The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 3,700 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.
It was a big night Wednesday when the new season of Vanguard premiered with OxyExpress and Embedded premiered with Mos Def in Japan.
The teams that worked on these two awesome shows celebrated at Little Bar a few miles from the office with Mediterranean grub and Current playing on about 5 or 6 TVs. The observations from around the bar appeared to be that the premieres went off without a hitch.
The bartender even made a special martini for us — the Vanbedded.
I’m not sure what was in it, but Vanguard PA Tania Rashid had one!
I didn’t even have to buy myself a drink. I tried, but Infomania’s Conor Knighton and later Vanguard’s Darren Foster had me covered. Thanks dudes!
“The OxyContin Express”, Vanguard’s first of the new 8-episode season, is a must-see. But so are the exclusive web extras.
You can check out an extended interview and follow up with Todd, who says he’s been sober for nearly 100 days. Good for him!
As well, you get to see some footage from the cutting room floor that didn’t quite make it into the doc. A jailed drugee scares to a group of school children straight and Todd’s mom confronts Todd about his addiction.
While this is the third official season of Vanguard, to many just discovering us, it’s their first.
In case you haven’t figured it out, Vanguard’s mission is to cover stories that no one else is covering. While many news organizations attempt to do this, the young correspondents at Vanguard aren’t afraid to get their feet and hands dirty.
As Vanguarder Mitch Koss put it yesterday, the mission “is to try to keep track of important changes in the world, changes that affect us all, but might not get a thorough examination if we don’t look at them. We try to tell you important stories that otherwise might not get told—because we think it’s important for society that we know and understand” what’s going on around us.
So to introduce myself, I’m Vanguard’s one and only intern. I’ve yet to fetch coffee and I haven’t even bought my own drinks. So the situation could be much, much worse.
Instead, I get to transcribe interviews from upcoming documentaries. That means sneak peeks at what is to come.
I also do lots of research on potential upcoming stories, like the kidnapping industry (yes, industry) in Mexico and how tourism is starting to pick up in Iraq. Sometimes, I even watch porn in the office to make sure correspondent Christof Putzel is including the best examples of amateur or professional pornography scenes for the upcoming episode “Porn 2.0″
Now I don’t come from a political science or history background, or even much documentary experience.
But as Christof told me, he got started doing this by picking up a camera and telling a story. And that’s the kind of journalism Vanguard does. We throw away the concept of a traditional standup and suit-and-tie journalism, and replace it with compelling observations and “boots-to-the-ground” reporting.
I come from a newspaper and web journalism background, but know my way around a videocamera and a voice over. The question I get all the time is what kind of journalism do you want to do?
Well, that seems like an unfair question to ask a journalist entering the field. If I didn’t say documentary journalism when Current interviewed me for the internship, they’d probably ask me why I want to work here.
The answer to that is simple: I like what Vanguard does, and journalism is journalism. While many people these days question the existence of true journalism, the younger generation isn’t the same. We’re not giving up so easily.
I don’t know if I have a favorite kind of journalism, but I know I’ve got to have experience in all media platforms. Be it TV, radio, Internet, print, etc., the skills can be applied and adapted.
oxycontin express
Current TV.
Founded in 2005 by Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt, the 24-hour TV network incorporates viewer-created content into much of its programming.
VANGUARD is Current’s investigate news outlet, featuring 30-minute (sometimes an hour) documentaries on stories that are not being reported by everyone else. You hear the same regurgitation of news through the excessive modern media outlets; online, in the newspaper, in your e-mail, on TV, and maybe even from your friends.
Vanguard takes the time to consider everything else that’s going on in the world that most of us Americans have no idea about. And they do in an invigorating way that is both informative and entertaining.
The new season debuts Oct. 14 on Current’s TV station, which you can find through your cable listings.
However, the season premiere, “OxyContin Express” is available for streaming on Hulu already. It’s the seventh one over if you scroll through the featured shows.
….and right now, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two captured journalists that made headlines upon their high-profile return a couple months ago, are in the Vanguard office doing a shoot for a Glamour magazine piece.
| DirecTV | Channel 358 |
|---|---|
| Dish Network | Channel 196 |
| Sky Digital | Channel 183 |
| SKY Italia | Channel 130 |
| Cable | |
| Comcast | Channel 107 |
| Virgin Media (UK) | Channel 155 |
| Bright House Networks (Tampa, FL) | Channel 128 |
one of current tv's hollywood buildings
Started my first week interning at Current TV, with the Vanguard journalism dept.
A radical group of people for sure…I hope to get in the know.
As expected, a laid-back, hip, young office vibe. But they’re true to their work and are on top of their game.
And on day 2, I got to watch porn….while eating donuts! The thanks goes to Christof, the Current correspondent working on a documentary on the porn industry for the new season of Vanguard, starting Oct. 22.
[Emmy-nominated investigative documentary series, it seems is what we call Vanguard]
I watched — well, fast forwarded through the explicit scenes and slowed down for the dialogue — “Space Nuts” and “Curse Eternal,” two “big” budget pornographic flicks. I say “big” because I’m not sure the size of the budgets nor the comparison to Hollywood films….I didn’t realize there was really a story here until today. Makes sense though – the “real” acting and art that goes into porno DVDs is being undercut by Internet profiteers in the porn biz and gonzo porn stuff.
