1 – The beaches in the Gulf of Mexico – on the US coastline – are gorgeous. I have never seen sand as white or well-cared for. The communities in the Gulf derive a huge portion of their income from tourism, so keeping the beaches in good shape is of paramount importance. #ioilspill tidbit – The beaches were mostly deserted and the local economies were mostly decimated because of the perception of oil rolling up on the shores like a big black blob. Not true. I spent 14 days in the Gulf and didn’t see one tarball. I saw and learned a lot about the BP oil spill.

2 – New Orleans has a Holocaust memorial, plenty of cigars and booze, little things called begniets, a few donkeys and of course great jazz clubs. I was stationed in New Orleans for about half of my reporting mission (unlike iRoadTrip when we drove a Ford across the nation) and I saw a lot more than the photos above. I also saw poor people in the street. Houses still standing – barely – from the Katrina hurricane. Crime-prevention methods everywhere (locks on the anti-perspirant at CVS!!). And some fabulous food. If you’re planning to visit NOLA, come down in September or October. The weather will be better, the hurricanes will be gone, and you’ll still get to enjoy all the great stuff the city has to offer without sweating to death.

3 – Big disasters trump personal ones. While I was in the Gulf, six kids drowned in the Red River in Shreveport, LA. It didn’t make the news in as big a way as it might have because of the oil spill.

4 – Movies go on regardless of the real world. The world of make-believe continued forward as the filming of Green Lantern took place in downtown New Orleans for about a dozen days in late July and early August. I didn’t get a chance to see the filming as I was reporting on the oil spill and doing interviews. But the filming caused traffic tie-ups around the city and consternation to taxi drivers and others whose income comes from shuttling people around in the heat.

5 – The city is a little gritty. If you’ve never been down to New Orleans, here are a few photos of the real-world. In fact, during my stay, the city had an argument with a trash company and refused to pay them. So the trash company refused to pick up any trash. The streets didn’t stink TOO badly as the city made municipal employees clean up the really bad areas.

6 – The industries down here are oil and fish. That’s it. And that’s really why the oil spill has had such a psychological and financial impact on the region. What happens if the fish die? The region dies. What happens if they can’t drill for oil? The region dies. What happens if both occur? You tell me.

14 days reporting. A ton of new information and insight. Anew perspective on a historic city. And another iRoadTrip wrapped up.

Got any questions about the trip? Does your organization need a content specialist to attend an event or report on a region? Give me a shout or leave a comment here on the blog. As you can see from the success of this project, good content has its place in the mainstream.

Thanks for reading!

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Post tags: #iroadtrip, bp, content creation, Gulf, ioilspill, Jeff Cutler, new media, new orleans, oil spill, social media

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While our tech is presumably being efficient and completing tasks while we eat, sleep, code, chat or spend time away from our homes and desks, our minds are busy beating our souls into submission.

According to Freud, the superego uses guilt and self-reproach as its primary means of enforcement for internalized rules. If you don’t achieve a goal, your mind takes it out on you.

Worse, if you give your technology permission to complete a task and it fails, you’re doubly to blame. Once for trusting in technology (an iffy proposition at best because the robots will soon kill us all with lasers) and a second time because you’ll have to do the work yourself in a more responsible way.

Take video production, for instance. No matter how great a processor your computer has, it takes about 14Million hours to process a snippet of HD video. So, most people do the Ron Popeil and “set it and forget it.”

That only works never. Because the second you’re out of sight of the computer, the program realizes it needs you click OK on some button to continue the interminable process.

Is there a solution to how closely we’ve tied our souls to technology’s wins and losses? Sure, don’t do it. Stop blaming the tech.

I mean you should take credit for everything you do, whether it’s tech-assisted or not. Don’t get hung up on the processing power of your PC or the inability of your phone to play FourSquare or the woman on the GPS who allows you to drive into a sand pit.

We’re products of a society that allows everyone to blame others for their plight. Don’t buy into that and don’t bring tech tools into the game either. If you’re smart enough to stuff a SIM card into an iPhone or download a song or even send an email, you’re qualified enough to take the blame for throwing out your photo library, deleting that one email you needed, setting the heat in the house to work during the day instead of night, or forgetting to back up your computer.

I don’t want to hear your whining or your blaming or your shame. Technology is just a tool. Learn how to use it or get out of the way.

Keep reading!

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blame, Freud, guilt, new media, technology

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Don’t believe me? Here are the trends, opportunities and situations I’ve barely missed for one reason or another. Now I feel as if I’ve caught up and dashed ahead of the crowd. Timing IS everything.

1978-81ish – A scrawny and sickly Jeff Cutler is diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. Had this boy remained healthy for a couple more years he might have more intestines and a slightly better quality of life.

1986 – Jeff Cutler tries out for the college baseball team. Although Cutler runs a 4.8 40-yard dash (that used to be fast in the 80s), the team is already chock full of outfielders. Cutler goes on to star as a cheerleader at the school.

1992 – A fast but undersized Jeff Cutler (see Crohn’s issue above) is invited to a Major League Baseball tryout. He’s demolished in the 60-yard dash by steroid-enhanced 18-year-olds. The Boston Herald devotes an entire Sunday newspaper page to Cutler’s plight.

1997 – Along with two college friends, Jeff starts a Website ‘Rehabilitation’ firm. The company, ConceptClub, flounders for a bit and Cutler accepts a buyout of minimal proportion. ConceptClub morphs into ConceptHost and is providing a nice living these days for one of the founders.

