I just read this piece and absolutely love it. This dude seriously hit the nail on the head.

I think this is why I hate being anonymous. Out of all the stupid anonymous blogs I’ve started up over the years (there have been plenty), I’ve only actually kept one of them alive and it’s fairly new. Honestly, I doubt it will last long.

I hate being anonymous. I like having a name. I like attaching my name to opinions, and I like people knowing it’s ME, Alex Priest, not some faceless figure in a crowd. I don’t even care if people know it’s me when I’m wrong or when I screw up, or when I say something stupid. Out of 60,000-some-odd tweets, I’m sure I’ve said plenty of stupid things in 140 characters or less and dammit, I’m proud of it. Or least I’m proud that I learned from those mistakes.

Anonymity is bullshit.

I mean really. Who thinks they’re special for being anonymous? You’re not being anonymous because you want people to focus on “your content” or any of that crap. You’re probably anonymous because you’re too chicken to let your own words actually be attached to your reputation. Anonymity is the lamest way to be a conformist. Yea—I just called you out. And I called me out because I’m just as guilty of it as anybody else, at some points.

Anyway, read the piece. You won’t regret it. It’s fascinating and it makes you think. I guess that’s the whole point.

I’ve been busy the past few months, though. Honest. I haven’t just been sitting around writing blog entries in a notebook instead of sharing them with you here online. Here’s a little of what I’ve managed to get done:

• Developed, designed, and launched the the new AU Social Media Club website —twice, actually, after our original host had a server crash the day after I finished it the first time, losing almost everything. v2.0 is definitely a little more awesome than v1.0 though, so I suppose at least some good came of that.
• Survived two more months of classes to get me to this point, now only a little over three weeks from graduation (say what?!).
• Coordinated and pulled off probably the coolest event I’ve ever had the pleasure of working on, the 2011 Social Learning Summit, a conference aimed at bringing together students, educators, and professionals to learn from each other and with each other about the latest in social media, technology, innovation and education. It was a tremendous success, with more than 300 attendees, almost 10,000 tweets for the weekend, 80+ speakers across 21 panels, and overwhelmingly positive reviews by all in attendance. I’m still a little giddy about it.
• Dove headfirst into the job search, seeking out any and all cool opportunities, mostly here in DC. Haven’t made a decision yet, but I’m real excited about whatever might be in store for me next.

So there’s your obligatory update on my life. Alas, don’t expect to hear a lot from me over the next couple weeks as I work to get through finals and graduation, but I’ll do my best!

Check it out:

• My first USA Today blog post is online! In it, I write about how George Friedman’s book The Next One Hundred Years has changed my perception of leadership as I enter my senior year of college. Go read it, and go “like” USA Today’s Facebook page while you’re at it–they’re doing some awesome work.
• The American University chapter of SMCEDU (Social Media Club for Education) is getting up and running, founded by yours truly. We’ve been recognized as an official student organization, signed on our faculty advisor, begun building up our faculty advisory board, and are submitting our first budget and rolling out our first advertisements in less than two weeks. Soon I’ll begin blogging on AU Professor Matt Nisbet’s blog, Age of Engagement, on the subject as well, and I couldn’t be more excited! Lots more on this topic coming soon.
• Class is moving along smoothly. My six classes this semester are keeping me busy, but haven’t become overwhelming yet (and hopefully they won’t!). It’s a refreshing change of pace from the past, since all of my courses this semester are major or minor related, with no general education courses. I feel like I’m enjoying them more, learning more and actually able to get my work done more efficiently. It’s nice.
• My computer is still dead. But being resuscitated as I type this (I hope). Finally got an Apple “genius” who seemed to know what he was talking about and it sounds like my hard drive is dying on me. It’s odd I can still access files, but he talked like there was basically something fatally corrupt about it that won’t let me boot the OS normally. He promised if replacing the hard drive didn’t fix it they wouldn’t charge me for it, so I let them go for it. Plus, they’re upgrading me to a 250 GB from a 160 GB, and I could use the extra space anyway.
• Work is still crazy, and squeezing in CEA work with TechChange work, and now my assistant editor duties at Technorati, is keeping me busy, busy, busy. I love them all though, and I wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything.

