Team New Orleans Announced
Earlier this week, we posted about a community media effort led by Chartruese to send a group of bloggers, podcasters, or videobloggers down to New Orleans to report on the “ground truth” of what was happening.
Along with The Blogging Times, Know More Media, and 1938 Media, we’ve been excited to have sponsored this effort.
This effort is important to us for a number of reasons. First, a good friend of mine was personally responsible for some private sector crisis management efforts related to Hurricane Katrina. Just to hear his own story about what he went through trying to ascertain the safety of around a thousand employees of his corporation was enough to scare the hell out of me.
Second, Katrina was the largest natural disaster in the United States. Avoidable? Perhaps not. Fucked up? Totally.
Finally, we have a vested interest in blogging.. or what we’re calling in this case Citizen’s Media. On the ground reporting from folks that don’t have a mainstream media connection will produce what I hope to be some raw and challenging footage and thoughts that will show us what the current state of affairs in New Orleans really is.
Here’s the team that will be visiting New Orleans this weekend:
From New York, New York, 1938 Media’s Loren Feldman.
From Los Angeles, California, Mishikea Brathwaite.
From San Francisco, California, New Orleans native Travis Campbell.
Assisting the team on the ground in New Orleans is Candice Quates.
We hope to have an interview posted soon with members of the team. Keep an eye for stories here and at New Orleans Now.
Cool stuff. I’m excited to see what we can all do in terms of reporting this project, to hopefully get some change for good to occur that may not have happened yet.
I’m going to go all offtopic here…
Hand grenades. Those things are gross. About the only thing cool about them is the guy who dances around in the street in a hand grenade costume, prompting your crowd to start making monty python jokes about holy hand grenades.
But seriously, thanks for the coverage.
I posted a link on my site. I hope there can be some synergies. Thanks for your interest in our unique story.
I’m doing a post for this concept on my Blog. It’s definitely a good thing you are doing!
Namaste!!!
“Finally, we have a vested interest in blogging.. or what we’re calling in this case Citizen’s Media. On the ground reporting from folks that don’t have a mainstream media connection will produce what I hope to be some raw and challenging footage and thoughts that will show us what the current state of affairs in New Orleans really is.”
Hmmm … I wonder what we NOLA bloggers have been doing over the past year. I’ve been schooled. Guess we should just shut down our blogs.
Then again, outsider perspective that is not MSM is not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, it is good and New Orleans needs all the attention it can get, nationally and abroad. You may want to call attention to local voices who have been working hard (for no pay) since Katrina, you know, in the spirit of shiny, happy synergy and all.
Good work!
“Finally, we have a vested interest in blogging.. or what we’re calling in this case Citizen’s Media. On the ground reporting from folks that don’t have a mainstream media connection will produce what I hope to be some raw and challenging footage and thoughts that will show us what the current state of affairs in New Orleans really is.”
Hmmm … I wonder what we NOLA bloggers have been doing over the past year. I’ve been schooled. Guess we should just shut down our blogs.
Then again, outsider perspective that is not MSM is not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, it’s great. New Orleans needs all the attention it can get, nationally and abroad.
You may want to give props to local bloggers who have been writing on this city tirelessly (without pay) since Katrina and the flood. You know, in the interest of shiny, happy synergy and all.
fair challenge!
i sent you an email – who are the bloggers that we should be profiling here? There’s a great story to be told about New Orleans.. where do we start?
Matt
Here, with this list of 100 NOLA or area blogs. We’re all citizen journalists, updating and conducting acts of citizen internet activism almost everyday since the storm. Welcome to the party!
http://thinknola.com/wiki/Rising_Tide_Conference#New_Orleans_Bloggers
Maitri
There is no end of stories, we all have them. I would suggest a modicum of researh beforee your arrival, many of the blogs crosslink to each other so it should require little effort to dig up the ones you choose to pursue.
Please keep in mind that while we do all appreciate the interest, and will do anything we can to help you, we have all been actively blogging from the front lines since before the storm. There is now a pretty tight community of NOLABLoggers that have been organizing in a way I am not aware of ever occurring before. We are all comparitively on edge from living in a disaster zone for close to a year.
In the original post you said, ” Finally, we have a vested interest in blogging.. or what we’re calling in this case Citizen’s Media. On the ground reporting from folks that don’t have a mainstream media connection will produce what I hope to be some raw and challenging footage and thoughts that will show us what the current state of affairs in New Orleans really is.” I would like to point something out to you.
The above, when read by someone here in NOLA, can easily come off as presumptuous. There has been a steady stream of audio, video, and text churning from this city’s few functioning areas with internet. One of the major problems, as seen by this community, is the lack of info the general public has access to.
I do not offer these observations as an offensive gesture, simply a statement of the realities (as I see them), and a words as to how things may be taken when framed in certain languge. I belive I speak for us all when I say that we welcome and appreceaite your effort and look forward to meeting y’all face to face.
