Pitchfork

I used to go to Pitchfork a lot more often to check out the newest music and bands, but I haven't been looking at it as much recently. I checked it out today, and I noticed that there's a small music player in the top right corner of the page. I clicked play, and the song "Weight" by independent artist Mikal Cronin began to play. I'd never heard of the song or of him, so I thought it was a really cool way to discover an artist. Pitchfork is the home of all independent artists on the rise, from alternative to electronic to new wave.

Press Passes

I've always wondered what the minimum requirements are to gain a press pass at an event. After reading this article, I found that it wouldn't be so easy for to claim that I am part of the press.

That being said, it's a little strange how the five people who issue congressional press passes — Congressional Galleries' Standing Committee of Correspondents — are primarily from mainstream media outlets. For anyone from any independent outlet to receive one of those passes, the chances are very slim. 

This process needs to be updated to fit the times. Journalism is progressing more online than in any other format, and that needs to be recognized when giving out press passes.

When journalism is ever linked with limitations, hellfire is to be raised

How is the idea of defining media even feasible? Apparently, Lake Oswego city councilors thought it to be a simple task until a swarm of media organizations, media law experts and independent bloggers spoke out against the definition. 

What defined true media, according to Lake Oswego's tentative policy, was that the organization had to be institutionalized, well-established and had to produce at least 25 percent news content, according to the article that was published in 2008 on Oregon Live's website.

"The government shouldn't control the media. What it gives, it can take away."
- President of Open Oregon, Judson Randall

Different Strokes

Story time!

While I was home for spring break, I visited my grandparents. My grandfather is a very talented jazz pianist and writes songs like nobody's business. He started telling me about a new song that he's been working on that is going to be all about how much the Internet causes for barriers between people who should be talking face-to-face. Of course, any grandparent these days would prefer letter-writing or even a phone call to instant messaging or email. However, the subject turned to political blogs and websites. While I tried explaining to him that bloggers who work for independent media outlets are credible, he was having none of it. He doesn't believe that anyone on the Internet knows what they're talking about and would prefer to stick to the New York Times that is delivered to his door. 

The way my grandfather was raised causes him to believe nothing that isn't in the New York Times. I did try to convince him that bloggers are causing for a revolution within journalism, but he didn't want to hear about it. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

Putting a price on independence

After reading the Boston Globe article about how the U.S. Postal Service wanted to raise the price of mailing periodicals, it made me think of how scared everyone is of the truth. Just because these independent publications don't have the biggest budget doesn't mean they can't find ways to reveal the truth.

My favorite line of the article was: "This is a clash pitting big-time publishers against small journals that enrich the public debate far more than their modest budgets suggest."

The tentative price increase was due to corporations, such as Time Warner and the mammoth publisher for over 100 magazines. This was their way of forcing their beliefs onto others and watering everything down to fit their agendas.

Though the independent publications' content can be published online, magazine subscriptions are how these publications make their money. It's wrong to charge more money for more truth.

Kickstarter vs. Indiegogo

After talking about Kickstarter in class today, it got me thinking about the site that my coed a cappella group recently used to raise money to record our new album. Instead of Kickstarter, we used Indiegogo, which is a very similar site. On the site, we explained how committed we are to entertaining our fans and how thankful we are for them. We added a video of us singing, spread it all over various social networking sites, and it worked!We reached our goal of $2,000 in a little over a month, but most of it was from our relatives and alumni. Nevertheless, we felt very accomplished and the site truly helped us get our album rolling. 

A local band from my hometown (Smithtown, Long Island) called Adam & Naive, who is pretty well known throughout the Island and even the state, used Kickstarter to raise funds in order to put all their albums onto vinyl. Their music is free online, but they wanted something with more literal and metaphorical weight to it. They reached their goal, and you can check out their project here!

I was curious to see if Indiegogo took a percentage of the money that we raised, because today we learned that Kickstarter does receive a small chunk from every project (5 percent). On Indiegogo, if you don't reach your goal, they receive 9 percent of the funds that were raised. If you do reach your goal, they only take 4 percent.

(On a kind of unrelated note, you can check out my solo song here! It'll be on our album that's coming out in the Fall!)