Anyway, there’s your quick update. Hoping to get some good content written up in the next day or two and keep you guys thinking over the next week.

It’s that time of year again, when my life goes from being just abnormally busy and ridiculous to absolutely-mind-esplodingly busy and ridiculous. Yup, school starts back in just under one week.

I’ll admit, I’m already feeling the pressure a little–which is odd, given that I haven’t stepped foot back in a classroom yet. It’s mostly mental, and it’s not necessarily bad, but that extra responsibility for my six (6!) classes is going to be a kick in the butt for the next few months. Thankfully my work schedule will calm down soon (cutting my hours almost in half), and with a little luck the weather will get nicer, leaving me a little less exhausted at the end of the day than I have been in this heat.

In fact, I’m kind of excited for my classes this fall (and yes, I know I say this every semester, and by the end I’m about ready to bang my head against the wall). I’m done with general education requirements, and really, based on course descriptions and syllabi alone, I’m not expecting this to be that difficult of a semester. And well hey, I slogged through six semesters and a summer course already, surely I can manage two more, right?

The biggest thing hanging over my head is the amount of ongoing projects I still have on my plate. I’m designing not one, but two websites (both of which will likely extend throughout the semester) and I have a fair amount of blogging responsibilities. Bad thing? Not really–in fact, blogging and designing are kind of nice, relaxing escapes from the textbooks and assignments I’ll be facing over the coming months. But they’re still more to do, which means I’m going to have to put a little more hustle in my step to get it all done.

Probably my biggest ongoing project–and I’m really regretting not getting this all done and out of the way in June–is my spring capstone project. While the content is finished, the website is not. And I’m contemplating turning it into an e-book, at the prodding of @amandamogul and @riethja.

But it’ll all get done. A little positive thinking and perhaps a teensy bit less sleep, and I know I’ll make it through just fine. Will it be a little stressful? Sure. But then again, I seem to kind of thrive on this stuff. And if all else fails, I know I’ve got an amazing community of friends–online and off–to turn to for a little extra moral support.

For those of you who haven’t heard, Dave Weigel is human, with thoughts, emotions, and feelings, like most of the rest of us.

Let me explain. Until yesterday, Dave Weigel was the Washington Post blogger covering the conservative movement. One caveat: he’s not all that conservative. Does that make him a bad blogger? A poor journalist? No. Does it mean he might not have been the best person for the job? Maybe. But that’s missing the larger point here.

The point is that our media is fundamentally flawed. Journalism in the 21st century is facing overwhelming forces, and yesterday’s fiasco at the Washington Post only underscores the futility of trying to fight them. The idea of objective journalism is a myth, for three reasons:

1. News moves faster than people.
2. “Unbiased journalism” is no longer a unique selling point, nor one that consumers are willing to pay for.
3. Journalists have opinions, and hiding them only misleads the public, preventing them from properly interpreting the news they read, hear, and watch.

News moves faster than people.

In the 1990s we saw the advent of the 24/7 news cycle, as dedicated cable news channels like CNN and Fox News Channel emerged on the scene. Little did they know, the media was only witnessing the beginning of a rapidly accelerating news cycle, one that has now accelerated far out of their control.

Today we have social media. Social media doesn’t drive the news cycle–events drive the news cycle. But social media has placed the control of the news cycle squarely in the hands of the information consumers themselves, leaving television and newspapers struggling to keep up.

Lost amidst the battle between corporate media conglomerates and the “little guy” citizen journalists, of course, are the paid, professional journalists. These journalists are overworked, underpaid, underappreciated, and forced to hold themselves to outrageous and unrealistic standards of “objectivity”–standards that are simply impossible to live up to the 21st century hyper news cycle.

“Unbiased journalism” is no longer a unique selling point, nor one that consumers are willing to pay for.

In case you haven’t noticed, newspapers are dying. There’s lots of theories as to why they’re dying, and likely more than one accurate explanation. I tend to favor the Strategic Dissonance Model, created by former Intel CEO Andy Grove.



The model, above, basically states that at a recent point in history there was an inflection point in the business of information. As consumers of information and new media–i.e. blogs, social media, etc.–moved one direction, progressing towards an open, generally opinion-based, consumer-generated style of news, old media regressed toward a more closed, more staunchly “objective” style. This, in turn, created a dissonance gap between the two, resulting in old media’s decline and new media’s rapid success.

