Looking back what we have covered in class, one session personally stuck me most: We watched this video about how the media and society will look like in 2014. It was produced in early ofand did not even mention Social Media, including Facebook or video sharing sites such as Youtube. Can you believe this? We are only lining in 2009! We also talked about Moore’s Law. This concept describes that every two years Personal Computers become twice as fast and half as cheap. If I combine both, the film 2014 – Museum of Media History and Moore’s Law, well, then: no idea how the future campaigns look like.

However, it is kind of predictable from what we have studied this semester: a main happening is the decline of traditional journamlism/ media and an incline of citizen journalism. I am pretty sure that this trend will continue until it reaches a balance between professional journalism and free-time journalism. I am also pretty sure that certain habit will further evolve. We are more and more transferring into a “information generation on the go.” So I think that mobile applications will further gain a huge market share in terms of information distribution. Maybe we will also all have electronic papers by then.

Garrett Graff describes in his article “Bacack Obama: How Content Management and Web2.0 Helped Win the White House” that many political campaign teams never fully integrated ordinary tools such as email, texting capabilities, voter files, and credit card processing systems into their online campaigns.

To come back to the question how the 2012 Presidential Election will look like: I think it is the general understanding to integrate these applications with a changing media habit, a changing media consumption, and a shifting perception of journalism. At the core will be a huge grassroots movement, maybe even bigger than the one we have seen so far. As the Edelman Social Pulpit remarks, the integration of online advocacy into every element of the campaign will ultimately decide over looser or winner.

When I read Nikki Usher’s Blog Skill Training Is Not Enough For The Digital Journalist I totally agreed with his main thoughts on “modern journalists”. Nikki says that Web 2.0 forces journalists to re-think  And all of them, if not more, I have studied during the past 15 weeks. This week, our Social Media class comes to an end. My first though thinking of Social Media: “Well, I don’t need to understand the trend of social media…” I was so wrong. Our instructor, Garrett Graf, introduced us to what social media really means, and what drives millions of people to sign up for Facebook, Flicker, Twitter & others. We also learned about citizen journalism and its power towards traditional media. Take Twitter, for example: The U.S. Airways crash into the Hudson River was first reported on Twitter. Only a couple of years ago, it would have been first reported on major cable news outlets, or on online pages of a major newspaper. So, will social media bring journalism to an end? Summing up all readings and impressions from my class, I found a clear answer: No, but social media will certainly change the traditional way, journalism works (used to work).

However, I found this interesting statement among all the comments regarding the article on the Hudson River plane crash:[…] people always look to traditional media sources to verify information. The most obvious issue with twitter is the noise factor – how do you seed out rambling from credible sources? As the blogger Nikki states in his blog, Journalists need to rethink and reposition themselves and they no longer control the distribution of the content they produce. This causes many problems, as this case shows. Nikki also picks up our most important learning from this class: markets are conversation. This is not just a statement, as I learned, but a concept: the Internet is a tool (like a printing machine for newspapers, or a satellite dish for TV network). For the first time, ordinary people (who couldn’t afford expensive equipment) are able to put their news out there. The former audience turns into newsmaker, as Dan Gillmore explains in his book We The Media. And we, as future professional communicators, must understand how this new media era functions.

Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre  (wired.com)

After that I started to dig myself into military blogs, such as Blackfive, Michael Yon, or Jeff Emanuel. They were all listed as finalists for the 2007 weblog awards, category: best military blogs. The one I spend most time with was called Army of Dude. I liked reading through a couple of this blog posts. Bt I soon realized that the reading was like reading a magazine. I don’t know. I don’t want to put a statement out here – but for a high school graduate he is a very skilled writer. And since I am really into photography, this dude is also a pretty skilled photographer.

Ironically the Department of Defence plans to shut down Youtube access overseas. On the one hand the Department of Defence uses Social Media for recruiting purposes, and on the other they don’t want to have all these “real-life-battle-zone-videos” filmed by US soldiers on video sharing sites. This wired news article gives you also a pretty detailed insight into the new blogging restrictions.

