First actual "blog" for Journalism 61

Hi. My name is Matt.

As a member of what is known as "Generation X", (albeit by the skin of my teeth at the end of that defined generational period), I started my school years with media dispensed in a certain fashion, available mostly through conventional print methods. By my high school graduation in 1997, the Internet was emerging as a bold new frontier, and e-mail addresses were becoming common.

Now, in the nascent days of 2009, media is everywhere. Convergence has landed, and we can have most of our household appliances connected to the same network that provides us with "paperless" newspapers accessible on desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, PDAs, and cell phones. But how much is too much?

I am interested in issues of media ethics, even as I am concerned about the worrisome slide happening in the "news-as-entertainment" trend. Everyone has access to media, both as users and creators. There is an inflation of sorts in the digital world, where everone can give their two cents at the same time, and woe be unto that person who sets out to discern which currency is "real" and which is "counterfeit". While it is exciting to have avenues of communication and expression open to the average person, what will be the fallout of having, perpetually, too many cooks in the kitchen?

I have edited college newspapers, interviewed celebrities and musicians, and am finishing the final classes left before obtaining my Mass Communications degree at SJSU. I hope that this class will give me some opportunities to "pen" some good articles, without having to do too many exercises based on basic writing skills.

I write assessment reports for California Regional Centers (San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties), where I serve the developmentally disabled populations as an Independent Living Skills Assessor, as well as for the Department of Rehabilitation in San Jose as an Externational Situational Assessment Evaluator, where I do work-skills assessments.