Sex aside, being behind the scenes a very interesting company that puts out really excellent documentaries and media for the 18-34 demographic should prove quite awesome and hopefully fruitful.
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IN MUSIC THIS WEEK: Because I can’t blog enough about all the artists I want to, you need to check out the latest from Mute Math, Muse, Imogen Heap and Bat For Lashes.
I heard “Backfire” from Mute Math @ The Press in Claremont tonight, which was surprising but awesome. Saw these guys open for Mae freshman year of college at The Glasshouse in Pomona. Only caught the end of their set, but I was immediately impressed: weird noises, a proggy Radiohead feel, melodic verses, fast-paced beats, catchy keyboard and guitar riffs, with a soothing Coldplay-esque voice that can lull you to sleep and get you dancing all at the same time.
>>download the title track, “Armistice,” from the widget on the right! Listen more on LaLa or Myspace
Imogen Heap and Bat For Lashes are my latest lady obsessions, both creating definitively unique sounds through synthesizer manipulation contrasting organic instrumentation like ethnic drums and chimes. I highly, highly recommend. Especially if you’re looking for something. They’re eye-openers. Also caught BfL @ Outside Lands San Francisco a few weeks ago. Couldn’t tell if the girl was hot or not! Girlfriend and I couldn’t quite figure her out. See for yourself below:
Back on January 27, The Poly Post put out “the economy issue” and created CALOPOLY, the economic crisis game of chance, distress, and foreclosures.
I would really like to see our creation turned into an interactive graphic available on our website. That would mean putting my graphic designer/web guy to work even more, as he already has the weight of our website on him weekly. If not an actual animated game, at least something where people can scroll over different boxes for information and links and the related stories we published.
In case you missed it, Thursday’s Poly Post Web site Launch Party was a big success with nearly 150 in attendance.
Not too shabby for Cal Poly standards – sorry CPP, but I’ve seen many an empty event in my days.
Along with watching free chicken fly out the door, the Poly Post editors had the opportunity to identify ourselves in person and show off a newly redesigned thepolypost.com.
I had been working all last quarter with my graphic designers, marketing director and editors to find out what we wanted to offer and how we wanted things to look.
My favorite aspect of the new site is the more modern appearance that is immediately noticeable to the viewer. High quality photos show off our lead stories with a headline to link you to the rest, and buttons above provide easy links to advertise, submit a letter to the editor or check out our multimedia page.
You’ll notice the blog button doesn’t direct you anywhere just yet. That’s because the feature is still on its way. The idea here is for each columnist on staff to develop a following through updates in between editions of the newspaper, and allow for more feedback from readers.
In addition to that, the photo editors will be displaying the talents of our photographers and offer some artistic insight in a photo blog.
Even more exciting is the long overdue campus blog that is well on its way.
There is so much that happens on Cal Poly’s campus that goes overlooked, and due to space constraints, not everything can make its way into our weekly newspaper, or any of the other university media outlets.
Expect daily updates here, as the theme is a noticed or observed around campus kind of reporting, that will also include follow-ups on big news like the ASI strategic plan, student government elections, Mr. and Ms. CPP and the university’s identity campaign.
What I hope was made clear in the info session portion of Thursday’s event was that the nine editors at The Poly Post devote a large part of our lives to this job for very little compensation.
We do it because we love it, but we would all like it to take up just a little less time. We sacrifice our weekends and meet three times a week to make sure everything is coming into place and on schedule. And that’s just the surface.
We are all qualified to be paid a lot more for what we are capable of, yet my max stipend earns me about a dollar an hour based upon my calculations.
We’re volunteering hours upon hours while most of you have the day off – from school, at least.
Before the unexpected, but welcome, accusations from the audience during a brief Q&A, we kicked off the event with a photo slideshow and entertaining video asking students what they know about The Poly Post.
The answers in the video – which is available on the home page of the new Web site – were revealing in both good and bad ways.
We discovered from a random polling of 10 to 15 students, that they all knew what The Poly Post was and each had a few favorites.
But they were definitely not very aware of our Web site, which was why we wanted to promote it with the launch party.
What students and campus organizations must realize is that the Post exists to serve you. While we enjoy sharing our opinions, we’re a group of less than 30 people trying to cover a university of around 22,000 students.
So take that into account before you start tearing us a new one.
If you don’t think we’re doing our job well, I encourage…no, I challenge you to do something about it.
Apathy is death, after all.
Feedback fuels our drive to keep doing what we’re doing, so show us some love – or hate (OK, dislike would be preferable) – with a comment, letter or e-mail.
Basically, we’re asking you to utilize us.
E-mail calendar@thepolypost.com or advertise@thepolypost.com to promote an event.
E-mail news@thepolylpost.com to get your story heard. And check out thepolypost.com to see what’s going on around you.
Use your campus newspaper and an online media hub to reach the campus population.
Or join up and take the reigns after I leave.
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