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  • 2009
    • September
      • Moving on ...
        09/23/09
        It's hard to believe my time at Missouri has come to an end. I've been in Ohio almost two months now. We are starting our third week of classes. After racking up lots of frequent flyer and road miles, I defended my dissertation in July. I have some exciting things to report, but I'll

    • June
      • New Directions at Ohio University
        06/23/09
        Just a quick note today because I'm still in dissertation hell. I've got a mountain of data that needs to be cross tab and checked for covariance. But I just wanted to feature this article about the new direction Ohio University, the place I'm going to be working, is taking.

      • Stay away! I've been banned (from iReport)!
        06/02/09
        Found this gem in my e-mail today:

        Hans K. Meyer,
        Your account, 'Hansron', has been banned by the system administrators.

        Ban: Disable Login
        Expires: Never

        That's it. There was no explanation. I'm just banned from iReport.com. I guess I c

    • May
      • Wasting even more time on YouTube
        05/27/09
        Sorry for not posting for a while, but I've been pretty fried. Between trips for conferences and looking for a house, while trying to sell our house in Columbia has kept me pretty busy. Plus there's also this dissertation thing going on, which still needs more responses. (Tell your f

      • Diversity in news delivery - No iPhone to rule them all!
        05/15/09
        If you know me or you've read this blog a couple of times, you know I have iPhone envy. I've wanted one of the sleek little gadgets for some time now, but it's hard for me to justify the expense. With that in mind, however, I'm glad I'm NOT an incoming freshman at the Univer

      • Dissertation progress
        05/07/09
        Just to keep people in the loop, and explain why despite my best intentions, all you get is one blog entry a week from me, I completed my dissertation experiment and it's now in the field. If you want to check it out, go to this link . You can take the study if you want. It's anonymous so

    • April
      • Maintaining the flow of information
        04/29/09
        I got busted the other day. I logged on my blog and noticed something was different. The garage sale picture I used had a green background all of a sudden. I thought this was odd because I just linked to it from another site, but then I looked more closely. Turns out, the picture also had a message

      • Research opportunity in Columbia, MO (and a garage sale too!)
        04/22/09
        I'm not sure if I can get IRB approval for this on short notice, but I'm thinking of running a little local experiment here Saturday. I've advertised my garage sale in the local newspaper (The Columbia Daily Tribune) and on Craigslist and a local Yahoo! groups - KwikSwapColumbiaMO. I&

      • Washington Post Peepshow
        04/14/09
        It seems an odd thing for one of the grand old ladies of journalism to do, but I'm glad the Washington Post isn't taking itself quite so seriously all the time. And even though the contest itself is decidedly low-tech, I think it serves as an example of how to reach out to your audience an

      • The 'Net can't overcome all language barriers
        04/12/09
        So is anyone planning a trip to Thailand any time soon? If so, I can hook you up with about 13,000 baht . It's the proceeds from another ebay selling experience gone wrong, and I'll tell the story here because it fits within the blog's theme. I guess I just assumed I could overc

      • Is Twiter really all about 'ME'?
        04/10/09
        It was a throw-away line at the end of another sappy Rick Reilly column.

        And in a what-should-I-Twitter-about-myself-now? world, why would a young guy be so selfless? "Well, I know what it's like when your parents divorce. It can be hard. Moving. Splitting up from their dad.

      • More than cartoons on CW4Kids.com
        04/05/09
        I fondly remember rushing home from school to watch cartoons. I even got in trouble for cutting through my neighbor's horse pasture so I wouldn't miss the first half of RoboTech (Sorry Bro. Oswalt, may you rest in peace.) But those days are over if you don't have cable, and I feel bad

    • March
      • Another Update: The NBA makes money off Twitter
        03/29/09
        A real blog entry is on the way soon, but I had to post this in the meantime. Mark Cuban, a guy I said should be the NBA's example on how to create publicity through blogging, was just fined $25,000 for comments he posted on his Twitter feed about the calls refs made during the Mavericks 103-10

      • Update: Twittering's all the rage
        03/22/09
        Just read this on ESPN and had to share because I think it validates my previous post. I especially appreciated this paragraph:

        Though Villanueva promised not to tweet again during a game, he did question whether there's much difference between a player taking a few seconds to do a t

