Lisa Padilla on Media and Culture

That is how Dan Gillmor charactizes the state of Citizen Media tonight at the Mid-Peninsula Community Media Center . The long-time blogger and ex-columnist for the San Jose Mercury News now runs the Center for Citizen Media . Dan touched on the history of the newspaper industry as an example of the changing landscape of journalism and said that for the past 40 years it has been dependent on monopolization. "It was previously bad business to annoy half of your audience." But the traditional journalism business models are quickly eroding. The product is no longer printed on presses that cost $50-75 million. The competition that previously existed in journalism is much less significant today than the present race for ad dollars. We are struggling to encourage local coverage, which is playing a very important role in the value of community knowledge. Investigative and in-depth reporting sites and those adding value to content like newassignment.net , Witness.org , and dotSUB.co...

I heard a story recently of someone traveling to a poverty-stricken area of the world who said "they didn't have shoes, but they had mobile phones." As pervasive ownership is becoming evident, a question is begged. How will devices like cell phones can change the way we think? When Justin Oberman of Rave Wireless and MoPocket.com calls himself a mobile evangelist, a humorous picture of a man dancing in a mobile phone costume in the mall comes to mind. But Mr. Oberman has some serious views on the use of the ever-growing platform. Here's Justin (and thank you kindly for the interview ) with Jeff Schwartz of Disruptive Strategies at Stanford University’s Mobile Persuasion last month. Stanford University has begun to examine a field of study, called "captology", in their Persuasive Technology Lab, to identify positive persuasive technologies in the areas of health, business safety and education. From the Stanford University Web site, here is a captology dia...

Click to view this 4-minute video Roberto Spiezio, citizen journalst from Italy, is interviewed about his entry into the world of journalism. After my interview with Mr. Spiezio in South Korea, we corresponded by email and he was kind enough to offer more information about politics and media in his home country of Italy. LP: Thank you in advance for your perspectives on life in Italy, Roberto. First, let me ask, how does Italy view immigration? RS: This is a really sensitive issue and one of the usual battlefields for the political parties. The left wing has a policy of aperture about immigration, because of ideological matters and because immigrants are a good source of political consensus. At the moment the government (left wing) has given many immigrants a resident status, as long as they have a regular job. In the past few years the right wing government had cracked down on immigration, by making the entrance and the staying in Italy a lot more difficult. As example, a...