Well, I guess I know what the US Department of Defence aims at: not to show the brutal reality of war. But watching this video makes me sick. The Iraqi people have been a proud people; they are equal to us and deserve the highest dignity of human beings. I guess not all soldiers out there are the often proclaimed proud fighters for democracy and freedom. Here is the same story, just commented from the journalist who filmed it. It’s interesting to watch for one reason: the report you probably saw on the American networks was not the whole story…

I don’t want to comment on the war in Iraq, neither on the soldiers sacrificing their life for democracy. The only thing I have an opinion on is that democracy is a process; and not given by another people or “alliance against terrorism.” But the reality looks like some of the soldiers deployed into Iraq are still kids. Watch the smile in the face of one of them and then and listen to the brief comments of the others.

Maybe some of the heroic and patriotic rhetoric in American political speeches are misleading for some young Americans (“proud to serve the American people”, “the US military is the proud of our nation)”. The same things are repeated all the time, so people start to believe in it. A similar phenomena is the “and God bless the United States of America” notion at the end of nearly every speech. Personally, I am already annoyed by it: We are one world. There is no nation blessed more than others. We are all made from one blood.

In the end, I think it is still right to write a blog online as a soldier or post a video on Youtube. We live in a world of free speech. And if all this is the reality, why cover it up? I have a pragmatic thought here: When I wanted to become a soldier, I would have to inform myself about my new job. So I would also check for social media stuff. The same thing I do for applying for a company: I check what people out there in the Internet sphere write about their employers and working conditions. Then, I know what expects me. At least the official US Army recruiting site is not totally honest about the risks involved being a soldier (not mentioning the ethical challenges being deployed into the battlefield)…

In the age of social media, and especiallyy in the times of recession, it is more important than ever to create a positive image of yourself online. The unemployment rate is at an all-year high, the news is full of mass-layoffs, and businesses stopped hiring. In these times, it is more important than ever to use all available tools out there, to market oneself. And I especially would focus on social media tools to draw attention to yourself and your skills.

Alina Tugend published a very interesting article on nytimes.com (“Putting Yourself Out There On A Self To Buy”), which you should read in order to understand “how to brand yourself”. She mentions LinkedIN, Facebook, or even Twitter as important “first steps” of online self marketing tools. As we have learned in our Social Media class, the search engine Google brands your name, if you don’t try to create your own image. What does this mean? Put your name into Google, or any other search engine, and hit enter: do you like what you see? Do you remember this picture of you drunk at a college party 4 years ago? Do you think your Facebook page is informative for you future employee? Do something about it! As we all know, the first page of organic search results on Google matters most. All the other hits, listed on pages three, four, or five don’t necessarily matter. So what you want listed as the first hits are not your party pictures, but your blog, your homepage, you CV, your LinkedIN profile, your Facebook profile, and maybe some newspaper articles you have published. All this needs to be updated – than your online image is all set for job hunters’ research.

But here comes the problem, at least from my perspective (maybe you agree): the Internet is a tricky place for the “perfect image.” Both of our lives, the professional one (LinkedIN, company’s homepage, public job as press secretary) and the private one (Facebook, Flickr, etc.), take place online. And the bottom line is: you cannot draw a line between professional and private life. Personally, I suggest to be very careful with putting your private life out there. Your private life matters to your friends only anyway – so write a blog using your nickname for instance. So, only friends who know your nickname will find the blog. Or at least it will be harder for job hunters Also use Facebook with a slightly different name than yours. And make sure not to put all party pictures online. When I party, I seriously get annoyed by my friends who carry their small digital cameras with them day and night. At some point, I personally want to just relax – without being photographed dancing and knowing “I will be tagged on this picture by 7.30 am tomorrow morning on Facebook.”

Privacy matters; and your professional life, too. Try to draw a clear line between both of them. It may help to keep your professional image clean!

Quentin is blogging on Twitter and that he recently signed up for Twitter. He also gives useful information on how to attract followers. Overall, I really like this blog. But I am opposed to Twitter in general. If you are interested in understanding what Twitter is, read Quentin’s blog; for further information read this Wikipedia entry, or watch this Youtube video “Twitter in Plain English:”

“Within hours, she began to see a different side of people she chose to follow. She didn’t know that Steven in Seattle was a baseball fan. Or that Julia in London was reading a new investment book. The little messages from Twitter painted a picture of her friends, family, and co-workers she had not seen before. It was the real world.” This quote is taken from the Youtube video.

