Items tagged with 'media'
The Collaborative
A screengrab.
The new local arts magazine from Proctors -- The Collaborative -- is now online.
The publication is an outgrowth of the remains of The Alt, and its staff includes former Alt editors David Howard King and Katie Cusack.
Among the first group of stories: talking with choreographer Nadine Medina (from the Troy Dance Factory) about working with Capital Region music acts, a visit to The Lumberyard in Catskill, a bit about the opening of the Electric City Barn, and a look around local photographer Sarah Pezdek's home.
There's also this piece by David Howard King following along as Samson Contompasis painted that new mural of Henry Johnson along Henry Johnson Boulevard. A clip:
Tonight, though, he's drawing even more attention than usual. With the sun long disappeared behind the autumn night sky, Samson pulls up in his light blue minivan and affixes a projector to a utility box on one side of Henry Johnson, connects that to a MacBook, then carries his buckets of black paint and assorted brushes across the street to a lot littered with condom wrappers and discarded snack-food bags. He takes a long painter's pole and attaches a relatively tiny brush to its end.
A man with a sign declaring that he is homeless hobbles back and forth down the opposite side of the boulevard, sometimes answering queries from passersby about why there's a MacBook on the street corner late at night, and why no one's taken it.
Here's a list of spots where you'll be able to pick up a physical copy of the mag.
"Fake News, Real Teens: Problems & Possibilities" at the Albany Public Library
The Albany Public Library and YouthFX have teamed up for a community forum called "Fake News, Real Teens: Problems & Possibilities" this Sunday at the Washington Ave Branch. Blurbage:
[All ages] For this community forum we will take a closer look at how fake news impacts young people, trends in youth access and interaction with news media, and what possibilities can be used or created to help teens better use and influence local media. Through focused breakout sessions and panel discussions led by young people and activists currently working in journalism, we will explore current examples of teens interacting with new media in new and positive ways, closing with an open discussion of concrete next steps we can take here in our community.
This forum will be led by youth journalist Muna Mire and independent journalist and community organizer Rosa Clemente. The discussion will be facilitated by Youth FX Assistant Director and co-founder Darian Henry.
The event poster mentions that Mire and Clemente will be offering examples of "communities taking on news gathering themselves and creating new and positive ways of reporting on current events." And that -- with or without teens (but hopefully with them) -- is an important topic all on its own, especially as traditional news org continue to retract.
There's a lot of information about neighborhoods and communities that circulates now in the form of newsletters, Facebook groups, public meetings, and other outlets that fills some of the information gaps -- for better and, occasionally, for worse. These haven't necessarily always been tagged as "journalism" in the past, but they very often serve a similar function. So maybe we need to change the collective way we think about all this sort of stuff -- and give some thought to how we can all be better listeners, creators, and sharers of information about the places we live.
The forum at the APL is Sunday, December 2 at 1 pm. It's free.
Michael DeMasi: What They Said
Check it out: Longtime Capital Region journalist Michael DeMasi has a book coming out that's based on the many stories he's covered around this area.
Blurbage for What They Said: 25 Years of Telling Stories:
A salvager who bought downtown Albany's biggest, ugliest building. An Irish priest lifting spirits at a maximum-security prison. A wealthy socialite whose 40 dogs eat organic chicken. A laid-off farmhand temporarily working as a human billboard. An upstate New York mayor who became the Pied Piper of Guyanese immigrants. A friendly clock enthusiast named Smiley Lumpkin.
They are some of the people Michael DeMasi has interviewed during more than 25 years in journalism. He shares what they and many others said in this collection of his favorite stories.
Mike is an ace reporter for the Business Review, and before that for the Daily Gazette and Post-Star. He is also, in our experience, consistently friendly and supportive toward fellow local media members. (See his 2016 remembrance of Marv Cermak, whom he credits for demonstrating how you can compete with others and still be friendly.)
What They Said will be available to buy starting next week at Market Block Books in Troy, The Open Door Bookstore in Schenectady, and The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, and online the following week from Troy Book Makers and Amazon.
