Readers That "Look Like You"

During his presentation William Jacobson, founder of Legal Insurrection, stated that the majority of his readers most likely "look like him" (middle-aged, college educated, and -although he danced around this fact- white). I am having a difficult time deciding whether it is practice and wise to seek readers that in fact "look like me" and what effect that has on the content and comments produced.
When I think of an online publication, such as Colorlines, it targets such a multicultural, multiethnic, and diverse audience. As a result, it produces very diverse content and creates interesting dialogues on its site. I fear what are the consequences of having a both a staff and audience that reflects one's own ideals and demographic, as well as closely monitoring comments from users.

It's just food for thought.

Lessons from Legal Insurrection

Since I have started blogging, none of my posts have been particularly personal. However, I feel that this blog post warrants my own personal insight. 

At first, the concept of having a conservative blogger come in to my class and give a presentation about starting an independent blog did not strike me as possibly problematic. However, the creator of Legal Insurrection taught me many lessons that class period. I definitely gained insight into the complexities of starting a blog - the amount of hours and constant updates that need to be a part of that process. From a business standpoint, I definitely benefited from hearing him speak. 

I also learned a few other lessons during this presentation. One of these lessons being to interact with individuals who may not share the same political ideologies as you. Respect is essential to having conversations with "liberals" or "conservatives," progress in a conversation cannot be made without this as a basic understanding. However, respect and avoidance are not synonymous. It was interesting to observe how the speaker seemed at times hesitant to engage in a discussion surrounding his political viewpoints, however he has created an entire blog based on these viewpoints. 

I am happy that I posed the question of why he refuses to discuss politics in his classrooms, but claims that his readers return to his sight because he puts himself and his viewpoints out on the Internet to be scrutinized. His own students - liberal or conservative (if there can be clear-cut definitions of these political ideologies) would benefit from him putting his opinion out there as well. 

Birth of Mailing Prices, Death of Small Magazines

With the rise of mailing prices for distributors of content, such as magazines and other printed publications, the affect of this rise would seriously hurt small magazines. There is the argument that magazines could move to the Internet, rather than relying on subscriptions for revenue. Would that even out the competition, or simply cut off a key avenue of profit for small magazines?

The Path to Gaining 1000 True Fans

In the dense blog-sphere and massive competition, one solution to matching competition from large media creators like Netflix is to have 1,000 true fans. The 1,000 true fan theory concludes that a core group of fans can sustain a business and foster profit for the creator. However, can 1,000 dedicated consumers be attained through a product that is broad? I question whether consumers can latch onto an idea that hasn't started as a niche. The famous Humans of New York photo blog on Facebook is an example of this niche. The idea started off as something incredibly simple: photographing strangers in New York City and capturing small quotes. It quickly went viral, and now has 1.5 million likes on Facebook, dominates Instagram, and the creator is working on a HONY book. Could this be possible if the focus of HONY did not focus on a specific city? 

Building Communities with Blogs

In the current age of technology and easy access, blogs have become not only important but an integral part of our daily Internet experience. As a fierce journalism outlet, blogs can no longer be brushed off as silly, informal, or lacking lasting power. The concept of blogs as creating communities across the Internet is important to understanding the power of blogs. 

As a member of Generation Y and daily consumer of media, I see first-hand how blogs affect my communities, both online and offline. Two of the most influential blogs in my circle of peers and colleagues are Buzzfeed and Upworthy. Both sites contain content that focus on social justice issues, however, Upworthy is filled with a bit more of this content. 

Upworthy's slogan illustrates the power of blogs that Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo and John Tozzi in his article "Bloggers Bring in the Big Bucks" address. Blogs, whether serious, funny, or pertaining to a special interest, have the ability to increase communities. The idea of passing on information to other users and friends is a key aspect of why they are so successful.  Users are able to share things that they find important to other people, thus always creating an expanding pool of viewers. 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/

http://www.upworthy.com/

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-07-13/bloggers-bring-in-the-big-bucksbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

Exodus

Robert S. Abbot's Chicago Defender sparked the immense flight of Black Americans from the overtly racist clutches of Southern states to the"liberal" North in search of escape from racism and job opportunities. Described by Abbot as the "flight out of Egypt," thousands of black families packed up and left to Chicago. Although a monumental moment in history for many Black peoples, was Abbot's campaign helpful or hurtful to the lives of African Americans?
Despite the overt racist nature of the South - including the rampant lynchings of black brothers and sisters, the North did not offer a future that was less racist and less discriminatory. Yes, many families were able to attain economic prosperity in ways they could not attain in southern states, but did this offer a reformation to the way society viewed Black peoples or did it provide a temporary fix to the larger problem?
As white soldiers flocked back to the United States, after World War I, Black Americans quickly became aware that their economic prosperity was only a temporary solution to the shortage of poor whites from the labor pool. The overabundance of people of color in urban centers, such as Chicago, caused many problems that could not be fixed simply with another exodus of people to a different area.
The Chicago Tribune's description of the Chicago riots of 1919 are a prime example of how Abbot's campaign affected the lives of many Black people, but ultimately did not tackle the root of the United State's racist, sexist, classist structure that hinders the lives of Black people all across the U.S. - regardless of which region they live.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-chicagodays-raceriots-story,0,1206660.story

The Revolution Will Not Be Objective

As a journalism student, many of my courses contain an implicit or explicit hinting towards objectivity and maintaining it in our stories. From my Introduction to Journalism course to News Editing, objectivity and every its synonyms are drilled into our heads. Contrastingly, the courses I take as an African Diaspora Studies minor instruct me otherwise. While studying the Black Power movement, Chicano/a Movement, Third World Liberation Movement, and current movements, one fact became increasingly clear: social equality and media objectivity do not necessarily coexist. 

It may be true that "good reporting" needs to be produced from an objective framework, but that may not mean that revolutionary media needs to be produced from that same framework. Studying the histories of papers advocating for workers rights during the United States' industrialization era and abolitionist publications during the U.S.' dark period of slavery, were not at all published from an objective lens. That, consequently, is the reason that these publications were effective. Multiple publications, such as the Working Man's Advocate and The Free Press that raised awareness about the issue of child labor, were centralized on a clear view: that laws needed to be developed for child laborers. William Lloyd Garrison did not publish The Liberator from an objective point of view. In that era, objectivity - as most of the larger publications attempted to achieve - only created complacency in the oppressive system at the time. 

Publications that make a difference in the lives of those fighting for social equality and a truly just world, cater to particular view points. If these publications did not take such a firm, oppossing view to existing literature of issues of poverty, race, class, sexuality, and etc, the status quo would never shift in different directions. 

References: "Awakening of a Nation to the Sins of Slavery" and "Fighting for the Rights of American Labor" in "Voices of Revolution"