what happened?

Jim you are amazing! LOL My new fave poet!

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it is all due to your post hostiness -- see PRTQ really did need you to return to the fold.

I mean I feel sad that a lot of people saw this only as a way to sell themselves but as a former contestant obviously I thought that was a cool thing to do. I would like to have seen more of those 11 pointers get excited about other people's work though. And what does it say that less than 1500 people even entered? I noticed a blurb on the front of the site that said "Thousands of entries came in, looking for their big shot." Um, no. Not thousands. And that REALLY makes me sad. When tens of thousands are getting in line to get berated by the folks at American Idol and not even 15 hundred can summon the interest to submit a tape that is TWO MINUTES long to a contest like this, what is that saying? It truly makes me sad for our culture that there was not more interest in this.
Or maybe I should not be sad. Is interest in puiblic radio dropping off as it is print newspapers? Subscriptions are down but people are getting their news somewhere. I guess people are going to podcasters, RSS feeds and websites? And that really gives me hope since it seems like a more democratic way to distribute ideas. On the other hand it seems like a great way to balkanize the public square. If people are getting their news from niche websites and podcasters they are probably not going to go out of their way to have their beliefs challenged. Ugh. That thought brings me back to square one.
By the way, how much did prx.org spend on PR for this? Were they expecting interest to be generated mostly by word of mouth? And what is happening to the Launch team? I keep wondering what their team of three finalists is goingto look like...

http://www.publicradioquest.com/node/1564

Thats true, but I like to think of that as a call to make podcasting as even handed and responsible as possible. Although I'm sure thats not a majority opinion.

Then again, as podcasts tend not to focus so much on selling ad space, getting donations, or pleasing the sponsers, maybe thats the future of "Fair and Ballanced"

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not to focus so much on selling ad space, getting donations, or pleasing the sponsers, maybe thats the future of "Fair and Ballanced"

Good point. That's defintiely one of the good things about podcasts.

There was something similarly liberating with the 'zine movement in the 1990s.

After working a good deal as a paraprofessional in libraries I decided to go get my MLIS a few years back hoping to advance my cause, and ideally, to begin to earn a living wage. (As many don't realize you need a masters to be called by the title "librarian," but that's another subject.)

Well, my plan, as most of my plans do, utterly backfired. Now, I can no longer get paraprofesional work nor can I find a job as a librarian or archivist. Partly due to my own idiocy and my inability to pass through the now requisite phone interview, and partly, I like to believe, due to something librarians call disintermediation.

What it means is this -- librarians -- once the go-to guys in the information world -- are needed less and less as people get what they used to get from librarians by themselves, a la google.
Am I making any sense?

Since learning about this I have noticed that it extends to other fields as well. Travel agents, real estate agents, (and now that I have my flowbee -- hair stylists. Kidding. Lindsay, you can never be replaced by a flowbee.)

I wonder if disintermediation applies to radio as well. For instance, now that I can program my own station with just the music I like on my yahoo messenger toolbar, I sometimes prefer to listen to that rather than radio music programmed by someone else. And I am a diehard radio junkie. Or as RichardZ says, now that listeners can just find a podcast from someone who completely agrees with their point of view they need no longer be bothered with opinions that well, bother them.

And to borrow another term from librarianship -- what is lost in the process is serendipity. In the library we refer to this as what happens when you are looking for a title on the shelf in its area of classification (LOC -- not the sterotype Dewey for this girl by the way) and because of the way classification puts similar topics together you discover another, even better title, quite by accident. But not entirely by accident -- because you are there in the first place and such a place physically exists.

It's like when you are listening to your favorite dj and they play a new song by a new band that you just love but never would have heard otherwise. Or you are tuning in to On the Media because you love the show's angle and you hear about something you knew nothing about. There are lots of examples of serendipity in radio listening.

So I wonder, is disintermediation happening in radio? If so, how much is lost through disintermediation and what is gained?

Interesting thought. I think that quality and rigorous analysis are often lost in the blogosphere and likewise in the vlogosphere and I assume podosphere. Apart from one quirky comedy thing, my podcasting downloads are simply timeshifting. I'm often working weekends and miss Wait Wait and other faves. Not much lost except advertising revenue when it is used as a tivo-esque device.

However, I'm sure there are many who tune into the opinions of those with less time, energy or inclination to research like a journalist before they put out words to the world. There's enough bad and biased media in the world without the Great Untrained thinking they're up there with the New York Times. I was a print journalist for a while and the checks and balances of copy editors, editors, readers who are picky and the ombudsmen who deal with the picky readers ensured a quality end product. I'm often interviewed by major magazines and they almost always have factcheckers, a luxury a daily journalist never had. Wikipedia has enough micro-specialist fanatics that it usually corrects itself over time. But the podcasts of the merely opinionated are, to me, an erosion of the importance of trained journalists to help interpret what's key in the world.

Deborah

But the podcasts of the merely opinionated are, to me, an erosion of the importance of trained journalists to help interpret what's key in the world.

I hear ya. My partner is a freelance magazine writer and I see the HUGE amount of work that goes into each piece and then all the fact checking and tweaks by the editors at the last minute. It really is hard work. And you are right, someone who is just podcasting on the fly with no research or interest in really pursuing the truth can muck up the commons. On the other hand, we are a market driven society and if people feel their needs are not being met through traditional media, they will go elsewhere.

Ok I must admit to a little envy -- first of your Aussieness. In my humble opinion Aussies are just awesome. Also you get to say stuff like, "a really cool few days I had in Udaipur," and now, "I'm often interviewed by major magazines." Plus you know how to spell with numbers and you get Wikipedia. I am not sure if I could stand to learn that you are any cooler.