      • Basketball won't go to the birds, at least the online ones
        03/18/09
        When I first saw this headline on ESPN.com, I thought, "Not again." I thought the NBA, or at least the Milwaukee Bucks, were following the NCAA's lead in banning reporters from liveblogging games. I wondered how the NBA could misunderstand the ways people use Twitter so much

      • Digging holes with Facebook
        03/15/09
        Gather 'round young 'uns, and I'll tell you a story. It's about the time before everyone was on Facebook, about the time when you had to have a .edu e-mail address to get in. Your nerdy storyteller was a budding Internet researcher at the time and he happened to be a grad student

      • Anonymous complaining online: Free Speech at its Finest
        03/03/09
        I've had a string of bad luck lately with computers, so much so that I want to shout from the housetops. My beloved Macbook of three years died again and needs its second new logic board, so I've gave up on it. I bought an HP from Circuit City at a discounted rate, but when I got it home,

    • February
      • Finding the point (if there even has to be one)
        02/25/09
        I've been kind of reeling in dissertation depression lately, so my apologies for not updating more frequently. I'm in the weird stage where I'm dreading all the work I need to do so much that I'm not accomplishing anything. It sounds bad, but that leads to the "Oh-crap!-I-ha

      • Multimedia Professing
        02/04/09
        In the last couple of weeks, I've gained a greater understanding of the imposing challenge that faces the news media as they adapt to the online landscape. No, I didn't complete a vast research project or pull a respected group of professionals into my classes remotely. No, I started teach

    • January
      • Technological Imperative
        01/27/09
        I'm dealing with a serious problem, and I hope you can help. I call it techno-envy, and it's a debilitating condition. You see, when I'm on a flight to Oklahoma and the guy next to me whips out his iPhone and tells me all he uses it for is text messaging, I get a little nutty. When fr

      • A new way to sell CDs
        01/19/09
        Sadly, I sent the Xbox 360 Santa Claus gave us for Christmas back to Microsoft today. I should be more angry that it came with a wonky disc drive. I've become pretty addicted to Guitar Hero III the last few weeks, Merilee has played Catan about a million times, and Lincoln keeps getting Lego St

      • What can't you do online?
        01/14/09
        I entitled this blog "giving the Internet too much credit," because honestly, that's what I tend to. I latch onto something and end up attributing everything to it. I expect sometime soon you'll see posts arguing the Internet promotes world peace, ends racial tolerance and opens

      • Learning to live with the 'Net and newspapers
        01/06/09
        I hate admitting this, but the thing I missed most during my time away from home over the Christmas break was the Internet. I didn't log in for more than a week during one particularly painful stretch, and once I did finally get on, it was for less than an hour to enter my final semester grades

  • 2008
    • December
      • Am I the grim reaper for news innovation?
        12/15/08
        One of the greatest challenges facing news organizations today as they shift their operations to the Web is figuring out how to make it pay. What's most frustrating for me, as an Internet researcher and a proponent of online innovation, is that some of the best online presentations aren't

      • Moved to tears
        12/08/08
        A quick update to explain why I was misting up in the Reynolds Journalism Institute open conference room earlier this afternoon. My class introduced me to a a new blog which I've added to the blogroll on the right. NerdWorld, from Time magazine online, is co-writer by a Simpsons' executive

      • An "Amazing" Missed Opportunity
        12/07/08
        Sorry it has been a while once again, but it took another TV show to get me fired up enough to write. This time, however, it wasn't ER, which I've almost completely written off, by the way. One more ER employee's kid almost dying on the table will do that. No, this time it's one

    • November
      • The week that was ... (a summary)
        11/20/08
        Sorry, I've been away from the blog for a bit. I'm been traveling hoping to convince some university to give me a tenure track position, but I really have no excuse. I actually posted a couple of days ago about a new service MTV is offering (see below), but that post got lost in the Interw

      • Election reflections
        11/10/08
        As much as I don't agree with his policies, I have to give Barack Obama credit. Based on my experience working as an election judge at a Columbia, MO polling place on election day, I clearly saw how well Obama and his campaign mobilized voters to hit the polls. In fact, many of the some 500 peo

      • Tomorrow is election day! VOTE!
        11/03/08
        I'm exhausted and should be heading to bed. I've got to be up at 4 a.m. tomorrow to help open the polls. Yes, I signed up to be an election judge this year, and while the primary reason I did it was to get paid, I'm proud to be helping out in this important election.

