Brown Bag Lunch With Julio Ojeda-Zapata

What is Twitter? What’s the next big social networking tool? And whats life like at the Pioneer Press these days?

Pioneer Press tech columnist Julio Ojeda-Zapata will be our featured guest at our next Brown Bag Lunch with A Journalist, at noon Wednesday, April 22 at the East Lake Public Library, 2727 E. Lake St., Minneapolis. According to his bio, Julio “has been on the front lines of the Internet and computer revolutions as a syndicated newspaper columnist, editor and award-winning writer for more than a decade. He is author of the hot-selling book “Twitter Means Business,” which documents how the Twitter social-networking service has become a vital tool for companies. Julio covers consumer technology for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, where he writes a weekly Tech Test Drive column and maintains his Your Tech Weblog. He lives in St. Paul, Minn., with his wife, son and a hopelessly spoiled guinea pig called Pepita.”

Also, if you want to learn to shoot your own videos or create your own website, TCMA and the Twin Cities Daily Planet have a couple of great classes coming up:

Video reporting
Instructor: Ashley Siebels
When: Thursdays, April 23, 30 and May 7 | 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Where: 125 SE Main Street #244, Minneapolis
Cost $80 Register through MTN
There is also a $20 (Minneapolis residents) or $25 (non-Minneapolis) MTN membership fee which allows participants to use MTN cameras after the class is done. If you take this video class ($100) and produce two PUBLISHABLE videos for us, we’ll reimburse you the cost of the class. So, it’s quite the deal. Contact Lisa Peterson, lisa@tcdailyplanet.net , 612-281-8094 for details.

So you want to be a video reporter? There’s nothing stopping you from becoming the next Tom Brokaw, except of course knowing how to shoot and edit news stories. In this class Ashley Siebels will show you how to choose an appropriate subject for community news reporting, shoot video, and edit it using imovie. The class will have some instructor led activities and lecture, but you will also have lots of room to work with your story. Students will be expected to produce one story in the three-session class.

If students produce two video reports whose content and quality is applicable to the Twin Cities Daily Planet and MTN, the TC Daily Planet will reimbursed the cost of the class.

Create Free WordPress Websites for Business or Blogging
Instructor: Matt Bartel, Secrets of the City (formerly the Rake and MNSpeak)
When: Wednesday May 6 | 6:00 tp 8:30 p.m.
Where: Rondo Library | 461 Dale Street North

Cost: Free

Contact Lisa Peterson, lisa@tcdailyplanet.net , 612-281-8094 to register.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata

WordPress.com offers free websites that are easy to design and use, and very suitable for small businesses and neighborhood organizations, as well as blogging.This workshop will teach the basic skills necessary to setup and maintain a web site or blog using WordPress. Each attendee will set up their own basic WordPress site, then learn how to create/edit content, change themes, install plugins and change site settings. We will also cover related topics including social media integration, email address collection and basic web usability/design concepts. “

For a complete list of upcoming Twin Cities Media Alliance classes, go to www.tcdailyplanet.net/classes

Can the Star Tribune be Saved? A Call to Action from Bruce Benidt

Former Star Tribune reporter Bruce Benidt is circulating this call for action:

Hello friends of journalism in Minnesota,

We’re looking for creative solutions from an innovative, public-spirited community to keep a great daily newspaper viable in the electronic age. (Already have a creative idea? Scroll to bottom to find out what to do about it.)

With the Star Tribune in bankruptcy, and newspapers dying around the country, this community is in danger of losing what is by far its largest news organization. Most people would agree that robust professional daily journalism is an essential ingredient of a strong community.

There is something we can do about this. The 300 journalists who gather, analyze and present the news every day at the Star Tribune are inviting the community to help develop a new business and ownership model that will keep daily journalism working for Minnesota. The goal is to find new local ownership and a new business model that can keep the Star Tribune delivering news and entertainment in whatever format consumers choose.

So far, nobody in the country has solved the problem of how a newspaper can stay viable when so much of its content has been available free online. We think Minnesotans can find a solution. Minnesota has long been a center of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit and is a community that values citizen involvement, education and an informed public.

So, together, let’s figure out how to keep a great news resource. We think you may have the answers. Put together a team, discuss it over a beer at your local bar, blog about it, and contact me with your solutions.