My point here is that consumer’s dont give a shit about objectivity. Not only do they not care, but they sure as hell don’t care enough to pay for it. The only people subscribing to old media today are people who either a) just like the feel of the newspaper, or b) rely on very factual, researched articles for research of their own.

Journalists have opinions, and hiding them only misleads the public, preventing them from properly interpreting the news they read, hear, and watch.

Finally, the obvious point. Journalists do have opinions. That is an obvious fact, and one that every single person on earth should know. If you think that journalists are robots and have no opinions, don’t agree or disagree with politicians, and don’t feel certain ways on certain issues, then you clearly don’t understand the way the world works.

So here’s the situation. We have a hyperspeed news cycle that is out of corporate media’s control, consumer’s that don’t care about unbiased journalism yet business models still founded on selling it, and journalists with opinions working for businesses that refuse to acknowledge their humanity.

See any problems there?

Not only is this a fundamentally flawed system, but this misleads news consumers. When you read an article on the Huffington Post, you know that it’s going to have a liberal bias. When you watch MSNBC you know it’s got a liberal slant. And when you watch Fox News they make no efforts to hide their conservative bias. These media organizations are some of the few in the world that are being (relatively) honest with their consumers.

The ones claiming objectivity are lying to you. I’m looking at you, Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and, for that matter, the AP, NBC, ABC, CNN, and any number of other organizations. Each of these organizations has biased journalists, producing biased work, yet they insist over and over that they are objective and unbiased. When relatively uninformed readers and watchers consume this content, they interpret it as objective. Informed and experienced information consumers recognize the political bias inherent in these organizations and journalists and interpret it as such, taking in the actual facts and the rest with a grain of salt (as it should be).

In other words (and thanks for sticking around through this long entry), Dave Weigel should never have been fired, and journalists should never feel the need to keep their personal opinions and bias secret from the public.

Think about it. How can we change this? What will it take to convince traditional media that they are simply going about the business of news the wrong way?

Sound off in the comments or tweet at me. And don’t forget to retweet and “like” this post on Facebook using the links below.

]]> http://alexpriest.com/2010/06/26/the-myth-of-objective-journalism/feed/ 5 http://alexpriest.com/2010/03/01/blogging-the-city-dc-that-is/ http://alexpriest.com/2010/03/01/blogging-the-city-dc-that-is/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:41:51 +0000 Alex Priest http://alexpriest.com/?p=678 Continue reading →]]> So in case you don’t remember, last month’s Social Media Breakfast DC was awesome. This month’s was just as good.

The theme this time around was “Blogging the City,” with the city obviously being DC (which I love, love, love–I honestly cannot tell you how much I love living in this city). Hosted at the awesome Busboys and Poets (they’re on Twitter too: @busboysandpoets) in the U Street neighborhood, today proved that I’m definitely not the only one who loves this city. In fact, as almost all our speakers this morning put it, they love this city so much they’re willing to put in more than their fair share of the “labor of love” in order to spread the word about the fantastic events, news and opportunities our city has to offer.

The line-up of speakers was fantastic. We had the founders of WeLoveDC, FreeinDC and Borderstan presenting and they had some thought-provoking and inspiring things to say. Check below the cut for the highlights, lots of links and even a video of the speakers if you’d like to watch the event yourself!

First up we had Tom and Tiffany Bridge (@tbridge and @tiffany, respectively), the awesome, awesome creators of WeLoveDC. Outside of maybe the DC-ist (which, as far as I know, makes money and has an extremely large staff for a blog) their blog is hands-down the best for coverage of our city, and they frequently cover things more thoroughly and all-around better than anyone else, mainstream media included.

They had one of my favorite quotes of the entire morning: “Voice times obsession equals an audience,” they said [Note: I'm an idiot and somehow managed to get this quote wrong the first time], calling it one of the fundamental equations of blogging. I couldn’t agree more! There’s no doubt that when you’ve got the voice for a topic and a little obsessed, the people will simply come to you. That’s happened to them at WeLoveDC and it’s a wonderful thing to witness.

