Folks often tell me that they give pointers to my blog to people in the industry to get a sense of what’s happening in social media. I find this embarassing and tend to play ostrich so that i can go about writing about whatever. At the same time, i kinda realized that this blog is hard to navigate if you don’t know me… so i started thinking i should do something to help strangers find things that are particularly relevant and interesting. I decided i should create a best-of list. In trying to create a best-of, i got super self-conscious again. I started looking at entries and wondering if that was really that interesting to people who didn’t know me. So, i decided that i should turn to you…. What do you think is particularly interesting here? What entries do you think i should include in a best-of list? Sorry – i’m a bit neurotic about things like this but i’m trying to suck it up and realize that more than a few people read this blog. ::gulp::

I’m back in the States now having done my final leg in New Zealand (which i’ve decided looks exactly like LOTR). What a beautiful country! My only complaint is that it’s bloody freezing and no one thinks that central heating is important – brrrr.

I went to NZ to speak at the Karajoz Great Blend Events in Wellington and Auckland, all arranged by the fabulous Russell Brown. In addition to my public babbling on MySpace, Russell interviewed the folks who made Star Lords. God i love mashups! After my talk, there was a panel at each event with some of the fantastic local web folks talking about community. Justin Zhang (of SkyKiwi) spoke at both events and he was soooo hysterically funny – absolute deadpan humor. On top of the talks, i did a bazillion press events – TV, radio, newspaper… i felt like a talking puppet after a while. But it was pretty trippy – the live press folks in NZ talk much faster than i’m used to so it was a bit insane to parse the accents and try to be interesting at the same time.

I didn’t get a whole lot of free time in Wellington, but i did get to see the LOTR exhibit and purchase Uggs (which i realize make a lot of sense when there’s no heating anywhere). I got stuck in Wellington for most of a day (silly fog) but Natasha from TradeMe was such an angel – picking me up, hanging out with me as we waited at the airport. Plus, the night before, she and some folks from Webstock took me out to this really awesome Maori restaurant where i got to meet one of the local Maori activists.

In Auckland, i had a bit more time and Matt Gibbons (one of the Star Lords kids) gave me a full tour – we went club hopping, saw the sun rise over the city, wandered to the beach, went to the museum, hung out at folks’ houses, etc. The best part was that he was a talking history machine. Listening to him reminded me of the time when my best friend and i went to the San Diego Zoo and ran around after the information buses just to learn random facts about animals. I couldn’t get enough of the random stories about New Zealand history and it was so fantastic to have someone who was ecstatic to tell me all sorts of random stories. Even better was that he did it with funny NZ slang. Plus, he could actually dance (like _really_ dance) and he’s an overgrown goofball which meant that we ended up spending most of the time laughing as we ran around the city. We also managed to meet quite a few quirky characters. At the top of Mt. Eden, we ran into a guy doing butane and trying to sell us $1 visions. In the middle of Auckland, we ran into a guy with wings who gave us mops sticks allowing us to stage mock fights in the middle of the city. At 4 in the morning, we found our car parked next to a man getting a blowjob in an alley as the transwoman giving him head showed off her skills to us. ::giggle::

All and all, New Zealand rocked and i’m sooo going back when it’s actually warm out. Thank you so much to Russell, Kate, Cath, Steve and Nat for making it happening and to all of the quirky characters for making it fun!

Now, moving to Los Angeles….

Brief update: The last week in Finland has been utterly lovely. Aula was one of the most stimulating events i’ve been to in a long long time – brilliant conversations in session and over drinks long into the “night” (how on earth can you call it night when it’s still light out???). I got to meet some folks that i’ve been long curious about and hang out with old friends. This was my first time in Helsinki and it was warm and breezy and utterly lovely; the food was great, the people were fascinating and full of far too much style. I got to spend the weekend on a small island in the Archipelagos with a gloriously rustic cabin – no electricity but utterly glorious outdoors-ness. There was a proper Finnish sauna with dips into the Baltic.