1999 – Cutler enters the dot-com fray only to see it turn into a dot-bomb fiasco. After a quick stint with Fidelity Investments as an Online Editor, he moves to TimeTo.com and is the first one fired as they burn through hundreds of thousands of dollars in beanbag chairs, Sprint PCS cell phones and free breakfasts.

2005 – In the midst of a storied career as a journalist, Jeff ramps up his column-writing efforts and reaches prominence in two short years. Just in time for the papers with whom he’s writing to cancel their Freelance Opinion Column budgets. Hopes for syndication are also diminished as the blogosphere erupts with talking head-esque writing from every corner of the globe.

2007 – After fine-tuning his craft, Cutler matches his writing to the needs of an anxious and hungry editorial base. His features are purchased faster than ever and his work is appearing Internationally…until newsrooms begin to slash staff because of revenue cuts. Cutler gets kill-fee checks like never before and has to begin competing with ‘citizen journalists’ for inches and pay.

2008-09 – The Social Media space welcomes Jeff with open arms. An experienced journalist and writer, Jeff also knows how to connect with people using social media tools and techniques. With the advantage of 20 years in journalism, he brings a unique value to publications anxious to put more content online. These companies are looking for traditionally trained journalists for content and Jeff is poised to assist these firms. Further, every company in the world is now drooling over the possible upside to having a social media presence. Jeff Cutler offers these companies the services of a professional blogger with the skills of a pro reporter and writer.

Stay tuned to see how this chapter turns out. I’ve already been contacted by dozens of companies who are interested in hiring me to write their blogs and report – impartially – on their company. And as you know, I’m covering the Consumer Electronics Show #CES09 in Las Vegas for both traditional and new media outlets.

Got any leads you want to share or stories of your own success? Share them in the comments.

Keep reading!

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Post tags: #ces09, Jeff Cutler, journalism, new media, social media expert, timing

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There was no way that local police – wandering about without walkie talkies – could compete with a mission force that was using GPS-enabled devices, Internet VOIP phones and possibly IM services like Twitter. The terrorists were able to remain one step ahead of security by using the latest tech. And that’s where some irony gets injected into this scenario.

As a journalist, I don’t want commoners (people on the street) getting in my way when I’m trying to report on a story. The police don’t want journalists getting in their way when they’re responding to a situation. Unfortunately, if the police and journalists had joined forces and not been advesarial in the Mumbai tragedy, the terrorists might have been captured with loss of life in the 30-40 range instead of the hundreds.

You see, the police and other officials wanted to keep people and journalists from using Twitter and other technology to report on the movements of the security team. But had they been more in tune with the use of new tech, the police could have leveraged the citizens’ efforts and provided misinformation via these new media tools.

Additionally, the press could have maintained a similar cone of silence at least until order was restored. But all reports seem to indicate that Mumbai forces were antagonistic to the press and to the public. Therefore these groups were prone to share their information among themselves and via Twitter and other IM services – many of which were being monitored by the terrorists.

It’s reality that many people still don’t understand the power of new media. That’s unfortunate. What’s worse is that many governments still misunderstand the power of the media and traditional communication.

Keep reading!

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Post tags: biz stone, Jeff Cutler, mumbai, new media, skype, terrorist, twitter

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New Media is NEW to the traditional journalism hierarchy. Don’t freak out if you’re a Twitter lover or someone who sees blogging as the next vehicle to connect the public with the stories of the day, your methods are coming. But, when it comes to the Internet the news media is only online to connect with colleagues, run down facts, ferret out sources and maybe have a little fun.

In the last session I attended today, Pulitzer Prize winner and newspaperman Hank Klibanoff told us that everyone should be worried about the demise of the newspaper and the value it brings to society. He agreed that in some cases a blogger can deliver the news as effectively as a reporter, but journalists are trained to respect ethics, to report facts and not to infuse articles with opinion.

His main point was that when talk-show hosts and other “liberal media” haters drum the papers out of town, there won’t be anyone left to keep things in check in government and society. And government is one entity that the talk-show hosts hate more than the media.

Contrary to popular belief, newspapers and news outlets are hiring. But mostly for low-paying and no-paying positions as interns and Co-ops. I sat next to Ms. Parker at a session (find her at @wparker on Twitter) and found out that she’s one of the many people who recently took a buy-out package from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She’s reinventing herself as a freelancer but has the same concerns as any new grad – that there won’t be enough jobs or money to go around. Follow her journey at InkDrainedKvetch site.

PR and expert pushers are alive and well. At the sparse exhibition hall I saw no fewer than four (and maybe there were many more) firms touting either the delivery of press materials to writers or the ability to provide experts on any topic to these same journalists. It’s actually a great service, but any reporter knows that you can’t rely on just one expert from one company and sometimes the agenda of a person providing a source might have to be called into question.

Random sights. I talked with NPR and CNN about freelancing for them. I talked with Sree Sreenivasan about blogs and his evaluation of my work. I raised my hand about a billion times in the 60 Sites in 60 Minutes session. And I realized one of the most important things I’ve got to do is find a proper breakfast place in the Peachtree area of Atlanta.

Follow me on Twitter @jeffcutler for ongoing updates during the conference. Sessions run all weekend. Find out more here.

Keep reading!

© Jeff Cutler for Jeff Cutler - columns, essays and opinions, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: #spj08, atlanta constitution, columnist, conference, new media, newspaper, pulitzer prize, reporter, society of professional journalists

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