Second was the always wonderful Amy Melrose and her FreeinDC blog (tweeting @freeindcblog). I had the pleasure of getting to know her a little bit back in January at Social Justice Camp DC and it was great to see her again this morning! Her blog is hands down the best resource for free (or at least cheap) events in and around the District and if you aren’t reading it you’re simply missing out.

Amy really got me thinking when she started talking about how most people outside of the District see Washington completely differently than we, its residents, do. The media makes such a fuss about Washington being “broken” and DC being such a “mess.” Even Barack Obama has consistently driven a message of “changing the way Washington works.” Well replace Washington with “the Federal government” and you’ve got the messaging right. Sure there are issues with DC, but it’s not broken, it’s not a mess and not everything needs changing.

Don’t get me wrong–public education, public transit, crime and poverty are still issues that this city needs to confront, among others. But those issues aren’t unique to our city, and they aren’t unsolvable problems. Are they challenges? Of course. But people like us–the bloggers , the social media junkies , the conference addicts, the social justice activists–we are the ones here to change that.

Amy is doing a fantastic job communicating what greatness our city has to offer, and for free. So even the down-and-outs, the poor college students, the still-seeking-a-job-ers can witness the great cultural, historical and social aspects of our city that are so frequently overlooked by the mainstream media and those outside the beltway.

Finally, we ended with Matt Rhoades of Borderstan (@borderstan), a somewhat more specific DC-based blog, focusing on only the Dupont Circle, Logan Circle and U Street neighborhoods. But don’t write him off, those neighborhoods are some of the most interesting and vibrant neighborhoods in the District, and even if you don’t live there it’s worth reading.

Matt described his blog as “the accidental blog,” but it’s just another case of that fundamental equation Tom and Tiffany presented early on in the morning: voice x obsession = audience. There’s no doubt this man has a passion for his neighborhood, for creating a dialogue among the people that live there, and for working to make it the best place it can be. It’s truly inspiring. He’s also looking for help in the near future, so if you life in the area and are interested in helping, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Below I’ve embedded the Ustream video of the event, so if you like watch it–it’s almost like being there! By no means did I cover everything they told us in their presentations, so there’s plenty more to learn if you’ve got the time to watch.

]]> http://alexpriest.com/2010/03/01/blogging-the-city-dc-that-is/feed/ 8 http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/05/links-and-shameless-self-promotion-2/ http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/05/links-and-shameless-self-promotion-2/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:59:32 +0000 Alex Priest http://alexpriest.com/2010/02/05/558/ Continue reading →]]> Well, maybe not entirely shameless self-promotion, but I did write it so I suppose it deserves a little disclaimer. This weekend will hopefully be a great one for productivity. With the incoming D.C. #snomgasm / #snowpocalypse2 / #snom (my personal favorite) / any number of other crazy hashtags, I’m hoping maybe it’ll give me a good excuse to lock myself indoors with a blanket, food, notes, a laptop and maybe a good book, if I manage to get a lot of work, writing and studying done.



Anyway, this is a quickie. Just wanted to point out that from now on I will be writing for not only this blog, but also two other blogs! First, I’ll be contributing to the brand spanking new Shamable.com, written as a guide for public relations and communications professionals, with a more serious, realistic take to the industry than some other blogs that may or may not have been spoofed for the title. The people contributing to this blog are top-notch, triple-A professionals with fantastic ideas and brilliant track-records.

I’m honored to be a part of their site and I hope I can provide some valuable input from my student perspective! Be sure to check out my first entry on the blog (more to come this week), about teaching social media (professors, pay attention to that one).

Secondly, I will now be writing for the AU Intern Blog for the American University Career Center. There I’ll be reflecting on my internship experience this semester at MS&L Worldwide as well as some other random internship-related thoughts that might be bumping around in my head. I’ve actually written two posts for it just tonight, you can see my introduction here and my comments on the TechCrunch intern “scandal” here.

I’ll do my best to note on here when I’ve made some significant contributions to the other two blogs, but please add them to your RSS reader (and me, for that matter!) and keep your eyes peeled for new updates from me and my fellow contributors. Thanks, as always, for reading. Tomorrow evening I’ll have a recap of the fantastic panel event I attended this morning as well as some thoughts on what may be in store, in the near term, for my future (might be a bit vague!).

[Shamable]
[AU Intern Blog]

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