We’re inviting community leaders, groups and individuals to come up with innovative approaches. We’re envisioning a creative ferment that bubbles up new ideas – for example:

• A university business and journalism program joins with a group of entrepreneurs to develop a new approach to owning and running the business.
• At the same time a collection of digital dreamers comes up with an elegant idea for keeping journalists’ feet on the streets while delivering the news in ways nobody’s conceived of yet.
• And across town, a group of think-tank and non-profit leaders teams up with a business visionary to come up with a “eureka” moment that shows how this all can work.

BBC reporter Abdi Aynte 3/27 at 3:30 / TCDP Happy Hour at 5

Please join the Twin Cities Media Alliance and Twin Cities Daily Planet for two events this Friday – both being held at the Bedlam Theatre, 1501 S. 6th St., Minneapolis.

First, at 3:30 p.m., The Somali community and the media: A presentation and conversation with Abdi Aynte

Come join us for a press conference and coffee hour with BBC reporter (and former TCMA board chair) Abdi Aynte, who will discuss the nuances and the intricacies of covering the Somali community in Minnesota and elsewhere. From clan rivalry to regional and class differences, the Somali community is diverse, though it can sometimes be perceived as homogeneous from the outside. Abdi will help sort through fact and fiction, perception, and media myths and truths. Come with questions about media coverage of the Somali community in Minnesota.

Then, at 5 p.m. (until 7 p.m): TCDP Happy Hour!

Join TCDP writers, photographers, videographers, media partners, readers, and other contributors for drinks and merriment. This is a great opportunity to meet face to face with members of the Twin Cities Daily Planet community, talk about new stories and happenings in the Twin Cities, and enjoy each others’ company—offline.

Brown Bag Lunch With Sharon Schmickle March 25

Sharon Schmickle, one of the Twin Cities’ most distinguished journalists, will be the featured guest at our next Brown Bag Lunch With A Journalist, noon, Wednesday, March 25 at the East Lake Public Library, 2727 E. Lake St., Minneapolis. Sharon, who has reported from Iraq and Afghanistan, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1995, left the Star Tribune in 2007 to join MinnPost, where she writes about science and foreign affairs. We’ll talk about how a thoughtful veteran reporter adapts to the challenges and opportunities of the new online journalism – and anything else that is on your mind.

Who Is A Journalist?

by Mary Turck, editor, Twin Cities Daily Planet

Who is a journalist? And does the government get to answer this question?

Minnesota restrictions on freedom of the press surfaced early in the 2009 legislative session, as the MN House of Representatives first tried to say that on-line journalists are not “real” journalists, and then backed down — sort of.

The proverbial substance hit the fan when the House threw out video reporters for on-line media, barring them from committee hearings and saying that on-line media were not entitled to press credentials.

One legislator objected that recognizing on-line media would mean that “www.anybody.com” could claim they were journalists and report on what legislators are doing. Others objected that people with video cameras might “target an individual legislator.” (Have you ever heard of such a thing? Imagine – a journalist deciding to target a politician!)

The whole episode highlights a basic problem with press credentials or accreditation. The process allows a government body to decide who is a journalist and to grant or withhold protection or access.

Any decision that bars on-line journalists or independent journalists as a class is an abuse of government power and an infringement on freedom of the press. And — this should be obvious — any government decision on accreditation that is based on the substance or style of reporting violates the First Amendment. The point of freedom of the press is that the press is free to criticize.

Lack of space has also been raised as reasons for limiting credentials. Again, it is not the business of the government to grant preference to some journalists over others. If, indeed, there are a hundred journalists who all want access to the floor at the same time, there are other remedies available: pool coverage, for example, or a lottery for space on a given day, or admitting the first journalists in line. Space is NOT a reason for granting access to some journalists and denying it to others.

The objection that on-line journalists are not “real” journalists is nonsense. If anyone needs a demonstration that on-line and independent journalists ARE journalists they need look no further than the gavel-to-gavel recount coverage by The Uptake, or the daily, consistent news coverage of the community provided by the Minnesota Independent and the Twin Cities Daily Planet and MinnPost.

