Random Mumblings

HGTV.com's "Rate My Space" hits cable TV on Sunday, June 8, at 10 p.m. and will regularly be on Thursdays at 9 p.m.

"The success of HGTV.com's Rate My Space page has given the network an incredible opportunity to include our online fan base in our programming," Michael Dingley, senior vice president, HGTV programming said in a news release. "Online visitors have uploaded more than 30,000 room photos to the site, which has generated more than 150 million page views in less than one year. We want to make this appealing, interactive approach to design accessible to all our viewers."

It's not the first time that's happened, but it''s interesting to see the concept make the jump from interactive, user-generated content feature to cable TV show.

Our GoVolsXtra site won an EPpy today!

The award was presented at the Editor and Publisher Interactive Media Conference and Tradeshow in Las Vegas.

Best Sports Web Site with fewer than 1 million unique monthly visitors
    * arkansassports360.com
    * CommunitySportsDesk,    kenoshanews.com
    * GoVolsXtra
    * varsity845.com, Hudson Valley Media Group

Cell phone photo from Jigsha Desai.

I believe Paul Kedrosky is on to a "tell"  here. 

The world has now discovered Twitter ... so it's ok to follow me. By the way, shortly after I watched this, Twitter went down and it's still not operating quite correctly. Random power!

The above is also an example of the new embed code in the Scripps' "Flaven" player (beats me). Now you can put knoxnews videos on your site like this RandomThis video. The "link" link is on the right hand side of the player.

Thanks for helping the feed subscribers to this blog grow. It hit 201 on Tuesday. If you haven't subscribed, add it to your feeds.

Surely in an era of desperation and experimentation, the wacky idea of actually respecting your audience has to be worth a try by someone.

-- Aaron Swartz in "How to Fix News"

The three things he found that engaged him about a news story are pretty good tests, I think, for excellence in journalism.

My Carnival of Journalism pal Charlie Beckett has a new book, "SuperMedia: Saving Journalism So It Can Save The World" (published by Blackwell books on May 20th). I haven't read it, but it hones in on a powerful idea for journalism, what Beckett is calling "network journalism."

Here's the PR blurb:

SuperMedia: Saving Journalism So It Can Save The World (Published by Blackwell books on May 20th) is a passionate and controversial defence of the social value of journalism. But it argues that the news media must be transformed in to 'Networked Journalism' that allows the public much more power and participation. It outlines how forces such as new technology are destroying old media forms around the world. And it gives international examples of how new media will change the way that we report on the big issues such as politics, terror, Development and climate change.

SuperMedia is a riposte to the pessimism of Nick Davies' Flat Earth News but it is also a realistic manifesto for how the virtues and the business of traditional journalism can be reborn.

It makes a provocative case for a new approach to the ethics and practice of news production and describes how media diversity and literacy must be reinvented.

You can read hefty chunks from SuperMedia here.

More info is here.

I had never heard the Thomas Wolfe quote that UNC Chancellor James Moeser used during the commencement ceremonies on Sunday and decided to email Lisa Katz, a university media contact, and the chancellor for a copy of his remarks. Both sent his remarks quickly! And many thanks.

The Yackty Yack is the UNC year book. Bonus: Slide show from The News & Observer. (Photo at right is of Thomas Wolfe and is from UNC University Libraries.)

Prepared remarks of Chancellor Moeser:

Graduates, we are coming to the end of this ceremony and we will soon go our separate ways.
 
I share your sense of nostalgia and your reluctance to let go of this place that we have come to love so much. I will always identify with the class of 2008, for I am graduating along with you.
 
Let me leave you with some words from Thomas Wolfe, class of 1920. Wolfe enjoyed enormous celebrity before his death in 1938. Two years later, his great novel appeared, bearing that memorable title: You Can't Go Home Again.
 
Thomas Wolfe was right about many things, but he was wrong about that. Just before his own graduation from Carolina, Wolfe wrote the following lines for the 1920 Yackety Yack -- thinking about himself and his classmates. I think he was thinking about us too.
 
" ... But sometimes when the springtime comes,
And the sifting moonlight falls --
They'll think again of this night here
And of these old brown walls,
Of while old well, and of old South
With bell's deep booming tone,
They'll think again of Chapel Hill and --
Thinking -- come back home."
 
Graduates, this is my charge to you (and to myself as well):
 
Let us heed the magic.
 
Take one more deep drink from the Old Well
 
Listen to the call.
 
Answer the bell.
 
And then, as often as we can, let us come back home again.
 
God bless you all, Tar Heel graduates!

 

There was a Star Trek sighting at the graduation ceremonies I was at Sunday, but I blissfully missed it.

We were in Chapel Hill over the weekend for the graduation of our son, Eric, who finished in four years and starts a new job next month in the Washington area. It was a good day for the family even if wet!

The usual two hour main commencement ceremonies at the University of North Carolina were blessedly cut short to about 20 minutes on a cool Sunday due to a steady rain in Chapel Hill.

We were in a dry spot under the upper deck on the visitor's side of Kenan Stadium. Not all of the 15,000 there were so lucky.

Many of the students were wearing large "Eve" button on their Carolina blue gowns. The button was for Eve Carson, the 22-year-old senior class president who was found dead March 5 near the campus.  She had been shot several times, including once in her right temple. Two men have been arrested in connection with her murder.

Because of the rain, UNC Chancellor James Moeser canceled most of the scheduled program including the commencement speaker (whose speech was posted online),  Moeser, who received a degree himself, quoted Thomas Wolfe. Senior class president Ashley Shores did speak about Eve Carson. There were the sounds of James Taylor's "Carolina in My Mind."

We took photos around campus, did some shopping and had great lunch with the family of his  girlfriend, Nikki Pisha, at the Carolina Brewery, where both worked. More photos.