Now, in some reverse-alphabetical logic, i’m off from Finland to Fiji for a few days of vacation before New Zealand. My current logic is that i’m going to rent a car and camp around Fiji since i can’t seem to find cheap bures available in the Coral Coast. Has anyone driven Fiji? Is this a good or disasterous plan? I’m trying to find a solution that involves the ability to lock up my crap and wander around the island – dorms make this impossible so a car seems like a good idea where i can drop into a dorm every few days. Gosh, i *hate* traveling with a laptop but, sadly, i have no choice on this round. More brief updates from down under and then more serious thinking soon! Hope everyone is having a glorious summer!

On Friday night, i finished a complete draft of my dissertation proposal and realized i needed to take a break before the final push. So i decided to go to a campout with a bunch of friends down in Santa Cruz. It was warm and sunny and it was sooo nice to drive down there. And then, when i arrived, there was a sign pointing the way to False Profit where my friends had set up a little village inside the camp. I plopped down and food was given to me. I helped make a huge bonfire and then laid out on the dock watching the stars for hours. I danced like mad to Tipper, Lorin Bassnectar, and Boreta amongst others. I drifted to sleep in a tent still caked with Playa. I was dirty and i loved it. Getting away from the city to take a break from reading/writing was the best thing ever. I feel energized and ready for this week. Now, it’s time to go kick some ass!

Three more days and counting.

This morning, i was huffing and puffing on the human hampster wheel sandwiched between two strapping gay guys who looked more like they were on the stairway to heaven. On my iPod was Steve Martin’s “Shopgirl,” filling me with drab thoughts about body image LA culture while the tele ran commercials to the daytime TV crowd about products that would help you lose weight, have beautiful skin and be happy all day long. I sighed.

And then, stumbling aimlessly around the gym looking for some way that i could remedy my back ache by working on my pecks without further injuring my elbow, i started realizing that maybe there is something good to be said about all of the psycho image culture. Maybe these body sculptors will devise tools so that i can work on individual muscle zones without further damaging the other broken ones. This week alone, i’ve added my left elbow to my wrists, neck and right knee… so now my shoulders are starting to curl over, numbing my left arm and sending shooty gifts down my left side. Lovely. Perhaps i should worship the body sculptors and pray that they will invent a magical potion to build muscle to the exact level that will support my frame so that things don’t keep falling out of whack.

And then, on cue, Barenaked Ladies came into my thoughts and i started dreaming about being uber wealthy and having real health care and having a brilliant physical therapist who would know exactly how to deal with each muscle system so that i could function even while broken as hell. Ah, dreams…

(How sad is it that my fantasy of being uber rich involves doctors and health care? And yes, i’m procrastinating writing my &%*@ quals.)

When my quotes first appeared in press in 2003, i was an ecstatic bunny bouncing up and down. Since then, appearing in the press has lost its mystique (except of course when the irony is bleeding). Back then, i knew nothing of what it meant for someone to be a press expert. In the last few years, i’ve become one. Now, some folks tell me that i’ve become famous as a press expert. I.Want.To.Scream. Instead, i decided to address some of how i’ve seen this process work for those who don’t get to deal with press so often, those who will and all of you who read the press and wonder how it all works. These notes are a little scattered, but i think they’re still interesting. For those who can’t stand my long articles, here are some of my key points:

• Dealing with the press takes a LOT of time and is completely exhausting and often doesn’t help you get your point across.
• There are many “experts” who have a lot to gain from being in the press all the time.
• American press competition does not produce better articles, but instead encourages scary articles that will entice readers to read more.
• “Fair and balanced” promotes experts who can keep scary or emotional stories flowing.

Reporters seek experts on “both sides” of a news story in order to give balance. If you happen to be publicly arguing something in opposition to something that everyone else is arguing loudly, you’re likely to end up as a target for press. The more credentials you have, the better you are for their story. Normally, academic experts are professors because that looks much better than being a lowly PhD student. This is how i become things like “cultural anthropologist” — it’s a way of giving me a title that is not “student.” You also end up as a target if you know a lot about a particular topic and can verbally provide them with all of the background material they need so that they don’t have to research it themselves.

I first became an expert on Friendster. Press would call me up to find out what it was. This made me feel so special and i’d spend hours talking to reporters about the details of how the site worked, walking them through everything. I was rarely quoted in those articles. I was doing their work for them. This was exhausting.

