Minnesota Video Journalism Project Goes National

The UpTake, a Minnesota based video journalism project I work with is going to be getting a lot more national attention. Next New Network’s Veracifier will be promoting and showcasing video produced by The UpTake's correspondents. Most of those correspondents are in Minnesota, but with Veracifier's help The UpTake will soon have correspondents all over the U.S. to cover the 2008 campaign and election.

The first video from that partnership -- "New Orleans: From Evacuation To Eviction" went online today at both organizations' web sites. Watch it on The UpTake or on Veracifier.

The joint project is called Ground Hounds and will be on the ground at political events, giving individual reports on the local unique angles that are often lost in the spectacle of an election year.

The UpTake is a nonprofit media startup created by a diverse team of Minnesota-based political, business and media activists, including leading video blogger Chuck Olsen. The UpTake blurs the line between citizen and traditional journalism by training citizen correspondents in the practice and principles of journalism, sharing editorial responsibility with the public through an evolving interactive editorial calendar, then publishing a product that meets standards of fairness and accuracy. Correspondents who consistently produce the most compelling stories will become Veracifier’s Ground Hounds.

The UpTake will focus specifically on the 2008 elections, including the RNC in Minnesota and the DNC in Colorado.

Ground Hounds’ video reports will run every week on the Veracifier network. ‘Hounds’ will have profile pages where people can follow their personal blogs and videos. Veracifier and Next New Networks will work with The UpTake to harness its array of talented network producers and stars to support training sessions for aspiring independent journalists. With a little help, anyone can commit an act of journalism.

Watch The UpTake-O-Meter Measure The DFL U.S. Senate Debate

Also posted at TheUpTake.org
Probably the most significant aspect of Tuesday's US Senate DFL debate at Minneapolis Roosevelt High School was not the candidates, but the audience. With the election still nearly a year away, the debate drew enough people to fill the auditorium's lower level. A good portion of those in the audience were there to back Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. His campaign volunteers and supporters had packed the auditorium.

Nelson-Pallmeyer does not have as much name recognition or money as Mike Ciresi and Al Franken. But he is apparently strongly organized in Minneapolis where he unsuccessfully ran for the 5th Congressional District DFL endorsement in 2006.

By now, if you've watched a couple of DFL U.S. Senate debates you can recite the candidate's stump speeches from memory. For those who want substance on last Tuesday's debate please check out an excellent text summary from DJ at www.idonthateamerica.com

If you want style, we give you something different. A few quick jokes from moderator and DFL State Chair Brian Melendez and then The UpTake-O-Meter (patent pending) on the response each candidate got when introduced to a crowd of about 700 people.



This is Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer's backyard and "Back Jack Pack" which jammed the auditorium let everyone know that.
Video: Greg Skog Text, editing and photos: Michael McIntee

The UpTake: Knocking down the barriers to Video Citizen Journalism

One by one the barriers to creating your own mass media have been coming down. First blogs let anyone publish their own newspaper, then podcasts let anyone publish their own radio show, now online videos let anyone put out a TV show…if you have the equipment and technical know how.

Cameras and editing software have become less expensive and easier to operate. But creating and distributing your own video news story can still be a complicated and frustrating proposition.

The UpTake, a Minnesota based non-profit group, which I am the Executive Producer for, is stepping in to get rid of that last barrier. Here's a video about that.



Link to Quicktime/podcast file
This weekend The UpTake has scheduled its first video citizen journalism class. It’s free and open to the public (registration is required ahead of time through Wellstone Action). The class will cover the impact video citizen journalism has had and can have, cover story telling techniques and some of the nuts and bolts of shooting and editing video.

As any journalist will tell you, covering news is really a team sport. This is especially true in video citizen journalism. It takes people who can shoot video, contribute story ideas, research, and coordinate other volunteers. This weekend’s class will give you the blue print of how to work as a team.

Everyone has their own reasons to do video. For some it’s a cause, for others they want to be famous. For The UpTake, it’s to preserve that First Amendment right to free speech in what can be its most potent form –television. The power of TV has long been reserved for the few. And with media consolidation, those few are becoming fewer.

The revolution will not be televised, but it will be uploaded.

The Video class for Citizen Journalists is on Saturday October 27, 2007 at the Galaxie Library in Apple Valley, Minnesota, 11am to 3pm. Free registration for the class here.

Video: Pro-Peace, Pro-Occupation and Confrontation at Norm Coleman's doorstep

This weekend hundreds of people marched to the State Capitol building to call for an end to the occupation in Iraq.


A much smaller group gathered for a counter-protest to support the occupation.


Later some of the peace group marchers went to US Senator Norm Coleman's home in St. Paul and found him in the ally behind the house.


He then came out and talked to the group for about 20 minutes.


The legacy media had some coverage of the events, but The UpTake's team coverage probably had the best, including the only video of the confrontation between Senator Coleman and the peace group. (Disclosure: I am also Executive Producer for The Uptake)

Together these videos provide an excellent overview of the issues and what happened on Saturday.

1. There's the face-to-face discussion with Norm Coleman at his house (3 Minutes)
2. There's an interview with Keith Ellison (3 Minutes)
   
3. And then there's coverage of the pro-occupation counter-protest (5 minutes)
   

If you like what you see, the videos are also in YouTube. Rate, comment and share them with others. It will help raise the visibility of what happened Saturday.

Still photos courtesy of Chuck Olsen, Greg Skog, Ken Avidor