April 9, 2009

Earl Glynn opened his presentation by taking us back to the 1400s when the media consisted of carefully hand-scripted scrolls. About 500 years ago newspapers and books came into being.  With the Internet we now have access to information with a few typed words and clicks of a mouse. We can instantly communicate with one another in many new ways.

Earl stated he created the Kansas Meadowlark Blog several years ago. The Meadowlark is the state bird and he uses a picture of the bird in the logo. When opening the blog the call of the Meadowlark could be heard. However, he discontinued the birdcall when he received complaints that it was annoying. His commentaries pertain to Kansas' issues and politics and he has enjoyed in-depth research in areas that are never covered in the media. He blogged anonymously for years and eventually claimed ownership.

Earl cautioned that one must protect one’s privacy on the Internet. Do not trust the security by sharing any personal information as you may open yourself to identity theft. Your IP address cannot be traced. The IP address is unique can only be traced to a provider.

It is important to respect the privacy of friends by not sharing their email addresses with others without permission. For political or other public postings it is advisable to sign up for a gmail account at www.gmail.com.  Do not share your password. Your password should consist of common words that you can remember and should not contain any personal information. It is advisable to use mixed case in the password with random words mixed with numbers.

A blog is a contraction for web log. It is a type of website that is maintained by an individual or individuals for commentary. Blogs are displayed in reverse chronological order.

Kansas's newspapers have blogs. The Kansas City Star blog is called Prime Buzz. Anyone can log on and add comments to the articles posted there. Usually there is an Open Thread where anyone can post a commentary or respond to the commentaries posted by others.  Comments can be added to Midwest Voices, news stories and opinions and editorials.

When logging on a username is required. The username can be your real name or a “handle” (fake name). An email address must be provided (a gmail address is best) to create an account.  Logging on can be very simple or lengthy depending on newspaper or the blog. The Wichita Eagle requires a lengthy log in procedure. Bottomline Communications provides a good source for insight on local media.

An RSS feed is a simple system that organizes all the sites and updates as new things appear.

Twitter is the newest system to appear. It is micro blogging for social networking. Updates are called “tweets” and can only consist of 140 characters. Updates are like sending a text message. Followers are a list of people who sign up for updates. Some people accept everyone as followers but others can select who they wish to follow them. Twitter can be accessed and used from a computer or a cell phone. Accounts use #(hashtag) and a name. About 95% of the “tweets’-“ are just noise, but 5% can be information gold. To log on and/or find friends who have Twitter accounts go to www.twitter.com.

Other ways to communicate in the new media:

** Facebook is a social network where you can post your activities, other information and others can communicate with you there.

**LinkedIn is for business networking

**UTube is a place to post or find videos.

**UTubealternative for Conservative videos.

**Blogtalk radio is where you can have your own radio program.

**Flickr.com is for photos and videos.

**Google and Yahoo have sites where you can set up private groups.

**Wikis are areas to look up simple explanations and check accuracy. Included in this group are ballotpedia.org, judgepedia.org and OpenKansas.org.

The new media is growing everyday and more and more information is available. However, it is important to know that some blogs have a very Liberal view and others have a more Conservative view. The handouts provide you with the better-known blogs to explore. Learning the language or lexicon of the new media is necessary to keep up with what is happening on the Internet.