The creator of Rookie Mag isn't much of a rookie at all

I've become more and more intrigued with Tavi Gevinson's life ever since we watched her appearance on the Colbert Report. I watched her TED Talk, and my infatuation with her turned into admiration. 

Firstly, I knew she was young, but a sophomore in high school?? I couldn't imagine standing in front of all of those people and even attempting to appear as calm as she is in the video.

Secondly, I loved her PowerPoint presentation. Not only was it funny, but it represented a lot of what is on the Internet today. She was able to appeal to a wide range of age groups while maintaining a modern attitude toward feminism.

All in all, I look up to Gevinson, despite her being four years younger than me. Her commitment to what she does is inspiring, and her online magazine exemplifies and encourages the progression of women. It's a perfect blend of pop culture and feminist ideals.

You say you want a revolution?

My last two classes every Thursday are Women in Music and Independent Media, and I surprisingly find these classes intertwining a lot. Both classes are moving at the same rate through history, so the last Thursday before break, both classes talked about the antiwar movements during the 60s. I found myself with a knot in my stomach after leaving both classes, wishing there were some way I could go back and help with the movement.

In Women in Music, we watched a documentary that included clips from Woodstock, then went into a montage of clips from antiwar protests and the war itself while "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young played. It was one of the most powerful videos I've ever seen, and by the end of it, my eyes were tearing up.

I walked from Whalen down to Park, talking to my friend about how we felt after watching that video, and how we felt almost guilty for not being there to help during that time. I then walked into Independent Media, where we discussed independent media outlets that existed during the antiwar movement in the 60s. It was really interesting connecting the music that was made during that time to the independent outlets — both were saying very similar things and reaching different crowds in various ways. 

Free Love

I have always been infatuated with the institutions of marriage and divorce, so reading about "Free Love" in the Victorian Age from "Voices of Revolution" was especially interesting to me. "Free lovers" believed that women should not be required to be at their husbands' feet — a concept that is instilled in my mind today. They emphasized that women should be with men because of a mutual interest, not because having a husband is an obligation. 

Free lovers also denounced marriage, which I'm guilty of doing every now and then as well, though I go back and forth with it. Free lovers went so far as to comparing women's sexual relations with men to pages of Lucifer. 

I am all about empowering women, and I believe that the extents that free lovers went to were well worth it. Their publications were revolutionary and very extreme, considering the time period. They make me proud to be a woman, and they inspire me to carry on the legacy by presenting ignored disadvantages of women to the public.

Democracy Now! visits Ithaca

Seeing Juan González on my campus discussing race and U.S. media was truly engaging. I hadn't seen the film "Harvest of Empire," so I went to the speech not knowing what to expect. I walked out of Emerson Suites with a head full of journalism history that is largely ignored.

I was astonished to learn about parts of journalism I had never heard of before. What was surprising to me was that it took so long for me to learn about them. I was in Journalism History last semester, and half of the events that Juan talked about weren't even mentioned in the class. It's shocking to me because these events are so important to the evolution of minority journalism, and they are constantly overlooked.

After the speech, I talked with a friend about parts we both found interesting. We both thought it was remarkable when he was talking about how the black radio station was on the second floor of a building (while the white radio station was on the first floor), and Martin Luther King would make announcements by having the microphone passed down to him from the second floor. It shows how limited minorities were and how badly they wanted to get their messages across to the public.

It is amazing to me how mainstream media flipped — and continue to flip — stories so easily in order to provoke reactions from the public. For example, Native Americans were depicted as evil in the mainstream press, while the Boston News Letter would have reports of slaves attacking their masters.

He portrayed an ongoing cycle in minority journalism — new technology is introduced, minorities use that technology to speak out against "the man", the technology becomes restricted, those who spoke out are shut down, and eventually new technology is introduced, beginning the cycle again.

Juan proved himself to be a fantastic investigator and his passions were truly shown. If we decentralize the mainstream media, we will have true democracy. I'm very glad I am fortunate enough to have seen him speak. He opened many eyes to the truth behind minority journalism, and I think it's very important for him to share that.