Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Things To Occupy You Over Break #2: Online Journalism

Vice Magazine
Please be warned - this is not for everyone. You either love it or you're completely disgusted or offended. The magazine is known for being gritty, filthy, pornographic, and insensitive. That said, it's got some good journalism and some stuff you'll never see in the NYTimes. I've linked it here before, but only articles relevant to my articles and always with a warning. To go through the archives, you can either click "archives" up at the top and browse by issue, or click another link at the top and browse by type of article. You'll learn what life is like as a sex slave in lots of different countries (including Iran and Canada), what drug dealers have to say about their jobs, what the different types of white supremacists have to say to each other, and a lot more you may or may not have needed to know about your fellow humans.

They took down my favorite article ("Mental Illness or Social Sickness?") but they're still pretty cool. It has a very leftist slant, so take everything they have to say about capitalist governments with a grain or salt, but it can be an interesting perspective. And I just love the photo in the top banner.

A culturejamming, anti-consumerism site with lots of great reading about today's economy and culture. The equivalent of an ideological hug for people who get bummed about about the state of our world. The little slogany banners that change if you refresh the page were the inspiration for my CSWS culturejamming flyer response slips at my school. 

I've linked it here before too. An independent reporter from California reports on left-wing protests with a right-wing slant. Sometimes the blatant bias can be jarring, but I think it's very valuable for people in the activist scene to be aware of how we're seen from a different perspective so we can avoid a lot of the pitfalls that ZT points out. I also find it refreshing to read journalism that doesn't pretend to be objective - we all know reporters are people, so when they come out and admit it, it's nice. The "zomblog" linked at the top contains more interesting reporting that didn't quite make it to the main page.

People find stuff and send it in. Found Magazine then publishes it. It's pretty neat. Some of my writing has been inspired by it and I love how it gives a glimpse into other people's lives. The total lack of context makes you realize how self-contained each of our worlds are and it gives your imagination a nice workout. This is under "journalism" instead of "misc." because it's actually a printed magazine as well.

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