Archive for the ‘Fifth Estate’ Category

Occupy Wall Street – Groundswell of Economic Injustice

Posted on: October 9th, 2011 by Geoff Livingston 12 Comments

Occupy Wall Street
Image by Kap Kap

The Occupy Wall Street protests have spread across the country, capturing the hearts of America’s disenfranchised. These events have sparked a debate across America — particularly online — about economic injustice in America.

Occupy Wall Street has been criticized for its lack of primary objective and message. Like it or not, pundits and critiques are dealing with a groundswell of anger towards the rich and corporate America. This effort grows stronger with each week in spite of criticism.

Occupy
Image from Mother Jones

The moniker of economic injustice is being used loosely, but in a recession or depression or jobless recovery (take your pick) entering its fourth year, a movement has been touched off. Like the 18th century French mob arisen in times of famine, Occupy Wall Street demands attention.

The media ignored this movement at first. The government — local, state and most importantly, national — is for the most part still ignoring it. President Obama finally acknowledged the movement in a half-hearted statement on Thursday touting the financial industry’s strength. Yet Occupy Wall Street does not go away.

This is mostly because of the relentless will of the original New York protestors, and now their counterparts in other cities. They are not satisfied with the economic disparity and conditions in this country, and won’t be turned back by criticism, insults, police violence and platitudes.

CEOPay

And yes, the protestors have used blogs, Flickr photos, and social network posts helped to keep Occupy Wall Street alive. Yet another example of the Fifth Estate rising when traditional power and media structures refused to address news and/or problems.

Though dismissed, an opportunity is being missed with Occupy Wall Street. Nonprofits seeking to resolve issues of poverty and financial inequality should be leading the charge. Democrats who would naturally gravitate towards this series of issues — especially given tax debates of late — are avoiding Occupy Wall Street. Violence has tuned up the issue to new levels.

The end result? More steam with bigger and more widespread protests.

Money

Conservative “anti-capitalism, socialist” spin isn’t going to make this one go away. Like the Arab Spring, like the Tea Party, like the angered Greeks, there is too much pain. No communications plan can fly in the face of a stakeholder groundswell centered on real problems. Occupy Wall Street is shaping the national debate.

What do you think about Occupy Wall Street?

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The Ridiculous State of Sports Social Media

Posted on: September 28th, 2011 by Geoff Livingston 6 Comments

38pitches

When Curt Schilling launched his epic blog 38 pitches depicting his view of baseball and the media, it seemed like a turning of the tide. The Fifth Estate had arisen in sports holding journalists accountable. 38 Pitches turned Schilling from a media goat into a newsmaker and source, and after retirement he has become an ESPN analyst. However, his legacy has not carried over to his professional brethren. Instead, professional athlete social media has become the laughing of the interwebs.

There is no better example than former White Sox and incoming Marlins Coach Ozzie Guillen, who seems to set himself up for national lampooning every month. Just this week he mistakenly posted a blog that he had been hired by the Marlins BEFORE he had been officially released by the White Sox. His Twitter rants are legendary.

But make no bones about it, this kind of amateurish buffoonery extends beyond baseball. Whether its Lebron James whining about criticism on The Decision or Pittsburgh Steelers Rashard Mendenhall defending Bin Laden, we’ve seen many questionable public statements from the men and women children our society pays millions of dollars to play games.

Twitter seems to be the preferred choice for professional athletes, likely because of its brevity, which can empower even the least literary of minds. it’s so bad that ESPN runs a weekly #Follow Friday mobile column depicting the week’s worst 10 professional athlete tweets. Here are some examples:

  • Lolo Jones @followlolo, Followers: 30,946, Sample tweet: “you got your talent from me not your mom because I used to outrun the cops and hurdle fences #dadquotes”
  • Jesse Holley @Mr4thAndLong, Followers: 13,065, Sample tweet: ” Leavin Ihop: Guy walks up 2 me & says “You Ever Wonder What If u Dropped that ball” (in my Swaggdaddy-ish voice I reply) Nawww & walk off!”
  • Metta World Peace (The Athlete Formerly Known As Ron Artest) @ronartest, Followers: 154,671, Sample tweet: “I like metta World Peace Ron Artest is a jerk for planking in the middle of the street on a toilet!!”