At this point, i get very irritated when reporters ask me to explain MySpace and i often make an excuse to get off of those calls fast. It’s a waste of my time if they don’t know about the site – none of my arguments about what’s going on will stick if they’re learning about it for the first time.

Talking to reporters takes a LOT of time. If you see a single quote by me in the paper press, you can guess that it came from an hour long interview. Only about 70% of my interviews result in a quote. Articles that feature me in any way take even longer. The New York Times article back in 2003 that featured me involved over 40 hours of interviewing. Photos are another layer. If you see a photo of me in a newspaper, it probably took 1-2 hours of photographing to get there. If you see a simple one in a magazine, it probably took 2-3 hours. One national magazine (not yet published) is supposedly featuring me; that photograph involved four hours of hair, makeup, clothing and cameras. Five people came to my house and ran around primping me.

Radio and TV are even more time-intensive. With paper/magazine press, you can call them at a time when you’re both awake. Radio and TV news both require you to be available during the scheduled time of recording. You don’t get any flexibility on that. Often, you have to appear at a location as well, requiring travel time. The 3-minute appearance on Bill O’Reilly took 3.5 hours of travel, makeup, sitting around waiting, camera checks, interview. And this was recorded in-time (no second takes). I got 3 hours of warning for that piece – i had to appear at TV’s beck and call.

Radio and TV features both record ahead of time which means that you have a little more flexibility regarding timing (at least you get some warning). These also take much much longer because they can afford to do re-recordings. I recently did a recording for a TV feature. I will probably appear for 2 minutes or so. It was 4 hours of _taping_ let alone the pre-interview, travel, getting ready, etc.

Talking to press can be a full-time job. This is why those who make PR their living or those who seek to gain from the attention are more likely to appear in the press all of the time. For example, the people who from organizations that run around talking about how scary the Internet is…. they appear *everywhere* because they will appear at the beck and call of all press. When reading the news, you should think about what the person has to gain from speaking to the press. If a person’s job security is wrapped up in being in the press, worry. This is why academics are such good experts – we have little to gain from talking the press except for the excitement of seeing our name in print and feeling like someone listens to us (cuz goddess knows our students don’t). But, personally, i’d rather the MySpace fear shit go away so i can get back to my research. Most of the people speaking for the fear rely on that fear to keep their jobs. It is unbearably frustrating to have to face off in the press with people who have more time, can jump higher and at all hours, and have a lot to gain from keeping the topic going.

This is why reporting is often so problematic. It’s not about truth, it’s about what all of the relevant players have to gain/lose and who can out-do each other. Scary stories work much much better for press than statistics. Fear sells better, it makes better stories, and more experts have something to gain from it.

I talk to press every time i’m in my car, in the airport and walking around. I spend a good 15 hours a week addressing press right now. It’s exhausting. I can only get back to a fraction of those who contact me and i’ve missed most TV and radio opportunities because i can’t just jump when people ask me to jump.

At first, i felt really badly for those who were coming from non-national press. Most experts only want to talk with national press because you have more of an impact. Unfortunately, i’ve learned that there are other reasons. National press understand that your time is precious and rarely keep you for more than an hour. They get to the point ASAP – they are looking for a handful of quotes. They know their material better, having done the research (or used some poor sucker who was stoked to even get to talk to a press person). Talking with smaller papers can be very frustrating at times because they are not that savvy at dealing with experts, they are often looking to repeat a story that national news has already done, and when it comes to stuff like MySpace, they simply don’t understand it. I feel guilty that i too have gotten in habit of being more responsive to national press than to local press, but considering that i can only respond to about 40% of the current contacts, i’d rather deal with people who know their stuff and will engage me in a new and interesting conversation. Of course, not all national press do this, but your chances are better.

With most print reporting, they are just looking for a single quote. People more savvy then me tell me to make my quote and go on auto-repeat with slight variations so that the press won’t be able to get you to say something else. I’m not good at this. I’m trying.

