BEWARE: Microsoft LifeCam 3.0 -- It has issues

I purchased the Microsoft LifeCam 3.0 camera from Best Buy, which has okay policies regarding the return of malfunctioning software and hardware, although I will test out their so-called Black Tie product insurance soon.

Microsoft LifeCam 3.0 has some great features including very good video imaging. BUT, and this is a major BUT, the camera ONLY allows audio input from the camera itself. So, if you are using a headset with an audio or are directing audio through your computer to someone on SKYPE or other online social networking assets, this WILL NOT WORK.

The designers produced a great quality image but failed to consider real application needs -- something most computer software and hardware technical designers always seem to do. They know how to program sophisticated software and build sophisticated hardware but they know nothing about making those products usable to the public.

This product is NOT worth buying and we recommend avoiding it.

The product costs $79 and has been reduced to $59 in part because of consumer negative reactions.

MICROSOFT LifeCam 3.0
AVOID PURCHASE
Lacks proper audio options and requires all audio to go through the outside camera. It is inhibitive especially if you are in a public place. The camera grabs the surrounding noise and does not allow you to use a headset and mike which would allow for better audio quality.

BEWARE: Honestech VHS to DVD 4.0 Hardware Software Review

Don't buy Honestech VHS to DVD 4.0 Deluxe. It costs $87.00. I purchased it at CompuUSA (Don't buy software or hardware there either).

The software is not compatible with most Windows systems including Vista. When I tried to get more information, Honestech Technical support was non-existent.

When I tried to return the hardware to CompUSA, they refused to take it back even though they told me that hardware returns were permissible. Their excuse: CompUSA (in Orland Park, Illinois) said that the hardware included software and they cannot accept returns on ANY software even if it is a part of a hardware product.

Honestech VHS to DVD 4.0 Deluxe
RATING:  POOR
Wasted money: $87.79 including TAX

STORE CAUTION: CompUSA. Service is poor, software and hardware may not always work. They do not stand by their products. They will selll them to you but if they do not work, they will not exchange the dysfunctional product.

Community Media Workshop Oct 28 on ethnic media employment and more

Community Media Workshop's ethnic news media workshop.

The Community Media Workshop is holding a workshop for journalism students in the Chicago area to learn about  the ethnic news media and the possibilities for internships, freelancing, or, hopefully, jobs.  The meeting is from 3 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday Oct. 28^th at the eighth floor at 1104 S. Wabash, on the campus of Columbia College.

At the session, you'll meet college graduates who have found jobs with the ethnic news media, editors or news directors who are looking for interns or freelancers, and offer some advice about how the ethnic news media might be a stepping stone in this incredibly fast changing world of journalism.

There are over 300 ethnic news media outlets in the Chicago area and they range from giants like Univision to pioneers like the Chicago Defender to up and coming print, radio or television outlets that serve a growing number of Asian, Latino and African immigrants here.

The Community Media Workshop is a more than 20-year-old non-profit that has been helping Chicago communities and organizations make their voices heard.

For more information, contact Steve Franklin

 at 312 369 6400

Clash between mainstream media and New Media comes out in full Hollywood swing

One of the best movies out this year is "State of Play," starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Helen Mirren. It's now on DVD. It's a funning thing about Hollywood Movies. I rarely go to see the blockbusters at the movie theater any more. I wait until they come out in DVD. I enjoy them more. The only time I go to the big screen theater mow to see a new Hollywood release is to see the animated films with my son.

State of Play is basically about a Blackwater mercenary operation being investigated by a congressman (Afflek). Crowe plays a reporter for a Washington newspaper (The Globe, modeled after the Washington Post). But while the murder, mayhem and conspiracy theories make for great drama right out of the front pages of today's news, a secondary theme involves Crowe, the old fashioned, mainstream print reporter, who bumps heads with the newspaper's new lead blogger, played by Rachel McAddams.

Watching the new media tussle with the old media is a direct reflection of today's trend in journalism. The only problem, of course, is that Hollywood still favors the mainstream media (it's mainstream afterall) and they make the new media out to be untalented, unethical and always after the salacious headline rather than the facts.

Don't they say that about the mainstream news media?

-- Ray Hanania
http://www.radiochicagoland.com/

Blg World Conference Oct 15-17 in las Vegas

The big Blog World New Media Expo/Conference will be held this year in Las Vegas Oct. 15-17. Here's the link:

http://www.blogworldexpo.com

The conference showcases some of the best cutting edge thinking on how to improve your blog, network and get the word out. The conference is limited mainly to the insiders but by participating you can help expand their narrow roster of experts to include more voices and more experience.

-- Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com

DePaul explores new frontiers of journalism with courses on Twitter and more

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Aug. 31, 2009

Media Contact: Deborah Snow Humiston

312/362-8508, dsnowhum@depaul.edu

DEPAUL EXPLORES THE NEW FRONTIERS OF JOURNALISM WITH COURSES ON TWITTER, ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNALISM

DePaul University's College of Communication is exploring the new frontiers of journalism through courses on Twitter, entrepreneurial journalism and backpack reporting, providing students with cutting-edge knowledge in this rapidly changing field.