Updated: There are also a handful of events lined up:
Harry Rosenfeld: Battling Editor
Former Times Union editor Harry Rosenfeld has a new memoir coming out: Battling Editor: The Albany Years. Blurbage:
In 1978, Harry Rosenfeld left the Washington Post, where he oversaw the paper's standard-setting coverage of Watergate, to take charge of two daily papers under co-ownership in Albany, New York: the morning Times Union and the evening Knickerbocker News. It was a particularly challenging moment in newspaper history. While new technologies were reducing labor costs on the production side and providing ever more sophisticated tools for journalists to practice their craft, those very same technologies would soon turn a comparatively short-lived boom into a grave threat, as ever more digitally distracted readers turned to sources other than print and other legacy media for their news. Between these boundaries, Rosenfeld set about to do his work.
The memoir is a follow-up to Rosenfeld's previous work, From Kristallnacht to Watergate. (Harry Rosenfeld -- and the character Harry Rosenfeld -- appear in both the book and film version of All The President's Men.)
Battling Editor will officially be released by SUNY Press in January. But a handful of events -- readings and book signings -- connected to it start this month...
Here's that SNL skit that referenced Albany
A Saturday Night Live skit this past weekend referenced Albany (mostly visually). It's embedded above.
The skit is more a spoof of local TV news and cringe-inducing public marriage proposals. The fake local TV news program open and set background include a pic of the Albany skyline. That's about the extent of the reference.
More Than Words: The Photography of Newsman Bob Paley
Bob Paley was an award-winning photographer for the Knickerbocker News for almost three decades, capturing both historical moments and the little details of everyday life.
There's a new documentary this year about his work: More Than Words: The Photography of Newsman Bob Paley. And the NYS Writers Institute will be showing it at UAlbany November 16. Blurbage:
For more than a decade [Paley] also earned national renown as a stringer for the Time-Life stable of magazines with Times Union colleague, John Maguire. Often with a single photo, he captured the mood, moment and meaning of the forces that rocked mid-20th century America.
In this new documentary, Paley's daughter Mary presents the startling and beautiful images of his singular career.
MORE THAN WORDS (co-directed by Mary Paley and Jon Russell Cring) tells the story of how a small city in upstate New York coped with the powerful forces that were unleashed as America came of age in the years following World War II. The film is truly a newspaper story; a tribute to the tireless crusaders of America's fact-based media.
Mary Paley will be at the screening for a panel discussion following. (You might remember that Mary Paley co-directed The Neighborhood That Disappeared, about the Empire State Plaza.)
It's Friday, November 16 in Page Hall on the downtown campus (135 Western Ave). It's free.
The old Knickerbocker News
The Fulton History trove of old upstate newspapers includes the Knickerbocker News, so you can browse through old pages of the paper and see some of Paley's work. (The image quality is, admittedly, not great.) In just a few minutes, you can come across photos of the Empire State Plaza construction, George Wallace's visit to Albany (and the resulting protests) in 1968, and fun photos of the day.
Museum of Political Corruption honoring Pulitzer Prize winners Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey in Albany
Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. / Kantor and Twohey photos: Wikipedia user Fuzheado (Andrew Lih) (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Museum of Political Corruption will be honoring Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey with this year's Nellie Bly Award November 29 at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany.
The two New York Times journalists won the Pulitzer Prize this year in the public service category, along with Ronan Farrow, for "impactful journalism that exposed powerful and wealthy sexual predators, including allegations against one of Hollywood's most influential producers, bringing them to account for long-suppressed allegations of coercion, brutality and victim silencing, thus spurring a worldwide reckoning about sexual abuse of women."
Kantor and Twohey will appear at the event via Skype and answer questions from the audience.
The evening will also include a roundtable discussion about the #MeToo movement. The lists of panelists is below.
The event is Thursday, November 29 starting at 6 pm at the the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany (405 Washington Ave). There will be a reception with light fare. Tickets are $40 / $15 for students (or $5 for students without the reception) and available online (see the link above).
Troy Letter
Check it out: Local journalist Luke Stoddard Nathan has started a weekly email newsletter about all sorts of Troy-related things. It is called, fittingly, Troy Letter. The second issue popped up this past Friday.
It's free. Hit that link just above here, enter your email address, click the confirmation link, and you can be signed up in just a few seconds.
Nathan was, of course, the news editor for the The Alt until it recently stopped publishing. (He also contributed here at AOA a while back.) As he explained in the first issue of Troy Letter:
The tone/style will be more informal than what I produced for The Alt. I'll use slang, abbreviations, shorthand, "I," etc. I might occasionally speak up at the myriad city meetings I attend, rather than adhere to the more traditional, fly-on-the-wall code of decorum for reporters. I see this as something like a "neighborhood blog" for the city of Troy, one that reflects my own interests/tastes/sensibilities.
