• The Entertainment Industry Gets Its Own Twitter Dashboard
  "What’s more interesting than the dashboard itself is the audience: the entertainment industry. The dashboard was developed with networks, studios and their agencies in mind. The tool points to the growing trend of social media’s impact on the entertainment industry, and the industry’s emerging need to better understand the online conversations happening around their entertainment properties in real-time.

  Now that social media factors into the success and ratings of movies, award shows, and major television events (think the Tiger Woods press conference), tools like Trendrr’s real-time dashboard will become paramount when identifying the actual impact of these online conversations."

  (tags: beyondtheecho impact)

Please help spread the word! Send this flyer to your S.F. pals…

Join me and Tracy for a conversation with three high-impact independent media producers about how social media platforms are powering vibrant, diverse journalism experiments. On hand will be Steve Katz, the publisher of award-winning investigative magazine Mother Jones; Kevin Weston, the Director of New Media and Youth Communications at ethnic news network New America Media, and Susan Mernit, editor and publisher of community news hub Oakland Local. Learn how these pioneers are thriving in the rapidly shifting media environment and shaping independent journalism for the future.

Time: 6:00-7:30 PM Thursday, March 18th
Location: The Women’s Building, Audre Lorde Room, 3543 18th Street

Special thanks to our co-sponsors:

Media Alliance, G.W. Williams Center for Independent Journalism, Bay Area Video Coalition, Mother Jones, New America Media, Oakland Local

• Arianna Huffington Preaches 4E's of Web Content at 4A's – Advertising Age – Special Report: AAAA Conference 2010
  " 'This is the era of engagement,' Ms. Huffington said, then quoted musician Will.i.am's assessment of the news climate, where consumers used to get news on the couch, and are now getting news on a 'galloping horse.'

  To demonstrate the rise of user-generated content, Ms. Huffington said that more video was uploaded to YouTube in the last two months than if the major networks had created original content every minute of every day since 1948. She urged advertisers and media outlets to recognize that the abundance of user-generated content means content organizations need to step out of the center of the news universe and invite users into the news-gathering process — a model her own site, the Huffington Post, has grown up on. "

  (tags: beyondtheecho rebirth_of_journalism)

• Is the Future Bright for Progressive Media? | Media and Culture | AlterNet
  "Led by aggressive creative media makers like Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films, Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake, John Byrne of Raw Story, and Mark Karlin of BuzzFlash, the new progressive media use a range of strategies and tactics that are far more hard-hitting and activist-oriented than the smaller print magazine universe that dominated progressive media for a long time. (Heck, the Nation magazine is 145 years old.)

  But before the progressive media establishment gets too cocky about its role, there are still major weaknesses and some dark clouds on the horizon. Clark and Van Slyke don't sidestep the obstacles, spending the better half of the book weaving the challenges of the future with the success stories and promoting models of social networking and collaboration they feel can increase the progressive media's new-found influence."

  (tags: beyondtheecho book)

• MediaCitizen: What to do about Huffington Post
  "I respect Huffington Post for building a home for many of us who seek an alternative to the mainstream mouthpieces that dominate news and commentary. But they do not, unfortunately, require the kind of disclosure I'd like to see regarding a new crop of contributors who are using the site to push corporate agendas. I'm hoping that will change soon."
  (tags: buildtheecho bias)