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<\/td>\n<\/tr>\nMEMPHIS (Jan. 13) \u2013 The \u201cBubbling Up: MySpace, YouTube, Social Networking & Political Change\u201d breakout session at the National Conference for Media Reform promised to cure the after-dinner sleepies by discussing the future of independent media and political activism through an examination of social media.<\/p>\n
James Rucker, of ColorOfChange.org<\/a>, helped the 2006 election coverage through Video the Vote<\/a>, which recruited voting activists who had a camera or cell phone to document the disenfranchising of any voter.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you have with the Internet is a publishing platform that anyone can participate in,\u201d he said. \u201cAs we heard problems developing, we\u2019d deploy a volunteer who\u2019d signed up online. They\u2019d document the problem and upload it to our site.\u201d<\/p>\n The site acted as a front end<\/a> into the YouTube database, which Rucker said is hard to navigate due to its lack of consumable packaging. Video the Vote took the disparate videos and produced video essays, some of which were picked up by corporate media. Rucker plans to use the same idea for CopWatch<\/a>, which will document police brutality.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone knows a story of police brutality,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the kind of thing that\u2019s very hard to get a feel for what\u2019s happened when it\u2019s in print. With cell phones, people capture things of cops being rough.\u201d<\/p>\n Rucker said he believes in the power of citizen media and thinks it will change corporate media from the kind of force that it\u2019s been. While at the moment many of the smaller players are not necessarily trusted nor do they carry the brand name, Rucker looks to bloggers as an example that the market place has been forced to acknowledge.<\/p>\n \u201cI actually think corporate media will have a hard time competing with people producing citizen journalism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Kaplan told the story of Brian Conley, who went to Baghdad after becoming disgusted with the lack of corporate television coverage of the war. Conley used a camcorder and dial-up modem to begin reporting from the war\u2019s front and even obtained footage that the networks never got, which he aired on his Web site, AliveInBaghdad.org<\/a>, and on other sites including blip.tv, aol.com and MySpace.<\/p>\n Kaplan said Conley recently won an award for best video blog of the year, and he just set up AliveInMexico.org. Conley has no money, but is just bootstrapping along and making it work, partly by using Iraqi stringers now that he\u2019s back in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s something you want to feature, something you want to show the world, all you have to do is do it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Kaplan recommended turning on the comments on blogs so people can start commenting on the work and building a community around the issue of contention. Bloggers can then use questions asked through the blog to demand answers from those under scrutiny.<\/p>\n
\nDina Kaplan, one of the founders of Blip.tv<\/a>, echoed the idea of a citizen media, noting that anyone can shoot stories with a camcorder, digital camera or cell phone and share that information with the world.<\/p>\n