Thank you - what a cool comment. I'm all beamy over here... and as for Udaipur - they revoke your Aussieness if you don't backpack around the world at some stage... so I couldn't say no to such a great wedding invitation.

Deborah

Aussies are everyhwere. I never knew why until now. Just that you have the reputation of being the most well-liked foreign travelers in almost every country. Unlike, ahem, we the least-liked Americans.

I just love the image of the classicl ugly American in his plaid golf pants with a honking big camera round his neck, saying "Noter Dayme is so quaint". Really - go to Bali sometime and you'll see that there are plenty of ugly Aussie tourists too... and I never met many of the American variety, so I think they're an engdangered species.

Deborah

After a windy, freezing cold 3am in Heidelberg when two handsome Aussies wrapped me in a warm wool coat, sat me down on a wall outside the castle, and serenaded me with their rendition of the Bacharach and David tune "Close to you" (You know . . . On the day that you were born the angels got together, and decided to create a dream come true . .), I can never think of Aussies as being anything but charming. They even did little hand motions and went do-do, do-do, do-do during what would be the piano part that is meant to sound like angels sprinkling stardust.

I am pretty sure those two guys are next to the word "charm" in the dictionary. And it is not that I, like so many other fools, am charmed by your accent, it's the Bacharach and David. Only an Aussie would do that. Gets me every time.

The freedom to not have to bow to corperate sponsers and donation drives, vs. the ease of having a voice with no real responsibility to fact checking, or treatment of subjects fairly.

Its the great debate of the internet in general.

Perhaps the answer is that places like NPR stick to the flat out news and information, and the podcast world caters to nitche interests, opinions (but opinions that are broadcast as such and not as fact) and the like.

As states like the 'Zine movement! :)

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I'm going to have to ponder this for awhile, but I think that web-based broadcast and podcast has its pros and cons, just as media based radio does as well.

I too am a paralibrarian, but "Sarah the Anime Paralibrarian" just doesn't ring the same. LOL. I beg the pardon of my professional brethren.

NPR isnt ready for GEEK! BUT you are! And we give the listener what they want!

Get your geek on with Secret Identity with Brian and Matt (and former quest hopeful Sarah the Anime Librarian!)

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just a complete aside -- the "other story" I was referring to above -- Now that I am deep in debt from going to get my masters and completely out of libraries I sometimes have my doubts about the decision to professionalize the field. You know it has only been since the 1970s that you were required to have a masters to be called a librarian.

Some think it happened in conjunction with the women's movement. The story goes that since librarians were mostly women and also underpaid, the move to professionalize came out of a desire amongst librarians to be taken more seriously and to garner the respect they deserved.

Some of my favorite librarians growing up were so old that didn't have MLIS degrees because they didn't need them when they started. They were "grandfathered" in.

Libraries have such low budgets these days that they rely heavily on lower paid paraprofessionals to do a lot of the work. I wonder if that was the intent of the original movement to professionalize? It's all very curious.

I am guessing that back in the day radio people didn't require degrees in broadcast journalism either. Anybody?

I am guessing that back in the day radio people didn't require degrees in broadcast journalism either.

I have a bachelor's degree plus experience and can't get a gig...that's why I'm working in accounting... ;)

Tooo true.

I bet back in the day you didnt have all your media owned by a few people. I hear rumor even some NPR stations are getting in with Clear Channel these days: alan Shartock of WAMC was talking about it in their recent fund drive.

NPR isnt ready for GEEK! BUT you are! And we give the listener what they want!

Get your geek on with Secret Identity with Brian and Matt (and former quest hopeful Sarah the Anime Librarian!)

www.secretidentitypodcast.com

I hear rumor even some NPR stations are getting in with Clear Channel these days

CC is selling off their radio properties.

You know I have to agree with you. Its one of the things thats kept me hesitant about getting my masters, I feel like its not worth it with the job market.

Funny how something I think was started to empower women and librarians better, now ends up cutting both men and women in our field off at the knees.

I work in childrens tho, and while I agree libraries have to change to work with the ease of access to information the internet provides, I dont think we're obsolete. I think our roles are just changing.

Can google can dress up as Professor Snape and guide kids in making their own potions? I think not. :)

NPR isnt ready for GEEK! BUT you are! And we give the listener what they want!

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Can google can dress up as Professor Snape and guide kids in making their own potions? I think not. :)

(and paraprofessionals have more fun.)

Especialy Geek ones!

My fave projects for working with kids and teens:

Harry potter party for crafts, chemistry (magic potions) magic tricks, and mythology

Anime to introduce teens to animation, Japanese culture history and mythology, and storytelling

Looney Tunes/warner brothers cartoons (Like Animaniacs): Classical Music/ Music. History. Geography. (Yakkos world, Wakko's America)

Star Wars: Philosophy

Superhero comics: American History, storytelling mythology, art and storytelling

Star Trek/ Firefly: Astromony, other Sciences.

Firefly: Civil War and war history in fiction

Series of Unfortunate Events: Gothic Literature, Problem solving.

:)

NPR isnt ready for GEEK! BUT you are! And we give the listener what they want!

Get your geek on with Secret Identity with Brian and Matt (and former quest hopeful Sarah the Anime Librarian!)

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you could have taught a few of the classes in my mlis program. ;)

Awwww! :)

Well I just like to use my hobbies for a greater good.

With great (geek) power comes great responsibility! :P

NPR isnt ready for GEEK! BUT you are! And we give the listener what they want!

Get your geek on with Secret Identity with Brian and Matt (and former quest hopeful Sarah the Anime Librarian!)

www.secretidentitypodcast.com