So long Chef…

Anyone who has caught only a couple of episodes of South Park knows that nothing is sacred in the small Colorado town.

But Chef has had enough.

Isaac Hayes, the voice of Chef, has quit the show following an episode where Scientology is poked fun of. Hayes is a Scientologist.

Hayes said in a statement that the show's parody of religion is part of what he sees as a "growing insensitivity toward personal spiritual beliefs" in the media generally."

It will be a loss for the show. Hayes' character Chef served as the voice of reason for the four little boys of South Park.

It's a shame that for more than 150 episodes, Hayes was all right with ridiculing other religions and political topics; understanding that no subject was protected or taboo.

Hear it in his own words.

Could it be as some people think? That fellow Scientologists persuaded Hayes that he needed to stand up for his religion?

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the show's creators also issued a statement: Stone and Parker "feel that it's a bit disingenuous (for Hayes) to cite religious intolerance as a reason for him pulling out of the show" because the series has lampooned religion since the start, dating back to the short film, The Spirit of Christmas, on which the series is based.

The Smartest Guys in the Room

The Enron trial has made the headlines during the past couple of days with the former CFO testifying, followed by the chief whistle-blower in the case.

It's been easy to follow the trial. The scandal and the coverage are fodder for a number of online media sites.

Take MSNBC for example. If you follow the bread crumbs from MSNBC.com, you can find anything you want to know about the energy giant and its legal troubles, including who the key players are, what the crimes are, key witnesses, the prosecution team, the defense team. You name it.

MSNBC's coverage is a great example of why convergence journalism works so well. Using various multi-media elements, a first-time visitor to the site can pick and choose how much information they want to learn about Enron. They can become an Enron expert or just get the gist of the story.

The story reaches so much farther than running a story in a daily newspaper.

Accuracy in Cyberspace

Wikipedia has become the de facto research resource for so many people. It's an easy place to turn when pondering life's questions, like who is Proust or where is the Southern Ocean?

Some news reports claim it's as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica, which is amazing considering it's user edited. That's right – anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can edit or write about any topic they choose. It's part of the lure of the Web site. An individual expert on any given topic can create an entry to make Wikipedia the best online resource. See for yourself. It's such a great idea, what could go wrong?

Just ask John Seigenthaler. No not the NBC Nightly news host, the 78-year-old former assistant to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. He's a long-time defender and advocate of First Amendment rights. In fact, he started First Amendment Center to "preserve and protect First Amendment freedoms through information and education."

So why would someone write a fraudulent biography on Wikipedia about Seigenthaler that links him to the assassinations of both John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy?

Check out the USA Today article about the "biography."

Is this just par for the course? Should Seigenthaler not mind the implication and just consider the source – an open-content encyclopedia? But a large number of people do consider Wikipedia a reliable source for information.

After the firestorm of media coverage, the original creator of Seigenthaler's bogus biography admitted to writing the biography as a joke.

Some virtual citizen journalist have minimized the impact of the biography and have encouraged Seigenthaler to post a rebuttal. But that's not the point here.

This example of a joke gone wrong reminds us that accuracy still matters in cyberspace – even if it is Wikipedia.

Who is Craig and why does he have this list?

U.S. newspaper publishers may hate Craig Newmark. Some may blame him for destroying their business model, which relies on classified ads as a large source of revenue.

Who is Craig Newmark? He's the founder of Craigslist. He started a simple Web site in San Francisco in 1995 to e-mail events to friends and colleagues. He probably never expected his Web site to become the downfall of American newspapers.

Craigslist allows anyone to post an advertisement on their site for free. It's an amazing phenomenon that receives 3 billion page views each month and runs more classified ads than every U.S. newspaper combined.

With a staff of less than 20 people and sites localized for most of the major cities across the United States, Craigslist earns its millions in revenue by charging employers to post job openings. That's it. Every other post on the site is gratis, zippo, free, on the house, no charge, complimentary…

Newmark's business model is causing daily newspapers to reconsider their sources of revenue.