        I'

    • October
      • The generosity of the Web
        10/30/08
        I've been swamped lately with trying to keep up with paper deadlines and staying on top of my classes and dissertation proposal. But I'd be very ungrateful if I didn't post a little bit of thanks to the four guest speakers who spoke to the online journalism class I teach at the Univer

      • Best blogs? I know some of them.
        10/19/08
        I haven't felt much like writing lately because I think I'm letting this job search stuff get to me a bit. But I had to share this article because I can honestly say I'm familiar with four of the top 10, including No. 1. Computer World just released this list of the top 10 best writte

      • Ken Jennings can't beat the blog
        10/14/08
        For the last two days, I've been checking Ken Jennings' blog constantly. I want to hear his reflections on his Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader performance. I have this theory on why he didn't go for the million dollar question that must be addressed. I'm thinking the title o

      • TV Update: ER's death march, SNL, and Lawrence Welk
        10/10/08
        I started this last week, so I'd better continue. A quick ER pop quiz:
        A new doctor joins the staff as an attending physician and the director of the ER. Is she ...
        A. Impossibly mean and demanding because she has a tragedy in her personal life she's not ready to share.
        B. T

      • The crowd has spoken: We want your Tina Fey photo!
        10/09/08
        I probably should be more worried about NBC than I am, but I'm just happy someone noticed my little blog. I received a message the other day through Flickr that someone wanted to post my photo of Tina Fey posing as Sarah Palin on NowPublic. The photo is really just a screen capture from the SNL

      • Some quick confirmation
        10/05/08
        Another quick entry because I've been awful tired lately. My children haven't been letting me sleep much, and no, I'm not talking about the baby. But I just noticed this letter to the editor on a journalism index blog I follow pretty closely and had to comment on it.
        Roger Plotho

      • Cyberbrains is fixed!
        10/02/08
        Just a quick update - one of my colleagues fixed our research blog. The new address for the Cyberbrains blog is thecyberbrains.wordpress.com. I just added an entry yesterday, my first in a while.

        Sorry to any of you who visited the old site and were startled by the Google warnings. Don�

    • September
      • Why I watch SNL (and I suspect why everyone else does too)
        09/29/08
        I could have lost my research job today. The professor I work for was ragging on Sarah Palin today, along with another graduate student. Now, let's get this straight - I'm not a huge Palin fan. I think she's inexperienced and choosing her represents a hail-Mary pass for McCain, but as

      • ER's end? Armageddon!!
        09/25/08
        I should be blogging about my comps. I passed with flying colors! I'm excited! Now all that stands between me and academic immortality is a dissertation. Whoo hoo!

        Instead, I just figured out what is going to happen on the final episode of ER, and I just had to share. A giant meteor

      • Browsing the browsers
        09/24/08
        Emily, I hate to tell you this, but your blog is messed up. Ever since you added that Nick and Nora's playlist deal, your blog doesn't load correctly. The links are way at the end, your posts are centered and the pictures are all skewampus. What you hadn't noticed? You mean it looks f

      • The new generation gap
        09/21/08
        So I need a little help from the family members that read my blog. It seems you have gotten me in a bit of trouble with my mother. I appreciate that you are reading my and my wife's blogs. I am so excited to hear about how you love our pictures, but please don't tell my mom about them! She

      • Comp Question (NOW with Answers!!!)
        09/20/08
        I had one request to see what comprehensive exams were like for me, so I'm going to post one question and my answer here. I still don't know if it was a good one. My oral defense where I really find out how I did is Thursday. Of them all, I think I'm the most confident about this one,

      • News Flash! Young people don't get the Internet either
        09/17/08
        I should have known better. I should not have trusted what everyone assumes is common knowledge, but I did, and now I'm paying the price. You see, I asked my online journalism class of juniors and seniors to set up blogs on the web space the university gives them, and I told them to use free so

      • It's over!
        09/12/08
        I try to be realistic. I try to put things in perspective. Nothing is ever as bad or as hard as it seems. That being said, however, I just want to say that I'm glad I'm finished with my comprehensive exams. I'm pretty mentally exhausted. I feel like I couldn't outwit Miss Teen So