The issue that landed this past Friday included a discussion of possible gyms in downtown Troy, the city's trash policies, real estate projects, a court case, events, and all sorts of odds and ends.
If you live in Troy, spend time in Troy, or care about Troy in some way, there are probably at least a few bits in there that will interest you.
Albany's award-winning Youth FX now has a home of its own
Check it out: Youth FX has a new home.
The award-winning program in Albany that helps young people build digital media skills -- and create some first-rate films -- has moved into a space of its own on Warren Street across from the Capital South Campus Center.
Here's a quick look around, and few bits about what's up with the always interesting program...
Interesting stories to cover in 2017
With 2017 about to end, we're talking with a bunch of people about the past year.
Next up: We asked a handful of local reporters about which stories were most interesting to cover this year...
Kate Welshofer is leaving for a job in Buffalo
It's our understanding that Anchorcat Brian is excited about the moving boxes.
Updated Thursday at 3:20 pm.
Kate Welshofer announced on her Facebook page Thursday that she's leaving Spectrum News for a job in Buffalo with WGRZ. From her post (link added):
Plain and simple--my YouTube channel got me this job.
So, after 20 years in the business, I am being given the chance to be able do what I have always wanted to do on television on a consistent basis and that is: give people a reason to smile. ...
To anyone not sure if they should do something weird, do it. Not everybody's going to get it but, when you least expect it, somebody will....and it will change your life.
Her last night on Spectrum is Thursday.
Speaking of rolling the credits
Kate recently teamed up with Greg Aidala for a series of super short comedy bits, called Credits...
"Telling the Truth in a Post-truth World" series at UAlbany
HuffPost editor in chief (and former TU reporter) Lydia Polgreen is one of the panelists for the symposium. / photo via Lydia Polgreen Facebook
Tucked into the new schedule of fall events for the New York State Writers Institute is mention of a series of events -- including a big gathering at UAlbany's downtown campus October 13-14 -- called "Telling the Truth in a Post-truth World." Blurbage:
What is truth in an era that has been called post-truth?
What does it mean that Oxford Dictionaries declared "post-truth" its international word of the year in 2016? Or that Time magazine recently asked on its cover: "Is Truth Dead?"
The New York State Writers Institute presents a series of events, culminating in a two-day conference featuring acclaimed journalists, authors, historians, and First Amendment scholars, who will share their views on issues including "fake news;" Constitutional protections for a free press; information overload; the shifting roles of social media; hacking and cybersecurity; and more.
The October 13-14 symposium slate includes a bunch of discussions featuring high-profile journalists, media thinkers, and academics. Among them: Lydia Polgreen, Bob Schieffer, Bill Keller, Amy Goodman, Tim Wu, Harry Rosenfeld, Maria Hinojosa, Jeff Jarvis, and Gilbert King.
And October 12, author/journalist/radio host Kurt Andersen will be on the uptown campus for a conversation. Admission for that talk is $30 and includes a copy of Andersen's new book, Fantasyland.
Here's the panel lineup for the symposium...
Paul Grondahl is the next director of the NYS Writers Institute
Paul Grondahl is set to become the director of the New York State Writers Institute at UAlbany, the org announced Friday.
His last day at the Times Union is February 17 -- though he tells Amy Biancolli (in the TU) he'll continue to contribute columns as time allows. He's worked at the paper for more than three decades and for much of that time has been one of this area's premiere journalists. It's the end of an era. A lot of people are going to miss regularly reading his work.
From a NYS Writers Institute press release:
William Kennedy, Founder and Executive Director of the Writers Institute said "Paul is a great choice for director of the Writers Institute for a lot of reasons. Above all, he's a serious writer. He's very savvy about literature and writers, and as a journalist, he's nonpareil - maybe the best we've had in this town in 30 years or more. He's written two well-received biographies of major political figures on our local stage - Teddy Roosevelt, and Erastus Corning, the singular mayor of Albany for 42 years. Paul also got his masters in English at UAlbany and he's covered many of the major writers who have visited the Institute."
It's hard to imagine finding someone better for the job.
