Occupy the MSM

TL;DR: This is pure ramble, because I am really in the brainstorming phase of this venture. I have had a growing passion for citizen journalism and Internet media and I think it is time I do something significant to contribute. I am heavily motivated and inspired by the recent citizen journalism that I have been witnessing with the Occupy movement. I not only want to contribute to the rise in independent media but also assist in the transformation of the main stream media to something positive to humanity. I will be starting a website dedicated to this passion and see where I can take it. Your ideas and insights into the subject of citizen journalism would be greatly appreciated. Please comment.

*EDIT* If you want me to hear my sonorous voice read this post, here is an experiment.

Free Flow of Information

I’ve been a fan of the free flow of information ever since I had my first Internet connection. My passion for learning and discovering new perspectives and ideas was largely fueled by the first time I fired up a free trial of Prodigy Internet dial up service (in 1995 with my blazing 9600 baud modem) and typed my first search term into the Yahoo search engine. I was 13 years old and was one of the computer nerds lucky enough to see the World Wide Web grow from its roots.

In 2001 I watched the Internet rapidly change when Yahoo began keeping its homepage updated with breaking updates to the 9/11 tragedy. There was no other source that was quicker at giving updated and relavent information about my changing world. That was the first time I noticed instant updates to information and felt it was shifting the way media would operate.

I became obsessed with any site that when refreshed in the browser would show completely new content within seconds. One site that was truly embracing the breaking news model was Drudge report. I laugh to look back at Matt Drudge’s site when I first started using it. It looks exactly the same today. I was a budding liberal during that time of my life, but Matt Drudge was the only source on the Internet giving the instant satisfaction of knowing a story before your family heard about it on the 5 o’clock news.

I started hoping for an Internet that would evolve in a way that not only gave everyone the ability to instantly find out about any event in the entire world, just by typing a search query in, but a world that was run by the reporting of its citizens without any checks or balances but the natural free market of ideas. It was a wild dream but I soon started to see parts of it come true.

In came the forums, chatrooms and blogging platforms. Now they weren’t just a place to be social with like minded individuals. They were also to communicate information to as many people as possible. It still felt limited but I was usually able to find out more information about most news stories than any main stream media outlet would afford me.

And then there were specific sites and blogs dedicated to news for specific subjects, usually electronic or gadget related. Around these more fragmented and specialized communities were blooming and Internet advertisers were raking it all in.

Social Media

Then something massively shifted. Truly social online networks began to emerge. MySpace and Xanga and eventually Facebook and Twitter were allowing many individuals to connect and explore each others worlds. I met many of my friends through these networks and started to find more and more information relevant to what I was curious about.

I think it was 2004 or 2005 when my mom called me from California and was telling me about the huge fires that were happening in my home town. She was frustrated by the poor reporting of the local news media and was afraid the fire was going to burn our family home down. I hopped on the net and began to use my developed Internet sleuthing skills to find out at much as I could about the fires that were directly threatening their home. I obtained USGS maps of the fire and overlayed them in Google Earth. I was able to search Twitter and see what people on the ground were seeing and coordinated their tweets to see how close the fires were getting. I began blogging all of the information I found and received thousands of visitors a day looking for the same information I was compiling and sharing. It was a rush for me to be part of the media, part of the news. I was happy to find that my website was listed on one of the local main stream media’s websites as a source of updated news. I rode that Internet fame for the next few days and felt I could do more to sustain that experience.

Unfortunately my energy had to go towards growing my business (web design) so I could pay my bills, but in the meantime I kept following the growing information explosion and used as many tools as I could to compile the information that was useful to me.

Journalistic Revolution

It’s 2011 now and this year has been the most incredible year yet for citizen journalism. Between the revolutions in the Middle East to the more local Occupy movement, I have been hooked to the feeds trying to understand everything that is going on around me and what it means for my future and the future of our species.

I think of myself as a philosopher but I think deep down I’m truly a journalist. I often desire to be that person that helps inform others of the immediate events that could potentially effect their lives. When I post a link to my Facebook, or Twitter, or Tumblr, or blog or whatever social media tool I use to get my interests out there, most of the time I am thinking like a reporter and am genuinely interested in bringing the most relevant information to my social circle. The motivation is partly ego driven, but I also think that we all long to connect and keep each other safe, and the information I share is my contribution to that.

My main source of inspiration is with the recent Occupy protests. I didn’t understand the movement, and honestly still don’t think the movement has completely understood itself yet. So I went seeking answers. What grabbed me more than the protests was the emerging citizen journalists and the new medium they were using. The live stream. At first I thought of it as a camera shaky mess with really annoying teenagers trying to be the first to capture a cop pepper spraying a protester but the more I watched, the more I started to see stars emerge. Tim Pool was the first I spent 10 hours watching at Occupy Wall Street. While watching the live stream with my friend Marcus and chatting with him about what was going on while he watched another live stream, I knew I had found something I really enjoyed. Later I hopped on the live stream’s chat and found out more information about what was going on when the streams became overloaded by the tens of thousands like me who were seeking information on the protests.

The next was a live streamer at Occupy LA, just last night. His Internet handle is @OakFoSho and he had been live streaming both the Occupy Oakland and Occupy LA protests. He was as collected and coherent as Tim Pool but also had awesome equipment to help him capture the experience.

Interview with OakFoSho

Interview with Tim Pool

Information on the equipment used to live stream

Tim Pool confrontation with police

Tim Pool accidentally films a group of angry anarchists

OakFoSho at OccupyLA

I suggest following both of their Twitter feeds, because they will be the first to live stream the huge Occupy events:
@oakfosho
@Timcast

My Idea(s)

The best idea that has floated through my mind today would be to start a new website dedicated to information on how to participate in citizen journalism. I would research and write articles about live streaming equipment, Internet tools to use to broadcast live information and introduce up and coming citizen journalists to the world. I would also encourage others to contribute content and maybe eventually have a team of volunteer article writers. This way I can get a foot hold into this movement and see other areas where I could use my skills to grow the new media.

I have other ideas too such as a way for citizen journalists to display all of their media in one place and connect with other citizen journalists and journalism enthusiasts. But first I want to focus on my easier to execute idea to see if I can indeed be part of the start of a beautiful thing that I am certainly passionate about. The opportunity feels too ripe not to take.

Above all I would like to ask my readers for feedback, ideas, insights, encouragement, discouragement and anything else that will help me to figure out my place in this rapidly changing world of information. So please comment and I will be sure to keep you all up to date with my venture as it evolves.