journalismdude

DC's "Before Watchmen" excites some fans, polarizes others

2012-02-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

DC Comis recently announced that they would be revisiting the world and characters created by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore in their seminal comic book masterpiece "Watchmen" with an all new prequel starting this summer.

Watchmen, in case you don't know, is one of the most important works in the history of comic books, perhaps the most important. It deconstructs the superhero genre so well, and it is an absolute joy to read from first panel to last.

The new series has polarized the comic book reading public.

More than 1,500 people voted in Digital Spy's exclusive poll, and a whopping 72.7% agreed that the original 12-parter is perfectly self-contained, worrying that the new seven interconnected series will ruin that.

Just 27.3% of the site's readers backed the new books, admitting that they would love to read anything new from the world of Watchmen.

Granted, while this is not a burning journalistic issue, this blog is also about the craft of writing and influences on my writing specifically, and influences on others, and it can be argued that while comic books were viewed by society with some derision during their long history, in recent years they have been mined by Hollywood as fodder for entertainment, some of the best superhero movies have comic books as their foundations, and comics themselves come from a literary genre dating back to the 1930s and 40s, mainly the pulps.

Back to the issue at hand, I tend to agree with those who think it will be a good idea for DC to crate new material based on Watchmen. While I did at first worry that a perfect series such as this should not be tampered, (If you haven't read it, shame on you, go out right now and pick up a copy, it's OK this post will be here when you get back, and no watching the movie does not count!) I am now convinced that we should allow contemporary artists try their hand at crafting some backstory for these wonderful characters, I know if I was a writer assigned to this project, I would be salivating at a shot of playing in this wonderful sandlot.

As an aside, I gave up buying new comics last July. I was a fervent collector, but Marvel has just inflated their prices on new comics so much, that it makes it financially prohibitive for me to dump money on new issues on a regular basis. I still occasionally purchase a series I find interesting, and I think that this might be the series which brings me back to my first literary love.

I mean some of the top talent in comics will be working on this project, the line up reads like a who's who in the industry:

BEFORE WATCHMEN includes:

RORSCHACH (4 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo

MINUTEMEN (6 issues) – Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke

COMEDIAN (6 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones

DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes

NITE OWL (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert

OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) – Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee

SILK SPECTRE (4 issues) – Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner

Come Summer time, I for one, will be buying and reading these books and basking in the creative after glow of some of the most talented folks who still produce superhero fare. Success or failure, DC should be lauded for trying to take the genre in new creative paths, not condemned for trying to "mess" with a classic.

Another community college newspaper bites the dust

2012-02-06T12:54:00.000-08:00

I got this email from my journalism adviser Toni Albertson in my inbox this morning. It's an article about the demise of yet another community college newspaper.

As someone who got his training in the field from a community college and beyond (I got an A.A. from Mt. SAC, but prior to that I did work and took classes at several area schools including East L.A. College where I took some public relations courses and Citrus College in Glendora where I contributed and photographed for the student newspaper The Clarion)

I am a journalist by trade, so whenever I hear about a newspaper going out of print, this always makes me a bit sad. Not just because newspapers are essential for disseminating information, but also because I would be nervous about attending an institution where there is no watchdog to keep an eye on the machinations and moves of entities such as the student government or the administration.

From the article, it does not sound as though the Lance was discontinued for nefarious reasons, it may have been simply a casualty of low enrollment, but this is disturbing in itself, considering community college enrollments have increased as a result of the recession. When there are fewer jobs out there, people tend to go back to school to improve themselves, so if enrollment is increasing, why is the converse true for journalism at Shasta College?

It seems this college is reducing their journalism courses, rather than maintaining their program. If it is simply a matter of supply and demand, i.e. fewer students are choosing journalism as a career path, it would be one thing, but it sounds as though there are students that are willing to take classes to pursue a certificate program in journalism (the college doesn't offer an A.A. in journalism) and it seems that these students now will have to wait until fall to take the classes, unless enrollment dooms the program another semester.

Some institutions are trying their best to roll with the punches of a changing working world and incorporating said changes into their curriculum, teaching their students new era techniques such as social media, video editing and other skills set now necessary in journalistic and media related careers.

I think that Shasta College is doing its college a great disservice by phasing out the newspaper production class, and administration should do everything in their power to bring the newspaper back because without the proper training ground for students to practice their craft, they have little options for preparing for future careers. Also, the school needs a newspaper to watch over the entities which run the school, otherwise there is no accountability for their actions, or no entity in place to hold them accountable, which is a very dangerous and undemocratic way to run a school.

Happy productive 2012 to all

2012-01-06T15:28:00.001-08:00

Hey what do you know! I am updating finally! It's been a hectic year and even though we're almost a week into the new year, I haven't had much free time to start working on the various projects that I want to complete before 2012 is gone like 2011.