The only downside is that Paul Grondahl can't write a profile of Paul Grondahl as leaves the TU.
Earlier: NYS Writers Institute visiting writers spring 2017
photo via Paul Grondahl Twitter
Discussing "The Future of Digital News"
Outspoken Media in Troy is hosting a discussion about the future of digital news February 21 -- how it's gathered, how it's distributed, how it's presented. You might be shocked to hear there are one or two things to talk about on this topic right now. The panel:
+ UAlbany professor/investigative journalist Rosemary Armao
+ Politico Albany bureau chief Jimmy Vielkind
+ WAMC news director Ian Pickus
+ Greg Dahlmann from AOA
So, three distinguished panelists with some rando tacked on at the end. Outspoken's Rhea Drysdale will moderate the discussion, with Q&A afterward.
The event is Tuesday, February 21 starting at 6:30 pm at Outspoken's offices in downtown Troy (5 State Street). Tickets are $10 / $5 students and available online -- proceeds will be donated to ProPublica. (We hear space is limited.)
Interesting stories to cover in 2016
With 2016 about to end, we're talking with a bunch of people about the past year.
Next up: We asked a handful of local reporters about which stories were most interesting to cover this year...
Our guest speaker today is...
One of the odd things about my job is that sometimes I get asked to speak in college classes about it -- often journalism classes, but sometimes classes in other disciplines, too. And sometimes Mary and I get asked to appear together, which is fun.
I usually say yes when asked because I enjoy talking with students and hearing their thoughts on things. It's also a prompt to think critically about what we do at AOA and the media business in general.
The last class talk was just a few weeks ago. And given the interest people have had in the past when meta-media stuff has come up here on AOA, I figured I'd pull together some of the topics that usually come up during these conversations.
Paging through The Alt
The new weekly backed by Proctors, The Daily Gazette, and Overit -- The Alt -- is now three issues into its run. (New issues are released on Tuesdays.)
Here are few quick initial thoughts about the publication so far.
On trying to fill the space left by Metroland
It's been about six months since Metroland stopped publishing, leaving a hole in the local media scene. And this week came official public word of a new effort intended to fill that left-behind niche.
The Daily Gazette, Proctors, and Overit announced Tuesday that they've joined together to back a new weekly publication called The Alt. From a Proctors press release:
This collaboration between for-profit and not-for-profit groups reflects the best practices of the creative economy and will be a well-curated, thought-provoking and constantly updated portal to goings-on in the eight county Capital Region; enticing new visitors and speaking dynamically to young locals and travelers alike with a vibrant, irreverent and tech-savvy flavor.
An article in the Daily Gazette includes a bunch of other details. They're expecting to launch this fall.
As you might expect, we have a few thoughts about all this. So here they are, along with a notable disclosure.
Jordan Carleo-Evangelist is leaving the Times Union
Jordan Carleo-Evangelist, who's covered the city (and county) of Albany for the Times Union for many years, is leaving the paper, he publicly announced today. Friday is his last day. He's taking a job at UAlbany.
From his post over at Medium:
Not least of all, thanks to the Times Union for giving me a chance to do a job I truly loved in the capital of my home state. The TU is still full of great people doing really great work in creative new ways. I hope you'll continue to support the paper and the people who make it worth reading every day.
On the (rare) occasions that someone asks me what I think about the future for local news, I tell them that I think we get the best news we're willing to pay for. I truly believe that. You can't demand quality local news and expect it to be free. You wouldn't buy ground beef or bike helmet that way.
His departure is a loss for both the Times Union and the local media scene. Covering local government isn't always regarded as the most exciting beat, but in his coverage and our conversations with him, Jordan always came across as curious and interested in how things worked and why. That curiosity even extended to topics that don't necessarily grab headlines, despite their ultimate importance. (A recent example: His ongoing coverage of the behind-the-scenes maneuvering for judgeships in the area.)
Media orgs -- and cities -- need people like that.
photo: @JCEvangelist_TU
Emily Nussbaum at Skidmore
Update: It was announced Monday afternoon that Emily Nussbaum won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for criticism.
____
Could be interesting/fun: Emily Nussbaum -- the TV critic for The New Yorker -- will be at Skidmore Thursday evening for a talk. It's at 7 pm in Palamountain Hall -- it's free and open to the public.