When reading the press, you often see that XYZ refused to comment on the story. This is usually someone the story is focused on and usually someone who is going to be getting a call from every press on the planet. There are a couple of reasons. First, many public figures know that they cannot change the story the press is writing. (Many of us stupid experts still think that we can and we try really hard, often meeting failure regularly.) The public figures often have nothing to gain and a lot to lose. They also simply cannot deal with the influx so it’s better to just say no universally, missing both good and bad opportunities. For example, if Tom Anderson would respond to every press call about MySpace, he’d spend over 500 hours a week talking to press. There AREN’T 500 hours in a week. Considering he already works 80+ hours a week doing his job, adding press to this doesn’t sound so great. Of course, MySpace should have PR faces but they’re definitely still acting like a startup on that one. (When you hear Company XYZ says “blah blah” this means that the reporter talked to the PR person not anyone who works on the product.)

Reporters get to key figures either because they have press junkets or by promising the person something special. Front page photo. A certain angle. Something that makes it enticing. Of course, if the reporter fails to deliver, they can end up on a blacklist. Likewise, many experts keep a blacklist of reporters who misquote or otherwise are not worth your time. We also share these lists and check in on reporters. As someone reading the news, you’re better off following reporters who cover an area repeatedly in detail. They cannot afford to piss off all of the experts in the area and so they are better by them. There are exceptions, especially insidious reporters and talk show hosts that have impressive coverage and attention.

The competition component of the press is quite problematic. Most American reporters are freelancers – they need to sell new, unique stories to the outlets. Outlets buy stories that will sell more papers/ads. They want juicy stories. Fear, crime and personal struggle stories sell well. Fact of the matter stories do not – this is a huge problem for getting “truth” out there. Foreign press are a lot more sane. First, most of their reporters are employees who are not terrified about losing their job if they don’t find a hyper juicy story. Second, most of the top press outlets are government funded which means that they’re not psycho-obsessed with selling papers/ads at the detriment of getting news out there. Americans think that government funded news would be deceptive. Ha! Try corporate/ad/paper sales funded news. It’s all about addicting you (the public) into buying more more more regardless of truth. Of course, some competition is good because it makes people look more closely… but often, with 24-hour news, it means making news outta nothing and maintaining stories that keep people’s pulses high so they come back for more.

Anyhow, these are just a few notes from what i’ve learned talking to reporters. Hopefully they provide folks with a new eye for thinking about what you read. (And a new appreciation for why i’m so goddamned exhausted and frustrated – truth can’t prevail in this system and that’s just painful to experience.)

I need to ask a favor. My qualifying exam date is set: June 8. From now till then, i will be focused on getting material together for that exam. Please understand that i cannot engage with anyone’s projects or research right now. I’m happy to talk with press who are working to end the culture of fear surrounding MySpace. But i need to embargo requests for advice, consulting, talks, attending things, etc. I can’t even handle the requests from other academics right now. 🙁 I also cannot handle introductions to new people. I know that this is terrible timing considering that i met so many amazing people in the last two weeks, but i simply cannot engage and i feel guilty about all of the saying no that i’m doing. I really appreciate that my work has been useful to so many (and i hope that it will continue to be relevant), but i desperately need to focus for a while.

I will still be blogging, more to keep my sanity than anything else. But i probably won’t read other blogs unless people send me links that are relevant to my exams/MySpace/youth. I know everyone is well-meaning and i’m sooo sorry that i’m so overcommitted.

Late one night at Etech, Matt Webb asked a bunch of us what we would be most afraid to be wrong about. In other words, what are we most invested in and would have our realities shattered if we were wrong. This question blew me away and got me thinking.

After thinking for a while, i gave my answer: that freedom is not the answer. All of my work, all of the work of those around me is deeply invested in the belief that freedom brings happiness and all sorts of goodness. What if freedom causes more harm than good? What it freedom brings social misery? What if people are better off being controlled? If so, i would be at a complete loss.

So i then decided to turn the question around to others and i now want to turn it around to you. What are you most afraid to be wrong about?

Just to let everyone know, i’m off to Tahoe for the weekend (Squaw Fest) and then Etech and then SXSW. I have no idea how much i’ll be online, but hopefully i’ll see a lot of you in San Diego or Austin. Also, i *think* that i’m going to be on Your Call on Monday (KALW 91.7) in case you wanna listen.