Entrepreneurial Journalism: Defined.

After asking a variety of Belmont University journalism students and professors what they thought about entrepreneurial journalism, I realized that there really is no clear definition. It is interesting, however, to hear different interpretations on this idea. I uploaded the series of interviews to Seesmic in order to “start a new conversation” where people can discuss the opinions stated through “replies.”

Be sure to join the conversation and check out these interviews on Seesmic as well.

From Facebook to Twitter Convocation Slideshow

On Monday March 2, 2009 Belmont University’s “Practicum Pioneers” hosted a convocation event entitled From Facebook to Twitter: Rules, Rights and Realities of Social Networks. A panel of experts to discussed the latest controversies regarding online social networks, privacy issues and copyright laws. Panelists to included the Freedom Forum’s Gene Policinski, Nashville attorney Doug Pierce (a specialist in media/First Amendment issues), Belmont Web Developer Paul Chenoweth, journalism student Abby Selden and Nashvillest.com co-founder Morgan Levy.

Click here to view a slideshow of photos detailing the events and to add your own comments!

Spanish professors sound off about English Only

Jessica Walker interviewed two Spanish professors, asking them their opinion on the English Only measure.

Using Twitter in the Classroom

Here’s an interesting article on the many uses of twitter for classrooms from Tom Barrett.
I’m not so sure how I feel about some of them. While college students might appreciate the humor involved with limiting historical person’s biographies to 150 characters, I’m not so sure I would want my child’s first encounter with George Washington to occur in “tweets.” Or that I want my child’s teacher tweeting about what’s going on in her classroom instead of teaching my child how to read.
It would be interesting though to have a discussion based thread of tweets where students have to limit their responses to 150 characters. That would provide a nice control for a debate topic.
However you feel about Twitter aside, it’s interesting to see how far people are going and how much time they’re spending making sure people know that Twitter is an important media tool.

The White House Blog

On my (new) daily jaunt to Pressthink.com, I discovered something I didn’t expect. Along with a White House that (almost) welcomes the press, we also have a President who thought it necessary to keep a blog, or rather, someone in his administration did. It’s an interesting concept none the less.
Or drop a line at the Office of Public Liaison.

Jay Rosen’s blog offers some advice to the new President which could basically be summed up in three quick tips 1) write it (everything) yourself, 2) welcome the press and 3) have the capacity to communicate to the press effectively.
Sound like good ideas to me.