Event blurbage: "She will be lecturing on her time in journalism, the relationship between journalism and media and how online journalism is changing!" Nussbaum has written for/worked at a bunch of outlets: NY Mag, Slate, NYT, Nerve, Lingua Franca, Television Without Pity.
Here's a clip from her 2015 end-of-year list for The New Yorker, taking on the topic of "prestige" television:
Baby we were born to be viral content
Gotta' let the girls sleep in tomorrow. Tardiness excuses are all set.
Posted by Patrick Pipino on Monday, February 8, 2016
You've probably seen that note written by a local dad to excuse his daughter from being late for school following the Bruce Springsteen show at the TU Center Monday night. It's gotten a ton of shares and it's been all over the local media today. And it's already spreading into the national and international media.
Whether intentional or not, that note is pretty much perfect viral content fodder. So to help, we've pre-written headlines for a bunch of websites in the event they pick up the story for their own traffic trolling and hot-taking:
Buzzfeed: 17 reasons you wish Springsteen note dad was your dad (gif listicle)
Vox: How one girl was excused from class following a Springsteen show, in one note
Slate: It's not only OK for parents to bring their kids to school late, it should be encouraged
Vice: Inside the dark world of manufacturing family memories
Reddit: I wrote a funny late note for my daughter following a Springsteen concert, AMA
FiveThirtyEight: That Springsteen tardy note has a 73 percent chance of working
The Atlantic: Are we all viral content now?
Pitchfork: Dad shares derivative tardy note after exposing daughter to late-Bruce
NPR: What a sociologist says about that Bruce Springsteen school note
Mashable: The most Boss late note ever
NYT: In Saratoga Springs, an excuse and a memory to last a lifetime
Interesting stories to cover 2015
Updated
With 2016 about the start, we're asking a bunch of people about favorite/interesting things from 2015.
Next up: We asked a handful of local reporters about which stories were most interesting to cover this year...
Every local publication is Metroland now
A bunch of people have asked us what we think about the recent situation surrounding Metroland. We've mostly steered clear of the topic because the status of the weekly was up in the air. But it's been two weeks now since it last published. And while there's still some hope Metroland might find a way out of all this, maybe a new backer of some sort -- it also sounds like this very well could be the end.
If that's the case -- that Metroland has published for the final time -- it will be sad. Because it'll be the end of a four-decade run. Because the local media scene will have a hole in it. Because people will lose their jobs.
It will also be sad because, in a way, every local publication is Metroland right now.
Longhouse Food Revival 2015
The Longhouse Food Revival returns to Rensselaerville this weekend. This year's focus is the Chinese American experience. Blurbage for the Saturday program:
Located on a historic dairy farm in upstate New York, the LongHouse Food Revival combines original multimedia presentations, great discussions and insight from leading thinkers in food media today. It's a place to make new friends, forge new connections and cook up new ideas. Our meals are one-time, unscripted happenings that emanate from our Live Fire Cooking Arena -- you won't experience anything like this anywhere else. People leave LongHouse Food Revival with full bellies and full minds.
The weekend will kick off with a lunch of chun-bing, Northern China's version of a burrito, crafted from scratch and made-to-order by the young kitchen powerhouses from Junzi Kitchen of New Haven, CT.
After lunch, we'll gather in the barn for our Pop-Up Food Magazine, a series of multimedia presentations, original documentary films, presentations by authors, bloggers, publishers and producers, as well as spoken word and cooking demonstrations, to set the stage for an afternoon of discussion. The experience has been called magical by more than one hard-bitten veteran of the nation's food media corps.
One of the organizers of the event is author and former NYT food writer Molly O'Neill -- here's a video in which she explains the background.
There's also a Saturday evening dinner headed up by chef and author Kian Lam Kho -- "at the helm of a team of fearless chefs to orchestrate a spectacle of stir-frying, braising and steaming, offering a Chinese take on the bounty of the Hudson River Valley" ($125). And on Sunday there's a food flea event with 50 food entrepreneurs, farmers, and artisans ($25).
Tickets for the whole weekend are $250. That's not cheap, but we've heard from people who have attended in past years and they seemed to get a lot out of it, so it might be worth it if you're interested in these topics.
(Thanks, Deanna)
Grilling with Kate
TWC/Charter/Not-Comcast News really just needs to give Kate Welshofer her own show.
... said KGB about Drawing: What's something that brought you joy this year?