This fall, DePaul University journalism alumnus Craig Kanalley will teach what is believed to be the first college-level journalism course focused solely on Twitter and its applications. Kanalley is a digital intern at the Chicago Tribune.

It is one of several innovative courses offered by DePaul's College of Communication to help prepare students to work in the burgeoning digital landscape. Other journalism courses include niche journalism, reporting for converged newsrooms, backpack reporting and entrepreneurial journalism.

Kanalley said his course, "Digital Editing: From Breaking News to Tweets," is about learning how to make sense of the clutter of the Web, particularly in situations of breaking news or major developing stories, and how to evaluate and verify the authenticity of reports by citizen journalists.

"Thousands share information about these stories and how they're affected through Twitter every day, and there's a need to sift through this data to find relevant information that provides story tips and additional context for these events," Kanalley said.

Students will especially focus on the social networking platform Twitter and apply concepts discussed in class to Kanalley's live journalism Web site Breaking Tweets (www.breakingtweets.com), which integrates news and relevant Twitter feedback to create a one-of-a-kind Web experience for readers by providing eyewitness accounts of breaking news stories from around the world.

Since its launch in January 2009, the site has gained an international following and had more than 300,000 page views; it has been praised by new media analysts as a major player in the social media field. Iranian authorities blocked Breaking Tweets because of its reporting on the Iranian election, and in May, the site broke a story on the attempted attack on the royal family in Holland before the story was picked up by BBC or CNN.

In April, Kanalley was named one of the 100 top collegiate journalists by UWIRE, a community-driven service for student journalists. He was one of four DePaul students who covered the presidential inauguration via Twitter and live blogging, which ran on the Chicago Sun-Times' Web site as the "D.C.

Project."

Other College of Communication new media courses include:

* Niche Journalism: Examines the explosion in magazine and trade publication journalism that targets specific audiences with content designed exclusively for them.

* Reporting for Converged Newsrooms: Equips journalists with ability to assemble and produce stories that can be published and distributed across integrated media platforms.

* Backpack Reporting: Gives students the practical experience they need in news gathering and distribution within the converged landscape of electronic newsgathering.

* Entrepreneurial Journalism: Focuses on how journalism students can create their own place on the Internet and become known as content specialists in particular niche areas.

DePaul's College of Communication is the fourth-largest provider of bachelor's degrees in communication in Illinois and second-largest in the Chicago area. It is the second-largest provider of master's degrees in communication in the state. It offers undergraduate programs in communication studies; journalism; media and cinema studies; public relations and advertising; and communication and media. Graduate programs include journalism; public relations and advertising; media, cinema and society; and organizational and multicultural communication.

###

Distributing your press releases for free

A blog is about the best place to include a press release that will then be available on Google News instantly. The best blog system to use is Google's Blogger.com, which is free to set up. You can set up as many blogs on Blogger.com as you want. You simply need a GMAIL account, also owned by Google.


But, you can expand the network by also submitting your press release to many free online press release aggregators, such as two that I manage to address American Arab and Middle East issues, for example, including:


Arab American Media Services

http://aams.blogspot.com/


Arabisto.com.


I also have one for mainstream news releases associated with Radio Chicagoland at

http://radiochicagoland.blogspot.com/

The first and last are Blogger.com blogs linked throughout my Internet Network, and Arabisto is a web site featuring the writings of Arab writers from around the world. All have heavy traffic.


But, there are many thata lso serve mainstream audiences that are based in their own networks.

They include:

Free Press Release at
http://www.free-press-release.com/release-features.html

PR Log at
http://www.prlog.org/

I-News at
http://www.i-newswire.com/

1888 Press Releases at
http://www.1888pressrelease.com/

The problemw ith all of them is that the basic free service is limited to placement. You have to pay extra to showcase, add an image to the release.

The best way to distribute your release professionally to the mainstream news media is through two main services, PR News Wire (PRNewsWire.com) and The Business Wire (BusinessWire.com)

They charge, too, but you are guaranteed actually distribution, whereas the free placements and even the paid services on the free placement sites like those above are merely "placed" online and then indexed in Google News.

The basic costs for a press release on PR News Wire and Business Wire start at $140 for a 400 word release distributed "statewide" in Illinois. The same release will cost about $1,200 for distribution nationally to all of the country's newspapers, radio and TV stations, and even online news sites.

Sometimes it is worth it to go professional. Although the mainstream news media is biased, the businesses that utilize them are well worth the investment, especially on a priority campaign.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Neat script lets readers send links to your columns and blogs right from your content

A great little script from AddThis.com allows you to place a "Share" button like the one on top of this blog on every blog post and column and content that you post on the Internet. Readers can click the script button and then send the link to the blog or column to anyone, post it on Facebook or Myspace and more.

It's neat little Java Script that easily embeds in Blogger.com layouts.

It also allows you to track user usage. How many people emailed a story, posted it to Facebook, Myspace or Twitter.