      • Ricers, writin' and feedback
        09/11/08
        Some of the fondest memories of growing up were Christmas dinners with my family. For some reason, I always got stuck making the mashed potatoes, but in my family, that was an honor. It meant you got to use the ancient Swiss torture device. For the Swiss, creamy mashed potatoes are not enough. They

      • Who needs cable or Dish?
        09/08/08
        I vividly remember the first time I watched Cable TV. It was at my friend Scott Sivertson's house in high school, and I was glued to MTV and Headbanger's Ball. We made it a ritual to catch the show every weekend, and during commercials, I'd flip through all the channels hungrily just

      • In all seriousness ...
        09/06/08
        My blog's gotten too serious lately. That's what studying for comps will do to you. I feel like my head is about to explode and spray all near me with Social Cognitive Theory, agenda setting, interactivity, co-orientation and social presence factoids.

        So to lighten things up, I&

      • Lee Stranahan > Daily Kos
        09/02/08
        I was originally just going to add this as an update to my first post, written way too late at night to make any sense. But I've got to give Lee Stranahan, a frequent poster on The Huffington Post, the credit he deserves. He's been following this story far more closely and objectively than

      • Did the blogs get Palin right?
        09/01/08
        Not much besides my comprehensive exams has been on my mind this week, but I have watched the announcement surrounding McCain's VP choice pretty closely. I guess I still held out a smidgeon of hope he'd choose Mitt Romney. When McCain finally made his surprise choice, I went first to the m

    • August
      • Newspapers may be dying, but Mariotti's not helping anyone
        08/28/08
        Jay Mariotti is a genius! I don't know how he did it, but he realized something no one else has figured out yet. News, and especially sports news, he said is moving to the INTERNET! Wow, why didn't I realize that?

        Oh wait, I did, along with hundreds of other people. But that

      • A missed interaction
        08/27/08
        For his birthday my son got the peanut butter and jelly game from a friend. It's a fun game that he and his three-year-old sister really like, but when the four of us sat down to play it together, we ran into a dilemma. We got to a point where we all had two of the three sandwiches you need to

      • A "banner" update
        08/26/08
        In case you missed it, I just wanted to point out my updated banner. I needed something to make my blog's name a little more clear. I threw this together pretty quickly (instead of studying for my comprehensive exams), and even with my limited Photoshop skills (I'm still using version 6),

      • You too can be a writer!!
        08/23/08
        I never used to believe my teachers when they said I could do anything I set my mind to. I wanted to write the great American novel, I told them, but getting it published required the "perfect storm" of skill, luck, and contacts. Well, maybe it's the delusion of studying for comps set

      • Practical Blogging
        08/18/08
        I haven't been great at keeping my resolution, which I should have expected. I'm easily distracted. As I'm creating the syllabus for my class this fall (J4700: Online Journalism), I'm inspired again because I'm requiring my students to start a blog, and it gave me an interes

      • Making the Web work for your business
        08/03/08

        I used to have this grand plan that I would feature a useless corporate Web site each week on my site. The first example was going to be Doritos.com, simply because it was nothing but a reproduction of the company's TV ads. Well, Doritos has improved the site a bit. Now it features a few

    • July
      • An easy way to get started
        07/25/08
        In my newfound zeal to publish online, I've started at what I think is the easiest, but often overlooked place. I've started commenting on other people's blogs.

        Here are links to the last two comments I made.
        Gaming Insider
        Poynter Institute - Roy Peter Clark
      • Being original online
        07/22/08

        My goal tonight was to post to the Cyberbrains, but after an hour I saved it for another day. The problem is I think I have these original ideas until I sit down and write them. Then I do the research and realize others have already said it, and they've said it better than I could.
        <

      • It has been way too long
        07/17/08
        I know I said I was going to keep this blog going after class was over. I had all the best intentions. Then life, and, let's be frank, sheer laziness (and maybe a little thing called World of Warcraft) got in the way. But I have new motivation now. I'll start interviewing for jobs in less