Well, I am not a fan of Twitter and oppose it. “It is the real world.” Oh, thanks to micro-blogging and Twitter we finally found the real world! Hold on a minute. My point of view is somewhat reverse: Thanks to Twitter, we loose that real world! I had a drink with a friend who recently signed up for Twitter. While we had beer and talked he suddenly got his phone out and put a message on Twitter that he is having a beer with a friend at the Front Page bar. Well, on the way back he tweeted about the rain and snow showers and that the weather outside is really nasty. Mmh, welcome to the real world!? No, but who cares! And most importantly: while we were walking back he was more into his phone than talking to me. Cool, so that’s our new world: Instead of following his online conversation he could have had a real-world conversation with me. And that’s the problem with the new digital communications world: I am (and now I sound like my grandfather) afraid that some digital fans loose their ability to socially interact in the real world. I just think society will not gain more information from Twitter. I think microblogging is also a great danger for our information society, in terms of time available to spend with media.  Instead of spending some more time with watching the evening news or reading a newspaper, we waste much of our daytime with microblogging. Even though Twitter is not supposed to replace journalism, many people spend more time on Twitter than with their TV channel or newspaper (print or online). And Twitter will never replace journalism, since 140 characters are not enough to get into detail. I don’t know, but selecting news is a dangerous concept for me. And that’s how Twitter works: You select people, you want to follow. And there are some extremes: On Tweetwasters you can check how much time you waste with Twitter – just type in your username. By the way, a guy called Sugree from NYC is placed first with 3,445,860 Seconds or 40 days (!) non-stop (!!) twittering! If you look for more detailed information on how to waste your time with micro-blogging, check out the techcrunch article.

Again, I like social media a lot. And I think blogging, Wikipedia, the concept of Wisdom of the crowds, Facebook, etc are great. But some people have to be aware not loose the feeling for the real world. Let’s meet and have a coffee or beer together. Not online. But in real world.

Hey, so today’s blog is about the blogsphere in Mexico: Our professor assigned us to go to Global Voices Online, and pick a country which begins with the same letter as my name. That’s why I have chosen Mexico.

First of all, I really like the concept of Global Voices Online. The Western media outlets and blogspheres are dominating our world of media and information. That is why the founders of Global Voices Online want to strongly focus on developing countries. Therefore, GVO has got regional editors mainly in non-Western countries which are underrepresented with their voices in our media consumption habits. These editors observe and aggregate blogs and country-specific discussions and re-publish them through Global Voices Online. Most of Global Voices Online’s editors are volunteers, regional blogger-editors, and translators. Many editors are hired and have a deep understanding of their country’s culture. They are searching all kinds of citizen media, such as blogs, videoblogs, podcasts, photo sharing sites, etc. Global Voices Online wants to make us, the English-speaking world of information, aware of what is going on in developing countries.

Mexico’s blog scene is focusing on crimes related to the drug cartels. Crime is worrying to Mexicans. A pretty ironic – but sad story – is that an anti-kidnapping expert was kidnapped in December last year. Félix Batista, a US citizen, consulted a Texas-based security firm. He taught how to avoid crimes and kidnapping. So, the Mexican blogger asks his readers whether the northern states of Mexico are out of control when even a kidnapping expert gets kidnapped. Another blog impressed me; it touches upon a topic which hasn’t been covered in the mainstream media: Eduardo Avila focuses on the female murders and the fact that most of them are unsolved and the Mexican authorities apparently don’t pay any attention to this.

Most blogs generally call for attention, as my last example shows. I think Global Voices Online is a great platform to connect citizen journalism from developing countries with interested readers from the Western world and professional journalists.

To get some more impressions about Global Voices Online, watch Juliana’s video. She is the video editor for Global Voices Online.

I have to admit that it is easy to edit false information. And many people don’t use footnotes for instance, which makes it very hard to verify any information at all. And from this perspective, I completely agree with my classmate Hilary: “an encyclopedia is supposed to be academic gold, whose authors are serious, studious and knowledgeable about their topics.” However, I think that the concept of “Wisdom of the crowds,” described in Dan Gillmor’s We The Media or Surowiecki’s book, actually called Wisdom Of The Crowds, brings the Wikipedia close to a trustworthy flawless encyclopaedia: When I edited the German Wiki entry, I was passionate. I wanted to have as much correct information out there as possible and I wanted to be trustworthy – so in total I included eleven footnotes. For our class project we only had to edit 200 words: but I found myself editing much more than that over the days. It was fun, and I had a motivation to add all these information to this particular Wiki entry. I soon began uploading a picture I have taken myself and included pictures from Wikimedia Commons. I also included weblinks. Every morning I woke up, the first thing I checked: did they approve the changes I have proposed? Well and here is the difference towards the US Wikipedia. When I edit something into an American Wikipedia entry it is approved right-a-way and appears seconds later in the original entry. In the German version, your changes first appear in a so-called Drafted Version – and many administrators (higher-ranked Wikipedia users) have to approve your changes first. The more you write and the more your proposals get approved the higher becomes your rank (as far as I understood it). I had so much fun editing Wikipedia, I also went to my German hometown’s Wikipedia entry. And when I have some time over the next week, I am planning to edit my German University entry, too.