But Craigslist is about so much more than just making money. It serves as a symbol of how people want to get their information...faster and cheaper. And newspapers are slowly recognizing the trend.

But, signal one round to the newspaper folks. Chicago just filed a lawsuit against Craiglist for violating federal housing laws with its rental ads. Apparently, "Neighborhood predominantly Caucasian, Polish and Hispanic" might be discrimination.

What happens on MySpace…

MySpace and Facebook have become the place to be seen – it's a simple way for people, particularly students, to record their lives and connect with friends. It's a virtual hangout that has expanded across the United States – where students can post pictures, comments, online journals and other items to connect with each other.

And the hangout is going to get even bigger. According to MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe, MySpace has plans to expand into Europe, Australia, and maybe even China. China currently has the one of the fastest growing Internet markets, particularly because of the wide accessibility to wireless, Internet-enabled devices.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought MySpace for close to $600 million last year and the site's popularity has been unstoppable. In January, MySpace was second to Yahoo in number of page views, according to comScore Media Metrix. More than 23 billion Internet users in the United States looked at MySpace pages.

But as MySpace looks to expand, the site's users are beginning to recognize the dangers of posting personal information online – available for anyone to see.

Facebook requires an e-mail address ending in .edu – it's geared toward college students, but is beginning to market to high school students as well. More than 6 million college students from more than 2,000 colleges and universities have profiles or personal Web pages on Facebook. Since it began marketing to high school students, almost 1 million high-schoolers have created profiles.

MySpace, on the other hand, is available to anyone, although a large percentage of its user base is teenagers. Sixty-one million registered users post pictures, comments, create personal blogs and more.

And colleges and prospective employers are using the freedom of the site to check up on each other. Students are reportedly being reprimanded by school officials for some postings while recent college grads are losing out on job possibilities for the same reason.

It might sound like a high price to pay for posting social pictures and comments in an open forum designed to connect people. Why does interacting in an open Internet, multi-media forum like these have to put so much at risk?

These sites were never intended to be viewed by authority figures. Where do the school house gates end? What happened to free speech?

Apparently the ramifications and consequences of posting a picture of yourself guzzling from a beer bong may have unintended effects.

Protecting Citizen Journalism

What is citizen journalism? And why is it so important?

Wikipedia offers up a pretty straightforward explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism

Writing letters to the editors are a traditional example of citizen journalism – it's getting the opinion of the people into the publication.

Blogs are a more contemporary take on citizen journalism. The conversation may start with a simple post, but it doesn't end there. By opening the publication up to public comments ensures that the conversation doesn't have to end with just one opinion.

Gathering the opinion of others – especially those who exist on the margins whose voices may not always be heard is admirable, but difficult.

Daily Camera's My Town is another example of citizen journalism. My Town recruits public contributions and lets the public dictate the content of the site. It empowers Boulder County citizens to participate in the news process. It helps highlight local issues and stories that the Camera is unable to cover.

Podcasts – for here or to go?

Daily Camera podcast listing comes complete with instructions on how to download the recording directly to a computer. The instructions also include a slightly snarky comment – "If you fear change and would rather not venture into the world of podcasting, just click the MP3 icon to download a standard MP3 file."

Apparently, podcasts are here to stay.

It seems that every news outlet offers at least a few podcasts, but how many podcasts are out there? And who is listening?

Anyone can create a podcast. In fact some of the available recordings don't sound very professional. But does that matter? In the age of Internet delivery, podcasts seem like the right approach. In this age of using the Internet as an information delivery system, it seems like providing information the readers want – when they want it – is critical.

While some organizations are starting to see an additional revenue source – NPR's podcasts are supported by Acura – it's difficult to track how frequently a podcast is viewed.

It's even more troublesome to track how many online viewers are using podcasts to receive their information. But the technology will soon catch up and will paint a picture about who is using this resource. Until then, it's essential to stay the course.