  • 2007
    • November
      • Beowulf for the Internet age
        11/08/07
        Even though I devoured everything sword and sorcery I could could as a teenager, I never did get around to reading Beowulf. I mean it had everything I could ever want - heroes, dragons, damsels in distress and even demons with cool names like Grendel but something kept me away. Maybe it was my bad e

    • October
      • More examples to wrap my head around
        10/23/07
        I've been struggling lately with what to write about. I've been trying to focus on my wiki, but I think I've probably bitten off more than I can chew. In trying to apply the oral tradition (the oAgora) to the new media (what Dr. Foley calls the eAgora), I struggle to find true online

      • Lessig, Code Monkeys and Creative Commons
        10/10/07
        I met Lawrence Lessig at an academic conference two years ago and was very impressed by what he had to say. He gave a great leg up to the citizen journalism movement that I was just getting involved with then. But just like a kid who won't eat his vegetables, it took the this class to compel me

      • More on modern oral poems
        10/07/07
        I'm a bit guilty I have neglected this blog for a while (although, rest assured Dr. Foley, I'm still well within the the class requirements.) I've enjoyed this experience quite a bit. But what has vexed me lately is my final project. I was interested in this class because of the fant

      • A modern oral poetry link
        10/03/07
        Throughout this class, I have tried to find links between oral traditions and my modern world. I am a child of the media, who grew up maybe too close to the TV and the computer. As much as I have learned to appreciate the nuances of oral performance and the importance of early traditions, I still th

      • Naivete of Pelt Kids comes through in creative commons
        10/01/07
        I should use this opportunity to write more about Dennis Tedlock's fascinating translations of Zuni poems. I've really appreciated this class for opening my mind in regards to oral poetry and native traditions. However, one of my classmates asked a questions about the creative commons that

    • September
      • Our own oral traditions
        09/26/07
        During this class, I have often wondered how oral traditions influenced my own culture. I know I had to read the Odyssey in high school, but I guess I didn't realize the impact it had on who I am until now.
        While I was in Berlin, I visited the Pergammon, an ancient art, architecture and

      • Mapping and miming while traveling
        09/23/07
        I'm sitting in the Berlin airport with less than 10 minutes of battery power and a flight home to catch in 30 minutes. So I decided to use the minute, and the remaining time I bought from a T-Mobile HotSpot, to read this week's reading. I find it serendipitous that it covered the differenc

      • Online folklore relies on similar traditions as oral poetry
        09/16/07
        I've thought quite a bit about an e-mail my father-in-law, a man I respect greatly, forwarded me last week. I can understand why he did it. In our frustration and confusion, we all wish we could say the things it said sometimes. And it seemed like it came from a reliable source. Heck, it kind o

      • Immanent Art and the Internet
        09/12/07
        One reason it took me so long to start blogging regularly (without the compulsion of a class) is I worried about whether my entries were skilled enough. Would I have the time to edit them completely for spelling and grammatical errors? Would they even make sense? When readers noticed, would they dis

      • My ethnopoetic experience
        09/10/07
        I wish I had something more profound to say about ethnopoetics, but really the best I can say is that I enjoyed the theory because it really seemed to make sense to me. I did some serious head-scratching about why it took ethnographers, anthropologists and linguists so long to come up with it. In fa

      • Convergence in a flat world
        09/04/07
        I don't really have the time now, but I started reading Friedman's "The World is Flat" over the summer, and I'm determined to finish it. I've had the book for so long, in fact, that I'm glad the Columbia Public Library doesn't charge late fees any more. At thi

    • August
      • Students respond to free technology
        08/30/07
        This entry falls under the category of self-flagellation. I participated as a panelist in a seminar about how faculty can better use technology and I failed to mention our class. The panel was the first in the “Discovery and Discussion” Series on Educational Technologies for Fall 2007 at the Univers

      • Oral Poetry and YouTube
        08/27/07
        I'll admit it. I'm a YouTube junky. I spent far more time than I should watching user's video diaries, TV show clips, Star Wars fan films, and animated stick men pounding each other into submission until, as my five-year-old son says, all the "ketchup" comes out of them.
      • My blogging connundrum
        08/27/07
        Before I launch into scholarly discussion of oral traditions and the Internet, I thought I would introduce myself briefly and explain why I'm writing. Just in case anyone from outside class ever reads this, I'm doing this for more than just a grade. I've wanted to start a blog for a l