talks about how Carr feels that computers have harmed our relationship with nature, and later in the interview, a really interesting discussion of how people behave on the internet. Like, how we claim to want privacy, but don’t act in a private way on the internet, giving out personal information about ourselves all the time, not just through obvious channels like blogs and Facebook, but through our shopping habits and the way that we give out information to corporations (like adding a “wish list” on Amazon, for example). Like all Sun interviews, this one is very thoughtful.
The rest of the issue has a lot about food, fiction and non fiction. I always enjoy the “Readers Write” section, which are essays from readers around a different topic (this time, “the dinner table”), and though there were several other pieces I liked, I particularly loved two: a reprint of a Wendell Berry essay from the ’80s about why he isn’t buying a computer, and a piece entitled “All of Me” by Patricia Brieschke. Brieschke writes about body image as a woman in her 60s, including reflections from her past about her relationship to food and her body. Like most women, body image has been an important topic to me, and I found Brieschke’s reflections to be refreshingly frank and honest.
I look forward to The Sun every month, and you know I have to say it: Although a lot of this content is available online, please subscribe to The Sun and other magazines, it’s the best way to help them remain strong and stable.
Twittering
photo by Kate Davison, Greenpeace
I’ve been saying, for months, that I don’t really understand Twitter. But, all my cool friends who understand new media way better than I do, like Susan Gleason, use it and tell me it’s a good thing. I even signed up for an account and a few weeks ago, and finally posted a few updates.
Well, I used it yesterday to follow my friends in DC during the Capital Climate Action – a symbolic civil disobedience at the power plant which fuels the Capital and other government building using coal – an outdated, dirty source of fuel. Anyway – the Twitter feed is here, and Greenpeace’s round-up is here, and the Flickr stream is here (great visuals, by the way, particularly the color-coordinated flags).
But, I wanted to write about Twitter, not the action. So, I still haven’t quite gotten used to it. But I wanted to pass on some things people told me that I thought were helpful. My friend Robin Beck said to imagine that it’s as if Facebook only had status updates – with one big difference: The “friend” relationship does not go both ways. I can “follow” or read the updates of anyone I want, they don’t have to approve me, and they don’t have to read my updates unless they want to.
And then, there is this Twitter for Beginners article by Deanna Zandt, where she goes over the basics and gives links for more information. I definitely recommend reading it. Or her one on why people do it, or the one on info overload.
So I’m usually slow to adopt new technology (it took me FOREVER to get a cell phone and give up my land line), but now I use Facebook and a have a blog and all that, so I’m trying to push myself. I’d love to hear from others about who you follow on Twitter and what you write about and what you like to hear about, because I’m still just figuring it out myself. You can follow me here. Hopefully I’ll get in the groove and start posting regularly.
