Making Alternative Media

Hey class, the Blogger template I’m strongly encouraging you to use for your CSS experiments is at this URI:
http://www.bricolog.org/altmedia/readings/RTF319Template.html

For Friday, I’d like everyone to hand in 1.5-2 pages about their experiences making ‘zines. Here’s what I’m looking for.

• I’d like you to describe your role in the production of the ‘zine. Tell me which pages you created, and, if your group divided up labor, tell me if you did the layout, the cover art, or whatever special contribution you made.
• Spill the beans about who did what in your group. If someone held up the production of the ‘zine or didn’t carry their share of the load, let me know. This will help me assign grades. Conversely, if someone did an outstanding job or had their work in early, tell me also.
• If you have any thoughts about what you could have done better to manage the group project, share this with me.
• Finally, I want everyone to spend some time distributing the ‘zine this week. Write a paragraph describing your efforts, and what kinds of feedback you may have gotten for readers..
I hope this is clear, and I’ll see y’all on Wednesday!

Allright, next week’s readings are online, so no one has an excuse not to read them. First, I’d like you to read Tim O’Reilly’s essay “What is Web 2.0,” which introduced the concept to the world. Then, check out this meta-post that lists a variety of explanations of Web 2.0, and pick two to look over and be ready to discuss in class. In addition, these articles are rather techy and often business-y, so before you come to class come up with an answer to the question, “What the heck does Web 2.0 have to do with alternative media?”

I wonder what class members make of Peter Bagge’s cartoon essay on immigration policy for the libertarian journal Reason. While I wouldn’t consider Reason alternative media for the purposes of academic study, I certainly consider Bagge, a longtime underground cartoonist, a practicioner of alternative media. He’s best known for his comic series “Hate,” which is published by alt.comics press Fantagraphics.

Sorry for switching back and forth between email and the blog for class communications. Since we discussed resolution and printing on Friday, I thought I would point you to this handy guide for minimum resolutions and photo-quality printing.

If you weren’t in class Friday, I moved back the due date for the ‘zine project to next Friday, October 20th. However, this Friday we’ll swap weeks, and take a quiz. I’m currently making a review sheet for the quiz to distribute on Wednesday.

For Wednesday, I’d like you to read Weblogs: a history and perspective by Rebecca Blood. I’m sure you’ll find it a little dated since it was published in 2000, when blogs were first starting to gain momentum. It is, however, interesting because it provides a nice bridge between the world of blogs and the ‘zine phenomenon.

In addition, spend 20-30 minutes looking at a blog of your choice to learn about the purpose of the site, the voice of the author, and whatever qualitative observations come to mind. We’ll be talking about that blog in class.

It’s apparent that people need a little guidance with HTML and using Blogger’s formatting interface, so if there’s time on Wednesday, I’ll go over some features of Blogger. If not, we’ll do some HTML work on Friday, plus some more Illustrator.

In class tomorrow, we’ll have a guest speaker, Leslie Dreyer, who will be speaking about her experiences curating the Parallax View sidebar to the Cinematexas film festival. She’ll also be discussing some of her favorite alternative media texts and techniques.

Don’t forget to read Chapter 3 of Dan Gillmor’s We The Media, which you can download for free here. We’ll be discussing it after Leslie’s talk.

See you tomorrow.

Markos Moulitas of the liberal blog DailyKos will be speaking at Monkeywrench Books this Thursday at 6pm. He’ll be signing copies of his new book Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics, which I haven’t read, but discusses how alternative media can be deployed for mainstream political success. The last time I checked, DailyKos was the most widely read political blog, so I’m sure Mr. Moulitas can share insights on how to reach a broad audience through a polical blog.

I’ll have a class conflict, so I won’t be able to attend, but I imagine a few people in class may be interested in this event. Monkeywrench in the North Loop “hipster stripmall” at 110 E. North Loop Blvd.

I was looking at this page about the Barbie Liberation Organization and discovered I was wrong about something I said about the group in class. Apparently, the voice boxes of the talking G.I. Joes and Barbies weren’t quite interchangeable. Here’s what the site has to say:

The surgery was no simple matter — circuit boards had to be trimmed, a capacitor moved, and a switch re-engineered. The press made it sound like an easy pop-and-switch operation, but this took some research and dedication.

Here’s an interview with the BLO.

Today in class I’ll go over basic page layout in Microsoft Word before I do an introductory tutorial in Illustrator. For the tutorial (and your own use) I’ve created a very basic Word template for creating ‘zines.