Anyone who is interested in communicating the circumstances here is most welcome. Look me up, I will be doing audiocasts for the New Orleans Oral history Project (http://neworleansoralhistory.blogspot.com ). I would love to audiocast your reactions after you see the reality. If there is anything I can do to be of assistance let me know!
My first reaction when reading this:
Earlier this week, we posted about a community media effort led by Chartruese to send a group of bloggers, podcasters, or videobloggers down to New Orleans to report on the “ground truth� of what was happening.
was that it was somewhat presumptuous and arrogant to talk about “ground truth” when you haven’t even reached out to local bloggers, many of whom have been dealing with and blogging about this story since Katrina first entered the Gulf. As if we’ve been living in some sort of tech backwater for a whole year and the missionanary bloggers are going to finally bring civilization to us backward natives.
Come down and join us. Come down and help. But look and listen and learn, we know a lot more than you think we do down here.
Thanks Mr. Melpomene for linking the locals to this and thanks Maitri and Loki as well.
I share the above remarks by my colleagues and friends among the New Orleans blog community. The network of storytelling, mutual support, and advocacy occurring in the local blog community is one of the most incredible stories post-Katrina, but precisely because the MSM isn’t tuned into this kind of stuff, it has gone unreported. They’re starting to catch up, however, realizing that a lot of momentum is, if not started in the blog community, a reflection of popular sentiment that the MSM is totally missing.
I commend your effort, truly, but it is a little naive at least to suggest that nobody but the MSM is putting out stories.
May I add my voice to Maitri, Ray, Mr.M, Loki and Ggirl — Read some of the Nola blogs and you will find solid research, facts and many first-hand accounts of life in post-K Nola. We have all been blogging our hearts out and are a committed, organized community here. We do appreciate your help and interest but certainly don’t assume there is a blogger void here! Far from it!
I’m guessing you guys are busy reading. Isn’t it wonderful?
I would very much like to see some response to this thread by either the BlogHerald or the NOLA team they are sending down. Almost the entirety so far is new Orleans based bloggers.
Please chime in anytime.
Hi,
Keep in mind that the larger discussion around this effort is happening over at Chartreuse’s blog – but I believe that all of you have raised very valid points.
This deserves a post of its own, so I’ll just respond briefly and then come back to this in a post tomorrow.. but let me apologize for those of you that I offended, that certainly was not my intention.
I’ve read many of your blogs in the past and many of you have done a wonderful job of calling attention to what’s happening – and what has happened – in the areas affected by Katrina.
That said, I believe that having others visit to write about New Orleans and the road back to the ‘new normal’ is not a bad thing – not at all. It’s only going to serve to call attention to the work that each of you have already begun.
I’ll have more to say tomorrow — thanks again for dropping by, and I appreciate all of the challenges..
Matt
I’m one the of NOLA bloggers and I’m a bit skeptical of this enterprise. But I do wish it well. I do, however, wonder if you can get to the truth of something if you don’t know the terrain and the players. For example, how many of this team knows that Nagin was re-elected by a coalition of people who love Jesse Jackson along with people who think Bush is a swell President. That’s right, he was re-elected by a coaltion of poor blacks and rich conservative Repubs. His coalition has already crumbled.
I guess I don’t count as a NOLA blogger. And Travis and Chartreuse don’t count as natives because they don’t currently live here.
Chill out y’all, we’ll try to stay as real as possible. I thought it couldn’t hurt for them to do more coverage, either. And I am fairly certain I have friends in common with several of you folks. I for one am not discounting anyone’s coverage. (Maitri and Loki both, that planning process stuff is good work. Post more. Please.)
I’ve read some of the local blogs tonight and ouch are people upset.
A couple observations:
* We’re funding part of this effort, we’re not leading it.
* I think it’s important to understand the background of some of this:
http://chartreuse.wordpress.com/2006/08/03/team-new-orleans/
http://chartreuse.wordpress.com/2006/08/01/new-media-that-matters-ii-or-how-upside-down-media-works/
Char (Prince) is a New Orleans native and has been talking about New Orleans for as long as I have known him.
For those of you that were offended, you have my apologies.
I still believe passionately in the effort that Chartreuse is engaged in by sending this group to New Orleans.
I note that Candice has commented a bit about her role in all of this as well.
Thanks,
Matt
For the record, we’re not all so easily offended. I got nothing but love for all y’all. If you want a tour of Mid-City look me up.
I’m sort of the renegade of the group. Having said that, recruit and bring medical staff down here. Recruit and bring people who can build housing for the construction workers who will be arriving here but with no place to live. Bring some folks to gut some houses. Come step in it and smell it and get your hands dirty. You are welcomed, just don’t bring any B.S. We sort of have a clue as to what is wrong.
Ditto