Thinking Macro

"Old media" and "new media" are such throw away buzz terms. What do they even mean? "Old media" seems to refer to video tape, talking heads, stuffy, stodgy, one-way news dissemination, while "new media" is Flip Cams, live streams, Twitter and social networks. But so what? Has the information evolved just because I can live stream myself blow drying my hair? Is social media a gimmick that gives the viewer the illusion of interaction with the news?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I take on new projects. I've heard several "old media" reporters mull this over and say things like "brand recognition" and "network loyalty" and "viewer interaction." Okay. So how do we evolve our broadcasts beyond simply reading Twitter? I think you'll agree with me that so much of that seems forced. For instance, the YouTube questions that CNN used during the presidential debates were questions they most certainly could have come up with themselves. And when a news network uses Twitter, they read responses that they most certainly could have received over email. How is this groundbreaking?

I have been writing a pilot for a new Webcast on CBSNews.com. We will be running tests of this broadcast for the next few weeks until we figure out a working format. I am struggling with these questions:

1. How much does the viewer want to interact with their broadcast and how much do they fall victim to the spiral of silence?


2. How much does the viewer have to say about the days' news?


3. What does the viewer want from a broadcast that they are not getting?


4. What are the things that make a Web-savvy news junkie dismiss a broadcast as "old media?"


5. Does the viewer care about "new media" gimmicks in their news broadcast?

I want my new broadcast to be something you watch while you are sitting at home with your laptop in your lap at night, either answering emails, playing games, surfing Facebook, or sitting with your spouse while they watch some embarrassing reality show. I want you to watch it, absorb the days' news, engage with it, learn from it, and talk back to to it. Live, of course. I want you to hear and be heard. But I am so deathly afraid of the gimmick trap. I don't want to use YouTube videos just because it sounds cool. I'm not going to rely on Twitter just because it is the new black. But I do want to incorporate all of that. So I ask you, dear reader, what do you think? What do YOU want? I know you don't want a talking head just spitting the news out to you as he/she reads a TelePrompTer. I know you don't want to watch me read Twitter and tell you "This is what you think!" I know you don't want extreme political opinions. And I know that adding 6-8 pundits to a broadcast does not make it 6-8 times more interesting. But what does make it more interesting?

Incidentally, the broadcast I am working on is not a technology newscast. It is a general newscast. I am not moving out of technology news. I am just attempting to expand my horizons beyond my regular beat. In a high-tech way of course!

Earlier this afternoon I Tweeted that I was feeling overwhelmed. Maybe it was because I was hurting my brain in thinking so macro. (Or maybe it was because I was hungry.) I said that I might ask for your help and now I am. I am crowdsourcing the questions above. Please have a two-page double-spaced synthesis paper on my desk by morning. Or a simple blog comment will do.

Thank you!

Twittervention Time. Arrivederci!

I am launching a self-imposed digital quarantine. I've been working way too much without a break since August, which was the last time I took time off for my birthday. All evidence in recent months points to delirium: stomach flu, glass in foot, forgetting ATM pin, breaking wine glasses, and allowing myself to be way too easily provoked.

I am off to meet my mom and sister for an Italian vacation. I will be back in 10 days and I am going to try not to Twitter or Facebook or do any other digital posting. Or at least keep it to a minimum. I can't really expect that I am capable of going cold turkey. And of course I'll share Flip videos and photos when I return. Or at least a select few.

Arrivaderci!

Okay Twitter, lets do this!

I was talking to a friend recently about being single in New York City. I half joked that it was easy because I have Twitter to talk to at the end of the day. Obviously, that is not preferable but sadly Twitter has become the relationship that I use to communicate the minutiae of my life. That sounds tragic, I know. What can you do?

Lately this Twitter boyfriend of mine has started to feel very high-maintenance. Not all the time, but regularly. I would say that I get some kind of unsolicited nastiness over Twitter at least once a day and it seems to be linear: the more people that join Twitter, the more hurtful @ comments come my way. I have a few points-in-case below.

I know this post may sound like a petulant pigtailed school girl crying because the boys are pulling her hair. But in a way, isn't that what is happening? It isn't that I can't take it, but I certainly don't have to like it. So since this is my personal forum, I'm going to vent.

Ever since I took over for Molly Wood on Buzz Out Loud I have felt like a veritable bullseye for nastiness. I haven't seen this kind of unsolicited mean spiritedness since I wrote for TechCrunch in 2006. I gave an example on Buzz Out Loud, episode 942. I could copy and paste examples like this all night. Admittedly, most of the emails and Twitters I receive are positive, encouraging, humorous, and fun interactions about my work and technology news. I appreciate those so much! It is the unrelenting two percent that sling mud with whom I have had it up to here with! (I just raised my hand WAY above my 5' 2.5" body!)

The basic point of this post is this: BACK OFF! If you don't appreciate my Twitters or any of my broadcasts, don't follow, read, listen or watch! Go away and you and I will never have to exchange digital words again. But don't throw stones from the safety of your browser.

Feel free to stop reading now if you're tired of this rant. My point has mostly been made. But here is some background, in case you are interested.

Before Christmas, I got a call from my BOL cohost Tom Merritt. He said that Molly wanted to move on and do other things and give up BOL in the New Year.

