better or worse?

Just went to a talk by the Sh. Ctr - for awhile I was the only non-fellow/staff/faculty person there - and for that I was pretty special. It felt good to be a room of colleagues to talk about BM's Atlantic piece on the massless media - until, of course, I asked a question. The good news is that however rough it started, I was able to blurt out what I wanted to ask. I asked him about how the disenfranchised fare in this new scenario with all of these new media news outlets - they didn't get adequate coverage in the msn's - so why should this be any different if, as he says, there will emerge new news powerhouses, like there are old news powerhouses.

What would I do differently? I would respond to him and say "Yes, but...what about media literacy..." My original question was a response to his claim that the Internet is following in the footsteps of every major media/journalism upheaval/change in our nation's history and that all of the Internet's news choices are good for democracy and that eventually people/bus's will figure out how to make money off of it and there will be some dominant sense. I asked in a roundabout way at first - (first for some reason I defined what the establishment media was - as he already did -and everyone else in the room - top notch journalists, etc. duh!) since the est. media had already dissed working class folks/folks in rural areas (with the exception of some good investigative journalism) why should we believe that these new media outlets will be any different.

Lots of power players sitting in that room. Evn Thms, the for pol chick, Jl Crrll - who I introduced myself too. She was very nice. The art critic for the Washington Post was there, as was JC, and the NYT dude. It was all an insider affair. I actually felt sorry for the fellow.

Bummer, went to meet with Dg Ahlrs today - he never showed up - spent all morning then trying to figure out how to make the ischool work for me. Then during nb's class, we watched a great advertising documentary - and best of all, was that sm fd filled me in on the whole issue of media effects, what that is and why his prof - jenkins is so virulently opposed to mcchesney - it was the whole debate tonight - rather than the woe is me (which I believe to some extent) let's look at what's being created.

Then I went to practice for just 45 minutes and then went to pick up Liam. My favorite thing to do! He was in a jolly mood and so happy to see me (though after looking at our woeful finances last night i had wantd to speak with the director - she wasn't in so I wrote a lame note) - anyway, I had fun playing with Liam on the playground and then tried to corrall him to go home - he was so content and happy to show me everything in his room - the new puzzle and he really wanted to play teacher - they have everything so organized there it's creepy.

Liam almost ran home - it was great - I was worried he wouldn't do it b/c we usually have his bike. Nice to hang out with chris and the kids - and a new friend debbie and her son austin - and then I walked back to campus for the shorenstein event (though stopped in to look at winter boots!)

So here's my idea from all of these talks about journalism and the internet - so kids aren't reading newspapers - they're not going to - why not present them with info that's digestible for them - whatever video or interactive form that works - the example of liam and going to youtube instead of an encyclopedia.