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No Spin Zone. 
“Mr Dromi [a former government press adviser and air force colonel] admitted that the administration will struggle to win hearts and minds if footage of those suffering in Gaza continues to be shown. ‘When you have a Palestinian kid facing an Israeli tank, how do you explain that the tank is actually David and the kid is Goliath? That is why the television kills us.’” Not only has the Israeli government barred journalists from entering Gaza, they also bombed the local TV station on second day of the assault.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Consulate in New York yesterday held a “citizen’s press conference” on its new Twitter channel and blog, while the IDF’s new YouTube channel is going strong.
Update January 13, 2009: Hamas has launched its own YouTube equivalent and Al Jazeera has made its latest video from Gaza freely available at broadcast quality under a Creative Commons license.
“Mr Dromi [a former government press adviser and air force colonel] admitted that the administration will struggle to win hearts and minds if footage of those suffering in Gaza continues to be shown. ‘When you have a Palestinian kid facing an Israeli tank, how do you explain that the tank is actually David and the kid is Goliath? That is why the television kills us.’” Not only has the Israeli government barred journalists from entering Gaza, they also bombed the local TV station on second day of the assault.Meanwhile, the Israeli Consulate in New York yesterday held a “citizen’s press conference” on its new Twitter channel and blog, while the IDF’s new YouTube channel is going strong.
Update January 13, 2009: Hamas has launched its own YouTube equivalent and Al Jazeera has made its latest video from Gaza freely available at broadcast quality under a Creative Commons license.
31 December 2008 | whatdavoloves.com. This brief but clever social-networky video web site published by Queensland Transport in Australia is really an anti-speeding campaign. The twist is sudden and unexpected.
spot.us. What will happen to investigative journalism when news is free and the old newsprint conglomerates have evaporated? Spot.us is one interesting, simple trial in “citizen-funded community journalism:” 1. People submit tips. 2. Journalists pitch stories based on the tips. 3. Community members share the cost of reporting with micro-donations. 4. Spot.Us will work with local news organizations to publish the story in as many places as possible, or will give exclusive rights to a news organization that is willing to reimburse the original donors. The pilot is focused on the San Francisco Bay Area, but it could be easily adapted to other areas.
Whatever Happened to "A Day Without Art?". What began on December 1, 1989 as an annual day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis seems to have mostly vanished today. Whatever happened to a day without weblogs?
Soup Kitchens and Food Pantries in NYC. The Coalition Against Hunger hosts this Google map of over 1,000 hunger and food resources in New York City, searchable by borough and zip code. The raw data is also available.
8 Years Later
This has been blogged pretty heavily, but a friend hadn’t seen it so I’m posting it here. This is my favorite video short of this election cycle. It shows so much in just two minutes: war, Katrina, the economy, housing and infrastructure collapse... telegraphing familiar characters from their past comfort into the present crises, riding humor into pathos and back again into hope. For readers outside the US, the video is based on a short film that became a popular, widely aired TV ad some 8 years ago. More at wikipedia.
Behind the Candidates. A stylish Flash dossier on advisors to the Obama and McCain campaigns on foreign and domestic policy. Beautiful, well-researched, and engaging.
PalinAsPresident.us. What if? An interactive tableaux satirizing vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. It’s a bit like a spread from Good Night Bush with lots of hidden gags.
Video Your Vote. YouTube and PBS are calling for videos about peoples' voting experiences this November 4. A curated selection will be broadcast on PBS. It's being billed as a non-partisan documentary effort, but secondarily, it's clearly a way of gathering narrative evidence of anticipated problems and widescale disenfranchisement: voter role purges, access inequities, voting machine errors, etc.
Designism Connects. A new website that matches non-profit organizations with designers to work on creative projects for social change. Browse the list of projects here. The site is a collaboration between the Art Directors Club and idealist.org, tapping into their massive international network of organizations.
