Media and Society Week 1

I'm Emily Goodykoontz, and I am a journalism student. Honestly, I sort of stumbled into this gig. I was offered work study through financial aid, and when looking through the available jobs I noticed a position with the student paper. I really had no idea what it would be like, but I have been a writer my whole life and thought it could be a an interesting experience for me. Little did I know what I was getting into…

Now I am the editor-in-chief of The Commuter, our local student-run newspaper. When I began classes at LBCC I was rather directionless; now, it seems like a path has unfolded right in front of me. All the weird and random skills I have gathered over the years living my life as a real person and not a college student (college students are mostly zombies because we live on caffeine and almost zero sleep) suddenly have a practical, applicable purpose: finding and telling important stories, creating compelling visual media, and creating a level of accountability and truth-telling. Not that I’ll make any money at this, ever, but it seems worth doing, regardless. It feels important, necessary, especially in this day and age.

My dream job has little to do with money making and everything to do with holding up a mirror to the face of the world and saying “Hey this is messed up, look at yourselves and change!” I suppose I have a few dream jobs but my biggest dream is to create my own independent online news and media source. I’d like to travel, and tell stories from around the world, and give voice to those stories that often go unheard or are swept under the rug by mainstream media. I want to create short documentaries, or even long, investigative documentaries and writings with a group of other like-minded journalists uninfluenced by corporate media greed.

As such, I’m interested in learning about how mainstream media works, from the bottom up. I’m curious as to what mistakes have been made to have led us into this time where everyone and their grandmother blames the mainstream media for the woes of the world. I want to know what they did wrong so I can find a totally different way to serve society with news and information. I want to know how the old system worked, and what is wrong with it, and why newspapers are “dying,” so I can better transform and create my own news source.

Outside of journalism I have a whole and happy life. I have this really great partner, (who is making cinnamon rolls right now) and three healthy dogs. I’m also an artist, painting and drawing mostly, and I have a passion for music. If I still had a tenor saxophone I’d play the blues all the time, but it was stolen from me a few years back when I was playing in a punk-ska band in Seattle. I still have a guitar, and I compose my own music, but unfortunately haven’t found anyone in the Corvallis/Albany area to play with. I trail run a couple times a week with my dogs and can’t wait to get outdoors for hiking and camping in the summertime. Running with my dogs on the beach is pretty much the happiest thing in the world for me; spring can’t get here quick enough.

Topic 2:

I'm from this weird group of millennials who didn't have cell phones in high school and for whom the internet was just a baby until about a year after graduation. We had dial-up and AOL. We couldn't talk on the phone and check our email simultaneously. Our friends actually had to leave messages on our answering machines and ask our moms and dads to speak with us when someone answered the phone. There was none of this texting and Snapchat and whatnot. (I am only 30 yet somehow I feel like a dinosaur.) As a result, I haven't become as dependent upon the internet and social media for my daily entertainment, although I must admit that Netflix plays a pretty large role in my nightlife. However, here are some webpages that have been influential on my life, or that I find interesting, even if I don't visit regularly:

YouTube music video: Grimes- Flesh Without Blood
I chose this video as a representation of what I use YouTube for the most, which is watching music videos. (I tried to embed the video but blogger is weird and won't embed vivo videos) Grimes writes and produces all of her own music, which is impressive since the producing side music industry is so dominated by men. The imagery in her music videos is disturbing, compelling, and beautiful, and when paired with her music it takes it to a whole new level. I think music videos are an incredible creative outlets for musicians to become visual artists as well, as in this video. YouTube allows me to see a side of my favorite musicians that I wouldn't get to otherwise, and it allows not well-known artists to put self-produced videos out there for discovery.

That segways into my next example, which is also a YouTube video. However, it differs as it is a live video by a band that was not well known when this video went up. I stumbled across it on a late night music search, drinking wine and clicking links and just exploring what was out there, trying to expand my little view of the world. Then I found this entire live show by an incredible New Orleans band, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and it is just gold:

YouTube led me to this discovery, and I learned to play many of their songs and they are still my favorite songs to play on the guitar that aren't mine. This band is just gettin' down in their neighborhood, and I get to watch, and really see how they move and play, what the neighborhood is like, giving me an idea of their roots, their faces, their look. It makes listening to their music so much more interesting. I figured out how to play a couple of the songs just by watching the lead singer's guitar.

For both of the aforementioned links to YouTube videos, Google owns YouTube and therefore owns both videos, partially. Those who created the orignial video also own the videos, so Grimes owns her video and Hurray for the Riff Raff owns theirs, but Google has essentially the same rights that they do to the videos.

My next link is a site that I don't visit often enough, HighExistence, but it stuck in my mind as something unique and interesting that I should explore more. I think I stumbled onto it through a link someone posted on Facebook a few years ago, but I honestly can't remember. It's just stuck in my brain as something cool and interesting. HighExistence has a plethora of articles about alternative spirituality, psychedelics, and well, other stuff I'm not sure how to explain. It's not just a site with articles, though. It has discussion forums, podcasts, blogs, videos and more. This website is a kind of online community. It's mission statement:

 "Provide a medium for freethinking individuals to connect & discuss
Compel you to follow your bliss & make a life, not a career
Explore all aspects of the human condition
Question anything & everything that is considered 'normal'
Promote the general spread of happiness and love"

I keep revisiting the site because there is just so much to explore on it, and I like reading alternative ways of thinking about the world. It challenges me, and is somewhere I can explore when I don't feel like reading a book or watching TV.  I can't figure out who owns it, but it seems to be supported through donations and via their publication, HighExistence Magazine.

My final link is to my favorite independent online news source, Democracy Now! Although I don't watch their daily show every day, I do watch it a couple times a week. They also have links to their top stories, important clips, and written articles and columns to read. My favorite thing to do is compare how Democracy Now is reporting on a topic versus how NBC or CNN is reporting on a topic. It gives me fresh perspective and insight into how very different independent and mainstream news sources are. I found Democracy Now after hearing their podcast played on NPR many many years ago, and have been visiting their website a lot since I decided to pursue journalism and pull my head out of the sand, or so to speak. Democracy Now is supported through donations, and I can't figure out exactly who owns the organization.