A New Way to Distribute Your Story

I've got a good example of the future when it comes to news!

It comes in the form of a posting on YouTube.

It's something to take notice of, mainly for the technique used by the distributors.  It shows how major news is more than ever in the hands of those who can afford to put it out there for public consumption.

This particular example is from the City of Los Angeles' public transit system, Metro.

Traditional media, including television news, nearly ignored Metro's big announcement this last week.  It involved a press conference about a project that could top a BILLION DOLLARS.

So the agency figured out how to distribute the press conference itself, and did it:

Transit Project Press Conference

Keep in mind, this is no small project!

It involves linking downtown Los Angeles more closely together with public transit.  Trains running through downtown will finally be linked, but at a cost of more than a half-billion dollars!  It's going to take the rest of the decade to build it.

The agency sends out a regular email with important updates on projects as well as events.  It just so happens that this time it included the video from past week's announcement.

Forward-thinking leaders are increasingly posting video of their appearances on the Internet, bypassing what has been a traditional filter of writers, reporters and editors.

The Road to Downtown Los Angeles

I think it's shocking when you consider what's going to happen to downtown Los Angeles!

Imagine the city's Union Station when it's seamlessly connected to the region.  You'll be able to get on about any train and get to Downtown L.A.

It's happening!  What has been a disjointed series of connections will be fused through a more than half-billion dollar project:

It could be finished by the end of the decade!

I think the announcement, distributed here by Metro, shows how public leaders can seize the initiative and distribute the news directly to people:

Metro: A New Day for Downtown L.A.

I'll be watching developments here as the entertainment capital of the world blossoms in what leaders are calling a Renaissance, so check back and "Like" this blog.

Revolutionary Development in Mobile Technology

The Internet of Things is taking a giant leap forward!

New technology has just been developed that will not only allow you to stream high-quality video wherever you are and whenever you want, but also allows greater connectivity to just about any device with a computer chip.

Through this radical new development, anyone can have a broadband connection wherever they are or whatever they're doing.  Cellular networks will no longer buckle under the weight of everyone wanting to watch their own video at the same time.

My colleague, Steve Pearlman, the founder of Artemis in San Francisco, demonstrates it here:

pCell laboratory demonstration

This, of course, is a huge development for the Ah! Channel.  We'll now be able to stream our stories to your mobile devices without delay, sans stuttering.

In fact, each of us are now on the verge of being able stream video on any mobile device.  Steve shows us just how the antenna works that allows us to do that:

pCell antenna demonstration

Basically, the technology uses newly-developed antennas to take advantage of the interference caused by having too many other antennas in close proximity.  Think of it as a jump from the radio tube on which broadcasting was founded to the transistor.  And then from the transistor to the computer chip.

You can stay with me in this discussion by "following" the Ah! Channel on Google+ and subscribing to the Ah! Channel on YouTube.

Another step in the renaissance of Downtown Los Angeles:  Construction crews carried out the largest continuous concrete pour in history to lay the foundation for the Wilshire Grand.  The 73-story building will be the tallest west of the Mississippi River.

Video: Wilshire Grand Concrete Pour

When the $1-billion project is complete in 2016 or early 2017, Los Angeles will have a new 900 room, four-star hotel along with new restaurants and office space.  It's the most significant development in recent memory for downtown L.A.

The developer is Korean Air.  The architect is AC Martin with the design and construction being managed by Martin Project Management.

We should take note of a new news outlet launched this week.

It looks to be of particular importance to those looking for information about government and corporate accountability.

The Intercept went online with revelations from the trove of information taken by NSA contractor Edward Snowden:

The Intercept

I mention this here in that this digital publication is an example of how the world of journalism is changing.  

This particular outlet, which is not tied to any one particular region of the country, promises "to hold the most powerful governmental and corporate factions accountable"

The passing of Shirley Temple Black gives us pause to consider her life and times.

For the purposes of this blog, I'll pull out an excerpt from her 1988 autobiography which she levels child exploitation charges against the Hollywood studios which made her famous, but also subjected an untold number of kids to abuse:

When any of the two dozen children in “Baby Burlesks” misbehaved, they were locked in a windowless sound box with only a block of ice on which to sit. “So far as I can tell, the black box did no lasting damage to my psyche,” Mrs. Black wrote in “Child Star.” “Its lesson of life, however, was profound and unforgettable. Time is money. Wasted time means wasted money means trouble."

I can't imagine a child remembering the damage to her or anyone else's "psyche" at the age of four or five.  Nevertheless, the revelation opens a small window into the thinking of those in charge of the studios at a time when Hollywood was coming of age.

In doing research on the launch of The Ah! Channel, I'm studying how others are working to provide original news content in a meaningful way.

My colleague, Nate Silver, for example, has hired more than a dozen journalists:

Nate Silver's online adventure

There are, of course, blogs that focus on just one topic, like this well-regarded website dedicated to healthcare reform:

The Incidental Economist

There are plenty examples of bonafide news websites that launched on their own without a lot of backing.  Most I find I would not want to emulate, in large part because they are just to superficial.  I think of TMZ, but there are other examples:

BuzzFeed

The reality is that good, hard-hitting journalism is expensive.  Real reporting is when you work long hours to uncover things that people don't want to talk about but that's important to upholding our democracy.

Reporters understand how dangerous their jobs can be.  Some get killed or find themselves in jail:

Jailed Reporters

Freedom is not free, and a strong and independent press is not cheap.

Here are two articles that are analogous when it comes to the free press.  They both talk about where we are at at this point in time, but in two different places.

In the United States, new digital ventures are taking hold.  They promise to further challenge the business model under which the free press has been operating:

The Status of the Free Press in the United States

At the same time, Afghanistan is on the cusp of a new era.  But in this case, television and radio are just now becoming key players:

Media & the 2014 Election in Afghanistan

Power companies in the United States are not prepared for major disruption of the electrical grid caused by possible major terrorist attack or solar storm.  So says the staff of U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman in a report spawned by increasing fears that the grid is in real danger.  Waxman, one of the most liberal members of congress and a representative os my district here in Los Angeles, is somewhat strangely on the side of some very conservative representatives.  They agree that more needs to be done to protect the country from what experts are saying is no longer such a distant threat.

At the same time, legislation to protect computer networks in the country against attack is stalled in the ongoing debate over intelligence gathering by the National Security Agency.  The proposal by the director of the agency is going nowhere as the county is caught up in the debate over classified documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

How the country handles these two issues will largely determine U.S. leadership in geopolitics over the remainder of this decade.  Foreign adversaries, either state sponsored or terrorist, undoubtedly are looking for weaknesses they can exploit at a time when Americans are increasingly distracted by a disparate flow of information brought on by the convergence of media and technology.  

These will be some of the issues we'll be exploring here at The Ah! Channel as we get ready for launch over the coming year.  Please subscribe and come back regularly for updates.