On-line journalists — and even www.anybody.com — must be free to report on the shenanigans on Capitol Hill. That’s the whole point of the First Amendment.

Brown Bag Lunch With Brian Lambert Wednesday 2/25

Please join us for our next Brown Bag Lunch with A Journalist, Wednesday, February 25 at noon, at the East Lake Public Library, 2727 E. Lake St., Minneapolis: Brian Lambert, media blogger for Mpls-St.Paul magazine and former media columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press will be our featured guest. Dramatic changes are taking place on the local media scene, and you won’t find a more informed and insightful source about these changes – why they are happening and what they mean – than Brian. Come prepared with questions – Brian is the guy to ask.

The Twin Cities Media Alliance’s monthly Brown Bag Lunches are your chance for casual conversation with one of the Twin Cities’ most insightful journalists — about journalism, politics, or whatever is on your mind.

Brown Bag Lunch With Chuck Olsen 1/21

Brown Bag Lunch with Chuck Olson – Wednesday, January 21 at noon, at the East Lake Public Library, 2727 E. Lake St., Minneapolis: Chuck Olsen is a cofounder of The UpTake, a non-profit dedicated to training and distriibuting the work of video-based citizen journalists. He is also the founder of Minnesota Stories, called one of the best videoblogs by the New York Times. He is the producer-director of “Blogumentary,” the first documentary film about the rise of political and personal blogs. His work has screened at the Walker Art Center, Get Reel Documentary Film Festival, Harvard University, and on renegade laptops all around the world. He is the Minneapolis correspondent for Rocketboom and works as a freelance producer, videographer, editor and educator.

The Twin Cities Media Alliance’s monthly Brown Bag Lunches are your chance for casual conversation with one of the Twin Cities’ most insightful journalists — about journalism, politics, or whatever is on your mind.

If you rush out of the house without a brown bag, Manny’s Tortas at 2700 East Lake can fill one for you.

Local ethnic, community media advance to national competition

By Mary Turck , TC Daily Planet

December 07, 2008

The first annual Ethnic and Community Media Awards packed the Black Forest Inn banquet room December 5, in an event co-sponsored by New America Media and the Twin Cities Media Alliance. Matthew Little, Lauretta Dawolo Towns, Anne Holzman, David Zander, and Anna Pratt took top honors. The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder was the leading publication of the evening, with top articles in three categories, but overall the entries and winners represented the diversity of Minnesota media.

Anthony Advincula (New America Media-San Francisco) and Sarah Bauer (Minnesota News Council) presented the awards. Top winners in each category are automatically nominated for New America Media’s National Ethnic Media awards, which will be presented on June 4, 2009, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Matthew Little won first prize in the Editorial/Commentary division for his Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder weekly column, Little by Little, which focuses on civil rights issues locally and nationally. Matthew Little, now 87 years of age, is an infantry combat veteran of WWII, and has 40 years of civil rights leadership, during which he edited an in-house monthly publication called “NAACP Today” while president of that organization. He has been a “stringer” for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder since 1965, and has contributed a weekly column since 1974.

Brown Bag Lunch With Journalist Chris Ison, Wednesday 11/26

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Chris Ison will be the featured guest at this month’s Brown Bag Lunch With A Journalist, Wednesday, November 26.  Chris worked at the Minneapolis Star Tribune from 1986 to 2004, and is now an associate professor of journalism in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Minnesota.

Save the Date: Community / Ethnic Media Celebration 12/5

Please save the date: the Twin Cities Media Alliance is hosting a celebration of local ethnic and community media Friday, December 5 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in the Black Forest Inn’s banquet room, next door to the restaurant at 26th and Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis. It’s a chance to meet and network with local grassroots journalists and other local media folk, and sample the global flavors of Eat Street. There will be a brief program at 7 p.m. honoring the winners of the first Minnesota Community and Ethnic Media Awards, sponsored by TCMA and New America Media.

An assortment of appetizers from Eat Street restaurants and markets will be served, with wine, beer and non-alcoholic beverages available.

A minimum donation of $15 is requested; donations for wine and beer will be collected separately.

Space is limited; to reserve tickets, or to request further information, please contact TCMA operations manager Emily Pearson Ryan at 612-436-9188, or by email: emily@tcdailyplanet.net.