Granted, what we are seeing is very authentic, and really provides a glimpse into the trash-talking world of professional sports. It also shows us how poorly prepared athletes are to function off the court/ice/playing field.

Much has been said about how athletes get a free ride in college with little to no focus on education. Certainly, we are seeing some truth to that. But we are seeing a big failure on the part of professional sports leagues and teams. They would do both their brands and players a service by providing social media training in addition to whatever coaching is provided on interacting with the media. Perhaps this will change as more and more athletes show how disconnected they are from reality.

In the interim, enjoy the laughs!

What do you think of athletes and their use of social media?

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Getting Ready for the Long Write

Posted on: August 15th, 2011 by Geoff Livingston 12 Comments

Books to be returned...
Image by hashmil

Writing two unpublished novels, two business books, and a graduate thesis teaches you a thing or two about long writing projects. Long form writing can be grueling in nature, lasting six months or even a year. When beginning such a project, it helps to have a writing program, very similar in nature to a training program that an athlete dedicates him/herself to prepare for a marathon or a long season.

Here are some methods that helped with these five projects:

Use a Blueprint

john_cage_blue_print
Image by emanueleED
Many authors use the table of contents as their blueprint. Some business writers like larger arcs — themes like the Fifth Estate — that guide their overall effort. This is analogous to a plot for a novel, but has less suspense and development to it. Nevertheless the arc may be the overarching lesson that you want people to learn.

Parts help break a book into major components. For example, a communications book may focus on strategy and then tactics. Chapters support the larger parts. These parts may have their own arcs and goals, depending on the subject matter. Welcome to the Fifth Estate had two parts, the first focused on theory and cultural readiness, while the second focused on the actual work of social media. Others simply adhere to a chapter and subsection structure.

Whatever you do, a blueprint helps guide you. You don’t have to write in a linear fashion, but having the blueprint lets you see all the areas you need to address.

Discipline

You must be disciplined and write everyday. Every damn day. When your friends give you grief for not hanging out on Twitter or going out more often, you must have the discipline to say no.

Starting tomorrow never works. That is for people who want to be authors. People who actually accomplish books write everyday. Books and other long forms of writing are accomplished paragraph by paragraph, page by page, section by section, chapter by chapter.

There will be times where one page will be brutal with each phrase coming at an absolutely painful pace. Other times you will see pages fly with the minutes. You never know which pages matter more until the editing process. Take each page as they come, but never stop writing.

Accept Crap

write down my name ...
Image by Josef Stuefer

There are parts of your work that suck. And you know they suck as soon as the words leave your fingers. You try to fix it, but you can’t. Each time you rewrite the section, it sucks. This is when you must accept crap.

That weak section fits into a picture, and you may not understand the context of the section until you complete the larger chapter. So move on. Finish the chapter, and get some distance between you and the painful section. Then go back and read it in the context of the larger chapter. Editing becomes much easier when you can pull away from the weeds for a bit.

Having an editor to bounce difficult sections off of helps. However, most writers don’t have this luxury, particularly unpublished authors or those working with small presses. If it is in your nature, join a local writing club to get support for such moments.

Take Breaks

Any process that requires this amount of isolation can unleash your demons: “It’s not perfect (it’s terrible!)”; “what if they hate it?”; “I can’t make it to the end”; “the whole concept is off”; etc. That’s when it is important to get out.

A consistent work-out schedule is very therapeutic in conjunction with the daily write. It forces you out of the house and around other people, and gets the endorphins going, clearing your mind… Until the next write.

Also, it might be good to write about anything else besides the book one day a week. Write a blog post or some other text. This keeps you in the habit of writing everyday, but gives your mind an opportunity to relax and chew on something lighter.

Fight Through the Wall

365::115 - write
Image by Reid

Inevitably there comes a time in the long write — roughly 2/3 of the way through — where you feel absolutely beaten. You can’t go on. But you have to.

This is the most brutal part of the writing process. It is what long distance runners call “hitting the wall.”

You will hit the wall, and you need to power through it. It is a fight with each sentence requiring serious effort, but once you get through that chapter (wherever it is in the process), you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The project becomes easier as you close.

Good Luck!

Other authors have different processes for dealing with the long write. Be sure to ask them how they did it, too.

And remember, no matter how many snarky social media remarks you get about books and bloggers and blah blah blah, writing a book or a major report is a significant accomplishment. Good luck on your project!

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