Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

I have been reading a few of blogs and the news postings about the devastation of the bridge in Minneapolis the other day. I frequently have commented on this blog about the news and information sources that have literally changed the way we learn about events.

I recently commented on how Wiki's are a source of information for disasters such as the airplane crash in Brazil and now a Wiki has been created about the bridge disaster. Another way of sharing information is through the camera lens. The photo above is just one of over a thousand pictures that have been posted on Flickr since the other day. Many photographs are amazing and show the devastation and impact of the bridge collapse.

We often talk about how the internet and technology has made an impact on our lives and the world we live in. It is hard to imagine just 15+ years ago the internet was not part of our daily lives. We did not have access to these photos and sites like Flickr did not exist- much less TV or print news online. We would have to rely on TV news footage and the newspaper to see these pictures- most still in black and white!

What about people around the world that do not have access to the internet or television or newspapers? How do they see the world?

Not in this Reality

This morning, I heard a segment on BBC's World Service radio program which was about the winner of the tv show The Apprentice. It caught me off guard since I was not aware that our very own Donald Trump mega-hit version was also spun-off and has become a very popular UK program. The host interviewed a sociologist who discussed why Sir Alan Sugar made the decision to hire Simon Ambrose. The sociologist discussed why the selection was such a shock to the viewers, media and even to the chosen one- who seemed to be caught off guard.

I have never been a fan of reality television shows. Occasionally, a few come along that peek my interest. However, very few. One of my favorite reality shows is The Amazing Race. But, I am not sure that I would consider that a true reality show? It is almost like a sporting program or tri-athalon spread out over several weeks. Sure, we get to see a camera in everyone's face and watch how the couples deal with unbearable situations. I am beginning to think alot of these little vignettes are staged for dramatic or is traumatic purposes?

Due to peer pressure, I did begin to watch Project Runway and the cooking equivalent which is Top Chef- a popular show that has returned for yet another season of food fighting. There are so many types of reality shows. For those of us who watched the first few seasons of The Real World on MTV, this was reality tv. A bunch of young adults cooped up in a house somewhere on the planet and forced to deal with each other's crap. How real can you get?

Take that show and multiply it over and over, add a few spices and you get a such a mess of spin-offs. Is it Real World #27 this year? It was the Amazing Race 11- does that mean 1 per year? There is a saying "if you build it, they will come" or is it "if you have a hit reality show, do it again and again"?

I could list all the different types of reality shows, but I came up with a better idea by pointing you to the Wiki of reality television programs! Are some on the list considered reality programs? What is reality? According to Webster's the definition of reality is:

1: the quality or state of being real2 a (1): a real event, entity, or state of affairs (2): the totality of real things and events b: something that is neither derivative nor dependent but exists necessarily3: television programming that features videos of actual occurrences (as a police chase, stunt, or natural disaster) — often used attributively
— in reality : in actual fact

As we see, even the dictionary makes the case for reality TV. Even though it would be unusual to see a reality tv show based on a natural disaster on the FOX Network with Paula Abdul as the host?

Had enough of reality TV? Or are you looking for more more more? How about a show about 6 men who spend several weeks wooing a sexy woman? Sound good? Sorry, that show is already on the list of possible shows that will make even Milo raise an eyebrow.

24 Hours Later

I realize that for the past 24 hours + 1 year ago, I have been trying to get this blog up and running. Well, here it is in beta form-finally! I shouldn't really say beta. I spent a great deal of time tweaking the format. Unfortunately, I kept changing my mind and had to go back and re-do everything over and over again. Some of the features you see on this blog may or may not work...this can be for a number of reasons. Either the HTML code is corrupt or the template I am using and edited doesn't recognize the commands. Is this getting to technical for you?

I tried to make this blog simple and use other blogs as templates. WNYC's program ON THE MEDIA has a simple blog they created for a special segment. Other blogs can be pretty intense or slightly media heavy- is one way of calling it. My dear friend Drew Pisarra writes a weekly blog for New York Magazine online about the FOX show "So You Think You Can Dance". Both of these blogs are worlds apart as far as content, purpose and audience.

There are blogs about blogs! We have the Anderson Cooper 360 Blog and we also have All Things Anderson blog. Wait did I also mention Anderson Cooper 360 Review blog? What about the real dirt about Anderson Cooper in this blog?

So what was I thinking? What does Milo think about this blog business anyway? This is a great learning experience for me. Will it just fade away and will I get tired of it? Will anyone post to this blog? Can you spell RSS?

In many professions, there is a need to keep up with all the changes around us. Wiki's, myspace, blogs, social networks like Second Life are examples of those changes. I need to get up to speed. A 10 year old at the library recently explained to me how to fix a MySpace page template!



I hope, as best as I can through this blog, to bring you along and discuss issues on a variety of topics and provide a place for you to talk back. Ok- so how does Milo fit into this? He is sitting right here dictating this posting!