Anyway, Wikipedia is a good example of Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail. With the advent of the Internet we start searching for information a printed encyclopaedia never ever has provided. Wikipedia offers a great opportunity for publishing information on things (like a small village) which never made its way into a hit-driven encyclopaedia.

There is another thing I agree with Hillary, which totally surprised me: Gosh, it’s so difficult to understand how to set a reference or – even worse (!) – editing your own photo! It’s crazy and totally frustrated me at first! Everybody claims how easy it is to become a Wikipedia writer: but working my way through the Wikepdia tutorial page(-S!!) drove me mad at some point. In the end, I think, Wikipedia is cool: I plan to edit some more soon.

Come, and read this story – it might inspire you…

 “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner!” – John F. Kennedy

My personal story…

It happened in November of 1989, the magical night. The next morning the entire world has changed: The Iron Curtain wasn’t anymore, the Cold War came to an end, and a people was re-united. This is the story of the fall of the Berlin Wall, my favorite (German) piece of history. I am telling this story because it should never be forgotten. Nobody should ever forget that it was a people, divided by a huge Wall for 28years that made world freedom possible again… After WWII, Germany was divided into sectors. The east part of Germany was under Soviet occupation and was separated from West Germany in 1961 to become the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR). This year the construction of the Berlin Wall began. I grew up in West Germany, an economical successful country which over the years made its way up again from war ruins into one of the world’s most powerful economies. Even though I was only six years old, I still remember one very moment in November 1989: My parents put me into our VW – and we drove east. Thousands and thousands of people were cheering at us; and a ‘poor’ East German girl (or boy?) asked me for my teddy bear, which I refused to give. The backseat window was slightly opened.

It’s history…

It all began with people from the GDR trying to flee into the eastern boarding states, such as Hungary and Austria. They seeked refugee in West German embassies and were then transported via train to the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). This caused unrest in the GDR and demonstrators were shouting “We want out!” With the so-called Monday demonstrations in East Germany the peaceful demonstration began. Erich Honecker, who led the communist GDR, stated that year that “the Wall will stand for another 100 years…” How wrong he was! On November 4th over one million East Germans, 10% of the whole GDR population, demanded for their right to travel into West Germany. As a result of these unrests, ministerial administration modified the proposal to include private travel, affective on November 10^th. The sequence of dramatic events kept going with an internationally broadcasted press conference by Guenter Schabowski and his misinterpretation of the modified proposal: He accidently said, that all rules for travelling have been lifted. The whole press corps was silent for a second. That was astonishing news. A reporter asks surprised: “When does the law come into affect?” Schabowski hectically goes through his papers and answers: “Sofort, unverzueglich!” (immediately). Another surprised reporter wants confirmation and asks again: “Also in effect for West-Berlin?” Reporters immediately broadcasted that the “Wall was open” and hundreds of thousands East Germans swarmed to the border checkpoints. The dramatic course hit its peak: the East German boarder guards weren’t informed about the new travel law. They hectically tried to call their superiors, but nobody wanted to take personal responsibility for issuing orders to use lethal force. East Germans started shouting and pushing. They demanded to leave East Germany. In the end, there was no way for the vastly outnumbered soldiers to hold back the huge crowd of East German citizens. One checkpoint after the other opened its gates – and on the other side, jubilant crowds greeted the first arrivals. From here on the party began, as families were united and hope restored. Freedom and democracy had won over communism – the capital of Germany complete. I think this is a difficult scene to describe in words, so here you can watch the best videos I found online. In 1990, two countries became one and East Germany joined the Federal Republic of Germany. Here, I found a live CNN broadcast from CNN. Great!

Never forget…

Always make a difference, and never forget – people can take walls down…

Also, enjoy this video of taking down the wall

 If you seek for deeper information and a broader view on this event, check out this video:

…or check the homepage of the German Mission to the United States for detailled information.