Neat stuff and must have on your web site and blog.

-- Ray Hanania
http://www.themediaoasis.com/NMINbook.htm

No mercy for the mainstream news media

The mainstream news media has been complaining about economic industry problems long before the economic meltdown hit this country. Some people feel sorry for them but as an industry, I don't feel sorry for them at all. I think the mainstream news media as an industry has brought its own demise on its own head, and if they are suffering, they deserve.

I'm conflicted a bit. While I feel sorry for many of my friends in the journalism profession and those good and principled journalists who have lost their jobs or are concerned about the decaying industry, the industry itself does not deserve any sympathy at all.

They deserve what's happening to them and instead of crying for them, especially those Americans who have victimized and excluded and slandered and ignored by the mainstream news media, the American public should be excited that the once arrogant, mighty and often dishonest news media may have to reinvent itself. And maybe even start from scratch.

Maybe this time, if they do have to start from scratch, they will get it right.

For too long the mainstream news media has violated the very principles it set up for itself, claiming to be professional when in fact they have been anything but professional. I think that the media hung the "We're professionalists" stereotype on themselves as a shield from the criticism they have earned.

The mainstream news media is not professional at all. They're whores who pimp for certain insider agenda's and they routinely deny equal voice to the voiceless who are in fact voiceless in America because the media has made them voiceless. Editors pick and chose Op-Eds and commentaries not based on the principles of free speech, equal access, Democracy and fairness but on the basis of "journalist politics."

And there is a Journalism Politics that is sinister, corrupt and the cancer that has slowly eroded the moral fiber that mainstream journalism once asserted.

They have been for years the least respected profession in America for a reason. Mainstream journalists are hypocrites who exclude facts to make the stories and commentaries they right seem more right. They use their power not to enlighten the public but to control and manipulate the public. The robber baron elitists in the media's ivory tower have done so out of pure selfish greed, while lowly editors have done it out of power corruption.

The American public, which has suffered based on their race, religion and ethnicity, has a chance to stand up and exercise true free speech without having their words distorted, filtered or excluded. Americans, with the demise of the mainstream news media, can help redefine the news media to insist on true fairness, true objectivity, true principle and true freedoms.

With the death of the mainstream news media -- and I hope it comes fast -- we can finally have a national discussion about issues without worrying about whose views are popular and whose are not. Americans are smart people. We are educated people. We do not need politicians and power brokers disguised as the Fourth Estate pretending to be caring for our interests when it fact under their stewardship the American people have been children of abused and negligent parents.

-- Ray Hanania

Author, "Secrets of New Media Networking"

www.TheMediaOasis.com

New Book details secrets of overcoming mainstream news media bias

I just finished my first edition of "Secrets of New Media Networking" my collection of ideas on how to overcome bias in the mainstream news media.

It's not about putting a check on someone else's opinions that you like or do not like, but about getting your own opinions into the mainstream news media. The mainstream news media, when it comes to "certain topics," is biased. Plain and simple. I know that because I have been in the news media now 32 years, not including six years working in high school and college newspapers.

The reality is that the extremism in the mainstream bias is the primary fuel feeding the extremism that we find in communities like the American Arab community. The bias reinforces the frustrations of the public and that frustration is consumed by anger, emotion and turns into an unreasoned support of the only option they then feel is out there for them, the loudmouthed, extremists who use violence and hatred to 1) keep their followers in a continued state of frustration and 2) provoke the conflict into more conflict and greater violence which gives them a reason to exist.

If we EVER achieved a real and genuine peace in the Middle East, for example, hundreds of thousands of activists on both sides would find themselves out of a job.

I want to put a lot of those biased activists on both sides out of a job and create a new environment where peace creates a new market that creates jobs promoting reason, moderation, understanding and truly free speech.

But my book is not about the Arab-Israeli conflict, although I do use it as an example -- my personal example of how the mainstream news media bias works. My book is about how to take the bias that YOU see in the mainstream news media to motivate you to easily create an alternative using the Internet to get your message, your views and your products out to the public. It's not hard to do using web sites, blogs of different strategic focuses and topics, social media like Facebook and MySpace, and Twitter and even brokered radio and cable TV public access. It all can come together and create a powerful market place for your views.

The book also discusses the moral responsibility of the media and journalism. It's not good to simply replace one biased media with another biased media. You want to add your views to the public discussion not stereotype, slander or discriminate against the free speech of others. You want to make the mainstream news media objective, not biased towards your opinion. You MUST adhere to principle, fairness, and give others the same that you demand, an opportunity to be heard.

The best strategy to fight extremism, terrorism and violence from extremists is to insure that your strategy includes a significant component that truly expands free speech to everyone. Achieving a fair news media system will do far more to undermine the extremists than all of the military conflict that has been launched in our history as human beings on this planet.

We would have won the Iraq War long ago if we had been more sensitive to the moderates in the Arab World who were shut out of the American effort not because of the war but because the American effort never treated them with respect or respected their views.

I hope you get a chance to check out the new books. CLICK HERE TO GET more information on the book.

-- Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com