Even more astonishing is I am done with my freelance assignments for the week, so I got a glorious weekend all to myself! Delightful!

My resolutions for the new year include doing a lot of the things I enjoy doing but I haven't made time for like playing chess, reading and writing and completing my novels.

I wrote close to 125 articles in calendar year 2011, so it was a busy time for me, though I don't know if that is a typical output for a weekly reporter, I suspect most write even more.

I have three web projects that I have programmed for this year and I will be updating this blog occasionally with the progress for each one, as much as life and time permits.

The digital divide between mainstream media and digital media continues to expand and the development of what is known as the "fifth estate" is still an ongoing process.

It's concurrently exciting and scary to be at the forefront.

Stay tuned as they say.

The curious case of a hyperlocal site's decision to cut out freelancers

2011-10-14T17:30:00.000-07:00

What a huge difference a year makes. Only 365 days in the calendar, but encapsulated in an individual's life and that is a significant chunk of time. A year ago I was finishing up my degree at Cal Poly and also working pretty steadily for both the local paper, stringing football games and covering events for a start up hyperlocal website owned by a huge media company.

Said hyperlocal site has recently slashed its freelancer budget to a bare minimum, virtually eliminating correspondents for most of its branches in California, a once flourishing network with more than 80 sites covering communities from Agoura Hills to Walnut Creek CA.

So I guess I was one of the fiscal casualties of the site's restructuring of its model of delivering content to readers which once relied heavily on a local editor updating content with many freelancers working under said editors, and which now has been reduced to more of a true content farm, pulling information from various sources on the web under one unbrella, with editors aggregating content from other newspapers and sites.

Well, I am not here to debate the merits of such a model, whether a true media source develops more original content versus the model now presently being used by the website. What I do want to convey is that working for this site for nearly a year, and seeing how it operates under the shrinking fiscal conditions of a struggling economy presents a good lesson and a good overview of how media operates in the digital age.

The shame of it is that journalists have been operating for a while now in a market which has very little idea of how to charge for content, a puzzle this author says you would have thought they would have solved years ago.

I can see why so many people are out protesting down in Wall street and throughout the nation in the Occupy WS movement, and though they have been criticized by some for having no clear focus in their message, at least they are willing to get out there and try to engage people in a debate about change that is necessary for the middle class to survive.

Yet, that is a much broader social issue. As for me, I have gone back to freelancing prep sports for my local newspaper. I am on my way to cover a game now, and though the money is not as good as it is on the web, maybe there is more stability and more security in mainstream media outlets such as the good old neighborhood newspaper. At least for the time being. What the future holds is anyone's guess.

Tweeting high school football

2011-09-01T23:43:00.000-07:00

I decided to revive this blog because even though I started it last year, I never really did anything with it, but I believe that the merging of journalism and technology is more relevant a topic now than it was a year ago.

Case in point, tonight I was tweeting the score of the South Hills-Colony game in the San Gabriel Valley. I'm pretty beat, five hours ago I was sitting in the press box at Covina District Field, awaiting the start of the game between the Huskies and the Titans, and taking in the magic that is the fresh start of a new season.

However, after driving back to the newsroom to construct a game story and waiting on editors to proof and post the article online, I have grown weary. It has been a long hot day.

I also have to say that I am pretty rusty covering games, even though it is starting to come back to me, this wasn't the best structured story, but I am hoping that I get better as the new season progresses. It has been a year since I was filing weekly stories for the Tribune.

Tweeting the score of the game on a quarter by quarter basis proved to be both a challenge on my smartphone and a novelty. I found it kind of hard to find a pause between the action to log into my account and tweet, though after the first time it was easier because I was already logged in and feeding directly to the newspaperls blog.

I am wondering how many journalists are now doing this on a frequent basis? Tomorrow I am going to be taking photos and covering the Glendora vs. Charter Oak game at Citrus College for patch.com and I believe I will try the Twitter experiment once again. There is something very appealing about using social media to our advantage and getting the word out immediately to the readership and to the communities we serve.

The home team lost 30-29. You can't win them all as the saying goes.

Obama supporters losing hope?

2010-10-02T23:12:00.001-07:00

New frontiers for online journalism

2010-10-02T22:33:00.000-07:00

Hello. I am an old school journalist working and living in the journalism age. I had conceived of this blog orginally as a showcase for my journalism work and writing samples, and while I think I will go back to that original purpose, I will also try to have information here valuable to journalists both in traditional, but also in this new frontier where blogs and technology are being integrated into media. As my career is in the profession of communications, that will be the focus of this blog.

A little about me, I have been practicing journalism all my life, but for the past several years I have been both freelancing and also contributing to my school newspaper while I pursue a B.S. in communication with a focus on journalism. I hope you come back often for pertinent and relevant information.