Natali: "Sure I'll help out a few more days a week."
Tom: "No, actually I meant, would you consider cohosting permanently?"
Natali thinks: HECK NO!
Natali says: "Oh, wow, that is a nice offer. I'll think about it."

I wanted to decline BOL for all the obvious reasons: 1. I already work long enough hours; 2. BOL's audience is vast, loyal, and particular; 3. Molly and Veronica Belmont were great hosts and I didn't want to be compared to them for the sole fact that we all have two X chromosomes. I confided in a friend about this and he said, "Say yes before you say no." I now question whether or not that person was ever really my friend but I took his advice and said yes. And I am still saying yes. And I am waiting for the day when I can enjoy myself on the show and know that if I say something stupid like Tom, Molly, and Jason Howell regularly do, I will not get a nasty email or Twitter attributing my foible to my looks, gender, age, race, or something else unfair and ignorant.

I am not writing this post so that the people who do follow and support me can ring in and sing my praises. I don't need that. In fact, I have closed the comments on this post for that very reason. I don't want this to seem like a solicitation for compliments and support. I am writing so that anyone who wants to be ugly knows that they are being ugly to someone who is doing the very best she can and then just maybe they can have a little empathy.

I don't come home at night and cry on someone's shoulder. I work long hours. I live on the opposite side of the country from my family. No one pats me on the head and says, "It's okay, they're just out to get you." At the end of the day, I take these bullets alone and resolve to keep giving this career of mine 110%. I'm not saying I'm brave - a lot of women go it alone for much more noble causes. I'm just saying that I cannot do any better than the job I do now. I go to sleep at night exhausted knowing that I gave it all I had. If that isn't enough, please kindly remove me from your peripheral Web vision.

I know its easy to ask the naysayers to go away and that they probably won't. I know that as my career grows, I will deal with this more and more. I also know that the people whom I am referring to are what my friends and I call a Lame Barnacle: someone so committed to their own misery that their lameness is calcified. Not only are they indefinitely lame, they stick to you like a barnacle and are hard to pry off. I believe the Lame Barnacle imagery is so powerful that I even bought the URL lamebarnacle.com. I don't know if I'll ever do anything with it but the women in my life find the moniker highly relatable. But I digress.

In conclusion, Twitter Lame Barnacles, I know I should ignore you. After all, as one viewer wrote me today, "for every douche, there are 20 non-douches." In real life, my track record for distinguishing the douches from the non-douches is bad. That's why I don't date. But on Twitter, the douches have their peacock feathers clearly fanned. I know who you are. I do not appreciate you. I would love an invitation to sit and have tea in your glass house someday. Meanwhile, stop pulling my hair!

[gallery link="file" columns="4"]

Charity Smackdown: Why I Got Involved

I was going to write a blog post about the Charity Smackdown but of course time got away from me this week. So I took a shortcut a made a video. Thank you to Mark Licea for editing and posting! Please take 1:31 minutes to watch this and spread it around as you see fit.



Also, follow me on Twitter to check the progress of the contest! Just go here.

Thank you and namasté.

25 Random Things About Natali Del Conte

I have been ignoring the "25 Random Things" thing on Facebook. It isn't because I don't find it amusing. It is mostly because I haven't found time for it. Today I was asked to do a segment about it for The CBS Early Show. It will likely air on Monday morning in the 8 o'clock hour.

For the sake of "research," I decided to start reading the lists that had been sent to me. I also made one of my own. Strictly for "research," of course. I must admit, it was more fun that I had anticipated. Enjoy and feel free to link me to yours. And anyone who dares violate #10 will be digitally blocked from my life! Don't even try!

1. I can tie a shoe with my toes;


2. I have a superhuman tolerance for spicy food;


3. I am related to the late Don Ho by marriage;


4. I have an unnatural fear of religious art that depicts violence;


5. My shoulders are double jointed;


6. I nearly lost my hearing as a child and therefore can communicate in very basic American Sign Language;


7. I get my heart broken at least once a year;


8. I can't stand weddings. If I ever get married, I will NOT have a wedding but rather elope somewhere in Eastern Europe;


9. I used to teach yoga and have my 200 hour certification from Yoga Alliance;


10. My parents are the only people on the planet allowed to call me Nat Nat;


11. I have an addiction to buying shoes, cooking knives, and serving platters;


12. I truly believe that I could win Dancing with the Stars;


13. I used to be a competitive tap dancer;


14. I come from a long line of women who taught hula dancing;


15. I am a pretty awesome water skier (if I do say so myself);


16. I stopped snow skiing when my parents stopped paying for it;


17. I have an intellectual inferiority complex to my best friend Sarra that I cannot ever seem to shake because she is so brilliant;


18. I know all the words to the following musicals: Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Dreamgirls, and Wicked;


19. I am afraid of developing bunions;


20. I have a comedic inferiority complex to my mother, who I like to refer to as the modern day Lucille Ball;


21. I can change my own oil and tires. My father insisted that I learn those skills before I was allowed to get my drivers license;


22. I still feel ashamed that I broke a pact with my sister that we would never live more than 15 minutes apart;


23. I all-too-often lip sync to Shakira songs (en español) while blow drying my hair;


24. I was on Romper Room in 1984;


25. I regret not learning to make pasteles and domplines from my grandmother before she passed away.